Summary - Piospam 2.0, contrary to its namesake, is a combined arms strategy made specifically to combat the British and centers around pioneer flamers with Support Infantry Veterancy. You could potentially use it against Americans but you will have trouble against riflespam and WSC starts. This strat is most efficient in larger arenas; on smaller maps like Angoville or Langres, where you can be cut off easily, Piospam 2.0 can be very difficult to pull off.
Basic Build OrderStep 1
x4
Munitions
- Send first 3 pios to cap with priority given to high munitions and use the 4th pio to build T1
- It's essential that you get the OP up on a high munitions as soon as possible. The faster you get multiple flamers, the better. However, if you are trying to use this on a small map, you will have to get out a volks squad first so you can defend your cut-off points
- Place MG defensively in spots that will cover important strat points or resources. You're only looking to hold them off until the flamers
- Immediately retreat pios from bren carriers. Rely on your MG and volks to hold them off until panzerfausts arrive
- Don't let the bren carrier completely push you around. Fight it using your volks in cover and support them with your MG to peck away at its health. You won't be able to finish it off but at least you'll be forcing him to constantly spend munitions for self-repair
Step 2
Skirmish Phase
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Support Vet- Upgrade pios to flamers when available, starting with the ones with highest health
- Use a retreated pio to build KKC or retreat pio with lowest health
- As soon as you get 2-3 flamers, go on the offensive immediately with your flamers, MG, and volks. Don't wait for veterancy to attack if you haven't gotten it yet; instead, upgrade while you're launching the first assault. You want to start put heavy pressure on your opponent early to stop him from building too many emplacements or teching up too quickly. There's a large chance you might be able to finish off your opponent at this time, but don't get impatient and forget to retreat. You can always go back for more. If they managed to get any emplacements up, go for those first, then their base if it's in the open
- It's crucial not to lose a flamer in the beginning because losing early resources like that can make or break the game
- When using panzerfausts, always use it in pairs so you can completely finish off the bren carrier. Charge in and get to at least mid-range before you use it so the bren carrier can't simply back out of its range
Step 3 (Option)
+
Support Vet- It's important to get your barracks up before you get vet2 to insure that you'll have enough fuel to build it
- Place the pak in the back of the battlefield, cloaked, to make sure that your opponent doesn't know you have one yet. The early pak is safety net against a potential churchill, not so much for the stuart. The stuart you can handle with a couple panzerfausts
- Build the medic bunker in a reasonable position where you can fall back to. If you went defensive, you'll be able to reinforce from there and it'll be hard for the Brits to take it out. You can put your MG in there and place your pak next to the bunker so that it's protected from commandos
- Make sure you're comfortable with your fielded forces before you spend the resources on Vet3. If you're teching up or investing in infantry vet for grenadier spam, skip the Vet3 until later on. But if you went Blitz or Terror, vet3 is essential for your pios mid-to-late game. Vet3 will increase the max HP of your pios
- (Option) Going T2 for grenadiers and paks is more of a personal preference of mine. I prefer it because it allows you the freedom to choose any doctrine and for having an early pak, which I am finding crucial in this patch where shrecks have lowered accuracy at long range. But taking Blitz, get Storms, and teching to T3 is absolutely viable. If you do go T3, the first unit you build from the Sturm Armory should be a stug
Mid-to-Late GameYou'll want to get a additional gren squads, followed by a mortar or a sniper. Don't forget that both the sniper and mortar are also getting veterancy, so take advantage of that. After that, it'll all depend on your situation.
You will eventually lose a flamer or two but don't fret and just build another one. Keeping those first few flamers alive is only essential in the beginning because of your lack of resources. Feel free to build more than four flamers, especially if your opponent begins to commando spam. However, do
not rely solely on them. The problem with flamers is that they have to be in groups to do anything. This can be a problem if your forces begin to spread thin across the map for territory or VP control. That's why it's a good idea to invest more in grens and infantry vet. Or, instead of the infantry vet, you may want to quickly tech up.
Be extremely careful with your army of flamers when facing commando spam because they can easily take out everything you have in one swift blow. Even if the flamer is vet3, has FtFL on, and the commando squad only has three guys left, it still doesn't matter; it only takes a couple seconds for commandos at point blank range to kill them. If you continually lose the flamers to the commandos, it'll catch up to you very quickly and you'll soon find yourself at a disadvantage. On the other hand, vice versa, if you're able to continually save the 1-man flamers, you'll quickly gain an economic advantage as he has to keep reinforcing his six man commandos.
Teching up is the best way to insure that you're one step ahead. In a typical game, you'd be strapped for MP and wouldn't be able to afford it but this strat allows you to tech up at your own leisure. Your opponent is spending a lot of his MP on reinforcing his units; this will give you an economy advantage because of the meager pio reinforcement costs. And no matter what variable of teching or veterancy you are doing, I highly recommend eventually making your way to T4 tanks no matter what because having mobile heavy armor is an invaluable tool in any game.
Doctrine
Defensive - the ideal choice for this strat because of For the Fatherland. FtFL in combination with vet flamers is incredibly powerful. In addition, because of the OP, you should have plenty of resources to use it, as well as for Registered Arty. It's also very useful to be able to reinforce the flamers from the bunkers instead of retreating them after they're one guy down.
Terror - even though it's ideal, I don't always go Defensive. If I notice I'm mainly fighting outside my territory, I'll go Terror. If you do go Terror, rely more on grenadiers because FtFL is really the key that keeps your flamers on par with a real squad late game. Make efficient use of propaganda war because you'll only be force retreating the Brits to their HQ which is likely already in the middle of the field. But it's a great tool to use against the commandos that pop out of the sky and onto your injured squads. Naturally, if you reach late game, the King Tiger will aid you greatly in finishing off your opponent but watch out for fireflies.
Blitz - choose Blitz if you are skipping T2 and instead going for an early T3 stug. If this is the case, you'll be using storm troopers as your main infantry so get some veterancy on them. Don't spam too many of them because they're expensive. If you know you're going to go Blitz at the beginning of the game, I often get assault grenades and use them in my first assault on the Brit HQ (but only after I've panzerfausted the bren carrier because munitions are hard to come by in the early game with this strategy).
Why get veterancy for your flamers? - I've heard a compelling argument about why getting support veterancy for the pioneers isn't needed: it's for people who can't keep their flamers alive. Good point, I thought. The veterancy can certainly be seen as a simple crutch for people with inferior micro. That's one way to look at it. However, that's not the full story. Pioneers, without veterancy, are not made to withstand the hard-hitting infantry of the Brits. If they are focus-fired on, it'll take about a second knock the pio squad down to one man.
What the vet does is allow the flamer withstand a beating from a Brit squad because of the infantry armor and additional HP bonuses. It'll be able to hang in the battle for several more seconds and, while that doesn't seem like much, it can be crucial because of the high chances of critical damage from flamethrowers. The longer the flamers are in battle, the higher the chance you have of getting a critical and flaming several men. Even the minor HP regeneration from level 1 veterancy is a great help because neither is it feasible nor efficient to activate a med kit for only one, two-man flamer squad.
Support veterancy for your flamers allow them to become a part of your main infantry force rather than just support.
By Daeyeth
