Profile of ZombiFrancis

No random faction option.

Also, I think the issue lies more in why people don't want to play Allies over why they do would want to play Axis. People can give reasons all day long why Axis might get some kind of treatment as opposed to another, but it doesn't change the fact that people just don't want to play Allies as an alternative.

That is a real issue.

I know I don't like playing Soviets, and I'm not going to pay any money just to play as Americans. (Or OKW for that matter.)

I've always wished I could zoom out just at least a little bit more in CoH2. It was one of the first things I noticed in beta: that the game seemed much more zoomed in than it's predecessor, and more than seemed comfortable.

It's often a challenge to maneuver any sort of flank without extensive movement of the screen, and this is even on the highest resolution. I feel like this has translated to a strange array of balances, where unit sight and weapon ranges seem oddly short, and flanks are pulled off because players simply didn't see the maneuver rather than being out maneuvered in some fashion.

With everything feeling so strangely boxed in I have found it quite difficult to keep a steady and watchful eye on not only diversion forces, but even the forces being actively maneuvered in a contested zone.

How alone and sadface am I in this sentiment?

Also, the vet 1 mg42 ability is pretty much a free 'advance on this mg position' anytime it's used because the mg has to do the full reload animation before firing which takes like ten seconds. It makes sense at first, but to use it effectively you have to preemptively use it a few seconds before the enemy begins its advance, else you waste munis and watch the timer tick down.

The core design of the Soviet faction is completely undermined in team games, much to the same extent OKW is with Ostheer.

Soviets are designed to be half crippled and half indomitable. Combine that with teamwork, and you're facing a force with no weaknesses. (Without teamwork there's potentially just a meaty mob for killing, but that's regardless of faction.) The whole strategic depth of the all the factions are completely turned on its head outside of 1v1. However, this is most pronounced with the Allied factions, and most obvious with the Soviets.

Ostheer is probably the most complete and balanced faction in it's own right. It has all the units you need to respond to any army makeup before any commander choice. How competent they are at this comes very much down to player skill.

Soviets, on the other hand, are designed around fielding dedicated hard counters. This by default puts them on the back foot against the Axis because it punishes Allied initiative. The same way an Axis player can cripple themselves by building a couple paks in anticipation of a t70 or t34 that never comes, a Soviet player can cripple themselves by choosing the wrong commander or tier building to handle what ze Germans are fielding.

Except the paks don't come at the cost of doctrine choice, nor are they a potential detour in teching/build order. The Soviets get locked in and invest a prohibitive amount of resources towards their choice.

You get rewarded in a good game as Axis. You avoid punishment in a good game as Soviets.

I don't own either the Americans or OKW, so I can't speak too much on either faction. I just have two friends that play OKW frequently that I've seen how Ostheer/OKW teams synergize like crazy.

They already have molotovs and at nades for upgrades.