Company of Heroes 2: All Units Mod (Oberkommando West In-Depth Analysis)

A complete analysis of everything that the Oberkommando West can throw at the Allies in Company of Heroes 2 with the All Units Mod.

Foreword

Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to find any group in history with the name “Oberkommando West”. However, the acronym of OKW does fit with Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, translated to mean High Command of the Defense Force. They commanded the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy), and the Luftwaffe (Lolwaffle Air Force). However, there were a 4th branch, answerable only to them, that had a very dark reputation for extreme violence and “creative problem solving”: the Waffen-Schutzstaffel, or “protection squadron”. I believe that this is the true identity of the Oberkommando West.

The OKW in game resemble the Waffen in appearance as well, sporting a similar pea-dot style camouflage pattern as well as uniform style, and I am told there are several references to “Waffen” and “Honor guard” in the game’s code as well. I suspect that Relic opted to use the name “Oberkommando West” because… well, the Waffen-SS were not nice people. To the point that if you thought about anything that Nazi Germany did that was even remotely horrifying, I’d wager that there was a SS man involved. So it is entirely likely that the censors would not allow it. Way I figure it, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht has the same acryonym, and are the Waffen’s bosses, so either name could apply.

No matter where you fall on the Allied/Axis fandom, you have to know that these guys are some seriously bad news. They were often told of a problem’s existence and given complete autonomy under the condition that said problem went away into a dark hole no one could find it in, and were amply supplied with manpower, equipment, and whatever else they needed to conduct their dark trade. The Nuremberg trials condemned this entire group as a criminal organization due to the fact that they liked to conduct atrocities on days ending with Y. What atrocities you might ask? Well, one of their first duties was to bump off all of Hitler’s opponents and rivals in an act known as the Night of the Long Knives. They killed 85 high-profile players in the German political sphere in one day with no repercussions, and that’s just what we know about. The murders we don’t know about likely ranges in the hundreds, but who can say? Not enough? How about Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass? Where thousands of Jewish businesses were vandalized, hundreds of synagogues were damaged or destroyed, 30,000 Jewish people were arrested for no reason, and to top it all off, German big-wigs claimed that the Jewish community was to blame for all this and had the balls to fine them the equivalent of $400 million modern dollars. But say you’re still on the fence about these guys. They also started up a nice little vacation destination called Dachau, which served as the basis for all German concentration camps. Auschwitz might be more famous, but Dachau is where it all began, and, on Hitler’s order, it was run entirely by the SS with no oversight, meaning they didn’t have to answer to anyone over the deaths there.

So you can see that these guys don’t exactly have audience seating in Heaven reserved for them for the Seraphim bikini mud wrestling competition. Their entire skill set revolves around EXTREME violence and the blessing of the German High Command to visit it upon those deemed enemies of the state. They are also provided with very high level technology, from the vampir IR invisible lights and scopes to the biggest, baddest, most excessive tank destroyers that evil Nazi cyborg scientists could dream up. They lack a few of the tools of the trade that other factions receive by default, such as mortars, but can make arrangements to have them shipped to the front with an extensive Fallschirmjager program. So, the mind set for these guys, you might ask? Well… rule of cool for one thing. Say what you will about their ethics (like the complete lack of them), the Germans actually had some really fascinating stuff. Second, Squad preservation. Normal squads have 3 vet stars. OKW have 5, and it costs the same amount of exp to 5 star a squad here as it does to 3 star it anywhere else, so you receive 2 extra bonuses for free. This makes manufactured badasses a reality, but also makes the loss of a 5 star squad tragic for the player. Third and finally, SMASHING the opposition with uber high tech tank destroyers. The OKW has access to things that no singular Allied tank stands a chance against (good thing they never attack one at a time), and they are pricey, they are POWERFUL, and they are more than capable of reducing an enemy base into nothing more than a divet filled with fiery tears. Anyway, I can’t think of anything else to tell you about these black hearted examples of an evil more pure than Hasbro, so let’s get started on their toy box, shall we?

Command Headquarters (CHQ)

Little more than a German half-track Winnebago knock-off with some radio equipment to call up additional personnel and war material. It still serves as your binding anchor to this time period, and when it goes, so do you. Off to the Great Nuremberg trials in the sky. Unlike the other bases, this only has 2 weapons racks, providing Panzershreks for 80 muns each, and MG34s for 70 muns.

Upgrades

Thorough Salvage: Costs 180 mp. The Waffen-SS have the ability to salvage wrecks with their Sturmpioneer squads as an innate ability. Normally, this process is very fast and yields 5 fuel from light vehicles and 12 fuel from tanks. This upgrade will lengthen the process and yield muns as well. I’ll take that trade.

German Supplies: Cost 120 muns/25 fuel. This adds another ability to your command bar where you can spend some floated resources to acquire some vehicles and squads from the Wehrmacht. You might get a scout car, or a big, tough Panther tank. You roll the dice on this one.

Early Warning System: Costs 180 mp/30 fuel. This makes it so that, when an enemy moves to take a point, it fires off a flare to grant vision of the area so you can see what’s going on and send something to explode that same area’s very existence. Deployed SWS half-tracks can detect units in the fog of war as well.

Research Weapon Racks: costs 150 mp/15 fuel. This unlocks the 2 weapon racks at the front of the Winnebago for use.

Emergency Repairs: Costs 125 mp/15 fuel. This enables the factional vehicle ability of the same name, letting crews repair normal damage as well as critical damage over 10 seconds. This turns off the guns and movement, and cannot be canceled once begun.

Infiltration Tactics: Costs 125mp/15 fuel. Infantry that are kept out of combat for a time have access to the factional infantry ability: surprise assault, a special grenade power.

Volksgrenadiers

Cost 250 mp
Squad Size 5
Pop Cap 7

Don’t be fooled by the name. These are not Volkssturm troopers half a step removed from civvies. These guys are professional soldiers with ample equipment and weapons, and serve as the bread and butter infantry of the OKW. They organize themselves around a strong cadre of veterans, and officers, and then filled out the rank and file with whatever additional troops they could get their claws on, sort of like if you broke Grenadiers up to lead various squads, and then stuck them in with Osttruppen.

Abilities

Throw Incendiary grenade: Costs 30 muns. Tosses a potato masher filled with napalm gel. Handy for cook outs and area denial.

Fire Panzerfaust: Costs 25 muns. Fires a one-time use AT weapon that has a high chance of causing engine damage.

Salvage Operations: Breaks down a light vehicle wreck for 5 fuel, or a tank wreck for 12. Can be improved further with the thorough salvage upgrade.

Infiltration Grenade Assault: Costs 25 muns. This has a cool down that only ticks down when out of combat over the course of a minute or so. Every single member of the squad will throw potato mashers at the targeted area, and if your aim is true, you’re rewarded with a light hearted spray of meat confetti.

Upgrades

StG44 Assault Package: Costs 60 muns. This provides 2 of the squad with Sturmgewehrs, considered the world’s first assault rifles, in exchange for their kar-98ks. StGs are very useful weapons that provide good punch at anywhere from close-medium range, and are relegated to simply being okay at long-range.

MG34 LMG: Costs 60 muns. This is the little brother of the MG42, and spits out 900 rounds per minute. While it doesn’t reach nearly the PTSD-inducing trauma of its 1200 rounds per minute sibling, it can fire on the move, and definitely isn’t a bad thing to have.

Assault Package: Costs 40 muns. This takes all of the squad’s Kar-98ks away, and replaces them with MP40s, effectively turning them into a CQC brawler squad. It also replaces their incendiary grenades with HE grenades and smoke bombs.

Sturmpioneer Squad

Cost 300
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 8

These guys fill the role of assault pioneers in traditional battle, and are the main builder units for the OKW. They spawn in ready to rock and roll with StG44’s and can construct all manner of fancy emplacements and fortifications to hold the ground that the more insane Turbo-Nazis have taken.

Abilities

Repair: Obviously, as builders, the Sturmpioneers can repair damaged vehicles, structures and bridges.

Concussive grenade: Costs 30 muns and requires Vet 3. These grenades are designed to overwhelm with an explosive pressure wave as opposed to killing with fragmentation. They’ll leave an enemy squad staggered and slowed for a time. Easy pickings for the Sturmpioneers.

Salvage Operations: Breaks down a light vehicle wreck for 5 fuel, or a tank wreck for 12. Can be improved further with the thorough salvage upgrade.

Medical Supplies: Costs 30 muns. This drops 3 boxes of medical supplies on the ground and infantry can pick one of them up to provide for healing for themselves and every other squad around them.

Wire Cutters: This ability lets the squad cut razor and barbed wire that formerly blocked the path of infantry. I’ve never seen the AI use wire, so this is really going to be a cheap way to cut apart your own wire barricades.

Upgrades

Combat Package: Costs 70 muns. This grants immunity to the cold on winter maps and a single panzershrek, proving that Sturmpioneers are quite protective of their structures and the fastest way to make them hulk out is to try to blow them up with armor.

Flammenwerfer 35 Flamethrower: costs 60 muns. Provides a single member of the squad with a flamethrower, who subsequently changes his name to “THE FURY”. Does area of effect damage, and extra damage to units in cover.

Support Package: Costs 30 muns. This makes one member of the squad very angry and bitter because everyone else is off having fun shooting things, and he has to stand there holding this stupid minesweeper, allowing the squad to detect landmines. It also improves the squad’s ability to repair things, and lets them cut wire.

