A Weeb's guide to UKF

A guide about the United Kingdom Forces, covering their basic units, doctrines, build orders and some tips.
Hey, the background is not black!

Overview of the british

British are... weird faction.
From their roots from vCoh, they have changed dratically in comparison to their equivelants in the Normandy's countryside. While still being defensive, the recent changes have made british a more mobile, profesional force, able to deal with most of the threats if a correct doctrine is chosen (I will touch on that later).
Tanks of the UKF are pretty split, with some leaving a lot to be desired, and some that just blow the competition out of the water.
Keep in mind, that british are lacking in tool such as an anwser to early sniper with UC being an average option at best, blob control in form of rocket arty, or indirect. And before you will rise your pitchforks and scream at me that I'm lying, please, listen : I understand that those tools are there, but most of them are locked behind commanders or tech choices, and this is UKF's biggest weakness in my opinion : lack of tools for every stage of the game.
But, I've talked enough. Let's get into it.
Also shoutout to Ban1st for providing a more quality screenshots!

Tier 1 - Headquaters.

Tier one is here to provide you with early game tools and upgrades for your infantry sections. Weapon racks (which become essential mid-late game), bolster (which increases the size of three squads from four to five men), and grenades, which were nerfed in this patch. But hey, at least they're less expensive than pineapples!

Infantry Section
Tommies are your mainline infantry specializing in long-range engagements. Having the cover bonuses, they reward the player with good positioning or map awareness.
Sections serve as the middle ground between line infantry and engineers since they can build sandbags (simular to cons, volks, and rifles), but in addition trenches, cashes, and emplacements (doctrinally). Also, they get a very small bonus (it's 1,15 now I think) to capture speed.
Combat-wise, tommies are probably the best mainline in terms of long-range engagements. With the bolster, double brens, and cover bonuses, those squads will shred even elite infantry of axis factions. Sections can be upgraded in two ways: Medkits and Pyrotechnics Supplies. The first one grants the sections ability to heal out of combat, and the second gives them a bit more sight, as well as giving them the ability to call in arty strikes (and smoke, don't forget about it)
Veterancy for the tommies is pretty straightforward. The first vet grants them more sight range in cover, the second gives them more survivability, and the third makes them more firepower in form of lesser cooldown and better accuracy.


Royal Engineers
With the new patch, Sappers landed in the first building to get more map control, since the section spam was bad apparently. Armed with STEN SMGs, they're your engineers with funny quotes, and without non-doctrinal flamethrower (they still have minesweepers, thankfully).
Sappers are the engineers who can construct mines(they are on par with the soviet mines), emplacements as well place barbed wire. Additionally, they can destroy cover and snare a vehicle with a HEAT grenade.
In combat, they're roughly the same as ostheer's pioneers, with the exception that their veterancy helps them in combat since vet 1 gives them a whopping 70% less cooldown and a 50% bonus to reload in cover. Vet 2 increases their engineer repair speed and building, and vet 3 surprisingly decreases their reinforce cost and there's also received an accuracy bonus.
Sappers can be upgraded in one more way: Heavy Sappers. Exclusive to the anvil tactics, those engies are going to be armed with additional weaponry in form of Vickers K (which is stat-wise is very similar to BAR), armor, and increases their repair/building speed even more.
This upgrade also grants you the ability to waste the most amount of munitions on a single squad, since you can also get weapons from the weapon racks, minesweepers, and the heavy engie upgrade, so that's about 200 munitions on the squad!


Vickers Heavy Machine Gun
Where to start with this one? Vickers is the MG of the British, which specializes in long-range engagements and dealing damage. Accurate, and having a higher (theoretical) DPS than MG42, this mg is a middle tier of MGs in the game, right next to the maxim in my eyes.
With the recent changes, its vet 1 passive has turned into timed ability. Mercifully, it's free, and can be used outside of garrisons. The rest of the veterancy stays relatively the same: Vet 2 gives the mg more suppression and pen, while vet 3 grants more rate of fire and even more accuracy.


