Or Guard, or mines. Or hardtech to ZiS or T70.
You don't have guards @ 5minutes. Or mines for that matter.
You are just wrong. AC could ran into yr base before the patch and kill units in the same way like it does now.
It could run into your base. It could chase squads down. It couldn't camp your HQ, the damage was too low to kill through reinforcement. If you don't believe it, boot up a game vs AI. (1/5 of games the AI will get AT nades before 5 minutes)
And to the AC change.
I have no problem with the change. However, relic missed the fact that the damage on the AC was so low for a reason, that soviets have zero AV capabilities that early in the game. Imo the AC needs to be more vulnerable against small arms fire.