With the recent additional content for DAK, I’ve had a lot of ideas poking around in the back of my head about new battlegroups that could be developed and other related ideas for DAK. Having a creative bent of mind, I decided to do a write up of these ideas for publication, ideally to influence what comes out later, but mostly for my own enjoyment. This is what this post contains.
The perspective I’m coming from in this post is that, to me, it would be non-sensical for Relic to develop another sequel to Coh, as the release of Coh3 has demonstrated that you have to compete directly with the predecessors, leading to schisms in the playerbase. Moving to Coh3 made a lot of sense, as the technology required updating, but now that that is done, I feel doubling down on DLC for Coh3 in terms of new factions, battlegroups and content is the way to go, unless some fundamental technology leap happens in the next 10 years. Coh3 should be treated as the ‘platform’ on which Coh is developed. Even if we have to wait another 5 years for another faction, this probably makes the most sense. This way, the effort that would go to porting functionality to a new game, can be spent on creating new content and new features for the already existing game.
In terms of the design of the battlegroups, I wanted to make them thematic, different from existing battlegroups, unique and mostly historically accurate. The interesting aspect of DAK battlegroups is that you have a limited pool of units to work with.
Without further ado, here are my battlegroup ideas:
https://preview.redd.it/ln47ig1ct61d1.png?width=1308&format=png&auto=webp&s=931bc2205f9585526dc0543c3b24fb7f15611ccc
Central Idea: Logistics, augmenting Halftrack Deployment System. The battlegroup focuses on mobility and efficient resource expenditure.
Opel Blitz Fuel Truck: The Opel Blitz Fuel Truck should have two effects with the lockdown, when locked down on fuel, it should increase the rate of fuel supply, probably by more than a normal cache, however when locked down in base, it should reduce fuel cost of the vehicles in the selected structure, so kind of like officer supervision. This would encourage more active micro management of the unit. When it dies it should have a large AOE explosion, meaning friendly units should avoid it and also that it can be driven towards enemy units, kinda like a less efficient Goliath that you can't manually detonate, I can’t see this being anything but ludicrously fun. You really could go nuts with the audio design on that. Top Up Vehicle should be an ability that can be targeted on friendly vehicles. Once done, the target vehicle has faster speed, acceleration and deceleration for a fixed distance. Note this is a fixed distance, instead of time, so if the vehicle doesn't move, it won't 'expend' the ability.
Recharge Halftrack Deployment: This feeds into DAK’s tempo playstyle by allowing you to muster units rapidly. The situations where I see this being useful are early in the game when you want to get double call ins early to build out your composition at a discount or later in the game where you’re trying to mass late game armour quickly. For instance, calling in a P4 as a stopgap measure before calling in a Tiger 90 seconds later, especially if you build up a bank in the lategame.
Panzer III Munitions Supply Vehicle: Largely self explanatory, its like the Munitions Store for US, except mobile and provides different buffs. I could see this unit being coupled with ATGs and LeIGs being strong, as well as recharging snares faster, it compliments that infantry and support weapon playstyle nicely. The unit also can drop MG42s and Mortars, which give DAK manpower efficient access to more team weapons, diversifying potential builds.
Vehicle ROF Ability: Self explanatory. Could see it being strong on Marders, Tigers and Stug Ds. You could make this a global ability but here I’ve stuck with a unit ability.
Ability/Upgrades Discount: This essentially makes Unit Upgrades and Unit Abilities 50% cheaper for the duration. Its thematically appropriate and potentially a strong ability. If you could pair this with the Panzer III Muntions Vehicle, grenades would be cheaper but also recharge faster, although this combination could apply to a whole bunch of different things. Strategies where you rush this ability to ‘mass upgrade’ MG34s on the PGs could be a thing, although you’d need a fair bit of munitions banked up. One thing that could be experimented with is applying this to mines, where you could pop this to spam out mines, depending on how expensive the ability is, the calculus might add up.
Panzer I Command Tank: Feeding into that tempo style again, this early game vehicle would have roughly the potency against infantry as a 250, albeit with better armour. However, the main appeals are the capping and mobility bonuses, these would allow you to rapidly gain map control and would give you an edge when switching sides of the map. For flanking manoeuvres, this would also come in handy, one combination that would be strong would be your vehicles ‘Topped Up’ with the mobility bonuses from the Opel Blitz Fuel Truck and your infantry buffed by the Pzr I Command Tank, meaning your forces can get off flanks or respond to threats much faster.
Withdraw & Refit: Again interacting with the Halftrack Deployment System, this allows you to trade in vehicles that are not needed for resources, exactly like with Brits. I could see this being useful when you want to get rid of 250s that you have spare.
Panzer III S-Mine Launchers: This would be an ability on the Panzer III that allows it to launch S-Mines. I could see this being implemented in 2 ways, either exactly like the Tiger S-Mine launcher ability, which would be really strong for flanking AT Guns or chasing down squads, or if that’s too strong, more like the grenade ability on the Sturmtiger in Coh2. Again, this synergises with the Panzer III Munitions Vehicle and the Ability/Upgrades Discount ability.
Panzer III Side Skirts: Self explanatory, improves the armour and health of your Panzer IIIs after a unit upgrade is purchased. I wouldn’t be in favour of this being an instant upgrade to all units. This would again synergise with the Ability/Upgrades Discount ability.
