Russians usually don’t like how they’re portrayed in western games, thus even quitting sometimes. Soviets often get prejudice-based description, partly because mass players aren’t interested in studying real no-TV history.

Often hear saying like: “It took 28 days for Axis to defeat Poland, and 29 days to capture a few buildings in Stalingrad. 38 days to defeat France, and around the same amount of time to move forward from one side of Stalingrad street to another.” 78% overall Axis losses happened on soviet front, who was even fighting on “second front”, also called “western”? Of course, let’s show and count everything conversely in movies... (Stalin first revealed like “7 mln losses” in 1946 – but it happened only among USSR military, later govt aknowledged up to 27 mln population deaths overall.)

So, imagine yourself not as social idealist, trying to make everyone free from big capital’s manipulative propaganda towards proletarian dictatorship, but as an evil commissar, willing to demote everyone in penal battalions (believing that lie about “communists first invented them and used massively”, ha-ha-ha) and send conscripts in battle with a shovel handle (another myth, although rifle rounds were in deficit first year; BTW, in close combat germans felt well sharp-grounded, entrenching showel kung-fu!). Then you’ll be calm about creating penals ingame.

You shouldn’t send commander, MG or sniper forward alone first. Keep your first 4-5 squads together first minutes of a game, preferrably in cover - and spread a bit only after local victory.

It’s a good idea to get MG into a building near fuel point early game, but only if somebody else will support it soon AND if nobody will catch MG on the way (and if you manage to protect it from snipers). Mg's work wery well when autoturning in outpost around some central point with cons support.

I’ve seen ostheer sturmpioneers instakill sovet MG team just cause get close fast enough. And even if you suppress infantry, but sturmpioneers get behind your MG – MG will be dead fast. Soviet MG is not like durable Wehr MG, even inside building they can be dealt with by 2 squads of common axis infantry from front and flank. Like command squad, they should retreat way before there’s 1 man alive left, or you can lose them on the run.

Use snipers against PE especially, because PE have good infantry from the start. Conscripts are free exp for panzergrenadiers, plus cons receive additional damage from any MG or assault rifles, plus they’re prone to suppression – but you will need at least 1 squad, cause their VPGS AT-ability can be lifesaving early game from light armor + they serve as recon and meat shield for your snipers + to refill weapon teams for, like, leftower MG-s.

Sappers and MGs and mortars have 0.75 capture rate, strelky and observers = 1.25 (conscripts also, and even 1.56 faster when "strafniki"!), commander = 1.5, partisans and guards and stsappers = 1. Thus reasonable get more conscripts instead of engies for capturing early.

You have time to get 2 engies and 5-6 infantry squads (you can replace one inf squad with a outpost in your build order, if needed, to get middle-map reinforcing fortification for placing MG; or a bunker, but this is a loss of initiative) in whatever order, until enemy gets first armor. Then you need your own tanks, because AT-gun moves and turns too slow to be convenient, especially on large and open maps.

Spending early fuel on "weapon reservers" helps only of you have a lot of conscripts (and don't want to spend munition for them to get fullrifles). Remember, have about 70 muni in reserve for conscripts VPGS vs some armor.

When fighting against PE don't do early command squad: they die as fast as conscripts but each model cost as much as a PG.

After armory follows either support barracks with At guns or heavy recon building with Su-76 or Bt-7. You built support barracks? Fragile but fast Ba-64 could help vs infantry spam or snipers, drive it close to squads without AT (sturmpios have AT grenades, remember). Mortars too early will make you lose power in main assault force, so be careful with that; and heavy mortars are mostly useful in team games or versus a very entrenched opponent. So support barracks can be your choice if you have not enough fuel or wish to keep it until fast tank hall, or maybe if you went urban warfare doc - AT gun Zis-2 upgrade is available there at the same time flamers unlocks.

You built heavy recon? Later, if you have time and if Bt-7 will survive, Bt-7 can be upgraded to a gun that is mostly anti-infantry. But Su76, if kept alive until tank hall, can be upgraded to artillery, though for good effect you'll need two of them. T60 is very good vs infantry blobs, but weak vs early PanzerIII... All those light vehicles are vulnerable versus shreck blobs and AT guns \ Marders, so they should be backed up by AT gun and some PTRS infantry. And stsappers or partisans could help with their AT stickies.

