Ask the Strategist!

Hi, guys. My pal and I often play in 2-2. On small maps like Harkov or Minsk pocket we can go together forward from the start, but on larger maps like Rjev, Moskow Outskirts or Oka it looks like we have a few ways: go together on choke points, each take has own side and try to hold both fuel points or together from one side then go to center. So what you can advise for big maps and actions from the start?

In any 2v2 be that on a large map or small you both must decide from the start where you want to go. Where either both of you work together to control one side of the map or split off and try for both sides and both fuels. Normally it is a good idea to try for both sides and see what your opponents do. If you see both players double teaming you on your side, then let your teammate know so he can help out while you fall back to his side of the map. Never try and solo it against overwhelming numbers if you have no hope of holding your ground and risk losing units. It is always better to retreat, regroup and launch another offensive once you are ready. Also if they are doubling teaming on one side then the other side of the map is largely uncontested so you or your ally can easily grab that territory. Now on the other hand if both opponents chose to go for their own sides, so that you and your ally are now in a 1v1 situation, it is wise to test them out and see if you can beat them on your own. If you can, push that player off the map and then go to your teammates assistance. However if not, it's no good bashing your head against a wall and in that case abandon your side and go help your teammate out.

Hello strategists , i got some theory crafting challenge and because i dont have the commander in question i want you to do my bidding .

OK lately i have been playing against a lot of assgrens , not that i find them challenging to play against , but i do think that the majority of ostheer players are not doing the commander justice by spamming assgrens .

So i ve theorycrafted a strategy for him . Without further adieu i present you :

T1 2 pios , 2 grens , 1 assgren and 1 mortar (the BO maybe should be twicked to 1 pio , 3 grens )

T2 : not existant , instead produce a htrack and use it in the fashion of an m8 harrasing flanks and flanking during engagements or upgrade pgs with screcks to deal with fast t70

T3 : Either stug 3 + short barreled variant or p4 + short barreled stug

Additional units : anything that one might need for a special purpose on the battlefield

The operational method of this strategy is attacking in one single point and forcing battles on key points while the enemy capping should be slowed down by bunkers , wire , even s mines etc untill some halftrack or other fast unit comes to adress that , no wide front advancement . Also this method is desinged to be as costeffective and flexible as possible , its also supposed to be played with a fuel op to maximise that ( costefficiency )and advance to the main winnng phase of the plan before su85s and snipers come to ruin the day . In the early game you are supposed to generally hold the line with the infantry and harrass with the assgrens or use them as flanking units to gain the upper hand in a large firefight . the mortar should be used to harrass capping cons when assgrens are elsewhere hit garrisined building etc . When you get the pgtrack you use it essentially like the old m8 releiving the assgrensw from that task and move it arround as both defencive and offensive harrassing and caping unit . AFter that i recomend getting a short barelled stug , its very cheap and will definitely force your opponent to go for some armor which should be dealt with tellers , fausts and screcks unless of course you had the fuel to built a stug 3 quickly . aFter the stug 3 get a second pgtrack and then a p4

Pros : It is a very flexible build which counters the assgrens poor vet progression in the game and at the same time ensures that every slip up your opponent makes can be harshly punished and gives you a good portion of the resource pie , esp after the pg track comes in play (hint its better to dismount from the pg track befor engaging and remounting to hunt to avoid atgrenages ). Another good thing for it is that it provides a very vcohish approach which means that vcoh vets will find very easy to play with and twick bos timing etc to suit their personal playstyle . It also offers a very economical use of munitions imo because most units can do the job when they ork in synergy , muintions are used only to counter a threat that the rest of the units cant like tanks or m3s , that expands to resource floating too which tends to happen in the pre t3 phase at that time you are teching and getting offmap units which brings us another point , since many of the units are call in ones there is no time waisted .

Cons : If you loose your htrack without having done a lot of work first then its a very big loss akin to loosing an m8 very early ( since i dont have the commander i cant decide whether its agood thing to advance with the prior plan or insteaqd go to t2 ) , also you have to make the best possible use of your units since they are not only expensive but few as well and you have to predict the enemys movements , the relatively small army size means this method is better suited on smaller maps rather than larger ones ( but then again trying to control a lagre map with assgrens is draining so much manpower and is liable to collaps at the first sign of an m3 ).

Any way . I d appreciate it if sb tried it aout for a few games and toold me the results afterwards

Untrue. Every model needs to be in cover. How many times have I had 3 camo'd models while the 4th sits out in the open - the 'cloak' icon does not appear.

I experienced the same. It makes the abillity unreliable, babysitting-heavy and annoying, thus borderline useless.

I experienced the same. It makes the abillity unreliable, babysitting-heavy and annoying, thus borderline useless.

