Shtrafbat & Barrier troops

[Guntychops]

Wonder if those guys would make a worthy addition? Maybe OP but prone to retreat or many penal soldiers but they move very slowly unless the barrier troops are commanding (like a Brit Lieutenant)?
Of course with some prisoner style explicit language for good measure.

[Guntychops]

The Red Army barrier troops were called zagraditelnye otriady.

[Blackbishop]

We already have Penal troops in EF.

[krupp steel]

But they don't function differently than any other different squad. I like the idea that your on to something involving aura's and movement penalties too.

[Blackbishop]

Slow-moving troops aren't good. That's one of the reasons why British infantry sucks and I don't really think EF would use these because of that.

[krupp steel]

Not necessarily. I mean the penal troops don't really have anything that make them unique or different since all the ability does is just increase close range dps, which can basically apply to any other squad. I'll think of some stuff that is possible.

[Guntychops]

Lol, I was waiting for the game to download and didnt see them listed in the units list.
You already have em. NVM. 

[Guntychops]

Yeah, after playing with them, I dont really see much to them being Penal Units.
Slower speed with heavy weapons could be good though. Barrier troops could influence a drunken charge.
Have a vodka button that imparts a button down effect on the enemy or something when used in combo with Penals.

Or if you get more troops, like 3 extra soldiers but they are prone to bail in combat, so you have the barrier guys as an extra.
The penal guys were there for "cowardice" so it would be interesting to have that part included into their style.

[Blackbishop]

Penal troops were there for deserting, drinking, stealing, assaulting a superior officer and any other wrongdoing compromising the soldier's honor. So, nope, penal troops weren't made of soldiers sent there only because they were cowards.

The problem is that you want the squad to fit your particular idea of penal troops, that's why you don't see them too much like penal troops, although that doesn't make any sense. Penal troops were equipped and used just like any other infantry unit, just that were sent to the hardest battles and were formed by soldiers punished for their acts.

Changing the penal troops to move slow would mean making it more resilient to fire which would be basically converting it in a CW Infantry Section, and you would use the barrier troops like the CW Lt. which also doesn't add any good at the game(just one more infantry squad in case of not being a one man squad, we don't need two doctrinal infantry units at the same unlock), I don't see how that could be seen as positive because you have to have specifically create the latter in order to the penal troops to move at regular speed so you will need to spend more resources to have proper offensive infantry units not to mention the "bail in combat" thingy which would make them unreliable(and cannot be done anyway). As Brit player you are forced to create a Lt., but at least you use it with Infantry Section and Sapper squads... in other hand you would need it in Soviets for some uncommon unit?

[krupp steel]

I got a good idea.

In the propaganda tree you unlock an ability. In this ability, you call off map penal battalion. Each penal squad has 10 men that fight similar to conscripts but all carry SMGs and rifles like the current ones do. The barrier troops squad is like a command squad but with the commissiar instead of the major. They have no abilities but are important to the idea I will further discuss.

The ability costs 500 manpower and spawn 2 penal squads along with the barrier troop squad.

The penal battalion(s) cant retreat or have options to reinforce. However, they have an ability to retreat to the barrier troops squad which they then can activate an ability given that they are well within the range of the barrier troop. The squad will be executed for 50 manpower cost (entire unit pretty much commits suicide or the barrier troops execute them however you want to think of it), but a fresh new squad is spawned at the HQ base.

If the barrier troop squad is lost, the penals are doomed and can't reinforce until another one is called in. But then again, remeber that the barrier troops never should be too close to the front lines. Ofcourse, there will be some balancing like a really long cooldown or a higher manpower cost for the execution ability.

This concept will enforce the idea that the penal battalions were sent to harsher parts of the front lines, and that they are expendable and less value compared to other soldiers.

[krupp steel]

No response = automatically approved.

[Gerrit 'Lord Rommel' G.]

There is no response because anyone was online.
And by the way: The non-retreat was a big problem back in the old days of EF. Non-retreat is broken and dont fit into the CoH game mechanic of keep your army alive and earn vet for your troops.
We are always happy about an active and creative community but keep in mind that we cant implement everything. Often we have to make decisions between historical abstraction and gameplay. In this case here the conscripts were called penal units but ingame it is a upgraded main combat unit. History is nice to have ingame but it wont work at all spots. So we wont design penal units basing on this "prejudice" (always druken, shot all the time by their officers, useless in combat, ect ect). They were adjusted to fulfil their combat role in this doctrine and out of my view we have one of the best solutions for the old conscripts problem now. Perhaps we will adjust this units a bit in the future but we wont redesign them with a broken concept.

[chaosval3]

Basically what Rommel said. There isn't anything left to add, so let's move on.