Profile of Kurobane

I am not sure if you appreciate tracking. Not only it allow the SU-76 to auto spot for its barrage, it also provides mini map info so that one can barrage in the FOW.

I am not a fan of the Vet 1 abilities for Soviet/Whermacht that are copied and pasted across multiple units.

Volley Fire is the defining Skill for Rear Echelon Troops however it is kind of lacklaster and could use an improvement,however you don't want it to be like when USF first came out and it instantly surpressed squads at the start of the game.

I suggest that Volley Fire scale with veterancy.

For Example :

Vet 1 Volley Fire : +40% received accuracy, -50% accuracy
Vet 2 Volley Fire : +20% received accuracy, -35% accuracy
Vet 3 Volley Fire : +0% received accuracy, -20% accuracy

I think Rifleman are fine. The issue I feel is how expensive BAR's are. Could use a slight cost decrease.

The infatry in coh1 is an example to avoid.

Different HP and Different type of armor made the system extremely complicated.

As complicated as it was, it was far more balanced than the lazy man solution we have now in COH 2. People are always crying to have an extra man because the purpose of vet is to promote unit preservation through wise/thoughtful decisions with the retreat mechanic. At the moment due to the vast amounts of RNG in the game, losing a Vet 3 squad to a random mortar/pak howitzer/artillery shell without any chance of responding is a poor gameplay mechanic and defeats the purpose of veterancy.

Rather than apply a bandaid (5th Man for Grenadiers) to the problem, it would be better to fix the problem at its core and reduce the effectiveness of indirect fire so that Grenadiers aren't squad wiped by random RNG. This will also help out other factions as well. With British it is equally frustrating getting an Infantry Section wiped out by a random Whermact Mortar shot before you can purchase the Bolster Upgrade.Soviet Partisans might actually be used in game as well. This is not just a Whermact exclusive problem.

Company of Heroes 1 had 6 Infantry types. Rather than have such a complex system, a simpler solution with 2 Infantry Types could be used. A General Infantry type , and a weapon team infantry type. Have indirect fire do reduced damage (with higher aoe) vs General Infantry Type to make the damage more consistent and less RNG Squad Wipe Based, and the Weapon Team Infantry Type would keep the balance of indirect fire vs team weapons the same as is now.

Why not just give them some sort of explosive resistance on higher vet? I'm all up for Ostheer buffs but I'd rather have them stay with their iconic 4 men squads.

While I agree that Whermact Infantry is in need of some love, I also feel that getting a 5th man is the wrong way to do it as its just a bandaid to the real problem in our beloved game.

Comparing COH 1 to COH 2 for a moment, Each Squad of Infantry had different HP Values. For example US Rifleman were a 6 man squad, each man in the squad had 55 HP for a total of 330 HP, while a Whermact Grenadier Squad was a 4 man squad with 80 HP per man for a total of 320 HP. This is important because total squad HP Values were roughly equivalent. This gave the German factions in COH1 a feeling that even though they were fewer in Number, the Infantry were better trained as result. Come to COH2 and it is the complete opposite. For Whermacht, Ostruppen have a total of 480 HP while Grenadiers have 320 HP. This is why everyone wants an extra man, the extra squad health means less chance of your squads getting instantly wiped out by RNG.

What I would rather see is Relic stop taking shortcuts with COH 2 as has been the case throughout its history since Beta and do proper gameplay design decisions that would be healthy for the game overall.

Now say for example instead of being balanced around 80 HP Models what if Mortars,explosives and artillery and such were balanced around the idea of 60 HP models. Then they would have modifiers against the things they were designed to counter to keep the damage the same vs counters but now they have reduced chance of Squad Wiping and can be made more consistent instead of having the RNG Lotteries that we have now. Not only would this help out Grenadiers but other 4 man squads such as partisans and British Infantry Sections as the 5 Man upgrade can be delayed into later in the game.

With such a change then Grenadiers would no longer need a 5th man, just a minor change to Vet 1 to be more useful and the unit will be fine. Considering the amount of work involved for such a change, Relic is not going to put any real effort into the game so most likely Grenadiers will become a 5 man Squad and in the process something else will get messed up and the cycle will repeat again with something else.