OKW design and gameplay outdated

Ok......

1. Lack of effective mainline infantry, that's a half truth. You gain access to the best handheld AT weapon in coh2. Sturms are too strong for volks to be equal to a unit like rifles or penals, hell! even grens. They perform the way they cost, keep them in cover and watch them keep up with infantry that cost more than them. You also neglect the entire picture, that picture being, OKW has the most cost effective and BEST... wait i dont think you heard me. BEST CALLIN INFANTRY IN THE ENITIRE GAME. Say it with me now; THE BEST....CALL-IN.....INFANTRY ...... IN COH2.

2. LAck of automatic weapons? this is not only a lie, but devoid from reality. Sturms get assult rifles, obers get lmg34's, falls get fg42's. You wanna talk about lack of weapon upgrades related to automatic weaponry? Pls take another look at soviets. Not to mention, ober are the best long ranged infantry in-game thanks to all thier dps being focused on one bullshit weapon. WAIT! I DONT think YOU HEARD ME. OK SAY IT WITH ME NOW! OBERS, YEA THEM, ARE THHHHEEEEEEE BEEEESSSSSSTTT NOON-DOCCCC INNNNNNFAAAANTTTRRRRRYYYYY IIIIIINNNN COOOOOOOHHHHHHH2222222!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. LAck of heavy indirect fire options? Thats a lie. USF has nothing. So get over it.

4. Lack of defensive options? This is so misleading its pissing me off. Lets take a look. OKW get garrisoned AT at t1 that can retreat and cloak. they get 2 commanders with the best defensive arty in COH2. Mines, you know, the shit usf has to get a light vehicle to have a chance of getting. Jp4, which can cloak. Buildings that can lock ddown important sections of the map. Again, look at the bigger picture. how the hell can you say okw lack defensive options when USF gets almost noting in the realm of defensive options, and soviets get literally nothing besides mines and demos. No bunkers, NOTHING. Like do you even play coh2?

5. Too much mp? Hell yea they do. this is a HUGE advantage and you can replenish losses better than any other faction.

6. This isnt true at all. AA ht comes out before usf can get an m15. Puma comes at nearly the same time as the m20. kubel was the earliest light vehicle for over a year now. Shit even a panther hits the field earlier than a sherman can.

7. Gimmicks? beside the Strumtiger they dont have any. Reliance? Thats the definition of stretching a word. USF is built on gimmicks not OKW, so again, get oover it.

Still waiting to see them "pro" 1v1 skillzzzzzzz.

What on earth?

Ok

1: they DO have a lack of effective mainline infantry for a largepart of the game. Volks are easily the worst starting unit, supplemented with sturms. Problem is, sturms scale poorly due to half their vet going towards repairs+ massive pop cap and volks lose dps on their upgrade. Overs, while fantastic with vet and upgrade, are absolute shit for their costs. 400 manpower + muni on lfg just to lose to all othernelite infantry (guards shocks commandos airborne). Their vet is fantastic but that come down the road. This leads to OKW struggling against massive infantry assaults. They end up having the most common infantry in their army feels like ass, and the elite infantry is matched until the very end points of the game

2: they have very limited options. Mandatory singula upgrades on both volks and obers, and their callins offer hardly anything new and are in shitty commanders LJI are fantastic, but panzerfusallers feel spammy and falls are insanely expensive for how squishy they are. The falls commander if a completely lacking , it has the worst mg in the game as well as a flak emplacement that's almost a complete waste of eye sources most infantry can kill and recrew the flak 1v1

3: terrible point, that's one reason why the Usf has to play as spammy as it does. Two wrongs don't make a right

4: they have much more defensive options than the Usf, true, too bad they are mostly shit. The slowest stock td, the worst mg in the game, a flak emplacement that is basically better for the enemy than for you, and everything else the Brits have better. All while being significantly less offensive than the Americans . The Amis not having it isn't a reason why the Okw options should be so shitty like wtf that's like a kid arguing over not getting ice team

5: too much mp early on due to extreme lack of fuel and worthwhile options to spend it on. Just leads to spamming shitty infantry all over the map

6: the flakhalf is by the slowest of the bunch, requiring set up time. It loses to the ami 1v1, and can't fire while moving. It's decent but is completely outclassed by mobile suppression quads. The puma comes out early and then, for a mild anti armored unit with literally fuck all for anti infantry, you just set yourself 105 fuel behind your first actually not shit vehicle

