Not useless, it does some damage and launch a flare to show you an unit is going there. For 10 munis it's good, the problem is too much soviets units have this, not intersting.
Yes but you could also tone done the RNG without removing it entirely. There's some absurd things in both COH that can cost you the game or have a big impact even if it isn't that common.
I've read "when i retreat maximes they often stop before the retreat for a second". What lead me to that mistake is you're talking specifically about the Maxim when it happens to ALL units in the game (and the fact I didn't pay enough attention when reading...).
It all depends of what you want in the end. If you want a semi-competitive game with a lot of cinematic battles with some "wtf" moments COH is fine. If you want a truly competitive game you reduce the RNG so it doesn't bring game changer results.
Relic is firmly set with the first option but Cyridius is right when he said it lower the skill cap.
To be honest like pantherswag said above it's more of a problem with flame weapons on retreat (same with flame HT).
In COH1 I never fielded the flame HT or Crocodile tank even when I had a massive advantage except when I wanted to troll my opponent. The Flame Chruchill was powerful but it came very late and was expensive and still didn't wipe squads like the KV-8.
You can win Rostov in general difficuty without rushing their base, I did it and with the AI ally. You need to focus on P4 (and command P4) and get vet by killing lone units, with vet2 a P4 can take a T34 with no problem. The easiest way though is to build 5-6 Stugs with a human ally and rush their base with all the Stugs at once.
All the others are easy enough with bunkers/mgs, HT to reinforce and P4/Command P4.
They'll make better tank drivers than men due to their, on average, smaller size. Imagine a full grown man in a T34......exactly, stuff gets squished .
Yep, actually in some Russians tanks the maximum height of the crew was set to 1.75m (5'9"). The smaller you are in a tank the better.