How to Use American Airborne Effectively?

[Wake]

I still cannot figure out how to play the airborne doctrine properly. Some people say that it is really good, and others say that it is the worst doc in the game. From what I can tell, success with airborne is dependent on getting veteran 101st and 82nd squads. The problem is that I can never seem to be able to get them any veterancy. At the start of the game, 101st are horribly cost ineffective. They have M1 carbines, which are really bad guns unless at close range, but any automatic weapon will still do more damage than the carbine at close range anyway. They cost 385 MP and 34 to reinforce, and need to have BARs or Johnsons to be useful, but those upgrades cost 45 munition each. Why not try to just use normal rangers instead? Rangers cost 360 MP and only 30 to reinforce. 82nd seem to be better, but can still lose to Stormtroopers and terror Grenadiers with StG44s. The HQ squad has a sniper in it, which is really nice, but it's really expensive to get at 680 MP.

My question is on how to use the whole doctrine effectively. What are the important strategies and tips that are needed for Airborne to become as deadly and successful as some people say they are?

[JimQwilleran]

I have always find my effectiveness as AB depending on enemy's play style. If you face enemy who is likely to support his units with mg42, Pumas, mortars or early panzer IV, yea you gonna have hard time veting your AB, thus your mid-late power will be limited, although on the other hand, still not so small I'd say.
But if you play vs Terror or Blitz player who fight mainly with storms/grens, you can feed upon them, especially with fire grenades and ability to reinforce anywhere.

You say that AB's inf is not well armored. Yea that true, that is why first thing you ever do after u drop 101 is buying them Johnsons. It's like you do with Rangers, u also have to buy that LMG or Bazooka for them to be any use. Thing is to keep 101 at middle distance, they are best there. In close combat they will lose to Mp44. That is why you have flame grenades that with good timing you can throw at closing enemy before they manage to throw their's.
I very rarely use 82, if so I equip them with as much bazookas as I can and make them anti tank chase off. They are not too effective vs elites with MP44 I'd say, 101 can do their job much better.

Sometimes I use 82 when I see enemy rushing me with for example 5 squads. I know that it's probably everything he has, I guess nothing is left back. So I drop 82 somewhere on his units retreating path. Now waiting for some thank hunters or grens running back at my thompsons . It works much more often than expected .

Finally HQ squad is one of the keys. Normally when you play, and you are losing - you have to retreat. That gives ur opponent time to advance/strengthen up etc. Now with AB HQ squad placed in sniper range from your troops, you still support them, your retreating units will not run whole map (or at least some bigger distance). So they can come back to fight much sooner. With constant reinforcements dropping from air and keeping your units in mid/long range you regain preferable position to fight, forcing enemy either to retreat to avoid loses, or to attack further to reach your HQ squad (that allows you to throw even more fire grenades)

Always keep 2 hellcats in ur back, during attack use buffed bomb run. Try to establish forward headquarters in buildings, they give you around 5 defensive runs against enemy inf for 150 ammo. I also always utilize cali jeep, it can shred even veted inf if used with timing.

Finally remember about resource drops that give you huge ammo boost needed for continuous air support, droppable AT gun with HVAP pre-bought and able to reinforce crew like all AB units, and small 75mm howizer that is perfect for killing support weapons/guns that stand on your way.

Overally I'd say AB is very good doc, they have many strong sides. How much you succeed with your units depends much how enemy counters you. If you face many anti-inf weapons like pumas, snipers, mg42 at every corner, you will be forced to constant retreating, decreasing your effectiveness. But counters are standard - gun is best vs armored support (you can drop it in suitable place), small pak/rocket jeep/strafing run/mortar barrage ability vs annoying supporting weapons.

Now let's see what Suki's gonna say.

[Warhawks97]

Most of the successfull guys have their best times in late game. Early on they stay mainly defensively which doesnt mean static. They keep rifles and snipers supported by AT gun, M16 and Greyhound. But they dont get really aggressive there. After that upgrading supply yard so that when they start dropping more and more AB´s they still maintain a good income. They then get like 2-3 101st squads and softly starting to push or rather: slowly looking for easy targets to vet these 101st. So its basically simply survival gameplay during early/mid game and trying to get enough res. They keep their 101st alive and taking some advantage of the usually lower reinforce cost.

Later on its more or less the way illa described

However, playing that style literally requires RA doc as support. As we know: camp as ally through early/mid and you face an invincible defense.

Others, like me who like to play as a team, play it completely different. Actually without clear tec line and rather: what is needed.

Core is afterall rifle, sniper, M16/Greyhound and also M20. Just unlike the 101st focused player the focus later changes. It can reach from calli jeep support, flexible support drops of MG´s, AT guns, ressources, 75 mm arty etc.

They do what is required. Calli jeeps can be well combined with armor doc. The jeeps are good enough to slaughter AT guns, hitting ambushed AT inf etc so that tanks can role on.

Combined with inf doc you can go for recce plane and strafe. Unlock them early before enemie gets AA and a well placed recce plane+ off map arty+ MG strafe in reserve and rushing onwards with rifles+ cheap M20´s can put you quickly in a nice advantage. Inf secures ground with emplacments and cutting of enemies from importan res early on.

Combined with RE you can go also nicely for 101st. one 101st+ churchill and calli jeep can also quickly win the match.



On larger maps with good MP flow you can drop "recon" squads", causing trouble behind enenmie lines (best in urban areas with HQ, HMG etc) and keep air recons in the air so that mates can constantly bypass/destroy/react on enemie defenses/movments/incoming attacks).

Important mostly is to maintain a decent MP reserve so that you can use the flexibility quickly and everywhere and at its full strenght.

