Profile of CieZ

When I last played no, it did not. Collector's editions would get unique avatars (essentially the exact same concept as special faceplates) or certain cosmetic "skins" for a unit or two, but nothing affected the stats of the units, or the ability to produce units.

The biggest problem, from my perspective, with SC2 is that the truly competitive scene is essentially impossible to break into. The Koreans, and to a lesser extent Europeans have the infrastructure in place to support people playing the game 10+ hours per day. The mechanics and instincts that these players develop are impressive, but discouraging. I spent a lot of time laddering when the game was new and got decently high (top 10 in my master's league) but when I compared myself to people in the Grand Master league, they wouldn't even break a sweat beating me. The game is very "solved" and there is significantly less tactical depth in SC2 and lot more super fast paced micro you have to learn.

The game was fun for a while, but simply lacks the tactical depth that CoH2 provides. The games are more repetitive and maps have (at least at my level) less of an impact on build orders/timings/strategies. Just prepare yourself for a steep learning curve, and no chance to become a well-known/respected member of the community if you choose to play SC2.

I think my other beef with the doctrine at the moment, is that the two most reliable counters I can come up with both require a paid commander.

I had success with countering Soviet Industry last night in a 2v2 while playing Assault Gren doctrine. Called in a mech assault group, threw schrecks on them, and chased T70s around in my German clown car. It is actually quite comical watching guys with bazookas riding in a 250 halftrack chase T70s around the map. Then just picked up a PaK into a P4. Was against HansMoleman and some guy if I remember right, so they weren't great but also not terrible.

My second theory is elite troops doctrine. If you know the T70 is coming you can tech after 3 grens, get Pgrens as your 4th unit, schreck them and give them instant vet 3 for the 40% increased accuracy. Follow this up with a PaK and/or 222 each which you can buy vet on should help a lot. PaK with target weak point will do so much work against T70s and the ensuing T34s and the vet 3 222 is actually amazing at scouting/staving off infantry from flanking your PaK while also preventing a flank from a lone T70.

I guess schrecks into Pak/222 work in theory on other commanders, but being able to put schrecks in the 250 really helps with both the survival of the Pgrens, but also being able to actually chase down the T70 and buying Vet on your pgrens/pak/222/stug is such a huge benefit when fighting a mass amount of Soviet armor.

Early game is harder since the MG42 nerfs. LMG42 is still very strong, as is getting a quick flame HT. A perfect T70 timing, assuming the soviets have held ~half the map the whole game is right around 8min. Realistically it'll be 8:30 or 9. This is delayed by ~30 seconds if you've had molotovs thrown at you, and another ~30 seconds for AT nades as a conservative estimate (really closer to 45-1 min).

As long as you're prepared for the T70 it isn't too difficult to counter. The most risky option is double up-gunned 222. Two up-gunned German scout cars will beat a T70 head on although this costs 140 munitions and runs a risk of getting shut down by guards/AT nades - not the path I'd suggest but it certainly is doable if you like your 222s.

My preferred reaction is a PaK and/or Schrecks into an Ostwind. Schrecks feel like a solid option again because the T70 can no longer crush, combined with a PaK you should be able to remain in control of a solid portion of the map. I follow up with an Ostwind because their T34/76 will be greatly delayed and the Ostwind will be able to do massive damage. This also has the added bonus of already being backed up by your PaK and/or schrecks - so the synergy is pretty cool. This option however is weaker to snipers since the snipers will be highly effective against both the PaK and the schreck squad.

Third option, if there are already snipers and guards on the field is to stall for a Stug. You should be able to get a Stug pretty quickly after the T-70, but generally waiting for a P4/Ostwind without any other T-70 counter on the field might be too risky in terms of map control lost. The Stug will be highly effective against the T-70, and has the added bonus of being the most powerful (statistically) AT counter available to Germans in T3, meaning it will also be very useful against T34/76s. Another reason the Stug could be a good choice in this situation is that Soviets will likely (assuming 1v1) not have access to ZiS since they already have snipers on the field, meaning your Stug won't really have much to worry about - just don't let it get flanked!

Just my 2 cents

Thank you for the clarification Noun, much appreciated! Also awesome to hear that there will be balance changes in this patch (at least I think that is what you were meaning?). Definitely looking forward to seeing the real patch notes next week.

On a side note, for what it is worth, I think you guys should continue onward with the balance beta. I personally think that it has gone a long way in helping you guys properly balance the game.

I see.

I'm glad to hear you don't call people "fucking retarded" in-game, and only on forums.

I wasn't calling him "fucking retarded" it was a rhetorical way of saying that the suggestion was not a good one. I realize that sarcasm can be hard to detect without body language/tone of voice... but I really thought it was pretty obvious. Guess not.