Profile of Volsky

Having played many hours of (in addition to being an RGD coder for) Europe in Ruins mod for vCoH (persistency mod), I can say that the ability to rapidly engage an opposing unit from outside the range of effective retaliation, and with very rapid damage, is almost priceless.

A pair of StuGs will splatter an area with enough shells in very short order to make mincemeat out of enemy squads, and they work fantastically against anything that's not an SU-85. I started playing CoH2 and immediately stuck with building StuGs instead of P4s. Maybe two weeks ago I started dicking around with P4s, and found myself shouting at my screen in rage (even when facing the AI) because of their longer reload and general inability to ROFLSTOMP enemy armor in short order (or kite effectively). I play with almost all of my units within 1-2 screenlengths of eachother, so you must consider that there are 3x LMG42 Grens (or 2x LMG42 Grens with an MG42 backing them up), a Shreck-totting PG squad, and a pair of flammen Pios usually standing in front of my StuGs. Maxim spam? Spam them with lelshells from maximum range until dead or buy a mortar. Con rush? Que the LMGs -> rush flammens into the pinned mass. Tanks? Que StuGs.

TL;DR, I like StuGs. They're very... *StuGnatious* fighters.

Yuk yuk yuk yuk.

Con/Rofl Command/Penal/Penal

or

Con/Con/Rofl Command/Penal/Penal

usually works for me. Penals are far better for fending off infantry from cover, but their inability to build cover or ward off vehicles of any sort (satchels require the vehicle to be immobilized or microed by a monkey), in addition to them being expensive, glass-cannon Cons, relegates them to novelty. Cons are far more cost effective (you can see this in most any end-game screen). Vetted Penals are a terror, but they can't Ura! their way around an MG--since all of the Ost tools were made to halt Cons (that can, by default, Ura!), Penals get caught and unable to maneuver around the threat or escape without very advanced planning and a very good idea of where the MG/suppression source is.

The total lack of battlefield utility makes Cons more appealing. This is, in fact, my biggest gripe with how CoH2 infantry was designed.

Why do we need one unit to build sandbags and another unit to build barbed wire? Why does one faction have access to MG nests and the other doesn't? Why do I need to buy a DLC in order to make tank traps? This was a huge deal in vCoH, being able to mold the battlefield to your needs by creating cover for yourself or denying it to your opponent. Engineers could build MGs, sandbags, wire, mines, OPs, and tank traps. Riflemen (~= to Cons) could build, with an Infantry Company specific unlock, wire, sandbags, OPs, and mines.

WM infantry, while having more basic options, had no prerequisite, and could construct wire and sandbags right off the bat. Pioneers had the same building abilities as Engineers (regarding field defenses).

In addition...mines no longer grant veterancy? What? This was a huge reason to want to have mine-planting ability for your infantry. This was a fantastic way to vet up squads that were less than useful in combat (see: Combat Engineers). Now there is little point to use mines as they focus on raw damage rather than a disabling effect(their main boon in vCoH) or, in the case of Pioneers, are too time consuming/expensive to place.

/rant

TL;DR, Penals are fantastic killing machines but have little in the way of actual utility. No merge, almost pointless expensiveness relegates them to very niche rolls that pale in the overall usefulness and cheapness of Conscripts.

^Thank you for the honest (totally not sarcastic, trolling, and generally out of place whilst in this thread) response.

Why get a Tiger when you can get a Panther?

IMHO, a well-microed Panther is worth just as much, if not more, than a Tiger, plus it leaves doctrine choices open (I felt the same in vCoH, except for the part where a Tiger is badass as all hell and had that "oh s**t" factor).

It's hit or miss (hue hue). Sometimes it's infinitely useful, others (see: team games w. Pgrens -> Panther spam) it's a useless manpower sink that ends up sitting at your base, forgotten, until you mollie it with a spare Con squad to get 9 extra pop for a new tank.