Profile of 5trategos

Balance preview aside, I honestly don't think there's any viable build against ost / sniper build in an urban map especially.

The build I've used to a very limited success was:
-2 Inf sections: so you only build one extra.
-On maps with a safe sector close to your base: build a fuel cache.
-Tech up to platoon command post immediately
-Get 2-3 engineers: use them to clear houses, also place mines at doors, behind cover and approaches to cutoffs.
-Get a sniper
-Get an AEC to counter the inevitable scout car or halftrack.
-Get another Infantry Section.
-Centaur

The basic reasoning is you want to avoid the manpower loss associated with early infantry sections or mgs and give yourself a tool to clear houses with focused fire. That's where the engineers come in.

The fuel cache (when possible) hedges the early AEC build which is only useful against light vehicles.

If you have access to the special weapons regiment, you can use the tank hunters to counter the scout car.

When you get the sniper, fire off a safe shot to let the adversary know you have a sniper. This should have the effect of forcing the OST player to be more conservative with his sniper. The goal is not necessarily to kill it, but to make him a paperweight.

Fahu, it sounds to me like either your game files are corrupt of your memory.
I'm assuming you've already tested your game files through Steam, so I would suggest:
1. Run checkdisk to test your storage drive.
2. Download, burn and run Memtest86 to test your memory sticks. Test each stick separately for at least 3 runs.

For example, one thing I used to do when I built an early sniper vs Soviets was screen him with deep snow. This meant if they popped Hoorah to try and rush him down they would get bogged down in the snow and the sniper could be quite safe.

That's nice, except there was so much deep snow that it actually affects both attacker and defender equally most of the time. So most cases just come down to who can support their indirect fire/support troops better and that has nothing to do with cold tech. And your example is simplistic in suggesting that one player simply chooses to ignore deep snow while the other takes advantage of it. In a more egalitarian example, it just creates more extreme situations, where a squad caught out of position is more likely to die than it would without cold tech. I guess whether you like that or not is a matter of taste.

But again, situations where you could gain some significant advantage with proper use of deep snow were so rare to be almost insignificant. Most of the time people just camped a little harder and relied more on vehicles and fire.

Also, A squad won't freeze to death retreating through deep snow unless it is ALREADY FROZEN BEFORE RETREATING. It takes like a minute of being frozen for a squad to lose one member. The fact that it is being brought up so much in this thread really demonstrates my point that people didn't keep their troops warm. I don't understand, how is building a firepit any more microintensive than building sandbags?

Actually, most people were complaining about retreats through deep snow without the freezing effect. The freezing effect was so insignificant that it could be ignored most of the time. Which begs the question, 'why keep it at all'?

Back to deeps snow retreats: since you can't really avoid deep snow on most winter maps, it essentially turns into punishment for flanking and capping the more distant points. This leads to more static play, less valid strategies, more high stakes play.

None of these appeal to me so, I'm happy.

-I like the idea of a decrease in reinforce cost with the 5-man upgrade.

-I don't think the self-repair ability is useful at all. Early-game brits are munitions starved and in no way would I consider wasting a potential mine or bren for a quick repair of the UC. Besides, with the reduced teching costs, sappers come out really quick.

-I'd rather see the UC get a bit more mobility. Microing that little bugger is such a pain.

I've actually found the AEC to be very good against medium armor. Because of its sight range, it can be microed in and out of engagements or used as bait.

It can be used as light AT to extend a T1 - T2 opening for a more infantry-heavy approach.

Don't use it to harass infantry, use it to harass tanks. It's actually very good at what it does. Except for its broken vet ability.