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 I'm back from moving my stuff to somewhere not California, and have actual time to devote to an LP again. (Yay!) As such, I want to visit a game I remember fondly from 2006, Company of Heroes. Company of Heroes was a Relic Game studios title, with Relic being the geniuses behind the Dawn of War series that a few of you goons may be more familiar with, depending. The game itself is an excellent Real Time Strategy title focused on the Second World War, specifically for the year 1944. In fact, the Single Player Campaign that shipped way back when I was naive enough to buy a game on it's release day was the U.S Normandy Breakout Campaign, beginning at Omaha Beach and ending at Chambois. It was later accompanied by the first DLC, Opposing Fronts, which added the Commonwealth and Panzer Elite (Modeled after the Panzer Lehr Division I believe?) factions, for the Allies and Axis, respectively. It also gave full, 8 mission campaigns (the US Campaign was 15 missions) for both factions; The British campaign focusing on the Battle of Caen, and the Panzer Elite Campaign focusing on Operation Market Garden. Finally, the third DLC, Tales of Valor was released, adding three new multiplayer game modes (Panzerkrieg, Assault, and Stone Wall; Tank vs Tank, infantry vs infantry, and co-op wave defense, respectively) as well as three campaigns, each three missions each. First was Tiger Ace, which quite literally put you in command of a Tiger tank. Definitely one of the more interesting campaigns, in my opinion. Second was The Causeway, which put the player in control of a group (First a squad, later a platoon) of Paratroopers ordered to hold a Causeway near Cauquigny whilst allied armor catches up. Thirdly is the Falaise Gap, which puts you in command of a Whermacht (The Axis faction that shipped with the original game) company stationed in the City of Trun, outside Chambois, and is three missions of Frantic Wave defense whilst trying to help the German Army escape the closing pocket at Chambois. However, Whilst the Campaign itself is excellent, in my opinion, this is not the average Let's Play of the Campaigns. (Though I may consider covering them at some point.) See, Company Of Heroes has a couple other things that make it a great game: 1) Excellent Multiplayer 2) An Excellent and still decently active (Re: some are on Steam) modding community So instead, I got a buddy and fellow Goon, Braithdj6006, to play some Modded Multiplayer Company of Heroes with me. DJ has been a good friend since before we were goons, and we actually met back when Steam first picked the Company of Heroes servers up from Relic. (Heck, I taught him how to play!) Now, something to note is that we don't really give very analytical commentary when we record: We're more focused on shooting the poo poo; catching up, relaxing, and making sure we don't gently caress up royally, so to make up for that, I'll be doing analysis here- both in regards to History, and Game tactics. As for rules/spoilers/whatever: 1) Don't be a dickwaffle. Yes, this is World War Two. Yes, there are Nazis. Yes, they committed atrocities. Good? Good. If you're bringing it up as a tie-in to something historic, that's fine, but please don't turn the thread into a War Crimes Tribunal. 2) The Game came out in 2006. The Expansions not long after that. Spoilers are totally fine by me. 3) Not a rule as much as a fair warning: My voice is sort of awkward (yay), and DJ's microphone is a bit loud for the first session (which encompasses the first and second game), so bear with it for a bit. Hopefully we've got audio levels fixed now, but I can't really fix my voice.  Moving on, I plan on covering most, if not all, the "overhaul" Company of Heroes Mods one at a time. My list is as follows: Europe at War- Adds Africa 1941-42, Italy 1943-45, France 1944-45, Belgium 1944-45, and Germany 1945 as separate time periods with special tech trees and units. Also adds the Joint Operations mod, which is a series of Co-op maps designed to challenge the players. Some are easy, some are pretty hard. Blitzkrieg- One of the originals and greats. Hyper realistic (An MG42 will shred your infantry if not in cover) and with tons of maps. Eastern Front- Adds the Russians. 140% better than Company of Heroes 2, which was actually about the Russians. I blame Sega. In all seriousness, though, very well done mod, and the first Mod I actually played, way back in the day. Adds a new German faction as well, the Ostheer, which are a mix of the more static Whermacht, and more mobile Panzer Elite. They're pretty fun to play.) Modern Combat- What it says on the Tin. Has the U.S against China. It's okay; not my favorite, but decently done. The U.S is a fair bit overpowered, gameplay wise. (Unless you're playing as the Marines, for god knows why.) The Great War- World War Two way too mobile for you? How about World War One? Pretty fun, pretty well done, only downside is that the AI doesn't know how to build trenches properly. NHC Mod- Oh Christ on a bike with a pike. This mod. Panzer VII Maus, Nazi Zombies, Donkeys toting panzershreks, Super Pershings, British Carpet Bombers of loving doom, COW ARTILLERY, this mod has it all. God I love this mod. And that's all I can think of at the moment. Anyone who has a copy of the game and feels up to it is more than welcome to join us, and I'll be trying to upload a video once a week. Speaking of: We begin with the Europe At War mod! ---- Europe At War Game One: Stoumont Historical Significance: Stoumont was a village in Belgium during the Ardennes offensive, Operation Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine) better known today as the Battle of the Bulge, and not to be confused with Operation Nordwind, which took place in France, at the same time. The Town itself came under attack by Kampfgruppe Peiper on the 19th, though the defenses the Americans had dug into held until midday. Kampfgruppe Peiper, however, was never reinforced, and later quit the village, breaking back through Allied lines. Whilst most of the remaining Kampfgruppe did successfully return to pre-operation lines, they left behind a large portion of their arms, vehicles, and assorted pieces of equipment. American forces later re-occupied the village, but by then, the battle had passed. Had Peiper been reinforced, there is the possibility that the area of Stavelot-Stoumount could have been used as a route by which to flank and smash into allied lines, though personally, I doubt much would have come of it regardless due to a combination of dangerously low fuel supplies, allied armor rushing to the defenders' aid from the rear, and the clearing weather allowing for air support. Simply put, Germany, at this point, was hosed already. Even if they had pushed the Americans and British back, at that, Russia was already on Germany's doorstep, and we all know how that ended. ---- Tactical Significance: We'll start off with something simple, I think: General order of battle. For any faction except the British, (They're special, we'll cover them later) your first priority is to build 2-3 extra engineer squads, because goddamn, they loving die horribly if a stiff breeze hits them. They can be made absolutely terrifying with the flamethrower upgrade, but they're still glass cannons at best and tank chow at worst. After that, as an American player, you have the choice between the Barracks and the Weapons Support Center, at least in competitive player vs player games. From the barracks, you get riflemen, jeeps, and other goodies, whilst the WSC gives you support units, such as MGs, mortars, and snipers. After that, you have to build the supply yard, which is good and reduces unit upkeep, before you can get to the meat and potatoes of the allied faction: Vehicles and proper Armor- Halftracks, Armored Cars, Shermans, Stuarts, et. Cetera. In this video, I went with the Armor Support Company, so naturally, I rushed tanks. Sherman Jumbos can actually take a shot from a Panther or Tiger front-on without dying horribly, whilst Jackson tank destroyers mount larger caliber 90mm Pershing cannons, and die if a Puma armored car sneezes on them wrong. General armored doctrine (and ignored by me because I'm rusty and possibly an idiot) for a US player is to keep his Shermans, be they Jumbos, Sherman IVs, or "Easy 8" 76's, up front taking the hits from the German armor, whilst the Tank Destroyers sit at range and blast away at front, or more wisely, side and rear armor, sometimes with infantry or mechanized support in the form of Riflemen or halftracks and armored cars. Something to keep note of is the fact that it's generally unwise to ONLY build vehicles or infantry. Blobbing is something that happens a lot, yeah, but a wise commander will make use of all units available to him, not just his tanks or just his riflemen. Though that can still be fun on occasion, it generally will lose you more battles than it will win them for you, due to the fact that spamming makes it much too easy for an enemy commander to simply out-battle you because your unit just isn't equipped to deal with what they send at you. Riflemen cannot stand up to a Wirbelwind Flakpanzer quad 20mm AA gun, for example, regardless of if they have sticky bombs or not. They're just not going to even get close. In short: Keep your units varied, know your build order, and have a general understanding of how tactics work. ---- As an added bonus, I've already hosed up once, in the form of my wifi dying mid-game. I still have that footage, should you want to watch it, as it shows a bit of British gameplay. Das Panzer fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Apr 4, 2017 |
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Apr 4, 2017 05:53
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I still play comp stomps of this game with my dad. Neither of us is very good but we can generally turret defense our way to an eventual victory. Any maps or mods you would recommend for basically vanilla co-op? I guess googling Joint Operations is the first step.
