Are assault Grenadiers better than grenadiers?

I just got the mechanized assault commander for COH2 this weekend, and I'm not sure as to wether assault grenadiers are better than the standard ones. What are their strengths/weaknesses, if any one could help please?

They are very good at close range, but bad at long range.
They also don't have much armor. When a M3 shoots at the Assault grens, they die like flies.

Also, grens have faust & riflegrenade, while Assgrens only have the grenades that doesn't really inflict much damage..

They are ok at close range, but not that good.
They are also costly to reinforce at this moment (55MP).

In the beginning it's good to have a Assgren squad to harass ealry caps of engis, but never make more than 2 squads.

e: This is my opinion

I just got the mechanized assault commander for COH2 this weekend, and I'm not sure as to wether assault grenadiers are better than the standard ones. What are their strengths/weaknesses, if any one could help please?

Assault grenadiers (assgrens) are better at close range combat compared to regular grenadiers but they have no anti tank abilities.

They are best used in conjunction with regular grens as a flanking squad and always get up close and personal.

Their grenades are best used against units in buildings. The spread of the grenades makes them much better than regular grenades against garrisoned troops.

Pros

- 5 men vs. 4 gives them more survivability
- All 5 men have SMGs that do good damage to non-armored units at close range
- They have grenades which are excellent at clearing buildings, often killing 4-5 men
- They have cheap sprint ability which makes them excellent for flanking static defensive positions and then clearing them out with their SMGs
- Don't require T1 and can be deployed immediately
- Comes in a doctrine with other excellent abilities (Stug E is incredible vs. infantry, you still get a Tiger, Light Artillery Barrage and the mechanised pgrens can be excellent as a counter to T2 Soviet play or as a mobile shreck platform).

Cons
- no AT whatsoever makes them extremely vulnerable to enemy vehicles, including M3
- no armor means they don't stand a chance vs. shocks, even if they have a 1-2 level Vet advantage, and this usually means they don't scale well into late game
- cannot fire while sprinting
- their grenades do very little damage to units that are NOT in buildings so are largely a waste of munitions


How to use them:

Build no more than 2 squads and use them for early game domination over conscripts/combat engineers. Support them with ordinary grenadiers and later the Armored Car/Halftrack.

Only use them on maps with lots of flanking, shot blockers and green cover (Semoisky Summer, Road to Kharkov).

In late game, use them to fight on the flanks vs. enemy solo cappers. You can also use them to flank enemy MGs, mortars, Zis guns etc., provided other units are doing the frontline fighting.

Don't send them to go toe to toe with enemy frontline infantry (Shocks, Vetted PPSH cons etc.)

In 3v3/4v4 they can be very powerful if you work together with someone who goes heavy support weapons.

Thanks everyone :-)

They are great if you go against some moron that rushes conscripts right at you as you're capping a flag. They Ass. Grens will eat them alive. They have no armor and tend to die quickly when pinned by MGs or going against shocks. However, if you play aggressive early with them they can easily put the round in your favor. Their sprint makes them great for charging an Mg that is pinning down other units or for rushing team weapons that haven't set up. In late game they are great for hit and fade tactics.

They only downside I find is that because they die easily you can get caught up replinshing them so often you don't have resources to Tier up. And they seem to rather expensive to replinsh.

Right now they are not too hot because of the high reinforce rate

However when that gets fixed there are basically two ways to use them:


1) Build no more than 2 squads and use them for early capping power and to eat cons and CEs

Otherwise tech more or less normally


People who play like this tend to skip over the Mech Assault Group and Stug E.


2)

Or, play them hyper aggressively and with total commitment as a German equivalent to con spam.

Build 4 squads, don't tech beyond BP1 (Grenades) and rely on call ins


You won't have any AT until you shrek up that first Mech Assault Group, so you need to coordinate well with teammates so they can compensate, otherwise M3s will eat you unless they drive over your grenades

assgrens are bugged. The reinforcement cost is way too high. Dont use then at all! Reinforcing them costs around the same like building a gren squad. Dint use them until they fixed the bug

DO we have an official from relic that these are bugged? There was a hotfix today for the Panther and the only notes were about the Panther penetration.

EDIT: Checked in game, it's been fixed.

Build 4 squads, don't tech beyond BP1 (Grenades) and rely on call ins

I never thought about this commander in such way but I have to admit it's OP. Tried today. I didn't lose fuel for tech and building, Stug + PGrens in truck are just unstoppable. Add Assaults for quick cap points and game is done before 20mins.
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The only different is I didn't get BP1 for grenades cause I prefer T2 and Sdkfz to M3 counter (means I didn't even build T1)

I never thought about this commander in such way but I have to admit it's OP. Tried today. I didn't lose fuel for tech and building, Stug + PGrens in truck are just unstoppable. Add Assaults for quick cap points and game is done before 20mins.

Its not op.. M3. And you are dead.

I never thought about this commander in such way but I have to admit it's OP. Tried today. I didn't lose fuel for tech and building, Stug + PGrens in truck are just unstoppable. Add Assaults for quick cap points and game is done before 20mins.

Its not op.. M3. And you are dead.

Its not op.. M3. And you are dead.

Edited post but one more reply doesn't hurt.
I leave T1 and go straight for T2 to get Sdkfz as counter to M3

I prefer spamming a lot of them, and at the same time making AT guns and bunkers with machine guns ^^

Sdkfz 250 with engineers with flame and PGrnes/Assaults is such a great entertainment...

I prefer Assaults. They don't need upgrade for 60ammo and they are a way more mobile.

This doctrine is even more OP than the Elite troop in this patch.

This doctrine is even more OP than the Elite troop in this patch.

Why so?

Assgren is godly in Stalingrad, sucks ball at Langreskaya, Crossing the woods, Minsk pocket, so so at Semois.

Assgren is godly in Stalingrad

Only if the opponent doesn't go shocks or PPSH cons...