Builds

Muns/Fuel Caches: Costs 250 mp each. I’d like to take a moment to thank SneakEye because, as far as I know, the OKW could not build these in vanilla CoH2. Their salvage ability was supposed to be the equalizing factor. This is why I’m glad Sneak is in charge and not those chucklemongers over at Relic. That was a stupid, stupid decision. At any rate, a muns cache will improve yields by +6, increasing a point to +10, or fuel by +4, increasing the yield to +6. These stack with what the resource point was already providing, making them as valuable as specialized resourced points on the map. The enemy also cannot cap them without destroying the cache either.

Fallschirmtruppe HQ: costs 200 mp. This calls in a variety of OKW paratroopers, such as the eponymous Fallschirmjagers, and is one of the few structures that is not a mobile half-track.

Radio Post: Costs 80 mp/5 fuel. This calls in the terrible trio: three OKW officers that have all manner of call-ins and support powers.

Bunker: A pit dug into the earth with sheet metal sides, and a wooden roof that offers shelter for a single squad. Can also be upgraded with a machine gun, a medic station, or a reinforcement point for 60 muns.

Trench: This is a simple pit dug into the earth that costs no mp, and provides cover for a single squad. This particular type of trench can be upgraded when occupied for 50 mp, providing more health and armor, and mortars can garrison inside of it.

Flak Emplacement: Cost 220 mp/25 fuel/Pop Cap 4.

Concrete Bunker: Costs 250 mp.

Mortar Bunker: Costs 350 mp/35 fuel/Pop Cap 8.

LeFH 18 Artillery: Costs 400 mp/50 fuel/Pop Cap 15.

Pak 43 88mm AT Gun: Costs 350 mp/45 fuel/Pop Cap 10.

Sandbags of the dragged line variety.

Razor Wire for infantry denial barrier.

Reinforced steel barricade to prevent infantry and light vehicle passage.

Tank trap for heavy vehicle denial barrier.

Road blocks for HEAVY heavy vehicle denial barrier.

Schu-mine 42: Costs 30 muns. Need to do research on this.

S-mine Field: Costs 60 muns.

MG34 Heavy Machine Gun Team

Cost 250 mp
Squad size 4
Pop Cap 6

The predecessor to the infamous man mulcher, the MG42, the 34 was one of Germany’s first mass produced weapons when they decided to send the Treaty of Versailles the way of the back of Leon Trotsky’s head. It’s an air-cooled recoil-operated machine gun that spits about 900 rounds per minute, and this squad uses the bi-pod for stability, giving it a deployment time but allows it to suppress and possesses greater accuracy. It’s also worth mentioning that, as a gameplay unit, this MG team’s firing angle is far larger than other HMGs. Generally well liked, the 34 only had one major flaw: the barrel tended to overheat during prolonged firing, which is something a heavy machine gun needs to do at times. The answer for this was simple: make the barrel exchangeable in case of overheating (gloves recommended for this procedure). The 34 was eventually replaced by the 42, as the latter was easier and less expensive to make, but both were used right up until the day that Hitler opted to do his best Kurt Cobain impression with a Luger.

Abilities

Fire Incendiary Armor Piercing Rounds: Costs 15 muns and requires Vet 1. This turns the 34 into a true terror weapon, making its rounds burst into chunks of burning magnesium. This seriously messes up infantry squads, and can even take out light vehicles at a fairly rapid pace.

Rakatenwerfer 43 Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher

Cost 260 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 7

Oh my god, this thing is awesome. There are so many things I could say about the Rakatenwerfer. First, it’s cheap. Cheaper than an infantry squad, so you can afford to have quite a few of these. Second, they hit nearly as hard as other, more expensive AT guns, reliably penetrating medium tanks at moderate distance and requiring only a few shots to crack them open and let all the delicious murder juice inside out. Third, these things can garrison trenches and buildings, providing the Allies with a nasty surprise dubbed the Murder-Untermensche-with-ease-and-then-maybe-go-back-to-the-drinking-den-for-some-Heineken-no-Justu. This sets up for anti-tank rockets to come from areas and angles that you SERIOUSLY did not expect them to manage, and I would consider the Rakatenwerfer to be one of the best AT guns in this game by a pretty significant margin for that ability alone.

Abilities

Camouflage: Toggled ability. Did I also mention that the Rakatenwerfer can CLOAK?!?! Because it can. So, if sticking these in every single dug trench from here to Moscow isn’t quite your tempo, you can hide them in woodlands, wait for Uncle Joe to come driving along in his big fancy tank, whistling to the tune of Katyusha before giving him a sudden and brief lesson in the exact meaning of the term “behind every single blade of grass”

Kubelwagen

Cost 210
Pop Cap 3

Y’know, I was really hoping there would be a jeep in one of the factions that had the ability to mow people down as road kill, turning them into unsightly hood ornaments. Sadly, it’s not to be. Maybe in a future update. The Kubelwagen, literally translated as “Tub Car”, is a light scout jeep with lighter than light armor. Virtually non-existent. It’s vulnerable to small arms, and if anything relating to AT even touches it, the occupants will be driving under the influence of death. It’s got a MG34 in the back, which can help early on with harassing/murdering infantry, but it really can’t stand up to much.

Abilities

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Detection: Toggled ability. Requires Vet 1. Once the Kubulwerfer has paid its fare in murder, it can switch its meat radar on to make infantry show on the minimap, but it drives more slowly when this power is active.

Sturm Offizier

Cost 310
Squad Size
Pop Cap 8

This guy is another double edged sword in more than one way. He creates an aura around himself that increases a unit’s accuracy by 10%, and shortens reload time by 9%. However, if he dies, every unit that he was effecting instantly retreats and that will leave your fortifications and vehicles perilously exposed. I should mention that this applies to the officer model himself, NOT the whole squad. So if the enemy gets lucky and plucks him in one shot with a sniper, everyone runs away. He can still generate the aura safely within a command bunker, though. That aura is pretty large, AND he can still use 2 out of 3 of his abilities from within cover. However, those same abilities grant the targeted enemy a debuff effect as well as a buff effect. Personally, I’d just stick him inside a bunker, give him a magazine, and let the Waffen troops conduct their business.

Abilities

Target them!: Costs 40 muns. From his position at the back of the line, safely within his command bunker, the Sturm Offizier is in a unique position to determine who dies and then make them do so through use of sheer overwhelming violence. This ability marks a target for death, and make it easier for Waffen-SS psychopaths to gun them down. But knowing they’re down to about 4 seconds to live, the target fights back in the hopes to take someone with them so they won’t be lonely in Hell.

Force Retreat: Costs 60 muns. This ability forces a targeted unit to retreat by showing them some of Hitler’s art that the Offizier keeps in the back of the half-track. It’s something so horrifying, so troubling, so greatly disturbing that no one could come away unchanged by looking at it, so no wonder he got rejected from art school. However, the sight of such depravity will only encourage those who only got indirect glances at it to fight on all the harder in an effort to be the first one in Berlin to make their own modern art via skull splatter patterns.

Valiant Assault: Costs 70 muns. This ability buffs nearby squads with sprint speeds and a +25% accuracy bonus on top of the 10% aura bonus the Offizier was already providing for 30 seconds. This will turn even the most battered of OKW blobs into a panzershreking, rapid firing, profanity screeching death parade that will annihilate whatever is in its way. This is the one ability that the offizier cannot use from within a garrisoned position.

Sniper

Cost 360 mp
Squad Size 1
Pop Cap 9

This guy has even fewer abilities than the Wehrmacht sniper, and can only booby trap resource points for 50 muns at Vet 1, and use the sniper prone position. He can, sadly, do nothing else. I guess the OKW skimped on the sniper training. He can still air out domes in a single shot, though.

Panzerjager

Cost 280mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 8

The German language breaks down a little here because….well, quite frankly, the 3rd Reich was a bureaucratic nightmare even at their height, and it’s kind of amazing they managed to coordinate for all their war crimes. What I’m referring to is that Panzerjager, literally meaning armor hunter, was both the name of a specialized infantry division under the Wehrmacht that focused on (surprise!) hunting tanks. It was also the name given to several models of tank destroyers, hence the confusion. For their task, Panzerjager soldiers were issued uniforms of light gray instead of the jet black that the rest of the rank and file was sporting so that they stood out more and Allied tanks knew to shoot those guys first. However, it appears that Relic screwed up on the historical accuracy again and these guys are wearing camouflage uniforms. Probably more sensible anyway. For gameplay purposes, Panzerjagers hit the field already wielding a pair of Panzerbuchse rifles and a pair of Kar-98ks. The guys with the Kars aren’t super enthusiastic about their job, but they have a number of upgrades that can brighten their day.

Abilities

Vehicle Detection: Costs 30 muns. This renders enemy vehicles onto your mini-map so that you can tell your Eren Jagers where to blob for maximum explodey murder fun time.

Fire Up!: Costs 15 muns. When you get a tank angry at you, you usually need to GTFO. This ability lets squads run at maximum speed for 10 seconds, but will suffer an exhaustive movement debuff for a few seconds afterward.

Salvage Operations: Breaks down a light vehicle wreck for 5 fuel, or a tank wreck for 12. Can be improved further with the thorough salvage upgrade.

Target Tread: Costs 40 muns. This makes the Panzerjagers fire at the wheels or treads of a vehicle, inflicting a hefty movement speed debuff so that the squad can get a few more hits in.

