US Army Guide VS Panzer Elite

an introductory guide to dealing with PE as US

Why you should read this guide

Company of Heroes was released in 2006, if you recently bought the game and jump online, chances are the person you are playing against has fought in WW2 longer than your grandpa, many of the nuances and matchups are second nature to him, so i made this guide to help players in one of the most frustrating matchups, playing as the US against PE

this guide covers mostly the early and mid game, offering a general plan to follow throughout the match, some opening strategies and build orders, and it assumes you have some familiarity with both factions, i included a link to gamereplays.org at the bottom, one of the best sources for guides, strategies and replays regarding Company of Heroes 1, in case you want to know more about each faction

Know your Enemy

PE seems almost like some sick joke designed by Relic to create the most frustrating matchup possible for a US player, almost every unit, doctrine and upgrade seems made to counter US units, upgrades and doctrines, games against PE are fast and errors on your part quickly escalate into a loss

the most dangerous weapons in PE's arsenal for you are:


Panzer Grenadiers: the basic unit of PE can go almost toe to toe with your Riflemen, they will shred your engineers so if you HAVE to fight them early on, only do so while possessing numerical superiority, always try to attack them with a minimum of 1 riflemen + 1 engineer squad, close the distance as much as possible or use cover, if you have anything less, its best to fall back. These units scale extremely well until the end game thanks to all the upgrades available to them


G43 Upgrade: for a measly 50 munitions, PE can arm a PG squad with G43s, these will consistently beat your riflemen, and you can bet the enemy will always have atleast one G43 squad roaming around, and as if the damage boost wasnt enough, the upgraded PG will also be able to instantly suppress any enemy squad with volley fire


Armored Car: if the enemy manages to field one of these before you have a suitable counter, you are in trouble, this vehicle is the definition of glass cannon, very good against infantry, low armor and very fast, its overdrive ability will be the bane of your existence, it increases the vehicle speed further, allowing it to escape certain death, chase down retreating units or flank AT guns

Know Yourself

not all is lost however, as US you have distinctive early game advantages that can help you overcome this challenge


Capture speed: you will almost always out cap a PE player on account of the Riflemen increased capture speed (1.5x the normal cap speed), the Panzer Grenadier slow Cap speed (0.75x the normal cap speed), and the low price of engineer squads allowing you to field capping units faster than PE. this will be your main weapon against PE early game


Barb wire: it might not seem like much but barb wire is very annoying for PE to deal with, the reason is, neither Panzer Grenadiers nor the Kettenkrad can cut barb wire, the only way for PE to deal with this nuisance is by building something like a half track to crush it, something that will set back his economy quite a bit. Strategic placement of barwire is very important against PE and the best placement varies based on the map

when you enter the mid game you will want to build either of these as soon as possible:


M8 "Greyhound" Armored Car: the Greyhound is one of your best tools against PE early on, it can damage nearly every vehicle in PE's arsenal, and it does well against PGs as long as they are not armed with panzershrecks, you should be careful if the enemy deploys a Light AT Halftrack, it completely counters the Greyhound, the Halftrack will immobilize the Greyhound and outrange it


M3 Halftrack with the Quad .50 upgrade: this unit should easily handle any and all units you will face in the early game, by itself the M3 isnt that impressive, beyond its ability to reinforce your units on the field, however when upgraded with the Quad, it becomes a machinegun on wheels, able to easily suppress groups of infantry allowing your riflemen to finish them up, its range also goes beyond its sight radius, so with proper spacing this unit can even deal with PGs armed with panzerschreks, not even Light AT Halftrack can counter it consistently, the Quad .50 deal decent damage to all PE light vehicles, including the Light AT Halftrack and its not outranged by it unlike the greyhound

General game plan

as the US you must avoid engagements with PE as much as possible early on, you must instead focus on outcapping him and sabotaging his economy, most importantly, you must focus on capping fuel while denying the enemy fuel as much as possible, your goal is to field an M8 armored car or a M3 Quad Half-Track before the enemy can build an armored car, force him to counter your vehicles

the bare minimum fuel the enemy needs to field an armored car is 75 fuel, you on the other hand need either 140 fuel for an armored car or 135 fuel + 100 munitions for a M3 Quad Half-track, this is why you must do everything you can to prevent the enemy from capping fuel, if you see him waste fuel on squad upgrade or other vehicles before the armored car, thats great, you bought yourself some time

if you survive the early to mid game, it becomes more of an even fight, from this point forward you must do everything possible to keep an economic advantage over your enemy and protect your territorial gains

Opening Build Order

there are two main openings i use against PE

2 Engineers + 4 Riflemen:

a strong and balanced opening useful against both PE and Wehrmacht

- At the start of the game immediately start building a second engineer at the HQ



