The free commander rotation was apparently just a summer event. A shame. Relic just givin' people a taste.
I do kinda wish they'd patch in having commander call ins require a certain level of tech built up.
The whole saving all your fuel till you can spam your call in tank thing feels really cheesy and like it removes a decent chunk of your early/midgame decisions.
This is a very widespread idea. I'd love for something to be implemented like that.
I think Relic likes the idea of using Call-ins to supplement teching decisions. I like that idea too. I think part of the problem is that most call-ins are "generalist" tanks that do well against infantry and vehicles alike. A Tiger's not really weak against anything. So you can just skip all tech and throw your chips into a tank that will flourishes in most battlefield environments. The economic benefits of skipping tech combined with the all-purpose powerhouse call-in units make the metagame what it is today.
Basically I think the current system of commanders not being tied to tech could work if call-ins were more specialized vehicles and units. Otherwise there need to be something to help mid-game tech plays. I know Relic has played around with systems and ideas but they've not implemented any of them. It's a real shame.
they do have specialist call ins like the elefant tank destroyer or the flamethrower KV8. the problem is that they cost so much fuel they are not worth it.
real shame because the kv-8 is a terror if you get before the other guy can start spamming tanks.
They do have them and both are valuable in their own right. The Elefant is still a terror to deal with in the right circumstances. It is probably slightly overpriced on fuel. It out ranges every other non-call-in tank destroyer and penetrates any tank 100% of the time while doing 50% more damage than most tanks per shot. It's pretty good if cumbersome. It absolutely has a place in 2v2s and up. I think... it is a unit that has slowly been edged out by superior options around it though. It has no place in 1v1 really. No dedicated tank destroyer does too well in 1v1s. In team games where you can coordinate with your allies the OKW has the Jagdtiger which is just overpowered and better than the Elefant. It's more expensive but it does everything the Elefant does while ignoring all terrain. So silly. Most teams just grab one of those for their dedicated AT monster and let the Wehrmacht do more traditional Tiger builds because well the Tiger is great.
I think the KV-8 is a pretty good example of a specialist call-in that works pretty well. It's clearly meant to support a Tier 4 Soviet style of play which usually has anti-armor in spades thanks to the SU-85. It has great armor and health so it can tank up and protect the SU-85 from infantry. The biggest problem is that the SU-85 is sorta bad right now. It has like... a piddly 140 armor. I think this is a serious issue for a fixed turret tank destroyer. It can still win battles thanks to it's good range and accuracy but it is supposed to be difficult to engage from the front. Instead we have a circumstance where a Panzer 4 penetrates the SU-85's front armor 80% of the time. Pretty much everything penetrates the SU-85's front armor more than 50% of the time other than anti-infantry specialists like Ostwinds.
It's a shame there's no doctrine that combines Guards and KV-8s. Then again I've not played since they nerfed the shit out of Guards buttoning fire so maybe they don't support Soviet T4 that well anymore.
Yeah. On reflection I agree that most of the specialist call-ins are little too expensive though.
On a more positive note Ostruppen Commander is hilarious fun.
You can do so much weird stuff with him. Skip T1 to rush a scout car, use the ostruppen to make the worlds scariest rifle lines (seriously, a vet 3 squad ate a shock trooper squad solo), decide to ignore armour in return for getting unlimited panzerfaust spam.
Plus the few times railway artillery does connect are freaking awesome. He kinda feels like what commander's should be. He's got fun powers that are also tactically useful while not being super jack of all trades.
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FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
so I'm probably in the minority here as a person who really only loves Company of Heroes for the single player, but I've been playing Ardennes Assault and it's a lot of fun. They based in on the older Dawn of War: Dark Crusade/Soulstorm campaigns where you move your army around on an overworld strategy map and then have various missions within the battles themselves. you control 3 companies in this one, though (you also choose how to upgrade them and can replenish them at the cost of veterancy), and there are randomized maps and game types/objectives within battles. after the battles, enemy forces can retreat and reinforce other locations unless you surround them with your other companies and cut them off, so it makes for some interesting choices and battles.
Main complaints are how a lot of the scripted missions can come down to just waiting for major and tanks.
That and the sodding stealth mission in the middle of the map. Just cheesed that with airbourne.
