Profile of Joshua85

You have already gotten great advice here, but I think it is also important to note that the optimal strategy for USF, or any faction for that matter, is also very dependant on your personal ranking with that particular faction and as such also the general level of opponents you are meeting.

If you are lvl 10 or below and don't have plans to go for armor company, I would argue that the Captain is generally the better choice vs. OKW while the LT. might be better against Ostheer.

The reason for this is mainly centered around the current OKW meta of a quick luchs. The LT option will give you much more Anti-infantry power and give you the tools to efficiently counter most of OSTheer t1 and t2 units without much issue. On the other hand this approach might make you struggle if you are facing a luchs and lack the micro to efficiently counter it with the 50 cal and AA-halftrack. Therefore the captain into the stuart and even potential AT-gun is to be prefered in this scenario, as the stuart is also more likely to survive an ambush from a raketen.

Mind you that this advice is mainly usefull for opponents below level 10 (which is my specialty to advice on). If you are ranked higher than this, then it is an entirely other debate.

I guess the most obvious answer would be to not skip t1

A lot of people seem to favor going t2 rather than one for the luchs and while it can also be a very good option, bear in mind that this will severely delay your medium tanks which already come out much later than other factions. Furthermore it will make you quite reliant on medkits which will cost a lot of munitions in the long run.

My advice would be that you should not necessarily go t2 by default, but consider your options as you see your opponents opening. Also there is no shame in backteching to t1 later in the game if you become in need of indirect fire.

Unless you can catch an enemy mortar, the lieg is basically your only option for real indirect fire as OKW.

You got most of the points that you fell short in in your self criticism, however I think I can add to it as well.

You may not have gotten anything from the LT tech, but since I assume you were just teching it to eventually tech up to major it was alright. Yes a 50 cal would've been nice and probabaly prefered.

Don't really know why you teched captain when you had the fuel for major and then almost immediatly a sherman. Yes you wanted to rely on M10s and 105s, but still if you've got the lead on fuel by that large of a margin teching doesn't hurt. You have more options that way. Or you can do it the way you did, but then you need to take that lead and overwhelm your opponet before he can get proper counters to hold your attack. I.e. getting 3 M10s and swarming his Stug E

I'd say any of those commanders your brought were fine. Armor and rifle have flamers, heavy cav has pershing, rangers mines etc. All great, I use the exact same loadout as well. So I don't think going armor was a crucial mistake, however it needs to be used to overwhelm with the famous M10 train and bulldozers. That's one of the major keys to armor company. It's good because you can field so much for so little fuel.

I hate that map. I veto it with every faction I play and for good reason. The biggest reason is all the garrisons and the lack of flamers on 3/5 factions without doctrines. USF is one of those, so I'd consider vetoing this map.

As you saw how ineffective grenades are vs garrisons, I suggest a mortar next time instead of a 4th rifle. Another option is to overpower your opponet with BARs. Effective once you get them all equiped.

Last point is no weapon racks. This led to the vetted MG42 grens out scaling and out trading your unequipped rifles, which led to your eventual manpower bleed and surrender. On the same point, you kept pushing back into that left of center crossroad expecting a different outcome against a Stug E and pak. USF is a highly mobile faction. flank from multiple sides and force him to rotate.

Hope this helped.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns do not hesitate to ask.

-ShadowLinkX37

Thanks mate.

Yeah I think you have some good points. of all the commanders in my lineup I think I picked the worst on for the map though. the m10 is more efficient roaming open fields rather than close quarters urban maps and the assault grenadiers are quite a gamble.

USF is probably still the faction I'm least comfortable with and a major reason for this is the lack of easy acess to non-doctrinal mines. As such I think the heavy cav would have been better for spamming mines all over the place.

The armor commander also seem to give me tunnelvision as I hardly ever consider gunning for a major, because of the m10s. So being more flexible in this regard is certainly something I should work on as well.

Anyway, thanks for the revie3w. As you said I probably had already answered a lot of the questions myself already

Allright here we go. FYI my method of reviewing is watching a bit, then pausing and taking notes whenever necessary, which means that I never know what will happen next.

- Starting of I notice that you have the basic loadout of commanders, which I assume means that you don't own any others? While there are better alternatives in the rare commanders, these are still doable and UK can often go a long way without ever picking a commander.

If you ever want to invest in commanders, I would say that mobile assault and Special Weapons are the best options and also quite easy to utilize for players on a casual skill level. Also looking at your opponents bullitins it is likely that he will go for breakthrough doctrine, so mentally prepare for meeting panzergrenadiers
- As for the map it is both a good one for OKW and UKF, but it is a bit better for OKW. The reason for this is the open space, which makes capping with kubels very effective. Consider vetoing it if you find yourself consistently struggeling.
-I'm glad to see that you went UC and made it survive first engagement. you might want to consolidate your units a bit more in the beginning to provide coordinated firepower even if it means loosing a bit of initial capping. Also waiting behind heavy cover and letting the enemy approach is vital on this map.
- You started out with trying to build sandbags, but after winning some battle and retaking ground you forget to build. well placed sandbags are more important on this map than on any other in the game!
- I'm almost six minutes in and for the time being you are doing a splendid job and picking all the right engagement! I'm really interested in seeing what will make you throw the game
- That mortar emplacement does not have a safe position, so I predict that will be killed. As a rule of thumb an emplacement should at least be safe behind a direct shot blocker from the direction of the opponent.This map dosen't have much of this so I would generally advice against it, but if you have to pick it should be either behind the logs directly left of where you placed it, or behind some of the woods on the right.
- aand that was indeed what happened.
- notice however, that in terms of pop cap you are still ahead!even if your opponent managed to take the vickers it would only just about make him break even (though admittedly he had more manpower).

To sum up. You did A LOT better that you think! overall you picked good engagement, made some nice flanks and outplayed your opponent in almost every engagement. So much in fact, that if you had kept playing at that level you would still have won the match. your micro, unit positioning and ressource management was significantly above your opponent.

I'm currently working on a guide to make people reach lvl 10 with any faction, and an important section in this will be on the psychological factor of the game and how to avoid the tilt. This game had so many opportunities for comeback and if you watch some casts you will very often see people almost comming back from the dead if they manage to capitalize on a lucky break or opponents mistake. Von Ivan is a classic example of this.

Try to make it a rule of thumb that you will NEVER surrender, unless at least one of these conditions have been met:
- you have less than 100 VPs left
- The game has lasted longer than 25 mins.

both these should be bearable conditions to live by and will teach you a valuable lesson on how to fight from the backfoot and think creatively when outnumbered.

That is basically all the advice I can give you on such a short notice. But I hope to see a review request from you again where you live up to my conditions for surrendering. This will also give me way better conditions for giving you feedback on what you need to work on.

"No skill in playing wehr"

Now that's a line you don't hear every day