This is indeed weird, because it does work with the Russian Snipers. Only one of them has to be in cover to cloak them both..

This is indeed weird, because it does work with the Russian Snipers. Only one of them has to be in cover to cloak them both..

I'm pretty sure they both have to be in cover as well

I'm pretty sure they both have to be in cover as well

Negative, I just tested it.

Is one section of the four from an s-mine field enough to kill a clown car?

Two Questions:

1. I'm having trouble getting the most out of Panzergrenadiers. For the MP cost to purchase and reinforce I find them ineffective, but I'm assuming that's just because of how I'm using them. I try to get them up close to other infantry, but even though their dps is good they still have the same HP and armor as grens and die pretty easily (its not uncommon to lose a whole squad to a random 120mm mortar shell). How can I make them work? Would going assault grens to skip T1 and get the PGs earlier in the game to vet up to vet 2 for the extra armor work?

2. The Opel blitz truck: all other things (e.g., mobility, build time) not taken into consideration, what is more cost effective, the opel truck or a fuel/ammo cache? In other words, which gives you a better return for your MP investment?

Hi,

does moving a sniper (for example ostheer) after shooting increase its time to re-cloak?

I tend to move my snipers around cover after shooting, hoping maybe that moving causes a received accuracy penalty?

What are the best strategies to safely snipe and avoid countersniping?

Is one section of the four from an s-mine field enough to kill a clown car?

No it's not.

Two Questions:

1. I'm having trouble getting the most out of Panzergrenadiers. For the MP cost to purchase and reinforce I find them ineffective, but I'm assuming that's just because of how I'm using them. I try to get them up close to other infantry, but even though their dps is good they still have the same HP and armor as grens and die pretty easily (its not uncommon to lose a whole squad to a random 120mm mortar shell). How can I make them work? Would going assault grens to skip T1 and get the PGs earlier in the game to vet up to vet 2 for the extra armor work?

2. The Opel blitz truck: all other things (e.g., mobility, build time) not taken into consideration, what is more cost effective, the opel truck or a fuel/ammo cache? In other words, which gives you a better return for your MP investment?

1. I think Panzergrenadiers are always worth their cost. They are extremely effective at flanking support units and can easily take on a (non upgraded) conscript squad. The only thing that can really stop them are Shocktroops and Snipers (45 mp to reinforce 1 man is indeed a lot)

2. The open blitz truck. Say if you want more fuel, you use it on a point and it'll give you as much fuel as an OP would. Yet it will also give you more munition at the same time If you really have a lot of manpower, you can also do both!

Hi,

does moving a sniper (for example ostheer) after shooting increase its time to re-cloak?

I tend to move my snipers around cover after shooting, hoping maybe that moving causes a received accuracy penalty?

What are the best strategies to safely snipe and avoid countersniping?

Moving doesn't change the recloak time for Snipers as long as you stay in cover (not 100% sure though) and moving your sniper after a shot doesn't make it harder for the enemy to kill yours (unlike in vcoh).

What i always try when microing my sniper is to keep it in heavy cover as much as possible. The recloak time in hevy cover is so little that it's almost impossible to counter snipe a sniper that's in green cover.

Dear strategists,
In almost all of my recent games as Germans I've been facing the same Soviet strategy: 3 or 4 conscripts, molotovs, 2 shock troops, AT nades, T3. I've been having trouble playing against this, and here are my questions:
1) Blob-control help: I feel like I'm getting bum-rushed-to-the-face by conscript and shock blobs. Even an MG42 pointed straight into a tight grouping doesn't necessarily suppress all the squads. Am I imagining this, that it does very little suppression to squads adjacent to the one being targeted? Am I using it wrong?

2) what do you recommend to counter this strategy if things are going well, and what do you recommend if things are going poorly?

xoxoxoxoxoxo
computerheat

If all ressources on a balanced map were equally divided between the two factions, who would have a comparative advantage in early, mid and late game?

1) Is there a "received-accuracy" bonus while moving your infantry or vehicles?

Or maybe the complement:
Is there an accuracy-penalty while you are shooting at moving infantry or vehicles?

2) According to this "Excel-File", the final DPS values with the vector components [near mid far] for Grens and Conscript rifles are

KAR [3.775 2.402 1.029]
Mosin [2.540 1.591 0.642]

I guess these values count for 1 Rifle. So, while being in the same kind of cover, being on full health and not moving I want to know the minimum amount of Grens I need to have a higher DPS Sum to beat every possible Conscript count:

NEAR:
6 Conscripts - impossible
5 Conscripts - 4 Grens
4 Conscripts - 3 Grens
3 Conscripts - 3 Grens
2 Conscripts - 2 Grens
1 Conscript - 1 Gren

MID:
6 Conscripts - 4 Grens
5 Conscripts - 4 Grens
4 Conscripts - 3 Grens
3 Conscripts - 2 Grens
2 Conscripts - 2 Grens
1 Conscript - 1 Gren

FAR:
6 Conscripts - 4 Grens
5 Conscripts - 4 Grens
4 Conscripts - 3 Grens
3 Conscripts - 2 Grens
2 Conscripts - 2 Grens
1 Conscript - 1 Gren

Are these results correct? And how relevant are these results practical? I think a big factor in this is the health of the single soldiers...

