Storm That Position! OKW Build Order

Hey guys, someone from Once_Over's stream requested I post my build order and strategy for 1v1 OKW, so here we go.

Most OKW strategies focus on a Volksgrenadier core with Kubel support. However, my strategy focuses on a core of 2 Sturmpioneers with supporting Volksgrenadiers. Its very micro intensive and can lose you the game if you make mistakes in the early game, but when well executed it is very punishing against the US early game and some Soviet strategies.

The beginning build order is as follows:

Volksgrenadier
Sturmpioneeer
Volksgrenadier
Volksgrenadier

As I mentioned before, the main dps of this strategy will be coming from your Sturmpios. You'll want to keep both squads of Sturms relatively close to each other, maybe in adjacent territories. This will be your 'assault' group that you use to bully Riflemen and Conscripts.
Sturmpios are rather expensive however, at 320 MP and 50 MP to reinforce. In addition, losing one model in their 4 man squad puts a huge dent in their overall dps.

Taking this into consideration, you MUST micro the Sturms to maximum efficiency. Hide behind line of sight blockers such as houses and hedges and wait for an enemy squad to come around the corner and then quickly kill them with the massive DPS the Sturms can output. At close range and in open ground the Sturms will kill any infantry they get the jump on.

When an actual firefight breaks out (not a Sturm ambush), its vital to have both Sturms engaging the enemy. If your Sturms find themselves taking the brunt of the enemy fire, don't charge into close range! Keep them in cover and carefully plan your advance.
Is there cover between the enemy squad and the Sturm squad? Or is it just open ground? Do my Sturms have enough health that they wont lose a model when I try to advance to the next set of cover? Be aggressive, but make sure you dont take unnecessary casualties when storming an enemy position. Your second Sturm squad should be actively flanking the enemy squad. It doesnt have to be a hard flank either (flanking from behind). Two squad of Sturms that are hopping from cover to cover from opposite directions is very deadly. Note which squad the enemy is focusing, and keep that one in cover while your second Sturm squad advances forward to closer cover. Using this technique you should be able to bring atleast one squad into a position where the enemy will be forced to retreat.

In an ideal fight you'll have a nearby Volks squad supporting your Sturm advance, or acting as a distraction while your Sturm squads perform a flank to annhilate the enemy. The main role of the Volks is to be the meat shield for your Sturms. The constant DPS while your Sturms advance. You'll want to equip Panzershrecks to atleast 2 of your Volk squads to combat and deter and light vehicles that are bound to come out. For timely panzershrecks, its important to NOT THROW ANY GRENADES UNTIL YOU HAVE ATLEAST ONE SHREK. 2 of your Volks squads should be 'combat squads' while your third will primarily be used to cap undefended territories.

A final note for this section is to remember that Sturms can only unleash their full potential when STANDING STILL. This is why jumping from cover to cover is important. After jumping to cover immediately press S to stop the squad so they can bring their fire to bear with greater accuracy. Then jump to cover again after a burst of fire.

Teching time!

Medic Truck
Forward Retreat OR Support Gun AND/OR Raketenwerfer (If needed)


My go to truck is the Medic truck. Place it in a good position that gives you access to importnat territories (cut off points, fuel/muni points, etc), but is also placed behind line of sight blockers. If your first engagements go perfectly, youll have suffered minimal losses which allows you to either buy the forward base upgrade or an infantry support gun. The support gun is very effective against infantry. Good accuracy, long range. Usually I just plop my support gun next time my medic truck and let its auto fire do the rest. The barrage on it is fairly terrible and I almost always rely on the auto fire. If you're lucky enough to find the enemy's Major and retreat point, force a fight there.

The forward retreat point is something you'll always want to get. It significantly increases your map presence as you'll infantry will be out in the field more often fighting and taking territory.

Be smart about which you choose! Did I manage to get a squad wipe in my first engagement? Do I have an advantage? Then build the forward point to push the advantage even harder. Is my enemy clumping up? Are their structures that are annoying? Then build the support gun.

