Feedback on German commanders

First I'll start with describing all abilities that German commanders have

GERMAN COMMANDERS ABILITIES



AMBUSH CAMOUFLAGE - Grenadiers, MG's and Panzergrenadiers can be upgraded with camouflage that is activated when squad is standing in cover, gives attack buff when unit start firing first when it was in cover

CP: 1
Cost: 30MU
Rating: 4/10
explanation: cost is way too high for a thing that can give small attack bonus

HALFTRACK RIEGEL 43 ANTI-TANK MINE - Halftrack gain ability to lay anti tank mines, they are dealing less damage than regular pioneer Teller mine but these mines can be placed very quickly.
UPDATE: it completely destroys engine or immobilize enemy tanks

CP: 2(?)
cost: 60MU (?)
rating: 7/10
explanation: maybe it has lower damage than Teller mine but they recompense that with fast deployment, very good in early game when you need some anti tank mines very quickly

TACTICAL MOVEMENT - all infantry units are sprinting (no paks), ability similar to Blitzkrieg from vCoH but i doubt it's giving any other buffs, i think it only increases infantry speed, that's all.

CP: 2
cost: 40MU
duration: 30 seconds (?)
rating: 3/10
explanation: cost is very low, true, but it's useless IMO, unless it gives some buffs or something but probably not, wasting 40MU just to make your infantry spring? keep in mind that sprinting units won't be able to fire unless you tell them to stop

LEFH 18 ARTILLERY - first and only long range stationary artillery that is very useful against nearly everything.

CP: 4
cost: 600MP
reload: 85 seconds (?)
shells fired: 12
rating: 9/10
explanation: I didn't give it rating 10/10 only because of it's high cost, this arty when finish it's firing barrage must wait like 20 seconds to fire again? that's very good thing, one of the most important unit in late game for sure

STUKA BOMBING STRIKE - JU-87D Stuka will drop 50kg bomb, no smoke and hard to detect plane since it's not showed on minimap

CP: 5
cost: 160MU
duration (delay between bomb has been dropped and activated by us): 10 seconds
rating: 10/10
explanation: only fighting plane that does not drops flares and deals very huge damage to everything and at fair price, can be only detected by the sound it makes
NOTE: If stuka hits captured point, it will be neutralized

PANZER TACTICIAN - all vehicles and tanks gain ability to fire smoke over them that blocks visibility from all sides, good for retreating vehicles and tanks

CP: 2
cost: 15MU
duration: 10 seconds (?)
rating: 10/10
explanation: if your tank is dying, or heavy damaged, you can easily retreat that tank from battlefield, it also cancels all button's on this tank and probably AT nades (not sure about AT nades)

RECONNAISSANCE OVERFLIGHT - allied aircraft will make a reconnaissance over a place you've chosen, but it's radius is larger and can reveal a very big part of the map

CP: 2
cost: 80MU
duration: 60 seconds (?)
rating: 8/10
explanation: it's unarmed plane that is doing only reconnaissance over the battlefield, of course it has harder sight radius than all other planes but biggest problem with this ability is their cost.

HULL DOWN - Pioneers, grenadiers and Panzergrenadiers can construct Hull Down position on YOUR (not ally) tanks, that are immobilized but have increased defense, accuracy and reduced reload time.

CP: 2
cost: free
building time: 10 seconds(?)
duration: until tanks decide to destroy it
rating: 7/10
explanation: all buffs are good but it makes your tank very vulnerable to nearly everything since they know where your tank is, it's very good ONLY on Panthers since they have long range and 360 degree turret, good for other tanks that are going to cover a small path

COMMAND TANK - calls in a Panzer IV with short barrel gun, already equipped with top gunner and giving buffs to nearby units (only YOUR units, not ally units)

CP: 4
cost: 320MP 135 Fuel (something over regular P4)
rating: 8/10
explanation: since it is very good support tank and good vs infantry it lacks with penetration, can be easily killed with T34/76 and higher tanks, but it's always good to have that tank in your army

ELEFANT TANK DESTROYER - calls in the biggest Tank destroyer every fought on Eastern front, it's equipped with deadly 88mm Pak43 gun.

