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Arika korps fought in 1943 which is when most of the advanced vehicles were produced such as Tiger and Elefant. There was Tiger tanks in afrika korps.

Please no Afrika Korps, mind this: if you have to do something about eastern front you don't say that's a clash between Soviet Union and Romania, you say Germany and its allies vs Soviet Union.
The same for Africa, you can't say Afrika Korps vs British forces, you should say Italy + german support vs British forces. Seriously the famous Afrika Korps was composed of 5 divisions (4 before El Alamein), while Italians sent in Lybia (italian colony) 24 divisions, even if Rommel commanded the troops, he was not the commander in chief of the operation because the commander was the governor of Lybia.

PS: Afrika Korps was not composed of the best units that Germany had ... just to debunk some myths. I'm not against adding factions, i'm all for adding new factions, i'm very excited for the british! But i'm tired of reading and listening DAK did this, DAK did that, Rommel here, Rommel there, Rommel everywhere. I'm tired that in WW2 games we have Germans VS the world (in fact this could be true) but CoH2 has not a specific time even if many say late 1944, i don't agree because we have Moscow Outskirts (1941), Stalingrad (1942 - 1943) and so on. I think that the new front should be the mediterranean and this is the moment for the italian army, and i'm sure it could fit in CoH2 also because there won't be problems that italy had: poor leadership because you're in command not the generals, no supply problems and so on.
For the tanks i know that they have a light armour but Italy's strenght is its SPGs primarily.

The third German faction is ridiculous. This must be one of the German allies (Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria) or combination of them.

Why? Germanys Allies didn´t do much. The Italians fucked up, asked the Germans for help on the Balcans/Greece. Fucked up in North Africa and asked the Germans for help to eventually turn on them and join the Allies. Their equipment wasn´t good either.

The other factions are too small. Romanians, Bulgarians and Hungarians fighting in every game is strange.

Why? Germanys Allies didn´t do much.

Massive misrepresentation of history.

Without allied support Germany would have lost the war within five years. They may have been the best trained and equipped force on the Axis side, but they can't use that to swing the frankly staggering disparity of manpower, raw resources and field presence entirely in their favour for half a decade.

They may not have preformed in as noteworthy a fashion as Germany, but their presence was an utter necessity for the Axis war effort.

Think of it like a game of Chess. Your queen is a powerful piece, but if you start the game without any pawns, knights, bishops or rooks, you're doomed anyway.

What were the Italians meant to do, their armour was useless compared to British tanks. Also most of the Axis in Europe were small, with neither the population or the economy to field armies on the scale of Russia or Germany. As a faction they might work, they would need german armor to be competitive with other factions. They would be better suited as a doctrine for Ostheer perhaps.

Also, by Afrika Korps I meant the Itallian and German forces, would love to see italian infantry and tankettes, and it would be a golden opportunity to see the Panzer III.

Why? Germanys Allies didn´t do much. The Italians fucked up, asked the Germans for help on the Balcans/Greece. Fucked up in North Africa and asked the Germans for help to eventually turn on them and join the Allies. Their equipment wasn´t good either.

The other factions are too small. Romanians, Bulgarians and Hungarians fighting in every game is strange.

In the Balkans, they didn't asked help to Germany.
In Greece Italy didn't ask german help, germans attacked because the greek army was facing the italians in Lybia and only few units were defending the metaxas line. Anyway Mussolini didn't join the allies, after being arrested by the king, THE KING, not Mussolini, joined the allies. When you talk about Italy it's difficult even saying all the italians betrayed the germans because you forget that Italy was divided in North and South, the North was in the axis and the South with the allies. Their equipment wasn't good either in 1940, but after 1941 the army had been modernized, not on scale as germany but take a look only to the SPGs. There's a huge difference between italian army in 1940 with italian army of 1941.
Think that in CoH2 you don't have problems about poor leadership because you're commanding the troops, no supply problems and this game is not historical, if Relic would have done this every match should be:
1) germans advance near the allied HQ
2) the allies retake the positions
3) the germans counterattack but fail
4) the allies win
5) end
Or especially as soviets, at the beginning of the match you will lose million units as deads and POWs.

What were the Italians meant to do, their armour was useless compared to British tanks. Also most of the Axis in Europe were small, with neither the population or the economy to field armies on the scale of Russia or Germany. As a faction they might work, they would need german armor to be competitive with other factions. They would be better suited as a doctrine for Ostheer perhaps.

Also, by Afrika Korps I meant the Itallian and German forces, would love to see italian infantry and tankettes, and it would be a golden opportunity to see the Panzer III.

Hardly. The Americans are competitive and the heaviest tank they have is an Easy 8, not even a jumbo, in game.

Italians had plenty of large guns to swing around, just didn't mount them on large, heavy armoured chassis. It would be a refreshing change to see an Axis fraction with light vehicles rather than constant reliance on super expensive inefficient monstrosities.

The populations being small, the supply issues, being greatly outnumbered? None of those make a difference in the world of strategy games. Same way that we don't see German tanks constantly breaking down because they were over engineered or Russian tanks running out of fuel because of logistical issues. Or Americans bombing their allies #ShotsFiredEtc.Etc.

With proper accounting for price and the availability of big guns, offmaps and utility units, not having stronk tonks is absolutely fine. We've got no pershing in CoH2 yet and I honestly like that none reliance on super units.

