[COH2] Tip of the Day #3: Bring your machine guns along!

A very common beginner mistake is leaving their machine guns in buildings or just setup somewhere, pinning off that entrance but leaving it, and their main army, unsupported.

Machine guns are best used with the army, providing valuable suppression of charging enemy infantry and also being protected by your front line troops.  Leaving them on their own risks them being flanked and killed, taken out by vehicles OR losing a fight on the front lines because you have a machine gun defending the flank.

Let's take a look at an example.

Here, you can see that the German team (in gray) is defending two points on the map.  Their MG is setup to the east in a building, preventing approach from that direction.  Their two grenadier squads are defending the point to the left.  A hedge blocks line of sight and movement between them.  This is based on the northern area in Kholodny, by the way.

The Russians are attacking the west point using a large group of infantry.  They will easily overwhelm the two squads there (forcing a retreat) and end up taking the point.  Then, they will likely follow up on the supported MG42 and toss grenades or Molotovs in, also forcing a retreat or possibly even a kill on the machine gun.

Here, you'll note that the German player kept his entire army together to the west.  The Russians attack, and it's an easy German win with the support of the machine gun.

Potentially the Russians could have attacked to the east and the Germans wouldn't have been in position, but at least they could turn and fight together as a group instead of being defeated piecemeal.



Key points of this tip:

• Keep your machine guns with your army (but in the back)
• Don't leave machine guns deployed in a building or to cover a route if your main army isn't strong enough to beat theirs head on
• It's better to fight a battle with your whole army on even ground than it is to fight with part of your army on favorable ground

If you're interested in seeing more "Tips of the Day", click here.

Sepharim's Aggressive German Build

Build Order

Pioneer

Pioneer (for a total of 3 pioneers)

Grenadier

Grenadier

Tier 2

(Optional) Panzergrenadier or Flammenwerfer halftrack

Fuel Depot

Tier 3

Ostwind and P4, often building both but it depends on the situation.

General Strategy

Stay aggressive and constantly fight the opponent, cutting off his supplies whenever you can through your sheer number of squads.

Keep your pioneers away from fights unless they're going to win.  It's better off hiding them/sticking them in buildings as a delaying tactic.

He generally avoids Stugs since he believes they lose to both SU-85 and T-34s, which are the most common vehicles the Russians tech towards.

His goal after the initial build order is to crank out as many P4s as he can.


You can view Sepharim's Twitch stream here.

[GUIDE] COH2: What is suppression?

Suppression plays a key role in Company of Heroes 2.  It allows you to face off against a larger army and win as long as you have the right positioning and units available.

What is suppression?

Suppression is a state that infantry go into when faced with overwhelming firepower.  When a squad of Conscripts hears the roar of an MG42, they dive to the ground for cover instead of doing whatever they were ordered to.  They move at a crawl and take much longer to use unit abilities, if at all.  The suppressed squad will fire at enemies at a very slow rate.

If an infantry is continually suppressed, they will eventually go into a state of being "pinned".  This prevents them from shooting, moving or using any abilities.

Only the MG42, Maxim and bunker MG reliably suppress infantry, usually within the first two bursts.  Vehicle mounted machine guns and the Grenadier LMG do not, though they can "add" to suppression to help pin a unit.

How to get rid of suppression?

Time is the only factor that reduces suppression (excluding retreat).  If a suppressed squad is not being fired at by a machine gun, they will be back to normal in a few seconds.  Pinned squads take longer to revert out of the pinned state.

What's the downside to suppression?

Infantry take significantly less damage from small arms fire (SMGs, rifles, machine guns, etc.) when suppressed or pinned.  That's why they dive to the ground, after all!

This means that a suppressed squad can actually have a machine gun shooting at it for a very long time until the squad is completely killed.

Suppression damage resistance does not apply to explosives and flames, so grenades, mortars and flamethrowers are all excellent weapons to use against suppressed squads.  Their inability to move prevents them from dodging grenades unless they retreat.

[COH2] Tip of the Day #2: Never have two machine guns teams firing at the same target

Today's tip of the day applies to both the MG42 and the Maxim weapon teams.

In general, don't have both of your machine guns firing at the same infantry squad.  Always assume that if your machine guns are being attacked that there is a flanking attack coming.

Why?

One of the following is true:

1. Your enemy is sending one squad to bait machine gun fire, and using the rest of his army to flank you.  In this case, you'll be glad you have your second MG free to deal with the flanking force.
2. Your enemy is attacking you head on with his entire army, which will be pinned by your first MG without any help from your second.

Either way, as long as your second machine gun is free, your are likely to win the battle.

I generally prefer to keep my second MG team "back" a bit, in order to make it easier to reposition against flanking attacks.  See diagram below.

Also remember that infantry take reduced damage from bullets when suppressed or pinned, so your second squad isn't adding a whole lot of damage anyway (What is suppression?).

There are of course situations when you should break this rule (e.g. using them to quickly focus fire down a flamer, or when your flank is already covered), but it's definitely true in most cases.

If you're interested in seeing more "Tips of the Day", click here.

[GUIDE] COH2: List of infantry by armor values

The "armor" statistic in COH2 reduces the damage your infantry take from small arms fire (SMGs, rifles, machine guns, etc.).  It does not prevent damage from flames or explosives (mortars, tank shells, grenades, artillery).