CP: 5
cost: 670MP 260Fuel
rating: 8/10
explanation: Elefant has biggest range in this game (same as Pak43 and ISU-152) and extremely good penetration and damage, but it's very slow and vulnerable to flank attacks (weak rear armor), cost is probably too high, compared to other tanks

JAEGER LIGHT INFANTRY UPGRADE - Grenadiers and Panzergrenadiers can be equipped with two G43 rifles and after that upgrade they can use interrogation ability.

CP: 2
cost: 60MU G43, 20MU interrogation
rating: 7/10
explanation: 60MU for two G43? that's too high cost IMO, interrogation ability is useless or it's bugged, I dont know exactly what it should do (reveal?) and it's only viable on grenadiers cuz on Panzergrenadiers it would only reduce their low range efficiency, G43 can't be dropped

RELIEF INFANTRY - when activated it will replace losses with Ostruppen squads, must lose 6 man to get one squad that will spawn our from the map

CP: 3
cost: 120MU
duration: 60 seconds
rating: 8/10
explanation: it's only good if you have lot of infantry units and you lose them in large numbers, if you use good tactic (for example HT near units to reinforce) you can get lot of Ostruppens, Ostruppens are fairly weak infantry, 6 man squad, very weak in combat, they gain very fast veterancy and then they become some useful, bu they will never match with Shock troops or veted conscripts

TIGER TANK - calls in a fearsome Tiger heavy tank that was one of best tanks during WW2, it's 88mm gun can easily penetrate every soviet tank and annihilate full infantry squads

CP: 5
cost: 560MP 250Fuel (not sure)
rating: 9/10
explanation: price is too high compared to other tanks (Panther for example, Tiger costs twice as much Fuel that panther needs) but as a tank, it's best tank in game

STUKA CLOSE AIR SUPPORT - you can call-in Stuka with 37mm cannons that will attack all units dealing very high damage to them

CP: 5
cost: 240MU
duration: 45 seconds (?)
rating: 6/10
explanation: cost is way too high for that ability that lasts for like 45 seconds and can maybe attack 5 times? even if damage is high, this ability is weak due to it's cost.

RAILWAY ARTILLERY - off-map artillery that will fire 3 big shells dealing huge damage

CP: 5 or 6 (correct me)
cost: 200MU
shells fired: 3
rating: 6/10
explanation: for 00 MU it will fire 3 big shells that can be easily odged because it drops flares and first shell is dropped like 5 or 6 seconds later, of course if enemy won't notice the flares he will be surprised that his units has been wiped out. Railway Arty is best used on base buildings, if 3 shells hit directly any of the base buildings, it will get destroyed, but to sum up, cost is way too high compared to it's efficiency

SECTOR ARTILLERY - off-map artillery will fire every time when enemy has been spotted in territory where sector artillery is working

CP: 5 or 6 (correct me)
cost: 200MU
duration: 90 seconds (correct me)
rating: 9/10
explanation: this artillery is best in every situations, cost is high, true, but it can easily annihilate even the biggest army, the only bad thing about this ability is that it can be dodged by simple not going through territory where sector artillery is activated, it's best used in late game to simply protect VP's and n every situation you got enemy cut-offed, if you use that on cut-off expect heavy casualties on enemy side.

SPOTTING SCOPE - every tank/vehicle get acces to upgrade with spotting scope that will highly increase their sight range when they are stationary (and they can't rotate)

CP: 2
cost: 30
rating: 9/10
explanation: this thing works best for units that already have high sight range, and these units are ScourCar and Elefant, Spotting Scope on these units increases sight so hard, that you got visibility on half map, only bad thing is it works only if your tank/vehicle is stationary and can't rotate

OPEL BLITZ TRUCK - you can call-in an unarmed truck that can secure frienly territory giving fuel and munition every 20 seconds.

