Knowing Is Half The Battle - Recon Company Strategy

Amazing guide shephard! I was daunted to try out recon commander by most people in the forums criticizing this commander being lackluster. Now I'm interested in consider to buy it.

So no special weapons for IR pathfinder means that they doesn't have the springfield 'sniper rifle' which allows them to snipe entities below 40% health?

Is the M8 Greyhound actually more effective at long range than it is at close range? I've made a thread on it, and most people agree that it's rather terrible.

You probably have more experience with it than me, is it any good?

Just pointing out a mistake- IR Pathfinders are stated to cost 280 MP in bold, but below cost is written as 210 MP.

Other than that, very nice guide. I'd give it a try if only I didn't have recon

It's a really static play style, I'm not sure how do you play it vs indirect fire.

- You base all your anti infantry early and mid game strategy on HMG and M8, but why not a Half-track? It does the same job and better!
I would expect to go T3 if I'm calling a M8.

- Your anti tank strategy is also base on RE, you must be lucky enough or leading your opponent to make mistake to take out his armored and tank units. They have smokes and it counters perfectly well unreliable bazookas.

Your strat is really zookluck dependent. Going 2 M8A1 Howi before Sherman is a huge delay on the only T4 unit that can preserve you from almost anything in the field.
That is only my opinion but USF need to push hard to keep a chance to win the run. Being dependent of zooks and arty shots is a huge bet.

I have the commander, I'll give a try or two but I'm skeptical.

Weakest commander in a game.

Djeezes, props for the writer, this is a nice guide!

Is the M8 Greyhound actually more effective at long range than it is at close range? I've made a thread on it, and most people agree that it's rather terrible.

You probably have more experience with it than me, is it any good?

The M8 Greyhound is pretty solid in it's niche which is a light anti-infantry armor unit.

I dunno; I like it? I've had close games against strong opponents where I was able to get 20+ kills on my Greyhound and get to Vet 3. They never last forever but they pull their weight. The Greyhound has strong competition right now between the M15 AA Halftrack and the Stuart. That being said it does things that the M15 AA can't do; it has superior burst damage with Canister shot which has let me wipe Obersoldaten instantly. It has exceptional sight range at higher levels of veterancy which gives it scouting utility and scaling.

I think the unit could be better. It is fairly cheap on fuel but it has a very high manpower cost for a "light tank". The Stuart and T-70 are both 240 manpower now I believe?

It's a really static play style, I'm not sure how do you play it vs indirect fire.

- You base all your anti infantry early and mid game strategy on HMG and M8, but why not a Half-track? It does the same job and better!
I would expect to go T3 if I'm calling a M8.

- Your anti tank strategy is also base on RE, you must be lucky enough or leading your opponent to make mistake to take out his armored and tank units. They have smokes and it counters perfectly well unreliable bazookas.

Your strat is really zookluck dependent. Going 2 M8A1 Howi before Sherman is a huge delay on the only T4 unit that can preserve you from almost anything in the field.
That is only my opinion but USF need to push hard to keep a chance to win the run. Being dependent of zooks and arty shots is a huge bet.

I have the commander, I'll give a try or two but I'm skeptical.

Early game indirect fire tends to be pretty easy to weather. This is some what of a... meta sensitive build? Who actually goes for indirect fire against US forces? You don't really need mortars against most US players. Pumas are more often rushed than Walking Stukas due toe prolific light armor that the US forces enjoys. I think someone picking up a Walking Stuka in a 2v2 or the like could be quite bad but not impossible to overcome.

You see it sometimes but it doesn't help much. The .50 Caliber HMG is just as fast as a Maxim at setting up and tearing down. It's quite capable of weaving into battles with indirect fire and still doing alright.

The reason I don't go Captain with this strategy is that I would probably just pick up a Stuart instead of an Greyhound. Stuart's way more versatile and a better light tank for 25 more fuel. Instead I aimed for Lieutenant tech as to make the M8 more complimentary. M15 AA is really good. No doubt about it. They have different strengths though. Greyhound is good at short engagements. It has better sight range, small arms resistance and it is more mobile. It's also cheaper. It has strengths that can be used. I consider the two close aside from the fact that you can't get the Greyhound until CP3 which hurts it.

