The Paradoxical Commander: Commissar Lord

[Surprise Attack!]

Hi all,

Recently I've been playing some comp stomps on my own to improve my micro and make sure I have my build orders and hotkeys down, and out of boredom, I abandoned my Lord General for a while and tried out the Commissar Lord.

I know he's a bit difficult to play for a variety of reasons, but ironically, he was actually the first commander I ever used when I started playing DoW2 retail. I bought DoW2 in a pack that included the Death Korps skin, and I found the Commissar Lord easily the coolest looking commander out of the bunch. The odd thing was that I actually did rather well during one of the first games I played using him - I remember I got a power sword and stubbornness, and went to town on the enemy commanders while backing him up with two GMs and a Sent.

I really haven't had the same kind of luck here in Elite mod, probably due to the far higher skill level of the vast majority of people who play the mod.

That being said, I find the LC a bit of a paradox. He's a support commander that rushes into melee, for one.

He's also incredibly squishy, but his energy shield protects him during early stages of the game, and later on, if you get Stubbornness on him, he can be a completely powerhouse especially when paired with Fist of Brockus' None Shall Fall and can cause some serious damage to his enemies, especially with the requisite Ogryn squad buffed by bionic eye.

I see Flak Jacket more rarely, but I can see it forcing early retreats by assassinating CSM/Tacs or completely shutting down melee squads on the charge.

His primary abilities, the execution buff mechanic and the model based heal/self-buff mechanic, obviously require synergy with a large infantry based army. His execution ability creates some interesting opportunities with a third GM squad in T1, as now you can potentially retreat cancel to dodge out of bad situations. The suppression break effect is also excellent, as it partially negates the need for a sentinel.

Basilisk flare covers half of the reasons why one should get a Spotter squad, and given that your other red reliant abilities are either not too expensive or somewhat useless(airdropped mines due to everyone have detector units). Granted the airdropped mines are great in 1v1 if your opponent attempts to sneak around and decap your natural with a non-detector squad.

In any case, those my thoughts on the LC. I'm not a very good player, and I'd be open to any ideas vets are open to sharing. The problem is that unlike the LG, who has a straightforward role of staying with his men and buffing/supporting them, or the Inq, who is primarily a damage dealer with great stuns and damaging abilities, the LC doesn't seem to have a real defined role, and this confuses me.

[Torpid]

Relic got it wrong for a start. The LC is not a support hero, he's an offensive hero, all of his support buffs are primarily offensive in nature, whereas the inquisitor's aren't necessarily and since she's much more about control she's more like the chaos sorcerer, where the LC is like the CL.

I'll say more later.

[Surprise Attack!]

Relic got it wrong for a start. The LC is not a support hero, he's an offensive hero, all of his support buffs are primarily offensive in nature, whereas the inquisitor's aren't necessarily and since she's much more about control she's more like the chaos sorcerer, where the LC is like the CL.

I'll say more later.

I understand, but on the subject of the semantics, I think that the LC can be a support commander while being offensively oriented, much like how the LG is a defensively oriented support commander. I used "support" mostly because much of the mechanics involved with the LC are buffs and auras, and seem to require him to hang back.

Then again, I might be doing this completely wrong!

[Commissar Vocaloid]

The commissar lord, in my own opinion, is very gimmicky. There are strong points about his kit, but then there are considerable weak points as well.

Arguably, one of my biggest griefs is the roles he tries to fit. He essentially is an aggressive commander whose abilities are stuck somewhere in the middle of being a benefit to himself, or to that of his army. His obvious limitations are his low health and this is by no means, alleviated by use of his energy shield, especially if you should take advantage of his execution buffs. What I often find in the early game is that you want to execute a gm squad to get off extra damage, but this adversely effects his ability to fight in close combat. At only 100 energy, depleting 50 energy for an execution leads to you only having 50 energy in reserve to power a shield that is considerably bad - the worst in terms of pure hp to energy ratio at a measly 2.5 hp per energy, versus the standard 5.0 hp per energy for every other commander. Of course, the big difference is that he gets his for free, but it goes without saying that by the end game, the shield acts more as a bane than an asset, as it's much easier for someone to deplete the commissar's energy than any other shield wielding melee commander.

So you get stuck with some pretty big decisions to make in engagements, as he is by no means a tanky commander if you plan on using his abilities. He has the lowest health pool of all the IG commanders, and I find requires more investment to make effective use of him comparably to his counterparts in the IG roster.

That being said, he does have cool abilities, and some interesting synergy with IG units that you simply cannot replicate with the other commanders. Particularly, his dmg/melee oriented buffs are really second to none, and can have some terrifying effects if paired with Ogyrn or Catachans. Nothing is sweeter than melting terminators with a T1 squad that is buffed to do some incredible damage under the watchful eye of the commissar.

But there in lies the problem - what I find gimmicky is that melee IG isn't the most effective build, and definitely relies on the right situation. It's often better, I find, to use him very cautiously, buffing units in the background, and waiting for the enemy to move within an acceptable range and position before you charge him into melee - go too early, and he gets easily targeted down. As he has a very weak closer (his only ability being Lead by Example for a speed buff) relative to other melee commanders - who offer closers such as teleporting, or the ability to ignore suppression - you'll have to spot the right chance to engage.

Also whatchu talkin' bout willis? Flak jacket is an awesome T2 wargear - use it to assassinate a plethora of sub commanders, and it instantly pays itself off. Zoanthropes get 1 shotted (provided they dont have the shield up), and you can easily remove other subs in retreat (Pain boy, weirdboy, Autarchs, Librarians, Vindicare, lictors. And after that points, any other kills are an obvious benefit, and retreating killing is made so much easier as well Just dont run in guns blazing if you plan on doing this, as once again, his energy shield is garbage.

Speaking of that - I would love to see an optional wargear to give him an enhance energy shield ):

[Tex]

Flak jacket is also awesome for supporting Ogryns or catachans. Sure, it is great for sniping leaders, but iirc, it also inspires terror, which means the affected squad now deals -50% damage. I can distinctly remember using this in combination with aura of discipline to beat a warboss with stormboyz (who were buffed beyond belief by globals and whatnot) vs my LC with Ogryns.
I think people often forget that its not just a damage up front ability.

I really like spamming execute in tier 2 with the bionic eye just on my fully upgraded plasma guardsmen squads. With the extra speed and damage, they actually end up doing so much damage that they become a light vehicle deterrent. They also become suppression immune so you can walk right up to a setup team and blast it to bits. It's a very safe way to use execute, and you get a ton of mileage from it.