CP: 1
cost: 200MP
rating: 10/10
explanation: this truck gives 1 fuel and 2 munition every 20 seconds if truck is placed on territory next to your base, it gives additional resources if placed on territory that is not next to your base and it gives like 1 fuel and 3-4 munitions i think. Anyway, this truck is like twice better than OP's on points because it can be safely hide from enemy sight, placed next to your MG bunkers, having even 2 of them is a resource advantage even if you are holding on 2-3 territories.

ARTILLERY FIELD OFFICER - calls in an officer that is slightly better than grenadiers and can use 3 abilities

CP: 2
cost: 240MP
rating: 7/10
explanation: this unit has better fighting values than grenadiers, they can use three abilities: smoke barrage, focused artillery (something like brits victor target) and charge ability (not sure about the name) that gives offensive and defensive buffs to nearby units, if you are having lot of infantry units or artillery stuff then you should call this unit.

STRAFING RUN - Stuka plane will fly over the battlefield and will shot enemy infantry with 2 MG's and will kill or pin them

CP: 3
cost: 120 MU
duration: 60 seconds (?)
rating: 10/10
explanation: this thing is currently over-powered, this pins every units, 120 MU to completely base pin enemy? sure thing, let's do this! but it's worth to remember that it's not dealing lot of damage.

FRAGMENTATION BOMBS - Henschel will bomb designated area will small bombs effective against infantry, support and buildings

CP: 5
cost: 180MU
rating: 7/10
explanation: since it drops flares like 2 seconds before it hits the field it's easily to dodge, but if not, they will deal huge damage to enemy infantry and support weapons and if it hits enemy tanks, they will be stunned for few seconds. Biggest problem with this bombing run are flares, they are dropped too early, but IMO they shouldn't be dropped at all

SDKFZ 250/7 MORTAR HALRTRUCK - calls-in a mortar halftruck that is a very mobile early artillery vehicle, very effective against all early infantry and support weapons

CP: 2
cost: 200MP 40 Fuel
rating: 6/10
explanation: it's mortar weapon deals very low damage to everything, the only good thing is that you can use incendiary shells good against buildings and support stuff, also it's very vulnerable to every anti-tank weapons, it probably got one-shoted by at guns and bigger tanks

PAK43 - Pioneers can now construck a Pak43 gun emplacements, best anti tank weapon during WW2 and best in game

CP: 4
cost: 480MP
rating: 9/10
explanation: has biggest range in game (same as elefant and ISU-152), biggest penetration and biggest damage, weapon itself has high HP so it won't be dead due to some shots from other tanks, at guns. takes out ISU-152 in 3-4 shots, T34 in 2 shots, gains veterancy very fast, but it must be manually rotated which is bad and takes much time to do that. Pioneers after constructed Pak43 are building sandbags around Pak43 that provides green cover.
UPDATE: Pak43 can igrnore shotblockers like houses, hedgerows and can shoot enemy tanks if you just spot them

SMOKE BOMBS - Friendly plane will drop a line of smoke bombs, blocking line of sight

CP:2
cost: 50MU
rating: 6/10
explanation: this ability can be used in defense and in offense since you block enemy sight (and yours) you can surpirise enemy with fast attack or withdraw your own units when they are being overwhelmed

LIGHT ARTILLERY BARRAGE - nearby LeIG 18 will bombard designated area

CP: 4
cost: 120MU
rating: 7/10
explanation: cost is low but it's efficiency is also low, first shells are dropped like 5 seconds after flares so it gives much time for your enemy to dodge it and it doesn't deal good damage. Only good vs support units and capping units


GERMAN COMMANDERS (rating splitted between early, med and late game and later overall rating with explanation why, early rating 1-2 CP's, med 3-4, late 5-6)



FESTUNG ARMOR DOCTRINE

ABILITIES:
1) PANZER TACTICIAN
2) HULL DOWN
3) PAK43
4) COMMAND TANK
5) RAILWAY ARTILLERY

Early game rating: 3/10
Med game rating: 8/10
Late game rating: 5/10
Overall rating: 6/10

explanation: since in early you got only Panzer tactician on 2 CP's it's kinda weak in early, but in med game you can hull down your tanks if you have any, build Pak43 if you lack with anti-tank weapons and call-in a command tank that can be very well used against enemy infantry. Late game adds only Railway Artillery which is under-powered IMO and not worth using it.


