I realise it was gonna take too long (see spoiler) so i'll stick with a shorter list.
SU:
Conscripts cheap/free hoorah, flare spam, sandbag spam, clowncar sniper (not really but it was fun if you were not on the receiving end) or more realistic double clowncar been a thing and the following fight of guard clowncar vs 222. Wombo combo of old button + IL2
OH:
Pio spam, MG42 suppression bulletin (if you were not on the receiving end), vet2 flamer HT, close air support doctrine (due to the fact that i prefer seeing single strafe runs), spamming Opel blitz strafe of doom run on clownfiesta 4v4 games. PD: vet2 spotting scope 222
OKW:
Kubeljesus. JPIV on medic HQ. Truck push (not crush), Scavenge auto win barrage against USF (just for the lulz). Resource conversion, been able to autodestroy truck. Did i say Kubeljesus? Anyway OPness MG34.
USF:
Rifles defensive stance 1919s, OP RE suppressive fire, M20 against Schreck Volks, popcap abuse on Priest, Paratrooper and Barfinders been a thing.
I miss when Penals were a alt to conscripts, where more expensive to train but cheaper to reinforce, were't AT squads, had flamethrowers that would not explode, threw bombs that could wipe Axis MG spams or squads they weren't paying heed too/Stupid MG bunker or building MG spam.
That was never the case. Conscripts were always 20 to reinforce. Old Penals cost like PG and follow the same rule of reinforce as other units. What you could do was merge but still, on 3 years till they buff them, no one used Penal based strats. Flamethrower exploding randomly was stupid, and once that was applied to all squads, there was basically no point in their favour. NEW penals with flamethrowers was OP, but mainly due to Guards been affordable/OP and T70 been a game ending unit.
You're playing placement games against people who aren't ranked, or around rank 2000. Everything in this game is OP is your opponent doesn't know how to counter it properly.
THis is a poor example, even so think about what you are saying about Penals being able to go toe to toe against VOlks, professionally trained soldiers from OKW. I have tested pios vs volks both behind heavy cover and guess who still wins?
Ex convicts going up against 2 professional squads.
Since beta to the present, Penals were actually "Elite" stock units. Sorry to burst the bubble but: (copy paste from old post)
TL;DR: don't make Enemy at the Gates your source of historical facts.
The time it takes for PEnal battalion to come out is insignificant, especially when they force me to stop capping in order to deal with them. In order to beat them early I have to use all units, I think you are ignoring the complains that volks cannot win against them even at long rage.
So everything I cap early can be uncapped if he is winning every engagement and forcing my car to be at every engagement as well
0.1- I don't think they removed xp kickers so if you want to try hard, you should be looking at the enemy base at the beginning of the game in order to see if he opens with a tier or not (in case of soviets).
1- Opening without conscripts into T1 - Penals means that either he has to waste time building T1 with his first CE or he goes 2 CE which also means absolutely no initial fighting power whatsoever. Going a single Con first, delays Penals.
2- As OKW (in general as well), if you are capping in order from your most close flag to your base, you are doing it wrong. The whole point of starting with a SP is to be able to get into advantageous positions in order to ambush, deny a building or force an early retreat on enemy RE/CE.
3- I wouldn't go Kubel against either Soviets/Brits unless it's a really big map but if you do, you can use it to cap close flags and then make a push combining 3 units (Volk) against their possible 1/2.
Correct me if i'm wrong but UKF was getting owned on 1v1 but completely broken on 2v2+ onwards.
Don't remember what changed but later they got viable, specially with AEC spam.
You mean day one where they had to face instant pinning RE blobs?
1v1 they had always issues against maxim spam but no so much against USF (unless stupid original Rifle company). OKW was the most broken faction for 2v2+. Notable mention on Scavenge cheese against USF (save 500 munition and you win because you kill USF base).
