A replay would be helpful. I would imagine with 7-8 rifles on the field your best bet is to get out some mg34s and do your best to hold the map until you can get out a puma then follow up with a few Obersoldaten squads. Without a replay its hard to tell why you are having problems but it sound like your early game is a little weak.
Replay is gone now, didn't save. It was Road to Kharkov, I tried pushing mostly up the left. I decided to do double sturmpio build for extra rifle AI, so I had 3xVolks, 2xSturms & 1 Kubel. For the first few min mostly pushed up the left and a few units to harass the mid & right. Then obviously my volks harassing are pushed off by superior riflemen so had to retreat. Then brought all my units over to the left to push him off there, which he then does too and my kubel is focus fired to death in 1 second, I didn't know he had a m20 at this point. But because I got the extra sturm pios I didn't have schreks yet since my t2 was still setting up. So then I had to retreat because of M20 and too many rifles (mostly all in the green cover stone walls). Then I get puma out by the time he is nearing my base chasing down my retreating troops after another push on the mid/right, I chase down M20 with puma then 1 shot dead from mine. ragequit.
Where is the balance in that?? Ok maybe it is fair if it can immobilise/engine damage
OR take off a lot of health, but dead in 1 shot?? wtf? What can okw do to wipe such USF unit in 1 shot in the first 10 mins? It's a joke.
Sounds like someone got outplayed.
Outplayed by the balance, not the player.