Profile of Riggsen

I’ve been reading these forums since open beta but since the game has only just been released, I thought I’d wait til after the first patch before I made any judgements on balance.

In terms of background, I’m a reasonably competitive RTS player, definitely not top tier, but decent (possibly declining with age), and have been playing RTS games (on and off) since Total Annihilation and the original Starcraft.

Having played a hundred or so automatches with both factions Vs players (probably 50% 1v1), one of the biggest things I’ve noticed is that there are a lot more players queuing as German than Soviet. It’s not rocket science that this is because of opel blitz being OP in team games, and JU-87 strafing run being OP period…. Before a critical mass of players reached level 45, and during the beta when the commander in question was disabled, the queue ratios were a lot more balanced (still slightly more german on average, but 55-45 not 70-30). Anyway, all of this is old news, and being addressed next patch, wailing and gnashing of teeth won’t bring it any closer.

The problem inherent with soviet teching

What probably won’t change with the next patch, but I do think needs to be looked at, is the other element that makes soviet rather dull to play at a competitive level – being forced into 2 buildings, and forfeiting the opportunity to build half your units. I understand the design concept, and differentiating soviet from german teching, but really strategic diversity is the meat and potatoes of any RTS, and I think the choices and opportunity costs of the soviet two-tier system heavily favour spamming over unit (and in turn strategic) diversity.

I guess the issue is mitigated somewhat in 3v3 or 4v4 team games because 2-3 players can go SU-85s to take on panther/Pz4 while 1 goes T34 for ram to shut down heavies, but in 1v1 and 2v2 you hardly see soviet T3. And even if you did, it’s at the expense of not seeing T4 (and usually a loss unless you get your T70 out fast and take most of the map with it).

Consider – what if soviet building cost was halved and build time reduced by 25-33%, but each tier made a pre-requisite for the next? Then maybe we’d get to see the interplay of T34s AND SU85s in the same game (T34 buffing and SU-85 nerfing notwithstanding). A very early M3A1 could be problematic maybe? I just think having access to all the soviet roster instead of choosing which half you want would be much better for variety. Or am I missing something?

I’ve also compiled a list of other balance suggestions which I think need to be addressed to make more units and commanders see play (many of these have already been suggested):

Pioneers vs Combat Engineers
Pios beat Combat Engis close, the CE win at long range, and probably have the slight upper hand at mid-range. Maybe slight advantage CE, but then the pioneers MP40s tend to mesh better with the flamethrower upgrade than the CE rifles. I’d say they’re pretty even, so I don’t see why CE cost 40 MP more?

German Mines
German mines kinda blow, or rather they don’t, because no one builds them. They are just too expensive for what they do unless you’re already floating munitions - which is rare as german - and the S-minefield, over and above its cost, takes too long to build. I do like the drag and drop S-minefield idea someone came up with, but I think that'd be a pretty big overhaul for the programmers, versus making a single light mine similar to soviets, or just keeping existing german mines but lowering costs of both to 50 munis or so.

Penal Battalion
Penal battalion needs to be made viable, their combat ability is somewhere in between grenadier/conscript and PGs, and should be priced accordingly. 320 MP and slightly cheaper reinforce should make them see more play (satchels can be devastating if used well).

Support Weapons
The two factions look a lot more balanced now. Prior to the patch, maxim spam was flat out ruining the game, and imo worse than clown car spam simply because it could be accomplished with a lot less micro. I also think the 120mm mortar nerf was justified. German 4 man crews are markedly less flimsy, which was needed, but I don’t think the soviet 82mm nerf was necessary, particularly in light of the double buff to german mortar. Jury still out on the 4-man HMG42.

T-34/76
T-34/76 could use a bit more AT punch, a bit less AI punch, and a bit more armor to differentiate it further from the T70, and make it put up more of a fight against the Pz4. I think in this format, it would also need to cost slightly more as well (though still less than the Pz4, as it would still lose to Pz4 head to head). And as a few people have said, make ram a vet 1 ability, or cost a good chunk of munitions, so its seen less often. It’s pretty tacky seeing the workhorse of the soviet army being used as nothing other than a battering ram.

Stug III
Increase range to 60 to make it a dedicated tank destroyer and actually see some use. Stug should be the slightly cheaper, inferior SU85 where the T34 is the slightly cheaper, inferior Pz4.

Panzer 4
Nerf the fire rate of its main cannon slightly (like 10-15%) and make it slightly more expensive (maybe 360 MP / 130 fuel).

Brummbar
Way too expensive for what it does. Currently the ostwind kills infantry just as fast (albeit less initial burst), is way more mobile, a tech tier lower, and much cheaper. Might not be historically accurate, but I’d think increasing range and fire rate in conjunction with a slight cost decrease (470/150ish) would all be needed to make the brummbar see any use at all. It should be the poor man's ISU-152, instead its just outclassed by ostwind and KV-8 which cost 320/115 and 370/135 respectively.

SU-85
Same deal as Panzer 4, too effective for its cost. If T-34 was buffed, Su-85 could be fixed simply by lowering its reverse speed, reducing splash vs infantry and making a bit more expensive (360/130 or so, similar to Pz4 price).

Heavy Tanks
In their current iterations, I think pricing along these lines would be more appropriate to balance bang-for-buck against non-doctrinal tanks:

IS-2 520/220 (sure it is a good meatshield tank with strong AI, but all told I think this is the least useful heavy, why is it most expensive??)
Tiger 540/225 (good generalist heavy tank, slightly overpriced currently)
Elefant 580/240 (best AT in the game, could be a bit cheaper)
ISU-152 600/250 (not as sturdy as the Elefant, but long range anti-everything, definitely the best overall heavy imo).

Obviously there is a personal bias in all of these suggestions, and most are not new, but I think taken in conjunction they would make for a COH2 in which more unit combinations would see play, increasing the longevity and fun factor of the game. Any thoughts / discussion would be great (especially on the soviet tech tier situation).