Upgrades

Anti-tank/Awareness Package: Costs 80 muns. This replaces 1 of the 2 kar-98ks in the squad with a panzershrek, and activates the vehicle detection ability.

Anti-Tank/Assault Package: Costs 80 muns. This replaces 1 of the 2 kar-98ks in the squad with a panzershrek, and activates the Fire up! Ability

Anti-Tank/Defensive Package: Costs 80 muns. This replaces 1 of the 2 kar-98s in the squad with a panzershrek, and improves the durability of the squad. You can pick any two of the upgrade packages.

Jaeger Light Infantry Recon Squad

Cost 280 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 8

These guys are stealth and infiltration experts that have the innate ability to cloak in cover and are quite proficient at long range combat. The situation could easily arise where you’re being pecked to death by a few squads of these, you can’t close the distance on them, you can’t find them, and you can’t catch them. For every kill they make, they’ll be that much closer to 5 star vets that can heal themselves, hit with pin-point accuracy at even longer range, salvage wrecks, and surprise the living heck out of people with a rain of potato mashers. Even their cost is reasonable, requiring only slightly more mp than a volksgrenadier squad.

Abilities

Booby Trap Capture Point: Costs 40 muns. Costing only slightly more than your typical resource point mine trap, this has no danger of exploding in your face if the enemy opts to hit it with a grenade right when you’re about to finish it. Enemy walks up, tries to take the point, gets a little surprise, and has to be cleaned up via dust pan and brush.

Sprint: Costs 10 muns. Squad moves at high speed for 5 seconds. Ideal for getting into cover before the jagers are seen.

Salvage Operations: Breaks down a light vehicle wreck for 5 fuel, or a tank wreck for 12. Can be improved further with the thorough salvage upgrade.

Field First Aid: Costs 15 muns and requires vet 1. This allows the squad to apply a heal over time buff to any nearby squad or even themselves, and the effect will persist until its duration expires or the squad enters combat. You’ll need a reinforcement point to replace the dead though.

Infiltration Grenade Assault: Costs 25 muns. This is a fun little power that is best sprung when the AI has done its usual thing of knowing where a cloaked unit is even without vision and approaches it to reveal it. When prompted, every member of the squad hurls potato mashers at the hapless target, turning said nosy nancies into finely ground taco meat.

Upgrades

2x G43 Scoped Rifles: Costs 60 muns. Already rather effective at long ranged infantry combat, a pair of G43 rifles gives them the ability to instantly pop an infantry squad member with less than 75% health and vastly improves the squad’s killing power.

7.5cm le.IG 18 Infantry Support Gun

Cost 274 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 7

The OKW don’t have access to your typical mortar team that hobbles around the map with a tubey looking bewm launcher. Instead, they have this, which is similar but better. While only having a cone of 45 degrees to either side of firing angle without further adjustment, their range is quite long, and their shells hit hard. They also have the added bonus that, if threatened by a tank, they are not defenseless and will gladly turn their gun on the offender, set at a flat trajectory.

Abilities

7.5 cm HE barrage: This ability has the bonus of having a slightly longer range than the typical auto-fire, making it rather useful for counter barrages.

7.5cm Smoke Barrage: This fires four sight line blocking smoke shells into the area. As far as I know, this is one of the few ways to take away an AI’s BS map vision. Since these are free, might as well scatter smoke everywhere.

7.5cm Incendiary Barrage: Costs 35 muns. This fires a series of shells loaded with napalm gel onto the intended target area. I am told this is the universal translator to mean “you’re not taking this point. You’re not occupying this land. Get off my lawn, scrub”

SdKfz 251/20 Half-Track w/Infrared Searchlight

Cost 200 mp/5 fuel
Pop Cap 5

So, when I first heard about this, I thought for sure that that Relic was having a bit of a laugh with us, and were embellishing the whole thing. Turns out, while it may have been late in the war, this was historically accurate. Dubbed the Vampir, this was an infrared device that was either fitted to a StG 44 with a back pack battery (rather resembling the Hellguns of Warhammer 40k fame) and a shoulder mounted lamp, or, perhaps more practically, fitted to a vehicle like this one. While not to the level of a body heat sensor like we have in the modern day, it was a good source of invisible light that could only be seen by someone with another Vampir. Only about 300 of these units were ever made, and fewer still were mounted on vehicles, but there were some reports of German sniper units picking off people in the dead of night in 1945.

As a gameplay unit, this presents a broad radius sighting in front of itself where it will lazily wave an infrared light back and forth. Should the beam contact an enemy, they will be revealed through the fog of war. It will only be brief, depending on how long the beam contacts them, but the range for this is pretty far, revealing a good chunk of a 1v1 map if you allow for the oscillation time. Aside from the factional ability of emergency repairs, the infrared half-track has no other upgrades or abilities.

SdKfz 251/21 Half-Track

Cost 270 mp/55 fuel
Pop Cap 6

This is actually a bit of a let down when it comes to AA/AP half-tracks, and functions more like a rapid mobile defense unit than a run and gunning meat shredder. First of all, it cannot fire on the move. After acquiring a target, it must stop, and fold down its collapsible sides to give the 2cm Flak full range of motion. Only then may it open fire. It’s armor is lackluster as well, and can be easily destroyed by another AA half-track from another faction, not to mention anything with AT in its name in all capitals.

Abilities

Concealing Smoke: Costs 35 muns. This fires off smoke bomb launchers mounted to the half-track’s hull to create a point blank smoke cloud. Given that this thing can’t move and fire on targets and has rather weak armor, this is likely going to be your only defense if it starts taking damage from something too large for it to handle.

Opel Blitz Munitions Truck

Cost 200/25 fuel
Pop Cap 3

A little expensive for a tier 2 support truck, but you get what you pay for. These things are AMAZING. First, they act as rolling reinforcement points, letting you replace casualties on the go, and can carry 2 squads with them comfortably. However, it’s covered nature doesn’t allow them to shoot out, so it can’t act as a battle bus. Second, they generate an aura that recharges abilities faster and quickens reload times, but this doesn’t seem to work on weapons teams. This vehicle is a good reminder of the age old proverb: Amateurs talk tactics. Novices talk strategy. Generals talk logistics.

Goliath

Cost 100 muns

Those of who you know what this thing is are already laughing hysterically. Those that don’t….well, by the end of this entry, I’m sure you’ll have some evil ideas. Also known as the Beetle Tank to the Allies, the Goliath tracked mine was remote operated by a control cable which could spool out as far as 2,000 feet, and contained roughly 220lbs of explosives. Said explosives are more than sufficient at aiding the Allies in their quest to see all of Europe by spreading their dismembered meat bits all over it. As for tanks, this thing was small enough to drive right under them and deliver an explosive punt right to their most tender of no-no zones. As for its gameplay incarnation, this is slow, fragile, cloaks in cover, and has only one ability: EXPLOINATION!!! It also goes off it it dies, so if one manages to sneak up on you, you might as well go get a napkin for what’s left of your men.

Mechanized Regiment Headquarters

Cost 300 mp/60 fuel

This is the 3rd deployable half-track/structure available to the OKW and unlocks all manner of neat stuff. You’ll get a few more infantry squads for your trouble, a few more half-tracks and some light armored support

Upgrades

Repair Pioneers: Costs 100 mp/15 fuel. This tasks a few pioneers to exit the half-track and repair any vehicle that rolls up.

Hull Down: Costs 125mp/15 fuel. Activates an ability where Volksgrenadiers and vehicle crews are able to bury a tank up to its turret to increase its damage and defenses.

Vehicle Crew

Cost 140 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 4

These guys are called up in every single vehicle you request, and don’t warrant much fanfare. They can get out to repair their rides, can repair criticals in occupied tanks at vet 1, and bury their tank in a hull down position if need be. The only time you’ll ever need to call these guys in is if you manage to capture a vehicle. They are the heart and soul of a vehicle, providing its ownership tag and experience level. Any soldier type CAN commandeer an abandoned vehicle, but they’ll never gain exp for it no matter how hard they try.

Demolition Pioneer Squad

Cost 200 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 6

While a bit less versatile than regular pioneers, the demo team have a few other tricks up their sleeves. They spawn in with the usual quartet of MP40s, giving good close range firepower, and are capable of laying mines. They are also gifted with a number of other tools and abilities to conduct their trade of Blowitallupology, with keeping their own team’s vehicles working as a hobby on the side.

Abilities

Repair: Like all other pioneer squad variants, they are capable of repairing vehicles, buildings and bridges.

Plant Demolition Charge: Costs 90 muns. Plants a BIG brick of what I assume is C4. When the target draws near, click again to blow it up and enjoy the gently falling crimson rain.

Trip Wire Flares: Costs 10 muns. This sets up a mild anti-infantry mine that fires off a flare to grant vision when something sets it off. Usually followed by the scream of incoming artillery.

M83 Cluster Bombs: Costs 80 muns. I could swear that these things were American since their Airborne Assault Officer can call these in, but it’s actually a German invention that the United States salvaged for their own uses. Known to the Allies as Butterfly Bombs, and to the LolWaffles as the “Devil’s Eggs”, these are air dropped into the battlefield and gently flutter to the ground on wings likely devised from observing how certain seed pods employ a similar mechanism. Usually, these are called in on top of a target, hence the “cluster bombs” part of the name, but if they don’t go off immediately, they’ll remain as mines waiting for some unsuspecting person to set them off. They explode with sufficient force that any infantry unit will be sent in one direction while his legs go in another, and the cool down on this is so short that, if you have the muns income for it, you could spam this all over the map to create a very hazardous workplace.

