What is the British weakness?

[76561198051514398]

British Infantry are legendary, their Engineers are a bit rubbish considering it's a 5 man SMG squad, but they have an AT grenade which does well for itself, plus they can be upgraded with PIATs or LMG's. They're also the only allies who can pump out an MG right away.

They can get out a Bofors 5 minutes into the game which is essentially invincible and can close off entire parts of the map until you can get a tank or enough AT guns/Mortars with infantry support defending them to break it.

They have portable bases that can be placed anywhere and use as retreat/healing points.

They can crash buggy gliders filled with invisible commando squads that have laser machine guns that will wipe out your squad in 2 seconds if they can get close enough.

They nearly always have artillery readily available.

All their tanks are average to good, I personally love the Valentine.


The main issues I see are a lack of a mobile mortar and it being an especially munitions heavy faction.

[Trem]

The Bofors is pure cancer to fight in team games and can tie down 2 or more players completely on its own, while the rest of the allied units do whatever the heck they want.

Brits' weakness is being battered by tanks early. Their basic infantry section has no anti-tank engine breaker (snare), only the Sappers do. PIATs are also very weak. But if the Brit player has locked down the fuel with Vickers or God-forbid the almighty Bofors, then getting the armour out to stop them can be hard. Be aggressive and fight with maximum combined arms, especially support units like the 81mm mortar. An early StuG can wreck their emplacements, and an early PzIV can do a lot of damage.

If you're OKW, forget it, you're screwed. All their support weapons are absolute garbage.

Also in the new Commander update coming that one weakness you mentioned - lacking a mobile mortar - is being changed. Big yay.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by Tremozl:

The Bofors is pure cancer to fight in team games and can tie down 2 or more players completely on its own, while the rest of the allied units do whatever the heck they want.

Brits' weakness is being battered by tanks early. Their basic infantry section has no anti-tank engine breaker (snare), only the Sappers do. PIATs are also very weak. But if the Brit player has locked down the fuel with Vickers or God-forbid the almighty Bofors, then getting the armour out to stop them can be hard. Be aggressive and fight with maximum combined arms, especially support units like the 81mm mortar. An early StuG can wreck their emplacements, and an early PzIV can do a lot of damage.

If you're OKW, forget it, you're screwed. All their support weapons are absolute garbage.

I appreciate the advice, but I think the block to it is...

I personally think PIAT's are the second best infantry AT the allies have to offer. The M9 bazooka is garbage, PIAT's seem to hit their targets more, plus they do a fair amount of damage. Though the Penals with their AT guns and Satchels are superior to both if the player knows what they're doing(Which isn't hard)

The Brits can get AT guns, and if the Brits have an AT gun guarding their bofor, you can't send armour anywhere near that.

[Trem]

Yep, basically. Of all the factions in the game, the bunker-down emplaced Brit strategy is the absolute least fun to fight against. It's a huge chore, and you don't really feel good even when you win, because they dragged you through the mud so much.

It's dirty and Relic should make some serious changes to it. I'm fine with emplacements being cheaper and less penalizing on tech if they weren't so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unkillable.

Honestly it's very bad video-game design to make most enemy strats fun to play against even if you're losing, BUT this one super-easy to pull off strategy causes the most intense frustration, and hasn't been changed in forever.

[RageCake]

Honestly I think Royal Engis are either the 2nd or best engi unit in the game. Strumpios are better early but Royal Engis scale a bit better with their reduced reinforcement cost and cover ROF bonuses. Makes them super cost effective.

For their weakness itll probably be their medium tanks. The cromwell is pretty bad and the comet, their premium medium, is very bad.

[Richartonio]

Brit's weakness is the leFH18.

[CODGUY]

They lose one unit with in the first 10 minutes they lose the game. They are slow, and can't handle MGs very well.

