Unit Pump and Macro by Steven "Suprise" Uray.

You wouldn't go off to war with only a few bullets in your rifle and a few in your pocket, so why would you go out to fight with a few units on the field and a ton of manpower in your pocket? Managing your economy to max out your ability to fight has been a part of strategy games since the beginning, and CoH is no different. Your survival in the game is largely dependant on how fast you get your units out to the front and how you manage them after that. We will be focusing on the first part of that sentance here, getting units out as fast as you can and getting them to the front. In any phase of the game, and especially in 'tier one' (barracks, whermacht quarters type units) it is imperative that you purchase units as soon as you have the resources for them, and not 'float' manpower, or have more than you need to in your resource pile. This is because your opponent will surely be buying his units as soon as he can, which means that he gets them out to the the front a little faster. Hotkeys and rally points are essential to getting your units in the fight. Live by your F- keys for production, you can select all your buildings with F1-F7 and click on unit production from there, so you can keep your eyes on the battle while buying reinforcements. Try to memorize the hotkeys of specific units such as riflemen and volksgrenadiers. This will help you when you are watching a fight to keep production up, while being able to keep your eyes on critical units. A common example would be to watch how a volksgrenadier/rifleman fight is going on while waiting for your manpower ticker to reach 270 so you can hit F2+R and set the rally point where you would like the new riflesquad to go after they are done producing.

Later in the game, we are all guilty of floating excessive amounts of manpower and munitions, but it doesn't mean it should happen. Try to figure out what you are going to be spending your resources on next, before you have the resources to do so. This way when you do have the resources you can focus on executing your plan as opposed to trying to make a call while the resources pile up. As far as munitions go, always remember to try to max out your munitions and not stockpile 200+ munitions (unless you are saving for an artillery strike, which is usually pretty expensive). Very commonly overlooked munitions abilities such as grenades and medpacks can have a big impact for a relatively small cost. The same could be said of landmines. You would be amazed at how much easier it is to win infantry fights when you purchase grenades as Americans (100mp and 40 fuel is a small investment, especially late game when you are drowning in fuel) or start throwing grenadier grenades. In theory these are entirely 'dodgable' but in practice, even the best players consistently get hit by grenades. Fights between top players are usually really even, because good players don't fight when they don't think they can win. Anything you can do to sway these fights in your favor is extremely important.

The next part of this article will focus on fuel, as the first two have focused on manpower and munitions. Fuel is the most important resource early game, as you need it to keep from being out teched and having to try and fight shermans with volksgrenadiers. To a large extent most armies can substitue a lack of fuel based AT with a munitions based one. For the axis player, this is brutally effective with the panzershreck, but for british and American players, much harder. In general you will want to focus on fuel simply to try and out tech your opponent, and gain the initiative with a fast impact unit such as the puma, quad, or stuart. In most cases, you won't be able to rush one of these units and have much of a 'free reign' with them but at the very least it keeps you from being put behind, and gives you more initiative.

It is important to remember that you should buy only what you need for a task. Do not buy excessive amounts of AT weapons if your opponent is only going to build a light vehicle or two. Also, don't buy more capping power or infantry than you need. If you happen to spend more money on something than you need, your opponent will exploit this. In reality, all groups of units are really just systems. Almost all systems have enough of something to complete any job. Combine all these units, and they form a self-protecting system. A group of units that has infantry, anti tank weapons, and tanks is unable to be completely routed by another single unit type. The trick in breaking these systems is proportion. If your opponent has a ton of anti tank units, and only a few anti infantry units, the system is easy to break by building enough infantry to overwhelm his anti infantry, and then his anti-tank units. Any system can be broken, so the trick is to find out your opponent's layout in units, and build the counter to it while you conceal your unit makeup until you are ready to fight.

To sum it all up, you need to spend your resources almost as soon as they become available, especially if you can gain more resources by using or investing current resources into getting more. A good example of this would be using your remaining 50 or so munitions into throwing grenades to clear a building that will allow you to capture another +16 munitions point and recoup on your investment. In the end, macro is not going to be terribly important in a match between two top players, simply because they are both able to max out their economies at about the same efficiency, but you don't want to go against one of these guys with any disadvantage, do you?