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Apr 4, 2017 09:35
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Joint ops is a good start. Aside from the two new factions and a couple of unlockable units, Eastern Front plays rather vanilla, mechanics wise. Edit: sorry, I missed the maps request too. Lyon (1v1 and 2v2), Vire River Valley (2v2), Gilroy's Harbor (2v2), Achelous River (2v2) The Scheldt (3v3) The Seine River Docks (3v3), and The Hochwald Gap (4v4) are good vs AI maps. The others take more practice, but those particular maps are very easy to turtle on. Das Panzer fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Apr 4, 2017 |
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Apr 4, 2017 13:58
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Glad to see this, I've been looking for a new old RTS to play. Since the recent Zero Hour Shockwave revival, I've won over a hundred games of that against the AI and I'm bored of it. I saw the Company of Heroes Complete edition at Wal-Mart for like ten bucks last week so I picked that up since I believe I saw a goon or two say that it was "the greatest RTS of all time" or "like Dawn of War 1 but better". I haven't made much progress in the campaign and I can just about beat the (Easy difficulty) computer nearly every time. So I'm keen to see what mods are out there and this looks like the topic for me. Definitely be interested to see where this goes.
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Apr 4, 2017 21:37
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I'd say it's one of the greatest, if not THE greatest modern RTS of all time. Excellent stories, fun, decently balanced gameplay, and tons of mod support. Glad to see I'm helping mod-wise, too! I'd highly recommend finishing the campaign though if you feel up to it, it's absolutely perfectly done.
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Apr 4, 2017 23:05
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I used to like to play the Brits, and I played them Sim-City style. I am the worst kind of person. I play Company of Heroes 2 occasionally but it really didn't change much from CoH.
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Apr 7, 2017 03:35
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Cathode Raymond posted:I used to like to play the Brits, and I played them Sim-City style. I am the worst kind of person. Company of Heroes 2 is solid, multiplayer-wise. The Scenarios that you can get are even relatively fun, and Ardennes Assault, I actually enjoyed a fair bit. My issue with Company of Heroes 2, mainly, was the campaign. I don't know what it is about it, but in comparison to the Original game's campaigns... it just falls flat. Which, really, makes me pretty sad, considering that it covers the Widest and most dangerous land front of the Second world War. Moving on, though: Game 2: Sword Beach Historically, Sword Beach was one of Three Commonwealth beaches, of the trio including Gold, Juno, and sword. The assault on Sword fell to the British 8th Brigade, of the 3rd Infantry Division, as well as several commando units (Who's numbers escape me at the moment), and the 1st Special Service Brigade, all serving as part of the 1st army corps/2nd Army, led by British Lt. General Crocker. The landing itself was pretty difficult, at first, with reports of fierce initial German resistance. However, with most of the allied armor landing successfully at Sword, unlike other beaches such as Omaha, the Germans were quickly forced from the beach, and seven out of eight beach exits were secured by nine-thirty in the morning. From there, the British were ordered to group up and march on the city of Caen, with the Canadians on their left flank, capturing the German-held Airfield at Carpiquet. (Fun fact: this is all actually in the Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts British Campaign, aside from the actual beach landings) Germany's 21st Panzer Division did, later in the day, attempt two counter-attacks against the British, but both were easily repulsed due to superior air power. By the end of the day, nearly 30,000 British troops were ashore, and 1st corps of the 2nd army was readying to assault Caen. (in the later Operation, Charnwood) Gameplay-wise, Uh, I need to turn up the AI difficulty because that was loving easy. (Just wait until we hit Blitzkrieg, and Easy AI makes me cry rivers.) More seriously, this Game gives us a quick insight into the German order of battle. The Whermacht, particularly. In vanilla, and still in most mods (aside from NHC, which makes everything pretty mental) the Whermacht is incredibly weak at the start. Their starting infantry, Volksgrenadiers, are only viable if they remain at long range, or spend 50 munitions on the MP-40 upgrade, which makes them into well-armed (2+5 vs infantry!) glass cannons that die horribly if anything carting larger firepower than a rifle squad looks angry at them. their HMG, the MG-42, however, is indispensable. It suppresses (MUCH) faster than allied Machine guns, and it's loving terrifying. Snipers are also nice, for obvious reasons, though I tend not to use them except for scouting roles. The motorcycle or schimmwagen (Depending on which you choose to have active) is excellent for harassing infantry, scouting, and chasing down enemy snipers in the early game. That being said, Germany gets incredibly powerful late-game units, so generally, the strategy of the day isn't Guderian's Blitzkrieg, but, instead, Siegfried-lining to victory. Late game, Germany gets an excellent mix of powerful infantry (Knight's Cross Holders, who, at Veterancy 3/3, can take a sniper shot to the face and NOT DIE.) powerful tanks, and support units. Things like Panzer V Panthers, Panzer VI Tigers and VII King Tigers, (Depending on command doctrine) Ostwind Flakpanzers (for eating enemy infantry. Flakpanzers are terrifying.) So really, the smart thing to do is hold firm where you can, cede territory where you can't until you can defend it well, and wait for tier 4, when you get your dangerous weaponry.