Upgrades

Flammenwerfer 35: Costs 60 muns. This sets a member of the squad up to werf flammen, giving them a front row seat to watching the world burn. This does area of effect damage over time, and is quite effective against weapon crews, units who thought they were safe in cover, and garrisoned units who don’t feel like moving.

Panzerfusilier

Cost 280 mp
Squad Size 5
Pop Cap 7

Fusilier is a word derived from French, referring to a kind of flintlock musket wielding soldier, and the term has changed with the times to mean elite soldiers, rear guard protecting artillery, ordinary line infantry, and the list goes on. I do believe that the game is referencing the German division “Großdeutschland”, which I’m not even going to attempt to figure out how that is supposed to be said, but it means “Greater Germany”. This division contained a regiment dubbed “Panzerfüsiliere”, meaning “armored fusilieres”, but these quickly became Panzergrenadiers in all but name. Much like anyone who puts on airs, you’ll quickly find that these guys aren’t that much better or different from the rank and file. They perform well at range with Kar-98ks, have a reasonable cost, good squad size for a German unit, and have a number of upgrades that make them rather flexible. They do have a number of worthwhile veteran buffs though.

Abilities

Throw Model 24 Grenade: Costs 30 muns. This is just your garden variety german grenade, useful for everything from mashing potatoes, turning coffee beans into coffee grounds really fast (check the bottom of the crater), and explodinating those pesky British who keep trying to sell you tea.

Anti-Tank Rifle Grenade: Costs 25 muns. A shorter range ability that launches a potent grenade at your intended target. Tanks are hurt by this pretty badly, hence the name, and light vehicles are turned into spare parts.

Sprint: Costs 15 muns and requires Vet 5(?!?!): This just makes the squad move a little faster for 5 seconds, but it requires the Fusileres to be rank FIVE before they can use it?! Honestly, I’d sooner use it to save a squad you put that much investment in rather than have them charge in to attack.

Flare: Costs 35 muns and requires Vet 1. A slow-falling parachute flare is deployed in the target area, granting vision for 30 seconds. More than enough time for the big guns to draw a bead and turn that zone into a Walmart parking lot.

Upgrades

2x RpzB 54 “Panzerschrek”: Costs 120 muns. Outfits the squad with 2 panzerschreks, quite useful for blowing holes in enemy tanks. It’s a pricy upgrade though, and you do have the Rakatenwerfer that fires these exact rockets. It only costs mp too!

Recon Package: Costs 90 muns. This adds a number of G43 rifle to the squad, granting them long range combat affinity, longer sight range, and an extra man in the squad for an even half dozen. Sadly, this upgrade is mutually exclusive with the Panzerschrek, so you can’t have both.

Sd.Kfz. 221 Armored Car

Cost 220mp/15 fuel
Pop Cap 4

Now at first glance, this might just appear to be a regular armored car with a MG34 on the roof, sloped armor, modest speed, and exceedingly generous cost. However, slaughtering infantry is only what it does as a hobby. It’s first love is thievery. Once upgraded with a radio set, increasing the total costs to 320mp/25 fuel, its true purpose is revealed in its ability set. Allow me to elucidate…

Abilities

Divert Supplies: Toggled ability. An ability that can only be used within enemy territory, and for good reason. The 221 entrenches and camouflages itself, stealing all the resources that sector would have gained, and sending them back to its owning player. I mean, even if the AI does have the unerring ability to magically know where all cloaked and camouflaged units are at all times, you have to admit that that’s pretty awesome. Even if they do send a response, if it’s infantry, the gun up top still works just fine.

Lockdown Sector: The 221 immobilizes itself, this time in a friendly sector only, boosting the resources that you would have gained by +4 muns and +3 fuel.

Defensive Smoke: Costs 30 muns. Fires off smoke bomb launchers in the hull to create a point blank smoke cloud. Useful for when the enemy finds your thieving @ss, the jig is up, and you need to get the heck out of dodge.

Signal Relay: This is a passive ability, meaning that so long as the 221 is alive, it’s always on. It reveals all enemy vehicles in the proximity of the car on the mini-map, giving you some advance warning if there’s something coming that your resource thieving operation can’t handle.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Upgrades

FuG 12 Radio Set: Costs 100 mp/10 fuel. This transforms the 221 into a 223 Command Car, and unlocks the divert supplies, lockdown sector, and signal relay abilities. Basically, if you want to do anything but have an armored car that can competantly handle infantry, you’ll need this, but depending on your luck with stealing supplies, it’s something that can pay for itself.

SdKfz 251 Half-track

Cost 200 mp/30 fuel
Pop Cap 5

The 251 is your support half-track, allowing you to get your turbo nazis to the front. It sports a reasonable top speed of 32 mph, enough armor that it can handle a modest amount of small arms fire (though AT will vaporize it pretty quick), carries around 2 squads in battle bus mode, and to top it all off, two MG34s provide support via turning the world of the enemy into 101% dakka. It also has a handful of abilities and upgrades that can change its role on the battlefield.

Abilities

Riegel 43 Anti-Tank Mine: Costs 50 muns. This is an evil little rectangular shaped land mine designed to destroy tanks. It packs just shy of 9 lbs of explosives within, which is more than enough to ruin even the mighty Churchill’s day, and because of some design flaws, tend to go off if so much as a mouse farts on one.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Infantry Awareness: Costs 10 muns and requires Vet 1. Reveals infantry on the mini-map for 20 seconds. This is a very useful power as the 251’s main role is hunting and supporting infantry.

Upgrades

Flame Projectors: Costs 120 muns. By ripping out the troop seating and reinforcement ability, this upgrade makes room for the 251 to mount two flame projects with respectable range instead. Though, I’d argue that the ability to reinforce lots of other squads around it, who can pack their own flamethrowers, is a much better use of the vehicle.

SdKfz 251 “Stuka zu Fub” Half-Track

Cost 390 mp/100 fuel
Pop Cap 12

Also known as the “Walking Stuka” (which is weird because it has wheels), or the “Bellowing Cow” (it’s a half-track), this is really just a launch frame mounted to a 251 half-track that fires 28cm rockets over long distances. Even though it only launches 6 of them per salvo of any variety, these are four times the size of a Panzerschrek munition, and that’s more than enough to turn anything struck by then into dog food. It also bears mentioning that this has a MG34 top-mounted gun to defend itself with, but it’s armor is pretty weak and it shouldn’t really be on the front lines anyway.

Abilities

28cm Creeping Rocket Barrage: Fires all 6 rockets in a straight line from Point A to Point B as opposed to the standard area saturation targeting sphere. If you have more than one Stuka Half-track, you can create some really intricate bombardment patterns with this.

Incendiary Rockets: Costs 100 muns and requires Vet 4. This reloads all 6 rockets with napalm gel payloads and turns the entire area into the world’s largest bar-be-que pit. Infantry are going to have a horrible time, and vehicles might suffer some engine damage if they hang about too long.

SdFfz 234 “Puma” Heavy Armored Car

Cost 320 mp/70 fuel
Pop Cap 7

Once upon a time, someone told a car that he could be anything he wanted, so he became a tank. This 8-wheeled spitfire has a 50mm main gun, and, considering the fact that Allied tanks are more known for their quantity rather than legendary toughness, it’s actually rather capable of knocking them out in a fire support role. It’s still an armored car though, and classified as a light vehicle, so face tanking is not a good idea.

Abilities

Smoke Screen: Costs 30 muns. If you look to the left and right of the turret, you’ll see six little soda can objects. Those are the smoke bomb launchers. So, if you end up overextending your Puma a bit, trying so hard to get that Sherman kill, you can fire this off and retreat from the consequences of your actions.

High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) shells: Costs 45 muns. Reloads the main gun with the aforementioned HEAT shells to enter TRY HARD mode, increasing damage and penetration.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Aimed Shot: Costs 45 muns and requires Vet 1. Fires a carefully aimed shot at an enemy vehicle and if it penetrates, it jams the turret rotation of tanks and disables lighter vehicles for a time.

Panzer II Ausf. L “Luchs” Light tank

Cost 265/60 fuel
Pop Cap 6

A cheap little light sneaky tank, this is the polar opposite of the Puma in that it’s a tank that opts to fulfill armored car duties. Against infantry, it cuts them down in the prime of their French liberation without qualm, but anything tougher than a light vehicle is going to stomp a mudhole in it and walk it dry. Since it does such a good job of carving the meat up, it is only afforded a pair of unique abilities, and even then, it has to pay its murder toll to unlock them.

Abilities

Suppressing Fire: Costs 10 muns and requires Vet 5. Assuming you’ve gone to all the trouble to slaughter that many people, the Luchs will become even better at pinning and executing the people that the Oberkommando de Wehrmacht tells it to. Using this power will blindly fire upon the target area, suppressing hapless infantry within that same area. As an added bonus, the Luchs doesn’t need to see the area it’s firing upon, and can continue to use this on the move. So, when it arrives at that area, it’ll have a whole bunch of suppressed, helpless meat to play with.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Cautious movement: Toggled ability. Requires Vet 1. Lowers movement speed, but allows the Luchs to move unheard.

Shwerer Panzer Headquarters

Cost 300 mp/135 fuel

The third and final technology unlocking building for the Waffen-SS, and is translated to mean “Heavy Tank HQ”. This structure is capable of calling in the toughest, meanest, most armored badasses in Germany, and is equipped with an AT gun to deter base crashes.

