Profile of Strummingbird

So basically we just need to nerf its initial power and I think it'll do as you asked for just fine!

Yep, lowering the crazy manpower cost for a light vehicle and making it non-bulletproof would be an interesting start, I think, so you can't just charge head on into OKW units and eat fausts from ostheer and crawl back and duct tape it.

Here's my idea, a pipe dream if you will-

T0 RE / Ambulance
T1 Rifles / M20
T2 50cal / Pack Howi / 57mm
T3 Stuart / M3 HT / Scott
T4 Sherman / Jackson

After T1 OR T2, T3 and T4 are unlocked.

It's a little too similar to COH1, I admit, but I think it gives the best spread of units with the least overlap. not having the M15 would mean no antiair capability, though...

The problem with putting all the team weapons in one tier (50cal, howitzer, 57mm) would mean that all the USF light vehicles bar the Scott would be crammed into the other tier- and they all fill the basically same niche with very small differences between each other already.

IMO USF just has too many light vehicles- some kind of squad that could countersnipe, or a even just a regular mortar, would make the faction more interesting as a whole. Or maybe the M20 could be repurposed into more of a light utility vehicle along the lines of the M3 or 221 instead of the bulletproof pseudo light tank that it is now so it infringes less on the M15 and Stuart?

Perhaps swapping the M3 reinforcing halftrack with the M15 (even though it won't actually happen, since doctrinal stuff doesn't change in this manner) would make for a more rounded faction- so there would be just one light tank, the stuart, one reinforce/transport vehicle, the M3, and one lower-impact vehicle available early, the M20, subject to various stat changes to make them fit their role better. Instead of the M20/stuart/M15 all being just bog standard early 'light tanks'.

'Light tank' in this context means bulletproof vehicle.

Sure, I can play tank hunters with T34s, but if my opponent will be able to contain me and survive 15 mins it will be like mining rocks with your nails when I'm forced to use just stock armor.

...

Again, call-in disease applies almost exclusively to soviets. I never feel handicapped when playing other army. And god I hope new army won't suffer same problems.

Here's a replay of what tank hunter tactics games go like usually-
http://www.coh2.org/file/7732/kats.rec

Game before I went T34s, but I find (and I think most people find) that since you're locked to spamming essentially T3-ostheer-equivalent units with no further advancement possible with either soviet high tiers, T4 is a better choice- especially on the narrower 2v2 maps. T34s fall off after the first two or three unless you really break the axis there and then, but kats just get stronger and stronger. Your ally can do the call-ins for mobile armor, which kats complement nicely.

1v1 though, massing T34s with TH is perfectly fine, as long as you don't lose too many (more than 1) before the call-ins hit, I think.

Also, if you aren't feeling pigeonholed with the other factions, maybe you just aren't playing at a level where going non-conformist strategies tends to mean losing unless you significantly outplay the enemy. You can go stugs or brummbars maybe against weaker opponents, but once your opponents start playing guard motor coordination or 3 rifle, LT, M20, flamers and sherman to their maximum potential, your alternate playstyle almost certainly will not cut it.

I'm looking and looking and can't seem to find "they all seem pretty balanced" option.

You know it's too late to fix your reputation when people don't take anything you say seriously

When played to the maximum potential (best players, optimum vetoes, continual picking of most powerful strategies and commanders in every situation, every dirty trick used and abused (ghost wiring and sandbagging, truckpushing, etc), I'd guess Soviets for 1s and 2s. You could quite feasibly always go guard motor every single game OR shock rifle every game and reach top 20, and if you actually picked shock rifle or guard motor depending on the situation, go all the way to the #1 position, I think.

Yes, turning does count as moving. It's why spotting scopes are such a pain on units such as StuGs which always shuts them off when they spot something at 50 meters.

The elefant dance is always the best- forward sight arc is larger than the gun casemate arc, so if the tank spots something at the edge of the arc, it starts turning... then the scopes shut off, so it stops, then the scopes activate and it starts turning again, which means the scopes stop, and then it stops turning... all the while, the map flashes light/dark/light/dark in a seizure-inducing fashion