Company of Heroes 2 – Rifles Location + Cook with Carbine + The Rear Echelon Information in 2021

 

Where Are the Rifles At?

Riflemen took some much unneeded R&R and flew back to the good US of A, leaving you stuck with a bunch of cooks, logistics dudes, administrative dopes, and other men whose job description doesn’t include ‘shooting a rifle’. This guide will teach you how to use these chumps while you rally more suitable combat units.

Hold On, Why Are We Doing This?

The primary reason to why one would spam such an ineffective combat unit is to field elite infantry units without your manpower income suffering.

I find this tactic more successful in team games than in duels, mainly because in 1v1s this strategy will make you bleed more manpower than shocktroops (how are they still a 390 manpower call in?) ever will. The opposing player in a 1v1 will exploit the fact that all you have are cooks while he has actual combat units.

You will find yourself praising the fifty cal when using this strat. You don’t want your early to mid game in a 1v1 rely on one hmg.

Also, kubels won’t be a problem when you are rear spamming. According to relic, a M1 carbine round does more damage than a M1 Garand round, for some reason.

If you need help, the bullet to your left is the M1 Carbine’s round.

The Rear Echelon: A Study

The Rear Echelon (also called rears, REs, and Private Can’t-Shoot-For- T*ts ) is a four man, engineer squad. These chumps are your starting unit as Team America (Almost World Police) and will galdly repair and dig for you (and your teammates). They are equipped with four M1 Carbines because a M1 Garand is too heavy for their arms. It should be mentioned that they cannot shoot straight because stirring a pot doesn’t translate to having a good eye. They are also fragile, and will most likely drop when a strumpioneer looks at them for too long.

They will improve with veterancy, since they will stop wetting themselves and actually get adjusted to real combat. The bonuses for veterancy is as follows:

Level One: 20% Accuracy

Level Two: +50% repair speed, -23% received accuracy, -20% weapon cooldown

Level Three: Squad Size Five

As you can see, vet one rears are amazing, since they could finally aim. Vet two allows them to stop being killed faster, while vet three gives them another chump to play ball with.

Since Relic decided that riflemen with flamethrowers is overpowered, rear echelons give the privilage of being a engineer unit to get a flamethrower, like the rest of the engineer units in the game. Only rifle company gives them the flamethrower and if you use rifle company without building rifles your doing something wrong because its in the name, genius.

The December Balance Patch now transfers the smoke grenade from Rifles to Rears (most likely since the rifles are taking longer than needed breaks). This allows Rears to deploy portable vape dispensers and make any machine gunner cough and complain about new trends. Remember that rears cannot vape while holding flamethrowers. If you choose to go rifle company, have a left-tenant or a major vape instead.

Game Plan

Aim to have four or five rears quickly. They only cost 200 manpower a piece. Add a (knee) mortar if you are facing wehrmacht or plan to fight in an urban area. The Back Bone of The Army is a bulletin I would highly recommend, since it has a noticable effect on building and reinforcing rears. (Small tip: With the Back Bone of The Army, Rears take about fifteen [15] seconds to build)

I would also highly recommend when you expect your rears to get into a fight within the next five to ten seconds, give them a buddy. This is what I call the buddy system. The reason for this is simple, one rear is a wet noddle. Two is a solid noddle that can whack someone in the face.

Consider rears to be Close Quarters Combat Units. The reason for this is because rears cannot hit a battleship from 150 yards away. Instead, close in. The cook might not know how to aim down his sights, but he knows two things:
Squeeze the trigger
Reload

That cook will actually fire faster the closer the target is to him. The closer the rear is to the target, the faster he will fire. This makes the rear pump out damage, fast.

The December Balance Patch isn’t out as I am typing this, so don’t bother with volley fire. All it does is make the rears stand like dopes as they ‘suppress’ the target. They are also more likely to be hit when doing so. Just don’t. (Editor’s Note: The Balance Patch did actually come out).

Since rears don’t carry sandbags in their magical pockets, they can however wield tanktraps together. These double as green cover and tank redirection. The foxhole gives them rifle grenades, however they are limited to who they can shoot (its around the foxhole) and it is going to die faster once the game pasts the four minute mark.

Once you have gotten the fuel to tech up, go for this man:

This man, unlike the captain, gives you something called a M2HB .50 Heavy Machine Gun. You are going to need it. He also functions as a more close quarter riflemen with his bar and thompson. Use him to stop any panzer grenadiers and sturmpioneers from bullying the rears for their lunch money.

The following commanders are recommended:

Airborne and Heavy Cavalry gives some good guys whose names are Rangers and Paratroopers. Paratroopers can have two 1919s (unlike rifles) and could function as your long range dopes. Your rangers can have thompsons AND a bar, so these guys love kissing their enemies (with .45s).

Rifle company, well, you are going to have to rely on your rears to do the heavy infantry pushings (along with the hmg and lut). Flamethrowers make this a lot more easier. Easy Eights would be your reward at the end of the long infantry tunnel.

Armor company is doable, but tough. You get assault engineers. They have gease guns, but they suck as much they do in coh 1. They do have access to flamethrowers and demos, making them strong. However they suffer from the strumpioneer effect, which is dropping fast when under gunfire. In this case, make rears screen for assault engineers, You also get access to M10s (American T-34s) and M4 105s (bumbars). These are fun units, when you have the fuel for them.

Recon company is half knowing what in the absolute balls your doing and half praying to the RNG Gods that the 900 manpower combat group doesn’t come in with two bazookas. Seriously, Charile and Able, can you tell the 82nd to get some godamn thompson and 1919s, or some recoiless rifles, you know, the guns that actually hurt tanks? I don’t recommend choosing this commander for serious play (although the 155mm pathfinder ability is the best in the game, stunning tanks, heavily damaging them, and a short delay is all good in my book).

