Looking for Advice to Become a Better Player

Hello everyone,

I've been playing Company of Heroes 2 for a fairly long time (and CoH 1 before that), but I've never been very good at it. Recently I've sort of devolved into playing nothing but 4v4 as Allies (because I got games faster as Allies, not because I liked them better). Last night, though, I played a game which made me realize just how terribly I actually was. So I made the conscious decision to start playing 1v1 games, and to actively seek to step up my game.

Here is a replay of a pretty nasty defeat that I suffered as Ostheer vs. the Americans shortly after making that decision. I've already gone through it myself to try and glean what I could about my mistakes, but being a poor player I'm really not entirely sure as to what I should look for. I've identified that I have a problem with map control, and with leaving units idle. I know that if I fixed the latter, the map control issue might be helped a little. But aside from that, I'm finding that I always have a lot of trouble with controlling any amount of the map in this game, so any advice on that front would be very useful to me.

Also, continuing on the macro-management side of things, I've never put too much thought into my build orders. I would love any help in tuning that as well.

On the micromanagement side of things, there were also a lot of mistakes that I was able to identify. For example, I placed a Vet 3 Grenadier squad in a poor position along a fence, such that when the American player approached and threw a grenade, the squad was trapped by the fence and completely annihilated.

I thank you all for your time.
--Heraclius

With Ostheer, most times you won't have great map control - at first. The Allied armies are better at early map control, so I try and focus on one side of the map to control and lock down until Axis late game advantage presents itself. Of course, if you're playing a really lousy opponent you can push that a little more, but you really don't want to overstretch yourself as an Axis player. If you do, you leave yourself vulnerable for an Allied push.

I'm not the greatest player, either, a bit above .500 win percentage (you can click the little army guy under my avatar to see my player card). I mostly play 1v1, with some 2v2 sprinkled in. Your ability to multi-task and make quick decisions is a lot more important in these modes than in, say, 4v4, as a lot of mistakes are masked when there are tons of players. I focus on always having my units doing something, making sure I jump around the map and don't get hypnotized by one fire fight.

If you want, add me on Steam. My user name is "TheMightyCthulhu". We can play against one another for practice, and play some 2v2, too.

Thanks for the tips Cthulu. I've sent you a friend request on Steam, and I intend to take you up on your offer.