Profile of SturmtigerCobra

From my observation watching top ladder players:
US have a few units that are very good late game with sufficient vet. In general, I think more players need to learn saving vetted armor crews so US can "tranfer/respawn" vet to new armor later in the game. Saving vetted armor crews is one of US biggest advantages. With good micro US can basicly respawn a vet3 jackson that cant be killed because US can just tranfer the old crew to a new tank.

Besides standard rifle builds, US need at least one of this (1vs1 or 2vs2) to win late game:
1. LMG rifle blob or Air lmgs on open maps
2. Good M8A1 Howitzer micro skills (shoot and scoot) combined with AT guns/jacksons/stuart. These builds rely on superior mobile artillery and AT range while you use rifles as meatshield.
These players are currently pretty rare to see because of some other popular builds. But these players are very deadly once they have the right army composition and vet. Using combined arms it can counter almost everything on open maps. Rifles are the meatshield, stuart to stun tanks and provide scouting, AT to snipe tanks from superior range, M8A1 to snipe infantry/support weapons. Imo this could very well become the new meta for top100 ladders players in the coming months. This composition work abit similar to the old Soviet version of Guards/Snipers/SU85 (replaced by ISUs in current meta).
Also my personal favorite strat vs OKW, but it can be hard to keep your M8A1s alive because of the limited range. Keep your M8A1s well protected like a soviet sniper and late game the axis player will rush everything trying to kill it once it reach vet3 with 40-50 kills
3. E8s tank openings with BAR/flamer infantry blob on urban maps (always safe build vs ostheer, vs OKW its vulnerable to volks shreak blobs and/or grenades). E8s also work great in 2vs2 if supported by ISUs.

Nr. 1 and 3 are most likely to get a nerf (including a nerf to call in tanks) so I think M8A1s will become alot more popular in coming months used in different army compositions.

Vs Infantry/support weapons
1. M8A1 at vet2 become a beast against all infantry (as long M8A1 has a direct fire line) and much more mobile and higher ROF than a stuka which are primary good against stationary target. Alot of team players complain about the Stukas beeing to powerful but with the same fuel (approx 150 fuel with 66% OKW income) US could have two M8A1s.
With good micro 2xM8A1 can relative easy get over 50 infantry kills total during a close 2vs2 match which imo are more fuel efficient than the Stuka.

M8A1 with the barrage ability also has 75 armor penetration almost same as a Sherman which has 80 (long range). Personally I have used it even to kill Ostwinds and Stugs in one barrage.
To get vet2 fast, you can tranfer vet from an earlier crew like the M20. Or if you are desperate for good arty put one of your vet3 rifle into it.

Ideally M8A1s should be combined with a Soviet partner such as market target/button/T34-85/mines to protect your flanks against mobile tanks trying to kill your M8A1s. VS OKW, 120mm mortars are vulnerable to Stukas and T34-85 to volks shrek blobs. Against OKW shrek blobs, E8 spam is not a "I win" button so US should invest fuel primary into Jacksons and/or M8A1s to support Soviet T34-85s with mark target are hands down the best medium tank in game. In narrow places T34-85s are very good at crushing even infantry with shreks.

The biggest downside to M8A1 are the limited range so it require good scouting and smoke to get out of trouble quick. As Axis player I can tell you I fear good M8A1 micro much more than the KV8. There are not alot of players with good micro yet so not many complaining M8A1 beeing OP. But used correctly, M8A1 are more powerful than the Stuka that fire so slow and not a big threat to anything except stationary targets.

If Lmg/E8s get nerf, US really need the M8A1's micro skills to win the late game manpower war. If US dont win that everything else just start to fall apart as you wont have enough manpower to keep mapcontrol or invest into AT guns/tanks.
So do yourself a favor, work on your M8A1 micro because soon or later its gonna pay off. I doubt relic gonna nerf M8A1 anytime soon, so lots of time to abuse it

OKW early game options vs Sniper/MGS openings >>



Mgs are fine in 1vs1, its just OKW that need some tweaking as the other factions all have some decent counters. Mgs unsupported are not the biggest problem for OKW but once you start support mgs with shocks, mines, demos on strategic points, zis guns to counter early OKW armor or rush for T34s to counter stukas/luchs/flak ht. Once mg spammer combine all that, OKW have basicly no effective counter. Same problem with sniper openings, once combined very hard to counter and turn into cat and mouse play where OKW are running around the map trying to keep some map control and avoid any direct confrontation. Mg/sniper openings (early game) should be "high reward/high risk" not "high reward/low risk".

