Royal Artillery Regiment

I've accepted that this commander is pretty much universally thought of to suck, but for some odd reason I have an urge to play with it. I just want to know what works, how to use it, and with what army composition if anyone knows and feels like telling me. Also, how is the sexton? Is it still a total piece of shit?

It's still fun in team games. Spam muni caches and abuse the arty ability in the FoW to beat up OKW bases. Anvil tactics let's your base arty wreck infantry.

The valentine is actually pretty good, it has very high mobility and can crush very very well. It also gets map hacks.

The Suxton still Sux, but it's still a howitzer. Standing in the fire will still get you fucked up.

It's shit, I played with it last week, couldn't even down a bridge in like 10 minutes.

If it wasn't armored and more mobile than the land matress I would never think about playing with it again.

It's truly sad it's replacing one of the best British units from the old game.

Try going straight for Anvil for the air-bust rounds and use the artillery to blow up things.

I have actually been playing around this doctrine a bit myself. Here is what I have been doing.

1. I go for straight for anvil. As stated above airburst shells with coordinated fire are very powerful.

2. Do not even go for a Sexton or for weapon racks. You can simple use your munitions instead for artillery. Infantry Sections with five man squads are quite strong anyways that you do not really need weapon racks.

3. Sniper can quite useful. Not only it can apply bleed, it can throw the flares out instead of infantry sections. This can help keep your infantry sections alive since you can get more medics out. Also, this can help vs elite infantry with out the need of weapon racks.

4. Churchills are much better that people give them credit. They have excellent anti infantry, and are tanky enough that you do not really need to fear panthers or tigers. However, they will need support from AT guns. The 17 pounder can actually really help with. Though they are expensive in population, 20. But seeing you are not actually not building sextons this can be fine.

I hope this helps.

Its a troll commander for 2v2s, nothing more right now.

-The flare ability is pretty solid since it helps you maneuver around the field.

-Conc Barrage isn't cost efficient at all until you get Airburst from Anvil, where the precision strikes into the fog make it arguably OP, especially against OKW trucks or Axis Howitzers. Churchills are also pretty meh- they're slow, their gun is a slower Cromwell's and the high health/low armor means they bleed XP like crazy.

-Valentine is a crushing champ and maphax are excellent for flushing out Raketenwerfers and such. Its price, pop and arrival are too high for a unit that's basically an OKW IR with armor.

-Sector Defense or whatever its called is laughably useless. 250 muni for maybe 6 shells.

Fixes:
-Flares are fine.

-The single 25 pounder should fire 2 more shells. Airburst should have a massive AoE rather than no scatter.

-Valentine should lose crush to put it on par with other light armor and maphax should be replaced with something like spotting scopes while CPs are reduced to 5. The gun should be tweaked to be a competent AI threat to compliment the AEC. Vet 1 should include base 25s.

-Suxtons just need a pop reduction and maybe their MP cost reduced.

-The concept with the final ability doesn't work at all. I'd say scrap it for something else. Maybe the old Arty Officer or Recon Tommies.

Valentine maphax + Concentration Barrage in FoW, enough said.

Stay away from the Suxton, kids. It's not worth its popcap. +your infantry has no snares to protect against dives vs the Suxton, thus you need to spend additional popcap on protection.

I recently used it in a 3v3 on Lazur Factory (or whatever that map is called). It was pretty fun, the Valentine was easily the best part of the doctrine, allowing us to spot the enemy's charges, and present our entire army, wherever the enemy went. It's a good thing we spawned from the North, or otherwise it would have been harder to hold on to two victory points...

Cheese commander, but still usable. Probably not doable in any game mode smaller than 3v3+. Valentine map hacking is usable, don't rely on it for real damage.

Churchill is a vet donator, be careful about calling them in. You are better off with Fireflies and Croms.

Do not ever use this commander. Why would you? You can use Artillery Cover that gives you way more fun

get a early AT gun, spam mines then rush straight to anvil. only after u tech anvil get your 1st tank. = WIN

First off, thanks for all the replies, I'll be playing around with it more in 3s and 4s and lots of the tips will be helpful.

I have actually been playing around this doctrine a bit myself. Here is what I have been doing.

1. I go for straight for anvil. As stated above airburst shells with coordinated fire are very powerful.

2. Do not even go for a Sexton or for weapon racks. You can simple use your munitions instead for artillery. Infantry Sections with five man squads are quite strong anyways that you do not really need weapon racks.

