Good builds for USF rifle company?

Jump back to quoted post3 May 2017, 02:01 AMAngrade (Ægion)

The base pen, is much higher in comparison to Shermans but still less than Jacksons. However E8 are durable enough to fight at close range with their 200 armor pen, while Jacksons' long range armor pen is 220. Jackson's are better at range but they can not fight infantry and sometimes can not maintain their range vs panthers. The health and armor is higher and less scatter vs infantry. HE rounds are still better seeing they have larger AOE. E8s do have a role in the game. I would say build them against Panthers, Panzer 4s, and flank assault guns but use Jacksons and Pershings against heavies.

Also, you may want to build an additional Rear Echelon at the beginning for additional flamer and resource acquisition through capping points. Having duel Echelon is my preferred opener for they can provide effective at by bazookas or in this case, a flamethower.

Jump back to quoted post3 May 2017, 04:07 AMTobis

It's a very flexible commander, you really don't need to be shoe-horned into going lt or cpt if you don't want to. Standard build and have 2 RE, one for sweepers.

The easy 8s are more tanky, can take one extra shot from hard AT before dying. Problem is they are very expensive, and the ai is a bit weaker than on the normal sherman. If you are snowballing early best to get a normal sherman first so it comes out quicker, get E8s later if you need to deal with armor. Don't fall into the trap of getting too many E8s; if the enemy doesn't have armor they aren't worth the price.

Try and hold both muni points if you can, you want to be spamming the phosphorus smoke in the late game to wipe infantry and paks.

Jump back to quoted post3 May 2017, 04:46 AMLoopDloop

Thanks for the advice. So you recommend mixing ez8s and normal shermans? And would you recommend still trying to get double bars or just favoring the phosphorus strikes instead? I mostly use it for the ez8s and flamers lol. How good is the sprint ability? The flares IIRC are kinda expensive.

Jump back to quoted post3 May 2017, 13:06 PMEsxile

Mix Ez8 with M36 also works. I use the commander on city maps for the flamers. Not upgrading Bars to save munition is usually a bad idea unless you are really good. flares are good cuz it help you to flank.

Jump back to quoted post3 May 2017, 14:50 PMLoopDloop

As I said, flamers are usually why I choose the commander, as getting stonewalled by garrisons really sucks. That's what I was thinking about the bars, they just give so much extra dps. I'll have to try using flares more often then. I'm not used to having recon until major hits the field.

Jump back to quoted post3 May 2017, 15:20 PMTobis

Flamers > bars, but you should use them to try and get both muni points. If you can hold them and get a crazy amount of munis you can steamroll the axis infantry hard.

Save the phosphorus strike until you can:
1. hit multiple at guns when making a push
2. hit infantry while you are flanking between them and the enemy base, so they have to retreat towards you. Easy wipes.

Jump back to quoted post3 May 2017, 18:54 PMOutsider_Sidaroth

EZ8s look pretty, but I rarely find reasons to build them instead of regular Shermans, maybe if it's a map where there is too many garrison and your opponent is Wehr they can be good.

Jump back to quoted post3 May 2017, 23:49 PMLoopDloop

As I said, I mostly take rifle company when there is a need for flamers and I make ez8s mostly because I want a different flavor of tank from the normal Sherman. I also heard they have better accuracy on the move than normal shermans (not sure if that meant against tanks, inf, or both).

Jump back to quoted post4 May 2017, 00:23 AMAugust1996

Lel do you even remember what happened when EZ8 were call in? Imagine the Pershing but much more of them and they come at CP10 if I'm not mistaken which absolutely destroyed OKW/OST without relying on their own callins.

Jump back to quoted post4 May 2017, 00:23 AMAugust1996

Lel do you even remember what happened when EZ8 were call in? Imagine the Pershing but much more of them and they come at CP10 if I'm not mistaken which absolutely destroyed OKW/OST without relying on their own callins.

Jump back to quoted post4 May 2017, 02:38 AMLoopDloop

Lol I don't know what it was like but I imagine it was OpieOP.

Does anyone know how much dps the pintle mounted .50 cal does? I'm curious to see if it's unconditionally worth the muni (like the pintle 42).

Jump back to quoted post4 May 2017, 03:29 AMClassyDavid

Both are very similar in dps overall but due to the .50 cal having 3 penetration justifies it be 70 munitions instead of 60 munitions. On another note I only go Easy Eight if I'm confident in my anti-infantry department and don't expect any heavy armor coming like panther or tiger. Else Easy Eight dominates axis medium tanks with it's higher armor, hp, and penetration while remaining decent against infantry. Second armor choice is Jackson if I need AT which generally USF does if you start facing Panthers and duel scotts if I'm low on infantry or lack sufficient AI. WP barrage, like Tobis stated, is great for putting behind in retreat path or forcing his support weapons to move. I had a 1v1 match earlier today where my WP allowed me to wipe two veterancy 3 grenadiers and a pioneers.

One more thing to be sure to use is smoke grenades and smoke barrages to cover your RE advance as they're extremely fragile and relies on smoke to flame buildings or cover.