Profile of comm_ash

Yay, another underused commander!

Alright, so the tank hunter tactics is one I have started to use recently, and have fallen in love with recently. Here is why:

2CP: RPG-40 Anti-Tank Grenade Assault: 50 munition ability for all conscript squads that allows them to throw a series of light AT grenades. Each squad member currently alive throws one grenade, so it is best used on full squads. Unfortunatly, this assault has no extra chance of damaging an engine, so it should be used in order to supplement other AT options after a vehicle snare has damaged the enemy engine. Furthermore, the grenades to no seek their targets, and thus must be only called on vehicles that either wont be moving, or will be moving towards the throwing squad. These nades have less penetration than even the regular conscript AT grenade, so they must be used upon the rear of heavier armor such as p4s and panthers.

2CP: PMD-6 Light AT Mine: Do not let the name fool you, this is perhaps the most or second most powerful ability in the doctrine, and an extremely cheap one at that. They are a 5 munition mine that can be built by either your CE squad or your conscripts. These mines, while cheap, are also some of the most annoying/ powerful weapons when used correctly. If there is ever a break in the action, have each of your squads qued up to spam these mines, they are exceedingly cheap, yet powerful. What do they do? They have a 100% chance to stun ANY VEHICLE, regardless of armor. Kubel? stun. Panther? stun. King Tiger? stun. These mines are a menace to an enemy if they are spammed across assault paths and on flanking routes, and will have such numbers that minesweepers will have a hard time sweeping them.

3CP: Conscript PTRS package: 50 munition upgrade that gives you 2 PTRS rifles. A very cheap and versatile upgrade that gives your cons a little more bang for their buck. They lose 2 rifles worth of AI firepower (which is almost a negligible difference at long range) and gain 2 rifles that can effectively be used to counter any vehicle up to a panzer 4. This upgrade is especially effective vs. OKW heavy mechanized builds (T2 -> fast luchs) and to help screen an allied sniper squad. They are support AT units, and as such should always be kept with a dedicated AT unit behind sandbags to increase their durability, and at range to maximize their effectiveness.

3CP: Engineer Salvage Kit: a 100mu upgrade for CE squads that locks out the upgrade for a minesweeper or flamethrower. Currently bugged to not have an icon sometimes. Very situational upgrade, but it can easily pay for itself 10x over. This salvage lets you salvage any wrecked unit much like the OKW can, however it is much more powerful in terms of the resources it gives you. Resources are gained based on the health of the wreck being scavenged, the resources being manpower and fuel. A JT wreck scavenged 2-3 times can net you 300mp and 100 fu.

10CP: IL2 PTAB Bombing Run: Coming in at 10CP, this may just be the best AT weapon that the soviets have at their disposal. What does it do? It is a 180mu directional bombing run (like stuka frag run and IL2 precision bombing run) that stuns any armor within the blast zone and deals INSANELY HIGH damage to armor in the center of the hit. Don't let the description fool you, it is also very effective vs. infantry, which lets you stomp those supported KT Blobs with impunity. If you don't believe me when I talk about its power, go ahead see the attached replay to see tank hunter tactics in action!

Conclusion: Soviet tank hunter tactics is a very solid doctrine to support conscript spam or the average 4 conscript -> T2 build order. Due to the lack of late game call-in armor, T4 is recommended to make you a very specialized defensive player. AT grenades are a must upgrade for this commander, and 2 munitions caches are ptimal to give you enough to spam those light mines and bombing runs in the lategame. As a general rule of tumb, you should almost never upgrade more than 2 of your conscripts with PTRS rifles to allow you to have a good number of screening squads that can be used offensively and to close vs. enemies to throw the AT nades. Remember comrades, even a King Tiger is no match for the flood of our infantry using spam grenade tactics!

Build Order Suggestion Team Games:
Con
Con
Con
Con
Healing
required upgrades
T2
Maxim
Maxim
Zis (Optional)
muni cache
muni cache
fuel cache (optional)
T4
SU85 (If even game or losing game, otherwise skip)
Katyusha
SU85
CE scavenge upgrade

Basically, you should be a supporting force on the map, allowing your teammate(s) to focus on enemy infantry while you cover their flanks against enemy armor assaults. 2 SU85s will allow you to chip away at even a KT's help while your conscript light AT mine spam will render it unusable for quite a while. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

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  VS

  lurk1ng commash

  Interloper Eisenhorn029

  AT Doctrine is Viable!

  by: comm_ash map: Minsk Pocket

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PRO TIP: For extra cheesy mine madness, have an ally go defensive tactics and setup the light anti-personnel mines all over the map to counter enemy infantry pushes, with light AT mines interspersed. The addition of heavy-mortars to your line will help crush enemy forward T1 play and bunker spam. Tank Traps will help disrupt enemy pathing and protect your squishy important units (su85/ Katyusha).

A pretty good match on Minsk Pocket that sees excelent use of pretty underused units, including AT Doctrine, Sturmtiger, and PAK43s.

+1

I could really see the panzerbuchse rifle working well for OKW. Particularly if volks were given faust. I would suggest that perhaps sturmpios should mirror PGrens and buy two shrecks for 120+ muni however. That would help consolidate their role as AT infantry and ensure that buying the shreck upgrade is a tactical choice instead of being automatic.

The only reason I don't want to see the shreck become a double upgrade is because I feel that it would drop far too easily. If we went with a double upgrade, the shreck should not be a droppable weapon, because losing that firepower would be a big loss to the OKW player.


@johnny, I think that the problem with making volks a 4-man squad is that they will overlap handily with grens. Each of their rifles will be buffed, but the decreased early game survivability will make them even worse early on than they can be now, and without a faust they will be chased down too easily by m3s and m20s.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea for the panzerbuchse rifle instead of pshreck for grens. Pshreck can then be reduced to 70 mu, and given to sturmpios who are not really spammable. The reason I hear a lot of the time for the shreck on the volks being important is so that OKW can fend of light vehicles, and if anything the panzerbuchse rifle will have a higher DPS and therefore higher value vs. light vehicles.

Of course, such changes will also require a buff for the raketen, most likely a reduction in the weapon "ready-aim" time.

In terms of price, I like the idea to make the AT rifle cost 35 mu, or maybe 50, and then panzerfausts for the squad (AT package). I doubt that guards syndrome will be a problem since volks are not really good AI infantry, and don't lose too much DPS when they swap out a rifle for an AT rifle. It will be similar to the conscript AT package, except that they will have access to one slightly better rifle.

I think a good fix for the raketen would be modifying the ready-aim time first, and seeing how it is then. The raketen does quite well later in the game, and is cheap enough to build 2 of, so I think that we should take small steps in changing it. Its biggest weakness is the time it takes to fire the first shot.