Ask the Strategist!

This topis is purely for asking questions directly towards the Strategists in Company of Heroes 2. In this topic you can feel free to ask any question regarding CoH2 or competitive online play to any of the Strategists and get an answer for your question.

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In terms of bulletins. What do you, personally, prefer to use the most and how do you adapt your strats in order to utilise them fully (examples would be good)

In terms of bulletins. What do you, personally, prefer to use the most and how do you adapt your strats in order to utilise them fully (examples would be good)

What I prefer most are bulletins that buff your early game units. This way you benefit the most from your bulletins since you'll most likely be using them all game. While if you only use Tiger bulletins for instance you won't even benefit from them in some games or already lose the game early on since your troops lack the power they get with bulletins.

When I play soviets t1t4, I get 2 conscripts bulletins and 1 for guards health. They are my shock troops and map control, so they can use the buffs from the bulletins the most. Same for the german grenadiers and panzergrenadiers.

There are however some bulletins that are exceptionally strong and are thus worth getting anyway, but that's your own call

In terms of bulletins. What do you, personally, prefer to use the most and how do you adapt your strats in order to utilise them fully (examples would be good)

I would personally suggest using the infantry based bulletins as you are going to be using these units all the time compared to tanks which come out much later. Furthermore most games are normally won or lost around the 20 minute mark and normally before tanks can be used. So I say make the most of your infantry and give the bulletins to them.

For example my current bulletins for Ost are:

-Veteran Training Infantry: 2% increased accuracy 3% increase health for conscripts and grenadiers
-Brotherly Love (German): 2% increased accuracy 3% increase health for Mg42s
- Hit the Deck!: 10% increase suppression for MG42s

These bulletins work great for my 2 gren 2 mg build.

is that mg(+2% acc,+3%health) bulleting good? but as i know that is not health instead damage. Mine is same too, but i use PG +9 % veterancy instad of that brotherly love bulletin.
My question is what kind of doctrines do you bring in 1v1? Interested in german but you can write SU too. Mine is 1. Fortified Armor Strategies, 2. Joint Operation Doctrine 3. Jaeger Inf.
Nowadays i see Hans playing with the howitzer doctrine from beta. Is that good? You can spam reliefs if you put them near reinforce bunker or in base and drop flame on them with mortal halftrack.

Here's a question for you: If you've ever experienced (or played) Eve Online, when you fit your ship with modules, you play to its strengths and also only fit for one purpose, so that it becomes very good at it (or as good as it can be). If you try and spread the focus of your modules, the ship becomes rubbish at everything.

So to carry the analogy forward - do you think that bulletins will move in this direction? If you use all 3 of your bulletins to make your cons have more health for example, be more accurate and do greater damage, they will clearly be far more effective than 'spreading' your bulletins' bonuses across infantry, MG and HT.

I can perhaps see this 'specialisation' being more useful in a 2v2, where one player focuses on inf, and another on vehicles where you can support each other and gain the benefit of stronger units all round.

But yeh - do you think it's best to concentrate all your bulletins on one type of unit?

Is there a difference in using ordinary mortar attack(not attack action button) and mortar barrage option? I know with barrage you can shoot in a fow but is there any other difference like accuracy etc... What is better?

Is there a difference in using ordinary mortar attack(not attack action button) and mortar barrage option? I know with barrage you can shoot in a fow but is there any other difference like accuracy etc... What is better?

Hey m00nch1ld,

Good question and I do not know the exact answer unfortunately with regards to accuracy, hopefully one of the other Strategists may know. Whilst we do not have those accuracy stats available to us, however I think I can still comment on the effectiveness between the two. Mortar barrage to me feels to be the better option in most circumstances.

Reason being is that saturating an area over a shorter period of time with mortar rounds is more likely to hit that perfect spot. I feel it gives me a greater chance of getting a kill, where as ordinary mortar attacks are rather slow and they still do miss. The RNG God favour quantity in my experience.

In the end I always use mortar barrage or precision shot whenever I actively utilize my mortar. I will test it further though with standard fire, but to me more benefit always comes via barage. The only time I tend to not use barrage is if I want to save it as I know I will use it immediately within the next 20secs elsewhere and in the mean-time will just fire regular rounds.

is that mg(+2% acc,+3%health) bulleting good? but as i know that is not health instead damage. Mine is same too, but i use PG +9 % veterancy instad of that brotherly love bulletin.
My question is what kind of doctrines do you bring in 1v1? Interested in german but you can write SU too. Mine is 1. Fortified Armor Strategies, 2. Joint Operation Doctrine 3. Jaeger Inf.
Nowadays i see Hans playing with the howitzer doctrine from beta. Is that good? You can spam reliefs if you put them near reinforce bunker or in base and drop flame on them with mortal halftrack.

