How much fuel do I need to cut?

After having played mostly team games since I got the game, I'm now turning more time towards 1v1.

I've played germans a few times too, but since it's so hard to get a game (usually 69/31 searching in favour of germans) and since, I think the german faction feels a bit cheesy, I mostly play soviets.

The successrate is much lower though. I've only lost one game as germans, but of 30 to 40 games as russian, less than half are victories.

And this is what usually happens: I can control the early to mid-game, often eliminating MGs and cutting the german fuel. In mid game I build Zis and put down as many mines as I can. But come late game, I still get drowned in Tigers or Panthers, run off the map and lose with the enemy having around 100 VPs left.

I've really been working on the part of the play that aims at cutting the enemy fuel, but obviously it can't be enough: Last game he drove TWO Tigers into my base, smashed up stuff and limped out with damaged engines, taking fire in the rear from 2 Zis (but escaping still the same).

This leads me to wonder if it's possible to put up some rule of thumb for how long time I need to cut off enemy fuel by - for example - 5, 10 and 15 minutes to avoid this inevitable Steel Train?

Clearly controlling all fuel all of the time is the best way, but let's be realistic: it's not going to happen as you move on to better opponents.

Or perhapps I'm getting this wrong? Now that all points yield a bit of fuel and german tanks cost less fuel, perhaps focus on cutting-off just isn't a viable strategy?

fuel is not so "importan" for germans You have to let te german player loose a lot of manpower.Therefore i always go T3 .You have to play very aggressive as soviets.Passive or defensive play= defeat

Post a few replays, that will make feedback much more relevant

if you play as russians you must stomp the germans or loose. as in stomp stomp. if you leet something retreat you have already lost.

C'mon, guys?

I know I have lots to learn with the unit handling, but that's not the subject here. So replays are irrelevant.

I would like to get some strategic feel for how much of the map I need to control or cut to derail the german dash for tanks.

Ofc. if your message is that only micro counts, fair enough. It's just not how I understand the game atm.

For example if a game takes 20 minutes, it should be possible to calculate how many points the german player needs to hold for a given tech and build path.I.e. a calculation of 'ressource minutes'.

It would give a better idea of where the break point is and when to panic

I guess I have to do the maths myself. I just thought that perhaps somebody had allready been over this.

Hi

As others have pointed out, you sort of need to keep bleeding their manpower. In other words, keep harassing them and maintain constant (or near) contact. IMO , Soviets needs to play as aggressively as possible.

I don't think its in the game design to allow for a total vehicle denial. Most opponents will be able to scrape up enough fuel to put out at least 1 vehicle over the course of the game.

As far as timing goes, you'll eventually get a feel for whats coming up next. Light field presense can be telling as well as a lack of munition usage. Thats what normally triggers a " OMG Flammenwerfer!" reaction from me.

I also think Guards are needed about 90% of the time. They're your best bet to handle german T2.

ZiS are give or take for me. They're really good, but require a lot of babysitting. It's very easy to leave them in a vulnerable spot and have them stolen by the germans. Nothing stings worse than having an Ostheer player firing off shells at you from your own gun.

I think SU-76/T-70 + guards is my preferred method of dealing with German light vehicles. Both SU-76 and T-70 will allow you to chase down annoying crap like mortar tracks.

So back to the original point....if you give the Germans enough breathing room to get 2 Tigers or 4 P4s etc you probably lost the game way earlier in the match.

Instead of cutting off, maybe try more harassment.

You have to learn to use SU-85, two of them will eliminate any German armor other than the elefant. If he had enough fuel for 2 tigers, you should have had time to make the tech switch and put out 2 SU-85s. Handled properly they can deal with any number of base rushing tigers.

T1->T4 snipers and SU85 = win

T1->T4 snipers and SU85 = win

T2-t3 is much safer imo, sniper gets easily killed by lmg grens as well as penals and m3, while mortar counters grens pretty good or at least makes them move around not allowing to use the lmg because if they stop there is a risk to lose the whole squad to a precision strike. Zis has almost the same speed and rotation as su85 lol and the same ability as su76 and it can be recrewed and even equipped with camouflage, and get +9% penetration with all 3 bulletins, it is probably the best set of bulletins right now imo because they really can make some difference.

I prefer T2 + T3. You will cause far more MP drain with T34s. SU85s are only good on a small number of maps because they lack mobility.