Early game is only portion of coh2 that is unbalanced

Before I begin, I'd like to state that I consider myself a mid-tier player. Mid-tier as in literally I have an equal win/loss ratio (26/26 I believe). I understand how people may be upset with the Russian heavy tank's only counter being the elefant (which is doctrinal), but it is still a unit that *can* be countered. My issue is dealing with early strategies that cannot.

My last played match was against a Russian player (I only play German) that understood how to exploit the balance as it currently stands, and it was in the early game. He built a scout car, which can definitely be dealt with, but it requires a lot of micro and delaying until you are able to counter with panzers, unless you want to devote two squads to destroying it and sacrificing cap points in the process while he uses penal battalions (which WILL beat base German infantry) to swarm the field while the car flanks and gain a significant advantage.

My only counter this early in the game was infantry, as they had panzerfaust for the car (and mortars could not pin him), but his penal battalions could overwhelm all of my infantry. My only other option was the mg42, but by the time I was able to field it, he could easily flank and grenade me because of his maneuvering abilities (scout car, outnumbered grenadier to penal squadrons) which any good micro player will be able to accomplish.

By the time anything even *began* to develop, I was fighting a losing battle. he had already capped a majority of points, and by 14 mins it was game over. I do have the replay saved, and would be ecstatic if anyone could tell me a reliable counter against this type of play style without devoting your entire strategy to it and sacrificing all other contingencies as a result.

Problem is, I don't see it now. Yes, there were times when I allowed my mg to be flanked/rushed, but it was a calculated risk/reward I *had* to take, unless I wanted him to absolutely bumrush my grenadiers and sacrifice the few cps I had.

Please, if someone could tell me how to upload the replay, and tell me what I did wrong, it would be much appreciated. Honestly, I felt I was fighting a losing battle from the get-go with this guy, and there was nothing I could realistically do. If that's not the case, let me know, because I feel this is an early game balance issue that any soviet player with decent micro ability and knowledge of build order will be able to exploit against mid-level players. Thanks in advance.

Ummm, early game is the part that is the most balanced currently.

If you can't beat 270mp units and vehicles with 240mp units one on one basis it doesn't mean something is imbalanced, it means its exactly balanced.

You will never be able to understand other faction and how to counter their strats if you never play it.

What you have described is one of the easiest things to counter.

Ummm, early game is the part that is the most balanced currently.

Could you show me how to upload the replay and tell me what I did wrong? If what you said is correct, that that's what I'm looking for.

To be fair if you really only have 52 games played then i dotn think you have enough authority to say what is balanced and what is not

Could you show me how to upload the replay and tell me what I did wrong? If what you said is correct, that that's what I'm looking for.

On top of the page you have REPLAYS button, there is upload button there, you'll know the rest.

To be fair if you really only have 52 games played then i dotn think you have enough authority to say what is balanced and what is not

I agree. Maybe I'm looking more for advice. I didn't even own the game until the last patch (which to my understanding made the germans op), but I've played A LOT since then, and feel that I have at leas a basic grasp on the game.

What I'm saying is that there are PLENTY of lurkers on these forums who have about the same ability as I do, and this is one of the only scenarios when I, an "average" player, can't help but feel like I came away with the loss because of issues outside of my control. Is there any way to upload the replay?

theres a replay buton on the top right of coh2.org
Opens 2 little tabs press on uplaoad replay. Once up loaded . Copy past link back in here

Just uploaded it. Again, I appreciate any input. Of course, I'm not an excellent player by any means, but I have a 50% win ratio, so I can say that I'm definitely average. If this is not unbalanced, I need help.

http://www.coh2.org/replay/17121/balance-issue

Ummm, early game is the part that is the most balanced currently.

If you can't beat 270mp units and vehicles with 240mp units one on one basis it doesn't mean something is imbalanced, it means its exactly balanced.

You will never be able to understand other faction and how to counter their strats if you never play it.

What you have described is one of the easiest things to counter.

Ok, so what I am asking is what I should have done. My only options were grenadiers or mg. That's it, before he began to overwhelm me. Though I *do* know I don't understand the soviets thoroughly, the game seemed like it happed so fast before I could even counter that it was unbeatable (gren vs mg vs scout car and penal flanking)

Everyone aside from the top players would have rougly 50/50 win ration if elo system is working properly.

Watched it, not really much to say except "play more and improve your micro" you simply lack experience, which was expected. Dont leave armored cars near guards, don't setup MG42s when you see huge blob right in front of it, try to pay more attention to dying units.

You'd have it if not for micro and squad losses during multiple engagements at once.

Thats pretty much all I can tell you.

