OKW Commander Revamp 2021

Adding my post to this thread as well. Unfortunately Smartie's thread was sent off on a tangent regarding IR STG44s.

I still feel like Scavenge could use a little bit of love.

The Commander is named after the scavenge ability but especially in team games, wrecks are typically destroyed before you can salvage them. Even abandoned crew weapons are destroyed more often than not. The exception might be early game before heavy artillery starts hitting the field or tanks are able to run over the wrecks of vehicles that they just destroyed, meaning you can salvage dead: bren carriers, kubelwagens, scout cars, etc.

I think Through Salvage should either be merged with the Incendiary Munitions from Feuersturm (the extra salvage allows for Le. IG 18s to use incendiary rounds [might be a good time to buff the incendiary rounds a bit as well]) or...

perhaps combining Through Salvage with the Ostwind unlock (both 0cp) allowing for an additional commander ability. If the sturmpioniers are better trained at salvaging, perhaps the tank crews would have better training as well. Add the Emergency Repairs ability from Elite Armored.

As for buffs,

the improved scavenge ability needs some love

Maybe cheaper Flak emplacement in the fortifications doc

Breakthrough ability should work on vehicles

For goliath Either slight HP buff or slighty shorter range at which it gets detected; and also rotation speed buff

As for nerfs

LEFH definitely needs a nerf, that thing is complete cancer for variety. There should be a good chace to survive against it even when you dont destroy it. The only problem is that such a nerf defo needs to be accompanied by allied arty pieces nerfs as well, or it will make 3s and 4s even more cancerous

Ofc skillplanes across the board, probably about a 10 to 20 sec delay before they start aquiring targets and ofc if its possible make it impossible to attack outside circle even if it already aquired the target

Flares should be unit bound, but with good enough range like somewhere halfway between Soviet Sniper and Mortar

For goliath Either slight HP buff or slighty shorter range at which it gets detected; and also rotation speed buff

I'm a little wary of the team buffing the Goliath for the same reason I'd be wary of them buffing Demo Charges. They have the power to just obliterate squads/lighter vehicles for a fairly low investment. Making this more reliable is pretty frustrating for opponents, remember pre-nerf demos?

I'm a little wary of the team buffing the Goliath for the same reason I'd be wary of them buffing Demo Charges. They have the power to just obliterate squads/lighter vehicles for a fairly low investment. Making this more reliable is pretty frustrating for opponents, remember pre-nerf demos?

I'm a little wary of the team buffing the Goliath for the same reason I'd be wary of them buffing Demo Charges. They have the power to just obliterate squads/lighter vehicles for a fairly low investment. Making this more reliable is pretty frustrating for opponents, remember pre-nerf demos?

If I remember? Damn right I do, Imma be tellin about that glory to my grandchildren

Kinda get what u mean though

So maybe suppression for units that didnt get instagibbed at least

stealth and sprint volks

Fortifications Doctrine

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General a solid Commander

Suggestions:
Zeroing artillery
is a very expensive and rather aggressive ability.

I would rather have change to have lower CP 6-8 and cost around 100-140 mu and have mortars firing on area or owned sector.

One could also test moving JT to this commander and while moving 88 and Lefh to other commanders.

Heavy fortifications
Tank trap need some changes. Increase build time so they can not be spammed. Reduce target size or add damage reduction from ballistic weapons so they can not be cleared easily be tank guns. Change cover type to yellow so they are not used instead of sandbags. Allow the to be dismantle from certain engineer units.

Trenches. Allow the to be dismantle from engineer units. Possibly give them a cost and make them password protected but able to be "capped". Give certain unit bonus like the RW possibly extra sight/range.

One of the OKW problems - multiple commanders suffer a lot from the filler abilities.

Especially Feuersturm, Defensive and Luft.

Defensinve
Heavy fortifications and field defenses should really be one ability.
Same with Lefh and Pak43.

Suggestions:
1) Combine Heavy fort+field defenses
1.1) Maybe add CACHES to this commander? I undestand that, its against the rules to add caches to OKW, but like come-on UKF got mortar\HT\assault.inf to cover their holes in faction desing in a single commander, why not give OKW caches in one commander, to adress teamgames with OKW full house.
2) Combine LeFH and Pak43 into something called heavy weaponary unlock.
--
This leaves 2 open slots for the abilities:
1) Maybe give volks some sort of weaker LMG upgade? Not to bring them to the Grenadier level (and for sure obersts), but something to specifically improve their long range combat power, without being crazy.
2) Second could be For The Fatherland ability.

Feuersturm
Incendiary Munitions is a filler ability aswell, strong one, but still.

Suggestions:
1) Just give OKW regular mortar with this unlock.

Luftwaffe Ground Forces
Give us vCoH luftwaffe ground forces, god dammit
Heavy fortifications has no place in this commander.

Suggestions:
1) Idk, maybe give volks ability to turn them into an engi unit? Like give them mine-sweeper upgrade, they will get 1\2 mine sweepers (to delete their combat power), but in return they will be able to sweep\repair\lay mines and combine it with Heavy fortifications.


Over-all meh abilities:
1) Airborne Assault - reinforcing fallshims is nice, but aside from that for 200 muni this ability is very weak.
2) Zeroing Artillery very expensive and most importanly very hard to use effectively.

Luftwaffe Ground Forces
Give us vCoH luftwaffe ground forces, god dammit
Heavy fortifications has no place in this commander.

Suggestions:
1) Idk, maybe give volks ability to turn them into an engi unit? Like give them mine-sweeper upgrade, they will get 1\2 mine sweepers (to delete their combat power), but in return they will be able to sweep\repair\lay mines and combine it with Heavy fortifications.


