Currently C4 is the most expensive infantry consumable in the game at 100 infantry resources. Unless a player is running a 6 month sub or a 50% boost, they're going to run out of C4 very fast in this vehicle heavy game where most classes' only counter is two bricks and a prayer. The only time C4 can ever be even close to spammed is inside a Biolab and assuming every brick kills a MAX with a few small arms infantry kills to supplement the resource gain. Frequent C4 use also precludes things like pulling MAXes for point defense AA and makes it impossible to maintain a solid stock of health packs, mines, and the woefully expensive class specific grenades. And this is on top of costing 700 certs to carry enough to almost (but probably not) kill a sunderer, with engineers being the only class able to carry more at a further cert cost and, critically, giving up their defensive suit slot to do so. Any infantryman carrying C4 takes a substantial hit to survivability because the cannot carry medpacks to self heal in a tight spot. A Sunderer with fully certed Blockade Armor will only lose about 1/3 of its health from 2 C4 bricks, which is a negligible amount if the vehicle is being attended and repaired. An uncerted Sunderer is put into a burning state when hit by 2 bricks, however this still takes around 30 seconds to explode. From personal experience that's more than enough time to die to the enemy who placed the bricks, respawn, kill them and repair the Sunderer before it explodes. All of which relegates C4's role in destroying sunderers to engaging ones which are either strategically irrelevant because no one is spawning on and repairing them, or very high risk maneuvers to plant and detonate C4 during active fire fights - a tactic which relies on sheer luck and imperceptive defenders. On the rare occasion it proves practical to engage a Harasser with C4, usually when a single player is using it as an infantry farming platform at the expense of situational awareness, it is imperative that 2 bricks are used on any that have certed Blockade Armor. Contrary to popular misconception 2 bricks instantly destroys a full certed Blockade Harasser. The problem is there is no way to identify which cert level a Harasser's armor actually is an this often results in overkill and wasting 100 infantry resources to guarantee the kill. This problem also extends to MAX units and Flak Armor. Against mobile targets with multiple active weapons and attentive players, such as fully crewed MBTs, properly used Harassers and Battle Sunderers, C4 is practically useless. Without resorting to high risk cheese such as strapping C4 to a Wraith Flash or drop podding directly on a target, the only meaningful use of C4 is in the role of improvised Tank Mines - laid across an anticipated route and watched attentively in the hope the vehicle drives over them. This doesn't work very well against Magriders due to their elevation from the ground, and in any other case if the vehicle simply leaves the area or the player who placed the C4 dies before they can detonate it they have wasted 200 infantry resources. In most cases repositioning and engaging with long ranged AV weapons such as lock on rocket launchers and the AV MANA turret is preferable and more efficient at engaging groups of vehicles than risking a death and resources in the hope every vehicle and their infantry support is looking the other way.
