Soviet Flamer Truck

So this unit makes me feel helpless for a long time early game. How do you people counter this? I feel that there is nothing I can do against this unit until I get puma. reketenwerfer should counter it but really it just gets countered by M3 itself as volks don't have early AT like grens or Cons to cripple it.

I won't even mention the squad wipe potential it has until mid game as it does not need to be scared of anything and can chase units all the way to base.

Also I just noticed that volks barely penetrate M3, so only sturmpios(expensive 4 man squad) can damage it early game

Allot of the same applies to US early car thing they get from Doctorine

Early reketenwerfer , keep it supported and into a building until you can get your first panzershreck

It's a damn powerful unit (a bit too powerful in my opinion).

You're only option is to basically keep your squads together (grens as Wehrmacht and Volks + reketen as OKW). This way, it cannot chase down and wipe your squads. With the firepower you gather, it should be enough to keep them at bay.

Now this means you have to play defensively and only tentatively push out. Find a part of the map where you can defend the most resources and when you finally get some tanks or a large enough force to break out (so as to protect your territory and flanks while you push), that's the point where the game shifts to your favor.

Easier said than done, but that's how you got to play as Germans.

M3 will go down fairly quickly if you can surrond it

The jeep on the other hand is um, run away

Raketenwerfer 43 is a unit that can defeat the clown car. It does however require some strategic positioning to be effective. Note that the Scout Car has to get close to your troops to start burnin', and that one Raketenwerfer shot is enough to reduce its health to 10%.

So what you want to do is to keep your troops in the maximum range area as your 'werfer. If you see the Scout Car coming, you turn it so it can reach the squad the flamer car wants to burn. With a little bit of baiting, you will be able to shoot at the clown car. Then it will be at 10% health, and you have a good chance of killing it, especially if the attacked squad of yours was a Sturmpionier squad.

The important thing is that the position of your Raketenwerfer (or even that you built it) must not be known. If your opponent knows where it is, he can either kill it or just avoid it. This is also true if you get a Panzerschreck on a Volksgrenadier squad. It is possible to bait the opponent with a volkie squad that has the 'schreck built 90%. Your opponent wants to go grill them, but right as the car arrives, the Panzerschreck comes out and starts shooting at the clown car.

Another thing that is as important as killing the clown car is not losing a lot of soldiers to it. If you see it approaching a single squad of yours, retreat it immediately. The clown car strat relies on damaging single squads heavily, so minimize that damage!

I found a few ways to be effective vs m3 the raketen bait is probably the best, I go a bit further and bait it with a kunbel the m3 just rushes to the kunble every single time and the rakenten is waiting behind, once in suppression mode kunbel actually deals damage to m3 like a regular mg 42 (I think), so one raketen shot is usually enough.

Another way if you struggle to keep raketen alive is getting mines in the flanks, m3 flamer strat usually means no minesweepers.

You can also try early flack halftrack it will kill m3 really fast.

And of course as soon as possible volks with shreks maybe even put munitions transfer after halftrack is built to get shreks.

Anyway those are my thoughts from playing the game, in the end its all about your play style some of these solutions might work for you others might not.

I've found relying on the raketen/baiting tactic is risky. If it doesn't work, it can put you at a real disadvantage early on. Even if you do everything right, the RNG gods may decide to spite you.

If I see an M3, I build the Mechanized HQ ASAP and get a Puma. It might be a bit of an overreaction to a single M3, but at least you guarantee that you'll stay in the game and give yourself a chance to win. If you get lucky, he's built a second M3 and a sniper before he sees your Puma and you can hard counter all of it. And with no AT on his Penals, you've basically countered all of T1 and most of T3 (which typically follows a T1 start). Heck, even if he goes T2 in reaction to your Puma, you've probably made him change his original plan, which is still a win.

I think a Puma is really the best solution. It usually forces back-teching to T2 to pick up a Zis, which delays the T34s/other armoured units. If the Soviet player aggressively denying fuel I will sometimes settle for a Flak Halftrack, but this a worse solution IMO because its not too hard to deal with simply by upgrading the AT nades on conscripts, and it can be escaped from due to the set up time.

More generally, I think the key think against Soviets is to figue out what tech building they built first. If they go Tier 1 for snipers/M3, you need the Puma. If they go Tier 2 and spam Maxims, you need the Infantry Support Gun. I always hold off building my first truck until I have confirmation of this.

I think that the Raketenwerfer baiting is not that great of an idea. Firstly, it is kind of unreliably due to the small arc of fire and slow movement. Secondly, ypu'll only get one shot as once you've tipped that you have it, the Soviet player will be way more carefull. But moreover, even if you kill the M3 you are left with a 270 MP unit that does nothing until T34s hit the field, which may be some time. By contrast, a Puma or Flak Halftrack can go on to do a lot more in the early game.