Thank GhostWarrior its Friday!: Company of Heroes 2

Hi there, 

It’s Friday so it’s time for my Friday update! I thought an obvious starting point would be Company of Heroes 2. 

Along with Verdun, this is probably SB5’s most played game and certainly our most played Strategy Game. We converted to COH2 from COH and on the whole it was improvements all round. If you’ve not played COH2 it’s a WW2 RTS. The factions include; Wehrmacht, Oberkommando West, US Forces, Soviet Union and as of September, The British Forces.

An old favourite of mine, the Elefant Tank Destroyer. Despite being and infantry commander, the lure of these wonderfully moddeled vehicles is always there

There’s a nice variety of units. Light infantry, Assault Infantry, Anti-tank infantry, Snipers, Scout Tanks, Heavy Tanks and Tank Destroyers to name but a few! For those of you familiar with the COH series it retains (and in my opinion, streamlines) the doctrine system. Every faction gets a wide selection of ‘vanilla’ units. Before the battle you can select from a growing number of Commanders that give you additional special units (like Elefant Tank Destroyers) and abilities (like Air Support). With SB5 games this is a key part of our strategy, and we plan before the battle who’s doing what.

A rough outline of SB5 strategy is to push out to a defensive line (preferably somewhere that limits the enemy frontage such as bridges or cliffs). My roll tends to be the assault force. So while I provide some units for the defence I’ll be building up an assault force. This is always a difficult choice for me because by nature I’m and infantry commander. I love nothing more than elite infantry rushing from Coldsteel’s defensive line, bombing from crater to crater supported by accurate artillery from Tinglyed, but in bigger games infantry tend to be a bit fragile so I usually end up attacking with tanks (although with some beautifully modelled Tiger I’s, T34-85’s, IS-2’s and Elefants it’s not a terrible second choice). I will note that COH2 makes it easier to look after infantry than the original COH.

Post battle statistcs: the mainstay of RTS gaming. Also proof that while they are fragile, infatry can be a viable option even in big games.

There’s some great gameplay features including ‘true-sight’; this means that while all units have a spotting radius, it can be blocked by buildings, hedges and hills. The intelligent squad movement system the original COH is carried over.

There’s a fairly active Steam community surrounding COH2 with lots of community maps. Some of the original maps have been well remade for the sequel. All in all, it’s a fantastic sequel that defiantly improves on the original and has the characteristic great visuals and replayability of the Company of Heroes series.  

Thanks for tuning in! Have a great weekend

GhostWarrior