Volume I: The final tracks

Rifle NOT ready.

As promised, here are the last three tracks from the first volume of our COH audio strategy series, Mind of a Master. This concludes our special D-Day celebration, but fear not sports fans: World War II goes on year-round at Rifles Ready!

That being said, I apologize for the slow updates of late. Suffice it to say June is a really, really tough month at work with a lot of things happening at the same time — all of which I’m personally responsible for.

I am also aware that many of the topics in this last batch of tracks were addressed in the recently released patch 2.600 — my reaction on that in a later post. But there’s also a lot of other insight from Surprise so I think you’ll still get plenty out of these.

Expect that post, plus an interesting balance article from Surprise, in the coming days. There’s also a new Battle Report in the works featuring a really good up-and-coming player whose replays have gotten a lot of attention on GR.org.

Track 8: Controversial balance issues – The Strafing Run

Track 9: Controversial balance issues – Supertanks and British armor

Track 10: Controversial balance issues – MGs firing at multiple targets, Panzer Elite and end credits

Battle Report: CharlesDarwin (US) vs. Malivos (PE)

REPLAY: CharlesDarwin (Airborne) vs. Malivos (Scorched Earth) RETAIL 2.502

[Click link above to download the actual replay]

Vrrrooooom! *makes sputtering propeller noises* rat-tat-tat-tat!

So there’ve been a few delays… you try ducking tornadoes while flying westward to the Mile-High City! Anyway, I’m now comfortably ensconced in my 12th floor hotel suite, typing away. This match is a timeless showcase of human mental perseverance. That said, I’ve watched it several times now and it’s clear that the opponent got lazy and careless, which contributed to the comeback.

That doesn’t change things as much as you might think. There was such a tidal wave built up that you can’t fault the guy for taking a breather and floating 800 manpower or so. Anyway, onward to the match.

The game is on Semois, and we’ve got CharlesDarwin, a seasoned and solid player, vs. Malivos, probably some smurf for some guy. Darwin goes for a Weapon Support Center (WSC) start, always risky but less so against the Panzer Elite and even less so on Semois. PE have a hard time countering garrisoned MGs without Mortar Halftracks and Semois lends itself well to MG strongpoints. So this isn’t as butt-in-the-air crazy as it may sound.

Malivos’ strategy becomes clear instantly. He picks Scorched Earth doctrine and sends his initial Schwimmwagen to Darwin’s bottleneck Strategic Point (SP) by the bridge. BAM! The point is destroyed, necessitating repair before it can be recaptured by either player.

Meanwhile, Darwin’s MG takes up position in the civilian building just below Malivos’ SP bridge. He sends a second MG to the hay bales by the +5 fuel point on the top half of Semois. They stop a few Panzer Grenadiers from advancing, but Malivos mainly chooses to avoid them. Darwin goes for a Sniper next, which is a great selling point for going WSC first against the PE.

Snipers are the best way for Americans to counter elite, heavy Axis infantry, including PGs and Wehrmacht Grenadiers and Knights Cross Holders. They’re particularly deadly against the PE’s three-man squads. They are NOT generally the best unit to use for repairing scorched points. But they certainly can, and Darwin takes the risk of doing so with his Sniper. Miraculously he is not butchered where he stands, but completes the repair. It’s interesting to note the Sniper can repair about as fast as a Rifle squad; there’s no disadvantage there to using a Sniper.

You have to wonder whether the guy is taking the game seriously with this kinda stuff; but I guess maybe Darwin figured it was unlikely for Malivos to attack a disabled point, and that if he kept a sharp eye out he’d be alright.

In any case, I’ll stop my second-guessing. I suppose I’d just feel really naked to have a 340 manpower unit sitting all by his lonesome doing repairs, which would cause him to take extra damage in the event of an attack.

But hardly is this point repaired than does Malivos’ Schimmwagen decap and scorch Darwin’s +10 fuel point. Each player has two jugular points on this map: the SP by their respective bridges, and their +10 fuels. Striking and holding either one can induce a fatal hemmorrhage. It’s at this juncture that Darwin begins bitching about PE “abuse.” I don’t wish to unduly inject my opinion, but the game is the game. You can’t expect players not to abuse broken game elements. It’s Relic’s fault, not your opponent’s. So Darwin needs to sit the fuck down, have a Coke and smile — aka DEAL WITH IT. Fortunately he manages to do the latter without breaking stride.

