To make it 'work' is probably for one specific task. Because most minors don't get all the tools needed to hold down their own lane. Example being Canada, you can use a moto deck to get and hold a town. However, you have no answer to well microed Super Heavies hell even Heavies. Your only slugger is the Chimera which is garbage for 120pts.
Instead you have to get one of your team mates to drop micro time and assets away from their lane to help yours putting them in a tight spot as well. This game is best played microing your own area as while this game requires a lot less apm's as other strategy games you end up baby sitting your M1A2's and Longbows as the game revolves around super units like these.
The problem with minors is while they can exceed in certain aspects such as moto for Canada or Mech for East Germany, you get the exact same units in a coalition. For only -5 activation points, and less availability which is a steal as for anything that's not a 10v10 you wont ever run out of units especially if your a decent player. The game is balanced around majors and coalitions. Each part of a coalition gives you valuable units and better ways to React. Having a direct counter you can rely on is much better then having to go a round about way of having to deal with something, don't get me wrong for 10v10s its a cluster anyway and all about the fun.
However, in say 4v4 and under, especially in more competitive matches against good players you need to have all the best options available from each member of the coalition to succeeded in taking you lane. There in lies some wiggle room as far as deck customization as some lanes can be played by deck specs such as the center on bloody ridge is often played by an armor deck.
I'm just wondering here, with the people in this thread specifically. I have around 850 to 900 games now and a 60%win rate. It has not been my experience that I suffer for taking a Czech or east german deck. I usually play 2v2 3v3 and 4v4 with a friend of mine against pubs but mostly we join pubstomp games to beat the stompers. I usually play Czech or east german and my friend plays Soviet or Soviet Korean alliance. I am the decidedly better player as my partner, though knowledgeable, is reckless and anticipates getting lucky most of the time. We make a great team because of my by the numbers efficiency and his cock-sure hot dogging. We win a lot, usually 4 to 1 when we play together wins to loses. We don't ever seem to suffer for my love of minors. Are you guys playing at a higher level or something? We usually face people in the 40-70 range win%. I could see it being an issue if you're playing a highly competitive game. Are you guys playing ranked?
Ranked matches are great but I end up waiting like 30min for one. I have a 84.4% win ratio with just US armored and around 700 games which were all 4v4 with my irl friends and we built the decks to work on specific maps. Thing is it was basically all pub stomps as its pretty hard to find decent 4v4 teams willing to play 4-5 games in a row. So basically we all had 80%+ win ratios and what happens is people join then leave and we end up waiting 30mins, We took to resetting our stats to get games to start, and play against other teams when possible.
I've done most of the deck building in my group and have teams that work well together. Coalitions offer much more to a player. More options for more situations and better answers to deal with a wider range of problems. Anything a minor nation can do the coalition does better simply because wargame red dragon is not a spam game. Spam rarely works in this game. Its about microing the small about of good units, sure minors may get a couple more of their super units but you lose so many more super units from the coalition you could have picked. When making a coalition or major deck slots are hard to pick and varies greatly, minors almost aways end up having extra points you put into double cards or random stuff that isn't needed. Why not just get the coalition for -5 activation points and get all the more options.
Minors are fun to play don't get me wrong. But, if your going up against another team that is well thought out and knows the game. Minors don't cut it as your just having to lean on team mates or gimmicky tactics to survive.