Panzer Elite in COH2!

I had a discussion with a friend about good old Panzer Elite vs OKW, and how both of them have structural problems. Long story short I decided to just for fun draft up a renewed Panzer Elite and how I would like it to look as a replacement for OKW in COH2.

Overview: Regular base buildings, regular income, regular vet and can build cashes, but follows OKW tech path with two branches to a final one.

Early game Show Spoiler

Mid game Show Spoiler

Late game Show Spoiler


Headquarter
Light infantry (Blendkorper smoke grenade, Vet Rifle grenade, upgrade G43 with scope, vet 3 cloak in cover)
Sturmpionere (Hafthohlladung a very short range but powerful magnetic AT grenade, The heal deployable, vet one sprint, minesweeper upgrade)
Sd.Kfz. 250 (infantry take decent damage from small arms fire when in it)
Püppchen


Panzer grenadier support
Upgrade Light HT AT, Sd.Kfz. 250/10 (3.7 cm PaK, ads Threadbreaker ability, vet ads tank awareness)
Upgrade Light HT "Stummel", Sd.Kfz. 250/8 (7.5 cm short barrel and Mg34, vet ads canister-round, much shorter range but much more lethal)
Panzer grenadiers (upgrade MG34 or a panzerShrech, leader with stg44, 2 unscoped g43, Bundle grenade)
Sd.Kfz. 251/8 I - Krankenpanzerwagen (Reinforce capability and when locked down sends out medics that heals soldiers not in combat)
Sd.Kfz. 251/21 - Schützenpanzerwagen (Drilling MG151s AA, functioning like a quad HT with long range suppression, slightly more damaging but without reinforce)

Assault gun support (Better name needed)
Upgrade Light HT Scout, Sd.Kfz. 250/9 (2 cm and mg 34, Light AA and AT, also somewhat useful vs infantry, vet infantry awareness)
Upgrade Light HT Mortar, Sd.Kfz. 250/7 (81cm mortar, ads barrage and smoke barrage, vet incendiary round)
StuG IV (Multi purpose choice, MG34 upgrade, vet blizkrieg, note this is the more sturdy IV not the III used by Ost)
Jagdpanzer IV (AT choice, MG34 upgrade, vet Ambush ability)
StuH 42 (AI choice, MG34 upgrade, vet long sight range cone)

Panzer support
Panzer II Ausf. L "Luchs"
Pazer V Panther Ausf. G
Bergepanther (Engineering panther, when locked down it functions as a repair station with 3 repair pios)
Sd.Kfz. 251 Stuka zu Fuß (Walking stuka)


Doctrines
Scorched earth: Hummel, Beobachtungspanzer (Arty spotter panther) storm pios can build trenches.
Tank hunter. AT infantry, Jagdpanther
Command and control: Sturm officer, Panzerfuziliers, Befehlspanzer (command panther)

Volksgrenadier support: Hetzer, Volks (panzerfausts and stg 44)
Schwere panzer support: Sturm tiger, King tiger, heck could even have the Jagd tiger as well
Luftvaffe support: Falls with fg42 and Panzerwurfmine (AT grenade), 2.8 cm schwere Panzerbüchse 41 (light nimble airdropped AT gun but still with good pen)

So would you like to relive the glory of the Panzer Elite, or would you rather take a stab at the Brits?

Whats "Pazer Elite"?

some new unit commander for OKW should satisfy you.

Whats "Pazer Elite"?

Haha yea, that was typical... And now it is out of my hands. Maybe some nice mod that swings by will fix it

some new unit commander for OKW should satisfy you.

Well that would certainly make me happy as long as it shakes up the game play. Though the point here was not to draft up something that I would ever get tu use, it was more just explore if I could combine elements of PE an OKW to work around the structural deficiencys inherent in both.

we already have a Panzer Elite, it was combined with the British to form OKW by Relic. Kappa

Title fixed

I like it. As I see the problem with OKW now is that it is more cost-effective to go infantry into late rather than having a solid middle. This would give insentive to actually have a mid game, altough with half-tracks.
+1

Halftrack movement frustrates me.

some new unit commander for OKW should satisfy you.

Balance will satisfy us.

we already have a Panzer Elite, it was combined with the British to form OKW by Relic. Kappa

To be fair except for the fact that they are Germans they gameplay wise they have more in common with the Brits (forward strong-points, less focus on general map control) Se this more as an attempt to combine current OKW with PE while stripping them of their respective structural balance issues.

Title fixed

Great, thanks!