He sends his Engy in to begin restoring the point. But Darwin knows this is a stalling move. On Semois, where the fuel control is so even, you can only seriously hope to slow your opponent’s tech slightly by harrassing his fuel, because it’s easy to fight you off and your own fuel point is equally exposed.

More of the good stuff…

As promised, the rain of fantastical content continues with three more tracks from the first volume of our Mind of a Master audio strategy series. I’m also planning to release the long-awaited Battle Report sometime today or very early tomorrow.

Just as a reminder, tomorrow I’m flying out to magical Denver, Colorado — the Mile-High City — to run a conference for my company. I’ll be back late Wednesday night. So, here’s hoping Surprise or someone else gets in a post to keep things hopping while I’m gone (hoping — hopping, get it?).

Track 5: American faction overview by Surprise

Track 6: American faction-specific counters

Track 7: Controversial balance issues, Blitzkrieg doctrine

A special gift for a special three days in June…

A time for heroes...

Folks, it’s that time of year again. Today is June 5, 2009. Tomorrow will be June 6, the 65-year anniversary of D-Day. The day 150,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy to end tyranny, free a continent and spawn a thousand film and video game adaptions of a climactic battle. It’s a special day to anyone who loves Company of Heroes or World War II games in general.

You'll like this.

To commemorate this occasion, I have decided with Surprise’s support to make ALL 10 tracks of our COH audio strategy series, Mind of a Master: Volume I, available on Rifles Ready! — free of charge.

Starting today and ending Sunday (D-Day +1), I will be posting several tracks daily for you to listen to.

The tracks will be playable via the native WordPress streaming audio applet (see below). Amazon.com is taking FOREVER to approve this MP3 album for download, and it’s a special time of year, so the hell with it. Please enjoy!

Tracks 1 and 2: Introduction to Surprise and his biography/A high-level overview of the state of COH

Track 3: Detailed Tales of Valor unit analysis

Track 4: Psychology and mind games in COH

Battle Report: Sepha (Wehr) vs. Hamilton (US)

REPLAY: Sepha (Terror) vs. Hamilton (Infantry) RETAIL 2.502

[Click link above to download the actual replay] 

TANK WARZ!

At long last, we have a Battle Report featuring the first new map of retail 2.502: Flooded Plains. On the one hand we have COH legend Sepha, playing as Wehrmacht; on the other, as the Americans, we have one Hamilton, whom I’m unfamiliar with.

Rest assured however, this is an excellent match. There’s a ton of infantry that reach elite status; there’s a King Tiger that goes out in a Bismarck-style blaze of glory; there’s artillery wiping out an entire Knights’ Cross squad in one hit, plus lots of dead Panzer IVs. Flooded Plains is still so new that both players are still sort of figuring it out. It’s an interesting map for two reasons: first, there are two high fuels, just like Angoville, and they’re close enough to each player that teching is quite quick. Second, the terrain and resources are quite evenly distributed.

Both players start by tacking toward their high fuels, which I suspect will pretty much be the default opening move on this map. Sepha moves next to secure what seems like a stronghold position at the top mid-region, but it becomes quickly evident that this area doesn’t favor MGs.

Decisions, decisions...

If you garrison the house, your MG can’t hit either the top Victory Point or the nearby Munitions point.

MGs can't cover either point.

If you deploy in the open, it’s tough to cover both discrete routes, which enemy infantry can easily take simultaneously in separate squads. Your best bet is to angle your MG so you cover the top route and much of the bottom.

Sepha is thwarted by Hamilton for precisely this reason; the Riflemen move in two directions, forcing him to keep shifting his MG. It may be a better idea to go for multiple Volksgrenadiers on this map; then again the high fuel income means BARs can come very quickly, devastating your Volks. It’ll be interesting to see how high-level play develops on this map. Sepha goes for an Axis Sniper instead; this is a common tactic for Wehrmacht on building-heavy maps like Semois, where Rifles frequently garrison buildings to hold ground.

If you can pick off enough Riflemen, you can justify the expense and risk of a Sniper. If you don’t kill enough men before losing your Sniper, you’ll have sacrificed time, manpower and capping power.

