Real Time Strategy Master Thread

I keep wanting to sit down and play it, but either I'm already too occupied with another game or just to busy otherwise to find time. As a result I don't have too much hours put into the game

But from what little I've played - do NOT use me as a reliable source on this...

• The US Forces are mobile and aggressive - easily the Cannons of Co H 3. You have to make some restrictive choices when choosing abilities to unlock but they're all potent anyways. Their Rangers in particular can carry a ton of secondary weapons and can be a massive threat against anything if ranked up and fully equipped. Unsurprisingly, the playerbase loves spamming 'em.
• The British Commonwealth are supposedly the most straightforward and easiest faction to learn - guess that makes them Balanced. Lots of variety, but no snipers or super-heavy endgame weapons. Their paratroopers can make it easy to harass enemy territory behind the frontlines or attack undefended support units. I actually preferred playing with them the most.
• The German Wehrmacht... can't say much on these guys, I don't think I've even played them once. Supposedly they're better at turtling and laying siege along with the usual heavy tanks, from what I've heard.
• Afrika Korps units remind me of the Panzer Elite from Co H 1: they hit harder and move faster than others, their AT flak cannons are nasty, they can rush vehicles, and their infantry are limited but strongly encouraged to closely follow their vehicles in exchange for various buffs, or to provide repairs. Basically, you want your infantry constantly desanting from Afrika Korps vehicles. I believe their overall unit roster is bigger than the other factions, too. I'm having a hard time trying to classify these guys because they basically sound like another Cannon faction.

Going by this guide that I had found — which admittedly is over a year old, so for all I know some parts of it may be outdated — it seems that it breaks down as follows:

• US Forces: offensively-oriented Generalist (it's a "capable fighting force in all departments"), with a side order of Unit Specialist (air power).

• British Commonwealth: very much a Ranger (long-range suppression of enemies is the cornerstone of its tactics) and a Unit Specialist (artillery units).

• Wehrmacht: another Generalist ("capable fighting force in all areas"), but a different kind of Unit Specialist (armored vehicles).

• Deutsche Afrikakorps: Ranger (a mainly mechanized/armored force, and thus highly mobile) and Unit Specialist (even more into armored vehicles, especially tanks, than the Wehrmacht).

But according to this fan-made wiki, it should break down as follows.

• US Forces: Ranger/Spammer (described as having both "more mobility" and "higher numbers" than the UK, much more offense-oriented).

• British Commonwealth: Generalist (well-rounded and flexible, balances offense and defense).

• Wehrmacht: Turtle/Brute (has the most defensive options, early game is focused on strong defense, late game gives access to powerful tanks and weapons).

• Deutsche Afrikakorps: Ranger/Unit Specialist (heavily vehicle/tank-focused, more aggressive and mobile than the Wehrmacht).

Oh, so that game only covers the Western and African fronts, huh?

It's the North African and Italian campaigns.

First game was the western front. Second game eastern. None have covered the Pacific, probably because naval battles aren't covered.

Edited by Resileafs on Apr 1st 2024 at 12:59:49 PM

Second game also covered a different part of the Western Front when it debuted the Oberkommando West, British and US factions. And I suspect the Pacific War may not be covered not because of the predominance of naval battles (since COH is about land warfare'', which still happened a lot), but because the nature of the land battles there (that is, being dominated by fighting in the tropical jungles of the myriad islands) is very different from COH's overaching theme of urban warfare, and both Imperial Japan and the Chinese Nationalist Army are hilariously underpowered (and the latter often obsolete leftovers from the Allies) compared to what the Allies could bring to the table ^note Japan's saving grace was that the Western Europeans and USSR were too busy with Germany to ship their best land stuff to the Pacific, and the US had a Europe-first policy for most of the Pacific War that significantly nerfed the land forces it sent that theater.

Mind you, if it was strictly Japan vs. China, then a Pacific War installment would be less in need of extremely unrealistic buffing of the two factions' military capabilities in order to put them on par with the Allies.

Edited by MarqFJA on Apr 1st 2024 at 8:33:29 PM

The Company of Heroes games have been known to throw in a few weird or rare units for the sake of gameplay or fun, or balance a historically crappy unit into being more effective than in realty, so it's not impossible to imagine the Japanese getting a couple of their prototype weapons to use against the USMC. Plus it was mostly a infantry combined with fire-support type of conflict - which fits quite comfortably within Co H's style of combat. They'd just need to figure out how to make the dense jungles serve as a sort of heavy cover or garrisonable structure, or how to balance out Banzai charges.

Plus, the Imperial Japanese military doctrine would fit right in: entrenched infantry who rely upon booby traps, close-range ambushes, AT cannons and air support, naval bombardments, using a "nationalistic fervor" support power to stir troops suffering from a rout into a frenzy... yeah, it could work. Naturally their armored vehicles would be the weak spot since they were inferior to their western counterparts, but again, gameplay balance often doesn't care about such things, right?

As for the Chinese nationalists vs Japanese... well there's a CoH1 mod that handles exactly that conflict but they did what you mentioned Marq: focused more upon the infantry and got rid of much of the heavier armor, or made it rare or exclusive to certain doctrines.

Edited by SgtRicko on Apr 2nd 2024 at 11:40:26 PM

Alternatively, dense jungle is passable for infantry, but has a VERY heavy movement speed and sight range penalty. Good for ambushing, bad for retreating.

It's late, but it's related.

If only.

Given the financial issues Relic is having now (along with being sold to a Venture Capital company) I wouldn't be expecting a full-blown expansion anytime soon.

Still, would be amazing to see a USMC / IJN faction addition, or even a campaign map, down the line...

Edited by SgtRicko on Apr 3rd 2024 at 4:21:10 AM

I've not heard that, I only read that an investor bought them out to be an independent studio. Still, I'll admit your claim is as good of an explanation as any, since I'm still not sure what's in it for the anonymous investor.

Does anyone have further feedback to give on the COH3 question from earlier?

I don't actually own the game myself, so I can only say that I'm not ignoring your question, but I can't help with it.

Probably the most positive and in-depth review I've seen for End War, especially since it's coming from a former top-level player who was active during the game's peak years.