@Young:
…Maybe Barron M can chime in to give us the stats, and wether or not Mech Infantry can stay at 4 IPCs with these new abilities.
The ability to move along an Artillery unit is what make your Mechanized Infantry so popular at 4 IPCs. (Your first issue.)
At 5 IPCs, it seems an interesting way to balance his offensive weakness by allowing 2 Mech infs on board a Transport.
Or a Mech Inf and an Artillery unit.
Or a Mech Inf and a Tank unit.
It is hard to find a way to make this comparative evaluation based on numbers.
Let’s just say, that it has no impact on the initial punch of an amphibious assault, except that it is slightly costlier:
1 Inf + 1 Art = A4 D4 M1 Cost 7
1 Inf+ 1 Tank = A4 D5 M1-2 Cost 9
1 MI + 1 Art = A4 D4 M2, no blitz, Cost 9
1 MI + 1 Tank = A4 D5 M2, blitz, Cost 11
I missed the +1A Tank pairing bonus:
1 MI + 1 Tank = A5 D5 M2, blitz, Cost 11
To get a comparison basis, here is my customized combat values for 5 IPCs Mechanized Artillery:
MECHANIZED INFANTRY A1-2 D2 M2 Cost 4,
Get +1 if paired 1:1 with Artillery or Mechanized Artillery or Heavy Artillery
Can Blitz when paired 1:1 with Tank
(MECHANIZED ARTILLERY) (Self-Propelled Artillery / Assault Gun) A2-3 D2-3 M2 Cost 5 added for completeness
Gives +1A to 1 Infantry or 1 Mechanized Infantry when paired 1:1 with.
Tank Hunter as a Tank Support capacity: gets +1A/D when paired 1:1 with a Tank.
Both bonus can work at the same time.
TANK A3-4 D3-4 M2 Cost 6
Can Blitz
Allow Mechanized Infantry or Mechanized Artillery to Blitz on 1 on 1 basis or a 1:1:1 basis.
_Gives +1A/D to Mechanized Artillery when paired 1:1 with
MA+Tank: A6 D6 M2 Cost 11 IPCs.
MA+MA: A4 D4 M2 Cost 10 IPCs.
MI+MA: A4 D4 M2 Cost 9 IPCs.
As we can see: 1 MI + 1 Tank = A5 D5 M2, blitz, Cost 11
is 1 attack and 1 Defense point below my optimized MA+Tank.
From a balance perspective, a A/D 3 should cost 5.5 IPCs to be in par to A/D 2 at 4.5 IPCs.
You need 11 units Att@2 to be a match to 9 units Def@3:
Overall %*: A. survives: 48.2% D. survives: 50% No one survives: 1.8%
http://calc.axisandallies.org/?mustland=0&abortratio=0&saveunits=0&strafeunits=0&aInf=&aArt=11&aArm=&aFig=&aBom=&aTra=&aSub=&aDes=&aCru=&aCar=&aBat=&adBat=&dInf=&dArt=&dArm=9&dFig=&dBom=&dTra=&dSub=&dDes=&dCru=&dCar=&dBat=&ddBat=&ool_att=Bat-Inf-Art-AArt-Arm-Sub-SSub-Des-Fig-JFig-Cru-Bom-HBom-Car-dBat-Tra&ool_def=Bat-Inf-Art-AArt-Arm-Bom-HBom-Sub-SSub-Des-Car-Cru-Fig-JFig-dBat-Tra&battle=Run&rounds=&reps=10000&luck=pure&ruleset=AA1942&territory=&round=1&pbem=
This 1 MI + 1 Tank = on avg. A2.5 D2.5 Cost 5.5 IPCs.
The other 1 MI + 1 Art = A4 D4 M2, no blitz, Cost 9 worth on average:
A2 D2 Cost 4.5 IPCs. It is right on balance cost! The optimized choice.
The MI + Tank is slightly weaker A-.5 D-.5 to the rightly balance combat value for the price.
Knowing that 1 Tank is .5 IPCs above his right price, I would add that MI+Tank Blitz is the only advantage over MI + towed Artillery mix.
The bonus on transport (can hold 1 MI+ 1 Tank) can be also a pretty good way to balance it up.
Especially to get a competitive situation against Axis._