Sepha’s Sniper is off to a good start, but unbeknownst to him, Hamilton’s spare Engineer squad spends some time placing a mine.

Battle Report: Quacks (US) vs. NiceSirotaSan (PE)

REPLAY: Quacks (Infantry) vs. NiceSirotaSan (Luftwaffe) RETAIL 2.502

[Click link above to download the actual replay]

It's a regular demo derby!

Here we go sports fans, our very first post-Tales of Valor Battle Report! The game is between Quacks – aka Kodachrome – and NiceSirotaSan, who may or may not be some smurf. Highlights include some astoundingly effective Jeep usage in the beginning, epic and sudden turns of fate, perhaps the most massive base attacks mounted post-patch 2.301, and to top it off, a huge comeback. While both players are exemplary, this replay isn’t an example of perfect play. In fact, both Kodachrome and Sirota make major mistakes. What makes it interesting is how they hang on in the face of long odds and react to rapidly shifting fortunes. So, to the match! The map is St. Mere Dumont, doubtless a welcome change from the all-too familiar killing fields of Angoville. St. Mere, or Dumont as some call it, is generally regarded as rather unfair to American players, due largely to the huge number of buildings. Axis MG42s or G43 Panzer Grenadiers can quickly garrison buildings and be extremely difficult for Riflemen to dislodge without incurring significant casualties early on. We open with Koda down south; he begins the match by building a Jeep first, which is nearly unheard of, particularly in U.S. vs. PE matches. Most good players don’t get a Jeep first against PE, especially now that the Kettenrad pathfinding bug has been fixedand you can’t get guaranteed Ketten kills in the first minutes of a game. But Koda goes for a Jeep and sends it screaming into downtown St. Mere Dumont, where it charges into a pack of PGs.

Cruisin' for a bruisin'...

Right away Koda uses the Jeep to distract them as they go about capping; his Engineers go for the top +10 fuel right above the Cafe Normandy building and barb it up with wire. This is always a good move on Dumont, especially early on against PE, who have no wire cutters and can’t do jack about wire until they get their first Infantry Halftrack. Next up the real Jeep action begins. Using his Jeep, Koda gets in the way of a moving PG squad, forcing the 3-man squad to scatter its members. When individual squad members are separated from their squad, they receive the brunt of any focused fire and die quickly as a result. Fire on a clumped-together squad and the gunfire won’t necessarily target a single individual; rather they’ll lower the entire squad’s health by hitting several squad members. Here the Jeep forcibly separates the men by simply getting in the way. It takes some practice to do this effectively, and you’ll need to watch your Jeep carefully and retreat it when taking focused fire. Keeping the Jeep alive is crucial, because you can’t spare the extra time to build a second Jeep when you need to be massing up to your preferred complement of 3-4 Rifle squads. Always retreat with a margin of error to minimize the chance of suffering engine damageand giving the PGs a free kill. When done successfully, studied Jeep movements  can scatter a squad very widely, making it take much longer for all the members to consolidate behind cover. As you can see here, the extra time needed became fatal for one unfortunate Kraut. Koda actually killed that particular PG with a combination of Jeep fire and fire from his first Engy squad; Sirota largely ignores these two “weak” units in favor of capping the crucial middle strategic point (SP), though he pivots afterward to prioritize the +10 north fuel point. You can scroll down and click the link to expand the full post to watch the YouTube video of this amazing, Jeep-centered initial skirmish. But before that, check out our very own Rifles Ready! illustrated analysis of the Willys-Overland Jeep as depicted in COH:

Cupholders optional with the EX version.

Here’s a little teaser from the Mind of a Master audio strategy series featuring Surprise talking about how he uses the Jeep. Remember to check back later this week for an update when Volume I of the MoM series becomes available on Amazon.com.

COH audio strategy series: Mind of a Master, Volume I

Got questions? Get answers from a master.

With the release of COH: Tales of Valor and the latest 2.501/2.502 patches, we’re looking at the biggest changes to the game since more than a year ago. To help you step up your game, I’m pleased to announce a fantastic new concept, the COH audio strategy series, Mind of a Master. This will be a multi-volume series of podcast-style audios, primarily featuring Steven “Surprise” Uray. Calling on all of my professional skills as a reporter, I interview Surprise on tape, covering a huge amount of material, split into about a dozen or so tracks.

