That´s an easy win for Wehrmacht.
The reasons are simple: The two base-factions (Wehr/Soviet) are the best designed by nature. These factions are the core of Coh2 and before the new factions were released they were actually balanced out quite well. The new factions all seem to lack something and are more specialized. You have less viable strategies it seems.
Wehrmacht has a good and well rounded loadout. Support weapons, infantry, armor.
The next question is: Why isn´t Soviets my favorite faction then? While they have the potential to be interesting, their gameplay is way too restricting. Every choice you make, blocks another option: Guards or Shock-troops? Good tanks or artillery? This isn´t as much fun. |
Soviets are by far the weakest Allied faction. Sometimes medium tank spam can work (with infantry support to get rid of the Paks/Raketen). Elefant and Jagdtiger can´t fight more than one tank at a time. But if you didn´t choose the right doctrine, you have the short stick.
One of the main reasons imo why the T-34/76 and T-34/85 should be swapped. |
Emplacements were bad in Coh1. Now they are pure cancer. It does not fit the game and it is incredibly annoying to defeat. The axis players have to mass forces only to see how that is countered by pressing a single button.
I don´t know why Relic didn´t learn from their mistakes in Coh1. A lot of people complained back then about camping Brits. Now they reintroduced emplacements in an even stronger version.
You know what people also complained about in Coh1? Vet that Wehrmacht could buy. Maybe we should introduce an entire faction for the Germans that does not gain vet but buys it. Makes as much sense as this emplacement-bullshit.
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First, historically, from 1941-1945 there're around 34000 T-34/76s produced, while only 22000 T-34/85s produced (Walter S. Dunn, Jr (2007). Stalin's keys to victory : the rebirth of the Red Army). So T-34/76 was actually the most numerous Soviet tanks produced in WW2, and the bulk of Soviet tank forces in the three most important battles of the war: Battle of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk . It can be said that the 76 was the tank that won the war, not the 85. The multiplayer is clearly set in 1944/45 though. Featuring Sturmtiger, King Tiger, Jagdpanzer IV L/70, Jagdtiger, Flammpanzer 38t, StG44s in numbers, Comets, Jacksons, Pershings etc. hints on the game being set way into 1944 if not 1945. A time where the T-34/85 should be rather common. |
Oh and as far as heavy tanks being able to take a beating... Pershing? Lol. The Pershing was specifically designed to fit into the US faction. But yes, it´s also going down too fast.
And the Panther is garbage?? What world do you live in where a tank with the absolute best armor in the game, high speed and mobility, and a great anti-tank cannon is considered "garbage?" I life in a world where the damage per second on the Panzer IV is higher than that on the Panther and where high penetration values matter in almost no engagement.
Tigers and Panthers are at one of their weakest states ever. Blitz was nerfed, the smoke was made more expensive, the vet 2 bonus where cut to offer less protection bonuses (in case of the Tiger actually no defensive bonus at all), the health was nerfed through the patches. And this is what we are left with now. |
I think it is a good post. I especially agree on the issues with the Tiger and Panther. Both go down too easily. The Tiger doesn´t give you the feeling of having a heavy tank. Sure, it kills infantry quite reliable on 45 range. Yet the vehicle has to be used in a shoot and scoot manner. If you expose it, it goes down very fast. A heavy tank should be able to take a beating.
Panthers are just garbage. They go down even faster and with engine damage - which they easily receive - they are as good as dead. I would like to see this vehicle have the role of a Sniper or as the OP mentioned decent AI capabilities. For anything else the StuG is better. Not only for cost but also by sheer dps. So a StuG costing you not even half the fuel dishes out way better dps. That bit more speed and health on the Panther does not justify that.
Combined with British lategame AT capabilities Ostheer tanks are mediocre at best. No quality here. Thus the whole faction lacks an identity. |
1. Brit emplacements. No one liked these in CoH1; the game is about movement, action and reaction - unit dynamics. Then the brits were added which focused on camping. The forums (at the time) were basically just filled with people complaining about this; and if you ever played 'The Scheldt' in CoH1, you know first hand how bad it was in the worst-case scenario.
So then CoH2 brits were added.... with emplacements. Why? Not only does it go against the core game design (which seems to be confirmed by the massively less-tanking Ost/Wehr bunkers), but the vast majority of players (especially at higher levels) really didn't like the system. So why were emplacements brought back? They should have been given a mobile mortar like everyone else, a bofors with a setup/tear down time, and a mobile 17lb at gun. Best case for tanking is that "anvil" just gives these units (mortar/bofors/17lb) free omnidirectional green cover when setup in friendly territory. Suddenly the brit faction becomes a dynamic team like the others, that is more fun to play for both sides. Brit players will enjoy not losing 400-something MP when losing a mortar pit to a LieG/MHT and Ost/OKW players don't have to face impossible to destroy Royal Engie emplacements (especially on some maps, with buildings/rivers), forcing them to go into the incredibly under-performing festung support doc if they don't happen have spearhead. Everyone wins. So much THIS! Reintroducing emplacements was a mistake. Reintroducing emplacements and adding an invincible-button to them was downright destroying the game.
Also:
Germans are just no fun to play since Brits arrived (2v2+). They tried so much to give an Allied faction lategame power/ strong units that the German factions are lost in mediocrity. Getting a hard time versus US blobs early, only to face emplacements a bit later combined with superior Cromwells, Comets and still potent Churchills, leaves you under constant pressure with barely any options left when playing Ostheer. Even cheesing your way out as OKW can be troublesome. Germans used to be about quality in this game. That was utterly destroyed during the last patches. Now they lack an identity.
4/10 |
To be fair jove and alastor are leagues above sully and the other guy skill wise. Overstatement of the day.
Jove is good, but not "leagues ahead" of those guys. If Sully and Stark aren´t a hard match for him, then what 2v2 players are?
Honored it. |
Please note that all the options mentioned for Wehrmacht are either doctrinal or not even available for that faction. Neither ISG nor Schreckblob are an option for the Wehrmacht. You can try to get mutliple Schrecks up on PGs but doing that early loses you the game.
Before T3 there is no reliable counter. Flamethrowers can work, but the Pioniere are rather fragile and thus not reliable.
Because even then all of this is countered by pressing the "invincible" button.
You are pretty much forced to go mortar HT + incindiary as Wehr.
This is bad design. The effort the German player has to put into destroying emplacements is so high, while the Brit has to push one lousy button. So fuck mortar emplacements. They should be taken out of the game and replaced by an actual mortar. |
Common units like Luchs, Ostwind, 251/17, Jadgtiger, Strumtiger say hi!
Exactly the other way around. I did not mean Ostheer would turn unrealistic with the Panzer III. I meant it is not unrealistic if they don´t have it. They can have it but it´s not a must have. Gbpirate voiced the opinion Ostheer would be unrealistic without it.
Still: I would also like to see it ingame. However I would like to see it as a substitute for the Panzer IV. Cheaper and a bit weaker. Like in the original Coh ToV, where you could switch between the bike and the Kübelwagen, Marder III and Geschützwagen, Kangaroo and Cromwell. |