General overview is curical and sense for teamplay. Exception here is the "101st focused" game. There you get simply sniper/rifle/recon/pak/M16/Greyhound to secure the ground and doing not much else. Later your mate gets priest and 101st+priest+ air raids winning the match.

The other tactics or strategies are much more complex and very very based on teammates. Those require a prefect sense of how to combine what and making the right decision in the right moment at any stage of the game. But dont slow down too much or get passive. Keep pressing from right the start with calli jeep, vehicles and rifles+ off maps (in which off map+ calli jeep are the best initiators). Surely your reaction speed need to be always better as those of your enemie and dont wait too long (coz then axis have maybe put 20 mm flaks and scout vehicles everywhere).

Edit: Oh, and the 60 mm mortars or two of them+ AB HQ smoke drop ability everywhere. They are important during attacks. Simply cover the entire area of attack with smoke. You also get the 60 mm mortar from res drops, so you can deploy them everywhere when you have dozens of them.

[kwok]

I think Illa said it right, it's really about how well you can read your opponent. The great thing about AB is it has counters to everything, but you have to make sure you make the right choices.

I disagree about the doc is only about 101 and 82nd, I just played a match against Wurf recently (no replay and unfinished because I had to leave early), I'd say it was pretty even. I didn't get 101st until maybe 7CP in the game. I chose other supporting doc choices because the situation called for more mortars, ammo drops, and air recon.

Airborne is about knowing what you need and using everything you have. FHQ's can drop smoke anywhere as well as call in defensive airstrikes, as Illa mentioned. A LOT of people don't know or remember that. I've been called for hacking cuz of the defensive air runs.
Airborne mortars are also larger than the regular that come out from the barracks, so they give an extra punch with the mobility of dropping.
Observation squads can camo which makes them great for grabbing bazookas and ambushing tanks.
101st, HQ squad, and obs can call in off-map mortars, good for hunting snipers.
Speaking of snipers, you can have HQ squad + 2 snipers with the ability to snipe making them infantry destroyers.
In terms of AT capability, Tiger has a LOT to say about that. 101st can carry so much AT around making them perfect "sprint and shoot" AT just like the axis panzershrek squads, but even more chances to hit.
In terms of durability, ask warhawks 82nd use to be one of the best until the recent falljs buff with the top bracket in hp and airborne armor type. 101st are not as tough, but still have airborne armor type, so theyre really not fragile. If you find them to be fragile, more smoke. You can deploy them anywhere anyways. You can make a buildable fhq with your 101st, then garrison fhq's as many times as you want. I normally like to hotkey each of my hq's (having 2 to maybe 3) so that i can quickly drop a good layer of smoke anywhere on the field which helps keep my soldiers alive for veterancy.

As airborne there is no single unit I am afraid of facing. But, I need to think extra ahead to be effective with them. I spend a lot on recon runs just to see their base to predict what unit they will field next so that I will have a ready counter.
Puma? I just make an extra light AT gun from my HQ. Or even hide some obs squads with recoiless rifles. MG's? Build an fhq for the drop anywhere smoke. Mortars? Rocket jeep or counter with my own mortars. Worst case, I send air run over and then clean up with my units. Early p4's? Probably try to rush 82nd for the bazookas otherwise I will try to go for dropping 76 AT.
The great thing about AB is that the tech tree is pretty shallow. All the different tools you can get aren't that far in CP, which makes them so flexible. You just need to know what to spend your points on. Just be ready to spend though and be confident in your spending. I'd suggest anytime you have free resources, put it into supply yard upgrades because you will need more and more resources as time goes on. Also, unless you need to deprive your opponent of fuel, I don't think it's really needed with AB. You save a lot of fuel cuz you have non-fuel dependent counters, so you'll have no problem fielding vehicles throughout the game even if you don't have a lot of FU. And unfortunately, you can't convert that fuel. I'll upload a recent AB replay I had. Not the best, but since latest patch I don't really have any good ones anymore. I use to have more where I ended 1v1's within 15 mins as AB, or some games with shadow where we basically took out every unit you could imagine.

[Wake]

What about the order of unlocking things in the command tree? Do you guys think that fire grenades are extremely important and should be one of the first things unlocked? I know that at vet 2, the 101st can throw their flame grenades just as far as the axis can throw their stick grenades (which is powerful). How important is the Airborne veterancy upgrade at the very end of the tree? Does that do a lot?

[kwok]

What I said is mostly about order in unlocking things. That's what I mean by knowing your enemy. Every time you get 1 CP, you're faced with the biggest decisions in the game. The first points will probably make and break you, each point after is less important because it's adding utility. The biggest challenge for players in general in terms of AB I think is that there is no meta in order of spending CP.

"The great thing about AB is that the tech tree is pretty shallow. All the different tools you can get aren't that far in CP, which makes them so flexible. You just need to know what to spend your points on. Just be ready to spend though and be confident in your spending."

My suggestion is to not spend until you know you need it.

In terms of vet upgrade, again it's situational and dependent on your strategy. Are AB infantry a core in your strategy for this particular game? Then yeah, spend it. Or do you need extra utility in off map support? Or do you need indirect power like howitzers and mortars? Are you lacking AT? Does that AT need to be mobile? All these questions point to a particular part in your tech tree. Like I said, I've played games where I chose AB inf really late, which made getting flame nades useless until late.
THIS is what makes AB difficult. There is no order for unlock, no build orders, just decisions. This is what also makes them potentially OP because I can't think of another doc with that kind of flexibility.
Even terror doc, a very flexible doctrine but the first unlocks in a tree are usually useless and it takes a good amount of CP before the doc choices really make a big impact.

[Paso95]

Hi all! I've a question about 101 squads. How can i buy their thompsons? Because i can't do it even if they stand near the ab hq. Thanks

[kwok]

Proximity to airborne hq squad, not building.