Lorraine Schlepper Mobile Artillery: Finally, mobile artillery, not unlike the Wespe, giving DAK another tool in the box at their disposal.
https://preview.redd.it/japhac3bt61d1.png?width=1496&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e701d51062abcefb4181342300ec17de4d2fcf1
Central Idea: Fire, anti-cover. It would be strong against team weapon camp gameplay.
Incendiary Grenade Assault: Its essentially the exact same as the Assault Gren grenade assault, except Panzer Grens have access to it and its better at denying cover. So I see this being useful when you want to dislodge infantry in cover or make a Team Weapon move, as they won’t be able to jump back into cover or move back.
Detonating Shot: This ability is available for; Paks, Marders, P3s, Tigers, P4s, Stugs, Flak 36s. While active, if you land a kill shot on a vehicle, that vehicle will blow up causing AOE damage to nearby units. How good this should be will need to be tested. The basic counter play would be just to split up your units, but that requires micro. On the flip side, using the ability well also requires micro and good timing, so there’s a skill factor involved. This ability can also be used on ATGs and Indirect fire units (including emplacements), and if you land the kill shot on these units while the ability is active, it not only explodes but also, importantly, destroys the weapon outright. So you wouldn’t need to focus the decrewed weapon afterwards. This is pretty strong against team weapon play.
Indirect Incendiary Rounds: Exactly like it was in Coh2 for the same units. It also applies to the 254 Artillery observer. All of these barrages are good for area denial and also killing off emplacements.
21cm Nebelwerfer 42: A heavier version of the Nebelwerfer, relative to Wehr’s one. This would have higher alpha damage on it’s shells and the flame dot damage to boot. Only 5 rockets though.
Incendiary Creeping Barrage: Self-explanatory, area denial tool, good against team weapons and emplacements. Strong for denying VPs.
Double Flamethrower Panzer Pios: Strong upgrade naturally, but expensive. In order to get the double flamethrowers you need to buy each flamethrower for 50 munitions. It makes the squad a massive target.
Flammpanzer I Assault Group: This is very much a shock callin, you’d get this to drive your opponent off the map in the early stages of the game. Relative to the L6/40 with the flamethrower upgrade, this would be more potent as it retains the coaxial MG. Relative to the Flammpanzer III, it would have less health but come earlier. Combined with the Panzer Pios, it’s a strong power spike which would be especially good on urban maps.
Inspired Assault: Exactly like it was in Coh1, it was an interesting ability.
Sd. Kfz. 233 Armoured Car: In the great pantheon of DAK light vehicles, where does the 233 fit? It would be most comparable to the Stummel and the Scott, being effective against Team Weapons and Camp playstyle. Unlike the Stummel, it would be more effective at short range, as it retains an MG42 and has the canister round, as well as having more health. Relative to the 8 Rad, it would be worse at chasing infantry on retreat (although you already have the Flammpanzer I), but it would be far more proficient against units at range, units in cover and team weapons. Relative to the StuG D, it would be faster, cheaper and require less teching, but would have worse armour.
Heavy Incendiary Bomb Drop: Extremely good against team weapon camp, emplacements and units capping VPs. Could potentially neutralise points like the Dive Bomb in Coh2?
https://preview.redd.it/aipq57z9t61d1.png?width=1020&format=png&auto=webp&s=0bba7347d9d2321fca701d0e1b97fac68f4d1a0f
Central Idea: Heavy Team weapon play, this battlegroup is the only one that ‘goes against the grain’ of the DAK traditional playstyle by offering you more of a camp based strategy.
250 Reinforce: Essentially a utility ability that congeals with the rest of the battlegroup. Although I could see it being useful in combination with Assault Grens as well.
Pak 36 ATG: Light ATG, effective against Light Vehicles. Unlike the Pak 38, it requires no tech, so you can get it early and allows you to tech T2 while still having ATG support. The Stielgranate 41 shot improves it’s penetration against vehicles, although at the cost of munitions.
Tobruk Bunkers: Variety of emplacements, lots of photos of the DAK using these in WW2, hence the origin of their name. For defence in depth, these are going to be strong, you could have one of the Panzerturms in the back to prevent light vehicles or infantry from breaking in. The 360 Bunker is not fundamentally different from the Wehr AA piece, however, to make it more skilful, it would be cool if you have to manually switch the firing arc.
Flak 37 AA: A larger and more powerful AA than the Wehr Flak 30. This would be more effective against light vehicles and infantry, although could be made slower to move around, and have slower pack up and setup times, to balance it. My thinking is something like the speed of Pak 40s in camo would be slow enough to make indirect highly effective against them. It would encourage using them in conjunction with a tow vehicle, moving them around the battlefield quickly would be impossible without a tow vehicle, although not strictly necessary.
Rapid Suppression Barrage: This is mostly a standard off-map, except that the shells also cause suppression. My thinking with this is that it should cover a broad area, with a relatively short delay between each shell, with each shell having a large AOE suppression. Perhaps the effect would be best compared to the Nebelwerfer from Coh1, minus the flame. What you essentially use it for is area denial and forcing off squads.
MG131 HMG Team: Essentially a ‘premium’ HMG team, the same way the MG42 and DSKH were considered premium in Coh2. Its suppression and damage would be far better than the MG34. It should perform relatively well against light vehicles, like the .50 Cal did in Coh2. The HE rounds ability I see performing better against units in cover, potentially even allowing you to perform cover suppression.
