Dealing with blobs without Calliope?

3v3 USF + 2x brits vs 3x OKW on Redball. Custom standard resources game, VP 500

Without the calliope, how does USF counter big AF blobs on lane-y maps (assuming you placed a couple of mines, upgraded infantry etc). The only stock option I can think of is major arty hoping they got scared and instead of pushing further, they retreat. I'm talking about really big ass blobs with A move raketen behind them. As soviets, it's real easy with katyusha. With brits, somewhat easy with base arty and cover + vickers. But say you tech captain, have AA HT and pak howi, major and saving up for Jackson or something harder, and you see a huge blob of fussies, volks, obers and 2x raketen coming at you in one lane. How do you react?
Now I used to be able to easily push back with double paks doing the Lord's work but right now, without the calliope, you're lost (tried back tech to .50 cal but gets shredded in a matter of seconds, tried AA HT but that s*** is so cancerous that it keeps spinning and not really suppressing anything + if you park it, raketen will eat it in a second). And if the blob doesn't shred you, and all of your infantry is behind heavy cover. The Stuka will easily displace you.

Played a couple of 3v3s just like that a few days ago on Redball. Kept winning early engagements, had dominating map control. All of a sudden, on your entrenched position you see 2x obers with IR, 3x pfussies upgraded and vetted, 2x raketen and 1x Spios coming at you.
I had 3x rifles with 1 or 2 bars. 3 mines (denied by spios). Captain with double bar, 2 pak howis, AA HT and echelons with bazookas + Pershing + major with zooks. Pak howis were spread apart by a distance larger than the stuka line. I saw the blob, immediately retreated pak howis a bit back to not be in line of fire. AA HT was just enough in range to suppress anything that closes in on the cover.

AA HT died in a second once 2x raketen fired from the FOW. I kept all of my squads behind heavy cover sandbags. IR obers shredded them behind cover advancing. Had to retreat squad by squad. Pak howis dealt pretty much no dmg on semi-direct hits. Then stuka fired, displaced rest of the squads from cover and I got completely overwhelmed. Pershing was completely denied by the Jagdtiger covering

Played the same game, against the same tactics (vs 3 OKW premade), only this time instead of heavy cav, I went for calliope and instead of pershing, jackson + AT gun.

Same sh** was pulled against me, only this time I was on the other side of the top fuel on Redball (bottom). With the calliope, it was an easy win. The blob came, I put down rocket arty and they retreated.

Is there any way to counter blobs as USF without the calliope is my question.

You veto the laney maps, its the only way.

Depend on your commander selection.

1)You can use WP shells from pak-howie. Not only it damages passing infantry, but it also block vision for whatever coming after them and disables vehicle's weapons. Same goes for WP mortars on rifle/mech company halftruck - decent and cheap.

2) You could back-tech to LT and grab couple of HMG's - coupled with AAHT they will keep anything but snipers constantly suppresed. Thing is - they are fragile af, so you always have to get two of those, and that messes up your army composition beyond repair.

OR, if you do not want all that - dig positions and upgrade them with HMG's (that way they wont snipe or steal it ) Works especially well on line-y maps.

3) another way is major arty - self-explanatory, it is enough to deter but most stupid A-move blobs. But we do not really want to deter it, we want to smack it dead, so spam with major false flares and nuke them when you are about to retreat.

4)AFAIK a lot of lines on redball can be opened up with explosives or heavycrush, but that is more of late-game stuff, so not really useful to you.

5) A lot of ways to deal with infantry spam is doctrinal, thats for sure - from bar-finders and cavrifles to upgraded shermans.

6) Any sorts of defences will eventually fall if they throw enough meat at it, so if you can't beat them - join them, outblob their blob. Bait stuka with howies, then you will have considerable amount of time to wage blob wars.

1)You can use WP shells from pak-howie. Not only it damages passing infantry, but it also block vision for whatever coming after them and disables vehicle's weapons. Same goes for WP mortars on rifle/mech company halftruck - decent and cheap.

Tried that. The shells usually take too long to land. That and the fact that when I did do it. It kinda went against me because the blob just went around it and I had blocked sight (not to mention that ground targeting through blocked sight is cancerous due to latency, delay)

2) You could back-tech to LT and grab couple of HMG's - coupled with AAHT they will keep anything but snipers constantly suppresed. Thing is - they are fragile af, so you always have to get two of those, and that messes up your army composition beyond repair.
True, messes up more than it fixes. Also, I did do it, but usually the stuka makes good work of those. Really ups the ante on the micro

OR, if you do not want all that - dig positions and upgrade them with HMG's (that way they wont snipe or steal it ) Works especially well on line-y maps.

3) another way is major arty - self-explanatory, it is enough to deter but most stupid A-move blobs. But we do not really want to deter it, we want to smack it dead, so spam with major false flares and nuke them when you are about to retreat.

