IMO, in 1v1, this army is just extremely strong and easy to win in the current balance, because of this 3 units. I didn't play a lot of USF in the Alpha or I would have whine the crap out of the Alpha forum.
Rear Echelon squad, the "I WIN" button
This 160 MP squad seems like as useless as Soviet CE squad, but it has an "I WIN" button, Volley Fire. No matter the Jerry is hiding in green cover or not, it just get suppressed very quickly, along with other squad around them. Relic, you think this 20 muni "I WIN" button is fine? You can always win any engagement at essential fuel or cutoff point. That is just silly.
And the zooka "I WIN" button is just ROFL broken.
Why do you have squads blobbed up against a suppression unit?
Rear Echelons have paper durability and do zero damage. Literally the
only thing they can do is spam Volley Fire, and you know what beats that? Having 2 squads. And as infantry units start doing more and more damage as the game goes on, simply using volley fire doesn't work anymore.
One of the biggest issues I find with Volley is that it allows Rear Echelon to 1v1 any squad in the early engagements, due to permanent pinning(For those who don't know, standard weapons do suppression damage, so if Volley pins someone and then the RE keep shooting, they'll stay pinned). And that's something that, while I enjoy using immensely, needs to be looked at. Even for 20MU, a 160MP capping support squad shouldn't be able to solo a core combat infantry unit.
Rifles
Yes, they are the most expensive backbone infantry in the game, I am not sure if they just beat the hell out of Volks & Grens are fine. If they flank a MG42/MG34, it must retreat or get vaporised, that is good. But after they get the Infantry company LMG, they became a "Hit the Dirt" 360 degree MG squad, just for 60 muni per gun.
So basically you choose Infantry company, equip 6 Browning LMG into 3/4 Rifles, with a BAR Lt, you can theoretically win every engagement. I didn't say A move because wise MG placement can stop that, but German can't stop a good flank because mines are (OKW mine) expensive or (S-mine) avoidable. Ober does not arrive that early and 1 Falls just can't do shit to this LMG spamming.
And tell me, where is America's next tier of infantry? The bill ends at Riflemen and a single Lieutenant squad. The US has no Paznergrenadiers, Fallschirmjager, Panzerfuliser, Obersoldaten, or any other tier-up comabt infantry. Just the Riflemen. So, yeah, I'm not going to shed a tear when people complain about America's only combat infantry squad in the game.
With that said, it is strange that the M1919 comes for 60 munitions, whereas Paratroopers get them for 120. So that needs to be fixed one way or the other by Relic.
But I have to ask, do you not know what a tank is? Fuck, the Flak Halftrack will instantly rape any American infantry in the game. You're complaining to me that an 840-1120MP and 180-240MU investment is doing effective damage to infantry? Admittedly, quite effective damage.
That doesn't "theoretically win every engagement", you just practically lose them. Rife squad engagements with any similarly equipped infantry as highly based on luck in how the damage is spread between the models. Fuck, Rifles can still lose to vetted up Sturmpios.
4 Rifle squads or more is such an easy strategy to punish, it's far too heavy on the manpower, delays all the vitally important teching the USA needs to do, and on top of that has absolutely no lategame payoff.
And 3 Rifles? They get countered by any vehicle other than the damn Kubelwagon or Scout Car. They do absolutely zero AT damage and the only way they'll hurt heavier halftracks is if you're just sitting there while they surround it and shoot it for about a minute.
M15 AA Halftrack
Glass cannon, it can be instantly killed by a Rakentenwerfer and screck, but the DPS is ROFL. Don't tell me it needs to show his vulnerable ass to shoot, because HT has no rear armour penalty.
It has zero setup time, vaporising OKW flak track, Puma, Ostheer 222, or suppress and wipe out any other unlucky Jerry just in 3 seconds. And it comes earlier than a Pak. Comparing to OKW flak track, Allies soldiers can just GTFO before it set up the flak gun.
The Halftrack is very potent, but it is USF's direct counter to the OKW halftrack. It's supposed to win.
And frankly the possibility of Allies still experiencing a squad wipe if they retreat the instant they see the OKW Flak HT is still pretty high. Its splash damage is fucking insane, which is one thing the USF HT does not even compare to.
Unless USF ignore Lieutenant and goes straight for Captain + AT Guns preemptively, they have absolutely nothing to handle the OKW halftrack, except for their own halftrack. It needs to be the way it is or the Lieutenant and his tech branch will never be used. 2 Volk squads with Schreks are more than capable of taking out the American HT, or at the least deterring it, though as with all infantry based AT platforms, that is not the most optimal solution.
As you said, it's a glass cannon. If you take away the DPS, it will need a durability boost. Which would be a fine trade off for me.
But if you nerf the USF HT without properly considering the consequences, you will skew the US-OKW matchup dramatically. I honestly believe that halftrack is the only thing keeping Americans competitive with OKW in the midgame. The instant response I - and all my friends, too - have when I see that OKW flak HT hit the field is "I need to get my Halftrack out NOW". My entire early game is geared towards securing that halftrack's existence as a preemptive counter to the OKW one. It's become so common that in a lot of my games the OKW builds AT before their halftrack, just to screw me up. It's very often that I just see Volks walking around with Schreks by the time I get my Lieutenant into the fight.
The metagame with USF and OKW is very much "He whole halftracks the best, wins".
Just look at top 30 of the USF 1v1 ladder Relic, that is fine?
All you need is follow this BO,
3/4 Rifles, Lt, M15 Halftrack, maybe an ambulance, grab 6-8 Browning LMG, you have won.
If you didn't win, L2P.
P.S. I type this as an USF player.
And given that you've played three times as many games with Oberkommando than USF, I don't think you can claim that you're "an USF player", though that 9 winstreak is compelling me to try this strategy of yours and I will go and do so and try and come back with a far more solid opinion on this matter, but I really don't see you have a fair or balanced portrayal of the situation here.