Another option is to get Ba-64 and AT-gun from support barracks first, strelky later. If enemy gets snipers and MGs or blobs even more - common BA-64 can help, if StugIII or Puma appears - keep your conscripts together to use VPGS instantly (lure that early armor closer). Keep an eye on enemy AT guns and shrek teams, because they can oneshot Ba-64 in the field; use BA-64 only for finishing off medium or light tanks (preferrably from behind).

Against heavier vehicles, i.e. panzer IV or StuG IV, "men against tanks" upgrade is a must aswell since it grants ~40-50% more dps from the additional PTRS rifle that strelky get. And it's almost impossible to circle strafe AT guns with vehicles if you keep a "men against tanks" strelky squad nearby.

When enemy gets PzIV or StugIV, you will need 2 T-34 as classical solution (and hide leftover BT-7 far behind infantry \ AT-guns to use them only as support). Could then build one more and upgrade main cannons, or get AT-gun to lure wounded enemy tank, when he will follow your damaged T-34 to perform fatality.

SU85 is an option, but be sure to have enough infantry to protect it from shrek blobs and AT guns.

Then something like panther or king tiger will appear against you, and you will most likely need IS-2. Or SU100 from propaganda doctrine. Fuel and fast teching are crucial. Also move your MG's and AT guns more often, because they will be targets for mortars and blob attacks + remember about mines!

You can use spotters midgame for recon - not too far from your positions, in a quiet corner, to predict, flank and bombard enemy blobs. The useful thing of spotters is that they can reveal an enemy sniper with a flare and allow your own sniper to kill it reliably. But if enemy sniper gets in range the spotters can at least damage him heavily. Also spotters can do some disturbing fire to enemy mg from a superior distance.

Don’t be lured into AT-gun when enemy retreats, of course: some infantry should serve as recon for tanks, to repair, capture points and put some mines all the way. Enemy could use mobile shrek blobs, that’s why you need strelky at least. Mortar sometimes could help, yes.

The T60 has among the best anti infantry performance of all light vehicles, even better than the quad halftrack, and it takes up to 3 panzerschreck shots to be destroyed. Just don't use a single t60 against 4+ schrecks and expect it to win. Keep it on range and move it around, that's what keeps light vehicles alive.

The same with t34: they have low health but are mobile. Use this to your advantage and don't expect a single t34 to do much against a schreck blob. USA shermans do not stand a chance against massed infantry either. (The ostheer schreck already deals less damage then wehr schreck (120). only with vet 2 and vet 4 the damage is increased to 120 for the ostheer.)

From the start conscripts don’t even have enough rifles, plus existing ones are somehow old. You could buy full rifles for munitions or get constant “weapon reserves” bonus via armory in exchange for 35 fuel and 150 manpower (need that upgrade later anyway, but need firepower for strafniki early game also). Rifles bring a damage increase of 75% approximately.

Conscripts are weak, so don’t use them alone. They’re very prone to suppression and very weak to any MG or assault rifles fire, although require no upkeep cost. But it’s a good idea to send them away early game for recon, for hunting enemy engineers and capturing points – in pairs, or with support. They should get at least 1 vet before “strafniki upgrade” (if necessary, even no vet will do).

Conscripts have a VPGS AT riflegrenade ability, cost munitions. 2 will destroy a halftrack. Strelky are mainline infantry, conscripts are not, that's why PTRD/PTRS are on strelky for AT. And if you need further AT support you can either use partisans (they have good, but costly AT grenades) or guards. Also AT guns are intended to be protected by strelky, that’s why the support barracks unlocks strelky.

If you use breakthrough doctrine, you can increase supression resistance along with cheaper reinforce (left side first ability) to use them as frontline troop with molotovs.

The role of Conscripts is to keep the enemy busy by taking the bulk of damage. Standing still in cover - to help Command Squad, MGs, Spotters and Snipers work their magic. If you want improved combat efficiency use Propaganda Doctrine for the passive Not a Step back bonus or Breakthrough's Infantry storm ability to lower reinforcement speed, cost and add supression resistance along with Inspiring Speech.