7: the okw is competely gimmicky, that's the only reason they are good. Spam shitty mass infantry blobs, build le.igs, assault guns that act like mortars, and safe for your wonder tank that better not die before it hits atleast vet 4 or you spent 50% extra fuel for nothing

They are a terribly designed faction that provide extreme penalties for very underwhelming rewards. And the argument "the Americans don't have X too" is just awful, it has nothing to do with the issue at hand. They have their own pros and cons and are designed differently. If you don't like their design then talk about it elsewhere, don't sit there and justify shittyness because you don't like something else too, we aren't in kindergarten. This is about DESIGN ISSUES, not perceived balance problems. No matter how powerful or shitty okw is, their current design is bad and leads to bad gameplay

Ps typing on iPad, lots of typos

Apparently they didn't.

To be fair, everyone's response to that on here was basically "lolwut"

What on earth?

Ok

1: they DO have a lack of effective mainline infantry for a largepart of the game. Volks are easily the worst starting unit, supplemented with sturms. Problem is, sturms scale poorly due to half their vet going towards repairs+ massive pop cap and volks lose dps on their upgrade. Overs, while fantastic with vet and upgrade, are absolute shit for their costs. 400 manpower + muni on lfg just to lose to all othernelite infantry (guards shocks commandos airborne). Their vet is fantastic but that come down the road. This leads to OKW struggling against massive infantry assaults. They end up having the most common infantry in their army feels like ass, and the elite infantry is matched until the very end points of the game

2: they have very limited options. Mandatory singula upgrades on both volks and obers, and their callins offer hardly anything new and are in shitty commanders LJI are fantastic, but panzerfusallers feel spammy and falls are insanely expensive for how squishy they are. The falls commander if a completely lacking , it has the worst mg in the game as well as a flak emplacement that's almost a complete waste of eye sources most infantry can kill and recrew the flak 1v1

3: terrible point, that's one reason why the Usf has to play as spammy as it does. Two wrongs don't make a right

4: they have much more defensive options than the Usf, true, too bad they are mostly shit. The slowest stock td, the worst mg in the game, a flak emplacement that is basically better for the enemy than for you, and everything else the Brits have better. All while being significantly less offensive than the Americans . The Amis not having it isn't a reason why the Okw options should be so shitty like wtf that's like a kid arguing over not getting ice team

5: too much mp early on due to extreme lack of fuel and worthwhile options to spend it on. Just leads to spamming shitty infantry all over the map

6: the flakhalf is by the slowest of the bunch, requiring set up time. It loses to the ami 1v1, and can't fire while moving. It's decent but is completely outclassed by mobile suppression quads. The puma comes out early and then, for a mild anti armored unit with literally fuck all for anti infantry, you just set yourself 105 fuel behind your first actually not shit vehicle

7: the okw is competely gimmicky, that's the only reason they are good. Spam shitty mass infantry blobs, build le.igs, assault guns that act like mortars, and safe for your wonder tank that better not die before it hits atleast vet 4 or you spent 50% extra fuel for nothing

They are a terribly designed faction that provide extreme penalties for very underwhelming rewards. And the argument "the Americans don't have X too" is just awful, it has nothing to do with the issue at hand. They have their own pros and cons and are designed differently. If you don't like their design then talk about it elsewhere, don't sit there and justify shittyness because you don't like something else too, we aren't in kindergarten. This is about DESIGN ISSUES, not perceived balance problems. No matter how powerful or shitty okw is, their current design is bad and leads to bad gameplay

Ps typing on iPad, lots of typos

1. Volks suck cus sturms are strong and you have the option to build the best elite inf in the game without a commander. Obers losing to guards? in green cover maybe. obers losing to shocks? Yea, thats what happens when you dont properly support your infantry. Paras beating obers? They only beat them before they hit vet2+. And when they do, paras have to use special abilities to win against obers. Not to mention the ammount of rec accuracy, dps, passive suppression, and passive sprint with vet. If obers lose to other call-in infantry? you did something wrong. Its EXTREMELY institutional.

2. OKW has more effective combat infantry than USF. Get over it.

3. USF doesnt have to play spammy. Sov are spammy. dont see your point

4. You said it yourself....

they have much more defensive options than the Usf, true,

Doesnt matter what you think of them, the options are there while USF doesnt have them. Again, get over it.

5. Too much mp is an advantage, no matter how you try to frame it. Currently usf and brits flaot in 1v1. WHY? Cus they dont have the mp to tech up. shitty infantry? Again, OKW has the most diverse and BEST call-in and non-doc infantry in coh2. Get over it.

