Problems with playing the British forces

Hello!

First of all, I love the British forces from an aesthetic viewpoint. I think the voice acting is great, the infantrymen look cool and I love the design of the tanks. However, I can't wrap my head around how to play them. Not only that, I feel frustrated when playing them. That's mainly for two reasons:

1. I really have trouble when going from tier one to tier two, since I don't know what to get first. Whenever I get a sniper first I feel super scared about having a light vehicle drive into my base and kill him. If I start with an AEC and the enemy doesn't get a light vehicle I'm far behind in the race to a medium tank and can't apply that much pressure since the AEC isn't that good against infantry. Finally, if I get royal engineers I feel a bit more flexible, but I am damned to react to my enemy and give him/her the initiative.

2. I feel like I am not allowed to make a single mistake. Losing a unit or just a position with good cover just feels so painful. I feel like it's much harder to comeback than with any other factions.

Now, what I'd kindly ask for is for people to give me advice on how to better deal with those situations. How do you transition from tier one to tier two? How do you deal with falling behind as Brits?
Oh, and as a closing statement: I don't want to complain about balance. I know I'm far from a good player and my loses are more a result of my own incompetence than balance. All I'm looking for is advice.
Thanks in advance to anyone who's willing to share a bit of knowledge.

TL;DR: Can't wrap my head around UKF. Asking for advice on how to play them. Especially regarding falling behind and going from tier one to two.

Sounds like you're struggling on where to send your manpower from the 5-10 minute mark. Brits largely lack (mobile) indirect and is one of their core problems, but if you have the mobile assualt commander the landmattress is decent for indirect pressure against the indirect your opponet will more than likely get against you.

Many people including myself do well with commandos in the midgame. Their stens are very strong in CQC and can move while cloaked on cover.

AEC is good light vehicle counter, but I wouldn't get it premptivly. If you're against OKW and you find his mech truck just be ready to start teching it. Good manpower sink midgame is the AT gun. The UKF AT gun is fantastic vs lights since it has a +50% accuracy modifier against them, which means it almost never misses.

Against Ostheer you're really at the mercy of the faction if they decide to abuse snipers, flamers, multiple HMG42s. But try and get your upgrades as best you can. Bolster when you can usually since it increase both squad survivibility as well as DPS. Get bren guns on tommies when you can as well.

UKF does much better vs OKW, but requires a bit of a different approach in terms of build order. Instead of 3x/4x tommies and maybe an MG you'd use vs OST, 2tommies and 1 MG sometimes 2 is almost always required vs OKW. They lack the ability to clear MGs early and tend to struggle even into midgame as they have minimal smoke and indirect. Sniper is also good vs OKW as they don't have a sniper themselves.

To stop vehicle dives attempt to keep your sniper around mine placements, and if you have PIATs unlocked you can keep your PIAT RE squad nearby.

You may not be able to cloak inside garrisons but you can move very quickly from side to side of multiple door garrisons against light vehicles. Use this to your advantage. You can use the PIAT squads inside garrisons as well to defend your sniper. Furthermore if you have multiple squads in a garrison your opponet cannot selectivly target a lone squad such as a sniper, so the more squads you have in a single garrison the more theoretically durable your squad becomes. Just becareful not to be in the garrison if it collapes or mortar shells start hitting it.

Replays are very helpful for analyis of gameplay if you'd want that.

Good question as it is a part of the game where UKF can lose field presence. Some good points from ShadowLink but let me add a few.

1. I really have trouble when going from tier one to tier two, since I don't know what to get first.

First off, don't be afraid to have 4 or even 5 units in T1 before teching. Then, I agree that UKF T2 lacks any obvious choice, but just make sure not to float and get something and use it (e.g. Sappers can mine or cap; Sniper is very good at bleeding OKW - just keep him behind other units so you can see light vehicles coming and retreat; an AT gun plus piats can keep away enemy armour, and even 2 AT guns held back a bit can be an effective and powerful surprise). Lastly remember that caches are always an option to speed up T3!

2. I feel like I am not allowed to make a single mistake. Losing a unit or just a position with good cover just feels so painful. I feel like it's much harder to comeback than with any other factions.

This is unfortunately just the truth at the moment. E.g. OKW can play really badly, lose 2~3 Volks and still be totally fine, but as UKF is already on the back foot in the current patch, a single mistake can often lose you the game. As long as you can accept that, they are still fun and challenging to play

Many people including myself do well with commandos in the midgame. Their stens are very strong in CQC and can move while cloaked on cover.

Definitely agree with this. Commandos can really turn the tide as soon as you hit 3CP. Just remember to have some plan for AT.

AEC is good light vehicle counter, but I wouldn't get it premptivly. If you're against OKW and you find his mech truck just be ready to start teching it.

This I actually disagree a bit, I find AEC is almost always useful and for me almost necessary maintain tempo as Brits. It might not feel powerful against infantry, but if you can keep it out of faust range, it will slowly but surely bleed your opponent. Plus, it hard-counters the inevitable scout car or luchs, so good to have around (though will lose to Puma or well-microed double 222, so keep one more AT source for backup). Literally the only case I don't get one is when I'm fast-teching straight to Centaur.

The UKF AT gun is fantastic vs lights since it has a +50% accuracy modifier against them, which means it almost never misses.

Unfortunately this was nerfed and removed in one of the recent patches (along with everything else the British roster). Well-microed AT guns are still important for Brits, but for now, just hang on until the next patch comes with UKF snare and start blowing up those tanks again

Good question as it is a part of the game where UKF can lose field presence. Some good points from ShadowLink but let me add a few.

Thank you sir.

Unfortunately this was nerfed and removed in one of the recent patches (along with everything else the British roster). Well-microed AT guns are still important for Brits, but for now, just hang on until the next patch comes with UKF snare and start blowing up those tanks again

The accuracy bonus was removed vs mediums and heavies, but was kept vs lights since they're prone to dives as they still lack proper snares.

Oh, I missed the word "lights" in your post, but I also didn't know the bonus still applied to light vehicles. Thanks a lot for correcting me!