Deciphering the "Catastrat"- A Battle Report by OMGPOP

Greetings, fellow COH2 players! This is OMGPOP and this will be my first attempt at bringing you all some Esport Journalism. Today we will be looking at Cataclaw's "Catastrat". Over the course of the patch, the M3A1 has been nerfed through a combination of cost increase and armor decrease. As a result, it certainly is a surprise to see someone having success with this Soviet Light Vehicle strategy. Of course, the inventor of Catastrat is not just any man. All hail his mightiness, Cataclaw of Sweden and Felidae, First of his name, King of the Animalia and the Mammalia, Lord of the COH2 ladder, and Protector of hitboxTV.

Jonathan "Cataclaw" Åström, This maverick young commander has risen through the ranks quickly after the release of CoH2. He famously beat Lollipop live on stream in the game's first months and shocked many in his aggressive command and cut-throat tactics. Beating his opponents in straight games, he's undefeated in the field of combat and a very real threat to his opponents when they draw swords.

Humbly stated indeed young commander. Cataclaw currently holds the number one position on both the Soviet and German ladders.




On the opposite side of the battlefield is Jesulin, who also held the number one position on the two ladders. Until, of course, the young commander usurped the throne in recent days. However, Jesulin has been absolutely on a tear in tournaments this year. He has won the last 1v1 and 2v2 tournaments he entered, as well as being on track to win the ongoing ESL 1v1 and 2v2 flex cup.





Cataclaw has been relatively inactive in the competitive scene as of late, but as everyone and their cat knows, there will be $4000 in cash prize up for grabs over the next 3 weeks at the newly established CEVO coh2 division.

Perhaps this writer's CEVO-P dream is not yet dead, but I digress. Sure enough, we see both ladder leaders on the competitor's list along with the rest of the European community to weave a treacherous bracket. I encourage everyone sign up to help make that division more exciting for our heroes, but please stay home if you are from `Murica.






The first game of the day will be on Semoskiy, a Russian village that was located in France until last year. Understanding the importance of teleportation technologies found within this land, the STAVKA has ordered its seizure to deny it to the enemy.



Semoskiy summer and winter are the most M3 friendly maps in the 1v1 pool. Big maps translate to higher efficiency for light vehicles over slow moving infantry and weapon teams. Long retreat paths create opportunities for M3s to annihilate squads along the way. Compared with the winter version, infantry retreat paths are longer, thanks to two large bodies of water. On the flip side, it's more difficult to achieve total fuel dominance due to the close placement of fuel points next to each base. Narrower routes of advance also boost the power of the soviet TM35 landmine. On balance, it's perhaps better to be playing on Semoskiy Winter if you are going for a mobile, aggressive strategy like the catastrat.

But Semoskiy summer remains the second best map to employ the M3, Cataclaw already scored a not insignificant RNG victory before the game had begun.






Note that although Cataclaw built the Special Rifle Command off the start, he didn't build anything from it before training three conscript squads. Although this delayed his second and third conscripts squads by 120 manpower each, the time saving from not having to retreat the engineer to build Rifle Command more than made up for the 25 seconds of capping time lost by the conscripts.




Around 3:00, Jesulin made a move for Cataclaw's cutoff, first by 2 grenadier squads, later reinforced by an MG42. The MG was mispositioned at first, allowing a clever conscript squad to hide behind the bush and trade hits with grenadiers. The first reposition was less than optimal as well, the building blocked off a good deal of vision from the MG. Finally MG goes into the building, unfortunately Cataclaw already has a combat engineer squad upgraded with a flame thrower. By 5:00, seeing the writing on the wall, Jesulin abandoned his position before the next soviet assault could commence. In retrospect, the MG should be set up behind the well to begin with, both grenadiers should have been outside of the building to threaten the flamer CE M3 with a double faust. But more importantly, the move against Cataclaw's cutoff was too early. The odds was against Jesulin even if he executed it well. To his credit, Jesulin made the right call to retreat while not in combat. It was likely he would have lost one or two squads on retreat if that M3 had been around.




