Profile of Kallipolan

No point to it. Better to have cloaked snipers that can kite and retreat more quickly. Always that chance that snipers go out the wrong door and you basically throw away 360mp.

Not really on-topic, but it is possible to control which door a unit uses when exiting a building. If you click the building, then click on the icon of the unit itself (in the tooltip area), then issue a move command, the unit will exit the building from the door closest to the point you told them to move to. Just a little trick not enough people seem to know about.

I also struggle with this match-up in the early game. I can't really comment on your playstyle since you don't provide a replay, but I can share a couple of things that helped me improve.

One thing I now always try to do is build a Pak early. Given how strong the AA HT is, I always try to build a Pak before I need it. Spending the manpower is painful especially if you have been bleeding manpower from your Gren squads, but it pays off massively if you can kill a vehicle before it does any real damage.

Probably the main for me though was not really trying to win the game for the first 15 mins (roughly). What I mean by this is, don't be greedy and be very careful about where you choose to fight. If you can hold onto a muni point, fuel point and 1 VP in the early game, then that is enough. Harassment is of course worth it, but think very carefully before going on the attack. This applies even to those few early firefights between Grens and Rifles - ask yourself if the point you are fighting over is really worth it to you. If you can make it to the mid-game without constantly bleeding manpower then you will be in a good spot to beat the enemy through sheer versatility - you have Grens, PGrens, Paks, Mortar, HMG: the US player has only some of these things, and usually not as good as the Ostheer version.

Buying a 222 is usually a good idea since it really helps you out-shoot Rifles, and the fuel cost is very low. Keep it at max range to avoid Rifle nades. Gren LMGs are very important, but I would say Teller mines are a better investment if you see the LT and are on a map where there are obvious chokepoints. PGrens can be an alternative to LMGs to outshoot Rifles, if you have the MP and don't want to spend the Munis.

After this, getting out a P4 at a good time and using it cautiously makes the matchup start to swing in your favour. A Tiger doc secures you the late-game.

I highly doubt Relic are ignorant of the current situation. Contrary to what the community thinks they aren't blithering idiots, they just make mistakes sometimes (like all of us).

Anyway, I think if the Kubel situation was rectified the match-up would be in a pretty good state. Other concerns like BARs and Pathfinders being too weak are valid, but are hardly breaking the faction. Most of things people are suggesting would basically break US faction design or make them hilariously OP. For instance, reliance on Rifles and lack of a heavy tank are intended properties of US faction design, and changing that would just make them generic. I personally don't want every faction to be a variation on the same template, I'd rather the each had their own playstles that are balanced and fun but diverse.

I support these changes. Maybe a reduction to acceleration as well, but that might be unnecessary with the tear-down time.

To the nay-sayers: I think the tear-down is absolutely needed to balance to strength of a highly mobile suppression platform. For the sake of US faction design, flanking needs to be a viable way of dealing with the Kubel. Currently this is often not the case, since the Kubel can back away so fast that it avoids the damage. Compare to an MG, which usually has to retreat if a squad gets too close.

I also think this is a different situation to the Flak HT - that thing suffered from the tear-down time because it was a significant fuel investment, and by the time it hit the field things like AT guns were available that turned a slight mistake into a very expensive loss. The Kubel is in a different place, being available from the start of the game. The tear-down time would just force OKW players to use the Kubel more carefully.

Recently, almost every Soviet player I face as Ostheer has taken to spamming mines/demo charges all over the map, often building 2 Combat Engineers at the start in order to facilitate this, and it has been giving me a really hard time. I just can't see how its possible to hold on to map control when there are mines at every choke-point, resource point, VP e.t.c. This is particularly true in the case of sniper-based strategies where the appropriate counter is light vehicles - one Soviet mine can 1-shot a 221, which makes it very difficult to chase down snipers and losing a such an important investment really sets you back.

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that this is really an issue with Soviet munitions income/expenditure. All the other factions have something that they need to sink munis into in the mid-game, usually relating to basic infantry upgrades or abilities that result in a steady drain. Ostheer have the medic bunker and LMGs, OKW have Panzerschrecks, and the US have Rifle weapons/nades. However, unless the Soviet player builds a lot of Guards squads there doesn't seem to be anything comparable - Conscript AT nades and Molotov's are too cheap to qualify, and Shocks don't really rely on their grenades to be effective.

Personally, I don't think its particularly fair that the Soviets are free to spam mines all over the map, given how difficult it is for Axis (Ostheer in particular) to deal with, and my view is that giving Soviets something else they need to spend munitions on (healing, perhaps) would address this. What does everybody else think?