List of infantry by armor value:

German Infantry	Soviet Infantry	Armor Value (higher is better)
MG42 Weapon Crew, Mortar Team, Pioneers, Ostruppen, Pak40 75mm Weapon Crew	Conscripts, Combat Engineer, Soviet Sniper Team, ZiS 76mm Crew, Maxim Crew, Mortar Team, Penal Battalion	1.0
	[Conscripts+Penal Battalion+Combat Engineer+Maxim Crew] (Vet 2)	1.25
Grenadiers, Panzergrenadiers	Guards	1.5
	[Conscripts+Penal Battalion+Combat Engineer+Maxim Crew](Vet 3), Guards (Vet 2)	1.8
Sniper, [Pak40 75mm Weapon Crew+Mortar Team] (Vet 3)	[ZiS 76mm Crew+Mortar Team] (Vet 3)	2.0
[MG42 Weapon Crew+Pioneers+Ostruppen] (Vet 2)	Soviet Sniper Team(Vet 3), Shock Troops	2.25
	Guards (Vet 3)	2.7
	Shock Troops(Vet 2)	2.8125
[Grenadiers+Panzergrenadiers] (Vet 2)		3.375
Sniper (Vet 3)		4.0
	Shock Troops (Vet 3)	4.05

The Soviet 82mm and 120mm mortar teams have identical armor values.

Armor is calculated for veteran troops using this: (veteran armor modifier * base infantry armor)

I intentionally left out infantry that are either not in multiplayer or where armor is unlikely to play a role (e.g. artillery crews).

Current as of 6/27/13.

All data is pulled from COH2Stats here.
coh2.org discussion thread is here.

[COH2] Tip of the Day #1: Keep your units together!

One of the fundamentals to being a successful COH player is to keep your army together.

By this I don't mean clump all of your units right on top of each other, but to keep them close enough that they can quickly support each other.

It is very common after winning a battle to spread your army out to capture points.  If the enemy counterattacks while you're spread out, he will defeat you in detail, allowing himself back in the game.

Imagine a world where you and your opponent have identical squads of infantry.  Let's say you have eight squads, and he has six.  However, your eight squads are split into two groups of four squads.

If he attacks a group of four with his group of six, he can quickly force a retreat due to local numerical superiority.  After that, he can attack your other group, winning two battles despite having a smaller overall army.


Three key takeaways:

• Keep your army together when attacking, but keep them spread out enough that a single machine gun or grenade can't get them all
• After winning a battle you should capture territory, but you want to reform your battle lines before battle begins again
• Don't try to defend the whole map at once- focus on at most two places where you want to hold, and move the bulk of your army between them.

If you're interested in seeing more "Tips of the Day", click here.

[TIPS] COH2: Using Rifle and Bundled Grenades

Someone on COH2.org posted a question about using German grenades:

"Hey guys, 
Already quite annoyed that bundled/rifled grenades can't effectively kill any weapon crews since Soviets have 6 man teams. With garrisoned units this is worse. I've had times when bundled PG grenade doesn't even kill anyone... even in a small house. More commonly, they will kill 2/6 people. Rifle grenades are even worse. I don't think they even scratch anything in a building, more or less weapon crews/infantry out in the open. This doesn't really make sense since a molotov will force Germans to pack up their MG, leave the house and most likely kill 1 man (33% of the squad already)only to be murdered by the conscript squad with oorah as they try to reorient and set up again. A maxim in a house supported is a pretty tough nut to crack. It requires a force retreat of the defending forces and a solid long burning of the house in order to kill enough members to force a retreat. Alternatively, a flame half track = death but I'm hoping there are more viable counters before it comes to that... 

Also, killing AT guns with these two are horrible. Usually results in vanilla grenadiers chasing it a quarter of the way on the map before decrewing it... and even losing a man in the process. 

Any tips on using grenades effectively as Germans? I pretty much just use them now when there's HTD or I'm floating on munis."

Here's my response:

"The short version on using grenades: avoid using them early, or in any situation where you're munitions-starved, unless absolutely necessary.

Rifle grenades are not as strong as other grenades, for sure. They do have a larger area of effect and can be fired further. I find that they do roughly half the health of a conscript soldier on average. Thus, firing it at a full, six-man conscript squad will usually lead to zero kills but a lot of injuries. This makes it typically more useful as the game goes on since few squads are at full health, at least until they upgrade their HQ to heal infantry.

Bundled grenades are much stronger and typically kill most of the infantry in their radius. Unfortunately, weapon teams tend to be large enough that a single grenade won't kill all the members. You shouldn't rely on a grenade to displace a weapon team unlike in vCoH or Molotovs. It's really just meant to do good damage, but not necessarily as an anti-weapon team ability.

As Germans I prefer to use my first 60 munitions to upgrade a pioneer with a flamethrower almost every game. It deals with units that get into buildings, allows you to beat enemy engineer squads easily and does great damage against conscripts and HMG teams as well. It's more reliable than grenades and will end up being more efficient over the long run, though be careful to keep it alive.

That being said, don't underestimate rifle grenades later in the game. In a close fight, near the end of a battle, I've managed to wipe out four and five man infantry squads with a rifle grenade when they all had low health. It's just not very cost-effective early."

[GUIDE] COH2: Support Weapon Kampaneya build (heavy MG start)

For a list of the units described in this, check out my Soviet Unit Guide here.

