Here we have a good matchup on Lorraine between two nicely coordinated teams. The axis starts out by not allowing the allies to wire/sandbag off the south side of the map and makes a pretty concerted push into this area that the allies normally assume will be secure and not need any sort of defense. Good to see the axis putting more pressure on this area in 1.6.
The allies respond with BARs and grenades and push back heavily. Midgame is very infantry heavy without all that many vehicles which was fun to watch. Later on the game is dominated by blitz tigers, tiger aces, and more pershings than you can shake a stick at.
Throughout the match, both teams support each other well and make coordinated attacks. Always nice to see in a 2v2. There are also some tense moments with a tiger killing a pershing, being at 5% and then making a mad backwards scramble against another pershing in an effort to reach supporting units before being finished off. There are some brave-ass soldiers in the Wehrmacht too, as 5% aces don't sit behind the lines to await repairs but wholeheartedly join in to support their grenadier counterparts in a massive counterattack. 5% health be damned!
Allies - Waltor/Tomjones: You guys had a good thing going until the end game. Things were pretty even, the VP scores were close but once the Tigers started rolling you guys got outplayed. I think the axis got you here with some better combined arms coordination. While you had pershings and engineers and shermans, they had tigers, grens, pios, and the occasional AT gun. The massive number of grenadiers are what really allowed them to chew you up so badly. I think you guys got fixated on stopping the tigers and didn't give enough consideration to the gaggle of grenadiers ™ walking around with them. I think some more BAR squads for supression fire or especially a calliope would have helped you a ton. A calli could have waited for the herd of grenadiers to bunch up (which they constantly did) and annihilated the whole bunch in a single barrage. Try not to just fixate on pershings/tigers next time.
Things this team can do better:
If you want to block off the south, you're going to need to support the effort more in 1.6. Free wirecutters means the axis can break through here before you get sandbags up which are your real tool for blocking. If blocking this area off is important to you, consideri bringing an MG down until you get your sandbags in place
If you're going to attack an area covered by MG42s, make sure you have something to either kill it or draw its fire away from your rifles. Some of your central pushes walked right into MG42 fire and got a whole mess of riflemen supressed and then your attack collapsed.
If you have them, combined BAR squads with your pershings for alot more versatility. The ability to supress grens helps a ton.
Axis - DannyGrant/SevenOnethree:
Well played guys. Great coordination throughout most of the game and nice use of combined arms. The group of about 5 grens with 10 shrecks between them was vicious! Very good work with microing your tigers for good effect as well as luring pershings into range of grenadiers and AT guns behind the tigers' positions. Nice 'nade useage in the midgame to help take the edge off the riflemen as well as knocking out numerous WSC crews with bundled nades.
It was also very benefiial to contest the southern region. The allies devoted resources to defending this for almost the entire game and prevented them from using 100% of their units offensively. I also really enjoyed the Rambo moment of the flamer halftrack charging into a gaggle of 4 BAR squads, tossing scorching napalm in all directions. I imagined the driver cackling maniacally as he pressed the attack, shouting "I 0Wn you N00BZ!" The 4 BAR squads were caught with their pants down (no stickies) and ran like hell for their lives with the HT in hot pursuit. You managed to stumble on an uncloaked sniper and a mortar crew and kill them both before the M10 came along and ruined your day. His life was breif but it was fun to watch
Things this team can do better:
If you're going to work on getting a bunch of MGs into position to block off the allies, Get a sniper mixed in there at some point since mortars and snipers are the natural counter to this (especially since you saw one player had gone WSC)
Make sure your mortars/snipers have MG cover when facing riflemen. There were some instances where you were forced into hasty retreats because you had nothing to hold riflemen at bay
When you meet an M10 with your HT, make a beeline for the shreck squads that can keep it at bay. Your HT was slow to pull back and was knocked out
Make salvaging wrecks a priority when the wrecks are safely behind your lines. The flamer HT had an idle pio very close to it for several minutes but it never got salvaged. Free munitions are always useful.
Some slow retreat issues throughout the game
When using grenades or bundle nades, click the ground where you want the grenade to land, not on the unit itself. You'll have much better accuracy.
Dont' jump the gun with your attacks. You guys made a huge push in the northeast corner right as a tiger was called in from offmap. If you'd waited about 60 to 90 seconds, that tiger could have supported that attack at the begginning and given you better results.
While it was fun watching your tiger ace be all gung ho at 5% health, chasing down a pershing, I thought you were being way too risky with it. Pull it back for repairs.
5 or 6 grens all in a big group make one helluva target for any sort of artillery or strafing run. If you want this many grens, consider breaking it up into at least two hotkeyed groups.
In the midgame, the riflemen were giving your grenadiers quite a bit of trouble. Consider adding some LMGs into the mix instead of shrecks only.
The game is very intense with no clear winner until a decisive battle.
Enjoy and please review.