HOLY POTATOES !!! patch 3/25

Russians are not Americans. They are the two most similar factions, but they work completely different. Many American solutions do not work as Russians.

Especially now.

Having tried some Soviets after a long hiatus, anyone else try to use the M3 as a unit as a tankier, long-range damage unit over Penals, rather than solely as a mobile transport for flamethrowers? My micro isn't up to snuff with the thing, but it does reasonable damage especially with the German infantry armour nerfs. I know it's flimsy and a faust and rifle fire will kill it, but it seems to be a unit that can at least fight off German infantry at longer-ranges and provides good LOS as well.

May also be nice as a mobile cover unit for the vulnerable Soviet infantry when it's not available.

First sensible post in ages in this thread.

I understand there is frustration, some of it due to the fact you have to readapt and play diffrently. Overall I think the changes are good and interesting. A lot of players seem to not use smoke, it is a great way to close the distance and get units in close. You can even use it as a decoy to force the opponent to move or reconsider his strong positions. I still have to relearn how to play some maps, but honestly I think it's more fun to learn than just stick to the old meta that I was thinking got a bit stale anyways.

The changes are a complete u-turn on many of the previous changes that were made to improve the game. Since this is a drastic change why didn't they make it the beginning and work on it from there? Now again we have to wait for how long before incompetent relic fixes things as silly as pios being a match to cons?

So I played some games with new patch and boy this game has changed. Especially infantry combat. If you were Conscript + PPSH spammer you will have hard times now as everything caught in the open gets shredded to pieces now. Luckily for me I got good behavioural practices from VCoH and my play was always cover orientated so I am in this sweet spot that I don't adapt that much but I've seen what it does to someone who don't have this kind of experience.
I'll have to play some games as Soviet to see how they doing in reality myself so I won't give my opinion on the balance this time as it's a bit too early.

I have 4 games as ruskies last night, won 3 of them.
So I can say next things:
1) Yes, pios rape cons at point blank range, but as i cap i always build sandbags with cons so pios would think twice before attack
Also when i have engis nearby, all cover those sandbags with barb wire from enemy direction
2) Since AT nades are far useless early game i prefer to go for (guards or ZIS) + mines to counter 222.
3) Penal troops are still a nice fighters, (it was a bad opponent's micro but i killed 2 broken engines P4s with satchel charges, and many Opel Blitz trucks (they are seem to be popular after patch))
4) Sniper can't do a shit before vet1, his LOS nerfed, and i can't sit out of mg42 range to shoot at it. So you need SC for recon like jeep in vCOH (even price seems to be same)
5) Maxims IMHO are useless out of building (as grens have long range rifle nades)
6) I always skip t3 for call-ins or save for 2*SU85 vs Panthers or (better, because slower) Tiger.
7) SU 76 seems to be useful with long range free barrage, as german infantry armor has been reduced.
8) I used molotovs only on VERY static weapon teams, like mortars (surely unsupported)
9) 152 mm howi ROCKS OUT! Just make sure that your opponent don't have stuka dive bomb or frag bombs.

From what I've seen it's quite easy to spam a ton of t2 scout cars now + ht to reinforce the front, then encircle and quickly destroy any at on the field since they're forced to go into cover and die quickly. After all that pios can come in to finish the job. I've seen strats that previously weren't effective and shouldn't have been effective be effective now. For example: German player spams 4-5 pio + 2 mg42 to defend it easily from flanks(going scout car? hahaha np pios new dmg can easily defend the mg from any flamer scout car flanks), then once t2 comes up it's pretty much gg when the ht comes out to reinforce the pios and scout cars are the finishing touch.

Shouldn't builder units be broadly similar? Then player micro wins the day, not long range / short range. This CE / Pio thing doesn't make much sense, either give CEs PPSH or Pios Kar98s.

Shouldn't builder units be broadly similar? Then player micro wins the day, not long range / short range. This CE / Pio thing doesn't make much sense, either give CEs PPSH or Pios Kar98s.

Why? Why not let one unit have an advantage in close range and another in long/medium range? Player micro is still required to 'wins the day'.

Why? Because the current pio is OP.

Why? Why not let one unit have an advantage in close range and another in long/medium range? Player micro is still required to 'wins the day'.

When the state of the game is like this, give me a call.

Until then, combat engineers are no match for pioneers. In fact, pioneers can often kill combat units like conscripts. This is a total joke.

Played a game for the first time in weeks - all I could do is LOL.

This game is beyond broken.

Since this is a drastic change why didn't they make it the beginning and work on it from there?

Lack of funds, I presume.

We checked the numbers on Pioneers after some concern was brought forward and they are working as intended. Maxims and the M3 used at range handle the pioneers extremely well. Try putting a shock squad in the M3 for additional close range damage. If you use conscripts, spread your units out and kite the pioneers or block their advance with molotovs. If you are kiting, try to kite left to right as opposed to backwards, as this will enable you to fire on the move.

Official reply by pqumsieh regarding pioneers on the official forums.

Wait.... I need to kite a single pioneer squad with two squads of conscripts?? Errrr....

If you need to do that to kill Pioneers, I can't imagine what his advice is for dealing with Panzer Grenadiers.

.... ya ... that's fine ... but they don't give you two squads of anything to begin the game with.

cost of pioneers - 200 mp

cost of 2x conscripts that relic reccomends you counter pioneers with - 480mp

yeah right, my mistake. i've been playing the game wrong. retract all my previous statements. this patch is the greatest thing to happen to coh2

Official reply by pqumsieh regarding pioneers on the official forums.

Can you link to that post please?

Or, you could put your Cons behind yellow cover, and kill 1/3 of the pioneers while they advance, and then continue to win against them in close combat.

And I really don't think a 200 MP unit has to suck balls in Combat just because it can also build basebuildings. A second Pio could be almost a gren.