Company of Heros
 

My Oct06 PC Gamer mag just arrived in the mail. On the disk
was the Company of Heros beta demo with a nice article on
the game in the mag. They rated it a 96% and after I did some
looking at the basic training on the demo, it really looks quite good.
When I get some more time, I will finish the training and get into
the game a bit more. This game might just be all that it can be...

JIM

OK, just finished all 4 tutorials. This is probably the best RTS game I
have seen in a while. I just may have to pick this one up when it hits
the shelves...

JIM

The people over at "Fry's Electronics" tell me that COH
will be in their store this coming Thursday about noon.
They will be offering a $10. discount off the list price.
It should be available in CD or DVD format....

JIM

A great review about the game here:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/company-of-.../732149p1.html

JIM

Just got this game today. So far it is looking GREAT !!
It's very resource heavy so make sure your PC is up
to the challenge before you buy it. Multiplayer should
be a BLAST with this one...

JIM

I've been following this game over the past couple months as I am into WWII games, so I think I'll pick it up then :D.

I'm going to try out the demo...quite big at 1800Mb though. I play a bit of Dawn of War and as the same company is behind this it looks like it could be quite fun...here's a link to the demo for anyone who would like to download it.

http://www.gamedaily.com/download/in...eid=0078701494

Just played a bunch with the demo. I am getting this asap. The ai seems to be pretty good, has surprised me so many times. I am still amazed with the physics in this game. Oh man I still can't get over how funny it was to see my tank's gunner get shot and do a backflip out of the turret, smashing his face into the back end of the tank and sliding off onto the ground. This game was truly made of fun and win.

What's your system specs?

It's a very fun game to play. If they did something like Close Combat with CoH's physics and graphics I might never leave my computer.

PD

I agree its a realy good game though i have to say i dont like skirmishing with the AI much as on open maps i find them realy difficult to contain. Mainly as the ai has the advantage in organizing and ordering its units around on the map and it likes to split up its units early on and go capturing and harrasing you in your territory while securing its own. You just cant compete with the ai's efficency.

I also wish the game would let you build defencive structures that are usefull vs tanks that dont count towards your pop cap, and that you could further build up the structures on capture points ala warhammer 40k (cant wait for the next expansion for that game btw).

OK, took a much closer look at this game for about 2 hours of skirmish play.
The doc book is wholly inadequate in my opinion. I learned much that was
NEVER in the book. I quickly found out that the "pause" key is probably the
most important of all for the human player. Using it very frequently, I managed to
keep up with the AI somewhat (still on EASY setting). I got most of my buildings
done before any incursion by the Germans. I even got some tanks & armored cars
built among some other useful things. Found out that all the fuel & munitions depots
are NOT the same. Some are worth more that others (not in the book). Also some
weapons are not listed in the book either. At one point, I saw a red dot moving on
the map towards my MG squad. Upon closer examination, I see this little robot tank?
moving towards me. All of a sudden, it blows up taking my MG squad with it. Didn't
know that we had robots in WW2??? The gun was intact so I had an Engineer squad take
it over which they did to my surprise. I used arty on a German bunker which worked very
well and followed up with a tank, armored car & inf squad. Ran into fierce resistance from
a German tank & infantry. Held my own till a 2nd German tank showed up. It maneuvered
over too my flank where I had my 57 anti-tank gun do the honors. My little anti-tank crew
ended up taking out 3 German tanks (nice shooting). I ended up losing but not by much.
Of course, the lessons I learned for the next time were priceless. So the moral here is:
1. Use the "PAUSE" key very, very often.
2. Use the save option if needed. ( I didn't that game)
3. If there is a cheat code, use for ACE up the sleeve.

JIM

The gameplay of the skirmish is a little like Down of War which I play a bit. I was able to do quite well in the skirmish for both sides. The main thing is to learn the shortcut keys for grenades and any other unit functions. Also it helps if you know the shortcuts when building defensives as well. Using the shift + right mouse butten when laying sandbags, wire or mines you can set up corners around things and not just strait lines. The AI at first can seem quite crafty but if you bottle them up by guarding the choke points on the rivers then it will make futile attacks vs. your mg nests & anti-tank guns. Make sure you sand bag ‘em up as I found that when a tank shot at my AT guns with sandbags in fount of them most of the shots hit the bags until the bags were destroyed before hitting the AT gun, very useful indeed. Also wondered about that little tank thing the Germans had…seemed to be a small ‘remote controlled’ tracked thing that exploded when it got near the enemy. First time I seen it the thing ran strait though my base but did nothing. Next time it came back a MG unit opened up on it and it exploded next to them, killing them, very odd. I know the Germans developed radio controlled anti-ship missiles but I don’t recall anything about this. You never know though.

After watching my buddy play the demo the other week i knew I had to have this game. So far I have not been disappointed at all. The same demo/tutorial comes with the retail version. I played through that to get the basics and then went into the campaign.

I have to agree that the PAUSE key is essential due to the size of the battlefields, which is fine because i love the large maps. Another hint is to assign your squads a number; I believe you use CTRL+ (a number key). That wil keep things a bit more organized. The rest of the shortcuts will help too.

Using the single player skirmishes to experiment with what is available to you in battle is probably a good idea and one I need to pursue. There is a lot built into the game!

I just got this post in another forum about that German robot:


"That robot was a German "Goliath". It was used toward the end of the war in limited numbers. I saw one at the Imperial War Museim."


JIM