Infantry Company playstyle

So, I mainly play USF Infantry company in every map and match up, because I like the idea of the commander. I do not plan on switching commanders, whether a certain commander is more suitable to a map because x, y, or z. I would like to think extensive practice in one commander will allow me to get better, instead of half-assing other commanders because it's the pro meta. I have a very low ranking/MMR.

Right now, I am at a road block on how to deal with blobs, specifically SMG blobs. The usual game goes if I see X, then I build Y to counter it. This goes on until the enemy figures out that I have no suppression and blobs small parts of the map wiping units. If I build fighting pits, then they get arty, if I steal HMGs then they build arty, and I do not go Lt. route.

BO is usually 4 rifles, ambulance, captain, weapons

The idea of Infantry company is to hold them down and blow them up. Are there any other strategies as to hold them down?

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  VS

  fire_bird609

  FogOfWar

  Out blobbed and out skilled

  by: firebird609 map: Crossing in the Woods

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I'll give you the token "try armor co. for demos". Cool, done, on to infantry co.

You've got everything you need right there to stop a blob. Your rifles can plant mines, which is really awesome because you can plant them everywhere. Kills are nice, but the real benefit is that he HAS to keep his blob together around a mine-sweeper and can't spread to cap territory, which slows him down.

Secondly, 2x 1919s on your Riflemen is scary. Add the incredibly underused ON ME! from your captain and said riflemen will make Jerry look like he just got out of a woodchipper. Use your sandbags too, they'll make your guys hit hard and really do a number on the blob as it approaches.

The pack howie also works wonders if RNG allows. Treat it like an AT gun, a little back from your riflemen and with open firing angles.

With stolen HMGs, if your opponent starts mortar/leIG'ing them, get them out of the building and have them follow a rifle squad, similar to what Wehr would do. Since its on the move, its much less likely to die and will always be on hand to assist a rifle squad in need.

Thanks for the advice, I totally forgot about mines in favor of more weapons. In order to keep up with weapons and mine production, I assume control of the munitions/ munition cache is more important than fuel. Also all fuel will be going to half-track/captain/priest. I do not like USF tanks, which focus on mobility but can't really flank as well as infantry. Because they are really squishy and probably won't get any veterancy with my bad unit micro.

My use of tanks consist of attacking behind my infantry screen, but I always miss-micro and usually chase and get kited, then killed.

I've thought about the pack howitzer, and I'll be using it as a later strategy, manpower allowing.

Manpower bleed is a huge drain with my kind of playstyle, infantry. I plan on capturing little ground with 2 rifles/group and holding that with sandbags or pits with MGs. My idea is that I can win small battles and push on the enemy retreat.

I'm saying most of this because this is because I'm inclined to learn more about different playstyles with this commander in mind, and with emphasis on infantry. Maybe a different approach could be better, but I wouldn't know of it.

Hey Firebird, I did a video review of the replay you posted! If you're interested, I can upload it to my youtube channel for you and others, but if you'd prefer not to have your play critiqued in a public forum I can send it to you privately.

Didn't watch all the game but you should have win that game before 20 minutes. I stopped watching around 21 munites and it is at this moment you simply get overwhelmed by his blob

1- Good start but you don't use enough cover.
2- Build sandbags and wire evident cover used against you, there are some evident one on this map.
3- You are floating Munition while you can equip all your squads with 1 1919. After your first squad equipped it took you too much time to equip the others.
4- 1 mortar HT is good, 2 WTF?

You are playing well but you simply forget why you are playing: To win the match. So you believe because you won early game you can stale and stay in-definitively on T1 with mortar HT. I tell you a secret, that doesn't work, at least not with USF (at all).
You won the early game, you equip BARs/1919 and you build a good damn sherman to close the match.

I'll come back on what I said earlier in more details, you played well but he played really badly early game and you kill his kubel because he did crap.
You're not in cover vs the Kubel and when he finally get his sturmpio close to you you didn't retreat your RE squad in time. First you left it where it was when you could have soft retreat to a cover while your rifle shot at him. And next you wait to have 1 man left to retreat, if you can't win, retreat you don't need to take loses for nothing.
Now if he had use his Kubel + Sturmpio together, I believe you would have lost the early game. Think of it. Cover and don't let him close the gap on you with his sturm.

Some mistakes I saw:
1- You decrew its raken and you didn't pick it up or at least destroyed it => Noob mistake . Everytime you kill a support team you pickup the weapon or you destroy it. (he took it back 5 minutes later)
2- No mines while having so much munitions is also an error, couple of mines in every evident path. At your level nobody use the sweeper.
3- Focus fire: make sure your squads are focusing the priority 1 target = Sturmpio.
4- Do not over invest on AI or AT. You have a really good commander Anti infantry, this means you must use your stock AT units. You should have had a sherman around 15 minute
5- Not enough reco, you don't know where is his truck and what is it.
6- Not enough aggressive, you should have reco his truck and force him with your troops covering your Mortar. => you manage to get him retreat his troops and you use phosphorus shells on his retreat point. Captain to start damaging his truck, on the mean time and when the sherman is in, you try to destroy his truck with it.
7- No more than 1 cache of each.
8- Past 5 minutes, fighting position are useless (except on narrow passes): he has raken, Shrecks, possible light vehicle etc...

