Profile of CieZ

TLDR u need to be a pro to win as allies. That's true because i said it and if u say otherwise u are stupid fanboy and also a nazi

That's not at all what he was saying, and he has a good point.

Here's how it works in my opinion:

At low/mid levels of skill the Axis are favored because Allied infantry has to flank and close the gap early game, plus their light vehicles take a lot of finesse to micro, but when they're micro'd properly they're brutally strong. I can't remember the last game as Soviet in 2v2 that I didn't get at least one squad wipe with my first flamer M3, normally I get 2-3 before it dies. Investing in a Raketen just to counter the M3 is never worth it - the raketen is terrible. Much better to let Ost get a 222, faust, or teller. If you're playing double OKW better to get a Puma or 251 Flak.

At high levels of skill the Allies have a decent advantage because their early game is absolutely dominant. Volks and Grens cannot compete with properly micro'd rifles/cons, and good Allied players can use things like smoke nades, oorah, m3s/m20s/m15s, molotovs and flanking in general to nullify the advantage of Axis HMGS (which are absolutely required as Ost in my opinion).

The skilled players are able to use this momentum and transition into a dominant mid game via elite infantry and disgusting indirect fire options as well as super fast medium tanks that bleed the heck out of the Axis.

And the finally, well managed T34/85s or Is-2s backed up by Jacksons quickly become a huge problem. Even moreso when Mark/P47s start flying out in important tank engagements.

Moral of the story - it is easy to be decent with Axis and easy to be sub-par as Allies because for the most part the Allies take more finesse, team-work and execution. Sure Axis is absolutely "easier" to play, but their potential is more limited.

Also, as I mentioned before - the Allies crutch extremely heavily on doctrinal units/abilities like Shocks, Paras, 120s, Soviet call-ins, P47s, Mark, etc. So before any Allied nerfs start rolling out I think Soviet needs to be redesigned from the ground up to improve their stock units considerably while lowering the relative power of their call-ins. And USF could probably use some sort of elite infantry in Major tech so that there are real alternatives to Rifles late game (Rangers anyone?).

My opinions in this post are 90% from 2v2 experience and 10% from 1v1 experience. I think 1v1 is more balanced than 2v2, and probably pretty close to 50/50 for Soviet/USF/OKW. Ost is pretty obviously suffering in 1v1.

Each man to his own, I guess

I preface this reply, by stating clearly that I am not a Strategist

I have never seen anything approaching the Ostwind for USF, apart from the AA-Halftrack.

I honestly find it difficult to compare the Scott to the old ISU. IMO, the Scott is a highly effective unit, used correctly, too often ignored by USF players (at a lower level).

I don't mean that every faction should have an Ostwind. I just wish more tanks did damage in the same manner as the Ostwind - consistently high, but never 1 shotting squads. Right now KT, Tiger, Brummbar, Sherman, M8, Is-2, etc do damage that is too unpredictable. Sometimes the M8 is going to 1 shot your vet 3 squad, sometimes it is going to miss entirely. I think it'd be better for both parties if these types of tanks would consistently kill models, thus inflicting bleed, without randomly 1 shotting squads.

Part of this is the new cover behavior (please give us a "loose formation" button... AoE 2 had this like 16 years ago, shouldn't be difficult to program) but part of it is the way AoE profiles currently work - they need a major overhaul.

Did the animation started?
With mines you simply stand next to them and they disappear, with demos, pios need to actually kneel to disarm them.

You've always been able to detonate demos even when they're detected and being "swept" up by the pio squad. It's super bullshit.

Just the entire fact that demos are some kind of super mine able to erase squads it poor design. Maybe if they could be shot with small arms... MAYBE then they would be okay. I'd prefer to see them used as a building denial/anti-bunker tool but the way they are right now is far from fair or balanced.

To those going "HERP DERP HOW 2 COYNTER AXIS OP INFANTRY LATE GAME LOLOLOL"

The Allies have a ridiculous number of good AI tools at their disposal including, but not limited to:

1 - Amazing AI tanks (Sherman, Scott, T34/85, Is-2)
2 - Soviet snipers
3 - 0.50 cal HMG/Maxims
4 - Paratroopers - by far the strongest infantry squad in the game when equipped with M1919s.
5 - Double BAR rifles (beat vet 3 LMG grens with ease when also vet 3).
6 - Indirect fire options such as: Katy, Pack Howi, 120mm mortar

Of course Cons can't stand up to Obers, and on the flip side of the coin Grens/Volks can't stand up to Shocks. Fact of the matter... at the top levels, Allies have advantages at every point in the game.

Without having watched replay:

Absolutely nobody with a clue is saying USF AIRBORNE late game is weak. But that's one commander, what about the 4 with trash lategame (Rifle Company does OK even if it loses to airborne, hence 4). Plus it's Semois summer, what do you expect, to lose as allies on that map?

I've seen countless forum posts/stream conversations about how USF is hopeless late game because the Jackson isn't reliable or how Axis infantry can't be beaten once they vet up. I don't agree with these sentiments, but people make them nonetheless.

As far as commanders go... it isn't just a USF problem. The majority of all commanders for all factions are just useless/underpowered unfortunately.

For the love of God the US faction needs SOMETHING.

The US AT gun, in practice, seems to be the worst piece of garbage I have ever seen. It constantly misses, never seems to penetrate, and doesn't even get the benefit of the ZIS like arty barrage.

The Sherman is utterly pathetic at anything more than wiping large blobs of infantry.

Bazooks are wielded by dead men who don't quite know it yet. No accuracy, no pentration, no damage.

And the M36. Seriously? This thing has garbage maneuverability, laughable penetration vs panthers, has no anti infantry to speak of, and requires an opponent that doesn't know how to hit the NOS (blitzkrieg) button. Panthers 2 shot them, panzer 4s can kill them in 3 shots, pretty much a stiff breeze will kill this tank.

I just lost my 2nd 4 V 4 match today, and in both cases we were wiping the floor with the enemy team. Then out comes the panthers and sure enough the end of the match went down hill quickly from there. The end of the game saw me fielding 3 jacksons with a screen of IS-2's. At first this worked reasonably well, then out come the elephants, the jagdtigers, and the King tigers. Its absolutely absurd that axis can have a screen of troops with devastating panzeshrek hand held AT vs the US who have to try and field 4 units to counter it while dealing with Ultra heavy AT tanks with the range of the entire screen.

Yet relic says they have no plans to add any US heavy tanks. Seriously this company is utterly fucking retarded at balance.

I ended the match north of 95,000 damage from the jacksons as the result of some incredible teamwork on the part of the allies. We had a vastly superior team, but in the end we lost because ultimately the axis players can just spam panthers, tigers, and king tigers with little to no fear of any real AT on the part of the allied faction. With Obercommandos and Panzershreks dominating both infantry/tanks, and the US being forced to use ultra fragile units, the German faction required skill level is absurdly low compared to their allied counter parts Late Game.

The asymetrical balance is awful, has been awful, and will continue to be awful. Relic now has 4 teams to try and balance and my guess is they have no clue what to do about it.

The start is giving the allied faction some goddamn AT that actually works, or just removing the super heavies from the game. They are the main problem right now.

Panthers two shot them and Pz4s three shot them? Please, explain this math to me.

Hint: The Panther and Pz4 do the same exact damage per shot.

And I guess by your standards the Panther has garbage maneuverability as well? You know... since it and the Jackson have pretty much the same exact maneuverability.

Bazooka penetration is actually quite good. Just too expensive to unlock in my opinion. Plus it is hard to field enough to be a real threat since you'll be cutting muni that could be used for M1919s/P47s/BARs