Volksgrenadier Squad

Volksgrenadier Squad
Army	Wehrmacht
Men per Squad	5
Unit Cost	280 280 5 5
Upkeep per Minute	-1.34 −1.34 (per man)
Produced By	Wehrmacht Quarters
Cost to Reinforce	22 22 1 1
Health per Man	60 60
Infantry Type	Infantry
Basic Weapon	4x Karabiner 98 Kurz 1x Sturmgewehr 44
Open Weapon Slots	5
Max. Speed	3 m/s
Produces (2) Barbed Wire Obstacle, impassable to Infantry Costs nothing Build Time: 2.5 seconds per piece Sand Bags Provides  Heavy Cover for Infantry units Costs nothing Build Time: 6 seconds per piece
Abilities (3) Medical Kit The entire squad will slowly heal. Costs 30 30 to activate Duration: 60 seconds Cooldown: 60 seconds Panzerfaust A squad member will shoot a Panzerfaust rocket a the targeted unit. Costs 35 35 to activate Cooldown: 15 seconds Assault Grenades Infantry Squad starts to throw grenades in direction of enemy. Grenades have stunning effect. Requires Blitzkrieg Doctrine: Assault Grenades costs 50 50 to activate.
Upgrades (1) MP 40 All squad members will receive a MP 40 submachine gun. Costs 50 50 to install

“Volksgrenadiers, ready to push back the Yankees!”

The Volksgrenadier Squad or Volks Squad is an Axis Infantry Unit featured in Company of Heroes.

Game Info

Volksgrenadier Squad is based on the infantry of the German Volksgrenadier divisions formed in late 1944. These were simply the German infantry divisions renamed and reformed. The term Volksgrenadier was chosen because "Volk" (German for "people") was meant to lift morale. Renaming the crumbling infantry divisions as grenadiers was intended to raise morale, as it sounded more impressive. These units were formed around experienced NCOs and officers to provide a strong backbone and help the many young recruits.

Volkssturm

Volksgrenadiers were standard infantry units from 1944 or low class policemen, not to be confused with the Volkssturm militia, described here. The Volkssturm ("People's Storm") was formed by the Wehrmacht in the autumn of 1944 as a result of an emergency shortage of manpower. The Volkssturm were built from broken or destroyed infantry divisions. During that time, boys, elderly men, men previously rejected as physically unfit for army service, and 'jobless' personnel were accepted into the army. The Volkssturm term for the units was intended to boost morale, appealing the term of nationalism and patriotism and the old military traditions. The Volkssturm's purpose was to rush to the front with minimum training, and they performed poorly in the early stages of their deployment. However, they fought bravely at the later stages, despite having weak organization and a poor strategic situation. Oddly enough, while Company of Heroes is assumed to take place in the time that the Wehrmacht was so low in supplies that Volks had to usually provide their own uniform, the Volksgrenadier in the game all wear standard-issue Wehrmacht uniform (M42/M43 feldbluse, keilhosen (service trousers) and M43 cap).

Volksgrenadiers are the most numerous infantry squad possessed by the Axis force, and so should be eagerly used to re-crew fallen Support weapons. Similar to the Riflemen Squad, they are available early on in the game. Assuming equal strength cover and no upgrades, Volksgrenadiers will beat Riflemen squads at long range fights, while the Riflemen will win at short range fighting. Although poorly trained, their numbers and low cost make up for that. Many Axis Commanders prefer to train them for capturing strategic points. It is best to use their large numbers to overwhelm the Allies' position. They are from the moment they are trained, capable of constructing simple defenses such as sandbags and barbed wire. By default,they are armed with the Kar98k rifle (Except the lead Volk, who carries an StG44; however, he only fires in 3-shot bursts). They can be upgraded with the MP40 submachine gun, which increases their close-to-mid-range combat effectiveness for 50 Munitions, but you must have at least 3 Volks, and every single man will get them. They can also fire the disposable 100 mm Panzerfaust, an anti-tank weapon that fires a shaped-charge warhead packed with a TNT/hexogen explosive. Although it costs 35 Munitions, the Panzerfaust warhead is capable of knocking out light and medium armored vehicles, and severely damaged tanks, buildings and base structures (Generally, however, you'll want to save this ability for Greyhounds, Bren carriers, or nearly-finished tanks). They are one of the cheapest units to train and reinforce. The Kampkraft Center can increase their veterancy, which will increase their overall combat effectiveness.

