Brits as Early Game Infantry Faction

Hey, y'all!

Been playing around with a strategy that revolves pretty much entirely around tommies, developed it in an attempt to compensate for my rather poor performance against OKW, but I find it's workable against OST. The central theme is a hyper extended early game that develops too quickly for a counter to arrive.

I thought this up while looking at the British base and thinking about the faction as a whole. We start as a non-complete faction. We don't get base buildings without reconstructing them, nor grenades/weapon upgrades/five man squades. However, once the base is rebuilt the Brits are a mighty force to behold, so why not complete tier 0 before moving on?

The hole: The reason I think this hasn't received more consideration is the lack of snare. For this reason, I can only see this working with tank hunter infantry.

So to start out my build order thus far is MG>Tommy>five man squad>Tommy>UC*>Tier 1>Weapon racks>Tommy>Tank Hunters>Engies

*from what I can tell, UC is more useful against okw because it gets the upper hand against Sturmpios, which is handy. Of course the Wasp upgrade is useful %85 of the time, too.

The build order can be shifted around based on the game, but the idea is to get four or five of some 5 man tommy variants on the field with brens to dominate the fuel/cutoff points and put the enemies infantry on the back foot.

From here, it can transpose into a lot of different existing styles, but your infantry will remain relevant throughout the game.

I've found OKW struggles immensely with this. What do you guys think? Any changes to consider?

Its too micro intensive to work, Luchs can come out around the time (Even before) the first tank hunters arrive so you will only have that 1 squad to fend off a Luchs, that's not going to happen.

I've been getting back into the game and have found a strategy that works yet I have no idea yet as to why...

Doctrine free:

(Starting Tommy)
Tommy
HMG
Tech
Engie
AEC Unlock
Sniper (if needed)
Engie (If sniper isn't required)
AEC
Engie (If sniper was required)

Then with whatever doctrine you have, put it to use, personally I like the (Mobile assault?) the one that gives flamers and the land mattress. Put flamers on your engies and build an LM, fast tech to Cromwell then a second LM, then spam Cromwells whilst deploying (ONE) set of commandos when you can spare the MP.

Unlock Brens only after your first Cromwell. I have a 8+ (I think) win streak with this method whereas before I was losing left right and center.

Keep the AEC back, only pushing it out to harass or kill light vehicles, build an AT gun when the time is right and you should be able to defend from either faction rather well. I have a demo I uploaded a few days ago here:

https://www.coh2.org/replay/51880/okv-vs-brits

It's not the best play by me or demonstration of the strategy but I uploaded it for the final (funny) moment. Have a look and see what you think when your strategy begins to crumble under micro hell

Heard this from Luvnest and it's pretty good against either faction, and it's doctrine free.

Build Order:

Starting IS
IS
MG
T1
RE
5 Man Squad
AEC(if you see/suspect light vehicles)
RE(if not going AEC)
RE
Sniper(if the enemy is OKW and the map is open and long range depended)
Sniper
T3
Cromwell
Cromwell

Going for a strong T1 works fine as brits as long as you get PIATs, pairing with tankhunters would be solid.

Well, it is surely an interesting idea, although sniper will wreck you even more than usually, with this tactic

I've tried spamming tommies though find that you run into some fairly intense manpower problems in the mid game. Using tactical support works to convert some munitions into manpower but comes a little too late.

It can work by abandoning the centre and focusing on the flanks with an aec merely protecting your cutoff but the tommies are simply too expensive to spam and reinforce, if okw in particular wants your fuel or vp badly enough you can't really stop them.

Workout snipers or aecs it is very difficult to take ground contested.

If you up against OKW then try go dual Vickers! Northweapon use this tactic, I try it out and it's very effective since OKW can't counter I early on. However, you will have to constantly be on the move! Attack, flank when ever you can, always put pressure on them while utilize cover and building for your units. Sometimes I even won before the 10-minute mark due to those OKW guys can't do anything! (Also, having UC is always a good way to go. It may won't survive for long but as long as it lives, OKW player will be bleed!)

Never get the 5 man squad upgrade that early. You need all the manpower you can get spent on early field presence, because your infantry is so expensive. You want to wait until you atleast have t1 out and a solid infantry base.

Hello all, been busy but trying to get in as many games as I can, thought I'd give an update on how this strat is going.

First things first, I've found out this doesn't work too well against anything but low/mid level wehr players, so sticking to classical strategies like the luvnest opening Earth mentioned works much much better.

Next what I've found is that tank hunters are not the counter I was hoping they would be. They can be kited too well by a Luchs. However, I do think they work well with an anti tank gun to prevent any face hugging from the luchs, this way has the benefit of not costing 75 of the early game fuel from having to go to the aec, which I have found is only really good for countering early light vehicles and looses much of it's function when racketenwerfers come onto the field, or the panzerschreck upgrade gets issued.

To Latch: I'm not that great at micro, but I've found it workable (even if challenging) and worth the effort in the long run. I haven't seen a luchs out too much faster than the tank hunters. Also, after the point where I stopped you can transpose into the sort of mid/end game you talked about; that's up in the air, I'm just talking opening.

To Spinflight: I haven't run into manpower issues yet, although as of late I've cut a tommy squad from my BO, so maybe that's been helping. I've noticed that it helps reduce the manpower bleed I've experienced just in the fact that when you outnumber and outgun your opponent, they will rarely be in a situation to push and punish like they would otherwise.

To Tobis: Wouldn't the 5 man squads be providing the early field presence? It increases the staying power of a squad pretty significantly, as well as the firepower, which I've found allows me to push around my opponent better, for the manpower price it seems a pretty good investment early on.

Thanks for the responses y'all! I'll definitely be thinking about all the advice given as I try to work this out more, and any more y'all have to offer would be greatly appreciated!

To Tobis: Wouldn't the 5 man squads be providing the early field presence? It increases the staying power of a squad pretty significantly, as well as the firepower, which I've found allows me to push around my opponent better, for the manpower price it seems a pretty good investment early on.

The fuel price sets you back a bit from getting t1 for healing, which I would argue is more useful in the early game. The manpower cost is also significant, you pay for the extra man on each of your squads too. Better to invest the early manpower into something that can be capping, or teching up to get the healing and efficient Royal Engineers. Going 5 man that early is not a death sentence or anything, but having an extra squad on the field instead of 20% more health and damage on ~2-3 squads is more useful. You might want to watch some of the ESL matches where brits were used. Second match here has Brits. Note he never got 5 man squads the entire game.