FESTUNG SUPPORT DOCTRINE

ABILITIES:
1) SDKFZ 250/7 MORTAR HALRTRUCK
2) SMOKE BOMBS
3) RELIEF INFANTRY
4) LEFH 18 ARTILLERY
5) SECTOR ARTILLERY

Early game rating: 6/10
Med game rating: 8/10
Late game rating: 8/10
Overall rating: 7/10

explanation: in early stage only mortar HT seems viable, those Smoke bombs are good in use later because in early it's just a waste of ammo, in med game we can use Relief infantry which can become very good if you lose lot of infantry while this ability is activated and on-map arty can become very usefull in med game and for sure in late game so it's worth doing that. In late game we have Sector artillery that costs 200MU, if you have a chance to use it properly then use it, remember it costs 200MU that can be spend on other stuff.


JAEGER ARMOR DOCTRINE

ABILITIES:
1) HALFTRACK RIEGEL 43 ANTI-TANK MINE
2) RECONNAISSANCE OVERFLIGHT
3) SPOTTING SCOPE
4) ELEFANT TANK DESTROYER
5) STUKA BOMBING STRIKE

Early game rating: 7/10
Med game rating: 7/10
Late game rating: 10/10
Overall rating: 9/10

explanation: in early stage you can lay down a Riegel anti tank mine that will deal huge damage and will for sure destroy engine or immobilize enemy vehicle/tanks, also Recon might be usefull if you want to spy enemy base building and knew when to expect what kind of unit, in med game you gain Spotting scope, i suggest to get at least one Scour Car and upgrade it with Spotting Scope because sight range is incredibly HUGE, late game can offer to us an Elefant tank destroyer that will stomp enemy tanks in 2-3 shots, and stuka bombing strike. if we compare this, Spotting scope on Elefant, and Elefant is using extended sight range (this ability that SU-85 also have) we will have sight range on half map and if we add stuka bombing strike to it, that doesn't drop flares we got one of best combos ever in this game


JAEGER INFANTRY DOCTRINE

ABILITIES:
1) AMBUSH CAMOUFLAGE
2) JAEGER LIGHT INFANTRY UPGRADE
3) TACTICAL MOVEMENT
4) LIGHT ARTILLERY BARRAGE
5) STUKA CLOSE AIR SUPPORT

Early game rating: 7/10
Med game rating: 5/10
Late game rating: 6/10
Overall rating: 6/10

explanation: This doctrine has only 3 out of 5 abilities that are worth something, Ambush camouflage and tactical movement are useless, but this doctrine is mainly focused on infantry, ambush might be good on G43 grenadiers. Light artillery barrage and 37mm Stuka are two off-maps that are not worth using unless you are floating munitions. I reccomend this doctrine if someone wants to go full infantry war.


ASSAULT SUPPORT DOCTRINE

ABILITIES:
1) OPEL BLITZ TRUCK
2) ARTILLERY FIELD OFFICER
3) STRAFING RUN
4) TIGER TANK
5) FRAGMENTATION BOMBS

Early game rating: 9/10
Med game rating: 10/10
Late game rating: 10/10
Overall rating: 10/10

explanation: so far i can't find any doctrine that has so much great stuff, at 1 CP comes Opel Blitz Truck that will highly boost our resource income (the sooner the better), Artillery Field Officer might help out infantry, Strafing run can be a game changer since it's so much OP and cost is only 120MU (remember that Opel blitz gives 2 munitions every 20 seconds, so it's like free strafing run every 20 minutes). You will get a Tiger tank when you reach 5 CP's (if you won't build any other tanks) thanks to Opel Blitz Truck and you Fragmentation Bombs can easily kill pinned infantry units when strafing run is on (or force them to retreat). To be honest, it's best doctrine so far


