Luftwaffe: The Fallschirmjäger Division.

“The most precious thing in the presence of the foe is munitions. He who uses munitions uselessly, merely to comfort himself, is a man of straw who merits not the title of Parachutist.” -One of the fallschirmjäger 10 commandments, modified for wikinger. 

Pros:

• Elite infantry armed with some of the best weapons in the game
• A fair amount of big cats in the form of panthers
• Access to the Leig light howitzer, a fearsome artillery piece
• Directional airstrikes
• Can flood the map with light indirect fire. 

Cons:

• CP intensive tree
• 600th fallschirmjäger are situational
• Munitions hungry
• Incredibly punishing to lose fallschirmjäger squads
• Rough tier 3 power
• Rough tier 0

Key Units: Units that are vital to your victory on the battlefield

• • Spotter Truck: This is your gateway to leig drops, the important first strafe run, and your late game airpower. It is a fragile unit, among the most fragile of all spotter vehicles. You will need to micro it, and make sure it stays out of harm’s way, because having to rebuild it hurts.
  • Fallshirmjäger officer: A large spike in your early ground power, especially with field divisions. The squads 3 FG-42’s (4 with vet. 1) will go a long way to doing damage at range against all targets, and the panzerwurfmine is decent early AT as well, and can stop allied LV’s from rolling up to your gunline unopposed. The officer also acts as a potent spotter for your leigs, and can provide free vision with his flares even before liegs. Make no mistake; this is not an assault squad, and if used in this way, you will quickly feel the considerable reinforcement cost.
  • Field Divisions: A random call in that scales as you tier up. Each of the three tiers (the call in levels up at tiers 2 and 3, and unlocks with tier 1) are reasonably cost effective, and go a long way to reducing the massive downsides of the doctrine, if you choose to open this way.
  • Regiment 6: The first mainline fallschirmjäger squad you will be able to build. Capable of upgrading to FG-42’s or an LMG 42. This is a strong squad with a lot of staying power, and scales well as it rises in veterancy, but be warned: allowing this squad to be wiped out hurts considerably, and even one or two squads lost can lower your chances of victory. 

Order of Battle: 

Here I will present the two “Builds” I use when I play this doctrine. This is by no means a bible, and is of course dictated by the circumstances in your game. I will provide insights into my decision making process when opening with the doctrine, which will hopefully prove useful to you. 

Tier 0:

You begin with a starting freiwilligen squad, and can build luft pioneers from your HQ, who are armed with 5 kar 98’s and 1 MP-40 on the squad leader. It’s… not great, but you can make it work. The issue with your early units is that they can either be outnumbered by brits and sovs, or just outshot by US carbines. My advice: don’t rush to the middle point with your freiwilligen immediately, unless there is good green cover. Cap the point right next to it, and wait for 1 squad of luft pioneers. Freiwilligen will lose at range to sappers and conscripts with SVT-40’s, and are prone to just having US engineers with their carbines just close the distance, and murder them with close range fire. 

With a luft pio squad, you at least stand a better chance: you lift pioneers have 1 MP-40, which if they get close enough, will do damage to UK sappers and conscripts; try to use line of sight blockers to get as close as you can while not losing any models. Make sure you sprint, not walk, into close range; it will make it easier to dodge grenades on the way there, and minimize the distance you spend outside of your effective range. Luft pios also have normal stick grenades, giving them a range advantage over M1 pineapples and mills bombs. Stay away from throwing bundle nades unless you are sure you will get a squad wipe; the high muni cost can delay MG’s and tier one upgrades… unless you open with field divisions. 

If you have to retreat a luft pio squad, do not bother to reinforce it, get a third one. Yes, it will hurt, but it will allow you to keep presence on the front. Don’t worry, you will gain some of this MP back. Do not lose any squads here. Use your stick grenades to better effect; apart from russians, your grenades have more range. Against russians, just sprint up to them, and outshoot them with your MP-40. Make sure to be aware of grenades on your way in, and don’t charge more conscript squads than you have pio squads. (i.e, 1 luft pio squad can easily bully 1 conscript squad, but if the ratio is not 1:1 you will lose the fight). Try to avoid reinforcing any luft pio squads if possible. Freiwilligen are cheap to reinforce, so go crazy with them.

