Profile of Superhet

They received some hefty buffs several patches ago. A Penal Batallion beats a Volksgrenadier squad one-on-one now. Combine that with the M3A1 Scout Car and Soviet can easily take the early game from OKW.



Ultra-light vehicles have been the meta for a while, so people have got good at kiting with them. Walk a Gren towards a M3A1 Scout Car and it'll reverse away even at mid ranks.

They may beat volks one on one, but OKW's combat units will outnumber them. All he has to do is blob.

Gren + mg beats clown car + squad without a faust just through firing at it, while costing about the same. Likewise for OKW's units.

Though I suspect you are referring more so to 1v1, where I can see it being more frequent that units are left one by one around the map to be picked off rather than gathered and so the viability may go up.

Well it's not like there was literally any alternative to maxim spam at the time. Cons were and are trash who, *ahem* don't stand a chance Past 5 minutes against okw on all maps.
Maybe having something attractive to support the maxim instead of literally just more maxims would help elevate the spam of maxims. With t2 only having maxims and being an alternative to having infantry (because cons are literally worse volks who are only allowed to start scaling after tanks hit the field, not once they tech up for the 1st time) its literally maxims or bust. Bad faction design lead to a spammed MG lead to a nerfed MG that cant do its job unless spammed. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. As long as the maxim (and cons) are absolutely garbage, which they are, the only time you will EVER see maxims is in a spam. Because there is quite LITERALLY no other viable option. Penals or bust.

Even when the maxim was a decent unit, it's not like Soviets were overpowered. This was in the context of a different balance state, where the Axis late game was stronger or the Soviets late game weaker than now and you were supposed to win early or lose. As you noted, no one spammed maxims because they wanted to but because they had to.

Now maxims suck, conscripts are trash as they have been since release because they cost and bleed too much for you to afford supporting them with anything while using them as support is inefficient for the same reason and since their utility is behind tech (and why, if you pick a commander with it, does assault pack come at 3 freaking CPs?). And in team games you do not know who you are fighting against. If you make T1 against Ost, you are screwed. And T1 against OKW only works in a small early window if he doesn't gather his units and lets you pick them off one by one. In both cases, the Axis player needs to screw up while you need to hope he doesn't know what he's doing.

But instead of remaking the Soviet early tiers so you are not relying on a flimsy gimmick like clown car or spamming the only predictable and counterable unit but that at least does its job, they simply nerf whatever isn't already bad. So now we have trash conscripts, bad maxims that Ost in particular have many counters for, predictable and easily counterable T1 (it's not like penals are good, they are just what you're left with), and the Soviet player themselves don't know which opening to gamble on because they don't know which faction they're fighting or what opening that faction is doing when each requires a different tech.

I play Soviet, Ost, UKF and OKW but at this point I am tired of playing Soviet and UKF. Playing them feels like I am a soldier not only attacking through a route the enemy knows I'm coming, but also with a jammed weapon and chain weight attached to my ankle. I'm thinking of trying USF to see if they're any different, and if not I'll probably simply play more and more Axis and less of the messed up factions. Ost in particular I feel is easy, powerful and versatile (and becomes even more versatile with commanders like T0 halftrack, assault grens, osttruppen, etc.) Why would I play a frustrating, broken mess instead of that? but then who will you play against...?

Howitzers were changed to cost around 350-400 manpower and around 50 fuel a long time ago.

I must have been playing a different game or been high on mushrooms then, I made a couple of lefh-18s a couple of days ago and they cost 600 manpower as far as I remember.

Just came back to the game, and what I'm thinking right now after playing probably a couple of dozen games at least is:

OKW
Unit composition: Minimum of 4 Maxims and 2 Engineers to plant mines, after that it depends on the commander but at least 2 AT units and then more anti-infantry.
Commanders: Probably Urban Defense, as it has both shocks and a cheaper AT gun so you have more manpower for other stuff while still doing the job. Or if you simply make more maxims instead of shocks, you can get a single AT gun while getting a commander with either guards, or Reserve Army/Partisan Tactics for the double tank huntisans.

Pitfalls: Just the standard pitfalls of using Maxims, which my gut tells me appear to have been nerfed since last I played but I don't know.

Ost
Unit composition: Conscripts > Sniper > Conscripts > Sniper > Conscripts, so 3 Cons and 2 Snipers. 2 Engineers to plant mines if you didn't go Tank Hunters. Again if you didn't go Tank Hunters, either 2 Guards or 2 Tank Huntisans. If you did go Tank Hunters, you can possibly make more than 2 Snipers and complement with a Clown Car and sooner Medics.
Commanders: Tank Hunter Tactics lets you skip guards and the 2nd engineers to make other things like a clown car, extra sniper, sooner medics and sooner teching either directly or through a fuel cache. Otherwise you get either Reserve Army or Partisan Tactics for the tank huntisans, or a doctrine with guards.

Pitfalls: If he starts with Assault Grenadiers, or has only made Grenadiers and no support weapons either by default or because he sees your sniper, you will have a harder game. Same thing if he anticipates your snipers and fast techs to T2. This makes Partisan Tactics particularly good as it comes with Radio Intercept.

-

Conclusion
I feel you are supposed to spam maxims against OKW, and go Cons + Snipers against Ost and hope he doesn't start with only Grens/Assault Grens/fast T2. Massing Cons sucks against both (as it always has been supposed to), while OKW simply beats T1 early and then swarms it while Ost snipers beat T2. Also, T1 gets swarmed by Ost as well when you make penals instead of cons because you'll have 2 PTRS squads instead of 3 which is not enough both to quickly destroy scout cars, and avoid suppression and retreats from focused fire while trying to destroy them. And because you want to supplement the snipers with early doctrinal AT, shocks - although good in of themselves - will thus typically be played against OKW if they are played since they fit in better there, and less so against Ost due to the opportunity cost of choosing them. Shame, since shocks are my favorite unit.

Have I got it right?

It's deliberate. SBP overhauled population costs to their current level to prevent the spamming of certain units, such as tank destroyers.

I see. Ironically I would argue that it instead promotes spam, because you won't be able to have a balanced army anyway. Might as well go all in on a few units. But if it's intentional, I guess this thread is a waste.