As a good player what do you think what can be done to counter hmgs early game. Realisticaly without trash talk about smoke grenades and flanking from 8 directions.
May be you can get fast M5 somehow. No?
I played only once USF and some only Ostheer 2v2 AT this patch.
The one USF game me and Thanatos (playing as Soviets) encountered double Ostheer on Bystraya Voda. I played in the south and tried to capture the fuel point but early Pioneer push to lay down wire and double MG 42 start pushed me away. After a while my opponent got a 3rd MG42 and chose Close Air Support whilst producing flame Pioneers. Since your flank possibilities are kind of limited versus 3 MG42s in Bystraya Voda south 2v2 I upgraded grenades and smoked. This is one of the reasons for my comment regarding "poorly balanced maps".
As Ostheer I never had serious problems dealing with Maxims or Cal .50 since you have Snipers, Mortars, Rifle Grenades, etc.