1. Send first engineer to cap.
2. Build engineer.
3. Use second engineer to build SWC.
4. Send second engineer to cap the other direction.
5. Build three Maxim MG teams.
6. Upgrade your engineers with flamethrowers.  You'll need this to force infantry out of buildings.
7. Get a Conscript squad.  You can use this to capture, and also to merge your Conscripts into understrength Maxim squads in the field.
8. Select "Guards Motor Coordination Tactics" as your doctrine.
9. Get a Guards squad (to protect against early scout car or flammenwerfers).
1. Upgrade it with the DPS light machine guns ASAP for vehicle buttoning and anti-infantry firepower.
10. Build a fuel depot.
11. Build mines EVERYWHERE with your engineers, you'll be floating a lot of munitions.  I can not understate how important this is.
12. When you have about 50 fuel, build the Tankoviy Battalion Command.
13. Build an SU-85.  Keep it at the back of the army to deal with tanks when they roll up.  Make sure focused sight is on.
14. If you have enough fuel, build another SU-85.  Otherwise, build a ZiS-3 anti-tank gun (used to support the SU-85 in case it gets flanked, plus you can barrage infantry).
15. If you don't have a second SU-85, get one now.

At this point you should be in phenomenal shape.  Your machine guns will easily deal with mass grenadiers or panzergrenadiers.  You can even attack move deployed MG42 teams and win with your maxims due to your larger crew size.  Your mortar will help you deal damage to pinned troops, and can be used to kill snipers as well.

After your two SU-85s are out it'll be very difficult to break you anywhere.  You can now build the Mechanized Armor Kampaneya and crank out T-34/85s if you'd like, for extra flexibility.   Don't forget about Mark Vehicle to make vehicle kills even easier.


Optional things to build:

• Get the 120mm Mortar squad (unlocked through your doctrine).  Useful for dealing even more damage against enemy infantry, and can occasionally kill snipers too.
• Get another Guards squad if you need help capping, or quickly forcing cappers away from victory points using their grenades.
• Upgrade your headquarters to heal infantry.
• RPG-43 Anti-tank grenades for your Conscript(s), to allow them to damage German tank engines to make kills easier.
• M5 Halftrack to reinforce your troops in the field.

Pain points:

• Before your second MG reaches the front lines, you are quite vulnerable and most likely outnumbered in the field.  Be very careful not to lose your engineers (you need them for capping and mines later) or let your first MG take too much damage.  Play conservatively and let them take your fuel if need be so that you can counter-attack in force.
• Note that your Maxim teams can deploy and kill an MG42 team, even if they're deployed first and shooting you.
• Snipers are a little tricky, but if you can suppress the infantry in front of it you can literally rush an MG team right into him.  A combination of your fast deploy times + one burst from the Maxim can kill him.
• A late mortar is easily countered by your 120mm, which can kill their crew in a single barrage (and you have more range).
• An early mortar is harder to deal with- get used to moving your MGs constantly, even during fights after suppressing the enemy.  Look for opportunities to rush it with flamers or your guard troops.
• Units in buildings can be taken care of by your flamer engineers.  If it's an MG, use your own MG squad to bait its fire.
• The flammenwerfer halftrack is your primary concern.  You have to fight battles aggressively to make sure you can get Guards onto the field at the same time as it.  After you have Guards squads it can only really harass your cappers on the flanks, so use mines and your second Guards squad liberally to kill or drive it off.
• In the event the enemy has enough fuel to build a Panther, you may need to go build T-34/85s to Ram it.  SU-85s don't do good damage against Panther frontal armor, though Mark Vehicle will help.

NS2 Stats: "Versed" award/title

Give to the person with the most number of kills with different weapons.

Getting a kill with parasite and bite would count as two, for example.  Someone who got a kill with a rifle, welder and shotgun would have 3.

Flammenwerfer Vs SU85

This is pretty funny.  I won't spoil it by saying any more...

Countering Early Panzer Grenadiers

Someone on COH2.org talked about facing early Panzer Grenadiers.  The essence of the strategy is that the Germans rush straight for Tier 2, saving manpower to crank out the superior PG squads to combat Conscripts (or even Soviet elite infantry).  They tend take back the map and force the Russians back into their base using most cost-effective, stronger infantry.

Here's the original post:
My early game on the Soviet side is pretty much Conscript spam. I try to follow that up in the mid-game with a quick T-34. I'm admittedly not a great play, but I'm able to win about 60% of my games with this strategy and manage to be competitive in most of the ones I lose...until lately.

I've been running into a German strategy that sacrifices early map control for a quick Tier 2. They only build two grens from Tier 1 and maybe one additional engineer. No support units (MGs, snipers, or mortars). In the very early game, I'm able to dominate the map, but at around the 6-7 minute mark (don't quote me on the exact timing), a couple PGren squads hit the field and manage to push me off the map. Maybe 6-7 minutes isn't that early for a PGren, but they seem to churn out 2 or 3 in no time, like they were saving up the manpower until T2 was built. By the time I get my T-34 out at around the 8-minute mark, one of the PGren squads is about to get shreks and there's a good chance they have a Pak on the way.

I think the obvious counter to this is Shock Troops, which I've tried. And maybe that is the right answer and I've just been outplayed (which is entirely possible). In one of the games, I think I was trying too hard to hold off the PGrens with my Conscripts and was draining manpower to reinforce them. As a result, I was only able to afford one squad of Shock Troops before the game was already pretty much over.

Any ideas on how to adapt my strategy once I see that early PGren squad? Or maybe I need a more versatile/flexible early build that will stand a better chance when this happens.




Here are my thoughts:

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.

[GUIDE] COH2: M3A1 Light Scout Car with Flamers, aka "The Clown Car"

The M3A1 Light Scout Car is built out of the Special Rifle Command and is a powerful early game vehicle.

In addition to a decently damaging mounted machine gun, it can carry a single infantry squad in the back that can fire out of the vehicle.

Stick any old Conscript squad in there and it'll be useful for flanking and moving infantry quickly, but stick an engineer with a ROKS-3 Flamethrower in the car and you'll discover the true power.