6. just cus you fail to micro light vehicles doesnt mean the suck. Improve your micro.

7. OKW terribly designed? yes. But not for the reasons in this thread. Vet 5 should go, and OKW should have been given full resources and been designed around that.

change the ammo to fuel conversion from 1:4 to 1:3. and then see how it goes. Its impossible to expect that the okw can compete with other factions when their units cost 50 % more fuel.

Ok......

1. Lack of effective mainline infantry, that's a half truth. You gain access to the best handheld AT weapon in coh2. Sturms are too strong for volks to be equal to a unit like rifles or penals, hell! even grens. They perform the way they cost, keep them in cover and watch them keep up with infantry that cost more than them. You also neglect the entire picture, that picture being, OKW has the most cost effective and BEST... wait i dont think you heard me. BEST CALLIN INFANTRY IN THE ENITIRE GAME. Say it with me now; THE BEST....CALL-IN.....INFANTRY ...... IN COH2.

2. LAck of automatic weapons? this is not only a lie, but devoid from reality. Sturms get assult rifles, obers get lmg34's, falls get fg42's. You wanna talk about lack of weapon upgrades related to automatic weaponry? Pls take another look at soviets. Not to mention, ober are the best long ranged infantry in-game thanks to all thier dps being focused on one bullshit weapon. WAIT! I DONT think YOU HEARD ME. OK SAY IT WITH ME NOW! OBERS, YEA THEM, ARE THHHHEEEEEEE BEEEESSSSSSTTT NOON-DOCCCC INNNNNNFAAAANTTTRRRRRYYYYY IIIIIINNNN COOOOOOOHHHHHHH2222222!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. LAck of heavy indirect fire options? Thats a lie. USF has nothing. So get over it.

4. Lack of defensive options? This is so misleading its pissing me off. Lets take a look. OKW get garrisoned AT at t1 that can retreat and cloak. they get 2 commanders with the best defensive arty in COH2. Mines, you know, the shit usf has to get a light vehicle to have a chance of getting. Jp4, which can cloak. Buildings that can lock ddown important sections of the map. Again, look at the bigger picture. how the hell can you say okw lack defensive options when USF gets almost noting in the realm of defensive options, and soviets get literally nothing besides mines and demos. No bunkers, NOTHING. Like do you even play coh2?

5. Too much mp? Hell yea they do. this is a HUGE advantage and you can replenish losses better than any other faction.

6. This isnt true at all. AA ht comes out before usf can get an m15. Puma comes at nearly the same time as the m20. kubel was the earliest light vehicle for over a year now. Shit even a panther hits the field earlier than a sherman can.

7. Gimmicks? beside the Strumtiger they dont have any. Reliance? Thats the definition of stretching a word. USF is built on gimmicks not OKW, so again, get oover it.

Still waiting to see them "pro" 1v1 skillzzzzzzz.

USF

1. Volks suck cus sturms are strong and you have the option to build the best elite inf in the game without a commander. Obers losing to guards? in green cover maybe. obers losing to shocks? Yea, thats what happens when you dont properly support your infantry. Paras beating obers? They only beat them before they hit vet2+. And when they do, paras have to use special abilities to win against obers. Not to mention the ammount of rec accuracy, dps, passive suppression, and passive sprint with vet. If obers lose to other call-in infantry? you did something wrong. Its EXTREMELY institutional.

2. OKW has more effective combat infantry than USF. Get over it.

3. USF doesnt have to play spammy. Sov are spammy. dont see your point

4. You said it yourself.... Doesnt matter what you think of them, the options are there while USF doesnt have them. Again, get over it.

5. Too much mp is an advantage, no matter how you try to frame it. Currently usf and brits flaot in 1v1. WHY? Cus they dont have the mp to tech up. shitty infantry? Again, OKW has the most diverse and BEST call-in and non-doc infantry in coh2. Get over it.

6. just cus you fail to micro light vehicles doesnt mean the suck. Improve your micro.

7. OKW terribly designed? yes. But not for the reasons in this thread. Vet 5 should go, and OKW should have been given full resources and been designed around that.

You're points are all Usf doesn't have, get over it. That's completely irrelevant, as Usf are designed differently and have their own problems and solutions. Don't derail the thread with factionism, the okw have serious design issues in both economy and unit strength +synergy combination, are extremely unrewarding to play and are easily cheesable against. If you have differing thoughts, give other reasons why besides telling people their wrong and get over it, don't troll

I'll say it again, if OKW infantry wasn't so long range focused they would bleed more. Plus is they would do more damage.

