First, lets take a look at the commander in question: http://s21.postimg.org/lh3h2arxx/2015_08_10_00001_Copy.png
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The 5 abilities I will briefly explain.
- Stuka Recon
Standard recon plane. Can be shot down by AA, fairly weak because it gets shot down almost instantly most of the time.
- Redistribute Resources
Instantly convert 50 fuel to 120 munitions (previously 150). Short cooldown.
- Anti-infantry Strafe
A plane comes in to strafe enemy infantry. Pretty fast depending on which edge of the map you have it come in from. Minimal damage however it red suppresses units. Short cooldown.
- Anti-tank strafe (or as my friend K likes to call it "anti all" strafe)
Effective at killing tanks/everything. Depending on where the plane strafes (if its strafing behind a tank) its able to 1 shot a medium tank (Sherman, T34, SU85). If coming in from the front, expect to see a 40%-80% hp loss.
In K's words: The plane prefers Tank targets but will target infantry. Very effective at killing everything (tanks, infantry, team weapons).
- Stuka Bombing Strike
A bomb is dropped at target location. Delay is average, on par with artillery strikes however this plane cannot be shot down and has pinpoint accuracy.
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The problem that I have with this commander is that its a very effective support commander in team games such as 3v3 and 4v4s. This commander has a global presence and is not hindered much. Other than lowered fuel for armour should the player choose to use their 2nd ability.
This commander has a near instantaneous band aid solution for every situation, by being able to direct where his air strike comes in. He can help every front, whichever front that needs help, he can do a call in to turn the favour to his team mates side. Almost always, in 4 man parties that I face against in team games, I'll always see a CAS commander. Why? Because its essential to have a one click, I-WIN button. Because when you're coordinated on team speak or other VOIP programs, its very easy to have the player playing CAS to assist you when you need it. As you can see, this creates much frustration to me and my friends because there is no CAS allied equivalent nor a effective counter.
The CAS commander also encourages blobbing and easy squad wipes which is something that the devs are supposed to be against. You may say that they're using combined arms with their airplanes and infantry but really the most of the work is done by CAS infantry. Why? Because CAS commanders usually forgo fuel-heavy tech in favour of more munitions to help their allies. As such, basic units such as grens that only cost MP are preferred as a jack of all trades unit. Shooting down the planes doesn't hinder the commander at all and its almost irrelevant if you shoot them down or not because they're not really part of his army and he has an infinite supply of planes. I don't believe that CAS commanders have a combined arms army, its an all infantry shrek blob.
As a side benefit to the increased munitions income, CAS commanders are able to spam rifle grenades because of their plentiful munitions which also have very little visual indication, very fast travel time and are very effective squad wipes but complaints about rifle grenades are for another time/thread.
Typical CAS gameplay would be to spam grens and get to rank 6 ASAP. When there, your grens should have MGs through your fuel-to-munis ability. And you can start pinning with your planes and squad wiping with MGs/rifle grenades.
As you can see, this is very easy, very effective and very boring game play.
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Suggested Fixes:
I'll edit this as more suggestions come but here are my main problems with this commander.
The 2nd ability should cost MP & Fuel to convert to Munis and it shouldn't be instantaneous. Its too much speed compared to other abilities like fuel supply drop. Perhaps give it a 15-60 second delay before resources are received.
Alternately, make strafing runs cost MP because if the plane is shot down then you're losing MP.
* Increase the costs of both strafing runs but also add a "return bonus". The CAS commander gets a return of resources when his plane returns safely. If it's shot down then no resource return obviously. *
- Each plane should be precious and not something you can simply throw at the enemy because you have bullets.
Strafing runs when called from the enemies side should have time penalties for when it arrives. You're calling airplanes that should originate from your side (behind your base where your airfields should be). If they're to fly over to the enemies side to come in, they should at least have a longer delay as well as have a chance to be shot down before they reach the map. The latter is my personal thoughts on the matter.
Anti-tank runs should be firing anti-armour rounds and not high explosive. They should be less effective vs infantry and weapon teams.
Strafing runs shouldn't suppress or should unsuppress once it's shot down (more on this later).
CAS call-ins should have friendly fire. Specifically the Anti-infantry strafing run. I've had it and seen it called in multiple times while the CAS commander's troops or friendly troops were right on the enemy troops yet they weren't suppressed. Doesn't really make sense how a guy in an airplane going 200km/h can some how magically not target friendly troops right on top of the enemy.
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Now lets discuss what counters exist to fight the CAS commander.
My personal favourite is the USF Captain. Who is able to do the "On me!" ability to unsuppress nearby squads instantly and provide them with an accuracy and damage bonus. The downside to this is it requires a captain, requires rank 1, requires the him to be nearby, requires you to be playing USF and groups all your units for a good ol' fashion 5 squad wipe rifle nade. I should mention that the Captain stays suppressed despite his army running around him like nothing. So as you can see, in most situations, you're gonna be suppressed.
Another one might suggest is to shoot down the plane with AA HTs. However the problem with that is the plane almost always shoots before it is shot down leaving infantry suppressed. What the CAS commander has paid for will always go through, there's no way to avoid the suppression but it won't last as long. So, you're gonna be suppressed.
Win early game. The problem with this is that CAS commander only needs 1 node to secure mid and late game. He only needs either 1 munitions node or 1 fuel node because he will exchange and power through mid-late game with his team.
These are the only counters I can think of at the moment.
I would like to hear what others think and what other's personal experience with this commander. What are some weaknesses? Imo, any weakness can be compensated by your allies and you can help each other ten-fold. No allies equivalent exists (yet).
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I would like to share another post I wrote further in this thread. If you don't want to read all the comments, please read my second post.
Well this thread blew up over the past 24 hours.
I've read each and every reply to see both sides of the argument. Some things that people haven't addressed is the global presence of CAS commander in team games. Some of you have said its great in 1v1 but lack counters to heavy armour. In team games, the weakness is compensated by having their team mates to help them with that. CAS commander can pak wall pretty effectively too with excess MP.
I've also spoken with some friends that have over 1k hours of CoH2 and we've come to the agreement that CAS is very poorly designed. The reason being: While the commander is called Close Air Support, that doesn't mean you should cram all of the air support abilities possible into one. His abilities have way too much synergy to the point where its very overpowered. Its very versatile and has a global presence which most other commanders with global presences cannot compete with, especially allied counter parts (yes I'm looking at you partisan commander).
I'm glad that my MP cost to strafing runs and resource returns if the plane returns safely has caught on to some of you. I think its a fair balance to this commander because the benefits of buying AA against CAS commander is very minimal for the cost (only good for shooting down the recon but they will get recon effects anyway). We should see more of an investment return if we choose to buy AA. Currently AA half tracks can be ignored by the enemy team. It should have priority-to-destroy for the CAS player and his team mates because it makes sense right? If you're a close air support commander then AA should be your ultimate enemy/rival. You must shoot down the AA half track that is shooting down your men.
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Also another side note: Allies, specifically USF, had air superiority when they were fighting in the Western front and Soviets had way more planes than Axis during latter part of the Eastern front. Why don't we have CAS commanders for Allies and Soviets?
I think it was slightly damaged from AT guns, but not much. I hit it in the rear armour with the strafe.
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