Profile of Kasarov

I have so much to say about these commanders, and I'm excited these are getting looked at. Being my most played faction, I will first address the Soviets, before moving on to other factions. I hope I find support for my ideas in this patch, because I sincerely feel these could breathe life back into an otherwise meta-tied faction.

Counterattack:

Shock Troops
Rapid Conscription
For Mother Russia
B4 Howitzer
KV-2

Logic and reasoning: To me, the word counterattack, especially in the light of Soviet doctrine, evokes strong imagery of heavy artillery. It also implies an early war doctrine, since after Kursk there were no more major German offensives on the Eastern front, so there's nothing to counterattack to.

Rapid Conscription:

Soviet counteroffensives had a notorious reputation of being rushed and ill-planned. There was little to no recon of the enemy and relied on brute and desperate force to get the job done, usually resulting in heavy losses. By swapping out Recon Overflight for Rapid Conscription, this reflects both the lack of recon as well as the willingness of STAVKA to commit massive amounts of manpower. It also has synergy with the massive pushes that this commander is expected to make with For Mother Russia.

KV-2:

Switch the KV-1 out for the KV-2. This encourages players to tech up to T4 instead of spamming SU-76's and KV-1's in the late game. It also fits the theme of counterattack much better than the KV-1, which, if the balance team implement the hull down change, would be a defensive tank rather than an offensive tank (KV-2 was literally called an assault tank by the Soviets). Additionally, it serves as mobile artillery, which may encourage aggressive late game pushing.

Defensive Tactics:

Field Fortifications*
PMD-6 Minefield
M42 AT Gun
AT Gun Ambush Camo
KV-1

Logic and reasoning: In comparison to the OKH equivalent, which has access to hull down and Pak43 that carries further into the late game, this commander lacks any staying power other than the DsHK, which is getting nerfed anyway. However, I felt the commander also strongly leaned towards T1 because it provided all the perks of T2 and could be frustrating to play against in the early game if utilized correctly. The following changes are a bit drastic, but I feel they would make for a commander that has it's place in 1v1's and 2v2's.

Field Fortifications: *Combat Engineers can build MG Nests and Tank Traps.

Similar to OKW's Heavy Fortifications, this allows a faction with otherwise few defensive options to cover more ground taken, and granting a non-mobile version of the DsHK.

PMD-6 Minefield:

A clone of the S-mine statistically. Why not just make it easier for everyone and make them complete copies, but swap the model? It also finally gives minefields to a second faction.

AT Gun Ambush Camo:

This encourages defensive play and can be used with both M42s and ZiS guns, which further encourages the player that teching T2 is still viable.

KV-1:

The KV-1 returns with its hull down ability. Obviously a defensive vehicle, the call-in would make the doctrine more attractive later in the game.

Other Thoughts (Soviet):

There are a few changes I'd like to propose some ideas for ability and unit changes, if implemented, could boost quite a few commanders' viability and revitalize the meta in general. Let's begin.

Guards Rifle Infantry and Penal Battalions:

I absolutely hate how Penals are portrayed in the game. In real life, SVT-40 rifles were rare pieces of equipment that were seldom used to full effect by anyone less than elite infantry. I'd like to propose that Penal Battalions swap their SVT-40's for Mosin-Nagants (possibly worse than conscript Mosins) and get a manpower price reduction to reflect the change. An even more drastic approach is to make the Penal Battalion like to Osttruppen, effective in cover but ineffective elsewhere, to give a defensive play option to T1. After all, they were used in similar roles in real life such as guarding flanks or as cannon fodder for assaults.

Guards Rifle Infantry are the prime candidates for SVT-40s. There is much talk about their slot items, so why not have them come with no slot items, but with SVT-40s and the option to upgrade 2x DP28 or 2x PTRS? This has the added benefit that it improves reliability against infantry on the models without slot items.

I feel that this change would further set differentiate the uses of Conscripts, Penals, and Guards, while also making a whole lot of sense.

Shock Troops:

Widely regarded as the worst elite infantry in the game, the Shocks simply need something that helps them close the distance. Giving them a VET 1 sprint ability similar to OORAH that reduces incoming accuracy would fit the character of the squad so much more than the seldom-used trip-wire flares that almost all Soviet infantry get.