In the early game, nothing beats the anti-infantry power of the flamethrower.  It has a good area of effect, great damage, and ignores or gets bonuses against infantry in cover or in buildings.  There's literally no way to hide or negate flamethrower damage.

The common way of dealing with engineers and pioneers with flamethrowers is to either focus them down quick due to their low health, or to suppress them using machine gun fire.

Coincidentally, the M3A1 prevents both!  Engineers will take no damage while inside the car, and cannot be suppressed.  This allows them to keep firing the flamethrower to their heart's content, quickly roasting enemy troops.

This is especially effective against HMG teams, who have no defense against the scout car.

You should generally keep the car away from grenadiers who can kill it in two panzerfausts (which cost 25 munitions each) but with good kiting you can still see the car be effective.


An alternate strategy is to put a sniper team in the car, which keeps them safe from harm while allowing them to snipe with impunity.  Their long range means you can easily keep the car away from grenadiers' panzerfausts while still allowing the snipers to fire.

A third strategy is to put Guards into the car, as they will fire their anti-tank PTRS rifles even while moving.  This can be useful for killing flammenwerfer half-tracks or unupgraded scout cars.

Note that as the game progresses, the abundance of anti-tank weaponry severely weakens this strategy.  However, don't discount how much territory you can swallow up by intelligent use of the "Clown Car" early on.


In summary:

• The M3A1 Scout Car gives your infantry extra speed, mobility, and the ability to ignore suppression.
• You can capture while in the car.
• Put in:
• flamethrower engineers in to kill infantry, especially weapon teams
• Snipers to chip away at your opponent's squad at long range, draining manpower
• Guards to kill light vehicles.

[GUIDE] COH2 Soviet Doctrine Commanders Overview

Guards Motor Coordination Tactics
[1 CP] Guards Rifle Infantry

• The elite ranged Soviet infantry, they excel at combat at medium and long-range.  They come with anti-tank rifles that do decent but unspectacular damage, easily killing light vehicles but provide a limited threat against the frontal armor of German tanks.  From the side or behind however, they can pose quite a threat.
• The infantry can also be upgraded with submachine guns to make them more dangerous in close combat.

[1 CP] HM-38 120mm Mortar

• This will replace your existing mortar from the Support Weapon Kampaneya.  Note that if you already built a mortar, it will not be upgraded to the stronger version.
• This gives the mortar team longer range, more damage and a much larger area of effect.  Costs more manpower.

[3 CP] Mark Vehicle (80 munitions)

• Targeted vehicle takes more damage for sixty seconds.

[4 CP] Vehicle Crew Repair Training

• Provides vehicles the ability to repair their tanks when not in combat.  Must be used on vehicles individually (does not apply to all vehicles you own).  Cannot fire main gun while under repairs.

[4 CP] T34/85 Upgrade (720 MP, 260 fuel, calls in two tanks)

• Instantly summons two T-34/85 tanks, with the same stats as a regular T-34 but they have a more powerful main gun that is better able to penetrate enemy armor.

Guards Rifle Anti-Tank Tactics
[1 CP] Guards Rifle Infantry

• The elite ranged Soviet infantry, they excel at combat at medium and long-range.  They come with anti-tank rifles that do decent but unspectacular damage, easily killing light vehicles but provide a limited threat against the frontal armor of German tanks.  From the side or behind however, they can pose quite a threat.
• The infantry can also be upgraded with submachine guns to make them more dangerous in close combat.

[1 CP] Hit the Dirt!

• Gives Conscript squads the ability to "hit the dirt", preventing them from moving while substantially reducing incoming damage from bullets.
• Squad cannot move when Hit the Dirt is active, but can still retreat.
• Still vulnerable to explosives and flamethrowers.  Be careful about using it too early, and then having an enemy toss a bundled grenade into your stationary squad.

[2 CP] Conscript Assault Package Upgrade

• Allows you to upgrade Conscripts with two PPsH submachine guns.
• Significantly increases short-range firepower.

[4 CP] ML-20 152mm Howitzer

• A structure constructable by your engineers anywhere on the map, it has a very long range and a free artillery barrage ability.
• You can likely build it in on the outside edge of your base and hit just about anywhere on the map excluding their base sector.

[6 CP] IL-2 Sturmovik Attacks

• Launches an aircraft that patrols the given area, firing at targets that linger.  Can deal good damage against both infantry and tanks.

Shock Rifle Frontline Tactics
[1 CP] Shock Troops

• Shock Troops are the toughest Soviet infantry, able to withstand incredible amounts of damage.
• Excellent close-combat fighters between their grenades and SMGs.
• Still vulnerable to suppression, snipers, grenades and tanks.

[2 CP] AT-Gun Ambush Tactics

• Allows you to camouflage your ZiS anti-tank gun.

[4 CP] KV-8 Flamethrower Tank

• Allows you to call in a tank with comparable stats to a T-34 that can switch between a powerful flamethrower and a normal tank main gun.
• The flamethrower is very effective, quickly toasting or chasing off infantry within reach.
• The main gun is mediocre, and will struggle against German tanks' front armor
• While the KV-8 has a good amount of health, it has poor armor and thus most hits will end up penetrating and doing damage.

[4 CP] Incendiary Artillery Barrage

• Launches a quick barrage of incendiary rounds, essentially blanketing the area in molotovs.  Will not injure vehicles.

[5 CP] IS-2 Heavy Tank

• A very expensive off-map tank call-in, it can be useful when you need an all-purpose, high health tank. 
• The main gun will penetrate most German armor but is not particularly damaging.
• The IS-2 also does not have great armor, but the high health means that it will stay alive for a long time anyway.  Just be prepared to repair it.
• In most scenarios, with the balance as it is now, it's a better idea to build T-34s or tank destroyers instead if you can.

