My favorite strat is ppsh cons +1 shock squad, with fire support from one or two 120mm mortars. Grab a SU75 for AT instead of ZiS, maybe 2 if you need it, then T4. Pretty strong if you stay down your opponents throat.
You're gonna need a ZiS against a Luchs/222 rush way earlier than you can field an SU-76 let alon SU-85. Against the 222 it's not an absolute must but I'd recommend it.
And this, gentlemen, is why everyone maxim spams. It's the only reliable way to get a strong enough early game advantage to prevent the OKW from snowballing, because the soviets' late game generally can't match the OKW's.
USF and brits however have actually DPS and weapon upgrades for their main infantry so that's a different story.
Manpower income penalty. As in lower the amount of manpower accumulation per minute. Would make sense if they need to have such a strong veterancy system.
I know most of the suggestions probably aren't originally mine. I don't have time to search all the possible quotes that may or may not exist. The point of this thread was mostly to bring it to the developers' attention, if they still read these forums.
This thread is fail. Soviets are one of the best armys they are capable of heaping the pressure on early and keeping it on for quite a while if you play right.
If you build 5+ maxims every game, yes. But is that a really fun way to play? No.