Brick wall at rank ~2000-2200

A while back I solicited advice from the forum regarding 2v2s as Double USF. Since then my teammate and I have improved quite a bit and we've managed to achieve a positive WLR (30 - 25). We cracked top 2000, but ever since then we've been been having enormous difficulty and as of the time of writing, we have dropped to 2400ish.

I do have one or two replays saved of recent losses although I'm not at home right now so I can't upload them. We have been losing to very similar strategies in most cases these days, which I will describe here.

They will be OKW + Ostheer. The Ostheer player will spam grenadiers. The OKW player will either go pure volksgren, OR they will get a mix of volksgren and sturmpioneers. In any case, it is extremely infantry heavy. It's manageable to start with, and we often wipe a squad or two early on + secure a territorial advantage. However, 5 minutes or so into the game, they start getting panzershreks on the volks, and LMGs on the Grenadiers. These eventually proliferate and they have, in short order, an LMG gren blob and a shrek blob, with mixed OKW infantry amongst it.

It may not be always in an explicit blob form, they do split up as these are not "idiot" players. However they will heavily punish our units and we will be on the back foot from here on out. Recently I have been fast teching to major to get fast Howitzer Motor Carriages. This sometimes works, but most often the opponent's next move is a panther. I think it's coming out from OKW, although I've not analysed the replay to be certain about that. We do have an AT gun and some zookas by this stage, but not anything heavy enough to really punish them.

If I eschew a howitzer carriage in favour of a Jackson or conventional Sherman (often I have not quite unlocked an Easy 8 by this stage, or the E8 comes out slightly after their panther does), their infantry continues to wreck us. Sometimes my MG will stop them momentarily, however LMG grens *wreck* them in seconds. The Wehr player always gets a Pak40 as well, then often stalls for Tiger or something like that.

We are finding this exceptionally difficult to overcome. What is the meta for dealing with this kind of unit composition? Am I supposed to just try and spam MGs to lock the map down? Or blob my own infantry, go inf company and get 1919 spam? I don't want to counter cheese with cheese if I can avoid it.

As 2v2 partners do you tend to both support each other on one side or do you both go for different sides. I heavily suggest that you should try and support one another and lock down one side first. For instance against this heavy infantry axis tactic maybe one of you should specialize in support weapons like maxims while the other goes for a more infantry attacking roll like cons or rifles.

When you transition to late game it's normally a good idea to decide before hand which one of you is going to get the AT (anti-tank guns) and who is going armor.

On larger maps we do have problems coordinating, although even on tiny ones (Minsk pocket I think is the name of it?) this is causing significant problems. My partner handles T3 and anti-armor stuff (Captain + AT guns -> Jacksons) and I go T2 -> T4 for LT, MG, AAHT and HMCs. I am usually Rifle company, so I get Easy 8 or Jacksons later on, depending on what we need.

We both play USF, so we do not have maxims. Tier 2 is the earliest we can get MGs, and the .50 cal is easy to kill after they "fixed the bug" and added a 25% received accuracy modifier to it. My normal build involves an AA Halftrack as a mobile supressor/infantry killer, but it has stopped working well and in the last couple of games I skipped it in favor of a faster major. Which is sometimes good, but sometimes bad. I will post a replay when I get home if people are willing to watch it (sub 30 min games iirc).

A replay would be good.

I would actually suggest the opposite of Hans advice for the vast majority of maps.

The Allies have the edge in the early game. The burden of early game teamwork tends to be on the Axis in my opinion. Riflemen beat other infantry 1v1. Contest as many resources as you possibly can in the first few minutes.

There are exceptions of course.
Semosisky:
Team up on the middle initially and use the buildings to claim good fights. Riflemen are silly good when garrisoned and the Axis will struggle to push them out. Take the first battles by exploiting garrisons and then expand your resources from there. Always keep some infantry in the town to keep the enemy bottled up.
Minsk Pocket:
The unique fuel situation requires a unique response generally. You don't want to both blob up in the middle as one MG shuts you down. Instead try to fill all three "lanes" of Minsk with troops and advance to their fuel from all sides. Have a Rear Echelon squad clean up map control behind you.

These are the two that spring to mind immediately.

I've actually been doing a similar strategy to your own lately. Maybe I can whip up some commentary over my game in the hopes that you might see a different way of doing things.

edit: Sadly I cannot seem to get my OBS to work right now.

Corp.Shephard is entirely right in what he says. I only suggest that if you both go one side you definitely have a much better chance of securing at-least 1/2 of the map from the get go rather than risking losing all of it entirely if neither of you can win you're 1v1 battle on you're side of the map.

Let me give you some advice on Lieutenant play as well.

It sounds like you've stumbled upon something similar yourself over time but I base mine off of my Recon Support Guide.