Sd. Ah. 52 Supply Trailer: The Supply Trailer requires some explanation. My thinking with this is that its a brand new unit type, which loosely can be defined as a support weapon. How it works is that infantry squads can crew it, push it around, vehicles can tow it, etc. When in a position, it provides an aura which in this case gives nearby units additional construction options as well as increasing pio construction speeds and giving vehicles the ability to hull down. However, the unit shouldn't require pop cap and moreover, you can actually manually decrew it and it will still provide you the benefits. So for example, let's say it spawns in your base and you want to setup a strong point, you can crew it with a squad, wheel it over to a house near the frontline and then decrew it. Units within its vicinity would still be benefiting from the aura. When you want to move it, recrew it again, or tow it, to a new location. The beauty of this dynamic is that your opponents can steal these units from you like an ATG, so while they don't take up popcap and would be relatively cheap (say 100 to 150 manpower), you're still incentivised to protect them. You can also attack move them with AT guns etc, would be interesting to play around it. I think it would make for an fun dynamic, but would need to be coded from scratch. It also indirectly makes tow yet more useful. With this trailer specifically, it’s aura will make the area around it a point where you can dig in. Multiple squads would be setting up sandbags, vehicles would be able to hulldown and it can also distribute medical supplies.
Off-map Mortar Creeping Barrage: Fairly straight forward light off-map.
Hold The Line: This allows you to hold onto territory easier. A global ability, while in capture circles, your infantry will be hardier. Moreover, they can also reverse the capping progress of your opponent when you contest the capture with your own unit, although you can’t use this to capture territory that is contested. This will be really powerful in VP wars.
15 cm sIG 33 Heavy Infantry Support Gun: The star of the battlegroup. This would be like an LeIG but dialled up to 11. It would have 110 range direct autofire (so like Free Fire Drills), but with a slower ROF. The team would be able to move it around without tow, but like the Flak 37, it would be incredibly slow, like a Pak 40 in camo. The demolition shot would have a much shorter range, like 50, but be incredible against emplacements, although if you manage to get vehicles or team weapons it would be deadly as well. The trick shot nature of this should make it easier to avoid. So kind of like a Sturmtiger but much easier to notice and dodge, while also being less powerful. Realistically you would need to use tow to get it around, but its not strictly required.
https://preview.redd.it/4yg3itn8t61d1.png?width=1012&format=png&auto=webp&s=bb6f1e7b2a4c8d145cfe231db303b0474c33d4e9
Central Idea: Vision, having awareness of the battlefield and executing flanks. Conceptually this battlegroup is the opposite of Battlefield Espionage.
Horch 108 Recon: A heavy ‘ultra light’, which sounds like an oxymoron, but to put this on a scale, it would be better than the Krad as a harassment tool, but not as good as the 250. However, the 250 can’t cap and this can, whereas the Krad is cheaper, faster and has more vision while stationary. So there are trade offs to all 3. The Flak 38 gives the Horch better scaling than the krad. Relative to the Dingo, the Dingo should win, but one would expect the fight with the US Jeep to be more even, if not slightly Horch favoured.
Forward Observation Posts: These are equivalent to the battlefield espionage beacons, except they’re focused on providing LOS. You set them up with infantry and they can be faced to an area to provide sight. I could see these being super handy on the edge of the map, overlooking a flanking route.
Sd. Kfz. 263 Panzerfunkwagen: The Panzerfunkwagen would be a solid sight tool. The MG would be roughly as good as a 250, so you might want to use it aggressively early on, but you’d mostly be using it as a mobile sight platform. With cautious movement, you would be able to spot your opponents forces from camo and the Mark infantry ability should have a short cooldown and be free. You’d mark several units and they would make they more vulnerable to small arms. This would reward active micro management.
Timed Infantry Sight: Amazing for executing flanks, you can detect enemy units before they see you. This should make getting around MGs and picking your engagements far easier.
Panzer Commander Upgrade: Exactly like Coh2.
Suppressive Fire: Gives various units access to a suppressive fire ability. Coupled with the sight abilities, you can trigger this before an opponent’s unit comes into range.
Sd.Kfz.6/3 AT Halftrack: Weaker than the Marder in terms of health, the ATHT has the benefit of providing mobile AT without needing to tech T2. The ranged shot works well in conjunction with the sight tools allowing you to get off shots against more powerful vehicles without taking shots in return.
Temporary 222 Recon Group: Double 222s arrive off-map, they are in your control and you can use them how you please. However, after 75 seconds, they turn to AI control and leave the battlefield. By the time they reach the front, you’ll have roughly 60 seconds to ‘go nuts’ and do as much damage as possible. They don’t require manpower, fuel or popcap. This feeds into DAK’s tempo, all-in playstyle. So I could see a player building an 8-Rad and then using this ability, using the sight tools to determine where the ATGs are and then going all in, the 222s are relatively expendable. The 222s should benefit from the armoury upgrades, so in the lategame you could use this ability to jam captures or sneak off to grab a VP. As an opposing player, mines, hand held AT and snares are your friends. 222s should basically require 1 snare to cause engine damage. Some people have said they don't like temporary units, I haven't seen a good argument against them yet.
Bf 110 Autocannon Heavy Strafing Run: A heavy anti infantry strafing run, akin to the IL-2 strafe in Coh2. It would also be of variable length. Let's say X is your first click and Y is your second, which marks the end and direction of the run, the default run is diagram A, but you can drag the cursor of point Y as far as you want, with a maximum of either 35 range or when you don't have enough munitions banked up for the run. This gives you the flexibility of deciding how much you want to spend and where it will land. A well placed strafe on retreat could be devastating. The cursor should highlight the munitions cost as you drag from point x to point y.