By this time the enemy will be fielding some form of light vehicle, wether it be m20 or the flak halftrack. To counter this, youll need a raketenwerfer, as well as your volks that have upgraded shreks. Two shreks will effectively deter light vehicles and a well place Raketenwerfer can capitalize on enemy over extensions and make quick work of light vehicles.
Successfully destroying a flak half track allows you to maximize the effect of your next tier:

Flak Truck
Obersoldaten
Raketenwerfer IF NEEDED
Obersoldaten

Its time to unleash your elite infantry. At this stage of the game Sturmpios fall off heavily as the enemy can simply focus fire them with several squads and they will melt at close range. To fulfill the role of a high DPS unit is the Obersoldaten. Their massive long range DPS with the mg34 effectively deals with almost all infantry. Remember to not slack off on your micro at this stage of the game. Use cover effectively, still try to execute flanks with Sturmpios. Admittedly t his is where I slack off and just try to brute force my way with Obers but try not to take unncessary casualties. As the reinforce cost is very high.

You may notice the lack of units that require fuel in my build order. Infact, the only things that require fuel are the trucks themselves.

This opens up a variety of options. Jagdpanzers work well in my limited uses with them, and the Luchs is also useful if you're confident in deal with enemy armor using your Volks and Raketenwerfers. Just remember to try to shoot while the vehicle is standing still.

My personal favorite however is the Command Panther from the Special Operations doctrine. The Mark Target ability on it allows you to kill Jacksons in 2 shots, and kill Shermans in 2-3. With Volks and supporting Raketens the time to kill is even faster. The Spec Ops doctrine also confers the Artillery flares, which is useful for your Support gun to shoot at their retreat point, as well as my favorite: the Infiltration Tactics grenade assault. For a measly TEN munitions you can throw up to 5 grenades with a Volk squad. There have been many instances where I've pulled off a succesful grenade assault from behind a hedge onto a Major's retreat point wiping several squads.

This strategy and build order is most effective against the US. However, it falls short against a competent Soviet player who spams Maxims, especially on maps that dont have large maneuverable spaces such as Kholodony Ferma (Ban that map).
Its very difficult to pull off successfully especially since its very infantry focused and it can be difficult to fight against light vehicles, but with enough micro and practice you can succeed.

Well that was longer than I expected.

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  OnCe_Ov3R

  L E M O N #BRICKSQUAD

  Sturm Pio Micro vs Once_OVer

  by: LemonJuice map: Crossing in the Woods

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Heres a good game I played against Once_Over of early Sturm usage to force squads off and inflict casualties. My play was sloppy in the mid and late game which led to massive manpower bleed and ultimate defeat.

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  Romeo

  L E M O N #BRICKSQUAD

  vs Romeo

  by: LemonJuice map: Crossing in the Woods

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This is a game against Romeo where I use Sturmpios to win fights and gain map control. Romeo's play was sloppy and he lost more units than he shouldve in some situations

Nice write-up, sounds solid.

Thx for posting it. It was getting tiresom playing luftwaffe, mg, puma every game. Nice change of pace. You conserving fuel, but u falling mid game without light vehicles to plug that hole.Dont u think BAR riflemen, shocks, medium tanks, or any elite infantry can ruin your day significantly - just my 2 reichsmarks. U are on recieving end tech-wise, until u get your tank.

Similar to one of my builds, but I used a kubel. It allows super early T4 (not spending fuel on light vehicles), which provides a very solid base against anything the enemy can have, and also a relativley early Jadg, which while it struggles playing cat and mouse with light vehicles, it certainly makes them behave and gets a head start on any shermans!

I personaly think a squad of fusiliers (with G43) isnt a bad stop gap before Obers, and officer for the Obers and Field Gun is good.

I dislike going for a panther, all that fuel into something which isnt great Vs infantry.. in a lot of situations I really like getting a Sturm Tiger, as it can be more offensive then quickly fall back to the safety of your trucks and Rakketens, is very useful against any target and gets lots of wipes.

Thx for posting it. It was getting tiresom playing luftwaffe, mg, puma every game. Nice change of pace. You conserving fuel, but u falling mid game without light vehicles to plug that hole.Dont u think BAR riflemen, shocks, medium tanks, or any elite infantry can ruin your day significantly - just my 2 reichsmarks. U are on recieving end tech-wise, until u get your tank.

You make valid points. I definitely do struggle some games against light vehicles, but remember it can take just two raketenwerfer shots to destroy a half track.
It requires you to play more fluidly and react to your opponent and predict where he will send his half track. Using a puma is more reliable but it also forces you to lose out on the medic truck and field gun.

