Looking for tips and hints for OKW!

TL;DR: Long-time OKW player looking for tips and tricks.



Hey, hi, hello!

My name is Pete, and I am new to this forum. I've been playing CoH2 for a while now, with about 250 hours in. First I played AI, then multiplayer with friends (3v3, 4v4). I play exclusively OKW in multiplayer, and they're my fav faction. Now I've noticed my performance ranges from poor to amazing, and I consider myself an average-ish player. I'd like to get better and make the best out of every situation, of course.
Let's split this into two parts: Part One, where I'll describe my tactics and you can critique them, and Part Two where I'll list some of the problems I run into. I'm looking for anything which can help me improve.

Part One
So right at the moment I'm experimenting with different playstyles, but here's my usual, go-to strategy:
1. Special Operations doctrine. Everything except radio silence I find extremely useful.
2. My queue goes something like this:
Sturmie > Sturmie > Volks > Volks > Battlegroup HQ > Medic upgrade > Retreat point upgrade > Mechanized Regiment HQ > Stuka > Schwerer Panzer HQ > Obers > Obers > Command Panther > Panther
3. I upgrade my Obers with the infrared STGs for that wonderful melting ability, support with Volks, use Sturmies as AT.
4. I wait for the Command Panther rather than the regular, as it allows it to start gaining experience earlier and support friendly tanks.
5. I tend not to use mines, rather saving munitions for STGs/Schrecks/Throwables
6. I get told by my friends I play aggressively (judging by high kills and high deaths in results screen)

Any info I left out? What am I doing right/wrong? What should I do instead?

Part Two
Infantry spam:
Whether Riflemen, Infantry Sections with Brens, or most horrifyingly Penals, I have extreme problems dealing with their sheer numbers and incredible damage when blobbed. Penals especially, seem to advance and advance like zombies with guns, until they locate my Battlegroup HQ and nail it with two or three satchels. Until I get a Stuka, there's very little I can do to mitigate that threat. MG34 is rather trash, the flak half-track squishy, and by the time the Luchs rolls in, enemies have that darn AT waiting (not to mention aimed satchels of the Penals). One squad is not a problem, as two squads of Sturmies are rather potent.

Early MGs:
This is particularly scary with the Brits, who gain them immediately. Whilst I found out that running around a building with one squad, whilst the other shoots inside is quite a nice solution. Sadly, until I build an HQ the garrisoned enemies are quite a pain.

Comebacks:
If I lose units early game, or worse off if I lose an HQ, it's extremely difficult to get back into the swing of things. Are there any measures I can take to A. prevent myself from being totally overwhelmed and devastated, or B. come back from the jaws of defeat?


That's about it. What doctrines do you recommend, and what tactics? And why? What units are the best, and which are the worst? Should I replace some of the ones I usually build?
Thank you for listening. Here's a poll as a reward.

I hardly play team games anymore and the advice I give also depends on whether your friends also play OKW or if you hav some wehrmacht players amongst them? At least for your mg troubles, this should be quite easily counters with ostheer mortar smoke and mg42s.

As for your general strat and build order I would say that you should really reconsider whether the benefits of a forward retreat hq outweighs the cost and risk?
The rally point upgrade alone costs more than an additional volks squad, so it will take a long time to compensate for the additional map presence from reduced retreat. Also you seem to have problems with it getting destroyed, which indicates that you are probably putting it too far forward. This both makes it easier to destroy and a semi decent player will make sure to bombard it with indirect fire as soon as your men are retreating, thus potentially wiping most of your army. from a 1v1 perspective I never use the forward retreat, prefering to place it safely in my base instead. On large 3v3 and 4v4 maps I suppose it could make a bit more sense to occationally place it a bit more ahead. However, if one of your friends are playing Ostheer, it might be better for him to build a command bunker or resupply half-track that you can soft retreat back to and replenish from there.

If your luchs comes too late, you might also consider initally skipping the battlegroup and go straight for the mechanized. Healing can come through the med drop from your sturmpios and you can always back tech a bit later.

I would personally rarely open with an additional sturmpio and never with two consecutive ones. while sturmpios can provide an initial shock and occational early wipe, they are not the most cost-effective combat unit in the OKW roster and in the later phases should be more relied on as a supporting unit, harrasing lone squads, wiping on retreat and of course reparing veichles and planting mines and wire.

And on that point: Mines-Win-Games! This is an old coh saying, but it is probably the more consistent truth in the game, so brace yourself for my tribute to mines:

Any semi-seasoned player will be hard pressed to say that a mine is ever a waste of munitions. The reason for this is that mines have a very significant impact both directly and indirectly.

Most mines will for 30 munis provide you with a certain death of two enemy soldirs, this means that any squad that size sneaking around and ninja-capping will be at risk of instant death. same mine will also knock the threads of ANY veichle, rendering it very exposed and weakened. If the Pershing is planning on bum rushing your base that plan is immediately canceled as soon as it stumbles on a mine. When placed on a retreat path any fleeing two-man squad is sent home to their loved ones as a jigsaw puzzle. I can not think of a single time I thought back on a match saying "that specific shreck/grenade/weapon upgrade really won me the game" but I can think back on dozens of times when this was the case for a mine.

And this is only the direct effect of mines. Half the damage is the mental and psychological effect mines have. As soon as your first mine has blown up a squad or set alight a scout car, the mental attack on your enemies begin. Anywhere they go could be a potential death trap and any deep pushes will suddenly seem like a high risk investment. to circumvent this the engineers will have to get sweepers, which effectively takes away 20-25% of their core DPS and occupies a weapon slot. The mental attack on a human player depends on that persons experience, but regardless of skill it requieres the person to adapt and change strategy or suffer even more from constantly walking into mine fields.