Company of Heros on Fileplanet!

[Mr Bean]

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Two limiations, you need to be Direct X9 compatable, so your older system's can't play it.

Second you MUST be a Fileplanet subscriber(And the download weighs in at 1.4 gigs)

However assuming you meet both requirments the game itself is a sight to behold. Once I get a serious chance to play with it, I'll repost with the information.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

(Once you're able to play it, obviously) What's it like in terms of realism, technically and tactically? i.e., is it an RTS where my squad all armed with Thompsons blazes away for 5 minutes again the Germans while I watch both health meters diminish? Or is it more on the order of watching my Garands pop away whilst the .30 cal puts down suppression fire; seeing Johnson get hit by a stray MG34 round and go down, etc.?

[Hotfoot]

It's Dawn of World War II. Some nice bits, but that's what it boils down to.

[Captain tycho]

It's Dawn of World War II. Some nice bits, but that's what it boils down to.

Dawn of War is fun and all, but I was really hoping for something more realistic.

[Mr Bean]

It's Dawn of World War II. Some nice bits, but that's what it boils down to.

Dawn of War is fun and all, but I was really hoping for something more realistic.

Dawn of World War II is not quite right, but pretty accurate. It has much more strategic depth than Dawn of War(Resource points let you expand sure, but you must also take and secure ammo/munitions dumbs to use unit special abilites, and fuel dumps if you want vechicals.)

G&G General's style "Specials" and abilits return. Each side has three "Paths" they can take, Americans have the Infantry, Armored and Air Paths. Germans have Infantry, Blitz, and Motivation Paths.

Units aquire experience just like C&C Generals and DoW however it's much less reflected in infantry aside from being MUCH smarter(IE an attack move order to a Ultra Vetran Knight's Cross german squad(3x Mp44 w/nade/satchals) from one end fo the map to the other will see them moving from cover to cover, using specail abilites aginst tanks and buildings without requring you to say so and sometimes snagging enemy weapons when needed. They don't do tons of extra damage, but will auto chuck that nade into that mg nest without you having to baby sit them)

That's another fun bit, you can swipe special enemy weapons, IE Panzershrecks, flamethrowers, MG's of all kinds, and sniper rifles, once you kill the person carring it, it drops to the ground. I've used this to great effect to kill enemy mg squads then take their .30cal and spin it around and use on other enemy units.

A few more unit notes...
Tigers are NASTY Your shermans MUST flank that Tiger otherwise your going to watch very highly detailed shells bounce off the very highly detailed Tiger's front and no damage be caused. You can imbolise him with sticky bombs but he can repair it and still move until the track comes off.

Snipers are gods... as long as they don't fire to fast. Snipers will target unit commanders, just put them in a house or in bushs somewhere and order them to limit fire, they will remain invisble until they fire a shot and quickly become invisble agian. You can switch between "Stalingrad sniping"(One round a minute so they can't be found on accident) or go all out if you want them to kill as many as possible which leaves them just as visable.

You can also hide your infantry and MAKE them hold their fire in order to trap enemy squads in the open.

The infantry AI is SMART and will always seak cover when under fire, vechical AI is less so, but still pretty good.

Oh and last bit, tank traps/sandbags/barbed wire?

All free! You can build as much as you like, sandbags for cover, barbed wire to stop infantry and tank traps for duuuh tanks. But it takes awhile, each segment is built by hand and 105/goalith fire quickly will remove a few mintes worth of work.

[InnocentBystander]

Sounds fun... how do you get new units/troops? Please tell me this isn't a base build type game like that last ww2 RTS.

[Mr Bean]

All in all, it's not Command's style realistic, but the combat looks GREAT and it's DoW style land control rather than resource collection is welcome.

However your units still come out of magic tents but with a host of upgrades and special abilites(Not to mention kickass combat) it's acceptable.

Note however that most combat is not realistic. Tigers take multiple shots to kill Shermans and don't have anywhere near the range they acutal do. And tank on infantry combat is inaccuratly silly. Tanks have coaxil guns but can't seem to hit @#$@$ even infantry lying prone on roadways. Their maingun kills squads at shot however.

Or in other words, explosions are perfectly realistic(Minus AT work) while old fasion bullets are made of nerf.

[Mr Bean]

Sounds fun... how do you get new units/troops? Please tell me this isn't a base build type game like that last ww2 RTS.

As mentioned, they come out of magic buildings for the most part. But artillery and airsupport are all off map. Airsupport is acutal well done since you must have a view of the target when you call in the strike and if it's on the move under tree cover your P47 might miss or hit a tree on accident.


Also you don't acutal need a base as the germans! Aside from the intial HQ building, assuming you get into enough combat you can summon all your reforcements from off map.

[InnocentBystander]

Fair enough, it sounds fun, can't wait for it to come to us commoners!

Also, it sounds like tanks are only using HE rounds, though I'm pretty sure that anything coming from an 88 is going to rip open a Sherman in one hit.
Tigers own