JOINT OPERATIONS DOCTRINE (DLC COMMANDER, PREMIUM FOR ANY PRE-ORDER)

ABILITIES:
1) RECONNAISSANCE OVERFLIGHT
2) ARTILLERY FIELD OFFICER
3) PAK43
4) LEFH 18 ARTILLERY
5) LIGHT ARTILLERY BARRAGE

Early game rating: 5/10
Med game rating: 9/10
Late game rating: N/A
Overall rating: 8/10

explanation: In early stage you can call a recon flight which can be good for spotting enemy moves, Artillery field officer can help us in fighting since he got this Heroic charge (dont remember name for it) that gives buffs for near infantry units, in med game we got all cool stuff, Pak43 as and anti-tank weapon and LeFH as a... artillery ofc, this doctrine will surely be the best in 2v2 and higher matches since in 1v1 we wouldn't have a chance to construct both things (too much costs to afford) we also have light artillery barrage that is not as great as other german or soviet off maps.
NOTE: Late game haven't been rated because this doctrine does not have abilities for 5 and 6 CP's. I highly Recommend using this doctrine in 2v2 and higher matches, in 1v1 matches this doctrine isn't the best.


SPEARHEAD DOCTRINE (DLC COMMANDER, PREMIUM FOR ANY PRE-ORDER)

ABILITIES:
1) PANZER TACTICIAN
2) SDKFZ 250/7 MORTAR HALRTRUCK
3) RECONNAISSANCE OVERFLIGHT
4) TIGER TANK
5) FRAGMENTATION BOMBS

Early game rating: 9/10
Med game rating: N/A
Late game rating: 9/10
Overall rating: 9/10

explanation: first 3 abilities comes at 2 CP's, all are very good and are worth using them, mortar HT will help us in defeating enemy camping units, support units, Panzer Tactician will give a big advantage to our tanks and future Tiger, Fragmentation bombs maybe costs only 180MU and are not that effective but that's the only doctrinal off-map bombing run. This doctrine is a very good choice


STORM DOCTRINE (PREMIUM FOR COLLECTOR EDITION)

ABILITIES:
1) AMBUSH CAMOUFLAGE
2) HALFTRACK RIEGEL 43 ANTI-TANK MINE
3) TACTICAL MOVEMENT
4) LEFH 18 ARTILLERY
5) STUKA BOMBING STRIKE

Early game rating: 4/10
Med game rating: 7/10
Late game rating: 9/10
Overall rating: 6/10

explanation: Ambush camouflage and AT Riegel mine? that't not very much, only that Riegel mine might be useful since it completely immobilize enemy tanks, but for other things we have to wait to 4 CP, because then we get artillery. Since this doctrine does not have any tanks that costs Fuel, we can build non-doctrinal tanks, also these abilities doesn't need much munitions and Stuka strike costs 160MU so it should be used as much as possible because it can be a game changer. I do not recommend this doctrine to you, only 3 out of 5 abilities are good.


FORTIFIED ARMOR DOCTRINE (PREMIUM FOR COLLECTOR EDITION)

ABILITIES:
1) PANZER TACTICIAN
2) RECONNAISSANCE OVERFLIGHT
3) HULL DOWN
4) COMMAND TANK
5) ELEFANT TANK DESTROYER

Early game rating: 8/10
Med game rating: 8/10
Late game rating: 8/10
Overall rating: 9/10

explanation: Panzer tactician will be for sure a great ability for our taks, because we can call TWO tanks from this doctrine, Recon will be helpful for our elefant tank, command tank will boost it's effectiveness. Panzer Tactician can also cancel enemy T34/76 ram ability, when panzer tactician is activated, the enemy T34 won't see it, so it will have to get very close to elefant and won't be able to use Ram, unless he i'll fall back. and Hull down will make your tanks even more deadly than before. Very good doctrine.


