I fail to see a purpose for the panzer elite in OF. I've been playing this since the closed beta started, and I can and have won many times as PE, but if the brits are played correctly it is very hard to make any progress.
Tommies with vet LTs are godlike, PIATs destroy armor plus 17 pounder guns that are no longer bugged, canister shot, the insane amount of artillery, glider spam, rifle grenades are about 3x as effective as a pineapple of doom when taking on garrisoned units, button is a horrible ability.
The panzer elite on the other hand are just terrible. They tech like Allies, except there's about twice as many things to upgrade or unlock. Most of the time you have to build a building, and then reserach an unlock before you can even begin building the unit you're looking for. "Panzer" Elite should be renamed Halftrack Elite; there are no tanks. You get called in panthers as an end of the game ability. Other than that there is no true tank available. Panzer IV F1 is an anti-infantry short barrelled 75mm howitzer. Marder, Jagdtiger, and Hetzer are tank destroyers without turrets. The whirbelwind is a somewhat better version of the Ostwind. Again, the only true tanks available are the called in panthers, the Panzer Elite has no access to Tigers or buildable Panzer IVs and Panthers.
The halftracks and armored cars are insane, there are 1) 250, 2) mortar, 3) vampire, 4) AT, 5) munitions, 6) armored car, 7) scout car... yes, 7 light armored vehicles. 2 of which have no way of defending themselves whatsoever (munitions and vampire), another 2 that are situational (250 with infantry onboard and mortar halftrack), and in general they are all very very easy to kill.
Their infantry is their only saving grace, but even then they require large numbers of squads with maybe a dozen total upgrades.
Panzergrenadiers start with 3 squad members, upgrade to 4. Anti-tank grenade upgrade, incendiary grenade upgrade, point capping upgrade, veteran seargent upgrade, repair upgrade, zeal, sprinting. MP44, schrek, and Gewher 43 weapon upgrades. It's possible to tech up and build straight anti-tank squads or MP44 assault squads that come equipped with their weapons, but they cost more manpower to do so, which from my experience is the most important resource in CoH games.
The doctrines don't even make that big of a difference; Luftwaffe is like a crappy version of Defense, Tank hunters are kind of pointless unless you just really want AT mines, upgraded tank ammo, or a jagdpanther. Scorched Earth is in my opinion the only good doctrine. It allows on map artillery in the form of the Hummel, it allows you to create unpassable AT obstacles, booby trap points and buildings, and knock out resource points.
I think the biggest improvements from OF were in the form of Terror Doctrine for the Wermacht. Tiger Ace replaced by King Tiger, V1 changed, firestorm given fire damage. (also, walking stukas given fire damage, they're amazing)