The thing is Recon Support as a doctrine is underwhelming. You really have to squeeze value out of the Greyhound to get anything out of it and the Greyhound is just okay.

These days I have been playing Rifle Company and Airborne Company instead.

My basic LT build:

• Riflemen
  
• Riflemen
  
• Rear Echelon and Fuel Cache or Veteran Riflemen (Airborne vs Rifle Company)
  
• Lieutenant
  
• .50 Cal HMG
  
• Ambulance
  
• Bazooka Research
  
• Either Rear Echelon Squad or LMG Paratrooper squad (Rifle vs Airborne)
  
• Major
  
• M8A1
  
• Sometimes a second HMG
  
• M8A1
  
• Spam 'Easy Eights' or Sherman + Jackson if Airborne.
  

That's a little confusing because it has two Companies baked into it but the basic idea is this.

Early game your Rear Echelons provide solid light AT. Your LT, .50 Caliber HMG and Paratroopers/Veteran Riflemen provides good anti-infantry. Your Riflemen can help with either task.

You spend ~65 fuel before you get your Major so your M8A1s come out extremely early; it's not uncommon to get them before the 11th minute. This is really good timing as the M8A1 direct fire is just sort of overpowered. Screen the enemy lines with infantry and then let the M8A1 turn each fight. The speed of your M8A1 means that the enemy has no chance of really having anything other than a Puma out. That's fine though. Your Rear Echelon squads should stick to the M8A1 like glue and scare away tank hunter predators and keep it healthy.

The key to fighting blobs is the .50 Caliber HMG and the M8A1. .50 Caliber is a monster even with the "nerf" it got when they fixed that bug. It suppresses, it slices, it dices. It's quite fragile though so keep your LT and Paratroopers near it so they can leverage their high damage weapons to protect it from flanks.

I like to grab a second M8A1. Many enemies see armored units and say "shit, we need a Pak40". With two M8A1s though you can easily punish blobs and support weapons alike. This can feel dangerous though because Axis armor is scary! However Bazookas are often underestimated. You can always grab more Bazookas. Sometimes it's wise to grab them on your Riflemen too.

Your late game strategy will diverge depending on your doctrine.

I have just been experimenting with Rifle Company and I've been pleased. The 'Easy Eight' remains super strong. That being said if you're particularly afraid of heavy armor then go Airborne. Late game you can store munitions for the P-47. It's such a good anti-tank call-in that it makes the doctrine. The key is to throw down the strafing run when he commits with his tanks. The P-47 will do the most damage then. Airborne also has air-dropped AT guns so you can shore up the defense of your M8A1s if you feel uncomfortable.

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  14

  VS

  Corp.Shephard cohbros/ Ohme

  Dr.destynova Sagwa

  Big Boys 2v2 - Top 2v2 Players

  by: Ohme map: Semoskiy Winter

  18

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Here's a replay of the Airborne side of things in action. I make mistakes but you can basically see that if you keep your rushed M8A1s alive they will win you the game against the blobs. Note how well the M8A1s crush enemy trucks when you get 2-3 of them. Going on the aggressive and knocking out the enemy's field position before they get heavy armor can really help.

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  0

  VS

  Corp.Shephard Votzenhorst

  I Feel Pretty / /( . Y . )\ \

  Rifle Company LT Build

  by: Corp.Shephard map: Vaux Farmlands

  2

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Here's a Rifle Company version. This game is more "pristine": I feel like I made the right choices and kept on top of my micro fairy well. It's x2 USF vs x2 OKW but there's plenty of infantry blobs so you can see how well they get handled. It was my first attempt at the Rife Company version of this build I am pretty pleased with it.

I don't get the Fuel Cache early with Rifle Company (which sort of slows down the M8A1s) but you can see that the three Rifles + Vet means that with good micro and decision making you can win any fight early.

... this game made me think "Yeah, wow, M8A1s are OP".

So I searched through the replays I'd saved and only one of them was actually "kind of" what I described above. I don't often save losses which I really should, and it turns out I didn't save any where they had an out of control inf spam. There was one that was on the last patch that I lost because of that minor update

This one is more like an exercise in watching us squander good early victories, fool ourselves into thinking we're in a weaker position than we are and surrendering when we could actually come back and win the match, because we don't realize how badly we've hurt the enemy. Of particular note is the psychological impact when an obersoldaten squad hits the field. My teammate practically suffers ptsd from some of our earlier games.

It does highlight some of our weaknesses though I'm sure.

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  0

  VS

  sloth_bear Adam

  ?p@uN" [KSC/- The bloodthirsty Butcher

  I suck, Part 3

  by: ThoseDeafMutes map: Minsk Pocket

  1

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