Volume I, which you can sample in streaming format below, covers the following:

• A top-ranked player’s impressions of patch 2.501/2.502 and how it compares overall to 2.301, including faction-by-faction and army vs. army changes
• A high-level take on the new ToV units, including detailed descriptions of each new unit and whether it’s underpowered, overpowered or just right
• Deep discussion about COH psychology and how Surprise uses his opponents’ emotions against them, including a section on mind games and how they apply to RTS matches
• Surprise’s American play style — which took him to #1 on the 1v1 ladder — carefully explained, featuring detailed, step-by-step explanations on his tech order and how he counters specific Axis strategies and units
• Surprise’s opinion on controversial balance issues, such as whether the Blitzkrieg doctrine is underpowered and whether the perennial complaint about “free” super tanks is now dead

You will always get the first two tracks for free, to give you an idea of what’s in the entire volume. In Volume I, you’ll get the introduction to Mind of a Master and a bio on Surprise, plus his rundown on what ToV brings to the game and how army matchups have changed.

For everything else, it’s $0.99 for any single track downloadable in MP3 format from Amazon.com, or a more economical $6.99 for the entire volume, downloadable as one album. Look for Volume I to be available sometime next week on Amazon — there’ll be an announcement here.

Meanwhile — let me know what you think! I realize charging a fee may seem to go against the community-minded Rifles Ready! spirit, but let’s face it. At $0.99 a track or $7 for the whole volume, it’s not going to break anybody’s bank and it’s going to give us a great incentive to produce high quality stuff. If you can’t give up the money for a footlong Subway sub, then don’t — just listen to the preview tracks. Think of buying the whole volume as a way to give back to us and get a fantastic extra out of it: a chance to get inside the mind of current COH masters! Later volumes will feature other top players in addition to Surprise.

Battle Report: SweetLorraine (USA) vs. Zerocrack (Wehr)

REPLAY: SweetLorraine (Infantry) vs. Zerocrack (Defensive) RETAIL 2.301

[Click link above to download the actual replay]

Somebody wrote "CorkscrewBlow ownz ya" on that shell. True story.

I know 2.400 is out, but as I said, there was too much done on this Battle Report to not finish it. In this edition, Rifles Ready! continues its series of Battle Reports focused on players who display fearless ingenuity in the face of proven, tenacious strategies. Case in point: this matchup between SweetLorraine (better known to sports fans as Kodachrome) and Zerocrack. It should be noted that Sweet and Zero are typically Wehrmacht and American players, respectively. At least, that’s what they played during their rise to fame back in the day, when I myself was grinding relentlessly up the 1v1 ladder.

These are proven, tenacious players, tough kids who’ve been in the COH world a long time. These seasoned veterans meet on the familiar killing fields of Angoville (and yes — I will do a different map next time, thanks to popular demand). It’s a standard tier 2/tier 4  strategy for Zero, while Sweet decides to fight a defensive army with a little defensive action of his own. There’s a veritable war of barbed-wire placing, plus a constant series of tank attacks and slowly escalating artillery barrages.

This is one unique game, sports fans. Let’s get right to it. The game is off to a rather unimpressive start, with very few direct skirmishes and the initial Volks/Rifles avoiding each other in favor of rapidly capping the left and right side of map respectively. The first real move comes when Zero puts up a Bunker on the left side of the map. It’s extremely well-positioned.

Bunker placement.

Zero has the option of creating an unflankable position by upgrading the bunker with an MG, then adding a garrisoned MG42 team. He ultimately goes for the standard Medic Bunker, but it’s a reminder of how solidly you can protect a position if you need to. Meanwhile, Sweet sends a Rifle squad into Zero’s base, neatly running right past the MG bunker, which gets off a burst but fails to suppressive the squad.

A chance for trickery.

Out of dodge.

The real question is why does he do this? Maybe he wanted to see if Zero was planning a fast-tech to tier 3 for Pumas, but it’s too early in the game for this. The Rifles engage a Volk squad in front of Reich HQ but it’s a total stalemate; they end up retreating quickly. I don’t have much an answer for why Sweet did this; presumably it was to scout, and eliminate the slim possibility that Zero was going for fast Pumas. But it’s so early in the game that even if Zero was going for fast Pumas, it’s unlikely he would be building a Sturm Armory. In any case, ruling out fast Pumas is probably the best explanation, because Sweet proceeds to OP his +16 fuel soon after his men get out of dodge.

