That depends on how much you buff their k98. You (in theory) could buff their overall dmg to svt Penals/k98 Obers dmg level and adjust their initial manpower cost.
About IS vs Pfussies:
It doesnt matter if Sections or Füssies win barely long range. What matters is that long range is the worst range for okw in that matchup. So you should always try to close the distance.
And about Shreck Füssies: Tbh i havent seen them since months. Idk how viable they are. But i guess they would work better with cheaper base/reinforce cost.
I think what you'd need to do, if you wanted to buff Fusie early-game performance for whatever reason, is to move some of their vet accuracy to their base kit, this does as people seem to want: Buffs them early, and makes 0 difference lategame.
Panzerfusiliers do have a fairly notable strength of their immediate AT grenade, and I think generally this is what people pick them up early on for.
Ultimately; Panzerfusiliers have the current design of being Volksgrenadier- in combat terms in the early game, and Volksgrenadier++ in the lategame, as they have the same preferred ranges, and broadly the same abilities.
If you make them equally as strong as Volksgrenadiers in the early game, but still stronger than them in the lategame, they're pretty much a no-brainer upgrade. The only thing they lack over Volksgrenadiers is the ability to build green cover... but they're a more mobile squad by design.
If you want them to be supplemental to Volksgrenadiers, rather than a "replacement" unit, then the ideal is that one unit or the other (or both) changes its' design a bit, so they don't do what is basically the same job. Fusies having their G43s tailored to midrange performance, and Volks having their STGs replaced with the occasionally suggested MP40s, for example. Alternatively: fusies are made into an "elite" infantry variant, like JLI, Fallschirmjager, or Obersoldaten, rather than being intended as "mainline".
None of this is more than a theoretical discussion though, there are far too many changes here for the Balance team to consider with the resources they have, and with how reasonably well OKW functions right now. Maybe if OKW return in CoH3 (lel) then anything in this realm might happen.
I think it still does matter if Fusies win at long range, if they do then non-brenned sections don't HAVE a range in which they beat Fusies, as Fusies' weakest range is at 35, and they ramp up very quickly from there. You should always try to close the distance, of course, but you don't "need" to to win, and that's worth knowing. Anyway, the thread was about some guy thinking 5man Sections beat Fusies in every scenario for some reason, so that's all that was really being discussed.
My understanding is that Shreck fusies are one of the strongest AT squad in the game. Do they need a buff?
Because the general cooldown values for LMG are way higher vs bolt action rifles. If say one is 0.5 and the other is 1.5, if both are affected by a 20% increase, the first one goes up by +0.1 and the other by +0.3
Note that any change in any stat other than Dmg and accuracy doesn't translate linearly to changes in DPS. Cause more or less the equation is Dmg x Accuracy x (All other factors go in here)
Good point. I don't think the DPS change for their Enfields within and without cover is negligible though, is it? Perhaps I'm overestimating its' impact, and its mostly the RA changes that make the difference in their performance before they get their Brens.