Now, here's an excellent RTS game. Does anyone play it?

I'd have a few questions about strategy...

I'm hooked to that game. I picked it up late August and I played it almost non-stop on the German campaign until about Thanksgiving. I got stuck on part of the Battle of the Bulge series of maps and I'm still working on it.

Which one do you have? The first installment or the 2nd? I've only played the first and it was relatively easy. Infantry are more or less dead in this game except the sniper. Tanks dominate everything.

Strategy? Have most of your support heroes in artillery. Artillery barrages is very useful in this game, especially when you're fighting Panthers and larger tanks.

I've played both. The second I think is better, but I'm playing with the first one. My question was in regard to the infantry... It's really just a meatgrinder, so I don't even bother to use them. Is there a strategy to use these guys in an effective way?
How do you attack a defensive positions without having your tanks blown up one by one, without snipers and without making a moon-scape with artillery?

You're right about the artillery: they are my highest ranking units, because they are seeing the most action.

(I'd love to have a strategy game where the infantry actually is as dangerous as it is, and where units are capable of making decisions for themselves. You know... a tank commander making tactical decisions, while you are giving the orders on a higher tactical level.)

For the infantry, I use them as bait for the slow turret-moving Tigers so my Shermans can hit the rear :-) :-) :-) I also use them to detread the dreaded Jagdtiger.

Paratroopers on the other hand can be deadly. When there's fighting in front of you, drop them on the rear of the enemy. He wouldn't have time to choose who to shoot.

The most useful infantry aside from the sniper is the officer. Though he may also be a meatgrinder, he's added range from his scope is better than nothing at all.

I believe you can't win the game solely with tanks alone. You would need some kind of support (SPGs would do). Else, keep waiting for aircraft to reload and use them extensively, problem is, don't let them get shot down.

If you want a good strategy game, I recommend these:
Company of Heroes - slightly on the enjoyable side, but not on historical accuracy. Inf here are dangerous as tanks.
Soldiers: Heroes of WWII - most accurate I've played so far. Tank damages vary, and you can even equip your infantry with the Sherman MG :-) :-)
Faces of War - an updated version of Soldiers, though not as good.

I'm playing the first version. I picked it up in the jewel case at target for $10. I use infantry with the tanks. they are useless for the most part, especially when in houses, which is a little surprising as I would have thought that they would be good at ambushing and fighting off attackers better. i do use them often however, primarily when dealing with anti-tank guns, if i dont take them out first with my sniper of course. they're also good defensively when they amush tanks at close quarters since they can disable the tracks. i did have one instance in the kharkov part of the german campaign when an infantry unit destroyed a tank. but it was stationary, low on health, and wasn't firing at them.

i dont have any cheats for the game, so Im only getting additional officers when they advance far enough in rank (heroes sounds too much like fantasy games to me. sorry if that offends anyone). otherwise I would stack artillery before I did armor. artillery is definitely king. I use them in combination w/ my sniper to eliminate artillery and AT guns and tanks before I go in normally. i haven't used aircraft in support of troops very often. more often I used fighters to keep observation planes away from formations. fighter bombers don't seem to do much unless you're allies or russians so I normally just use heavy's to clear areas.

the last mission on the german campaign, in the ardennes Battle of the Bulge, seemed overly hard. I think I destroyed at least four times the number of allied tanks as I had german tanks at the start. the defense lines were stacked as well. I couldn't keep advancing to out pace the enemy's artillery barrage without hitting the next defnse line ( which seems like a good idea if you're on defense). i didn't wind up placing my artillery battery until the last 10-15 minutes for fear of allied heavy bombers.

i play blitzkkreig 2

i like to call in the tactical fighters to bomb the enemy out. my favortie campaing is the german one i love the tigers and king tigers and how they almost dominate the field. but the only thing i dont like when playing as germany is that the USA always have the m36 SPG boy can those things shoot throught the armor

I've moved onto the allied campaign in Blitz1. as far as I can tell, the infantry are only good at keeping back other infantry so that they dont disable your tanks tracks. for the first time I've found attack aircraft to be useful in any way. of course thats when I also have fighter cover and I'm shelling the german low altitude flak guns

I have the Blitzkrieg Anthology box set. It's a fun game but it's not my style of Rts. I like it because you kind of find yourself sheading a tear each time one of your main tanks explodes

I have it and get the urge to play it sometimes but I've figured out it's very repetitive except for the historical missions.

And yes the troops are useless!