I think it fits the OKW to have a KT as a non-doctrinal units. Unlike many of the doctrinal units, the KT wasn't that uncommon. Besides, it's not like you can't beat the damn thing. The beast is so slow that you can hit it with off-map artillery if you do it right, and even one hit with the Riflemen's AT grenade makes it even slower. Park a T34 behind it if you like, with that turret rotation it'll never get you. And then you simply bombard the hell out of it. Or any other tactic. The KT is certainly not overpowered. |
This is becoming ridiculous. Every other game I play is decided just by artillery. Helped by the atrocious pathfinding, artillery just starts demolishing everyhing everywhere. I win with this as much as I lose, but both times, it's not really fun. It's more and more feeling like Command and Conquer Generals. |
I also frequently encounter infantry squads getting stuck at the medic van. There's no reason at all; it seems like if you retreat four squads or so, they get stuck IN EACH OTHER at the damn van. Also, tanks are always pushing the damn van out of their ridiculously pathed way, and the van of course first drives back before it drives forth, not only holding up the tank but also the possibility to reinforce squads. It's such a damn mess, it's frustrating. And does anyone else feel it has become much worse since the expansion? |
I guess you mean "defense", not "offense", in the closing paragraphs? |
My experience is that the static field artillery simply sucks. Compared to Priests or Stuka zu Fuß, they are usually killed after one shot (reconaissance flight and some off-map-arty) and are neither exact nor deadly enough to be worth the dough. Any other experiences?
Regarding off-map artillery, my problem is not with it per se but with the general emphasis on artillery in general. It's the combination that kills, IMHO. |
It was just the general feeling that the first salvo of Katyusha is more deadly than before. Mayhaps I'm wrong.
About the more mobile play style, I know in theory, but it's always hard to do in practice. |
I find that the most frustrating experience in COH2 isn't some overly powerful unit, but the pathfinding of the units in general. Especially the vehicles are bad, but since the USF was introduced, the infantry suffers more than it used to, too.
1) Vehicles tend to turn on the sport or bounce off invisible obstacles, completely stopping in the process. I lose more vehicles to bad pathing than to positioning or being outflanked.
2) Especially US infantry tends to get lost in the HQ, because the space between the buildings is very small and the models are blocking themselves. I had several second delays until the last retreating model finally found his way to the correct building and the squad was commandable, and gearing up your units in maps where you start at the bottom is a nightmare.
As with my other complaint about artillery, I'm perfectly aware of the possibility that it's just my micro that sucks and that there is some super-effective way of handling vehicles correctly to avoid the problem. If so, please tell me, because I don't want to be frustrated quite that often playing the game anymore. |
Playing with the Mechanized US Commander I used the 60 ammo scout plane function and plotted a patch, but aborted by rightclicking instead of confirming with a left click. The 60 ammo were subtracted from my account, but the plane never showed up. |
I want to put a disclaimer in front of my post just to get sure no one gets this wrong: I'm not complaining that artillery is op. I'm claiming that it has been changed in a bad direction for all factions. With that, off we go.
As others have pointed out, too, the Western Fronts expansion put a new emphasis on artillery and other weapons that can instantly kill a squad, building or vehicle, and not to the benefit of the game style. I have experienced this with all four factions (which, at least, is testament that it's intended and not just a random balancing issue):
1) The Ostheer's Nebelwerfer and the Soviet's Katyusha rocket thrower (and, to a lesser degree, the OKW's Stuka zu Fuß) are both much stronger in their initial salvo than they have been before. This makes them pretty strong against infantry blobs (provided you hit them), which in general is a good thing because infantry blobs are much too prevalent, too. But the problem I experience is that you get hit deadly by the first attack without much of a chance to react. This makes it feel very random to me.
2) The problem is even worse for the US and the OKW, because their strongest artillery functions are tied to Commanders: the OKW Scavenger Commander (is that his name?) and his insane sector artillery and the US Mechanized Commander (the one with the Jeep at 0 Command). Both of these artillery are pretty cheap for their effect and tend to deal a ridiculous amount of damage. In two games in a row I destroyed a OKW flak truck with one artillery salvo for 180 ammo, which is just too much in my opinion, and in other games, saving up ammo and then unleashing hell with the Scavenger guy's sectoral artillery ruined games as well. This might be less of an issue in 1v1, but in team games, where several people can combine this for maximum effect, it can destroy the experience and let the whole game degenerate into a artilleryfest.
Now, it's totally possible that I just don't have enough skill to find the proper counters to these tactics. If so, please give me some advise. Games won and lost that way just aren't the same as the ones you win because you position your stuff right for a deadly ambush or in which you push at the right moment at the right place. |