no other vable tactic...
Combine Firefly with Brenz and HMG and mortar pits
Combine stags with Brens, piat, ATG, mortar pits
there you have two strategies that have no weakness and both have one particular strength
Firefly strat = More axis tanks on the field
Stag strat = More Anti infantry on the field
and you Cant say it doesnt work.
I did said I was commandos(no mortar pits), and I personally don't like using bren carrier. (call me obtuse if you want, but I've seen PE player do fine without spamming Infantry HT)
If you really go for Tommie spam then get Hold the Line in RSE. Seriously its better than British Grit, and it can be combined with stuff like Boyz AT and FTFL.
Hold the line and FTFL are both t3 unlock and t4 specialty. Personally I don't like having to grind up to level 7-9 just for some good bonus. With that tree I might as well be spamming emplacement. (and The bonus also only work in friendly sector. Not really workable if I want to attack.)
Then you were doing something wrong. Churchil Crocodiles are easily the best tank in the game, as far as cost-efficiency goes : and Expert Engineers capitalises on it. I don't see any way how you could not have succeeded with a properly built Churchil company with EE(Unless you were spamming Mk 4s, of course).
Tommies without brittish grit are quite worth it. Brittish grit just makes them even better(duh).
Even as good as the Churchill croc is, it still have to respect Anti-tank fire. It was 420m280F a while back but it saw a price increase to 430m320F. Obviously people doesn't want the Churchill croc to be too price efficient.