3. Sniper can quite useful. Not only it can apply bleed, it can throw the flares out instead of infantry sections. This can help keep your infantry sections alive since you can get more medics out. Also, this can help vs elite infantry with out the need of weapon racks.

4. Churchills are much better that people give them credit. They have excellent anti infantry, and are tanky enough that you do not really need to fear panthers or tigers. However, they will need support from AT guns. The 17 pounder can actually really help with. Though they are expensive in population, 20. But seeing you are not actually not building sextons this can be fine.

I hope this helps.

1. A given.

2. Not even weapon racks? Interesting. It is a huge muni drain, but can IS actually hold the lines against more numerous AND superior forces that way? (I usually only build two and supplement with pit+bofors or sniper+aec). I'm just wondering.

3. I would build snipers, but I need to find somewhere to fit it into my build with this commander, which is vickers, 2nd IS, tech up, 2x REs, pit, bofors, at gun, tech anvil. Any suggestions?

4. It does seem that other players think that the churchill is a huge vet vending machine, and I really hate using the 17pdr, but I would definitely consider them options.

On another note, I have used the sexton in a couple of 4s that got really arty-spammy and they seemed to do an OK job paired with the valentine map hack but that meant I had to rely on my teammates for any real AT (beyond 6pdr spam and a cromwell), but it wasn't awful. Anyone else had similar experiences? Or was I just playing shitty opponents?

Sexton would be tremendously useful if it happened to share the base Howitzer barrage ability, so getting one or two or even three makes for a Base Howitzer barrage involving all five entities. Obviously it bring strategic drawbacks like no manpower for units, but that's kind of the point of having the choice of using more of one unit over others.

Sexton would be tremendously useful if it happened to share the base Howitzer barrage ability, so getting one or two or even three makes for a Base Howitzer barrage involving all five entities. Obviously it bring strategic drawbacks like no manpower for units, but that's kind of the point of having the choice of using more of one unit over others.

That would be nice, but would probably turn coordinated fire straight up overpowered when coupled with airburst shells (what do those even do by the way? widen the AOE right?). It'd be like a calliope barrage but with artillery shells and more stretched out. Imagine the destruction...

2. Not even weapon racks? Interesting. It is a huge muni drain, but can IS actually hold the lines against more numerous AND superior forces that way? (I usually only build two and supplement with pit+bofors or sniper+aec). I'm just wondering.

3. I would build snipers, but I need to find somewhere to fit it into my build with this commander, which is vickers, 2nd IS, tech up, 2x REs, pit, bofors, at gun, tech anvil. Any suggestions?

Personally I build 3 IS and with five man squads roaming across the map, you can gain alot of map control which translates to fuel and munitions.

Personaly I try to avoid building RE until I have a vehicle and if you rush a Churchill I would recommend you build 2 at guns. This is the build that I usually do.
1. 2 infantry section
2. 1 Vickers/another infantry section. Dependent on the map.
3. Tech up
4. Sniper
5. 5 man squad vs OKW, AEC vs Ost to hunt down 222s or 251s
6. the other upgrade. I may not always get an AEC but I would still get the upgrade just if I need to respond to something. A well preserved AEC can be used to hunt down a tank that withdrew from your at guns. I have had an AEC finished off 4 panthers in one game in a 1v1. It also queued a Brit op rant.
7. At gun
8. Now the game dictates in what you build next.

airburst shells (what do those even do by the way? widen the AOE right?)

Airburst shells are pinpoint accurate, that's it.

Airburst shells are pinpoint accurate, that's it.

So they don't do anything but actually land in the circle?

So they don't do anything but actually land in the circle?

I forgot they blind vehicles as well, my bad. But otherwise, they're identical to normal 25Pdr shells with surgical accuracy.

So they don't do anything but actually land in the circle?

Air burst shells explode downward thus creating a large area of affect. They also have very little spread. The Aoe will cover your exact target. One hammer is researched they will added to the barrage. In fact they do not remove the the shell that are usually fired. Air burst are excellent vs weapon teams and wounded infantry. They also inflict blink vehicle crits and have a good penetration. Air burst shells are the most powerful part of Anvil. People compare Churchill and Comet when they should compare Air burst shells vs Comet.

Had this used against me the other day. Was able to destroy my OKW bases at ease with the arty ability. Tho he said it was expensive muni wise, he didn't seem to have a problem doing it often. Especially since the map designed made harassing the muni point impossible as well as destroying a muni catches.

So I guess givin the map and situation, can be a powerful commander especially against OKW emplacement