In Hindsight: A New Scout Meta

Everyone knows that new patches mean that metas get changed (and an endless sea of chucklesticks complaining about why x and y got z nerf). However one commander got lelic’s last blessing before they go on and make ages of empire IV.

That commander would be the recon commander.

After trying to figure out how to look through some binoculars and learning how to manage paratrooper logistics, he is back and actually better than before.

These boyos put the normal airborne pathfinders to shame. In addition to finally getting another chump, they actually can partake in combat now. Instead of an enemy looking their direction and then the squad deciding to high tail it, the pathfinders now can take pot shots from range while REs slapfights any jerries who just happens to be in the same place.

After you call in the left-tenant and his fifty cal butt buddy, consider calling in the paratrooper support group. Now costing one third of the original price, the support group comes in with a paratrooper squad and a unmanned at gun. You are going to need that at gun and a couple of cooks would be the perfect fit for such a underperforming anti tank gun.

The only tragedy in this patch is the removal of thompsons from support airborne squads. Not many people knew this trick: Support airborne squads with thompsons can have two BARs. Well had because they can’t get thompsons any more.

Paratroopers however can get two 1919s and become long(er) range dopes or super zookas. Super zookas are better than normal zookas (who woulda thought?) and allows the squad to hide themselves behind a fence. Just bloody give them recoiless rifles already jesus christ

If you can, consider getting a greyhound. Yes it comes at five command points and costs sixty fuel. HOWEVER, the greyhound is the best gift known to mankind. It can actually kill things with its fifty and duel a late luchs while running from a puma. The delay of any real armor won’t hurt. Here’s why:
You have normal zookas, mines (Rear stun mines and normal mines from recon paratroopers), at gun, super zookas, and a flanking greyhound.

All of these would give a panzer IV crew something to think about.

Finally the cluster mines. For 110 muntions (why it couldn’t be 90 relic, why?) you could strike fear into the hearts of men and make tanks scared. This ability is basically a frag bombing run from wehr but in a large area instead of a runway. Try to catch enemy infantry or weapon crews off guard. But don’t forget about your pathfinder’s pocket ace.

How to Properly Engage

The most obvious question that can come up is: “How do I beat sturmpioneers?”

See this son of a gun?

Here’s the secret: their bullet magents.

Sturmpioneers will drop like flies when bullets start flying. However your stuck with rears, which is tied with soviet combat engineers with the easier unit to kill with sturmpioneers. But unlike pinko commie combat engineers who only has four mosins from the first world war, you have the second greatest rifle ever invented: The M1 Carbine.

Make sure you at least have two rears with each other. If you send one rear to engage a sturmpioneer, the pioneer will pull a Harvey Weinstein on your rears so fast you can’t even press charges since the pioneer hid the evidence.

First, the soft retreat:

Using highly advance government simulations, you can see the general idea. The sturmpioneer chases the first rear while the second holds his ground and fires at the strum. Make sure the first rear is behind the second before the first could get his revenge. The sturmpioneer will suffer firing on the move debuffs and is more exposed while moving. This gives your second rear more time to fill the sturmpioneer with holes.

Second, the monkey in the middle:

This plan relys on the sturm being in the middle and at least two rears. The idea is that the sturmpioneer will either be focused on one squad or is split between two squads, with two mp44s firing instead of four.

Third, the bum rush:

I will admit, this is the riskest. I would recommend three rears with this plan. This plan is simple: get up to his face. Eight is bigger than four, at least that is what maths tells me. The idea is to flat out out dps him.

The fourth, hold your ground.

I won’t run the simulation for this one. This plan requires your two rears to be in cover while the sturmpioneer runs to you. Most of the time (if you don’t massively done goofed) you will win this engagement.

Now with volks and grenadiers, do the riflemen way: get up very close. Your carbines fire much faster than bolt actions. No arguement about that. So with volks and grens, treat your rears like more fragile riflemen.

However, exercise caution when engaging wehr pioneers. Those MP40s WILL OUTPREFORM YOUR CARBINES, NO IFS OR BUTS. So have some room between your rears and normal pioneers.

With weapon crews, I sure hope to god that you bought a mortar. Those mgs have an arc wider than most protactors. If you didn’t, then your one dead mothefluffer.

So I got fifty fuel….

Congrats! You made it this far with rear spam!

Now I will recommend you buy these things (maybe not order) within minutes of each other:

The weapon racks is a no brainer, you are going to need those zookas and bars.

The HMG? Well, its the last breath of gun jesus himself. It was from an era of trenches. It is better than the Mg-42 because it is actually heavy, and its a fifty. It will supress within one brust (two if the germans are feeling brave). Also, this HMG can fire AP rounds and sprint when vet one. The fifty will damage vehicles with its normal ammo, but AP makes those vehicles into smoking wrecks. Scout cars and luchs beware!

Once you get 3 command points (and the right doctrines), you get to call in these two hot shots:

These are going to be your bouncers. You might want to ‘lose’ a rear or two to get them running, but man they do put the hurt on jerry. Paratroopers with 1919s makes jerry cry and with thompsons makes sure that there is no survivors. Rangers with kill everything that has two legs.

Once you get to tanks, it sort of turns into a normal match expect for having less infantry smoke and having more repair monkeys to patch up your armor.

 

This is all about Company of Heroes 2 – Rifles Location + Cook with Carbine + The Rear Echelon Information in 2021; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!