Basic Tip: Using booby traps

I’ve been accused of catering more to the Allies — specifically the Americans — and not so much our poor komraden fighting for the glory of the Fatherland. Well, that stops today with this post. What’s an excellent but underused doctrine-specific ability in the early game? That the Panzer Elite get? Booby trapped buildings, of course! Sure, it requires you to pick Scorched Earth, and forgo sick units like the Fallschirmjager, Hetzer and Jagdpanther, but on the plus side you get some truly satisfying low-micro, high-damage abilities, like Booby Traps for points and buildings, Sector Artillery and of course, Hummel mobile artillery pieces.

Now, the ability Booby Trap buildings can be had for a single Command Point and any Panzer Grenadier can place them in any neutral building. There are key buildings on every map (the house by the bottom player’s strategic point on Angoville, the church on Semois) that are almost guaranteed to be garrisoned by the enemy during the course of a match. These should be the first targets, but because you can use Booby Traps in buildings as many times as you want, feel free to keep idle PGs busy planting them in less frequently used or less strategically positioned buildings as well. It takes a good amount of time to booby-trap a building, and the gray progress bar is visible to your enemy as well as you.

Booby traps then, are best placed when your infantry are outside your enemy’s sight range. The same hiss-click noise your enemies hear when triggering a trap on a resource point is heard when their units enter a trapped building. They have a good 2-3 seconds to get out before squad members start dying, but frequently, your opponent will be too distracted to hear this noise, especially if they are garrisoning a building in the middle of a firefight. In the mid-game and beyond, your opponent may think the noise indicates another squad triggering a trap on a resource point being captured — great if you’ve conditioned him to expect lots of trapped points.

Argh, exploding boobies!

Squad members die rapidly once the trap is actually triggered, and an entire squad will be fully destroyed if the opponent fails to react in time.

Battle Report: ikillmedics (USA) vs RukAcIDHorse (PE)

REPLAY: ikillmedics [IplayforKeeps] (Armor) vs. RukAcIDHorse (Luftwaffe) RETAIL 2.301

Sorry for the long delay, but this is my best and LONGEST Battle Report yet! Finally, I feel like I’m back in the saddle. The holidays should give me some good time for more Battle Reports and Tips (more so because they take much less time than writing Battle Reports). We’ll kick off the countdown to Christmas with an epic battle between ikillmedics (better known as IPlayForKeeps) and  RukAcIDHorse, two excellent players who are true COH veterans, ranked at the top of 1v1 and 2v2 team ladders.

The rockets' red glare...

This is a LONG game. There are multiple Panther Battlegroup call-ins, multiple Pershings, fleets of Calliopes, massive set-piece fights between Riflemen and Panzer Grenadiers, and so and so forth. The match itself is a good illustration of how underpowered the Armor Company is, even against a Luftwaffe player (remember that in retail 2.301, Luftwaffe’s end-tree ability, Henschel Runs, are broken). This shouldn’t be news to anyone who’s been playing COH seriously for any amount of time. But the match still shows how the U.S. can compete — in my opinion, mistakes decided this game, not balance. You can see from the flow of the match that to win, the U.S. player must really capitalize on his early advantage, inflicting mortal damage (either in terms of killing units, starving resources or bleeding Victory Points) before the Panzer Elite player can access his dominating late-game abilities, from super heavy tanks to fully upgraded elite infantry and end-tree doctrine powers.

And now, with that little preview, let’s begin our analysis of the match. The battle takes place on the killing fields of Angoville, which is famous for the back-and-forth nature of its terrain. First off, we have ikillmedics (aka IplayforKeeps, aka 300, aka THIS IS SPARTA!) in the north, pushing south with his first Rifle squad, capping his crucial strategic point. He holds them there briefly, anticipating an early attempt by his PE opponent to choke off his resources. It’s a good idea, because PGs start heading in that direction almost immediately. This is a common PE tactic, the Rifle vs. PG matchup is largely skewed toward PGs given the high lethality of multiple G43s at range. Try and close, and you’ll lose a squad rapidly to focused fire.