Profile of Ekko Tek

i honestly disagree. maxims are still very useful even with the nerf, you can't just run around and kill everything with them. you don't use them the same way you use an mg42.

So please elaborate and tell us how the Maxim should be used differently then. It has no advantages I can think of other than 2 men more in survivability. I'd choose an MG42 every time over a Maxim. It used to have some advantages but received too many nerfs, some of which were unnecessary (like the damage nerf) once the change was made that pinned HMGs can no longer fire (which was a great change and all that was needed really).

Sense of humour helps.

The little bit of extra DPS the Maxim has is pointless. You don't buy an HMG for DPS, you buy it to suppress infantry. In a game you see a dropped Maxim and MG42 lying side by side. Can anyone honestly say they'd ever crew the Maxim over the MG42?

He went 2 x scout car 2 x sniper into 5 (!) Guard squads and an SU-85.
Panzer IV scatter changes seem noticeable vs. infantry, just enough.
Ostheer scout car somehow survives and dodges Guard squads to get vet 3.
Blitzkrieg and Smoke to kill the SU-85.
Probably would've built the howitzer and a panther next if the game had gone on.

Either give the Germans 2 men or even it out by taking 1 man away from soviets.

Relic can't just make a simple change like this. The German sniper already has some unique advantages over the Soviet one: better cloaking, better rate of fire and accuracy. Simply adding a 2nd entity or deleting one of the Soviet ones wouldn't balance anything. It would be like Soviet players crying for the Maxim to have the same firing arc as the MG42.

I don't see any balance issue with this anyway. Soviets have to commit to T1 or T2 so if you see T2, you can use a sniper without any concern of being countersniped the whole game. Sniping 6 man squads can take longer than 4 man but they're still incredibly good vs. shock troops and Guard. In team games, it isn't this simple but 1v1 is the standard for game balance. Each of the support teams has these little pros and cons. Personally I think Ostheer has the edge in a better HMG and mortar and Soviet has the edge in a more survivable sniper.

On another note in general, not directed at the OP as I don't know his MP habits, but
I wish more people in balance threads would play both factions more - or
at least 66/33%. Before complaining about something being OP you should
at least be using it yourself and still finding it OP. Makes for less bias and tunnel vision.