Strongest Faction?

You call soviets strongest faction? Huh, the weakest early game, main inf cons that can't kill anyone without another unit support.
Now SU-76 costs munis to pay for weak ZiS-3 HE shells. (both tanks in T3 can be exploded by 1 OST mine for just 70muni, that need to be patched.)
But T4 is something good for their cost-efficient, if not taking into consideration camouflaged raketeen squads, that will waste your time repairing your tanks at base for few minutes.

penals/guards + sniper + t70

You've played Ost 4 times and OKW 0 times.

I definitely trust your opinions and evaluations.

There is a button to look rating for specific factions, not just the favourite one. Try look that, if you would find it of course.

Ostheer is strongest now because of a few reasons:

Heavies are no longer oppressing the Meta.

Being very expensive and less powerful than they use to be, heavies are less dominant. This means the faction with the best medium tank gets a big buff and that's Ostheer with the most cost-effective, versatile tank in the game; the Panzer IV. And in a meta more dominated by medium tanks than ever before, this also means that the faction with the most cost-effective tank destroyer gets buffed and that again is Ostheer with the extremely cost-efficient Stug.

And even if heavy tanks start to impact the game, Osteer still have the best heavies.

Weakening of Mortar Play and Explosive Effects.

Having the smallest mainline Infantry Squad meant that Grenadiers were much more likely to be one-shot than other squads. But Mortars are much weaker now and I believe some of the squad AI changes still remain which prevent Grenadiers from clumping as much. As long as Grenadiers can survive, they are the best main infrantry group in the game as they scale the best out of all the factions. At Vet 3 and with an LMG; they are terminator squads at long range and if they happen to pick up another weapon with the LMG, they beat double-bar riflemen as the highest-dps main squad in the game. They don't flank as well as Riflemen with Bars but their long-range DPS is insane in the late game.

222 is really, really good.

I think this unit is OP or on the edge of being OP. For the speed at which you can get them and their increased infantry-killing power; they are probably the most-improved unit coming out of the last patch. They are a little too cheap and should probably cost about 10% more manpower.

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Really the strength of Osteer is really the result of other factions having their manpower-bleeding tools weakened allowing the faction with the best-scaling units to become the best along with the best end-game units which are now medium tanks.

It's not an overwhelming level of overpoweredness and balance is probably the best it's ever been in the game (Brits could definitely use a buff); but Osteer is probably the strongest faction right now.

I'd say Ostheer Mobile Defence is the strongest faction/commander combination at the moment.

If you remove Mobile Defence from the equation I'd say the Soviet is a hair better than Ostheer. USF and OKW tail closely behind them and UKF cries in the corner.

OKW is stronger than Soviets at 1v1. Conscripts cost 240 manpower and almost always stand no chance against Volks which cost 250. Spamming conscripts is not always an option. PPsh is at CP 3 which takes forever to come. By that time OKW will take control of most of the map and can have a Panzer 2 or a flak half track. Conscripts does not have a chance against those.

There might be some strategy later on but Soviets have no chance early game which sometimes decides the game. Now don't say Soviets have to overcome this with a better skilled gameplay. When deciding which faction is strongest, it should be assumed that both players have exactly the same skills.

I am a main 4v4 and 3v3 player and play soviet and ost mostly. I rank 50 as soviet in 4v4(once was top 10 before the "super-allied" patch was released which was when the soviet was the worst to play faction in 4v4.). I have to say before the previous couple patches, both OST and SOV were the least played factions in both 4v4 and 3v3. It was usually like 4 OKW players ,or 3 OKWs and 1 OST player who does nothing but building bunkers and panzerwerfers. And for soviet,......, I usually searched for 40 games and won't even see any people playing this faction except for me. After the recent couple patches, both of the above factions got buffed a looooooooooooot. However, lelic never really knows how to balance the game. The last" super-allies" patch buffed soviet into a brainless-easy faction in 4v4. But in the current patch they over nerf SOV AT capability and also buff Panthers( to the best and balance position it has ever been which I have to strongly admit). Can you imagine 8 panthers pushing together at the same time late game in a 4v4 match? Oh, gosh it is creepy. So, as long as you are talking about the current patch. I will say OST is a little bit more OP but more skillful at the same time.

i play mostly 2v2.
-> i played them a lot.
-> guess what? i can show you where the 90fuel t34 is much more usefull than a p4. and when you look to the price...and than its performance...its not that bad...

and you forget that sov is callin faction which get all the superior in its famous commanders...

look lile you have no clue from sov faction. or you are a troll.

FYI

Was a call in faction. Everything except IS2 and ISU 152 is tied to tech for a very long time. All other factions have more call ins the the SU right now.

Imo OKW,SU and WEHR are the strongest (pick your favourite). USF is do or die and UKF is... well... trying

And in a meta more dominated by medium tanks than ever before, this also means that the faction with the most cost-effective tank destroyer gets buffed and that again is Ostheer with the extremely cost-efficient Stug.

