So yeah I've been obsessing over this

WARNING WALL OF TEXT BELOW!!!!!!!
Keep in mind however that this is quite messy.

This is something I the call Axis Legions ...for lack of a better name.

As is typical of an Axis faction,you can field a small number of elite units with special tricks and surprises as is typical. You may decide to field an army of lighter units instead in order to make your enemy suffer for every inch of ground you lose.
Hide behind heavily reinforced mini-fortresses or set up carefully camouflaged kill-zones before counter-attacking with elite units and deadly surprises.
Although you can operate with just a single structure to maximize resources, you'd be missing out on the more durable and powerful units. Planning appropriately will get you some very deadly units many of which can counter blobbing but such units could be very squishy.
NOTE:many of your units may auto-retreat if they take too much damage unless a Veteran Officer squad or any Axis Officer type unit is nearby but as they vet up their damage threshold increases. This will allow you to concentrate elsewhere on the battlefield without having to worry too much.

CONCEPTION:
Inspired from the Waffen SS, the SS, Atlantic Wall, Siegfriend Line, Volkssturm, Gothic Line, panther/wotan line (despite it's failure),Hurtgen Forest, Hungary, Italian Social Republic, the other foreign entities under overall German command and the the propagandized fortress cities.

In essence it's turtling on a troll-tastic level but in order to actually get there takes tons on resources and time. Bunkers and trenches can be reinforced with concrete as an upgrade and/or they can connect to other bunkers and even neutral buildings via a tunnel system...
NOTE:Most of your infantry can fire panzerfausts. Axis (Waffen) reservists have the potential to fire several at once.The excessive amount of fausting is due to the limited number of support weapons...(don't quote me on that.)

Structures and emplacements:
-Forward Command Bunker (Reinforce, heal and recruit your basic units.)
-Supply chain hub (gives you some more powerful units, vehicles and support weapons.)
-Radio outpost (Can call-in light artillery barrages. Also recruit more infantry and reinforce them)
-Trench (can be reinforced with concrete or covered in camo. Garrison infantry units.)
-Pillbox (can be reinforced with concrete or camo.An upgrade called:Murder hole,increases garrison size and therefore dps. May be able to garrison AT guns...)
-Dragon's teeth (tank traps and such. Also acts as cover for infantry so beware.)
-Flak 88 position (deadly against almost everything including aircraft.They are pretty expensive though. It can potentially hit tanks across the map so long as there is a clear firing lane and it may target aircraft so be careful of any falling "debris".)
-Razor wire (the usual stuff...infantry are damaged over time if they get too close.)
-Sandbags (also usual)

Forward Command Bunker-Reinforce your infantry and heal them. Also it can mount a Nebelwerfer, a radio tower for access to artillery support or a divisional command radio for access to more powerful units. Combined with vet officer squad it projects a command aura to all units which also extends to any radio outposts you may have built.

-Veteran officer Squad (5 man squad with mp44's. They may take command of almost any vehicle to greatly improve survivability and/or inspire nearby units.Upgrades include: Infantry Commander,Panzer Commander and Sector Commander. Each specialization provides special bonuses.Sector Commander greatly increases command range,artillery barrages are bigger and air-support becomes available. Infantry Commander provides an lmg34,camoflage and AOE healing. Panzer commander allows occupied tanks to; Target Weakpoints/Cripple Tanks and Shell-Shock a small number of enemy units, stunning them for a short time and they can now repair vehicles.)

-Axis (Waffen) Reservists (5-10 man squad...They build your stuff and reinforce it. Armed with bolt action rifles, upgrades improve their combat utility by giving them emergency field-dressings (auto-healing) and panzerfausts or by adding 2-3 pioneers with mp40s to greatly improve repairing and construction.Abilities have them throw grenades. They Reinforce quickly, can place traps and reinforce structures with camouflage or concrete but are generally unimpressive unless in a full squad supported by an officer or set behind cover.In essence they are similar to osttruppen, rear echelon and volksgrens.)

