So I'm going to give each unit in CoW a Letter grade of A, B, C, D or F, where A is for the best units and F is for the worst.
Note: these are OFC biased toward me and my playing style.
If you disagree with me, that's fine, but don't attack me because of it.
We'll go in order of the categories:
Unarmoured
Militia - C
Yes, I know lots of people here use Militia as a prime ground unit, but I prefer to use Infantry for that purpose. I only research the first level of Militia, and usually use them for holding cities and keeping them from rebelling.
Infantry - B
A great defensive unit, I keep these one the frontlines as well as the homeland. If I happen to get attacked during the night, they prove very useful.
Mot. Infantry - A
I've done experimenting on which Unarmored unit (Mot. inf, Mech. inf, Commandos or Paratroopers) are the best. The verdict is mot. inf give you the most bang for your buck. They're the least expensive and unlock the quickest, and are also the fastest unarmored unit. Bonus: they're also Scouts.
Mech. Infantry - B
This unit has identical stats when attacking and defending, so it's not a horrible unit. However they can be hard to afford in the early game and unlock late(r).
Commandos - C
More expensive then mot. or mech inf, and usually unlock later than both. Only reason I would make them is if I'm playing a mostly mountainous country like Tibet or Switzerland.
Paratroopers - C
I don't really think the Paratrooper landing strategy is very useful, whenever I build them I always keep them in ground form. They're actually pretty good combatwise (10 attack vs unarmoured) but are expensive and unlock later.
Ordnance
Anti-Tank - D
Only need these if you don't use Artillery or run into a guy who has a TON of armour units.
Artillery - A
Excellent unit, allows you to engage enemy stacks without taking damage. Works especially well against armour, but once in higher levels it's good against infantry as well. Just make sure to keep them out of close combat, as they are crap at defending.
SP Arty - C
Just like arty, but (slightly) better statwise, and more expensive. I generally don't use them.
Anti-Air - B
Cheap unit that provides stacks with suitable AA defense, as well as significant heavy armour defense at higher levels. Only drawback is they're one of the slower units in the game, so it can be a drag for players who like fast attacks.
SP Anti-Air - D
Faster than regular AA, but more expensive and unlocks later. Hardly any difference statwise.
Tanks
Armoured Car - B
Great defensive unit, great for countering units like mot. inf. Best to keep grouped with other armour units, as it's only effective at killing unarmoured stuff.
Light Tank - A
Overall a good unit, pretty cost efficient, fast, good for accompanying Armoured Cars. I usually throw a couple into my main attacking stacks.
Medium Tank - F
Expensive, slow, only good at killing Light Armour. Very vulnerable to air and artillery.
Heavy Tank - F
These units can be good if used right (and with fighting inactives, as @jubjub bird has showed us), but I don't use them in public games. They're not as good at attacking heavy armour as you would expect, and are VERY slow, and are VERY vulnerable to air attacks, artillery, and tank destroyers.
Tank Destroyer - D
Good for countering MT and HT, but not much else. Definitely not worth researching later levels.
Air
Interceptor - A
A must have for any player, regardless of what other air units you produce. Air superiority is key to winning.
Tactical Bomber - A
Great for attacking unarmoured and even light armour, more HP than attack bombers.
Attack Bomber - D
Don't really need them if you have arty. Low HP and expensive.
Strategic Bomber - F
I don't want to destroy the enemy's level 5 Naval Base and Industry factory (why destroy buildings when you can use them yourself?) Expensive and can be shot down easily.
Naval Bomber - B
Great for reacting to surprise naval attacks, as well as attacking unescorted convoys.
Naval
Destroyer - B
Fastest naval unit, scout, and kills subs. Only bad thing is it takes lots of damage when killing subs.
Submarine - B
Good for scouting opponents coastline and for sneaking up on lone Battleships. Can be easily defeated by Destroyers or NB though.
Cruiser - A
Provides needed AA support for naval stacks.
Battleship - A
The most powerful naval unit. Get enough of these and almost nobody can stop you.
Aircraft Carrier - C
Usually not needed, can be a "toy" to play with in the late game. Expensive and vulnerable.
