I made a thread suggesting an OKW tech reshuffle in the same vein as the USF one: vehicular suppression and team weapon indirect in one, and vice versa in the other. Stuka to T3, Mortar Halftrack in T2, et cetera.
However, J4J pointed out that it was essentially just a buff to Mechanized. He then explained in detail how the OKW faction dynamic works: Mechanized pumps out a load of light vehicles to minimise bleed, allowing it to afford late game units and gain a manpower advantage.
So I got to thinking, how could you rework Battlegroup to be distinct from Ostheer and from Mechanized, but competitive with both?
And I had...
...no ideas.
Stick LMG-less Obersoldaten in it, you're making a build that's already too manpower bleedly relative to Mechanized even bleedier.
OKW's doctrinal units are all either medium armor or infantry, so you couldn't nab any of them.
Grab some Ostheer units like the 250 and MHT? Maybe, but you just end up just giving OKW more stuff.
Then I had a crazy idea. I'm still half convinced it's really dumb, but I want to see what
- Replace Early Warning Systems in Overwatch Doctrine with the IRHT. Good thematic fit, less insanely powerful than the auto-flares.
- Replace the IRHT in Battlegroup Headquarters with the Goliath.
Goliaths are really loud, much harder to pull off without the Early Warning flares to spot for you, and if you build more than two you're going to be very short on munitions in a munitions hungry faction. They're also only in Battlegroup this way, which means no Luchs, Stuka or Puma, just a munitions hungry Flak HT.
But they also don't bleed manpower, they inflict serious manpower bleed on the enemy, and are unlike anything any other faction has. More useful than the IRHT, right?
Thoughts?