Profile of sevenfour

I said it before and I`ll say it again. Either set a limit of having max 1 sniper squad on the field at any given time -OR- make soviet sniper doctrinal. Multiple sov snipers strategies are ruining the game since its release.

No.

suggestion: limit of having max 1 sniper squad on the field at any given time

And Soviet T1 was never seen again. Sniper is literally the only long-term investment in the tier, penals are just bad at any point in time and M3 only has value within the first few minutes of the game. A single sniper and M3 is not worth skipping out on ZiS and maxims.

Which would be a good impulse for giving penals some love that they deserve anyway. I didn`t mention penals (and other things) since my post was long enough anyway.

BTW you basically state that the only reason for building tier 1 is going for multiple sniper BS. While I mostly agree, that in itself is a problem, isn`t it? And my suggestion is a first step towards solution (even though primarily aimed at solving different issue).

Puma is the only reliable OKW opening vs certain strategies like vehicle rushes, fighting position on cut-off etc. At the same time it is easily counterable, guards make it go away, ZiS obviously, US AT infantry, Stuart can ambush and kill it with its super long stun. I don`t really see the problem and if the puma gets nerfed I think it`s gonna make certain strategies too powerful against OKW. I don`t like free-get-out-of-jail abilities though so I could see smoke being moved to vet 1 so you have to earn it before you start cheating death.

The soviet faction doesn`t need a complete redesign but needs some kind of changes to limit the cheesiness and allow for a straight-up combined-arms play. The biggest cheese that needs adressing is imo multiple snipers into call-ins. It not only presents a balance issue but also produces passive, boring and frustrating gameplay - on both sides I might add. The biggest obstacle in the way of straight-up play is imo a lack of effective regular infantry force since conscripts don`t cut it currently.

I propose two possible solutions.

First:

Simply set a limit of having max 1 sniper squad on the field at any given time. 1 sniper can add a flavour to the game without making it completely sniper-centric and eliminating most of regular infantry skirmishes.

At the same time make conscripts a bit more effective and scalable at least into mid game. They need to be able to better hold their own in combined arms situations against other factions.


Second:

This one is a bit more creative which means a bigger change that is obviously harder to implement. It limits the soviet cheesiness while preserving multiple snipers playstyle and improves soviet infantry situation without adressing conscripts performance directly.

I suggest moving sniper out of tier 1 and into Urban Defense Tactics commander instead of incendiary artillery. Same cost, same stats, 1CP, multiple snipers allowed. I think it would synergize well with the rest of the abilities and create a unique commander. Going for multiple snipers would now entail opportunity costs because the doctrine would be strong early/mid game but would not offer any call-in armor or elite infantry besides snipers.

At the same time Irregulars would be finally made relavant to the game. They would move to tier 1 and would be changd in stats and cost to provide soviets with long-range non-doctrinal non-elite infantry. They would fill a similar role to wehr grenadiers, they might even get a muni upgrade (weapon or ruvivability) to improve they scalability. They should of course not be an exact copy of grens, they should just fill a similar role. They should not get any AT snare ability imo and should be pretty bad at close range, that`s where conscripts come in to fill the gap. I`ll leave the exact picture of the new irregulars to your imagination. (Lastly the Soviet Reserve Army commander would get whatever instead of irregulars, lets say guards or shocks or DShK but it doesn`t matter.)