Dont worry, Ekko Tek.
The survival discrepancy will become a topic soon enough.
The mg42 hits the field with more regularity than the maxim. It hits the field earlier than the maxim, and more often than not the mg42 engages the russian conscripts squad in the first minutes of the game near the middle of the map over a hotly contested point.
The reasons for this are as follows.
- German tier one is a stable option that most wehrmacht players build as tier 2 panzergrenadier rush is no longer a large part of the meta if ever it was.
- Soviet tier 2 where the maxim comes from has a very long build time for the actual building itself, delaying the arrival of an early maxim squad.
- The strength of the soviet mortar was a large part of the tier 2 strategies we saw months ago. It was then nerfed. The soviet tier 2 mortar can no longer assure maxim supremacy.
Added to this it is advised to many soviet players that they build conscripts en masse as it means that they can out capture the german player by running all over the map and harrassing the wide flank to snare easy cap points. This is one of the differences between the factions as the russian player has the option of tier 0 infantry riflemen. Tier 0 means he will have troops on the field faster than german tier 1. If the soviet gives up the tier 0 advantage they will lose momentum and the german units will reach the middle of the map relatively faster due to the addition of build time for the tier buildings and then the training of the troops. German tier 1 infantry play can circumvent many of these problems simply through providing a varied mix of units from the same tier 1 building whereas the soviet must choose between two clear paths. Support weapons or scout cars.
The factions are also designed to be asymetrical, that means "not the same". The reason they are not the same stats wise and why the MG42 has less health than the maxim is because the MG42 is likely to be fielded more often than not as most german players will build tier 1. Mg42's will be fighting predominantly conscript squads... *start reading from paragraph one until it makes sense*