PPSH Cons

Just came back from a very extended break (~2years), my 1v1 chops are non-existent (I mainly play 3v3 with my friends), and I am definitely aware of a number of micro issues. This was my first match of the night, so not even warmed up, but came up against some con-ppsh spam that I did not feel I could easily overcome.

Numerous micro and unit-loss issues aside, what could I have done differently (primarily from a build and general strategy standpoint) to counter what I saw here? I feel like regardless of the micro problems that I was doing something fundamentally wrong in regards to my approach.

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  0

  VS

  Serifin

  igor12727

  ConPPSH Spam

  by: Serifin map: La Gleize Breakout

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First thing that I have to say is that Le gleize is really bad for ostheer so don't feel too bad for losing on it against soviets, now onto the game itself.

1:30 - you rush a house with your MG, not only is it bad because you could have capped a point first before going agressive with the MG (there are some maps where getting hold of a building is crucial but even then capping one point before helps) but the house you chose is really bad, if you are going to do that use literally any of the other houses maybe excluding the one that is left of the one you chose.

2:00 - if the maxim gets in the house dont leave your grens capping the middle point, one thing that is really important in winning 1v1 games are the first set of engagements, so it might not seem like much but leaving your grenadier in the open against a MG will mean you will have to retreat which means you will lose map pressure, overall be careful with how you fight the first fights and prioritize winning the engagements over capturing a certain point. Your opponent didn't focus the grenadier but he could have Im just pointing out this misplay because it can help you out in the future to have this mindset.

3:20- the MP point outside your base is still uncapped, it only takes a little bit of time to capture and it real does add a lot of resources over time.
3:25- try to evaluate right away if its worth keeping a squad on the field, right now your mg is down to two men so it would be wise to retreat it while the opponent is still not coming at you.

4:00- this overall engagement even though it didnt go too badly for you is ,if you think about it, worthless. When moving on the map think on what you want to gain, even if you won that engagement the most you would gain out of it was a mortar decrew and EVEN if lets say your opponent somehow let you cap that manpower point near the mortar it still wouldnt have accomplished much. Its really important that you think on what you want to do on the map, Im going to give you some pointers on this, there are some "unspoken resources" that are fought over in a CoH2 game, one of them is tempo (not relevant to this) the other is map position which can be mostly translated to house pressure on this map. What I mean by this and what is mostly the case on these maps with a lot of buildings is that if you gain control of some you gain control of the map. In that moment the best you can do is go for his fuel while moving to the house right outside his base that overlooks his manpower point (the one north to the right munition point). That will truly gain you map advantage over the engagement you chose.

5:00 to 6:00 - This is mostly in my eyes a bad decision in teching and adapting to whats happening with also a bit of lack of game knowledge. So first of all in a soviet vs OH match up where your opponent decides to go for conscripts over penals it means your grenadiers will outscale the conscripts, especially if you start upgrading you grenadiers with G43s so with that said against that soviet build in particular its OK to extend your t1 to maybe even 5 grenadiers and gain all the map control with that, this is what I meant by lack of knowledge. What I meant in the adapting part is that you had two low health squads and one of your grenadiers just got blown up, the best course of action as to not lose tempo (the other "unspoken"resource I talked previously that is really important early game not to lose pressure) on the battlefield , so with this said the right choice would be to put a medic bunker down and rebuild that grenadier instead of getting T2 straight away.

7:00- I just want to highlight how outgunned you are at the moment and how that translates to your map control.

7:40 - unit preservation is really starting to hurt you, try to make your objective not to lose so many units early game, retreat early if you have to.

8:00- you are floating close to 500 manpower, manpower not used is units that are not on the field which translates to less pressure on your opponent, with that manpower you can have 2 grenadier squads out on the field that is the best infantry unit OH has.

8:10-Like I said above, while Pgrens are okay the main force of the OH is the grenadier, ONLY build a Pgren squad after you have 4 grenadiers squads AND/OR if you really need some AT to support a pak gun.

10:00-Another thing to keep in mind is that T70s usually come around the 7 to 8 minute mark, you are now entering the 10 minute mark and your opponent has had most of the map for the entirety of the match, you should be looking into getting a PAK before building more grenadier squads.

10:20- Again be careful with your decisions, that grenadier going forward is not going to achieve much , it could be a unit that could be capping a point more up north or gaining control of a house.

11- double mortar is really a bad idea, one is enough, and your mortar should be closer to the center of the action not to the right of the map

12- T70 is out with no real counters and he has a superior infantry force the game is pretty much over by now.

So in conclusion, work on what you want to do with the units better, dont make mindless decisions, if you struggle with what to do you cant go wrong with sending the squad to capture a random point instead of going to harass and later retreat the squad accomplishing nothing. Work on your unit preservation, its better to retreat early than to lose squads and lastly against soviets that are using cons as their main force you can extend your T1 and 4 or 5 grenadiers with G43s to outmatch the soviet infantry, you mostly want T2 more or less to get the Pak out for the T70 in these ocasions OR after you have a solid T1 foundation. Dont tech up when your current army core is really weak UNLESS you really have to because you know something like a vehicle is hitting the field soon which wasnt the case when you teched up. Hope this helped and that I wasnt too rough .

EDIT: also forgot to mention you didnt get sweepers even after the first demo. This can really hurt you against better opponents.