Shock Motor Heavy Tactics
[1 CP] Shock Troops

• Shock Troops are the toughest Soviet infantry, able to withstand incredible amounts of damage.
• Excellent close-combat fighters between their grenades and SMGs.
• Still vulnerable to suppression, snipers, grenades and tanks.

[2 CP] Armored Vehicle Detection

• Activatable global ability that allows your infantry to detect vehicles through the fog of war.

[2 CP] Conscript repair kit

• Allows Conscripts to repair.  This includes vehicles, structures and bridges.

[5 CP] ISU-152 Heavy Assault Gun

• A long-range tank that fires slowly but has a powerful, large area-of effect shell.  Essentially mobile artillery that only fires one round at a time.
• Its main gun is especially powerful against infantry but does good damage against vehicles as well.
• Vulnerable to flanking, and does not have high health or armor.

[6 CP] IL-2 Precision Bomb Strike

• Launches a bombing run that drops four massive explosives.  Easily dodged but very powerful.

NKVD Disruption Tactics.
[1 CP] Radio Intercept

• Tells you whenever the enemy completes building of a unit.

[2 CP] Recon Flight

• Flies an aircraft over the target area to scout for you temporarily.

[3 CP] Rapid Construction

• Global ability that replaces any infantry you lose while it is active with Conscript squads.

[5 CP] Fear Propaganda Artillery

• Makes infantry in the area randomly retreat or fight less effectively for a short period.

[6 CP] IL-2 Sturmovik Attacks

• Delivers a powerful strafing run that can kill enemy infantry and damage enemy tanks.

Anti-Infantry Tactics.
[1 CP] Shock Troops

• Shock Troops are the toughest Soviet infantry, able to withstand incredible amounts of damage.
• Excellent close-combat fighters between their grenades and SMGs.
• Still vulnerable to suppression, snipers, grenades and tanks.

[2 CP] Recon Overflight

• Flies an aircraft over the target area to scout for you temporarily.

[4 CP] KV-8 Flamethrower Tank

• Allows you to call in a tank with comparable stats to a T-34 that can switch between a powerful flamethrower and a normal tank main gun.
• The flamethrower is very effective, quickly toasting or chasing off infantry within reach.
• The main gun is mediocre, and will struggle against German tanks' front armor
• While the KV-8 has a good amount of health, it has poor armor and thus most hits will end up penetrating and doing damage.
• lobal ability that replaces any infantry you lose while it is active with Conscript squads.

[4 CP] Incendiary Artillery Barrage

• Launches a quick barrage of incendiary rounds, essentially blanketing the area in molotovs.  Will not injure vehicles.

[6 CP] Fear Propaganda Artillery

• Makes infantry in the area randomly retreat or fight less effectively for a short period.

Armored Assault Tactics.
[1 CP] Radio Intercept

• Tells you whenever the enemy completes building of a unit.

[4 CP] Vehicle Crew Repair Training

• Provides vehicles the ability to repair their tanks when not in combat.  Must be used on vehicles individually (does not apply to all vehicles you own).  Cannot fire main gun while under repairs.

[4 CP] T34/85 Upgrade

• Replaces the existing T-34/76 with the T-34/85, giving it a more powerful main gun that is better able to penetrate enemy armor.
• Will not upgrade already built T-34/76s.

[4 CP] IS-2 Heavy Tank

• A very expensive off-map tank call-in, it can be useful when you need an all-purpose, high health tank. 
• The main gun will penetrate most German armor but is not particularly damaging.
• The IS-2 also does not have great armor, but the high health means that it will stay alive for a long time anyway.  Just be prepared to repair it.
• In most scenarios, with the balance as it is now, it's a better idea to build T-34s or tank destroyers instead if you can.

[6 CP] IL-2 Sturmovik Attacks

• Delivers a powerful strafing run that can kill enemy infantry and damage enemy tanks.

[GUIDE] Nystrom German build order

Nystrom was one of the best COH1 players and has gone on to play in COH2.  Last I checked he claimed he was 33-0 (and I would believe it based on watching him play).

After watching his Twitch stream (here) you can see his German build:

• Engineer
• Infanterie Companie
• Grenadier
• Grenadier
• Grenadier
• Grenadier
• HMG
• Tier 2
• Fuel Depot

Commander choice is Jaeger Infantry.

Upgrade an engineer with a flamer when possible.

Nystrom plays a very atypical German game.  He focuses on aggressive Grenadier play, overwhelming the enemy with local superiority and mind games with his HMG.

Instead of scattering his army, he sends all troops (both engis and the first few grenadiers) to his "opponent's" side of the map.  He never chooses to fight early battles 1v1, instead always having a numerical advantage because of how many troops he sends. For example, he'll use his first two pioneers to fight an enemy engineer, waiting for backup if one of them is further behind.

The general goal is to harass the enemy and force him to overcommit to tier 1 units to fight you back.  You're trying to buy time while you tech straight to Tier 3.  If he has only light vehicles and infantry, get an Flakpanzer.  Otherwise, get a Panzer IV.

[GUIDE] COH2 German Commanders/Doctrines

Updated as of 6/16/2013.  As the game is still in open beta and a lot of people consider the German doctrines underpowered, don't be surprised if they end up changing.


