Evaris' Guide to Playing Germany on Berlin

Mess Room
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Following up a post I made in another thread, I felt it would be worthwhile for me to give some advice to those seeking it as to how to succeed in Berlin while playing the German faction. Feel free to critique anything I say here, and I will update this thread with applicable information as it comes along.

First of all, I’d recommend you take a look at another of my threads, which simply goes over a damage efficiency comparison of a majority of the guns in the Berlin campaign; Comparison of various Berlin campaign guns

At low level: (9 and below) Until you get that MG34 that gives Germans an a massive advantage at the top of this range, you’re likely to feel rather underpowered compared to your competition. The PPS-42 kills faster than the MP.3008, and while the MP.3008 has good stats and efficiency, at point-blank ranges the PPS-42 will still melt you faster. The poor sights of the MP.3008 don’t help it, sadly. The MP40 improves this slightly for the Germans, but it’s recoil characteristics makes it trash in comparison to the MP.3008, and is only on par with the PPS-43, which is the worse of the two russian guns in this level bracket.

Soviets do also get an advantage in rifles at this level as well, both bolt action, sniper rifles, and marginally in the semi-auto department in this phase. With this said, the German shotgun is more effective than the soviet one, though it is very much limited to close ranges as one would expect.

As such, at these low levels, focus on playing Engineer, even morso than you normally would. Supporting your team, maintaining low respawn / return-to-combat times, ensuring higher level players have ammo, and making use of the fortifications available to Engineers is the best thing you can do at these levels.

You should, when you unlock the ability to get such in your other squads, place an engineer in each of your squads. This isn’t just a Berlin or low level thing, and is more advice for every campaign and every faction, as spawn beacons are integral to winning on any match, but it should be noted here. Always have an engineer available, and if you don’t have a spawn beacon down, put one down as soon as you can, without risking the loss of the cap.

When you’re not playing Engineer, I recommend you make use of Snipers defensively, and either hold down caps through sheer numbers with Trooper squads, or make use of assaulters with shotguns. When you get your assaulter squads leveled up, give them a second weapon slot for a longer ranged weapon - at these levels, they’re best off with an MP.3008 or an upgraded bolt action, by your preference, as a backup to their shotgun.

At Mid-level, 10-18, things improve for the Germans. While the MP 35/L is a fairly mediocre SMG - better than the MP40 and MP.3008 - it is admittedly far worse than the PPSh-42, which is frankly OP. But the main difference is you have access to gunner squads now. While the MG42 at the top of this level range is OP as well, it’s not a massive improvement over the 34, so make use of whatever you have, and whichever of the two you’re most comfortable with. Soviets get even better sniper rifles as well, meanwhile, and otherwise this is a long level gap without many new infantry weapons.

But this is mainly an advantage for you, the german player. Now having access to the Panther tank, you now have an advantage over the Soviet tanks you face. Mortar squads can deal with oncoming rushes on caps, and you should be pushing to put gunners in every squad you can. Did I mention your gunners? You’ll also want to continue using Engineers at this point, though it’s less of a necessity now, because of your gunners.

At high level, 19+, things improve considerably once again for the germans. You get the FG42, which outclasses every other general troop rifle, and you get a semi-auto sniper, bridging the gap with the Soviet snipers to a degree. In assaulter weapons, you get the VG.1-5, which gives you an advantage over Soviet assaulter players, though Soviet SMGs continue to dominate at closer ranges by a large degree. The Beretta 38 is also a good SMG - just not overpowered like the PPSh-41 and PPD are.

At this point you also get access to flamethrowers - which, with the close ranges involved, become great area-denial tools, and have similar effective ranges to SMGs. While they’re quite situational, I would recommend their use to deny corridors from being used by soviets on applicable capture points.

Ultimately, the situation on berlin is a bit poor in the tank department, as tanks in general are dealing with a load of bugs right now. While the Panther is better by at reasonable margin over the T-34-85 ZiS-S-53, the Panzer IVJ is so far below the T-34-85’s, it’s often something to consider to not use it unless you’re in a situation that requires it, and hope there’s a higher level player with a Panther that can spawn in instead. But once you have the Panther available, go ham with your tanks.