Me 210 Light (SC50) Bombing Run: This is a much lighter bombing run than the US carpet bombing. It should be single line and relatively fast, the damage of the shells should be roughly equivalent to 5.5 inch artillery shells.
https://preview.redd.it/qi30nfn7t61d1.png?width=1417&format=png&auto=webp&s=200547a5ba6b66003c79100161f2613bc96b8c4f
Central Idea: Map presence, retaining position. The battlegroup was inspired by the invasion of Crete.
Luftwaffe Ground Forces: Somewhat similar to the Coh1 equivalent, they would be a fairly weak combat squad with lots of utility. In this case, they would have various construction options as well as being able to heal squads. L.P.Z. Light AT Mines would be more spamable than your standard mines, would be cheaper and only detonate on vehicles. If the vehicle is on less than 80% health, it would cause an engine crit. As an alpha damage, probably 75% of the standard mine would be sufficient. It would require 2 of these mines to detonate on a full health vehicle to engine crit it basically. Dosenmines are essentially like S-Mines and would be planted in patches. The M30 Drilling Shotgun Shot ability would be targeted on a squad and would have short range of about 5. You’d more or less use it like you would a grenade, except it like a throwing knife and the Sniper Shot ability, it can’t be dodged. More than likely, you’d get just one of these squads to augment your composition, with PGs as the mainline.
DFS 230 Glider HQ: Essentially a standard glider, you can drop it in to provide in field reinforcement. However, this glider can also heal nearby squads and recrew team weapons. In addition, the DFS 230 has roof top MG15 upgrade, which turns it into something akin to a light MG emplacement. So there are a few ways I see this being useful. One would be to drop the glider so that it covers your cut off, upgrade the MG and it will make it much harder for your opponent to cut you off and you’ll get infield reinforcement with healing. Maps like Famonville and Road to Tunis, this would be immensely useful. Another use would be in intense VP wars, at the end of the game you want to secure a flank VP, you drop the glider in and upgrade the MG, in many ways its like an auto build, quick deploy MG emplacement, that can also reinforce. Great for map control.
250 W/ Flak 38: Fairly vanilla, like the other 250 callins except with a Flak 38. The Flak 38 would have identical performance to the Flak 30 of Wehr, one way to differentiate them would be to give the gun shield heavy cover properties, but reduce the unit to 4 men to compensate.
Ju-87 Multi Vector MG Strafes: Essentially 3 separate strafes that you call in one after the other. The difference between this and a standard MG strafe is that these strafes give you what is essentially a ‘bulk buy discount’, but also, since they can be targeted in 3 totally separate places within LOS, your opponent has to react quickly to dodge all 3 of them. Its acts as a micro spike test, where you quickly throw them down and they quickly have to dodge. The skill of placing them all fast and accurately needs to be matched by the skill in dodging them all. Moreover, when combined with an attack with units, it can create an overwhelming set of threats.
Bomb Drop Overwatch: The most comparable ability to this would be sector artillery. However, in this case, its planes dropping bombs on units that come into the territory. Its not exactly a loiter though as the planes wait off map, they can still be shot down however. In terms of how strong the bombs should be, it would require testing but somewhere between a 5.5 inch shell and the US Dive Bomb would be a good place to start. Ideally a broad AOE, with only a small zone of full damage. This tool would essentially be used for area denial and be really strong in VP wars.
Ready Reinforcements: A fairly straight forward ability that speeds up reinforcement and allows quick return to the battlefield, again allowing you to retain field presence. Another feature of this ability is that it speeds up in field reinforcement and allows infantry to sprint in friendly territory outside of combat, being able to react to hot spots faster.
Junkers Ju 52 Reinforcement Pass: This is most comparable to the Paradrop Reinforcements of US, except where that ability is a stream of reinforcements over a long duration, this ability is more geared towards a burst of reinforcements all at once. There’s an element of skill in its deployment, as you’re incentivised to line up as many squads lengthwise as possible to maximise reinforcements dropped per munitions expenditure. Since its substantially longer than wide, you could have several squads in different engagements all ‘caught’ in the line and all benefiting from the ability. I could see this happening when you have multiple squads spread across the centre of the map and all located within the area of effect. The ability can be used to swing engagements and keep units in the field.
Paradrop 4.2cm Pak 41 Team: Self-explanatory, the performance of the Pak would be better than both the Pak 36 and the 38, as well as being more mobile than the 38. Useful to quickly deploy AT to a trouble spot.
Temporary Bolster: During the duration of the ability, squads can get an extra man. So Panzer grenadiers can go from 5 to 6 (or from 6 to 7), MG34s go from 4 to 5, Paks likewise etc. This applies to all infantry and support weapons. Once the ability ends, the extra model doesn’t leave, but when the squad drops back to normal numbers of models, it won’t return to the bolstered level until the ability is reactivated. What this ability allows you to do is augment the heath and DPS of your squads temporarily, making them more survivable in the field. Obviously though, the extra models are not free, costing both manpower and munitions.
Temporary Fallschirmjägers Assignment: Like the 222 assignment in the previous battlegroup, this involves you taking control of 2 squads which leave the battlefield after a period of time. In this case, 2 squads of MP40 Falls are dropped where you like and then can be used to sow carnage for 75 seconds from when they touch the ground. Their MP40s make them ideal for flanking team weapons, they have smoke grenades and the can throw short range snares. So you could potentially drop them in behind the lines with the intention of catching a vehicle trying to back up from the front line. One massive use of this ability will be in VP wars, where you drop them onto a VP in the lategame to swing the match in your favour. They don’t cost manpower, population or upkeep, but require a lot of munitions.
