It might blow your mind, but the game is not about 1 unit vs other in complete vacuum, where other units can enter the field only after the first one is dead.
In evaluating units, you take into account costs, timing and OTHER UNITS SUPPORTING IT AKA faction context.
Yes, exactly; and until people realize that OST's main problem is that
other factions core design hard-counters them (and not small stat tweaks), OST as a whole is always going to toggle between OP and UP.
Let's just look at one core fact about OST's faction design: they rely
heavily on static weapons:
- The entire faction is designed around support-weapon play; MGs covering grens, Mortars covering MGs, etc.
- The entire faction is designed around 4-man squads
- Grens moving accuracy is pretty bad, and their LMG can't fire on the move (and has awful setup/turn times).
- Their only non-doc 60+ range AT solution is the Pak40 (a support weapon)
- Their only non-doc CQC unit is the 4-man PGren squad, which is really a mid-range AI squad, and it also has to double as their only AT squad
We can argue about other stuff, like Panthers, Stugs, PWerfers and stuff all day - but the
core of the faction can be summarized as "4 model units, remaining stationary in combat".
What do other factions have available to them in large quantities, regardless of doc choice? Powerful, auto-firing, Indirect fire, lots of smoke and units that can gap-close (firing on the move) and remain powerful at medium/close range.
How is OST
supposed to play? The Pack-howitzer and Scott can force a squad to retreat in 2 shots each, so its not by being stationary. Their mainline infantry units can't fire on the move (and the LMG42 setups up slowly), so it's not by being mobile.
OST
used to excel at moving "cover to cover", which was a pretty fun play style, but UKF simply does that
better now (Cover 'Bonus', Moving Accuracy, Brens faster setup/aim time) while also having a larger squad size (bolster) and a cheaper reinforce cost per-model.
OST also
used to excel in late-game; that was their gimmick - weak early game, but very power late game - but that's
also been nerfed. Their late game is good, yes, but its no better than any other faction.
So, what is OSTs
core play style? Note; 'core' - that means simply hard-locking the same commander very game
isn't the answer. Docs are supposed to add flavor and provide specific tools - not make the faction playable.
Buffing Grens won't fix this.