Penal Battalion

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Posts: 23

Just wondering if you can share your thoughts on the T1 unit the penal battlion:

- Are they worth getting for their 360/30 manpower compared to conscripts 240/20 manpower?
- is the flamethrower upgrade a necessity?
- When would you build a Penal Battalion?

Posts: 1225

Penals should be 270 manpower if I am not very mistaken. As for their viability, in their present state I would not use them as a mainstay infantry in lieu of conscripts. However, on constrained maps, they are a good choice, as they do alot of short-medium range dps. The satchel can be very useful for getting squadwipes against weapon teams, especially mgs in buildings. Always get the flamer if you can.

Posts: 23

8 Jul 2014, 19:22 PM__deleted__

Penals should be 270 manpower if I am not very mistaken. As for their viability, in their present state I would not use them as a mainstay infantry in lieu of conscripts. However, on constrained maps, they are a good choice, as they do alot of short-medium range dps. The satchel can be very useful for getting squadwipes against weapon teams, especially mgs in buildings. Always get the flamer if you can.

cheers for the info mate, the reason im asking is while i play 2vs2 mid - late game conscripts seem to get mown down before they can even get in some decent cover and wondered if penal battalion was the solution or not.

Posts: 3552 | Subs: 2

Penals are in kind of a weird place

Their mainline rifles suggest long range, but the upgrade flamer forces them closer

Satchel charge is excellent for blowing stuff up, but that is pretty map dependent, so I only reliably build them as Soviets on Rostov South

Resident Soviet Whiner and Grand Master Bias Jedi; General Secretary of the Soviet Whine Hydra Collective; Axis Hating Sheeple; Allied Butt Buddy! Collect Them All!
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Posts: 395

Do penals seriously have SVT 40 rifles? How do those rifles stack up short and long range?

I bought vCoH on January 3rd, 2007.
Still missing the days of vCoH 1.71. It had it's issues, like paks sniping 57s, and the strafe didn't work, but overall, it was probably the most balanced time in CoH history.

OF ruined that. CoH 2 is....balanced in a nasty way. Everyone has an equal stockpile of gamebreaking bullshit. USA is full of early game BS while the OKW doesn't get its BS until late game. It's just a question of how badly you exploit the faction's shit and how quickly, after a patch, you discover the gaping holes of bullshit Relic leaves. But either way, it's all BS. The only "BS" in vCoH that was gamechanging was the fast m8 vs a bunker.

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Posts: 54

Yeah they've got SVT's. They're not PPSh quality at point blank, but they hurt a fair bit more than conscripts do up close. They might actually be worse than cons at long range. The gun uses the "carbine" weapon profile.

Posts: 71

According to coh2-stats.com, Penal Battalion soldiers do about 90% more DPS than Conscript soldiers at close range, the same DPS at range 23, and about 10% less damage at range 35. They seem to be equivalent in most other stats, but take slightly longer and cost slightly more to reinforce.

Against OKW, I could perhaps see the logic behind getting a single penal squad for the flamethrower, and perhaps to satchel charge a vehicle that got buttoned (incidentally: it's a wonderful feeling to satchel a flak track), but I certainly wouldn't use them as my primary infantry instead of conscripts.

Posts: 1225

SVTs are solid short and medium range but perform poorly at long range. Best engagement range for Penals against just about everything is within max flamer range.

Posts: 971

Against OKW I use cons and a M3 for dealing long range damage and a penal+flamer to kill any unit that gets close.

They don't have any counter to this until they tech.

Posts: 20

I like having penals around in team games to satchel bunkers and overconfidently placed OKW trucks. 1v1 I haven't used them, but I'd imagine you'd have to take advantage of the M3 to make them worth using over cons.