Mr.Distrofio. The tommies can be countered. Its not like they are some omnipotent god squad.
We both agree perfectly here, since i never used exaggerations neither
just get a MG so they cant move out of cover then chuck a nade. Problem solved. Liegs work to. Since tommies are not that great short range get smoke and rush them with Pgens or in the case of OKW the stg volks + sturms. bang problem solved. They are not hard to fight. just spam flame nades like volks always do and you win the engagement because the tommies cant camp behind the cover if its on fire.
It is actually a little more complicated than that, because you'll see, the game is full of cover spots where IS can position themselves safely.
Nades are effective but it so happens that the squad rushing in to a well positioned IS suffers as much losses to require a immediate retreat. Lavanades dont always get the whole cover area, so a little nudge of the IS within cover is just enough. Rifle nades can be dodged like any other skillshot. If you dont believe i invite you to see some medium skilled, not even high skilled games footages. Its not like they are invincible but in the grand scheme, IS are able to dominate the map control for less requirements than other axis mainlines infantries.
Consider that the game is won by small fights victories, like a proper skirmish, therefore if a IS is able to kill 2 man of a MG42 shooting straig at them, that is a victory for IS. If 2 units are forced to fight a single well placed IS then there is clearly shown the potential of the squad, one unit to suppress and the other to dish the damage. Even when OST clearly is prepared for that setup, you dont always have a MG and a gren squad for every enemy IS squad.
This consideration gets worse when IS get bolster and eventualy bren LMGs...
If we were to consider the case when a upgunned volk or pgren squad flanked an IS squad effectively then of course the result will favour the former, simply because one player applied better combat maneuvers than the other, resulting in a obvious conclusion.
But apart from that case, IS are able to displace, if not wipe on the unfortunate case of a fordward positioned blob, all other infantries with the proper support of vickers MGs too.
As a fact i know IS weak spots, from 222s to the eventually lucky mortar shot, but leigs are not to be considered because their performance is sub par compared all the other variants, one just doesnt fight IS with leigs...
It is well known that UKF has fast teching, because they dont need an engineer unit constructing new buildings or restrictive FU values, therefore all the T1 units are as readily as T1-2 for OST or T1 or T2 for OKW. There is a slight advantage towards UKF in this manner, because you can spam IS to tech withouth serious consequenses.
Even when UC is used in some games, it doesnt bring as much as IS matching or outnumbering the enemy squads.
Finally and addressing the topic, since IS are able to force so much pressure in early game stages, all the rest of UKF units must be sub performing to their potential value, because IS (that are meant to defend) can push the frontlines as effectively as other so considered OP mainline infantries.
I hope i could explain myself better this way, if not i just cant share my PoV not because i didnt try, but because we dont share the same cognitive foundation of the game balance as itself.
Sincerely yours, Mr distro