Profile of Smartie

is the brandenburger unit even usable ingame via mod tools? what about voice lines etc.?

You can test the unit in the all-units mod.It has its won unit icon and uses the visuals of the stormtroopers. In all honesty i think the Brandenbuger unit was designed to be the infiltration unit of the wehrmacht but was never put in the live game. Relic used the visuals for the stormtroopers.

Hi guys,

as we all know too well Spec ops was THE meta commander for OKW players in 1vs1 or 2v2 mainly because of the tech-free commando panther. This issue was finally changed which was a good decision. Is the commander finally in a good spot? I say no and here are my thoughts on the doctrine.

Some general thoughts:

1. A commander centered around the theme of "Special operations" should have an infiltration unit in the load out. The good news is that we have an unused unit the game files - the Brandenburger.
The Brandenburgers (German: Brandenburger) were members of the Brandenburg German special forces unit during World War II. Members of this unit took part in seizing operationally important targets by way of sabotage and infiltration. These units were also used during the battle of the bulge to create chaos behind allied lines.

In summary: There are historical, gameplay AND theme related reasons to incorporate such a unit to the spec ops commander. Lets do this!

How could such a unit be designed?

(1)Brandenburger Infiltration unit
Infiltrate a target building with a Brandenburger squad. Unit based on Stormtroopers. Uses Stormtrooper visual but have own UI. I try to design the unit a little bit more distinctive
to Wehr's stormtroopers.
340 manpower
8 pop
4-man squad
Armed with Kar98k, can be upgraded to MP40 (for free) OR with 2&Infrared StG44 Package (tech needed)
Can use Stielhandgranate (converted truck).
Can use Fuel Scavenge.
Can use Sprint

Neutralizes sectors faster.
Vet 1: Neutralizes sectors faster and increases resistance to suppression.
Vet 2: Increases survivability and rate of fire.
Vet 3: Neutralizes sectors even faster and greatly decreases munitions cost of abilities. Combat expertise also increases accuracy.
Vet 4: Allows squad to move quickly when out of combat, increases rate of fire and increases squad size to 5.
Vet 5: Increases survivability, accuracy and allows squad to heal when out of combat.

Veterancy ideas from
https://www.coh2.org/topic/85213/new-commander-submission-okw/post/721828

The easy way would to copy and paste the actual stormtroopers

2. Replace the Artillery flares!
After giving Specops the Brandenburger unit and increasing the power level of the commander there is room to replace the unfair artillery flare with a recon plane or a off-map arty strike.

3. Please redesign the Commando Panther!
In a game where Tiger, Pershings and IS-2 dominate the current version of the commando panther falls off hard which is exactly the reason why we need a redesign here. It would be better in my opinion if the veterancy boni would improve the combat efficiency and not the aura.

New Specops commander:

1. 0CP - Radio Silence

2. 2CP - Brandenburger unit

3. 3CP - Infiltration Tactics

4. 4CP - Recon Plane OR off-map arty (more cps needed then)

5. 9CP - Redesigned Commando Panther

Haven't you heard of allies lend lease to nazi germany allies program?

Osttruppen should get PPSH and AT rifles if we want to equip them differently. Wehrmacht captured thousands of these weapons and gave them very often to allied divisions.

And most of these Panzer Aces did not start with Tiger. Michael Wittmann started with Stug -E if I remember correctly so many of them may have used a Panther at some point.

Well spoken. And Barkmann had 82 confirmed tank kills and was under the top ten-twenty german tank commanders, that should be enough to be considered as an "Ace".

That being said i dont think that history should be the main reason to decide if a a PantherAce should be designed as a new unit. As we have seen history could back it up but even if not, gameplay should always come first.

And at least imo the PantherAce would be an interesting option. It could be designed as a pure TD with mark target and better reload and accuracy values than the standard panther (and of course mp and fuel costs). I think such a unit would fit in nicely in some wehrmacht or OKW commanders.

Edit: An "Ace" for the Soviets would also be interisting.

Here's my submission for a new and improved Joint Operations doctrine.

I like this concept a lot. The live version of this commander is more ore less an "artillery operation" doctrine. It doent have to do much with the concept of "Joint operation" which is a shame because this was one of the biggest strengths of the wehrmacht.

One suggestion:
I would replace the smoke bombs. The arty officer can give you free access to smoke there is no big need for an additional commander ability. Recon plane should be brought back.
It would also offer the advantage that only 2 changes had to be made.

I hope that we see some of these ideas incorporated in the next rounds of patches. As we have seen here most changes are really good without using op stuff. You dont need major reworks with heavy testing for most of these underwhelming wehr commanders:
They could easily be changed in balance patches like the mod team did successfully with "soviet defense" or OKW commanders like "Breakthrough", Luftwaffe Ground forces" and "Feuersturm".
I hope they come back to this path because more commanders can be improved in a shorter time period. Mechanized, Joint operations and Festung support could get this kind of treatment, and "Mobile defense" and one of the "Luftwaffe" commanders get the major rework.