Upgrades

High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) shells: Costs 150 mp/15 fuel. This unlocks the ability that many heavy tanks share of the same name. It will double their damage and range, and increase penetration power by 250%, making even the most extreme of Russian behemoths fear for their lives.

Obersoldaten

Cost 340 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 9

If you tried looking up Obersoldaten in historical texts, you won’t find it. It’s based on the rank “Oberschutze” in the SS, meaning “Senior Riflemen”. It was awarded for soldiers that had demonstrated above-average aptitude and skill in battle, but had not qualified for further promotion yet. In modern rank terminology, it’s the equivalent of private first class. You can take this to mean that these guys aren’t fresh off the recruitment bus from Berlin, but have been around the block a little bit and have seen some $hit.

As far as gameplay goes, these guys are all about killing infantry at long range, and spawn in with a quartet of Kar-98ks. They can be upgraded with finer murder sticks later on though, and have potent veterancy bonuses and abilities to ensure they continue to rise in the ranks. Least till they lose the war anyway.

Abilities

Bundled Grenade: Costs 35 muns. Lobs a mighty grenade made of 7 smaller grenades taped together with a singular fuse. Quite useful in making sure that the Soviets actually get the first man on the moon.

Suppressive Fire: Requires Vet 4. Diminishes squad damage output for a time in exchange for the ability to suppress a targeted enemy squad at will.

Blendkorper 2H Frangible Smoke Grenade: Costs 30 muns. A Blendkorper is a small lightbulb shaped glass bottle containing a mixture of titanium tetrachloride and calcium chloride. When the two are mixed and exposed to the open air, this creates a chemical reaction in the form of a cloud of white smoke that is really not good to be in. It irritates the skin, and damages the respiratory tract as well as the eyes. You don’t even want to know what it does to the eyes. In terms of gameplay, this is like a blinding smoke bomb that also does damage to infantry within it at a VERY fast rate. Like… “move your tail or die in 10 seconds” fast. This also disables vehicle weapons if they opt to remain within the cloud.

Upgrades

Infrared StG 44 Package: Costs 45 muns. Improves the squad’s effectiveness in close-medium range combat, and adds a couple vampir scopes and backpacks to detect hidden units with. Mutually exclusive with the MG34.

MG34 LMG: Costs 60 muns. Adds rapid fire anti-infantry capabilites to the tune of 900 rounds per minute. Can fire on the move, does actually pretty good damage, and really meshes well with the squad.

Jagdpanzer 38 “Hetzer”

Cost 320/100 fuel
Pop Cap 12

The amusing thing about this tactical potato is that the Germans never used the word “Hetzer”, meaning “chaser” to refer to it. They always called it the Jagdpanzer 38, or “hunting tank”. Hetzer came from another clerical error where the factory manufacturing these was issued two different names and decided to go with it. High Command became convinced that the troops had named it such, unofficially, and by the time they got the whole matter cleared up, there was enough documentation floating around to seriously confuse future historians.

Obviously taking some notes from the ever reliable StuG, the Hetzer was built with the idea that its entire surface would be sloped armor. This allows it to bounce shells that you never thought 60mm could, and gives it a very low profile. It also makes it look like a potato. The 75mm gun is mounted directly to the frame, meaning that firing on the move is not happening on anything not directly in front of the tank, but it will puncture its target reliably at even long range. Unless it’s a Soviet heavy tank. Then, you’ll need to bring something with scootch more muscle.

Abilities

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Cautious movement: Toggled ability. Requires Vet 1. Lowers movement speed, but allows the Hetzer to move unheard.

Upgrades

Pintle-mounted MG34 Machine gun: Costs 50 muns. The tactical potato breaks one of the rules of being a tank destroyer and mounts a machine gun. The positioning is hilarious though. Because of the way the armor is sloped, pretty much any tank shell that strikes the front of the Hetzer is going to be diverted upwards, right into the face of the machine gunner, leaving nothing more than a pair of legs and half a torso with nothing else attached to fall back into the tank interior.

Flammpanzer 38 “Hetzer”

Cost 300 mp/90 fuel
Pop Cap 10

When a flame tank and a tank destroyer love each other very much, and get around to bumping uglies, you get things like this odd little hybrid model. It’s swapped out its tank popping 75mm gun for a keobe flamethrower that has some really surprising range. As in it can reach out and roast an enemy gun crew from almost a machine gun’s range away. Historically, this flame weapon was actually rather tempermental, easily damaged, and prone to “malfunction”, so tank crews that didn’t want to engage in the full Tibetan monk experience themselves didn’t much prefer this model. That being said, this is more or less the exact tank I just described with the Hetzer, complete with bait MG position on the roof. It lacks the cautious movement ability, but I figure that a 15 ton tank dispensing fiery wrath isn’t exactly subtle to begin with.

Jagdpanzer IV/70(V)

Cost 400 mp/135 fuel
Pop Cap 15

The bigger, badder brother of the Hetzer. Visually, the Jagdpanzer resembles a StuG that has been roiding out, and it possesses a long barrel variant of the 75mm the Hetzer spots, meaning that it can reach out and give someone a firm poking from a significant distance. No American tank is going to give this beast any problems, and with 100mm of frontal armor, return fire doesn’t bother it either. Soviet tanks aren’t an issue either, and the Jagdpanzer can handle everything up to the IS-2 pretty much without fear, so long as they don’t get in behind it.

Abilities

High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) Shells: Costs 45 muns. The 7.5cm KwK 42 was already capable of penetrating 112mm of armor at a kilometer’s range, and this ability augments that killing power even further still. The Jagdpanzer will see a doubling in its damage and range, and a 250% increase to penetration. With these rounds loaded, no one is safe, not even an ISU-152.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Cautious movement: Toggled ability. Requires Vet 1. Lowers movement speed, but allows the tank to move unheard.

“Jagdtiger” Panzerjager Tiger Ausf. B

Cost 720 mp/280 fuel
Pop Cap 23

One day, the German Army was sitting around, bored of repressing Frenchmen and Polish people, and got to thinking about their Tiger tanks. “How can we make it even MORE deadly?”, they asked. Well, you could always start with giving it a bigger gun and outrageous amounts of armor like a proper @sshole. This thing is utterly rediculous in every sense of the word. To call it a heavy tank is a disservice. It is THE heavy tank weighing in at an astonishing 71 tons, and is twice that of the ISU-152. It carries 250mms of armor on its frontal plating. That’s 10 inches, or the better part of a foot in cheeseburger units, and 80mms on its rear plating, which is the same as wearing pants made of a Panzer IV. So simply flanking this monster and putting a few shells into its back section isn’t going to do anything but p!ss it right the f*ck off.

For armament, it possesses a turret with the 128mm Pak 44 L/55 cannon, which can fire a projectile with force sufficient to pierce 242mm of armor plating at a kilometer’s distance. Honestly, it’s kind of a waste because there is no tank in the Allied arsenal that has that thickness of armor. Not even the ISU-152 or Churchill, which this tank could take in a fight and not even break a sweat. Probably at the same time. There’s just such a time where you sit back and ask “why do I even need this much power?” BECAUSE IT’S FUNNY.

However, like all members of the Tiger family, it suffers from shoddy engine manufacture. It’s weight puts great strain on the drive train and if you gun it too hard, you might make the engine block burst into flames. Also, it’s extreme weight makes rough terrain of any variety an immediate NO. You might even have a hard time finding a road tough enough to carry it. These are not concerns in CoH2 though, so this just translates into a slow turning and movement speed, but considering you’re flinging sharpened metal spikes 5 inches in diameter that punch through a target and explode inside of it, it’s not much of a worry.

As a gameplay unit, this thing is outrageously expensive, and I’m sure you can see why from my write-up. If you can afford one of these, you’ve won the game. It also breaks the rule of heavy tanks and has a few cheeky abilities in case things get dicey. To top it all off, this isn’t a unique unit. If you have had a seriously bad day, the enemy is resisting, and you just want to rip out the kitchen sink and throw it at them, you can field more than one of these.

Abilities

28.3 kg APCBC-HE Shells: Costs 90 muns. Short for Armor Piercing Capped Ballistic Cap-High Explosive. One problem the Germans found with their hypervelocity cannons is that when a piece of metal strikes armor at 950 meters per second, it sometimes shattered and didn’t do squat. Their solution was a cap of softer metal that would deform and flatten at the point of impact, transferring energy from the narrow tip to the sides of the projectile, much in the same way a tank forces a shell to bounce with angular armor. This alloy deformation also made the shell adhere to the point of impact for a micro-instant, making it less likely to be bounced or deflect, and much more likely to penetrate. In gameplay, this allows the Jagdtiger to penetrate any object in the game world, sacrificing rate of fire, and forcefully remove the word “maybe” from any chance of their target’s survival.

12.8cm Supporting Fire: Costs 40 muns. As if all this wasn’t enough, the Jagdtiger can convert itself into a makeshirt artillery piece, firing its rediculous cannon blindly at distant targets. Turns unsuspecting infantry targets into a Monet art piece splattered there on the battlefield, I tell you what.

Flakpanzer IV Ostwind

Cost 280 mp/90 fuel
Pop Cap 10

Admiral, I hear you asking, why did you cover the ultimate unit of the OKW and now are writing about these lesser tanks? Shouldn’t that have been last? An astute observation, but no, I write these articles in the order that they appear in the build pane from top left to bottom right. That way you don’t have to go looking around all over the window to find what I’m talking about. I don’t make the rules, I just work here.