Historical Accuracy Notes
A few notes on what is inaccurate or anachronistic. The Panzer III Munitions Vehicle, as far as I know, wasn’t used in Africa but on the Eastern Front. There was another, the Lorraine Schlepper Munitions Vehicle, that was used in Africa for the exact same purpose and this could be used instead, but the benefits of the P3 are reduced development cost as some of the voice lines and the vehicle sounds can be reused. I’m also not so sure whether Side Skirts were used on P3s in North Africa, I haven’t seen photo evidence in any case.
The MG131, while used in a ground HMG role, I haven’t seen evidence of it being used by the DAK in North Africa. About ten Sd.Kfz.6/3 AT Halftracks were used, some people might object to that unit on these grounds. I haven’t seen evidence of the Pak 41 being used in North Africa, I’m also fairly sure they didn’t paradrop them. The M30 Drilling Shotgun was used in North Africa…but only by downed pilots. The Madsen Belt Fed MG was a Luftwaffe contract gun, but I haven’t seen evidence of it being used in North Africa. Likewise with the Panzerhandmine 3. Needless to say, all these are exceptions. Otherwise, to the best of my knowledge, these designs are historically congruent.
Design Notes
I deliberately avoided using Italian Units in these designs. Following from what I said about Relic doubling down on Coh3, I feel it makes sense for them to eventually create an Italian Faction, so I didn’t want to cannibalise that faction, especially when the DAK already has plenty of material to play with.
What to do with the remaining units in the files?
There are several other units in the game files that I haven’t used here. This was intentional. Several people having been calling out for the substitute vehicle feature from Coh1:
https://preview.redd.it/ijcq0sb6t61d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=62585a9618ad9fb793d9ce95dcaccacf61dabaaa
As a feature it makes a lot of sense, I feel the community would be far more interested in small and frequent content drops like these instead of cosmetics and they could be priced to be more profitable than battlegroups at less development cost. They would ideally be more frequent as well, bringing players to the game. I feel games like War Thunder and WOT benefit from the sheer variety of units and I can’t see how this wouldn’t apply to Coh. Whenever they release, the units will be similar enough to the units they replace that they won’t disturb balance much, meaning less emergency balance hotfixes.
I feel this is what makes the most sense for the units already modelled, for example, the Panzer II is fundamentally serving the exact same role as the 8-Rad, they’re both 20mm autocannon light vehicles. Its hard to imagine a build where you would build both of them in the same composition and trying to make them different would be clumsy. We see this with the L6/40s, which are also similar to the 8 Rad and have been specialised to be worse against infantry and better against vehicles, to mixed results. Then there’s the 250/9. Adding another autocannon light vehicle via a battlegroup wouldn’t be that different from what we already have but as a substitute vehicle it makes a lot of sense. This logic can be applied to most of the vehicles already in the game files. The substitutions I would advise would be:
https://preview.redd.it/rermeob5t61d1.png?width=584&format=png&auto=webp&s=9a507899379f8fcd8c50d3ae04d85f8982f7ca12
The Panzerjäger I is already in the game files and could be substituted for the Marder. It would have less health and worse pen, but could be made significantly cheaper. This would be an interesting trade off in the composition. Alternatively, there’s the Marder III H which also could be made as a substitute, it would largely have the same performance but could have an MG upgrade and have a different starting price.
https://preview.redd.it/1jsj20n4t61d1.png?width=698&format=png&auto=webp&s=8be575f13ce97a2cd6c3e773ce16d67885949a5c
The Sturmpanzer II would have a much larger up front damage, closer to a Brummbär, but would have a lot less health and far worse frontal armour. You wouldn’t be tanking Bazooka shots like you do with the StuG D but it would be significantly more deadly.
https://preview.redd.it/gza0pvy3t61d1.png?width=526&format=png&auto=webp&s=c3425632265b68ee6e8d47216ceb8d6c0f36b83b
For the Opel Blitz Flak 38, it would be cool if this worked more like the Flak HT in Coh2, with the set up time and suppression. So this unit could be made cheaper and have the same role as the Flakvierling, but be more finicky to use.
Others:
https://preview.redd.it/mtp4c3a3t61d1.png?width=702&format=png&auto=webp&s=32e312dabe55957321e2ec9af9e8f89f89709906
https://preview.redd.it/n0klnvo2t61d1.png?width=652&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5825bd63a95e22090b3b9f52a8f820e61054537
https://preview.redd.it/59hqrd02t61d1.png?width=617&format=png&auto=webp&s=428ac413c7d8617936417072a1e74e0116285c46
https://preview.redd.it/9xmco9e1t61d1.png?width=813&format=png&auto=webp&s=3f34a21b37f36313900d7dc0cc2f0fa025370b03
Conclusion
This is what I would do with the remaining DAK content, short of a rework. The battlegroups are unique, fairly historically accurate, thematic and interesting. The concepts can at least be stolen and repurposed elsewhere. If there’s anything clearly broken or so amazing that it needs a shout out, feel free to let me know. I have other ideas for the other factions but I'm still pondering them.
PS. This is a repost from before, when I initially posted this I didn't understand how Reddit worked.

