Infantry Division

2 little quotes, because this doc focuses on 2 different units:

“Nothing in hell must stop the 1st Division.”- Terry Allen

Acknowledging the fact that a ranger is a more elite soldier, who arrives at the cutting edge of battle by land, sea, or air, I accept the fact that as a ranger, my country expects me to move further, faster, and fight harder than any other soldier. -Ranger Creed, letter “A”

Pros:

• Very generalist doctrine: can do anything at least decently well
• Many different command point options
• Good infantry in general no matter which “path” you take
• Is not as crippled in any one area like other US doctrines
• Decent armor support

Cons:

• Not specialized for certain forms of combat as much as other US doctrines
• Tech trees within the doc do not synergies well with each other:
  • Upgrades that affect riflemen will not affect rangers, and vice versa
• Going down multiple paths in this doc is often a poor choice

Unlike usual, my “key units” and “order of battle” sections will be combined instead in “tactical choices” based on what branch you choose to unlock first. Don’t go for multiple branches at once: the major techs of this doc are usually at the end of their trees, and going a few points everywhere wont help you much. Each has advantages and disadvantages, and situations in which to best use them.

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Tactical Choice #1:

1st Infantry Division, transition into armor and rifle spam (least risky)

Key units:

• Riflemen (who saw that coming?)
• Weapons teams: (Bazooka team, AT gun, Mortar, MG’s)
• Ambulance (vital)
• Supply Jeep
• Captain Squad
• Mortar Pit
• Armor

Riflemen

Your bread and butter. General purpose unit that can do anything decently well, cheap to produce, cheap to reinforce. Can be equipped for many situations. Enough said.

Weapons teams

Vital to US Infantry. Theses teams will provide you with the firepower early game. The bazooka team is not your elite ranger or airborne counterparts, but laid in ambush, it should do well. 50 cal. can take out most early German vehicles, in addition to heavy suppression, so I suggest you build it quickly.

Supply Jeep and Ambulance

Vital to this doc, mainly because, while other factions also have ambulance’s, you rifles will need them more often. In addition, US is one of the only faction that can supply its troops with new load-outs on the front line.

Captain Squad

Vital support unit once you unlock his “field promotion” ability. He can counter the enemy wiping squads (more on this later).

Mortar pit

Your main heavy support. Build early, and treasure it. Massive blast, range and damage. Build it in an area you can easily defend. Early game, its a massive investment, and it can hurt to lose it.

Armor

Your basic Shermans, with a few notable differences from armor doc:

• You have no easy 8, so pure tank spam wont do well against heavy armor
• You lack the panther killing power of the Pershing
• The 105 is a great support unit that can reduce structures to ruble in a couple of hits.
• The “rag tag circus” is a dice roll: While it will always come with a squad of veteran riflemen riding in a transport (either an opal or a Sd kfz 251 depending on the tank) and a jeep with an MG, you can get a panther from this call in, which makes it worth it.

Oder of Battle:

This doc plays very similarly to the armor doc, but has a stronger early and mid-game, and a weaker late game. You gain and hold ground with you engineers and usually 2 riflemen squads, then call in an 50 cal. or a 30 cal. to hold it. Get that engineer squad building trenches to hold valuable sectors as well. Which MG you want to build first depends on the size of the map and hope aggressive your opponent is. The 50 cal will not reach your front line before the opponent’s MG or maxim due to how heavy it is, putting you on the defensive. On the other hand, the 30 cal. may be better for timings, but it cant penetrate most early game vehicles.

On this doc, I actually recommend unlocking the company command post first, over the platoon command post, even though the platoon command post gives each squad a bar for free and unlock vital support units, and that reason is the ambulance. You are going to lose models, because rifles are worse then grenadiers or girbs, or falls. However, an early ambulance allows you to retreat a short distance and heal, reinforce, and even get new equipment of you send in a jeep (which I recommend b/c your troops will never have to return to base), which allow you to keep on pressure. You can of course, go for platoon command first, for the BAR’s and mortar squad, but the early bar is not necessary, and unlocking the 6 inch mortar emplacement removes the immediate need for a mobile mortar.

Do wait for your opponent before teching up, however: If your opponent rushes out armored units very quickly (like a luchs rush) you will need the platoon command post’s 57mm AT gun to take it out. A luchs supported by a squad of infantry will pin riflemen with a bazooka (as well as a 1st Div. bazooka squad) before they get their shot off, and a Stuart cannot kill a luchs quickly enough to prevent it from rushing into your ambulance area killing any low health squads, and most likely, the ambulance itself. The 57mm can penetrate and kill a luchs from a safe distance. If you are unsure about what path your opponent has taken, unlock platoon command, get the AT gun, then get the ambulance ASAP.

