21st June Patch - Popular Commander Forecasting

Hey folks! Played a half dozen hours in the new patch, thought I'd try and ignite some discussion about what commander selection trends we can expect based on the balance changes.

(EDIT: Accidentally hit Post before it was done. )

USF:

Big One: Airborne.
Airborne is in a great place right now to make a resurgence within the meta. With buffs to the Jackson and Scott, the Easy Eight and Pershing "requirements" to stay competitive late game may not be as vital. USF's strengths may well be centered around the early game once again, with the addition of the mortar and the resurgence of the LT Tier to favour. The buffs to the 57mm AT Gun drops will make the AT Gun drop ability extremely useful, allowing players to go for a quick LT build and still maintain an exceptional AT presence. Against OKW, particularly, The reworking of Volksgrenadiers will make Paratroopers a solid elite infantry choice once more. The ease and accessibility of mortar smoke might even allow for Thompson Paras to finally take their place alongside Shocks as effective assault infantry. The P-47 strike isn't what it once was, but, may see use once again to support Jacksons in taking down heavy armour.

Others to watch out for:
Everything except Mech and Recon Supp.

SOVIETS:

Big One: Shock Rifle
Shock Rifle has always been an exceptionally solid doctrine choice, but, the buffs to the IS2, SU85, T-34/76 and reworking of Soviet tier 1 will open up a new slew of options. Spawning changes will also be significant. Will be as good as ever.

Others to watch out for:
Garden Motor, Armoured Assault(We can dream), many others.

OKW

Big One: Breakthrough
With the reworks to Volksgrenadiers, I suspect elite infantry will be a welcome compliment. Panzerfusiliers in particular will make for a great compliment to their STG wielding brethren, especially with the Offizier nearby. The JT's "survivability" buffs might also make it workable, if not desirable.

Others to watch out for:
Luftwaffe(For the same reason, FSJ will be useful), Scavenge, Firestorm (Hetzer buffs...maybe? Bit of a stretch)

Brits

Big One: Sim City Commander
I won't lie, I'm not a big UKF player, nor do I have the Sim City Commander. From what I've seen in the changes, however, I'm not certain that the update has shaken things up enough for the Brits to drastically instigate change in meta.

Others to watch out for:
As before.

Ostheer

Big One: Lightning War

With the changes to Wehrmacht's teching and (arguably) the strengthening of their core non-doctrinal units, I suspect Ostheer players will be looking for more toys to add to their playstyle depending on where the game is going. Similar to Shock Rifle, Lightning War is a solid commander that adds more options on top of an already solid non-doc structure.
That said, Ostheer is in for a rough ride with the strengthening of allied early game this update. Perhaps people will find a use for Stormtroopers or Assault Grens?

Others to watch out for:
Spearhead (Mortar HT may be useful once again), Mech Assault, Mobile Defence

Airborne isn't going to be replacing support or heavy cav anytime soon in the head of meta. Airborne is good and so is pathfinders, but the other abilities are real questionable, and why go for it when you rangers or LMG rifles can pretty much do the same as airborne.

P47s have had several nerfs that in the past and has become unreliable. It never really makes up for it's cost anymore, especially in teamgames where multiple OKW flak HQs will likely end up shooting them down before they finish their run. To make it worse ostheer has pretty much the same ability that is better in every way.

As for the paradrops, these abilities were so nice in Coh1 when they came with a crew so you could use them to quickly reinforce your front. In Coh2, all they are used for is a expensive way to skip tech. Either way you tech, atleast one of them is going to be useless. And if you do use it, it's still incredibly expensive and if you want to use it in the field you basically are just switching it with one of your on-field units. Not to mention you probably won't have the manpower anyway if you want to build airborne and pathfinders.

So yeah, most people are going to choose the commanders that have 5 solid abilities that they can make full use of in a game instead of ones with just one or 2 good ones.

Most the USF commanders other then the two new ones have something or other bad about them.

I have actually been using Armored Assault to good extent, with Penals being good infantry to get me through early game (with good scaling late game) then a fast rush to T-70 or an Su76 in mid game. Late game looking good with 85's and a buffed IS2.

Thanks to penals I don't have to rely on commanders with call-in infantry/conscript upgrades as much as before.

Airborne isn't going to be replacing support or heavy cav anytime soon in the head of meta. Airborne is good and so is pathfinders, but the other abilities are real questionable, and why go for it when you rangers or LMG rifles can pretty much do the same as airborne.

P47s have had several nerfs that in the past and has become unreliable. It never really makes up for it's cost anymore, especially in teamgames where multiple OKW flak HQs will likely end up shooting them down before they finish their run. To make it worse ostheer has pretty much the same ability that is better in every way.

As for the paradrops, these abilities were so nice in Coh1 when they came with a crew so you could use them to quickly reinforce your front. In Coh2, all they are used for is a expensive way to skip tech. Either way you tech, atleast one of them is going to be useless. And if you do use it, it's still incredibly expensive and if you want to use it in the field you basically are just switching it with one of your on-field units. Not to mention you probably won't have the manpower anyway if you want to build airborne and pathfinders.

So yeah, most people are going to choose the commanders that have 5 solid abilities that they can make full use of in a game instead of ones with just one or 2 good ones.

Most the USF commanders other then the two new ones have something or other bad about them.

Airborne is the best anti-OKW commander

Figure LT is viable now, fast LT, airdrop AT gun in a pinch, Thompson paratroopers destroy Stg Grens, and Jackson + Scott combo is godly.

60 muni major arty+ smoke+ paratrooper demo charge wipes out Shwerer too. Basically I see Airborne as the fast rush commander against OKW. (Against Ost, I see that role taken by Armor company.)

The most stable/safe commander choice as USF is probally rifle company though. Fire up, tear gas, and EZ8s are good in any situation.

I think Spearhead and assault support are better than lightning war. I think if the game devolves into a rocket arty spamfest lightning war is better because of Relief infantry, but Assualt's strafing run/opel trucks and Spearhead's recon run/bombing run combo is better than Lightining war.

The Penal buff and Su-85 buff opened up a lot of commander choices for the Soviets honestly.

One of my new favorites is Soviet Reserve Army.
You've got Partisans for emergency AT when you go Tier 1. Rapid Conscription is good to use to keep manpower costs down because you can merge new conscripts into Penals.
Conscript Repair and PPSH upgrade are also nice abilities which synergises with Rapid Conscription and PPSH lets them stand against the new Volks StG upgrade.
ML-20 is what it is.

One of my new favorites is Soviet Reserve Army.

+1, Soviet Reserve has always been hella fun, but now its finally usable against someone who isn't a potato

Soviet Defense Doctrine's also pretty fun now with buffed mines, a valid late-game and proper early-game infantry. I think the real winner, however, is Elite Armor. Stock faust + Sturmtiger is so damn good.

Now that T34's arent trash I like to go with Soviet Reserve just so I can get the emergency shreks and free cons.

The only thing that hurts is the lack of MG/Mortar for crowd control but Penals are strong enough on their own to do a fairly good job of a head to head fight. Alot of the time I will building a T70 and go straight for the T34 as I feel my AI is strong enough and my AT can hold out long enough for my medium.

Soviet Defensive Tactics

Best AI mines (now that generalist mine can kill 2 models max) which doesn't suppress enemy squad allowing it to proceed through minefield until it wiped out.

Access to MG and Mortar if you go T1, so best variety of units to overcome any situation in early-to-mid game.