That was a good game, thank you for sharing. I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, but hopefully we can work this one out.
Firstly, be sure to be a little kinder to yourself my friend
you played very well, you were very sharp and executed in nearly every engagement. By my account I think you only lost one squad, your Lieutenant, to a few unlucky ISG shells. Tactically I thought you were very sound and this was demonstrated especially in your inspired use of mines which really capitalized on his aggro. Furthermore, you made some very good decisions, I think you were over 80% as far as successful engagements were concerned. You didn’t bleed resources on bad fights, a mistake which a lot of players make taking either unnecessary losses, or losses which don't provide any net tactical or strategical advantage.
If I had to pinpoint one reason as to why the result didn't go your way it simply came down to not being ruthless enough in your mentality. You gave your opponent way too much respect, didn't put him under enough pressure and that gave him the space and time to dictate the battle.
Before I get into this I do want to address a few areas where I think you can improve your micro though remembering it's a one game sample size. A bit of a queer moment losing your M57 when the Panther had it's toes in the grave, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Be sure to focus especially hard in the early game, and maintain your concentration. You lost a few crucial engagements along the NE junction, and gifted your opponent the entire eastern flank by: not focus firing, having a few idle squads, and not negating his cover advantage by closing gaps. Losing these seemingly inconsequential skirmishes and committing these seemingly small miscues lead to some early strategic... struggles, where you were not compact enough, fighting over the wrong sections, IE. the eastern extremities as opposed to consolidating your western flank and pressuring the center, and generally led to your forces, at least before 15 minutes, being rather exposed and stretched pretty thin.
Additionally I'm still mulling over the decision to get the Paras. I wasn’t really stoked by the choice as your economy at the time was already slightly bottle necked by suffering some casualties, + the Ambulance + Weapons Rack purchases. This was further compounded by lacking the munitions for 30’s or Thompson's which really limits the Paras effectiveness. I think you could have staggered that purchase, and timed it a little better or personally, I would have foregone it entirely and sprung for an M15. I'll explain my rational for this later on but, in the moment you can be fairly sure that your opponents only AT are a couple of Panzershrecks. Your M20 was already running rampant. I think you would have had a great opportunity to press and put a lot of pressure on your opponent in this moment. Regardless, the MG was a good adjustment which fit your strategic doctrine and gave you the supression and base of fire to anchor your attacks on the flanks and slow down his forces, which supplemented what you wanted to do well... I just don't think what you wanted to do was the correct decision -- don't worry I'll get to it, we're close
After the destruction of the Panther I got the feeling that you got a little nervous, or something like this, either way, you most certainly overestimated his strength and let the window close on your victory. Have a look at your army value graph:
Notice something interesting? Bearing in mind you destroyed the Panther around 22minutes
Shortly thereafter the map resembled something like this
You absolutely dominated this game after 18-29 minutes. At this point his army composition consisted of a handful of infantry, a PiV and a few support guns.
This is where you committed a critical strategical error: I can understand your want to defend deep when you have the advantage, let him make another “panther-esque” mistake which would create a lot of space and allow you to encircle him and absolutely crush him you had played this way all game really, sticking to the flanks, switching the play and generally maintaining your width; however, this,(and I don't mean offense with my presumption),
timid thinking is I imagine really losing you a lot of games and is likely permeating throughout each phase of your play. For instance, the decision against the M15. This defensive posture is A. really contrary to your faction’s strength (unless you decided for a Cpt. and Infantry Coy), and B. as the game goes on, it makes things slightly more difficult as you constantly have the be surveying the battlefield which will make it easier to lose focus and commit mistakes. You lost on points as despite having the majority of the map, you weren't able to react quickly enough to raids on the VP's, but the biggest issue with playing like this is you aren’t in control. You aren’t dictating the pace and the aspect of the battle which is usually easier allowing you to come up with the plans and make your opponent make poor decisions. In my opinion that is much easier than constantly adapting and trying to win a war of attrition,
especially when you're saddled with such a heavy VP deficit. You really have to be taking the fight to your enemy in these situations. Don't forget to engage your Major as well, setup that forward retreat point, press higher up the map, I would have loved to've seen you go for the jugular and stamp on his throat (the trucks).
Do this 17 minutes earlier and this game is over.
So how do you change? It's difficult to say, but something I'll say once more,
I would start by being a little more adventurous. Now of course, this is likely a non-representative sample, but I think you demonstrated great judgement and I would be seriously surprised if you are in the habit of simply throwing your troops away aimlessly. So why not try to press your opponents, make them sweat a little more, who knows, they might just break
Thank you for sharing. I hope I was coherent and my feedback helps you. If you would like any clarification or if you think I can improve my criticism in anyway, be sure to give me a shout.
turbo, x