Sorry dude, forgot about this, so first things first.
I floated on the start because I was going for a "non meta" strat that I was trying early that I call 2-2-2-2 (kinda like on footbal) where I go 2 cons, 2 engies, 2 team weapons and since the enemy entrenched themselves with 2 LeIG and 2 snipers the best choice was 2 katyushas.
you see, the KV-8 is not OP as people say it is, it is actually just "ok", It does a lot of damage, but It is very slow and very weak against any AT, so it's not recommended for breakthrough. Also I wanted to take that flaktruck ASAP so SU + Katy was a nice combo since I could demolish building and harass their leigs.
First IS2 died cause I got suprised by so many panthers.
Gotta say I was very dissapointed that you didn't mention my smokes 
incendiary arty is useless now, unless you REALLY want to deny an area, cause any axis infantry can dance on the fire forever without taking damage.
as for the maxims and AT's "facing the wrong direction" they werent, I just leave them like that so it can get positioned properly, especially the maxim that have awful arc of fire and gets flanked all the time, this way you can face it properly or retreat if caught by surprise.
Any other mistakes was because I was too pressed on dodging those damn ISG, infantry can't stop for more than one second or they will get hammered.
also, in the current state of the game, you can't be aggressive as allies or you will totally lose map control and bleed too much manpower.
Ah totally understandable then. I must admit with the smokes I think I must of been focusing a bit to hard on other aspects of the game, and I will gladly admit to anyone to take my commentaries of the Soviets with a grain of salt. I'm not particularly strong with them and most games seem to be Brits and USF recently. I had no idea incideary got nerfed, I would think with how fire works now it would be very strong but hey, learn something new.
Solid point about the KV-8 I guess I'm probably bluring the lines with a crocodile too much.
Never really thought about the Katy that way, I've always seen it as an RnG unit but for harrasment it may not be terrible. I Will have to practice my soviet game some more I reckon.