Company of Heroes

Just played a game where I got owned. I dont think iv ever seen a game like this.. Basically what happend is this guy built two Kittens, Im not sure what they are called... but I call them kittens. Went around the map used the fast caping of the PE and caped as much fuel as he could.

At the 8 min mark he had a Marder out.. My slow ass Teir2 truck was just barley making its way onto the map at that point. You just cant outcpap the PE, and the Marder is the suppose to be late tier??

Just check out the replay and you will see what I mean. Ill admit im not even close to the best british player in the world but.. Im just amazed at how fast the PE can tech up with there very good caping ability. And not only that, Had he not built any HT's and just went strait for the Marder, he could have gotten it out even faster and destroyed my hq.

Just play the replay at 8X speed and you will see what I mean. Brits man, Im seriously thinking about giving up on them, even though ATM they are my favorite side, and Maybe going back to the Americans..

Just tried it for myself, I managed to get one out in almost 6 1/2 Min On Ango, could have maybe even pushed it earlier. Imagine what sombody could do in a high fuel map, one of the best Anti Tank gun ingame in the field in a little over 5 or 6 min.

Here is the replay..

A brits you should use your HQ to get the income you want. Get the fuel to quickly get some sappers and dont give PE any fuels. Sappers with PIAT's abosoluty rape them, maybe give that a try.

I don't think sappers are the answer. Marder can just run away, and once it's back in the fog of warp sappers run at half speed, very frustrating. Even if it takes a PIAT hit the reload time is too long, it just gets out of range quickly. At most the PIATs are good for scaring away Marders for a minute, but they will be back.

Marder + mp44 = Good freaking game. You can't get up close to button the marder because granadier mp44's are the best assault rifles in the game, while the marder has a range greater than an at gun.

I think getting sappers out asap either way is probably the only solution.

I am not sure that your build order was not in error, rather then the fast tech to marder for the PE player. you built 2 bren carriers basically using all your fuel up, and delaying your LT. In addition while you destroyed the PE players 1st HT, you let the 2nd one escape, when you could have chased it down. Also you did not cap fuel until 2+ minutes into the game, and the PE player capped 4 Fuel points to your 2.

The bren carriers might work, but you were overly defensive and did not attack the enemy enough imo to see if they would be successful.

In the 2nd game, the opposing brit player never even bothered to move his HQ units from his base. While i agree with you that PE fast tech to a marder + assault rifles looks tough to crack, i think there are still build orders/ways to do it.

The trick is to move closer after shooting/during reload. PIAT's owns these guys, you can also circle strafe it with a Stuart Light Tank. (Remember PIAT's can shoot over hedges etc.) If its enemy territory move your LT with them so they move faster. You can also button the vehicle with a brengun so it stops. Or use AP rounds on your brencarrier.

they are too quick to tech up imo aswell, but here's what i'd do:

tommies with bren button the marder

then either piats in the ass or a stuart, or even a 25 pounder on top while it's buttoned (only if u managed to get it up very quickly ofc-which never happens in my games:/)

I've always found that flanking the marder with 2 PIAT sapper squads does the trick. It's hard to tech that fast as british though and if they have infantry you may have to sacrifice your sappers to just make the marder run away with its tail between its legs. That should get you enough time to throw up an AT gun. When he comes back and tries to take out the gun, flank him again while he's worried with the AT gun.

A mauder is a awsome AT weapon but thats also its downfall against the brits, a decent brit player doesn't even get any tanks.

Mauders have very poor armour and the easiest way to take them out is with tommie spam all the way to tier 2 and get a squad or 2 of piats depending on what your oponent is doing. Bren piat combo will deal with any armor.

Now to adress the fact he got a mauder before you got tier 2, that really shouldn't happen. Spam tommies prob about 4 or 5 squads will do, upgrade them with brens and nades, get 2 lt's and make sure your hq is on high munitions(this way get plenty of mun for upgrades) . Cut of his strat point and build a trench hope in it and its gg. He can't cut you off so you can easly go back and defend your territory while keeping a tommie in a trench will hold off anythign accept a full scale attack.

To finish him off get your sappers to build a 25 pounder or 2.

If unsupported you can kill a marder of force it to retreat with small arms. It takes some time, but this thing has paper thin armor and can´t turn fast enough and is too inaccurate to really hurt you´re squads.

Note: This is no option if the marder is supported as it takes too long, but nice to finish one off or if you remove the infantry.

Just faced this strat - truely evil when done well.

Replay is attached.

Marder comes onfield at 5:55ish, something like thirty seconds after my FST. No sappers until at least 7 mins and no PIATs until some time after that.

Game is all over but the shouting by 12:30ish when the FJs come onto the field.

Considering it was Beaux I had good map control at the start so allowing him too many resources wasn't really the problem.

Looking back at it, I probably should have gone for a 17 pounder at the first available opportunity to try and stop him from taking out my command truck...