I like it. As I see the problem with OKW now is that it is more cost-effective to go infantry into late rather than having a solid middle. This would give insentive to actually have a mid game, altough with half-tracks.
+1

That is what I hope at least, you also have the option of aiming for mid game armor though you would be lacking the prestigious turrets so they would probably be working a fair bit with supporting infantry. My biggest concern with the hypothetical faction is that the light infantry might not scale into the late game. Sure the smoke will always be useful but could they function in the late game, maybe the scoped G43 upgrade should be reasonably strong and expensive but only upgradeable at higher tech (could be some sort of minor snipe like on pathfinders).

Halftrack movement frustrates me.

Halftracks in particular or vehicles in general? Many of the vehicles here should not be doing to much fancy movement, the biggest offender would probably be the 250 acting as a transport and the 250/9 with the auto-cannon. Personally a mix of halftracks and infantry was what I was after, so unsurprisingly I don't mind the pathing to much.

Balance will satisfy us.

To be fair, the way OKW is laid out, getting them balanced in different game sizes and stages of the game is a herculean task. One of the point of this hypothetical faction is that it should avoid some of the mechanics that make OKW (and also PE) hard to balance properly.

Whats "Pazer Elite"?

Basically Waffen SS with more politically correct name.

Basically Waffen SS with more politically correct name.

That was a refference to the fact that I had dropped the letter n in my topic.

And to be fair the panzer elite of COH1 was basically the recon contingent with incoming reinforcement of a panzer grenadier force. (That is why it uses the 250 with variants as well as second rate armor as the game progresses)

The 2 panthers are an obvious break from this, but they are an of map, and probably represent a real panzer force. (The armored recon element with reinforcements theme still work there)

That is basically the same theme I went with here, the big difference is that I opted for regular panzer grenadiers to be brought in as the game progresses as well.

Balance will satisfy us.

I'd love to see more unit options for allied, there can't be balance when one faction has much less/weaker unit, and allied commander slot is wasted for some basic units meanwhile German's commander slot is all about more utilities, unfair and boring when play as allied


BTW, there's a "All units" mod in steam workshop, I'd say,it's refreshing!

Panzer Elite? Rather PAPER elite, that's what it was.

Honestly, it would be great and I wouldn't mind seeing the Panzer Elite back in CoH2(As long as they get proper uniforms though). Aside from the British, my second most played and favourite faction in CoH1 was the PE since it forced the player(playing against or playing with) to use unorthodox strategies in order to win; it essentially brought much needed variety and changed the meta.

The Panzer Elite was basically a high risk-high reward faction which CoH2 lacks at the moment; you could argue the US is the Panzer Elite of CoH2 but it wouldn't be accurate.

Honestly, it would be great and I wouldn't mind seeing the Panzer Elite back in CoH2(As long as they get proper uniforms though). Aside from the British, my second most played and favourite faction in CoH1 was the PE since it forced the player(playing against or playing with) to use unorthodox strategies in order to win; it essentially brought much needed variety and changed the meta.

The Panzer Elite was basically a high risk-high reward faction which CoH2 lacks at the moment; you could argue the US is the Panzer Elite of CoH2 but it wouldn't be accurate.

Paper Elite was the worst faction in vCOH. You had to work like hell to keep pace with your enemy and the main problem was that a weaker opponent could beat you.
It was looking allright, nice and shiny, but it was kinda' frustrating to play with it.

Paper Elite was the worst faction in vCOH. You had to work like hell to keep pace with your enemy and the main problem was that a weaker opponent could beat you.
It was looking allright, nice and shiny, but it was kinda' frustrating to play with it.

Yeah, you actually had to micro and learn the intricacies of the faction if you wanted to win; that's what made the faction unique and strong. The faction itself wasn't the problem, it was the player behind the faction; it was indeed possible to beat the best US and British players as Panzer Elite, but as you pointed out, you actually had work for that win.

PE as a faction was mostly hampered because of structural problems. It would have benefited greatly from for example a purchasable surviveability upgrade for thier light vehicles.

Basically Waffen SS with more politically correct name.

Nope!

The Panzer Elite is the Panzer-Lehr-Division. More exact the Panzeraufklärungs-Lehr-Abteilung 130 wich during the course of a game is reinforced by heavier elements of the Division.
The voice over actually tells you that if you listen. They report as recon patrolls if clicked on for example. Its also pretty apparent concidering their equipment. The models depict regular WH troops.
They way the PE works in CoH also is typical for recon units of the WH. Its a highly mobile skirmishing force wich is supposed to make contact with the enemy relay information to heavy elements and guide them to the fight. Wich is more or less exactly how the PE works.

There is less WSS in the PE than in the WH faction of CoH1.
The Blitzkrieg doctrine could be concidered to bring WSS units into the game.