CoH: Modern Combat

I've seen a vet 1 and vet 2 PLA mortar just decimate my troops. When I'm capping a point, it just comes down and BAM, half the squad is dead.

Molotovs are Full Mobilization.

Allowing a second RPG to tank hunters in normal mode doesn't really give them options, it just lets them be better at things they were already doing, which illustrates the point I'm getting at, kind of. If U.S. needs a little more anti-vehicle/anti-tank, they can research AT4s or Bradley TOW, upgrade SMAWs, or upgrade LAVs/Strykers. PLA has nothing of the sort, instead if you don't already have the units on the field you've got a problem (exception of ZBD-05, but their 105mm cannon is stupidly inaccurate). Army can lay in the hurt with Javelins or ATGMs, and then chase down and finish low-health vehicles off with perfect accuracy Bradley TOWs or Rifleman AT4s (Marines can do this with MARSOC, and it's a favorite tactic of mine). PLA has nothing of the sort, and I've posted in the balance forum before about it.

Breaking from a discussion specifically about anti-vehicle, it comes down to not having any multi-role units. I'd rather have Regulars that can choose between anti-infantry upgrades upgrading to up to 2 RPGs for 50 munitions each than having to specifically build tank hunters, and move the anti-tank gun to tier 2 to assist, with some kind of marginally effective mobile anti-tank in tier 3. Doing it as it is now means PLA is forced to invest a ridiculous amount into infantry, and it doesn't compare to the U.S. situation because Javelin spam is effective the entire game, whereas tank hunter spam is hardly effective at all. If you get stuck in tier 2 though, you have no choice, so you end up with all your militia from the early game, any machine guns you have surviving, all the regulars you need to build to get an effective anti-infantry force, and all the tank hunters you need to build to hold off the vehicles. That's a really, really hard force to maintain in the field, but you have no options otherwise. Does my wish-list make PLA into basically a carbon-copy of the Wehr army? Mostly, but it's already structured that way, and the current Wehr tech tree ensures that whether you go tier 2 or tier 3, you've got the key components you'll need to be successful (indirect support (mortar/nebel), anti-infantry (grens/pumas), dedicated anti-tank (pak/stug), and options for anti-vehicle/soft anti-tank (Shreckgrens/50mm Puma).

For reference, I played massive tier 1 (3 pio, 2 bike, 4 or 5 volks, 2 MGs) straight to tier 3 as Wehrmacht in vCoH with some success, precisely because these kinds of multi-role options exist. I could hold off fast M8s with multi-fausts or 50mm upguns, and could usually get stugs by the time tank depot hit. This reduced the need for PaKs which didn't suit my play-style anyway, or grenadiers which really needed vet 2 to be effective in the first place.

But, like I said before, I tried to propose minimum-effort solutions because I'm at least partially cognizant of how much work major changes require.

Not exactly a "minimum-effort" solution, but I understand now.