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USF no longer can completely run over ostheer early game, and this is a good thing, however, it is still quite easy to do very well against ostheer, here are a few things you can do to maximize your victory chances.
Vetoes: Vetoes are very important for this matchup. USF is best used on CQC maps and wide maps with many flanking routes, and easy to harass territory. As a result, you usually want to vetoe focused, narrow maps that allow for easier mg play, such as road to kharkov, minsk pocket, langreskaya, and any other map of your choosing.
Early Game: Your early game is the cornerstone of the USF vs. ostheer matchup, and is the time when you will be most powerful. Usually, you will want to go 3 rifles -> LT. The rifles, built sequentially, will give you quantitative equality with ostheer, and an undisputed advantage over grens. Your job should not be to secure territory. Take your rifles and immediately head to your opponents fuel/ cutoff point, and force an engagement, attempting to isolate gren squads and push your opponent off the field. Remember to attack from several locations at once (I like to use my first two rifles together on the first engagement, and use my third squad for reinforcing during the engagement). If you can catch an mg42 out of position, or flank it quickly, you can easily push it off, or even wipe it and steal it. If there are buildings in the combat zone, attempt to take control of them, as grens have a very hard time countering entrenched units. I go LT usually, as it is my preference, but LT vs. captain is usually a choice between early game power and better scaling power. Also, in the opening post, it sounds like you are blobbing. DON'T BLOB. It makes mgs far more powerful than they really are and mitigates USFs early game power. If you can't micro 4 units at once, practice microing multiple units simultaneously before going into another 1v1.
Early-Mid Game:
I almost always go LT, so these tips will be in terms of LT tech.
Going LT is a big bonus vs. ostheer, as it forces your ostheer opponent to tech up (or get run over by light vehicles), while giving you access to a free bar+thompson rifle squad. Use the LT to push your opponent even farther back and reinforce your frontline. You now have a choice to make.
M20: Not as powerful vs. ostheer, but nevertheless, is a good unit to apply quick pressure and force your opponent to build a scout car or a pak. Use it at range to support your rifle, using the M20's speed to flank grenadier positions and deal unmitigated damage. M6 AT mines are very useful to cripple enemy armor later in the game, and destroy pumas and scout cars that are chasing your light vehicles. Remember, ostheer (unless CAS), is always low on munitions, so if you find an unsupported gren squad that you don't think can be wiped, feel free to move close and bait a pzfaust. Every pzfaust is 25 mu that aren't being spent on rnades or lmgs.
AAHT: The AAHT is a useful tool to suppress enemy grens squads, and is a hard counter to the 222. It can deal very nice damage to enemies, and can only be reliably countered by a teller mine or a pak AT gun. It can also be useful late game to quickly vet your first tank (vehicle crew), and to shoot down enemy loitering air strikes.
Grenades: Grenades are not unlocked from the LT tech, but they are an integral part of the early-midgame vs. mg-42 heavy play. These are only 250mp and 25 fu, but they are exceedingly important to help with building clearance and mg-mitigation.
I typically build both M20 and AAHT, but usually you will want to buy one or the other. If you are doing especially well early, you can even skip these and tech straight to major for an extremely fast sherman, maybe building a .50 for support. Pressure is the name of the game, and you want to do whatever you can to keep ostheer low on manpower and munitions, and delay the upgrading of grens to lmg grens as much as possible.
Mid-Late Game:
As USF, you typically have 3 "lategame" options. Sherman, Jackson, and Scott.
Sherman: The Sherman will typically be your first unit out of T4, it is a versatile unit which is perfectly built for mobile warfare and supporting infantry pushes. Use these in groups of twos with HE rounds to attempt to wipe as many squads as possible. If the game devolves into a pack + mg wall, use the sherman to smoke targets prior to an infantry push, and to wipe side-capping squads. They are the "meatshields" of your armored forces.
