Company of Heroes
 

Company of Heroes is a 3D RTS game set in WW2. The game revolves about control points (which gives you resources) and tactical management of individual units. While I'm not really into RTS since Starcraft, I think this one is really nice.

I've tried about every "acclaimed" RTS, but most of them are either way too fast or only about who can gather resources the fastest (click click click), or where the game revolves about nothing more than sending the most units in. What makes this game different is that you can only build a small number of units (a company, sort of). While the number increases for every control point, you're still limited. So you value each unit you already have, which suits my playing style perfectly.

Anyone else playing this? The base game should be available really cheap, I got it for free with my graphics card. There's also a stand alone expansion, with completely different gameplay.

There is actually a gold pack too as well as being available on Steam.

I'm not currently playing, though. My RTS time has been devoted to Sins of a Solar Empire. It's a slow, space RTS with research trees. Very nicely done. They just released a demo too.

Well, I have a weak spot for WW2. Although I like science fiction, combat always seems fake. Just like it does in modern warfare games. I mean, you shoot a very advanced missile, it should hit, and you should kill the target. Laser, mass drivers, same story. WW2 is different, because it's believable that you'll shoot and miss. And there's a certain charm of historic units and places. Opposing forces (the CoH expansion) even has dutch maps (operation market garden and so on).

Still, accuracy isn't the main goal. Luckily not, Sudden strike is way too hard. A skirmish game lasts 15 minutes if you don't screw up, so I can manage to squeeze in a quick round more often than not. Online shooters, civ or FM always take hours of my time.

[bump]

Bumping this thread for some undisclosed participants at the recent CDZ meeting (you know, propain).

hehe. Just read some reviews about this yesterday and they were very positive. Gonna go and find it in my local gamestore soon and get back to you.

Apart from that I;m gonna open a DS games thread just for you :)

This is not a DS game though is it?

no it's a PC game. The DS thing came up because Shabba and me talked about DS games as well at the CDZmeeting

10 euro's at Bart Smit!

time for a visit then :)

Bart Smit now sells it for 5 euro (also in their online store). Somehow I haven't got the idea I stressed enough how great this game is. It's totally worth 5 euro.

I'll make sure to pick it up then. I have to visit a gamestore soon anyways to get Guitar Hero: World Tour, so we can rock with the entire office :D

Noted. ;)

Dawn of War 2 should be coming out in Feb, and it'll be made by the same developer that made CoH.

If you do buy CoH, just be careful with the patching process.

I bought some form of CoH...i think it might be for online playing only...after installed it, it wanted to update before i could play it, the update took ~ 1 hour, after that update i was asked to install another that took another while longer, then anohter update was required, then another....i think all in all about 7 updates before i could play it, but it took so long to get it updated i no longer had any time left to play it :(

You are right, updating CoH might be one of the most user-unfriendly installs of recent history.

For those people that don't have the spare time or that are too lazy to go to the store, Steam has it for 10 euros. They have a pretty weird pricing scheme nowadays, so it's $10 as well... until december it'd have been $10 for us Europeans as well, making it something like... 2 euros.

Anyway, the upside of steam is that it patches the game automatically.

Picked up Company of Heroes/CoH:Opposing Fronts/CivCity Rome for 10euros altogether at Intertoys.

Installing now :)

How seemingly simple things can turn out difficult.

Start install, cd key not valid (4 chars to short). Back to store and change. New copy has same issue. Call THQ, get number from distributor, they email a new code. I have to say the all were extremely friendly and the code was mailed in a matter of secs. But a lot of hassle for a 3,33 euro game :)

Haha!

So how about it? Managed to install all the 9000 patches? If you're up to it we could play a 1v1 or a 2v2 coop against the CPU [hammer]

Let me know if you think Civcity: Rome is any good. It has had such bad reviews that I've passed on it.

I've managed to install it but I havent installed the updates yet. Didnt feel like pulling 150MB through my Wifi. Just turned of the i-net and circumvented the 'create log-in/DL patches' thingie.

Played the 1st and 2nd map of the SP campaign. Really liked that, but I suck at it :)

Will install the patches soon and post here.

Havent gotten around the CivCity. I know the reviews weren't all that but at for 3.33 euro's i thought I could take a risk

Those patches are worth it, although if you've installed Opposing Forces I think the worst crap has been fixed. And then we could play multiplayer :)

Hmm, me thinks there is more than 150MB to the patches. Also it seems to take longer to install the patches than download it if i re-call (this is for opposing fronts of course)

Apparently patches are for all version of the game. I read about someone who didn't install the latest addon after buying it. He just added the cd-key to his account and all campaigns/units just opened up.

That explains the final 1.9GB patch I'm downloading now.

It's been taking ages just to get all those crappy patches DL'ed and installed.

Managed to have all patches installed and made an account (ProPainCDZ) Still have to add some CoH;OF content for the other campaigns but I'm sort of fed up with installing today :)

So can you play online yet?

Yes I can. [party]

Sad thing is I still suck like crazy at the game. My 1st try at the 3 rd mission I got my ass kicked like there was no tomorrow.

My nick online is ProPainCDZ

I think you can only find players that are actually online, and then you'd still have to know the lobby they're in. Pretty dumb. But once you've played someone you can bookmark them.

How on earth can you fail at these first levels? What skill level are you playing? Most common newbie errors are:

-not paying attention when you send units across the board (to prevent horrendous pathfinding errors)
-negating cover (units in 'green' cover are almost invincible against most weapons)
-not having a jeep or motorcycle ready to hunt down snipers or mortars
-not having your finger next to the 'retreat' button

There's also a specific problem with the americans: they suck. I forgot how to play them properly, but the main problem is that your opponent will have vehicles while you have no counters. Sticky bombs are not really a good option, you do need that AT gun. New players underestimate the value of armoured cars as well. If you play against real humans you'll see even more cars, be prepared.

The computer usually spams a lot of mortars. Have a quick unit ready to hunt them down, the AI never supports them properly.

Hehe, I play normal difficulty.

How do I fail these levels. Plain sucking does the trick :)
Also failing to build AT when the axis troops are sending in tanks didnt really help :)

Played a skirmish map against an easy AI: even too easy for me.

I hadn't played this game for two months, and yesterday I wanted to play some multiplayer with a friend (because team games = fun). Patching the game from 2.4 to 2.6 took 2.5 hours! [:(!] [:(!] [:(!]

ah yes, CoH loves patching. Reminds me that I need to continu playign this game so you can kick my ass.

Yeah, that was the general idea [:o)]

In regards to Shabba's patching:

Same thing happened to me...5 patches to download, not sure how long it took, several nights anyway, cos i dont leave my laptop on for very long.

What a stupid idea, to prevent you from playing cos you dont have the latest patch...grrrrr

Well, with OF you have to be connected to the relic server to play single player as well. At least, I think it does. If you want to play offline (with your laptop in your backyard, so to speak) you'd have to make a dual install with vanilla CoH only. Very customer unfriendly.

But on the other hand: they still support the vanilla version with patches, and that's A Good Thing(tm)!

It's on sale on Steam today... 2 euro's!

Keep forgetting to install that. Have to admit I'm very caught up in SCII atm.

Better hurry, only two weeks to go for civ5. I just finished World in Conflict single player, just to make sure I have the time to play civ5 when it arrives :D