Then comes the first big choice of the match… no, it is not your CP pick (yet)… the choice is: do you build a kubelwagen? On the one hand, you have a chance to push out any opponent who does not expect it, or have any counters (at tier 0, this is a reasonable expectation). On the other hand, you delay your tech by 20 fuel, which can really hit you hard. Most of the time, I choose to build a kubel, but I have had it backfire, and I know of a few players who choose to go straight for tier 1 and build a 222. The question is: will you live that long? If you win the grenade war, or perhaps you built an MG-34 and got it in a nice building, etc; go to tier 1. Otherwise, on open maps with mostly yellow cover, perhaps the kubel is the way to go. 

TL:DR: opening build orders: 2x luft pio, MG-34, tier 1 (for maps with center buildings you can get MG’s in. Can also be luft pio, MG-34 team, luft pio, tier up. This will rush the MG, but you have no margin for grenades until the MG team arrives)

2x luft pio, kubel, luft pio: for open maps with someone who is spamming infantry. You can switch the 3rd pio and the kubel, if you are assessing the situation. You can also omit the third pio if you keep your 3 squads intact. Building a third pio is often better than retreating one and reinforcing it. More on that in the next section.

Tier 1:

What a luft player does during their transition and how they go about it is important to the strength of the doctrine. We will begin by examining the position of your first SS truck: you Battlegroup HQ, aka your FOB, is your only option here. A mechanical rush as luft is not preferable and deprives you of 2 vital units: your officer, and the raketenwerfer. Make sure to place your truck close enough to the front to be effective, but far enough to avoid a blitz by early clown-cars capable of satchel charges (i.e. US armored infantry with the BAR upgrade). Your ability to unlock tier 1 while having a forward ambulance is one of the strengths of SS, so make sure you take advantage of it.

As your truck is “gracefully” lumbering into position, you will pick how to spend your CP. By now, you should have at least 1 CP, and be close to your second point as well. Depending on your MP usage, you should have a small float if tier 0 did not go catastrophically. Your options are as follows: 

• Spend 2 CP to unlock regiment 6:
  • Pros: Less units to control, start gathering vet early, with proper micro, can increase fuel/muni income
  • Cons: Reliant on 222/luchs micro, slower MP income, more punishing if you lose squads
  • This option is perhaps the most straightforward: build your officer and raketenwerfer as your first two tier 1 units; the raketen is there to save you from a T1 vehicle rush, as many US players love to do. Get it to the front and camouflage it quickly to gain the extra range. Against any US doc except armor, this should be your first unit. 
  • Otherwise, get your officer first, and withdraw as many luft pio squads as you can comfortably do so. Keep the ones with more vet, or those with more models. (vet stars > models > vet XP is the priority to withdraw). Remember that your officer is a combat officer, and will do base at the rear of a front line, supporting your units with FG-42’s. 
  • From this point on, begin building and upgrading 2 Reg 6 squads with their weapons. FG-42’s are more versatile, but the MG is an option for open maps with no LOS blockers or cover. Use your officer and freiwilligen (with rifle nades’) to support your two Reg 6 squads, and don’t hesitate to use your luft pios in this role as well. 
    • A quick word about luft pios, and deciding when to upgrade them to SMG’s: wait until they have one vet star. The increase in accuracy is at that point enough to make the upgrade effective, whereas vet 0 pios tend to be harder to use. Keep in mind, this is not a mandatory upgrade. If you need them at range, keep them with kars. 
  • Get a 222 up as soon as possible, preferably at the same time as your officer is building. Be aware this is risky against US rifle grenades, and may delay your tier 2, so micro with care. Skip it if you can, go for a faster luchs. 
  • Any time you are floating a large amount of manpower (500+), get as many SS resource trucks as you can, and upgrade your points with muni. This will offset your upgrade costs, help you through tier 2, and if you are clever about it, can make front line points impossible to capture. Keep in mind, it also acts as a point where your units can upgrade weapons. 

