flamer against soviet is suicide, have fun losing half of your men to mines and trip wires everytime you cap.
great soo the soviets need to spend huge amounts of muni on mines and tripwires while expecting to upgrade to flamers and expecting to match units that will absolutely destroy them outright...
it also means sacrificing much of the map in a defensively styled play while having 0 offensive potential at all...
also weapon upgrades > mines
and weapon upgrades dont help you push cons behind sandbags,
neither can conscripts actually push out volks/grens in sandbags let alone STG volks/LMG grens in sandbags... and STG volks can somewhat reliably defeat conscripts through the use of a flamenade...
kill a t70
early-midgame... no such thing as a T-70
or sweep mines.
did you know that OKW has mines too? sure they wont be able to afford it if they buy STGs but still...
also weapon upgrades > mines
your inf is slightly stronger, not dominating
correction... volksgrenadiers are slightly stronger than conscripts... but are dominating once they get the STG... conscripts and grenadiers are kinda balanced... but dominating once they get the LMG...
id take a mobile 6man maxim over mg34 any day, specially when you can keep it on the field with merge.
they have the same setup time soo "mobile" is a lie... 6 man is a lie when they get wiped just as easily due to deathloop... meanwhile the actual stats that make an MG useful such as suppression and firing arc are in favor of the MG34... merge is probably the only real argument here but it doesnt make the maxim as good as an mg34
to compare the midgame situation unit by unit
OST VS SOV
pio flamer = CE flamer
LMG grenadiers > conscripts
MG42 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> maxim
pak 40 < zis-3
222/flamer HT > nothing... T-70 isnt out yet
teller mine + S-mine > sov mine (arguably)
literally the only unit sov gets better in the midgame is the zis 3
OKW VS SOV
sturmpio > CE flamer (unless urban map)
STG vloks > conscripts
MG34 > maxim
rak <<<<<<<<<<<<< zis-3
okw mine = sov mine
luchs and T-70 not out yet
okw still retains a large infantry advantage in a unit by unit comparison