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Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Multiplayer

Company of Heroes is one of those rare games where the single player and multiplayer elements are equally good and equally important parts of the whole. Most of the long-term value lies in the multiplayer game, and Relic has provided players with continued support with monthly patches, mostly tweaking the different units' balance and fixing small bugs. By adding two new factions, Opposing Fronts rocks the boat big time, and ensures that new patches will be coming out for many months.

With the release of Opposing Fronts, Relic adopted a new patching policy: to be able to connect to Relic online and play multiplayer games, you must have the most recent version of Company of Heroes running. The game has a decent autopatcher, although downloading the patches by from a nearby mirror like Gamershell by hand might prove to be quicker. In the first two weeks after the release of Opposing Fronts, Relic Online has had intermittent problems and significant downtime.

When the system works, it's pretty serviceable: the server browser has a lot of filtering options (although most of the time you don't really need them, as there isn't a great number of games running), and you can get to know your fellow players in chat rooms and by looking at their achievements. There aren't ranked ladder games or a matchmaking service as seen in recent RTS games like Supreme Commander and World in Conflict - Relic Online has a bit of an old school vibe to it.

Micro your way to Victory

The new factions are very different in many respects, but similar in one - get ready to pay a lot of attention to individual units. The British infantry sections are most effective when paired up with a Lieutenant unit, and you have to build each of them separately and then link them. The German Panzer Elite units are deadly after gaining veterancy, but you have to select between an offensive or defensive bonus for each unit before the veterancy comes to effect. Both factions benefit greatly from individual unit upgrades: the British infantry can upgrade to the Bren gun for suppressive automatic fire capability, rifle grenades for mortar-like indirect fire, or get a limited sniper fire capability. German Panzer grenadiers have the familiar StuG 44 assault rifle and Panzerschrek anti-tank weapon upgrade options, and a new one in long-range Gewehr 43 rifles. All in all, you'll be checking and upgrading your individual units constantly.

The differences between the factions are, however, much more notable. While the Panzer Elite is a fast moving, offensively powerful force of armor and mechanized infantry, the British are designed to force a defensive style of play. In fact, all British troops except specially upgraded recon elements walk at half speed in neutral and enemy territory, "sacrificing mobility for protection". This makes capturing resource points and victory locations a nightmare for the British. The Panzer Elite, in contrast, zooms around with two light vehicles that can capture resource points, and their infantry is very mobile thanks to transportation half-tracks.

However, once the British capture territory, their infantry and Sappers (the British faction's equivalent of U.S. Army's Engineers and Wehrmacht's Pioneers) can build the game's strongest defenses to protect it. Infantry taking cover in slit trenches, Vickers machine gun emplacements and the fearsome 17 Pounder anti-tank gun make it hard for a German force to storm in. Mortar emplacements and 25 Pounder artillery support the infantry's advance once the time is right to move forward, and Bofors AA guns keep the sky clear of Panzer Elite's off-map air support.

The best defense

The caveat for the British is that unlike the other factions, defensive emplacements cost them population capacity. As the pop cap is determined by the number of resource locations each side holds, the British can easily get caught in a cul-de-sac: they can't capture enough territory early in the game to get the enough capacity for both defensive emplacements and an offensive force. Although they can defend themselves from attacks, the game becomes a long, drawn out affair that usually ends with the Allies' victory points running out.

When playing 1 vs. 1 for victory locations, winning with the British is an exceedingly tough task to pull off. However, when more players are on the field, the British can be the perfect partner for an attacking U.S. Army force. A U.S. faction player who chooses the Airborne command path is the perfect ally for the Brits, as they can airdrop munitions and weapons that the British player can use very effectively. This may have been perfectly intentional from Relic: they can sell more copies of Company of Heroes to Opposing Fronts first-time customers.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: Single-player CampaignsPage 3: MultiplayerPage 4: Graphics and Tech analysisPage 5: Final scores and Conclusion

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