eFootball gameplay seem to be going in a bad direction for the past months. To much AI defending/assistance/game balancing, game adding input lag, interceptions, poor passing, fouls not called for, hot potato football not rewarding any type of skillful play. The gameplay feels like its on rails, freedom is gone, players don't respond to your inputs and chances are created by either teams AI players mistakes or incredibly stupid runs. It's just not fun to play anymore. Neither online or vs AI.
eFootball could be fantastic if Konami would listen to ideas, criticism and improve. Here is my wishlist. Feedback based on me and the kids playing on PS4, PS5 and mobile. Offline and online.

1. Reduce the heavy AI assistance / game-balancing / handholding / Auto defending / Dynamic Difficulty / momentum / whatchamacallit (scr...). I understand its for getting new players staying in the game, having a chance getting coins in the events and winning games. And perhaps make games more non-predictable "anything can happen, maybe". With the current AI handholding level its "anything will happen, constantly". So many chances are created by either teams AI players making mistakes or just making incredibly stupid runs, its like a badly scripted B-movie. The amount of goalpost hits and missed open goals is just silly currently, this goes on until the last few minutes of each match. Please reduce it, or even remove it from Co-op and other game modes where skill should be rewarded. I'd rather get smashed 15-0 and learn from a good player. Than having to play another game with: added input lag and your players turn, react with 0,5 sec delay / 1 team loses every header / 4 shots in goalpost / own goals / missed open goals from 2-3m consequently, instead you have to run the ball into goal!!! / hide n seek players with pass receiver running away from the ball positioning behind defender / every ball intercepted / misdirected passes / every pass straight to other team / passes goes through "invisible" player / player freezing or even running wrong direction vs your stick / opponent attacking with high punt or lofted pass but your defender running past the ball towards opposition goal / ball glued to opposite player in the box / every attempt clearing the ball goes short distance straight to other team, even goalie high punt / all stunning shots 3m over the goal before 85min + all the other crap that's in there. This gameplay on rails is so unrewarding. If I manage to do something skillfull the AI assistance just kills the opportunity with any means. When the AI assistance takes a break, I get an easy goal with no effort from a random through pass + tap in. Many times I can't tell if I am playing well or the game has decided I should win/lose, it kills the joy for me and it's just boring. If Konami could tone down all the weird punishments I'd be very grateful.
2. Passing and interceptions. Currently worst ever IMO. Game just decides your pass from a player in balance is 90-180 degrees of straight to opponent. Even on Beginner AI and no matter PA1, 2 or 3😂 And the constant interceptions. No flow in the game. Please work on this Konami.
3. Remove the artificial input-lag. (This is a controversial one, some players simply don't believe our experience it. For me it's obvious as it can be tested offline in several ways on PS5, on mobile I havent tried to confirm it) Stop punishing one side with artificial input lag which make the gameplay feel heavy, unresponsive and your players turn & react with 0,5 sec delay. This is not from server lag as it's there in AI matches and local Trial matches as well, just switch controller between team 1 & 2 and feel the difference. It might activate from beginning of game, or in 2nd half, usually when you are doing well. And vice versa it can dissapear in 2nd half. From my experience it can be reduced or removed by switching playstyle. When finding the right playstyle for that specific match, your players suddenly become responsive again, it can even happen after switching to lowest Manager profiency. I assume its part of the game balancing mechanics. For me this is one of the worst things in the current game, when it kicks in your players don't respond to inputs in time and gameplay just feels awful.
4. Fix the player freezing. Example: after losing a header to last defender suddenly your attacker just freezes. What's going on here? Have Konami added to much AI handholding and broken the game? 😂😂😂
5. Reward different playstyles like build up play. Currently most games seem to be high press, interception ping-pong, quick pass and no dribbles. Hot potato football. Holding the ball has become very difficult. Before the AI assistance and auto defending went berzerk, you could actually keep the ball for a second and do something creative. Without 3-5 guys surrounding your player with no options. Now the gameplay is boring with the lack of variety.
6. Create a game mode free from AI assistance & artificial input lag. Just pure skill. It could be beta, division free or whatever just let us play without the heavy AI handholding. And maybe eFootball will be esports ready 😉. To be honest if another football game is released without momentum/game-balancing /added input-lag and with gameplay based on pure skill. I think eFootball will lose a lot of players.
7. Add Dream team into Trial match. As Trial match is the only game mode which supports 2-4 local players on same screen using one Playstation. We have 2 kids who love the card collecting and building their team. But playing online is of no interest to them, and won't be in many years. They want to play local PvP or co-op with their own Dream team on the same screen from one Playstation. By now we are very tired of playing the same local play Trial match Argentina Vs PSG. The kids have almost stopped playing eFootball, since they cant play against each other with their own team. In addition this would be a great way to test out new players, builds and game mechanics together with a friend. Much more fun than training mode. This mode is what my family is missing most from this game. And if it would be a "pure" mode without any momentum/game-balancing things would be fantastic. Just pure skill, best player wins.
8. Please add Dream team to Trial match local co-op Vs AI. As Trial match is the only game mode which supports 2-4 local players on same screen using one Playstation. Would be so much fun to test my Dream Team against the AI together with the kids or a friend on the couch beside you. Would love this mode if it would become available.
9. Add local co-op (one screen, one Playstation) to Events. Would be great if me and the kids could take on the events together from one Playstation. At least add it to the AI events. Then we would actually play them and not just sim them for GP and experience.
