Guide to Combat Phases, or why you might be losing

Do you find that you have to fight tooth and nail to hold unto every bit of land you take while the enemy just waltzes over you? Do you repeatedly lose tank engagements because the enemy just has too many on his side? Do you play multiplayer at all?

Then this might be the guide for you.

A lot of people think of the battle as one constant stream of units sent to their graves to secure ever more territory. That is not how you should think, if you always attack, you will overextend yourself and then find yourself underdefended. Rather, think of the battle as existing as multiple phases where one front of your army should focus on one goal, and that goal isn’t always to die for your motherland.

The Assault

Every game begins with an assault, units rushing to the front to secure land and deny it to the enemy. However, no game ever stays like this forever, even if the enemy is bad, to never get past the first assault phase a game can only last a few minutes.

There comes a point where units advancing further will not be worth the cost, normally this occurs because the enemy has set up mgs but it can also be because of large troop concentrations on the enemy side. In such a case, attacking would not be worth the cost, when that happens, we enter the other phase.

The Consolidation or Preparation

Now comes the time to do two things:
1. Consolidate what you have, this is especially important if you have the majority of the map, as consolidating your earlier victories will help ensure you keep winning. Use mgs, mgs are what seperates CoH2 from most other RTS. They can keep almost untold numbers of enemies back. There are fights they will lose, but typically by the time those show up you will have things to counter them. AT guns or tank hunters against tanks, snipers, vehicles or good old grenades against elite assault troops and mortars against mortars(if you put a mortar on hold fire, you can barrage the enemy mortar the moment it starts firing without them knowing you have one).

The enemy will want their territory back, the enemy will want your territory, the enemy will counterattack. So rather than to push untill you can’t defend what you got, instead consolidate the gains you made.

2. Prepare for the next assault. More units are more likely to win. Of course, there can be a stress of time, but if there is no need to attack now, more units means less losses. With infantry it is easier to swallow losses as long as you can reinforce, but with tanks, especially in wikinger, having a majority is of utmost importance. Tank battles, especially with lighter vehicles, often come down to fights of attrition where the bigger number suffers less losses. Of course, a measure of counters plays into tank battles, certainly, but numbers will always remain a big factor. If you prepare properly, you might actually see lighter armour become cost effective.

Remember, as long as your defenses are holding and the enemy isn’t using anything that could change that you can consider saving up resources, as every population on the field costs a bit of manpower and it is sometimes better to first look at intell before deciding how to move forward.

Intel

Know when (and how!) to attack and when attacking won’t be worth the price. Intelligence is priceless for this purpose and I strongly advice making use of it so you can anticipate enemy attacks and plan how you will take down enemy defenses. Fighting without intel is a much riskier endeavor and it hinges on your force being strong enough to be able to counter anything the enemy could throw at you.

DO keep in mind

Some maps have clear distinct lanes and genuinely every map that isn’t just a single bridge can be said to have multiple fronts, as such, you can assault in one place while you can defend in another. Know not just WHEN but also WHERE to assault and to defend.

If you ever play team multiplayer

Coordination is key. If you assault alone you lose alone and if you defend alone your team loses alone. Of course, like said before, someone can assault on a specific front or lane alone when he is guaranteed the enemy can’t reinforce the side, but if a battle develops somewhere and you have units to spare (perhaps you were preparing to use them for a big attack?) remember you can always send them to reinforce one of your allies even if they are in the forest while you are looking after the city.

But when your allies are on the same front, ensure you all understand what phase of combat you are in, because divided you lose and together you win.

A word on factions

While important to all factions, some factions are hurt less by erratic behaviour and some are hurt much more. OKW have the least issue as their units are the most likely to survive a fluke, especially their heavy tanks and Wehr is a close second in terms of armour. On the other hand, the UKF require you to play in combat phases with their weak mid game and the Soviet infantry and especially tanks can’t afford to perform a failed assault. I was actually inspired to make this guide by cold war scenario games of soviet vs americans where the soviets lost most of the time because they didn’t understand combat phases among other things.

• This topic was modified 7 years ago by Nyvre. Reason: finishing touches except formatting
• This topic was modified 7 years ago by mongalong247. Reason: formatting :)