For me it seems like the german factions are a bit more easy to micro and a bit more "passive" way of playing, that are attractive for the casual gamers. This is probably why the queues are favouring the axis, as it is more rewarding for playing the axis.
I'll try to describe my personal opinion on this.
In 1v1, Sovjet vs Wehr is probably the most balanced match-up, as these two factions has units that matches/counters each other. Tho, I would say that the Wehr requires a little less micro as playing passive with mgs and pak's, may be forgiving and rewarding against mediocre sovjet tactics. One can debate that the German armour is a bit stronger than Sovjet one, but in my opinion it is all just RNG gods trolling around having some laughs. Pz IV bouncing shots on T-34/Su 85s rear and side armour and vice-versa. ISU vs Ferdi/ Tiger vs IS-2 are all in all quite close in performance, tho the Ferdi can be a tough nut to crack, as the sovjets can't out range it.
OKW and US are a whole different story, these two factions in 1v1's are just laughable. My experience so far is that the OKW player can rape the US player hard in the early game, with a well placed kübel/sturm rush, tho the US player can counter it with two riflesquads + echos, but you will probably lose one squad to bait the sturm pios. Mid game, well if the US players gets up early AAA truck or a Stuart they can pretty much dominate and win, vice versa with an early Jagdpanzer + Volks (w/shreks).
If the late arrives the US simply can't hold its own ground, as the rifleman are highly out-gunned by Obers/fallschermjägers, even with the expensive BARs, they won't keep their ground as the main infantry. Where is the elite US infantry (non commander)? Jacksons and Shermans are also quite weird, with the horrible pathing, it is hard to use the speed and manouverability, as they get stuck and to yolo 180s when you try to reverse out of danger. The early german mortars and mgs (wehr) will also cause massive problems for an US player, since in the early game, 1/2 well placed MG's + Grens/1 x Mortar will simply wreck your rifleman. Flanking the MG's are probably the l2play problem, as most germans with a brain will cover/place their mgs in good positions where you can't reach them.
TL: DR - 1v1
Germans requires less overall micro
Sovjets/US requires more micro for a powerful build.
US Forces in general lacks vital infantry, mortar abilities/late game units as Pershings/Jumbo's.
2v2 - Where to begin
2 x Sovjet vs 2 x Wehr
Balanced as 1v1 situation, described above, sovjet tactics is a bit more challenging, but more rewarding when you make them work. Germans can allow themselves to play a bit more passive, and rely on early armour/pak+mgs to breaktrough the sovjet lines. Atleast this is my experience.
1 x US+ 1 x Sovjet vs 1 x Wehr + 1 x Okw
This is where the real balance problems lies in my opinion. The current "weak" US factions makes them a burden for the Sovjet player if the game drags out past 20mins, as German heavy armour have an wide edge over the current US late game units in-game. The Priest can be lethal as ****, but it won't cut it against swarms of Tiger II's, Panthers etc. As the US is currenlty decent/excelling at early/early mid game, this forces the allies to be switch up the pace and swarm the german positions before heavy armour/ or an Ost-wind appears.
The skills for managing these types of aggressive flanking/swarming, without getting pinned and forced to retreat by well placed mgs/bunkers/wages are probably, requires some brain beyond the screen, and as in most online games this doesn't exist amongst the wide spread of random players you meat as an allied players. Most of the players are "hurr durr" lets walk straight into an MG-42 and whine about bad teamm8s and not helping your teamm8 when he is getting double teamed, while the single MG-42 is wrecking all your bad headon infantry attacks on an MG.
Tho I rarely play with randoms this is mostly what happens when I venture into the 2v2 mode without a friend on ts3.
Current build (commander/strategy/tactics) needed to successfully bringing down a well coordinated Axis opponent, is quite hard as the imbalance between OKW vs Sovjet/US is quite significant. The classic Sturm + Wagen rush is ingenious tactic that pays off in the long run as it is fairly simple to pull off, and it is unpredictable where the wagen will hide, or where the sturm pios will pop up and annihilate your infantry if your silly enough to venture into close/medium fights with them. You can as sovjets make hell for the OKW if you poke out 2 x Snipers with clown cars and mow them down and get up guards to counter the light armour the OKW player sends on you, however any wise Wehr player would support their teammate if the sovjets steamrolls the OKW player with Maxim spam or Sniper/Car tactics. Late game units as the Jagdtiger is just wtf, this thing shoots through buildings, heavy forrests and it simply doesn't care about well concealed allied armour. It also out-ranges all allied AT/Tanks by a wide margin and has a relative good damage output, as you would exspect from this expensive as **** TD. The current tank pathing doesn't help with flanking heavy armour as these tank drivers are drunk on vodka and whiskey 24/7 after the last patch.
TL: DR:
- Imbalanced nations; OKW (Over-performing), US (Underperforming)
- Allied factions requires a lot more micro/unit preservation, than it counter part
- US main infantry is weak vs Volks/sturms.
- US lacks early mobile AT (Shreks are superior, costs less than M1s)
- Late game units heavily biased towards OKW, no real counter to a Jagdtiger (not a huge problem, but frustrating)
- Fallschermjägers ability to walk out of buildings behind enemy lines vs US paratroops has to jump lel
the list goes on :/
My experince from 3v3 or 4v4 are that there currently is no balance, the one team which can spam and blob the most will win. I just play them for a laugh when im not trying to play serious
This is my personal opinion on why the Axis are a better choice to play in CoH2 (2v2,3v3,4v4), Im not a native english speaker, so sorry for any grammar fails.