What were the Italians meant to do, their armour was useless compared to British tanks. Also most of the Axis in Europe were small, with neither the population or the economy to field armies on the scale of Russia or Germany. As a faction they might work, they would need german armor to be competitive with other factions. They would be better suited as a doctrine for Ostheer perhaps.

Also, by Afrika Korps I meant the Itallian and German forces, would love to see italian infantry and tankettes, and it would be a golden opportunity to see the Panzer III.

The italian tanks lacked in armour but not for the artillery! I see the italian faction similar to the USF for the tanks, no heavy tanks but many light/medium tanks and SPGs. (Semovente 75/18, Semovente 105/25).

PS: a fantastic Anti-tank and anti-aircraft gun is Cannone 90/53 Mod.1939, better than 88mm FlaK.

Interesting, perhaps they could be similar to panzer elite from coh1 a fast mechanised force with glass cannons? I admit Italian warfare is not my strongpoint, I do recall they were excellent at digging in and defending (not sure though). This would be refreshing, coh2 could use a faction focused on transports and speed.

Could be the japanese. Or italy.

Hope dies last eh?

Massive misrepresentation of history.

Without allied support Germany would have lost the war within five years. They may have been the best trained and equipped force on the Axis side, but they can't use that to swing the frankly staggering disparity of manpower, raw resources and field presence entirely in their favour for half a decade.

They may not have preformed in as noteworthy a fashion as Germany, but their presence was an utter necessity for the Axis war effort.

Think of it like a game of Chess. Your queen is a powerful piece, but if you start the game without any pawns, knights, bishops or rooks, you're doomed anyway.

We are talking from a design stand point. All the German warmachine and Wunderwaffe myths, along with the HUGE amount of weapons and armor make them ideal for designing game elements. There are still units like Jagdpanther, Hetzer, Marder, PzIII, etc. are still appealing units. This can not be said about other Axis forces.

New Brit army equals 50/50 (Axis & Aliies) players searching? I wonder how many Brits here will be loyal to their army or betray to join Nazi cause in MP.

Interesting, perhaps they could be similar to panzer elite from coh1 a fast mechanised force with glass cannons? I admit Italian warfare is not my strongpoint, I do recall they were excellent at digging in and defending (not sure though). This would be refreshing, coh2 could use a faction focused on transports and speed.

My idea of the italian was:
- infantry is similar to soviets and ostheer: engineers, riflemen, HMGs, Mortars and Bersaglieri as special troops, specialized in assaulting positions
- artillery: an AT gun (Cannone 75/32) and an Anti-infantry (Cannone 75/18) similar to OKW's one
- vehicles: an halftrack (FIAT-SPA S37)and the Lancia Lince, an Anti-Infantry vehicle
- tanks: a tankette (L3/33), light tanks (L6/40 and M15/42 even if italy classified it as medium "M") and a SPG (Semovente 75/18), their cost in fuel isn't high but the manpower cost will be higher. I think that this will be hard to play, especially if you don't win early, anyway i think that italians will complete the axis army with an army not focused on super-heavy-monster-uber-omg-heavy tanks.
The only thing i would change to my idea is taking Lancia Lince off and adding Semovente 105/25 to give the italians jackson's counterpart.

Another important aspect you guys leave out is doctrines. Since Italy didnt necessarily develop and use a huge range of equipment or even have a huge range of infantry they would really have much of any Doctrine options.

Remember RUSE? Yeah Italy is in that game and you know they have an accurate representation of what they would be like a cheaper zerg/swarming faction that still needed massive boost to be competitive with the allied factions.

Guys the brits aren't going to be here til late June. It's the same time both the initial game and WFA was released. They still haven't even been properly announced and they have to go through beta.

We will probably get the third axis faction next year around the same time.

Given that almost everyone here seems to think that KAPPATCH would cure cancer, AIDs and erectile dysfunction and usher in a brave new world of multi million dollar purse esports you and I are in very small minority about that.

The thing with developers pushing content production onto the players is that it allows them to be lazy, while it would be nice if Relic took hints from Cruzz. I am more worried they will offer new "content" that's just something players did for them. See: we only got 2 maps from Relic.

Yea, you totally already knew about the optimization being done, the further development of mod tools, and the leaderboards.

Yes? They have said they were working on these things for years.

Forgotten Nations: Hungary will be out in a week or so, I have delayed release until after the patch discussion dies down

Forgotten Nations: Hungary will be out in a week or so, I have delayed release until after the patch discussion dies down

Hungary, Romania and Finland need to be portrayed, thanks to god some games did it, if i remember well we have Hungarians in Codename Panzers Phase 1 during Soviet campaign, the Romanians are in Men of War Red Tide and Finland ... i don't know. They need justice. They had been ignored.

Brazil is done, but they are very minor so I did them first as proof of concept.

Hungary is all but done; Spain and Finland are in the pipeline; Romania will probably be 5th.

We want custom models so the slaves,ehrm modders can make some nice custom units!

The thing with developers pushing content production onto the players is that it allows them to be lazy, while it would be nice if Relic took hints from Cruzz. I am more worried they will offer new "content" that's just something players did for them. See: we only got 2 maps from Relic.

The Valve approach,as long as it works in making the game better I'm fine with it