Universal Carrier
The ultra-light vehicle of the British, it cost fuel now. Bren Carrier is a peculiar piece of machinery, which works sort of as a... carrier! It carries infantry! Use it an early game to transport some CQC units like Sappers or Lend-Lease Assault Sections to flank an mg or something or as fire support akin to Kubel that can't cap territory. But hey, it can repair itself, which is now kind of irrelevant, given that sappers are now available from the get-go.
UC can be upgraded in two ways (when Platoon Command Post is done): Vickers K MG and the Ronson Flamethrower system, known more commonly as the Wasp. Note that after upgrading the UC it can no longer transport troops.
Vicker K is the M E T A way to upgrade the carrier. It... grants the UC an even bigger gun to shoot some germans. Also, suppressing fire ability which is now more expensive.
Wasp is the upgrade you'd want if your enemy is going heavy on the support equipment or abuses garrisons since flamethrower is great for both. Also, it grants the tankette an armor boost from 5.8 to 7 (yes, I dug out that info finally).
Veterancy grants the UC more sight, burst duration, speed, and a fairly interesting trait to Self-Repairs: it can repair itself while on the move.

Tier 2 - Platoon Command Post.

PCP (a name that I will never use since everybody calls the building tier 2) is the building where brits get even more spicy than usual. It's the source of fairly good medics, frontline leaders, and snipers, in addition to having an armored car or basic emplacements available.

Medics
Look Jeff, they finally fixed the medics!
They work like American ambulances.
Can I go now to something more interesting? Th-thank you.


Assault Officer
Known as the Air-Landing Officer in the past, this unit specializes in close quarters, boasting the same DPS as commandos (with a bit more range). Starting as a four men squad, this unit is the UKF's answer to pgrens. Despite their squishiness, they are a pretty good close combat unit, that can take some hits, especially when vet 2 and above.
The officer is the non-doctrinal infantry with access to light Gannon bombs, ability to motivate troops (works similar to Capitan's 'on me', albeit doesn't grant immunity to suppression, grants combat bonuses such as rec acc, accuracy, and sprint), and recon sweep, which now can be shot down.
And please, don't give them brens. They're specialized CQC unit aren't getting the super brens of commandos.
Ah, also AO gets shared veterancy, I forgot to mention that.


Anti-Tank Sniper
This is probably the wackiest sniper around, mostly because he's armed with the Boys AT rifle instead of scoped lee-enfield or something like that. Oh yeah, he's also no-scoping people. Fun fact.
His abilities to are to coordinate fire (arty ability shared with pyrotechnic IS, just fires more rounds for some reason), and to disable the vehicle, albeit what this ability does depends on the class of the AFV. If it's a light vehicle, then the shot will damage the engine. Medium tanks will get their turrets jammed and heavies will get stunned. Keep in mind that just like snares of any kind, the AFV hp has to get to a certain threshold for the ability to work.


Ordnance QF 6-Pounder Anti-Tank Gun
6pounder is a copy of the german pak 40 in terms of stats. It can also sprint on vet 1.


AEC Mk.III Armored Car
The allied puma, the AEC is the counter to most of the light vehicles that axis can field, maybe puma aside, which has 20 more pens and I have slightly faster acceleration and a lot less armor. Both of those vehicles are AT specialists, possessing an ability to stun tanks, and having somewhat lacking AI compartments.
Veterancy gives the AEC more speed, lesser target size surprisingly (goes from 18 to 12.6 which is crazy), makes it more accurate, faster reload, and rotation.

Tier 3 - Company Command Post (also hammer and the anvil tactics)

Tier 3 of the British has the meat of the tank formations, including the Cromwell IV, Centaur AA tank, and the Firefly tank destroyer. This tier is also the place where you also get army specializations: Anvil (defensive) or Hammer (offensive), offering their own tanks: Churchill and Comet respectively.

"Cromwell" Mk.IV Cruiser Tank
Cromwell is the speediest generic medium tank, and ever since the winter patch, this trait is even more visible. Aside from that, the tank's pretty average. Average pen, armor is the same as the Sherman. The only thing that stands out is the veteran "Hunt" ability (and smoke shell, but who cares about tank preservation, am I right?). This ability increases the Cromwell's penetration and detects targets on the minimap within 60 range for 25 seconds. Very useful in combination with the Hammer'sEmergency war speed to dive some innocent rocket artillery.
Veterancy turns the Cromwell into a COH2's equivalent of Sonic the Hedgehog, offering EVEN MORE SPEED, as well faster reload, and... that's about it. Cool box tank.