Germany does have the advantage of having better early-game CAS, both in the fighter and bomber department, though berlin is a poor map for using such vs infantry outside of a few points, so this isn’t as much of an advantage as it is in Normandy. (The Ju-87 is better than the IL2 mainly just due to it’s lower stall speed and ease of use in comparison)

But yes, it is a long grind to get to “good” guns for Germany where there’s a real balance between the two factions. Till then, I recommend bringing an Engineer squad, a Gunner squad, and a Assaulter squad. If you have an extra slot available, I would fill it with either a Mortar or Sniper squad.

Short tip notes;

  • When you get the chance, give your assualters an extra weapon slot. Give them a shotgun and either an MP.3008 or a bolt action as their secondary weapon for shooting at longer ranges.
  • Any time a squad upgrade lets you add a gunner, do so. Until late campaign, Gunners are the core of your team’s killing potential.
  • Main Engineer as much as you can, and make use of the fact you’re going to be defending 90% of the time to your advantage with what you can build. Especially respawn beacons. Get creative with where you place respawn beacons if your team starts getting good at it. (though I doubt they will, given how underused Engineers are)
  • Other fortifications are also important - walling off streets with czech hedgehogs can prevent the Soviet tanks from wiping your capture points, sandbags protect your bots from their bots. Barbed wire slows down enemies on the flanks and gives audio clues. AA guns are at least marginally useful as actual AA and massively useful at holding down cooridors, both for it’s guns and that it remains permanent cover even if shot at by a tank. The AT gun is arguably the best anti-tank weapon short of a Panther right now, and the HE fired by it is nothing to laugh at either, if you get one set down in a good position.
  • If you’re a good tanker, feel free to use tanks, but otherwise wait until you get the Panther if you’re not confident.
  • If you’re good with planes, get in the air. Mostly to prevent soviets from bombing you, but if you’re a good attacker pilot, get on anti-tank duty.
  • Mortars are very good for quashing rushes on capture points, and you can often save the cap (if the cap isn’t in a building). This is especially good early-game where soviets are rushing the first point before your team sets up.
  • If your cap is well fortified, snipers are quite powerful at holding off soviets before they get in range to melt you with their SMGs, even if your sniper rifles are worse than the Soviet examples, you’re in more of a position to make use of them.

Recommended Squads assignment and primary weapon:
Level 5:

  1. Engineer (Kar 98k)
  2. Trooper (Kar 98k)
  3. Sniper (Kar 98k with scope mount)
    V1. Fighter (BF-109 G-6)
    Premium:
  4. Assaulter (M30 Drilling)
    V2. Tanker (Panzer IVJ)

Level 10:

  1. Engineer (Gewehr 43)
  2. Gunner (MG 34)
  3. Bomber (Gewehr 43)
    V1. Attacker (Ju87 D-5)
    Premium:
  4. Radio Operator (Gewehr 43)
    V2. Fighter (Bf 109 G-6)

Level 15:

  1. Engineer (Gewehr 43)
  2. Gunner (MG34)
  3. Mortarman (Gewehr 43)
    V1. Tanker (Panther G)
    Premium:
  4. Sniper (Pre-War Kar98k) [if bugfixed] / Radio Operator (Gewehr 43)
    V2. Attacker (Ju87 D-5)

Level 20:

  1. Engineer (Gewehr 43)
  2. Gunner (MG 42)
  3. Mortarman (Gewehr 43)
    V1. Tanker (Panther G)
    Premium:
  4. Assaulter (VG.1-5)
    V2. Attacker (Ju87 D-5)

Level 25:

  1. Engineer (FG 42)
  2. Gunner (MG 34 w/ Ptr34 Magazine)
  3. Mortarman (FG 42)
    V1. Tanker (Panther G)
    Premium:
  4. Flametrooper (FG 42)
    V2. Fighter (Bf 109 G-10)

Edit 1: Added Squad composition Suggestion and a note about flamethrowers at high campaign levels.
Edit 2: Added consideration for present Pre-war Kar98k sniper rifle bug.
Edit 3: Added a PSA about putting engineers in every squad and every faction in every campaign. Which should be common sense, but somehow isn’t.

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Woah, a guide to self improvement rather than crying. Sorry sir but I will downdoot you, no upvotes.

I take advantage of some of these techniques and look at my W/R!!!

Screenshot_48

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Edit: added squad assignment recommendations.

