Balance is good but the current gameplay is terrible.

While it is impossible to rank faction strength right now I think the gameplay itself has reached a low point for the following reasons:


1. Light vehicles are completely ruining the game. They don't leave enough time and space for other units. They almost always pay off ressource wise because they don't cause any bleed for the user but in turn bleed the opponent extremely quickly. Oftentimes to counter a light vehicle you need one yourself.

Some examples of these idiotic cases:
Wehrmacht Clown Car -> M20 -> Scout Car -> Stuart
M3 -> Scout Car -> T70
M3 -> Luchs -> T70 -> Puma
Bren -> Luchs -> AEC -> Puma

In addition to the general problem some of the Light Vehicles are simply too strong. Prime example being the T70 which has a ridiculous impact on the game even at late stages. Commanders play a siginificant part here. OKW 221, US Jeep, US Halftrack, Wehrmacht Clown Car, M8 Greyhound, Valentine have enhanced this problem.

Solution: Ideally all light vehicles should should have 320 HP or less so they die from 2 ATG shots + they should be delayed by 1-2 minutes. The M20 should take siginificant small arms damage similar to the Wehrmacht Scout Car and all the troop carriers shouldn't allow squads to shoot from inside. This way it would actually be a valid choice NOT to go for light vehicles. Some rebalancing would obviously be needed.


2. Infantry flanking is essentially dead. The dynamic between Infantry and MGs that existed in vCoH and for parts of CoH2s lifespan is completely gone. Getting infantry into exposed flanking positions is not worth it at all because the chance of them getting wiped is insanely high. Depending on the playstyle this leads to either very static infantry battles that end up getting resolved by mortars/snipers or to blobbing. Most close range infantry is utterly terrible because it's not really comaptible with this style. (unless they have wiping potential like Thompson Paras or can throw smoke)

Solution: Some of the mainline infantry needs to be more efficient (mainly cons and rifles). I think Cons are simply too weak in combat and Rifles bleed to heavily. All retreat modifiers should be buffed. They should also give a decreased received damage buff rather than decreased received accuracy to prevent nading on retreat.

3. Same goes for any sort of macro gameplay. You can't alternate from the existing tech tree because most call ins are tech dependant now and you can't vary your build within the tech trees because most techs are linear. Either there are not even theoretical choices or one of the two choices is so much better that no one ever actually chooses the other one. The last meaningful tech choice is Med Truck vs Mech Truck. The general strategy a player follows is defined by one click on one of the commanders. They are designed to give you all the tools for one specific playstyle instead of supplementing the main tech.

Solution: This problem is unfixable. New commanders coming will add new gimmicky playstyles that plague the game. The uniform and linear tech trees will remain. Global upgrades costing fuel are desperately needed but it's obviously too late for that. (but it's not too late to add shitty new commanders arpparently) One thing that can be done is nerfing all the overpowered commander abilites that keep getting ignored. For example the Volks grenades from the command panther doctrine have been OP forever but no one cares. Some stuff is not necessarily overpowered but just better than what would be needed. Example: The overwatch flares. There's no decision making involved. It just gives the player free sight with no trade offs.


4. There's still no way to counter snipers without counter snipers on open maps. (and some factions happen not to have snipers) Playing Langres North vs a Sniper as US is unwinnable.

Solution: Both US and Okw need a stock unit akin to the CoH1 british recon squad that is able to Snipe with an ability and detect hidden units.

5. The weird imbalance between factions when it comes to house combat makes a lot of the maps a pain to play.

Solution: All factions need either flamer or flame grenades on a stock unit that arrives within the first 5 minutes. Not the case for USF. Houses in general are badly designed but that's another unsolvable issue.

6. Some of the Late game units have too big of an impact. This is the case for the IS2 in this patch which is simply too hard to kill. Another good example is the Brummbär from last patch. It would basically win the game on its own on certain maps like Elst where it can stand behind a bush and nuke shit.

Solution: Nerf. Reduce price/pop cap if needed.

7. Strafes are broken. There's no skill involved. Flaks don't counter them reliably and aren't even widely available enough to do so. You went T1 T2 T4 as Wehrmacht? How bad. No Flak for you. And even if they did counter planes, forcing the opponent to get a flak just by picking a commander is beyond stupid. Strafes decide late games. If both sides have them it evens out. If only one player has one he will have the edge during the key battles.

Solution: All strafes should have no smoke, reduced cost (60-120 ammo) and be one time runs that have to be targeted like the USF calliope doctrine strafe or the Advanced Warfare Soviet strafe.

Good points, i wanted to address the one about infantry flanking and efficiency for USF. Instead of making rifles bleed less, balance team chose instead to introduce things like ass engies and cav rifles in wc51 which promote "run at them" gameplay, especially wc51 against OKW. USF stock infantry opening is extremely weak against OKW and the new callin infantry units are supposed to be the "fix". This means USF faction doesnt work without doctrines against OKW. Oppressive 0-1 CP callin units are preferable to "smoke&flank" riflemen gameplay.