"Centaur" Mk. II Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Weapon
The brother of the Cromwell, this tank's purpose is to be an allied response to the axis Ostwind. The recent patch turned up its speed and that it. Use it like an Ostwind. And don't forget about the *totally not broken* vet ability, which turns infantry into a paste. Nobody uses it for some reason, maybe because of its cost. Aside from that, the AAK tank's vet is pretty standard: weapon reload, burst is longer and lesser cooldown.


"Sherman Firefly" Tank Destroyer
I think this is my favorite tank destroyer. Sure, it doesn't have the flexibility nor the sniper view of Jackson or SU-85, but holy cow Firefly is good at penetrating those pesky Panthers that axis tends to spam. Also, this Sherman is literally is broken with boosts of the command tank (I will talk about that later), perhaps even more effective at dealing with armor than Elefant with this buff.
Veteran Fireflies are no joke. A combination of increased damage (from 200 to 240), accuracy bonus, and more reload speed make this tank VERY deadly at vet 3. If it's in a pair with some other FIrefly and a command vehicle, no tank is going to get out of their line of sight, thanks to their well-aimed tulip rockets which stun or blind enemy tanks.
(also I can help but smile a little bit every time Firefly shoots because it sounds like a slap)


"Comet I" Cruiser Tank
Comet is the tank you can get from the Hammer tactics, and it can be compared to the Panther. It's speedy, has premium tank health (800), and a decent penetration of 210, giving the tank a good fighting chance to engage german heavy tanks frontally (roughly 72% chance to pen Panther). Comet also has few abilities: Smoke shells (which can be replaced with War Crimes WP shells), and war speed, as well as an ability to throw grenades from the hatch of the tank. Veterancy unlocks the aforementioned WP shells, makes the tank more accurate and faster. Also at vet 3 crew will throw grenades automatically, without player input.


"Churchill" Mk.VII Infantry Tank]
The big boi tank Churchill is the bullet sponge of the British, having the biggest health pool of all tanks in the game (1400!), and in this role is very similar to the KV-1. To compensate, its gun is kinda bad (great at dealing with infantry though) and is slow. Churchill's ability also more of a supportive one. Smoke shell is replaced by Infantry Support Screen, which in theory is supposed to cover infantry with smoke, and in practice is used like the Panzer Commander smoke screen. Or at least that's my experience.
The Veterancy of the Churchill is pretty unique and interesting. First off, similarly to the Comet, it can throw grenades, but in addition to that, on vet 1 crew will also defend itself with Sten guns from the sides (which have .30 cal sound for some reason, weird) and Vickers K on top of the tank. Vet 3 ability makes it one of the most interesting tanks - IT CAN REPAIR SNARES FOR FREE! Aside from that, weapon reloads and speed, you know the drill by now.


Between the Hammer and the Anvil!
Is that a MF Judas Priest reference?!
So, the specializations. For 100 manpower and 50 fuel, you can pick one of them, and they boost your troops in a few ways.
Hammer
Hammer grants your army more offensive power. Gannon bombs (which are de facto reskinned satchel charges, which instead of snaring enemy vehicles blinds them), Comet, Emergency War Speed (a speed boost which grants speed as well as rec acc bonus, applied by sappers during repairs, has to be applied again after using it once) and tracking of tanks after shot makes it very appealing to the more offensive-minded players.
Anvil
Anvil on the other hand unlocks the heavy sapper upgrade, Churchill infantry tank, airburst shells, as well as bigger sight when the enemy is capping your territory.
Which one is better? Honestly, I don't know. I always preferred Hammer for increased attack power, but I can see situations where Churchills could be useful. I think the devs made a pretty good job in Hammer/Anvil because both choices are sort of on equal ground.

Emplacements

Alright, I will talk about emplacements!
Emplacements of the British are one of the more infamous parts of this army, but you can't deny that it's a part of it, and without it will not survive most of the time. Eh, as much as probably nobody wants to, let's get into it.
All of those things can be build by Sappers, with exception of trenches.

