RNG

I love CoH as a series, I want to make that clear firstly. I have been playing 2v2 Allies in AT with my friend to raise our rating. We are playing a mix of US/US and US/SOV. We are a mostly axis team.

The early game is extremely fun with great infantry engagements. Fighting back a double Kubel push with sturms/volks support is always rewarding. When moving into the late game however the game just becomes so stressful and unenjoyable without cheese units (B4, P47).

Seriously every tank engagement is like hoping to the gods your tanks actually perform for their price. Every single game KT/Panther attacks results in just rage as you have to carefully micro your Jacksons to stay away from the vet5 volks shreck blob only to have them bounce everyshot on enemy armour and die instantly if the volks get in range for a slight second (very easy to do lets be honest).. and then WHILE microing our jacksons our riflemen are just getting vaporized by the obers squads running around (The amount of concentration you have to put into microing your glass cannons means the average player loses concentration over their inf). Even if you get some lucky pens they reverse blitz away or if they are Wehr they just smoke. I finally know how annoying this is (I am usually an Axis only player).

It actually ruins the entire enjoyment of any tank engagement (Oh shit dude I just completely outplayed him and I'm about to get the kill! wait nvm he smoked gg) - The way in which Allies smoke works is balanced.. why do Axis tanks have a 'Lol nah mate' ability? Shouldn't Allied tanks have this if anything?

I can see some people enjoying this fighting all odds game-style but it was awful. In the end we were forced to play double Airborne and stack munitions crates to have a chance (it was hilarious).

Does anyone else have any input on this? We felt as if RNG greatly favors Axis and that just is not balanced. Especially considering the fuel difference between Allied Mediums and Axis Mediums/Heavies is negligible at best considering the amount of RNG you get in your favor with a heavy/panther.

For now we are going back to OKW/Wehr match up with the other 90% of the community.. honestly its just so much funner and less stressful.. RNG is in my favor then too which is always good

Actually engine/main gun crits favor axis, no doubt about it.

Panther and luchs often manages to get away with a crit and a zero health sometimes even BOUNCING OFF SHOTS

Just had a game where KT escaped front lines because it suffered a gun crit.

Then right before it was able to hide behind its base flaks, a t34/76 charged at the KT, and its first shell penetrated 425 armor, blowing it up.

And then a recon run crashed and blew up a priest.

A tank escaping with a crit instead of dying is more impactful on a heavier, more expensive tank than on a cheap, lighter one. Consider the case of a scout car escaping with a main gun crit, versus a tiger escaping with a main gun crit. The same applies to a less extreme comparison like a T34 vs Panther.

In vanilla CoH2 this was a more symmetrical matchup, but with USF and OKW additions it could be said to favour Axis more. Getting main gun destroyed on a KT and it getting away because of it is usually a game losing dice-roll, because you will likely have sacrificed multiple mediums to do that much damage in the first place.

That said, there are much, much bigger balance issues than this right now.

As for smoke, it definitely pisses me off. Axis already gets the most heavily armoured vehicles with the most HP in the game, do they also need defensive smoke to amplify their efficacy? And blitz on tigers and shit, just ludicrous lol.