Introduction
We have to remember, that there are dozens of variables interacting with each other to consumate a battle. Positioning, cover, movement, support, LOS, etc.
These should always be taken into account in a laboratory setting: that is, ideal conditions. Skill is always the largest determining factor in a firefight, since it reduces the luck factor.
Nonetheless Bulletins seem to make a notable difference, especially in early game, as you will learn in this guide!
All numbers from:
http://coh-moderncombat.com/CoH2Stats/
First of all, there are many Bulletins i wouldn't use at all:
- the 10% faster build/recharge of units. dou you want your units to be 4 seconds earlier on the battlefield or 30 minutes stronger? i think the answer is obvious!
- 10% faster mines. either you have the time to set a mine or not. the one second won't save you in most cases.
- the costs x% less. It makes a faust 1 munitions cheaper, which is not that much! And you dont upgrade the flamerhalftrack that often in a game, that this bulletin might help you a lot.
-
10% more/less surpression. you run frontal into a hmg? you will get surpessed. you don't do it? you won't. and if you have a batesquad, you want it surpressed, because it takes less damage!WIP
- faster vet. you can either get vet by killing more units, because your units is strengthened by a bulletin, or you can get faster vet with a bulletin itself. killing more enemies will result in more mapcontrol and less manpower for him. that is, why i think, that strengthening the unit is far superiour!
- +5% damage for unupgraded Combat-Engineers. Your Combat Engineers are 4 men, who do 7 damage per shot, that means, they do 30% of the damage a conscript squad will do.
So even with this bulletin, their damage is quite low. With flamethrowers, this bulletin might be more helpfull though!
- +10% armor for your german sniper. 10% more armor means, that in the cases of penetration=1 the chance of healthdamage will be lowered from 50% to 45.5%. in cases of higher penetration, this bulletin is utterly useless,. this, and the rare use of the german sniper make this bulletin not the best choice.
Infantry:
Most of your first engagements will be a fight between Grenadiers and Conscripts. Winning these first few engagements will be a big advantage! Therefore, i will talk about the bulletins, you might want to use.
Health buff by 3% for Grenadiers and Conscripts, 5% for Guards
Conscripts/Guards shooting Grenadiers:
the damage of the mosin nagant is 16 per pentrating Hit (only 66% of the shots actually penetrate, because the armor of grenadiers and Pgrens is 1.5, the penetration of the mosin only 1, so calculated with penetration/armor we have 1/1.5=0.66)
- without health buff:
80hp/16hp/s=5hits
- with health buff
82hp/16hp/s=6hits
so if you get the health buff for your grenadiers, they will survive 1 hit more each, which means, the conscript damage is effectively reduced by 16 percent! This means, you can stay approximately 20% longer in combat.
Grenadiers shooting Conscripts:
damage of the kar98 is 20 per hit, penetration=armor=1
- without health buff:
80hp/20hp/s=4hits
- with health buff
82hp/20hp/s=5hits
so if you get the health buff for your conscripts, they will survive 1 hit more each, which means, the grenadier damage is effectively reduced by 20 percent! This means, you can stay approxmitely 25% longer in combat.
Grenadiers shooting Guards:
damage of the kar98 is 20 per penetrating hit, penetration/armor=1/1.5=0.66=66%
- without health buff:
80hp/20hp/s=4hits
- with health buff
84hp/20hp/s=5hits
so if you get the health buff for your guards, they will survive 1 hit more each, which means, the grenadier damage is effectively reduced by 20 percent! This means, you can stay approxmitely 25% longer in combat.
Shock-Troops get a -5% damage buff, which is ~5% health buff, so comparable to guards. Note that the shocktrooparmor is 2.25, so only 44% of the hitting grenadiershots will penetrate.
As you can see, in standart fight, a 3% health buff means +20% to +25% effective health which is HUGE.
Countering Health-buffs
Hot to counter these bonuses? One option is to go for low damaging but fast shooting units like pioneers, panzergrenadiers or an unupgraded halftrack, which can hugely influence a battle. Basically a single stray hit can already negate the massive bonus the enemy would otherwise get from his bulletins versus slow firing weapons.
Another Option is to go for Bulletins, which increase damage by 4% for grenadiers and by 5% for CE's and Conscripts. However, this damagebuff is only good for NEGATING, so if the enemy doesnt have healthboosts, this damageincrease is worthless, the only exception being units with high RoF, but they just get a very small bonus.
However, the damage buff can be negated by having the 2 health increases for Grenadiers/Conscripts, which are unlocked at level ~20 and ~80, so you can count this case as no damagebuff for your enemy, one healthbuff for you.
Grenadiers shooting Conscripts:
damage of the kar98 is 20 per hit, penetration=armor=1
- without damage buff:
82hp/20hp/s=5hits
- with health buff
82hp/20.8hp/s=4hits
this works same with Conscripts shooting Grenadiers, so the health buff is negated.
BUT:
Grenadiers shooting Guards:
damage of the kar98 is 20 per penetrating hit, penetration/armor=1/1.5=0.66=66%
- without damage buff:
84hp/20hp/s=5hits
- with health buff
84hp/20.8hp/s= STILL 5hits!
So having the Damagebuff for your Grenadiers will not help you against Shocktroops or Guards, which means, that these bulletins are very important, especially if your enemy doesnt go T2 pgrens!
Accuracy Increase by x%
- Conscripts: with the lowest accuracy being 25% at far you can consider this one pretty much senseless. The formula is 25% * 1.02=25,5% this means 2% more damage, which is nothing at all.
- Pgrens: getting 5% more accuracy is better, but still, its only 5% more damage. Consider this one, if you go always T2, especially if you go fast T2.
Faster reload by 5% for sowjet snipers
It will help you, when you snipers stand still and shoot and shoot and shoot.Bit in most cases, you will try to relocate your snipers after every shot to not get countered. Decide yourself whether it suits your playstyle!
5% armor penetration for Guards
WIP
MGs
Health buffs seems to be pretty much the same for MGs, but Damage buffs are not worth it, because you cant negate health buffs, because the damage per bullet of an mg is pretty low, so one more or less bullet means not +20% effective damage but +3% or 4% which is not that much.
Mortars
Health buff for Mortars: are you kidding me? Here, the Damage buff seems to counter the health buff, because all Mortars have exactly 80 damage and might not be able to kill a 84 hp men!
Summary
Still don't know, what to take? Think of your average game. What units do you get?
- 4grens-->buff grens, not mgs
- 6maxims-->dont buff conscripts
Thats why i would not buff mortars or mg42s at all, because you will most likely not get more than two. Buffing your Grens/Conscripts will help all of them, simple as that!
Getting and negating health buffs is a huge deal in early game, because it seems to drastically change the first minutes and the first engagement. The guard and shock-troop health buff cannot be negated by a bulletin, so they are very good, because your enemy might waste a bulletin slot.
If you are playing a tournament, it may be important to see, which buff your enemy has, and then have a loadout ready to counter it.
In Mid- and Lategame these buffs become less important, because of high RoF Weapons from Pgrens and Shocks, and because of very high dmg wepaons from tanks.
Any tips, mistakes, etcetera?
Edit:
Corrected some misspellings, words, ...
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