Foward Assembly
Made in mind rather for the bigger game modes, FO allows the players to get healing or set up a retreat point (exclusive to each other), and doctrinal abilities: Repair station (available for the cursed commander) and forward observation post (exclusive to the Tactical Support doctrine). FO used to give garrison bonus to the nearby emplacements, but it has been nerfed. Oh well. Now it serves as a Bren and PIAT dispenser, or as the forward observation post used by 5 people who still use this doctrine.

Trenches
Contrary to what you might believe, trenches build by UKF differs by the axis factions. The difference is that when being destroyed, trench build by British, it the squad will NOT drop models, in difference to the axis trenches which will always kill one or two models.
Aside from that, it behaves like a normal garrison: trench gives green, all-around cover, and is sometimes used to abuse pathing of the tanks.

Ordnance ML 3-inch Mortar
With the recent changes, the mortar pit has been made cheaper, and has only one mortar, albeit it can be upgraded to get a second mortar for 100 manpower. Aside from that, it's a pretty good mid-game indirect support. It has decent range, and now has a nifty late-game ability that costs nothing.
Thanks, balance team, very cool!
Oh yeah, also the Improved Fortification ability from Advanced Emplacements give the Pit ability to drop warcrime WP shells on a given target.

Bofors 40mm Anti-Aircraft Weapon
Bofor is cancer. Don't build it. Just don't. I won't be even waste time writing about it. Now it's not exclusive with AEC btw.

Ordnance QF 17-Pounder Anti-Tank Gun
BFG of the COH2, this thing will DESTROY enemy armor even harder than Pak 43. Why? It's quite simple; despite having roughly the same stats as the big AT gun of Axis, 17pdr has one, a very big advantage over Pak: Penetration. IT HAS 1000 PENETRATION. 1000. And if you don't believe me, go check it yourself. Guaranteed chance to penetrate armor. Jesus, that's terrifying. God.
Well, things had changed and now both 17pdr and Pak43 have 1000 pen. It's sad, but at least Improved Fortification give it barrage ability for some reason.
Anyway, the 17pdr has flares as its vet 1 ability, accuracy bonus and a reload bonus on vet 3. It also has special penetrating shells, which ignore all the cover, buildings, and other things.

Note: Emplacements won't get a screenshot because they're bad and a last resort.

Doctrinal Infantry and Support Equipment

Infantry locked behind doctrines is few and far between, but it's still here. I mean Sega had to earn for bread somehow, right?

Commandos
Available for the Commando, Mobile Assault, and Vanguard Doctrines, those squads are one of the better close-range infantry in the game. Being armed with light Gannon bombs (aka bundle grenades), silenced Stens, and Irish accent, those hardy troops with the help of their camouflage are able to ambush and kill entire blobs of infantry. And don't get started on their demo charges, they're also very spicy. I recommend giving them brens because the Commandos get the special "Super Bren" gun, which is almost as good as the Obers MG34 in terms of firepower (also they Brens fire on the move).
Veterancy gives them a smoke grenade, passive healing when out of combat, accuracy bonus, received accuracy, and additional speed when attacking out of an ambush. Vet 3 grants them the ability in the style of the old vCoh commandos in form of a smokescreen, but this time that metaphorical pocket sand can only be triggered when retreating. Also received accuracy bonus. It also there.


Assault Infantry Section
Assections are early game CQC units exclusive to the Lend-Lease Assault Doctrine. Armed with grease guns Stens, this unit is pretty good at what it does, since their upgrade gives them a drastic increase in firepower (in form of two Thomsons), as well as received accuracy bonus, and WP grenade. Note that they do possess the same abilities as normal sections.
Veterancy is pretty standard for assault troops - received accuracy, accuracy bonus, and weapons cooldown bonus as well as -5 muni discount on all of the sections abilities.


Tank Hunter Infantry Section
It's infantry sections, with snare and Boys AT rifle, which can be upgraded to PIATs. Vet is the same, and aside from detect vehicles (shared with soviet infantry in the Shock Mortar doctrine), they're nothing special. You can get them in Special Weapons doctrine.


