Americans
--------------

- M5A1 Light Tanks are now considered impervious to regular 20mm AP rounds.*


British
--------

- AEC Heavy Armored Cars are now considered impervious to regular 20mm AP rounds.*

- M5A1 Light Tanks are now considered impervious to regular 20mm AP rounds.*


Soviets
----------

- Submachine-Gun Squads now come with a DP-1928 Light Machine Gun.

- T-70 Light Tanks are now considered impervious to regular 20mm AP rounds.*


Designer Notes
---------------------

* Regular German 20mm AP rounds could only penetrate up to 23mm thick armor at 100m - maybe a bit more at even closer ranges. In short, largely ineffective against most light tanks. The exception to this rule was 2 cm Pz.Gr. 40 ammo, which was capable of penetrating at least 40mm thick armor at 100m (some sources cite higher values but this is highly unlikely). By late war, the round was somewhat scarce due to its reliance on tungsten (itself in short supply) for the penetrator and was reserved for units that would more than likely find themselves in battle with light tanks and as such, the Panzer II Ausf. L would have definitely benefited from this ordinance. From a balance perspective, I feel that giving the Panzer II regular 20mm AP rounds would gimp the vehicle and put it at a disadvantage, rendering it unable to fight some of the units it's meant to counter - namely light tanks.

Global
---------

- Reworked frontal armor on Heavy Tanks so that they have 1.5x their historical values.*

- Removed target table modifiers pertaining to heavy tanks for all AP rounds.*


British
--------

- Tank Commanders are now equipped with M1 Thompson SMG's when the crew is disembarked.**


Designer Notes
---------------------

* Another attempt on my part to get something close to more realistic performance with regard to armor penetration. Frontal attacks are still difficult unless you have a weapon with high penetration, while flanking attacks get better and fairer results now. As a consequence, dealing with Tiger II's and Jagdtigers should be less frustrating but still reasonably challenging. In addition, Churchills should now have a higher chance of bouncing German 75mm AP rounds at medium to long range.

** The M1 Thompson seems to have be a fairly popular (not surprising given the weapon's durability, rate of fire, and stopping power) and numerous Lend Lease weapon in the Commonwealth: By 1944, at least one of these weapons could be found in every tank, typically stowed near the commander's position.

British
--------

- Fixed a bug where paradropped weapon team crews couldn't crew the weapons they dropped with.

- Picking an English Rifle Company should now lock out Divisional Sherman Vc Firefly tanks.*

- Reinstated "pre-built" base. Company Barracks and Regimental Support building are assembled via HQ building upgrades as in the base game, with Weapons Support and Divsional / Corps Support buildings needing to be physically placed and assembled by Sappers / Engineers. Note: Company and Regimental buildings will still be locked out / unbuildable if Vanguard commander is picked.

- Tweaked company choice previews to more accurately reflect the core units being unlocked.


Germans (Ostfront / Wehr)
------------------------------------

- Fixed a bug where Puppchen rockets could, in rare cases, inflict vehicle criticals on infantry units.


Germans (Westfront / OKW)
--------------------------------------

- Fixed a bug where Puppchen rockets could, in rare cases, inflict vehicle criticals on infantry units.


Designer Notes
---------------------

* Churchill Platoons never had Fireflies for support. Rather, any advance would be covered by Achilles SP AT Guns.

Global
---------

- White Phosphorous grenades / shells now do 20 damage to infantry when the cloud is initially released.


Americans
--------------

- Paratrooper Bazookas now have 15% improved accuracy and reload time reduced by 10%. In addtion, the upgrade takes slightly less time to complete.*


Soviets
----------

- Increased throw range of Anti-Tank Grenade Assault ability from 18m to 25m.


Designer Notes
---------------------

* I'm treating their Bazookas as being M9's as opposed to M1A1's. The M9 had a sectioned launcher tube that could be split into two parts for more convenient storage and shipping (this was a feature that was requested by a number of Paratrooper units). In addition, the M9 had more accurate optical sights and an improved ignition system for the rockets which was more reliable and made it a bit easier to load.

Americans
--------------

- Slight change to the loadout for the A&P Squad: Swapped out the NCO's M3 SMG for an M1 Garand.

- Increased direct fire range of the M7B2 Priest from 120m to 150m.

- Increased range of the M7B2 Priest's regular barrage ability from 360m to 400m.

- Increased range of the M7B2 Priest's Creeping Barrage ability from 360m to 450m. Increased Munitions cost to 50 Mu.


British
--------

- Increased direct fire range of the M7B2 Priest from 120m to 150m.

- Increased range of the M7B2 Priest's regular barrage ability from 360m to 400m.

- Increased range of the M7B2 Priest's Creeping Barrage ability from 360m to 450m. Increased Munitions cost to 50 Mu.

- Increased range of the 25 Pdr SP Sexton's Creeping Barrage ability from 400m to 450m. Increased Munitions cost to 40 Mu.


Germans (Ostfront / Wehr)
------------------------------------

- Added a Designate Marksman upgrade for Grenadier squads. Exchanges one Grenadier's Kar 98k rifle for a K43 fitted with a scope. Requires Vet level 1.*

- Panzerkampfwagen T-34 747(r) medium tanks now has the same vision characteristics as other German tanks.**

- Sniper Teams now capped at 1 squad.


Germans (Westfront / OKW)
--------------------------------------

- Added a Designate Marksman upgrade for Grenadier squads. Exchanges one Grenadier's Kar 98k rifle for a K43 fitted with a scope. Requires Vet level 1.*

- Sniper Teams now capped at 1 squad.

