Profile of Quercus

The biggest problem with emplacements is that they are a population expense you can't recover.

As for the Brits late game, I can see a lot of their late game units that are considered OP being nerfed in the near future, which will just highlight the problems with them in the early-mid game.

If the Brits are supposed to be defensive (but with optional offensive play), then I would suggest the following changes:
- Bofors and 17-pounder are built empty and need to be manned (and can therefore be unmanned). The crew required would be 3 (Bofors) or 4 (17-pounder) but the pop cap counts as triple (e.g. 9 for Bofors, 12 for 17-pounder) while they are manned.
- Minesweeper REs should be able to "salvage" (for 25% return) any British emplacement or trench
- Replace mortar emplacement with mortar support team
- Anvil tactics enables 6-pounders and mortar teams to "dig in" - giving current emplacement bonuses.
- Hammer tactics enables UCs to reinforce (like half-tracks) after upgrading for this specific purpose. An upgraded UC has more armour but no more offensive ability.

As it stands, I almost never buy a UC because they are far too vulnerable to a casual faust shot - it is just a waste of munitions.

What the fuck is the point of having a base if Relic makes it ridiculously difficult to kill it?

Ridiculously difficult? I don't think making the player actually use their units to attack enemy base buildings in person is unreasonable, rather than just being able to bomb it from the safety of their Officers mess.

I agree with some of the comments here though - that if you are forced to use fixed emplacements, they should be much more resilient to anything apart from direct artillery hits (i.e. splash damage should be ineffective) as that is rather the point of building an emplacement.

I have never been a big fan of fixed emplacement units that cost pop cap (same with CoH). I would prefer it if the emplacements could be dismantled for a portion of the cost returned and (more importantly) the pop cap back. Seeing as you can only use them defensively due to the speed that they can be destroyed by flames and arty, if you are winning you end up with them being useless behind the front line but still costing you a lot to have.

Germans have had to deal with stigma in games for generations.

Deal with it. Atleast West Europe was liberated, whereas East Europe fell under a Soviet hell of oppression and suppression for another 60 years.

Nazis where, deservedly, annihilated. Same cannot unfortunately be said of the Soviet regime. I understand celebration of "The Great Patriotic War", in recognition of the immense suffering and sacrifice of the Soviet peoples, but unfortunately the Soviet Union that took advantage of their sacrifice, was little better than the Nazi government.

War is hell, and no nation passed through WWII without some shameful and criminal acts.

US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as another horrific case in point.
Brits sacrificing their youth in trench warfare throughout WWI and their conduct towards conquered indigenous populations.
Finns trying (insanely) to form a "Great Finland" by invading areas east of Finland.

The list is endless. Nobody makes it through war with dignity intact.

War has precious few heroes. As they say, "the good die first".

While in general I would agree with the sentiment, I do think that the intent behind the conflict for the participant nations does make a big difference and that many ordinary people who perform heroic acts could be considered heroes. Germany and Japan were the aggressors and that shouldn't be forgotten, even if other nations stained their reputations in different ways as the conflict progressed.

Also remember that much of the propaganda behind any war is to dehumanize your enemies. This makes it easier to treat them inhumanely. The Nazis were very good at this but certainly weren't alone. If you object to the depiction of individual German soldiers as heroic (or at least sympathetic) within the broader conflict then you are equally guilty of seeking to dehumanize them.
I don't have a problem with a Wehrmacht campaign because they were mostly just normal soldiers fighting for what they believed in and many of them were unaware of the true extent of the horrors perpetrated by their leaders, indeed members of the Wehrmacht were behind the assassination attempt on Hitler.

My gripe with the campaign is more to do with the format of single player missions in RTS, where you have no control over what resources you or your opponents have access to and I find that more frustrating than not.