Royal Recovery Engineers
Sappers with a smoke grenade and the ability to scavenge wrecks (and ONLY wrecks). Now starting as a 5 men squad, they're essencially assault engineers of UKF, but with greater closing gap abilities, since they have a smoke grenade. Available in Royal Engineer and Moblie Assault doctrines.
Veterancy is the same as the normal REs.
Also a sidenote : Flamethrower disables the smoke grenade.


Infiltration Commandos
They're Commandos from the Mobile Assault. The game treats them as a separate unit because back in the day this variant could only reinforce up to four models. Now they're identical to normal commandos, with the only difference being that you can spawn them in ambient buildings or trenches.

Land Mattress Multiple Rocket Launcher
It's the cheapest rocket arty in the game, exclusive to Mobile Assault. Big spread. WP rounds as an alternative ability. Should be nondoctrinal in my opinion.


M1 81mm Mortar
American Mortar is still bad, but now is available in the glider, as well as in the Mobile Assault.

Raid Section
New addition to UKF's roaster, the Raiders are a more mobile and CQB effective than the regular Sections. In other words, they're essencially USF's Riflemen clones with diffrent abilities. They have sprint, molotov (which UKF desperatly needed to counter osttruppen or other garrisons and such) and a... mine, which is locked behind vet 1 of all things? I don't really get this ability, since it's UKF not USF, but whatever.
Locked behind weapon rack hides the other selling point of unit - 2 Vicker Ks, which have been reworked into BARs.
Veterancy grants them aftromentioned mine planting ability, vet 2 reduces RA, cooldown and ability recharge, and vet 3 gives them superior accuracy and more RA reduction.

Doctrinal Vehicles

don't really have anything to say. Let's just jump it.

"Valentine" Mk.XI Command Tank
This tank is pretty good. Was nerfed in the current patch and has to be built from the HQ. It can drop smoke, extend its view range (like T-70), and concentrate a supercharged sexton barrage. For its price, it's a pretty good early game tank if you don't have an AEC somehow.
The vet extends the sight, makes it faster, and increases health.


M5 Halftrack
Again?! Come on, how many times do I have to describe the same halftrack?!
M3 Halftrack
OH FOR FU-
Actually, M3 has something to bring to the table. Special weapons exclusive, it can give your troops either a Vickers K or a PIAT. Handy, because it doesn't require a weapon rack upgrade to do so.


"Churchill AVRE" Engineering Tank
AVRE is a brother of the Sturmtiger locked in the Royal Engineer doctrine. It fires a petard shell able to destroy blobs of infantry or severely hurt infantry. On Vet 3, it shoots an incendiary shell. The rest of the veterancy is the same as the Churchill, but every gun improving bit has been replaced with recharge decrease. Unlike non-doctrinal Churchill, it has 1080 HP.


"Churchill Crocodile" Flamethrower Tank
The ultimate response to the Ober blobs, the Croc is available in the Vanguard, Special Weapons, and Tactical Support doctrines. It's a Churchill with a flamethrower, lower armor, and HP. The same song as the AVRE - every gun vet bonus has been replaced by boosts to the flamethrower. Also 1050 HP.


"Sexton II" Howitzer Motor Carriage
An artillery piece on the chassis of the M3 Lee. Exclusive to Royal Artillery doctrine. Has a bit less AOE than the Priest, but lesser reload. Has access to the regular barrage, Creeping barrage (at vet 1), and supercharged barrage, albeit only if Valentine activates it. It doesn't really differs from the regular barrage sadly.


M10 Achilles
It's a lend-lease copy of the M10 TD of USF. Go to my USF guide for more info about it.

Docs in a nutshell

Advanced Emplacements - You trade literally everything for a god-tier late game.

Commando Regiment - A muni sink like no other, has some pretty good abilities that boost your infantry.

Royal Arty - Staple of team games. Lots of indirect and a decent light tank combined with good SPA.

Royal Engineer - Everybody loves the AVRE. And flamethrowers. And vehicle repairs. And the totally not incendiary barrage stolen from soviets.

Special Weapons - It's kinda meh. AT sections are okay I guess. And hey, they finally fixed the Hold The Line! Oh, and there's also a copy of the Railway arty strike. Also Croc.

Tactical Support - You get lesser riflemen, foward base and command vehicle upgrade. It's really underwhelming in my opinion. Oh yeah it also has the croc.