Note: The volksgrenadiers should not be coufused with the volkssturm. The in-game units are Volkssturm Grenadiers, and the actual Volksgrenadiers were a division of Grenadiers from 1943-45.

Production

Barbed Wire

• Costs nothing
• Takes 2.5 seconds to build per piece

Barbed Wire is an anti-infantry obstacle. Infantry cannot pass through a piece of Barbed Wire, and have to go around it.

Place Barbed Wire along infantry approach routes to funnel infantry into a killing zone, I.E. an area covered by machine guns and/or mortars. This ensures that the enemy cannot flank your positions, and has to come straight into your line of fire.

Barbed Wire can be run over by almost all Vehicles without a moment's thought, so avoid placing it in areas where vehicles (both yours and the enemies) are likely to pass, or place Tank Traps in front of the wire to block vehicles as well.

Also, remember that enemy Engineer Squads can dismantle Barbed Wire.

Sand Bags

• Costs nothing
• Takes 6 seconds to build per piece

Sand Bags are man-made cover for infantry. Infantry units behind sand-bags are said to be in  Heavy Cover, making them less vulnerable to direct damage and Suppression. And they are slightly less vulnerable to explosives and artillery fire compared to troops in the open.

Like Barbed Wire, Sand-Bags also act as infantry obstacles. They are less useful though, since they give passing-by enemy infantry units a good place to take cover as they move, and so should not be used in this capacity unless you actually want the enemy to take cover there (to bombard them with a nearby mortar, for instance).

Sand-Bags can be run over by all medium and heavy vehicles without a moment's thought, so avoid placing it in areas where vehicles (both yours and the enemies) are likely to pass. Sand-Bags are also quite easily destroyed whenever anything explodes near them.

Abilities

The Volksgrenadier Squad has one combat ability - "Panzerfaust". Of course, as other Wehrmacht infantry units, can use Medical Kit. Furthermore, as every unit that can garrison structures, can turn neutral buildings into Forward Headquarters.

Medical Kit

• Requires escalation to skirmish phase
• Costs 30 30
• Activation: Immediate
• Duration: 60 seconds

After activation of this ability, soldiers start to recover health. This ability can be used in every place in friendly territory. However, after escalation to battle phase, better version of this ability, the Field Medical Kit become available. Then, infantry squads will be able to heal themselves even in enemy territory.

Each soldier of the squad recovers health in speed of 72 72 points per minute. There is however one drawback: from activation squad's speed will be reduced for 18 seconds. This should be taken under consideration, while choosing moment of activation.

Fire Panzerfaust

• Costs 35 35 to activate
• Activation: Select Vehicle (enemy)
• Cooldown: 10 seconds

When this ability is activated, the Volksgrenadier Squad will advance to within 30 meters of the targeted enemy vehicle, and launch a single Panzerfaust Anti-Tank Warhead at that vehicle.

The warhead has 100% accuracy against any vehicle, and has no problem penetrating any kind of armor. While the explosion has a radius of 3 meters, it will deliver the vast majority of the damage at the point of impact.

The basic damage delivered by the weapon is 75 points of damage - enough to kill an infantryman, but not do much damage to a tank. Fortunately, the game multiplies this by 2.25, to a final value of 168 points of damage, whenever an any tank or other heavily-armored vehicle is hit. Even M3 Halftracks and M8 Greyhounds receive extra damage, though not as much.

The Panzerfaust won't destroy a tank (unless it's significantly damaged already), so it's mainly used when the Volksgrenadier Squad is flanking a target that's already under attack by another unit from another direction. Two Volksgrenadier Squads firing at the same medium-vehicle (like a Stuart Light Tank) can destroy it outright though.

This ability allows Volksgrenadier Squads to act as anti-tank infantry when necessary. Although this ability has a high munitions cost, the trade-off is that the team doesn't need to lug around an anti-tank weapon which would diminish its anti-infantry capabilities.

 Upgrade to Forward Headquarters

• Costs 260 260
• Requires the Volksgrenadier Squad to garrison a neutral structure.
• Requires the garrisoned structure to be inside captured and connected territory.
• Activation: Through the Garrisoned Structure's menu.
• Takes 30 seconds to complete

See also: Forward Headquarters

Veterancy

Like other Wehrmacht units, Volksgrenadiers gain veterancy through infantry veterancy upgrades available at the Kampfkraft Center. If a whole squad is lost, a new one will still have those obtained upgrades. In their case, veterancy improves only their survivability and defensive capabilities. These bonuses are cumulative to each other.