Cataclaw quickly seized the opportunity to plant mines: one in the center and another at the chokepoint in the north. Although neither was spotted by Jesulin, he upgraded minesweepers to sweep the center.





At 7:30, Cataclaw saw red and tried to annihilate a grenadier squad in the German base. The move didn't pay off and he lost the M3 in the process. While the 222 was chasing the combat engineers, Cata attempted to bait the 222 into the mines at the choke with his other M3. However, Jesulin prudently withdrew the 222 before he got anywhere near that mine.




The game-turning point came at 8:45, having swept the center earlier, Jesulin embarked to chase down the surviving M3. He was about 2 seconds too late to react to the newly garrisoned guards in the church, they got two volleys off and the game was over.




Garrisoned guards here was not something Jesulin could remove with his current composition. For that he needed a mortar, for a mortar he needed one minute to bring them in and another minute for the barrage to clear the building. The better course of action here would be refocusing to the north, there's no suitable guards garrison there and open terrain greatly favors the MG42 with its 165 degree cone of fire.



But it's only a ladder game, so Jesulin threw in the towel. I can't fault him here, I wouldn't want to try that hard for a ladder game either.

Reviewing after the game: the strategic error for the Germans in this game was pushing for cutoff on a large map before a 222 was on the field. The manpower commitment to reinforcing infantry delayed his teching by one to one and a half minute. If he could push with a 222 to deter the 2 M3s while making a Half Track in the back, the push would stand a much better chance at succeeding. The soviets wouldn't have the 2 cp necessary to bring in guards and garrison them in a good building before Germans were at the bridge. In the current patch, not only will the 222 outrange guards in an M3, in a head on fight it will have enough time to destroy the M3 and back out of the range of PTRS AT rifles before guards can kill the 222 in return. More so if the M3 sees German infantry before it does the 222: PTRS will be discharged and put on cooldown before they can be put to use against the 222. In such a scenario Cata would be forced to rely on his conscripts to dislodge a German stranglehold, but SRC and 2 M3s together costs around 500 manpower, that's two conscript squads and half a man, against entrenched German position reinforced with HT this would be an uphill battle even for the King of Animalia.



Kholodny Ferma is a much more difficult map to practice the catastrat. Grenadiers have a smaller reinforcement and retreat path, they have an easier time grouping up in twos, and numerous hedgerows and buildings obscure vision for the M3 allowing grenadiers to set up a faust ambush.




Cataclaw adjusted his build order for this map by building only one M3 and forgoing the second combat engineer, training instead 2 more conscript squads in their place.




The very early game was fairly uneventful until the flame thrower popped into view, this forced Jesulin to withdraw from the church in the center. Cata made a brilliant move next by oorah a conscript squad from the south past four grenadiers and hopped into the house overlooking everything on the centre-west side of the map. This house has 3 windows open to the west and 4 to the north, the ensuing exchange claimed 3 grenadiers and created an opportunity for cata to dash his M3 west and engage an MG with the rest of his conscripts.





Understanding the difficulty to fit minesweepers within the catastrat, Jesulin made a brilliant move here to plant an S-mine field at the northern choke. Cataclaw chose to tough it out and brave the minefield, he was lucky not to lose a squad here.




Back to the western side of the map, Jesulin has opted to make a large T1, getting healing and forgoing the T2 tech. As a fan of the halftrack, this is not something I would have chosen for myself. But Jesulin's decision bear fruit as he steadily pushed cata back and restored control of his half of the map.




The weakness of a conscript based army showed itself here as cata was unable to exchange causalities efficiently and lost his cutoff while not making sufficient gains through the attacks of his own. Attempting to replicate his S-mine success in the north, Jesulin locked down the eastern cutoff with minefields. Cata took advantage of incomplete coverage and recapped his cutoff, the 120mm mortar proved surprisingly effective versus the S-mines, clearing over half of the field in just two shots. Perhaps it would have been better to have an MG overlooking the cutoff here.





