I wouldn’t be talking about this topic if my experiences over the last 6 days hadn’t happened. I play top tier almost all the time, using US and Swedish tanks. Recently in matches, specifically against Russia, a lot of interesting things happened that I don’t experience very often:
- The BMPT and its “black hole” armor: A tank destroyer that, for “some strange reason,” when shot center mass from the side (where a part of the crew should be), the shot completely disappears or only damages/kills one crew member. It generates absolutely no spalling to affect the rest of the crew. Is this realistic? Not to mention its ammo belt, which literally reaches the crew’s feet but only catches fire while the vehicle can still fire its other cannon. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
- Attack helicopters with Fire-and-Forget (FnF) missiles (LMURs, AGMs, etc.): A lot of people complain about planes and their ability to destroy tanks. This is normal and annoying, which is why measures were taken to increase the spawn point (SP) cost for their loadouts. However, I find it unbalanced that a person with just 1 assist or 1 capture can spawn a helicopter with 12-16 FnF missiles.
- The Kh-38 and other missiles: This is where the top-tier environment is most unbalanced. The Kh-38 is superior to any other missile. There is also the French Hammer missile, but the frequency of encountering French players is much lower than encountering Russian ones. Considering the ease of using this missile—where you just point and shoot—and especially its speed, why aren’t missiles with unique capabilities added for the rest of the nations? Not just missiles similar to the Kh-38, but ones with advantages in other areas to give them similar utility.
The US is stuck with incredibly slow Mavericks. To top it off, Russia has more SPAAs (anti-aircraft vehicles) that can intercept them. Don’t say that it’s not just Russia that has SPAAs capable of this—YES, everyone can. But the issue is that while the Russians can intercept EVERYTHING YOU THROW AT THEM, an ADATS does it slower, with a worse radar, and against a missile traveling faster than any other, leaving you with less reaction time. Furthermore, the new Russian SPAA they are adding has smoke grenades, which simply negate anything IR or TV-guided you throw at it without the player even having to do much.
The Main Takeaway
To conclude, I want to highlight the main message I am trying to convey:
Let every nation have an OP (Overpowered) vehicle/weapon that simply helps counter another OP vehicle/weapon from another nation. This would be much better than the current situation where only Russia, China, and France have major advantages. If the US, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Italy, Sweden, and Israel had something superior to use against the rest of the nations, there would simply be balance.
Example of Ideal Balance:
A Russian player spawns an Su-30 with 6 Kh-38s. Out of those 6 missiles, 5 hit and destroy 5 players. One of those 5 players spawns a Eurofighter with AIM-120s and Brimstones, destroys the Su-30, and then fires their 18 Brimstones. Usually, these don’t do as much damage, so the Eurofighter fires 2 missiles per target. Let’s say it destroys 6 targets. Then, another Russian player spawns another Su-30 and destroys the Eurofighter. Or, the first Su-30 player that was destroyed spawns a BUK or Pantsir and shoots down half of the Brimstones the Eurofighter launched, leaving 9. Out of those, 6 hit and only 4 destroy a vehicle.
This example simply shows how things can be balanced by giving everyone an “unbalanced” weapon, rather than reserving it for just one nation.
The current scenario with the “balance” we have now:
The Su-30 fires all its Kh-38s quickly, destroying 6 vehicles. The Eurofighter spawns with laser-guided Brimstones or SPICE bombs and AIM-120s. It destroys the Su-30, but when it tries to do CAS (Close Air Support): - Brimstones require a constant laser lock to destroy a target, still needing 2 or 3 missiles to guarantee a kill.
- SPICE bombs are slow and highly interceptable, not to mention you have to fly at a low speed to drop them properly; otherwise, they overshoot and lose their lock.
Meanwhile, the initial Su-30 player spawns a BUK or Pantsir, which simply prevents the Eurofighter from dropping all its SPICE bombs because they take time to launch. Or, it stops the Eurofighter from using the Brimstones correctly because it has to fly low to avoid being destroyed by the BUK. Alternatively, the Pantsir simply intercepts all the SPICE bombs and stops the Brimstones from destroying EVEN A SINGLE TARGET.
So, if you want to discuss this topic, make a logical argument. Don’t just say that Russia is superior (even though it is), but explain why no other nation besides France has missiles with good capabilities or features that make them viable for CAS.