Secret
Rocket Artillery - C
I don't really use them as I usually make mot. inf + tacs, and my RMs are better spent elsewhere.
SPRA - B
Rocket arty on steroids, another toy to play with in the late game.
RRG - A
Largest range of any unit, great for taking out Airfields as well as armoured units. Vulnerable to air attacks though.
Flying Bomb - F
Worthless, low damage and easily shot down by AA.
Rocket - D
Better than FB, but still mostly worthless. Great for destroying enemy airfields, but not much else benefitting them.
Rocket Fighter - D
Small range, can't land on carriers... not needed if you have enough ints.
Nuclear Bomber - A
Can take out an entire stack of units with one attack. Very expensive, but can make (noob-y) enemies afraid of you.
Nuclear Rocket - C
More expensive than nuclear bomber but only slightly better statwise, usually the game will end before it can even be used.
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Seems reasonable. I'd bump militia, AA, AC, HT, nav bomber, and RA up a level. I'd drop infantry, Mot Inf, tac bomber, all ships, and nuke bomber a level or two. RFs are situational, probably only for comintern, but are useful when needed.
Im gonna disagree with the Strat bombers, they are a C at least, you must not use them much because they are nearly impossible to shoot down, if anyone is dumb enough to deploy fighters against high level Strat's, the owner can see where they came from and easily destroy the airfield with the 10 stack of lvl 5 Strats, even lvl 3 Strats are OP.
I disagree with most of this list actually... I'd go for something like:
A: Militia, arty, AA, AC, int, tac, NB, cruiser, battleship, RA
B: mech, AT, sub, carrier
C: mot, inf, SP arty, LT, strat, AB, rocket fighter, RRG
D: commando, para, SPAA, MT, TD, dessie, SPRA
F: HT, flying bombs/rockets, nuclear stuff
But it is all very situational of course... for example, I think RRG's are a bad unit on recreational maps but a great asset in competitive games. I've listed AA as "A" still I seldom use them on rec maps, as there's simply so few enemy bombers around. Dessie is only a D but you still need a few of them in every serious fleet, etc etc.
I guess I'll attempt an actual list too
A: AA, AC, Int, NB, RRG
B: Militia, arty, LT, tac, sub, cruiser, RA
C: mot inf, mech inf, SP arty, SPRA, TD, destroyer, battleship, AB
D: Inf, AT, SPAA, MT, HT, Carrier, strat, nuke bombers, RFs
F: commandos, paras, flying bombs, rockets, nuke rockets
Agree with situationality making a big difference
Depends on doctrine surely?
I was thinking more of an average but yea for sure doctrine would bump some of them up or down relative to other doctrines.
I made my list pretty generalized, but of course, certain units are better with certain doctrines than others.Lord Crayfish wrote:
Depends on doctrine surely?
I think I would judge based not only by armour class or production facility, but by role. Militia, mechanised infantry, infantry, and armoured cars are all essentially similar in role. Motorised infantry is adjacent. Light, heavy, and medium tanks are similar. Ranged artillery are separate groups to anti-tank and anti-air.Brando Dilla wrote:
I made my list pretty generalized, but of course, certain units are better with certain doctrines than others.Lord Crayfish wrote:
Depends on doctrine surely?
I'm curious how your grouping works... because I really can't see a group of mil, mech, inf, and AC. I think they're two groups, maybe even three, with some additional units in it:
Rush unit: AC, LT, mot, mech
Main battle/meat shield/defensive combat: inf, MT, HT, AT, (mil)
Covert/secondary theatre: mil/commando/para
I also not agree about all tanks being in the same group; HT and MT may be, but LT surely isn't? What is your definition of a role?
Agree with KR, I don't think your groupings work unless you're strictly looking at damage output.
Militia are cleanup crew, revolt prevention, coast guards, and occasionally meat shields / damage absorbers. Infantry can do this but militia do it better.
Armored cars are scouts and break-off/rush stacks. Mot inf can do this but AC do it better.
LTs can complement the AC rush role with their speed, but mediums and heavies can't because they're too slow.
Arty and RA are alternatives to RRG, but RRG does it better (up until day 14 or so, when upgrades catch up).