I'll say it again, if OKW infantry wasn't so long range focused they would bleed more. Plus is they would do more damage.

This would be nice, It would be awesome to have more close-range fighting power. Currently its stg obers or bust, sturms don't cut it late game. Would also allow okw to capitalize on their supression options with better assault units, while letting relic take away some killing power from those units (ie less insta wipes from isg).

Vet 5 should have never been a thing. Brits Veterancy is extremely potent without 2 extra levels, they just have a lot crammed into 3 which is how OKW should have been designed. Increase the cost of vet by a small amount but cram more bonus's into each level so you have goods scaling in the time frame of an average game rather than hoping you drag out into a 1 hour match.

Honestly If I would to point out specific problems I would say it's simply the same reason USF has issues, except we know USF is getting 3 new commanders to help fix this problem and OKW is only getting one.

1. Lack of a effective mainline infantry, now you might say Shrek'd Volks, and well you'd be right the Shrek sure is good but the infantry wielding it are just bad. And with the recent rackten buffs there isn't much to sell Volks on other than he incendiary nade, and then you just need 2 really. I would raise their price up to 250 and make them the middle ground between Riflemen and Grens, also give em a bonus to accuracy/ROF in cover so they won't be blobbed but can still stand up to enemy infantry without falling apart. Currently even Conscripts walk all over Volks until Volks hit vet 5 and now with the Conscript scaling buffs even that won't be the case.

2. Lack of diversity in upgrades and automatic weaponry. Paradoxically OKW has the MOST amount of rifle/kar98k units in the game when the real OKW (well, equivalent anyway) used massive amounts of automatic fire to make up for reduced quality in soldiers and numbers. Almost all OKW units either don't have an upgrade or just have 1 you almost always automatically take. Volks should have at least 2 upgrades to chose from, StG's or LMG34 should be a choice on Obers without a doctrine (IR which ignore cover remaining doctrinal of course), Sturms should have a flamethrower (that locks out the repair one), ect.

3. No real heavy indirect fire outside of the Stuka Zu Fuss. Yeah the Stuka is very effective but it's also horrifyingly expensive which is a non-starter in 1v1 and 2v2. The ease at which you can avoid the rockets has made it relegated to being a building counter which won't be necessary with incendiary nades. Other than countering buildings it's good for countering heavy support weapon play (although you can still avoid the barrages), but still OKW should have some sort of Howitzer commander to give a MP only artillery option.

4. Lack of defensive options. This one is a big hitter since right now OKW's defensive options are limited only to the Flak Truck. The proliferation of indirect fire and the heavy reliance on trucks for OKW has made it so playing defensively like Brits can is basically impossible because if the game drags on to long you will just drown in artillery and off maps. The MG34 can't do it's job; and while it's cheap as chips I would rather have a MG that does it's job instead of just being a piece of shit you can spam. It needs it's old damage back + a little suppression increase and a price raise. The Flak Emplacement needs to not be decrewable and just have it's gun mirrored to that of the Flak Track. A brace type option for OKW trucks (that disabled constructing units and healing/repairing/firing) would also go a long way towards stopping the whole "wait till you can just blow up all his trucks and sweep him off the map" thing.

5. To little fuel and to much MP. The fact OKW cannot spend popcap on high pop cap units (vehicles) means that OKW floats an insane amount of MP because it's never spending it or having to pay the popcap price of having vehicle. A good fix to this would be reducing the fuel cost of OKW vehicles by 20% and increase the MP cost by 50%.

6. To little to late phenomenon. I bring this up because the often "hold out for vehicles" strat OKW is shoe horned into most games simply doesn't pan out unless you hold superior map control to your opponent. A single Panther can't stop an entire armored advance (especially a British one using super high health tanks); a single OKW Panther is worth more than an IS2 due to the fuel penalty but is worse than it's Ostheer counterpart. There is also a snowball effect with the low ROF + high vet requirements meaning getting it up to 2-3-4-5 can take a while because it doesn't deal damage often.

7. Reliance on gimmicks. The reason why OKW remains powerful despite a lot of these things is very powerful gimmicks like going very heavy with Fuss and ignoring T4 by getting a JPIV. Using JLI to essentially replace any other elite infantry. Simply spamming so much infantry you break an opponent because they can't micro faster than you can and get map controlled to death.

