Profile of turbotortoise

A great post on the AT capability of PzGrens, thanks, I love the idea of trapping with them, and something I didn't think about being too used to CoH1 and volks.

I just wish I had the ammo kicking around to kit them out with them. I never seem to have enough! And maybe I've also been spooked too many times by HE Shermans and IS2's to be all that jazzed about investing that heavily in a squad that could very well vanish if I'm not endowing 100% of my attention to them.

I suppose I can certainly appreciate that versatility. Maybe an option to "holster" the shreks in the future would really make them appealing as a multi-purpose unit.

i really miss you and our amazing friends mon'aime.

I see your point, but thats not doing the vehicle justice.

but, i just don't think having it sit in the schwerer being sad as the panther/wulfrahm have all the fun, is doing it justice either. personally, i'd like each vehicle to have a reasonable viable role, and if toning it done is a prerequisite, i certainly don't mind.

It's difficult, outright you have to think of the meta-game. If you aren't comfortable with dividing your attention harass with a stronger force, try taking the m20 with you.

With that said, I find the counter to the rifle nade comes tertiary by denying them munitions, and if the Wehr player decides to nade, they risk a lot of things: no tellers, no lmgs, no shreks, no TWP, no fausts, no med bunker, etc. all very useful and without them your opponent is significantly weaker.

Ok, here we go. First, thanks for putting your play on display and wanting feedback. It can be tough to take criticism on the path to growth. So I hope you find my review both helpful, and not too harsh.

I’ll begin with a quick discussion about the map. Personally, I find it easier to assault the fuel on my opponent’s side of the river. That way my cut off isn’t as much of an issue, and it’s easier to stay compact, especially if you're on the south side when the enemy essentially has to get into range of units defending your munitions point if they want to go around to retake their fuel.

As the Wehrmacht, our goal is to achieve map presence by holding a munition point, a VP, and a fuel point. Hopefully that concentration of forces is in such a location where it can both do that, and dictate the pace of the play by contesting either their cut-off or another VP. So, for this reason, and another I will discuss later on in the review, I feel your sniper came way too early. You had not yet achieved the map presence to have a sustainable economy, which in its self can be a self fueling defeat engine considering our unit composition allows map control.

So now we are in a recurring situation where you’re cut off, and by the 3rd minute your opponent has 6x the amount of fuel coming in than you do, which is very troubling, perhaps the sniper MP may have been better invested in a bunker defending that cut off, or you could have nullified the situation by being more active cycling your forces, especially your MG around. Which unfortunately, wasn't used very efficiently. You didn't get the most equity you could have out of the most powerful tool in your arsenal, which was reduced to more of an anti-vp turret. A turret that was flanked and forced to retreat by the second time you managed to catch a rifle squad in its arch. I really think you gotta be more mobile and active here. This is also alludes to a very big issue...

Although you did a really fantastic job staying compact, letting your troops complement each other, minimizing loses, holding the ground you had, (unfortunately it was arguably the wrong ground) and even managing to force a retreat. At this point, this is the key moment and something that fails to happen throughout this game.

You didn’t counter attack.

You did not take the opportunity to hit back, creep forward and secure a little bit more of the map, secure that little extra bit of breathing room, and more importantly, dictate the tempo and location of the play, force the USF player to fight uphill into your great defensive setup.

Regrettably, by now the effects of your sniper are coming to fruition and that M20 has hit the field with a vengeance. I would have preferred to see a Pak40 here, your 221/2 has already come too late to make an impact and you are probably a little lucky your opponent did not decide on the M15 which would have really pushed you back without any AT to oppose it. Much like your strategic doctrine, this issue goes a little further back as well, and is clear in your Med bunker arriving at 16 minutes. That is far far too late, and isn’t giving you much equity, and really hurting your MP.

I think you can help yourself by coming in with a plan and build order and sticking to it, at least during the first 5 minutes of the game, leave the adaptation for when you have: the time, the information and the resources to do it. Again, I feel this manifests itself in your commander selection as well. I feel you quick fired on mobile defense and the puma + command tank, with no real plan of how you were going to use them effectively, or what role they were going to play, when as Cookies said, double Pak40’s and tellers could have stalled the Sherman, and if you were thinking of or had planned out just a little further ahead, you could have had a Tiger on the field to really send them reeling. Just always ask, how does this unit help me? Why am I building this? And always examine the options you have.

But at any rate, before the Sherman, things are sort of quiet, a few skirmishes the occasional cut-off here and there, and at the 13th minute, you forced another retreat. Well done! You also had a strong force on both flanks, so go for it! Counter attack! This is your chance to gain the map control you really need! To end the harassment on your cut off, but, it instead it was really disheartening to see that, you didn’t move. This point really needs to be reiterated for it's importance, you didn't take the chances to win the game.

Please excuse the rationalization, but I wonder if you’ve let these losses get to you, and as a result have played really timidly? Because, in the end, as far as I can tell you played really well, you were very mechanically sound, besides some planning mistakes, but it all fell apart strategically. I think the main issue is you were too passive. You hardly even reacted to the 4 times you were cut off, you gotta be able to hit back, and try to pick your spots where you can do some damage. This means you have to feel out what your opponent has on the field. Try counting rifleman, keeping track of them via vet, and really try and induct where your opponents forces are on the field. If you’ve just forced a retreat of 3 squads? Well, it’s likely that flank is open. Run into a fighting position and an RE squad? Perhaps the opponent has his army elsewhere, and is using this to defend the ground, punish it. Try poking a little more, try to keep your enemy off balance and again: dictate the tempo and more importantly, where the fights are happening. This gives you the best opportunity to setup, and really maximize the use of your support teams.

It's a really tough balance for the Axis, as a defensive faction you can be really powerful if you pick where and when to fight, but too defensively and you can turtle up and lose pretty easily.

Again, thanks again for sharing and I hope you find this feedback useful. Keep at it mon 'amie it'll come with experience. Oh and please feel free to critique my feedback. I'm always looking to improve as a writer.