Hey Firebird, I did a video review of the replay you posted! If you're interested, I can upload it to my youtube channel for you and others, but if you'd prefer not to have your play critiqued in a public forum I can send it to you privately.

You can post it on youtube.

Thanks for the comments, I believe I wasn't aggressive enough throughout the game because of the HT/priest. I need infantry to screen in case of a tank destroyar or AT infantry flank. One of the advantages of mobile arty is the speed to retreat, and I need to take that into effect in playstyle. I chose two, because of the increased availability of long range smoke/fire. I assume riflemen should have been the majority of smokes.

I'm worried about equipping riflemen with too much. I love the smoke/grenade/flank tactics that around 80% of my army can do, smoking off AT pieces, HMGs, or tanks with a hero rifle is very fun. I guess winning the battle "here and now" is more important than saving for a "what if" situation.

I'm not a big fan of the 57mm, no mobility. But I guess the munitions from bazookas have to be saved for something else more important. Also I can protect my arty pieces much better. Hmmmm~

I build the caches early because I should not be bleeding manpower with green cover.

You can post it on youtube.

Here you go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY_1MePd7iA&feature=youtu.be

You can post it on youtube.

Thanks for the comments, I believe I wasn't aggressive enough throughout the game because of the HT/priest. I need infantry to screen in case of a tank destroyar or AT infantry flank. One of the advantages of mobile arty is the speed to retreat, and I need to take that into effect in playstyle. I chose two, because of the increased availability of long range smoke/fire. I assume riflemen should have been the majority of smokes.

I'm worried about equipping riflemen with too much. I love the smoke/grenade/flank tactics that around 80% of my army can do, smoking off AT pieces, HMGs, or tanks with a hero rifle is very fun. I guess winning the battle "here and now" is more important than saving for a "what if" situation.

I'm not a big fan of the 57mm, no mobility. But I guess the munitions from bazookas have to be saved for something else more important. Also I can protect my arty pieces much better. Hmmmm~

I build the caches early because I should not be bleeding manpower with green cover.

- You can keep 50/80 amo in bank but not 250 like I see in your game... Even more when you build a ammo cache, you know you'll never be dry of it
- ATgun play is difficult but you must learn it, Zooks will be never be a good option alone and you not always has a jackson ready.
- If you scout you know if a TD is on its way. You also need to mentally calculate his potential level of fuel. => the game is balance in fuel control, you have 200 fuel so far, he probably has the same amount. He went T1 so 25 fuel + T3 120 fuel, + 2 trucks, 20 fuel -25 fuel start. he has less than 100 fuel in bank.

Thanks for the advice, I totally forgot about mines in favor of more weapons. I do not like USF tanks, which focus on mobility but can't really flank as well as infantry. Because they are really squishy and probably won't get any veterancy with my bad unit micro.

My use of tanks consist of attacking behind my infantry screen, but I always miss-micro and usually chase and get kited, then killed.

I've thought about the pack howitzer, and I'll be using it as a later strategy, manpower allowing.

Manpower bleed is a huge drain with my kind of playstyle, infantry. I plan on capturing little ground with 2 rifles/group and holding that with sandbags or pits with MGs. My idea is that I can win small battles and push on the enemy retreat.

1) Mines win games!
2) You can flank with tanks, especially on a map like Crossing. Just need to know what AT is where and to knowingly swept the area/routes you're using.
a) don't chase and get shit killed. no need to chase excessively. It's better to take ground and preserve your shit rather than risk your own stuff, potentially losing you the game.
3) Pack howitzer is good, but it won't stop a blob
4) With 4 rifles, that's a formidable amount of infantry, but by the time your fourth rifle came on the field, you had enough fuel for captain but only ~100 mp. Consider making a second RE right away or after the third riflemen squad.
a) With this build, you have a an extra 1.5-3.0 manpower income (because of the popcap difference between riflemen and RE). Additionally, this can allow you to backtech to LT (to get extra AI power missing from 3 rather than 4 rifles, but also, you get access to the .50 cal). Alternatively, you can go Lt - M20 - Captain - Stuart. This delays the stuart by 70 fuel (~3-5 minutes) but it's still viable. M20 can force your opponent to tech to T2 faster/build a raktenwerfer earlier, taking up some of their popcap/manpower but sacrificing their own anti infantry power in the early game.

