Combined arms versus blobbing: Quo vadis Relic?

I’m only an average player ranking anywhere in the middle oft the player base. Playing 2v2 and up with friends for fun one or two evenings a week. At my level of skill blobbing is such a huge killer of gameplay, that it really gets annoying. Of course there are counters, but while the real hard counters often come too late the early available soft counter get easily smoked by USF, mortared by various factions or long range grenaded by axis factions etc. Blobbing yourself seems to work out on most matchups.

It would be so easy to stop blobbing at low/average skill while making the game more interesting at high skill level at the same time.

All infantry should be vastly more prone to supression and incoming projectiles when moving/standing in the open. Any kind of MG should instantly supress squads in the open, no more crawling around and tossing grenades. Right now CoH feels so strong arcade-like instead of beeing a strategy game.

Instead of blobbing versus MG and alike you really would have to use counter tactics (sniper, mortar smoke rounds, recon for a flank path, etc.) to advance.

There would be mechanics to reduce the handicap for handheld AT weapons and assault troops which would surely result out of this changes. Assault troops could get a partly concealing smoke grenade like the commandos to provide cover and help storming positions. Handheld AT weapons could be more potent when fired out of cover to make a tank think twice of entering an unrevealed street or hedge row.
Goal of this changes: Punish blobbing and make combined arms more attractive on all skill levels. There are enough underused abilitIes that would prevent turning the game in something static already. Take mortar smoke rounds for example. I would bet smoke mortar rounds get used next to never by average players and even when watching a high skill replay, it seems to be a non existent ability.

What do you think? Should be moving out in the open punished hard or should the game stay more arcade like with ahistorical infantry combat? Feel free to comment.

Pretty sure suppressing weapons already cause more suppression against units in negative cover.

Dear God no, this would make the game so tedious and just promote HMG spam. You'd see nothing but MG42's covering half the map and Maxim Spam.

USF would get screwed in the early game because they wouldn't have enough munitions for smoke (or any of the counters you listed for that matter). OKW gets doubled screwed as well - no HMG OR counters you listed in early game.

Furthermore there are currently plenty of ways to punish blobbers. Yes its frustrating to lose to blobbers because you know in your head that you should beat them but its just a matter of getting better and learning how to counter it.

It is easier to win for me when my opponent blobbing, rather than attacking in spread out formation.

Did you know that you should be targeting the not suppressed squads in the blob to better suppress them? The mgs tend to keep shooting at one squad while dealing only minor suppression to the ones surrounding it. Once they are suppressed you should reposition if you have no support nearby to get further away.

Why not combined arms AND blobbing! Arty the enemy area then attack move with all units!!!

Why not combined arms AND blobbing! Arty the enemy area then attack move with all units!!!

Dat bar/zook mixed blob

Dem volks blobs in large games are killer.
Same can be said about riflemen and I would love to see cover to get a higher importance value in coh2 above 1v1's.

More supression will lead to mg spam and unability to flank because one burt = supressed.

If he blob 5 squads in same location , then i think you should be able to have at least 2 mg and mortor or some light tank

Blobbing is only a problem with OKW.

Kind of with USF, but design of rifles means spreading rifles out is almost always better than blobbing.

Blobbing is only a problem with OKW.

Kind of with USF, but design of rifles means spreading rifles out is almost always better than blobbing.

Still blobing them is really powerfull and effective. That's the problem, blobing should be much less rewarding then just A-moving forward. Blobing is really big problem on 2v2 maps. In 3v3 it's still quite annoying but for sure much more easier to counter because of map design.

I have a tip for you.

2 s-mine fields on a chokepoint that your mg 42 is covering. Add in a mortar and watch him run through the s-mine field, get suppressed and see either his units blow up the mines or see his REs or Combat Engineers reveal the mine field and your mortar setting off the mines.

This is one, a great laugh, and two, it works pretty good.

Dem volks blobs in large games are killer.
Same can be said about riflemen and I would love to see cover to get a higher importance value in coh2 above 1v1's.

This.