The Ostwind, or East Wind, is a self-propelled AA gun that is just as comfortable shooting down aircraft and patting itself on the back when they crash into the dirt in a flaming, destroyed wreck, as it is murdering infantry at much closer ranges in the coldest of bloods and smiling when each shot is puncuated by a tiny little crimson puff signalling that a human being that had just been exploded. It possessed mediocre speed and armor for a tank chassis unit, and its AA cannon does absolutely nothing to vehicles larger than a half-track.

Abilities

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Combat Blitz: Costs 30 muns. This improves the tank’s accuracy by 100%, it’s speed by 40%, and it’s rate of fire by 25%. Any unit targeting it will find it 25% harder to hit.

Panzer IV Ausf. J Medium Tank

Costs 380mp/140 fuel
Pop Cap 14

This is the mainline battle tank for both the German Wehrmacht and the OKW, and, while a bit more pricy than something like the Cromwell or the T-34, it does tend to outperform either of the previous in stopping power, speed, and armor. In addition, the Panzer IV has a few abilities and upgrades to make it an even rougher customer.

Abilities

Coordinated Barrage: Costs 80 muns and requires Panzer Commander upgrade. This calls in a barrage from off-map artillery units that slap the target area with a very fast, tight shot pattern. Rather ideal for taking out anti-tank guns engaging in surprise rear armor fornication, or helping to flatten a hostile army.

High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) Shells: Costs 45 muns. Doubles a tank’s damage and range, and VASTLY increases its penetration power.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Combat Blitz: Costs 30 muns. Self-buff that improves the tank’s accuracy by 100%, it’s speed by 40%, and it’s rate of fire by 25%. Any unit targeting it will find it 25% harder to hit.

Upgrades

Pintle-mounted MG42 machine gun: Costs 50 muns. A rarity in the OKW arsenal, the MG42 spits out bullets at a very respectable rate, and will most certainly keep the riff-raff from touching your brand new panzer. Mutually exclusive with the Panzer Commander.

Armored Skirts: Costs 80 muns. Bolts on additional armor that thickens the sides and covers the tread wheels, yielding an overall increase in tank durability.

Panzer Commander: Costs 45 muns. Employs an officer that surveys the battlefield from the top hatch of the tank. His presence grants increased line of sight as well as weapon accuracy, and grants access to the coordinated barrage ability because he has the ear of the artillery division. When he says “crap”, they ask “how high and what color?”

Panther PzKfw V “Medium Tank”

Cost 490 mp/185 fuel
Pop Cap 18

Ahhh… the Panther Panzer V. One of the finest tanks of the war, in my humble opinion. With 100mm of frontal armor plating, a top speed of 34 mph, and a 75mm gun that can reliably penetrate 112mms of armor from up to a kilometer away, this provides the perfect mix of offensive capability and defensive measures. This tank could take on 5 Allied tanks at once, historically, and have at least a reasonable chance of killing them all like John Wick at a nightclub on mooks-drink-free night. If you are ever in doubt, grab a Panther because it will never let you down, give you up, nor run around and desert you. The OKW have modified the Panthers in their care so that they sport a number of abilities and upgrades, and it’s even BETTER than the original that the Wehrmacht field.

Abilities

Coordinated Barrage: Costs 80 muns and requires Panzer Commander.

High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) Shells: Doubles the tank’s range and damage and VASTLY increases its penetration power.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Combat Blitz: Costs 30 muns. Self-buff that improves the tank’s accuracy by 100%, it’s speed by 40%, and it’s rate of fire by 25%. Any unit targeting it will find it 25% harder to hit.

Upgrades

Pintle-Mounted MG42 Machine Gun: Costs 50 muns. At the battle of Kursk, many Panthers were too soon out of the conceptual ovens and did not possess these, nor the hull mounted or turret mounted guns. As such, this created a mainline battle tank that had no ability whatsoever to deal with infantry on its own. It could do nothing as Russians casually walked up to the front, planted some satchel charges on the hood, and gave the occupants a jump-start on the climate of Hell. This upgrade adds an additional machine gun to the Panther, preventing those kinds of satchel charge shenanigans from happening.

Panzer Commander: Costs 45 muns. Assigns a tank commander to the tank that increases line of sight, weapon accuracy, and can call in artillery strikes should the resistance become too fierce.

Panther PzKpfw V Command Tank

Cost 560 mp/225 fuel
Pop Cap 19

This is more or less the same tank that I just described, but has no upgrade packages. Instead, he makes everyone around him better with a fancy command aura. At first, it doesn’t start off very impressive, but it gets better with veterancy. If you’re in a fight where you’ve deployed a few tanks and are farming the exp in a slug fest, it’s a good idea to get this guy. If you’re taking a beating and losing your tanks, it’s probably a waste.

Abilities

Command Aura: Radiates a command aura passively. Effects are not cumulative and are listed as total values, not as stacking effect for each rank.

Default Effect: +10% speed, +20 sight radius to nearby vehicles.
Vet 2: +10% speed, +20% accuracy, +20 sight radius to nearby vehicles
Vet 3: +10% speed, +20% accuracy, -20% reload time, +20 sight radius to nearby vehicles
Vet 4: +10% speed, +20% accuracy, -20% reload, +20 sight radius, +5 weapon range to nearby vehicles
Vet 5: +20% accuracy, -20% reload time to nearby infantry

Coordinated Fire: Costs 35 muns. Don’t be confused. This doesn’t call in an artillery barrage like the Panzer Commander ability of the similar name. Instead, this marks a vehicle with a debuff that makes it take more damage.

Signal Relay: Costs 50 muns. Reveals enemy vehicles on the mini-map for 20 seconds. It just now occured to me that since this ability costs muns, information is literally ammunition.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Combat Blitz: Costs 30 muns. Self-buff that improves the tank’s accuracy by 100%, it’s speed by 40%, and it’s rate of fire by 25%. Any unit targeting it will find it 25% harder to hit.

Sturmtiger

Cost 570 mp/165 fuel
Pop Cap 18

Officially designated the Sturmmorserwagen, this is an infantry support tank that was designed for close-range urban combat, and is made of sledgehammers and hatred. It’s basically a big armored box with an engine, sporting 150mms of armor in front, and 62mms in the rear plating. The bottom is a touch thin with 28mm, so do watch out for mines. It is exceedingly well protected against the threats it will likely face in a city environment, which are bazookas, PIATs and Boys AM rifles, and it will respond to those threats by bringing an entire city block down on top of them. It does this with a mind shatteringly rediculous 38 cm rocket that weighs in at 838 lbs. Believe it or not, the original purpose of this weapon to launch depth charges from naval vessels, but the OKW got ahold of it and “modified” it. This makes a mockery of even the AVRE Petard mortar fielded by the British, and if makes a direct hit on an enemy, they’re either going to be very very dead, or very near to it. The Sturmtiger also has a small front hull mounted machine gun to plink at infantry in case the F.U. Cannon isn’t loaded yet.

Abilities

38 cm Rocket Attack: While overdone to the usual insanity of the German army, this is actually a little cumbersome to use. Firstly, it’s worth noting that the manual targeting is off on this. On a level area, the rocket will strike the ground at the part of the targeting circle closest to the tank. Basically, place that part of the radius so that the line bisects the squad you want to murder, or on the front bumper of the tank you want dead, and your aim will be true. Second, the reload time on this is massive at 40 seconds, and the rockets are so large that the weapon that fires them cannot be reloaded within the tank. The crew will have to get out for this, leaving themselves vulnerable to everything from snipers to boyscouts with slingshots. During this time, the tank can move about, but the crew can’t exit the vehicle to repair, so you’ll need to have some pioneers around to do the work in between reloads.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

NahVW Grenade Launcher: Costs 20 muns and requires vet 1. The Nahverteidigungswaffe, or close defense weapon, was a grenade launcher mounted to the roof of certain tanks that could fire a multitude of munitions. It was found on tanks such as the Panzer IV, the Panther, and the Tiger I and II. However, in CoH2, you’re only going to find it on top of the Sturmtiger because it sometimes needs the help in case its target survives the 38 cm explosive elbow drop, and it only packs one type of ordinance: the bewmy type.

Tiger PzKpfw VI

Cost 640 mp/230 fuel
Pop Cap 21

Ah, the oft troubled Tiger has made its way here as well. I suppose that it’s the iconic tank that the Germans were most well known for, and it’s reputation preceded it to such a degree that it spawned an effect known as “Tigerphobia”, where even the sight of one of these monsters was enough to completely shatter morale and send Allied units running for the hills. Considering that, at the battle of Kassarine pass, 6 Tiger tanks laid utter waste to 55 Allied tanks and well over a hundred other vehicles, one can understand where this fearsome reputation came from. To say nothing of the legendary tank commander, Michael Wittman, who performed such feats single handed and operating entirely solo. It does bear mentioning that, while such an effect was present, it was not nearly so wide-spread as the media of the time would have you believe, and sometimes more accounted for doctrinal differences than fear. The standard operating procedure when encountering one of these things was to radio its position in, and explode it from afar via artillery instead of getting into a gunnery duel that a Sherman had absolutely no chance in Hell of winning.

