Help with early game woes

I enjoy playing as ostheer, but find that it is my worst faction.As I understand it, one should defend an area around 1 Vp, 1 Fuel point and prefably 1 munition point for the early part of the game and then spread out later.Attacking agressively with the allies comes much more naturally to me. I find this defensive playstyle loses me the initiative.

I tried to play defensively around the south .It seems so diificult to defend with the vunerable cutoff and hedges around the VP providing cover for flanking and blocking LOS for MGs. Should have I got another MG to cover more flanking angles ? My Map control was terrible for most of the game.By late game I gained alot of territory, but the VPs and the lack of resources for a Tiger lost it for me.

Kholodny Ferma seems such a hard map to play as ostheer.Please could someone point out where I am going wrong ?

•  
  

  0

  VS

  Ares

  Marmalade

  KF Ost vs SU

  by: Marmalade map: Kholodny Ferma

  1

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I enjoy playing as ostheer, but find that it is my worst faction.As I understand it, one should defend an area around 1 Vp, 1 Fuel point and prefably 1 munition point for the early part of the game and then spread out later.Attacking agressively with the allies comes much more naturally to me. I find this defensive playstyle loses me the initiative.

I tried to play defensively around the south .It seems so diificult to defend with the vunerable cutoff and hedges around the VP providing cover for flanking and blocking LOS for MGs. Should have I got another MG to cover more flanking angles ? My Map control was terrible for most of the game.By late game I gained alot of territory, but the VPs and the lack of resources for a Tiger lost it for me.

Kholodny Ferma seems such a hard map to play as ostheer.Please could someone point out where I am going wrong ?

•  
  

  0

  VS

  Ares

  Marmalade

  KF Ost vs SU

  by: Marmalade map: Kholodny Ferma

  1

  -

watching right now

You have the ideal commander composotion,CAS,lightning war,and mech assault,




A nitpicky mistake,but you choosing your second unit was really delayed(You need as many units on the field/walking towards the field as possible,so as soon as you have 240 manpower you need to build something,unless you were thinking about building a sniper as second unit,and thats a nono,at least in 1v1)

Allies outnumber you so easily so that is very important.


You built a mortar wayyy to early against Conscript spam.
You have 2 grens,wounded pios, and an MG,vs 4 conscripts and an engineer. not good.

Mortar should be a 5th or 6th unit.

I said it in another review I did,if you see soviet has built no tech structures in the fog of war,then just spam grenadiers(4 grens into MG) to counterspam Conscript spam.(say that 5 times fast)

You wiped a squad then lost one,huge setback. Cant lose squads,you can always come back,no need to be frisky risky in the early game.

Towards the end of the early game,when you got your halftrack,you needed to go on the offensive,your opponent was completely blown off the map and the entire south and middle was wide open.

I know,its easy to see that in hindsight,but once you get out of the early game(5th to 7th minute) the supposed weakness is over,
There is no weakness anymore,there is no defensive playstyle anymore. You have LMGs,halftracks,and Paks.

Secure your resources and then branch out,whether your enemy wants you to or not.



The aforementioned indeciveness is costing you,you realllly shouldve counterattacked much earlier. now your opponent is back on the map and you didnt capitilize on your opening.

Use your halftrack. So far its only sat back looking cute. You havent used it at all.

You CAN reinforce in combat,even if you're losing men...ABUSE the hell out of that! Only Ostheer can do this at this point in the game. Do NOT press the retreat button when you have a halftrack nearby,just walk away from the combat towards the halftrack a little bit,(this is called soft retreating)unless the squad is dying faster than you can reinforce.

Use hotkeys too reinforce like this as well so you dont do too much finicky clicking.


Again,you force squads off,and wipe squads even,but you dont counterattack fiercely enough.

Its not the early game anymore. Your squads and equipment can stand up to his.
Middle is only defended by one conscript squad. Push those silly commies out of there. Its YOUR ground.

When you force a retreat you GO.
take the ground you earned,use the halftrack reinforce abuse to convince any defenders to gtfo the way.

Also you shouldve sent a Pio squad with sweepers up north to harrass. Completely undefended(but mined) the entire game.


You launch an offensive,and get aggressive,only when you have 30 VP,and once you get your STUG E.

do that earlier. Pick your doctrine earlier.







You never made it,20 mins is not really the late game,xD

To sum up..(TLDR)

Counterattack and GET AGGRESSIVE at around minute 5-6.

The 1 muni 1 vp 1 fuel rule only really applies to Ostheer vs USF.

Soviets vs Ostheer is much more balanced,the Grendier vs Conscript matchup is much more balanced. There is no M20 to cage you in to a corner of the map. M3s are much easier to deal with and counter.

Harrass with sweeper pios

Pick a doctrine earlier than you did,Make a choice after you encounter your first elite infantry squad(Shocks=IS2/ISU,no elite infantry=M4 Sherman callin, Guards=T3485 stall)

Learn the soviet doctrines so you can counterpick one ASAP.

Thank you so much for the the detailed feedback, its very helpful. In regards to counterpicking, which doctrines would you recommend against Shock rifle and Guards motor ? Is there a guide or thread about counterpicking ?

Guard motor,Pick Mechanized Assault. STUG E allows you to punish the soviet players infantry for stalling for callin's,and match the T34 85's when they come with a tiger+Pak wall.

Shock Rifle,Pick Lightning war,the Stuka close air support loiter ability allows you to literally rape IS2s with the click of a button,and you still get your tiger. G43 upgrade allows you to stay moving when playing against shock troopers,and allows you to deny conscripts their close range advantages


A full Doctrine counterpick guide will be apart of a revived Tip of the week series.