Soviet Reserve Army Strategy: F R E E S Q U A D S

Pure gold right here, submeta just like Partysans and Armored Assault. And it's a stock commander! I'll lay it out:

Commander Principles

-Partysans counter Luchs/FHT/rocket arty, anything you want.

-PPSH Cons swarm and kill all (more on that later)

-Con repair is okay when you have hundreds of Conscripts (more on that later)

-Rapid Conscription gives you a F R E E S Q U A D for every model that's killed while the ability is active. This lets you create an army of Conscripts for simply 125 munis, who will recieve PPSHs and continue to Zerg and wipe the fascisti off of the map. You get rewarded for attacking, and the MP saved is used to sustain the Conscript Army.

-ML-20 is a okay arty piece, in 1 vs 1 it's not very practical but in 2 v 2 it goes well with a USF teammate or a UKF one who goes with a non-arty commander.

Build Order

Con
Con
Con
Con
Healing/Con
T2
Molo
AT Nade
(Optional Con)
T3
(Optional M5)
T4
(Reactive to enemy composition)

It's an extremely simple BO, but it's micro heavy and relies on the commander a lot.

Vs OKW:

Super conservative early game, just hug garrisons and try not to lose too many models. No need to fear their light vehicle rush, you have Partysans. Take it slow, build up an army of 4 to 5, nurture them, heal them...

Once Cons start to vet and you get mass quantities of them you can begin to push back from your conservative posture. Flank MG34s, hug cover, flank everything actually, put trip wire flares at the entrances of buildings to prevent infiltration, and try not to lay mines like your normally supposed to. Once 3 cp pops give PPSHs to all Cons while saving at least 50 muni at all times for at nades and oorah. Combined with rapid conscription PPSHs are more important than mines mines because you can bully every infantry in the game once you start snowballing in veterancy.

Once you unlock conscription, wait until your at full strength and launch attacks at the enemy map center from the flanks and middle while using the ability. Don't lose squads but be sure that at least 12 models die so you can get 2 free con squads, a fair trade for 125 munis. If you can lose 18 or 24 models...woah lol.

Generally you rinse and repeat, attacking from all directions with PPSH cons, using AT Partysans to back cap and as anti vehicle, and slowly teching up with engineers. Forget light vehicles-we're going fast T34/Su-85 to close the game.

I've used reserve army alot this patch cycle, and I would make a few suggestions to your build:

Go for penal opener (2-4) instead of cons early. The penals scale much better with their flamer and can be decisive as flankers lategame. The munitions you saved up may also let you oneshot (3 satchels) an OKW HQ if you manage to catch it out of position.

M5 is a nogo, because the munitions are better spent on rapid conscription and PPSHs, as well as flamers and satchels. Go T70 first.

Have a solid core of 2 SU76s for all your AT mid -> lategame. If you float, only then get SU85 up.

If you have AT partisans on the field, use them on hold fire to mine and scout for your squads. They are very cost effective as ambush AT, and have great vet.

Don't forget to merge your vet 0 free squads with your upgraded squads, to keep them on the field longer.

Man I wish Rapid Conscription was as good as Relief Infantry.

I've used reserve army alot this patch cycle, and I would make a few suggestions to your build:

Go for penal opener (2-4) instead of cons early. The penals scale much better with their flamer and can be decisive as flankers lategame. The munitions you saved up may also let you oneshot (3 satchels) an OKW HQ if you manage to catch it out of position.

M5 is a nogo, because the munitions are better spent on rapid conscription and PPSHs, as well as flamers and satchels. Go T70 first.

Have a solid core of 2 SU76s for all your AT mid -> lategame. If you float, only then get SU85 up.

If you have AT partisans on the field, use them on hold fire to mine and scout for your squads. They are very cost effective as ambush AT, and have great vet.

Don't forget to merge your vet 0 free squads with your upgraded squads, to keep them on the field longer.

I can see penal opener working pretty well, maybe I'll try 2 penal to con opener (I like sandbags+oorah+high alpha damage). Flamers + PPSH should wreck everything up close

On the M5, I meant using it without AA upgrade to keep field presence and maybe slap Partysans in it to chase down light vehicles

Double Su-76 is super effective bargain AT/barrage, if on the back foot I'll use it

And Merge Kappa

Once you unlock conscription, wait until your at full strength and launch attacks at the enemy map center from the flanks and middle while using the ability. Don't lose squads but be sure that at least 12 models die so you can get 2 free con squads, a fair trade for 125 munis. If you can lose 18 or 24 models...woah lol.

Isn't there a 2 squad max for this ability?

Isn't there a 2 squad max for this ability?

Yeah it gives you a free squad for every 6 models lost, up to 2 squads.

