Profile of OMGPOP

Well this is now an even matchup, never knew puma could one shot full health garrisons

For some reason there are 8 salvageable wrecks on the left fuel. Those wrecks almost beat me, stressful game.

Before somebody else comes in and find some uses for it against shocks or whatever, let me just quickly explain that you should not be getting this upgrade nor pick the doctrine it's associated with. Your analysis is spot on.

Have you tried the M1919? It's incredibly strong. So are assault engineers and the bulldozer sherman. AT guns from airborne let you skip captain. Dunno if I'd say the options are weak.

That's offtopic though... I do think it'd be smart if they let people buy the commanders just 'cause they could make some money that way and I don't really care if people can pay to get them.

I have tried to make use of all three.

Airborne: M2HB costs 20 mp less than non-doc MG and comes with 0 men. AT gun costs the same and also comes with 0 men. Pathfinder is more of a utility unit, in 1v1 I cant afford utilities. AB looks good on paper, but it needs pathfinder to reinforce and M1 carbines are peashooters, the worst part is that they carry no AT. Obersoldaten carries no AT and its fine because everyone and their dog in OKW can do AT, not to mention Obers are twice as good as Airborne at AI, and cost less. 240 muni strafe, Ha!

Armor: Assault Engineers costs the same as rifles and has no range and no AT, maybe I can get away with this in team games. M10 is a Tank destroyer that has only 40 range I believe, because when I did shoot ground it only shoots as far as a sherman. Sherman bulldozer has no penetration, it's like a kv8 except it does half as much damage to infantry and has less armor and health, and kv8 is already useless. And we are left with railway artillery and crew with Thompson. I hope somebody tries to use crew Thompson sometimes, I do like free vehicles.

Infantry: The only useful ability in this tree in a 1v1 situation is the M1916 unlock, it does virtually identical damage as the Ostheer Grenadier's LMG42 and even costs the same.

I don't have the premium ones yet nor have I played against any. But flamethrower riflemen sounds very strong, and free exp for new rifles at cp 0 is probably borderline OP. The WC51 car I don't know since I wasn't in alpha, but I have seen it described as M3 from hell. Well I do like my M3s

Ok, I was wrong on the scout car cost, but my point still stands!

@OMGPOP - While the Germans do have some stronger base infantry later in the game at long ranges, the soviets still have a lot of options to counter it (snipers, tanks, maxims, mortars, whatever). The game is more balanced there with larger scale strategies coming into play.

This part of the game is far different than the razor's edge of Grens vs M3s. Where if I make on damn mistake I'm immediately and brutally punished with severe model and squad losses. And If I even dare to send a squad alone it's almost a guaranteed squad loss to an M3. This leads to German's being largely pinned in their base or a small territory and there's nothing I can do about it as Germans.

As Soviets, I almost never feel I'm on the back foot. As German's, I feel like I'm about to be terrifying massacred by the monsters from Alien at any moment.

I don't dispute that M3s are a bit stronger than they should be compared with the rest of the Soviet units. But it's far from a free win for any player who employ this strategy. Out of the 5 top players I competed and practiced with, Barton and DanielD both defeated this strategy. 60% win rate isn't all that impressive, especially against my German win % and the fact that this strat is the best I can manage with the Soviets.

This thread is clearly focused on 1 v 1 balance but there are those of us that play mostly 2 v 2 or 3 v 3, and the priorities tend to differ there. The power of larger squad sizes, indirect fire, and AFV gunfire is reflected differently. The game length is different, and so is the relation of the various arms.

This is why I don't think any game style will get optimal balance. What is balance for 1 v 1 becomes non balance for another mode and vice-versa.

In 4 v 4, which is basically a battle of attrition with hundreds or over a thousand deaths, the 'most impactful player' is usually the one with the highest kills.

I happen to have played a decent number of 2v2 and participated in a number of tournaments in that mode as well. Soviets are in my opinion unbeatable in 2v2 atm if players play on a high enough level with no major mistakes committed by either side. Although it has little to do with the reasons you mentioned here, and even less with the M3.

It's also too "early" to comment on the balance in 3v3 and 4v4. Since there has been practically no organized competitions to decide what the optimal strategies are in those game modes. Although that might soon be changing.