How to play as soviets

In 2v2 and 3v3.

So far I'm trying to learn how to play as them but for some reason with no successes. I just dont understand the idea behind their play.

I understand how to play with all other factions pretty much, but not with soviets.

Speaking about more of an early to mid game, late game is more or less undestandable.

Point is it feels like, if you dont go for cons spam early on then you will enemy would already have too much things on the field. No matter if you go t1 or t2, so you effectively have to sit and wait untill you can get at least few squads on the field.

So any suggestions maybe build ordeds for t1\t2\t0 oppenings. And how to play against different oppenings.

SU have only 2 opening: T2 or T1.

T2:
1. 4 cons, 2 enges. It give good map control. DIfference in this openning - 2 flamers or flamer + minesweeper. 2 flamers with Merge give you very strong firepower in early game, especially vs OKW. But you need to pay attention about mines in future. Enemy always focusing flamer, you nedd constantly merging it to save firepower.
2. You can build medstation after 3-rd con or after 4-th. If i lost early pressure i made early medkit.
3. AT grens.
4. You can make Molotovs from start of the game, they pretty good on some maps, to block enemy cover, or make MG-42 to retreat.
5. Use Hoora to go through MG-42 zone. 1-st squad go front, while 2-nd with hoora make flanking.
6. USe Merge to heal team weapons. Use merge to heal your veteran cons by newbie cons.
7. Don't merge shocks (only in desperate situation, to save from wipe), plate armor not sharing. But if you only need raw firewpower, you can use merging, to save MP.

T1:
1. 3 penals. WIthout M3. Good against OH. You only need to be aware about HMG.
2. M3 with flamer against OKW very strong openning. OKW got faust much later than OH. Also, if OH go to aggressive coomander with assault grenadiers and pgrens, M3 flamer will punish this strat pretty hard.
3. PTRS give you time to fight against 222 or flameht. Better have 1 squad to not lose AI power for other penals. But in bad situation you can make 2-nd. ALso you can fully avoid PTRS if you have commander with guards. It;s very strong, but very MP consuming.
4. Sniper good in team games. But it need very good control.


T3:
1. 99% cases you have only one unit - t-70. Against OH you need minesweeper, or you can die on teller.
2. Against OH you can build M5 quad. Quadgun can fight against 222 if you close enough, it will kill 222. But don't fight against 222 on long ranges. Also you will save fuel for your next T4 and will give it much sooner. Very risky against OKW, luchs will kill M5 without any efforts. But if you have good AT support (baby-at guns as examples) you could try it.


Commanders picks depend from personal choice.
I like Lend-lease, because i can call-in M5 with guards on 3-rd point WIHOUT building my T3. It completely ruin any HMG spam. WHile lend-lease guards very good on CQC. Also fuel drops give you very early T4. BUt you must save your ammo, for quad gun on start. That means - no mines, no molotovs.
IS-2 with shocks and T-85 with guards still pretty good like 100 years ago.
Defensive doc very strong option for T1 openning. You don't need buy PTRS, it means your penals always have full firepower. Also Dushka give you crowd control. IF you have enough micro, spam light AI mines.

Some tricks:

1. Plant demo in bushes or behind building (rotate camera to find dead point).
2. Plant flare mines - they cheap, very cheap. Very good counter to falls spam. Also hurt OH pretty good.

i can only speak for 2v2

usually 4cons or 3cons+one guard/shock
always go for double engies to spam mines - double flamer against okw, mixed against ost
t1 is mostly irrelevant unless you want a sniper

as opposed to other factions, your mainline infantry wont win you alot engagements, you have to rely on your flamer/t70/guards/shocks to win fights while your cons spam cover and delay the opponent as much as possible.

rush your flamer, every single muniton afterwards should be put into mines/demos/trip wire (and guards dps of course, incase you go for one).
maybe molotovs depending on your playstyle.
your flamer is your most valuable unit for the first minutes, keep him working for as long as possible, merge them, plant mines
rush t70 as fast as possible and treat it as your own child, sweep for it, keep a snare in range and/or at gun and it will be THE main work horse of your army until the late game.

i can only speak for 2v2

usually 4cons or 3cons+one guard/shock
always go for double engies to spam mines - double flamer against okw, mixed against ost
t1 is mostly irrelevant unless you want a sniper

as opposed to other factions, your mainline infantry wont win you alot engagements, you have to rely on your flamer/t70/guards/shocks to win fights while your cons spam cover and delay the opponent as much as possible.

rush your flamer, every single muniton afterwards should be put into mines/demos/trip wire (and guards dps of course, incase you go for one).
maybe molotovs depending on your playstyle.
your flamer is your most valuable unit for the first minutes, keep him working for as long as possible, merge them, plant mines
rush t70 as fast as possible and treat it as your own child, sweep for it, keep a snare in range and/or at gun and it will be THE main work horse of your army until the late game.

Thanks for the tips. What are your favourite commanders for soviet?

Also would be cool to know, what engagements to take, and against what cons can win\lose in cover and on distance.

How to play with them in general.

Thanks for the tips. What are your favourite commanders for soviet?

The nice thing about Soviets is, that you can use more commanders than any other faction to a great effect.
My current 2v2 loadout is:
Guard rifle combined arms; Guards are always nice to have as an early elite unit with soft at; KV1 and sturmoviks for the late game; ppsh upgrade and ML20 are situational but still usefull
Guard ISU; no explaination needed
B4 doc; not for the b4 itself but everything else is very usefull; KV1 is a beast, recon is always usefull and 'for mother russia' and shocks for assaults. Very strong commander on cqc maps

Guard rifle and guard motor can be swapped, depends on which features you prefer.
Sov airborne is also very stong. Keep in mind tho that this commander flips everythign i said earlier about soviet playstyle on its head as your cons become a strong mainline very early and you dont have alot of spare munition to spam mines since you need it for your svts and dshka drops.
The community doc, urban defense and NKVD are also strong if you use it correctly, so are both IS2 commanders.
You do have alot of options to choose from.
My general advice is to have one gaurd and one shock troop commander in your loadout