Not playing soviets very often lately but when I do I nearly always take this commander in AT games with my mates (if there are enough ambient buildings of course). AT Partisans back up your whole team strategy, you can tech with more risk, because partisans will save you if you get suprised by light vehicle/tank anywhere near an ambient building.

I would back up comm_ash in going for T70 and SU-76 instead of M5.

Best soft-skill about partisans is the ability to lay down mines. You will quickly have 4-5 partisans in a multiplayer game because there are many opportunities to call them. Use them to constantly lay down mines. 4-5 squads quickly mine a whole area.

We won many games by wrecking german armor with the combination of mines/At-grenades and Shreks.

Great commander especially for arranged allied teams without beeing p2w.

Not playing soviets very often lately but when I do I nearly always take this commander in AT games with my mates (if there are enough ambient buildings of course). AT Partisans back up your whole team strategy, you can tech with more risk, because partisans will save you if you get suprised by light vehicle/tank anywhere near an ambient building.

I would back up comm_ash in going for T70 and SU-76 instead of M5.

Best soft-skill about partisans is the ability to lay down mines. You will quickly have 4-5 partisans in a multiplayer game because there are many opportunities to call them. Use them to constantly lay down mines. 4-5 squads quickly mine a whole area.

We won many games by wrecking german armor with the combination of mines/At-grenades and Shreks.

Great commander especially for arranged allied teams without beeing p2w.

How are you producing that many tank hunters and still fielding enough cons to make the most out of rapid conscription AND put out a howitzer? Or at least a few 76s or 85s.

How are you producing that many tank hunters and still fielding enough cons to make the most out of rapid conscription AND put out a howitzer? Or at least a few 76s or 85s.

The most important thing is teamplay. But let me tell my build first (3vs3/4vs4 AT team):
T0 - 3 to 4 Cons
Upgrade: Healing
Upgrade: sometimes molotov (if there are many ambient buildings and opponents are defensive)
Upgrade: sometimes AT-Grenade (if there are many Kubels/222 around)
T2 - sometimes 1-2 mortars (if opponents are digging in)
Upgrade: AT-Grenade (if not purchased already)
T3 - T70, then another T70 or SU-76
from there more T70/SU-76 or T4 with SU85 or Artillery piece

So its only a rough build order that variates slightly from game to game. You'll see no tank hunters in this build because I always call them on opportunity to kill a light vehicle/tank or finish off a damaged medium/heavy tank that would have escaped otherwise.

So, lets move on to your question. Cons have cheap reinforce costs, partisans are expensive to reinforce and you can't merge with them. If you loose to many you can't afford tech and other more expensive units. So you want to minimize casualties in their ranks. The main threat is enemy AI infantry, so always try to bring your cons wit ppsh in first, use units like T70 in addition to target enemy AI infantry and force a retreat. The german shrek is so effective that your Partisans can take almost any german tank frontally. Once you get one salvo off, toss your AT-grenade in and finish it off afterwards.

But as I said in the beginning: teamplay is key. Play with a mate that offers a lot of AI options like the soviet anti infantry commander to minimize your Partisan looses. If this works out you can afford higher tech units. If not you are nailed at T2 or T3. I had bloody tough games already were I never got past T2 and never got more than maybe 50 population (but my mates did for sure)because I was constantly manpower drained and floating a whooping 500 fuel, but we still won. Despite suffering heavy partisan looses they did this precious key actions, because they killed multiple low health Panther/Tiger/KTs and mined half of the map, heavily restricting enemy vehicle movement. The difference between axis heavy armor driving away with 50 health points left or getting destroyed is such a big one that it can totally compensate your heavy manpower loss. Just be an irreplaceable part of your team.

Your suggested build isn't good. Going for a lot of early cons is simply never a good idea against decent opponents unless you have the perfect cap order that leaves you with all the important houses.

The commander is however very strong, just limit yourself to 2-3 cons early and use partizans to teleport and take out damaged armor. It works very, very well the first few times.

A single schreck + AT grenade kills a panzerwerfer. I think walking stuka takes AT nade + 2 or maybe 3 schreck hits.

ML20 is generally not worth it, but if your opponent has no stuka/arty, go for it.

I've found that you want to keep around 3-4 vet3 PPSh conscripts alive in the late game, and simply merge/recapture weapons with the other squads.

It's also worth noting that your cons can repair and partizans can lay mines, so you only really need 1 engineer squad late game for putting down demos.

Tried this, worked well.. TOO well.. I had so many conscripts it was a burden to micro them all. So like Purlictor mentions just start using them to merge and cap weapons because eventually you'll get manpower burdened keeping like.. 12 con squads alive.