As soon as he hit 6 cps, Jesulin chose Mechanized Assault doctrine and called in the Stug E. The mini stug had been buffed last patch and was devastating versus the AT less Soviet army. Among the 16 kills it racked up in the first couple minutes of its existence was the M3 cata made at the start. Jesulin must have had other plans in the beginning because he teched all the way to tier 3, only to not make any use of it throughout the rest of the game, the 200/55 involved here is almost enough for another stug E, priced at 200/75.




The fighting at the cutoff heavily favored Jesulin as the Germans were now firmly in control of the game. However we were perilously close to the 9 command points needed to call in double T34-85s now, Cataclaw was throwing bodies into the meatgrinder to make those last bits of experience. Jesulin correctly gauged cata's CP meter from his own and built two pak 40s in advance. 2 pak 40s, 4 grenadiers and a stug E was much more than a match for two T34-85s. In another 2 cps, Jesulin would have a Tiger and we would be in the final moments of this game.







Or so anyone would have thought. As the actual engagement panned out, Jesulin had retreated 3 of his 4 grenadier squads from the entanglements in the north and east earlier, thus he was only able to let off one panzerfaust. Still, this was good enough that cata was forced to take refuge behind the church while the rest of the grenadier slowly but steadily made their way back to the front. Jesulin tried to attack ground through the church, it didn't work for the first two shots, or the next two, or what must have been at least another 12 shots he put into that building. The last few shots were crucially important as the pak crews weren't readied for the "flank", if you could call it that, executed by the healthy T34-85 from the front. It weaved between the two paks , circled the right one before finally coming to a stop in front of the left one, decrewing it and then the next. The damage you see on this T34 in the end was not inflicted by the pak gun, but from a panzerfaust.




In spite of the disastrous engagement, Tiger was still in the cards for Jesulin. Cata knew this and immediately crewed a pak 40, wheeled it back home to bring it up to 6 man, and destroyed the other pak.





The last moments of the game was a series of dice rolls against Jesulin. Cata first bounced a faust, then landed numerous hits on the Tiger. Against the 300 frontal armor of the Tiger each shot from the T34-85 and Pak 40 had around 46% and 66% chance to penetrate respectively. At half health the tiger had 640 hp and required 4 hits to kill, the last 4 shots from the T34s and the pak all managed to penetrate, note the loss of the Tiger resulted from the very last shot made by the pak at the extremity of its gun range. The Tiger did not have a damaged engine and could have plausibly reversed into base for repair had he been fortunate enough to beat the RNG just once. But as things turned out, Jesulin was left with no AT and some 60 odd fuel, the game was well and truly over.



The Catastrat proved itself more effective than I gave it credit. The 80 mp decrease on the SRC counteracted the cost increase for the first M3. The armor nerf on the M3 is counterbalanced by an even bigger armor nerf on grenadiers as well as a slight health increase for the car. In order to keep M3 at bay, a German player must group his grenadiers in twos and immediately tech to an upgunned scout car. A workable alternative to this on smaller maps is to copy what Jesulin has done: very large Tier 1 followed by medium armor, either the stug E from the premium Mechanized doctrine or a Stug G/Panzer IV from Tier 3.

Apparently Cataclaw 4-0ed Jesulin in consecutive ladder games, there was another game played on Kholodny Ferma with reversed starting positions and a fourth one on Stalingrad. At the time of writing the second Kholodny Ferma game was not uploaded and I have not played a single game on Stalingrad in the current patch, and will therefore not review that game.

Cataclaw demonstrated expert handling of M3s in both games and was never once double fausted by grenadiers - the leading cause of death for these American built jeeps. For this he deserves every credit, especially for achieving this feat versus the strongest tournament player in recent months. For Jesulin's part there was also broadly consistent grenadier and MG42 usage from him, for he did not give up a single MG42 to his opponent before the endgame and lost very few grenadiers to flamer M3s - also a leading cause of death for any time Germans went up against the catastrat.

The Semoskiy game was in contention until the first 222 went down to guards, but the game was not completely lost when Jesulin tapped out. The Kholodny game really showcased the weakness of any Tier 1 based Soviet strategy.

