Lacking performance of low calibre HE shells

Ever wonder why no one really bothers with HE in this mod? Notice how generally you can go through any game without even bothering with the HE upgrade on the various tanks, especially mediums? This absolutely abhorrent post is going to attempt to show that HE for the medium guns is in serious trouble.

1: Inconsistent Damage – Sometimes if you just leave a unit to its own devices the regular AP shot will end up doing just as much damage as the HE, albeit with no cool explosion.

2: Lousy ability times – On things like the long barreled StuG III you’re only getting about 13 seconds worth of HE use including load times which means only about 3/4 rounds of it at most for 35 munitions, when for just 15 more you could get a pintle MG that has constant damage and suppression output.

3: It hits everything but the bloody target – This is more of a COH2 problem, I know, but if theres even a slight bump in the terrain it will just absorb the HE shell and the target unit gets off scott free; this is a massive pain especially if you’re paying for these shells.

4: Inconsistent Damage AGAIN – Sometimes if the HE shell even hits the target unit, even on low HP sometimes… it just doesn’t do anything… It seems for every three shots or so one of them might take a couple models off the target squad at most but in its current state its sort of a glorified confetti launcher.

5: Better alternatives – As was touched on earlier, for not too much more munitions you can just get a pintle MG and get a really nice, constant damage and suppression source that never times out. Or on the Panzer IV you get a grenade launcher that can instantly annihilate any infantry squad, far more effective than 13 seconds of HE for not too much more munitions points.

A few notes:

I’m not saying anything about the larger calibre HE shells like on the Sturmpanzer, KV, ISU or 105 Sherman – Those are actually in a pretty good spot at the moment in terms of damage. They only really have the issue of the HE shells “catching” on terrain objects and detonating before they hit the target squad.

I made a brief video showing the inconsistencies in damage, keep in mind in using the two different versions of the StuG, E and G in the Panzerjäger doctrine. Also note that this is the beta, and I used cheats to get all this stuff in a timely manner.