Infantry Tactics

All,

After playing a fair number of games I'm getting comfortable with the basics and now I'm working on improving infantry tactics. Any feedback to questions below would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


* I understand conceptually that some units are best at short vs medium vs long range. Are screen prints or video guides available to demonstrate what exactly constitutes short vs medium vs long range?


* Is it ever a good idea to charge infantry to a position directly near any enemy units? For instance, if a German pioneer is capturing a point is it good to rush up next to them? Does getting close improve accuracy or killing power in general?


* Is there some kind of trick to machine gun suppression? British mgs seem to be not very good about catching units running through their arc of fire, which is substantially different from my experience trying to attack German mgs.

Have you tried posting this in the State Office?

* yes there are, although I don't know links to them off hand

* yes, depending on the units. You do NOT want to rush up to pioneers though; they are equipped with SMG's that are best at very short range, and so you will be making your situation worse. But by contrast, if you have Soviet Conscripts, you do want to close as as tightly as you can on Grenadiers.

Additionally, while different units are best at different ranges, in addition combat between two units will be reolved faster the closer they are. Two units at long range in good over can plink away at each other for ages, while the same two units at point blank will decide the matter in a few seconds.

In addition, units that are close enough to each other ignore cover completely.

* different machine guns have different stats, including stats for suppression. This is intended to give different armies different flavour. The British MG has the worst suppression, but high damage and the longest range; the Axis MG42 has the best suppression, but mediocre stats otherwise. All of them are distinct.

* I understand conceptually that some units are best at short vs medium vs long range. Are screen prints or video guides available to demonstrate what exactly constitutes short vs medium vs long range?


* Is it ever a good idea to charge infantry to a position directly near any enemy units? For instance, if a German pioneer is capturing a point is it good to rush up next to them? Does getting close improve accuracy or killing power in general?


* Is there some kind of trick to machine gun suppression? British mgs seem to be not very good about catching units running through their arc of fire, which is substantially different from my experience trying to attack German mgs.

1.Submachine guns, the game's prominent close-range weapons, have their DPS maximized at range 10. Other weapons, not made for close-range, tend to have to be closer than that to maximize their DPS. As the range of infantry small arms is 35, range 10 is a bit under a third of infantry's maximum range. Another note, cover doesn't work against small arms within range 10 (though buildings do).

Medium-range weapons tend to have their "medium-range" defined as starting a little bit under the halfway point of infantry small arms' total range.

While I don't know any visuals, I do know of a chart if you want to get into the nitty-gritty numbers for it. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LOYMDi_XR7rILsk6HbAZqGihsk22t-45C_6NbQEP-m0/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=0

2. Yes, in pretty much all cases, getting closer will improve a full-health infantry unit's DPS. However, the specific light machine gun sort of weapons actually lose DPS from closing in so a squad with an LMG down to half of its members or some squads with two LMGs may be better off standing their ground if the intent is sheer damage.

In your example, Pioneers' weapons are basically equivalent to their faction's Grenadiers' rifles up close, while having a very poor DPS curve that suffers quickly from distance to their enemies like most SMG weapons. Unupgraded Pioneers are pretty much guaranteed to lose against the unupgraded basic infantry of the Soviet Union and United States Forces factions - Conscripts and Riflemen respectively - at any range with remotely equal health, and so if some lone Pioneers are trying to take an important point from you while you have one of these units nearby, feel free to charge them in to ensure the point stays in your hands longer. Otherwise though, those infantry units might as well keep away from them to ensure they will take as little damage as possible while doing as much as they can.

3. No, the Vickers' heavy machine gun just overall has the lowest average suppression out of all of the heavy machine guns and fires a long burst to perform that suppression which can take it critical portions of a second longer to suppress squads even out of cover. The weapon is not one you're best off taking your chances with leaving alone outside of a building, try to ensure it has spotters or is garrisoned.

@2nd question: What was said earlier plus mind that all weapons take penalties to dps when moving, depending on weapon profile. That means its sometimes not beneficial to close the gap, becouse you will be loosing your health faster than the opponent during the process. Its almost always good idea to jump into nearest green cover though.

There are also weapons that can shoot only if stationary (like most lmgs and AT weapons), abilities that disable shooting on the move (sprint and ourah) and squad that get additional benefits when in cover and thus stationary (like tommies and ostruppen).

...

1- If you have the time and will http://stat.coh2.hu/ There you have "easy" access to most weapon profiles.
Short is practically between 0-10. 10-25 is mid and 20-35 long. From 0-10 cover is "ignored" with the exception of garrison.
To give you an idea, 10 is practically the length of a SU sandbag, 15 is the range of molotov, 20 of nades, 35 is normal sight range for infantry.

As a general rule of thumb:

SMG are excellent at close, bad at mid and horrible at long.
Carbines/Assault Rifles are great at close, good at mid, decent/average at long
Bolt Rifles are decent at close, decent at mid, good at long
LMG are decent at close, good at mid, excellent at long

There are exceptions and weapons vary on their performance but it's a start.

2- Moving reduces your DPS. Some weapons are less penalized such as SMG, ARs and Carbines. LMG can't fire on the move with some exceptions (Obers and Paratroopers). Getting close increase killing power (with the exception of most LMG) but some weapons improve better than others (see rule of thumb).
You DONT want to get close to Pioneers, unless you have a unit which excels at close range as well.