The new StuG is quite meh. It definitely gives the Allied factions with their 60/55 range TDs the upper hand in the lategame now.

The new StuG is quite meh. It definitely gives the Allied factions with their 60/55 range TDs the upper hand in the lategame now.

Haven´t experienced that at all. TDs take up way more pop cap than before. If you get multiple Jacksons, Fireflys etc you pay for it by MP upkeep and lack of other units. If anything late game seems to be dominated by Panthers now. Once they reach critical mass they are hard to stop. But that´s just my experience really. Stug is just not batshit op anymore and seems balanced. It still remains the most cost effective TD in coh2.

we should ask after the strongest and easiest faction...this wont be ost. with it combine army use.

we should ask after the strongest and easiest faction...this wont be ost. with it combine army use.

Well sure, if we're assuming the players are a-move blobbers with no concept of positioning and little to no use of cover then the strongest factions are OKW early on and USF later on if they manage to get their BARs up.

I took the question to be which factions are strongest in the hands of a highly competent player.

dlc faction BTFO

Well sure, if we're assuming the players are a-move blobbers with no concept of positioning and little to no use of cover then the strongest factions are OKW early on and USF later on if they manage to get their BARs up.

I took the question to be which factions are strongest in the hands of a highly competent player.

why should you crakkle your finger with ost, when you can go brits and doesnt even need micro to defence a postion? the units do it well alone?

why should you abuse your micro with stugs in a map when you could go 2 fireflys and smosh all armor with no skill?

why should try to fight a defence postion from ost, when your IS squad can throw a arty flare from 45range? and sit back and look that your enemy retreat or will be blast into nivrana

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Weakening of Mortar Play and Explosive Effects.

Having the smallest mainline Infantry Squad meant that Grenadiers were much more likely to be one-shot than other squads. But Mortars are much weaker now and I believe some of the squad AI changes still remain which prevent Grenadiers from clumping as much. As long as Grenadiers can survive, they are the best main infrantry group in the game as they scale the best out of all the factions. At Vet 3 and with an LMG; they are terminator squads at long range and if they happen to pick up another weapon with the LMG, they beat double-bar riflemen as the highest-dps main squad in the game. They don't flank as well as Riflemen with Bars but their long-range DPS is insane in the late game.
...

Ostheer mortar lost most of its power relatively to USF/Soviet.

In addition mortars are currently far better at dislodging HMG from garrison and thus HMG42 is currently weaker.

The changes made Ostheer support weapons play weaker not stronger.

Well sure, if we're assuming the players are a-move blobbers with no concept of positioning and little to no use of cover...

Then if both players have equal concept of positioning and use of cover, that makes OKW stronger.

Then if both players have equal concept of positioning and use of cover, that makes OKW stronger.

Not necessarily. The relative effectiveness of factions changes with skill level.

If both players have poor positioning and use of cover then OKW is better than Ostheer because blobbing with Ostheer is a fast track to defeat. If both players are highly competent Ostheer appears to overtake OKW in effectiveness: there's a clear preference for Ostheer over OKW at top levels.

Not necessarily. The relative effectiveness of factions changes with skill level.

If both players have poor positioning and use of cover then OKW is better than Ostheer because blobbing with Ostheer is a fast track to defeat. If both players are highly competent Ostheer appears to overtake OKW in effectiveness: there's a clear preference for Ostheer over OKW at top levels.

If two players have exactly the same skill level then what?

With some 1v1 map OKW will capture 80% of the map before CP3 when soviets can bring Ppsh. Soviet MG just cannot stop Volks and Strums. Sniper is too costly and risky. CP only advances if there is a fight or upgrade. So necessarily some conscripts have to be sacrificed and it makes the OKW units veteran quicker. Then it becomes even more harder to fight back a veteran Volks or Strum.

Maybe Soviets can have a tactical advantage with some maps, but for most small 1v1 map OKW has a massive advantage against Soviets. That is why most players have higher win rate with OKW than other factions.

I understand if people say soviet is the strongest last patch and arguably the one before that too, I'd definitely agree. But now? I must be playing them wrong

Since all RTS players live to contradict each other I will add some more variables for you:
It is hard to say who is strongest in 2v2(which I think was the question) because of maps and who you get matched up with/against.

Matchups For example:
In 2v2 Brits can stomp OKW. Infantry is similar situationally and has MGs and UCs and then AEC. Raketens suck balls and need to be removed from the game. But OST could stomp Brits. So evenly placed players with 2 Brits vs 2 OKW = slaughter. Even though brits are some what garbage in 1v1 contests.

Now argue amongst yourselves...

SOV is the weakest faction at the beginning because it has the minimum starting MP. (SOV 170+390=560, USF 200+400=600, UKF 280+340=620, OST 200+420=620, OKW 300+340=640) This is why OKW is widely considered the strongest early game faction. The MP discrepancy matters less as time progresses, so SOV(OKW) can be strong(weak) early if we define 'early game' long enough.