Profile of NorthWestFresh

Germans:
T1: Grens - fix rifle nade
T2: Scout car 222 - increase fuel by 5 to 10 total, increase cost of upgun to 60munis total
T3: FINE
T4: Panther - increase AI capability of Panther to MATCH that of P4. Currently 1v1 you Cannot really afford to skip T3. Also, the P4, having some AI and AT, is very cost efficient. Also, a P4 + Pak is usually superior vs Soviet T4 then skipping T3 for T4. T4 doesn't have an "all around" tank thus none of the units are as cost effective. If the Panther had equivalent AI as P4 (which isn't that much but enough to be useful), it would make skipping T3 for T4 more worthwhile for what would basically be an Improved P4. Being able to afford BOTH T3 & T4 is a luxury reserved for when you are already way ahead in a game.

Tiger Ace - cost 100 Fuel

Soviet:
T0: Cons - change weapon profile to beat grens at mid/short range, lose at long range.
T1: M3- decrease Manpower cost to 200
Penals - increase cost to 300 manpower and increase upkeep, give them 1.5 armor
right now penals feel like what CONS should feel like, they should differentiate themselves from cons
Give Penals same weapon profile as Grens (long range troops to complement cons)
Also, give them ability to upgrade not only flamer but also 1 PTRS
Currently penals suffer from very poor scaling, this would help them act as a sort of defensive light vehicle squad in a bldg. or green cover, but not strong enough to replace guards rifle, more of a stopgap measure. Make the upgrade 20 munis.
T2: Fine
T3: Fine
T4: Fine
Shocks - increase armor to 2.0
Guards - decrease build time of DP28 upgrade by 50%

KV-8 - decrease speed by 30%.

I feel like this is a Biased post as you almost exclusively play Germans sage. I am not going to comment on your t2-t4 being fine and dandy for Russians because there is too much to talk about.
But I will say this as it is right now Germans are almost completely superior in infantry choices and Armour choices unless the Soviet player can get combined arms from both tier 1 and tier 2 complemented by some kind of armour late, but due to cost this is almost impossible for soviets. Getting the buildings you need and fielding the said troops you need from each building is very difficult especially when you consider that any one German building has all the tools it needs pretty much to fight off what you have or enough fire power to delay and hinder easily till your able to get what you need(Soviets do not have this luxury).
This is why I do not like Your Penals idea, anything that increases cost and upkeep for Soviets is going to put them further on the backfoot at almost all stages of the game, isn't that bad enough already?
I'm just going to quote you here from my replay thread from earlier today, your own words "If you make all the correct choices and have comparable skill level, you can't lose with Germans this patch."

So anyway here is my view of what needs to happen from a balance standpoint that I would like to see tested just to see how it plays out and feels. I also think it fits in with what Relic intended with the Russians from the get go. If all stats were left the same as is right now:
" Russians Either need an across the board stats buffs or.. and I like this Idea better leave the current army stats alone and give Russians an across the board decrease in Tech costs and unit costs but not too big of a decrease of course. This would allow the Russians to field what they need to compete while maintainting the feel of inferior forces with overwhelming numbers which I think was the design intention.

Or here is another possibility. Manpower drain effects Germans and Russians the same. While Russians need to out number the opponent to win with just as stiff a Manpower drain as Germans while taking heavy casualties compared to the German faction. Manpower power rate is simply not sustainable as Russians to be able to field the forces you need to compete. Russians need to have the Manpower penalties reduce in relation to Germans this is another idea that I think would help immensely. Germans don't have the manpower choke problem because they simply are not taking the losses the Russians are.

Decrease Russian reinforce costs across the board.

These are some Ideas I have that I think would go a long way to help the Russian Faction compete."

I think with this idea we wouldn't see Soviets pidgeon-holed into one or two builds that is contributing to the stagnation of the meta.

But all those things come out way later than M3...

Personally I don't like the M3 because of how gimmicky it is...

You will have a scout car or panzerfaust or s-mine/teller mines long before a Russian scout car will be able to inflict anywhere near to the amount of damage to make up for its cost unless your playing someone that simply doesn't know what they are doing.

You build this thing your pretty much guaranteeing to hand your opponent 240(or 220 whatever it is I don't know because I don't waste my time or like to hand my opponent free wins) free manpower boost.

Sorry If a seem a little snappy but to me this is a glaring balance issue that really bothers me for some reason. Whenever I think about it German scout car vs Soviet scout car... wtf you know....

I guess its because I do like light vehicle gameplay but can't use it and I would very much like to, no I am not going to play Germans in their unbalanced state.

Yeah its simply ridiculous how pathetic this unit is, especially compared to the German pure rape scout. It really pisses me off when I stop to think about it *Fix pls relic* .....wishful thinking right?

I don't waste my resources on the stupid things ever.

lol ... lets not? Germans can't skip tier 3 because panther don't kill infantry well enough.. definitely a troll post.

I know he doesn't play Germans that much, a Soviet player like me . But it still feels good to beat one of the top ranked players so here it is this also shows the Tier1+Tier2 to IS2 call in build I've been using. The only thing that I have found that you can actually rely on as a Soviet player this patch. As you can see in the replay if you do well or decent your Is-2 will not be far behind his P4 in most case scenarios. I found that the Russian army absolutely needs both 1+2 to compete with the german army, you get both tiers and a few units from each depending on situation you will find the German army doesn't feel quite so insanely op.