[COMP DBD 1V1]

a single mortar hard counters brits
thats literally it
they have no meaningful response to take it out for 10 minutes straight, their only artillery comes in the form of a 350mp emplacement that cannot move and dies in 3 seconds to fire

mg lockdown cripples them as well since they can only literally make 1 unit to hard counter it, UC will instantly die anyway 4 minutes into the game because by then you have made your scout car to delete it immediately

[DeadlyTigger]

Two mortars or two support guns are all you need to deal with a bofors. That, or a pak gun will work too. It's a slightly more micro-heavy chore to deal with than Axis players are usually used to, but either of those weapons (or both combined) will make short work of emplacements. Even if they have a mortar pit guarding the bofors, it's doable. You just have to barrage for 3-4 rounds, move, barrage, move, barrage. Their mortar pit will be unable to keep up.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by missharvey <intel>:

a single mortar hard counters brits
thats literally it
they have no meaningful response to take it out for 10 minutes straight, their only artillery comes in the form of a 350mp emplacement that cannot move and dies in 3 seconds to fire

mg lockdown cripples them as well since they can only literally make 1 unit to hard counter it, UC will instantly die anyway 4 minutes into the game because by then you have made your scout car to delete it immediately

I tested your theory.

As Ost, in 4 minutes my forces were - 1 Pioneer, 2 Grens, 2 MG's and a Mortar.

As Brits, in 4 minutes my forces were - 1 Section, 1 Engineer, 1 Vickers, 1 Carrier, 1 Mortar Pit.

So the Germans have 3 Infantry capable of frontline combat, 2 MG's capable of cutting areas off and a Mobile Mortar.
The Brits have 2 infantry capable of frontline combat, 1 MG capable of cutting an area off, 1 harraser vehicle and a fortified mortar emplacement.

In another minute and 30 seconds, at 5:30 into the game. The Germans now have the " 4 minute scout car " you speak of, and the Brits have a Bofors and another infantry unit, the Germans do not as they've invested their manpower in upgrading/building/producing for the scout car.

So the Germans have 3 frontline infantry, 2 MG's, a mobile mortar and a scout car.

The Brits have. 3 frontline infantry, an MG, a Carrier, a fortified mortar pit and a fortified anti-infantry/anti-light armour pit. If garrisoned, the Bofors also is capable of barraging targets.

So at 5:30, the Germans essentially have nothing capable of knocking at these British positions and that potentially means that the right, left or middle of the map is closed off until the Germans can deploy enough mortars, or an AT gun, or a medium armour to knock out the emplacement zone. And mortars or AT guns will only be able to knock out those emplacements if the British player isn't protecting them with infantry support. This means that it could take several more minutes for the German player to get a way to counter these emplacements, and by that time, another batch have already sprung up.

This is also just a 1v1 example, this problem with the British is 100% more apparent in 2v2's or 3v3's.

Now of course there are different build orders, there are different skill levels, play styles, etc. But you'll see this play out in the majority of matches involving Brits.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by DeadlyTigger:

Two mortars or two support guns are all you need to deal with a bofors. That, or a pak gun will work too. It's a slightly more micro-heavy chore to deal with than Axis players are usually used to, but either of those weapons (or both combined) will make short work of emplacements. Even if they have a mortar pit guarding the bofors, it's doable. You just have to barrage for 3-4 rounds, move, barrage, move, barrage. Their mortar pit will be unable to keep up.

Mortars and Field guns do not knock out emplacements, it sounds like a fine idea on paper but it just doesn't play out that way.

You'd need a large period of time of constant fire directly on the emplacements and the investment of two mortars or field guns at that point in the game is a heavy one. No one will just let your two artillery pieces bombard their emplacement, they'll bombard back and send troops to deal with it.

The AT gun strategy does work, it knocks out the emplacements health pretty fast. But once again, getting an AT gun within firing range of their emplacements is rarely an easy feat, the Brits will have 1 or more infantry units in the area ready to move in and they'll fire their artillery back.