On a side note, doctrine choices of both players tell everything about how people see current balance

If you are looking for advice here is what I would say: Get a gren and an mg quickly. Use the gren to keep the scout car at range while the mg pings away at it. If he rushes in shrek it. Do this at your high fuel.

Get 2 more grens use these to make sure you keep the points connected. Use cover to hide from the scout car, and prevent it from seeing you when you can so you can faust it.

Tech to T2. Get an AC and upgrade the gun.

Use this to push aggressively. If you did things correctly you should have forced him into a delaying action that prevented him from getting many CP's. Now he won't have guards so he will have to get AT nades. Even if he has guards creep the 42 forward while keeping the AC behind it. The range on the 20mm is quite high. He will have to assault the 42 with inf. You can also consider getting a second 42. DO NOT BUILD A SNIPER.

If he gets snipers get another AC or a HT. Immediately push in, he will have little to no AT. Follow him to the base and kill the sniper. Failing that stay in the field and reinforce from the HT. You will either need to get a mortar or use the AC to flank the sniper and kill it. Forcing it off the field is still quite a big achievement since it gives you time to cap.

Consider getting S-mines at critical points behind your lines to keep his car from flanking around. You only need one patch to badly damage a scout car.

The early scout cars are one of the most agressive starts (risk/reward). Easyest way to counter it would be use true sight for an ambush or bait him into an mg.
The mgs rip the sc a new one if it stays in its arc for any piriod of time. My suggestion would be to try a few diffrrent thing and see what works best for you. Dont fall into the munition drain trap of fausting it and retreating. If you.cant finish it off. He will just go repair. If he goes t1 it means he doesnt have at guns. Tech to t2 and grt a fast 222 micro the shit out of it. And you should be close to sleaing the deal. Dont foget sweepers this patch

Watched it, not really much to say except "play more and improve your micro" you simply lack experience, which was expected. Dont leave armored cars near guards, don't setup MG42s when you see huge blob right in front of it, try to pay more attention to dying units.

You'd have it if not for micro and squad losses during multiple engagements at once.

Thats pretty much all I can tell you.

On a side note, doctrine choices of both players tell everything about how people see current balance

Thanks for watching. That's all I wanted to know... if more experienced players saw this as a balance issue, or my lack of micro. Still, to a player which has played 50 games (which is a lot if you look outside of these forums), it seemed like the harder work was on the germans, as they had to react and avoid and not just bumrush.... but idk. thanks

Again, thanks for the replies. I just have one final question. Was there anything that stuck out that I did terribly wrong or bad that could have really helped me?

One think-don't think that having your units in pairs is a bad thing.
It works well for soviets, but not so much for germans.

You might cap slower, but you will push conscripts/penals back easier without many losses yourelf, allowing you to push slower but harder, eventually forcing soviet to use most of his forces against you to stop you.

A very good opening build for germans is to get 2 grens and an mg and keep them together. Mg in the back with the grens in front covering any potential flanks. I usually go with 2 more gren to cap, but always capping adjacent points so they can support eachother.

I noticed a few things that may help.

First, if you're capping a point and there is cover available in the radius, put the capping unit in cover even if you're not in combat! There's generally no drawback to this and it helps prevent taking a burst of damage if you get engaged while capping. Your first gren took a good bit of damage and lost a man because you got caught in the open by the first scout when you had cover a few feet away.

You were very late reacting with your MG42's in a number of engagements. Try to anticipate better where they're coming from. A few times I saw your grens fighting his blob with your MG42 facing the wrong direction behind the fight. When you retreated your grens you should have had the MG repointed knowing he was pushing forward. Better yet, you could have brought the MG up and helped in the initial fight.

You brought out the 222 scout car after he had guards on the field. IMO that's pretty risky as guards tear them up easily. They can be effective, especially when upgraded, but you have to baby them and you didn't really have the munitions to upgrade them.

He was blobbing all his infantry together and pushing one point on the map. He left the other side completely unguarded for a long time. You could have sent 1 unit over there a lot earlier to cap.

A mortar would have been a great investment instead of the scout cars given how much he was blobbing up his infantry.

You also had a lot of idle time with many of your units. They were either sitting in the base or sitting in cover when they could have been attacking. That will come with experience.

Honestly, it wasn't his scout car that gave you the most trouble, it was his infantry blob.

You could try this strat yourself even if just against AI, to familiarise yourself with its weaknesses. If he builds scout cars then he has no fast access to Zis. So even if his micro is good enough to avoid eating a faust then he has little AT. The German scoutcar practically oneshots Russian ones with the autocannon upgrade. If he goes penals and flamers he might not even have antitank grenades on conscripts. And also no machine guns, means that your scoutcar is basically invincible until he gets some armour out.

sorry double post