Newcomer sucks and needs advice!

TL;DR
I would love someone to give me advice on the following things:

How the hell do brits deal with mortars before land mattress?
How the hell do brits push points without tanks?
Should the brit player be defending and counterattacking, or is attacking correct and I'm just executing it improperly?
Am I trying too hard to push when theres no need to?
Am I incorrect in assuming that the vickers should beat any infantry walking up to it? (I keep suffering cases where they get decrewed or forced to retreat by a grenadier squad that just walks up and fights it, which infuriates me)

Any other advice would be deeply appreciated as well!

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Hi guys! I'm TarNation and im a somewhat experienced RTS player who got into company of heroes 2 starting this January. So far its been an awesome game, but its also been extremely frustrating! Due to the somewhat rng based combat system I've had alot of issues understanding rules of engagement, counters, general strategic principles and much more, so when I stumbled across this site it was a godsend.

I'm uploading this replay hoping people could watch it and give me some advice that perhaps is common knowledge to the community but will take me ages to learn from scratch. I currently have around 150 hours in the game (in a month i know haha) and while there are a few things I THINK I understand, sometimes it just goes against my knowledge and I get my assed kicked. I'm currently sticking to brits as I want to understand the game mechanics at a high level as quickly as possible, so by keeping variation as low as possible I can isolate parts that I need to learn. (tho to my understanding brits are currently op? is that just an angry opponent thing or is that just accepted)

In this game I get my ass completely kicked by Wehr, which is currently the faction I really struggle with. As someone who uses Royal Engineers and Infantry Sections, I often misjudge the power damage of infantry of grenediers. I also made the mistake of thinking the Stug was anti infantry, while thats actually the Stug E (forgive me please) so I end up losing my first cromwell and the game, however I want to focus on the parts before armor hit the field (so the first fifteen minutes)

For the entirety of the game I was haunted by the enemy mortar team. My vickers was constantly pushed back to base, and it made my infantry sections constantly feel like they were sitting ducks. How do you deal with that mortar? IF's take forever to kill enemy squads, and need to be in cover to be effective, making them either useless trying to evade mortar fire or useless dying to mortar fire. I need to know if its a matter of my execution being poor (like suffering rifle grenade hits <-- fuck those things) or if im just approaching it incorrectly.

Another problem I've suffered with is that pushing seems impossible with IFs. Unless I have superiority in numbers the fact that grenadiers are super accurate and damaging and that IFs basically deal zero damage while moving makes it impossible for me to aggressively engage grenadiers. This becomes a problem for example when I see the enemy somewhere they shouldn't be, and I really need to push them (like cutoffs or fuel points). Am I engaging them incorrectly, or am I missing some unit, or is that just how things are balanced and I need to find alternatives like flanking ALL the time? (oh and, if both are in green cover, at medium range who wins? I know long range grenadiers and close its IFs, but what about medium? Say the width of a road)

This leads me into another question. Am I playing the brits with the wrong mentality and forcing a playstyle they don't adhere to? I'm generally comfortable against OKW since I have a good idea of how to engage volks (they dont snipe you with an mg or nades from across the map) Like, against the Wehr am I just doomed to consign myself to a fluid defense when they get a mortar? Standing in green cover waiting for the enemy push seems suicidal, so I've adapted a move-your-ass-and-push policy against indirect fire, but clearly its not working. So am I just pushing like a noob? Or was I forcing pushes that were ill advised? If defense is what I'm supposed to do, wtf do I do against the mortar? (again, before land mattress stop suggesting that <-- doesn't even consistently work)

Last question, for my Vickers, what is its specialty as an MG? The german MG seems to be a suppressing machine and is powerful lockdown of an area, and the Maxim also seems to have decent lockdown/tanky AF, and the USF MG hurts like balls. I know it gets a bonus for being garrisoned but is that it? Coz thats almost irrelevant against rifle nades or mortars. Am I using it wrong? Or is it just a relatively weaker MG? Or are grenadiers/mortar good against MGs?

If you read all of this I thank you so much, learning this game has been a rather frustrating experience due to half RNG, half obscurity of information (like damage/accuracy/stats and the yellow text being basically useless "infantry effective at long range - every base infantry but USF derr")

Known mistakes:

Losing the sniper due to overextending and also not getting the AC as fast as I should,

Losing the MG the first time (that was a misclick)

Getting hit by rifle nades (I play on shit resolution and fps[1080x720 at 50% quality at around 20~30fps], I literally cannot see them, I rely on infantry callouts)

Losing the first/second Cromwell (mistook the stug for the stug E, misjudged how far I could extend)

Getting panzerfausted like six times with the AC (I was getting really tilted, I felt like I was losing hard to a player I shouldn't lose to and was losing ability to multitask)

hey brother, Im doing a series of casting games for newer players who are strugglen in some areas this would be perfect. Do you mind if i cast it and well see what things pop up on the fly? this will be the 2nd in my series and heres the first one below if you wanna check it out and think it may help, hit me back champ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TUSftTqGrc

Of course! I'd love it if you casted my game! I played terrible tho so I'm not sure if its that great a game to cast, but feel free

Of course! I'd love it if you casted my game! I played terrible tho so I'm not sure if its that great a game to cast, but feel free

hahah thats the idea, im not really in the business of casting great great games, there is enough channels that do that and do that really well, im more looking at helping look at mistakes some players are making and trying to talk it through with them to help the community grow ill cast it when i get home from work today bruzzy

hahah thats the idea, im not really in the business of casting great great games, there is enough channels that do that and do that really well, im more looking at helping look at mistakes some players are making and trying to talk it through with them to help the community grow ill cast it when i get home from work today bruzzy

Alright thanks

You want me to look at the replay and post tips while Immature does the cast? Or do you think the cast is good? And if you'd like me to review this as well were you looking for aid beyond the 1st 15 minutes and how to push as brits or just that?

Hey tarnation just did the cast gota render it and i will upload it soon brother. let me know what you think and if it made sense. if you want you can add me on steam and ask me any more questions you may have or to clarify anything. I hope you enjoy it and you get something out of it sorry if its a bit over the place its only my second cast

still having audio issues -.- sorry

Thanks for the cast! I didn't really notice the audio issues so it was a great cast. I still have a question about fighting against the mortar.

You say to move around, however IS's literally do zero damage while moving. They get -40% rate of fire and -50% accuracy and their reload time gets something like doubled. If I move around theres no way for that infantry squad to win, so how am I supposed to get around that

I guess my man its how you define a win. The ultimate goal would be to kill the crew and take the mortar or to destroy it. But doing that as you know is alot more difficult. So you need to learn to weather the storm, if needs be, force it off again and again if you have to just try your best not to lose squads doing it. with that support unit on the field he should have less inf which should give you the numbers advantage, so group up (not blob) and push onto his position and make him react or retreat. orrrr just your own indirect and bomb him orrrrrr tec nades, so a single squad that could get close to take the mortar out once and for all

hope some of that helps

and thank you for your time too man with watching the cast i appreciate it