Bar riflemen do pose a threat but positioning is again key to fighting them. Using volks in heavy cover while your sturmpios flank can force a retreat for sure. If you have a field gun it also helps signifanctly against all infantry types. Ideally you'll want to have obers shortly after they get their elites (shocks and paras) and infantry no longer become a problem.

Honestly I have no problem dealing with medium tanks if I haven't messed up my early game

Similar to one of my builds, but I used a kubel. It allows super early T4 (not spending fuel on light vehicles), which provides a very solid base against anything the enemy can have, and also a relativley early Jadg, which while it struggles playing cat and mouse with light vehicles, it certainly makes them behave and gets a head start on any shermans!

I personaly think a squad of fusiliers (with G43) isnt a bad stop gap before Obers, and officer for the Obers and Field Gun is good.

I dislike going for a panther, all that fuel into something which isnt great Vs infantry.. in a lot of situations I really like getting a Sturm Tiger, as it can be more offensive then quickly fall back to the safety of your trucks and Rakketens, is very useful against any target and gets lots of wipes.

Yes the jagd works well against most armor and with volks in the front it never has to show itself. There are uses for all the tanks in the okw roster and they all have their own niche. My build frees up your fuel so you can go for any of them.

I've started using a build that makes heavy use of the Sturm officer in 2v2s, but its definitely manpower heavy and i think it would be hard to get out the field gun and supporting raketens in a 1v1

I do a very similair build. Placement of the Flak truck is key. I love putting it near a VP or fuel. I usually have it supported with a racketen and a Ober then focus on the other side of the map.

It usually ends up being a big surprise when some unsuspecting allied squads go for the point.

yeah, good placement of the flak truck can really help you, especially if you place it on a cutoff point so that you can maintain a constant stream of munitions and fuel

I had a few games where the Blob thought they could bazooka my FlakTruck to death. Boy were they wrong.

Hi,

Coming from the other side, I would like to bring some comments from an USF player.
This strat is really powerful and gives me every game I'm facing it hard times. If I play well, nor being to much unlucky (luck is sometime important...) the game can last really long... until I finally win


As USF

1- Do not engage fight with Sturmpio. riflesquads are meat for sturmpio for the 3-4 first minutes of the game. So until you have your BARs, just avoid the fight with them.
2- Can and decap. This game consists in a Cap and Run. It is really similar to old COH USF versus PE GE early spam. As the OKW has 2 really expensive sturmpio squads, his capping power and map presence on the field is lower, use it as an advantage to be everywhere else on the map and retreat when sturmpio are coming.
As LemonJuice said, it requires him a lot of micro, so keep an eye to any of his micro mistake, for sure he would do some so try to punish him at this time, but do not force your luck - sturmpio are terrible and can reverse a situation faster than you expected.
3- BARs, When you have BARs, it is time to regroup and fight. Focus fire on Sturmpio with BARs. Here come all the usual strats to fight I'll not go in it into details.
4- Fuel Cache. If you performed well your Cap and Run, you should'nt have any MP issues, so use it to build a least 1 fuel cache. 2 can be really decisive for a fast sherman later on.
5- NO T2 ==> T3. With this amount of firepower, OKW doesn't no need more AI stuff, so for sure he is going to a Puma expecting you to build a halftrack.
6- Captain is on the field.
-- If it is a Puma: you do not really need to worry, Puma is bad vs infantry. Your riflesquads should be vetted now so one or two AT grenade is enough to keep it away.
-- If it is a HT: you'll need more micro, it is up to you if you prefer going first Stuart or AT gun.
Use your captain to take out a Stuart or a AT gun faster and keep them close on the field, why not using the stuart as a bait?.
In both cases, you need both before going T4. So you make sure he is not going to try a Puma spam.
7- First Sherman and T4 stuff. Not sure it is really necessary to enter into more details here. Everyone manages it on his own. But as you maybe have 2 fuel caches you should be able to counter any OKW fast T4.


Note one: Focus fire on Sturmpio is sometime not the best option, sturmpios don't have AT, if you have the opportunity to wipe out a volks squad, do it. It will reduce his AT soft power.
Note two: As I haave dropped the USF mechanized commander, it is obviously easier to me now to counter this strat with a fast jeep
Note three: If there is 2 sturmpio and a Kubel, it means far less capping power for the OKW player. he only relies on forcing you to fight, so avoid them before BARs.

