Company of Heroes 2

This build has stemmed searching for the best answer to the Ostheer flamethrower upgraded half-track. The goal of this build is to get a T-70 out as soon as possible to hunt down and kill their half-track as soon as it starts becoming a terror for your infantry. I've found the T-70 to be amazingly good in general; I don't think the Ostheer has a good answer to it early game.

General Build Order:





The build order is actually extremely simple, although it will require precise tech timing. You simply make five conscript squads back to back. When your fifth conscript squad is in production you'll retreat your Combat Engineers and build either the Special Rifle Command or the Support Weapon Kampaneya. As soon as this is finished you should be able to build your Tankoviy Battalion Command. Upon completion of your Tankoviy Battalion Command you should be able to immediately make a T-70 and start unleashing havoc on the German player.





Notice I've managed to preserve my five conscript squads and my original Combat Engineers. Keeping all your squads alive will allow you to put a tremendous amount of pressure on your opponent once your T-70 is pushing their entire army back. As long as you manage your troops well, your five conscript squads should allow you to make it to this point in the game without too much trouble.


After the T-70 hits the field I usually follow up with Shock Troops, although HtD/PPSh Conscripts are a great option as well. I find that Shock Troops simply tear apart German AT guns, and I love how resilient they are against other infantry. Going HtD/PPSh for your conscripts will make all of your conscript squads extremely cost efficient, which is good since you should still have 5 squads running around the map, and Guard Rifle Infantry can really help if a Stug or Panzer IV shows up. I pick up a T-34 as soon as I have 95 fuel banked, but if there are multiple light vehicles in my opponent's army I'll get AT grenades before the T-34.

• Having five conscript squads early game should give you a good amount of map control.
• The early T-70 should be very difficult for the German player to deal with.
• The T-70 will hard counter a flame half-track, and is amazing against infantry squads.

• This build is quite reliant on holding at least one fuel point, and not letting your supply lines get cut off.
• Not having molotovs or AT grenades will make your conscript squads much weaker early on. You'll basically be trading hit for hit against Grenadier squads.
• No real answer to the flame half-track until your T-70 hits the field – you won't even be able to blow its engine with an AT grenade.

Be careful of heavy MG play from the German player. Conscript squads do not like running into MG fire, and not having molotovs will make it difficult to knock out an MG squad once they're in a good position. Don't let yourself lose too many bodies, or panic if a flame half-track hits the field. As long as you minimize the amount of damage that the flame HT does, your T-70 will win the game for you. Your opponent may get an AT gun to try and counter your T-70. Make sure you steer clear of this AT gun as it will probably kill your T-70 in two hits.


Guerrilla warfare is your friend early game with this strategy. You want to be constantly attacking in multiple locations, cutting off enemy supplies as often as possible, and taking advantage of the sheer number of squads you can put on the field early game.




Conscripts like being up in the faces of the Ostheer dogs!

Your first sixty munitions should go towards a flamethrower on your Combat Engineer squad. This flamethrower will be the only way you have to get enemy squads out of buildings; you must take advantage of this. Garrison your guys at every chance you get. The Ostheer player has no way to get you out of a building early in the game unless he grabs a flamethrower on his pioneer squad, which is actually a win for you since that will delay his flame halftrack. Conscripts in buildings are a huge pain to deal with early game as Ostheer. Your T-70 will get hit with at least one Panzerfaust, always repair its engine as soon as you can. The mobility of a T-70 is a huge part of what makes it so strong.


First Replay:



This replay's main purpose is to demonstrate the general build order/timing of the T-70 rush. I made a mistake early on in the game by losing a conscript squad, but my early T-70 timing caused my opponent to give up. Since the game was over very shortly after my T-70 hitting the field there isn't actually much action to be seen in regards to using the tank to it's full potential.

Second Replay:



This second replay will give a much better example of how to make the most out of the advantage that your early T-70 gives you. You'll notice that I only held onto a single fuel point throughout the early game, but I managed to get my T-70 at nearly the same time as his flame half-track. The game was quite even until my T-70 showed up, at which point it swung hugely in my favor.