Once again, neither of these things are impossible and sometimes not even hard depending on who you're playing against. But if you're dealing with a somewhat competent British player, it is beyond a pain to deal with this.

[76561198051514398]

British emplacements are a lot like Soviet Shock Troops, they're too good in too many ways and if the person using them has any understanding/experience of/with the game, these units will be death machines.

The closest thing the Germans have are Sturmpioneers, but Sturmpioneers are only very capable in anti-infantry and anti-armour to a lesser extent. Sturmpioneers don't have smoke or grenades or any major counters to defensive positions and such.

[Medryn]

Originally posted by Tremozl:

The Bofors is pure cancer to fight in team games and can tie down 2 or more players completely on its own, while the rest of the allied units do whatever the heck they want.

Brits' weakness is being battered by tanks early. Their basic infantry section has no anti-tank engine breaker (snare), only the Sappers do. PIATs are also very weak. But if the Brit player has locked down the fuel with Vickers or God-forbid the almighty Bofors, then getting the armour out to stop them can be hard. Be aggressive and fight with maximum combined arms, especially support units like the 81mm mortar. An early StuG can wreck their emplacements, and an early PzIV can do a lot of damage.

If you're OKW, forget it, you're screwed. All their support weapons are absolute garbage.

Also in the new Commander update coming that one weakness you mentioned - lacking a mobile mortar - is being changed. Big yay.

Reading this made me think you've never used attack ground in your life. OKW's ISG is amazing at killing Brit emplacements, and so are Ost motars and paks if you can micro more than "press 1 to select all infantry and press A to attack move to win"

[Medryn]

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

British emplacements are a lot like Soviet Shock Troops, they're too good in too many ways and if the person using them has any understanding/experience of/with the game, these units will be death machines.

The closest thing the Germans have are Sturmpioneers, but Sturmpioneers are only very capable in anti-infantry and anti-armour to a lesser extent. Sturmpioneers don't have smoke or grenades or any major counters to defensive positions and such.

Shock troops are also awful if you stand your ground behind cover and deny them on the advance. Learn to time grenades.

EDIT: Or use any vehicle

[CODGUY]

Originally posted by missharvey <intel>:

a single mortar hard counters brits
thats literally it
they have no meaningful response to take it out for 10 minutes straight, their only artillery comes in the form of a 350mp emplacement that cannot move and dies in 3 seconds to fire

mg lockdown cripples them as well since they can only literally make 1 unit to hard counter it, UC will instantly die anyway 4 minutes into the game because by then you have made your scout car to delete it immediately

This. Brtis are probably the easiest faction to beat. Their units are expensive just like USF. It literally makes no sense now though for them (or USF) to have more expenisve units because they don't preform better than their Axis opponents.

[COMP DBD 1V1]

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

Originally posted by DeadlyTigger:

Two mortars or two support guns are all you need to deal with a bofors. That, or a pak gun will work too. It's a slightly more micro-heavy chore to deal with than Axis players are usually used to, but either of those weapons (or both combined) will make short work of emplacements. Even if they have a mortar pit guarding the bofors, it's doable. You just have to barrage for 3-4 rounds, move, barrage, move, barrage. Their mortar pit will be unable to keep up.

Mortars and Field guns do not knock out emplacements, it sounds like a fine idea on paper but it just doesn't play out that way.

You'd need a large period of time of constant fire directly on the emplacements and the investment of two mortars or field guns at that point in the game is a heavy one. No one will just let your two artillery pieces bombard their emplacement, they'll bombard back and send troops to deal with it.

The AT gun strategy does work, it knocks out the emplacements health pretty fast. But once again, getting an AT gun within firing range of their emplacements is rarely an easy feat, the Brits will have 1 or more infantry units in the area ready to move in and they'll fire their artillery back.

Once again, neither of these things are impossible and sometimes not even hard depending on who you're playing against. But if you're dealing with a somewhat competent British player, it is beyond a pain to deal with this.

isgs outrange mortar pit and bofors
oops