Ahhh finally a discussion about one of my favourite units. The commando panther.
Now to start to one has to look at all the facts about it.
At vet 0 it is an ordinary okw panther with the bonuses from its vet 0 aura (the ONLY bonus the CP gives itself, 2 CPs give each other their aura but it does NOT stack on units that already have the aura, it simply alternates between the 2 CPs auras depending on which one is nearer i assume)
The vet 0 aura is +20 sight range, +10% speed, +10% ac/de-celeration.
The sight is useful. It can spot for itsself. Its not that much more than useful though as often you use combined tactics in which sight range is already given through other units.
At vet 1 it gets blitz, identical to the normal panther.
At vet 2 it gets +20% accuracy to its aura and +10% armour, +20% health, +10% weapon rotation speed for itsself.
The normal panther gets the same but 40 % weapon rotation speed. So in the end the CP trades in 30 % weapon rotation speed against a 20 % accuracy
At vet 3 the CP gains 10% reload, +10% rotation speed, +10% ac/de-celeration
Opposed to the nornal Panther getting
-30% reload, +20% rotation speed, +30% ac/de-celeration. The CPs aura gains -20% reload. So you trade 20 % reload 10 % rotationspeed and 20% acc amd deexcelleration vs a 20 % reload aura.
At vet 4 the CP gains nothing for itself as well as at vet 5 while the normal panther gets +10% range -25% scatter and at vet 5 +25% accuracy on the move, +11 sight radius vs the aura of +5 range and at vet 5 finaly infantry affected too.
Now remember, the AURA of the CP does not affect the CP, exception beeing the vet 0 aura, what does this mean?
This means that by itsself based on stats the CP is inferior to the normal panther at any vet over vet 2 beeing almost identical at vets below or at that. This also means that a panther and a CP duo at over vet 2 is weaker than a simple double normal panther duo. If you have 3 tanks the setup with the CP is favoured.
Now keep in mind that the CP also has substantialy higher vet requirements than the normal panther whilst doing LESS dps from vet 3 on as it only get 10 % reload vs 30%. As a sidenote, there are also -5% reload bulletins for the Panther whilst the CP just has 5% top speed.
The CP has a saving grace beeing mark target. It is very strong and alows the CP to stay competitive IF spammed. If used with other units it can be extremly potent.
Tldr: The CP is worse than a normal panther by itsself for a higher cost and higher vet requirements. You need approximatly 3 tanks counting CP or 2 tanks benefiting from the aura for the CP to pull ahead of a normal panther.
Mark target is what makes the CP better than a normal panther even though tje above mentioned limitations.
A vet 5 cp is sick! But though I love the CP and play it a lot I have never had one. I would have many old replays of cps in action but due to patches they cant be watched anymore. I do have 1 on youtube though where i get a vet 4.5 cp thanks to some lucky rng, and guess what? We still loose the game.
Also, please take note how long the game is and how little time if it the CP actualy is above vet 3 and how damn lucky i got...
https://youtu.be/AWQ1pCMdGIE
Seeing as the CP is the commander defining unit i think its role as beeing all together a better panther for higher cost ok. Its by itself quite a lot worse than an ordinary panther for higher cost but it scales with the amount of tanks and it has mark target.
As for 4v4... well... there are many units who scale a lot better in those modes, all rocket artillery for example, or a sturmtiger etc...
And last but not least. The british command vehicle gives the stronger buffs to infantry and tanks from the get go for only 75 min. It does half all the stats from the carrier but if its an aec or carrier who cares. -30 reload, +30 acc -30 rec. Acc.