What's the deal?

Warning : We are talking about 2v2 and 3v3 ONLY!

I recently decided to use combined arms tactics as USF, instead of using only my riflemen and charge into MGs and just retreat and repeat the same thing over and over again. And i was impressed of how USF combined arms work, especially if you are back in resources. So, my question is the following : If i want to tech both Lieutenant and Captain, what's the preferred build (except AT guns, mortars and MGs). Do i go 3 Rifles, 4 rifles?

You want to go 3 riflemen and the fourth rifle will be your tech either lieutenant or captain .Most popular is lieuteant especially if oyu know oyur mate that goes AT guns .After you teched lieutenat rush AA half track it kills 222s half tracks and IF microed well and your opponent is bad it can kill a puma and thne go mg OR go first MG and then AA half track.

3 Rifles is standard and should be followed in almost every situation.

Only exceptions are if you know for a fact you're gonna be teaming on one side, or you're facing an Ost player on a choke point. In which case 2 rifles into mortar is acceptable.

Anything less than three is just asking to get steam rolled by OKW.

3 Rifles is standard and should be followed in almost every situation.

Only exceptions are if you know for a fact you're gonna be teaming on one side, or you're facing an Ost player on a choke point. In which case 2 rifles into mortar is acceptable.

Anything less than three is just asking to get steam rolled by OKW.

Most of the time i am tasked with holding a specific point (preferably fuel) so my teammates team up on the other side of the map and do their job. When they stabilize their side, one of them comes to back me up and help me push (if i haven't already pushed)

If you want to tech both: the Lieutenant and the Captain you shouldn't get more then 3 rifles but i wouldn't recommend to always plan on teching both tiers, instead i would recommend to use either the Recon Support Company for the Airborne + M1 AT-Gun drop if you go for Lieutenant or to use the Airborne Company which can support either Lieutenant or Captain tech quite well as you can drop either an M1 AT-Gun or the M2HB HMG.
Both doctrines also give you access to a lategame offmap arty strike which allows to push of tanks or atgun walls. Another nice special on top of the support weapons are the airbornes as replacements for lost rifleman and depending on your playstyle pathfinders that can support your supportweapons by spotting for them.

You have to build only rifles at the start, that is the ONLY thing you can do whether its 1v1 or 4v4. Due to the this faction's extremely poor design this makes USF very predictable and easy to counter by the superior Axis factions. USF is at a disadvantage at every point vs its Axis opponents must mostly at the start of the game due to the high cost and relatively poor preformance of Riflemen against Axis infantry. Rear Echeleons preform even worse and have a high cost for their usefulness. These are not effective combat units and they have a rather strange volleyfire ability which costs 15 munitions and gets them killed faster. I believe this ability exists in the event you have excess manpower and need to qiickly get your REs killed to free up pop to allow the purchase other more useful units but that's a late game need so I'm sure why the ability is instantly available.

Spam with rear echelons, flamers into fast scotts )0))0))
OR, IF YOU FEELING LIKE SPREADING GOOD AND DEMOCRACY IS YOUR THING
Spam with paratroopers, dropping them somewhere behind enemy lines. Never lost a model even if dropped into forest, btw.

Now serious, those are real strats that will work against both axis on at least semi-crowded locations, or on the other hand, empty and large, like Rzev.
The main problem with USF is only one mainline infantry unit, while all others factions can get their specials quite early on, like soviet guards, german pzgrens and ukf sappers.

Also, unlike @CODGUY says, volley fire is actually good, when it is used as supportive ability as proposed, and not like no-brainer soviet "ura", or even-more-stupid OKW ass-nades - one can't just solo out an sturmpios with it or force-retreat that MG-42, instead you can supress that blob of infantry, while they busy munching all those troops of your allies. (dang, i need to make a meme about that)

BTW, german tech superiority? Oh yes, take those fast-moving 85mm howitzers or these BAR-blobs, or 120m-range, fast and agile TDs and just trow them away, they never existed anyway.

"Im not implying german tech superiority, Im stating bloody obvios!" - Dimitry, right before gets his tank-hunter packadge with thousands of at-nades, 1942

You just need to use it from distance and from green cover - or at least the fighting position. Also, it will supress your enemy depending on sheer amount of lead you sparying into them, so if that RE squad got something big, scary and fast-shooting, then it will supress much faster.

These are not effective combat units and they have a rather strange volleyfire ability which costs 15 munitions and gets them killed faster. I believe this ability exists in the event you have excess manpower and need to qiickly get your REs killed to free up pop to allow the purchase other more useful units but that's a late game need so I'm sure why the ability is instantly available.

This is great writing, I got a good laugh
Sadly, I have seen a squad of REs with Zooks that walked thru a Wall of P4s all by itself without taking any damage. But thats another RNG story for another time.