	No Veterancy: Unit is at normal combat efficiency.
	Level 1 Veterancy: Health regeneration 10.56 hp/min.
	Level 2 Veterancy: Damage received decreased by 5%. +25% resistance to Suppression. Sight radius increased by 10 meters.
	Level 3 Veterancy: Maximum health increased by 20%.

It is worth noting(although that has nothing to do with their veterancy), that when Wehrmacht enters into skirmish phase, their capping speed is increased by 25%.

Description

Culled together from a diverse background of German cultures, the Volksgrenadiers have the reputation of being dangerous even in the face of adversity. While effective at close range with their MP40 machine guns, the Volksgrenadiers possess the ability to utilize panzerfaust anti-tank weapons. These light and disposable armaments are a deadly means of combatting Allied armor.

Tips

• MP40s are great for close combat, but they receive the games harshest penalties for firing on the move (0.2 accuracy vs. 0.5 for most others).
• Volksgrenadiers are very cheap to reinforce, making it the best unit to feed your Medic Bunkers, but this will give US units lots of easy veterancy if you're not careful. Build sandbags!
• If the Blitzkrieg Doctrine is chosen and you pick Assault Grenades, Volksgrenadiers will unleash prodigous volleys of grenades, due to their high squad numbers.

Weaknesses

Although large in numbers, Volksgrenadier Squads are not as combat effective as their Allied counterpart. Riflemen Squads upgraded with the BAR Automatic Rifles can defeat them easily, as such most Allied commanders immediately get the BAR to keep Volks down. As they received little training, they are also poor in morale. They can be pinned down from heavy fire such as machine guns more quickly than the highly trained Grenadiers. However Volksgrenadiers do NOT lose defense from being suppressed and pinned unlike other infantry. Like other infantry, the Volksgrenadier Squads are fairly vulnerable to any form of attack unless under heavy cover.

Combat History(Campaign)

The first encounter with Volksgrenadier Squad in the US Campaign is during the first mission-Omaha Beach. Although large in numbers, they were unable to stop Able Company from clearing the beach head. When two of their 88mm Flak 36s were destroyed by Able Company, the Volksgrenadier Squads, along with other infantry retreated.

For the British, during the mission D-Day +1, 3rd Battalion(Boudica's Boys) launched an armour offensive to take the town Authie. 12th SS Panzer Division's Volksgrenadier Squads along with Grenadier Squads tried to hold the line and attempt to push the 3rd Battalion back using their infamous panzer such as the Marder III, StuG IV assault gun and the Panzer IV. Combined with tanks, infantry and the 25 Pounder Gun Howitzer artillery, 3rd Battalion was able to defeat the 12th SS Panzer Division and secure the town of Authie.

In the Panzer Elite campaign, Kampfgruppe Lehr was training newly formed Volksgrenadier Squads when suddenly a massive airborne assault took place. All of the Volksgrenadier Squads in that mission place themselves onto the 20mm Flak 38 or the 88mm Flak 36 to shoot down Allies fighter bombers and prevent any British Airborne troops from pushing out of Wolfhenze. They are used as gun crew instead of regular infantry.

Volksgrenadier Squads, despite having poor combat performance, they make plenty of appearances in most scenarios in the game. In one scenario on CoH Opposing Fronts, a Volksgrenadier tries to calm his squad member from stress by giving him a puffof his 'ciggy', when he threw the cigarette into midair, an instant gunfight breaks out. In the end, instead of a Volksgrenadier, a Commando picks it up, smokes it and says "This Hun Ciggy isn't half bad!" which indicates the Commandos had killed the stationed Volksgrenadiers. They also make plenty of appearances in the heat of combat, from manning the anti-aircraft gun to attacking Dog Company during the mission of the Red Ball Express.

Quotes

When under attack:

“They might aswell give us blind folds! Volksgrenadiers under fire!”

Under attack, when wounded:

“We have heavy resistance!”

When encountering specific units:

“They have Airborne!”

“Falschirmjaeger, Paratroopers!”

“Panzer! American Panzer!”

While reinforcing:

“Ja, you too, fall in line..”

Selected, when wounded:

“Now.. it's not the best time!”

“If we don't change position we die!”

When issued with whitdraw order:

“Retreat, retreat! Volksgrenadiers, retreat!”

Gallery

Artist's render of a Volksgrenadier Soldier.