Need help strategizing

http://www.coh2.org/replay/22669/that-s-a-lot-of-tanks

4v4 Game. I had a unorganized casual-stranger-team.

This replay is one of the games I was playing to try out Osttruppen for the fourth time. I think I ran into a clan, but regardless, what matters is that I ran into a very strong tank spam. The map was Steppes and we held the bottom island, but the intense pressure at top and missing troops in the middle of the map ended up with tanks rolling into our base.

We had mis-communication on our team and ended up with nearly 3 players holding bot while top was left with on player alone to defend himself. Regardless, we put up a good fight until my team surrendered.

Also, I felt the map Steppes was a great advantage to tank spam, which might have also been a loss for us. The Ostruppen was effective against the early Maxim spam, but when the tanks rolled in I had nothing to hold them off with.

I felt I did my best against the Soviet zeal, but the march of rolling tank tracks just never stopped.
Things I felt I should have done:

1) More mines.
2) Assist other strategic points.
3) Get PG with shrecks, what was I thinking. There was so many T-34/76
4) Someone should have went to the middle section for the fuel point.
5) Should have built some armor

What I want to hear is what I could have done better. The shear number of tanks astounded me, and I will not rest easy until I've figured out a good counter to such a strong Soviet Industry strategy.
(It's pretty late where I am so I apologize before hand if this is confusing to read. But still I do hope some more experienced players that know a effective counter can enlighten me. I will not rest easy until I find a good strategy to counter play).

A couple if small suggestions -

Ostruppen. Are very weak and overpriced. About the only thing they are useful for is crewing stolen weapons so well done if you captured some maxims. Cover makes them better and the steppes doesn't have a great deal.

Pak guns are what you need to hold the armour on this map. You will need to pair them with one covering the other as one will be easily flanked. Even two will be flanked but you can probably kill their equivalent cost in tanks before this happens. Support the paks with grens to Faust and immobilise armour and yes pgs with shreks can deliver the coup de gras but they must go in last or the tanks will kill them too quickly. Use the paks to hold back the tide until you can get some armour yourself although really you will need callins which maybe too late. If you use p4's make sure your whole team doesn't do this and pair the p4's with paks in a defensive role.

Mines - the steppes is too big for mines apart from on the island a couple of the bottlenecks


Strategy. A strong approach with this map is two to the island and two to the middle fuel. Grab these and then try and reach for the northern ammo

A couple if small suggestions -

Ostruppen. Are very weak and overpriced. About the only thing they are useful for is crewing stolen weapons so well done if you captured some maxims. Cover makes them better and the steppes doesn't have a great deal.

Pak guns are what you need to hold the armour on this map. You will need to pair them with one covering the other as one will be easily flanked. Even two will be flanked but you can probably kill their equivalent cost in tanks before this happens. Support the paks with grens to Faust and immobilise armour and yes pgs with shreks can deliver the coup de gras but they must go in last or the tanks will kill them too quickly. Use the paks to hold back the tide until you can get some armour yourself although really you will need callins which maybe too late. If you use p4's make sure your whole team doesn't do this and pair the p4's with paks in a defensive role.

Mines - the steppes is too big for mines apart from on the island a couple of the bottlenecks


Strategy. A strong approach with this map is two to the island and two to the middle fuel. Grab these and then try and reach for the northern ammo

Ostruppen are tad bit ovepriced, but they are a great counter (IMO) against the current Maxim spam meta. The sturdy 6 man group against slow firing machine gun ensure it will take a long time before a Maxim can threaten a squad wipe. The low reinforcing price also means any loss during their cannon fodder duty means little. And yes, I managed to grab at least 5 maxims from the enemy, though they proved of little use against the T-34 and KV horde that soon arrived. Osstruppen got fausts too so I wouldn't use Grens considering they don't last as long under fire.

The P4 sounds like a solid idea, I would consider getting some in the future for defensive purposes. Or maybe a Panther, though two P4 might be better.

When facing overwhelming Maxims -> Mortars, Snipers, Walking Stuka, and lots of flanking.

Wehrmacht snipers are easy to lose, but they work great against maxim spam. If they are doubling down on maxims, you can even get a second sniper.

Your Ostruppen logic confuses me. They are good against maxims because of squad size? Maxims should never be threatening squad wipes. If you are letting a squad sit in front of maxims and lose models, you're wasting manpower.

The bottom line against Soviet spam of any variety is steadily building units to counter, and not losing your army in the mean time. On Steppes in particular, as a matter of map strategy, 2 teams to island, 2 teams to middle fuel. If they send a whole army top, you should win both fuels.

When facing overwhelming Maxims -> Mortars, Snipers, Walking Stuka, and lots of flanking.

Wehrmacht snipers are easy to lose, but they work great against maxim spam. If they are doubling down on maxims, you can even get a second sniper.

Your Ostruppen logic confuses me. They are good against maxims because of squad size? Maxims should never be threatening squad wipes. If you are letting a squad sit in front of maxims and lose models, you're wasting manpower.

The bottom line against Soviet spam of any variety is steadily building units to counter, and not losing your army in the mean time. On Steppes in particular, as a matter of map strategy, 2 teams to island, 2 teams to middle fuel. If they send a whole army top, you should win both fuels.

The idea still includes Maxims, but Osstruppen standing between your counters and the Maxims would help reduce the chance of Maxims going directly for them. Also, Osstruppen standing in the frontline means they can help scout + man anything they dropped, which payed off in this particular game. The loss of model is cheap to afford if it secures a safe Maxim kill.

havent had a chance to watch your replay, but i thought id mention that osttruppen was actually one of the better counters to industry when they first came out. the doctrine was the first to have munitions conversion, so you could sacrifice teching for extra mines and schrecks. osttruppen were also cheap and durable against a fast t3. this made them better than grens for fausting.

now, i would probably take close air support instead though. osttruppen really arent very useful in their current state, but close air support allows for the same munitions heavy builds. also, close air support gives you AT strafes which is essentially undodgeable.

also, close air support gives you AT strafes which is essentially undodgeable.

Hmmm don´t you mean AI strafes? AT strafes are really lacklusters unless the tank has engine damage.