How to make ze Americans cry on Semois

Tired of getting out flanked, Sniper spammed and arty raining down on you non stop? There is a simple solution! FHQ. Front forward Headquater allows you to place your base basically in the middle of the map! Easy strat, works in all levels! beats everyone makes you ze best!

4 Pios Start

I marked the pios with number 1-4 which shows which pio has what to do

Pio 1 caps imidiatly the +5 ammo point. after that he hops into the building and waits for the manpower to build an Fhq. after hes done with that he can be used to wire the green cover around the fhq or for vp capping or scouting by hopping into the church, thats optional.




Pio 2 connects by capping the strat point infront of our base and walks over to the bridge and wires it off. after that he caps the the +5 fuel and the strat point. If an american engie is coming over and trys to cut the wire, u can engage him since he will take more damage.



Pio 3 caps the +10 fuel infront of your base and wires it off. Which leads troops who are send to cap that fuel into your mg bunker.



Pio 4 just caps the +10 ammo and then goes over to cap the side points

#By giving shift orders all those jobs require a total of like 20 clicks and u are already sitting there with a pretty decent map controll and good defended set up to start pumping some volx out

The first Volx out and general fighting tips

The first Volx on the field is basicly here at the same time the american player has 1 rifle on the field and 1 coming out of his base. We can already use him to take full controll over the middle by using the green cover on the next +5 ammo to cap and the "fhq" pio for support. We will always win from that position against 1 rifle. If the opponent reacts quickly to what we are doing here and gangs up with both rifles on the 1 volx. We fall back to the FHQ and use the cover there to stay in the engagement until the next volx arrives.



It`s very important that we only engage from green cover at the start and fight near our fhq. At this time map controll is more than equal we are just technicaly 1 fighting unit behind. But that s not a problem we want to play on time. Because our fighting units will spawn directly on the map and as soon as some of the rifles have to reatreat. The slight advantage from the american shifts over to us.

Also semois has a lot of houses that can be used to sit in and stall time. We have to be carefull about flamethrowers tho. They are the biggest threat to our army in that state. Remember to always FOCUS FIREing the flamethrower engeniers by right clicking on him with all the shooting volx.











Side note: as soon as we got the 25 ammo required to lay a mine. We imidiatly gonna do that somewhere around the fhq since the american player will soon try to push that building and try to force us out of there.



Side note 2: We want to take engagements because volx are cheaper to reinforce than rifles are and we can reinforce on the map, he has to go back to his base which gives us more time to secure map by laying more mines

Float like a butterfly sting like a bee

Now we come to the critical phase of our game where the american player is on the peak of his early advantage, but soon things will start to shift. He might push us into the ropes, but we are just hopping from green cover to green cover while our side pios are still capping map or heaving fights with his engies. And as soon as the next volx hits the field, or his rifle hits a mine it`s time for some jabs!





And here we go first full retreat forced!



If he doesn´t push the fhq and just decides to play time and beeing comfortable with giving up the middle, well then we mine it off and push ourselves into his cut off. or trying to get controll over the +5 fuels. But 90 % of the american players push you and the fhq anyaways and fall into the deadly trap!
and when they have to retreat. We just place some more mines and build more volx !

Putting pressure on the opponent!

So far so good, we got his first attack to full retreat, all our units are still on the field, and maybe we even kept all our pios alive, that would be optimal. Now we can outcap him place more mines. The next attack is gonna come and we are using the same float like a butterfly sting like a bee tactic once more. Hopping from green cover to green cover while leading him over minefields this time.







Once we reached 5 Volksgrenadiers it`s time to build a Kampfkraftcenter and get Infantry Vetrancy I for the health regeneration benefits. This is very important against bars and flamers. We can lose some men in fights, but still gotta be carefull with those casualties because we don`t have a med bunker and we can`t let him get tooo much vet.



And as soon as we get 1 CP it`s time to chose the first bonus of the right side blitzkrieg doctrine. The BLITZ NADES. This is gonna be our next suprise for him. Once he clumbs his rifles behind some cover and doesn`t pay attention for a second, its already too late! volx are the best units to throw those nades with, and they are doing redicules amount of damage to grouped rifles. Blitz nades and mines are basicly the compensation for not having Mg`s. But they cost 50 ammo which is quite a lot, so we have to use them when nessesary and in good spots. I usualy use them to win fight`s id otherwise lose, or when im feeling too much pressure from rifle groups behind green cover.



