PC PC GAMES

“The free-to-play online action strategy game based upon the highest-rated real-time strategy title of all time.”

The Basics

• RTS
• Squad-based units
• WWII
• Victory Point Control/Annihilation game types
• Relic style resource gathering *points to Dawn of War, Dawn of War II, Company of Heroes, etc.*
• Terrain defense bonus
• Infantry morale
• F2P (Free-to-Play)
• Item store
• Guilds *not viable yet (joining a guild does nothing and guild creators have all options disabled)
• Strategic gameplay (each unit is weak by itself, this game do not allow any single unit to dominate the field)
• Hero units *note above, same applies

The Doctrines

Allied:

• Infantry (Rangers, Howitzers, Camo)
• Armor (Calliope, Pershing, AP rounds)
• Airborne (Paradroped troops/tanks/AT, bombing run)

Axis:

• Terror (King tiger, V1)
• Blitzkrieg (Stormtroopers, Tiger tank, Rocket Barrage)
• Defensive (Flak-88, Recoup Losses, in-territory defenses)

Run-through of everything the average gamer goes through from beginning:

First, you sign up at http://www.companyofheroes.com. Once you done that you can download and run the game install.

There is a total of six combat doctrines to choose from, three on each side. (Note: the names hint at potential future doctrines similar to the original CoH nations) Each of these doctrines changes the units available to the player slightly. Enough to make a difference (ie. only the Allied Armor can field the Sherman Calliope). Along with slight unit differences, each commander gets an Ability Tree. This tree, similar to the original Company of Hero’s, allows the play to select his or her commander abilities. However, instead of selecting at the beginning of each game. The commander AND doctrine type are both selected at the character creation. After character creation, the player is immediately asked whether or not he or she has experience playing Company of Heroes and if so in what format, Campaign/Single-Player or Multi-player.

It is assumed that if you played multi-player and believe yourself to be reasonably well at it to select that option instead of Campaign even if you prefer the Campaign. After selecting your background in Company of Heroes, a tutorial begins in which it starts explaining the Lobby interface. Here you have the option of continuing and finishing the tutorial or skipping it. To skip it you go to the top right and click on the menu where you are given the option of ending the tutorial. Either way, after the tutorial, check out the main screen. Its got some great tips for veteran and new players alike.

Once you have done that, I suggest a game or two with an easy or normal cpu in the custom game mode. See what the units are, the small changes to the original game, and get a feel for the new commander system. After that, get going, dive into the Reward Games. You select the game size (1v1,2v2, 3v3, 4v4) and it’ll say searching for game while showing you how many players on each side are also searching for a game. Soon(hopefull) it’ll find one and show “connection to players…” Once connected, you’ll hit the loading screen. This screen is important, it’ll show you the map, your allies, and your enemies. Check out what commander type they are and what items they have. Plan accordingly. Say you’ve got two enemy Tank commanders, you might want to rush out that early AT (anti-tank) and hold off on anti-infantry. Say hi, let them know you’re new to CoH:O (and if you’ve played any CoH before) the players there will generally be supportive and helpful as many are veteran players who love the community. If not, you can always ignore them.

Overall, if you like any of the Company of Heroes this is a must play. If you liked any of Relic’s Dawn of War series, this is a must try. For anyone else, its FREE. What more can I say? You won’t have lost anything by trying. (OK, well there’s the time you’re going to spend addicted to this, but that’s about it)

Character Creation:

You MUST chose your allegiance and doctrine type here. There is NO changing it, except by deleting and recreating your character. You have a couple of options to chose from in terms of your character’s physical appearance, but your character is rarely seen. He does not show up in gameplay and is only really seen when viewing another player’s profile in the leader-boards.

Tutorial:

Not bad, not for returning players though. Its slightly glitchy at times (doesn’t register mission accomplished or start the mission leaving you an empty map and 1 squad with nothing to do) But, all small glitches aside, its a great way to jump into multi-player. Go through the tutorial and then read some tips on the front page and you’re good to go. It shows you how to move units around, use cover, use tanks, the destruct-able environment, the resource system, and the hero system. Most RTS players can safely skip this, but be warned. You’ll be losing out on approx. the first 5/6 levels worth of xp.

Reward Game:

This is the heart and soul of Company of Heroes Online. With double xp and supply, bonuses for the underdog, special item drops, and leader-boards the incentive to play this is great. However, you are limited to the 500pt Victory Control game-type only. If you’re OK with the 500VP control game-type then play this. Sometimes searching is slow as it seems the community is still small (but increasing), however 1v1 is always a sure way to get a quick game in. In the games I’ve played, they’ve either been each to their own or teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. Each to their own works when you all know what you’re doing, but when it gets tough teamwork will always win. Sometimes you get paired up with a hacker/glitcher/etc but Relic has an ace up their sleeve… if the match does not run smoothly as in people dropping, strange lag, etc they will watch a recording of the battle themselves and arbitrate the match. Then comes the “Trust” System. It will, like any reasonable person, begin to not automatically award wins, points, etc to people who keep getting weird wins where they win in 5 mins, disconnect and win, or win by enemy disconnects. After so many of those the system will give out automatic losses when those things happen. Its kinda like a 3 strikes and your out deal. You can do it once or twice to get that extra level when you’re just starting, but then the benefit gets removed as you progress.

Custom Game:

Know you can totally dominate your friend and want to make him suffer? Play the annihilation game-type then. Here you get to play the game, but win only by killing all enemy units and main buildings. Like artillery? this is for you. Bring the rain.

Other options are the VP game-type where you can chose 250, 500, 1000pts with settings for starting resources, Fog of War, starting locations, and more. Also, if you play custom game, there are two (maybe more) maps that aren’t int he Reward Game playlist. These are the bridge maps where (as I’ve said) you attack each other with “What’s that?” “INCOMING!!!” artillery.

Campaign:

Guess what? Relic didn’t just throw out a mmo version of Company of Heroes in a micro-transaction format. They give you the whole game for FREE*. Now, its not completely for free because you have to invest some time if you want the full campaign. I’ve played some, about an hour or two’s worth and I still haven’t reached the point where I have to pay, but they say eventually you’ll have to buy the campaign levels. Thankfully, you can pay with in game money called “Supply” (or so they say, I can’t confirm this as I’m not far enough yet). So, play the single player, play some multi-player, then use the points from multi-player and unlock some more FREE single player. How cool is that? No dlc, no expansions, no cash needed. Just play their game and you get more of their game.