This game has to be my favourite strategy game of all time. And I really like Red Alert 3 (and something that Company of Heroes cannot take is the style of the Red Alert franchise, the live action cutscenes, etcetera).
However, Company of Heroes creates atmosphere perfectly. No video can make you realise this (I tried to find some and failed, although there could be a few out there).
The vast orchestral score for the game adapts smoothly depending on what is happening, and really fits with what is going on, it is not as simple as 'combat music, idle music'.
The unit responses are superb, and there must be hundreds of them. The attitudes in them, the feeling, some of the engineer responses for the US engineers are brilliant.
The detail for a strategy game is also damn good.
However, what really stands out (for me anyway) is the game-play. Apparently this is similar to Dawn of War 2, however I do not know as I have never played that.
The basics are, that there are control points dotted around the map. They vary in what they are (manpower, munitions, and fuel points), and they vary in how much of those resources they give you.
You cannot build most things in territory you do not control (enemy or neutral), but once you control it you can do what you want with it.
Most of the games I have played have been against my brother, or playing the single-player campaign, so I do not think we are both particularly good. Most of our games tend to be quite long ones, with slow tiny advances or retreats on both sides. Sometimes our games are cut short by connection problems or the late evening.
Anyway, I took a few screenshots of our last game to try and highlight some of the fun parts from today.
The map we were playing on was called Hinderdam:
I found this image on Gamespy and rotated it so that it makes more sense to the screenshots.
Our game ended due to the lateness of the evening.
Anyway, I began at location 2, as the Allies (American), and my brother as the Axis (I am not sure which faction, but his one was one that has really good infantry). At the time our game ended, I had finally begun to push up in the lower right of the circular land mass on the map.
It took me a long while to break through, and these machine gun posts were slow to put up, and quite a few were destroyed before I got a foot-hold on the area. My field barracks can just be seen in the top right of the screenshot, but it was not the first one. My previous one was established beyond the view of the screenshot, however my brother annihilated it with his infantry.
To clarify, I think any infantry unit can create a field barracks. Any house will do, just garrison them in any building, and tell them to create one. At which point you can create units from it and reinforce nearby units.
Some fierce fighting went on there, as is evidenced by the craters.
Here is another shot taken from a different angle.
This shot is the other side of the circular half I was trying to take. I am not sure which one of the destroyed buildings on the left was the Axis headquarters. No I don't know how that house in the middle is still standing either. Just on the right you can see my defenses on the far side of the river.
There was rather a large amount of fighting over the river. My brother was trying to loosen my foothold on my side of the bridge by attacking me from the river. I used the artillery bombardment ability (the first button next the 0) which managed to destroy the building opposite, as my brother had garrisoned some soldiers in there who were firing rockets down on my area.
I established some machine gun nests opposite, and attempted to build a howitzer, the remains of which can be seen on the left of my side just under the writing. First he tried to attack from long range with a tank, but I finally managed to find a good firing position for my anti-tank units on the right, to keep him at bay.
Unfortunately, this was not enough, as he deployed a mobile mortar unit earlier on that lay waste to quite a few of my engineers, and the relocated howitzer further in (the remains of which cannot be seen in this shot). I was forced to advance briefly (as my attack was quickly repelled) and managed to destroy it. This gave me enough time to build the howitzer again, and to counter bombard him should he attack.
A look further in on my side, and you can see the remains of the second howitzer on the bottom right of the shot, and at the top the third howitzer I built (as the US playing as the Infantry Commander, I can only have one at a time though). Also take note of the bridge. There is the remains of some barbed wire, and a few mines. My engineers suffered tragically when my brother opened fire mid mine-laying with some panzershreks (I think I spelt that right).
A closer look at my Howitzer:
Further to the left was the bridge. My counter attack with artillery destroyed it, but they can be rebuilt.
Just over the bridge was a windmill that my brother had control of, but I managed to destroy it after a while of artillery fire (apparently he had abandoned it after the first barrage, but I didn't know that).
Back to the other side of the map where I was advancing, I had for a while held this area. Just below this screenshot was a second bridge, which so I had to hold off his forces on two fronts. I repeatedly mined the bridge on the left, and set up barbed wire.
This was the second bridge. I had originally intended to advance down here, but my brother held off my repeated assaults. The bridge was actually repaired by my brother (after it apparently got destroyed by my artillery, but I hadn't noticed). He used this to make one of his last assaults before the end of the game.
This is most of the two-bridge-defense. My field barracks can be seen at the back, along with quite a few machine gun nests.
I love this game, and I must recommend it to everyone. And if anyone else has it, I am interested in a game.
