Profile of Aerohank

Jump back to quoted post6 Mar 2016, 17:22 PMAerohank

The absolute best counter to emplacement play is by using the Ostruppen doctrine and by following the following playbook:

- Step 1: Be aggressive early on. Apply pressure to likely bofor positions to delay/annoy him. Follow up with a fast 222 for extra map control. This step is obvious, you don't want to give him the breathing room to place bofors on your doorstep.

- Step 2: Do not bother countering emplacements early on with counter artillery or with early AT guns. Just make sure you have enough units to hold the big part of the map and then invest your manpower in a fuel cashe or even two. You won't break a mortar pit + bofor emplacement with a single AT gun and some light arty anyway, and he is not going to have any light armor on the field, so don't bother with these two units early on. Do not engage the bofors early on at all! It's a unit designed for holding ground against squishy targets and lightly armored vehicles. Squishy targets are all you have in the early game, so wait for something non-squishy! Deal with them in the lategame.

- Step 3: Do not bother with medium armor either, go straight for panther. If you feel your opponent somehow has decent fuel income, get a normally timed (not early!) a PAK40. The PAK40, a teller mine or two and your panzerfausts will hold a cromwell at bay long enough for your panther to arrive. The panther will pretty much dominate the cromwell and stand up to a comet if the enemy decides to go for one of those (cromwell is more likely though). Panthers will also help you with dealing with the emplacements much better than a Panzer 4 or Stug will. If you have Ostruppen or another doctrine with fuel drops, you can get a panther out even faster.

Step 4: Follow up with a panzerwerfer to deal with pesky 6 pounder guns. More panthers after that. He can't really do anything to counter this composition.

Step 5: Congratulations, you are now in the lategame and in a position to completely crush enemy emplacement play. Use the panther(s), panzerwerfer and pak40 to quickly do some damage against a bofors. When he pops brace, try to do some more damage but do not over commit. Ideally you want to take no damage on the panther so just fall back a bit if he brings any AT your way. Wait for 20 seconds after he used brace and rush back in to gain some vision, drop railway arty on the emplacement and watch it get wrecked.

The same playbook more or less also works with other doctrines. The overal guidelines are, in short:
- Early aggression, preferdably with a light vehicle.
- Do not engage emplacements, focus on holding most of the map and boost your economy with fuel cashes.
- Skip mediums, strike with a lategame army.