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Apr 9, 2017 05:16
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It's beginning to look more like I'll be home Thursday, so depending on what time I get home, the next videos will either be up later Thursday night or early Friday morning. Das Panzer fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Apr 18, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 06:17
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I lied. My computer crashed mid-upload, so I'll be uploading over-night. Update some point tomorrow. Das Panzer fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Apr 22, 2017 |
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Apr 21, 2017 20:02
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Hey look an update! Second episode of the week coming tomorrow, because I have absolutely terrible upload speeds for decent resolutions. Episode III: Afrika PvP as Brits So, Africa. Africa was an interesting stage of the Second World War in general. Technology was nowhere near as advanced as other fronts, such as Italy, and later France. "Large" caliber was often anything above a 37mm cannon;usually 3-lber or 57mm guns, which were, at the time, an excellent caliber for anti-tank duty. The Matilda was still a viable tank. The M3 Lee was being used as a 75mm stop gap along with the Grant. The Sherman was JUST entering service (in 1942, with the Campaign ending in 43!) The German mainstay tank was the Panzer III, often armed with a 57mm Anti-armor gun, with early model Panzer IVs firing low velocity 75mm guns, more for anti-infantry/infantry support duty, than the anti-tank duty they were most known for. Also, notably, The Luftwaffe was actually a feasible combat force! Whilst this map is really just some random dune fighting, which would be the norm of a good amount of the campaign, as both armies skirmished all the way across Africa; notably Egypt and Libya, it does bring me to something interesting about the war in Africa. As observant viewers may see, DJ starts off the game with Italian infantry, rather than German infantry. This is because originally, the war in Africa was an Italian-British campaign. It was mostly fought between the Italians, who'd invaded Ethiopia, then marched east towards British Egypt once war broke out in 1939. However, as tends to happen with German Allies, they proved ineffective combatants, and Germany eventually took over the front, with Rommel's famed Afrika Korps. For about a quarter of a year, following his defeat at Gazala, British commanding officer Ritchie was on the run from Rommel's Afrika Korps, eventually halting at El Alamein. From there, as many of you probably know, Ritchie, and later Monty, fought Rommel to a standstill, and began the process of pushing him back across the desert. tl,dr; Don't get stuck-in somewhere in the middle of bum-gently caress nowhere because your best buddy can't handle his own poo poo and maybe bit off a bit more than he could chew. The entirety of the Afrika Korps could have been used somewhere much more useful- like on the Eastern Front- and would have been better served reinforcing places where Germany actually cared about. Moving onto game analysis! Person versus Person! It's actually much, much different from playing against the computer. Firstly, the computer has VERY PREDICTABLE strategies, and never does anything interesting, something that a human player will always have an advantage for. Secondly a human player is more willing to take risks. The AI is very content to just sit and wait until it has overwhelming firepower, occasionally probing your lines to see where it can and can't effectively fight. Thirdly, there's more of a sense of competitiveness, especially amongst people who play the game obsessively In total, I really enjoy PvP! I generally play differently when it comes to PvP- something I didn't really show here, because DJ is a good buddy, and I taught him 99% of what he knows about the game. I find that it pays off to be more aggressive, and to take calculated risks. I'm more likely to be aggressive and change up strategies often when I play, as well as try to trip up my enemy with unorthodox gameplay. Things like that keep the game fresh and interesting tactical challenges, and the wide variety of maps, only improved by mods, keep me coming back to the game, even years (Years! I bought the original on release day!) after it quit being supported by relic. See you goons again tomorrow, with Episode four!