-Recon motorcycle (Great visual range with an mg as upgrade but can't garrison officer squad.)
-Char B1 bis or Renault R35 (Some french tank for anti-infantry and anti-light vehicle duties. Armor is a bit weak and being an early tank makes it iffy if not risky in order to compensate for having a tank so early on.)
-Hetzer Jagdpanzer 38t (camos itself when stationary and it has a decent gun and it's armor is also decent. Becomes more effective over time. Upgrades include a spotting scope which increases sight range also allowing it to stun enemy vehicles as an ability and another called; tank hunters which allows it to fire from cover without being detected unless it moves.)

The following units require radio to command plus a vet officer squad to be attached to the FCB.

-Marder 3 (essentially a tank destroyer but like the Hetzer it's armor is lacking. A special ability allows it to instantly destroy an enemy vehicle at vet 2 or 3.)
-Fallschirmjager (luftwaffe infantry) Reserves (Lacks fg42s but can salvage munitions from areas with dead infantry, fuel and munitions from vehicle husks and have active camoflage until attacking or upon discovery. Reinforces in-field and may drop explosives upon death. Can also set booby traps or mines to constrict an enemy's retreat.)
-Jagdpanther (only usable when all structures are built,a vet officer occupys this structure or FCB and a divisional command radio is activated. Can instantly destroy a single unit for a big price regardless of armor. Also it is fairly durable, accurate and it can camoflage itself as it levels up.)

Supply chain hub-This structure repairs vehicles passively. Axis (Waffen) Reservists increase the speed of repairs greatly.

-Panzer 3 (It's simply akin to a much more heavily armored Puma.)
-Stug 4 (A stug with abit more armor and a slightly better gun.)
-Opel Blitz (transports infantry and can act as a mobile cap for a capture point when deployed. When deployed it increases the amount of resources gained from a nearby point.)
-Support weapon Supply truck (drops off some support weapons for you but only 2 at a time.Drops support weapons such as old MGs,mortars, AT rifles and other kinds of salvaged support weapons. Select 2 weapons that you may need. Fuel heavy,long reset time, choose your equipment carefully.)

(With vet officer squad garrison/A Divisional Radio this structure can produce the following units)

-Bergepanzer (brings vehicles and vehicle husks back into fighting condition.)
-Panzer Grenadier Reserves (when *supporting their selected vehicle* they receive a small combat bonus. They wield mp40s but they can salvage munitions from dead infantry/guns, fuel and munitions from vehicle husks and they can eventually equip themselves with Mp44's.) Limited in number but devastating when used properly.
-Sturm Haubitze 42 (Simply a stug with a 105mm cannon.)

Units:Radio outpost can reinforce and eventually call down light artillery barrages. It can be built almost anywhere on the map so long as it is in axis territory.2-3 can be built at a time.
Radio outposts can also be reinforced with concrete or camoflage.

-Schutzen Jagers/Sturm Grenadiers/Sturm Landsers (Schutzen Jagers means Riflemen hunters;an intentional misnomer for Landsers/Grenadiers.Obersoldaten justify it!. They are 4 man squads with Kar98k's.They can place booby traps or lace a small area with explosives.Basic Upgrades and abilities include; G43s, a snipe ability at vet 2, an extra model, Grenade toss, panzerfaust, Panzerfaust volley at vet 3 and smoke grenades.)
-Mg42 crew (Can fire tracer rounds to increase the accuracy of other nearby units.Duration and accuracy increases with experience.Other than that they are fairly similar to the Ostheer mg crew. The more notable difference would be model designs and the slightly larger amount of damage.)
-Nebelwerfer crew (can instantly pin enemy units including vehicles for a short time as part of their regular artillery barrage ability. Use wisely as each barrage takes some time to recharge.)

(With Vet officer squad occupant and/or within HQ building with radio tower to command upgrade)

-Elite Panzer Support (Limited numbers... Will be either a panzer 4 or Panther.)

Some of your units may retreat if they take too much damage unless a vet officer is nearby. Same goes for vehicles. When reaching a certain level the auto-retreat gets disabled or the units get a higher damage threshold.

DOCTRINES!!!!!
Italian Armored Reserves:Bersaglieri including Italian light armor support,the Semovente 105/25 assault gun and such
(NOTE:Bersaglieri are 6 man squads that can be cut in half to form another squad. They are armed with carcano rifles. Upgrades include:Repair kits HEAT rifle grenades and Breda 30 lmgs.)