Yeah I'd agree with this mostly. Meant the roles more as an example than anything.K.Rokossovski wrote:
I'm curious how your grouping works... because I really can't see a group of mil, mech, inf, and AC. I think they're two groups, maybe even three, with some additional units in it:Rush unit: AC, LT, mot, mech
Main battle/meat shield/defensive combat: inf, MT, HT, AT, (mil)
Covert/secondary theatre: mil/commando/para
I also not agree about all tanks being in the same group; HT and MT may be, but LT surely isn't? What is your definition of a role?
Mech is surely good for rush or breakthroughs? Combined with MT it makes a good medium-speed armoured unit. It can even defend. That said I rarely use it except in allied.
I do agree with your thoughts on militia/commando/para. Would you agree with my placing anti-tank in same category? I regularly combine it with militia (this may be a problem).
As for tanks, I can't remember the last time I used substantial numbers of heavy tanks, only 1 or 2 for fun in a HWW.
LT and MT, is rather idiosyncratic pairing, I agree.
I meant that MTs make good all-rounder workhorse tanks (in Allied combine of course with TD's), fast and strong enough to be versatile.
So for main tank focus I make 50/50 MT/TD in allied, all MT in comintern.
In Pan-Asian I prefer light tanks as my main tank. But in Pan-Asian I do not prefer breakthroughs but surprise and rushes.
So the roles aren't really analagous because the doctrines aren't to be played the same.
based on my axis gameplay except for S tier unit, must have unit in every doctrine imo
note that some unit went from bottom to SSS tier real quick in certain situation and vice versa.
armored car isn't for killing but for rushing behind enemy lines, quick choke point capture can serve as a radar for main stack. can accompany infantry in early game expansion.
submarine broke engineer triangle for being cheap in cost also good in quality and performance. putting them in line for naval blockade just like average skilled players do are.... uh idk, kinda like defeat the purpose
Medium tank = f? Strat bombers = f?
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I apologise for offence but seems highly questionable.Tolol_aja wrote:
based on my axis gameplay except for S tier unit, must have unit in every doctrine imonote that some unit went from bottom to SSS tier real quick in certain situation and vice versa.
A lot of this reflects the doctrine - Axis subs are buffed, whereas SP arty or tacs are god tier in Allied - but why are attack bombers so low in Axis?
because the tier are based on my gameplay, aircraft had a hard time keeping up with rapidly advancing ground unit that they are supposed to support thus leaving ground unit on their own when came to killing. how? utilize mobility and terrain to caught enemy unprepared.Lord Crayfish wrote:
I apologise for offence but seems highly questionable.A lot of this reflects the doctrine - Axis subs are buffed, whereas SP arty or tacs are god tier in Allied - but why are attack bombers so low in Axis?Tolol_aja wrote:
based on my axis gameplay except for S tier unit, must have unit in every doctrine imonote that some unit went from bottom to SSS tier real quick in certain situation and vice versa.
warning : massive amount of melee combat included, once your unit had reached the edge of enemy territory they are likely no longer to be effective fighting forces.
make sure the war you choose is profitable, plunder resources to keep your war machine rolling. 
Medium tanks are a great backbone unit, fantastic for breakthroughs, while I agree that I like to use the enemy's buildings rather than destroying them, Strategic bombers are amazing at just annihilating the enemy's buildings, so when you are playing an experienced player who actually bothers with unit production/stacking and making the most of his cities, then they become an unmatchable force.Destructo the Great wrote:
Medium tank = f? Strat bombers = f?
I would also say the ordnance is rated too high because I don't see enough experienced players anymore, and lower-level players hardly bother with aircraft enough to make AA worth it, plus there are better alternatives to AT.
I know that this thread is about a month old.
I agree with a lot of this, with a few exceptions. I agree with Fox on Strats, they are pretty powerful once you reach a certain level. I use SP Arty and it’s actually pretty good, but I can see why you placed it at that ranking. My real issue is with the Medium Tank!
Milita are useful in a defense situation from bieng attack on all fronts.( I might be baised because of a current game I'm playing). Other than that I mostly agree. With the excpectation of Strat Bombers. Extremly useful with used alongside Interceptors
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