• The other option is field divisions: 

• • Pros: Don’t need to spend muni on upgrades, allows for much more effective weapons teams, very cost effective even if you lose squads, earlier airstrikes
  • Cons: Harder to micro, much less MP float
  • While you might be tempted to balk at the randomness of the call-ins, every single option is quite workable, and you will not have to really change your gameplan to account for what you get. The opening works a little different, but it hits sooner, due to only needing one CP to get started. You will tier up as fast as you can, and when you do, you call in field divisions for 550 MP. Whatever you get, throw it on your main battle line, no matter if you get an MG, or 2 FD squads. 
  • Once you have your 222 (remember the 222’s limitations), officer, and racket, get the emergency personal unlock for another CP, punch the button, and call in the FD unlock again, as the cooldown will be reset. These squads will act as some decent tier 1 AT, and between the racketen, officer, and field division squads, you will have as many as 3-5 panzerwurfmine, 1 racket, and 1-2 HMG’s capable of using AP ammo. 
  • M15’s are your greatest threat, but they can’t shoot at everything at once, so just try and swarm them with your FD’s. FD’s are 16 mp per model to reinforce (translation: dirt cheap), so if a squad gets messed up by LV’s, who cares? 
  • To wit, you have somewhere around: one officer with FG’s, 2-4 field division squads with 2 scoped gewehr 43’s each, 0-2 MG’s, 1 luft pio (withdraw the rest), 1 racket, freiwilligen with rifle nades and 222. That’s a comfortable and terrifying mob to attack into. The more open the map, the better. 

The plan here is just hold the line, make local pushes if you get a sweet nade, but otherwise advance to tier 2. From here the guide will diverge permanently, with each tier being divided in two, reflecting what choice you made, though they will eventually merge again. 

Tier 2:

Hey congrats! You are alive at tier 2.

Both options from tier one have quite a few options at this tier, but one is common to both docs: the luchs. A nice little light tank that will eat most infantry squads, destroy cover, and blow up buildings. It is bullet proof against 50 cals, cannot be one hit by US rifle nades or the 57mm AT, and is not too much slower… think of it as a tougher 222, a good choice if you lost a 222 earlier on… or even if you didn’t. The more autocannons, the merrier. The luchs will win 1v1’s vs most US vehicles, but will need tungsten ammo to beat the stuart. It will lose to russians, as this is when the SU-76 comes into play, though that is not necessarily a reason not to build it, as your infantry can potentially off a SU-76 as it brings no suppression to the field. The british options, namly the valentine and the AEC are however, completely superior, though you should still have the upper hand with infantry. If you see an AEC, don’t worry, as the british players Tier 3 will be delayed, so you have some time to get ready for a centaur, and do not forget that lowlands has a wasp that can decimate infantry if you are not ready. 

For Reg 6 builds: if you chose this build, then tier 2 is going to be a shorter stop as you get to tier 3, and beyond and you have a couple of options to work with here. Your CP will branch out to getting either the 600th, free vet for your falls, quickly teching up to tier 3 for panzer 4s and panzerknackers, or going for airstrikes/leigs. 

If you are behind, get a luchs if possible, and quicktech, spending the 1 CP on panzer 4’s and maybe airstrikes, or free vet, which will help your panzerknackers. If you are even, then you may want to go for airstrikes, then panzer 4’s and panzerjager… and if you can get away with 5 CP… then airstrikes, leigs, then tier 3 and panzers. This combination is devastating if you have munitions reserves, as leigs combined with fallschirmjäger will blow almost any concentration of men out of existence. One is bad for your opponent, but you will generally want both. Us your officer to spot for the barrages, and let the misery roll in. If you have the muni reserves, you can airstrike your opponent upon getting out the flivo, but be aware that planes work best if they can see the target area, so you will need a spotter to actually see what they are shooting at for best results. (222, 221, officer flares, the spotter truck itself… you have options). Otherwise, an early airstrike might slow down leigs if you decide to go that route. 

Another option is to skip airstrikes/leigs and take the rapid point capture and free vet, which can really make your fallschirmjäger much better. You will gain a vet on any fallschirmjäger squads, any raketens, and on your sniper… which you can now build with vet 2. Build him against elite infantry docs, upgrade him with a 4x scope, and get cracking. 

Regarding the 600th … they seem like a close range brawler squad on paper, armed with flamers, StG’s and bundle nade’s, and that is exactly what they are. They thrive when they can close the distance without being shot up on the way in. Use this squad in urban environments, and against units with weak suppression, i.e. units without LMG’s. You will get results. 

