Profile of Gbpirate

Yeah, with Relic's change to vehicle pathing, any click within a relatively close area will make the halftrack move forwards. It's better just to use the reverse move when it's in combat/close to combat.

Bit of a pain, really.

@OP, what perspective are you asking? In all game modes, 1s, or 4s?

In 4v4s, I often have to get grenades before CPT or LT simply because it is viable for ostheer to get 2-3 MGs if the other player gets 3-4 volks. Smoke can be vital for winning those early game engagements. In 1v1s, Nades are usually a mid game tech. Smoke Nades are good against enemy MGs, against tanks (USF smoke nade slows tank movement and disables main gun), and enemy LMG units at range (high vet grens in mid game, Obers). Using regular nades are, more often than not, not worth their price. for 2 nades you can get a BAR. Nades work better in the late game when your opponent is fatigued, against weapon teams, against low health squads, etc. Throwing grenades behindcover can also earn you wipes, but only do this if you see your opponent dodging nades, or if you know he's good.

As for bazooka and BAR tech and not teching, in 1v1s, there's a few ways you can approach this and they differ slightly from 4v4s.

As Skabinsk said, if you're floating a lot of muni, you want to research the tech so you can get that extra dps and beat volks, beat LMG grens. While he (judging by his playercard) tends to play lots of 3s and 4s, and prefers BARs, in 1s it's a bit of a different ball game on your own. Infantry Company and Tactical Support Company are both good because they have the M1919. The M1919 lets you win engagements at long range against volks grenadiers, and against grenadiers. in tandem, they can beat Obers as well, depending on micro, vet, health, etc. The BAR is a good mid range weapon, used with a flanking squad. In any case, BARs and M1919s will increase the dps of your riflemen. You've just got to decide what role you want your squad to play in the grand scheme of things.

That being said, in 1s and 4s I find Tactical Support and Infantry Co. are my most used commanders because of the LMGs, in 1s, infantry because of the mines/sand bags, in 4s, tactical support because of the potency of the callipoe. Thus, I usually have access to M1919s.
Putting M1919s on all of my rifles/squads gives me less things to micro, but mixing m1919s and BARS on different squads can really pay off. Typically, my build order is RE Rifle Rifle Rifle LT M20. You can also get 3 rifles and captain, or 4 rifles and captain. The RE at the beginning gives you a slight advantage in capping power. You can also put the 2nd RE squad in the M20, giving yourself an extra zook. Hector does this in his 1v1 armor co. strategy, then getting an extra bazooka on that squad, supplementing his subsequent captain tech. http://www.coh2.org/guides/47115/armor-company

That's more of a build if you're fighting OKW Luchs or maybe Stug III E from Ostheer. You can do that late game as well in 1s. Zooks still pen medium armor and can tip tank engagements in your favor.

That being said, getting the bar/zook tech can help for your AT. If you grab one extra zook on your M20 crew, then go captain, you've got 4 zooks, 3 for free, and you've got quite a strong mid game in terms of anti infantry and anti tank firepower.

When it comes to BARs/M1919s, double M1919 LMGs will beat volks. If you've got 3 or 4 rifles with M1919s, you can beat obers, you can beat Grens, you can easily kill out of place MG42s/34s. One thing I like to do is put M1919s on one RE squad and 2 riflemen squads. ON the REs, this allows you to use your suppressive volley fire ability at range at minimal risk to the REs. On the two riflemen, this allows you to have long range dps squads that punish pioneers, assault grenadiers, sturmpioneers, or falls that are coming at you over open ground. I put BARs on the other two riflemen squads. These guys get into mid range, they go into the VPs and cap them under enemy fire. With 5 men, they're durable. With the BAR itself, they've got a lot of dps. They're first in line in most of the engagements. They're being covered by the 3 M1919 squads behind them; those M1919 squads are firing smoke nades first, in front of the MGs, or in front of the LMG34 Obers, allowing the BAR'd rifles to close and get into cover.