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FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
AA has been pretty hard for me. I always get negative events and my company strength gets so low that I have to reinforce instead of buying company upgrades, which kind of turns into a vicious cycle. that's just on normal, too. maybe I just haven't played CoH2 enough.
so I'm probably in the minority here as a person who really only loves Company of Heroes for the single player, but I've been playing Ardennes Assault and it's a lot of fun. They based in on the older Dawn of War: Dark Crusade/Soulstorm campaigns where you move your army around on an overworld strategy map and then have various missions within the battles themselves. you control 3 companies in this one, though (you also choose how to upgrade them and can replenish them at the cost of veterancy), and there are randomized maps and game types/objectives within battles. after the battles, enemy forces can retreat and reinforce other locations unless you surround them with your other companies and cut them off, so it makes for some interesting choices and battles.
No, no I am right there with you with my preference for solo play too!
Thanks for this - I was on the fence about AA (plus you know, inquisition) but will pick it up now during the Chrissy sales...
AA has been pretty hard for me. I always get negative events and my company strength gets so low that I have to reinforce instead of buying company upgrades, which kind of turns into a vicious cycle. that's just on normal, too. maybe I just haven't played CoH2 enough.
Part of the ease for me was probably that ranger company is so crazy Op they did half the maps without needing a top up.
Though between the balance patches continuing to not really impress me and the generally high price of CoH2 stuff (otherwise known as the Sega rescue tax) I'll probably wait till a sale.
I'm glad they're putting brits in, but quite frankly the community surrounding the game is one of the worst cesspits I've ever encountered. I doubt anything they can do will change that.
I'm glad they're putting brits in, but quite frankly the community surrounding the game is one of the worst cesspits I've ever encountered. I doubt anything they can do will change that.
Anything war-gamey tends to have that happen honestly.
I'm glad they're putting brits in, but quite frankly the community surrounding the game is one of the worst cesspits I've ever encountered. I doubt anything they can do will change that.
Anything war-gamey tends to have that happen honestly.
And there are much worse examples, for instance War-game Red dragons general chat.
Philippe about the tactical deployment of german Kradschützen during the battle of Kursk:
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
I'm glad they're putting brits in, but quite frankly the community surrounding the game is one of the worst cesspits I've ever encountered. I doubt anything they can do will change that.
Anything war-gamey tends to have that happen honestly.
And there are much worse examples, for instance War-game Red dragons general chat.
I tried to play this again for the first time since around when it first came out, like 90% of everything is locked behind DLC. Not to mention that combined, all of the DLC costs far more than the game itself.
I'm glad they're putting brits in, but quite frankly the community surrounding the game is one of the worst cesspits I've ever encountered. I doubt anything they can do will change that.
Anything war-gamey tends to have that happen honestly.
And there are much worse examples, for instance War-game Red dragons general chat.
I'm convinced that the chatter during the Ukraine plane crisis was literally the worst thing I'll ever read.
I tried to play this again for the first time since around when it first came out, like 90% of everything is locked behind DLC. Not to mention that combined, all of the DLC costs far more than the game itself.
It's called the 'Sega rescue tax' basically. On the plus side you don't need all the commanders and the game goes on 75% off pretty much ever sale which brings the commanders down to a more reasonable price.
4 dollar commanders are a joke. 75% off brings them to a far more reasonable impulse buy.
It's a shame though because they're making some changes that will bring the OKW Sturmtiger out of the tech-tree and into Elite Armored Doctrine. I don't own that doctrine but I love trolling around with the Sturmtiger. I hesitated on buying that commander when it was just a dollar during the steam summer sale. Alas!
The strongest commanders right now are not even pay-to-win for most factions. The exception might be the Wehrmacht's Close Air support which was free but only as part of a limited time promotional. He's getting a little nerf next patch anywho.
There is the "war spoils" system, which in theory means you can get most of the DLC as random drops. The problem is drops happen pretty rarely, and useful commander drops happen about as often as Pluto flypasts. Oh and you can also get duplicates.
I'm also mildly annoyed by the Sturmtiger change for the same reason - it's effectively removing a unit from the game for me.
