This is a continuation of the pseudo-challenge Lucky Stilet issued when he posted a replay mocking an opponent for having concerns. I found this replay to be troubling too and will iterate exactly why.
At 10:00 your two snipers are pinned by enemy MG and you fail to fire on it. There was an enemy sniper near the MG but you had no recent engagement with that sniper and had no legitimate knowledge it was there. Most of the game you showed very little hesitation to open fire with your snipers, you even capped on the front line towards the end of the game when no enemy snipers remained.
At 11:51 you tell your teammate: "2 105 and gg" right before proceeding to build two 105s. I've never felt that a 105 was an automatic win, or even two of them. I don't know any legitimate player who does. Why were you so confident that they would turn the tide? With a combined ~150 kills I think it's fair to say your three howitzers were the MVPs of the game.
At 11:52 you and your teammate discuss producing tanks. Your first arty barrage ~12:45 appears to have fallen closest to a known mortar, however there was an unrevealed pak nearby. Your next barrage from the second 105 fell directly on an unrevealed pak with no other units nearby and in an area that is not a candidate for blind targeting. Now technically the pak was revealed at 12:50 when it fired on your teammate's m8 and before the shell landed. However, you gave the fire command prior to 12:48 when the 105 can be seen rotating.
At 22:40 and 24:20 you use off-map arty. The first barrage destroys an enemy pak. The second barrage is wasted on a vetted panther which simply moves and a mortar which is simply decrewed. But the waste of ammo isn't what I find to be the most curious. Why when you have managed to successfully infiltrate behind the enemy lines with a sniper do you tip off the enemy by dropping off-map arty? You know your opponents are experienced and you must know that using off-map arty is a huge red flag saying "come find my sniper". You have three howitzers that could potentially benefit by not revealing your sniper's presence. Unassisted players are better off using the sniper for reconnaissance than a one-time barrage.
You took Infantry Company but made no barracks until 34:11! You ignored the staple of the entire doctrine for most of the game -- and still won. When you finally did get rifle squads, you barely used them: 1 grenade, 2 stickies, and no suppressive fire. You planted 21 mines but as far as I can tell, you didn't plant a single mine with your rifle squads despite having over 200 ammo. On at least one occasion you had the engineer squad plant a mine while the rifle squad next to it capped. With Infantry Company you should typically favor rifle squads when planting mines to vet them faster and cap with the engineers.
You made a third and totally unnecessary FHQ even when your second FHQ right next to it was still in one piece. You had no more than 300 manpower when you did this which begs the question, why waste resources on another HQ when you have nothing left over to build with? Meanwhile the +10 center ammo, which you had solid control over, was not outposted at the time and you did NOT have a huge surplus of ammo.
You floated 4 CPs before unlocking rangers and then floated over 9 CPs never unlocking the OMCG. Perhaps you didn't think you would have a use for an OMCG, but odd to not unlock abilities ASAP (you had already fully teched on right tree so no reason to delay) in advance just in case.
Towards the end of the game you floated over 1000mp and were near pop cap but still did not bother to OP the center +10 ammo or make an MG bunker protecting the VP.
You allowed your triple vet sniper to die to a mob while standing near the middle ammo. Reveals questionable micro.
I see you are ranked #26 with US in 2v2 matches. I struggle to reconcile your elite rank with the gameplay I observed.
At 11:52 you and your teammate discuss producing tanks. Your first arty barrage ~12:45 appears to have fallen closest to a known mortar, however there was an unrevealed pak nearby. Your next barrage from the second 105 fell directly on an unrevealed pak with no other units nearby and in an area that is not a candidate for blind targeting. Now technically the pak was revealed at 12:50 when it fired on your teammate's m8 and before the shell landed. However, you gave the fire command prior to 12:48 when the 105 can be seen rotating.
level? Do you know that paks providing geen cover in the fog of war? Guess what guy with just snipers doing when he build 105 and looking for targets for his first strikes when no micro going on?