Jackson: The Jackson is the USFs best nondoctrinal AT. It is a fragile vehicle, but it is capable of countering the heaviest enemy armor. At vet 1, they gain AP rounds, but be advised that activating AP rounds will break "prioritize vehicles," so you will always have to manually re-target enemy vehicles after activating the ability, then "refresh" the "prioritize vehicles button."
Scott: The scott is a mobile pack howitzer. It can quickly move around the battlefield, using smoke and HE rounds to blind and disrupt enemy forces. They are quite fragile, but effective if microed carefully. Remember that scotts have the same range as paks, so barraging a pak without an LOS blocker usually leads to a dead scott.
You will usually build a sherman, then a jackson, then another sherman out of your t4, changing the order of units purchased with battlefield conditions. I typically focus on having 1 jackson and 2+ shermans, as I find the scott to be an unneeded micro sink.
Late Game:
Whatever your build, know that a tiger is almost definitely coming. You should have done a good job cutting off your enemies' fuel early, but usually your opponent will still have enough fuel to deploy 1 tiger, he just will be hard pressed to field more. Do your best to keep it contained. purchase a new M20 if you need to and lay more mines, to punish him if he overextends. Keeping your jackson on hand will be very important to dealing with it. You will be on the back-foot now, as you have lost most of your advantages. Use your numerical armor superiority to strike at multiple points of the map simultaneously, and force your opponent to react to you. Make use of the forward retreat point you have in order to force engagements. Remember that your opponent has to retreat all the way to his base, while you don't, so forcing retreats from your enemy with equal losses on both sides will lead to an advantage for you.
Your best bet usually is to not let the game rag out into the late game, but if it does, be prepared for an extremely tough fight.
Doctrines
USF has 6 doctrines, and they are just about all viable. Airborne, rifle, and infantry are the most popular as of this point in time, for various reasons, but I will merely detail the doctrines that I use below briefly.
Mechanized: My go-to doctrine, this doctrine is a bit of a noob trap. Never build the WC51 or the M3 halftrack. They are wastes of fuel and are too fragile for their cost. Instead, take advantage of the "withdraw and refit" ability to build both the M20 and AAHT to apply great midgame pressure, while recycling them after the end of their usefulness to gain back 75% of the fuel and manpower (for the M20, the main bonus is the manpower recycling). Use it to recycle a sherman if you lose your jackson and are lacking fuel for a new one. Remember to pop out vetted vehicle crews and replace them with fresh crews/ RE squads to help you retain veterancy. Mechanized artillery is very useful vs. OKW trucks, and immobilized vehicles. Recon is always a must for lategame armor pushes.
Rifle Company: My secondary doctrine, this doctrine is mainly used on urban maps such as Stalingrad or semoisky, in order to supplement USF building clearance. You typically want to use many smoke grenades with this doctrine, as flamers need to be close to do work, and USF flamers have a tendency to explode if sneezed at. Use Elite rifle training to replace losses lategame, as non vet-1 rifles cannot snare vehicles. Use the e8 to supplement your shermans lategame, as a slightly better counter to axis heavies. Flares take the same role for recon, but it is typically more cost-efficient to use major recon. WP artillery is useful for punishing blobs and defensive positions, but beware that the WP artillery does not actually block LOS very effectively for whatever reason. You an use this to your advantage to allow your units to shoot at retreating low health squads.
Infantry: Used only on long range focused maps (which are typically vetoes), infantry company gives USF access to powerful long range infantry firepower in the form of M1919 lmgs. Use them with defensive stance to slow down and hurt ostheer infantry lategame, but beware of rifle grenades. The priest is a very good unit to attack enemy defensive positions, and the mortar HT is immensely powerful to provide indirect fire-support with HE and WP rounds. WP rounds are very useful prior to an assault to damage enemy units, force mg re-positions, and screen infantry. This WP does in fact block LOS.
These are just my thoughts on USF as a 1v1 and 2v2 faction vs. ostheer. If you have any questions on stuff I forgot/skipped, go ahead and ask. |
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