Beginner's Guide to Oberkommando West [in progress]

Howdy y'all,

After playing OKW for a few months, I want to consolidate my knowledge and rectify any misjudgements I may have made about the faction. So I found the best way would be to create a guide that would simultaneously allow me to share what a know as well as verify the quality thereof (because I am relatively low-ranked). Anyone is welcome to contribute of course; by doing so we might just raise the average skill level of OKW mains on this site.

So basically:

The purpose of this thread is to create a comprehensible introductory guide to Oberkommando West; it will involve a broad introduction to the faction, its strenghts and weaknesses, a brief unit guide and commander choice overview, as well as some basic tactics and strategies.

This way it should serve both people new to the faction as well as veterans who wish to get remind themselves of key points.

I will create the first draft tomorrow. Suggestions and ideas may start dropping below.
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1. General faction overview
2. Unit Overview
3. Commander choice
4. Common strategies and BOs


1. General faction overview: why chose to play as OKW?

Oberkommando West is one of the two german factions in Company of Heroes 2 and while they share some of the equipment their playstyles are different.

OKW is technically the more elitist of the two as most of their units are very expensive to purchase and reinforce. Their tech tree is non-linear and requires at least a decent knowledge of the game to exploit effectively. Combine that with some design flaws such as lack of smoke grenades, no early garisson clearing capability, the wiping power of allied vehicles and you get a faction that picking up may be frustrating at best, and infuriating at worst.

However the upside is pretty much all their units, while costing an arm and a leg, perform at their jobs like no others when used properly. Especially critical is the fact that unlike other factions, OKW infantry and vehicles get up to 5 veterancy levels, potentially giving them a significant boost in effectiveness. Combine that with overall strong offensive capabilities, especially early game, and you get a faction that is great at countering specific threats and applying constant pressure on the enemy. It is not uncommon to end games with the same squads you built in the first minutes, said squads having now 5 stars and dozens of kills, while your coolest toys such as the King Tiger follow behind. Personally, this is what makes it a rewarding experience.

2. Unit Overview

Let's take a look at who and what makes up the faction. I will be sparse with numbers for now and focus mostly on general description.

*HQ Units

Sturmpioneers: hands down the best short range infantry in the early game, out of all factions. Unlike other engineer squads, Sturmpioneers (or Sturms) are a combat unit that is best used to assault enemy positions and flank weapons teams and squads in cover. What they lack in durability they make up in sheer firepower and can shred enemy infantry to pieces when properly positioned. They can also build reinforced wires which will stop anything short of a medium tank which is very useful to block chokepoints.

Sturms are however terrible at defence, especially on open ground, and will drop like flies to focused enemy fire.

Sturms come with two upgrades: a panzerschreck, always useful against vehicles, and a mine detector, the latter of which diminishes their offensive strenght but boots their already ridiculous repair rate.


Volksgrenadiers: the main long-mid range infantry of the OKW. Volks are a five-man squad that is decent at fighting from cover as well as in the field, and are somewhat cheap. And while several squads of Volks are a potent force on their own, you will find them most useful for the utility they bring at tier1. Panzerfausts are helpful against enemy light vehicles and can cripple tanks if you are lucky, and incendiary grenades give that much needed cover denial. However one of the more underrated abilities, especially by new players, is that they can build sandbags.

Volks fall off in lategame where they are mostly used as a meatshield.

Volks come with one upgrade: two machine gunes for extra mid-short range firepower. Be advised that if you purchase this you will not be able to pick up any dropped weapons.


Kubelwagen: cheap, fast and extremely vulnerable to enemy fire, this little car is mostly used as a scouting unit though it can also act as fire support for your squads. It is also the only vehicle in the game that can capture points right of the bat, and do so at 115% normal speed, which is very useful to cap VPs, fuel and ammo caches.

Kubels find no combat utility after tier1 and their use is limited to scouting and ninja-capping uncontested points.


Rakettenwerfer: the infantry AT. It is cheaper and more vulnerable than other factions' guns and can be supressed. It is also not very accurate at vet0. However, this weapons team can be retreated, can garisson buildings allowing you to increase it survivability, to say nothing of the cloaking ability and its surprise potential. Oh, and it can cap points while invisible, which can be a bit useful.

Rakettens are (mostly) useful throughout all stages of the game.


MG34: your HMG. Arguably the weakest one (and cheapest) in the game which is bollocks considering all other OKW units are designed the other way round. Still, its utility can not be ignored and you will find you will need it in some games. It comes with Incendiary rounds at vet1, which is always useful against cover and light vehicles.
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[18/11/2016]-thread created
[19/11/2016]-added Contents Lists, Faction Overview and HQ units overview.

omg i wrote like a 1000 word post but i got logged out somehow when i hit reply and now its all gone FUCK

Started thinking of ideas while volunteering today since I was so bored.

I recently was playing Ostheer and ranked up to position 37 (level 17). I honestly felt that Ostheer is quite strong and they are fairly easy to play, since they have access to the sniper, MG, mortar, and 222 in the early game. That, and Grenadiers, at least I feel, scale better than volks when Grens are upgraded to LMG42 and gain veterency.

