Profile of Strummingbird

Why not increase resistance of the FHQ to Stuka strikes and flames and let engineers repair it, and in exchange it takes awhile to set up, can only be built on owned territory, and can be decapped? That way everyone will be happy (or everyone pissed off, I don't know).

Just had an extremely fun game with the Sturmtiger.

http://www.coh2.org/replay/22342/stalingrad-sturmtiger

Used the 'click on target instead of ground' thing here. Didn't make a huge impact though, as there wasn't much space to maneuver.

Still I don't think there was a single other unit that could've filled the niche that the Sturm did this match. It pretty much countered anything he could've fielded.

I will never even think about to fight 2 expert AIs each with 500 manpower income.
That's too insane for me.

there's no semblance of tactics used at all by the computer- rifles charge point blank into sturmpios, tanks rush headlong into AT guns- so it's just a matter of weathering the storm, though you should expect to be fighting from your base sector for most of the match until you can get heavy tanks out as the germans or capture abandoned heavies as the allies.

My issue with the Jagdp4 is that it fails to penetrate the frontal armor of the IS-2 far to often to be reliable. This unit seems like it should be a viable counter, and believe me I've tried, but I always end up feeling underwhelmed when using it. It's DPS is just bad. The raketen is decent if you have the luxury of a building, but out in the open it gets decrewed very easily, and trying to keep a vetted raketen alive versus an IS-2 means that you can really only risk taking a few shots before forcing a retreat.

I want to see a replay of OKW tackling an IS-2 in 1v1. I'm sure it's been done, but I want to see it in the context of an evenly matched, reasonably high level game. Any takers?

I did beat a shocks T2 IS2 soviet player with the command panther-jagdpanzer combo awhile back, and he was reasonably ranked- I believe top 20-30 range.
http://www.coh2.org/replay/20768/1000-efficiency-command-panther-vs-is2s
Unfortunately this was before a patch, so I don't think you can view that ingame. the JP4 has pretty mediocre penetration for a TD- 170 at max range, where you want to fight an IS2- but rate of fire isn't too bad (4.5 seconds per shot) and accuracy means it will never miss when still and hardly ever miss even while reversing. with mines and such you can make sure he can't chase for fear of throwing the IS2 away. In the game I posted, his IS2(s) got away many times- you are right about them being hard to chase if they don't get mined. Regardless, my infantry superiority meant that he had to push with the tanks to make headway, forcing him to take fire.

Eventually the command panther vetted up and became potent enough to chase and put the IS2s down.

and the Rak seems quite poor especially against IS2 if it takes direct fire, so if you don't have stuff to take fire for it (shrecked volks for example) you're right- they don't contribute a huge deal until they vet up.

Paras do the job as far as elite infantry go, but at a pretty prohibitive cost. 440 MP + ammo upgrade to bring up to snuff makes them the most expensive infantry unit in the entire game. Sure, they tear shit up, but by the 3 CP mark you start to see vehicles against which they are completely helpless. Making them 2 CP would make them more attractive to a faction that can easily get MP starved.

Paratroopers are 390MP. Obers arrive later than 3CP unless you rush them, and nobody says they're bad because vehicles appear long before they arrive. Paras are the same, they rip up anything on two legs with LMGs, and with any form of anti-tank support are very potent- not to mention, they have exactly the same reinforce cost as normal riflemen, so they contribute nothing more than a normal rifle squad to 'MP bleed'.

Apart from that, I do feel Rifles rely a lot on Infantry or Rifle companies for proper scaling. Without free vet or the all powerful 1919s, their scaling doesn't compare with elite infantry. I almost think the Major should unlock something to help them. Perhaps increase Rifle global combat stats as the Major increases in veterancy? Nothing major (eh), just some durability bonuses, since they drop like flies. And I don't want it to be a proximity aura, those just encourage blobbing.

Rifles are basic infantry- slightly more expensive basic infantry, with the greatest variety of upgrades in the game. You can't expect them to scale to elite infantry level- that's what elite infantry are for (though with M1919s and their HMG mode they're pretty much elite infantry already). Grens do scale better, but that's more to do with LMGs being really good at the moment. And as a 5 man squad they are more durable than grenadiers anyway (even though vet 3 bonuses aren't as large iirc the extra man makes up for it).