Just my take from being a very long time OKW player.

OKW only player*

You're points are all Usf doesn't have, get over it. That's completely irrelevant, as Usf are designed differently and have their own problems and solutions. Don't derail the thread with factionism, the okw have serious design issues in both economy and unit strength +synergy combination, are extremely unrewarding to play and are easily cheesable against. If you have differing thoughts, give other reasons why besides telling people their wrong and get over it, don't troll

Just letting you know about asymmetrical balance. Not ever faction has everything. In fact, some factions are lacking in certain departments. All factions cant have every option available to them. Thats the point of asymmetrical balance. Conclusion, this is just a whine thread. Get over it.

Why shouldn't i compare OKW to USF? Did they not fucking launch together? jesus!

Just letting you know about asymmetrical balance. Not ever faction has everything. In fact, some factions are lacking in certain departments. All factions cant have every option available to them. Thats the point of asymmetrical balance. Conclusion, this is just a whine thread. Get over it.

Why shouldn't i compare OKW to USF? Did they not fucking launch together? jesus!

You're not comparing the usf, you're pointing to my/others complaints about the design of the okw, and things they lack, and are saying "usf has problems too sucks for you no"

Asymmetrical design is fine until you have armies with giant gaps in them, such as unable to win at a certain time period, or unable to counter cheese due to limited economies and tech trees.

All factions have pros and cons, with designed powerspikes. The OKW however feels like a complete patchjob of a faction. Their unit composition feels like someone googled 'cool german vehicles wwII" and picked things from google images, and they have a random shit economy because 'superior technology= vet 5'

I understand the comparison to americans, and quite frankly americans have gaps in their armies too. When a faction has poor unit composition and lack of team support, it gives way to linear and bad feels gameplay. Thats not good. I can't comment on americans too much though because I hardly play them


At the core of it the brits feel like what okw should have been, and its frustrating to look at how well designed they are vs the OKW (not that they don't have their own problems)

You're not comparing the usf, you're pointing to my/others complaints about the design of the okw, and things they lack, and are saying "usf has problems too sucks for you no"

Asymmetrical design is fine until you have armies with giant gaps in them, such as unable to win at a certain time period, or unable to counter cheese due to limited economies and tech trees.

All factions have pros and cons, with designed powerspikes. The OKW however feels like a complete patchjob of a faction. Their unit composition feels like someone googled 'cool german vehicles wwII" and picked things from google images, and they have a random shit economy because 'superior technology= vet 5'

I understand the comparison to americans, and quite frankly americans have gaps in their armies too. When a faction has poor unit composition and lack of team support, it gives way to linear and bad feels gameplay. Thats not good. I can't comment on americans too much though because I hardly play them


At the core of it the brits feel like what okw should have been, and its frustrating to look at how well designed they are vs the OKW (not that they don't have their own problems)

Yea, i agree.

You said it yourself; "All factions have pros and cons". OKW's con just happens to be thier resource penalty. Its just something that you have to deal with at the moment; In the same way soviets lack weapons upgrades and USF lacks a heavy. Brits? Brits seem to have just about everything besides thier insane MP bleed. Ost seem to have just about everything also.

Yea, i agree.

You said it yourself; "All factions have pros and cons". OKW's con just happens to be thier resource penalty. Its just something that you have to deal with at the moment; In the same way soviets lack weapons upgrades and USF lacks a heavy. Brits? Brits seem to have just about everything besides thier insane MP bleed. Ost seem to have just about everything also.

Well of course I have to deal with it, I just think it should be changed. Didn't you even agree that should be the case in your first post?

I'm confused, do you think OKW are well designed or not? That's my whole point. Not balance but design flaws

To be fair, everyone's response to that on here was basically "lolwut"

I kinda feel like Relic was treating this seriously. I don't know how OKW performs in early game but at least I know OKW sucks at late game now.

OKW only player*

what

Vet 5 should have never been a thing. Brits Veterancy is extremely potent without 2 extra levels, they just have a lot crammed into 3 which is how OKW should have been designed. Increase the cost of vet by a small amount but cram more bonus's into each level so you have goods scaling in the time frame of an average game rather than hoping you drag out into a 1 hour match.

Honestly If I would to point out specific problems I would say it's simply the same reason USF has issues, except we know USF is getting 3 new commanders to help fix this problem and OKW is only getting one.

