Profile of The_Courier

The only scene in the campaign that made me faceplam a bit was in the first and fifth missions, when they showed the cliché human wave running at Machine Guns with a rifle for two men, and then Maxim users gunning down retreating soldiers. Straight out of Enemies at the Gates and pretty stupid (albeit some say it did happen).

The rest, however? Scorched Earth policy happened. Sacrificing units to let other retreat happened. Penal batallions happened (albeit I doubt they carted SVT-40 rifles around, but w/e), hell they didn't even show the ''tramplers'' squads that were forced to walk through minefields.. Being dicks to Partisans happened, especially in Poland. Punishing/executing disobeying soldiers happened. War crimes happened in droves (they don't even show civilians in the game, but by jove I'm pretty sure the Red Army gave 0 fucks about any German civilian caught in a Katyusha barrage or somesuch). The war was extraordinarily brutal, even more than on the Western front, and Relic chose to depict this reality. Only real exageration they made is extending Order 227 to the entire timeframe; it ceased to be in effect a few months after its inception IIRC because even Russians don't gratuitously shoot their own.

In fact, the campaign insists on the fact that the soldiers themselves were a pretty damn brave and heroic bunch, and only depicts 2 officiers, random commissars and Stalin himself as being gigantic assholes (which seems pretty accurate to me, certainly on the Stalin part). The mission where the rank-and-file mobilize to save the protagonist was pretty great, but then the officier is a dick and orders executions. If someone honestly finds this russophobe, then they need some sort of reality check. And even then, the point of the story is that everyone who has seen these things was horrified, and the Colonel ends up shooting himself in the head over it. How in hell does this dehumanize the Soviets in any way?

I mean, even COH1 hardly sugar-coated stuff. The campaign had numerous instances of lives being thrown away or people dying for nothing; not due to incompetent/dickish officiers but still. Able suffers a 80% casualty rate over the course of the campaign. Hell the Germans were more sympathetic in that game, being seen as helpless targets of artillery and being protagonists in Opposing Fronts.

Also that petition is silly and incredibly dishonest. I'm French, and COH1 never showed any hint of the French resistance even though it was prety active during that time. I didn't throw a hissy fit over it or bomb any Metacritic rating (of all friggin things). It just wasn't part of the story. Relic never claimed to be representative of the entire WW2 within one game. They never claim that they are doing a historical documentary. They're telling a story, and that story is mostly based on facts. I mean, if I was to start a petition every time some idiot American made a comment about how the French only know how to surrender, I'd have thousands of the things running. Some people need to grow a thick skin it seems, and leave their overblown patriotism at the door when they play a damn game or go to a forum.

I'd say the Soviet Sniper is no good in 1v1 either - it's harder to kill but it fires less and is harder to camo.

So it balances out in the end.

The fire rate balances itself because German squads are smaller. So the only real difference is the 2 men vs better camo. And I think 2 men is a much bigger advantage, primarily because it makes countersniper almost impossible. So Germans have to find another counter against Soviet snipers because their own won't cut it. There are counters, but until they're fielded you have to suck it up and hope you don't lose too many men. This is reflected in my actual experience, as I very rarely see a German sniper but Soviets ones appear with more regularity. Not as often as in vCOH, which is a good thing given how godmode they were in that game.

Only time I would seriously field a German sniper is against an opponent that goes T2 + shock troops, as the MP bleed is significant and he has no direct counter. The Soviet sniper on the other hand is buildable and viable in most situations.

Very bad idea, unless the Stug is massively buffed to allow it to directly compete against the SU-85. Otherwise SU-85s will hard counter the entire German T3 and a good bit of T4 as well. PAKs and shrecks simply don't cut it unless the Soviet player sucks.

PIV is essential right now because it can tacle a variety of targets. Ostwind suck against armor. Stugs suck period. You need something that can punch holes in tanks in T3, which the StuG simply cannot do right now. So people go for the PIV.

As for nerfing the Panzerwerfer, what? It's also very costly and not really good as well. Germans need more indirect fire but nerfing their only arty is not the answer. Like, at all.

In other words, your suggestion is bad and you should feel bad.

firefly with command tank do can spot for themselves.

Yeah well that's not really a point, since the command tank is a unit, acting as something of a spotter. It would be like the SU-85 requiring (say) a SU-76 near it to use its vision cone. Would be fine by me, as it means you have a clear target to cripple the offending tank destroyer. As it is, the SU-85 only needs to activate the ability and have one infantry squad nearby to prevent flanks/provide vision and it's invincible to anything short of a mass attack, superior micro or an Elefant.

PAKs are too slow and vulnerable to be a counter. StuGs get eaten alive. Shrecks/fausts don't move fast enough. P4 needs to be vet 1 and flank. Panther only wins in favourable circumstances. PAK 43 beats it but it's doctrinal, stationary and vulnerable. I think it should beat a StuG (but not quite so handily), beat a P4 unless superior micro is involved, and lose to a Panther unless superior micro is involved.

people need to understand that not every game, people use HTD/PPSH doctrine.

conscripts need lower reinforcement costs and a late game upgun option. im actually in favor of a SVT-40 package upgrade from HQ when T3 or T4 is up. this is to help them be more effective late game against german infantry.

reasons as explained, conscripts are fine early game, but have no place late game especially without HTD/PPSH upgrade as they do not output enough dps to stop panzergrens from rolling a bunch of them.

2ndly, they lose alot of models due to the fact of 1 armour value. this alone should justify the reduction in reinforcement costs.

in comparison, grenadiers scale well into late game with LMG42. although its unlocked early in the game, only stupid german players will get it early in the game, its a mid game option against infantry swarms and especially lethal on vetted grenadiers. they have a better armor value = more survivability. they comes in a 4 man squad, lowering AOE damage and reducing chances of squad AI bunching up.

honestly grenadiers are great at where they are now, they are the best generalist infantry in the game. place them in cover and firing, they will outdo anyone less than a shocktrooper and of course, they mustnt get hit by nades and yes they are great against guards in cover.

They're still usable through merging (a powerful ability economics-wise), capping, AT nading and flanking weaker enemies (PAKs, any Mg still alive, Panzerwerfers, ect.). Grenadier's fausts in comparison become worthless because the battlefield becomes way too lethal, and as you say they can only stand in cover and shoot since they lack the Hussein Bolt button that makes conscripts so good and versatile. Provided the Soviet hasn't yet fielded the myriads of units that can stop such things dead in their track (T70s, SU-76s, Katyushas, snipers especially if vetted, T-34s, Shock Troops all handily counter grens). I rarely have even vetted grens be useful late-game; they're just too fragile. Like Conscripts, they fall out hard but have less utility to fall back on. Basic infantry becoming less powerful late game is completely normal and is definitely not unique to conscripts. At least PPShs and HtD scales well into the late-game; the only German equivalent, G43s, is barely an upgrade over the LMG, and is arguably a downgrade for PGrens.

I also find Guards with DP-28s will beat grens, and even PGrens sometimes. Soviet has access to elite infantry that's superior to the German's, so it seems normal that conscripts fall off more if they aren't upgraded. In VCOH Volks fell out far more than Rifles (assuming veterancy on both sides), but that was compensated by Grenadiers being very powerful with vet.

Now, I agree that doctrines that give no elite infantry for Soviets do suck. But that's a larger balance issue; half the doctrines in the game are near-worthless if you ask me anyway.