Profile of rumartinez89

Which is perfectly possible just without this ability. Just let the squad get suppressed, and the others flank the MG. Any good player will try to switch targets to the flanking squads manually. It doesn't matter much if your middle squad is immobile by suppression or hit the dirt. It's immobile, so the defender will switch targets.
You either time the flanking maneuver well enough to make it or not, but this ability does not help.

You're actually taking your own squad out of the fight. Even before it got suppressed, which technically means that you allow the opponent to switch targets earlier than necessary.

They hated him for he spoke the truth.

The ability seems to be geared more for when the enemy has to approach you. You get defensive bonus but cant move so defending instead of assaulting would make sense. However due to being attached to SMG upgrade it has limited window of usefulness. It would probably work best against VG but they can just nade you and wait you out and sturms could just concussive nade and mop up. LMG grens would just look, wonder why, and then move on.

I have lost games where I dominated and a vet0 panther just snipes me from far. Even when I outflanked them with the IS2(lol) the ROF is what did me in. That thing misses to much for how slow it shoots. I think it’s a good unit that forces escalation on OST but against OKW panther is always available so not cost effective.

I wasn't talking to anyone specifically otherwise I'd quote. I'm saying that penals as AT infantry is fine as is.
You won't see penals AT in high level 1v1s because you lose a lot of AI power if you change it up and 1v1s are quite tight when it comes to staying power/bleeding.

In 3v3+ I've seen PTSR penals being utilized to great effect. Usually 2x PTSR penals which hold the line against any and all dives, one ZiS and then the bulk of the force is either cons or elite infantry (usually cons). In 3v3, the mode which I play, I also see a skip of t70 (due to the massed AT guns in 99% of games).

Sometimes PTSR work, sometimes they don't. You won't see them often because they are a reactive force. You get them as a reaction to the enemy playstyle. If the enemy is not building mass light vehicles, don't go PTSR, but just tech t2 and get ZiS before minute 13 or a fast T34 if you can afford it.

Can't tell you how many times I've seen mass 222 plays from Ostheer, even top level players. I've seen a premade x3 top 5 3v3 team of three Ostheer players which made (I think) about 12 222s in first 10 minutes on Lienne forest. All 3 of them built 4.
The tactic was:
Bunker down on one side so you get stead income, don't bleed.
Start spamming 222s
Once you have 10+ 222s, you win the game.

Thank FU** that my soviet player had 2x PTSR penals with maxims. Their tactic went down the drain. If it wasn't for PTSRs we'd lose. AT guns are useless against such a mass due to their agility, and Rifles from me and my other teammate were useless. Heck, tried to snare 3 222s, all 3 rifles died before the snare even went off. The animation is something special. My AAHT somehow survived and managed to kill 2 222s (got extremely lucky). They surrendered promptly.
See, a reactive force.
You won't just go PTSR penals like you would go for a ZiS gun. You build ZiS because you expect medium tanks to hit the field and you need something with range to keep them at bay. You upgrade Penals with PTSRs to react to the enemy LV phase, not because you plan to counter a future P4 and get overrun by infantry in the meantime

When you build a ZiS, you gain a ZiS gun, losing NOTHING. When you upgrade penals, you SWAP AI for AT. Hence action-reaction

Bro, your preaching to the choir. I firmly believe PTRS penals are good enough for what they are especially in team games when a misclick is less forgiveable due to sheer units on the field. I am more speaking on regular Penal squads in 1v1 they are unviable alone in top 200 matches. I have been playing team games lately and starting to remember some of the cheese that can be pulled off.

Ok I take it back, seems that the vet guide is wrong again. Perhaps I should start looking through my favourite units and seeing what else is wrong \o\

They're 290 MP for a 6 man squad with those stats, not sure how much more generous one could expect for that price tag. Riflemen and IS are 280MP but are worse starting off.

No prob, I think conscripts and Penals were the only ones that were significantly adjusted. In the notes they say Penals change was to promote late game scaling/bleed. So its obviously a known issue however any changes may be to much. That why I think a minor buff only at VET3 would help, I think they are close but not quite where they should be. Cooldown/slightly more accuracy something to promote diversity. Also comparing them to Rifleman or IS is not really fair as both have the ability to get several AI upgrades, BARS/LMG/BOLSTER/VICKERS/BREN/SANDBAGS(durability). So although they start worse they end up better, hell Rifleman VET probably equalizes them at VET3 without any upgrades.

The biggest issue I find is everyone keeps focusing on starting performance that has almost no impact on late game where most matches get decided. 7MAN cons/LMG Grens scale amazingly despite that not being the case years ago. They kept getting buffed and now there is literally no point in making PG/Penals/Shocks, I hope COH3 allows for a bit more diversity in builds and strats.

In regards to CE having PTRS, that is nonsense that would give SOVIETS an unbelievable amount of AT in the current META. Most builds are 3-4 conscripts which have nades, CE with PTRS, Guards, 2 ZIS and what ever tank. That is insane especially with how spammable their mines are.

After playing them for a few months I think their main issue is VET. At Vet2 you have pretty much unlocked all of their performance. An extra 20% acc and cheaper satchel is pathetic for VET3. On top of that their Vet does not really give them any performance enhancement as an AT squad. They don't get extra damage/gun range/satchel range/re-enforce cost with vet. Extra acc means little due to PTRS acc and vehicle target size.

If there is another patch it will most likely be small so I would assume a small change for the unit. My suggestion would be a 10% rec acc buff as part of the upgrade so that they could be more aggressive and dont bleed you dry when they are.
My wish would be the ability to stow the upgrade away similar to minesweeper. That way if a vehicle is no longer around you don't have a useless unit around. It would also allow for some creative flanks and dives.