Which commanders are now useful?

In 1v1 and 2v2 except Ace and Ass Grens cause I don't have it yet

My mate and I use a combination of the Spearhead Doctrine and the Jaeger Armor Doctrine
in 2v2. The two work well together, they compliment each others weaknesses with their strengths.

I think, Spearhead is quite a bit weak cause it od good only for support team infranty (mobile mortar and scout for it). Im thinking about lighting war and maybe Luftwaffe supply but... I'm not sure about. I promote defensive play so... Idea's?

your wehrmacht rank better than me,i think in 2v2 1 suggest, dont ignore elefant when u guess they will have isu

You can win without choosing a commander! Give it a try!

It is not a problem but game is boring without strikes or gew 43. So yeah, this is definitely not for I looking for

Spearhead Doctrine is NOT weak...probably one of the strongest Doctrines for Wer out there.

Mortar truck is OP and is a better mortar that the standard mortar team, plus it has fire barrage which one shots any building (permanently setting them on fire).

Smoke is a god send when you field a tiger and are trying to save it, or any vehicle.

Recon flight is necessary when your fighting vehicles and want line of sight for your Paks, plus it complements the Mortar Truck when you want vision to take out support weapons.

I dont see the point of Ger43s if you can get LMGs. Waste of munis you could spend on mines.

You get an average airstrike (bombing Run) ...that is not much damage BUT is pretty fast and harder to react to. Will take out full squads if aligned properly.

Tiger.

weak?? please.

This doctrine is my go to if I want to play my best in 1v1.

Spearhead Doctrine is NOT weak...probably one of the strongest Doctrines for Wer out there.

Mortar truck is OP and is a better mortar that the standard mortar team, plus it has fire barrage which one shots any building (permanently setting them on fire).

Smoke is a god send when you field a tiger and are trying to save it, or any vehicle.

Recon flight is necessary when your fighting vehicles and want line of sight for your Paks, plus it complements the Mortar Truck when you want vision to take out support weapons.

I dont see the point of Ger43s if you can get LMGs. Waste of munis you could spend on mines.

You get an average airstrike (bombing Run) ...that is not much damage BUT is pretty fast and harder to react to. Will take out full squads if aligned properly.

Tiger.

weak?? please.

This doctrine is my go to if I want to play my best in 1v1.

agree that spear head is a good doc...used to be my favorite...however under new patch G43s are much better choice than they used to be, why? becuase they can fire on move and lmgs cannot. That has always been the case but mortar rounds now decimate single gren squads because they clump up in cover and so if you don't keep your grens moving every couple seconds you risk an entire squad being wiped out by a single round of mortar/m8 howie, 75mm howie, etc.

I can post a replay if you would like to see how devastating the new cover mechanics are to grens caught in cover by explosive rounds

its a bit more micro....move then stop then shoot. But the DPS is greater. AND I get the Mortar Truck here...so I can also dish out explosive damage on enemy squads.

I have not had any problems using LMGs since patch. Still as good as ever.

I really like the Encirclement doc. Has some pretty cohesive abilities.

For Axis, specially Ostheer you don't have to rely on your commanders (unlike Soviets). Do not chose a commander right away, wait for you enemy to chose and react accordingly. As other guys said, because Ostheer has some pretty solid core units so you can win even without a commander. Although because of the costs of teching, Tiger call-ins are popular.

It is useless to consider commanders without tactics. If you would take tactics in consideration, a few choices can be made. My 3 spots in 2vs2 consist out of the following three.
SPOT 1
Assault support doctrine OR Spearhead AND/OR lightning (i.e. tiger spot)
Assault support
Artillery field officer - gimmicky, not worth.
Supply truck - not useful imo, prefer points anyway
Strafe run - very good, but expensive in ammo for it's effect.
Fragmentation bombing run - decent but not spectacular off map artillery,
Spearhead
Mortar halftrack - not so good anymore in comparison to normal mortar team, I have no use for it anymore
Panzer tactician - Borderline OP ability, out of jail card + tactical flexible (pop smoke to shield you from AT guns while chasing down a tank)
Reconnaissance - good, albeit expensive
Fragmentation bombing run - see above
Lightning
Jaegar light infantry package - still eclipsed (or at least equaled) by lmg, but fun to play around with.
Tactical movement - mwah, has limited use
Relieved infantry - useless
Stuka close air support - very nice since latest patch, although not used much by me

I personally chose spearhead, panzer tactician in combination with the tiger tank alone makes that commander worth it. Close second is lightning, because of the stuka close air support which by far is the best call in of these three commanders. I've seen assault support shine in other players hands, but it doesn't seem to give my playstyle a significant advantage over the other 2.

Spot 2
Jaeger armor doctrine
The riegel mine is AWESOME
Reconnaissance - decent (can be used in combination with stuka bombing strike late late game, if you have enough muni)
Scopes - decent
Stuka bombing strike - hard counter versus artillery!
The elephant tank is booring (but decent, extremely good versus kv-1)

Basically an effective counter versus the b-4. Having this commander alone can deter a Soviet player from choosing the highly annoying (and boring play style) commander of KV1+B-4

Spot 3
Basically free to choose, I got Elite (lacks ability to sink muni's in, and I dislike the fact that you get punished if you keep the tiger ace alive rather than suicide it, has panzer tactician)

Blitzkrieg - nice all round commander, works wonderfully if you want to play with panthers (I love those tanks!)

Mechanized - nice LEFH 18 doctrine

Interesting commanders that I lack: Encirclement and Luftwaffe supply, especially the latter seems interesting for troll games with OKW mate (<20 minutes king tiger anyone?)

1vs1
Same choice spot 1, spot 2 is either mechanized assault (assgrens) or mobile defense doctrine (gotta love puma's versus americans, only easy 8s are problematic) and I tend to like mechanized doctrine. Although I don't play that many 1vs1, because if I play it's generally with a mate of mine.