If you give too much penalty, flanking/maneuvers are gone . But also there's a problem with a-move blobs. An option could be to introduce a debuff of accuracy if same units are together in a small area -size needs to be tweaked- to punish blobs but not flanking mechanics.

This game simply needs a unit density damage multiplier. I have been promiting this since, I dont even know.

Like in Men of War. If you blob, everything is going to die. End of story.

blobbing is so easy to kill.

im always glad if i see my opponents blobing.

just get 2 shermans and keep Firing HE shells into the lob --> job done

Blobbing is easy to deal with. The only potentially bad blobs are
rifle blobs and volk blobs.

Rifles because their vet 3 received accuracy is christlike

Volks because they have panzershreck


Solution?

Reduce riflemen reinforce to 21 at vet 3. Lower vet 3 modifier to 5-10% from 20%

Take panzershreck off volks and give them to a anti-tank team built from med HQ. 300 mp 4 man squad. Fixed.

Thanks for all your input and some hints (manually targeting the non supressed squads/s-mines with mg42 and mortar). Like most around here I find USF Rifle and OKW Volksgren spam the most annyoing, clearly they are the most potent ones.

Most of you want to leave damage and supression like it is, only a third voted for slightly higher damage and/or supression, its a tendency at least. I agree to some post that it would be enough to change some units to disarm USF/OKW blobs instead of changing the whole infantry cover mechanic.

Hardest time I have when fighting OKW with UKF, because Vickers traded supression for damage (a bad move if you ask me), there is no early AI vehicle (if bren had a capable upgrade at least), no AI light tank and no counter spam. In addition they are missing a non-doctrinal blob killer like the demo charge. Whats your best way fending off the volks blob with UKF?


On the other side I like the way they solved infantry combat at UKF the most. They are not that spammable with the exception of lategame Anvil Heavy Engineers, their handheld AT is clearly not op and they profit from beeing in cover more than other factions. Other factions could be a little bit more like that.

I’m only an average player ranking anywhere in the middle oft the player base. Playing 2v2 and up with friends for fun one or two evenings a week. At my level of skill blobbing is such a huge killer of gameplay, that it really gets annoying. Of course there are counters, but while the real hard counters often come too late the early available soft counter get easily smoked by USF, mortared by various factions or long range grenaded by axis factions etc. Blobbing yourself seems to work out on most matchups.

It would be so easy to stop blobbing at low/average skill while making the game more interesting at high skill level at the same time.

All infantry should be vastly more prone to supression and incoming projectiles when moving/standing in the open. Any kind of MG should instantly supress squads in the open, no more crawling around and tossing grenades. Right now CoH feels so strong arcade-like instead of beeing a strategy game.

Instead of blobbing versus MG and alike you really would have to use counter tactics (sniper, mortar smoke rounds, recon for a flank path, etc.) to advance.

There would be mechanics to reduce the handicap for handheld AT weapons and assault troops which would surely result out of this changes. Assault troops could get a partly concealing smoke grenade like the commandos to provide cover and help storming positions. Handheld AT weapons could be more potent when fired out of cover to make a tank think twice of entering an unrevealed street or hedge row.
Goal of this changes: Punish blobbing and make combined arms more attractive on all skill levels. There are enough underused abilitIes that would prevent turning the game in something static already. Take mortar smoke rounds for example. I would bet smoke mortar rounds get used next to never by average players and even when watching a high skill replay, it seems to be a non existent ability.

What do you think? Should be moving out in the open punished hard or should the game stay more arcade like with ahistorical infantry combat? Feel free to comment.

Yes. Blobbing is a real issue atm. Its the motive i quit playing CoH 2. I hope thar Relic will make some big changes, or i'll be forced to find another game. Now i'm playing Europa Universalis 4. I had myself countless posts regarding this aspect (blobbing). It just kills the game... So, Relic, we expect your next move ! Happy Holydays !!!

Simple way to reduce usefulness of blobbing. Increase reinforcement cost of the blobbing unit of choice. There, fixed, GG.