Commanders

Inspired by recent events supporting change I thought it'd be cool if I set up a poll on which doctrines people use most/least, and which are useful/useless. If you think more than one doc is useless, or more than one doc is really effective, or have an opinion on the matter please feel free to reply.

If you have no idea about some of the commanders or just can't seem to recall which commander does what then check out this updated tool to find out: http://commanders.rogerholmgren.com/

Also if you want to list which items in the current doctrines you think are the most useless/never used please feel free to do so.
Here is my list:
Show Spoiler
-On a more personal note I hope Relic sees this and realizes how flawed this commander system is.....
-I also support more variety please in doctrines, having the same ability in 9 Commanders is.....well......boring to say the least.

I don't even remember the names of the terrible commanders because I never use them. There are a disturbingly large amount of useless commanders that you only use if you are bored and want to try it out for kicks.

NKVD Rifle Disruption is massively under rated imo. I use it the most out of all the Commanders(That I own). I reckon if I had Advanced Warfare or Partisan Tactics I might think differently.

Only if I could rig it so partisan wins for being the best commander because it is :0

Great idea Von and I strongly agree with most of the abilities you have listed as your own personal gripes. Osttruppen absolutely suck this patch as they are now almost the same cost as grens but they still cannot kill anything even with their health increase.

Just to add, I have said in the past as far back as Day 1 of Closed Beta, and will always say that Commanders are the biggest problem in this game, design wise.

The fact that they have been sold as DLC means that they will never be fixed in a meaningful way, though, only "balanced" around its flaws.

If I were to fix it all without fucking over people who bought DLC, I'd make the three commanders you pick behave as a tree you put points into as opposed to a single linear progression of one of the three commanders.

NKVD Rifle Disruption is massively under rated imo. I use it the most out of all the Commanders(That I own). I reckon if I had Advanced Warfare or Partisan Tactics I might think differently.

How do you possibly make use of it. It is 4 muni based call ins. You can't possibly use them all and it's probably better to use one that has maybe two strikes and other things you can make use of at the same time.

Decription is good, but it's not good enough to warrant atleast 2 unused abilities.

How do you possibly make use of it. It is 4 muni based call ins. You can't possibly use them all and it's probably better to use one that has maybe two strikes and other things you can make use of at the same time.

Decription is good, but it's not good enough to warrant atleast 2 unused abilities.

Decryption is more than just "good", it is amazing and arguably one of the best Commander abilities in the game.

There is a drastic difference in how you play as Soviets knowing in advance what it is your opponent is doing, how far a long he is in tech - is he going to rush out that Gren or open with a 2nd Pio?

Oh, he's building a mortar squad instead of a HMG?

Oh, he hasn't built any units in a while, he must be saving for something.

I've had cases where I'm going my traditional opening and suddenly I realize he's after building two mortars in a row and only has a pio and grenadier on the field, and then I know I should build an extra one or two conscripts so I can take advantage of his poor map presence.

Or if he has 2 HMGs on a map full of buildings I know now to invest heavily in the early game.

I can easily say Decryption is one of the best, if not THE best, Commander ability in the game, based purely on the virtues of it coming from the first second of the game. You know everything your opponent is planning and it removes literally all shock value from his units. He's got that Flamer Halftrack? Well I'm ready for it. Got a PzIV out and I'm behind in tech? Well at least I know it's out there and I can start positioning and acting with knowledge of its existence.

Yeah, Rapid Conscription is inefficient, but it's usable. Recon Plane is always good to have. Propaganda Artillery is quite useful in the current meta, I think, due to the prevailence of infantry spam from Germans, and it's not like Soviets are Muni starved. Sturmovik does suck, though.

If you want radio intercept, why would you ever pick NKVD over Advanced Warfare, Armored Assault, or even Partisans?
You wouldn't.

If you want radio intercept, why would you ever pick NKVD over Advanced Warfare, Armored Assault, or even Partisans?
You wouldn't.

Not everyone buys the DLC commanders. I work with what I use and have experience with.

I'm just saying, it's far more usable than people give it credit for.