- Volksgrenadierkompanie now has access to Sniper Teams.


Soviets
----------

- Adjusted the TO&E for Rifle Companies: 8 Rifle Squads and 4 SMG Squads are available as Company-level options. Sniper Teams now capped at one squad.***

- Increased CP Requirements for the 203 mm B-4 Howitzer from 8 to 10 CP's.

- Reduced CP requirements for the ISU-152 unlock from 8 to 6 CP's.

- Reduced CP requirements for Sub-machine Gun Squads from 3 to 2 CP's.

- Platoon HQ Teams now have two Marksmen instead of one as part of the squad.


Designer Notes
---------------------

* By mid 1944, the TOE for a typical Grenadierkompanie called for 10 "self-loading" rifles with x4 telescopic sights to be issued to each squad in the Kompanie when supplies permitted. The rifle mentioned was the G43/K43 carbine fitted with the Zielfernrohr 43 telescopic sight and was to be issued to the most accurate shooter in the squad, making him the squad's designated marksman.

** Captured T-34's were typically modified to use a Panzer IV commander's cupola in place of the standard turret hatches to remedy one major weakness inherent to all early T-34's: Restricted side and rear vision for the commander.

*** From at least mid - late 1943 onwards, a Rifle Company was comprised of 3 Platoons with 4 squads in each Platoon. However, the third platoon was a Sub-machine Gun Platoon - with all 4 squads equipped with SMG's and the umbiquitous DP-1928. Note that the SMG squads are now available as normal units instead of being locked to a Commander. This applies to Guards Rifle Companies as well. Officially, the HQ Snipers were part of the company commander's retinue / staff, but I'd surmize that they operated as a seperate team that simply reported to the Kapitan.

Germans (Ostfront / Wehr)
------------------------------------

- Reduced the direct-fire range of the Sturmpanzer IV's 15 cm StuH 43 from 120m to 100m.

- Tweaked squad formations and behavior profiles for Panzergrenadiers.*


Germans (Westfront / OKW)
--------------------------------------

- Reduced direct-fire range of the Sturmpanzer IV's 15 cm StuH 43 from 120m to 100m.

- Increased range of the Jagdtiger's 12.8 cm PaK 44 from 250m to 300m.**

- Tweaked squad formations and behavior profiles for Panzergrenadiers.*


Designer Notes
---------------------

* Hopefully this should address some issues where squad members would leave cover.

** Given these vehicles could snipe medium tanks out to 4 km in real life and that they are the most expensive vehicles to acquire, I think this is quite reasonable. Yes, I am well aware that this will make the Pak 44 the longest range direct-fire weapon in the game.

Global
---------

- Anti-tank infantry units may no longer be used to recrew abandoned team weapons and vehicles.

- Combat engineer units may no longer be used to recrew abandoned team weapons and vehicles.

- Reduced the damage done by flamethrowers to production buildings by 50%. Equalized the damage of all flamethrowers to 10 damage per second.*



Germans (Ostfront / Wehr)
------------------------------------

- Reduced health of the Jagdpanzer 38(t) to 300.**

- Reduced range of Tiger I's main gun to 200m.***


Germans (Westfront / OKW)
--------------------------------------

- Reduced health of the Jagdpanzer and Flammpanzer 38(t) to 300.**

- Reduced MP cost of the Flammpanzer 38(t) to 394.****

- Reduced range of Tiger I's main gun to 200m.***



Designer Notes
---------------------

* Note that all flamethrowers fire in 1 second bursts, with a 1-2 second cooldown between bursts as noted in a previous update. The residual fires / "puddles" all do 2 damage per second, with the fires lasting up to 20 seconds. The only thing that will differentiate light and heavy flamethrowers will be range.

** Arguably, the 38(t) chassis' size is closer to that of a light tank than a medium tank, hence the HP nerf. Survivability comes from the well-sloped armor to deflect incoming fire, a low profile that makes it difficult to target, and decent speed to allow it to back out of trouble. Two penetrating hits from even a 76mm AP round will definitely kill it though.

*** The 8.8cm KwK 36 L/57 used on the Tiger I had slightly inferior effective range when compared to the later 8.8cm KwK / PaK 43 L/71 found on the Konigstiger and Elefant respectively - mostly due to the later gun having a longer barrel and firing a round with a more powerful propellant charge.

**** It really shouldn't have cost as much as the regular TD - I forgot to change the cost while testing. D'oh!

Germans (Westfront / OKW)
--------------------------------------

- Restricted the Flammpanzer 38(t)'s top MG34 arc of fire to only engage targets in a 60 degree forward arc.*

Designer Notes
---------------------

* It's supposed to be able to traverse in a 360 degree arc, but Relic did the animations wrong...and it looks too weird for me these days.

Germans (Westfront / OKW)
--------------------------------------

- Updated the Flammpanzer 38(t) passive unlock's stated CP requirements to 6 CP's (matching the Divisional Support building's 6 CP requirement).

- Updated the Flammpanzer 38(t)'s unit icon set for better unit differentiation between it and the regular Jagdpanzer 38(t).

- Fixed the Sd.Kfz. 251/1 mitt Wurfrahmen 40's CP requirements so that it's actually 8 CP's instead of 9.*

Designer Notes
---------------------

* D'oh. Sorry for not noticing this for so long.

Americans
--------------

- Fixed a bug where A&P / Rear Echelon squads could repair certain vehicles and objects faster than other engineers.*


British
--------

- Fixed a bug where Sapper teams and Royal Engineers could repair certain vehicles and objects faster than other engineers.*


Designer Notes
---------------------

* Gotta be consistent.