- use the first engineer to build the Barracks



- as soon as the second engineer comes out send it to cap fuel

- once the Barracks are complete, start pumping out Riflemen Squad, you will need 4



- Riflemen will be your prime harassment tool throughout the game, use them to cap or uncap enemy points and cut their fuel supply

- avoid losing units early on, avoid fights unless you have the numerical superiority and are sure to win quickly

- the only time this principle does not apply is when you are defending a capped territory that is cutting the enemy off from its fuel supply, stand your ground, the longer you starve the enemy off fuel, the better

- by the time your 4th Riflemen Squad is out you should have enough fuel to build a Supply Yard



- afterwards build a Motor Pool as soon as posible



3 Engineers + 3 Riflemen:

it sacrifices some firepower for a cheaper manpower cost

- Build 2 engineers from the HQ



- i suggest using your first engineer to place barb wire in the most inconvenient places possible for PE, deny them easy access to high fuel deposits or place it near crucial control points needed for your fuel supply

- after the barb wire is done, use the engineer for capping

- the second engineer should also be used for capping

- the last engineer should build the barracks



- after its built, deploy 3 riflemen



- by the time your 3th Riflemen Squad is out you should have enough fuel to build a Supply Yard



- afterwards build a Motor Pool as soon as posible

I have the Motor Pool, now what?

you have two options to tackle whatever PE has on the field at the moment, the M8 Greyhound and the M3 with the Quad upgrade, choosing what to build more often than not comes down to what resources you have, but if you have enough resources for either, you may choose whatever suits your playstyle best, that being said if the enemy already has an armored car on the field, i strongly suggest you build a Greyhound, since it can immediately counter it


M8 Greyhound
Cost: 280 Manpower, 30 Fuel
Build Time: 45 seconds
Description: a great response to most of the PE arsenal, i suggest getting the .50 Cal Machine Gun upgrade as soon as the vehicle hits the field (cost: 50 munitions) as it greatly increases its anti infantry capabilities, after that i suggest getting the Armor Skirts upgrade (cost 50 munitions) to increase survivability, when using the M8 always keep your riflemen close behind for support, the M8 is best used to disrupt charges from PG squads without panzershrecks, disrupt enemy captures and hunting down PE light vehicles, the ability to lay down mines can also be useful to place em where the enemy does not expect it, keep in mind M8 mines cost twice as much as engineer placed mines


M3 Half-track + Quad upgrade
Cost: 220 Manpower, 25 Fuel + 100 munitions for the upgrade
Build Time: 40 seconds + 45 seconds to upgrade
Description: probably the stronger unit of the two, it can shred hordes of PGs, it can deal with PGs armed with panzershrecks if you keep your distance, it can suppress, it can reinforce your troops, it can seriously damage PE light vehicles, but this comes at a cost, the vehicle is actually cheaper and builds faster than the M8, however while the M8 is useful the moment it hits the field, the M3 must be upgraded, it costs a whooping 100 munitions and it takes 45 seconds to upgrade, so in essence, it takes twice as much to become a counter to PE compared to the M8, so most of the time, you will want to go with the M8, that being said if you are 5 fuel short of an M8, it might be worth getting the Half-track, the longer waiting might be offset by not having to wait for that extra fuel to drop

Press the Advantage

Assuming everything went according to plan, you should now have the upper hand for the first time in the entire match, use your chosen vehicle to force PE to retreat the battlefield and when he does, cap as much as you can, and specially keep cutting off his fuel supply, things like Light AT Halftracks, panzershreck upgrades and Marders cost fuel, the less fuel the enemy has, the less options he has to answer your motorized units

After your M3 Halftrack/M8 Greyhound hits the field, get the sticky bomb upgrade for your riflemen, if he chooses to counter your vehicle with an Anti Tank vehicle, you will be prepared



Stand your ground, make it as hard and painful as possible for the enemy to regain lost ground, set up barb wires and mine fields near crucial Fuel depots, if you can spare the manpower, build a Forward Barrack



This way you can reinforce near the front line and you wont have to retreat all the way back to HQ, plus you will be able to deploy AT guns near the frontline



Forward Barracks or not, you will want to deploy an AT gun after researching stickybombs, its a big commitment, 280 manpower and takes 67 seconds to build, however its the most powerful deterrent against PE vehicles there is, always try to keep you AT gun near your vehicle of choice, that way you can respond quickly to any vehicle counter the enemy chooses to build, plus you can defend your AT Gun much more easily

if you hold the fuel advantage long enough, i suggest going for Shermans or even artillery



when a PE player has little fuel, he likes to resort to "PG blobbing" that is, building hordes of PGs to try to overwhelm you, Shermans are good at dealing with infantry if you keep your distance, even panzershreck squads have a hard time dealing with it, and a single well placed artillery strike can wipe out an entire horde of PGs





i also encourage getting the BAR upgrade for your riflemen later down the line



the damage boost is good, but the real star is the suppression ability



it will help you stop those hordes of PGs on their tracks, making them easy pickings for your artillery or Shermans

