Profile of Snikeduden

The 50cal is in many ways an improved maxim. It has a little bit faster setup time, wider cone and can vault fences. I believe it has better AOE suppression, though I am not 100% sure.

It has less LOS than range and therefore shorter effective range when unsupported. This again makes it a lot easier to clear it from the front.

It can be usefull to support vehicles in addition to infantry. It is a lot safer to engage volks once they are suppressed. And a lot easier to crush too.

If you choose the airborne commander you can always drop it to the soviets on maps with a lot of fences...

That's the thing I need to play a bit more to figure out - did the map control come from the 2 half tracks, or did the half tracks come from the map control and if I'd played more conventionally I'd have fared better.

Atleast in the first game you pushed the left side quite hard and held either the fuel or the cuttoff. I can't quite remember how much fuel they got in the second game before you got your halftracks.

If you get two halftracks you have to and should be able to maintain a good control over the fuel, espessially if you already controlled this initially. This is probably quite map dependant and should work better on maps where you can contest the fuel/a cuttoff more easily.

Edit: I forgot to add that you can learn a lot by watching the replay of the game and paying extra attention to your fuel income vs enemy income throughout the game. And the more replays you have the better.

Place an M20 AT mine and then decrew the M20 while it is still standing on top of it, and wait

Who doesn't want a burglar proof M20?

If you have assault engineers you can do the same with demo charges. In this case its probably better to place it a bit in front of the M20 though.

I have done some thinking around the flexibility that the abillity to decrew their vehichles give USF. Most of these are rather theoretical and situational. I am also very interested in hearing all the crazy ideas you guys have too. My intention by starting this thread is to discuss all the possibilities USF has in terms of vehicle play, regardless of how situational it might be.

Feel free to share any ideas you might have. I would suggest something like this:

Describe your idea:

What are the pros?

What are the cons?

This might lead us into the grey zone between being creative and taking advantage of exploits, so please keep comment on this too. My intention is not to come up with exploits.

Here are some of the ideas I have (Though I am not implying that I am the "inventor" of these ideas):

Ambulance sharing:

Decrew the ambulance to get the medics, either by crewing it by someone else or giving it to an ally. Use the medics either at base or at the ambulance. You can set up a forward retreatpoint at the ambulance regardless of who owns it.

Pros:
-You can use the medics in addition to the ambulance.
-Enable an ally to have forward reinforcement and healing. Soviet does not have fast non-doctrinal access to this.

Cons:
-You get most of the bonuses by keeping the ambulance as it is.
-It will cost more mp, unless you keep it unmanned most of the time, which have its own downsides.

M20 sharing:

If you have an M20 after the window where it can operate with relative safety is closed, you can still use it to plant mines. There might be someone else on the team who can do this job better/have more muni, and it can therefore be beneficial to give them the M20. If this teammate is playing USF they can always give it back later.

Pros:
-The M20 have very good AT mines and is very mobile and can therefore do a better job than soviet engineers and/or let the engineers do other jobs (repairing, planting demo charges, etc).
-You can keep it empty at the base/a sentral location, available for anyone who want to plant mines.
-It saves you muni to let others plant mines, which can be used eslewhere, like P47 strikes.
Cons:
-It require communication and effort which could be focused elsewhere.
-Another USF player with more minelaying potential could have built it in the first place.
-You have to be somewhat carefull about using the M20 in combat. You basicly get a car that can lay mines and is shareable by all USF players on the team.
-If you give it to a soviet player, you have to build a new M20 to get access to the mines.

Tank trading:

USF player can give tanks to other team members. This is good if you have reached pop cap while a team mate has plenty of room. It can also be used to snowball an ally, for example a soviet player who is going for IS2/ISU 152. USF players can swap tanks. If you have mechanized company you could actually change the armor composition of the team. However it would take some time/effort (a captain could speed this up) to do this. (Example: Give the mech player a Sherman, he "sells" it and build a Jackson for you)

Pros:
-You can strenghten allies in order to give them more xp. (kinda similar to how OST can give OKW fuel for fast KT). You can also help allies that are behind. The other player can make up for the cost by building fuel OP(s).
-You can achieve a balanced army composition which would otherwise require very good team coordination.
-In some cases you want high veterancy on Shermans and in other you want it on Jacksons. This does not need to be limited to your own tanks but can include the rest of the team.
-I guess this is in the grey area between being creative and exploiting; you can give call in tanks (E8, bulldozer, priest, M10) and recieve major tech tanks without teching.

Cons:
-If you give away tanks to team mates you weaken yourself. Is it worth snowball an ally at the cost of your own progress?
-US tanks can not repair themself if given to a soviet player.
-Changing the armor composition is time consuming and perhaps only viable if the game drags on for a long time. This can also give the opponent time to get stronger.
-A lot of the same benefits can be achieved by good team coordination.

These are some of my ideas. They are probably too complicated, but the potential is there regardless.

I would very much like to hear your thoughts around USF vehicle play. Feel free to post your own (crazy) ideas and their pros/cons.

I would also encourage a debate around what is considered creative play and what is considered exploits.

In (e)sports/competitions in general there are deciding factors for the result of the game which the player cannot control. Like in COH2 you have your performance, teammates performance (in some game modes), your opponent and RNG. The more players the less is your influence on the result of the game. You can play an extremely good game and still lose, or play really bad and still win. This is espesially true in big team games.

It is very hard to ignore all negative impulses when playing. However it is possible to make an active choice on what kind of attitude you want to have when playing. It is generally a good idea to try focus on what you do/did well and what you do/did wrong and how you can improve this instead of just seeing the game in black and white, win or loss. The replay is a good tool for this.

Set yourself some goal before you start a game on what you want to achieve. You can also decide to focus on certain parts of your play, for example using mines when playing soviet, or listen in the fog, AT-gun/mortar/artillery micro, etc. This can help to give the game meaning beyond just winning and losing, and make it a more enjoyable experience regardless of end results.