[Brit] Firefly tactics

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[Contaminator]

Kinda new to my Brit company still. Currently I rely on heavily microed piat squads and 17pdr AT guns for my AT purposes. I normally send in my piats in Bren carriers for mobility and survivability. This leaves me with a big gap in my light vehicles (namely stuarts and staghounds) To releave some of this I would love to understand and use fireflys better however due to cost and my inexperience with them i tend to lose them pretty frequently and without getting many kills. For the sake of trying to make a more balanced effective company any suggestions, tips, or stats that could help me better use Fireflys would be great!

[PonySlaystation]

Fireflies have longer range than any other tank but you need infantry to scout for it and a command tank to improve it's firepower. The best strategy is simply to kite tanks with it, but as I said you need frontline infantry to scout and take out ninja paks. Also watch out for marders and stormies, they are bitter enemies of the firefly.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it's usually not a good idea to call them on if the enemy has no tanks. They aren't very good at sniping infantry, they're too much of a valuable resource and high pop to be squandered with.

[Hicks58]

Fireflies are not tank 'Killers'. They do their damage by simply dealing damage... Seldom do Fireflies actually go and get the kills.

The idea is to keep them at their maximum range, and ALWAYS keep a CCT with it when physically possible. The further away from your target, the faster you reload - this is a key point as a PIV will rape your face if it gets close, even if you keep a CCT with you.

The art of using a Firefly lies also in the art of using a CCT. Always keep the CCT in front of the Firefly, and place it behind any shot blocker available such as a house or a hedge. Use it as your scout, your damage soak, and your buff on wheels. For a weaponless tank it's got a lot of health so it can take a hit or two.

Remember that the CCT can NOT crush infantry, but the Firefly can. If you get ambushed by infantry, don't be afraid to use your Firefly as a last ditch battering ram, but remember that retreat is always better than engaging an enemy you can't effectively destroy.

Using the Firefly however, keep it at it's absolute maximum distance from it's target whenever possible. This will give you the most reaction time possible to back off if they charge you, and keep your reload time at it's lowest. Don't be tempted to take out a target in a single sitting... Pull your enemies apart over time. The weapon does a good deal of damage per hit, but it's no good if you try and stick around and get face rolled for your effort.

When you engage a target, use attack move directly on it, don't right click on it. Using attack move will have the Firefly engage from maximum distance... Right clicking on it will make the Firefly charge right at it, and to it's inevitable death.

I'll leave this monster of a post at this, and let other people throw some input in too. Hope this helps.

[LeoPhone]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWho4Na_ieA

[Spartan_Marine88]

Fireflys can simply randomly snipe infantry and after vet 2 become more consistent with it. Used right the firefly should be the tank to go and get the kills just watch out for marders, really the only thing to fear on the battlefield.

They do quite a bit of damage to tanks, and with proper cct micro the cct can be used to block (offensively or defensively) tanks. Biggest note isnt that the cct cant crush infantry and the fire fly can, instead used the cct to push infantry under the firefly, this way the firefly gets the xp, and shares it with the cct.

[Tymathee]

The firefly, like a lot of hard hitting units is only as good as its support. If you just have a FF and CCT, it's rather easy to jump in on it with a tank, I do this all the time as Wehr, where as a lot of players tend to back away.

It has a slow turrent, so try your best to always make sure the turrent is faced toward your enemy.

A good idea, which I personally love is having a dual call in of a bren squad + recon. The bren will help u from getting tank rushed and the recon helps to spot. While the cct may have more health and larger sight radius, the recon can spot cloaked units like storms and paks so they're good to have near a FF.

and like hicks said, always engage at range, you never want to get in normal tank firing range (40-) stay at 50-60 (60 is FF max) and you'll rape pretty much anything, even king tigers. The only unit you'll have issues against are jagdpanthers since they have a lot of armor, health and great speed. If u see a jagd and you have a FF RUN.

[Hicks58]

Quick note, the maximum range of the Firefly is 55, not 60.

For comparison, the ATG has 60 range, the PIV/Sherman has 40 range, the Panther has 47.5 range and Marders have 60 range (A fact which has always annoyed a few shades of shit out of me - that the Marder ranges the Firefly, but that's my own pet peeve which is unlikely to ever have anything done about it).