Festung Armor Doctrine

• [2 CP] Panzer Tactician
• Allows your vehicles to instantly deploy smoke, obscuring them from sight from the enemy.  Useful for escaping, or to buy yourself a crucial few seconds to win a tank battle (as long as you can see the enemy tank with another unit you can still fire).
• [3 CP] Hull Down
• [4 CP] Pak 43 Emplacement
• [4 CP] Command Tank
• [6 CP] Railway Artillery Support
• Fires three large explosive rounds at the area.

Festung Support Doctrine

• [2 CP] SdKfz 250/7 Mortar Half-track
• [2 CP] Smoke Bombs
• Summons a bomber that drops (non-damaging) smoke pots onto the field, blocking line of vision.  Useful for protecting your tanks, attacking machine gun/AT gun positions, or just being sneaky.  There's a significant delay (~10 seconds) before it goes off, so you have to think ahead.
• [3 CP] Relief Infantry
• [4 CP] IeFH 18 Artillery
• [6 CP] Sector Artillery

Jaeger Armor Doctrine

• [2 CP] (PASSIVE) Half-track Riegel Anti-Tank Mine
• [2 CP] Reconnaissance Overflight (80 munitions)
• [3 CP] (PASSIVE) Spotting Scope (30 munitions per vehicle)
• Improves sight range when stationary.
• [5 CP] Elefant Heavy Tank Destroyer (640 MP, 260 fuel)
• [5 CP] Stuka Bombing Strike (160 munitions)
• Drops a 50kg bomb that destroys almost everything it hits.
• Effective against infantry and armor.
• Will neutralize a capture point if hit (including victory points).

Jaeger Infantry Doctrine

• [1 CP] Ambush Camouflage (30 munitions per unit upgraded)
• Grenadiers, Panzer Grenadiers and HMGs can be camouflaged in cover or deep snow.  When they attack, they will temporarily increase their damage.
• [2 CP] Jaeger Light Infantry Upgrade
• Allows infantry to be upgraded with Gewehr 43s, improving their damage output.
• Also allows infantry to interrogate dying enemy troops (the ones rolling around on the ground) to temporarily reveal enemy units in the fog of war.ns
• [3 CP] Tactical Movement (40 munitions, lasts 20 seconds)
• [4 CP] Light Artillery Barrage (120 munitions)
• [6 CP] Stuka Close Air Support (240 munitions)

[TIPS] COH2: Crushing infantry with heavy vehicles

One of the interesting elements of COH2 (and it's predecessor, COH1) is the fact that heavy vehicles can crush infantry.  Heavy vehicles are units like tanks and assault guns.  Halftracks and scout cars cannot crush infantry.

The key to crushing infantry is to continue moving and ramming into them as much as possible.  Infantry are crushed when they are either touch or are touched by a heavy vehicle under certain situations.

Namely, infantry are crushed when touched by a tank when

1. they have nowhere else to go (e.g. pressed up against a wall)
2. individual squad members have been forced a certain distance from their squad
3. squad members are too slow to move away from the tank (for example, when suppressed or pinned).

Continually ramming infantry in a squad will automatically force the squad to split apart, and when they try to reform together they'll run into your tank and instantly die.

A key to being a good armor commander is to know when the enemy is out of AT weapons in the local vicinity.  For example, let's say I have a Stug fighting a Conscript squad trying to capture a point.  The Conscript squad tosses their AT grenade and does about 20% of my tank's health in damage.  I shoot at them while they capture, but the Stug is not a good anti-infantry tank.  However, because they are stuck in one position trying to capture a point, I can run up to them and ram them repeatedly until they are forced to retreat or lose the squad.

This is especially important when fighting the Russians, as they often use the T-34 Ram ability to knock out your tanks' main guns.  Don't just take them out of the fight!  Usually you still have plenty of health left on your tank and you can use it to crush enemy infantry.

COH2: Help, I'm being killed by snipers!

Snipers are a high-risk, high-reward unit.  They can one shot most infantry and have very long range (far longer than their sight range, so make sure to scout ahead for them).

Fighting against them can be very frustrating.  Losing men repeatedly at a distance and feeling helpless can be one of the most annoying situations in the game.  Smart sniper commanders make sure to support their snipers with MGs or close-combat infantry to prevent you from rushing at them.


In general, when facing snipers, choose one of two options:

1. Retreat and attack/capture somewhere else, leaving the slow sniper behind and forcing them to either move out of position or stay put and have nobody to shoot.
2. Attack in overwhelming force, forcing a retreat.

Option #2 is not always possible- sometimes the enemy is just too dug in and there's no good flanking routes (for example, right outside their base).  Just fall back and let them advance, then attack them when they spread out to capture.

Remember that snipers are very slow and are no longer camouflaged when moving, making them quite vulnerable without a static defense around them.

The Scout Cars for both German and Russian armies are very effective at killing snipers.  Their fast speed, anti-infantry weapons and above-average "reveal" radius for enemy snipers makes them good at flushing and then hunting down snipers.  Don't be afraid to chase retreating snipers either to get the kill.

Note that charging into AT weapons is obviously a bad idea.  Even early in the game, Conscripts and Grenadiers have AT grenades and Panzerfausts that can quickly finish off a scout car.  However, if you see the opportunity, don't be afraid to trade your scout car for their sniper since it's an excellent trade in terms of resources.  Remember that unupgraded scout cars are nearly as good against snipers as their upgraded version.

Audemed vs. Dullahan (this German sniper is ridiculous)

Replay is here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0R5wbcqAG8


Exciting game between two high-level players.  The game is especially notable for a German sniper who racks up a ridiculous number of kills.



German Analysis
The most obvious difference from the norm is that Audemed goes for Grenadier, Grenadier, Sniper, MG.  Generally German players get two MGs since snipers are easily overrun and take a lot of micro to keep alive.

