US Infantry Doctrine Changes Suggestion

Hello all, this suggestion post will more or less be a collection of things many of us on the Wikinger Discord discussed for the US Infantry Doctrine and how to bring it up to standard with newer Doctrines in terms of quality and usefulness.

Unlike other doctrines like Combined Operations, US Infantry is not a broken or useless Doctrine but I think it can be improved to the quality of 13th Soviet Guards Infantry/Luftwaffe; two main issues with US Infantry are:

Lack of emphasis on infantry while other Doctrines make them obsolete.

Bad Doctrine Synergy.

My first point mostly relates to how other Doctrines like US Armored has non CP access to SMG troops (Armored Infantry and Assault Engineers) while US Infantry requires 6 or 7 CP to get access to SMG or any unique infantry in general; this makes the Infantry Doctrine obsolete as the already powerful Armored Doctrine can simply produce infantry near equal to Ranger Squads (as tested by Mystall on the Discord). The US Infantry Doctrine is essentially the White Prosperous Doctrine as other Doctrines have quicker, better/equal and cheaper access to all other unit types.

The lack of Doctrine synergy comes from the Doctrine guide made by Death Kitty; DK’s main point appears to be that a player in punished for going to multiple tech trees and this can be shown in the guide as the safest way to play is to simply become a shallower Armored Doctrine by Tier 3/Tank Tier.

Simple changes are available as suggested already by some in the Discord, however I would suggest changes that make US Infantry a Doctrine as good and as fun to play as newer Doctrines. The main theme of the changes I will state will be based around: keeping Tier 0 infantry alive and being rewarded as they gain vet status to gain access to powerful unique infantry.

The first suggestion is to swap the position of the WP tech line and the Infantry tech line as to let the Ranger and Infantry tech line interact more and leave the WP tech line to the the side since it doesn’t interact with anything else.

The second would be a rebuild of the Infantry Tech line; currently it is: 1st Infantry Depot > Reduced Recruitment Time > Battlefield Commendation. What I suggest is starting the tree with Reduced Recurrent Time and then the tree branches of to Ranger Scout Patrol > rest of the Ranger line and Battlefield Commendation > Squad Promotion.

The Reduced Recruitment time would now apply to any infantry squad that isn’t a weapon team, thus making it easier for Infantry Doctrine to get their Infantry on the field quicker and making it different from other US Doctrines.

The Squad Promotion CP will allow Tier 0 Riflemen to upgrade to “1st Infantry Division Veterans” (or any other similar type of squad that one can up with) once gaining enough Vet Stars and Tier 0 Engineers gaining access to weapons that allow it to become a good mid Tier assault squad until Ranger SMGs are unlocked for late game.

The “1st Infantry Division Vets” will carry on the Rifleman Squad’s superb ability at medium range via stats similar to Vet Rifle Squad and will have access to weapons to support that medium range gun fighting such as more BARs/LMGs.

The Tier 0 Engineers will be replaced with “1st Engineer Combat Battalion” squad (the engineer battalion assigned to the 1st Infantry Division); these men will have two M1 Carbines replaced with two M1 Garand’s as engineers had a mix of Carbines and Garands while also having slightly more firepower than standard US Engineers; these “1st Engineer Combat Battalion” squads will have access to: Med Kits, Mine Detector and a Flamethrower like many other engineer squads in other factions while also having access to wire cutters; once these squads gain enough Vet Stars and Squad Promotion is unlocked, they will gain access to weapons that make them much more effective in close combat such as: 3 SMGs or M2 Carbine’s or a shotgun depending on the balance.

Another unique infantry squad that was suggested by Mystall on the Discord server in a separate discussion was men from the 83 rd Infantry with captured German equipment; I like to add this as the infantry that comes with the Ragtag Circus replacing the current Vet Rifle squad as a late game powerful squad that comes with German STGs and LMGs and focuses on medium range: “83rd Division Vets” squad.

Lastly the Ranger tree won’t have many changes since I would like them to be kept as late game elite SMG squads; however it is very expensive to gain access to their support units; I would like to suggest that the Ranger Command Squad and Ranger Demotion Squad swap places with the Ranger Patrol Team unlock decreasing CP cost to 2 or 3 CP. This will giver quicker access to Ranger support units while giving the Infantry player a fine mid Tier assault squad without forcing enemy players to deal with early elite SMG infantry. The Ranger Command Squad will now have their own unlock that costs 3 or 4 CP.

I thank to any to giving this post time and I hope for feedback.