AT Gun Ambush Camo:

This is seen in a number of doctrines, but is seldom used at all. However, I feel that a simple change to add a first_strike damage and accuracy bonus may make the ability much more attractive. There is only one shot fired that can benefit from this, and because camo was nerfed some time ago, will not be overly abusive.

M42 AT Gun

This can easily be regarded as one of the worst units in the game because of it's terrible scaling and niche uses. My solution would be to give the unit the ability to garrison and retreat like the Puppchen as well as a veteran Canister Shot ability for some utility against infantry. Perhaps even modify the gun's accuracy against infantry and do away with the damage penalty in type_tables to give it a support gun role later in the game.

Hit The Dirt!

Fix this so that it works again, either through recieved_accuracy workarounds or otherwise. Maybe permit them to crawl at a slow rate to make the ability less clunky.

QoL UI Suggestions (Soviet):

Conscripts get overwritten icon when upgraded with PPsH, similar to Tommies:
Assault Guards use unique unit icon to help identify them from normal guards:
Combat Engineers use unique unit icon because I like showing off my work:

I was wondering if it was at all possible to use the hip-fire animations from brens, MG34/42, etc on a DP-28. I want to make a fire on the move DP but it just doesn't look satisfying at all seeing them fire the DP as a normal rifle from the shoulder.

I tried copying the anim_table tags from the other LMGs and kept the visibility_name as lmg_dp_28_visible as it was originally, but in game, the soldier holding it T-poses when standing still and appears unarmed when moving. I've tried switching from completeMotionTree to newMotionTree in the soldier abps, but the results are the same. Is there any way around this?

Kasarov #2920
o7

Balancing this could be tricky since 30 Second Brace is unpopular with the opposition. I'd personally like to see brace going up to 15 Seconds (Considered "Too Short" back in the first days of the game) and maybe the duration of Zeroing Artillery shortened yet accelerate the rate at which it starts bombing at full steam. But I feel we would need to hear more input from more unbiased OKW players regarding this.

Zeroing artillery is one of the only reasons to ever pick fortification doctrine in the first place, and that was largely due to emplacement cheese (at least in my personal experience with OKW). Fortifications doctrine, ironically, was OKW's best anti-turtle doctrine because it had the LeFH howitzer as well as zeroing artillery for busting those sim cities. With emplacements not being so hard to destroy in the first place I see little reason to lock in Fortifications.

That being said, live version Zeroing Artillery is definitely overkill for the revamp if it gets all of its shots off -- that is, if it ever gets all of its shots off. It's actually not too easy maintaining visuals on sim city if the Brit player has any kind of presence around it in a 1v1. It's team games that's the problem. I'd argue in favor for reducing the total number of shells fired in exchange for a faster rate of fire, although I'd say we should try putting brace to 10s instead of 15 first, and only then make the jump to 15 if it really needs it. This way Brits get a more intuitive but not busted brace, and the OKW zeroing artillery is more effective for a wider variety of targets while also not being as reliant on teammate flares or recon abuse in teamgames.

snip

So in conclusion, I do not believe these transports begin to even remotely make up for forward retreat points. It is however one of faction advantages, certainly, in the same way Conscript merge and Ostheer bunkers are. Lack of on-the-field reinforcement for WFA factions is definitely something that should be considered in the course of balancing the game.

While I agree completely that FRPs require much less micro and is less risky in terms of pure reinforcement capability, transport play can be very frustrating to play against too. Everyone knows of the infamous clown car technique in the early game, which occasionally still stirs riots, add that stems as a result from not necessarily the reinforcement advantage, but the rather the advantage of just letting carried troops fire out in the first place. Also, the transports are a relatively small loss as opposed to the costs of a developed FRP if destroyed. Additionally, the halftrack has the obvious advantage of being mobile, which makes it much more survivable in the hands of a careful player. I can agree that it's an underused tactic as opposed to the almost mandatory FRP upgrades; it's unfortunate that despite all the love halftracks got since WBP, halftrack play is still rare. Though it's still certainly not an equal trade, I believe that it is a lot closer than you would think at first glance.

On the previous page I advocated for the introduction of an OKW APC by retooling the 251 Stuka to replace the mobility loss of MedTruck's FRP. Maybe you'd be interested in that approach? totally not shameless self-promotion or anything like that