Let’s first talk about what it is outside of premiums.
It is:
- A class that can either equip either rifles or submachineguns;
- that is exclusive to Tunisia;
- is exclusive to the Rider squad (Only 2-man bikes are presently available);
- is consequently limited to 2 Riders at a time;
- do not confer any special effects or bonuses, apart from the relatively useless 7% repair speed perk;
- and the squad (likely) costs the same as other infantry squads relative to ticket count.
You have an MG platform that’s fast and can dismount to provide a modicum of infantry support.
But therein lies the problem.
You have 2 soldiers in a rider squad. That’s… It.
The average squad has 7 soldiers, with a variety of 3-5 classes populating them. The way MG squads are set up, they are essentially trying to fill a niche role other classes already fulfill. Even worse, it is entirely possible to run a “Rider squad” with no riders. The game even encourages you replace them with an engineer, with the 2nd slot usually occupied by an AT gunner, so the class itself is completely unnecessary for anything other than be stand-in riflemen that are exclusive to its squad, which be stressed, only has 2 slots for soldiers.
What little niche it has in the present, is basically a way to bumrush an objective with a small 2-man squad, or attempt to flank with it.
Guess what new squad is featured in the ongoing Tunisia Paratrooper event, and what that means for the campaign, and this particular class as a whole.
Oh no.
So. Let’s open up with a discussion. How would one “fix” the Rider class?
One of the suggestions I’ve read is “Well, just make it a motorized squad” featuring trucks and/or halftracks. The caveat being that such a squad would drastically change how squad rosters are filled.
Remember, the rider class has access to both SMGs and rifles, this means that, if you bump up the squad size and fill in the ranks with regular riders, you would end up with a similar or higher number of pseudo assaulters populating a squad, creating another balancing issue.
Another is simply giving Riders an engineering toolkit with engineer squad buildables, but that doesn’t address their manpower problem due to being limited on bikes.
Naturally, we could just… Pretend the class never existed. I know a lot of people would and do, but that would be a waste of a perfect opportunity to address these concerns regarding role redundancy and usefulness. I’m personally in favor of its removal along with medics due to their similar issues.
I’d like to ask, what now?