You took Infantry Company but made no barracks until 34:11! You ignored the staple of the entire doctrine for most of the game -- and still won. When you finally did get rifle squads, you barely used them: 1 grenade, 2 stickies, and no suppressive fire. You planted 21 mines but as far as I can tell, you didn't plant a single mine with your rifle squads despite having over 200 ammo. On at least one occasion you had the engineer squad plant a mine while the rifle squad next to it capped. With Infantry Company you should typically favor rifle squads when planting mines to vet them faster and cap with the engineers.
You ignored the staple of the entire doctrine for most of the game -- and still won - No, I did not ignored. Engineers build mines faster. And WSC player knows better where he need cover for snipers. And usually you don't have time to build mines with rifles. And most key - WSC gains more CP's then rax player, if play well. Also you draining much less man power for up keep and reinf. All of that gives you one of the strongest 2v2 ubits very quick. I mean x3 arty.
You floated 4 CPs before unlocking rangers and then floated over 9 CPs never unlocking the OMCG. Perhaps you didn't think you would have a use for an OMCG, but odd to not unlock abilities ASAP (you had already fully teched on right tree so no reason to delay) in advance just in case.
LoL man, what is your level to question? Be simply, just ask things if you noob, it is to see exp when you killing things.
At 11:52 you and your teammate discuss producing tanks. Your first arty barrage ~12:45 appears to have fallen closest to a known mortar, however there was an unrevealed pak nearby. Your next barrage from the second 105 fell directly on an unrevealed pak with no other units nearby and in an area that is not a candidate for blind targeting. Now technically the pak was revealed at 12:50 when it fired on your teammate's m8 and before the shell landed. However, you gave the fire command prior to 12:48 when the 105 can be seen rotating.
level? Do you know that paks providing geen cover in the fog of war? Guess what guy with just snipers doing when he build 105 and looking for targets for his first strikes when no micro going on?
Yes, I realize paks provide green cover, I'm not convinced your micro is good enough to search for them and play at same time. Particularly when you leave a highly prized triple vet sniper to die with no extenuating circumstances. Or you set your rally points for snipers past the front line and fail to cloak them before they are spotted. Or wait the better part of a minute before firing your first barrage from a newly constructed 105. Or fail to give engineers a queued move command while planting mines to avoid a tell. Or leave an engineer squad idling for 20 seconds when there are two damaged pumas in spitting distance. Your CPM average is only in the 50s range. (These are all examples from your replays, not necessarily this particular one).
QUOTE(LuckyStilet @ Today, 19:37 PM)
You took Infantry Company but made no barracks until 34:11! You ignored the staple of the entire doctrine for most of the game -- and still won. When you finally did get rifle squads, you barely used them: 1 grenade, 2 stickies, and no suppressive fire. You planted 21 mines but as far as I can tell, you didn't plant a single mine with your rifle squads despite having over 200 ammo. On at least one occasion you had the engineer squad plant a mine while the rifle squad next to it capped. With Infantry Company you should typically favor rifle squads when planting mines to vet them faster and cap with the engineers.
You ignored the staple of the entire doctrine for most of the game -- and still won - No, I did not ignored. Engineers build mines faster. And WSC player knows better where he need cover for snipers. And usually you don't have time to build mines with rifles. And most key - WSC gains more CP's then rax player, if play well. Also you draining much less man power for up keep and reinf. All of that gives you one of the strongest 2v2 ubits very quick. I mean x3 arty.
You are largely going off on a tangent here. Of all Infantry Company's abilities, you really only used two: offmap arty barrage and 105s. No rangers, no defensive operation, no OMCG, and barely benefitted the rapid reinforcement passive ability. I'd like to see a timing test between an engineer planting a mine vs rifles planting. But the point remains, I'd rather have vetted rifles than vetted engineers. When you did make rifles or get free rifle squads, you were horrible at preserving them.
You didn't address why an expert player would reveal the presence of his sniper to the enemy rather than use the sniper for precise barrages. When you have three howitzers, a concealed sniper providing reconnaissance is far more valuable to a legit player than one off-map arty drop. Why did you feel those off-map barrages were more beneficial than concealed sniper recon?
