hi i have scrub noob questions

Hi I bought the game for like 5 months but only started getting into it lately. I have some scrubby questions

1)when to play defensively?
coh2 is not a turtling game but when do I play defensively?

2)how to deal with OKW blobs as usf
the sturms seem to melt everything at close range, riflemen can't kite effectively vs volks

3)when to tech up as USF
it seems impossible for my riflemen to keepup vs volks or grenadier blobs early

4)any hotkeys to select specific units when i group select?
i always garden up in retreating specific squads and end up retreating the wrong one or entire blobs

5)how to deal with usf riflemen spam
i can't seem to make sturms work as well as my opponents, indirect fire as okw is expensive in mp

1. When your army is weaker or you're behind you should play defensive and lick your wounds although watch out for artillery, this will be hard to pull of late game with all the howitzers and rocket arty that tend to be around forcing you out of your defensive positions

2. Give your Riflemen bars, get into better positions, throw grenades into the middle of the blob, micro a .50 cal behind your riflemen, use a calliope late game,AA hts

3. After your 3rd or 4th riflemen tech up to the officer you deem is required

4. Ctrl + Number you should like to associate a squad with example ctrl + 1 every time you press 1 the game selects that unit, if you have multiple units press "tab" to cycle through them

5. Superior positioning, kite and bleed him with luchs, stuka truck, Obersoldaten behind volks, mg34 teams (they wont require doc next patch)

Personally in all my games as OKW when fighting USF I find multiple MG 34 teams positions in key positions but also close to support each other with my other infantry support the MG's very useful as it breaks up blob assaults

1)When you push the enemy on all fronts, just cap the points around the area, and get your guys in green cover and just wait, if he blobs on 1 side you can just get your other units on other sides to flank them which is even better.

2)Early game just make sure you get in a building or behind heavy cover when you see a spio if he charges to get up close you won the engagement already.

About the blobs dude just get 4 rifles into captain and equip those rifles with double BARs or 1919s if you went the doctrine for it.There is a reason why they are called "Terminators".

3)The teching choices are 3Rifles into LT or 4 Rifles into Captain well since the LT tech is dead with the 222 health buff, every USF player has to go captain to have a chance to survive, though if going against OKW and you saw the Medical HQ going an AA-HT wouldn't hurt though you have to put pressure on him hard and get both fuels to get the Major quick and end the game.

Or you can just go 4 Rifles into captain and pick Airborne to get a .50cal or 2, .50cals suppresses infantry hard.

4)What i do is I put each unit in a different control group early and mid game to have more control over each units. Heard your REs said "Grenade!"? Just press 1 and T(for default key) and it's a wasted muni for the enemy.

Though you need to practice a lot to get used to that.

5)If he went 4 rifles into captain i suggest you should go for Med HQ and get a flak halftrack, though you need to be careful about zooks and AT nades from riflemen, Flak-halftrack suppresses sturms close in and they die, if you see the LT, than that's good news go for a Mech HQ and get a luchs ASAP to finish the game in 10 mins.

Re when to tech up as US, read DevM's USF without tears guide. I have found the Rifle - LT - M20 build pretty effective as an alternative to fast Stuart.

You mentioned hotkeys, It's recommended to switch your key layout in game to gridkeys and get used to this. Makes the key layout much more intuitive for new players. Would also recommend changing player color and xp ticker options in the options menu. They show different players in team games as diferent colors, and will make xp pop up on dead enemies instead of over your troops.