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Apr 23, 2017 05:38
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It's not quite midnight yet, so technically I'm still on time! (Haha, no I'm not.) Regardless, Game Four: Hochwald Gap Hochwald gap is actually a map that is in the vanilla Company of Heroes game, and no changes aside from army units available have been made to the map itself. Something interesting that Europe at War does here, as can be seen towards the end of the video, though not very well, albeit, is the fact that any US player (though not British players) is locked into the Airborne Command Tree, unable to use Armor or Infantry command trees. This lends to some different playstyles, obviously. The Axis, however, have no such issues, and are able to play however they please. The strategy shown here is usually done in a 4vs4, instead of a 2vs3, so I'll break it down in detail for this game's game analysis. The axis slots, which we shall refer to as 1-4, going left to right, each have their own job in the early and late game, and, if anyone fails, you either have to cover for them, until they can undertake their role again, or adjust your strategy. There are, of course, other strategies, but this one is generally the one I find most effective. Slot One Early Game: As you're far left, don't expect to do too much early game. Slot one's job is generally to do as DJ did in the video, and hold the axis land-bridge into the center of the map open, and clear of allies. Generally this is best accomplished either by a Panzer Elite player who goes Scorched Earth, which gives them heavy barricades and Hummel SPGs (disputable the best artillery in the game for the sole fact that it's mobile, like the British Priest SPG) to deal with anything that tries to enter your range, or by a Wehrmacht player who goes defensive doctrine, and can cause any allied soldier who wants to come into range think twice. Note, that while the PE player in this slot CAN go Luftwaffe, any Luftwaffe player is better played in slots 3 and 4. A whermacht slot one looking to be more offensively minded can, however, swing terror or blitzkrieg doctrines instead of defensive, though I'd recommend the former over the latter due to the off-map artillery options terror gets, which more than makes up for the loss of the flak 88s. Slot Two Early game: be ballsy; take risks. Probe enemy lines and see what you can get away with. You may lose a LOT of troops and armor but as long as you're being effective and getting good intelligence, that's OK. Try to harass enemy supply lines by de-capping where possible. However, keep some resources in reserve in case slot one's defenses need aid, as the enemy will probably focus efforts towards your position. The only unsuitable command doctrine for slot 2 is the Whermacht defensive doctrine, really, and even on Europe at War mod it's still a solid choice. (Just not as much on vanilla) Slot Three Early game: because of your starting position, you have one job and one job only: go Panzer Elite, go Luftwaffe, and start spamming Luftwaffe ground forces and Panzer grenadiers. Your task is to capture the right side island and BLOCK OFF BOTH BRIDGES, REGARDLESS OF IF YOU CONTROL THE SOUTHERN BRIDGE OR NOT. That bridge is INCREDIBLY important due to the fuel being mostly on that small island. After that, focus on building up at base and getting your end-game units and abilities. Slot Four Early game: push across the small footbridge to the east with slot three, but like slot one, your goal is to defend the bridgehead and keep the right side fuel connected to your territory. Without that fuel, you WILL lose. I don't actually recommend a "defensive" doctrine here, but rather I recommend sticking with the Whermacht and using their basic defenses to temporarily hold the line, until you're ready to advance, and against AI especially, you shouldn't see as heavy fighting. From this, the phrase of the day is "Hold the line". Your goal is twofold: firstly, you need to finish building up to your late game units, and secondly, every minute that you starve the allies of fuel is another minute that they can't tech up to their end-game units. Then, we get to the mid/late game. Slot one, at this point, should, along with slot two, push across the bridge and spread out the bridgehead, pushing up and left, to the allied