Guards are simply incapable of facing any German medium armor with MG support. Waiting for 9 cps call-ins are extremely risky versus any competent German player, this is perhaps why most of the time you will see call-in stategies made with T2 from the start. I suspect if the two players, or any two evenly matched good players, were to replay that game from the position at 17:00 again. The German could simply reversed the pak from each other to counter circle-strafing, waited out for the Tiger and close out the game.

?COH2.ORG:What do you think went right for you in these games. How would you respond if an opponent used the Catastrat versus you?

!The thing that I want to pull off foremost with this strategy is to drain my opponent's munition on fausts which are unable to kill the M3. I am very scared of going up in the mid/late game where the Grenadier squads have a lot of weapon upgrades, Jesulin barely got any weapon upgrades in mid/late game. As a result I can get Guards Rifle with DP28's to punish this even further. I also forced him to play rather defensively and slow, because if he were out of position I would capitalize on it. Cataclaw

?COH2.ORG: What do you think is the strength and weaknesses of the Catastrat compared with other popular soviet strategies like conscript spam, T2 maxim builds?

!I think that Jesulin might not have practiced against heavily microed M3s for a while since people have the feeling that M3s are weak now! But they aren't, in fact they are still very quick when reversing away after being fausted, so you can bait fausts then get away with it, quickly repair it and go in and harass further. It is also the only unit that allows you to really punish your opponent for being out of position, which may let you wipe out a whole squad from your opponent. You also further delay the Medic Bunker! The weakness of the M3 strat would be the risk associated with draining your opponent's munition, you could lose all your M3s along with map control! I don't think there is any clear weakness to the M3 strategy, with the correct commander you can counter any strategy that your opponent is trying to pull off. I've had some issues against early Ostwinds though, because you have to wait for the CPs. I strongly prefer T1 over T2, because with T1 I can have a very successful early game which will give me an advantage heading into the Mid/Late game. I dont like Maxims simply because they don't do any manpower drain upon my opponent, but only locks down a territory for a while. Sure you can use them aggressively but a good player has several tools to easily deal with a Maxim crew! Conscript spam is very powerful, I've had my experiences playing against it from Von Ivan but I have found that well-microed 222s and MG42 can do very well against it. And Germans can also retreat without worrying about losing a squad, since Conscripts only dominate the Short range engagement.Cataclaw

?COH2.ORG: How confident are you heading into the CEVO tourney?

!I am hoping to place at least Top 3. In my perfect scenario I would go up against Jesulin in the finals and have a better outcome than what I did in the Reddit Finals, in which he 3-1ed me. I am very confident in my Soviet play. However my German playstyle needs further adjustments for the CEVO tournament. I am really hyped for CEVO and it's one of the reasons I came back from my vacation from CoH2. A good scene needs competitive tournaments to give the best of the best an incentive to play harder and better!Cataclaw

?COH2.ORG: Where do you see yourself place and who are the players you are most afraid of?

!I'd be happy as long as I place myself in the Top 3 of the CEVO tournament, I am mostly scared of Jesulin which is my grudge match-up! He beat me in the Reddit Tournament Finals, so it would be nice to get some revenge. Cataclaw

?COH2.ORG: Do you think you can 2-0 Jesulin again if you meet him in tournament?

!As of right now, I would say no. My German play is inferior to his, which is something that I will have to practice and adjust. Anything can happen though, but I would say the odds are against me.Cataclaw

I hope my review and the Cataclaw interview has given you some help understanding this important branch of Soviet strategy. Please leave feedback in the comments and I will take them into account and hopefully publish more articles in the future.

I would like to thank Cataclaw for sharing his thoughts with the readers; editor Pheenyx for giving me more direction to this piece and his works on this site in general; artist Ohme for producing the title art; Amipolizeifunk for helping me with image hosting, staff coordination and the one million other things he has done for this community. Shoutouts also go to Jesulin for graciously permitting me to write on these games, my 2v2 partner Ciez and my 1v1 practice partner Novseb. Finally, Good luck to all the participants in the upcoming CEVO tourney. Thanks for reading, this is OMGPOP signing out.