Profile of Mr Carmine

Jump back to quoted post10 Aug 2022, 05:38 AMKurobane

Guard Motor is taken because of Mark Target and the T-34/85. It has nothing to do with Guards and more to do with the fact that the T-34/76 is basically an upgraded T-70/Ram Throwaway Machine while the T-34/85 can actually damage tanks. The Cost of the T-34/85 is also very good and its efficient for the stats that is has on the tank. Combine that with Mark Target and that is why Guard Motor has been a strong/meta pick since COH2 launched.

SU-85 is a good unit but it is a little clumsy due to the lack of a turrent. A player with less micro or even a map where SU-85 would be less ideal the T-35/85 with Mark Target can serve as a replacement.









Guard Rifle Combined Arms Tactics would be considered a "complete" commander with Guards in it as well yet it is not Meta because the KV-1 is another Upgraded T-70 that is only really useful against infantry. It has Guards, a tank, some air strikes yet I rarely have seen anyone use this commander because compared to the T-34/85 the Kv-1 is light years behind and borderline buns especially after the nerfs it got.


On paper Guards are one of those units that are nice but in actuality are shit because they don't offer anything new that Soviets don't have access too already.

Penal Battalions come out sooner than Guards and thus will have veterancy compared to Vet 0 Guards. You can upgrade them and the AT Satchel is a good enough deterrent against dives that Vehicle Button is not needed.

What I am saying here is that the Soviet base kit is strong enough that it doesn't need Guards. It is not like USF and Pathfinders. Guards are not a bad unit but are worthless. Against a player with a brain, they are not going to let your Guards sit in prone for 30 seconds while they take you out. They will be hit with grenades, hit with mortar barrages, Stuka/Panzerwerfered or even air striked.

The lack of mobility make Guards an easy way to drain your MP when you can simply have other units that are cheaper and almost as effective.


This is why Airborne Guards are vastly superior. Not everything is about damage and 1v1 but more about how they fit into the army as whole. Airborne Guards are better due to the more mobile combat of COH2, and the Vet 1 air strike may not do alot of damage but it can force the enemy to move while your units are safely shooting at them.

Forcing movement is a very powerful tool when utilized correctly as a soft form of crowd control. Take for example a situation where you have a Maxim and it is getting flanked by an OKW blob. Normal Guards can't do much to help you accept touch the ground and await the anal pounding that is about to happen to your Maxims.
Meanwhile Airborne Guards with Vet 1 can force the enemy to move buying you time to reposition allowing you to hold the position or avoid a hard retreat back to base.


Guards in a sense are like Rangers. Both units have good stats and do well in combat but are not needed at all by the main armies who use them. I never once played a game of COH2 and thought to myself that having Guards would have changed the outcome of that game compared to Airborne Guards which could have actually helped me hold onto a vital point or VP due to the Vet 1 ability.

Jump back to quoted post8 Aug 2022, 12:27 PMBasedSecretary

While I agree with your sentiment, saying Shock Troops have no place in laney maps makes abundandly clear your inability to use them correctly. They have 15muni Smokes (which is the cheapest buyable smoke that I know of) so that you can throw and get close to your enemy. Even on full laney maps (2v2) like Crossing, Fields, Wolfheze good Shock plays prove crucial.

Jump back to quoted post7 Aug 2022, 21:37 PMrumartinez89

So for Guard motor if your replace Guards with Shocks/AssG/Airborne Guards do you think it is better or worse?

The maps have favored long range squads for a while now, and as you said most maps are lany and open so it is fairly unimportant when Shocks are good because it ain't happening often enough for it to pay off.

You are still making wrong statements about "Guards". AssGuards are not long range so they do not come LR in all their forms. Airborne Guards do not need to be immobile to fire their LMG. While they do drop weapons their weapon drop rate was reduced significantly. I do not mean to come off as snarky but you seem to talk about "Guards" as if they aren't completely different from each other.

What is many games? Are you talking about games you play or games you watch? I would place more emphasis on higher ranked players as they know how to handle in game situations best. So using tightrope as an example when he lost a squad(Guards) he replaced it with more Guards. Hell he even titled the video "Guards make Soviets easy mode" where he uses the team focused Guards commander with howi and bomb drop which is probably the worst one for 1v1.

It is pure foolishness to replace Penals with more Penals in the lategame. You should be replacing them with either cons or Guards where cons can merge and damage engine while Guards help create the chance to snare the vehicle due to PTRS and button. Point being that there is more to Guards performance than just commander abilities or raw DPS.