Company of Heroes 2: German Unit Tactics and Overview

Kampfgruppe Headquarters (Phase 1 = 200 MP, 25 fuel. Phase 2 = 200 MP, 35 fuel. Phase 3 = 200 MP, 50 fuel)

• Pioneers (200 MP, 5 supply)
• A four-man squad armed with submachine guns.  Not ideal for combat but often gets forced into it.  Their SMGs make them more dangerous at close range, but not by much.  When upgraded with a flamer they become a serious anti-infantry threat.
• Upgrades:
• Flammenwerfer 35 (60 munitions)
• This upgrades a single man with a flamethrower. Effective against infantry, very effective against infantry in cover or in buildings.
• Hazard Removal Package (30 munitions)
• Upgrades a single man with the ability to cut Barbed Wire and a passive ability to detect mines.
• Abilities:
• Build Production Buildings (all 4 unit buildings plus the Munitions and Fuel Caches)
• Field Defenses
• Bunker (150 MP)
• Can be upgraded to have a machine gun emplacement, first aid station or reinforcement point.
• Razor Wire (prevents infantry movement)
• Teller Anti-Tank Mines (60 munitions)
• S-Mine Anti-Personnel field (80 munitions)
• Fire Pit (50 MP, keeps infantry warm)
• Repair
• Field First Aid (30 munitions., requires Veteran)
• Heals the target squad (cannot be used on yourself).

Infanterie Kompanie (80 MP, 10 fuel)

• Grenadiers (240 MP, 6 supply)
• The Swiss army knife of the German army.  Used to capture points, cover flanks, attack positions and generally serve as front-line troops.
• Easily loses to specialized advanced Soviet infantry.  For example, they will lose a ranged battle against Guards, or a close-ranged fight against the Shock troops.  Focus on using combined arms with HMGs to support your grenadiers, or have good cover and maybe your own LMG upgrade to even the odds.  Rifle Grenades can also be used to soften the enemy.
• Upgrades:
• MG42 LMG (60 munitions)
• This gives them good long-distance anti-infantry firepower and limited suppression (not as good as the HMG team).  Cannot be used while moving.
• Abilities:
• Field Defenses
• Construct Bunker (150 MP, see Pioneer entry for more details)
• Fire Pit (50 MP)
• Fire Panzerfaust (25 munitions)
• Fires a short-range anti-tank rocket at the selected vehicle.  It's a homing missile and has excellent accuracy.  A couple of these will destroy light vehicles, but tanks can take 4+ depending on which side you hit them.
• Rifle Grenade Shot (20 munitions)
• After a short delay, fires an arcing rifle grenade to the targeted area.  Good range, but there's a minimum distance it can be used.
• Awful against infantry on the move because of the delay.
• Low damage but good area of effect means it's decent against low health infantry (like Conscripts) but poor against more elite squads.
• In a pitched battle, try to use it early.  The sooner you kill of enemy squad members, the less damage they'll do.
• Field First Aid (30 munitions, requires Veteran)
• MG42 Heavy Machine Gun Team (240 MP, 6 supply)
• Extremely effective against infantry, doing good damage and great suppression.  Also has excellent range.
• Basically unapproachable from the front, requiring flanking or armor to flush once they're set up.
• Their slow movement and long deploy and undeploy times can be a huge liability if they're caught off guard.
• Three-man team is vulnerable to snipers or surprise ambushes, and you can lose the gun to the enemy very easily.
• Abilities:
• Fire Incendiary Armor Piercing Rounds (15 munitions, requires Veteran)
• Fires AP rounds for a short time useful against lightly armored vehicles.
• GrW 34 Mortar Team (240 MP, 6 supply)
• Fantastic range combined with excellent damage makes the mortar team great against stationary infantry, whether they're in cover, in a building, or just standing still.
• Three-man team is vulnerable to snipers and surprise ambushes, causing you to lose the mortar to the enemy.
• Abilities:
• Hold Fire
• Mortar Barrage
• Use this when you have the advantage of surprise, or if the enemy cannot move away from your fire (for example, in a building or being suppressed).
• Smoke Barrage
• Used to block line of sight for your troops to advance or retreat.
• Counter Barrage
• Automatically targets enemy artillery that fires in range of this mortar team.
• Sniper (360 MP, 6 supply)

Leichte Mechanized Kompanie (120 MP, 15 fuel)

