As I'm sure we all know, dedicated Tank Destroyer units such as the American Jackson or the German Stug are extremely effective against vehicles but almost completely useless against infantry because they can't reliably hit them. Does anyone know exactly how this works i.e. is it a form of accuracy penalty/bonus when targeting infantry/vehicles? I ask because in my most recent OKW game I took out an opposing Dozer Sherman with my Jagpanzer, but the vehicle was abandoned instead of wrecked . As per usual, I issued an "attack ground" command with the Jag in order to prevent it being repaired and recrewed. However, my Jagpanzer was completely unable to hit the abandoned Sherman even at relatively close range. After six or seven shots (all misses) I was forced to retreat the Jagpanzer to avoid it being destroyed by newly-arriving American AT guns.
The result was that he was able to completely recover the Dozer Sherman, and this turned out to have a pretty significant effect on the outcome of the match, as we both agreed in chat. My question is: was this a consequence of the way tank destroyer mechanics work, or was I simply unlucky? If the former, it seems like a moderately serious issue with balance to me, since a makes tank destroyers (a specialist unit type) unreliable at the role they are intended to fulfill. |
In the early game (before he could afford to spam Roks on all his PB squads), my usual build that includes a kubel and two sturmpios worked very well. In the mid game (once he had all his Roks), focus firing two PanzerFusilier squads (both upgraded with the GK43) were able to deal a lot of damage to the penals and either force retreat or at least bleed his MP.
Hmm, I confess I haven't tried using the Panzerfusilier doctine against this strategy yet (I couldn't bear the thought of giving up my MG34s), but I can see why it would be effective. I agree two Sturmpios are the way to go, Volks just don't offer enough in the early game so not much point getting more than one. I'll give that I try next time I come up against Soviets on the ladder.
I'm still in two minds about the Kubelwagen though. Its a terrific counter to Soviet infantry early on, but at this point I'm sort of resigned to Soviet player getting a Clown Car, which makes the the Kubelwagen a useless waste of 240 MP. Also, out of curiosity did you go Medic truck or Mechanized truck first? |
As a 1v1 player (mainly WFA) I naturally have my preferences about maps, but in my opinion Kharkov is the only map which genuinely favours one player based on starting location. The northern player is far closer to the centre of the map, which is highly defensible from his side due to the placement of green cover and the building. Holding the centre is a huge advantage, especially on this map, as it allows you to attack both of the other VPs (especially the eastern point) without separating your force. Furthermore, the southern player's cutoff is far closer to the centre, allowing it to be easily decapped by the northern player if he wins an engagement in the centre.
Is this the community consensus, or just me? Anyone have any strategies for winning on Road to Kharkov as the southern player? |
Yeah, you can't cut that wire even with Assault Engineers. As people have said you have to blow it up (not sure if grenades work) or crush it with vehicles. In my opinion this needs to change: on certain maps (Semoskiy) you completely block off important chokepoints with that wire, and forcing a US player to build a vehicle just to cut wire seems pretty dumb. |
I play exclusively 1v1 at the moment. |
I played Coh2 on launch and in the open beta and played almost entirely Soviets, but since WFA I've got back into the game and I'm now interested in getting better at Ostheer. As someone how suddenly finds himself with loads of new commanders as a 'legacy' player, I don't really know which ones are best to use, given the need to prepare for both Red Army and USF. To be honest, apart from a few outliers like Elite Troops (which I brought a while back), a lot of doctrines seem to have very similar functions overall, in contrast to Soviet doctrines which feel a lot more integral to your playstyle (since you get Guards, Shocks or have to make do with Conscripts). So, which 3 commanders do you guys choose? Some tips on strategies for them would also be really appreciated. |
You may find the manpower cost to be prohibitive but the Infantry Support Gun really works wonders against blobs. Alternatively if you have got good micro, the Flak Half-track is pretty damn effective against massed infantry, though BARs inflict fairly significant damage to it over time. |
Thread: Volks12 Jul 2014, 23:14 PM
In my opinion, Volks are useful throughout the game, for a couple of reasons:
1) Early map prescence. Sturms are much better at actually fighting, but they are significantly more expensive, especially over time when you factor in the cost of reinforcing. Additionally, Sturms suffer at attacking buildings and other well-defended positions since they need to get close, but the Volk grenade can clear out buildings and infantry blobs.
2) Mid-game mobile AT. Without Panzerschercks, you're going to have to resort to immobile AT such as the Rakentenwerfer, so mobile mid-game vehicles like the Stuart are going to be able to dominate the map. There are other options of course, such as the Jagpanzer, but IMO its better to save fuel for the Panther. An AT solution that only uses munitions is really useful for the OKW.
3)Late-game harrasment. I tend to use Fallschirmjager or Obersoldaten as core troops late game, but given their cost I rarely have spare squads who can just roam the map capping points and generally being annoying. Given that Volks don't inflict much damage at all vs. late armour and vetted infantry, they are an ideal, cheap squad to fill this role. |
Ok, I tried out some of your suggestions and was able to win a couple of games. Seems like good MG34 play + Fallschirmager is the best solution to all the infantry. Kubelwagen is good up to a point, but most Soviet players I run into seem to just rush anti-tank grenades (which pretty much always at least knock out the engine, allowing conscript small arms fire to finish it off). Either that, or the M3 which can simply chase it down.
However, the main issue I still run into is those 120mm mortars. They chew through MG34 teams pretty easily, but more importantly they can be used to destroy my trucks from a huge distance. Specifically, on smaller maps like La Gleize, setting up trucks anywhere outside my base sector results in them being bombarded as soon as the Soviet player scouts them out. Any ideas how to deal with this, or do I just have to accept that I can't use my trucks to 'lock down' sections of the map, they way I typically play against USF? |
Recently on the 1v1 ladder I've come up against a Soviet anti-OKW strat that involves using the Guards Motor Coordination Commander to flood the map with mid-tier infantry. Each game I only see 1-2 Conscripts at the most, with Penals being used as backbone infantry. The flamethrower upgrade means the Penals can almost always defeat Volks or Sturms (even Obersoldaten struggle), and the reduced manpower income for OKW means that my squads are outnumbered as well as outgunned, so I lose most map control.
My first response was to use the Luftwaffe MG-34 to lock down the blobs, but flanking from Penals with Flamethrowers is devastating, and in any case the 120mm mortar makes using weapon teams extremely hazardous. After this, I tried going for a fast Halftrack, but Guards squads take care of it easily. A Puma did much better, but that thing lacks the anti-infantry firepower to really make a difference. My most successful idea was fast-teching to Obersoldaten, but the weak early was too crippling - most of the map capped by the Soviet player, who then wins in the long term from resource advantage.
Any tips or strategies that might help to counter this? I think we all know that OKW vs. Soviets is a painful matchup at best, but this Guards Motor strat in particular crushes me. |