The Bazookas and Rear Echelons make for a strangely powerful combination. What makes Volksgrenadiers so good with Panzerschrecks? It's their high durability and low reinforcement cost. Rear Echelons get 5 men in their squad at Vet 2 and are even cheaper than Volks to reinforce. They are a shockingly good bazooka platform.

I also think the Bazooka gets a bad rap sometimes. I tried to hammer out about 10-15 2v2 games with the strategy before I re-wrote this guide (I had written some of it around launch but changes between the Alpha and WFA launch meant I had to wait). I was pleasantly surprised with the Bazooka in all of those games and ended up winning all of them to my recollection.

The Bazooka has the same penetration as the T-34 (might be better, can't remember exactly). With two of them you have the same damage as the T-34. Two squads of Rear Echelons with Bazookas are pretty scary to light vehicles. They can even put some work in on medium tanks and heavier armor. I've killed Panthers and Tigers alike with my Bazookas in those games. Not alone of course but Bazookas can do work with the right micro and positioning.

It's a strategy that takes a good amount of micro to succeed with. The M8A1 really reaps huge rewards if you have good intel and good control. It's worth the risk to keep the enemy's manpower army down. Unsupported heavy armor will not kill you fast enough in my experience.

Djeezes, props for the writer, this is a nice guide!

Well shucks. Thanks ya'll.

That being said Ohme deserves credit too. That guy is getting real sharp at bolstering these guides with good graphics. He puts in a ton of work. Thanks Ohme.

+1

Keep on writing these guides dude! They are very fun and informative to read.

Very good guide. Nice to see Corp.Shephard is thinking "out of the meta" and willing to try out new ways to play a faction. But sadly Rifle and Infantry Company overshadows this commander.

So, I've just used this strategy in a 2v2 game. It works pretty well early game (although we still lost in the end), the .50 cals in particular are a real boon to stopping anything that's squishy.

I did lose my Greyhound early on. Still managed to do a good amount of damage and harrassment, although most of the work was done via the Canister Shot - the main gun is still terrible.

Making good use of the Pathfinder's Artillery and Fake Barrage abilities really gives an edge. Managed to force a retreat multiple time with the fake barrage until my enemies wised up to my tricks. Then they lost a good few squads.

i just wanna say that the call in for AB is quite good… ab tear up everything in their path, and the AT gun is great at driving away tanks.. the whole commander here makes the player not even need to tech for a captain… and the AB drop fulfills it along with the M8 call in to somewhat replace the steurt as the light tank.

quick questions:

1.how do you capitalize on forward observer bonus? compared to spotting scope it doesn't give much sight. Also, I find this very inferior compared to riflemen's flare ability from rifle company (Sure it costs munition but its benefit is quite substantial-for instance it ignores line of sight requirement)

2. Why would people build their 3rd unit as RET?
I find RET after nerf on volley fire is not much of useful support unit. Sometimes I would swap them with vehicle crews with utility car for the sake of using bazooka actively.

Nicely written guide. One mistake though:

Drops two Airborne Squads with randomized weapons and an AT gun with attached crew.

The at gun comes without the crew. Furthermore the paras are different from the paras you get with the airborne commander:

a) they do not get demos
b) vet is different (no healing at vet 2)
c) they get the light at mine

Post invised for expressing a contrary view in a disrespectful fashion. It is quite possible to discuss or disagree with a poster without resorting to profanities. Please do not

After patches, the Greyhound is no more able to instakill squads with canister, but it does a lot of damage
Also, the gun of the greyhound has been slightly improved and now should be similar to the Stuart

Extremely good guide. Great to see this company getting used.

Hi, now, when USF has access to mortar in early game I think the build should be changed a bit. I think building a mortar (or two) after mg and call I&R Pathfinders earlier (maybe after weapon rack upgrade) to put mortars in good use. Is anybody willing to rewrite this build?