Also, I've got to work on deleting my trenches after I leave them.

It was a tense game and hung in the balance for a while there but in the end the marder/FJ combo got the best of me. With marders coming out at around the 6 minute mark the British are really fighting an uphill battle.

Any advice is appreciated.

Well, for that map I think you have to stay on "your side" of the river, anything else and you get situations like you were unfortunately in where your trucks get destroyed before they can do anything. I have no personal experience to draw from as Brit's on that map but I think it would be very tough for the Brit's to beat either German faction on that map. I think your best chance is to invest some early fuel in Bren carrier's to force him to invest his fuel in something else besides fast AC's or Marder3's and park your HQ truck on a fuel point. The Bren's would give you some needed mobility early game and also some needed extra firepower vs. the early scout cars or HT's. You have to use the Bren's+infantry to force him to get a MT-HT or shrek's before that Marder3. You simply cannot let him have fuel uncontested allowing him to invest his manpower in tech instead of units.

With Bren's you'll have the mobility to raid his fuel and deny him a fight unless it's to your advantage. That will force him to invest fuel in defensive operations or incendiary grenades or SOMETHING instead of straight tech to that Marder3. If he went Logistik's you can force him to go Kampgrouppe for shrek's if you successfully raid his fuel which makes Marder's a non-factor.

Good luck man.

Thanks for the advice Morganan.

To be honest (and this is just poor prep. on my part) I've never played PE so I have no idea about their build order or why they seem to come out with either half-a-dozen marders or none... So I'll definately take your advice on forcing them to tech to shreks. Brens certainly would help me harrass their fuel points more readily so I'll give that a shot too - though I haven't had much luck with them myself to be honest. The fuel they use really hurt my ability to get an FST onto the field - which in turn means no PIATs or stuarts...

Using a command truck to OP a fuel point is deffinately a good idea - only problem on Beaux, of course, is how far it is from the base. Upping the speed is always an option but again, that takes more fuel...

As for placement of the trucks, I'm going to have to disagree with you on that there. Almost 100% certain that I was in the right place (other than possibly parking at a fuel over the munies). On Beaux if you go left from the south (or right from the north) with Brits you'll never be in a position to hold the minimum two VPs...

Thanks for the input! Hopefully things will go a little better next time I come up against this strat.

On BL as Brits, you have to secure your side quickly w/ a few MG nests then quickly (bren carrier carrying units) cut his side in half and dig in.
I learned this the long way (into a 45 minute game vs. old faction)
Both of us were capped out fighting at two ends when I finally went down the middle. If I would have done this early it would have ended much faster.

I do make a point to cut the enemy off wherever possible but, to be honest, if I've got more capping power than a PE player on Beaux early game then they're probably doing something wrong...

Actually, if he is just fast-teching like he was, you would and did have more capping power then he had. You obviously didn't know he was fast-teching and had a low unit count. He had a horribly low unit count and relied on his ketten's to do his capping and his 1 or 2 pg squads to build until he had his tech.

Forget moving the HQ truck, it has to stay where it starts to have constant income in the early stages. I also wouldn't sweat worrying about how fast you get the FST on the field, if you can raid his fuel your FST will always come in time, if you let him have 3 fuel points the FST never will come quick enough to matter. One thing I see that is "wrong" in my opinion with a lot of players Brit game is they seem to feel they have to move the HQT early in every game. Sure, Ango is a small map that you can hold what you need with 3 squads early on, but BL is a much larger map where you need more squads on the field to force him to do something besides tech a hell of a lot more then you need 6-10 more munitions/fuel a minute.

Good points - and you're right, in the posted game I did have more capping power but was too cautious to realize it (been bitten so many times in overextending my forces early game).

Interesting comment on moving the HQT, too. I tend to move it 3-4 units into the game - I've never really considered leaving it where it is. Time to try switching up my tactics a bit more.

Here's a replay on a different map, but practicing the principles I spoke of here. Now it's wrecked train, so I moved my HQ the 30 feet to a fuel point fairly early, but I did it in such a way I really didn't loose any unit production while it was moving.

I don't think the game is that fantastic, I personally feel like I stink with the Brit's, but my opponent teched right for AC's in essentially the same opening you faced. I used 2 Bren's 1 with an Inf section in it, another with an LT in it and it held off his AC just fine. 2 Brens+1 LT=35 fuel, well ahead of his AC. I understand it's a different map that's a bit smaller, but I feel this illustrates the proper counter to fast AC's vs. Brit's.

Just watched the replay. Nice use of bren carriers - tbh I don't think I've ever loaded a squad into one... But why the recon squad? I see what you mean about more agressive capping/cutting off the enemy though - I think it is the carriers that really made it possible for you in that game - must give it a shot.

On an unrelated note - loved the use of the Glider HQ - I thought I was the only one who used that thing. Taken down many a tiger with commando PIATs. But what happened to him at the 30 minute mark?