If you survived the first 5/10 mins against clowncar/T70 rush, it was GG. Triple schreck bulletin helped with the spam. Fortifications was the most broken commander you could pick behind getting a JT. EZ PZ going MG34 (which was an overtuned cheaper MG42), Pak43 into KT.
paper and reality are different things:
- IS-2 on paper the best tank in the game, in fact the worst
- 82-mm on paper is better than 120-mm, in fact worse.
all that makes 82-mm is to scratch units, if he killed more than 15 people for the whole game - you are a lucky man, the Wehrmacht mortar does not make less than 30 kills per game (this mortar - op, it wipes out a full squad of 5/6 people), 120-mm make about 20 kills and yesterday he helped me by hitting on Pz-4, destroyed his main gun.
OP or not, 120mm is used a lot in team games at least. XP requirement might be high, but it's basically unwipeable (6-man crew, 1 man retreat). It also has huge range, and the biggest issue (or thing going for it, whichever way you look at it), each of it's shot is like a stuka dive bomb so you get a lot of squad wipes.
IS2 is not the best tank in stats, i'll say it has been the T3485 for a while. IS2 is expensive and doesn't fulfil a role against the units it's gonna be facing to warrant using it. It also is part of only 2 commanders which have fallen from the meta for quite a long time.
Been able to survive with 1 man is a nice feature but it's drawback is the time it takes to reposition. Damage wise, it might bring a bit more of a surprise factor but it's more of the "animation and fx" rather than it's actual damage.
What i'll agree is that it's ease of use make it comfortable for a deploy and forget weapon with the extra 20 range, but i don't think it makes it worthwhile having such a slow RoF for cost. Take into consideration that once mortars vet, the barrage at vet 3 has more range than the 120mm mortar till it gets to vet 3 as well.
Since like 2+ years ago that they removed the OP precision strike and nerf on damage, i haven't seen the appeal on the 120mm when it cost 330mp against the more cheaper 240mp normal versions.
Nerf the AA range to 80, keep the barrage at 100, reduce vet requirements (which are absurd) and give it some flavour (anti-emplacement, better anti garrison?) cause for it cost, i'll rather have a 330mp OH mortar TBH.
I find it amusing at least that the 120mm which hasn't been changed (IIRC), and been argueable worst than the 82mm (consider the worst mortar or it might be the USF one atm) it is now suddenly OP.
Old post which might still apply.
Unless there's a ninja change somewhere or i'm missing a change, if you can barely micro your mortar, the default 82mm should be better, specially if you use barrage and vet 0 flares.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, CoH and CoH 2 were made for fun, tactical, semi realistic, fun. They were never meant to be competitive StarCraft type games, and never will be. Continuing to balance CoH 2, DoW 3 and any future games in this direction will lead to their ultimate bankruptcy because whatever they do, they will not be able to cater to the MOBA fan base.
A game doesn't need to be "complex" and micro intensive in order to be competitive. People willing to fight against each other and people wanting to WATCH it makes a competitive scene healthy (ex. take a look at the stance of Nintendo and Smash).
Besides whatever your opinion on COH2 is, it was a success BUT i'll say it could had even be greater if not for some serious glaring issues which kept showing from time to time. The sales were there, same with number of people playing. The problem here is that sometimes people here don't want to realise that:
-RTS is a NICHE GENRE. Old are the days of the golden ERA were RTS was one of the most popular genres.
-Fast food games > Complexity. Even as something as hardcore as Cuphead, has a simple entry barrier.
-No one can cater to the MOBA fan base, because RTS are not MOBAs. You can't change the complexity execution (macro wise, it's more simple to manage a single unit with a complex button array than multitasking), stress factors and reward feeling from RTS to make it more likeable to MOBA players.
If anything, Relic should take a look at what Blizzard did with SC2, but not in the PvP aspect, but rather on the PvE and non competitive modes. IMO the arcade, archon and specially the co-op are amazingly done even if i don't play it, cause from the financial part, this is where the most players are coming from.
Co-op is something which has been abandoned (Theatre of War) and something which should had been the main cash bag, at least commander wise (instead of messing with it in the multiplayer). Archon mode (2 people controlling a single army) could be something interesting to play with, specially if you could pair a "good" lone player vs a duo of lesser skill ones.