Generally lackluster commanders

Except rifle company, that is. This commander is so good compared to everything else, if only for the E8 and vet infantry, even though that was reasonably nerfed. It has the great white phosphorous smoke artillery too. I don't even own it but when we got it free it made me realize how much the others suck in comparison.

The soviets get much better commanders as well. Ones like advanced warfare are well rounded. I feel that too many USF commanders have too many deadweight abilities.

I don't own any of the rare commanders, but I've seen the greyhound in action and it looks useless. I also cannot see the airborne battlegroup being anything but a gimmick. I really resent that I have to pick a commander for a simple thing like sandbags. Are any of the artillery options good, again, except for rifle companies? I don't think any of them are, especially not the priest either. I find myself constantly picking the airborne doctrine because there is far too much deadweight in the others, thompsons for vehicle crews, awful artillery, hell even the thunderbolt airstrike can be a gigantic waste of resources half the time.

When we pick them apart, what is useful about each?

Infantry: m1919, but I would rather not pick this doctrine and get BARs or again, airborne. SANDBAGS, ugh.

Armor: Assault engies are good for about the first 30 seconds of play and are then on demo duty if they don't get melted for the entire game. Bulldozer is as redundant as the greyhound.

Airborne: Like I said, my most picked, but the M2HB and AT gun with no crew is so expensive it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Airborne are good, but I don't see them as useful as a vet rifleman squad with a BAR or two. The airstrike that is at the peak of this doctrine can't be directed as in COH1, why? Sometimes I swear it does nothing.

Am I just ranting or crazy? Both? I think a lot of it is due to the rifle company having the late game punch that the others lack.

I disagree. Armor company is quite good now if you ignore the vehicle crew thompsons and artillery. It allows you to skip teching major entirely and bring in a bunch of call-in tanks.

Airborne paradrop weapons are expensive because they allow you to skip a tier without losing access to that weapon. That's very powerful. Paratroopers are also amazing.

Infantry company's great for the M1919 alone.

I agree that recon isn't great, but pathfinder artillery is a diamond in the rough. And again, the M8 gives you access to a light vehicle if you want to skip lieutenant.

Mechanized and Rifle company are amazing, I don't think anyone disputes that.

Mechanized commander - My favorite commander, 80% of my games
CP0 Jeep to push and harass in the early game - successes outcome are to capture a fast MG42 or a fast Mortar if Osteer, or punishing a fast kubel or make him bleed MP by harassing his sturmpio.
CP8 arty ability to breach his defense wall and break him in a major move with combined arms before the very late game.

Rifles commander, never used it.

Reco commander -
I had great hope with his abilities but at the end, I found them too weak facing germans in a 1vs1. The commanders abilities are maybe better in 2vs2 or highest.

Native commanders -

Infantry commander -
1919, I don't see anything else useful, maybe if I have enough MP I'll call a mortar to have some indirect fire.

Armor commander -
Bulldozer is a great AI and Anti-support unit asset). It can take a lot of shots from shreks or AT guns before being in a critical situation.
I feel the rest pretty useless - M10 doesn't bring anything better or different from Jacksons, Assault Engineer are too squishy, using them is a kind of lottery for succeeding any flanking.

Airborn -
Pale copy of vCoh airborn. their initial purpose was to make the game more dynamic vs a really static but powerfull werhmarch. Now they are just a super infantry with 1919, a kind of bastard son from old Airborn and old Rangers.
Actually I prefer not use 1919 and going through each tiers than using them. It was my favorite commander but now I don't know, I had it in my commander selection for a while but every time I had to select a commander I felt that I would gain more possibilities by using any other commander available than them.

Infantry company is my favorite:

- being able to spam those mines everywhere on the map is pretty underestimated.
- M1919 is just awesome and especially the pinning ability is very good for holding vps.
- Priest barrage is awesome especially if you barrage enemy retreat point every time you see a mass retreat.
- mortar HT no idea but never really use it, should try to see if it has any uses

I'm a fan of Airborne- it lets me go Captain-first, and still acquire the MG, which is supremely useful when pushing for OKW trucks, or to prevent Schreck squads from closing with my Stuart, in addition to all the usual benefits of MGs.
Not to mention Pathfinders and Airborne both being quite nice.

I disagree. Armor company is quite good now if you ignore the vehicle crew thompsons and artillery. It allows you to skip teching major entirely and bring in a bunch of call-in tanks.

Regarding the Thompsons, I don't think they are terrible be design, just way overpriced. I've had good success slipping tanks past raketens/packs and bailing the crews to wipe out the guns with un-upgraded vehicle crews (under/not defended guns of course). It's a neat mechanic. You could easily lose an entire tank if you fuck up, but you can also wipe out AT crews w/o taking more than 1-2 shots on the way in then just hop back in your tank. It's faster than circling them too.

My problem, is that when I try to force myself to use Thompsons I end up screwing up my other teching or hold back on using muns too much. That and you don't get an opportunity to use those thompsons too often. 90 muns for a weapon I'll barely use? nah...

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How do you gather enough CPs in time that you can afford to skip teching up? often I see myself on 150+ fuel but still a CP or two away from the dozer (Or sometimes the M10 if they are going light vehicles and I want an M10 to counter.

I actually really like Recon. Vision is a powerful thing to have, and the super pathfinders and M8 are really solid. I haven't tried the airborne drop, but I could see it being useful in certain circumstances.

I think Americans have a really nice assortment of doctrine options. They all are fairly distinct, but also useful. Wehrmacht and Soviets both have a lot of "similar" doctrines that really blur together.