OKW armor are very predictable to counter because they have no medium tank that have both AT and AI. To get a hard counter against mg openings OKW need to invest approx. 150 fuel into stuka first (less fuel income) or T4 into luchs which all delay your first AT armor by alot. Investing to much fuel into AI armor are very risky because soviet can then just spam T34s or get a Kv8.

Rather than nerfing mgs or buff OKW performance I think best solution are to give OKW new options to flank in the early game which also should make it more risky to use mg/sniper openings.

OKW Early Game - flanking buffs

1) Give sturmpioniers more vision so they can more easily deal with mgs and snipers. Kubels are mostly useless in the midgame anyway so sturmpioniers could fulfill a niche role here.

2) Jaeger light infantry should get infiltration grenades and/or smoke grenades so they can more easily flank mgs and decrew zis guns.

3) Reduce "Infiltration Tactics" to 2 CPs

4) Give kubels mg AP rounds so they can more easily deal damage to mgs but more importantly kubels need early game options to defend against scout cars and snipers. As atm snipers counter sturmpioniers/at guns, scout cars with flamers counter kubels/volks. So sniper openings turn into cat and mouse play as OKW have no early game counter to that either.
Making the kubel more powerful vs mg/sniper openings should not make them OP vs soviet midgame if mgs/snipers are supported by guards.

Soviet Early Game - need T0 infantry buff

1) Early game cons are to weak against sturmpioniers/kubel combo and later against OKW long range units such as obers/fusiliers. Penals should be moved to T0 so soviet has new early game infantry options to make a more "slow" transitioning into mgs from T2 or snipers from T1. Since Relic have made T0 infantry spam more popular with the new factions there are no longer a good reason to keep penals in T1. Personal im no fan of T0 infantry spam but its to late now going in the opposite direction thx to the new faction design.

Something similar to this is all thats needed to deal with snipers/mgs openings.

Is there such thing? I seem to lost allot of games right at the beginning... sometimes all it takes is Soviet plopping MG into my cut off

I would really like tips for the early game

1vs1 OKW are by far the weakest faction in the early-mid game if the soviet/US player know how to capitalize on OKW weakness. It's a fun faction to play but dont expect to win many games against good players.. Until relic fix this, no "mentally sane" good player are going to voluntary play OKW in Esport.

Go with a doctrine that give you early-mid game pressure.

On closed maps;
1) Fortifications doctrine is good because of mgs + s-mines combo to lock down the map and using the pak43 to save fuel for heavy tanks or stukas. The pak43 is situational and depends on what kind of arty they have or call-in arty. Once you learn where the retreat paths are, S-mines are amazing and will give some squad wipes. Most soviet players want to upgrade their first pios with flamers so it'll slow them down to build a new pios just to clear mines.

I want to emphasize that you need s-mines to prevent your mgs getting flank in the mid-game and then remember to use your mgs vet1 ability. I also heard that trenched at-guns should be good.

2) Scavenger because infiltration grenades give volks more early-mid game pressure. Then mass shreaks + puma + 1 ostwind. Late game you can try saving 500 munitions for call in artillery and place it on their retreat path or base, if timed right it can potentially give multiply squad wipes.

On open maps;
1) Breakthrough doc excel here beacuse of all the long range units/buff and jadgtiger is the only reliable hard counter to soviet ISUs or to less degree US jacksons. Though, the jadgtiger need a fuel decrease to make it more accessible in 1vs1. Or alternative the jadgtiger should be weaker with the fuel decrease.

1) New non-doctrine heavy tanks for soviet + US and bombing planes that you can buy and use permanently until shot down.

2) Axis get a new shovel to dig big fox holes (graves) and super-medics that can heal instantly and drugs that turn volks into obers super-soldiers.

3) New buildings for Axis to buy inf/tank vet similar to COH1, because we all know how much relic love Axis super-soldiers in the late game and heavy tanks ability that got same speed as a allied light vehicles..



+ Incoming Axis nerf to encourage axis players to switch faction

OKW medium armor still sucks