Unfortunately, most of the times it's already too late to retreat if the enemy activated it already. Close the Pocket basically deletes your entire army if the enemy manages to pull it off. Only vehicles have a decent chance to survive if you pull them out fast. But yes ofc try the same with infantry and hit the retreat button asap.
The best way to counter this ability is by not allowing your enemy to pull it off. This means once you realized that he picked this commander: Immediately plant fuel/ammo caches on the 2 or 3 points that cut off the entire map. Pay attention for hidden stormtroopers in the area and the health of the caches
What is the requirement for him to pull it off? In the description it only says, that frontline and cut-off sectors are getting bombarded. However, frontline sectors exist at any time in the game, that's dangerous enough I think. How exactly does this ability work?
Quick update, I seem to be getting better (thanks to your tips!), especially regarding early game play and dynamic pressure (gotten quite a few early wins through aggressive riflemen play, early Stuart/M20 and so on). Usually though I team up with my brother, and in general we both are still big noobs. If you want, check out this game (my brother is the Brit). My opponent let me win the first engagements and then allowed me to even walk over and help out on the other side of the map (I only blobbed so hard because it worked, I swear! ), which is why we were winning most of the time.
However, at around minute 29 the opponent used his "Close the pocket" ability (Encirclement doctrine) and wiped my complete infantry and team weapons. Can you please explain to me, how to counter/react to this? Am I actually supposed to leave all of the frontline sectors and return to base while the ability is active? I have never encountered this, that's why I got hit so hard. We only managed to come back because they didnt capitalize on it and I was floating MP big time.
I also appreciate general feedback, if someone actually wants to watch the replay.
PS: The 2nd Stuart was a misclick, actually wanted to get an Ambulance...
I think you two are referring to different guides. I guess NorthWeapon was talking about DevMs video guide on Youtube, which came out just recently, while you are talking about the written guide in this forum. Could that be the case?
@Marked Raptor: Thanks man, that is some valuable information, too! I´ll keep that in mind, thanks for the strategy and build explanation. That helps!
Thank you so much! For the moment I am mostly playing team games, so 2v2 / 3v3 / 4v4. They obviously tend to get more chaotic, but I feel less pressure to perform and can take it more lightly and thus learn better. In these modes however, some M57 AT is needed more often than not, because there will be tons of tanks at some point. But I understand, Commander choice varies heavily from game mode to game mode. Thanks for your tips and I´ll check out the videos. I´ll try to to apply what you said. Also, I too found the M20 very useful to apply pressure really fast and break through MG defended positions.
Thank you, too! Interestingly, this is also what I found to work reasonably well (at least in my low elo), just teching everything and not skipping. The Shermans and Jacksons obviously come delayed, but I can imagine, that the more players are in a game, the less important swift pressure through quick tanks becomes? What I mean by that, a breakthrough on your side of the map will not result in winning the game immediately. Also, having access to MG and(!) the howitzers is helpful in the 4v4-random-chaos. Thanks for your advice and input, I´ll test this further. What do you think about Rangers as AT unit with triple zooks?
Thanks mate! From what I´ve seen in the first few games, I agree. I admit, I play the Pershing just for style points and because I simply like it, often I actually dont even use it. So yeah, that might be a bit dubious, and I too feel, that the Airborne Commander, especially in 1v1 or 2v2 really supports the "apply pressure quickly" - plan with MG, Stuarts, M20 and so on to get a good early/mid game and potentially win. I do want to improve and take it at least a little competitively, but I´m not trying to overdo it (top 300 or whatever), so I guess, even a suboptimal commander (that I enjoy though) will do.
I started playing USF about a week ago and I really like the faction. So far I am mostly using the Airborne Commander, because it allows me to go Lieutenant and air-drop the AT-guns, which allows a very well-rounded and easy setup, similar to the Soviets. However, I would like to add the Heavy Cav. Commander to my repertoire and play with the Pershing and utilize riflemen better (with sandbags and mines etc.). However, the decision Lieutenant/Captain becomes much harder, and whatever I do, either MG or AT-gun will be missing. What is a common strategy in this situation? Go Lt. and use bazookas and Jackson as AT? Or go Cpt. and use AAHT for suppression and anti-blob defense? How do you guys handle this?
So there is only one thread visible on page 1 that is NOT pinned. Couldnt we bundle a lot of those pinned threads in a - lets say - "useful links" thread? It's pretty bad to have to skip to page 2 just to see the actual discussions.
Alright, gotya. However, the problem with the IL-2 single strafe then still remains, doesn't it? Even more so, as now the problem is not only reduced to one commander (Advanced Warfare) but now both ISU-commanders suffer from it as well. It´s the highest CP ability of those commanders and so it should have SOME usefullness other than being a waste-ammo-button.
), which is why we were winning most of the time. 
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