Company of Heroes 3 – Company of Heroes 3 – a North African theater of operations

A few days ago, we were invited to a private session to discover the first campaign mission of Company of Heroes 3, the new installment of the well-known strategy game license from Relic.

As a reminder, the first two opuses, released respectively in 2009 and 2015, entered the classics of the genre. These cover the Second World War and this third opus has shifted its action, at least in part, to a campaign theater that is much less represented in video games: North Africa.

With Company of Heroes 3, relic intends to offer the biggest game of the license when it is released. They have been working on it since 2017 with the first contacts made with the community to find out what they would like to find in this new opus. No less than 50,000 players have been involved in this project which will soon see the light of day and it is clearly their influence and their demands which have changed the framework of operations on the Mediterranean and which have developed the new playable factions of the title, to the number of 4.

• US Forces: centered on the 43/44 years of the Mediterranean deployment, it is an aggressive and mobile faction, very flexible on the battlefield and can easily adapt to any situation.
• The British Force, and more specifically the British North Africa Strengths: A very balanced army which, in multiplayer, is very defensively oriented.
• The Wermarcht: Very versatile, we can play there in a very personal way.
• The DAK or Deutsche Afrika Korps: an army of Hit and run, very mobile and relies heavily on flank attacks to gain the upper hand. This is the faction that was most requested by the community and will be the one we will play in this first mission, which you can find in the video below.

This Company of Heroes also has many new features

As said above, a new battle environment: the Sahara, which brings a variety level environment, very different from an Italian or French setting, and is a region rich in history. Many historical battles took place there (Ajdabiya, Tobruk, Gazala, El Alamein). The developers have also taken great care not to offend the various communities, the subject and the framework of the fight can be very sensitive: they have worked hand in hand with many consultants to make the story authentic and respectful, being as objective as possible. Indeed, Company of Heroes 3 is narrative in its development and presents many parts of the history of the 2nd World War.

The Deutsche Afrika Korps brings a whole new kind of strategy to CoH and will be represented by historical elements like Rommel, its historical commander.

The level of gameplaywe are also going there with novelties like the “tank riders”, these infantry units which mounted on tanks to move on the battlefield, investing strategic points more quickly than any other infantry on foot.

The artillery will also be there and, I mentioned it above with the gameplay of the DAK, the flank and rear grips are very important now, the armored vehicles having different armor on the front, the flanks, and the back.

We can also invest the buildings and settle on the roofs to gain lines of sight.

In short, a lot of new things. All that remains is to wait for the release to be able to find a RTS worthy of the name on our good old PCs.

For the curious, it happens here:

Good viewing