Hi. You arent clear on one matter - do u go Leutenant, or do u not? This is important. No Lt means no 50cal, HalfTrack or Utility car. This means no AT mines, no area denial (supression). This on the other hand means that match becomes micro-intensive two-way struggle, as both skip tiers to go fast for late-game units. No one countering the other one. Lemon specificaly said he wont go Puma or any ligt vehicle, so going captain is redundant - why do u need bazooka squad or stuart if there are no light vehicles, but roketens and shrecks on the field, denying you effective use of stuart? Lt into major is better, considering lt grinds even vetted sturms into dust, if they didnt ambush him. Also AA Halftruck is too good to resist in that kind of game, as it can deal considerable amount of dmg, if u just be wary of roketens. If there are two At guns, means he has less infantry squads.

That being said, what strat gives u trouble? Maybe 2 pios into puma or AA Ht? What gives u trouble in this particular strat (Lemons)? I mean - I have given away some useful info, u could do the same for us

Hi. You arent clear on one matter - do u go Leutenant, or do u not? This is important. No Lt means no 50cal, HalfTrack or Utility car. This means no AT mines, no area denial (supression). This on the other hand means that match becomes micro-intensive two-way struggle, as both skip tiers to go fast for late-game units. No one countering the other one. Lemon specificaly said he wont go Puma or any ligt vehicle, so going captain is redundant - why do u need bazooka squad or stuart if there are no light vehicles, but roketens and shrecks on the field, denying you effective use of stuart? Lt into major is better, considering lt grinds even vetted sturms into dust, if they didnt ambush him. Also AA Halftruck is too good to resist in that kind of game, as it can deal considerable amount of dmg, if u just be wary of roketens. If there are two At guns, means he has less infantry squads.

That being said, what strat gives u trouble? Maybe 2 pios into puma or AA Ht? What gives u trouble in this particular strat (Lemons)? I mean - I have given away some useful info, u could do the same for us

LemonJuice strat is an Anti-Infantry build order.

His first objective is to make you bleed MP by wiping out your riflesquads, forcing you to engage close combats as soon as possible.
He is not really blobbing because 2 stormpio cost a lot in term of MP, and also because you don't really let him doing it with a efficient Cap and Run. So your best counter is a fast BARs because it gives you an advantage in a 1vs1 squad situation, with BARs your can defend yourself vs stormpio.

Going T2 is redundant with BARs, .50 truly gives you a good side map control, but is more likely to be focused by the raket. The Haft Track is redundant with BARs, there is no really need to build it if you know how to use them. The half-track is a all-in as in most cases it delay you too much your T3 and T4. Because you damn need an AT for sure if you manage to survice so far.

Going T3 gives you a stuart, much more reliable than a half-track to flank him, and definitely if you manage to survive, you will need an AT-gun. There are now way to think you have 100% chance to secure your half-track and kill him. In any cases, if you manage to keep it alive or if you go T3 directly, he will need to adapt and probably build a Puma, the AT is here for that.

A fast Captain gives you a other important ability, fast development. In fact you don't really need him in the field, he is a great value in your base to pump out shermans.

As a conclusion, many times "counter" does not only means reacting by going to the most evident counter, but going forward and forcing him to start countering you and your own strat. It is most likely that you will never win vs him if you only try to react and overcome him in his own strat, it is possible but at same experience level, he obviously has more experience in it.

you make a valid point by saying this build suffers from back capping, and thats why I build that third volksgrenadier squad.
i used to continuously cap any territories that i left behind or were capped by the enemy.
its really important to make sure you dont lose out on extra munitions or fuel because you were to concentrated on fighting and not on capping the territories on the far side of the map.

also remember that YOU as a player have the ability to force fights. yes, once BARS are out its difficult for volks to win in a 1v1 engagement when theyre fighting over side points. but you can force the enemy player to respond to a push and bring all their units where you can use positioning to kill them. the best way to force a fight IMO is to push for their cutoff.
an example of this can be seen in the game i play against Romeo. I push for his cutoff with a decent sized force. I know he is on the right side of the map because he is capping my territories. If i cap the cutoff, he will most likely come from the rear because a flanking attack is what every strategy emphasizes! anticipating that i point my raketenwerfer to my rear and wait. true enough his squads come rolling into my trap and i kill a lot while only losing a few models. then i send one volks squad to recap everything else.

also as a slightly related note: the best map to do this strategy on is probably crossing in the woods (which also happens to be my favorite map). Sturmpios can quickly cross the river due to their movement penalties being removed and the big hedges offer a good place on the front line to palce your medic truck. much of the map is in range of a support gun and your cutoff can be easily protected by your t4 flak truck.

