Profile of comm_ash

There is nothing wrong with grenadiers. I always try to have two in my force composition as support units, because that is what they are. They are not meant to be as potent as mainline infantry of other factions, due to the fact that Ostheer is a combined arms faction that must rely on its support armor and vehicles to be its backbone.

1 MG42 + 1 Sniper + 2 grens can easily deal with the mainline troops of any other faction if you use them well. Use the Mg42 to suppress enemy infantry and make it easier to deal damage with your grenadiers without taking damage in return. Use the sniper to snipe enemies that are unsuppressed so your grenadiers can deal with them more effectively as they close. Use the grenadiers passively as well to snare enemy light vehicles that arrive.

Here is my reply from another thread:

I've been playing nothing but ostheer this patch cycle, and I think that emplacement commander isn't too hard to deal with. It requires coordination, yes, but more importantly, it requires the ostheer player to play in a completely different way than they usually do. It is also quite possible to deal with emplacements even with a brain dead ally, as long as you play well. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1: No matter how careful you are, you will lose models, and you will lose squads to indirect fire and mines. Lategame, it will only get worse when their ally gets a rocket artillery piece up. This means that your best counter to emplacements is a commander with access to the relief infantry ability. This will allow you to get free squads quite easily, and to crew your team-weapons with ostruppen, mitigating bleed.

2: You cannot afford to be defensive, waiting for your opponent will only allow him to get enough breathing space to dig in. Build a maximum of 1 mg42 in the early gane, and rely on a sniper and a pair of grens combined with your pios' line of sight to push aggressively at the Brit player. Go for cutoffs, and use the sniper to clear vickers from buildings. The 251 halftrack is indispensable for a OST player fighting agggressively, since it allows you to replenish losses on the field, instead of having to retreat.

3: 222s are your friend. Tech as fast as you can, and build a pair of 222s to give you vision and harass enemy squads. If you can spot an emplacement building, rush it quickly and either kill the troops building it or the emplacement itself. Remember that any breathing room you have is probably the enemy building an emplacement. Lategame, use the 222s to give you vision over your flanks.

4: The MHT is a great panic buy if you find that you messed up in the early game. It can safely barrage enemy emplacements, and reposition when counter barage is activated. If your opponent braces, attack ground, then move close and launch an incindiary round when brace ends.

5: The lefh is good, but remember that precision barage (or whatever the offmaps in the emplacement doctrine is called), will oneshot your artillery. Never go for lefh if your opponent has recon or a usf ally, and always use your 222 to spot a flanking recon unit. Make sure your lefh is far enough back to not be counter barraged.

With all these points in mind, you should pick a commander to fit your playstyle. I personally roll with lightning war (if you do well early), Festung support (if you don't), and a third doctrine to fit your needs vs. Other factions. Usually, if you roll your opponent early game you will have already won, or at least be at a significant advantage. Use the enhanced sight range of your 222, pio, and cloaked sniper to scout out enemy positions, then plan your assaults, using your mg42 tactically to suppress as many enemy squads as you can, whilst repositioning constantly. If you have an OKW ally, be sure to coordinate with his blob, and have him huild a pair of leigs to wreck the emplacements and IS units that stop moving for a second.

Good luck guys!

Sensible guess too along the lines of UKF SP campaign like people seem to be expecting. Reason for different gimmicks in it, a lot of work (though not all) already done for it.

This actually makes a whole lot more sense. Market garden themed I would assume

I've been playing nothing but ostheer this patch cycle, and I think that emplacement commander isn't too hard to deal with. It requires coordination, yes, but more importantly, it requires the ostheer player to play in a completely different way than they usually do. It is also quite possible to deal with emplacements even with a brain dead ally, as long as you play well. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1: No matter how careful you are, you will lose models, and you will lose squads to indirect fire and mines. Lategame, it will only get worse when their ally gets a rocket artillery piece up. This means that your best counter to emplacements is a commander with access to the relief infantry ability. This will allow you to get free squads quite easily, and to crew your team-weapons with ostruppen, mitigating bleed.

2: You cannot afford to be defensive, waiting for your opponent will only allow him to get enough breathing space to dig in. Build a maximum of 1 mg42 in the early gane, and rely on a sniper and a pair of grens combined with your pios' line of sight to push aggressively at the Brit player. Go for cutoffs, and use the sniper to clear vickers from buildings. The 251 halftrack is indispensable for a OST player fighting agggressively, since it allows you to replenish losses on the field, instead of having to retreat.

3: 222s are your friend. Tech as fast as you can, and build a pair of 222s to give you vision and harass enemy squads. If you can spot an emplacement building, rush it quickly and either kill the troops building it or the emplacement itself. Remember that any breathing room you have is probably the enemy building an emplacement. Lategame, use the 222s to give you vision over your flanks.

4: The MHT is a great panic buy if you find that you messed up in the early game. It can safely barrage enemy emplacements, and reposition when counter barage is activated. If your opponent braces, attack ground, then move close and launch an incindiary round when brace ends.

5: The lefh is good, but remember that precision barage (or whatever the offmaps in the emplacement doctrine is called), will oneshot your artillery. Never go for lefh if your opponent has recon or a usf ally, and always use your 222 to spot a flanking recon unit. Make sure your lefh is far enough back to not be counter barraged.

With all these points in mind, you should pick a commander to fit your playstyle. I personally roll with lightning war (if you do well early), Festung support (if you don't), and a third doctrine to fit your needs vs. Other factions. Usually, if you roll your opponent early game you will have already won, or at least be at a significant advantage. Use the enhanced sight range of your 222, pio, and cloaked sniper to scout out enemy positions, then plan your assaults, using your mg42 tactically to suppress as many enemy squads as you can, whilst repositioning constantly. If you have an OKW ally, be sure to coordinate with his blob, and have him huild a pair of leigs to wreck the emplacements and IS units that stop moving for a second.

Good luck guys!

If you think that rapid conscription is op, what do you think of relief infantry? 1 free ostruppen squad for every 4 lost models to a max of 3. In other words, losing 2 squads of Ostruppen completely with relief infantry nets you an additional squad XD Its also alot cheaper thañ rapid conscription (25% cheaper).

Not to say that rapid conscription isn't good, but it is a very niche ability (you basically have to build a strategy around it), and even then it only really works if you have the ppshs upgrade in the same doc.

So basically, if you see rapid conscription, just build a second mg, some bunkers, some pgrens, or a tiger.