Hey there all, as the official EF caster, I thought I should start putting out some strategies I had came up with during the ostheer beta. The first strat is what I would like to call the Combined Arms Armour Assault.
Set-up of this strat: * Note all strategies from me do include the Command Squad as part of your build. He's so useful and gives such early bonus' against the Ostheer, PE, AND Wehrmacht, that I can't see you skipping him.*
So how does this strat work?
This strat revolves around using a very light infantry force to hold your positioning on the field and allowing your tanks to do a lot of the dirty work in terms of AI, AT, and AA.
Build order + Explanations
1.) Build 2 Inginery.
For the betterment of this strat it'd be best to keep these Ingenery ALIVE as long as possible. Rebuilding them can mess up unit timings and the like, and ruin the strat outright. So keeping these guys alive is essential.
2.) Amount of Conscripts 3.
The amount of conscripts you need depends from strat to strat. Conscripts cost nigh to no upkeep, and are very cheap to reinforce, but I find it's very VERY rare that you need all 4 cons. Now that strelky are much more able to come out, whether you're going Tier by Tier, or a Fast teching strategy. You really don't need to rush out that many conscripts for every strategy. They just overly increase the amount of micro you need to have to keep your force mobile, and bleed you on manpower, for reinforcement. We'll be going over 4 conscript strategies on a later date, but for this strategy I'd recommend 2-3.
(Because you'll be going breakthrough, you must remember that you'll only be able to get full rifles on these conscripts and NOT PPSH's. Please keep this in mind)
3.) Build and Hotkey your Command Squad.
I feel the command squad is a truly effective part of this strat. He's got a great close range damage and can actually kill a landser squad in a 1v1 at close quarters combat, in the early game. Keeping him alive with all four models, will vastly improve your general DPS. Hotkeying the command squad will give you great control over him, and you'll be able to make sure he's not taking sniper fire or being harrassed by some other units.
Using the strat:
After following the above build order of early game units, you're going to want to rush a fast T3 tech. When you're rushing this T3 tech, it'd be best if you find a way to OP a high fuel point, or to hold it for the early game to get your fast vehicles out.
You're going to be skipping T2 at first with this strategy, and then be back teching after getting some vehicles from your T3.
In the early game you want to bleed as much manpower on your opponent as possible, but also not bleed as much yourself. Since you're rushing T3 your strelky's coming in will be a bit later than you might normally like, but because you're going for armour superiority and not infantry superiority, you should be perfectly fine. You also want to keep your opponent from teching as long as possible, so always harrassing his fuel will be very helpful to yourself.
Since you're conscripts will only be able to get full rifles with this strategy, it'd be best to give them those ASAP, so put up the armoury building within the first few minutes. Also I'd recommend you give your conscripts molotovs, after building your second conscript. Due to the starting resources of the russians, you should standardly have enough fuel to tech molotovs, after building your secondary conscript. Using mines is kinda a non necessity with this strategy, due to you giving your conscripts early game full rifles. Place a few here and there, to defend your fuel and cutoff, but also keep your munitions for your later units.
When you've fast teched your T3 you want to get out a 1 of everything from your T3. So get 1 T70, 1 T90, and 1 SU-76. Now that you have the SU-76 out, you want to spend the 75 munitions to get the light artillery barrage from the unit. It's going to help giving your russian army a bit of covering fire on retreats, or giving them enemy a bit of a gut punch before the final slice on the neck.
Speaking of now you've teched T3, in your Red army Mustering Tent, you'll be able to actually buy strelky's. These guys are your main combat force, after conscripts have lost a lot of their utility. I'd recommend purchasing 3 strelky's to get some long range damage on the field, as strelky's will beat landsers, and volks, at range combat. You don't have to buy Red Banner till you have a good amount of fuel to make sure you can still purchase any other things you need. Such as any other vehicle.
Now that you've rushed your T3 tech, you know your opponent would be finding a hard or soft counter to your tech, so I always recommend getting a mine sweeper. The mine sweeper helps to make sure your T70 or T90 doesn't hit an AT mine and become the biggest red target on the field.
When you go to back tech, I'd recommend going for both T2 upgrades. Now that you've gone for those both, guards will be open to you to use, as elite infantry to help out your strelky's, conscripts, and Command squad.
Also you'll want to get out some AT guns and snipers. AT guns to counter any type of Tiger, Panther, P4, Stug, or Panzer 3 rush. Sure, your SU-76 can get the jump on a Stug and or a panzer 3, but you're going to need some hard AT to fight off the Ostheer heavy's. You also need to upgrade your conscripts, strelky's and your guards with their Men Against Tanks upgrades. Conscripts have AT nades, Strelky's can get PTRS', and Guards get their VPGS ability with Men against Tanks.
Oh BTW: What side of Breakthrough am I supposed to go?
Completely up to you, I recommend the right hand side, as it gives you T34 ram, Mechanics, and the ISU-152. All of which, are very helpful units/abilities.
If you want to go left hand side - Then make sure you have the Su-85 equipped. The SU-85 is really good with this strat, if you've been pushed off by your opponent vehicle rushing. It won't take a tiger on it's own, but for an assault gun, it's pretty freaking good.
Upgrade Order List:
Molotovs
T3 Opening upgrade
T1.5 upgrade
T2 upgrade
Men Against Tanks
Weapon Reserves
Shock Guards
Building Order
Red Army Mustering Tent
Armoury
Russian Tank Hall
Soviet Support Barracks
Strat in Lamans terms: Use vehicles to kill shit
