A Question About German Infantry Doctrine

Is it only me who feels like veteran squad leaders upgrade comes way too late and drains all of your muni if you commit to do it ? I mean I just had a game with absolutely zero MP bleed in first 8 minutes. (Note that it was a 4v4 game in a 1v1 even those timings will not be possible) Then I hit 2CP and started retreating my grens (but at the time all 3 of my grens were vet 2 and veterancy bonus didn't do too much.) Then I upgraded 3 grens for 180 muni and reinforced them for 90 MP at the 12 minute mark.

What I wanna tell by this long awkward story is the 5th man upgrades comes too late to be relevant and drains really big amount of munitions. Maybe it can be something like bolster with British (Then this will create the problem : You want MG-42 Gren but you can't take it ) ?

Your ideas/ thoughts ?

I mean I just had a game with absolutely zero MP bleed in first 8 minutes.

There's your problem, low amount of combat in the early game means late CP's.

Here's how I make use of Infantry Doctrine in 1v1:

- I make 4 Grens and skip MG42. Infantry spam means a lot of early fighting so you get CP's fast.
- Research Battlephase 1 and make 250.
- Once the 250 is out I have around 1,5CP, so I upgrade the lowest health Gren with an LMG42 and put it in the 250. I personally find this much safer than a Flamethrower Pioneer, cause you can faust and stay at range. Low health of a squad matters little when inside a halftrack. It's better not to upgrade a vetted Grenadier with the LMG, so you're assured to get free med kits later on.
- At around the 6 minute mark I should have enough CP's for the 5 men upgrade. I play very aggressive to get it this early.
- I don't retreat 5 men Grenadiers that are on the frontline to reinforce, this wastes too much momentum. The G43, lower RA and cooldown and free healing already improve their capabilities, even without the 5th man.
- I generally skip the med bunker until all my Grenadiers are upgraded and just use the free medkits to heal my troops. There's actually a glitch that allows you to use the med kit ability multiple times after each other, which can help. Saves some munitions for the high upgrade cost.
- Now I get a Panzergrenadier squad to replace the LMG Grenadier in the 250 and potentially get Schrecks on them later on (I try to avoid the latter though, unless absolutely necessary).
- What I do after this depends on the match. It's either T2 skip with Pgrens or T2 if I need the 222.

Lately I've been experimenting with triple Grenadiers into early Panzergrenadiers. It's a slight variation that plays out a bit differently. The smoke grenade and mark target that comes with the Panzergrenadier upgrade makes them very potent, like Axis Shocktroopers. The ability to repair is a bit lackluster, so I only use it while my Panzergrenadiers are capping or reinforcing/healing in base.

Bulletins that help:
- +3% accuracy for Grenadiers. If your opponent doesn't have this one equipped, you already have a 6% accuracy advantage. This is a big difference in dps, which is what makes this bulletin crucial.
- -10% buildtime for infantry. This also affects reinforce time, which becomes a big factor at 5 men.
- +7% faust range bulletin. This is an absolute must, cause you're often relying on Fausts to skip T2 and rush P4/Ostwind after the 250.

Good points. I will give that "super aggresive fast CP" strat a try.