If you show me that there are worse Soviet commanders than NKVD I will cut my arm.
That's not the point. The point is that, assume Shocks and Guards get buffed. You now have 3 competitive commanders:
- Shock rifle Frontline
- Guards Motor Coordination
- Soviet Reserve Army
Those three are probably the best Soviet commanders they are. Some of them are not in a good spot due to Penals being OP and Shocks/Guards being bad. However, that's going to change.
Yeah. You can buff NKVD to make it a bit better. However, nobody is ever going to build NKVD over the 3 commanders above. Instead, you guys need to figure out 2 additional doctrines to add to the meta that will be:
- On par with the above doctrines (to be competitive)
- Have an interesting theme behind them that can put CoH1 commander design to shame (i.e., there's something interesting about the commander apart from the name)
- Are not too gimmicky (i.e., pick a commander you would always want to keep in your roster)
- Potentially add a new way to play the faction
- Be interactive and add pleasure to the player when using it (when it's not just about abusing/winning)
NKVD fails at everything at once:
- Given its abilities (that we can't change), it will NEVER be on par with any of the above commanders. Those abilities scale bad, and the doctrine gives you no alternatives.
- There is nothing interesting about the commander. Radio decryption and Propaganda? Sure. Rapid Conscription? Reserve Infantry does this better. Airplanes? WUT; how do those fit in?!?
- There's not much clicking going on in the commander to keep it interesting. Also, none of the abilities have a logical progression.
Finally, I don't see NKVD covering a playstyle that has not already been oversaturated and overshadowed by other commanders:
- Fear to the enemies aspect? Terror, anti-infantry
- Soviet human waves? Reserve army
- Intel gathering? Partisan commander