General Tips and Tricks

Barb wire locations: choose locations that allow you to protect your important strategic points or force the enemy to take longer and slower routes:

example of a good barb wire location in angoville:



Mines: place mines next to capture points from the location the enemy will most likely come



another good trick is to use the barb wire to redirect the enemy to a choke point and then mine it

after i placed the barb wire above, the enemy is forced to use this route, which i then mined:





also since PE usually uses vehicles to crush barb wire, its also a good idea to place mines next to barb wires, so the vehicle steps on the mine right after it destroys the barb wire

Uncapping strategic points: see these plain strategic points? they usually provide only manpower, but they have a special property, they are the fastest points to capture, they also usually connect fuel points to HQ, when possible, use riflemen to uncap these points to cut off the enemy fuel supply, their increased capping speed can help you get these off the enemy hands in record time



Holding off Armored cars without a counter: if the enemy fields an armored car before your counter is ready, try to move your riflemen to buildings when possible, or at the very least high cover, the armored car can take a surprising amount of damage from riflemen if they can actually hold their ground









Hunting the Kettenkrad/Schwimmwagen: this thing is doing most of the capping for PE, if you manage to kill it early on, it will cripple the enemy's ability to capture strategic points, and it'll make it much harder for them to recover from your raids uncapping their territory, focus fire on it whenever you get the chance, but dont waste too much time chasing it





Dealing with booby traps: one of PE's most annoying abilities, one way to minimize their damage is to do the following, start capturing a point, and as soon as you hear the "click" move to the opposite side of the strategic point, you will avoid most if not all of the damage and can continue capturing the point





Doctrine Choice: personally i like to go with infantry tactics, since artillery strikes and the M2 105mm Howitzer are good to deal with PG blobs after the PE player gets desperate, it also allows your riflemen to build Barb wire and mines after you unlock Defensive Operations



Airborne Company seems also decent, the Strafing Run can mow down PGs and unlike Off-Map Artillery Support, it does not drop smoke before landing, Paratroopers armed with recoilless rifles can also deal a lot of damage to PE vehicles, however this doctrine choice is too munitions intensive for my taste

what i dont recommend is Armor Company, the early abilities are not very useful to you, and its only response to PG blobbing, the Sherman Calliope, comes way too late and is too expensive

Conclusions

this matchup will ask more of you than it does the PE player early on, but its by no means unwinnable, the key as always, is focusing on your strengths while exploiting the enemy weaknesses, i hope this guide helps you deal with Panzer Elite in future matches

Would you like to know more?

visit https://www.gamereplays.org/companyofheroes/ to check more guides regarding each faction and download replays, its easily one of the best resources around for this game

[ChemicλlCherry]

Even tho I don't play Americans that much still a cool guide

[Neutral]

well written guide

[Nuclear Kangaroo]

@T-70 X-Wing, shermans do not have troubles dealing with panzergrenadiers, if you keep moving back with you front armor facing the enemy, most rockets will miss and you will be quickly depleting PG forces, if you support the tank with riflemen, it just murders PGs, so wasting munitions on repairs is honestly a waste, specially in 1v1, where you probably wont be fielding too many tanks

so really the only really valuable ability is fast deployment, that doesnt really justify choosing that doctrine

[T-70 X-Wing]

actually armor company is hella useful agaisnt PE yes the game can be over before you can call in the pershing but contruction time being halved on any tank/veichle alone is super valuable couple this with a muntion lead you can auto fix your tanks while he just fruitlessly firing rockets at you

[Nuclear Kangaroo]

@T-70 X-Wing, i talked about the HT in the guide, i will add it to that section later

[Nuclear Kangaroo]

@T-70 X-Wing, the problem is, by the time you have the half-track, the opponent almost certainly has an armored car ready, against that the machinegun on top is simply not enough, at best you wont be able to stop the armored car from hunting down your infantry, at worst, the opponent will destroy your half-track with their armored car

[T-70 X-Wing]

the quad halftrack is not compeletly mandatory i find M3 crewed by an engineer squad also providing neat firepower atleast early on

[Ant]

Yeah, I find the Staghound really OP against infantry.

[Nuclear Kangaroo]

@100% id argue the british are even more broken, i mean the staghound is a clear example of that, the MG on top never reloads that is clearly a glitch, then theres the command trucks which basically makes cutting off resources almost impossible when playing vs Brits, then theres the dumb way their veterancy works, making "blobbing" the ONLY way to play british, and lets not even get into the "sim city" gameplay that took years to address

PE is frustrating to fight against,but for the most part, they play by the same rules as you do

[The Smiths Enjoyer]

I fucking hate PE, broken ass army