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Are the Soviets Overpowered?

russian base

Soviets have better Tanks and Defensive Structures.

Let's face it, the Heavy Tank is the best tank out there. Dual Cannons mean double the damage of a medium tank and it can certainly take a beating. What's more is that the Tesla Coil, mother of all defensive structures, is also owned by the Soviets. If you pile 4 or 5 together, your opponent will need about 10 medium tanks to clear them and who knows how many light tanks, since they can be killed by one Tesla Zap.

3D Printed Mammoth Tank

They also boast the Mammoth Tank. The Mammoth tank rush is only stopped by a massive Tesla Coil chain. Which means that defending versus these behemoths is truly a challenge for the Allies. Flame towers have splash damage, which can burn surrounding infantry and kill them more effectively than single-target pillboxes.

The longest range ground unit also belongs to the Soviets, the V2. Two SCUD missiles from a V2 can easily clear a turret before the V2 takes any damage. So if you amass V2s and charge the enemy, chances are you WILL clear the structures you want to clear.

Is there anything else the Soviet Faction offers? Oh that's right, the best infantry unit, besides Tanya. If you were to pit the Soviet Grenadier vs. the Allied riflemen, your clear winner would be the Grenadier. It doesn't take a lot to produce them at maximum speed, a barrack and a kennel will do it. The reason you can't play Germany Vs. Russia in a 1v1 P4 is because of this unit. You would be rushed by grenadiers north, south and in the middle. 

So what makes the Allies playable?

While it's true that the longer the game lasts, the less of a chance you have at winning as the Allies, it must also be true that the shorter the game lasts, the greater chance you have at winning as the Allies. Even though Russia gets a 10% discount on structures and units, it's still not enough to produce tanks as fast as the Allied medium tank in the early game (that is, if you haven't gotten rushed by Grenadiers).

The fastest tank also belongs to the Allies. The light tank, while not considered the favorite, can be deadly if used for purposes other than tank battles, for example, base rushes. If you're running low on cash, you can make light tanks instead of medium tanks to increase your output. The light tank only requires 5 War Factories to be produced at maximum speed, while the Heavy Tank requires 7. In that time you can make about, 30 light tanks more than your opponent! Although the Light Tank has low attack and low defense, the secret of it's effectiveness lies in it's low production cost and high production rate, use it in numbers!

light tank red alert
Light Tank rendering

The Allies boast the most powerful unit in the game, unfortunately it's a vessel. The Allied Cruiser can destroy Advanced Power Plants in one shot and it can do it from an extremely long range. The only defense the Soviets offer against this destroyer of bases is the Submarine. We all know what a drag it is to maneuver Submarines and sometimes...they even attack each other or themselves. Not to mention the Cruiser can easily wipe them out if place in guard mode (Default Hotkey: 'g'). The problem with the Cruiser is that it's quite expensive and slow-moving. This makes sense considering it has such high attack and long range, but it seems that players abuse this advantage by making 300 Cruisers. Piling them near your base will give you an impenetrable fortress, but you will only dominate that little part.

prism tank
Prism Tank rendering

The Allies have superior technology to that of the Soviets. Why don't they have a better tank? Because this isn't RA2 (Prism Tank). The Allies know they don't NEED tanks to win. It just takes a GPS satellite and a Chronosphere. It's easy to chrono an MCV in enemy territory, the problem is defending it. The GPS satellite allows you to view the entire map, keep an eye on enemy movements, decide which are weak spots in the enemies defenses and it allows you to send Helis and cause an inferno of damage. Imagine how much better the best chess player in the world would be if he knew what his opponent was thinking? This is more like the route the Allies have chosen. They want to know what is the Soviets next move, and halt it using either a direct confrontation or a sneak attack from behind. Let them kill themselves.

magnus carlsen
Magnus Carlsen Out Q-ing opponent

Knowing that, while a Chronosphere might facilitate infiltration, it wouldn't be as effective without the GPS satellite. The Allies play smart and tactful, if you mimic these attributes, you can find yourself winning versus a Russian Army anytime.

Do you think it makes a big difference to play as the Allies or the Soviets?


What are your favorite tactics?


Comment Below.

6 comments:

Red Alert: Ford said...

First off Allies are better tankers.

2. Heavy tanks don't have double the damage output of Mediums.

3. Light Tanks don't have low damage, they do more damage-per-second than Medium Tanks.

4. Russia's 10% discount doesn't alter build time so it's not an argument to say "Even though Russia gets a 10% discount on structures and units, it's still not enough to produce tanks as fast as the Allied medium tank"

C|Squid__ said...

The light tank does have low attack. It has a faster firerate so you're right about overall damage output, but it could be a function with respect to time.

The build time clock spins according to a money range scale? Anything less than 100 is 1xSec? It seems that players prefer Russia to Ukraine when building. What's the point of a Russian faction on infinite ore maps?

Red Alert: Ford said...

ok i see what your getting at, but if you modify the Russia cost ratio in the rules.ini from 0.9 to 0.0 it won't have any effect on the build time. The build time is calculated from the base cost before Russia's bonuses are taken into account.

Regarding Russia's 10% discount I assume is still beneficial because players can have a better production by delaying their 2nd refinery for more CYs/Wars without going broke especially when you need to stop tank rushes. I'm not entirely sure since I'm not a builder but that's what i think. Also the Ukraine bonus doesn't really benefit builders.

C|Squid__ said...

Whether Russia builds faster can be considered unimportant because the medium tank will still be much cheaper. Thus, they will produce faster. I think Ukraine will only benefit you as a builder when you send MCVs to deploy...so the speed boost, I think, is valuable. Great input by the way.

Red Alert: Ford said...

Yea no problem, best we try and give people the best information :)

C|Squid__ said...

Agreed. That said, I wouldn't mind any other corrections on other posts :)