LIGHTNING WAR DOCTRINE (PREMIUM FOR COLLECTOR EDITION)

ABILITIES:
1) JAEGER LIGHT INFANTRY UPGRADE
2) RELIEF INFANTRY
3) TACTICAL MOVEMENT
4) TIGER TANK
5) STUKA CLOSE AIR SUPPORT

Early game rating: 7/10
Med game rating: 6/10
Late game rating: 8/10
Overall rating: 7/10

explanation: In early we got access to upgrade our grenadiers with G43 rifles, with these weapon grenadiers are better and can easily repeal soviet infantry attack, but the cost for each squad is 60MU, in med game we have Relief infantry that costs 120MU and also a tactical movement (40MU) but this isn't very useful. So the muni costs are very high, and we must remember that munitions are spend all the time, Panzershrecks, teller mines, grenades, so we won't afford that number of munitions (unless you can construct few munition caches). Late game gives us a Tiger tank that is a must-be tank for every player in game, also 37mm Stuka costs 240MU so another reason why munitions are necessary for this doctrine. If you are going to float munitions then this doctrine is for you.


Okay, that's what i've made so far, i dont have access to CoH2 so i'll finish this topic tomorrow, I'll add rest of the abilities and make a leaderboard for commanders MVGame

thanks for this!
also...
They gave the option to put g43's on panzergrens because you can equip them with two shrecks, which are long range- so if you want the other two guys to have a long-range weapon too; you buy them the g43s

Fortified German Armor Doctrine is the bomb. Has everything you need to counter the soviets tbh. Abilities include panzer tactician, recon, hulldown, command tank and elephant. Going to be writing up at strategy for this doctrine.

Barton wanna be on staff MVGame?

Srsly tho, an expanded version of this would make a good Guide.

i'm not done with that, i'll surely finish that later, and make another one for soviets

You might want to add that while Teller mines usually damage the engine of vehicles, the Riegel will always completely destroy the engine.

My feedback on a few of them, I kinda agree on most of the others. Overall, I think that the biggest problem with some of the abilities is that they come 1 CP too late:

Ambush Camouflage: The dmg bonus should be increased (for example make it so they use their melee range accuracy for all ranges for 5 seconds or so) and/or the whole thing made available to Paks (though would prefer an actual Pak fix)

Riegel Mine: It should come at 1 CP. At 2 CP it comes at a time when your FHT might already be dead. Plus Germans really need more 1 CP abilities to bolster early game.

Tactical Movement: I actually think it is pretty good. Your rating is kinda low so I think moving it to 2 CP would make it available earlier and thus increase its effectiveness (no tanks around yet, maybe allows you to catch that last scout car or push vs. maxims).

Relief Infantry: Doesn't feel very good but could have a lot of room for improvements. It could also be a candidate for reducing it to 2 CPs. Maybe they could allow for also manually calling in Osttruppen for manpower via a second ability or building them in your HQ.
This way you'd have more cheap infantry around, making the original ability more effective. Plus they'd compliment the German units very well by being a cheap capturing unit and also great for supporting and recrewing heavy weapons. This would make German MG42, mortar and Pak much more useful and doctrines with this ability. Hell, they could even increase their manpower price and allow them to merge like conscripts (unlikely but would be awesome).

Stuka Close Air Support: It could use a slight buff or something. In theory its guns are very potent but somehow it doesn't shoot as much as it could.
Maybe make it so that if you already have vision on the enemies provided by ground units it is more accurate or shoots more often or does more damage.

I really like the Panzer Tactician commander.

Smoke dispenser is good for getting out of trouble. When advancing into enemy territory you can pop smoke and hit reverse as soon as you realize there is anti gun or an SU-85.

Hull down is good but obviously enemy's can choose to bypass hulled down tanks if they choose or use the superior range of the Zis 3 or SU-85.