I decided to switch to OKW because I felt it will be more challenging and in my opinion they are. I played around 10 games in the last two days and didn't lose any of them and ranked them to level 17 too, so I hope I have some idea what I'm about to discuss.

These are my thoughts about how OKW should be played:

Sturmpioneers: This unit is unique in that it probably the strongest starting unit in the game, and thus compared to the OKW, SU, and USF starting engineer squads, needs to be used differently. I feel like the moment the game starts, the player needs to decide one of two things to do with the squad, depending on the map:

• rush the squad to a critical point on the map, such as the building next to the high fuel point on semois winter.
  
• if the map is split and symmetrical, consider sending the squad to one side of the map where you believe your opponent will send his first squad and force it off
  

I either then build: Kubel, Volk, Volk, Volk OR Volk, Volk, Volk

I usually only get a kubel if I rush the sturmpioneer to a specific high fuel and want to quickly capture the connecting strategic points. On smaller maps like Kholodny Ferma, Langres, or Angoville, I prefer to just get 3 volksgrenadiers.

The Big Decision

After 3 volks it's time to decide to go for the medic truck or the mechanized truck.

My personal preference: always go MEDIC TRUCK.
Reasoning: going medic truck is the safest option. It comes sooner than the mechanized truck (costs 25 fuel versus 50 fuel, so often a whole 1-2 minutes sooner), and the healing obviously heals your troops and helps to save manpower early game. I think saving manpower is important since you need more units to fight ASAP. Here are some perks of going for fast medic truck:

• gives access to quick medics to help heal squads and conserve manpower.
  
• since it comes 1-2 minutes sooner than the mechanized truck, it gives quicker access to MG34s, which are very good at suppressing, and what I believe to be strong and important to use against SU T1 openings and conscript spam.
  
• gives access to the leIG gun, one of OKWs only cheap answers to Maxim/Vickers/Dushkeh? spam.
  
• gives the option to be greedy and place an forward truck
  
• allows you to rush T4, which of course helps you lock down a portion of the map (lock down a VP or a fuel), access to obers (which are SO good), and OKWs best vehicle. I feel like going medic truck to access the units from the T4 flak truck ASAP is what makes going medic truck the strongest, since when OKW has T4 units fielded, that's when they can go to work
  

Reasons I do not go mechanized truck

• does not give access to healing
  
• costs more than medic truck, delaying more expensive tech
  
• you're often forced to back tech to medic truck anyway, making going T4 more or less impossible unless the game lasts more than 30 or 40 minutes
  
• only gives access to expensive light vehicles, which, even so they're good, are specialized to one role (unlike, say, AEC which is decent AI and good AT)
  
• if a light vehicle you rush hits a mine, gets AT snared, or you otherwise lose it to infantry held AT, vehicles, or AT guns, you are SO far behind (you're left with just T1 units and no more light vehicle presence for another 3-4 minutes probably)
  
• forces you to either build a 4th volksgrenadier, or float manpower and be behind on map presence until you get CPs for Jaeger, or PFusiliers.
  

When going for medic truck, the doctrines I like to go are:

• sturmtiger doctrine - I love to rush a P4 and then follow it up with a sturmtiger to wipe any AT or even tanks who get too bold
  
• Scavenge doctrine - I often skip going MG34s in the USF and UKF match ups and instead go Jaeger light infantry since they are so effective and allow you to maintain aggression without the chance of an MG34 getting wiped by USF mortar or AEC and then stolen
  
• I don't go this, but Pfusiliers are also very strong and could be used in place of Jaegers
  
• I sometimes go for command panther doctrine if my T4 gets wiped.
  

The only doctrine I pick if I go mechanized is the scavange doctrine. When I go mechanized truck, this is how I play:

• (kubel) volk, volk, volk, volk, mechanized truck, (raketen), Puma, medic truck, medic healing, get Jaeger infantry when you can (since no obers any time soon), and get ostwind instead of T4
  
• this is the best way I've thought of playing mechanized truck. Puma allows you to dominate mid game allied vehicles, but you need better infantry than volks (Jaegers) to help fight. I go medic truck since I think healing is so important, and then get an Ostwind to have mobile AT.
  

When I play medic truck:

• (kubel), volk, volk, volk, medic truck, medic upgrade, (forward base?), (mg34?), raketen (2x/3x?), T4, obers, P4
  
• I think this is the most standard way to play. I build 3 volks since the medic truck comes immediately afterwards. I like to rush out an MG34 against infantry heavy soviets, or even against USF (if you can dodge the mortar), if not, I get Jaegers. Only one squad (either MG34/Jaeger) I find is doable before you need a raketenwerfer, and likely also to upgrade your sturms with schrek. Schrek + raketen + faust should allow you to survive mid game. If the game is going poor I often get 2-3 raketens in total and hold out until P4. Raketens + leIG + obers really help you to stay in the game.
  

Hope more people contribute!

If annyone is interested in creating serious guides just contact cookiez or me or anyone from senior strategists, they will surely help you

Thanks for the input, Nosliw.

Added Contents Lists, Faction Overview and HQ units overview.

Gud stuff

This is incredibly useful information, thanks!
What is your opinion on going Mechanized truck, Healing truck and then replacing T4 with a Command Panther? How viable is that?