I don't like these ideas, the changes to Panzerfusiliers and Volksgrenadiers are missing the point of both units. Also you claim that the Volksgrenadier StG upgrade is a no-brainer, but then want an upgrade that gives Panzerfusiliers six Obersoldaten Kar 98's, which of course is a clear upgrade to Panzerfuslier Kar 98's and probably puts them on BAR Riflemen level. The "clear upgrade" is also a silly argument because the Bren, MG 42, and especially BAR are all "clear upgrades", so why should the Volksgrenadiers not have one?
CoH 3 better have Panzer IIIs, no matter what the setting. They were so prevalent that it’s crazy that they weren’t featured in CoH 2, especially since there were so many chances to add it in to OKW or via a new commander to Ostheer.
There are unused voices intended for black rear echelons, I'd love add them as part of a doctrine or unit inspired by the "Black Panthers" 761st Tank Battalion. Not sure what I'd put in it, from the sounds of it they'd be good for infantry, engineers, and/or vehicle crews.
A similar story was with the AVT-40, automatic SVT was tested before the war and it was recognized: well this is stupid. But during the war, field workshops began to modernize their SVT in AVT and began sending reports to the factory: automatic fire is very useful in critical defense situations, send us more AVT. At first, the factory refused to produce AVT, referring to the test report of automatic fire, and then surrendered, and from 1943 until 1945, the SVT was produced only as an AVT.
Sort of. The AVT was produced in limited numbers because the Red Army had a critical machine gun shortage and were looking at alternative solutions (including mass deployment of submachine guns). The AVT was deployed and used, but the SVT was not designed for automatic fire and sustained use as such rapidly wore on the chamber and barrel. Finding it unreliable, the AVT was cancelled and troops were ordered to use the remaining rifles on semi-auto only, any AVT's that were sent for repair or refurbishment had the automatic function removed in the process.
As for the problems of Soviet, I always feel thin on Manpower. Very strange for a country that infamously had a seemingly endless pool of manpower. As Germans, especially OKW, manpower feels plentiful unless I'm taking crazy losses. As Soviets though, taking crazy losses seems to be the norm, you almost cannot get a Conscript into position without them becoming a 5 man squad.
Maybe its time to bring back the red banner T34/85s or the Green T34/76 reserves from the cancelled commander? I could definitely see industry being the commander of choice for a revamp.
Green T-34's were absolutely terrible. If anyone remember the CoH2 beta where every penetrating hit inflicted a mini-crit on the vehicle, that's what Green T-34's were. If the T-34 was hit by another tank, it would disable some part of it. Red Banner T-34-85 would be awesome though, the Soviet faction has no elite armored vehicles.
The bullet effects hitting the ground have no effect on small arms weapons, not to mention every shot fired is counted as suppression even if it misses.
The weapons used by crew members deal such low damage that they are really not a consideration. They generally deal 1/3 the damage per second of a regular weapon of that type. Crew Mosin is 1/3 the damage of a Conscript, Crew Enfield is 1/3 the damage of a Tommy, Crew MP 40 is 1/3 the damage of an Assault Grenadier. Combine that with the fact that they are usually smaller squads and part of that squad is manning a crew served weapon, and the damage output from these is negligible.
For comparison, the DPS of an M1 Garand crew weapon you are so afraid of is roughly equal to a single Osttruppen soldier. Also for the record, within 10 meters (about 1/3.5 a squad's vision) the MP 40 is the strongest crew weapon, doing a whopping ~3 damage per second, 1/2 the DPS of a Grenadier at point-blank, or 2/3 the DPS of a Grenadier at 10 meters.