Hello!
I'd like to hear your opinions on the current state of the 1v1 meta in terms of faction strengths. Having not played for a while, with some time opening up in the near future to jump on to the battlefield, I want to get an overview about the current state of the game.
What are the strengths & weaknesses of each faction? This is supposed to be a very general overview. I start with my understanding of the current situation, but bear in mind that this is just a suggestion since I lack the fresh experience.
OSTHEER
Strength: strong medium tanks / very well rounded
Weakness: weak early game
SOVIETS
Strength: strong heavy tanks / strong early game
Weakness: mediocre infantry scaling
USF
Strength: strong early game / best standard infantry (rifles)
Weakness: micro-heavy late game
OKW
Strength: strong late game / high value units
Weakness: slow teching
Again, this is just related to the current 1v1 meta!
What are your observations? Feel free to share your view / correct me! I also added a poll to see which you consider the strongest faction right now.
Cheers.
Yeah, SU is pretty definitely the strongest in the current meta.
The thing with SU is that there is almost no need for teching, with the great synergy of their doctrines, and though conscripts aren't anything special in a straight up fight they have some great utility and and awesome reinforce rate and price. It really allows them to lay the pressure onto their opponents in the early game. It's
entirely viable for an SU player to never build a single base building; they can rely on Guards, PTRS upgrades, or just plain AT grenades to fend off light armor or an early medium tank, and use the extra resources to dominate the map and deny their enemy fuel. Then by the time their starved Axis opponent finally gets some reasonable armor out it's already staring down the barrel of an IS-2 or a pair of T34/85s.
Meanwhile, I'm afraid your idea that OKW has slow teching is inaccurate; it's the OH that really get's screwed when it comes to teching. The need to first research an upgrade and then build a building really slows them down, plus the exorbitant fuel and MP costs which leaves them with a smaller army value compared to their enemies. Once again, many OH players will forsake anything above T2 and just bank for call-ins.
Meanwhile, USF has outstanding early game power just based on the fact that they have the best mainline infantry, hands down. Then you add their cheaper teching and the fact that they actually get something everytime they tech and it's very easy for USF to snowball their early game into a Sherman before their opponent can effectively fight back.
OKW isn't too bad either; their biggest issue is that Volksgrenadiers are absolutely terrible against enemy infantry, and Sturmpioneers can be very fragile and expensive. I'd say that OKW is all about rushing something to take the pressure off in the early game, whether that be a flak halftrack or a well-situated medic truck and an ISG. They also benefit greatly from their teching.
Altogether I think you'll find that the current meta is overwhelmingly dominated by call-ins. It's literally cheaper to bank for call-in armor than it is to actually tech up, and you'll find that most players don't even bother with tech these days, instead relying entirely on the same few doctrines.
You should also consider that there's a major patch coming out soon, and from what I've seen around the forums it's going to seriously shake up the meta, so this is probably a poor time to be asking about it.