I can't beat a good PE player...

[ForceMultiplier]

My friend who also frequents these boards is a fantastic PE player, and after 10+ games I am yet to beat him with Russians.

It's not so much a skill difference, as when US we usually end up about 50-50. So I think either Russians are lacking against certain tactics, or I am crap at Russians (probably both).

Anyway... basically what my friend does is use blobs of Assault Grenadiers, Armored Cars and then when the time comes he pops his Jadged and 2x Panthers for an easy victory.

I find upgraded Strelky useful, but by the time I get them I've already lost too much ground. Snipers work well, but the armored cars seem to slaughter them too quickly.

What can I do against this strategy? He is great at keeping all his units together and so I can never win an infantry vs infantry battle.

Katyushas are very effective but in the end they just delay the inevitable loss, they never win me the game. They're too vulnerable to the heavy PE tanks and I can't protect them with AT guns because the Assault Grenadiers just murder the crews.

Please help! haha

 

[GodlikeDennis]

Replay please.

If you're good players general advice probably won't cut it and you need something more specific.

[ForceMultiplier]

Well he is only really using 2 units for most of the game.

Assault Grenadiers in a blob and armored cars. They just chew through my infantry, take all the points and I have no fuel to build anything worthwhile.

[GodlikeDennis]

Sharpshooters will decimate PG blobs with arty. Get that as soon as possible. Sturmovie ingenery are very good against them as well. This upgrade also unlocks flamers, also very good against PGs. Get AT guns surrounded by a mass of units with 1 sharpshooter with arty support and you should be fine. Get THs to support your AT guns as soon as you can afford it.

[Chancellor]

Armored Car: Lay mines like crazy with your engies.  The first AC will come before you can get the second support upgrade for the tank hunters, so you will probably only have a single AT gun out to fend it off.  Mines can prevent the AC from getting close to your AT gun and circle-strafing it to death.  If he kills your first AT gun, you're done for.  His AC will then be free to hunt down any snipers you made and circle-strafe any additional lone AT guns you make.

MP44 blob: Use 2-3 snipers to drain his manpower.  Don't be afraid to retreat the snipers, and never ever engage his MP44 Pgrens with your own infantry.  Don't even use them to protect your snipers!  Any conscripts you have left should be used solely to ninja cap everywhere his blob isn't at.
Don't worry too much about losing territory due to retreating your snipers, because Soviets can win the whole game with manpower alone.  PE also caps slow.  Its perfectly fine to shoot one or two men with the sniper team, retreat when they get close, and do it again.  It costs him 45 manpower every single shot one of your snipers make, so even shooting once and then retreating before coming back again is still effective.

Conclusion: Once you get both support upgrades and the Men Against Tanks upgrade, you're totally set.  Sniper teams, AT guns, tank hunters, and katyshas don't cost fuel or ammo at all, and you can very easily win the whole game with these units alone.

I know you fear that if you lose too much territory he will have more resources to make dual panthers quickly, but trust me its better to lose more territory at first and preserve your men and then make a strong comeback with them than to stand your ground and lose all your manpower, since doing that will cost you the whole game.

[TheReaper]

Good advises. Yes, blob sharpshooters and take them to cover to camo. Then back them up with AT infantry, and upgrade the with +1 rifle, go traight tank hall and upgrade tu SU-100 and blob them. That is a good tactics against PE Panthers go down against two SU-100s like flyes. Go straigt to near to his base, so he can't cap points easily.

[ForceMultiplier]

Thanks guys! Did heaps better last night

I think i'll definitely use the SU-100 tactic because T34/85's just didn't cut it.

Breakthrough was handy, I used tank hunters and the sherman to deal with the armored cars and the beast to help take out his Jadgtiger.

I eventually lost because my T34's couldn't deal with the Panthers, so I'll use Su-100's instead.

Thanks guys!

[Monkeysphere]

He did follow your advice and he did do much better. I immediately played to his previous weakness and had some issues, by the time I recovered I thought I was screwed but Hertzers to the rescue!

[TheReaper]

Thanks guys!

Any time dude! 

[ForceMultiplier]

Thanks guys, just one more question about infantry..

The Command Squad and conscripts, are they more effective at range (like volks) or in close (like riflemen) ?

Also, how does everyone feel about the long range guns on the Strelky? I usually find myself going for the close combat choice..

Cheers!

[GodlikeDennis]

Conscripts are better off fighting volks at medium to long range where they won't die to practically every shot a volk makes. Command squad is good up close and personal where they have a significant advantage over volks. It also allows them to get more kills than the conscripts and let them vet faster.

Strelky are much better off getting PPShs compared to DP-28s, not only because they're generally better but strelky get airborne armour at vet 1 which makes them better on the move and SMGs generally give more squad kills than MGs.