Pak 43 is excellent, massive range, excellent damage and penetration. Shoots through everything in its path as long as another unit give it line of sight.

When you combine the Pak 43 with hull down tanks defending it plus support infantry and when one of the hulled down tanks is a Panzer 4 command tank you have virtually impregnable defensive zone against tanks and infantry. Even mass SU-85's will struggle. They can target a single tank but the German player can delay there tanks destruction by popping smoke and retreating.

Railway artillery is a bit useless though. Too slow.

Fortified German Armor Doctrine is the bomb. Has everything you need to counter the soviets tbh. Abilities include panzer tactician, recon, hulldown, command tank and elephant. Going to be writing up at strategy for this doctrine.

sadly they also have no call in arty. still a good commander in my opinion.

Railway artillery is a bit useless though. Too slow.

Yeah, its a shame; they really made the ability to dodge airstrikes, etc easy with the long call in times: eg Railway Arty, or the really loud audio que: eg: dive bomber.

Its a waste of munis!

updated abilities in first post, request to all of you, if i made mistake, for example with costs, CP's required, durations etc. pls write it here.

You forget to mention that PaK43 also ignores shotblockers which means it can shoot right through neutral building and such no problem. Best thing to do with them is place them behind some obstacle to force the enemy to come around the obstacle if attacking head on and absorb some Katushyua rockets.

LOL WTF? dont troll me Kappa

Umm.... Its true, try it out yourself, place it behind a building and use attack ground and watch it shoot through it.

if it shoots through building and hedgerows, will it automatically shoot at enemy tanks?

Yes, it will automatically shoot at enemy units that enter its firing arc, just like any other ATG, it just also have has the useful property of ignoring the usual shotblockers automatically as well.

okaaaay... I gotta try this. If it is true it may well be one of the most broken units in the game. But it comes kinda late and is very squishy so artillery (especially 120 mm mortar) can still counter it, right?

Yes, Indirect and offmaps still counters it, it is after all a stationary emplacement. It more or less a tank denial area, which allows me to use tanks around it without the fear of SU-85s ruining the party at the very least (It can two-shot an SU-85).

Yeah a relic dev confirmed the ability it on these forums a little while back in a response to a post saying the Pak 43 was boring compared to the 88 in COH.

Its great and a real beast on small maps because it denies such a wide area of the map.

As other uses have said put it behind a bush or house to keep it hidden for a while and deny straight line of sight of it to the enemy and spot for it with other units. I normally score my first hit by surprise and often the opponent doesn't react fast enough to avoid a second shot. It can 2 shot a SU-85. Keeping it behind an obstacle will protect from Katushka rockets.

Damage is that of a Elephant tank and with better penetration. I don't think it ever fails to penetrate any tank armor if it hits.

If you properly support it infantry, tanks and a half track in conjunction with the commanders other abilities such as smoke, command tank and of course hull down it becomes extremely difficulty for your enemy to defeat.

The only snag is that the enemy can usually field a SU-85 before you can get this out. I usually go Panzer 4 which I normally have on the field a little before or at the same time has a SU-85 and try to avoid the SU-85 and use smoke to evade it while buying time to build the Pak-43. I still use the Panzer 4 to counter infantry.

Once's it up Katushka's are the the biggest threat. I usually keep an upgunned scout car on hand and send it around the edges of the map to hunt down the Katushka. Its irrelevant if the scout car survives as long as the Katushka goes down.

Its not often used either so Russians players aren't expecting and don't know how to counter it well. A lot don't even know about the ability it has to shoot through shotstoppers and often leave there tanks exposed without realizing it. If they loose the first SU-85 they have lost, because they have to get another one to stop a single Panzer 4 from getting complete map control, this delays there ability to get an arty counter and the SU-85 is limited in its ability to pursue the Panzer 4 which can retreat back into Pak-43 cover range.

I'm surprised you rate the Tiger that high, imo it's way too expensive for what it can do. It either loses in a long range shootout to a su85 or it gets rammed by a t34.