Hello strategists,

I see a lot of German players going into Tiger doctrine. What are the signs of this in the early or mid game? Like lack of LMG on grens, or no light vehicles in early game?

And how should I determine what doctrine my opponent is going? And should I even bother trying to figure out this in 3vs3 or 4vs4 games?)

My point is if I can tell that Germans will roll out Tigers, I can adjust my play style, start saving fuel for ISU152 and muni for IL2 bombing run.

Also, second question. How do you kill a Tiger? Last time I rammed it with T34 and dropped bombs on it almost at same time. Then I finished it with 5 shots from ISU152. Vet two Tiger went down, but mostly due players negligence. He did not even try to save it.

What are your tactic.

Am I missing out on not using the tactical map?
I find at the beginning yo can just give orders on the small minimap and later in the game it seems so cluttered.

Dear strategists,
In almost all of my recent games as Germans I've been facing the same Soviet strategy: 3 or 4 conscripts, molotovs, 2 shock troops, AT nades, T3. I've been having trouble playing against this, and here are my questions:
1) Blob-control help: I feel like I'm getting bum-rushed-to-the-face by conscript and shock blobs. Even an MG42 pointed straight into a tight grouping doesn't necessarily suppress all the squads. Am I imagining this, that it does very little suppression to squads adjacent to the one being targeted? Am I using it wrong?

2) what do you recommend to counter this strategy if things are going well, and what do you recommend if things are going poorly?

xoxoxoxoxoxo
computerheat

I'm not really a super great player since I spend too much time with the mechanics, but I'd suggest to use a Sniper. I've started using a single sniper a lot recently and they are really quite effective against Shock troops, especially with the Vet1 ability. It often takes out several Shocks with one shot, I've even had it wiping a complete squad.
Concerning MG42 - The MG42 has a high suppression against the primary target, but other nearby squads only get a part of this suppression (from 1/4 to 1/2). This "secondary" suppression is higher the more entities are close to the target, since the MG42 has incremental accuracy. Secondary suppression (and damage) is both affected by accuracy, while primary suppression (target squad) only depends on the amount of bullets shot at the squad.

Maybe Symbi could add his view as player to create "ze perfect answer"! ;D

1) Is there a "received-accuracy" bonus while moving your infantry or vehicles?

Or maybe the complement:
Is there an accuracy-penalty while you are shooting at moving infantry or vehicles?

There is no bonus / penalty for received accuracy, only the units outgoing shots get such modifiers. Most weapons are worse on the move (Kar-98k, G43, Mosin/Nagant), some weapons stay exactly the same (MP44) and others even get better (Assault-Grenadier MP40, PPSh41).

2) According to this "Excel-File", the final DPS values with the vector components [near mid far] for Grens and Conscript rifles are

KAR [3.775 2.402 1.029]
Mosin [2.540 1.591 0.642]

I guess these values count for 1 Rifle. So, while being in the same kind of cover, being on full health and not moving I want to know the minimum amount of Grens I need to have a higher DPS Sum to beat every possible Conscript count:

NEAR:
6 Conscripts - impossible
5 Conscripts - 4 Grens
4 Conscripts - 3 Grens
3 Conscripts - 3 Grens
2 Conscripts - 2 Grens
1 Conscript - 1 Gren

MID:
6 Conscripts - 4 Grens
5 Conscripts - 4 Grens
4 Conscripts - 3 Grens
3 Conscripts - 2 Grens
2 Conscripts - 2 Grens
1 Conscript - 1 Gren

FAR:
6 Conscripts - 4 Grens
5 Conscripts - 4 Grens
4 Conscripts - 3 Grens
3 Conscripts - 2 Grens
2 Conscripts - 2 Grens
1 Conscript - 1 Gren

Are these results correct? And how relevant are these results practical? I think a big factor in this is the health of the single soldiers...

Yes, those values are only for one weapon and your amounts of Grens/Cons seem correct. I assume you want to know the amount of Grenadiers you need in a squad to fight an amount of Conscripts. For that purpose DPS alone is simply not enough to really say who will win the fight. You would need to know the HP of each entity. Assuming both groups start with full HP the outcomes should make Grens win with those numbers. Only "should" since a pure firefight between the units is rare and Molotov adds even more variables making it extremely hard to estimate the outcome.
For example, even at close range Grenadiers tend to win a 1v1 against Conscripts on average assuming all units focus their fire on one entity all the time. This happens due to the fact that the Conscripts damage drops faster since they lose entities quicker.

