Profile of Grizwald87

Although admittedly he didn't deserve my running commentary at the end.

Loaded as an example of a Soviet player using an OKW commander. As I've made clear in the associated Reddit conversation, not the reason we lost, still annoying as hell.

For review & comments.
Thanks!

I typed out something much longer and really supportive and then accidentally deleted it...sigh.

In short, no idea if I'm better than you, but I'll say what I see and take it for what it's worth from an OKW player:

1. Your commander was designed to fight tanks that never showed up. Too reactive to select in the opening minutes of a 1v1.

2. You built tank destroyers when you had yet to see any enemy tanks, and when he didn't build any you wasted a lot of fuel.

3. You lost a tank destroyer on the left to raketens because you weren't screening it with AI infantry to spot and chase away AT guns and AT infantry.

4. OKW players hate early Maxims. And late and middle Maxims. Especially double Maxims with one covering the other, supported by a mortar. I get nauseous even typing it.

5. You lacked early AT, so he bullied you with that flak halftrack. One AT gun and you can chase it off the map, they're made of construction paper.

Good hunting in the future!

I don't know if people in this thread noticed, but I immediately read this text in Trump's voice after 2-3 sentences. Well done .

Oh my God. Genius.

I know it's my first post, but I've been playing since the original CoH, just never got into the forum community before.

Just wanted to register my extreme opposition to nerfing the Jagdtiger's damage. All appreciation to the balance team, but I think it shows a misunderstanding of their use.

I play almost exclusively OKW, and in original CoH, I played almost exclusively Panzer Elite. Within OKW, 90% of my play is with Breakthrough Doctrine in 2v2 or higher, usually 4v4. Yes, this makes me a Jagdtiger fanboy, but it has also given me quite a bit of direct experience with their strengths and weaknesses.

I respectfully question whether the balance team has ever watched a 4v4 match where 3-4 allied players sell out on medium/heavy tanks. Watching the majority of 4 players' popcap in tanks come rolling out of the fog of war on Steppes or Lorch Assault is utterly terrifying. This is especially the case when the Allies are smart and diversified: very tough Brit tanks and Soviet heavies come up the middle to absorb the critical first wave of incoming AT fire. American Jacksons and Soviet T-34s flank to hit side armour, and park themselves behind superheavies to cut off retreat (superheavies rotate so slowly that once their direct reverse is cut off, they're effectively immobilized). Fireflies launch Tulip rockets to stun tanks, further preventing retreat.

I'm not suggesting any of that is OP. It's fine: sometimes it's effective, sometimes not, depending on how good everybody's micro is. But what keeps it fair is the ability of tanks like the Jagdtiger, wisely positioned and properly supported with units that give them sight range, to properly damage the British tanks/Soviet heavies attacking head-on and/or clip Allied mediums coming around the flank.

With the Jagdtiger on the field, Allied commanders have to be cautious with their tanks, yes. But I also have to be cautious with a tank I waited 15 CP to get, required me to float 720 MP and 280 FU in the meantime, which is worth three of theirs and which is occupying 25% of my popcap. I have to watch for infantry blobs with bazookas and snares, I have to watch for routes Jacksons and T-34s can take through the fog of war to hit me from the side, I have to be ultracautious not to overextend the Jagdtiger because that's a death sentence, and all of that keeps it in check.

Competent Allied 4v4 commanders regularly destroy my Jagdtiger, and often before it's paid for itself (it takes awhile to destroy 280 Fuel in enemy vehicles). They see it, they keep an eye on its location, they don't do foolish things like engage it head-on with only one or two medium tanks, they lure it forward or wait for me to get aggressive, flank it, stun it, cut off its retreat and murder it. If I don't get aggressive they take their tanks elsewhere and its impact is limited. Incompetent Allied commanders or those who haven't fought the JT much make foolish mistakes and get punished, like I did when I first had to deal with multiple Katyushas/land mattresses or the Brit combo of a mortar emplacement, a machine gun and a Bofors. It's balanced.

Does it kill most vetted medium tanks in two shots? Sure does. But medium tank destroyers kill vetted Pumas and Luchs in two shots as well. It's the circle of life.

If you nerf the Jagdtiger, there's a chain of consequences that I don't think is fully appreciated here: First, 4v4 Allied tank spam becomes unreasonably hard to deal with. Remember: we're talking as much as 300 pop cap worth of tanks (75% of four players), all highly mobile and the vast majority turreted.

Second, I doubt whether the proposed cost reductions will properly compensate for the nerf. Nobody cares about the barrage ability or at what vet level it's received. If you're using your JT to attack infantry for any reason, you've screwed up: its one job is to kill vehicles. If I wanted something that does AI too, I'd build a King Tiger. Its pop cap would have to be reduced to allow for at least one additional Jagdpanzer to be built, it should no longer require 15 CP (which is accrued after about 25 minutes: how many games are already effectively decided at the 25 minute mark?), and it should no longer cost as much as a King Tiger, which is the same price, available as much as ten critical minutes earlier, and acknowledged by all to be useful in all circumstances and game modes.

Third, think of what this does to the Breakthrough doctrine. The 12 CP sector artillery is already expensive and amazingly inaccurate: it rarely kills or seriously damages anything - it's mostly useful for the smoke that pops at the end - and the sturm officer is meh. The whole doctrine builds up to the synergy of vetted panzerfusiliers spotting for the Jagdtiger with their sight range and parachute flares, and skirmishing for and quickly decapping contested VPs and fuel points. Now it builds up to...what? A superheavy that'll increasingly get swapped out for a King Tiger.

There are some units or abilities that only make a big impact 1v1, and some that for whatever reason, synergy with other factions or scale of combat, are only useful or especially useful 4v4. That's fine, that's part of the beauty of a game with five factions and what, 50 commanders total? The Jagdtiger isn't broke. For the love of God, don't try to fix it.

TL;DR: OKW only has about nine commanders, and most of them are uninspiring and/or useless. Don't break one of the few that is commonly useful and - dare I say it - fun in big games because rookies try to duel Jagdtigers head-on with SU-85s and Shermans.