Over-all meh abilities:
1) Airborne Assault - reinforcing fallshims is nice, but aside from that for 200 muni this ability is very weak.
2) Zeroing Artillery very expensive and most importanly very hard to use effectively.

It really is a shame we can't at least retexture models. Blue Volks (or even Ostruppen models I guess) would be perfectly usable as "Luftwaffe Ground Force" infantry models. Providing OKW with a doctrinal Engineer/utility combat unit would be pretty useful.

It really is a shame we can't at least retexture models. Blue Volks (or even Ostruppen models I guess) would be perfectly usable as "Luftwaffe Ground Force" infantry models. Providing OKW with a doctrinal Engineer/utility combat unit would be pretty useful.

Well worst case scenario, ostheer arty crew or mortar crew could be used for this type of unit. Might not be nessesery called luft ground forces because of it, but the idea will be the same anyway.

I don't understand the fascination with ripping things from CoH1 to CoH2. It's only given us problem units like the M26 and Calliope when more reasonable units could have been used (Jumbo, Xylophone). OKW has enough infantry anyway, in both the 'numerous and cheap' (Volksgrenadiers, Panzerfusiliers) and 'few and expensive' (Obersoldaten, Fallschirmjager) catagories. If cheap repair is what is desired, I'd rather a specialization for Panzerfusiliers.

Grand Offensive Doctrine

General:
A commander with some abilities that do not combine very well.

Suggestions:
For changes to PF/Panzer commander see Breakthrough/Elite armor

Stuka Smoke Drop
This ability is very cost efficient and espcailly for commander with a Heavy tank like. Imo the ability to be separated into two abilities. One just the smoke bombs without visions available to commander with other strong abilities and another with both smoke bomb and reckon planes available to weaker commanders like Luft.

Tiger Tank

The Command tiger idea is not really that good. Either turn this unit into a proper command vehicle with lower bases stat or scrap the whole aura approach and balance the unit without it.

Infrared StG44 Package
The upgrade although not bad it situational. Imo it would better if instead of upgrade it become a call in unit at CP 2-3 with 5 members armed with MP40/MP44 with grenades and interrogation that can upgrade with Vamp MP44 (with lower DPS). The reinforcement cost, time and vet bonuses should be tailor made for such a unit.

To make the ability available to more that one unit, one could rename the ability to "Assault rifle training" and experiment with adding a timed ability to VG that would allow them to use their ST44 in full auto mode making the weapon better at sort range but much worse at long range.

Panzer Commander
The ability has very poor synergy with commander since it not available to the Tiger or JP that can be used to support the Tiger.

Replace this ability with:
An off map
or
A loiter reckon plane
or
a versions breakthrough tactics
or
Valiant assault
or
105mm howitzer barrage
or
Infiltration tactics

IMO the best part of Panzer commander is the extra vision and accuracy. It's in a good place, doesn't need to be changed.

Luftwaffe Ground Forces

If Luftwaffe retains ground emplacements an upgrade that adds one man to Volksgrenadiers and give them repair (at lowered speed) and construction abilities at the cost of taking their weapon slot and STG upgrade would fit nicely. It's also an alternative combat option compared to STG/MP40. To catch 2 birds with one stone one could merge this with the very very very situational thorough salvage ability which is imo not worth a single slot on his own

Another possibility for an another slot is an airdropped Pak 40 + MG42 (that needs to be crewed).

Luftwaffe Ground Forces

If Luftwaffe retains ground emplacements an upgrade that adds one man to Volksgrenadiers and give them repair (at lowered speed) and construction abilities at the cost of taking their weapon slot and STG upgrade would fit nicely. It's also an alternative combat option compared to STG/MP40. To catch 2 birds with one stone one could merge this with the very very very situational thorough salvage ability which is imo not worth a single slot on his own

Another possibility for an another slot is an airdropped Pak 40 + MG42 (that needs to be crewed).

Honestly, giving Volksgrenadiers an upgrade that makes them into a sort of Engineer unit would be a decent nondoctrinal ability, if the Balans Team did decide they wanted to remove Sandbags from Mainlines.

A Volksgren engineer unit wouldn't fit in Luftwaffe, the doctrine is all about assault. It would probably fit better in Scavenge as a bundle with thorough salvage.

A Volksgren engineer unit wouldn't fit in Luftwaffe, the doctrine is all about assault.
It would probably fit better in Scavenge as a bundle with thorough salvage.

Fair enough about Scavenge, but I don't really see how Luftwaffe is a doctrine about Assault, it has emplacements and had an mg34 back before it was made avaiable in Tier 1

Fair enough about Scavenge, but I don't really see how Luftwaffe is a doctrine about Assault, it has emplacements and had an mg34 back before it was made avaiable in Tier 1

Falls in their current form, Stuka smoke drop + recon, Valiant Assault, Airborne Assault. Fallschirmjager camo and heavy fortifications are the only abilities that make the doctrine "defensive".

A Volksgren engineer unit wouldn't fit in Luftwaffe, the doctrine is all about assault. It would probably fit better in Scavenge as a bundle with thorough salvage.

Well it fits actually, having multiple fighting unit on the front line, which can repair tanks which were damaged\snared during the assault. SPs are cool, but they are not such unit.

It'd be great if spec ops flares didn't literally have like a 5 second cooldown.

It'd be great if spec ops flares didn't literally have like a 5 second cooldown.

Totally agree and I have suggested this change multiple times, no idea why such a simply change has not been implemented already (and see if further adjustment are needed).