I'd say ask maybe a more specified follow-up question if you want more information or well, just write me a twitch msg or something

Dear strategists,
1) Blob-control help: I feel like I'm getting bum-rushed-to-the-face by conscript and shock blobs. Even an MG42 pointed straight into a tight grouping doesn't necessarily suppress all the squads. Am I imagining this, that it does very little suppression to squads adjacent to the one being targeted? Am I using it wrong?

2) what do you recommend to counter this strategy if things are going well, and what do you recommend if things are going poorly?

1) against lots of cons and shocks, i would probably skip the mg42. im going to have to disagree with milkas sniper suggestions. against 6 infantry squads, i think youll be chased off and find your 360 mp investment sitting in your base too frequently (unless you can keep a lot of infantry in front of the sniper, which isnt easy against shocks). instead, i would try to get an mg bunker. with the build you described, they would have no counter until t3 and with the heavy mp investment in cons and shocks even an AT gun could be difficult to get out. the mg bunker isnt just much more durable, it also has the best suppression of any unit in the game (yes, better than a maxim!). if you can keep it away from the AT nades, a flame ht is always a good choice when soviets dont have guards.

it doesnt sound like youre using the mg42 wrong. the mg just isnt as powerful at denying an area anymore. i find i can charge it head on with 1 or 2 cons and still molotov it fairly easily. i find myself using the mg42 less and less now. it really needs a lot of support to stop the enemy from rushing it. i prefer bunkers now. i also dislike the lmg42 so i dont upgrade my grens, that makes upgrading mgs on bunkers pretty easy.

2) if things are really going well, and you think you can beat the soviet tank rush, i would try to get an ostwind as my first tank. id probably have atleast an AT gun to back it up if a t34 shows up. if things are going bad, maybe try for a stug with heavy t2 (pgrens, ht and AT gun). i think a bunker in both of these situations would be a good investment too since stopping those shocks is crucial.

Hello strategists,

What are the signs of this in the early or mid game?

And how should I determine what doctrine my opponent is going?

Also, second question. How do you kill a Tiger?

one way to predict a players build is by looking at their bulletins and commanders on the loading screen. some players will put on multiple tiger bulletins, which is obviously a good indicator of what theyre planning. you can also use these fancy tables made by leiwounion to know exactly what options your opponent has available.

theres currently 4 doctrines that have tigers, all of which, are used quite frequently. an opel or strafing run mean they are using assault support. g43s would give you a 50/50 chance that they are using lightning war. panzer tactician (vehicle smoke) might mean they are going spearhead (i think the other smoke doctrines are less common). if they have smoke AND mortar ht, you can be sure its spearhead. the last dotcrine has assault grens, so its the easiest to spot. if you use this information and you know which 3 commanders they picked, you should be able to guess what theyre using.

i dont think you can easily predict tigers will be coming based on builds. doctrinal abilities and units are typically the best way to know for sure. i have seen players stay at t1 or t2 the entire game and use have tigers as their only tank though. so if you see no armor for a long time, that may be a hint.

as for killing the tiger, i think su85 is your best bet. take advantage of its superior range and speed and just kite him. ramming tigers is pretty inconsistent due to their high armor in front and back. i also dont see the is2 or isu152 as great counters. is2 will lose 1v1 and the isu152 needs to stay far away. 2 su85s will do more damage with a higher rate of fire, and is tied with the is2 for the best penetration for soviet tanks.

Hello strategists

I was wondering what are the ups and downs between the German Teller Mine, and the Halftrack Doctrine Riegel mine?

When should i place one over another and why?

thanks.

Hello strategists

I was wondering what are the ups and downs between the German Teller Mine, and the Halftrack Doctrine Riegel mine?

When should i place one over another and why?

thanks.

the teller mine does 500 damage. it has a 1/3 chance to do heavy engine damage, otherwise it does normal engine damage.

the riegel mine does 400 damage, but is guaranteed to immobilize any vehicle.

they are both the same price. against more expensive tanks, i think the riegel would be the better choice since an immobilized tank will be very easy to finish off. against something like a t34, you should be able to chase it down and 1 shot it after a teller. it really depends on where you place them and what kind of AT you have. if you have lots of AT guns, riegels might be better so they cant escape.

personally, i have a hard time using riegels, even though i really like them. my ht tends to not survive late into the game, which is when i have enough munitions to start laying lots of mines. if it is alive, im using it with flamers or reinforcing. its much more likely that i have pios with nothing to do. thats really the only reason i use tellers 99% of the time.