Profile of Nosliw

Noob question, but what's ABP?

kek

inb4 great britain reaches "ww2 era" and spams mortar pits around the map

Thanks for all of your replies!

Is there any situation where the following units are good for:
- 30 cal
- Sherman crocodile
- Upgunning shermans
- Hellcats (compared to M10 deep-dives); if I want to make Hellcats work, how do I work around them?

.30cals generally are never worth buying. However, I can think of two instances where they're worth using (not buying though, as you'll see)

• Extreme late game as Airborne doctrine. When you air drop supplies, you'll get a recrewable mortar and .30cal. Grab the .30cal with your riflemen and throw it in houses or positions around the map to prevent harassment of key resources or VPs from roaming grenadiers.
  
• Also extreme late game, where you know you have to camp the VPs to win, it can be very beneficial to build a .30cal nest on a VP. The nests are harder to kill than in CoH2, and if you protect them properly, they can buy you a lot of time.
  

Sherman crocodile

• Since this tank is so expensive and comes from the last tier in the game, it's generally ineffective in a real game. I've only see it purchased in games where the skill difference is so great that rushing a crocodile is a cheeky way to quickly win. Otherwise, a Sherman is better since it has good AI capabilities, and some AT. Flame tanks in general in CoH1 are much worse than in CoH2, perhaps because of the differences between the game engines.
  

Upgunning shermans:

People are saying this upgrade is worse than it is, in my opinion. Sure, the AoE damage is reduced slightly, but it's just as accurate versus squads. It will act more like an infantry "sniper" which kills 1-2 guys per shot, rather than relying on killing 1 guy and killing others (maybe) with splash damage. The extra penetration is good versus vetted stugs, but against bigger tanks it doesn't really matter.

Hellcat:

• generally used exactly the same role as an M10. The hellcat is a bit slower, but doesn't suffer from the "misfire" bug (where shot animation triggers, but no shell is shot). So you can really use either, but if you're inclined to use the tanks more defensively, hellcat is of course better since it can cloak and wait for prey.
  
  

Hello, long time vCoH veteran here. I'll answer your Qs.

I've been trying to pick up CoH1.

However, one thing that's vexxing me is that it is extremely difficult to predict how unit X performs against unit Y, until I've tried that combination.

For instance; are Rangers any good at all? If so against which units, and when (if ever) do you upgrade thompsons?

Rangers due to their high initial cost and high reinforcement cost are limited to a support role. At most 2 would ever be purchased in a real game, but this is very unlikely. They are most often called in when the USA player does an infantry heavy upgrade opening (BARS+Nades for example), and does not inflict enough early game damage, and thus has no fielded AT weapons when a puma hits.

Rangers are almost always upgraded with Thompsons, since their anti-infantry capability with it is good (can easily 1v1 any german squad that's not vet3 or has MP40/MP44), and since their anti-infantry capabilities without it is very poor.

Keep in mind though, if you are getting rangers, that they are mostly considered a "panic" unit (panic rangers vs puma suprrise). Bazookas in CoH1 are quite different than in CoH2 in 2 ways: much less penetration (meaning they are completely ineffective against tank front armour for the most part), and less accuracy. Use them only to support infantry vs light vehicles or tanks that you can flank.

Which units deal damage most reliably vs 251 half-track and the Puma?

If your strategy is a fast M8, that should be enough to force any 251 or Puma to play defensively. The best counter for 251/Puma is either: AT gun, M10/Hellcat, or a mine (mines do 200% damage vs these light vehicles, and will destroy the engine) in combination with sticky, AT gun, M8, or tank.

If I want to avoid using snipers, which weapons do I use vs Vet2 Grenadiers? Is this the same for Vet2 Volks?

Snipers are always the best bet vs. VET2 Grenadiers since they have a 300% accuracy modifier against them (AKA, will always hit them on retreat), and VET2 gives Grenadiers "Elite Armour" (-25% received accuracy). However, vetted riflemen perform well against all axis infantry, and flamethrowers do bonus damage vs VET2 Grenadiers. The M8 can also be a reasonable choice, and of course the Sherman. Off map howitzer barrages also have a tendency to 1 shot Grenadier squads that are capturing, and is a good way to eliminate squads from opponents who aren't paying attention.

The Volksgrenadiers do not receive Elite armour at Vet2, and just receive -25% received suppression, and -5% received damage. BAR rifles, flamers, and any vehicles should fare well.

Which units are bazookas good against; are they better than recoilless rifles at anything?

Bazookas are good against tank rear/side armour, and puma/251 vehicles, but have poor accuracy in general. Recoilless rifles have better accuracy and penetration, so are better against all tanks than bazookas, and due to a weird "phasing bug", they tend to travel through pumas/251 quite often, and thus have poor accuracy against these units. In general, bazooka good vs light vehicles, bad vs armour, and recoilless are the opposite.

If somebody has a link to something that describes the target-tables in play here, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Use this websites for detailed stats:
http://hq-coh.com/stats/coh-stats.com/Main_Page.html

Extreme detail on target types:

http://companyofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Infantry_Type
Note: that it might look confusing, but it isn't too bad. For example, all small arms except snipers are .85 acc and .75 dmg vs heroic armour.

To further elaborate on my predictions:...

Thanks for the well written, informative, and interesting read!