Company of Heroes 2 - Actually pretty good now

[Phillip Hone]

Don't know if anyone here has been following this game, but after a bumpy start it has gotten a lot better. I've had it for a while, but it's really just now that I play it without thinking "I sorta wish I was playing COH 1 right now." Recent patches have fixed the following problems that previously reduced it to a "meh" state:

1. Cover and tactical movement of infantry are key (originally, rushing into the open was effective in many situations)
2. German armor no longer has an ability that allowed tanks to warp drive away from the consequences of poor decisions (there used to be a "Blitz" ability that you could activate for individual tanks for like 30 munitions that made them fast enough to escape being outflanked while also making them very hard to damage)
3. The meta game has moved away from heavy armor quite a bit, and there's actually a decent early and mid game now.
4. Soviet snipers no longer completely dominate everything when combined with a scout car or whatever.

It might seem like it's just barely making it back to where COH 1 was, but now you can really enjoy the new features because they're not overshadowed by the problems I mentioned above:

1. True sight. You only get to see things that your units could, so it's possible to ambush people by hiding stuff behind houses or walls.
2. The new factions are well designed at this point of patching.
3. Graphics are a lot better, and the interface is a lot clearer too.
4. The weather changes and new terrain (vehicles can sorta get stuck in mud) make it tactically deeper to some extent.
5. CO-OP missions! These are a great addition if you're like me and you are into that.

So in other words, I think it's at a point where it's incrementally better than COH 1. If you liked the first game, and if you can find it on sale, I would definitely recommend it! (before the patches I might not have).

[wautd]

Thinking of buying it (I've been a massive fan of CoH1). The standalone expansion Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies seems like an interesting option as well. Anyone played it yet?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Thinking of buying it (I've been a massive fan of CoH1). The standalone expansion Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies seems like an interesting option as well. Anyone played it yet?

The new factions are fun. OKW plays like a cross between CoH1's British and Panzer Elite, in that they have deployable base-trucks and a lot of vehicle-based support and combat units.

Americans are a bit different from their CoH1 incarnation. They tech like British, with their various officers unlocking higher tiers of units and serving as unique support units in the field. Their weapon upgrades mostly come from their base, where you can pick up weapons for a munitions cost with whatever squad you care to do so with. So you could decide to give your Rifleman squad 1 BAR and 1 Bazooka, and your Rear Echelon squad 2 .30cal MGs, if that's what you wanted to do, or your Riflemen 1 .30cal and 1 Bazooka, or whatever.

Currently I've been finding the Americans surprisingly the most fun, where I thought the OKW would be more my style.

Like CoH2 in general, it's slightly more historical than the original game if that's your thing: Volksgrenadiers are at least given lip-service toward what they're supposed to be (rather than the nonsensical Volksgrenadier unit in CoH1), uniforms and camouflage are slightly better (though still far from perfect), and while the available units fulfill similar roles to those of CoH1, they've generally selected more historically-sensible units in most cases. For example, instead of the M26 Pershing as a late-game super-tank, the Americans can get the M4A3E8 Easy Eight Sherman instead. Similarly, the OKW (which represents late-1944 German forces) has a fairly limited choice between Panthers or the downgraded PzIV Ausf J (though the mid-44 eastern front Wehrmacht faction can still get PzIV Ausf Hs). I'm sure most people don't care about little details like that, but it is a nice step in the right direction for the more historically minded.

[Phillip Hone]

Thinking of buying it (I've been a massive fan of CoH1). The standalone expansion Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies seems like an interesting option as well. Anyone played it yet?

Yep, quite a bit. The new armies are remarkably balanced even at this stage.

Complaint:

Like in CoH 1, the US faction tends towards blobbing, mostly because it has rifleman who can get bazookas and captains who give proximity bonuses. If you play against the US, you better have a "what if they blob" plan. Blobbing wasn't effective at all for Ostheer or the soviets against someone playing well, but the US can pull it off.

Good stuff:

The US has a unique base building and teching structure based on purchasing officer units that are also unlocks. It's flexible and it sets them apart from the other factions, but not gimmicky and poorly designed, unlike the soviet "pick two of four tiers and use only half of your units" setup.

The new German faction uses trucks as forward bases, which can make them campy at times. Aside from that, I love their design - reduced income, elite units, 5 levels of vet, and a roaster of powerful but expensive, overly specialized units and impractical Wunderwaffen. For instance, they have a tank called the Sturmtiger that can wipe out an entire blob in one shot, even tanks (making it good as a "what if they blob" plan), but you have to manually tell it to reload, and it takes 30 seconds, during which time the crew can easily be killed.

edit:

I recommend just getting the expansion. The Ostheer is really vanilla, the soviets don't have that great a design - the OKW and the US are where it's at, IMO.