Profile of Pumbaa

I think the best way to think of OKW vehicles is: your first one arrives very quickly, your second on par with other factions' second, and anything after that comes late. Gods help you if you lose your early armour, since it'll take a long time to replace.

With that in mind, OKW light vehicles are really a situational choice, and you shouldn't be basing a build order around them, since everything they do can be accomplished by OKW MP-only units. Instead, use them to fill a gap in your (or your team's) build(s) or punish your opponent.

Soviet T1 infantry spam and M3 making aggressive pushes? Use the flak track to lock down some territory. MG34 and kubeljesus with infantry support can do this too.

Soviet T2 weapon spam? Stukka party. LeIG is actually affordable early on now though, so you do have alternate indirect fire options in the early game.

Expecting light vehicles? Might be worth a puma. Puppchen with infantry cover and a defensive S-mine can save you fuel if you think you can go without.

The main thing to bear in mind with a mechanised opening is you give up a lot of infantry presence by not having healing and forward reinforce (especially in team games, since battlegroup HQ saves Ost team mates building medic bunkers and halftracks) so whatever light vehicles you go with, they have to compensate for this in addition to delaying your tech.

As for P4 vs Panther, P4 in most cases. OKW P4 is a beast once it gets vetted, and if get it out early and support it, it'll be getting vet in no time. If you have battlegroup up, JP4 is a cheaper and arguably better AT choice than the panther, and works well with the P4. A fast Panther can be good for punishing medium armour (especially USF), but be aware you're giving up the amazing P4 and JP4 veterancy if you don't go for them first. Also, P4 and JP4 absolutely eat tanks with the HEAT rounds from elite armoured, if you feel comfortable giving up what other commanders have to offer.

TL;DR - P4 is love, P4 is life.

Edit - luchs + panther is a good combo, especially against USF, but is also nearly two P4s. Decisions.

So half a year later, I still can't quite pull this off. Everything up to the counter-attack is easy, though it's an incredibly boring and tedious exercise in kiting and attack ground. My current issue is the three KV-2s in the final counter-attack. With prayers to RNJesus and the patience for yet more kiting, the preceding waves are fine, but these things just move around in a pack making circling or facehugging one impossible.

Kiting and popping out of cover for single shots is the way forward, but with the three of them together and lack of control over the turret, every single rear armour shot takes several boring minutes to set up. I've tried picking one off before they join up in the middle of the map, but the ridiculous front/side armour means I only get a few effective shots in. Worse, remnants of the previous waves occasionally survive, with DP guards having a habit of showing up and buttoning me at the worst possible moment.

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with this part? I'm trying to finish off ToW, but this mission is just making the entire experience miserable. I don't want to give up, but I just can't see how this is possible without endlessly repeating the same tedious manoeuvres for an hour or so. Even Schildkroteberg without exploits wasn't this frustrating and tedious.

Bump for relevance. Puma just decided the order to move in a straight line away from a bazooka squad was an order to do some ballerina pivots, reverse its tasty rear armour toward them for a moment, THEN drive away. Goodbye, puma.

I've played about 40 pvp games so far, and most of them have had something ridiculous happen with a valuable unit at a terrible moment. Getting fucking sick of this...

Surely the simplest fix for this gimpy bullshit is to not have a truck spawn right at the start of the game. Even if you rush straight for a building, you won't be placing it THAT early. Have the first truck come in at 3 minutes, make people choose to cheese with it instead of teching. Then see if it's still an issue.

Edit - I'd say make it as slow as CoH British party wagons, but they can't relocate, and that would punish people for keeping the trucks safe in the back lines until needed.

I like having penals around in team games to satchel bunkers and overconfidently placed OKW trucks. 1v1 I haven't used them, but I'd imagine you'd have to take advantage of the M3 to make them worth using over cons.