(Buffing Conscripts more is out of the question, because this leads just back to the old blob vs. blob gameplay where players spam conscripts without weapon teams and throw them at the enemy like Riflemen.)

Soviets are intended to be played differently than both US and Brits. If you want powerful offensive Infantry, get Strelky. They're just as affordable as Grens are for Wehrmacht and have among the best cost efficiency in the whole game, even without upgrades.

So-called “strafniki upgrade” exists for 50 munitions: when Danko converts infantry squad to strafniki, they get 3 additional powerful rifles, which cause additional damage to units in cover/buildings, rotate and shoot faster. Plus strafniki capture points 25% faster. But “strafniki” won’t get more vet points, what leads to unique gameplay. Overall it is reasonable to get at least 1 vet for conscripts before converting them to strafniki, vet 2 and 3 won’t do much (see vet bonus tables!).

The regular strelky profits from strafniki upgrade. At least the close range damage is significantly higher. The upgrade is arguably worse than the ppsh upgrade of course though. Dp27 only works while standing still, so can’t compare it directly.

***

You think penals should get mosins? Sound reasonable in reality (cheaper rifles for punished), but what ingame?

SVT = semi automatic rifle, comparable to G43 or M1 Garand rifle. Mosin = bolt action rifle similar to a Kar 98. Semi automatic = better on close range. Bolt Action better on longer range. Because bolt action rifles have more steady dps on all ranges and semis et better shot frequency on close and medium ranges which increases their DPS. That's how CoH gun mechanics work since 2006 (Volks/grens better on range while riflemen are better on close).

Penals were used in risky parts of the front and were commanded into more dangerous situations. That's why Penals receive 3 SVT rifles and one member is replaced by a Commissar with a PPD34 to reflect that.

The Penal Battalions are meant to go close range fights, while Conscripts are meant to be used from cover as defensive units, standing still in cover (!) and shooting enemy units. Cons only have 20% moving accuracy afterall (until rifles upgrade, at least) + Strafniki demotion from command squad increase their firepower significantly.

Command squad gives very good bonus to army overall when gets vet (check veterancy bonus tables!), but there are only 4 men in it and not so much health. So you have to babysit it, while trying to feed them as much exp as possible. Generally try to keep it a bit behind mainline infantry, maybe use for hunting rogue enemy engies on your territory lategame. Also they capture points really fast.

Vet stats for major squad:
vet 1: 7xp - max health x1.1, sight range +10m
vet 2: 14xp - rec. accuracy x0.8, rec. supression x0.75
vet 3: 34xp - max health x1.1, 5% income bonus to manpower, fuel and ammunition

Global veterancy bonuses:
Offensive vet (1/2/3): rec. supression x0.9/0.85/0.8, capture rate x1.1/1.15/1.2, weapon cooldown x0.9/0.85/0.8
Defensive vet (1/2/3): rec. accuracy/damage x0.95/0.9/0.85, weapon scatter 0.85/0.75/0.65 (that's all only IN COVER!)

(Each level also reduces soviet upkeep for infantry/tanks by 15%)

---

Propaganda doctrine

Better defence on our territory for infantry especially in cover (constant passive, called “Not one step back”). Remember, guards with PTRS are good even against infantry.

Partisans can plant mines while cloaked, have good AT grenades, can become invisible if not too close to enemy like snipers. Try to drop partisans off from neutral buildings – take care for building not to be busy, or your partisans will appear off-map. Empty house behind enemy lines -> spawn -> cloak and move to the repairing tank either to throw AT gren for immediate destruction or to call-in artillery.

Partisans get conscript veterancy which mostly is defensive. Like others, they can get vet with mine kills!! (The only units who do not get veterancy from mines/explosives are the units that place them with abilities. like kettenkrad, Ammo Halftrack, schwimmwagen.) So try to get them at least vet1, or they won't be able to run away from / through main enemy force.

SU100 is a crucial AT for a maps or a situations where you lack fuel.
Katyushas won't usually win you 1v1 or 2v2 battle, but are very useful for team games or if enemy sits in one place. Or if you're already winning and want to bombard enemy base fast.