They seem to be moving over to their in game store for DLC now. They had skin packs at massively reduced rates when it launched, and commanders seem to be on offer there more often. Only downside is that it uses the steam wallet, so you basically have a minimum spend of £4/$5 anyway.
4 dollar commanders are a joke. 75% off brings them to a far more reasonable impulse buy.
It's a shame though because they're making some changes that will bring the OKW Sturmtiger out of the tech-tree and into Elite Armored Doctrine. I don't own that doctrine but I love trolling around with the Sturmtiger. I hesitated on buying that commander when it was just a dollar during the steam summer sale. Alas!
The strongest commanders right now are not even pay-to-win for most factions. The exception might be the Wehrmacht's Close Air support which was free but only as part of a limited time promotional. He's getting a little nerf next patch anywho.
I brought the elite armoured doctrine specifically to tool around in PIV j and have never actually used the sturmtigger ever. If I knew then what I know now, I would have never have Brought the commander. Well played relic well played.
Philippe about the tactical deployment of german Kradschützen during the battle of Kursk:
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
Brits officially released now. In a break with Relic tradition, they don't seem to be ludicrously overpowered. If anything they feel pretty weak so far.
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited September 2015
I thought the British campaign in Opposing Fronts was boring and terribad.
Which is weird because I love defense missions and factions geared for defense in RTS.
Huh! I thought it was the fourth that it was released.
British are pretty neat. For people who have played a lot of CoH they feel like an Axis army on the Allied side. Small squad sizes, strong support weapons, a few elite infantry, and a few monstrously durable tanks. It's pretty neat!
As always with Relic balance even a side that looks really weak is merely hiding some silly broken units and abilities within. British are pretty strong. However until the Wehrmacht sniper changes they will probably suffer quite a bit. Outside of that I think they're well off/bonkers strong.
The "pre-release limited trial" was riddled with a lot of bugs. Hopefully that build didn't make it to release... it was almost impossible to discern balance when you had things like "this unit has no reinforcement cost" floating around...
My issues with them so far are that the basic infantry feels poor for its cost - it costs 280 MP, 35 MP reinforce and needs to be in cover to get on a par with grenadiers - and that their emplacements feel a bit squishy really.
Using the example of the mortar emplacement in particular it goes down to basically small arms fire, or more often german counter-artillery. Since it (naturally) can't move, there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. The best example of this I've came across is having one hit by an incendiary mortar. It went down in more or less seconds.
I'll keep experimenting, but so far the brits just haven't clicked for me.
They feel like an axis faction with the manpower fragility of the USF. Lose a squad? You're probably never getting it back without majorly slowing down other aspects of your game.
I like them so far because they're full of neat, interesting units but I definitely wish everything wasn't so man power intensive.
I do have to give them credit for the voice work for the brits, not least because they've covered a huge range of accents and dialects. They've also thrown in some classic understatement - for example, one of the announcer lines: "The weapons crew are, I'm afraid, quite dead"
So yeah, I like the Brits. They definitely play as an axis faction but with even more happiness camping the opponent out until tanks/mortar bleed/THE MOTHER OF ALL BOMBING RUNS can finish them off.
So far I'm really liking the Royal Engineers commander. Also I've not being building extra infantry sections because they cost so very much for what they do. Instead I've being buying engineers and investing in making them heavy engineers to serve as my main force with just one Rifle squad (or maybe two) to fill in for meds (and arty on the second). It works really well with the armoured pushes you seem to do a bunch as the UK.
The more I play as them, the more I come to think the brits are just terribly designed, with some stupidly powerful stuff papering over the cracks.
Their basic infantry is ok in a defensive role, but falls utterly flat offensively largely thanks to a 25% accuracy modifier when moving. This basically renders you vulnerable to a hell of a lot of early game support weapons since you simply can't flank them. Not to mention how brutal snipers are since the universal carrier in its base form may as well fire blanks at them. I'm finding it isn't uncommon for german players to go double mortar or support gun since it renders any early emplacement or entrenchment irrelevant. Likewise the british have two counters to MG entrenchment used against them - the mortar emplacement, which will be targetted by anything that can shoot at it, and the wasp, which is so stupidly powerful at the minute that it covers up quite a lot of the early game weakness of the brits.
