A returning player... hows the state of the game?

The MWNL#3 was a good enough excuse for me to return to CoH and check out the state of the game. I usually did 2v2 and 1v1 but since my friend isn't that much online anymore I 've tried 3v3 and 4v4 mostly for a change.

What I 've witnessed in most games I did was that :

OKW Volks infantry is being used a lot and they are quite effective. What changed was that you no longer see 5-6 Volks but 2-3 paired with SturmPios. The same "tactic" as before... rush in, fire a Shrek salvo and focus fire infantry. When they lose 1-2 men just retreat. Then tech into rocket arty and/or panthers which in conjunction with the Shreks are unbeatable.

OST relies mostly on either Gren spam w/ an MG42 or spam MG42s and lock down key-regions (with a bunker, a couple of mortars etc etc) to buy time to pump out heavy tanks while bleeding you MP.

How Soviets are right now? I 've red that spamming Maxims is the answer but that seems easy to counter with OST and managable as OKW, if you avoid them and cap the rest of the map till you get the tools to kill them.

Soviets are pretty damn good, easily most picked Allied faction at the recent ESL tournament and most solid win rate.

I 've seen that the heavy cons start doesn't work any more (or isn't as effective) and people go for maxims (2 or more) and other stuff which leads into more "combined-army" solutions that before.

Still people go for heavy call-ins? Do Cons still be a match for Axis infantry late game?

AFAIK most people let their conscripts die off by late game. Unless they are going heavy on vehicles with Lend Lease, Soviet Reserve or Conscript support commander, in which case they become extremely useful in quick repairing vehicles. They don't hold up to elites or vetted infantry in late game so well.

AFAIK most people let their conscripts die off by late game.

Not from what I have seen. Conscripts remain useful all game long. They can cap, scout, snare vehicles, clear buildings, recrew weapons, can pick up weapons and clear ATGs. They are also very cheap to reinforce and most people seem to have 3-4 cons all game long.

AFAIK most people let their conscripts die off by late game.

Just die?

Haven't seen anything close to that... at least not intentionally!

Balance is hypothetically good but only because each faction has really OP things at the moment, if anything is nerfed than balance will tumble.

Soviets spam OP maxims into OP T70s, T1 doesn't exist anymore, cons are garbage, partysans are in. Same thing you would expect. Armored assault is in too.

USF uses OP calliope and OP Pershing, same deal with them: spam OP rifles, get a vehicle, push enemy totally off map by 10 minute mark or you lose. Has no answer to Ostruppen or sniper (other than those units USF shits on Ost) but can manage okw if played perfectly. Still the faction for people that hate themselves

UKF is not bad with recent changes, more defensive Ost. They're not bad

Ost has lots of viable strategies but needs to go mobile defense every game, or at least use Ostruppen. (Which against USF and UKF are over performing for their cost.) Ost sniper survivability is also literally hilarious.

OKW is now super aggressive early, make an OP Volk/elite blob, get OP raks, Rush OP Luchs, and kill all. Camp a vp or fuel (or both lol) with OP flak hq, get an ISG and laugh. OKW has no answer to early blobs or Maxim spam, so USF and Soviet can dump on OKW early. (More so Soviet)

Since the supression has been removed of the Pack Howi and ISG it's way better, now you can flank and cap without getting pinned, probably the most annoying thing that they've fixed.

@Beefsurge

Yeah, I 've seen some pretty weird stuff around, like people using maxims as main infantry unit, Volks blobbing being a super-weapon mid/late game while Cons being hard to survive from mid-game and on.

Thing is, as you said, that "balance" is so fragile atm that any nerf will cast a faction too vulnerable compared to others. On the other hand, being forced to rely on stuff like X-Y-Z spam makes the game dull.