Profile of raw

Considering the strength of Pak-43 to deal with any armor plus the innate flank-resistance of the OH army makes the Pak-43 pretty damn strong. Put it into shadow and nuke away at soviet tanks. Perfect bridge for the time between his T-34 and your PzIV.

Why should a T-34 be able to go head on with German tanks?

Because the flow of the game requires it. The rest, like the idea of a medium tank for AI purposes (ololol, I'll never get over this), is just building cloudcastles in fairytale kingdom. If Relic wants the T-34 to have the role of a "flanker" (whatever that is, but presumably it's a spelling error for "shit-tier unit by design". because where I live tanks still need to deal actual damage, even when they flank) they have to rework the complete soviet arsenal, so that such a tank would actually fit into the game.

Not that I would be against scrapping the entire soviet army and rebuild it from scratch. But lets be realistic here.

You need to learn to use AT guns as primary AT. You CANNOT go T1-T3 unless you have a huge advantage early game.

You cannot get an advantage early game currently. That is another problem. German T1&T2 synergize too well and they can fortify the map to the point that only tank assistance is able to dislodge them now. T3 ASAP is a must not an if. One scout car max, and you better PRAY that it deals enough damage, otherwise you're toast. You can tell that you will lose the game if the german puts a Grenadier next to his MG42, playing ULTRAFORTRESS2153.

You must go T2-T3.

That does not work. T1+T2 gives you nothing to halt or even roll back the german advance, and he will have PzIV by minute 10, and then all of your T1 and T2 crap is useless. And the delay on your SU-85/T-34 will be so ridiculous, he'll be parking his PzIVs in front of your HQ before you even see the first T-34.

Of course a T34 gets stomped by a P4. It is cheaper and has a bias towards AI.

And that is exactly the problem.

Raw you are a Soviet fanboy and need to play OH sometime and watch how good Soviet players kill your P4's. As someone else said, where is the support for your T34? Use it with Cons and a Zis backed by a Maxim to keep infantry away.

I play OH and Soviets about equally and I just own every soviet on ladder so ridiculously complete by just building PzIV it's not even funny anymore. The only thing I lose to is the odd Conscript spammer. Tried that and it works against OH that lolrally their MG42s to the cutoff point.

I don't feel like T34s are underpowered per say, but more asymmetrically balanced.

You know what? I actually agree with you, if "asymmetrically balanced" wouldn't mean shitbalanced in this game. You know the whole "Support thy tanks, Comrade" crap would actually work out in game, if the soviets actually had units to support their T-34's with. But they don't! All you have is shit-tier guards chaining button down and pray for enough ammo to mark target. And that's it. Shouldn't the soviet be at least somewhat competent at supporting his armor proper, considering they really really need that backup? But no, the OH has much more competent units for the support role than you. Assymmetrical balance to me would mean that a supported T-34 is actually a frightening sight to behold for the OH and not just some speedbump on the clear and sunny road to Moskau.

If this whole combined arms crap is supposed to work somehow, then give me units that are actually able to be competent in this job. Instead of gimmick machines like the M3 and the (now defunct) T-70.

Fuel wise you can get a second t34 before your opponent gets a second P4. This is your critical moment.

I am well aware. But so is any competent enemy. He'll just stall the game until his second PzIV arrives and then it's slaughter time. And the fun part is, he knows that when he sees one T-34 there will be a second, because building anything else is not feasable. You have to microbattle the first PzIV with your T-34 + attachment, otherwise you're right where he wants you (Without even realizing it most of the time, lol, that's how ez-mode OH is currently) and you've build yourself into the soviet doom spiral.

I would hope the PIV would beat a T-34 1v1 in isolation since it costs a lot more.

30 fuel isn't a lot. One Opel truck and you're on par.

even 1 on 1 they can beat a PIV if you get the jump on it with a surprise rear shot/flank.

Yes, if the opponent is stupid you can beat his PzIV. But you would beat him in any other engagement anyway.

They really aren't. They're just not as good at AT as a more expensive tank with less AI and no ram... watch Von Ivan stream sometime if you think they're useless against P-IVs. I think Stephenn also uses them a lot.

They already won the game in the early game.