Profile of Puppetmaster

OSF:

I think Rifles in general need slight adjustment, more so the commander giving vet rifles for the same price. Should probably just put it back to being a unit you build from tier 1 with increased build time. Maybe push it to 1CP? The LMG's need some sort of change as well, though I'm not sure how.

M15, maybe just swap it with the AT gun and put it in T2. Extra fuel for the captain should help delay it a bit, not to mention your AI power is reduced by having no LT.

Jackson and needs its target priority fixed.

OKW:

I think Volks could use a bit of a buff, maybe give them a slight boost without any vet, but don't gain quite as much when they do vet up. Helps with the early game but mid and late game remain unchanged. Imo they are more useful mid and late game compared to conscripts because of shrecks but salvage is also pretty useful.

I think that Obers, Panzerfusiliers and maybe Falls should receive some nerfs with their Vet 5. They just become monsters when they get that. It's not uncommon for me to have a Panzerfusilier squad with 100+ kills at the end of a long game. Early on they can struggle vs rifles (officer helps a lot tho) but there comes a point where they just stomp all over everything, because they do so much damage with G43's.

Kubel doesnt need changing imo, except for the awful pathing but this is something that is an issue with many vehicles in the game.

Jagdpanzer is fine to be honest. When micro'd well it does really nice damage and becomes pretty hard to kill. I much prefer it to the SU-85 by a long way. Had a monster game with one the other day

Click Me: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/chris998/2014-07-17_00008_zps1c2c093a.jpg


Economy wise, I don't have an issue with it. Sure they have reduced resources but they have very strong infantry excluding Volks (which are still ok lategame with shrecks). Being able to swap between Muni and fuel I find very useful. I love salvage, some extra fuel as well as denying your enemy support weapons.

I think the Stuka HT needs to have its rockets behave like the Panzerwerfer, so instead of a straight line it is more scattered. Maybe unlock creeping barrage at a vet level.

Sturmpios should stay the same. Yes they are pretty powerful and do very nice damage at all ranges, but its a big loss if they die early on. Loss of firepower (that volks can't really make up for) and the loss of a repair unit as well as being expensive to replace.

I think the Sturmtiger needs adjusting. I never build one because of how unreliable it can be. Having it explode against fences instead of vs the target sucks big time and for me makes it a waste of resources and pop cap.


Soviets:

I think conscripts and penals need to be separate more in their roles, as they are too close right now. I would like to see Ppsh become a core ability to unlock / research to help conscripts scale into the late game. Ppsh has become a fair bit more useful since it was buffed slightly.

I think SU76 should be swapped with T70. T3 gains some long range light - medium AT. I think the SU-76 could use a small penetration buff though, as its all but useless against heavy armour. T70 in T4 would give some AI capability as well as providing a scout for the SU-85. Should make teching instead of relying on call ins a bit more attractive.

I also wonder whether T-34/85 should be removed as a commander ability and instead some form of upgrade, to once again encourage the use of T3 instead of just call in spam.

Maxims is a tricky one. They probably need slight adjustment but I can't help but feel that maxim spam only exists vs OKW because of how weak their core infantry are vs OKW. I dunno, but any change needs to be carefully thought out.


Wehrmacht:

I've barely played them since WFA release so cannot really comment

For what its worth, I've played most of my post WFA games as OKW.

Dane, are you able to cast games over an hour long? I Have (I think) a cracking 2v2 game.

I was expecting this to a be lolcake thread (thank god for that).

PPsh conscripts are much more useful since the weapon profile was adjusted and it made them able to hit things that were not standing right in front of them. I've found several of them to be pretty useful when attacking obers, oorah in and focus fire as their dps at point blank is pretty decent. I think it probably could do with being a standard upgrade rather than doctrinal. Helps them become useful in the lategame.

SU-76 is a wierd one. It can do quite nice damage due to its range and rof but imo is lacking penetration. Struggles with heavy armour quite badly. Barrage ability is really nice though. I feel a penetration increase would see this unit used more but I think it should remain the way it is health / armour wise.

SU-85 is a tricky one. If you overbuff it (like normal) then its a big problem. If its hard to kill it can just "sit" there and beat on axis armour. I've not really used it in WFA so I only have experience of fighting against it.

My closing thoughts are that as of now the Soviet's are forced to select commanders based on weak non-doctrinal units. Addressing some of the issues in the core factions design would go a long way in breaking the current meta of predictable commander selection.

To be honest the Soviets have been like this the entire game. It was one of the big differences with Soviets vs wehrmacht because you already had a strong core army, commanders were just used as a little bit extra, rather than being very important with Soviets.

I too, am tired of building Maxim's and T34/85's call in's. As a player I would like to be able to build more combined arms armies without being punished for it late game.

Call ins can get pretty boring whether you are playing Axis vs Allies. How would you feel about removing the T-34/85 from commanders and instead being some form of upgrade from T-34/76's? Their stats could be adjusted to allow for them being a core unit available to all but would reduce people just call in spamming (atleast for them) and "force" players to build T3/T4.

Strafe has been rendered kind of useless with OKW in games, I find it only gets 1 or 2 strafes off before its shot down by OKW Flak stuff (Flak ht and base defenses) which is pretty frustrating.

Am I the only one that doesn't really care how fast or slow I get bulletins and commanders? Sure it would be nice to have all the commanders but I still really enjoy the game without them. Its not as if you can only win with unlock able commanders nor do bulletins make that much of a difference. I play the game to have fun. I'm guessing a fair few people here have not played MMO's where everything isn't handed to you on a plate and you have to dedicate time to getting stuff (Vanilla Wow anyone?)

This thing is surely the most useless thing in the game

For a bad player of course it is. For anyone with an ounce of skill it is very useful. Can force off early engagements and when coupled with a Sturmpioneer, is easily capable of inflicting lots of kills or even wiping squads. If micro'd well it can even be useful mid - late game as well. Vet 1 ability is really handy also.