Profile of turbotortoise

From what I can see, it seems to be changed so that damage is dealt within the outter smoke/debris rings.

Hiyah CG, Wednesday huh? sorry for the tardiness. I feel derelict in my duties of a mentor, but I’m here now, we may as well get down to business.

It will be tough to go off memory, but in case you forgot. You did well to take the north VP and munitions point and dig in. Now, this lead into a really important sequence at the 4th minute, which we’ll have to discuss, but before we go into specifics I’ll just outline a little bit of theory again.

Whenever you make a tactical decision it needs to do three things, firstly: be in line with your overall strategic vision, the overall plan, secondly: turn an advantage in economy or army composition, i.e. achieve one/two not mutually exclusive things, squad wipes or denying resources, naturally this is not independent of the first principle, (also, advantage meaning not at comparable or greater loss) and thirdly it must: preferably utilize any edges generated, and pick on your opponents inefficiencies, whether that be team work, over extension, poor army composition etc.

The third point is where a gap in our tutoring currently lies, and is really my fault that I haven’t been narrowing our focus on a faction per faction basis, and has also has been suggested to me by other strategists:

I haven’t quite built an understanding of the different factions and their dynamics.

Each faction play very differently by that I mean, they will excel utilizing specific types of strategy, and some doctrines and tactics will better suit these overall strategies and thusly be more applicable to certain factions over another. Knowing where your edge lies, and where your opponents struggle will help you make tactical decisions and inform your overall strategy, again, something that has been lacking in our program thus far.

For instance the UKF are very defensive to begin with and then find an edge in the late game and burst out on the battlefield. The OKW are fairly similar, both the antithesis of say the USF who will swarm and push and play very mobile and pacey, trying to find flanks, eventually wearing down unless they're able to break down their opponent, the USF struggle when forcing frontal assaults.

So we need to decide what factions we want to focus in order to build these better understandings because again, going back to the example at the fourth minute, you were dug in on the north side, not much at this time is going to be able to uproot you head on, but you made the decision to push the centre, not only is this really incongruent with the early game UKF doctrine, but it also left you exposed for a lack of scouting information. Really quickly one infantry section was facing up to six, count it, six oncoming squads, and your Vickers was caught repositioning, not good. I think not recognizing the UKF’s strength in defensive posture also lead you to make a few assaults in the centre as well, at very inopportune times, when your cut-off was being assaulted by both players. I think if you had recognized the defensive strength of the UKF you would have made an easier and more effective decision to shift, stop your team mate from yelling at you, and defend the cut-off, because those pushes into the middle VP did not achieve any of our three, key tactical principles.

Now I say this in as best faith as I can, because I too make the same errors from a lack of understanding the faction, very evident in your midgame transition, I do the same things. For five minutes you were floating nearly a grand in manpower, this is… one of the most preposterous things I’ve ever seen xD but I’m glad it worked out for you, forget the wasps, one word, Commandos. I think if we can work on building an understanding of one faction at a time, we can start to recognize 1. how we want to play, what sort of overall strategy do we want to implement, and 2. what are the most efficient ways we achieve this.

So, as I think about how we advance, we need to address the one major trend, and stumbling block that has become sort of the epitome of our struggles: things are harder than they need to be due to a gaps in faction understandings. Even in earlier replays they’re sprinkled with, good but not great strategic decisions-- not quiteeee the most efficient play being made. Just to hammer it home, I feel you make things harder on yourself than they need to be, and I think I’m certain now, it’s because we haven’t developed an overall sense for how the factions should be behaving.

Unfortunately, I haven't really been on top of things going on in my life. I don't foresee being able to even discuss when our next session is until next Wednesday. If you wish to be transferred to a different mentor, I understand, and will try and expedite that process, but if you can bare with me then with OCF and SCC4, there are a lot of replays that you could overview. I will upload a replay later tonight when I get on my desktop in particular that I think really highlights just again, how different tactics suit different factions. It's UKF vs. Ost, pay particular attention to the UKF and ask yourself why is he using the Tommies the way he is, and what would be different if they were say, riflemen, or Volks, how would he be using them, and why? What makes the UKF different. These I think are the questions we need to be asking.

The game became an epic battle of counter snipes which eventually led to his victory

It has come.... >.<

I will say, take sample size & map into account. Luvnest did well to take out three snipers on Semois Winter with a combination of pressuring the eastern fuel and flanking the bridge cut off, and T70 use. I found it strange that DevM decided to stick to that tactic after losing the first one.

I think Luvnest demonstrated a great degree of metagaming that you would only see at this level when you can start to anticipate play thanks to a familiarity with ones opponent. Luvnest opened T1, requisitioning one scout car, but not really doing anything else with it. I think he thought he could do so 'cos he suspected DevM would either open or rely on snipers, whereas against an unknown player of equal caliber I suspect Luvnest would have opened T2 for the natural versatility it provides. With that said, stealing an MG also changes the dynamic of build choice.

I suppose tactically speaking one should encircle the retreat path, feign an opening to entice a pocket and collapse hopefully with the sniper in it. I can't really see this working on too too many maps unfortunately.

Asymmetry and our current commander system are always at odds because faction dynamics don't change. Realistically, I don't think there has ever been a time when CoH2 has had more than a one-dimensional tech/balance structure that hasn't fulcrummed around a shock unit. So until we see more functionality in things like Radio Silence, Tactical Movement, Windustry, things which change how a faction plays, balance will be based around units, and therefore, will have to naturally slowly creep towards the center.