• Panzergrenadiers (360 MP, 9 supply)
• Elite close-range combat infantry.
• Their SMGs make them good combatants on the move and at close range, but significantly less effective at distance.
• Good health per man makes them able to cross the distance against standard rifle infantry to bring their SMGs or grenades to bear.
• Four-man team makes them vulnerable to sniping.
• Upgrades:
• 2x Panzerschrek (120 munitions)
• A very expensive upgrade but well worth it if you need it.  Two of the squad members get Panzerschreks, aka rocket launchers.  While not bad against infantry, their primary purpose is to destroy enemy vehicles.  Excellent against light vehicles and good against tanks, this is likely your quickest access to anti-tank weaponry.
• Cannot be used on the move.
• Note that this makes the squad much less effective against infantry.
• Abilities:
• Bundled Model 24 Grenade (45 munitions)
• Now this is a grenade.  Devastating against infantry and not bad against light vehicles.
• Will typically kill any infantry within range of the grenade, even elite infantry.
• Field First Aid (30 munitions)
• SdKfz 251 Halftrack (120 MP, 30 fuel, 3 supply)
• Excellent support transport unit.  Can move up to two squads quickly and safely across the battlefield.  Vehicle-mounted front-facing MG provides decent anti-infantry damage.
• Most important of all, infantry squads can reinforce directly from the halftrack.  This is huge.  It will easily allow you to win distance battles if you have a halftrack reinforcing.
• Upgrades:
• Flame Projectors (120 munitions)
• Arms the halftrack with two flamethrowers.  Excellent against infantry and structures.  Especially good against infantry in cover or in buildings.
• Prevents the halftrack from carrying troops.  Can still reinforce from it.
• SdKfz 221 Scout Car (80 MP, 25 fuel, 3 supply)
• Lightly-armored, fast-moving car that can provide decent anti-infantry support and flanking power.
• Excellent line of sight makes it a good pair with long-range weapon teams such as MG42s, snipers, mortars and AT guns.
• Can be upgraded to become an early light vehicle counter.
• Very fragile and can be killed with small arms alone.  Watch out for conscripts with AT grenades killing your upgraded car, costing you a considerable amount of munitions.
• Upgrades:
• KwK 2cm Autocannon (70 munitions)
• Improves firepower against infantry, light vehicles and aircraft.
• Especially notable for doing good damage against light vehicles, allowing you to take them down in a couple volleys.
• Abilities:
• Infantry Awareness (10 munitions, requires Veteran)
• Reveals enemy infantry even through the fog of war.
• Cheap cost and excellent range make it very useful.  The only problem is keeping a scout car alive long enough to get to Veteran.

Support Armor Korps (160 MP, 25 fuel)

• StuG III Ausf. G Assault Gun (200 MP, 50 fuel, 5 supply)
• A workhorse tank with no bells and whistles.  Has a fixed anti-vehicle gun mounted to the front which cannot rotate (the whole vehicle must turn).
• Essentially use as a more mobile, armored AT gun.  Poor rotation and movement speed means it's easily flanked, but it has good frontal armor and decent range, accuracy and damage.
• Easily destroys light vehicles that stick around.  Can do good damage against real tanks, but struggles to finish them off due to only average penetration.
• Provides early mobile anti-tank defense, especially if the enemy lacks anti-tank weapons of their own.  Should not be relied on as the game progresses due to the lack of good penetration and mobility issues.
• Upgrades:
• Pintle-mounted MG42 machine gun (30 munitions)
• Provides decent anti-infantry and AA firepower.
• Good upgrade if you fight extended battles with infantry in range of the tank.
• Abilities:
• Target Weak Point (35 munitions, requires Veteran)
• Stuns the enemy crew.
• Flakpanzer IV Ostwind (400 MP, 100 fuel, 10 supply)
• Very effective anti-infantry and anti-aircraft light tank.  Fires quickly with good splash that can shred lightly-armored targets, be they infantry or light vehicles.
• Fast movement and quick-rotating turret make it a deadly flanker and counter-attacker.
• Good range allows it to kite enemy infantry with anti-tank weapons.
• Light armor means that it dies quickly to any serious anti-tank weaponry.  Should be kept away from tanks at all costs.
• Arguably the best anti-infantry vehicle in the game, but the high fuel cost means that you likely have to find a manpower-intensive anti-tank solution such as AT guns if you get a Flakpanzer.
• Abilities:
• Blitzkrieg Tactics (30 munitions, requires Veteran)
• Improves vehicle speed, also making it more difficult to hit.
• Panzer IV Medium Tank (480 MP, 120 fuel, 12 supply)
• The tank equivalent to the versatility of grenadiers.  Good anti-infantry and anti-tank damage combined with above-average mobility.
• Decent armor means that it can shrug off light vehicle cannon fire or AT grenades, but takes a hit from medium or stronger tank fire and AT guns.
• Surprisingly fast with a decently-quick tracking turret enables it to flank and counter flank.
• Due to its less-than-stellar armor combined with its cost, a lucky damaged engine on a P4 can cost you the game.  Losing a Stug is no problem, and an immobilized Panther can keep fighting until the end of time.  But a P4 is in a tricky spot in the middle where it's expensive enough that losing it can be a near fatal blow, but not tough enough to sit out a fight pinned down.
• While it's an excellent mid-game tank, be careful not to overbuild.  In the late game it's overshadowed by stronger Russian tanks.
• Upgrades:
• Pintle-mounted MG42 machine gun (30 munitions)
• Provides decent anti-infantry and AA firepower.
• Good upgrade if you fight extended battles with infantry in range of the tank.
• Abilities:
• Blitzkrieg Tactics (30 munitions, requires Veteran)
• Improves vehicle speed, also making it more difficult to hit.

Heavy Panzer Korps (160 MP, 30 fuel)

• Panzerwerfer 42 Multiple Rocket Launcher (360 MP, 85 fuel, 9 supply)
• A halftrack that's been modified to fire rockets.
• Free artillery barrage that's excellent against infantry, does moderate damage to light vehicles and structures, but is useless against armored targets.
• Sturmpanzer IV Assault Gun (520 MP, 140 fuel, 13 supply)
• Panther V Medium Tank (560 MP, 150 fuel, 14 supply)
• Only the Germans would call the Panther a medium tank.  Excels at destroying enemy tanks.
• Good range.
• Amazing frontal armor and overall health.  Requires a very substantial dedication of AT firepower to destroy.
• Can face off against an AT gun and win by destroying the AT gun.
• Very limited anti-infantry firepower.
• Upgrades:
• Pintle-mounted MG42 machine gun (30 munitions)
• Provides decent anti-infantry and AA firepower.
• Good upgrade if you fight extended battles with infantry in range of the tank.
• Abilities:
• Blitzkrieg Tactics (30 munitions, requires Veteran)
• Improves vehicle speed, also making it more difficult to hit.