Profile of Arclyte

I've been playing CoH2 since launch, and ever since then the Conscript unit has seemed out of place to me.

To start off, the cost of both Cons and Grens were the same: 240 manpower. That is fine, since they are both balanced at the start of the game at that price.

However when grenadiers get to tier 2 and their LMG upgrade, they stand head and shoulders above the conscript. Now, all told, to make full use of a conscript unit, you need to spend:

240mp per squad
250 manpower and 50 fuel worth of upgrades at the HQ.

Ok, thats not outrageous if you're going to be using conscripts throughout the game. The problem here is that you really can't. Their only weapon upgrade is on a few of the less-viable commanders that no one really uses. When the game reaches a certain point cons exist to throw AT nades, as they are an MP drain since they get farmed by elite infantry with LMGs.

Grenadiers get Faust and Rifle Grenade (better versions of the paid conscript abilities for free), and a 60 munition LMG upgrade.

240mp per squad
60 munis for the LMG

I am fine with grenadiers being better on a 1:1 basis to conscripts. The problem I have is the cost disparity (or lack thereof) between the two units. They cost the same, yet grenadiers are IMO second only to riflemen as far as baseline infantry go, due to their effective free abilities, cheap cost and a powerful LMG.

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Another Relic game I played the hell out of was the Dawn of War series. For anyone here who has played Dawn of War 1, you might remember the Ork tier 4 ability from IIRC "Da Boyz Hut" that:

A) Reduced the cost and reinforce of slugga boyz
B) Reduced the build time of slugga boyz
C) Reduced pop cap of slugga boyz

This played to the idea of what orks were supposed to be: a big mob of thugs swarming you down

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I think this is one possible direction to take conscripts. Give soviets a tier 3/4 unlock that reduces the cost/reinforce and popcap of conscripts. It never made sense to me that conscripts were the same price as grenadiers throughout the whole game. At the start they are fairly equal, but past the 5 minute mark grenadiers take a huge leap ahead and stay there.

This would also reduce the amount of players spamming maxims / snipers. If I know I can be competitive all game with cons, I'd be more inclined to make them over spamming cheese units. Building a rifleman or grenadier is a very safe choice since they scale all the way to the end game. Buying a conscript is a weak investment.

A Tiger wouldn´t have bounced that many shots from a SU-85, Zis and T-34/85. StuGs with less range than a Su-85 and no turret should actually be able to somewhat reliably pierce through a heavy tanks armor. After all we see 85mms going through everything also.

Your comparisons are bad.

Su-85 is not on par with a Stug
T-34/85 is not on par with a P4, let alone a command P4

Stug is a multirole vehicle now for some reason, so it trades pen for good AI ability. So no, it should not reliably pen an IS-2 front.

Paks, Panthers and Tigers counter the IS-2, not mid-game anti-infantry tanks.

Easily worse than NKVD

I think it's fine except for it's pen. It has a very real chance of beating medium tanks 1v1 if it stays at range, which isn't hard.

I don't understand why a 50mm cannon has superior pen to the t34 / sherman (25% more, 120 pen vs 160)

Play US then.

Guards are your LMG Grenadiers

Requires 2cp, costs 120mp and 15 munitions more, and has a balanced hand grenade instead of an insta-win rifle grenade.

You guys complain about T-34 "spam". If Guards are the closest we have to competing with LMG Grens/Obers, there's your reason.

Changing Soviets to have core infantry unit that scales into late game would require complete faction re design.

lolwut? why is that? can you give me a reason, or is this just some slippery slope argument you keep throwing out there and hoping it sticks?

Giving PPSH as a non doctrinal upgrade or doing something to Conscripts will tweak balance completely in Soviet favor and brake it completely.

LOL. Yes, we can't have those conscripts doing anything past 5 minutes, it would ruin the game!

Let's ignore the fact that LMG grens are superior to everything except 2x M1919 Riflemen, and even then an accurate rifle grenade will win that fight for you.

Oh, and they cost as much as a Conscript (less if you take into the molotov/at nade that Soviet have to pay for, when OH get faust and rifle nade for free)