I’m currently playing through Tier I Great Britain again, to get back to basics and give them proper ratings on the wiki, but there’s one thing bugging me.
There is basically nothing in the tech tree that isn’t a 37-40mm gun on a small light chassis! The only exceptions are the SPAA (which can be a mixed bag) and the Valentine I (the first thing with a bit of armour, but still the same old 2 pounder). The only way to get anything unique here is to pay, either GE for the A1E1 Independent, which is fun but not very effective, or Gaijin Coin for the Alecto, which for 12-16 coins for a paper armoured HEAT-slinger with all its faults i would also consider a hard sell.
Don’t get me wrong, the QF 2-pounder is one of the most effective low tier cannons there is, but there’s no flair, no joy, no derp guns to make a heavier tank regret the day it spawned in! No open topped tank destroyer or heavily armoured assault guns, no casemate mounted anti tank rifles or truck with a 20-40mm autocannon. Please, there’s gotta be something out there in the annals of history of the great British Commonwealth that would fit the bill here.
This can be particularly painful on 2.3 full uptiers as 2 pounders can only do so much when faced with a Sherman or T-34. It also gives new-comers no way to experience everything the game can offer, it’s just a game of point and click until 2.7, whereupon it promptly opens up with some very hard to master vehicles like the Archer.
So i do beg the developers of this great game, please, just a crumb of something different! The Harry Hopkins is a fine vehicle, but please, no more of that QF 2-Pounder.
Well, for starters there’s a no limit to the amount of 12.7, 15 and 20mm guns on various cars and trucks that could find their way into the tree. There are pictures of the LRDG using captured Breda 20mm on their trucks, for example. The light tank Mk VIC has a 15mm Besa machine gun, excellent as a 1.0 meme vehicle like the M2A2. Or perhaps the LVT4 with a 20mm Polsten mounted on the front.
There’s the MkIII Armadillo truck, which had a 37mm autocannon mounted backwards. Effectively a British take on the Sd.Kfz 6/2 or M15 CGMC. There’s also the Morris-Commercial C9/B with 40mm Bofors, just like the french CCKW 353.
On the side of heavier firepower, there’s evidence of a Universal Carrier mount, as was there a Morris ‘firefly’, the Alecto MkII, and of course the Deacon, all with the venerable 6 pounder but suitably more inefficient for lower tiers than the Crusader III.
There’s also the Birch Gun, an 18-pounder cannon on the Vickers Medium Mark II chassis. If one would be feeling particularly dastardly, just the base Medium Mk II might be used. If it’s good enough for a 1.3 premium, it’s good enough for a 1.0 throwaway.
Then there’s the Bishop 25 pounder, which might be powerful enough to go to 2.7 or above. Or maybe not.
Now, am i saying any of these would be /good/? No. I’m sure some would take quite the skill to use effectively. But are they /different/. Yes!
Oh, but ad you said, most of those would be extremely ineffective, difficult to use, o merely meme vehicles.
We need to keep in mind that Rank I is suppossed to be the introduction to the game for new players, so I suppose it’s not on our best interest to scare them away by giving them particularly difficult vehicles to deal with righ away.
If God had wanted newbies to have a good time he wouldn’t have created ME! Or things like the Squeezy Boi, SU-5-1 or L3/33. I’m telling ya mate, and little memeing and disappointment just makes them harder and prepares them for what the rest of the tree can offer them!