Through a combination of good play and some luck, Audemed manages to keep the sniper alive for much longer than normal and does a lot of damage.  Still, I can't help but feel a second MG would still have been much more effective against the constantly rushing opponent (especially since Dullahan went shock troops over Guards, who are forced to get closer to be effective).

He opts against Panzergrenadiers, instead relying on about two Grenadier squads all game equipped with Gewehr 43s and later an LMG.  This strikes me as acceptable- he doesn't want to make the MP investment to buy the more expensive panzergrenadiers, and he feels that he has the infantry threat under control.  For the most part this is true as he actually has more trouble with the constant stream of Assault Guns.  When he does get overrun by infantry, an extra MG would have done more than a Panzergrenadier squad.

I would have liked to see the extra resulting manpower re-invested into an early Fuel Depot, as he obviously had a fuel-heavy strat planned with Panzer IV usage.

After his scout car started to fight enemy Assault Guns, I think he could have used it to devastating effect in the southern VP area to chase off infantry squads instead of just keeping it forwards in a suicidal position.

He floats munitions through a lot of it- pioneers with flamers would have helped a lot against the enemy infantry.


Russian Analysis
Two biggest notes about the Russian side:

1.  He does a generally better job at microing: keeping units alive, dealing good damage with grenades and flanking.

2. The Russian doctrine bonuses are much better than the German ones.  Having Conscripts able to repair your tank is ridiculous, plus the ISU tank call ins were very strong.

He got far too cocky at a few points of the game, either pushing over the bridges or actually into the opposing base at one point.  Secure the victory, don't gloat.  A little extra time on defense can lead to some devastating mine traps.

His barbed wire field to the north felt like it hurt him more than his opponent.  I think moving it to the west (to slow down the north flanking route) would have made more sense.

Dullahan made some excellent plays keeping low numbered shock troop squads around to kill off the enemy, relying on veterancy and armor to keep them alive.

There were at least two times when he should have "merged" his Conscripts into a Pak AT gun crew but didn't, allowing the crew to later die and be recaptured.

Great use of smoke to plow through enemy defenses, especially his assault gun + shock troops vs. Panzer 4 + Pak AT gun in the battle for the middle VP.

COH2: Get Me Started! as Russians

This is quick explanation of a "get me started" strategy as Russians.

Early Game
When the game starts, send your engineer out to start capturing.  Build three Conscript squads, then research Molotov Cocktails.  Build another Conscript squad, then an Engineer, then another Conscript squad.

The key to the Russians is to constantly be capturing, which is not the same as being aggressive.  You want to flank the Germans constantly and capture points behind them, because you will have more squads and faster squads.  Back off when faced against grenadiers, as they usually have MG support and you want to avoid retreating.  When the Germans are overextended, attack their position in force.  You want to be sending Conscripts at them from all directions.  Get next to the MG team and throw a Molotov to force retreats, then kill as many soldiers as you can while their army runs.  Recapture anything you lost, and then back off.  You don't want to fight the Germans in a pitched fight- you want to attack them when they're stretched thin, trying to capture points.  Don't worry about holding choke points- concern yourself with hiding squads in their territory instead.

Upgrading engineers with flamethrowers will allow you to force enemies out of buildings and to kill them quickly when you flank.

If you get pinned in your base, build a Support Weapon Kampaneya and use a mortar team to break out.  Otherwise, build a Special Rifle Command.


Mid Game
Your commander choice will have given you access to either Shock Troops or Guards Rifle Infantry at the Special Rifle Command.  Build two squads of it.  Shock troops are excellent close range fighters, while the Guards are strong at medium and long range.  Make sure to get their weapon upgrades that cost munitions.

Continue the general strategy of falling back when the Germans push, then attacking with overwhelming force at a point when they stretch out to try to capture points outside of their initial push area.

You will need to research AT grenades for your Conscripts to hold off enemy vehicles.  Anything that is a Stug or weaker (scout cars, halftracks, etc.) can be dealt with by AT grenades.

If they build a Flakpanzer or Panzer IV, you will need something stronger than AT grenades.  If your fuel situation is good, you can skip straight to the Mechanized Armor Kampaneya. If they had a fuel depot and got it out before you've saved enough fuel, get the Support Weapon Kampeneya and build an AT gun.

Late Game
Your ideal building is the Mechanized Armor Kampaneya.  It will allow you to build T-34s, which are solid all-around tanks.  If they have lack Panthers or Tigers, T-34 spam will likely win you the game.  Note that the T-34 Ram ability can be used to essentially trade tanks, which usually leaves you the winner since you have more vehicles.

If they get heavy armor, it gets trickier.  If you have access to the IS-2 through your commander upgrades, purchase that and use it to help.  Otherwise, don't forget that AT guns have solid penetration all game long, though their damage is low against heavy tanks.

If you get a chance, try to get the Tankoviy Battle Command up.  The Rocket Truck provides good long-range anti-infantry bombardment, and the SU-76M Assault gun provides decent AT firepower and an excellent medium-range infantry shell barrage.


You may benefit from reading the Russian Units Overview as well as viewing all of my COH2 Guides.

COH2: Get Me Started as Germans

This is quick explanation of a "get me started" strategy as Germans.

Early Game
When the game starts, tell your pioneer to build an Infanterie Kompanie (this is the only unit-producing structure you can build initially).

When it finishes, send your pioneer to capture points.  Immediately build a grenadier squad.  Your next units to build will be an HMG team, Grenadier squad and a HMG team.

Send your grenadiers and pioneers out to capture points.  Keep your HMG teams undeployed behind them.  Deploy them to support your troops when they encounter resistance.

