I've talked a lot about this idea before but, because so many of my ideas are based upon it, I'm going to repost the concept for reference:
A lot of the balance in Command & Conquer games revolves around the idea of units being balanced more toward anti-infantry roles or anti vehicle roles. For example, Nod Rocket Troops in Tiberian Sun are good against just about anything made out of metal, but fairly weak against other soldiers. However, that sort of balance system is hard to diversify - if a faction lacks, e.g., infantry that are good against infantry, then the faction is unduly vulnerable to anti-vehicle infantry; if a faction has, e.g., two types of tank, then one of them is likely to be redundant.
One one to solve the problem is to break each role (e.g., "anti-vehicle infantry," "anti-infantry infantry," etc.) into multiple subroles and then mix and match. So, basic infantry -- e.g., Rifle Squads -- remain viable throughout the game because they directly counter some higher-tier infantry. Moreover, each side might give its basic infantry some anti-vehicle role - one side might give them RPG-style rockets that are good against light vehicles but useless against tanks, while another side might give them Javelin-style anti-tank rockets as a squad-level weapon.
Roles
Anti-infantry Infantry:
- "Squads": Large groups of relatively weak infantry; the large squad-size means that the squad as a whole has more HP than any other infantry type.
- "Snipers": Small groups or individual soldiers that do relatively high (Sniper-type) damage; despite the name, Sniper-type infantry do not necessarily rely on range - a heavily armored infantryman with a shotgun would qualify.
- "Grenadiers": Small groups or individual soldiers that do weak splash (Grenade-type) damage.
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Squads' numbers (and high total HP) allow them to beat Snipers, Snipers' firepower allows them to beat Grenadiers, and Grenadiers' splash damage allows them to beat Squads.
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Anti-vehicle vehicles:
- "Armored Cars," which have powerful Rocket-damage based attacks (even if they are armed with cannon, we can just say "Rocket Damage" means "HEAT warhead").
- "Tanks," which have very, very high resistance to Rocket-damage attacks but special vulnerability to side and rear attacks (+50% and +100% instead of, e.g., +10% and +20%).
- "Tank Destroyers," whose Cannon-damage based attacks always hit the rear armor. A "Tank Destroyer" could be something like a Shatterer, whose sonic attack passes through the tank, or it could be something like the Kornet-D, whose missiles hit the top of the target (top-attacks would be treated as rear attacks).
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Tank Destroyers' guarantee of hitting the target's rear armor makes them very effective against Tanks, whose rear armor is especially vulnerable. Tanks' resistance to Rocket damage makes them practically immune to Armored Cars. Finally, Armored Cars' high firepower, combined with their strong rear armor, makes them deadly against Tank Destroyers.
The different classes of vehicle and infantry also allow for new types of anti-vehicle infantry and anti-infantry vehicles. For example, Missile Troops could use top-attack Cannon-damage weapons, making them strong against Tanks, while Rocket Troops' Rocket damage makes them better against Armored Cars and Tank Destroyers.