I came across a tactic earlier where the Ostheer player was using double mortar HT with a sniper to support. There was literally nothing I could do against it since I'd went for a bofors instead of the armoured car - which is literally your only mid game vehicle. In principle it should have made him vulnerable to early armour, but since this was a 2v2 that was easily covered (not to mention the fact that shreck blobs counter nearly every british tank once they reach a critical mass of 3 or so shrecks).
So this is a daily on Steam. What are the best bits for someone that's interested in single player?
The main campeign paints the Russians in an unrealistically bad light. Or so I've heard, I've yet to actually play it myself because I'm more into the MP of CoH.
There are also several SP DLC campaigns, including a US one, but I'm not sure how good they are.
Steam Profile | My Art | NID: DarkMecha (SW-4787-9571-8977) | PSN: DarkMecha
CoH2 original campaign (Eastern Front from Russian perspective) is hamfisted in terms of storyline but a fun little romp if you enjoy CoH and CoH2 gameplay.
Ardennes Assault is a singleplayer DLC that adds an American campaign based on the "Battle of the Bulge" late in the war. I've not played this one myself but I've heard it is pretty good. It does not have a traditional storyline from what I understand but plays more like Dawn of War: Dark Crusade's single player. There is a strategic layer where you move around on a battle map fighting for territories. Pick a territory and then play the game to fight for that territory. Each territory expands your army's abilities and resources. The added strategic layer does sound cool. You can also customize your commander abilities to some degree with the unlocks. I might pick it up myself at 8 dollars...
There are also a bunch of other DLC missions like "Case Blue" and whatnot. Relic clearly planned to create DLC for each year of the war and then let players pay for small single player offerings. You use armies from that year. 1941 Germany has different units than 1942 Germany. I personally found these armies a little lackluster as the early-war weapons and tanks are much worse than traditional multiplayer weapons. You just feel sort of nerfed. Each to their own though. They stopped after the first two DLCs which means there probably wasn't so much demand. I haven't bought this DLC but I would be dubious. Some of it was released for free and many of the early DLC offerings were very simple skirmish matches against the AI. No twists. You could almost replicate those missions by just loading up a multiplayer match and fighting against the AI. Not all of the missions are like this though. Some do have some unique spice.
The co-op missions are sort of neat but obviously that's not strictly single-player. I think you can play with an AI though...?
So this is a daily on Steam. What are the best bits for someone that's interested in single player?
I started playing this game, got to the Sniper mission, and then got frustrated and quit. This game felt so much more finicky than CoH and the controls were wonky... I dunno. Really disappointed actually, since I loved the original.
I've played quite a bit of 2v2 as brits, so a few things I'd recommend:
Avoid the artillery commander. Literally everything that commander has outside of flares is bad or extremely situational. Only use it if you want to take a huge risk.
Emplacements are strong when the enemy lets them work, but don't expect that to be for long. OKW will use infantry support guns to destroy them and if the ostheer/wehrmacht player gets a mortar half track they'll drop an incendiary on it that does an absolute ton of damage.
I suppose the best thing I could suggest would be spectating some of the live games. There's a button on the main menu that will let you pick any currently active automatch game and spectate it - they even sort them by rank so you can choose the more competitive games. If nothing else it can give you a few ideas for build orders and tactics.
I bought the Brits for 4 bucks since I've got the rest of the mp sides. Dunno when I will get around to playing some CoH2 mp, but I will eventually. It may not be as good as CoH1 was, but it's still fun and is the only rts I currently enjoy.
Steam Profile | My Art | NID: DarkMecha (SW-4787-9571-8977) | PSN: DarkMecha
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This is a very widespread idea. I'd love for something to be implemented like that.
I think Relic likes the idea of using Call-ins to supplement teching decisions. I like that idea too. I think part of the problem is that most call-ins are "generalist" tanks that do well against infantry and vehicles alike. A Tiger's not really weak against anything. So you can just skip all tech and throw your chips into a tank that will flourishes in most battlefield environments. The economic benefits of skipping tech combined with the all-purpose powerhouse call-in units make the metagame what it is today.