Another rather amusing fact of life as a Tiger crew was its operator’s manual. This thing was complicated, to the point of being considered a mechanic’s nightmare, and had an engine that liked to explode into fiery tears if you pushed it too hard. The German brass knew this at the time, and stressed all tank crews must read the manual. Panzer General Heinz Guderian had a feeling that precious few would actually do it, but he had an idea. He went and gave permission to the writers and artists designing the manual to scatter off-color jokes and lewd illustrations within the pages to keep the reader interested. I know my audience well enough to know that they’d want to take a look at such things, for historical reference and study, of course, and I would gladly share with you the copies I have acquired. However, I don’t know Steam’s policy about posting what amounts to softcore tank porn mixed in with Nazi user manuals, so I’m going to elect to play it safe. If you are truly interested and lonely, archive.org has a copy saved. Just look up “Der Generalinspektuer der Panzertruppen Die Tiger Fibel” and that should point you in the right direction.

Abilities

Command Tiger: Costs 15 muns, and requires Vet 1.

Combat Blitz: Costs 30 muns. Self-buff that improves the tank’s accuracy by 100%, it’s speed by 40%, and it’s rate of fire by 25%. Any unit targeting it will find it 25% harder to hit.

Coordinated Barrage: Costs 80 muns and Panzer Commander upgrade.

Upgrades

Pintle-Mounted MG42 Machine gun: Costs 70 muns. Tacks on an additional machine gun up top to run off the riff-raff.

Panzer Commander: Costs 45 muns. Increases line of sight, weapon accuracy, and can call in artillery strikes.

Tiger B “Konigstiger”

Cost 720mp/280 fuel
Pop Cap 23

They call this the King Tiger, but historically, it failed. HARD. The Tiger already had a troubled existence, and was prone to various technical woes. Considering that this fatty stacks even more weight, going from 54 tons to 68.5 tons, and the fact that it possesses the same engine and transmission as the 20 tons lighter panther, I’d say that the only miracle about this weapon is that it actually got to the front without bricking itself. Seriously, every time it had to move as far as down the street, you can hear the engine fighting like the 3rd monkey on the ramp to Noah’s ark. However, these woes tend not to manifest in a CoH2 game, and translates to the tank being slow and people across the house can hear it when it rolls up on your monitor.

If the Jagdtiger was the heaviest tank destroyer in the game, this is the heaviest tank in the game sporting a slightly smaller gun, and armor that is a little bit thinner, but it has a rotating turret and a machine gun to do more than just anti-tank work. But this is a Tiger. You already know that it’s strong, slow, and tough as a bag of nails being chewed by some guy just getting out of prison for murdering a mime. It’s also got a handful of useful abilities and upgrades to try and earn its keep, and it’s also not a unique unit. You could get more than one of these things if you can maintain a monopoly on fuel.

Abilities

Spearhead: Toggled ability. Requires Vet 3. The fatty Tiger enters Germanic try-hard mode, and increases it’s sight range. In this state, it turret whips around at a speed that is honestly pretty unsettling (especially if you are the unfortunate target), but is locked to 90 degrees to either side.

High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) Shells: Doubles the tank’s range and damage and VASTLY increases its penetration power.

Emergency Repairs: Factional ability. Costs 35 muns. Shuts down guns and engine and begins to rapidly repair the vehicle over 15 seconds. Cannot be canceled.

Combat Blitz: Costs 30 muns. Self-buff that improves the tank’s accuracy by 100%, it’s speed by 40%, and it’s rate of fire by 25%. Any unit targeting it will find it 25% harder to hit.

Coordinated Barrage: Costs 80 muns, and requires Panzer Commander upgrade. Calls in an artillery strike that hits rapidly and with a tight shot pattern to turn enemy forces into splatter-art.

Smoke Screen: Costs 30 muns and requires defensive package. Fires off a point blank smoke screen, letting a damaged fatty tank back up and strut back to base like a total chad in a war zone.

Upgrades

Pintle-Mounted MG42 Machine Gun: Costs 70 muns. Adds a second machine gun to the roof of the tank. Nothing says “NUH UH” to a team of tank hunters like 1,200 rounds per minute.

Panzer Commander: Costs 45 muns. Assigns an officer to the fatty tiger who pokes his head up, surveys the land and tempts opportunistic snipers. This increases the vehicle’s sight radius, weapon accuracy, and can call down artillery barrages on anything the tank can’t outright destroy. Mutually exclusive with the defensive package upgrade.

Defensive Package: Costs 120 muns. Welds on some additional armor plating, as if it wasn’t already excessive, as well as some smoke bomb launchers if, somehow, the fatty tiger runs into something it can’t handle.

Fallschirmtruppe HQ

Cost 200 mp

Pioneers construct this neat little building very quickly, which is odd because it looks more like a permanent fixture than a temporary field operation. Regardless, it contains equipment required to call in Fallschirmjager drops, amongst other things, and has a few special abilities to make it very useful indeed.

Abilities

Butterfly Bombs: Costs 80 muns. This calls in a drop of M83 cluster bombs which casually flutter onto enemy forces before blowing them all into the middle of next week. If you miss, don’t fret. They embed themselves in the ground and become like Chuck Norris. They do not sleep…they merely wait.

Self-Destruct: Destroys the HQ after 10 seconds, which is useful because you can only have one HQ and you might need its abilities elsewhere.

Upgrades

Secure Sector: Costs 100 muns. Increases the hp of the HQ and prevents the enemy from just walking up and taking the point. This is actually incredibly useful because you don’t need to erect defenses around a point. You only need to defend the HQ, and can pick the ground upon which you do so.

Rapid Response: Costs 100mp/10 fuel. VASTLY improves the training and response time for whatever you want to call-in from the Fall-HQ.

Anti-Vehicle Cluster Bombs: Costs 100mp/10 fuel. Improves the vehicular damage M83’s can inflict, making them omnipresent and potent hazards for all.

Luftwaffe Ground Squad

Cost 300 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 8

The equal and opposite number to the American Pathfinders. Whereas Pathfinders scout an area and mark locations for ideal paradrops, the LGS performs the same scouting looking for those same areas to put up AA defenses and stop those kinds of shenanigans. Combat-wise, they perform ok at long range with a quartet of Kar-98ks and have some useful abilities as well.

Abilities

Repair: Requires Vet 1. After satisfying their quota from the Auschwitz Jewish Culture Appreciation Board, these guys can repair any structure or vehicle that you own. They can also fix bridges after you burnt them.

Sprint: Costs 10 muns. Squad moves faster for 5 seconds. Can’t fire while on the move.

Bundled Model 24 Grenades Assault: Costs 50 muns. Orders the entire squad to blow a target’s mind by hurling potato mashers at them.

Air-dropped Medical Supplies: Costs 50 muns. Calls down a trio of medical crates that heals both the squad that picked it up as well as every squad around them for 30 seconds. The healing will end if they enter combat. Effected squads also gain +15% accuracy, and enemy squads shooting at them will do so 13% less accurately.

Upgrades

FG-42 Automatic Rifles: Costs 70 muns. The FG-42 was a logical continuation of the StG 44, which attempted to combine the sexy firepower of a LMG into the skimpy lightweight frame of a Kar-98k, much in the same way as one would try to wrangle Hitomi Tanaka into a micro-bikini. The FG-42 has a selective fire mode, able to be toggled between semi-auto, and full-auto, and allows a squad to engage infantry in combat at any range with some level of proficiency. After the war, the United States recovered several of these, intact, and extrapolated the M60 machine gun of Rambo fame from that knowledge.

Builds dragged line Sandbags, razor wire, Flak Emplacements, and Pak 43 88mm AT gun.

Fallschirmjagers

Cost 400 mp
Squad Size 5
Pop Cap 10

Translated to mean “Fall Screen Hunter”, Fallschirmjagers are Germanic paratroopers that serve as elite infantry. They are presented with several abilities and upgrades so that, no matter what comes their way, they’ll have an answer for it. They spawn in with a pair of FG-42s already assigned, with 3 other members of the squad packing MP40 SMGs, already making this squad superior than the Wehrmacht variant that must buy those 2 FG-42s rather than receive them for free.

Abilities

Bundled Model 24 Grenade: Costs 35 muns. Tosses 7 grenades taped together. The toss is a little short ranged because of the weight of the grenade, and has a minimum distance as the squad will try hard not to blow itself up, but whatever you throw it at will definitely go out with a bang.

Fire Panzerfaust: Costs 25 muns. Fires a one-time use disposeable anti-tank rocket at the target with a high chance of doing enegine damage.

Blendkorper 2H Frangible Smoke Grenade: Costs 30 muns and requires Vet 1. Throws a blendkorper chemical bomb that creates a line of sight blocking smoke screen that also hurts infanty BADLY and rapidly should they enter it. The cloud also turns off the weapons of vehicles inside of it because the gunner’s eyeballs are bleeding.

Upgrades

RpzB 54 “Panzerschrek”: Costs 60 muns. Issues the squad a single Panzerschrek for anti-vehicle work. Panzerschreks hit surprisingly hard, harder than bazookas due to the increased munition diameter and explosive payload, and are especially rough on light vehicles.

Additional FG-42 Automatic Rifles: Costs 70 muns. Issues 2 more FG-42s to the squad in case you are really having a hard time with infantry.

Fallschirm-pioniere

Cost 260 mp
Squad Size 3
Pop Cap 5

A paradropped trio of pioneers that are armed with FG-42s. While they may not have the numbers of the Fallschirmjagers, or massive construction repertoire of regular pioneers, they fill the role of combat engineers nicely.

Abilities

Repair: Like all other builders, Fallschirm-pioniere can fix your bridges, vehicles, and structures with what I can only assume is a LOT of duct tape.

