German Tank - spam

I just don't seem to be able to deal with the shear volume of Axis tanks, im getting map control ok.

But it often seems an endless stream of German tanks hit the field yet they don't seem to have less infantry than I do. I try to get a couple of SU85's and a couple AT guns, but often I'm not in time and the panther spam rolls in.

AT nades so often fail to damage these tanks. I just wish soviets had an actual tank or at least they should remove the Rubbish like T34-85 and IS2 and give us something else in the commander tree that's useful in some way.

I personally never use call-in tanks as they are about as useful as a late game clown car.

i do use call in tanks, and the thing about having less infantry, well, unless you have lost a lot of squads is mostly an illusion. i think Russians will have more infantry than germans. and if they do they will pay because t34 is good for dealing with infantry. the same as t70.

i think you have to prepare for tanks since that is the stronger point of the german.

Or as useless as early clown cars, seriously Soviets got way too much subpar useless stuff its a little rediculous

I just don't seem to be able to deal with the shear volume of Axis tanks, im getting map control ok.

But it often seems an endless stream of German tanks hit the field yet they don't seem to have less infantry than I do. I try to get a couple of SU85's and a couple AT guns, but often I'm not in time and the panther spam rolls in.

AT nades so often fail to damage these tanks. I just wish soviets had an actual tank or at least they should remove the Rubbish like T34-85 and IS2 and give us something else in the commander tree that's useful in some way.

I personally never use call-in tanks as they are about as useful as a late game clown car.

You are playing team games, I guess?

Get a good team, and work on your tactics. who does what (build fuel catche, get at guns, etc)

Other than that, there is nothing you can do except learn to accept inevitable defeat and try to enjoy game as it is..

Due to design of armies and units, I cannot see Relic making the game balanced past 2v2

You are playing team games, I guess?

Get a good team, and work on your tactics. who does what (build fuel catche, get at guns, etc)

Other than that, there is nothing you can do except learn to accept inevitable defeat and try to enjoy game as it is..

Due to design of armies and units, I cannot see Relic making the game balanced past 2v2

I only play 1v1, I don't lose squads (well ok not often ) but the manpower drain due to German armour makes it hard to get my own out in significant numbers.

hers a replay that show cases my issues.

http://www.coh2.org/replays/8969/plz-what-am-i-doing-wrong

This doesn't happen every time, its just when it happens I'm always ill prepared.

trust me its all fun to me, I don't take any of it seriously

I do enjoy chatting about the game though.

I watched a little over half your replay (up to when the panther came out) and I noticed a few things that might help you out.

Your opening was OK, but you fought and lost a battle with 2 cons vs 2 grens over the munis on the left side. That left your fuel open which he capped which delayed your income/tech. I would have chosen to fall back there and sacrifice the munitions in order to keep the fuel and defend from a stronger position.

You also tech'd for molotovs and then immediately for AT nades. At that point in the game there was no threat of a vehicle so you were now 25 fuel farther away from T3/T4 which is where you need to get as quickly as possible. Hold off on the AT nades until you see the flow of the game. You can always get them later if need be.

You went T1 but didn't get a lot out of it. He was pushing with almost all grens and had a munitions advantage. Your scout car was a faust waiting to happen and he took it out easily. You then invested in a sniper, which you were lucky to keep alive in a close range engagement vs another gren squad. You should either keep your sniper in the scout car to protect it and keep them both at range, or make sure you have conscripts engaging the grens and keep the sniper far back near max range.

You then built T2, which put you another 50 fuel behind the race. At 11 minutes you had lost 2 full conscript squads and popped an MG and Shocks. Since you hadn't harassed his fuel at all (and he had an opel truck on it to boot) he was already at T4 and you had zero AT on the map. At that point in the game an AT gun would have been a better choice than the MG. You also sent the MG to cover the middle instead of protecting your fuel, which he again capped on you.

His Panther popped out shortly after and it was pretty much game over for you.