For field division builds: if you chose this build, then tier 2 will be miserable…for your opponent. Unlike with the other build, your options are much more limited… airstrikes, or tanks, as you really need the vet to make them effective this late, and it will slow down your teching. And the reasoning is much the same. Fast panzers and jager if behind, go for airstrikes if you want to, and you can. But really, the star attraction is not a CP unlock, it is the FD call in, which just got better. At this tier, you get a FD squad with either a ZiS 76, or a mortar. The ZiS is workable… it will kill brit vehicles, scare off russians and americans in early tier 3… you can make it work. But if you get a mortar… you can break your mortar cap… giggle. 

When transitioning to tier 2, make sure you build a mortar from your first truck… spamming infantry tends to create stalemates, and being weak 5 model squads, FD’s do best in cover, not assaulting. With a zis 76, you can withdraw a spare MG, or FD squad and try for a mortar, but double mortars will make your opponent see red. They are quite good… you will have the muni for barrages, but even on autofire they exact quite a death toll. If you get 2 ZiS 76, use your officer to withdraw, and go to tier 3. This is the one time the randomness can hurt, but you are in a good situation, as opposed to an amazing one. The ZiS 3 will be a solid AT gun to cover your advance into tier 3. If you get the mortar first try, don’t bother for another one. At that point, you are set, get to tier 3. 

Tier 3:

Welcome to tier 3… at this point we will move to set up into the late game, where our main power spike will be, while surviving the power spike that many allied docs get here, particularly the Americans and canadians. 

For Reg 6 builds: At this point, Panzerknackers will be a buildable squad, and hopefully tanks will not be too far behind. Your options are more or less a continuation of tier 2, and hopefully getting ready for tier 4, i.e. snagging the L70 and hopefully the panther. Generally, as soon as you can safely do so, get one of your late game tanks, and advance. Your infantry micro will have to be on point, as you are going up against T-34-76 and sherman 75’s with infantry… tanks that have quite good HE shells. A panzer 4 will kill a T-34 easily enough, and if you can catch a 75 on HE shells, you can win that fight as well. Against brits, cromwells are also the weaker medium. An optional ostwind can be a good choice on open maps, if you have armored superiority. 

Your main concern here will be a 75 sherman supported by a wolverine, or worse a 76. Another major struggle here will be the allied artillery docs hitting their stride, the largest tier 3 power spike of them all. As you lack satchels, close assault will not be easy, or even possible, so you will need to get through here quickly. Work with what you have, and get to those panthers. 

Another note here on the L-70: it is a rather low rate of fire tank destroyer with the panther’s main gun, but not the panther’s armor or hitpoints. Remember that. The crit shot is useful to soften up targets, but losing these things hurts, making a unit that does not do well when outnumbered. Pair it with other forms of AT so that the L-70 can stay in camo, at a distance, where it does its best work. 

For field division builds: At this point, you have the same goals, but you are in a more stable position. Your field division squads will now come in with either a mortar and pak 40, or a StuG III. Either way, retreat any ZiS guns, hunker down your AT, and get into tier 4. If you mortars/leigs have done their cruel work, take what you can get, otherwise get to tier 4 in good order. Your MP should be doing quite well, and the FD AT combined with a panzer IV should do alright. 

Keep in mind your field division squads are not 6 men, with an LMG upgrade… it is up to you whether you want to withdraw them for MP, or keep them on and withdraw veteran FD squads, or just keep everything. Similar to Reg 6 builds, get through here, and get to panthers. 

To sum up, tier 3 is a transition, which you can set up to be safe, but be aware of the relative strength and tech of your opponents, particularly your artillery docs. 

Tier 4 and beyond:

At this point, fill in the rest of the blanks: get your free vet if you have not already, your airstrikes, you fuel to muni trade once you stop building tanks (usually after the buildable panther, you will start to bank fuel), get the Goering panthers if you need them/can get them, though make sure you do so safely, without having to sacrifice too much on map presence.
Operation stosser is a drop you can do now, if you need the men, and generally you will want to start switching out field divisions for stosser falls, or perhaps getting some field divisions as fodder if you went fallschirmjäger. Either way, the game plan is the same. Panthers kill what they kill, falls clean up the rest, officer makes them miserable with leigs, and if it’s too scary for any of that, kill it with stukas. To sum up, if it does not move, it dies, when it dies, move on. Also, keep in mind, the arado is a pocket nuke, so if anything important is close to those points, and can’t move…

The biggest takeaway is to not overload yourself with needless micro if you don’t need it. Don’t get Goering panthers if your built panther and supporting infantry have already gained armor superiority, don’t drop stosser if you have 2 reg 6 squads and the 600th still alive and well… unless you can actually control all of them, in which case, go crazy. 