When you are on your second HMG team, research the next tier at your headquarters.  Build a pioneer unit and build a Leichte Mechanized Kompanie.  Build a Panzergrenadier, then a Scout Car.


Mid Game

At this point, try to maintain at least half the resources of the map and two of the three VP points.  Don't use your HMG teams to chase squads around the map- keep them deployed at key checkpoints.

React to what your enemy is building.  If they are building vehicles, get AT guns.  If they are spamming infantry, more HMG teams and Panzergrenadiers will crush them.

Try to skip tier 3 and go to the final tier if you can.  You want to build a Fuel Depot to help your fuel income to afford expensive tanks.  If you're in trouble, build the Tier 3 structure (Support Armor Korps) and crank out Panzer IVs.  They're good all-around tanks.  If you're only having trouble with vehicles, Stugs can do the job.  Flakpanzer will slaughter infantry if that's your primary issue.

Late Game
At this point, you roll out the final unit structure, the Heavy Panzer Korps.  Try to build two Panthers out of it, as they will annihilate opposing armor in addition to being a medium threat to infantry through the use of crushing and their vehicle mounted MG.

Mixing in a Panzerwerfer can be devastating against repairing engineers or infantry-based armies.



You may benefit from reading the German Units Overview as well as viewing all of my COH2 Guides.

COH2: How do I destroy armored vehicles?

What is an armored vehicle?
Understanding armor is probably the single most important thing about Company of Heroes 2.

Vehicles fall into one of two different categories:

• Light armored vehicles (e.g. scout cars, halftracks)
• Heavy armor vehicles (tanks)

The key difference is that light vehicles can be damaged by small arms fire (like the regular guns from grenadiers, conscripts, engineers, pioneers, etc.) while tanks cannot.  Even if you sit an engineer at point blank behind an enemy Tiger for an hour, it will not do even a single point of damage to it.

Okay, so all heavy armor vehicles are the same, right?

Nope.  There are two different attributes that vehicles have:

• Armor thickness/deflection
• How much damage is reduced per hit.  Differs based on the "side" of the vehicle.  Frontal armor is the strongest, followed by side armor.  Rear armor on all vehicles is supectible to almost all AT weapons.
• Health
• How much damage the vehicle must take before being destroyed.

Deflection allows your tanks to get shot at and shrug off hits like they're nothing.

Health indicates how much damage your vehicle will take before dying, which is any damage that got past the deflection.

Generally, these two attributes correlate.  Vehicles with thick armor have a lot of health.

How do I kill armored vehicles?

Light armored vehicles can be killed with regular gunfire in a pinch.  Both heavy and light armor vehicles are susceptible to AT weapons.  Typically, light vehicles are destroyed in 2-3 AT weapon hits, while heavy vehicles can take anywhere from 4 to 20 shots to kill depending on the situation (it averages around 6 in general).

A T-70 Soviet Light Tank can shoot at the front armor of a German Tiger all day and never get around to killing it.  An IS-2 can get behind the Tiger and destroy it in only a few shots.  Armor facing makes a huge difference.

What Anti-Tank (AT) weapons should I be using?

This really depends on the "phase" of the game.  Early on you have limited AT options, but the enemy only has access to light vehicles.  You tend to rely on activated infantry abilities like Panzerfausts, AT grenades or mines. If their first vehicles are delayed, you might be able to go straight to AT guns.

In the "mid-game", you have to face your first real tanks: either light or medium.  Correspondingly, you also have access to your own tanks, plus AT guns.  AT guns are devastating in this phase because most vehicles either lack the armor or the mobility to face them, and surprise disables and resulting kills can happen to tanks.  Infantry AT upgrades (like Panzerschreks) are strong in this period because you likely have excess munitions and the infantry are more mobile than AT guns.

In the "late game", you face heavy tanks and special Commander ability tanks (such as Tigers).  You have access to your full arsenal and will most likely have phased out most infantry AT.  AT guns still do decent damage but aren't as useful as heavy tanks and typically lose in standup fights.  Killing tanks in the end game can be very difficult and often you are forced to settle for driving them back for repairs.

What is a list of all the possible AT weapons?

Categorized by the "phase" of the game you are likely to use them:

Early game

• Soviet
• Conscripts (RPG-43 AT Grenade)
• Engineers (lay mines)
• Guards Rifle Infantry (they come with PTRS anti-tank rifles)
• German
• Grenadiers (Fire Panzerfaust)
• Pioneers (Teller AT mines)
• MG42 HMG team (Fire Incendiary AP rounds.  Only useful against light vehicles, requires Veteran)
• Scout Car (2cm Autocannon upgrade, useful only against light vehicles)

Mid game

• Soviet
• T-70 Light Tank
• T-34/76 Medium Tank
• ZiS-3 AT Gun
• SU-76M Assault Gun
• KV-8 Flamethrower Tank
• German
• Panzergrenadiers (Dual Panzerschrek upgrade, also Bundled Model 24 grenade which can be used against light vehicles)
• Pak40 AT Gun
• Stug III Assault Gun
• Flakpanzer Ostwind (Excellent damage against light vehicles, minimal damage against tanks, though you can do okay if you can hit it in the rear)
• Panzer IV Medium Tank

Late game

• Soviet
• SU-85 Medium Tank Destroyer
• IS-2 Heavy Tank
• ISU-152 Assault Gun
• German
• Sturmpanzer IV Assault Gun
• Panther V Medium Tank
• Elefant Tank
• Tiger

Mass Effect 3: Ambassador Din Korlack's door is bugged

Just leave the area and come back in.  Then the door will open fine.