1. Lack of a effective mainline infantry, now you might say Shrek'd Volks, and well you'd be right the Shrek sure is good but the infantry wielding it are just bad. And with the recent rackten buffs there isn't much to sell Volks on other than he incendiary nade, and then you just need 2 really. I would raise their price up to 250 and make them the middle ground between Riflemen and Grens, also give em a bonus to accuracy/ROF in cover so they won't be blobbed but can still stand up to enemy infantry without falling apart. Currently even Conscripts walk all over Volks until Volks hit vet 5 and now with the Conscript scaling buffs even that won't be the case.

2. Lack of diversity in upgrades and automatic weaponry. Paradoxically OKW has the MOST amount of rifle/kar98k units in the game when the real OKW (well, equivalent anyway) used massive amounts of automatic fire to make up for reduced quality in soldiers and numbers. Almost all OKW units either don't have an upgrade or just have 1 you almost always automatically take. Volks should have at least 2 upgrades to chose from, StG's or LMG34 should be a choice on Obers without a doctrine (IR which ignore cover remaining doctrinal of course), Sturms should have a flamethrower (that locks out the repair one), ect.

3. No real heavy indirect fire outside of the Stuka Zu Fuss. Yeah the Stuka is very effective but it's also horrifyingly expensive which is a non-starter in 1v1 and 2v2. The ease at which you can avoid the rockets has made it relegated to being a building counter which won't be necessary with incendiary nades. Other than countering buildings it's good for countering heavy support weapon play (although you can still avoid the barrages), but still OKW should have some sort of Howitzer commander to give a MP only artillery option.

4. Lack of defensive options. This one is a big hitter since right now OKW's defensive options are limited only to the Flak Truck. The proliferation of indirect fire and the heavy reliance on trucks for OKW has made it so playing defensively like Brits can is basically impossible because if the game drags on to long you will just drown in artillery and off maps. The MG34 can't do it's job; and while it's cheap as chips I would rather have a MG that does it's job instead of just being a piece of shit you can spam. It needs it's old damage back + a little suppression increase and a price raise. The Flak Emplacement needs to not be decrewable and just have it's gun mirrored to that of the Flak Track. A brace type option for OKW trucks (that disabled constructing units and healing/repairing/firing) would also go a long way towards stopping the whole "wait till you can just blow up all his trucks and sweep him off the map" thing.

5. To little fuel and to much MP. The fact OKW cannot spend popcap on high pop cap units (vehicles) means that OKW floats an insane amount of MP because it's never spending it or having to pay the popcap price of having vehicle. A good fix to this would be reducing the fuel cost of OKW vehicles by 20% and increase the MP cost by 50%.

6. To little to late phenomenon. I bring this up because the often "hold out for vehicles" strat OKW is shoe horned into most games simply doesn't pan out unless you hold superior map control to your opponent. A single Panther can't stop an entire armored advance (especially a British one using super high health tanks); a single OKW Panther is worth more than an IS2 due to the fuel penalty but is worse than it's Ostheer counterpart. There is also a snowball effect with the low ROF + high vet requirements meaning getting it up to 2-3-4-5 can take a while because it doesn't deal damage often.

7. Reliance on gimmicks. The reason why OKW remains powerful despite a lot of these things is very powerful gimmicks like going very heavy with Fuss and ignoring T4 by getting a JPIV. Using JLI to essentially replace any other elite infantry. Simply spamming so much infantry you break an opponent because they can't micro faster than you can and get map controlled to death.

Just my take from being a very long time OKW player.

I disagree with OKW Panther being worse than Ostheer Panther. What do you mean by that?
The reliance on gimmicks doesn't lead OKW to victory. Spamming infantry does nothing against brits late game. Yes, OKW's design was to rely even in late game on shrecks as a primal AT solution due to the fact they lack vehicles in needed quantity. That is why the backbone of OKW lategame is designed to be a bit of armor combined with shercks. The idea is that this helps OKW no more because the brits can overwhelm them with exact the same thing and it's nothing OKW can really do.

OKW is not bad designed, or, if it is, there is a faction that is even worst designed, that being the brits, and the arguments are that simple:
1. Before bits arrived, the game was verry close to a state of balance and everybody can agree. It took maybe one year to finaly properly balance OKW which was a "broken" faction, and now what? Annother faction was launched that screwed balance. And OKW is the one with bad design??! Hey, it was here when brits arrived, is the british faction that was not adapted to them. So who was bad designed?
2. The british faction impact against OKW was not sufficiently evaluated and you can see this without to much effort.