FOOs allows your lead tank to bring in creeping smoke barrage with near-instant infantry suppression. It's useful but not OP at all...TDM just needs to stop sucking at videogames.
Bishop, my good friend, you should also remember that it grants LTs and Cpts the officer 25 pounder barrage ability, the best single artillery ability in the whole game, which lands an extremely accurate shell almost instantly, being impossible to dodge in an online game with 150+ latency. It's irritating if it drops on your infantry, because it kills some guys and forces a retreat, it's infuriating when it drops on an mg, or a mortar, or a sniper and instagibs the whole team.
I think I've seen the tank smoke ability used like four times online, ever. The point is not that FOO is unbeatable, game breaking or such, but that it's far too effective compared to comparable artillery abilities, and unlocks far too early for how good it is (1 CP, first ability on that side of the tree).
panther battlegroups are terrible and if you let the enemy float 1000mp you deserve to lose
They save up for them, dude. PBG appear in almost every game unless the allies have ruthlessly outplayed them early game to the point where they can't even tech up to that. The first PBG being 1000 manpower is fine because of the tech costs associated with them and how much of a pop-cap drain they are. The issue is, as related to axis steamroller design, that subsequent PBGs are the same cost, and it's effectively the PE's method of getting late game overwhelming superiority (the Wehr gets vet, obviously).
axis needs to be a steamroller because allies are so ruthlessly overpowered early game (particularly brits, who can shit out what amounts to a t2 vehicle at t0)
Yes, when I complain about it being "irritating" I mean the whole game being designed around "strong Allies early/mid, unstoppable axis late game" results in frustration. Frustration for Axis because being outplayed slightly early on in the early or mid game spells doom half the time, and frustration for the allies because if you're outplaying them immensely in the late game they will still beat you most of the time. The feeling of losing when you're playing so much better than your opponent is one of those annoying things that I would love to vanquish in the sequel.
allied infantry blobs do suck, but there are plenty of ways to deal with them (now more than ever)
I can and do regularly deal with them. Once again, the point is not that it can't be defeated, but that it's too effective for how simple a strategy it is to pull off. I would say that the majority of online games feature rifleblobs, parablobs, or general british infantry spam. I'm only mid level axis though, since Allies were always my main. Being on the receiving end of allies sure changed my perception of the game balance, though.