Things have been tough in real life. Many things have made me angry and many things have caused me to lash out at the community. I accept that I let it get to me, but I don't apologise because you're all losers. I have 1.2k hours in the game, and not a few months ago I totally wrote off the OKW as a fun faction. I was tired of having my halftracks bombed by allied artillery that we don't get without doctrine except the (frankly useless) Walking Stuka. I was also tired of my volks squads being melted by penals, the Luchs being obsolete unless you hold the enemy's fuel and upgrades coming much too late (Damn you relic for locking fg42's behind the schwerer hq)

I had to go back to the drawing board. I played a lot of brits with the commando land mattress doctrine and absolutely loved it. It was then that I realised my mistake. If even the defensive faction can only be fun with maximum aggression and cheese tactics, maybe I had been too passive with the intended aggressive faction?

So my build order has not changed and is yet to fail me. First, you MUST be as toxic as possible. When someone on the enemy team says 'glhf' or something, ALWAYS hit back as soon as possible with a racial epiphet, demeaning comment and/or generally unsportsmanlike language. This will set you up for the rest of the game, and make sure the enemy knows that you know how to play OKW.

Secondly, recognise that Relic has gifted us with the most OP early game unit of all the factions, the Sturmpioneer. He suffers no movement penalty and shreds anything. Did you read that right? Yes I said, no movement penalty. So why on Earth are you using this unit to cap? I cringe every time I see this because Relic also gifted us with the second most OP early game unit, the Kubelwagon.

But how can this tin can be considered OP? Well you are meant to build them precisely so your Sturmpioneers dont have to cap (Kubels cap 10% faster by the way), and if you have a good team your Wehr colleagues will know that they can push their pioneers up to secure a building for their mg knowing you will cap behind them. Besides this, the Kubel is great at range and will pick off Infantry Sections easily. Just dont let them get near Penals or Riflemen. Get it to vet 1 then put it behind a building on the middle of the map with the radar ability and your 210 manpower investment will be so worth it. Alternatively, use it to chase a weakened squad - even if it dies it is cheaper than anything the Allies can field so the only units not worth chasing realistically are Rear Echelons and Soviet Sappers.
Please note however, killing Soviet Sappers early enough may be enough to trigger a rage quit because of the utter disappointment of having to rebuild them in order to tech. Under no circumstances should you chase Echelons unless they have been upgraded with the nade launcher, to drive home that the enemy player is a moron for bothering with this upgrade

Thirdly, and this is the only variation on the build. If you are in an urban map or against Brits go Firestorm Doctrine. For some reason brit players still think that sim city is a viable strategy and it is hilarious beyond measure to watch their mortar spend the entire game braced because you're hammering fire shells on them. Ragequit highly likely here. This is probably the most fun way to play OKW because mp40 volks are a soft counter to conscripts, pre-bren sections and can even hold their own against penals or tackle rifle squads if you've let them get some veterancy.

Tell your sturmpioneers to go to the fuel closest to you. If they don't encounter any resistance by the time they hit the vp this means the enemy MG is not yet set up so you have a short window to keep pushing. About 4 seconds in to the enemy territory you should encounter your first enemy totally off guard. DO NOT STOP MOVING. If its a brit player you will find the section cannot stand up against you in close combat especially if they keep repositioning and you will find their mg likely bewildered some metres behind. Again, keep pushing and mince them both. Sturmpioneers will beat anything except riflemen unless they surprise the Americans. Now that you have routed the enemy you can bring a volks squad to capture that VP. You thought the Sturm's job was done? No. Provided you have at least 3 men in the squad help out your nearest teammate or be a pain in the ass and cap one of their objectives. Just screw around with them.

If you encounter an MG that is already set up you can bring the kubel in to flank them. Keep your distance and you will win.

One thing I forgot to mention, the entire OKW strategy revolves around getting your opponent to ragequit within 10 minutes. If they aren't down at least 1 member by the 10 minute mark you have failed.

Next build the mechanised HQ (Or medic if you went Firestorm) and build a Puma. This vehicle will kill any light vehicle the allies field and is even very useful in the mid game. I have run circles around T34's and used the stun rounds to troll Shermans. Honestly, you hardly even need another tank until they bring out something heavier.

The next essential thing to understand is that your Volks are fodder. Do not give them STG's. They have an advantage at long range with the Kar98's and they only exist to hold objectives while every other unit harasses the enemy constantly. Besides 2 STG's are not even good enough to make it worth it in close combat, especially against BAR's, SVT's, Brens etc. If you lose one or two don't sweat it. Let them get cocky.

Remember as well that after every major squad wipe (2 or 3 squads, or your early infantry +mg wipe) encourage the enemy to surrender. This is essential to demoralise the enemy. If they persist past the 10 minute mark they are only delaying the inevitable. Be totally ungraceful in victory as well.

This playstyle has only three weaknesses.

1. OKW commanders more broadly suffer from a lack of call-ins. The falshirmjager doctrine should be used on maps where there is likely to be a late game slog fest because you get a decent loiter and 'for the fatherland' is an ok rush buff. This is why I usually pick this doctrine on Lazernath Ambush.

2. Soviet players have realised that maxim spam sucks and have switched to penal spam. This is bad news for OKW players. The only counter to the 'ragequit in 10 mins' strategy is penal spam. Similarly, 6 man paratroopers with thompsons are completely broken and will ruin your day regardless.

3. Having to back tech for meds is annoying. If you are playing with another OKW who went med base first then make sure to visit there when you reinforce, otherwise pray your Wehr colleague has built a bunker. Don't back-tech until you know you are in a very safe position
By very safe I mean certain that the enemy team is about to quit or surrender from being spanked too hard

And that is it. I hope you enjoyed this guide and found it useful. I hope this inspires a whole new generation of OKW players to back me up in future. Remember, stay toxic!

Coming back to this guide as i've started playing COH2 again. Thought i'd chronicle some examples of the strategy working as proofs of how overpowered the strategy is.


Figure 1: I chased his sniper all the way to spawn with a kubel. Of course he didn't expect me to commit so hard to this, but my kubel is 210mp vs his sniper at 360. IM GONNA CHASE. Ended the game in basically 4 minutes. There is no way to recover from losing 360 manpower so early. Always chase down snipers, particularly because a lot of players soft retreat them (that is moving them away rather than hitting the retreat button). They can't fire while doing this, and they wont cloak. Just shoot them lol.


Figure 2: Had the pleasure of playing with 2 other highly aggressive OKW. As you can see we achieved full map control within 4 minutes and then they start dropping off.


Figure 3: Last example i'll post but this is a prime example of the value of using Sturmpioneers to cuck the allied side from securing a building. I rushed the main building on the fuel point and held 2 squads of Penals there because the guy had such a hard on for getting his own squads in the building. He even wasteed 45 muni trying to satchel me out. When my sturms got low I just put my volks squad in there and the cycle repeated until he gave up and left the game. He could have surrounded the building from two sides (and had one squad of penals capping the fuel off me) and I might have been in trouble. Also notice the BM when I felt that it was getting annoying for him. Definitly contributed to the 5 minute DC