Salvage Operations: Breaks down a light vehicle wreck for 5 fuel, or a tank wreck for 12. Can be improved further with the thorough salvage upgrade.

Medical Supplies: Costs 30 muns. This power lets the Fallschirm-pioniere’s yank 3 medical crates right out of their butts, and toss them on the ground for the other troops to use. Seriously, that’s the only explaination I can think of. They don’t para-drop in and just…. kind of appear. German magic?

Builds Bunkers, Wooden Bunkers, Trenches, Razor Wire, Reinforced Steel Barricades, Road Blocks, and Teller AV mines.

Weapon Specialists

Costs 200 mp
Squad Size 5
Pop Cap 5

These guys are untalented mooks, really. They show up with 5 MP40s, but kind of suck with them. They can perform rudimentary repairs on vehicles, including fixing critical damages, and can merge with other squads depleted of members. You can likely save some mp by doing this, and with the proper upgrade, these guys can show up FAST to replenish your army after General Patton had just gotten through mauling them all.

Paradrop Granatwerfer 34 Mortar

Cost 270 mp

Just in case you missed the Wehrmacht mortar teams and don’t particularly favor the infanty support guns (I call them long distance middle fingers, myself), you can arrange to have these dropped in at a very rapid rate, when the proper upgrade is applied. Park a reinforcement point close to the HQ, call in some Fallschirmjagers, and you can be showering the battlefield with mortars within moments. The teams themselves also provide a VERY good gamut of barrage abilities with regular variety target barrage, smoke barrage, Incendiaries for 45 muns, counter barrage, and they can sprint from place to place in case of return fire fears seeing as how everyone….EVERYONE hates enemy mortars.

Paradrop Rakatenwerfer 45 Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher

Cost 270 mp

Drops in a vacant Rakatenwerfer at a very mp inefficient price, but if you took my prior advice and parked a reinforcement point next to the HQ, both the Rakatenwerfer team and your infantry fodder squads can fill back out at the same time, making it more time efficient. With the rapid response upgrade, the enemy could quickly find themselves facing enough Rakatenwerfers to instantly slag their Shermans with 0 warning.

LMG Weapon Crate

Costs 200 muns.

Drops in a crate of 3 LMGs exactly where you specify, and it has a modest cooldown, so it’s acts more like an ability than proper unit creation. What you get from this is random, but the only choices are a MG34, which is okay, and a MG42, which is VERY okay. It should also bear mentioning that this is the LMG varient of both rather than the HMG with its suppression ability and set up time, so you’re not going to pin any squads. You’re just going to kill them.

Radio Post

Cost 80mp/5 fuel

I do so enjoy the Radio Post and its trifecta of muns-addled psychopaths. While the units it calls in from lands afar don’t enjoy any great combat proficientcy, they can throw down enough ordinance to earn a Catholic A in any Blowitallupology class. It has 3 upgrades, but those only serve to unlock the corresponding officer.

Upgrades

Artillery: Costs 300mp/35 fuel
Airborne: Costs 250mp/30 fuel
Paradrop: Costs 200mp/20 fuel

Heavy Assault General

Costs 180mp
Squad Size 3
Pop Cap 6

The only thing subtle about this man is his presence, and by the time you realize he’s there, he’s probably wrecking your $hit. He is able to call in half a dozen different types of artillery, ranging from the piddly 105mm classes in cultural enrichment to singular “hints” fired from a Paris gun located somewhere in Europe (most of it is in range of that monster anyway). If you need something blown up and need it done with a large diameter weapon fired from so far away, he’d need the postal service if it was any further, this is your man.

Abilities

Coordinated Barrage: Costs 80 muns. Fires 4 shots from off-map artillery that strike in a rather tight shot pattern. Nothing too special here, but it will pry those pesky Brits off that point and break their tea set while you’re at it.

105mm Barrage: Costs 180 muns. This is a MUCH more potent artillery barrage and I tried to count the shells that fall from this. I lost count around 20. This will easily sweep the area and provide parking for 40, even if those trailer park mamas bring their station wagons, yes.

Rocket Barrage: Costs 200 muns. Fires off about a dozen or so 280mm rockets into the target area. The area of effect is large, but the shot pattern is pretty tight. So long as the target is within the circle, you’re going to hit something.

Massive Creeping Barrage: Costs 200 muns. I do believe that this ability is mislabaled. Creeping barrages were artillery strikes that had their aim drift in one direction or another after firing the first shot. This fires one VERY powerful shot from what looks like a Paris gun, and while it’s targeting circle is very large, it is HIGHLY accurate, landing on or near the exact position your cursor dictates. The area of effect is obnoxious as well, easily vaporizing entire squads and totalling vehicles with even a near hit.

Assault Artillery: Costs 200 muns. Did you know that, at this very moment, 97% of theaters in WW2 are not exploding? That’s BULL$HIT!!! This ability fixes that by making shells fall like rain in a monsoon within a targeted enemy sector. Normally, abilities like this don’t work unless you have line of sight, but shells fall randomly, mostly centered around the resource node, thoroughly discouraging enemy presence. Once the fireworks have stopped, fire support is kind enough to drop in some smoke shells so that infantry can advance into close-quarters without hassle.

Zeroing Artillery: Costs 300 muns. This easily qualifies as an ultimate ability. First, I’d recommend firing a flare off into the targeted area to gain visibility. Once you have the victims identified and the targeting circle set, this power starts nailing them with pin-point artillery strikes in a way that will very much delete entire armies. The longer they are visible, the more rapid and potent the artillery will be.

Luftwaffe Support Offizier

Cost 180mp
Squad Size 3
Pop Cap 6

Like most air support generals, the LSO offers a more complete skill package over the typical “blow up everything from here to London” approach. What destructive options he does offer tend to come in long narrow passages as air strikes rather than targeting circles.

Abilities

Artillery Flares: Costs 60 muns. Fires off a set of flares at the targeted location, granting vision. Similar to the flare used by various infantry, but with a much longer range, wider radius, and marginally shorter duration.

Stuka Smoke Reconnaissance: Costs 40 muns. Some powers grant vision. Some powers drop smoke. This does both. It will drop a line of smoke shells precisely on the area highlighted, and then the plane will proceed in that direction, revealing everything in its path following that. All at a very economical price too!

Strafing Run: Costs 150 muns. Calls in a Stuka that will perform a high speed run on the designated area, spraying it with machine gun fire and suppressing hapless targets. In case any meat survived this little drive-by, the Stuka will hang around to take a few more shots at them until it runs out of fuel, or a cheeky AA unit takes it down.

Fragmentation Bomb: Costs 180 muns. This airstrike drops a series of frag bombs in a narrow corridor within the highlighted area. Does limited damage to vehicles, but infantry get cheese gratered.

Sector Assault: Costs 250 muns. The Waffen’s ultimate aerial ability and an excellent asset to a big push. Several aircraft will swoop in on the targeted location, suppressing and murdering infantry with machine guns and pummeling vehicles into scrap with rockets. Pretty much anything that enters the targeted zone is on the fast track straight to oblivion, and I don’t mean that buggy Bethesda game.

Ground Support Offizier

Cost 180mp
Squad Size 3
Pop Cap 6

The OKW’s paradrop specialist. He’s more useful than some other commanders that I could mention, but nowhere near the logistic wizardry that the American specialist is capable of. Still, if cheap Fallschirmjager squads are what you desire, this is your man.

Abilities

Paradrop Rakatenwerfer 43 Anti-tank rocket launcher: Costs 260 mp. MP inefficient, but arrives very fast. It’s cool down is so quick that if you have a squad standing by with a reinforcement point, by the time the squad is fully filled out, you can call in another one. Good for farming Vet, and amassing cheap AT measures if you find yourself flush with mp.

Ammo Supply Drop: Costs 250 mp. Calls in a single crate of 75 muns. The LolWaffles and Artillery bros will be thankful for this.

Jaeger Light Infantry Recon Squad: Costs 280 mp/8 pop cap. When they phrase themselves as “infiltration experts”, they mean that they were hanging out just watching the battle in this random building waiting to be called upon. When you activate they ability, they just pop right out of a designated ambient building. Sadly, ambient buildings tend to catch a bad case of explosions as the match draws on and there will be less and less useable locations for this.

Luftwaffe Ground Squad: Costs 360 mp. Similar power as listed above, but calls upon a Lolwaffle ground squad insted.

Fallschirmjager paradrop: Costs 400 mp/10 pop cap. These guys live up to their name and paradrop into the area designated. Caution must be exercised, however, as highlighted red world objects have a good chance of causing a lethal landing.

Airborne Assault: Costs 200 muns. This is a wonderful little support ability where a number of planes are called in to smack vehicles around with 37mm cannons within the targeted radius. It also activates a map wide buff where Fallschirmjagers can reinforcement regardless of their position or proximity to a reinforcement point, just in case the infantry felt left out because the planes don’t target them.

Conclusion

Well, looks like that’s it, gang. I’ve typed this game and its mod to exhaustion, and, save for future updates and little fixes here and there, I’m going to go ahead and call this project of mine done. If you learned how to play the game better and have some fun, then my time was not wasted. If you learned something about history, cool beans 🙂 That just happens to be a topic I’m passionate about. If I offended you along the way, that’s extra bonus points. Like sprinkles on the cup cake made of hurt feels fresh out of the oven. Maybe at some point, we’ll meet again on some distant battlefield, but until then, this is Admiral Casual signing off.