With jets firmly established in the game, current anti-aircraft options are struggling. The standard 20mm single-cannon batteries are serviceable at lower tiers, but they lack the punch and range needed to effectively counter high-speed, late-game aircraft.
To fix this without breaking historical accuracy (like artificially boosting traverse speeds), we need to increase our effective range and engagement windows.
I propose replacing the standard 20mm AA gun with historical 37mm/40mm heavy AA pieces exclusively for Engineer II squads. To maintain balance, these should be restricted to BR4 and BR5 matchmaking so they never see BR3 or lower combat.
Here are the equivalent historical replacements for each faction:
USA / Western Allies: 37mm Gun M1 or 40mm Bofors (or the British 2-pounder Naval gun)
Germany / Axis: 3.7 cm Flak 36 or Flak 43 (And the C-M da 37/54 Breda for Italian engineer squads)
USSR: 37 mm automatic air defense gun M1939 (61-K)
Japan: Type 96 25mm Twin/Triple mount OR Type 4 20mm Twin mount (to compete with heavier calibers, with limited downward traverse to prevent the infantry-shredding issues we had with the old Flakvierling for example)
These weapons would extend the range of the air combat lead indicator, giving engineers a fighting chance against fast tactical bombers and jets.
What do ya fellers think? Would this solve the high-tier AA?
(Since my forum account is new, I can’t build an official poll widget yet. Please drop a quick comment below with your vote!)
Type “YES” if high-tier engineers need 37mm/40mm AA guns.
Type “NO” if we should keep the current 20mm system.
Type “DISCUSS” if you want to suggest other balance options!
I do really have No idea how to keep these Flak guns above BR3… but… there must be a way… Also… i will adress the Price thing… How many materials should Building one of these Higher caliber Autocannons cost?.. i believe a 1.3X of what the 20mm FlaK cost Should do… around 10 materials if my math is right… so… that
Yeah I do agree we need better high BR AA options.
Maybe the devs could add BR tiered hammers for engineers so that the corresponding structures match that BR?
So a BR I hammer would build the stuff we have now.
BR III would make something a bit better
and BR V hammers would be able to make things that compete against BR V vehicles, that is the anti-tank cannon and AA emplacement.
I mean… idk if a Hammer should… Maybe there could be a special engineer squad that you Unlock by reaching Mid br4 and that Lets you either choose to Keep the two 20mm buildables maybe with some upgrades or choose to have a SIngular 37mm batteries that Would just Classify the squad either BR I-III or BR IV-V… I’m not good with these kinds of ideas and i am already seeing issues with this one… But… i want to make sure the better AA would be unlocked by BR4… i love playing BR 4 but you always get uptiered to 5… so… having the Option just a bit earlier would make it Better overall i think
There is already a built-in method for this which dynamically changes which AT gun is built by an Engineer. Depending on what BR your army is (or maybe the BR of the game lobby?) a different AT gun is built. For example, if you build an AT gun in BR1 as the US, it’s the 57mm M1. If you’re in BR3 or above, the gun built is instead the 76mm QF 17-Pdr. The same mechanic could easily apply to AA guns.
I wrote a suggestion post about new AA guns a couple weeks ago. You should check it out!
Give everyone a 40mm Bofors 'cuz the Soviets, UK/US, and Imperial Japan all used 'em. Germany can be the unique one since they can have the 3.7 cm Flak 43 autocannon. It really is that simple
It was the simplest solution we could think of. Making it a squad means what if that squad gets taken to lower BR? How would that work? You’re either bringing a high tier AA to a low BR game or suddenly we have BR-locked squads which would be a nightmare. Otherwise it would have to have it’s structures dynamically change based on what BR the Squad was going into, at which point why not just do that for EVERY engineer squad? And then the problem with that is you then don’t know what structures you’re going to get in a match. Like you queue BR II, are you getting BRI structures or BR III? You won’t know until the match loads.
So giving hammers BR options is the logical and simplest solution. Just like swapping weapons in your loadout. Changing to BR I or II from BR V? Make sure you equip your Low BR weapon and BR I Hammer. It’s just the same as changing the Flametroopers flamethrower option.
Dual 20mm im assuming was great… but the plane users whined too much about that… i mean i already find normal AA fine… having 2 barrels or even 4 would be awesome and well suited for BRV.
I don’t think it was the Pilots that disliked the Multiple guns… i think it was because the Multiple 20mm cannons were used against Infantry a lot… But… idk…
Doubt, the problem of these 37mm and 40mm aa gun is the rate of fire is slow and the magazine has only few rounds. It won’t be that good at catching high speed planes.
I think better choice for high br aa will be multi barrel aa gun.
Noted that… i did Note i was an Ignorant with this all… so… yeah… at the same time the Response from Bunnyla and the Solution is already Kinda implemented to AT… i didn’t know that… i imagine that could be applied to the Higher diameter Flak
well… i imagine that If it was to be historically accurate… you would have More Crewmen manning the Larger Flaks… so for these Larger in diameter rounds you could have a Singular Loader which would speed up your reloads and make you be able to Fire More rounds in general… i… i think that Dual cannons Sound good in theory… but in Practice May just be Impractical to counter the Jet Problem… Jets are Fast… 20mm is Powerful enough if you Catch the jets but It has a Limited Targeting range One which gets exploited most often by High-speed aircraft that Rely On Outspeeding your sights… so By having More range you could Catch Jets Earlier (If spotted)… Before or After they attack the ground or Air
having Downgrades is part of the Improvement in my Opinion… like… with the King tiger compared to the Panzer 3 E shoots 37mm and the reloads are Quick But the gun is Less powerful… the king tiger uses the KWK-43 8.8 Cm gun… it is Way more powerful than the panzer 3’s but it takes More time to reload… and that’s just talking guns…
I don’t think targeting range in real life is that important in Enlisted. Since you have that lead indicator that let you know where to shoot. If we extend the range of the lead indicator, 20mm shouldn’t have much problem on targeting plane far away.
No need it make it complicated and add another pointless thing. We already have same system for at gun where game allows you to build different at gun depending on matches br (br 1-3 50 mm guns, br 3-5 75 mm at guns). No need have a hammer or special squad easy peasy