In the mid game, getting the munitions jeeps and willy pete can crush elite infantry doctrines. The munitions jeeps can supply 200 munitions for 100 fuel: It allows you to quickly outfit rifle squads with insane load-outs: 2 bar’s, rifle grenades and an LMG on one squad for something with insane suppression, or trade the LMG for a bazooka to counter anything coming with some light half-tracks or the such. I recommend a mix of both. Willy pete is a great area denial tool, as even elite squad will take a lot of damage in the smoke, allowing you to easily force enemy squads out of even green cover. If the enemy tries to set up trenches, use the heavy mortar dugout to destroy them rapidly.

Your late game will focus on your push with tanks supported by squads of cheap, easily replaceable infantry. Keep your ambulance behind your main army to resupply any depleted rifle squads, and use replacement depo in the case of aany general engagment: your rifles will probably lose models, but new squads will be produced for free back at your base once 6 models “die”, allowing you to snowball massive amounts of units very fast. Let me repeat: Replacement depo can get value without you losing a squad. Use the captains “field promotion” on any new squad to improve their effectiveness in battle. Start using the Sherman 105mm as you main support unit over the dug in mortar: its better against buildings, and is more mobile. The plow can quickly be use to make some green cover on the move for your infantry. Be careful to balance the fuel you spend on tanks with  the fuel use to call in munitions, however.

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Tactical Choice #2: Early Rangers (risky)

Key units:

• Rangers (you don’t say!)
• Ambulance (for same reason as with rifles. helps you keep up the pressure)

Ranger bazooka team

Your good old airborne team is back with its 3 bazookas and 5 men! As effective as ever, but does not come vet 1 like its airborne equivalent, so beware there. Also seems to suppress faster.

Ranger command squad and Ranger assault team

These squads are armed with Thomsons and will serve as your primary units that can annihilate enemy squads. Do understand that against any other elite squad (airborne, commandos, shock troops, jager, falls, ect) they will lose in a 1 on 1 fight, due to the factors like equipment, veterancy and so on. Unlike all the other factions, these guys come with wille pete if you get the upgrade, and have great assault abilities (more on that later)

Ranger Demo Squad

Knocks out anything that can be build on the battlefield. Has the pole charge, which is stupidly strong against bases. How strong you ask? Put one pole charge on the middle of a US base, or any clustered base, and it is instant game over. The explosive charge will kill anything in 1 go. the satchel charges and flamethrower are a nice bonus as well.

Order of battle

The reason this tactic is so risky is because you have to go without support for a while due to rangers costing 4 cp to unlock, and another 4 to unlock demo rangers and assault rangers (1 for the former, 3 for the latter), so it will take 8 cp for you to hit full ranger unit production. Be prepared for this. Open as if you are going riflemen, but instead of transitioning to a rifleman push in the midgame, deploy rangers in rapid assault. They are brutally effective against buildings due to grenade assault, heroic charge and satchel charges. They also have snipers to help clear out any deployed MG’s in your way. Use them to assault any enemy that makes use of emplacements or trenches. If you cant get close enough, willy Pete is a good solution. For an mg heavy defense get willy before vests and MoH, otherwise get those first. Smoke the mg in question before satchel charging it, otherwise flamethrower/pole charge anything you can get away with. Late game wither go for willy pete and heavy mortar/ any ranger tech you may have not gotten, or go straight for armor. Use rangers with your tanks instead of riflemen.

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Tactical choice #3: Rifles transition into Rangers (very risky)

Key units:

• Rifles, and weapons teams as early game units
• Rangers as your late game push force
• Ambulance (pressure. keep it going)
• Refer to above key unit sections for more detailed descriptions

Order of battle:

Very risky, because you open with the willy pete cp line, then switch to rangers in the late mid-game, so you lack tanks and strong rangers. Play this in the few situations were tanks would be impractical as a late-game options: if the enemy digs in heavy AT guns, if you are playing against SS panzer division and they have their king tiger out, so on.

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Keep in mind

These are a few recommend builds and by are no means the only things you can do. The beauty of this doc is its versatility. Whatever you need to do to win, do it. Keep in mind that rangers are not god troops. They will get suppressed. They will die.

That’s all for this guide folks! Like, comment, give feedback. Hope this helps you in your future battles.

• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Death_Kitty.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Death_Kitty.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Death_Kitty.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Lorarius.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Lorarius.