4)AFAIK a lot of lines on redball can be opened up with explosives or heavycrush, but that is more of late-game stuff, so not really useful to you.

5) A lot of ways to deal with infantry spam is doctrinal, thats for sure - from bar-finders and cavrifles to upgraded shermans.

6) Any sorts of defences will eventually fall if they throw enough meat at it, so if you can't beat them - join them, outblob their blob. Bait stuka with howies, then you will have considerable amount of time to wage blob wars.
xD. Good one. I will keep this in mind.

Problem is. My laptop has RX 580, Ryzen 5 1600, 16 GB dual channel, 2x SSDs and what not. The performance is great (eg. running Metro Exodus on High, full hd, 60 fps), but COH2 and the snowy maps really hammer the FPS past minute 15-20. That's why I always veto snow maps, and only two vetos left. One for Angrymunde and one for Essen Shitworks (here OKW has a big advantage with schwerer and forward tanky retreat point so I want to negate that advantage in 3v3)

Depend on your commander selection.

Urban
Heavy Cav
Recon/Airborne

But I'm asking for the non doctrinal tactics. It's really boring being forced to play the Calliope
commanders.

You veto the laney maps, its the only way.

I veto snowy maps first, for performance reasons, then I veto essen (big advantage for OKW, that map) and angermunde (shit map altogether)

The Calliope Crutch is real. One thing that gets forgotten about is the Major's Decoy Barrage it saves on munitions and you can force panic retreats and/or get somes wipes if they get cocky and you throw in a real offmap. It's extra good with Recon Company since you get it Vet 0 on Pathfinders and the butterfly bombs are easier to wipe with if they call your bluff with the decoy barrage. That being said it's not really a counter so much as a way to play mind games though low skill blobbers usually always panic retreat lol

Urban
Heavy Cav
Recon/Airborne

But I'm asking for the non doctrinal tactics. It's really boring being forced to play the Calliope
commanders.



I veto snowy maps first, for performance reasons, then I veto essen (big advantage for OKW, that map) and angermunde (shit map altogether)

Recon = dual HMG with PFs, you have the vision superiority.
Heavy Cav, pershing with good infantry support

Point is if he blobb you have to concentrate harder to counter him and not believe one single unit will do the job.

scotts with Paths aren't bad
run the scott barrage cd bulletin (it's like 25%) and once the scott gets vet 2 the barrage comes off of cd really quickly and you can make life very uncomfortable for axis blobs and pakwalls

Just looked at the CD in a game I played.
With the bulletin and vet 2 the scott has ~20 sec cd on the barrage if you interrupt it, and 5 seconds of cd if you let it barrage fully.

If the blob is tightly clumped, grenades are also a good counter. Usually players will have the blob in a single control group so if they want to dodge a grenade they will move all units. Giving you lots of time to keep shooting them or move into cover.

Blob vs blob is a thing too but dangerous.

Personally if I see someone blob. I always grenade it no matter what. They can't dodge it everytime. Notice how they move their blob with your first grenade. Do they move forwards or back? If they move forwards, throw the grenade forwards infront of the blob next time.

Its stuff like this that can really punish the blob. Even if it may seem that players can easily move out of grenades, that is not always the case. If you never throw grenades, you will never succeed. If you keep throwing grenades, you will wear them down eventually.

The other suggestions in this thread are pretty good too. I like to keep a pack howi around if I know there will be blobs. The auto-fire doesn't wipe like it used to but it will still put a lot of damage on the squad and make it easier to drop models with your squads.

Use USF Paratroopers?

Use USF Paratroopers?

Unless I pick the doctrine. Sure. But for the reading impaired. The question is: NON DOCTRINAL.
And even then, unless I spam paras which is quite expensive, they do not necessarily counter blobs. Para mines maybe, yes.

Unless I pick the doctrine. Sure. But for the reading impaired. The question is: NON DOCTRINAL.
And even then, unless I spam paras which is quite expensive, they do not necessarily counter blobs. Para mines maybe, yes.

Well, if you really want a non-doctrinal stock option to counter blobs...

HERE IS YOUR SOLUTION: Get a MG42!

It´s cheap, it´s stock and it´s available after 1 or 2 minutes in teamgames, unless there is really no enemy Ostheer XD

Non-doc it's not that feasible because Bars only upgrade your close range damage, so you'll be walking into their blobs.

HMGs sort of help but not really. Flack halftrack only counters 1 infantry in a blob. The Mortar Carriage in Tank tier is actually pretty good at it but it's so far away. Realistically you have to pick a commander with an LMG and counter blob, or Calliope in 3s. Paras do well too. Do not pick rangers.

I find that investing in a pak howie and parking it behind a shot blocker in these blobby games is almost always a good investment. If a stuka comes, you need to then move it every now and again, but still good.