Even with M1919s, you can still use your rifles aggressively, flanking, etc. I'm not watching past about ten minutes (I want to sleep), but in general I can say that, as USF, using your munitions is crucial. As others have said, use those munis! LMGs, mines (mines in doorways as well; maps like Arnhem, Kholodny, etc., put mines in front of important buildings' entrance(s). Also, smoke grenades are useful. LMG obers, falls, MG34s/42s, LMG grens on the field? smoke 'em. Any infantry that can close (LT, rifle w/ BARs, RE w/ BARs) will do great as well.
M20s are good because you can lay the M6 mine that disables vehicles and does high damage. Late game, building an M20 can be useful just for those mines. Also, you can sub out the vehicle crew w/ an RE squad, grab an extra zook, then give yourself a nice helper for your captain.

In general, don't confine yourself to one build order. Give yourself options. Calliope commander and Pershing are also good in 1v1s (m1919, infantry mines, respectively)

Oh my oh my oh my.
I've gotta agree with Long Johns here:
Didn't need the Mortar HT
By getting that, you sacrifice any offensive capability that the stuart would give you...

Rifle nades do the same thing against MGs as the WP rounds do against the MG34, and they're more accurate.

float less muni! More m1919s pls!

As Long Johns says, it's all about momentum.

not sure why you got a fifth rifle. mis-click?
Floating that much fuel you would've been better off replacing the lost rifle with LT, then an MG.

Okay, bed now...
If you had more m1919s you would've shut your opponent down. He would've been done. With your squads in pairs, your *four* m1919s would've melted those volks w/ schrecks. Falls wouldn't have mattered to you. you would gun them down as they approach you, and you would out dps them at range. With nades, you just smoke his supporting MG34.

Oh my oh my oh my.
I've gotta agree with Long Johns here:
Didn't need the Mortar HT
By getting that, you sacrifice any offensive capability that the stuart would give you...

Rifle nades do the same thing against MGs as the WP rounds do against the MG34, and they're more accurate.

float less muni! More m1919s pls!

As Long Johns says, it's all about momentum.

not sure why you got a fifth rifle. mis-click?
Floating that much fuel you would've been better off replacing the lost rifle with LT, then an MG.

Okay, bed now...
If you had more m1919s you would've shut your opponent down. He would've been done. With your squads in pairs, your *four* m1919s would've melted those volks w/ schrecks. Falls wouldn't have mattered to you. you would gun them down as they approach you, and you would out dps them at range. With nades, you just smoke his supporting MG34.

I'm kind of in the same boat as the OP.
In general I go 4Rifle+RE into Captain -> stuart. But when would you go for LT / Nades / Weapon Rax?
Also when would you pick Caslli/Pershing or Cavalry on what do you decide that.

watching the replay now, about 15 minutes in.

i don't mean this as a knock, but your micro is maxed out managing 4 rifle squads, an RE squad, and a captain. you did well keeping your mortar HT out of danger, but it requires a lot of attention that you didn't have to spare (the sequence when you lost your rifles to that fallschirm squad around the 12 minute mark comes to mind). 5 rifle squads is too many.

festive is totally right. you need to be aware of resource float. with +40 munis, i would put 2xM1919s on each rifle squad... just do it each time you have to retreat one. that way you kind of naturally cycle them back and forth to the front and they'll have enough firepower to deal with the sturms and volks as they vet up. both sturms and falls do plenty of damage, but if they have to cover open ground while you're in cover they will lose every time.

if you go infantry company there is no reason to upgrade to zooks/bars. if you're that worried about his vehicles, get an AT gun or a stuart. the stuart is worth its weight in gold if you practice with it. i know you don't like AT guns, but just one of them in the right position will force him to think twice about pushing forward with a vehicle on its own. get used to using them.

at the 15 minute mark i can start to feel the momentum shifting his way, which is a shame, because if you had pushed just a little harder at the opening and been a little faster to tech to major, this game would have been over by now.

also... 3rd mortar HT when you can get a priest? priest is waaaaaay better, especially against OKW HQ buildings.

man, that's hard to watch at the end. you do so many things well... but honestly, it was your refusal to tech to major that cost you that game.

longjohns hit a lot, but i'll say two more things (and they're linked together). the longer games go, the more fatigue becomes a factor. don't start throwing away units or making bad trades because you're 40 minutes in and getting frustrated. everything is precious, because replacing vet 3 rifles takes time. in line with this... don't get sucked into the "i need this many of this unit" mentality. you'd lose a rifle squad and instantly replace it. only replace it if you NEED it, and can MANAGE it. towards the end, three rifles would have been fine if you'd had an HE sherman to push the blob away and a jackson to keep his tank from rolling around unsupported.

you had that game, man. it was like watching game of thrones.

Here you go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY_1MePd7iA&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for casting that Festive. Very informative.

Thanks for casting that Festive. Very informative.

My pleasure

the worst thing you can do is to limit yourself like that.

the "i play infantry company with captain only" mindset doesnt always pay off, id rather stay flexible than stuck with a set playstyle that doesnt work in every situation.