I do think they should have their damage halved and fire-rate doubled. Doing 40 damage a hit, their tendency to 'snipe' units is quite strong. Guards actually do Pathfinder's job of crit-killing weakened infantry better than those guys could ever dream to.
Nevertheless, I greatly applaud Relic for finally making the PTRS worthwhile. It is not very effective vs Armour due to it's nature, but allowing it to do AI work as well makes it worth having.
I hate seeing the guy who makes the most important decisions of coh2 barely can beat a easy AI... no wonder coh2's horrible shape at launch. Im sure he can create awesome singelplayer games but who the fuck cares about singelplayer in this day and age?
You realise he was focused on the questions and not the game, right? Because the last time Peter focused on the game and not the questions, everyone went apeshit about the answers. But sure, lets keep up the blind hate, we'll dig ourselves so deep into our pit of despair that nothing short of the death of Company of Heroes and subsequent rebranding and relaunch several years later will fix. Because we've reached a point where all news is bad news, and everyone hates everything.
I wish people would stop saying "X Confirmed", that's not what happened. New faction was confirmed, it wasn't said what they were, we only have hints, but no conformation. And "pershing confirmed" is pure fiction.