Basically I think the current system of commanders not being tied to tech could work if call-ins were more specialized vehicles and units. Otherwise there need to be something to help mid-game tech plays. I know Relic has played around with systems and ideas but they've not implemented any of them. It's a real shame.
real shame because the kv-8 is a terror if you get before the other guy can start spamming tanks.
I think the KV-8 is a pretty good example of a specialist call-in that works pretty well. It's clearly meant to support a Tier 4 Soviet style of play which usually has anti-armor in spades thanks to the SU-85. It has great armor and health so it can tank up and protect the SU-85 from infantry. The biggest problem is that the SU-85 is sorta bad right now. It has like... a piddly 140 armor. I think this is a serious issue for a fixed turret tank destroyer. It can still win battles thanks to it's good range and accuracy but it is supposed to be difficult to engage from the front. Instead we have a circumstance where a Panzer 4 penetrates the SU-85's front armor 80% of the time. Pretty much everything penetrates the SU-85's front armor more than 50% of the time other than anti-infantry specialists like Ostwinds.
It's a shame there's no doctrine that combines Guards and KV-8s. Then again I've not played since they nerfed the shit out of Guards buttoning fire so maybe they don't support Soviet T4 that well anymore.
Yeah. On reflection I agree that most of the specialist call-ins are little too expensive though.
You can do so much weird stuff with him. Skip T1 to rush a scout car, use the ostruppen to make the worlds scariest rifle lines (seriously, a vet 3 squad ate a shock trooper squad solo), decide to ignore armour in return for getting unlimited panzerfaust spam.
Plus the few times railway artillery does connect are freaking awesome. He kinda feels like what commander's should be. He's got fun powers that are also tactically useful while not being super jack of all trades.
Main complaints are how a lot of the scripted missions can come down to just waiting for major and tanks.
That and the sodding stealth mission in the middle of the map. Just cheesed that with airbourne.
No, no I am right there with you with my preference for solo play too!
Thanks for this - I was on the fence about AA (plus you know, inquisition) but will pick it up now during the Chrissy sales...
Part of the ease for me was probably that ranger company is so crazy Op they did half the maps without needing a top up.
Though between the balance patches continuing to not really impress me and the generally high price of CoH2 stuff (otherwise known as the Sega rescue tax) I'll probably wait till a sale.
Anything war-gamey tends to have that happen honestly.
And there are much worse examples, for instance War-game Red dragons general chat.
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
TWCenter
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
I'm convinced that the chatter during the Ukraine plane crisis was literally the worst thing I'll ever read.
It's called the 'Sega rescue tax' basically. On the plus side you don't need all the commanders and the game goes on 75% off pretty much ever sale which brings the commanders down to a more reasonable price.
It's a shame though because they're making some changes that will bring the OKW Sturmtiger out of the tech-tree and into Elite Armored Doctrine. I don't own that doctrine but I love trolling around with the Sturmtiger. I hesitated on buying that commander when it was just a dollar during the steam summer sale. Alas!
The strongest commanders right now are not even pay-to-win for most factions. The exception might be the Wehrmacht's Close Air support which was free but only as part of a limited time promotional. He's getting a little nerf next patch anywho.
I'm also mildly annoyed by the Sturmtiger change for the same reason - it's effectively removing a unit from the game for me.
They seem to be moving over to their in game store for DLC now. They had skin packs at massively reduced rates when it launched, and commanders seem to be on offer there more often. Only downside is that it uses the steam wallet, so you basically have a minimum spend of £4/$5 anyway.
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
Which is weird because I love defense missions and factions geared for defense in RTS.
British are pretty neat. For people who have played a lot of CoH they feel like an Axis army on the Allied side. Small squad sizes, strong support weapons, a few elite infantry, and a few monstrously durable tanks. It's pretty neat!
As always with Relic balance even a side that looks really weak is merely hiding some silly broken units and abilities within. British are pretty strong. However until the Wehrmacht sniper changes they will probably suffer quite a bit. Outside of that I think they're well off/bonkers strong.
The "pre-release limited trial" was riddled with a lot of bugs. Hopefully that build didn't make it to release... it was almost impossible to discern balance when you had things like "this unit has no reinforcement cost" floating around...
