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In the large games I play it is always the axis panthers that eventually break my lines acting as meat shields and spearhead for infantry pushes then withdrawing with low health before rinsing and repeating wiping out some of my at gun and infantry support each time until paks can move in and finish any tanks. T3 units would be destroyed in the effort and allow my medium armour to punish the infantry.

I agree in small games t4 is an unwise choice but in my personal experience in big games the panther flood signifies the end game (literally)

Alex has been very reasoned and polite in this thread

SU-76's have like 25 more range than Shreks do. Use the barrage on it or support your SU-76's with an M5 which does fantastic AoE suppression.

This can work for a little while but you well know good players dont hang around under a barrage and the range is irrelevant when the infantry are advancing and use groups of shreks - they only need one volley to kill a vehicle then hit retreat (to their hq round the corner) before coming back for the other one. frequently they use a pak too which can fir freely as the vehicles engage the infantry (or the other way round.)

Even if you survive your normally pushed back and are therefore no longer defending the fuel or position you intended.

This is not to say they aren't good units but in big games soviet t3 is much less powerful and easily counterable due to increased flanking, amount of enemy and plentiful munis. Last night a single flanking puma destroyed my tier 3 defence (as it should) but it wasnt exactly hard for my opponent. The puma is doctrinal but with 4 axis players one of them can afford it.

Current win/loss rates (www.coh2chart.com/) show a surprisingly even level of balance at 1v1 but as the games grow the axis / allies difference widens massively. There are debates about the value of these stats and also whether 4v4 can ever be balanced but I believe that there is a big disparity and its a big problem for the wider player base (who mostly play these modes) and enjoyment of the game.

Im not a big fan of the nerf / buff unit approach and certainly not on the scale that might be needed to shift win /loss rates on this scale - I think some subtle tweaking is needed to increase gameplay fun and reduce frustration but otherwise unit balance is quite good.

The problem as I see it relates to the synergy between OKW and OH and how increased resources and map sixe in large games benefits axis. Fuel scaling for maps (i.e. less resources from points the bigger the game size) has been brought up before but I see little discussion - it also feels a bit fiddly.

i would be interested however to see the effect of something simpler - making resource caches only benefit the player who builds them in the same way that opel trucks were changed. This would have the benefit slowing tech in large games for everyone and specifically reducing OH / OKW synergy. the danger is it might have some fatal effects on early mid game in 2v2 and the ability of OKW / OH teams to counter soviet t3 for example but then double OKW teams manage ok.

sorry I have edited my post to discuss only 4v4 and Im looking at the stats for this week