Vanguard - It's good, with a foward retreat point, commandos, repairs, and strafing support. Also Croc. Once again.

Mobile Assault - Repairs, flamers, commandos, and kind of broken active ability. And Land Mattress.

Lend-Lease - Lend lease lend lease lend lease. It's probably the strongest 1v1 doctrine, used by 99% of the top 200 players, where the other 1% camps in trenches. Literally the opposite of the Advanced Emplacement doctrine.

Do and Don'ts

- Stick to cover. Yes, I'm repeating myself here, but this time around, it really will save your skin.

- Try to get a sniper to counter snipe as fast as you can.

- If your sections are constantly on the move, don't bother with brens, they can't fire on the move.

- Get AEC and a bolster as fast as you can.

- Grenades have been nerfed sadly, but the enemy still has one second to react, so they still should be as deadly as they were before (considering that most of the victims of such a grenade are sturms charging you in the early game. Or MGs)

- Learn how to micro AEC.

- If a tank that you have has been quite useless for some time, consider giving it the command tank status, which provides immense bonuses to tanks and infantry alike.

- In most cases, Anvil probably will be the better choice.

- Firefly got a buff. You can use it now. Same with the Centaur. On the topic of the former, use its vet 1 ability. It's muni-consuming, yes, but it vaporizes blobs.

- Cromwell is usable now. You don't have to stall for a comet anymore.

- Build emplacements only as a last resort (or if you're in dire need of indirect fire)Advanced Emplacements - Just don't.

Build Orders

Heavy Infantry Section spam :
UC-inf-inf-inf-T2-Bolster-AEC-AT-T3-go from there
Be sure to research grenades here as well.

Standard-ish build :
Inf-inf-UC-T2-ENG-AT-T3 go from there

Commando heavy build :
Inf-Inf-T2-MG-AEC-Com-Com-AO-T3 go from there

Lend-Lease build :
UC-AINF-AINF-INF-T2-AEC-M5HT-AT-T3 go from there

Further Sources

Helping Hans's bootcamp mini-series about the UKF

ACAS's video about Brens

Stalker Cop's exellent AEC micro

Night_Panzerfeuer's clip where he domolishes 2 Panzer 4s with the AEC

And as usual my sources are the Veterancy Guide[www.coh2.org] and Serealia[coh2.serealia.ca]

Outro

So, that wraps up the guide. Hopefully it has been worth the wait and it did contain as much helpful info as I could include. That's about it.
Thanks for reading!
Give my other guides about Soviets and USF a go while you're here!

[HauptmannWolfMan]

Gay

[The Exile]

Brit Lend-Lease
1. Early game arty that is mobile and isn't a fixed emplacement. ( Provides Smoke grenades to assault MG spam and helps deal with IG guns. )

2. Early 5 man infantry sections with SMGs and smoke grenades to help with with MG spam and provides good damage, just gotta get close.

3. Cheap tank destroyer ( 80 fuel only ). Helps get a very very early tank out. If Microed well, it can last and do what it needs to. It can't really engage targets frontally but, it has speed to get in, do a hit and run behind the enemy, and get out. It requires a lot of micro to use well though.

4. M5 Half-Track, Brits normally don't have this type of unit. Acts like a mobile re-spawn truck, provides green cover, and has a 50 cal to boot. It can be upgraded to deal with Air call ins and help with attacking infantry by spamming suppression on them.

5. Strafing Support helps deal with any visible threats in the attack area. Make sure there is total vision before calling in.

[Commissar Kimchi]

damn good guide man, not exactly a beginner but been away from the game for awhile and this was a joy to read.

[Le Negev]

yes

[N0rmaN]

do raid section gain buffs from the infantry bulletins or no?

[Cosmo]

Can the Pak43 negate 80% damage for almost a minute? can the 17 pdr be destroyed by an engineer squad with a flamethrower?

[generic cardboard boi 45]

RIP 17pounder anti tank emplacement, funny 1000 pen was taken for granted and now pak 43 is the same as 17 pounder, sadness

[Le Negev]

No

[Hovand]

should i research boolster mid game when i main Raid Section?

[Samuel T. Marnes]

Hoping back into the game after a year or two. This guide is muuuuch appreciated, mate. Being a UK only player, it helps a lot !