Profile of sluzbenik

Oh nice tip Killhon, didn't know that!

I'm not going to comment on all of this, but nerfing Molotovs is only one way to make the early game infantry engagements a bit more balanced.

As I see it now, the problem is there is essentially no penalty for mass flanking. Unlike in vCOH, I rarely see cons going down to 2-3 men from mass flanks. Meanwhile, toss a few Molotovs, force a mass retreat, and you're looking at far heavier MP loss on the Ostheer side, and that problem of assymetrical MP drain where Ostheer ends up losing squads easier and is the side being more severely drained as the game progresses is not what I think the designers had in mind.

The more powerful push units from T2 (Pgren, HT) don't benefit from veterancy at all, because by the time they get it, tanks that can one-shot them easily are probably on the field, not to mention the power of the Soviet sniper against vet units.

So just keep an open mind, there are other things they could do - for instance decrease barbed wire build time, put the scout car in T1 so Ostheer has a blocking unit like the vCOH bike, allow an S-mine patch to be built with less than 60 muni in the bank, or rebuff time to supress on the MGs. I'd love to use barbed wire to help stop flanks, but it's too far too slow to build.

Personally, my preference is for a Molotov nerf, just because I find dodging Molotovs all game unfun, tedious and a microtax that severely limits my ability to multitask successfully. Basically I always feel like if I don't have all my units on screen I have to pick the engagement I really need to win so I successfully dodge the nade.

Either go back to one rank or keep them separated totally. There is just no incentive to play random now. I am one of those freaks who enjoys random 2v2. It's a nice stress free casual mode that plays competitively with no worries about disappointing your partner, and you can always blame a loss on your random noob...

Holding your own without T2 against shocks is tough.

Then the IS-2 comes out and starts one-shotting everything.

Then you...finally...get...a Tiger Ace.

It's ridiculous how easy it is for a Panther to simply blitz or just reverse out of an attack and the Soviets are hardpressed to pursue. Pretty much it makes attacking Soviet positions a giant Vet maker for German tanks and once they hit Vet 2 they become almost unstoppable...

The really fun part is that it gets vet from all that damage taken and thus blitzkrieg makes it much less likely you'll catch it again. Another of Relic's brilliant design decisions. It was hilarious in beta, you could accumulate vet faster by getting units in bad situations and retreating at the last minute than you could from fighting on equal terms.