Profile of MarkedRaptor

Look onto vehicle crews for armor company. And Rifle company should give something to Rifles like how it was originally designed. Not a flare that nobody uses. Something good like smoke grenades or sprint or something.

Rifle company was originally designed to further enhance riflemen and now? It does seem like the commander has an identity crisis. I love the idea of the commander giving riflemen their smoke back, but that's my bias talking.

I'll try it when I a get a chance but by reading it I'm really impressed. A lot of useless abilities/replicant got replaced with some fun or interesting things to try. I can only comment on the armies I've played recently (Ostheer/USF). Though counter-battery removal and flare removal are highlights for me.

Ostheer
Personally I'd like to try out some of the new Ostheer commanders, especially the new G43's and try some aggro Ostheer. Seems like they wanted to really get rid of the Lefh/ML-20 on more commanders that didn't thematically really need them. Stug E has smoke now too which can help Assault Grens close the gap with MG's. I agree with the theory of the Command Tank that technically it's purpose should be a support platform and not a shock unit, but I'd argue if we had to pick between the two abilities, the light artillery barrage would just be used far more. Just because most ostheer tanks/at weapons already have a high chance of penetrating allied tanks. Sure if you found yourself in a panther vs comet fight it could give you the edge, but that ability waited a long time finally see use. Basically it just reduces rng chances in a tank fight on accuracy.

USF

I have a hard time arguing with any these change. Rangers always felt like a contradiction with their carbines ranges so seeing them as just "better riflemnen" works out. I like using rifle company so seeing it get love is nice. So the idea is that the e8 is very similar to comet in both AI and AT performance? I thought when I used the mortar half-track it required vet 1 for white prosperous if I'm wrong please correct me, I just feel like that should be baseline for what you pay. Honestly all these changes help in the scale you guys had, looks great.

And finally at T4 they change sides.

In CoH1 it was a strong commander feature for airborne to be able to spawn paratroopers in someone's backlines during an engagement because their drop speed was really fast. I always figured the next step would be to allow some sort of recall or re-drop feature for the commander that allows them to keep doing it at some cost.

In CoH2, airborne take like 20 seconds to drop, can get shot at, and come in at 3 CP so that ain't happening. Completely misses the mark. The beacon could increase their drop speed or something that'd of been neat.

On topic

I don't agree with removal of many mechanics if they can spice up the potential for power plays, game decisions, or health of the game. If they are too powerful then they should have to pay a cost associated with their power.

The issue at a core game design level is that all purchases tend to be small due to how upkeep and manpower gain work. You can't make a big 700 manpower purchase earlier in the game, you bleed too much and have to tech/gain certain squads. So the INFIL Commando call in was OP because of the value you got out of it (Commandos + shock power). So instead of raising the MP cost to something worth it's strength, you can't because you can't save up that kind of manpower reasonably, so theoretically the decision was to reduce the amount of men that come out.

In reality, the strength should of stayed intact imo, and charged a secondary currency such as Munitions(Seems to be the trend for utility) or even fuel along with it. That way there is a cost but not such a gross MP cost that no one can afford and you are using your resources more strategically. Or alternatively some sort of "MP Loan" where you pay an MP cost, then have to pay even more over a certain duration via taxing your MP.

My suggestion would actually be to make the infiltration squads come out at full power, but with a delay equivalent to a build time.

I like this idea too, where you click a building for commandos to spawn from and then they begin "infiltrating" aka taking time to spawn in the building (Like 1 minute), and then if you click the ability on the building again when they are "done infiltrating" they spawn. That encourages the game mechanic rather then pushing it to the side. I'm not sure the game has tech for these kinds of decisions though.

Infantry commander commander is better at dealing with Track/LeFH than calliopes so if people do not use infatry commander they do have little trouble dealing with truck and LeFH so moving TOT to another commander should cause any issues.

Vippers, in your ideal world how exactly is a USF supposed to counter an LEFH or even the trucks? If your opponent puts up his trucks, there should be an inherent risk of it dying. He should not get out of jail free cards for taking a risk. Infantry Company imo isn't really that good anymore, and forcing him to lock in that choice would require

A. That he KNOWS you are going Lefh artillery gun.
B. That he KNOWS you locked in a commander of that choice.
C. That the match and situation will play out to his advantage.

If he does not instantly lock in infantry company, he is not building sandbags nor using early game tools of that commander. If he did choose that commander he made the sacrifice of not having elite infantry/tanks for later on in the game. Also Also the major has to use planes to even spot the Lefh (using teammates should not be a discussion) and then drop 4 bars worth of munitions on it.


On the USF commanders

The problem with USF commanders now, is that they were made at a time when USF purposely had holes in their army or playstyle to balance out the advantages they had inherently.

They could not build mines/sandbags = Field Training
They had no mortar = Mortar Halftrack
They had no indirect Fire = Priest

So Infantry Company provided that. Airborne provided you with elite troops, scouts, and allowed you to "skip" trees.

Now with a lot of their strengths gutted and re-balanced their commanders (and faction) just feel weird to me. They don't serve any strategic choice that commanders should provide or playstyle changes (see my profile image for ostheer change in playstyle).

I guess the question should be asked is now that they are eradicating holes, is it ok for commmanders to offer diverse playstyles and flavor or are they just sprinkles on top of your faction? Like maybe I would like using a primary force of airborne with pathfinders(not feasible at current strengths and CP requirements) and have a whole playstyle around that. Probably too late in the games life cycle for that kind of changing faction playstyles.

If commanders are supposed to add "sprinkles", USF feels way too incomplete of a faction right now to add flavor to it. Some units straight up have no purpose and are not used, and some just contradict each other. Pretty telling that a large majority of the time going captain is utterly pointless when I felt LT/CAPT was an interesting choice back in the day.

PS: I think Ostheer has some really great commander designs.