Profile of Cannonade

CoH2player and Marco describe the historical side quite well.
Might have been "shameful" to be in one, but the tasks they where assigned where evrrtyhing but. In war, a unit doesnt really get to question its orders, but a Penal unit in particular, has even less option to do so, making them "ideal" for very dangerous actions.

The French Foreign Legion, is another example of an essentially, if not practically Penal unit, and its accomplishments are anything but shameful or dishonorable., even if not celebrated.

I suppose they could have neen included as Strelky for example instead, but I think Relic wanted the Penal element to make the campaign a bit more dramatic.

Anyways, historical accuracy aside, I vote for them as a tech based baseline long range infantry with SVTs, and ONE Muni upgrade option from the general Sov infantry weapon pool to provide Sov some core long range effect and the upgrade options to diversify baseline infantry options beyond what Cons can have, and to fill the gap a bit between the essentially otherwise split Sov Commander specialised infantry options.

So no matter if you choose Shock/Guard/PPSH or especially one of the Commanders without either one, you can still go Penals to fill the gap.

they should simply add the amount of players searching to the search info. so ppl could see its 7 axis players searching and 1 allied, while thousands of ppl are actually in a game with a SET population ratio of 1:1

It used to be that way iirc!

There used to be a numerical figure, rather than a %.

But even then, it still simply is not a valid measure of preference for many many reasons.
For every screenshot one guy shows of % at any given time, another guy will have one to the exact opposite.

The matchmaker % just doesnt work as an indicator of preference, although it is easy for someone to think it does, from their own subjective experience. I understand "why", someone would think it is, and it is hard to teach "why" it is not, to someone who doesnt yet have that kind of understanding of how statistics and data are compiled, and what is involved in validity of those.

Like let me give an example. Recently there was a radio-news broadcast I heard that stated "Studies show that watching TV increases your weight". Now, the automatic reaction is to connect the two directly, causally. But when you think about it a bit, you realise there is no magical radiation from the TV that makes people fat. Watching TV does not make you fat. Not excercising and eating wrong, makes you fat. Not the TV. But it just so happens, statistically (and predictably) that someone who does infact watch a lot of TV, is watching so much of it, that they dont take time to excercise.

See what I mean? Such data is only as valid as the means whereby they are collated. Its easy, but wrong, to draw conclusions feom them that are actualy not causally related

Unfortunately, Relic has been very tight-lipped about releasing actual stats.

We simply dont know what preference is. Perhaps Steam data can be mined to reveal the facts.
But, Steam synch with CoH2 stats has a very poor and problematic history. So even that data, has validity issues.

Ultimately, only Relic knows for sure. But for one reason or another, they have rarely chosen to share that.

So I guess it's okay, isn't it?

No. Its not ok. Both need a nerf, of a different sort, but the Katyusha in particular, due to the stacking effect of the buffs it got in one swing.

As rofltehcat pointed out, two wrongs do not make a right.

Make so Support weapons are not able to grab territory. Maxim spam problem solved.

How is that fair to other factions support teams though?

And the Devs, specifically and in no uncertain terms, are asking for feedback on Sov Support Team durability

That is the actual question at hand.

Where is your evidence there is "much bigger population" on axis side?

I would be very interested to see your source and evidence.

The last graphic of population Relic released (was a long time ago though) showed almost a 50/split in population preference.

And if there are twice as many whine threads about a certain faction, it is reasonable to conclude, and Ockhams Razor would dictate, that that is because that faction has proportionately more issues than others.