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I’d like to add that the semi-auto snipers are good as DMRs but you’ll still want the wartime K98 sniper for longer range things like across the Kroll/Konig bridge since the semi-autos seem to have too much drift at range where the k98 and mosin don’t.
Pre-war K98 is bugged with godawful dropoff so it should be disregarded entirely until fixed

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how long will this shit be bugged. reeeee

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Should never be fixed
Just remove the pre-war k98 and put in the proper K98AZ in its place
:muscle:

Or did Kano lie to me about the K98AZ being the one used for snipers
Knew I should never trust a German

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Make it a g98 with a higher muzzle velocity

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Thank you for the guide.
As an engineer main I would strongly recommend at least one engineer in every squad.
And I will stress about the importance of rallies:

Rallies are essential to keep reinforcements going. The more rallies there are availabe, the more people can simutaniously spawn without having to wait for the cooldown. This holds true especially in invasion mode which is much like a battle of attrition: the team which can rush more people to the cap more quickly than the enemy will control it.

Furthermore, if there are more rallies spread across the map, the more dispersed the mreinforcements become, thus reducing the effectiveness of enemy CAS / arty / mortar. It has the additional benifit of creating crossfire on the enemy.

Sadly, building rallies is very much an altruistic behavior as of now. People who build them understand their benifits to the team while accepting there’s very little direct reward from doing it. Maybe the team wins and you get a 1.4x (1.2x?) multiplier, but one doesn’t get much more than that.

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You also get an assist for every player who spawns on one of your beacons, but it’s really not much of a reward for how much it affects the game.

As for an engineer in every squad, I mean, that’s an every-campaign every-faction thing, and should be common sense, given how important spawn beacons and ammo crates can be, so I didn’t exactly mention it here. Maybe I should.

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LOL what…

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I’ve had too many games in which I’m the only one who build them :joy:

I’d like to hear your opinion on flametroopers in Berlin. I haven’t unlocked them yet but from my experience in Moscow, both ROKS-2 and Flammenwerfer 35 have very limited range and take too long to down / kill. An enemy can kill you well before you burn him down in a face-to-face fight.

Although they are good at locking down a confined approach, there aren’t too many of them in Berlin.
In fact, most caps are on open ground or inside large spaces. The only 7 caps which I think flamethrowers can be effective are:
-American Consulate & Goebbel’s Villa on Ministry Garden (invasion);
-Car Park and the next cap on Hermann Goering Strasse (invasion) and
-all three caps on Lehrter Bahnhof (conquest).

Does this justify taking the flametropper squad over attacker planes (Ju87 or Me410) in higher levels?

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Unfortunately, I know such far too well myself.

As for flametroopers, you’ve also got a few other cooridors to lock off, but yes, the open nature of many of the caps is an issue. This is why I’d never make it a primary squad. The main point of the flamethrower squad is as something you can swap in for those few caps where you do have the ability to restrain movement. The other point is, at the point of unlocking the FG42, you have basically no reason to use assaulters anymore, save ammo capacity. So it’s either flame troopers or… just trooper squads for their numbers as a backup. The flame troopers at least add the ability for you to do something different compared to your contemporaries.

The issue I have with attackers, is that you’re not on the ground, and unless you’re an actually good pilot, you’re effectively an artillery strike, at least if you’re on the defense. IMO, the best way to use attackers is in a kamakazi role, because any time you spend flying to rearm is time you’re not using to defend the cap. So I’d take basically any infantry squad over an aircraft squad, again - unless you’re a sufficiently good pilot that you’re capable of making multiple passes with cannons before you go to rearm everything, not just your bombs, and you’re able to get quite a few kills along the way.

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Hmm using FG42 flametrooper squad in place of assaulters, I haven’t thought about that. Although to be honest, equipping a whole squad with FG42’s will require a lot of bronze / silver orders so it is very much an end-game setup.

I was going from my own skill level when judging the usefulness of attackers, which is enough to spam some killfeed or destroy some tanks. That is, until I get myself stuck in a dogfight to defend my fragile ego, not doing CAS or being on the way to rearm. When the enemy plane finally plunges to the ground, at least one cap is usually lost :joy:

Plus, I forgot how people crash their planes before the bombs detonate, killing a bunch of teammates and sometimes handing the cap to the enemy :sweat_smile: so your lineup suggestion might suit most players after all.

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All Axis players should try to get twice-upgraded MP40s and MP3008s. Makes them much more competitive with the Soviet SMGs.

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While yes, but that just goes for those using the upgrade system in general versus those who don’t?

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I guess so, but I would prioritize upgrading many MP40s twice over upgrading some three times. Base MP40s has too much recoil.

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