Profile of skemshead

I have a problem with the spam Penal and convert some when needed into AT units. It gives too much solution for the Soviet player by using a single unit for half of the game.
a) Your opponent build a light tank, solution is to convert one or two penal and then adapt your tiering
b) Your opponent build more infantry, solution is to keep your penal AI and adapt your tiering.

There isn't basically a wrong decision making with Penals at this stage of the game.

If you compare with USF which propose a similar gameplay early on, you need to decide whenever you want AI control with the T1 or AT and light tanks with T2. And if you don't, you still need to invest fuel on zook.
Soviet aren't design that way, You went Penal spam, it goes well = T3 and you got AI and AT solutions. You went Penal spam, it goes wrong = T2 and you got AI and AT solutions.

This is why, even if the Penals you build on the patch are balanced as a unit, this will not bring any balance into the gameplay. If I agree that in order to reduce the Penal impact early on we must give a AT solution on the T1, this solution shouldn't be on the Penal themselves. It can come from a M-42 or from other solutions. It should have a real cost, something that impact your strategy and decision making more than -I'm on the downside so T2 + penalPTRS, I'm on the upside so t3 + penalPTRS.

This ^^ 100%.

There is no meaningful decisions.

I watched the rant video and I don't think you helped your cause calling peoples views stupid or ridiculous. Most posts seems to be either opposed to the idea, or are proposing alternative ideas. No one is being offensive and I don't believe too many think it is an OP solution. I certainly did not make any such claim.

You obviously want more variety build wise, and that is to be commended on some level, but it is only unit variation that you are promoting. Its not really a strategy of strengths and weaknesses.

I am not necessarily opposed to the idea, believing it to be too strong, but rather because it is to easy. If an upgrade was required that required fuel I may be of a differing view, maybe. The idea that soviets need more At options in the same patch that all lvs and stug e were nerfed seems a little overkill.

I think it is certainly viable with certain commanders and builds but I think there could be a problem when the sov player goes guards and then upgrades some or all penals to ptrs and relies on 120, sniper, t70 or t34/85 etc etc for AI. Axis vehicles will be facing a lot of At.

I'm also not really a fan of more handheld At on six man squads. I thought the patch was to raise the skill cap. Also taking advice only from elite players is not always the best idea, since they play differently and react faster, whereas down the ladder ie 250+ blobbing becomes a thing very quickly.

I am also a little mystified as to why sovs going t1, t2 is a ridiculous idea, yet ost have to do it every game or simply loose. I know the cost is different, (didn't have time to calculate sorry) but it just seems that your argument hinges upon t1 - t3 being the only teching path and therefore validating your decision to implement ptrs on penals. Seems to me the issue is one of timing and cost, but maybe that is outside of patch scope.

I guess my only real concern is not that it is OP, but more along the lines on being low risk, resulting in a change from flamer penals/guards every game to ptrs penals guards every game.

Because assuming that Penals are balanced, nobody is going to bother going with a risk/reward tier there is so many other options. Tier 1 needs access to some kind of anti tank, else Tier1 will just never be seen again.

This all depends on your definition of balanced penals. Penals being strictly AI should give sov early game advantage and therefore allow easy transition to t2 or guards. I cannot see why they need any AT early game unless the goal is to go heavy T1 into T3. Its not a ridiculous thought to supplement penals with cons/AT nades and mines. The only issue would be as Hector pointed out is the OKW flacktrack but the timing on that could be adjusted.

I don't necessarily agree with the line of thought that some people have that each faction should have all the necessary tools to compete. Its not as though going t1 means t2 is inaccessible. Far from it really.

That's why AEC also kills a bit less. If Light vehicles afford your infantry more time for you to plan your attack, so should they be afforded a way to escape.

It's a live-and-let-live design, like the Shock troops.
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Will have to to take your word for it as I don't have time to play the mod and test every map, but it really seems a bit excessive. Granted there may be other factors to consider when looking at the entire brit faction and how they interact with other factions ( and honestly I haven't looked at the entire picture )
but I seriously doubt (now that AC spam is probably coming to an end ) that ost has any real chance to kill this unit before mediums arrive unless the brit player screws up terribly.

It will really need to "kill a bit less".

accuracy on the move for both panzer 4 and panther from 0.5 to 0.75

^^This 100%.
The amount of Anti tank counters allies can usually field means opportunities for proper tank battles is limited, so seeing the piv miss all the time is really disapponting.

Or rng could just hate me.

At the risk of coming across as having a too simplistic view. I never saw what the problem with StuG E was. By the time it arrives it is hard countered by a single ATG.

US Rifleman, Maxims or Tommy's with Brens ensure that no Axis infantry are able to de-crew the ATG.

If anything at all, it needed a slight price increase and that's it.

I am a firm believer in the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid.

+1

Many issues in coh2 can be directly linked to spamming a strong unit or weapon. If someone wants to put all their resources into one type of playstyle it should leave them exposed elsewhere.

Stug e is not op imo. But spamming them is. The fact that it can be replaced almost immediately is flawed. Increase its cost, increase its popcap and increase its cooldown. Its meant to be effective, otherwise what is the point of calling it in.

Same goes for penal flamers. 1 penal flamer adds flavour. 3 or 4 penal flamers is just cancer. Increase flamer cost to 120 and even out vet power spikes.

Guards to also suffer from the same issue. Too easy to spam. Guards also are too durable.