A large part of the Axis vs. Allies balance revolves on Allies having superior anti-infantry and Axis having superior anti-tank. Giving Allies stock heavies breaks that balance since Allies still have superior infantry but are on par with Axis in terms of AT power, unless those heavy tanks are all Churchill clones.
I disagree. Maybe at the start of CoH2 but not anymore. Allies may have access to more elite infantry but anti-infantry/anti-tank options for all factions are the same.
The current balance revolves around 'forced' weaknesses put on factions that must be resolved by doctrinal choices. Even then a faction is usually lacking something that another faction will have. Soviets are probably the best example of the intended model. They have lots of commanders to choose from, the faction has very obvious weaknesses but can be fixed by picking the right commander.
To provide some examples:
- Brits lack team mortars, infantry with tank snare, cheap TD(s), machine gun emplacement, reinforce halftrack, indirect field gun and rocket artillery.
- USF lack heavy panzers, no artillery, rocket artillery and a sniper. Initially they did not have team mortars either and relied on infantry to move around MG teams.
- Soviets lack good infantry and heavy panzers although this is usually resolved through doctrine choices (they have the biggest pool).
- OKW lack good early game infantry, cheap engineers, machine gun emplacement, reinforce halftrack, sniper, cache building, team mortars, good anti-tank weapons team and they have the worst tech tree of all factions. Early game, they are forced to go down two paths which will dictate the entirety of the early-mid game. Most of this is made up by being very good with the things they do have.
- Wehr lack indirect field gun, early access to anti-tank option (weak to light tanks) and probably more that I cant think of right now.
This is no way a comprehensive list but this is what the current balance is.
Axis have easy access to heavy panzers which makes going tank destroyers an obvious choice for Allied players. What if both sides had access to tank destroyers and heavy panzers though? Wouldn't that be a more fun game when you would have to decide on which to get? Instead of having the choice laid out for you.