Pre-Rework, OKW had this tech structure:
Base Truck
- Volks
- Kubel
- Sturms
- Rakketten
- King Tiger (when all other trucks had been built)
- Leig
- IR Half track
- JagdPanzer IV
- Free Heals and up-gradable retreat point.
- Flack HT
- Puma
- Stuka
- Free Repair and resource conversion
- Obers
- Luchs
- Panther
- Panzer 4
- The BFG on the truck itself
This non-linear tech system is what all of the units in OKW were designed to work around. Notice that none of the trucks have units with overlapping roles. This is because each tier is balanced so that you can tech from any tier to any other tier (with the exception of T3 being unable to be your first tech). Teching from T2 to T1 was just as viable as teaching from T1 to T2, or from T1 to T3, etc... Each tech combo has its own benefits and drawbacks.
Unfortunately, Relic had a hard time balancing OKW and there were several abuseable units and strats, in particular the Volks Spam, Kubelwagons, and the mech truck's resource mechanic and so relic decided to rework OKW to be more enjoyable to play against while also becoming easier to balance.
Post Rework they now have this structure:
Base Truck
- Volks
- Kubel (now a capping unit, OKW has no non-doct/vehicle suppression)
- Sturms
- Rakketten
- KT is now a call-in
Medic Truck
- Leig
- IR Half track
- Flack HT
- Heals and up-gradable retreat point.
Mech Truck
- Luchs
- Puma
- Stuka
- Repair
Flack HQ
- Obers
- JP4
- Panther
- Panzer 4
- The BFG on the truck itself
There were several other changes as well in the initial rework
- OKW no longer had its own unique resource system, and the conversion ability was removed from mech truck
- The Kubel is no longer a suppression platform and is now a capping unit
- Resource fuel cost tweaks for most of OKW's vehicles
- Trucks no longer come in on a timer, they are now purchasable with fuel and MP
These changes effectively kill the non-linear nature of OKW's teching and create numerous obvious and subtle problems with the faction.
Obvious problems:
- The Panther is now competing in its role with the JP4, as they both do the exact same job, and the JP4 does it cheaper and arguably more effectively
- It makes less sense to buy the Flack HT, its overly expensive and very vulnerable to light vehicles and even infantry.
- Volks Shrek Spam is heavily encouraged due to:
a.) no other AT options besides the lackluster pupchen (rakketten) until you hit T4
b.) No longer resource limited by resource mechanics
c.) Volks are very lackluster until they get high vet, where they become extremely durable
- Losing T3 in a 1v1 is essentially a game loss, as they now have to pay roughly 150 more fuel for the option of buying a tank again.
- OKW now essentially has no suppression, making them more vulnerable to allied "blobs"
- If you want a MG, you have to get one from doct.
Subtle Problems
- OKW's tech is no longer non-linear. People are now encouraged to rush for T4 as quickly as possible
- Now that OKW's tech is normalized to other factions, they essentially get free heal/repair when other factions have to pay for theirs.
- Going for T2 is much riskier than it used to be because you no longer have any healing for your units.
- The luchs and puma are now directly balanced against eachother. If the Puma has too good AI, it makes no sense to buy the Luchs, and vice versa. It also means that if you decide to buy a luchs, your only AT will be pupchens and Shreks, unless you are willing to now delay the more expensive and necessary T3.
- T2 becomes much riskier as you are punished heavily for losing a single light vehicle. It's simply not worth the cost of replacing it, as you need that fuel to tech to T4 as quickly as possible.
Relic's responses to this (there are other changes, but those relate to balance, not design issues):
- You now have to pay to unlock healing and reapair from mech in both fuel and mp.
- Volks have vet nerfed and Shreks are replaced with Stg44s
- Sturms now have shreks
- T0 now gets the (worst in game) MG after you tech.
- More fuel tweaks and minor performance tweaks.
These changes provide additional issues
- Sturms are now extremely overloaded. They now have the role of repair, AT and sweeping and are too expensive to get multiples of. You are also penalized extremely by losing your sturms
- Volks are now in an odd place. They don't perform well at range, but don't beat out close range units either.
- Going Mech truck is even less incentivized, because you have to pay for the previously free repair. The Puma and Luchs are further stratified into their roles and it is even less practical to buy both.
- There is absolutely no reason to ever buy a Flack HT. Its cost and performance are completely out of sync.
- OKW is now forced to choose between being extremely vulnerable to mines, or having to rely on the lackluster pupchen to defend against vehicles
- OKW's extremely lackluster indirect fire options leave them very vulnerable to MGs.
- Each truck is now an even larger investment than it was before if you also pay for the benefits that used to be free with the individual trucks, which makes it even less worthwhile to place them outside of the base.
These changes have resulted in an extremely limited OKW that relies almost exclusively on Doctrinal call in units to shore up the weaknesses of the base faction. Scavenge and Spec Ops are dominant because it allows OKW to skip the expensive T4 and instead invest that manpower elsewhere (a problem all factions due to the current light vehicle meta, but hits OKW particularly hard). OKW has gone from a dynamic faction that was unique in its non-linear teching to a mess that relies on the beefy nature of its T4 units to smash its way to victory. Although OKW still has the choice of deciding if they want to go T1 or T2 first, they are punished severely for their choice regardless. Either you will play with nothing but infantry for 3/4ths of the game, or you will have no healing/indirect fire for 3/4ths of the game. The possible unit combinations that you can field is also quite limited, giving you a small reactive toolset in which you are forced to respond to what your opponent builds with little possibility for variation.
Now before you type up your response calling me a nostalgic noob Axis fanboy, I'm NOT saying that old OKW was perfect. There were numerous balance problems with the faction that made it very un-enjoyable to play against. Shrek blobs were still a problem before they reworked OKW (although it wasn't encouraged by the design of the faction nearly to the same degree), there were other units that clearly needed to be adjusted for both larger games and for 1v1s alike. (anyone remember the old suppressing leig or autowipe stuka?) What I am saying is that the rework changed the nature of OKWs problem from a balancing concern to an underlying design issue, and made the faction extremely less fun to play to boot. I think that attempting to balance OKW in the manner that it has been handled post patch is merely treating the symptoms and not the cause. Unfortunately its extremely unlikely that OKW will ever get the rollback/rework that it needs, however I do feel like exposing the issue with how OKW functions will make balance discussion more productive when talking about OKW. If given the option, I would want to roll OKW back to pre-rework statues and then set out balancing the faction from there.
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
