Maxim is crap because it was nerfed. Now it's a worse Mg34 with a increased cost. Conscripts are terrible since ..... a long time. That's why people spammed maxims instead of build them. Guards nerfed, it's not a problem, but 360MP x), they are close to fallshirm.
Now tech is weird as soviets. You have to go t1 to have good inf and you are in consequence vulnerable by not tech t2. So people try to get a fast t-70 and do not tech to build sheman M4c. Instead of developing many strat, last patch reduce them. So yeah, SU is in a weird spot. It's not impossible to win, but it's definitely harder. Especially to OKW.
You talk about the volks, but they are the best inf atm. efficient and 5 men squads. Vet 3 and volksgrenadiers are terminators. So it's a bad example by the fact they are in a VERY good spot.
Anyway, i am not a pro, i am an average player. I try to find a way out of lend lease, but that hurts my evo too much Kappa.
Soviets played fine before land lease and before penals got ptrs. Even competitively they were chosen many times. Even in GCS vonivan showed that he doesn't need land lease or penals to win.
Conscripts are not crap. People just don't want to invest fuel into inf units when they don't have to. But that was original Soviet design. Penals are now an easy version non fuel requiring infantry. An easy button. Of course conscripts suck in comparison.
You can't a+move maxim now that easily. It got a reasonable amount of Nerf. Once again just because dshka is clearly OP - yeah the maxim sucks in comparison. I'll give you that.
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