Using the example of the mortar emplacement in particular it goes down to basically small arms fire, or more often german counter-artillery. Since it (naturally) can't move, there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. The best example of this I've came across is having one hit by an incendiary mortar. It went down in more or less seconds.
I'll keep experimenting, but so far the brits just haven't clicked for me.
I like them so far because they're full of neat, interesting units but I definitely wish everything wasn't so man power intensive.
So far I'm really liking the Royal Engineers commander. Also I've not being building extra infantry sections because they cost so very much for what they do. Instead I've being buying engineers and investing in making them heavy engineers to serve as my main force with just one Rifle squad (or maybe two) to fill in for meds (and arty on the second). It works really well with the armoured pushes you seem to do a bunch as the UK.
Their basic infantry is ok in a defensive role, but falls utterly flat offensively largely thanks to a 25% accuracy modifier when moving. This basically renders you vulnerable to a hell of a lot of early game support weapons since you simply can't flank them. Not to mention how brutal snipers are since the universal carrier in its base form may as well fire blanks at them. I'm finding it isn't uncommon for german players to go double mortar or support gun since it renders any early emplacement or entrenchment irrelevant. Likewise the british have two counters to MG entrenchment used against them - the mortar emplacement, which will be targetted by anything that can shoot at it, and the wasp, which is so stupidly powerful at the minute that it covers up quite a lot of the early game weakness of the brits.
I came across a tactic earlier where the Ostheer player was using double mortar HT with a sniper to support. There was literally nothing I could do against it since I'd went for a bofors instead of the armoured car - which is literally your only mid game vehicle. In principle it should have made him vulnerable to early armour, but since this was a 2v2 that was easily covered (not to mention the fact that shreck blobs counter nearly every british tank once they reach a critical mass of 3 or so shrecks).
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
The main campeign paints the Russians in an unrealistically bad light. Or so I've heard, I've yet to actually play it myself because I'm more into the MP of CoH.
There are also several SP DLC campaigns, including a US one, but I'm not sure how good they are.
Ardennes Assault is a singleplayer DLC that adds an American campaign based on the "Battle of the Bulge" late in the war. I've not played this one myself but I've heard it is pretty good. It does not have a traditional storyline from what I understand but plays more like Dawn of War: Dark Crusade's single player. There is a strategic layer where you move around on a battle map fighting for territories. Pick a territory and then play the game to fight for that territory. Each territory expands your army's abilities and resources. The added strategic layer does sound cool. You can also customize your commander abilities to some degree with the unlocks. I might pick it up myself at 8 dollars...
There are also a bunch of other DLC missions like "Case Blue" and whatnot. Relic clearly planned to create DLC for each year of the war and then let players pay for small single player offerings. You use armies from that year. 1941 Germany has different units than 1942 Germany. I personally found these armies a little lackluster as the early-war weapons and tanks are much worse than traditional multiplayer weapons. You just feel sort of nerfed. Each to their own though. They stopped after the first two DLCs which means there probably wasn't so much demand. I haven't bought this DLC but I would be dubious. Some of it was released for free and many of the early DLC offerings were very simple skirmish matches against the AI. No twists. You could almost replicate those missions by just loading up a multiplayer match and fighting against the AI. Not all of the missions are like this though. Some do have some unique spice.
The co-op missions are sort of neat but obviously that's not strictly single-player. I think you can play with an AI though...?
MWO: Adamski
MWO: Adamski
I started playing this game, got to the Sniper mission, and then got frustrated and quit. This game felt so much more finicky than CoH and the controls were wonky... I dunno. Really disappointed actually, since I loved the original.
It's real good and has replayability in a pretty big way if you grab rangers.
Avoid the artillery commander. Literally everything that commander has outside of flares is bad or extremely situational. Only use it if you want to take a huge risk.
Emplacements are strong when the enemy lets them work, but don't expect that to be for long. OKW will use infantry support guns to destroy them and if the ostheer/wehrmacht player gets a mortar half track they'll drop an incendiary on it that does an absolute ton of damage.
I suppose the best thing I could suggest would be spectating some of the live games. There's a button on the main menu that will let you pick any currently active automatch game and spectate it - they even sort them by rank so you can choose the more competitive games. If nothing else it can give you a few ideas for build orders and tactics.