First thing that I have to say is that Le gleize is really bad for ostheer so don't feel too bad for losing on it against soviets, now onto the game itself.

1:30 - you rush a house with your MG, not only is it bad because you could have capped a point first before going agressive with the MG (there are some maps where getting hold of a building is crucial but even then capping one point before helps) but the house you chose is really bad, if you are going to do that use literally any of the other houses maybe excluding the one that is left of the one you chose.

2:00 - if the maxim gets in the house dont leave your grens capping the middle point, one thing that is really important in winning 1v1 games are the first set of engagements, so it might not seem like much but leaving your grenadier in the open against a MG will mean you will have to retreat which means you will lose map pressure, overall be careful with how you fight the first fights and prioritize winning the engagements over capturing a certain point. Your opponent didn't focus the grenadier but he could have Im just pointing out this misplay because it can help you out in the future to have this mindset.

3:20- the MP point outside your base is still uncapped, it only takes a little bit of time to capture and it real does add a lot of resources over time.
3:25- try to evaluate right away if its worth keeping a squad on the field, right now your mg is down to two men so it would be wise to retreat it while the opponent is still not coming at you.

4:00- this overall engagement even though it didnt go too badly for you is ,if you think about it, worthless. When moving on the map think on what you want to gain, even if you won that engagement the most you would gain out of it was a mortar decrew and EVEN if lets say your opponent somehow let you cap that manpower point near the mortar it still wouldnt have accomplished much. Its really important that you think on what you want to do on the map, Im going to give you some pointers on this, there are some "unspoken resources" that are fought over in a CoH2 game, one of them is tempo (not relevant to this) the other is map position which can be mostly translated to house pressure on this map. What I mean by this and what is mostly the case on these maps with a lot of buildings is that if you gain control of some you gain control of the map. In that moment the best you can do is go for his fuel while moving to the house right outside his base that overlooks his manpower point (the one north to the right munition point). That will truly gain you map advantage over the engagement you chose.

5:00 to 6:00 - This is mostly in my eyes a bad decision in teching and adapting to whats happening with also a bit of lack of game knowledge. So first of all in a soviet vs OH match up where your opponent decides to go for conscripts over penals it means your grenadiers will outscale the conscripts, especially if you start upgrading you grenadiers with G43s so with that said against that soviet build in particular its OK to extend your t1 to maybe even 5 grenadiers and gain all the map control with that, this is what I meant by lack of knowledge. What I meant in the adapting part is that you had two low health squads and one of your grenadiers just got blown up, the best course of action as to not lose tempo (the other "unspoken"resource I talked previously that is really important early game not to lose pressure) on the battlefield , so with this said the right choice would be to put a medic bunker down and rebuild that grenadier instead of getting T2 straight away.

7:00- I just want to highlight how outgunned you are at the moment and how that translates to your map control.

7:40 - unit preservation is really starting to hurt you, try to make your objective not to lose so many units early game, retreat early if you have to.

8:00- you are floating close to 500 manpower, manpower not used is units that are not on the field which translates to less pressure on your opponent, with that manpower you can have 2 grenadier squads out on the field that is the best infantry unit OH has.

8:10-Like I said above, while Pgrens are okay the main force of the OH is the grenadier, ONLY build a Pgren squad after you have 4 grenadiers squads AND/OR if you really need some AT to support a pak gun.

10:00-Another thing to keep in mind is that T70s usually come around the 7 to 8 minute mark, you are now entering the 10 minute mark and your opponent has had most of the map for the entirety of the match, you should be looking into getting a PAK before building more grenadier squads.

10:20- Again be careful with your decisions, that grenadier going forward is not going to achieve much , it could be a unit that could be capping a point more up north or gaining control of a house.

11- double mortar is really a bad idea, one is enough, and your mortar should be closer to the center of the action not to the right of the map

12- T70 is out with no real counters and he has a superior infantry force the game is pretty much over by now.

So in conclusion, work on what you want to do with the units better, dont make mindless decisions, if you struggle with what to do you cant go wrong with sending the squad to capture a random point instead of going to harass and later retreat the squad accomplishing nothing. Work on your unit preservation, its better to retreat early than to lose squads and lastly against soviets that are using cons as their main force you can extend your T1 and 4 or 5 grenadiers with G43s to outmatch the soviet infantry, you mostly want T2 more or less to get the Pak out for the T70 in these ocasions OR after you have a solid T1 foundation. Dont tech up when your current army core is really weak UNLESS you really have to because you know something like a vehicle is hitting the field soon which wasnt the case when you teched up. Hope this helped and that I wasnt too rough .

EDIT: also forgot to mention you didnt get sweepers even after the first demo. This can really hurt you against better opponents.

Wow, this is fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time to give me such a detailed breakdown! I especially appreciate some of the points you made regarding matters of tempo and map control. While I am familiar with the concept of tempo from some card games, I really never thought to apply it to COH2. Now it seems all too obvious!

In all, this was exactly what I was looking for, and I do not think you were rough at all in your assessment. Everything you pointed out makes complete sense to me, and nothing came off as excessively critical. I have always been nervous about posting replays, given the sometimes harsh nature of the community, so to have such a helpful write-up provided makes me feel much better about the process in the future.

I look forward to applying this newfound knowledge and understanding to my matches. Thanks again for your time!