Intro
Hello there! Surely, you'd thought that I had run out of ideas by now, however, that's not really the case. Today, I will be taking a look over a certain overlooked (at least in my opinion) doctrine, which recently has received a massive overhaul, mostly for the better, since almost all of the five components had received some buffs in one way or another (well, with one exception, but we will get to it eventually).
Oh yeah. As usual, I should say that I'm a sweat-ass 1v1 player, so what appeals to that mode (or me in general) might not work in your preferred game mode.
What Doctrine Offers
Conscript support, as every sign on earth, heaven and hell suggest, offers more utility to your conscript squads, along with heavy tanks and artillery to support them. And I'd say something more about it, but there's nothing really else, but well, let's just jump into the abilities themselves.
2 CPs - Conscript Assault Package Upgrade. Specific Match Up Of PPSh Cons Againts Cqc German Infantry
The Soviet equivalent of the jaeger infantry upgrade of ostheer's, this upgrade grants the cons 4 smgs, which are inferior to stats of shock troops, however, keep in mind that all non-elite units have inferior stats in terms of their weapons. Anyway, the PPSh that conscripts get are going to mow down almost every early game assault unit, that is MP40 volks, unupgraded assault grenadiers, sturms, and so on.
Here are the results of six engagements between a couple of CQC units (keep in mind that both units are on the other side of the green cover to minimalize RNG as much as possible):
Assault Grenadiers:
If both units are absolutely stock, the PPSh cons beat assault grenadiers in 5 out of 6 cases.
In their upgraded state, assault grenadiers (with veterancy 3) stomp vet 3 PPSh conscripts in all 6 engagements. Keep that in mind, and try to support your cons with something else, like a maxim, vehicle, or additional squads.
Panzer Grenadiers:
In terms of stock Pgrens, we have a clear cut of 3 engagements out of 6 won for PPSh cons.
With units being vet 3, PPSh cons win all 6 engagements. Yes, I'm also surprised. Vetted Pgrens with G43s perform even worse against them.
MP40 volks:
Since MP40 volks of firestorm doctrine are assault grenadiers for OKW (the only difference being a slight RA reduction that assgrens have stock, namely 0,95 in comparison of volk 1 RA), the results are largely the same, with volks killing only one PPSh cons out of 6.
Vetted squads of volks get stomped by PPSh cons in every engagement.
Sturmpioneers:
Spios, even though they have superior SMG to conscripts, also lost 5 engagements to PPSh cons. And guess what, vet 5 sturms also die in all cases! Man, I feel like I'm repeating myself at this point!
Fallschrimjaegers:
Stock falls die to PPSh cons. Vetted and with additional FG42s, falls managed to win once.
STG Obersoldaten:
Unvetted STG Obers come on top of the PPSh cons in 4 out of 6 cases, and in the other 2 cases, squads literally killed each other. Vetted, PPSh cons killed one vet 5 ober squad. The rest of the squads died, killing 2-3 models from Obers.
5 CPs - Infantry Repair Package.
The commander also offers the infantry repair package, meaning that conscripts can repair stuff now, namely tanks and structures. I managed to dig out the exact value of the repairs, and it appears that conscripts (and penals) can repair 6,36 HP per tick (one model has a 1,06 repair rate) if the squad has 6 models, and 7,42 per tick if the squad has 7 men. In comparison to sweeper engineers (11,6 per tick), this leaves much to desire, but it's still something.
5 CP - Rapid Conscription.
This ability is pretty underutilized, however, in the grand scheme of things it's not that bad, especially considering that the cost got lowered. It gives you a squad for every 6 lost models (regardless of the squad, all models do count) AND reduces your build and reinforcement time by 50%, which is pretty strong if you want to rush out some kind of a tank or support weapon.
KV-1
KV-1 is a decent tank, I dare say it was quite overpowered before the commander patch and one of the strongest elements of the doctrine, even with the nerfs that it'd received. In most cases, you'd want your KV-1 to be either the first or second tank that you'd deploy, of course depending on your fuel situation and opponent, since normal T-34 can go toe to toe with ostheer's P4, and in terms of OKW P4... let's say that you'd need to sacrifice two newborns to RNG Gods for OKW Panzer to be destroyed by a T-34 in a fair fight.
Generally, if you struggle with anti-infantry and your light vehicle got killed somewhere down the road (by a teller or something), get a T-34 and a ZiS instead of stalling for KV-1. This is going to be especially effective against ostheer, because of their low model count.
Just keep in mind those things:
KV-1 isn't invincible. This isn't 1941 where germans had only 37mm AT guns. Be careful with it.
KV-1 has the same gun as T-34 (really it's even called 1_commander_mp: t34_kv1_m1940_f-34_76mm__mp in the files), so don't expect it to do wonders in terms of penetrating things)
KV-1 is a really good damage sponge for SU-85.
10 CPs - 152mm Howitzer Strike
Yeah, this drops 12 ML-20 shells onto a revealed area. It's meh, to be honest. Either reduce the scatter and shell count or let it function like the OKW's Scavenge arty barrage.
When To Use Cons Support?
As much as I hate to say it, cons support is an extremely situational commander, which excels in close range combat due to PPSh cons and KV-1, thus you'd want to use them on typically CQC maps, such as :
Mill Road
Mill Road (aka. Milf Road) is a good map for cons support, however you have to abuse sight blockers to be truly effective, and since they're pretty common on this map, you have pretty good opportunities to close the gap very effectively.
Ploiesti Outskirts
This map is generally created for CQC engagements, and naturally, PPSh cons will perform well here, especially if your opponent can't adapt in time, mostly because of the same reasons why Mill Road is here, sight blockers are common, you can close the gap even easier than on Mill Road. Just be careful about your opponent's counters, because most of the players are aware that it's a good close-range map.
Khlodny Ferma
Cold Farm is an oddball since, unlike any others, it includes one, big-ass road in the middle of the map, and two areas well suited for cqc fights, especially the bottom munitions point. I'd recommend getting an MG or two to halt any attacks on the middle VP point, as well as a smoke for smoke purposes.
Crossroads
PPSh cons aren't a great choice over at crossroads, since all four major areas of the map are essentially four long sightlines, something that you want to avoid. Sure it doesn't stop you from getting them (and keeping it as a flanking squad), but it's not really efficient.
Faymonville Approach
Another pretty good one for PPSh, Faymonville (this is the first time when I spell the map's name correctly btw) has very tight corners, offers very short distances, and aside from the middle area, there's next to no long sightlines. Yes, you can count the other side of the road as a very big sightline, however, it's blocked in multiple spots, like behind the cutoff points for both sides.
Build Orders
So the build orders are pretty standard since most of the soviet meta openings are conscript heavy. Yes, this means that both 3 Conscript and 2 Engies builds or 4 cons into T2 builds are very much viable, however, I'd recommend the 4 cons build since you can get 2 PPSh squads and 2 7man cons squads, which is a pretty strong combo.
Anyway,
3 Cons 2 Engies:
eng-cons-cons-cons-t2-medics-T3-Grenades-T70-ZiS-T4.
Pretty much standard, get flamers on one of your engineers and keep it close to your conscripts so you could merge with them if there's a need for that.
4 Cons:
cons-cons-cons-cons-medics-t2-snares-T3-T70-ZiS-T4
Adapt to your needs by throwing a mortar, MG, or another ZiS into the mix.
End
Hey, thanks for reading this terrible guide!
Yes that's it. The guide's just bad tbh.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2554846693
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