Urban combat doctrine

Use command squad more often early game here: this doctrine lacks permanent buffs for infantry, so this squad is a bit tougher instead. Also use Zis-2 at gun here more: upgrade becomes available along with flamer nades, and this gun deals really more damage (though looks same).

For main attack force urban combat doctrine gives callable temporary bonus "For the Motherland" (FTML) + double flamethrowers for common engies (would like to request faster repairs at least) + stronger bunkers and defensive structures + urban offers cheaper mines (21 instead of 25 ammo) + strelky get more effective flamer nades.

FTML = grants a 40% bonus to received supression, 20% bonus weapon damage, double rate of fire and increases burst duration by 50%. That means that i.e. a burst from a flamethrower lasts 4 seconds instead of 3. Same with all bursts from machine guns which results in a high chance to supress enemy units. Additionally the ability breaks supression and allows units a short sprint in friendly territory. The ability is designed to give infantry a large boost in close combat, in both offensive and defensive.

Urban requires a slightly different playstyle, just like Wehrmacht def doctrine requires you to play slightly different compared to Terror or Blitz. the whole doc doesn't solely rely on emplacements + flamer engies, but on strelky instead. With this doc you get flame nades at a relatively early stage.
Flak/AT 85mm cannon also provides lots of firepower along with the howitzer.

Athough buildable howitzer is not bad, my favorite is cost-efficient FLAK, strong AT gun with autofire on armor, just get spotters active for FLAK to keep territory clear + some infantry close to protect it. Also you will get a lot of muni unused, so either get 2 Su76 + arty upgrade or put a lot of mines and use many grenades.

Strelky+dp28 with vet are the best at suppressing enemy units. Also it's more safe to use them for defending positions because enemy has less firepower while charging into the strelky. Use it with “for the motherland” (call-in suppression) for a nice slaughter.

Strumovie engineers have a relatively good armourtype and are cheaper than RBS strelky with PPSh. Their main use is to repair and build structures/mines/defenses in more dangerous areas + use alongside infantry attacks on fortifications. Can throw\setup satchel charges and use nice AT grenades. After last updates they really worth their cost (but very costly to reinforce).

Not bad in close combat. They're not that well suited to be used as main combat force though (but can support tank attack, repair them and chase away catching-up tanks with at grens, plus plant mines). Idea is to build a howitzer, use a barrage on enemy area and then attack it with your army, while combat engineers take out key defenses from a side. Strumovie engineers cannot detect mines by themselves and can't get a flamer.

KV 2 is direct shot artillery. KV-2 is pretty much the strongest assault gun in the game, capable of wiping enemy small + medium tanks along with every infantry. Well-armored, although it is so slow, that any enemy tank could get behind it, so recommend to use on city maps or with AT nearby.

Urban doc allows reinforcing near bunkers + infantry can plant mines now. Unlike others, snipers here can use camouflage always from the start, without 1'st vet required.


Breakthrough doctrine

Adds resistance to suppression, around 10% received suppression less. x1.5 basic infantry production speed! x0.9 reinforce manpower cost modifier! Cocktail and grenade throw recharges noticeably faster.

Inspiring speech can accelerate your troops and break suppression.

Tanks are cheaper in this doctrine.
Powerful offmap artillery, though use it mostly on stationery targets - mines or infantry abilities will serve you better.

Great ISU-152, although you need smth like T-34 behind it to finish wounded enemy tanks faster. ISU can miss, but usually it hits for damage; it has among the highest area damage in the game. KV-1 has weak gun like unupgraded T-34, but decent health and heavy armor like Churchill.


Techs/abilities that reduce reinforcement costs:
- red banner strelky upgrade reduces reinforcement costs ~10%
- Infantry Storm ability from Breakthrough doctrine reduces by 10% aswell for all infantry units
- vet level 1 on Conscripts lowers their reinforcement cost by 3mp/man
other units have no reinforcement modifiers.

The red banner actually adds very strong combat bonuses to strelky (less received accuracy, less received damage and less received suppression) as well as getting a 15% damage bonus on their weapons. And you get regular grenades as a free goodie on them as well. The upgrade is very well worth it.

If strelky have single Dp28, they can get panzershreck somewhere and become universal unit. This won’t happen, if hands busy with PPSH.