I do this all the time as USF. In 1v1s, the mine ability is great for shutting down flanks by infantry or vehicles. If it's 40 minutes into the game, you can park your M20 in your base, then have a squad jump in it and plant a few M20 mines on a side of the map that you just capped.

Long story short, always get BARs or M1919s. It's best to mix them up in your army, but not on a squad to squad level. Use smoke nades when you need to in the early/mid game, definitely in the late game. Build a muni cache or two. Use grenades sparingly. Always use your munitions. Use your M1919 and BAR squads together, in an intelligent way. Identify your biggest threat (suppression platforms, charging squads... armor?)

IN regards to OP's post about faster vet, it does mess up the pacing of veterancy and, in theory, other factions have the same ability with bulletins, but the issue is the fact that bulletin drops are random.

If (some?) bulletins were tied to achievements like they were before warspoils/WFA dropped, that would make getting bulletins a lot more goal-oriented.

Assuming Cuddletronic comes back to read this, or another Relic employee, I'd just like to say that having a warspoils system and explaining the probability of dropping bulletins/commanders for each faction to the player would lend a big hand to both competitive and casual players. When players know that they're making progress towards something, whether it's with actual %age numbers or words in relation to each other (unlikely, likely, etc.), they're more likely to keep grinding, to come back to the game, to keep playing, to keep putting hours in, and to keep buying dlc if necessary.

I'm loving the 1v1 ESL tourneys. I'm liking the increase in competitive tournaments (4v4, 2v2 tourneys starting this month). I hope this isn't the end of Relic's time giving coh2 major support. War Spoils overhaul, finishing up the Eastern Front with 1944-45 Theatre of War packs, Brits campaign, optimization for hardware, and patches to make under used units/commanders in competitive matches viable (USF Recon Support/Mechanized Co., M8 Scott; role of Penals vs. Conscripts), patches to make the game more balanced/fair for each faction (MG34 for OKW, changing deathloop for Maxim, etc.)

I love coh2. I love playing coh2 competitively. I'd hate to see it go, its servers shutdown, or the competitive player-base to leave because patch support ends. Single player, players who comp stomp with friends, they're all important players - and a much larger monetary and physical base - than the relatively small number of community players.

Thanks Relic

Their kill potential is worthless against tanks because they will never reach their potential. no one except noobs are going to sit there and be hit by multiple shells.

Eh, in 4v4s there are good chances that you can catch heavy enemy armor off guard - particularly the jagdtiger or the king tiger. It's impossible to kill the tank, yeah, but 2-4 howie shells landing on target isn't hard to do. That being said, if you can damage the engine of any of those big fuckers, it's easy to barrage in their intended path and still get a lot of hits.

With priests I prioritize okw trucks, then heavy vehicles/blobs depending on the state of the game.

In 1v1, Pershing, Calliope, Armor/Infantry company are good choices.

Pershing, for reasons stated below,
Calliope for M1919s
Armor company for flamethrower/mines (Assault Engies have same mine as pershing/inf. co.) and demos, as well as M10s, letting you stay in Lt/cpt tech before getting major/making a comeback
Infantry Co. is good because of M1919s, mines, time on target barrage.

I don't own pershing, so my loadout is calliope, Armor, Infantry. Rifle co. used to be good, but it, like airborne, is eclipsed by others. Mechanized & reconsupport were and still are garbage.


4v4s, I almost always go calliope when playing as USF because it's so good. much better than katyusha, M1919s are great on rifles, RE squads. If there's two USF players, one going infantry, the other calliope is good. I use calliope for blobs/med trucks, priests (en masse) are good for barraging trucks/heavy tanks (like Jagdtiger). 3-4 priests on any truck can lower its health, stop vehicle repairs, and kill retreated blobs.

2v2 it varies; usually calliope or infantry. having on-map artillery is great. you can also popcap abuse (same goes for 4v4s), but armor company can be useful if you have a brit ally on an urban map as they lack flamethrowers. Getting 2 assault engies, however, is risky business.