Unfortunately, there are even bigger issues here they need to pay attention to. Relic knows the casual player base of 3v3 and 4v4 "for fun" people, is huge.
As I see it, Soviet is now unplayable in 3v3 and 4v4 even WITH a strafe patch.
To have a chance of winning, Soviets must do far more coordination as a team than Ostheer does. This is because of how the teching system is designed. Ostheer always has a choice of support or infantry units early game, except for the oddball who skips T1 (a much rarer strat now) and thus any player can field units to counter the enemy.
This is not the case for Soviets. Some need to field support weapons, some need to use M3s and snipers to combat the German early game. This degree of coordination is not going to be found among casual players randomly playing 4v4. But it's the only way to play Soviets. It was passable before the Maxim was nerfed and the Ostheer MG given an extra crew member, which gave Soviets a strong early game presence, and if team tactics were used, nigh unbeatable by experienced teams (I happen to have one).
Maybe things will evolve so some people know to go support in certain positions, as was the case with Montargis in COH, but the game doesn't seem to make those choices obvious...
I don't want the patch reversed because I am a competitive player, and 1v1 and 2v2 are the best venues for competition. This patch has done a lot to balance the game. But I do want to see 3v3 and 4v4 remain viable.
I have only one radical suggestion...The only way to balance the game for casual, uncoordinated teams is to allow the use of both factions in automatch. I suggest automatch be reconfigured to allow for Soviet and German teams on the same side for THESE game modes only.
I don't want to be stepping on anyones toes, but I personally think that Soviets have it far better even in team games. Altho, my perspective on the matter is slightly bias, so to say- since I only play with people that I know, or are good players. But when we do, we do with a breeze, even against good competetion players. It might ultimately just boil down to good coordination & synergy with everyone, we just mesh really well together, and speak about what commanders/units we ought to get.
If there's any point to it, I would give out some friendly advice;
- Always get someone to grab an ISU-152 commander oriented doctrine. Be that from the low-level one, to the CE edition one. There's no real prefernce, the CE one is far more agressive oriented however, and can support other agressions via Mark Vehicle.
The ISU-152 is excellent at denying & applying pressure and disloding - let alone killing virtually just about anything. It's an extremely valuable asset to the team.
- Have someone get the either Guard Rifle Combined Arms // Conscript Support doctrine to be able to continous lay down the early-mid game pressure. The Conscript Support works well with another teammate that has more scaling potential towards mid-late game. The Guard Rifle is abit more flexible in overall utility, with the Howitzer in particular
- Grab someone with an IS-2 doctrine. Whilst people will argue the IS-2 is bad, it's an excellent meat-shield for the rest of your tanks. Let-alone, good spotter for your backline tanks. Not a neccasity, but a good bonus to a strengthen late-game comp.
- Katyushka for continous stalls. Let-alone, good for dealing with PaK43s and just holler down playstyle. Don't overcommit on them, and keep them sparse, you'll need the SU-85s.
I wanted to elaborate more on this, but I'll get to it later :-)
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
