Profile of SturmtigerCobra

Dont forget that mines/demos win games because OKW suck at clearing mines. This include trip wire flares (cost effective against obers) and give good scouting info to prevent flanking. Watch good soviet players and they will consistently get at least 1-2 squad wipes with mines/demos.
Also while capping with cons place strategic green cover which are good for mgs and stalling with cons.

To save munitions and fuel early in the game get one or two flamers instead of molotovs. T2 openings are much safer than T1. Get 1-2 mgs (getting more than that makes soviet vulnerable to early armor) early which are important to push back the kubel if they get one and also suppress the SP squad.

Save all fuel for fast T70 and then get a zis gun. Get zis gun and more cons first if you see flak HT and then "maybe" T3. T4 are only viable in team games, T3 are a must to counter luchs or push pressure on early obers. Until call in tanks come T70 are the only armor that can reliable kill retreating squads in the entire match.
If OKW dont get luchs then maybe skip T3 for a KV8 rush to kill the flak HQ. Flak HQ will prioritize armor so use the KV8 as meatshield while your own infantry focus on his volks/at guns that are shooting at the KV8. Combine this with one AT gun and fire arty and that Flak HQ will go down very fast.

Since OKW have no decent counter arty without stuka its also pretty safe midgame to get 1-2 mortars to barrage the trucks from relative safe distance. Some creative soviet players also use mortar smoke to close in with their infantry or armor. Same tactic can to used to prevent flak HQ from doing damage.

Also dont forget to use cons merge ability which are good to reinforce flamers/mgs/at guns/shocks to prevent early retreat.

Imo Cons are fine as T0, the problem for soviet is they have no decent long range dps upgrades like axis lmgs. So late game soviet have to rely on flanking, indirect fire, smoke to close distance, mines, grenades and armor. So on open maps soviet late game tends to be more micro intensive because they cant just A-move like the Axis long range dps blob.

High risk/High Reward:
AA HT + infiltration nades

IMO AA HT is high level play. OKW need very good map awareness to play aggressively with the HT which are very vulverable to AT grenades, mines and zis guns (without vet1 smoke). If the map dont have good cut off a good soviet player will just stall for a quick T70 to counter the AA HT. Also without pak43 or quick obers OKW have nothing to fall back on if the AA HT is lost to early.

Low Risk/Medium Reward:
infiltration nades + quick obers + suppression bulletins for volks
+ maybe a fast luchs if OKW have good map control or puma after obers to counter the T70

This is more "newbie" friendly and I personally used that before I got good with the AA HT. As a soviet player I see alot of OKW players that get into trouble vs maxim/con spam because AA HT is high level play.

For OKW its important to know that Maxim dont scale well against obers so if you delay tech for AA HT its either agressive play or gg. Cons are the best flanking unit in the game and combined with zis guns/quick T70/mines/demos its not easy using AA HT against decent soviet players.
Yes its very rewarding when OKW use the AA HT well but some games OKW will make mistakes with it and then usual its light out.

I do encourage OKW players to use the AA HT because it makes the meta game more interesting than just going for quick obers in every game. Just know that any decent soviet player can counter or stall the AA HT pretty well if OKW make any mistakes with it. If you watch popular streams from top axis players like Luvnest/helpinghans, they also do occasional mistakes with the AA HT and lose games because of it.

As an old gamer that played HW1 I know it was the best RTS ever made more so than SC1. But unfortunately Relic suck at marketing and dont use the franchise (nor COH) to its full potential. I also know many HW players that said it could easily rival SC1 but only many years later ppl discover the gem it was (or what HW2/HW3 could have been to rival SC2/SC1).

Improve & Expand the Veto System
I would improve and/or expand the veto system and make it more complex so each ladder player have more options to even the playing field for competitive play. Why? Because with all the new content, commanders, maps and "maybe" 2 new factions (total of 6 factions) it would be impossible to ever make COH2 balanced for competitive play. For custom games and single players new content and customized commanders is not a big problem but for competitive play balance is way more important than new content. I fully understand new content can potentially attract new players (who might not be interested in multiplayer) but it should be implemented more gradually and carefully for competitive play.

1) If new factions come then plz allow ladder players (easy fix to improve balance) to at very least veto one faction like they currently veto maps. It's obvious some maps and match ups are not balanced for competitive play and the easy fix for that is to give ladder players more options to decide for themself how to play.

2) A veto system could also be implemented for certain unbalanced commanders similar to what is done in community tournaments where only specific "balanced commanders" are allowed to even the playing field.

3) A 50% chance based veto system for maps and factions is another option that might work to even the playing field for competitive play.
As example, if both ladder players veto the same map they have only 25% chance to get a match up on that map or 50% chance if only one veto apply or 100% chance without any vetos.

4) Veto other players. Give ladder player's the option to temporary veto (blacklist) players for 24 hours - limited to max 10 players at a time. A temporary ban or warning from Relic due to player exploits or whatever is rather ineffective imho. A potential "community" ban would give each player the option to "police itself" against players that have a bad reputation. In short, if enough players ban/veto a certain player that person would be "punished" by a longer matchmaking period or getting match with lower ranking players.

COH2 Bootcamp - Help new players join the fight for axis/allied glory

Second to this Veto system, I would create one ingame "bootcamp" for new players to join (axis or allies bootcamp to foster some friendly competition between both). One way this could work is that when new players sign up they can choose which "mentor" that are available to help them. As reward for the mentors involved they get a free "war spoil" for every ladder game the new player win. To avoid exploit, each mentor involved can only have 3 student at a time and only for the 50 first ladder matches.

To improve communication for those invovled all the ladder matches the student play would then be stored on the COH2 "bootcamp" server and only accessible by the mentor + student who can then watch and analyse the replay without both beeing online at the same time. Nor do the student need to upload replay COH2.org.

Personally, I believe there are a fair amount of experience players (myself included) who under the right circumstances would be willing to "mentor" new players that want to learn.
However, there need to be a well organized ingame communication system in place to support it. Outgame this bootcamp should have each own twitch channel so its easy to get feedback from other mentors and store VODs training tutorials. If something like this became a success I would take it a step further and make it possible for new players or "followers" to donate "virtual assets" directly to their mentor.

Then every once in a while Relic could run a "community spotlight" and highlight the mentors and bootcamp that has been doing well based on ingame statistics.

I think a successful bootcamp (player academy) could be a win-win deal for all involved. a) New players can quickly get help both ingame and outgame, b) Relic get more players involved with the community thx to the bootcamp which in return attract more players as friends tell friends to buy this game, c) mentors can use their player experience to get reward either ingame or outgame for their "community service". Everybody wins.

Just play and whine less plz