Profile of nee

I actually think officers should be used in a secondary rear-lines role with according benefits, not a sort of lead-the-charge better super infantry which they seem to be as is. The reason why I say this is because they are right now just free versions of riflemen with rack weapons, and to which it is easy to just use them as such: much faster than retreating riflemen back to base for picking up bazookas and such, weapons that themselves aren't even great either, so the whole affair is even less worth the work.

This seems to be already the case in vision for the Captain: the squad has one vet0 ability that is used to boost production time. However seeing that they also happen to come with TWO bazookas, plus another combat ability that removes infantry suppression when activated, contradicts the supposed role the CPT squad was designed for: why stick this squad back at base to give a SLIGHT boost in production speed when he could be at the front gaining veterancy and shooting up vehicles?
The Lieutenant seems to just be a riflemen squad that comes with BAR, and nothing more. Naturally it makes sense to use him just for that. His veterancy all affect his survivability, and neither base traits nor veterancy assists the rest of your army, he is literally just another rifleman squad that you HAVE to make in order to advance the tech tree. I think there could be more to this unit to set him apart from Riflemen.

So with all that in mind, here's what I think would make officer squads more useful in an indirect support role:

Lieutenant: Offense-based support, still relevant to direct combat, but like other officer squads are most effective in a support role, so grenades are kept.

vet0: boost nearby infantry's attack

vet1: unlocks Flare ability and/or other benefits such as OP's Rapid Fire

vet2: Unlocks sprint/ heal when out of combat.

vet3: offense bonuses now include vehicles

The idea of retaining grenades is that, in a pinch, the LT can still utilize some direct combat support while other infantry are doing the shooting. In all other cases though, the ideal use of the LT is that he's behind the rest of the men to maximize odds of survival while still providing benefits to other units. Vet3's sprint means he is more able to keep up with vehicles once they start coming into the game, so this isn't just an infantry bonus.

Captain: Defense-based support. Production is retained, Rally ability adjusted that simply removes suppression rather than causing the infantry to cluster around the CPT squad.

vet0: boost infantry's defense/ line of sight/ resilience to suppression

vet1: the bonuses now affect the whole sector; you no longer need units within immediate proximity

vet2: unlocks sprint, can heal out of combat.

vet3: boost now affects friendly vehicles, the CPT's sprinting and healing effect now applies to friendly infantry in aura.

Here the CPT is primarily a unit that benefits troops at a more indirect level and in a defensive posture, yet can still be used offensively: the base bonus of increased defense or longer time to suppress allows infantry to advance with more confidence in the face of machine guns, the bonuses for sprint and healing would be very useful for units on the move when out of combat but still applies when the group is advancing on the enemy, and that it also affects vehicles at vet3 means at late-game, when you expect the CPT to have reached it, allied vehicles could gain the bonuses as they are attacking alongside the CPT, whether in the same sector or next to him.


Major: of all the officer squads fit the defensive support role most effectively: acts as retreat point and can call in a few abilities. It is really the abilities themselves that needs to be looked at. The Recon plane cannot be deployed in a direction you want, so you will have no idea where it flies from and therefore what can be seen. Other than that it works just right.

Anyways all of that is just several minutes of brain-storming on the concept of officer squads being supporting units that are still relevant in combat and in late-game. The idea itself could also amended to suit doctrinal roles, so rather than innate abilities, these could instead be features found in doctrinal abilities.

And example of an amended version of the above idea is that officer squads' benefits can only affect infantry, but this changes to vehicles once they occupy a vehicle. This effectively allows the squad to turn ANY vehicle into a commander variant, from Shermans to even Ambulances. That the former can fight and the latter is slow means there are vehicle-specific advantages and disadvantages and the cost is that the officer no longer affects infantry.

The other point of caches is to prevent the enemy from taking them quickly. That still depends on reaction time, because you waste 200mp if you just let their pioniers destroy it with flamethrower. In that regard they are not OP, they come at cost of manpower and the fact that it only prevents capture so long as its not destroyed. Sure spending 50 munitions for flamethrower can be steep, but if that engineer unit keeps running around sectors looking for caches to burn up, the strategy of going for caches pretty much disintegrate, even if you hunt down that engineer unit.

Depends a lot on game circumstances though, some maps offer more protection for sectors that you can easily expect to spend 200mp and not have it wasted because the enemy would never reach it.

There's the question of the unit that abandons the weapon though: should they become pioniers, grenadiers, etc? Especially if they were a recrew of an abandoned one.

Would also be prone to abuse: want two Panzergrenadiers? pick up that mortar and then abandon it. Reinforce via nearby halftrack. Then pwn nearby tank.

But I think there is one way of getting at this: if the unit is reduced to 1 man or the weapon is destroyed, the crew automatically retreats to the HQ (as opposed to running away from the map), and can be used as regular infantry but cannot pick up weapons or crew other weapons: it has its respective weapon as an upgrade to regain its original purpose.

define "out of combat"

(this is actually important; in DoW2 combat is shooting or meleeing something)

When it is not attacking or being attacked. In the game, this is identified by a flashing crosshair below the unit's icon at the top right of the screen.

Don't forget the upcoming Encirclement Doctrine.

Here's a hint: think OKW Salvage artillery was OP? That's a pussycat compared to the arty ability of this commander.