Profile of Adder

Hrmm. I'll have to check Nystorm's stream then. I'm not sure how Grens can take on clown car snipers or flamers.

Flamers are easy. Two gren squads focus firing on a charging engineer squad kills it very, very quickly. You MUST focus fire though, or your grens will shoot that conscript in the distance behind a stone wall instead of the engineer with a flamethrower in his face.

Clown cars are trickier, but it comes down to keeping your squads together and realizing that grens aren't the solution to all problems. As long as you have two gren squads together, any mismicro on the clown car = instant death from 2x panzerfausts. Additionally, with more gren squads you can more easily flank a clown car and cut off it's retreat (easier than you might think).

Still, the point is to buy time for you to tech to a more complete solution (scout cars or Ostwind). Nobody's saying that you're not going to get hammered by a clown car sniper squad, but that doesn't mean it's too strong. When facing snipers I often stick my units in buildings (which significantly reduces sniper accuracy) or behind LOS-blockers (hedges, buildings, etc.) to force them to come closer or to disengage. Is this a viable long-term strategy? Of course not. But my whole goal is to stay alive to get to T3, at which point the gimmicky clown car/T-70 problems become irrelevant and actually a liability. That generally only gives him about a 1:30-2:00 to make my life miserable.

Russian MG teams are way more problematic. I'm 0-2 against level 40+ players using nonstop HMG teams (think WSC build from COH1). Mortars don't kill them fast enough, they can deploy in the field of fire of an MG42 and still win, and they lock down your slower infantry. Thinking about trying halftrack flanking play next time I see it.

edit: Also, after someone else on this forum mentioned it, I think Ram is not as bad as I originally thought. I've successfully dodged it complete twice (one time with blitzkrieg) by driving towards the tank at an angle and having it fly past me. The key seems to be to time it right. Too early and it'll turn and hit you, too late and you won't get enough movement to the side. I've also taken a ram to the side where my main gun was facing away and I didn't lose the main gun. I'll do more research, but I'm hoping that Ram will be the tank equivalent of grenades- devastating if you're not looking, but manageable if you're paying attention and have quick reflexes.

I like the new Spring Kolodny.

One point about engineers vs. pioneers: Pioneers have SMGs, and are better closer up (but not by much). If you're behind cover and an engineer squad charges you, you'll win the vast majority of the time. Same thing for vice versa generally, though pioneers will lose at a distance as well (ouch).

Pioneers make excellent meat shields for grenadiers charging conscripts, though.


I agree with CombatMuffin about flanking, at least with grens. I've run up to a mortar squad and sat point blank for over 15 seconds only to have it pickup and retreat before I could kill enough of the crew. I can't even rifle nade it because I'm too close. At that range, with that amount of time, the squad would probably be more effective clubbing the mortar loader over the head, taking the mortar and running away. It'd certainly be more effective than shooting the bastards.

I'd say there's four keys to countering fast T2 PG spam:

1. Exploit the early game. Recognize their lack of MGs and start capturing, hard. Especially make sure to deny them both fuels, which should be easy since you'll have more units.
2. Build just enough units to do the job, and no more. If he has two grens and a pioneer, you need no more than four Conscripts squads and could possibly get away with three.
3. Put up a Fuel Depot with your excess manpower, to even further the fuel gap. (see #1, denying his fuel)
4. Figure out what you'll do with all that fuel. You could start with a T-34 and see how long it takes him to get an AT gun. If he busts out the infantry AT, follow up with rocket trucks and Doctrine artillery. Alternatively, skip the T-34 altogether (you can do this if you've denied both fuels, as he then literally has no chance at getting a Stug or stronger onto the field) and just get SU-76s and rocket trucks. The free barrages are insanely good against slow infantry.

Don't be afraid to get MG teams, either. PGs are really slow and expensive, and they're totally useless when suppressed. The fast setup and pickup times of the Maxim (vs. the MG42) makes it much easier to use against PGs.

Hope that helps!

edit: Shock Troops can go toe to toe with PGs, but the point here is not to fight to a draw. Spamming them will only give him more time to bring his tech to bear. Tech "ahead" of him, not to the same level.