Bazooka-useless?

How do I make the Bazooka not useless? If I made zook squads, they just get taken down. If I spread zooks across my squads, they lose to any infantry because their limited firepower is further reduced. Dual BAR seems to be required for surviving.

Furthermore, even when zooks pen, they do stupidly little damage. I can't justify the munitions cost, yet I am getting owned because a blob will run right in and take out my ATGs, then mass shrek my E8s/Jacksons

To make bazooka worth I put x2 on already vetted squad (AT nades to stun). Secondly, always keep together with squads with BARs. Doing that prevents from getting wipe by inf. I send them alone vs Puma or SdKfz when they are without inf support.
Keep in mind that in late-game this squad will be almost useless. It's for early-mid game.

bazookas are just wasted munitions. Get a captain if you need infantry AT, never actually buy one.

Romeo is fairly accurate here.

Bazookas are really only for countering light armour - Scout Car, Puma, Kubel, etc. If you are facing medium or heavy armour it's better to get AT guns and tanks.

Against Wehr I wouldn't get them, but no reason to not get them against OKW. They don't have medium tanks outside of the Ostwind doctrinal call in. 1 or 2 extra bazookas can let you put a lot of pressure on trucks or units like pumas etc.

AT gun is of course the better choice, but there are benefits to getting a fast major instead of captain so it really just comes down to how you're constructing your army.

Also rear armour bazookas still do just fine against med tanks. Even heavy tanks with some luck.

They're kind of like Molotovs. Get them when you're in a situation where they'll help you, don't preemptively buy them.

The captain is really good against pumas , stugs, Pz3 , kubel and even a p4 if you get a at nade off. Spend you munition on bars or lmgs to support your captain. But generally get a ATgun if he has anything better than a puma.
Ow also vet captain is BOSS,

i usually research zooks as a reaction to the OKW FLAK HT, and put doubles on my first RET. Never put em on riflemen unless i come across a situation that calls for it.
I've been experimenting with Pathfinder bazooka ambushes as well.

What about rear echelons? not like they have allot of fire power to lose... and if you have 2 they should form solid AT backline? I don't play US much so let me know

What about rear echelons? not like they have allot of fire power to lose... and if you have 2 they should form solid AT backline? I don't play US much so let me know

This is typically what I do, if I purchase schrecks.

I don't think the bazooka itself is a useless weapon, however, I almost never get the upgrade. As Romeo said above, the only time I use bazookas is with the Captain.
I hardly get the Captain anymore, though. I prefer to go Infantry Doctrine/LT tech (for Utility car + HMG(s)) for some nasty AI firepower, and I find that, with 4 rifles, I usually have enough map control/harassment for T4 armor to come out with German armor around the same time.

In team games/2v2 I often back tech to the captain, either for some infantry AT or for one AT gun.

I played a 2v2 on Vaux Farmlands and took out a Tiger Ace with 3 Shermans and a Captain. I lost one Sherman to some Raketenwerfer/PaK 40 fire, but my Captain managed to stick it out a while and landed some damaging rear-armor shots.
Luckily I had just pushed the Grenadiers off of the points they were capping so they couldn't come and faust the shermans.

Late game bazookas can be useful at ambushing medium/heavy armor. With the Captain's sprint ability and the rifles vet AT nade ability, it can help destroy or at least keep the armor off the frontline for a few minutes, and in CoH, time is sometimes all you need to keep that VP up.

Here is a thread I made on this topic. It got derailed, and the meta shifted since, however due to bazookas never receiving change I believe it is still a valid topic.

http://www.coh2.org/topic/19920/does-hand-held-at-need-a-slight-buff-in-damage/page/1#post_id177724

Using Bazookas on riflemen is useless in my opinion. I put them on rear echelon troops. The Rear Echelon Troops gain veterency very fast from hitting vehicles with bazookas and are pretty good at vet 3. Cheap 5 Man AT Infantry which are better than Soviet Partisans. Using the Captains Ability seems to also increase the damage as well (not to sure what the exact buffs are )

If I were to change anything about Bazookas it would be to lower the cost on them.

It always depends on the situation if zookas are useless.

In words:

Against light vehicles up to light tanks (like the P2) it can be a real serious matter for them and if you combinbe two squad with them or 3 zookas the enemy has to take care of this vehicles.

Against mid tanks it another way. Its true that you shouldnt use it as ur main AT against them, BUT if you are walking around with zookas squads it means for the enemy to pay more attention for his tanks, especially when you are flanking him and hitting him into his rear armor. Additionaly to the more micro the enemy has to use, the zooka can also work as a great finisher, if you just appear behind a e.g. close to death P4

Against heavy Tanks its most of the time totally useless, because under heavy tanks we count e.g. the (Jagd-)Tiger and they got a too heavy armor to be penetrated through the front armor and jsut in some cases they get penetrated through the rear armor. Here you need M36 Jacksons or the US AT gun.

But against all types of vehicles it matters that you flank the enemy!