With recent patches several units have become switchable dual-use, such as AA getting AT capability. For the most part (such as the German 88 FlaK) this is all good and well. However, I have found that in some cases, nations that otherwise have no capability have been given uncharacteristically strong capabilities.
Take the Italian 90/53 M41c as an example. Its new-found capability to switch into AT mode have single-handledly given the Italians an anti tank weapon far more formidable than anything they had before! (it's basically as powerful as the 88!)
This unit alone turns the early-war Italian army from a relatively helpless target in the face of enemy armor, into a fully capable tank buster nation! No longer can you design a scenario using Italians as the "feeble partner", unless you take away the player's ability to purchase new units and upgrade existing ones.
That's right, you can't even give an Italian sidekick the Breda 20/65 m35 anti-air unit: since it is the same class as the 90/53 M41c, the canny player drives into the nearest town, upgrades it and then switches it into the killer 90/53 M41c AT!
For instance, any desert scenario where British early tanks supposedly outclass their Italian opponents is in for a nasty surprise. And the standard MP scenario Bear and Bersaglio will probably play out completely differently now that the Italians possess a weapon that can one-shot even the relatively sturdy Soviet tanks! In fact, I have found that even in 1942 scenarios there's little reason to buy any Italian unit than this one: not only do you get a tank buster far more deadly than anything else the Italians got, you get their best AA unit too... It completely outclasses all the existing Italian armor, anti-tank or even fighter units in how it actually gets the job done... It feels like something the Germans could have built, it's that good!
Therefore I propose variant non-switchable units for starters. In simple words, units with identical capabilities but with no switching. Then you could at least hand out AA units to nations such as Italy without them turning into monsters eating tanks!
Longer term something more substantial probably needs to be done, since you still need to limit core slots, prestige or even access to towns (for upgrades), but it's a start. (The true solution would be to offer at least one "second rate" version of each major nation, somewhat like how the "red" and "blue" tutorial nations can be useful to model parts of the German army with no access to the good stuff. To be clear: I don't want to turn back the clock and remove the switching units from countries like Italy or Russia, but I do think it would be very useful if there existed a "2nd Italy" or "Poor Russia" with the same flag and all, but with limited access to "fancy stuff": no switchables in the equipment list, perhaps later access to the units that are best in the game etc).
Thoughts?
M
PS. I know I'm talking a lot about Italians here. Not saying this problem doesn't exist for other nations too... but in most cases, those other nations already offer units with similar capabilities which makes it a much lesser problem. For instance, while the German 88 is deservedly famous, any German player would not be helpless in the face of enemy armor without it: the PzIII tanks are at least average and they always have Stukas. A better example, I guess, would be the British 25 Pdr, giving a British early-war army AT capabilities far exceeding what they otherwise would have. However, this unit is less of a problem for me because 1) it's allied and thus often "the enemy" (I haven't yet lost a unit to an AI attack with the 25 Pdr in AT mode), 2) it sucks in its other state (artillery)
3) it's fairly expensive.
