How to counter this Soviet strat?

Recently on the 1v1 ladder I've come up against a Soviet anti-OKW strat that involves using the Guards Motor Coordination Commander to flood the map with mid-tier infantry. Each game I only see 1-2 Conscripts at the most, with Penals being used as backbone infantry. The flamethrower upgrade means the Penals can almost always defeat Volks or Sturms (even Obersoldaten struggle), and the reduced manpower income for OKW means that my squads are outnumbered as well as outgunned, so I lose most map control.

My first response was to use the Luftwaffe MG-34 to lock down the blobs, but flanking from Penals with Flamethrowers is devastating, and in any case the 120mm mortar makes using weapon teams extremely hazardous. After this, I tried going for a fast Halftrack, but Guards squads take care of it easily. A Puma did much better, but that thing lacks the anti-infantry firepower to really make a difference. My most successful idea was fast-teching to Obersoldaten, but the weak early was too crippling - most of the map capped by the Soviet player, who then wins in the long term from resource advantage.

Any tips or strategies that might help to counter this? I think we all know that OKW vs. Soviets is a painful matchup at best, but this Guards Motor strat in particular crushes me.

OKW don't have reduced manpower, just munitions and fuel.

Fast flaktruck should help you allot against this. Flaktruck can stand up to guards very well, just don't use it as a meat shield.

build your medic truck defensively as the mortars truly do hurt.

Unless you ran your obers into point blank into penals I really dont see them stuggling

You did not mention if soviet gets M3, which is something I struggle myself with early game as it has huge potential to wipe squads.

Kubel is great for "protecting the flanks". Set the MG34 and if someone's about to flank you, just stop them with Kubel. The point is not to use Kubel at front line, but a little behind the MG34 so it takes no damage.

Make good use of Grenades. Once the MG pins the enemy, throw in grenades before he decides to run. Keep your troops together, do not go to the far sides of map to harass the enemy. You need to stay alive with OKW rather than gain map control like in Soviets. Just don't give your fuel to the enemy, it's more important to protect yours than capturing the enemy one.

I don't like flak-halftrack. It takes time to be set and it's pretty defenseless vs guards PTRS. MG34, Fallshirmjager and the little artillery gun of OKW get the job done. Bring in a Jagpanzer to protect against tanks. But in the end, it's all about good micro. I don't generally do 1v1, 3v3 is my thing, but I guess the point is to stay together, stay alive and once Panther comes, it's mostly GG.

Ok, I tried out some of your suggestions and was able to win a couple of games. Seems like good MG34 play + Fallschirmager is the best solution to all the infantry. Kubelwagen is good up to a point, but most Soviet players I run into seem to just rush anti-tank grenades (which pretty much always at least knock out the engine, allowing conscript small arms fire to finish it off). Either that, or the M3 which can simply chase it down.

However, the main issue I still run into is those 120mm mortars. They chew through MG34 teams pretty easily, but more importantly they can be used to destroy my trucks from a huge distance. Specifically, on smaller maps like La Gleize, setting up trucks anywhere outside my base sector results in them being bombarded as soon as the Soviet player scouts them out. Any ideas how to deal with this, or do I just have to accept that I can't use my trucks to 'lock down' sections of the map, they way I typically play against USF?

Either that, or the M3 which can simply chase it down.

I don't have good answers to anything else you talk about, but with regard to this specific issue: If Soviets get a clown car, I believe the "correct" response is to melt their faces with a quick flacktrack or Puma. With the Puma especially, you can just micro away from Guards or AT nades, and the Soviet won't have anything with more range or mobility until a T70 hits or he back techs for a ZiS.

I ran into a heavy Penal with Flamethrower strategy in a game last night and had success keeping them out of range.

In the early game (before he could afford to spam Roks on all his PB squads), my usual build that includes a kubel and two sturmpios worked very well. In the mid game (once he had all his Roks), focus firing two PanzerFusilier squads (both upgraded with the GK43) were able to deal a lot of damage to the penals and either force retreat or at least bleed his MP.y could really get the flamethrowers in range. Once my Obers hit the field and I added a Sturm Officer to enhance all of my long distance specialists, his PBs were getting shredded before they could even prime the tank on their flamethrowers.

It got a little dicey in the mid-game, but vet is so important to OKW. If I hadn't been good about keeping my units alive (save for one PF squad ) it would have turned out much differently.

In the early game (before he could afford to spam Roks on all his PB squads), my usual build that includes a kubel and two sturmpios worked very well. In the mid game (once he had all his Roks), focus firing two PanzerFusilier squads (both upgraded with the GK43) were able to deal a lot of damage to the penals and either force retreat or at least bleed his MP.

Hmm, I confess I haven't tried using the Panzerfusilier doctine against this strategy yet (I couldn't bear the thought of giving up my MG34s), but I can see why it would be effective. I agree two Sturmpios are the way to go, Volks just don't offer enough in the early game so not much point getting more than one. I'll give that I try next time I come up against Soviets on the ladder.

I'm still in two minds about the Kubelwagen though. Its a terrific counter to Soviet infantry early on, but at this point I'm sort of resigned to Soviet player getting a Clown Car, which makes the the Kubelwagen a useless waste of 240 MP. Also, out of curiosity did you go Medic truck or Mechanized truck first?

Once I saw Penals, I expected a clown car and went Mechanized for a Puma, but the clown car never came. Hindsight being 20/20...I would have gone medic truck first. So my Puma was pretty much useless, but at least my kubel was still able to do some work.

Once I saw Penals, I expected a clown car and went Mechanized for a Puma, but the clown car never came. Hindsight being 20/20...I would have gone medic truck first. So my Puma was pretty much useless, but at least my kubel was still able to do some work.

Puma is quite good against infantry that can't fight back such as Penal squads.

The key is to ram them with the vehicle and stay at point-blank range. The Puma's turret mounted machine gun is actually quite deadly at close range. Stay at that range and you can force enemies back. Chase them at extremely close range and you can kill them off.

Just be careful of being too aggressive with your Puma against Soviets. Few conscripts means few AT grenades but chasing the enemy into Soviet territory can spell disaster. Guards and Mines are still an ever present threat.

I will mirror what other people have said. The key to beating this sort of strategy is concentrated long range firepower. Obersoldaten with fodder to protect them will do well. Panzerfusiliers will do well. The Panzer II 'Luchs' will do well if you get it early and depending on the enemy's tactics. If he saves up for T-34/85 spam then you'll have time to get value out of the Luchs and you can cloak it when the enemy tanks arrive If he just goes plain Tier 3 then you probably won't get enough out of a Panzer II before a T-34 arrives. Guards are a danger to the Panzer II but it is fast and tough enough to avoid them. Weigh your options carefully.

Against a heavy t1 start like that I'd probably go 251 flak as my first fuel purchase. With mg34 backup and proper micro you should be able to suppress guards before they're a real threat to actually killing the flak ht. Puma is a safer bet but not as deadly as the 251 flak.