Heavy mortars have increased range, but are good mostly for team games. For 1v1 and 2v2 direct firepower is more important.

Use focused fire, when cons are in group together – you must deal enemy unrecoverable losses, and the best idea is to destroy squads completely without letting them run away and reinforce (thus approach and encircle your victims from the side where they will retreat to). Don’t forget to crush tank husks, to avoid them restoring destroyed tank or salvage wrecks!

Don't retreat the mg sometimes, pick it up with concript: reinforcing mg cost more. But the problem is choosing proper moment here - when to reinforce or not.

It's mostly not reasonable to get into building by conscripts only - their firepower decreases significantly, because number of windows is usually limited.

Fight for best fuel points from the start: they’re your way to tanks and upgrades. Playing as soviets or PE, fuel is crucial.

Remember: infantry on soviet tanks have red cover! It’s just a way of transportation, holding onto something. But try flamer engies on flamer T34 sometime.

The main artillery for soviets are the 152mm Artillery emplacement on Urban combat, the artillery upgrade on the SU 76, katyushas and the heavy mortars (good, IMHO, only for urban or bridged maps, only against infantry blobs or emplacements). For offmap artillery you have breakthrough artillery in breakthrough doctrine right hand side.

When on minimap, click for selected squad first near resource point or a bit further, then on it. Thus unit will perform attack-move first and start capturing point only if it didn’t meet enemy on its way.

Never attack-move for MG – they chose wrong angle almost always by themselves.

Never build sniper or spotters earlier than 5-6 squad vs wehr or ostheer - they like motorcycles and kubels very much and you sniper won-be able to run away, because cycles outrun retreating sniper easily. Keep sniper covered by infantry or armor, as far as possible from enemy.

Constantly MOVE your AT guns and snipers and maybe even MG's, try to predict enemy movements. Ostheer's panzerwerfer artillery is VERY dangerous.

Early game against experienced ostheer player is very demanding. It's all about mistakes in micro. Conscripts lack firepower, so properly positioned build order + cover + directions + stay_close_earlygame + attack_plan can save them, and if maybe 2 mistakes = game over. Major comes forward instead of conscripts = loss, sniper not far enough from enemy = loss, mg positioned a bit aside or can be flanked = loss, engies meet sturmpios alone = loss, Bt-7 against luchs not fast enough = loss. While landsers\sturmpios just have to have to reinforce and get behind \ flank \ get close earlygame, nothing too complex.

Midgame try to encircle single enemy squads, overpower locally, get behind enemy’s cover, WIRE OFF green cover from enemy side, prefer shooting not-on-the-move, mine approaches, strategic and choke points, use grenades. Find “Sgt. Kilroy's Combat Manual for Players of Company of Heroes”, if you’re a newbie in CoH and can’t even defeat hard AI 1v1. Play more vs live players - they're smarter then stupid AI.

(ingame measurement data and most answers on gameplay provided by DarcReaver)

https://www.gamereplays.org/companyofheroes/portals.php?&show=page&name=totw_archive = tips of the week archive

IF YOU LIKE MULTIPLAYER with live opponents, get skills to defeat hard AI 1v1 confidently at least. Then JOIN EF Discord https://discord.gg/7PYEngc or Mumble ( Download Client: http://mumble.sourceforge.net/ IP: easternfront.mumble.com Port: 4229 - info from https://gtm.you1.cn/groups/CoHEasternFront ).

THE BEST IDEA seems to put some effort into looking for friends and enhancing EF pvp community, because we don't have as many players as vanilla! Wait until weekend (evenings?) when there's more players online, host a multiplayer lobby with a name like "Looking for PvP players, join!" or "Join live 2v2 PvP" or "any live player for compstomp?" while reading a book or doing push-up sets and wait for incoming guests; talk to them, befriend them, invite them to organise games more with EF active community, coz, you know, ppl are often very lazy and don't want to put slightest effort into organising anything.

And yes, live games still crashes often after soviet player's base being destroyed, so prefer VP mode or give up in time to save replays.

NEVER SET GRAPHICS to ULTRA, also better set WATER REFLECTIONS TO LOW to avoid crashes! No player in your lobby ever should have graph set to Ultra, or crashes will happen in live games!