Profile of Storm Elite

What people don't understand is how to apply first principles thinking and analysis.

On a per-unit basis, the game is granular.

That means that at any given moment, one unit is fighting one other unit, even if the engagement as a whole features several units.

You CANNOT jack up the cost of a unit and claim it's balanced if it's the kind of unit that requires two other units to defeat.

Again, in a game like Starcraft, maybe that's decent logic, where you literally attack-move blobs of your entire existing army together.

But in a tactical RTS like CoH2, where you should use units to cap, build structures, lay mines, flank, etc., units -- especially baseline infantry units -- must all be threatening to one another in different ways on a one-to-one basis.

This is, by the way, part of why the Western Fronts factions are, to this very day, power creeped compared to Eastern Front factions, with the exception of Penals, since they were the crutch given to Soviets to fight OKW effectively -- except Ostheer wasn't given such a crutch.

Just so it's clear I'm bot biased: before DBP, Volks raped Conscripts without Conscripts having ANY chance, because Volks are from WFA, despite how low Volks' damage is compared to USF and UKF infantry. Don't know if that's changed since DBP, and I don't exactly have much chance to find out, since all any Soviets ever use are Penals.

I keep saying this, and I'll repeat it: the measure of unit balance is THREAT, not cost.

Every single Ostheer baseline squad screams in terror and runs at sight of Penals, USF Riflemen, and UKF Infantry Sections, while Allied squads can and do weather a ton of punishment from Axis forces (OKW included, since Volks don't deal damage), which is really what decides the outcome of all engagements except if the Axis player manages to pull off the most hardcore flank possible or instawipe a squad with a nade or something.

Axis baseline infantry doesn't pose a THREAT to any Allied units, ever. As long as this remains the case, and as long as people keep arguing in terms of cost and other math, instead of evident, observable performance, nothing's going to be properly balanced.

this is just a rage thread.
no point posting on it.
but here i go again LUL.
you guys think raketen is shiet, idc anymore. maybe learn to use it.
volks are shiet? total bs as they are still good. how do i know? cause i played a 1v1 game and i lost my battle duo to his army being better. i made 4 cons and so he made 4 volks... who won? he did. my 4cons won almost no battle cause at long range ofc they don't win but when i wanne get closer and i am actually closer, cause i've lost 1 moddel i lose the battle again. you would think of just getting more squads but all he does is make the same amount. my only option was to go guards or maybe get a maxim? i think guards would've been better. but that's 360mp to beat a 250mp squad!!! wtf. btw for 10mp more they're fucking good compared to cons. what you could do is wait for ppsh.

Of course Conscripts lose. They're Conscripts.

There's a reason all Soviet players use nothing but Penals. Endless Penals. Forever.

However, Conscripts, being one of two baseline infantry squads that is the same as it was at the game's launch roughly (the other being Ostheer Grenadiers), will lose to everything from the Western Front expansion, simply because the Eastern Front factions were never properly redesigned to match the obscene power creep of the Western Front factions and the Brits.

However, Penals are now absurd, which is why everyone spams them, while Axis factions didn't get anything of the sort.

A support ability doesn't justify the unit's damage output being non-threatening.

This is the core of the balance problem between Axis and Allies in CoH2: EVERY SINGLE Allied unit is a threat to Axis units, but a good half of Axis units are not a threat to anything (Volks, 222, Kubel, etc.).

That isn't balance. You can't create units that don't pose a threat and then try to justify it by saying "use combined arms."

no, but I was so triggered that i remember all and you know what, i recreated both situation on custom only for you https://sendvid.com/5fr0m0ng

PS: RIGGHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Now reduce the Grenadiers' damage by another third, and you have the same situation when Volksgrenadiers go up against literally any baseline Allied infantry.

Between this and how the 222 has no armor and never hits ANYTHING (not hyperbole, its weapons literally do not land any hits, it deals zero damage over the course of the first ten seconds of any engagement), as well as a variety of other blatant failures, this game is an utter farce.

Literally EVERY SINGLE Allied unit is a threat to Axis players, yet the Axis arsenal (both Ostheer and OKW) is laiden with noob traps like the 222, where if you build the unit, you've already lost, not for any fault of your own, not for lack of tactics, but because the unit just does not do anything.

What a joke.

If Axis infantry was meant to be long range, then they should deal the same kind of obscene damage at long range as Allied infantry deals in close range. Allied players should scream in terror and slam Retreat if they ever fail to flank and get close to Axis infantry, in the same way Axis infantry screams and hits Retreat at mere sight of Allied infantry in close range.

But no, giving Axis forces actually threatening units would clearly not be politically correct or something. Ridiculous.

My observations with OKW since the patch:

• ISG literally incapable of dislodging a single machine gun squad because its models are spread out over half a mile (not arguing that instawipes from mortars should come back, but rather that the ISG has absolutely no splash damage and is thus worthless, especially with the nerfed range)
  
• Volks with STGs are losing to Flamer Soviet Engineers
  
• Volks rifles still deal no damage and pose no threat to anyone, but that's nothing new
  
• Sturmpioneers become a liability with one Panzerschreck, as they lose any threatening anti-infantry damage to gain non-threatening AT damage
  
• Raketenwerfer as feeble as always, and it's not like suppression was really an issue for it due to the manner in which AT guns are used
  

The top three frustrate me more than anything else. Even bloody Brits can go on the offensive against OKW due to how unthreatening the OKW baseline infantry is in terms of damage output/accuracy/whatever the hell causes them to be so weak.

I've resorted to mine fields and 2x Walking Stuka cheese, but the Allied players who know just how non-existent OKW damage output is obviously don't fall for that.

Never thought I'd be playing Ostheer for a more threatening infantry presence, yet here we are...