My issue with the OKW.

No generalists.

While playing with other factions, i am able to put the fuel i got in my agressive early game play to good use - i can get a generalist tank out to apply further pressure to my opponent.

However, i cant do the same with the OKW. While i really like them in teamgames, i consider them to be weakened in a 1v1 scenario.

I had a game before, where i had the entire map in the early game. I decided to tech to the Flak HT as fast as possible. After i got it, i was able to have an advantage until he got airborne AT guns. Then my advantage ended due to the clunky nature of OKW halftrack.

After that, he continued to get more infantry - Airborne, Lieutenants & Captains, 50cal MG's.

What i really missed in that situation were generalist units. Something like a T34/76. A good all - purpose medium tank you are intent on getting quickly to keep the pressure and the advantage up. But all i had were OKW halftrack or Puma. Luchs or Panther.

Can you understand my point? I felt like i wasnt able to properly apply pressure to my opponent after having a big advantage. Sure i couldve gone for the Luchs. But that on the other hand wouldve been very risky at that stage of the Game.

You only can either choose anti infantry or anti armor. Nothing in between. Nothing like a Panzer 4, T34 or Sherman. And thats why i dont like OKW that much in 1v1's. They are far too specialist dependent. With the resource penalty they already have, losing even one specialist will hurt you alot. And you lose alot of flexibility because you only have specialists.

You are punished for trying to have the incentive with the OKW. You are the passive guy i feel. You are the one who needs to bleed out the allies through constant defense, only to either bleed him to death or to get a monster unit out that he isnt able to counter.

Any thoughts?

I think the 'no generalist' tank for OKW is intentional. All four factions have something important that is missing, and then the doctrines fulfill them somehow.

In this case, it's the P4 Js of elite armored.

Agreed, this is the reason I got the Elite Armoured commander, because it comes with Panzer IV's, although they come out very late so it's still not ideal. But, it's more than what you get without them. Plus it's my favourite tank, too.

I like OKW, but it's weakness is being a faction of specialists. You're not allowed to have Tanks until very late-game and if you are already winning the resource war. Speaking of resources, having to choose between focus on AI or AT really hurts their potential imo.

And it wouldn't be such a bad thing except for the fact that the best generalist tank in the game belongs to the Soviets, and usually comes in pairs. Duel T-34/85's are game-enders for OKW, they annihilate Infantry, they annihilate light vehicles, they easily flank the Jagdpanzer IV. It's very difficult to stand up to them.

it also hurts that they dont have core infantry capable of engine damage. Even if a doctrine is selected for that specific purpose, dont even work properly 75% of the time.

You'd think that for a faction with reduced resource income, you'd want more generalists so that they can fulfill more roles and be the most cost effective. Maybe that's just me.

Not saying that this is a good idea/should be changed, but I am curious to how the OKW would play in the current patch with a normal (instead of reduced) resource income. The tech costs would have to be adjusted of course but I think that OKW as a whole is way too unforgiving, because not only is losing a vehicle much harder for OKW to recover from, but even choosing the wrong specialist can be detrimental to the game. Would be great to test out with mod tools.

On a side note, I think that the premise of "more vet" for "less resources" is currently flawed, in that most units don't gain vet fast enough for this to ever matter. There are very few units that can consistently get vet 5, namely Volks, Raketens, Fusiliers, maybe a few others. I've had Stukas with 40 kills that aren't even vet 2. It's a struggle to get a Panther to even vet 3, God forbid you get it to vet 5.

The only time I've ever had any vehicle above vet 3 was a 2v2 in which my vet 4 KT had 92 kills, with around 8 to 10 vehicle kills, and that's having been retreated and repaired around 5 times without somehow dying, meaning it was a "rare event." I think that this in itself makes the faction very hard to play effectively. TL;DR higher veterancy cap shouldn't be used as a justification for less resources when those higher vets can't be reasonably attained for most units in a normal game.

^^^

I believe that getting 3 Volks squads and giving them pshrecks is absolutely vital. The puppchens alone cannot carry the mid-game AT.

The thing with OKW is that it needs pairs to create synergies. Infantry pairs with meatshields and damage dealers (volks + sturms, fusiliers, FJ, obers) or armor pairs with one At and one AI (panther/jagdpanzer + P2, or panther/jagdpanzer + stuka, etc)

The key is resource management. I tend to get PzII all the time no matter what (if I encounter infantry masses of course).
You have to remember to salvge everything you can to maintain high fuel and ammunition income. Almost every OKW infantry is able to do so.
Let's say you cleared a Maxim. Before you carry on with an assault make sure to stop for few seconds and salvage it. It does make a difference.

here's my tip of the year - don't play OKW, they suck

hey OP. Game your talking about was vs me
I feel your pain, early game was brutal...
Some points I can think of:

- obersoldaten would have been real nice as I was basically forced into infantry only as it was far too risky to go for a light vehicle. Instead your volk/sturm army allowed me to effectively trade manpower and force my way back into the game

- Panther was a strange choice considering you had a shreks and also an AT gun (enough to suitably control any vehicle I was going to bring out). A strumtiger might have been nice or even an earlier stuka.

I actually think this is a problem for both WFA factions, hard to punish from having good map control. OKW can have a very strong army with limited fuel use due to low tech cost and high efficiency late game infantry.