I think you need to have a better plan in mind of what you want to accomplish going into the game. Generally in 1v1 going both T1 and T2 isn't a good idea. It's too much manpower and especially fuel and it prevents you from getting to the impact units in T3/T4. Your opponent in this case did a much better job of cutting you off from your resources than you did to him. That was a big factor in how the game played out. You need to develop a better sense of the flow of the game. Going back again to the late MG, that wasn't really going to help you much at that point since you'd seen no vehicles and hadn't taken his fuel you should have known he was fast tech'ing and you were bound to see a P4/Panther any time. The shocks were a fine call, but you needed something to prepare for the armor and didn't have it.

You also completely neglected to place mines. Other people have said it in other threads, but as Soviets mines are one of your biggest advantages. ABUSE IT! They're cheap and effective against both infantry and armor. You were floating 320 muni's when I stopped watching. You could have mined the heck out of the left side and the choke points in the middle early on. That would have helped prevent his harassment of your fuel.

When I play 1v1 I prefer to go T2 to T3. I like to have at least 1 Maxim out and the ZiS especially if I go a doc with Shocks since I won't have guards. I try to get to T3 as quick as possible and start rolling T34's which I then play very offensively with. In order to make that work you really need to be aggressive about denying their resources. If I feel I'm late I make sure I have a pair of AT guns and some mines around and if I see armor I'll likely then get AT nades. Even if they get a Panther or a P4 or two out, I can usually win the engagement with good micro on the T34 and an occasional ram.

If you like the T1 playstyle, by all means go for it but plan for either T3 or T4 as soon as possible depending on the flow of the game.

Hope that helps.

thx and yes I was expecting light vehicles out, I think it made me panic a bit, so I went AT nades quickly after Molotov so I could counter any vehicles.

when he got his first panther I was also at tier 4 and built an su-85 and an AT gun to counter I then got a second SU-85 and a second AT-gun.

although I did lose my clown car and a conscript squad (stupidly) he had also lost two squads, I controlled the north half of the map and he had the south.

I did harass the south fuel and destroyed the Opel that was capping it, but I didn't want to lose the north as rightly or wrongly I feel its easier to control than crossing to the south.

then he got 4 panthers, 2 base raided etc etc but worse he was strafing all my infantry, which I suppose had as much to do with my demise as the panthers did.

I accept I should have maybe controlled all of the map, but if skill level is similar it seems a tall order, I just watched it again and I cant agree with the mg as it killed one whole squad and also controlled an attack coming over the far left frozen river.

The strafe rendered all my infantry useless killed the men off my At guns, after that he base raided, I was dead then so things go to crap because we are chatting and the games over, I'm trying to work out how to control both fuel points at either end of the map and still retain a fighting presence?

thx though I do need a better plan on that map

P.S

I don't like the tier 1 play style I just read somewhere that someone did well with it so I had a quick go.

I flirted with tier 3 and it just seems too weak to me, If I ram a German tank the shrek kill my t34 and they just fix whatever it was I rammed.

I also tried early T70 before but it seemed to prompt an armoured response I feel tier 3 is ill equipped to handle.

He had the panther out before you had T4 up, but he didn't press his advantage which gave you time to get the SU-85 out. He took his panther right across the bridge in the middle of the map. That's a perfect spot for a mine. If you had done that you likely would have got his engine and your SU-85 would have had a good chance of finishing it off. 30 munitions would have stopped him dead in his tracks. He brought the second one out across the ice in a spot that I love to mine. A couple of well placed mines on the ice on that map can pay off huge. He rolls that panther over one and it turns into a submarine.

He was leaning on the strafe for sure. That's another thing I like about T3, the Quad half-track is much more likely to shoot down those planes now. It can really help cut them short, not to mention the forward re-enforcements can be a lifesaver. At that point he had dominant map control and there was likely nothing you could do. The only way you win that is to prevent him from being able to get 3 very expensive tanks on the field in the first place.

Try to get in the habit of laying mines more. Definitely in the obvious choke points, but also think about some of the other ways he might attack you and take a chance with some mines there. I've killed Tigers before on that map by placing mines off the regular paths on the ice and having them run over it. There's nothing better.