Closing thoughts and some things that might not be obvious:

Notable Matchups: Here I will write down a few problem docs/units that you might need to keep into consideration when fighting.

US infantry: This doc does infantry better than you do, and I wholeheartedly recommend field divisions here; you need to match their man spam. Be careful not to lose your autocannons to rifle nades, be ready for the M15 rush, and know that ranges beat fallschirmjäger. Your goals here will be to stall out the matchup, then bomb them to pieces with your leigs (which can counter the american super mortar)/mortars, and getting your sniper to pick off rangers. They will just overrun you with numbers, vet, and more bullets otherwise. A very hard matchup. 

US Artillery: This one you will hate because of the M8 scott. This arty doc start making you miserable sooner, but lacks the elite infantry of US infantry. I would suggest fallschirmjäger for this own, but be aware of their engineer spam: HMG 42 might be important here, as well as keeping your autocannons alive. The one downside to falls is the lack of handheld AT which can make rushing scotts very hard. 

Mortar Pits: If you can’t nip this one in the bud, then you are in for a world of hurt, as you will not be able to adequately tell it to sod off until leigs arrive. Kill it before it gets built, otherwise do what you can around it. Entrenched MG’s/Units might be the best you can do. An emplacement that deserves its own personal stuka strike.  

UKF Commando: FFI Partisan memes will delete you. Deny US pack for Commandos by making them spend muni on grenades one way or another, and if you see a typhoon smoke drop set up AA ASAP to not get Typhoon’d, which will almost always be a bomb and ruin a Panther or a P4. Centaur 95 will break your metaphorical back and can only die to 3 shrecks. If you deny it from the field and don’t kill it the rest of your AT team’s time is spent getting rid of it while it barrages you. AVRE will guarantee you suffer wipes more than the Centaur 95 does if not a dead tank or HQ.

UKF Artillery: All of you and your teammate’s HQ’s are at risk of being harassed into the base sector. Luft beats them on the infantry front but will have to retreat just as fast in the face of a HQABC battery. Ostwind is the most solid choice but must be played carefully in the face of Canadian’s disposable M10’s.

Additional Tips:

When getting Operation Stosser, in addition to dropping the stosser squads (who are armed with 3 FG-42’s and 3 Kar’s) you will receive a drop of 1 panzerschreck, and one MG-42. I recommend placing the shreck with one of the stosser squads, but I recommend letting your highest vet Reg 6 squad take the LMG. Why?
Well, when you let a stosser squad take the LMG, it will replace an FG-42. On a regiment 6, the LMG will replace a Kar. It means that stosser does not have to sacrifice any short range firepower to gain an LMG; instead you can have a reg. 6 squad armed with 1 kar, 1 MG-42, 2 FG-42s, and 2 MP-40’s… literally the only thing they lack is anti tank. Otherwise, it is the perfect squad at all ranges. If you took an MG-42 as your upgrade, congrats: you have a deckung gruppe with more models, better model HP, more vet, MP-40’s, better stats, less MP upkeep… what’s not to love? 

When building vehicles, don’t forget that almost all german vehicles can dismount the crew, and have their experience carry over to a new vehicle. y.e., you have a vet 2 luchs, you can dismount the crew, salvage the luchs, dismount a panzer 4, retreat that crew with the officer, and get a vet 1-2 panzer 4! Keep in mind that vehicles have different veterancy thresholds, so a vet 1 kubel does not mean you will get a vet 1 panzer 4, but every little bit helps. Make sure you keep your experienced vehicle crews, and retreat the green ones. 

Cheaper field division call ins are tricky, and know when you can survive calling in the cheaper squads, as this will remove your ability to call for air support. In emergencies, during munitions shortages, and if you skilled the airstrike branch for the time being, feel free to press the cheaper field division button, but make sure you are careful when doing so.

This doctrine guide was last updated on 3/15/2021, and is considered up to date for Wikinger build 3.4.5. Special thanks to Battle_Chief and Wheeze for proofreading and feedback. Additional thanks to the Wikinger mod team, for making the mod.

• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Death_Kitty.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Death_Kitty.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Death_Kitty.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Death_Kitty.