Italian Airforce Reserves:Italian Paratroopers with Beretta 38 smgs and Air power spam.Italian Airborne can place demolitions charges,throw smoke-nades,reinforce anywhere on the map and can hijack almost any vehicle at the cost of the squad.Italian recon planes,fighters and bombers infest the skies.

Hungarian Motorized Reserves:Hungarian troops,very fast decapping+capping and a Tiger tank call in. Hungarian troops come armed with Steyr mannlicher rifles or Danuvia 43 smgs,they salvage resources from dead units and can fire panzerfausts. Vet officers with the panzer commander upgrade can instantly bring any unit to the maximum level including themselves for a price.

Guerrilla Defense Plan:Extensive use of camoflage and mobile defense with underground tunnels.
FCB's, radio outposts, pillboxes and trenchs can connect to an underground tunnel system to allow infantry to appear anywhere on the map from neutral/civilian structures.

Central Defense Plan:Heavy turtling/reinforced defensive emplacements/annoying static warfare. C.P's can be capped with a beacon to designate artillery, essentially eliminating warning signals (if possible). Can call in strafing runs. Structures can be repaired and built more quickly. Mobile artillery in the form of either Wespe,Grille or Hummel becomes available for use.
All powers and special abilities can instantly be reset.

Mountain troop Battlegroup:Elite hazard resistant troops, Artillery specialization and mobile artillery. Gebirgs-Jaegers are immune to hazards and have active camoflage during rain and blizzards. Upgrades for them include panzerschreks,lmg 34s and g43's with 1 scoped g43 for quick sniping.Mobile artillery can be called in. Artillery abilities can be instantly reset.

Vengeance Plan:V1 rockets, Interrogation, Fanaticism and Me262 strikes.

Reinforcement Plan:Replaces units as they are lost. Axis (Waffen) reservists get combat boosts. Call in 2 max vet infantry and 1 max vet stug. Replace lost units with the same type that had been lost.

This is kind of confusing and convoluted but I don't think the premise is bad. For me, it only makes sense to release another faction along with the UKF. Personally, I thought the Italians would have been something fresh, something new, supplemented with german armor/units could have transitioned quite nicely.

Yeah I ramble on and on about things , but keep in mind that this is just an idea Which will be properly organized in a short while.

A Axis legion would be clouded with issues. All Tanks would be German/Cz. Only the infantry would be different and also the Inf. Weapons. A full on Italian Faction would be viable if the premise of this game was geared more toward the early war not late war for by that time all Italian vehicles were outdated. If another Axis faction was to be developed it should be based on Kesselring and the German Forces in Italy for they were fighting a great defensive war therefore emplacements (Like Entrenched 88s) would be cool.

As doom turtle mentioned that is where I am getting at... but It's a representation of the last lines of defence,the legions hitler could still call upon and vengeance weapons like the ME262 and the V1 and V2 rockets and even the SS. Where as the OKW represents the last assaults and the wonder weapons.

In my opinion a 3rd faction for the axis would best be some sort of combined forces from different countries, as follow:

T0: Romanian Engineers.
Some sort of conscripted Hungary Infantry.

T1: Mixed squad of German/Croatians
Italian AT Gun
Italian MG

T2: Tanks.

That's an example of what I think would be a cool faction.

That's what I thought as well. We have a new allied faction but no new axis faction.

If they bring out the Japanese it would be awesome but I doubt it.

A possibility is a mixed axis faction with axis allies and germans.

or maybe another German faction- I don't think there are ideas left outside a "Panzer Elite" type faction with lots of light armored vehicles (halftracks, Marder, Hummel etc.)

I just thought I'd try my hand at this but my overall intetion is to make a faction the relates to the 1944-1945 timeframe of the game itself rather than stick to what we really want despite the fact that an Afrika korps wouldn't truely work. An italian faction might but the spam will be maddening.
A japanese doctrine might be included as a type of easter egg but it would be real trolly what with all those infantry blobs and suicidal attacks.