Not everyone buys the DLC commanders. I work with what I use and have experience with.

I'm just saying, it's far more usable than people give it credit for.

Well it was free but I guess you didn't get it when it was. In that case I suppose you should use it, but advanced warfare is simply better if you ask me.

I would have to redo my votes I got the names wrong lol

Soviets most chosen: Mechanized Support Tactics (Guards and the ISU together are gusta.)

Germans most chosen: Mechanized Support Doctrine (well rounded, and the spotting scope is gusta.)

Soviets most useless: Conscript Support Tactics (Do I even need to elaborate?)

Germans most useless: Ostssssssssssssoppen Doctrine (Because Ostssuppen cannot in fact learn, shoot, perform, or not-die anything like a German.)

try hull down panther, and try to kill it with any tank... It works best against CaptainRagequit and others who spam IS2. ( but it should be immune for at nades thou)

Relief infatry is the best choose against sniper spam.
if enemy doesnot have mortal, or any arty then the pak43 super good, but i admit one arty can kill it but it isnot for useing at front of the frontline.

Riegel mine actually better than teller because its makes the tanks immobilize, but i wouldnot used it against t70 spam.

Ivan - mind that features You found useless works totaly different in team games. Im 4v4 player , and I know FHQ is very usefull , and most of features You mind are not visible in 1v1s just because there are better commanders.

Anti inf mines and dshk is on 1 commander that sucks on lategame. Thats why its very rare.

That'd be nice if you put the abilities in brackets. Most of these commanders I don't remember which abilities had.

something like:
Guard motor company (Guards/Mark/Repair/T34/85)

shock army is still the most fun commander for me. 2x ppsh and shocks, the rest of the conscripts keep their mosins,it's pretty effective on all maps.

On maps like stalingrad i go all out and upgrade all my cons with ppsh

Since I've been playing Soviets almost exclusively this patch, let me comment a bit:

Here is my list:
Soviets:
Fear Propaganda Artillery - too slow to activate, too expensive.
Rapid Conscription - agreed.
M42 45MM At-Gun - disagree. They are so cheap and come out pretty early, and look about the same to players as an AT gun. They vet super quick, and vetted they used (as of a couple patches back) to be equivalent to ZiS guns. Unfortunately low health with tendency to get 1-shotted by Tigers.
Tank Traps - Would be a great ability if not stuck with the awful commander with no lategame.
PMD-6 Anti-Personel Mines - Super spammable and kills 1 man at least, but stuck with an awful commander.
DhSk - What the MG42 should have been. Great MG, stuck with awful commander.
Armored Vehicle Detection - Underused and not very useful with sound through FoW.
Forward HQ - Highly annoying on maps like Semois. Use in 2v2s to skip base healing. Lots of dice rolling with mortar crits.
Booby Trap - Effective, but not obvious enough. CoH1 had that clicking sound. CoH2 people start catching on fire randomly.
Hit the Dirt - Only bad because this patch made Cons bad.

-On a more personal note I hope Relic sees this and realizes how flawed this commander system is.....
-I also support more variety please in doctrines, having the same ability in 9 Commanders is.....well......boring to say the least.

Well, on the commanders, I hope this could still become a thing:
Show Spoiler

Imagine how dumb it'd be if the American inf doc was split into 4 different commanders:
MANS COMMANDER: Rapid Reinforcements - FHQ - Infantry Camo - Rangers - Infantry Attrition
ARTY COMMANDER: Field operations - Tank Traps - Offmap Artillery - Howitzer
SPAM COMMANDER: Tank Traps - Heroic Charge - Offmap Artillery - Infantry Attrition - OMCG
ELITE MANS COMMANDER: Field Operations - Heroic Charge - Rangers - FHQ - OMCG

What? Storm Doctrine received 9 votes? Are you kidding? It's an amazing commander. I am disappoint.

I would love to see less commanders but every commander be more unique and with more abilitys/call-in s.It would be much better to give every commander 10 abilitys/call-in s instead of only 5.This would add more variety and Options to the game.