10. Myleague local and online co-op. Add both local co-op (one Playstation, same screen) and online co-op into Myleague please. A reason to play it and win the league together with the kids or friends 😀
11. Make My League worth playing. 100.000GP for completing 38 matches and winning the league is very poor IMO. Add some skill trainers and raise the GP perhaps?
12. Add all Goal Scorers, Assists and Passes made to Half Time and Full Time game stats. So we can quickly get the overview of which player cards performed well in both teams. That information would be highly appreciated.
13. Contract renewal is way too expensive. Considering many players have paid plenty in real money to get the favourite players, and you only get to keep your player for 1 year. We are paying for this digital football Pokémon and we can't even use it as long as we would like. There should be more ways to get contract renewals, the periods should be longer, 3/6/9/12months and the price should be lower. Currently it's just irritating and another killing the fun factor.
14. Make each playstyle worth using. And reward playing different type of formations. Instead of everyone using META 4 defenders and no wingers/LMF/RMF.
15. Better & more expensive Point shop players. Can we please have some decent players? I'd gladly spend 50000-100000 pink points for a player if his stats are good. IMO there hasn't been an interesting player since Ferrer & Pires. Currently I don't see any use for points except contact renewal.
16. Remove the GP cost for player reset. Having to wait for 2-3 months and then stressing for a few free weeks to retrain and test new builds doesn't make sense. GP is too valuable for me, I use it for Legacy Transfer and Contract renewal, and the few occasional GP buys for Events or hidden gems. I enjoy training players and trying out new builds, if free it would keep me logging in even when there is nothing else to do in the game.
17. Reduce the cost for Legacy transfer. Getting your wanted skills and then transferring to your favourite player is one of the game aspects I really like. But 257,000 GP for one transfer is a lot and takes away much of the fun in Legacy transfer. You get 1 Mbappe for less than 2 Legacy transfer. I am always low on GP these days, and I think 100,000-150,000 GP would be reasonable for Legacy transfer for 1 skill.
18. Legacy transfer of skills to POTW cards. If we could add 1-2 skills to the POTW the cards would be more interesting and I'd spend more coins spinning. We would get more varied and unpredictable squads instead of everybody using the same players. Most players know the good cards, what to expect from opponents cards and how to counter. Lets say you add some strong passing or shooting skills to a player usually weak in that aspect. The unpredicability would be awesome!
19. Replace/delete added skills. Building players would be much more fun if I could replace a trained skill with another one using legacy transfer. Or just be able to delete an added skill. Perhaps my playstyle changes and I want Neymar to have Through passing instead of the previously added Long-range shooting.
20. GP an option for pack spins. But it shouldn't be easy. Hard grind should be rewarded as it gives a reason to play the game. I am thinking 7,5M GP you get 75 spins in a 150 pack. That takes perhaps 6 months to grind. And perhaps the remaining 75 spins is coins only. Lower thresholds like 10 spins för 1M GP would be great but I understand its not gonna happen, as it would hurt the coin sales.
21. Remove the 500 player cap or reduce cost of adding player slots. If you are grinding skill trainers with 0GP players and training players the 500 fills up quite easily. Or reduce the 500.000GP for an extra 50 players to maybe 100.000GP. This 500 player limit is very annoying and seems unnecessary.
22. Add skill trainers and position trainers to each match pass. Would make the Match Pass way more interesting and I would spend coins.
23. Make it worthwhile playing League / divisions. Currently I don't see much reason to play it. A few skill trainers and low GP reward can't motivate me spending the time. Add prices like Special unique cards, Kits, Avatars, POTW spins or something else to keep players motivated. This game needs special rewards!!
24. Find a way to prevent players from forfeiting games, at least events and co-op. Maybe if you are down a few goals sometimes add a random bonus like score with player X to receive 1 skill trainer, 10000 GP or something. Just to motivate players completing the match. Or create a non forfeit streak, like 10, 20 or 30 games without forfeit and you get an free extra POTW spin. (Credit: Part of this idea is from eFootball Universe Youtube)
25. 1st celebration should also be skippable. It's just time consuming in online games. Not adding any value to except maybe noobs who scored their first goal ever.
26. An option to make Sub tactic clearly visible in Game plan if activated. I played to many games now without knowing I had sub-tactic activated 😂
27. Matchmaking. This was good for a while after the matchmaking update, but not anymore. There must be something seriously wrong here. When playing in Division 9 to 7, we constantly get division 1-2 opponents in the events. Had top 120 and top 200 in a row even. 750M downloads and nobody else playing. Really?
28. The daily penalty needs an upgrade. Suggestion: More fun If I could choose player from my Dream Team. And add random Epic goalies to spice it up 😉
29. Add statistics of headers, penalties and free kicks scored on each player card. This would add value and make it more interesting building squads. Konami you have the data, use it!
30. More variety in Events. BBVA, Turkish, Brazilian Italian, English, Japan league. Over and over and over... Cmon Konami create something different so we can rotate our squads more. Suggestion: An event where only max 4 star players are allowed? Or higher GP rewards the weaker squad you use? (Credit: idea is partly from Rockchok Youtube)
31. More Beat the Clock type of events. Both me and the kids enjoyed this one. Create something similar for skill moves. Example: Perform 5 Double touch + 5 Marseille turn across pitch with fixed dummies or defending players. Or a sequence where you have to perform skill move x and y before scoring.