bridgehead, where they should hold position and ready to break the enemy defenses. Don't er your guard down though, especially if you're fighting AI, as they will constantly (CONSTANTLY) send poo poo at you. And shell you with artillery. And just generally be very annoying. Slot two, second verse same as the first; continue probing along the front, supporting slot one and occasionally slot three, until you reach the land bridge. Slot three, however, should start pushing forwards along the right flank, supported by slot four's remaining forces not garrisoning the fuel island. You should also bring heavy explosives such as a Goliath, and blow up the allied footbridge, forcing them down to one avenue of attack. And, obviously, slot four should support three. Once the entirety of the middle islands is secure, shell and attack the allies into oblivion. Watch for counterattacks, and keep up the pressure. Don't let them do anything at all worth doing. Hope this is helpful! I think next week I'll go over some general combat tactics, beginning with riflemen, machine guns, and mortars. For now, though, keep your heads down, and your guns loaded!
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Apr 24, 2017 07:28
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Right, well, tried this earlier from my phone and my wifi crapped out on me, so let's try this again. Game Five: St. Hilaire, now with Expert AI Sorry about Dog barking, and the discord push to talk issue will be fixed next update. I was going to talk about infantry tactics, but I typed up an entire update and then lost it, and feel lazy. I'll add it next time around.  Historically, I knew literally nothing about St. Hilaire, and as such, had to go look it up. Apparently, it's a small village in France that was held by the German Army until mid August 1944, that suffered a loss of 78% of it's buildings to the Allied bombing campaigns prior to it's liberation. One notable surviving building, however, is an old Church tower possibly dating back to the time of William the Conqueror. Also, the village looks literally nothing like the in-game map. Go figure. Before I end the update, however, some feedback would be nice. I know a lot of you guys prefer to lurk, but I really don't like having to post several times in a row. Just a simple "Hey, this is still a thing I like to watch/read" or "You hosed up and should go do something else" would be appreciated, as would any constructive criticisms or questions. Sorry to call you guys out like that, I'd just like to know if I'm doing well or poorly. All my insecurity aside, though, see you guys next week!
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May 7, 2017 03:33
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Update here... I originally locked this thread due to the fact that my friend DJ was bogged down in work and we couldn't find the time to run a Company of Heroes Match. However, I have since fallen out of contact with DJ, and haven't talked to him since we last played. Ergo, I'll be cancelling this, due to the fact that 1) I don't play Company of Heroes with anyone else, really (my other friends prefer shooters to RTSes) and 2) I'm a terrible solo commentator. And CoH does not screenshot well. Sorry for taking so long to reply.
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Jun 12, 2017 20:44
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This was one of the better multiplayer RTS games to come out. Right behind TA and supcom1. Good balance of Macro/micro. I stopped playing after the expansion largely because the balance went to hell. I still miss microing the light american tanks so that my front faced the enemy as I shot and ran away from them, I forget, perhaps this was because of LoS or made it easy to get around harder hitting/armored, but slower moving tanks. Either way, the goal was to crush wermacht by taking zero losses once I brought out light tanks and began to push their poo poo in.
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Jun 12, 2017 21:20
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US tanks are fun, but Whermacht was always my best faction. I'm absolutely terrible with the British, but I'm told a play a decent Panzer Elite as well.
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Jun 12, 2017 22:10
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