The main reason why i prefere this strat over standart wehrmacht play on this position is the mapcontroll and predictability you force the american player into. I mean look at this blue mini map. On semois in the first 5-11 mins you can be happy if you can hold a little box of territory normaly and not lose your fuel all the time. Playing this strat makes the american player suddenly worry about not losing his cut off too fast. Also making sniper and arty spam for the american player basicly impossible at this point it`s way more fun to play that map.

The teching, and some macro theory

While he is buisy fighting our 5 vet 1 volksgrenadiers we use the time and mapcontroll to out tech him by going for a fast t3 and pumas. He is basicly forced to get bars because he`d lose too many fights otherwise, also bars is likely the best counter to this strategie and when they are played to perfection it`s very hard to win, but since there are so few players in the world who are still able to play bar to such perfection we can normaly be very happy about seeing bars, because that means he`s gonna have no counter to the upcoming pumas.

Also some american players might tech nades when they see you going for such huge amounts of infantry. In that case a medic bunker is a good option. But unless u completely fall asleep and start losing entire groups, nades is a suicide tech against this strat. Pumas are too fast for him and if the nades are dodged correctly he is missing the ammo hes needing for flamers and minesweapers.

I wouldn`t worry about a fast m8 either, simply because your mapcontroll is superior and completely unupgraded rifles won`t do much against your 5 volx. Also with the mine spam and all the floated ammo, it`s realy risky buiseness to get an m8 which could be insta fausted anyways. Also your t3 counters everything that could possibly come out of his t3.

In case he thinks it`s a smart move to get snipers because you can`t counter them, hes comitting suicide once again. Volx are cheap to reinforce and after the pumas roll out you could get some cloked storms with stgs and start hunting them. Basicly if i see him going for snipers, my second puma drives over a safe road down the map directly into his base and usualy behaves like a shark in a fishtank.

the knockout!

While Pumas are usualy the knockout unit for the american player who is left with bars and heal in his base.
When you drive the pumas into the base id recommend not to use the bridge, but coming from the otherside. But its not even nessesary to push the base, You can also just use them to support your volksgrenadiers taking even more map.



I lost one of them to stickys and rangers in this example game.

But thats not even a problem. The entire game plan was to get into a mid game. In which we got the entire Wehrmacht arsenal of doom in our pocket. Stuhs to handle the inf blob, nebels and pumas to do even more of that. And Storms that can be upgraded to stg44 beasts or double schreck grens incase we are facing a tank army. In which case Stugs and Stuhs will work also very well.









In the example game featured: the opponent (currently "number 1" on the usa leadeboards skyisthelimit) So you see the strat works on all levels!

Final words and how to deal with worst case scenarios

Sometimes a volx can get cought offguard and if he can`t make it by softretreating to the fhq. It´s ofcourse better to retreat him into the base and try to get him as fast as possible back to the front. Try to hit that retreat button as rare as possible with your volx.

If the American player manages to barpushes the wehrmacht out of the fhq area and decaps it. It`s ofcourse a bad situation to be in but not game over yet. Stuhs, Pumas and Storms might still be able to comeback that.

But don`t worry as long as you will follow the "peek a boo" movement style with the volksgrenadiers and place enought mines you should be able to survive the early game with a very decent amount of map. I feel this strat gives you realy good odds of beating a technicaly better opponent in terms of micro.

I basicly play this strat till today because i find semois from that position very hard to defend against high pressure american opponents, and thats what this counters exactly. The american player is forced to take only winning engagements and has to chose them carefully. Also it makes his teching choices predictable and limited. Also you don`t have to worry about sniper and arty spam which I personaly have huge issues of dealing with at semois east. Because Snipers won`t do him no good and the game is usualy decided anyways before he can even get a howitzer.

So yeah i hope you could find some usefull tips in that guide and i wish you good luck in outplaying some technicaly better opponents with that! also sorry for my bad englisch and crap editing. Cya on the frontlines!

Oberst Simply out!

[Gunslinger]

Very doxic strategy, 5 stars given

[Yokukton]

nice guide pls make more map guides

[FrancisNile]

the last screenshot is the best, i love the salt from your opponent. Well played

[FarmerNerd]

nice guide dude !

[Richartonio]

Really nice, Simply! I usually try to get a Semois pin in place... with mixed results. I will give this oen a try next time. And 100% agreed on the artillery... this map is a dream for howitzers. The causeway is so easy to interdict.

[462]

vfdhngfh don't ask why

[JAVX_MAGNETICS]

Decent guide!