Unit preservation will definitely help with being able to defend and attack. Sometimes you don't necessarily need to control both either, just decapping the right point to cut his income may be more important than getting the income yourself. Early on you pushed to his side on the right and won, you stayed to cap the munis instead of pushing to the fuel. It may have been a better move to decap the muni's but move right to the fuel and decap that as well rather than taking the extra time to cap the munis.

Anyhow, you did do some good things. Try using your units more together rather than individually. Like I said before about using Cons to shield your sniper. Even towards the end when you were fighting the panther by your base with the two SU's and AT, you had a conscript squad sitting there doing nothing. Run that squad up to give sight for your SU's and get an AT nade on the panther! Maybe you get lucky and disable it's engine making it that much easier for your SU's to kill.

The same thing is the key to the T34. Yeah, but itself you generally don't want to take on any tank unsupported. BUT, if you have an AT in the area, or a second T34 and some infantry support. Then you can move one T34 in for a ram, flank with the second or use it to crush the pgrens so he has to retreat. Your infantry should also be moving in to chase any of HIS support away. I only use the ram ability if I'm almost certain it will let me kill the target so I don't use it often. It's still a great unit when you use its speed wisely and support it.

Keep at it and good luck.

yeah ..I tried a bit of tier 3 and mines last night, in a 1v1, I gotta admit it felt pretty strong, even though I was pretty rubbish with it.

T34 came out very fast when I concentrated on it, so thx this is all great advice and definitely food for thought.

Your right in that game that mines would have bean a great idea.

seriously does the tier 3 quad deal with the strafe?

Again thanks for your input.

seriously does the tier 3 quad deal with the strafe?

It doesn't totally negate the strafe but tends to shoot down the plane at some point. You can still reinforce from the halftrack even with the quad upgrade

yeah ..I tried a bit of tier 3 and mines last night, in a 1v1, I gotta admit it felt pretty strong, even though I was pretty rubbish with it.

T34 came out very fast when I concentrated on it, so thx this is all great advice and definitely food for thought, I think your right in that game that mines would have bean a great idea.

seriously does the tier 3 quad deal with the strafe?

Again thanks for your input.

It does, but that's a huge investment to counter one ability, just remember that. The reinforce is dope, but still.

Also, T3 alone is weak to heavy armor, but with ZiS guns back up you can pretty handily deal with anything the German player has. Remember that your T34s cost less than their P4s. If you guys are on equal fuel footing, ram him and ZiS down his P4. He'll probably kill your T34, but you won the trade by 40mp and 30 fuel which adds up. Even Tigers can be pretty much disabled with one ram from the rear. One Tiger costs more than 2 T34s, so even if you lose 2 T34s taking it out then you won the engagement.

It does, but that's a huge investment to counter one ability, just remember that. The reinforce is dope, but still.

Also, T3 alone is weak to heavy armor, but with ZiS guns back up you can pretty handily deal with anything the German player has. Remember that your T34s cost less than their P4s. If you guys are on equal fuel footing, ram him and ZiS down his P4. He'll probably kill your T34, but you won the trade by 40mp and 30 fuel which adds up. Even Tigers can be pretty much disabled with one ram from the rear. One Tiger costs more than 2 T34s, so even if you lose 2 T34s taking it out then you won the engagement.

Yeah I had two AT guns backing it up, He came at me with a couple of panthers, that came out slowly this time as I was more mindful of harassing his fuel early.

That one ability (strafe) rendered my whole army useless in the game I've linked to above, so I'm up for any idea that may counter it.

P4's would have probably been a better idea for him.

Funny thing about the game was me not doing ram properly, I click the ability and then I right clicked on the tank to ram...LOL.

I think its left click isn't it? (Dead T34)

I normally use SU-85 as you may have guessed.

I never did kill either of his panthers but I won the game with relentlessness and harassment.

Pantherswag nice to see I'm not the only older guy playing coh 2 (I'm 51)