32. Objectives with extra bonuses. Add weekly objectives or similar. Score a hat-trick, win on penalties or score 5 times using skill move. And get some type of rewards, GP, Skill trainers, Position trainers, avatars, whatever just variety and something to play for.
33. Co-op events. So much potential but the gameplay on rails, AI assistance and the constant random AI punishments kills the fun for me. You feel almost instantly if the AI assistance is on your side or against you. Either everything goes your way and it's too easy or Epics can't make a simple pass, the input lag kicks in and your player is even dragged out of position so the other team can score. Every game feels pre-decided with almost every touch being a mistake or fumble by the team who is supposed to concede a goal. Or its 1 goal back and forth with short sequences where the conceeding team can't touch the ball. In my experience the AI assistance is at its worst in the Co-op games. Quite easy to spot as players regularly just drop the controller. And game continues to auto defend like prime AC Milan, the non-active player is forcefielded holding the ball, every ball in the box is magically sucked to defenders feet and passes and clearings going 90-180 degrees off straight to opponent. Recent example which has happened in several co-op games: Goalie makes several stupid run outs to a perfect 4 man defending line, leaving the net wide open. Changing goalie doesn't help. Same thing with 2nd goalie until opponent gets his 2 goals. Sorry but when my player, gameplay and result is controlled by AI instead of me and my teammate I lose interest.
34. Add 2nd local player to co-op online events. Why can't 2 players join the co-op events together from one Playstation? Me and the kids would play co-op events a lot if this was possbile.
35. Booster player forms. Wirtz card and several other are never on A-form. Whats the point of creating a booster card then? (credit: PES Pepe Youtube)
36. Communication. Info on gameplay changes in each update would be appreciated. Like before. (credit: PES Pepe Youtube))
37. Heavy first touch or fumble receiving the ball. +90 Ball control player cant receive a pass without starting to fumble or needing several seconds to gain control, then losing the ball, again and again and again. Does stats even matter when game balancing just decides anyway?
38. Don't launch Crossplay with mobile. I suspect the recent braindead heavy assisted gameplay is needed for upcoming crossplay console & mobile update. This might be what we are getting. Gameplay on rails, autodefend, no skill, unrewarding, boring. I hope I am wrong and the previous fun gameplay on console is not gone forever 😢.
39. Master League? Promised some years ago. I guess it does not generate enough coin sales?
40. Edit mode. Create a custom crest and kits for our dream team.
41. AI games are boring and inconsistent. Even on easier difficulties the dynamic game balancing makes you miss so many chances in 1st half, open goals whatever. Then in 2nd its just walk the ball into box and quick shot goal. But if you decide to pass the ball in the box then it's magnet to defender, why not reward passing in the box? The inconsistency in the AI is just bad. And the coding seems lazy. I watch our 11 year old play and do all the right things, but the game just kills all her self-created chances. On harder difficulties even if I read the play and position perfectly to intercept a pass, the pass goes straight through my defender. And adding to that the constant interceptions and not being able to hold ball more than 0.3sec. To my understanding the AI was better before without having to bypass game mechanics (cheat), instead it was actually playing smarter. For me playing the AI is either too easy once the early game "Thou shall not score" wears off or just boring on higher difficulties. How hard is it to develop AI gameplay which is both fun, rewarding and teaching how to play better?
42. Player speed is broken. The slowest defender will catch up in 2-3 seconds with any attacker running with the ball. No matter stats of players. You make a great pass but this broken game mechanic ruins the opportunity. This is both unrealistic and highly unrewarding.
43. Player switching. Another game mechanic which seems broken and with hidden punishments added. I have mostly been using semi-assist and player oriented switching, R stick to switch. Recently switched to ball-oriented. And in my experience. When the game is against you, it constantly punishes you with bad player switching and worst default player selection. Many times the game refuses to switch to player in front of ball when I am trying to defend. Instead I am flicking through the guys behind the attacking player, while I am trying to get control of my defender. When I have free kick against me, default player is always the worst possible option eg. my CF standing 10m behind the free kick taker. Why? I enjoy a challenge but having to fight with my controller is not one of them.
44. Sort player list by team name. Would help when choosing team for events. And a nice feature when browsing all my players.
45. Position trainers. This feature was a nice addition. But can be improved and made more interesting. (A) Remove the possibility of getting duplicates on full position slots. It's just stupid and annoying. (B) Add random playstyle rewards on the new position. So an AMF Hole Player could also be SS Deep Lying Forward after Position training. (Credit: efNuts YouTube)
46. Add Position and Skill trainers to point shop. At least we could spend the pink points on something. (Credit: Shoshinsha65)

Some of these are cosmetics and should be quite easy to implement, whereas others like new type of events takes more effort. Dream team in Trial mode and adding already existing local Co-op to more events/game modes shouldn't be that difficult. Gameplay affecting changes are likely hard and need to be tested so it doesn't affect game in a negative way.
I guess Konami calculates profits are better by pushing all players to online play. But at the same time they are neglecting the player group which prefers offline, and are willing to buy coins to get their favourite players cards. Hopefully Konami will reconsider, add a proper Master League and more offline modes with co-op and PvP.
All in all it should result in a more enjoyable experience for both ballers, casuals, squad-builders, card-collectors and those who just want offline couch co-op or PvP with their Dream team. More people having fun and spending time in the game usually results in praise, recommendations and growing user count = more coins spent. Konami keeps earning and customer base is happy. Everyone wins.
/ Cheers and thanks for reading
(This post is continously edited)
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