Profile of wongtp

should the t34/85 get smoke canisters off the bat? would make them alot more survivable when doing a flank, makes some sense since they did get outfitted with smokes in the later models.

for their price and their role, i think a get-away ability isnt all that unreasonable.

i watched the replay. i think you were too unflexible in your play, too reliant on getting up the panzer4 asap. im no pro, here's what i felt.

you played like any other at start, grens and mg42s. lmg42 upgrades, fast tech to t2, rifle nades and the standard response to the m3, the armoured car, not much i can comment, it is as predictable as can be and i would have done the same.

but guards and m3 threw off your play, armoured car was no longer a shock unit, it had to be redelegated to the guarding points or risk being taken out by guards AT rifle drive bys. the moment you saw that, it was a pretty much 'o shit, i need something better to counter that' and naturally, the 1st thing to your mind was a panzer4.

you hard rushed a panzer 4, yet it didnt take long for the panzer 4 to hit a mine and had to stop for repairs, which meant it was no longer a shock unit and had to be used like a medium tank thereafter.

once the su85 was out, it didnt take long for ur opponent to capitalize on his advantage which was to stop your next most dangerous asset, your infantry. then 2 snipers came out and it was an uphill battle for you, leading to a loss naturally.

that is where i thought, you pumped so much resources into getting out what you thought could decide the match there and then, yet only to later know that it was long predicted by your opponent, who had mines planted to stop flanks, which did hit jackpot, delayed a potentially dangerous panzer4 rush and bought more time for the su85 to hit and position itself on the field.

even when the su85 was out, you didnt stop building tanks and continued to pump out panthers and ostwinds. losing that rocket arty was just bad luck/micro, you had ur attention else where.

here's what i thought the problem was

1) t1 -> AC -> panzer4 is a cookie cutter strategy. any soviet player worth their salt would have saw that coming since yesterday, which he did and prepared accordingly.

2) failing to recognize t1 + guards would mean total reliance on soviet rifle infantry, there will be no support teams/shock troops hindering panzergrens from closing up and mopping up. ppsh conscripts are still no match for panzergrens and grenadier mixes. here was where i thought ur play was inflexible, hard pushing that panzer4 was a mistake, delaying it for panzergrenadiers and exploiting ur enemy's apparent infantry weakness would have won you map control and delaying that su85.

3) grenadier micro. although u were successful in dodging most of the molotovs, you had a grave habit of moving ur grenadiers too much, resulting in them not firing their lmg42 while ppshes were free to put on the dps. rifle nades were effective, almost too damn effective, which saved you from total conscript domination. again, early panzergrens would have meant the left was free for you to take. i would have dodged the initial molotov, then left the grens on attack move so they would immediately fire off their lmg42.

to be honest, if construction times was to be reduced for soviet, it probably wouldnt destroy balance at all.

the acquisition of troops and counters are still limited by manpower. but soviets now have the additional burden of unnecessarily long build times only serve to screw up timing of counters arriving into the field, while the german army have the map advantage because the appropriate counter from soviets takes longer to arrive.

i'm sure there are many soviet players, floating 400mp while waiting for the building to finish because they need a mortar more than another conscript.

as for mid-late game flexibility, soviet tiering is a mess. t3 and t4 gives access to units that are designed to support each other, yet now they are pretty much mutually exclusive, since the buildings are so prohibitively expensive.

also, despite the insane cost of these 2 buildings, there's no counterpart that the german army dont have. in fact, the well structure of german army means they can probably get access to them all cheaper and with the advantage of being above to build heavy tanks like the panther and sturmpanzer which there is no soviet equal.

does it feel like nade range are too far? throwing nades was kinda tricky since you had to run up to the enemy and it was quite obvious that nades are going to be thrown so it was easy to dodge.

but now that nades animations are so fast, thrown over long distances and explodes like a nuke, popping them here and there is a good idea to get rid of infantry fast.

Where is your artillery? Why aren't you using against stationary Ost during your advance? You should have a mortar or zis by this point, or else your snipers/penals can face up LMG infantry.

The PTRS is very effective against light vehicles, the DP with its button ability buys crucial seconds for your heavy AT (zis/su85) to close the deal against medium/heavy tanks. I don't particularly see a problem with this.

By contrast, PG shreks are high damage, expensive weapons on a fragile 4-man unit. Their AI effectiveness is severely hampered by the upgrade. They create no-go zones for light vehicles, much in the same way that guards do, but they are vulnerable against medium and heavy tanks.

In light of this, the T34/85 seems best suited, with its delicate aim, to supporting the SU85 by picking off infantry at range during late-game battles, while still possessing the resilience to close with and stall the panther when you need to seal the deal. Expensive, yes; Albeit less-so than the panther. And battles at that stage can easily mean win or defeat.

Nice thing about the T34/85 ability as it exists right now is that the Sov do not need T3. They work beautifully in conjunction with T4, rounding it out neatly. They possess a great deal of shock value - enough to wipe a squad or two when they first hit the field. I don't think they should be the first or the only tank a soviet force dispatches.

whatever thunderhum said.

my mortar will be busy firing on mg42s and missing them, probably the same for ZiS. penals are as squishy as conscripts and do not out dps grenadiers. rifle nades easily tip the scales into the grenadier's favour, similar to guards+dp28 vs LMG.

button vehicle is doctrinal and soviet real AT is unwieldy, slow and defensive. flimsy and have clear hard counters. to be effective, these guys have to be constantly supported by infantry who would give them the sight needed to be used properly. losing infantry support usually means death for AT guns/su85 who can easily be flanked and circled by advancing tanks.

ptrs are only effective against light armor but offer no real help to medium tanks. due to their low base damage, alpha striking with guards is almost impossible against an alert player who can easily move out of range before serious damage can be done.

compared to their german panzergrens, schrecks are effective tank killers, unlike what you say, they create a no-go zones for light/medium tanks and are great support for heavy tanks due to the insanely high damage/penetration values. what is most important is the units that they support. german tanks are often heavily armoured, armed with machine guns and powerful guns, penetrating soviet tanks with ease and occasionally mowing down infantry and have good mobility. they can quickly get to position and react to threats as quickly. the best part? they are largely independent and remain effective even after losing infantry support.