[RikiRude]

listen to everything hicks has said.

the two most important things he said though are attack move and slowly chip away. never use a ff to chase a vehicle unless you simply need to get one more shot, or you're sure that vehicle doesnt have support.

i like tyms idea of recon and bren, i havent tried that, but it sounds like a good combo.

also keep in mind that ff + cct is 14 pop cap, its some of the best AT you can have, but keep in mind that's all it's good for. sure you might snipe some infantry off hand, but it's not like a panther which does great AT and pretty decent AI. so be careful when you bring out your ff. i don't bring them out unless i see a tiger or KT because it's usually simply too much AT taking up your precious pop cap.

also dont ever bring more 2 FFs unless your allies have loads of AI, and there's like a tiger or two on the field.

one more thing! if there is a PE player, watch out for clown cars, it may even be a good idea to keep an atg (whether it's yours or your team mates) close to your ff just to make sure you dont get bum rushed.

also hicks i totally agree with your bickering on marders, its never made sense to me.

[Demon767]

Marder is an ATG on wheels. come on.

[RikiRude]

Marder is an ATG on wheels. come on.

correction, marder is an atg AND once it's locked down, it's like an atg with a jeep, but for less pop.

[Demon767]

i dont see that as a correction, you just repeated what i said

[LeoPhone]

correction, marder is an atg AND once it's locked down, it's like an atg with a jeep, but for less pop.

atg has 45 sight.
marder lockdown has 45 sight ...

[RikiRude]

atg has 45 sight.
marder lockdown has 45 sight ...

ok so it actually has 40 sight on lock down, 35 normally. unless it is 45 on lockdown for eirr.

i was way off.

i must have caught nug stat fever there!

[Hicks58]

Marder is an ATG on wheels. come on.

This is why I said it's a pet peeve, rather than something I'm going to raise arms about. I'm aware it's the way it is for balance purposes.

On topic though, to reinforce and expand on what Riki said on calling out Fireflies... You should only ever have a single Firefly in field, if you need more AT than that for whatever reason, back it up with a low pop solution like a Piat Sapper or an ATG (Use them as deterrents while your Firefly does the actual damage). Calling out a pair of Fireflies might tear apart a piece of heavy armour in under 30 seconds... But your utterly gimped once your done.

Only consider more than a single Firefly in dire situations only, such as seeing three Panthers in field, or a pair of Tigers on an epic crusade that need putting in their place.

Don't be ashamed to call out a Firefly for any piece of heavy armour, that would be Panther, Tiger, King Tiger or JagdPanther. The Firefly is 320 Fuel, while the CCT is 65. That makes for 385 Fuel, which is less than ANY of those heavies mentioned.

Finally, running at least a single Firefly in any British Company is essential... 2 can also work, but only run 3 of them if you have a build that works with it (Such as running Commandos and sinking all your Fuel into Fireflies and to have strong backbone AT).

[LeoPhone]

ok so it actually has 40 sight on lock down, 35 normally. unless it is 45 on lockdown for eirr.

i was way off.

i must have caught nug stat fever there!

why do people keep disagreeing with me about rgd all the time?

in vcoh marder lockdown has 45 sight.
in eir marder lockdown has 45 sight.

[Heartmann]

Except if you are fighting Lufft, then they get sight increase with lock down due to Tier unlock

[Tymathee]

i called 2 FF's out once on a KT, dual p4 start, rapetastic.

and actually i think marder lockdown is 42.5, someone check RGDs, i know it was changed recently, especially since I was the one who did it after the vcoh.

[RikiRude]

i was on here

http://dow2.info/coh/Vehicle_Marder_III_Tank_Hunter.html

http://dow2.info/coh/Ability_Site_Main_Gun.html

but that was before one of the patches.

[Hicks58]

Don't use websites for EiRR stats, use Corsix.

[Tymathee]

7.9.P patch notes

Marder III

    * Sight Main Gun LoS bonus increased from +5 to +10
    * Tracking speed increased from 10 to 20

what's funny is in EiRR it actually used to be 20%, which gave it 42.5 sight rather than the 40 sight it was supposed to be lol.