Hey Akosi,

Soviet

• Anti-Infantry Tactics. (DLC)
  
• Mechanized Support Tactics. (Collectors Edition)
  
• Guard Motor Coordination Tactics. (Free)
  

Ostheer

• Joint Operations Doctrine. (DLC)
  
• Lighting War Doctrine. (Collectors Edition)
  
• Spearhead Doctrine
  

These are the commanders I typically use. I feel the 3 set of commanders give me 3 styles of play which I can adaptively apply to the situations that arise. When I am playing with Ostheer especially, I tend to not pick my commander not as early incomparison to if I am playing with Soviets. I sense you already have a similiar spread with regard to your German doctrines to I.

For me Joint Operations is the best and most flexible Ostheer doctrine in the game. It is a doctrine that I have due to its ability to complement any Soviet army composition with pak43, arty and best of all recon. Recon is invaluable! This is a doctrine I tend to pick when I know I will possibly begin to float manpower and I'll quickly sink 600MP on arty/pak43 depending on what my opponents composition is.

Lighting War Doctrine = Jaegar Infantry. It is very similiar but I feel Lighting War Doctrine that bit better. I generally use this doctrine when I have 3-4 grens and my opponent has a heavy infantry based army composition such as cons, guards, shocks and t2 play. The support weapons melt to g43 and you don't have to stand still when your LMG fires, which against t2 Soviets might get you pinned.

Spearhead = Fortified Armour. I they achieve similar roles with Panzer Tacticon and Recon flight. Only real difference is the Elephant or MHT to suit your own style. Anyway I feel these are 2 great doctrines against Guard/SU-85 play which. The Panzer Tactication is invaluable at instantly breaking button. I tend to use these Panzer Tactiation doctrines less as I generally have good vehicle placement and use mortar smoke well premeptively. I do feel Fortified Armour is better though due to the elephant providing that range advantage!

As you can see though my Ostheer doctrines are in place to some what counter those very generic and popular Soviet build orders and army compositions. I go into games not with a fixed mid-late game stratergy. I only approach early game with a stratergy and the rest I adapt to as the game progresses and this is where my Ostheer doctrines are complementing to fill in the gaps or solidfy my army composition strengths.

Here's a question for you: If you've ever experienced (or played) Eve Online, when you fit your ship with modules, you play to its strengths and also only fit for one purpose, so that it becomes very good at it (or as good as it can be). If you try and spread the focus of your modules, the ship becomes rubbish at everything.

So to carry the analogy forward - do you think that bulletins will move in this direction? If you use all 3 of your bulletins to make your cons have more health for example, be more accurate and do greater damage, they will clearly be far more effective than 'spreading' your bulletins' bonuses across infantry, MG and HT.

I can perhaps see this 'specialisation' being more useful in a 2v2, where one player focuses on inf, and another on vehicles where you can support each other and gain the benefit of stronger units all round.

But yeh - do you think it's best to concentrate all your bulletins on one type of unit?

In general I'd say in 2v2 yes, but in 1v1 no. In 1v1 you have to get all the units you need, but in a team game you can get just 50% of that if your mate gets the other half. And if you select all 3 bulletins for the same unit, you'll most likely lose the game if you opponent manages to counter that unit. It might be worth the gamble, but I'd never do it that way.

counter to SU-85 spam that doesn't involve kiting/elefant

Do you guys know if negative cover does affect grenade damage as well?

@Gustav: Negative cover makes grenades deadlier, but there is always RNG which makes it seem like it sometimes doesn't.

Does it matter which model you select to fire at?
i.e. can you focus fire individual units in an enemy squad?

Hey Sarantini,

You can not shoot at a speific individual in a squad with small arms fire. I think it generally hits the closest man at long ranges more often, however not sure.

The only way you can some what target an individual is with area of effects weapons, where sometimes you can opt to attack ground and hit that high unit cluster instead of the individual unit all by himself quite some distance asway. Attack ground isn't 100% accurate though so you can still miss that sweet spot sometimes.

G43 vs mg42 gren upgrade which is more effective? And if g43 is it worth picking jaegar for it?

@Symbi

What is your non doctrinal counter to German howitzers (1v1 and 2v2)? Most times I make a vehicle rush to the base it gets killed in the process because those things can take a while to destroy and I usually get fausted before I knock it out. The only real success I've had (without using bomb strikes) is when I'm base raping them anyways, but I have a lot of trouble clearing them in close games.