How to counter advanced emplacements regiment as ostheer?

Jump back to quoted post6 Mar 2016, 17:22 PMAerohank

The absolute best counter to emplacement play is by using the Ostruppen doctrine and by following the following playbook:

- Step 1: Be aggressive early on. Apply pressure to likely bofor positions to delay/annoy him. Follow up with a fast 222 for extra map control. This step is obvious, you don't want to give him the breathing room to place bofors on your doorstep.

- Step 2: Do not bother countering emplacements early on with counter artillery or with early AT guns. Just make sure you have enough units to hold the big part of the map and then invest your manpower in a fuel cashe or even two. You won't break a mortar pit + bofor emplacement with a single AT gun and some light arty anyway, and he is not going to have any light armor on the field, so don't bother with these two units early on. Do not engage the bofors early on at all! It's a unit designed for holding ground against squishy targets and lightly armored vehicles. Squishy targets are all you have in the early game, so wait for something non-squishy! Deal with them in the lategame.

- Step 3: Do not bother with medium armor either, go straight for panther. If you feel your opponent somehow has decent fuel income, get a normally timed (not early!) a PAK40. The PAK40, a teller mine or two and your panzerfausts will hold a cromwell at bay long enough for your panther to arrive. The panther will pretty much dominate the cromwell and stand up to a comet if the enemy decides to go for one of those (cromwell is more likely though). Panthers will also help you with dealing with the emplacements much better than a Panzer 4 or Stug will. If you have Ostruppen or another doctrine with fuel drops, you can get a panther out even faster.

Step 4: Follow up with a panzerwerfer to deal with pesky 6 pounder guns. More panthers after that. He can't really do anything to counter this composition.

Step 5: Congratulations, you are now in the lategame and in a position to completely crush enemy emplacement play. Use the panther(s), panzerwerfer and pak40 to quickly do some damage against a bofors. When he pops brace, try to do some more damage but do not over commit. Ideally you want to take no damage on the panther so just fall back a bit if he brings any AT your way. Wait for 20 seconds after he used brace and rush back in to gain some vision, drop railway arty on the emplacement and watch it get wrecked.

The same playbook more or less also works with other doctrines. The overal guidelines are, in short:
- Early aggression, preferdably with a light vehicle.
- Do not engage emplacements, focus on holding most of the map and boost your economy with fuel cashes.
- Skip mediums, strike with a lategame army.

Jump back to quoted post25 Mar 2016, 17:00 PMKallipolan

Last night I played against SturmTigerSage as Ost, and he was using Cancer Regiment. He won, but I found that Spearhead Doctrine could deal with the Bofors by calling in 2 Mortar Halftracks. 2 is enough to kill the Bofors even with the upgrade and constant brace/repairs, although it does take a very long time.

During that time, use your infantry to secure as much of the rest of the map as you can. They key is to keep an ear out for the Counter-Battery barrage firing, and move your Halftracks whenever you do. Halftracks take 2 direct hits to kill from the base arty, though, so it doesn't matter if you aren't exactly on top of it. Halftracks are much better for this regular mortars since they don't take so long to reposition. Mix in an
incendiary barrage occasionally to drive off/kill squads who are repairing.

I think this is the best way to cope once the Bofors is down. Really though, as others have said, the ideal solution is to rush Bofors locations and make sure the Brit player can't build the Bofors in an advantageous location to begin with. Most maps only have 1 spot which is really good.

Jump back to quoted post25 Mar 2016, 18:57 PMDonnieChan

may i post a replay here?

it's vs sage on the most british map: semoisky

i used smoke bombs+double flamer to rush him

https://www.coh2.org/replay/51030/sage-tells-brits-on-semoisky

Jump back to quoted post26 Mar 2016, 13:13 PMBryant

Seems broken to me that it's that involved or requires that amount of strategy to counter a single structure that is just click/build.... Little Micro Required...

There has to be a more viable counter, I mean try explaining that to a mid level player

Translation: Picking a Doctrine to counter a Non Docturnial Unit seems way too far because it then places you in a bad position when actually dealing with his doctrine. There should be a counter that require NO DOCTRINE.... So in retrospect if you were going mortar HT to counter a 120mm that's doable because 120mm is a doctrine based unit, however when countering a simple bofor, I have to go a specific doctrine? that seems too far fetched to me.

Jump back to quoted post26 Mar 2016, 13:13 PMBryant

Seems broken to me that it's that involved or requires that amount of strategy to counter a single structure that is just click/build.... Little Micro Required...

There has to be a more viable counter, I mean try explaining that to a mid level player