Im trying, but i really struggle with this one. I mimicing your strat and going spec-ops for panther, but really, REALLY ahve to oputplay my opponent with struempios. Field gun is good, but it is hit or miss strat-wise (get it? ). I think this strat will work better with breakthrough doctrine - u can use fusiliers vs light vehicles to some extent - dmg engine is nice to finish with shreks or raketen. Also fusiliers will provide good backbone infantry untill u get obers out to rape their inf. I wouldnt go luftwaffe, as it makes t3 redundant... The real choice here is what vehicle get in t3. I can see Lucht working really well against infantry heavy USF army and u can lure their tank destroyers with it into falce feeling of safety and right into dfusiliers and roketen trap.
p.s. i never got jagdtiger in 1v1, but i can see it working completely locking his vehicles. And OKw has infantry advantage late game (5 vet infantry, anyone?) 5 vet strumpios are beasts...

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  [Clan Tag]

  L E M O N

  vs [ClanTag]

  by: LemonJuice map: Semoskiy

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heres another replay. the other player was definitely not very good in their macro and micro. several occasions where he retreated for no reason, but there were 2 situations where his shocks did massive damage to me
stalls for b4 but i push each time he makes one and destroy it before falling back to regroup the assault.

why make a luchs vs jacksons when you have no vehicles to begin with? if your trap fails and you mismicro the luchs and it dies, youve wasted a lot of manpower and fuel. the jacksons will mostly be a waste until a command panther arrives, and at that point you can mark target + volks shrek it to death.

the doctirne is really up to you honestly. whatever doctrine you choose gives the strategy its own little edge. I like the grenade assault and command panther, wihle others make like the fusiliers more.
The reason why i dont use the fusiliers are because theyre not available right off the bat, and i need squads on the field right away to help with my capping power.

regarding the fieldgun, its strength comes in from both its ability to kill, and the ability to put a time limit on firefights. if a fight breaks out within the field guns range, the gun will start firing (obviously). the longer the fight goes, the more and more likely the field gun will hit a model and deal massive damage. this forces your opponent to try to end the engagement quickly by closing the distance (bad idea against sturmpios), fallback and you win the firefight and can advance, or slug it out and die to the field gun.

also as a slightly related note: the best map to do this strategy on is probably crossing in the woods (which also happens to be my favorite map). Sturmpios can quickly cross the river due to their movement penalties being removed and the big hedges offer a good place on the front line to palce your medic truck. much of the map is in range of a support gun and your cutoff can be easily protected by your t4 flak truck.

True, the biggest issue to counter your strat is that damned Cutoff.
Bar aren't that expensive, having one before you can push the cutoff should not be a big deal but sometime it happens.
As I said before, I'm more confident vs this strat now that I have the mechanized commander. going 3 rifles + jeep helps a lot vs double pio BO.

This strat becomes far more effective if u incorporate the mg-34 into it.It controls rifles better and reduces dependance on sturmpio.Especially after the very early game once he has 3-4 rifles and sturmpio charges don't work.I find machine guns essential to holding back the BAR tide till obers.

thats cool

ive been falling into the trap of building the repair station before the medic building to get the flak half track out first and start massing fuel i then use pumas to deal with light armor untill i can make my T4.

i think for okw the game is wither won or lost in the first few minutes as if u loose too many infantry engagements the resources bleed can bankrupt you in a way that you may never recover, also loosing strumpio squads is serious and can easily be done as 4 man squads are not very durable

another thing i find crazy is satchel charge against flak half track when playing against soviets, as the halftrack has set up and tear down time it makes it difficult to escape if penals through a satchel charge, which can knock the ht strait out

i find playing against an infantry centric US player to be difficult and maxim spam is maxim spam

Thanks for the little guide. I'm new to OKW and this have proven helpful in the few matches I played versus Soviets even in Kholodny Ferma Winter.

Both of them went Shock Troopers and I managed to kill them quite easily with the couple Sturmpioneers and then Obersoldaten. The support gun does it's job in auto fire. The maxim spam didn't help one of them actually because once luchs came it was too late for those maxims to escape.


A fast Luchs into Panther Commander seems a good choice for me and also unlocks IR STG for Obersoldaten making them beasts.