Welcome to Company of Heroes 2 Multiplayer. You may think it’s fun now, but it only gets better as you improve.

I want to help you enjoy CoH2 as much as I do. I love microing units in hectic engagements and I love developing new strategies. The former requires strong mechanical skills like using control groups and hotkeys, as well as a varied store of tactical knowledge to know how you should react in different situations. The latter requires a deep understanding of unit roles, group dynamics, game flow, and player behavior. To acquire these skills you’ll need to spend time playing the game—you can’t learn everything directly from me. However, the approach I demonstrate in this eGuide will significantly reduce the amount of time it’ll take for you to become a competent player. By the end, I’ll have explained the best ways to improve at gameplay fundamentals and how to construct your own strategies.

Expertise is a skill that can be improved, not an innate ability. More experienced players will likely be better than you, sometimes far better, but this is only a reflection of your current skill level, not your potential. If you have fewer hours a week to spend practicing CoH2, or you started playing months after “everyone else,” you may believe yourself to be hopelessly behind the good players and unable to ever match their skills. This is not the case. Most people do not practice efficiently or learn as much as they can each time they play. You might have played only one hundred games of Company of Heroes 2 and be superior to someone who has played one thousand. Fortunately, the game does not have high mechanical demands that require you to train your reflexes for hours each day. You can stop playing for several months, return, and be about the same level of skill because your understanding of strategy and tactics is far more important than your APM (actions-per-minute, a measure of player speed).

Introduction

Micro (micromanagement) is a common word used across all competitive gaming communities. Better micro is an aspiration of the many, although it has also become a crutch for those that wish to enter the competitive scene. There is only so much time we have to dedicate to gaming and our bodies can only take so much physical strain. High-level matches in the top competitive games reflect years of work put into heightening technical skills and reflexes, yet typical gamers reach a point at which they don’t believe they are physically capable of reaching that level. Fear not, gamers, for Company of Heroes 2 will not make you say, “My body could never handle this.” What makes a good player is the ability to analyze the current situation, relate it to their knowledge of the game, and decide what the best course of action may be. In this sense, strategy and tactics are far more important than simple micro. Knowing when and where to click is necessary, while performing over 400 actions per minute (APM) is not. Often, games are decided by superior positioning, focus targeting, and countering your opponent’s strategy, all of which require more knowledge of the game than technical practice. Granted, this is not to say that micro is not necessary; much of the game’s most exhilarating moments come from blowing up an entire squad with a grenade, dodging Mortars, barely evading a hostile HMG, running over infantry with superb tank micro, and getting that quick Panzerfaust on a flamer Scout Car before it can kill your squad. By using these tactics, many experts will maintain a high APM, and in order to compete with them, you will have to train a considerable amount. If experts didn’t have to train, would it still be a dream to one day become an expert yourself?

Don’t expect that you have to put in a lot of time to enjoy the game, though. With the current pace of gameplay, an average game between players of equal skill will last around 40 minutes—enough time to enjoy yourself while maintaining focus on the battle. In games featuring a skill disparity (whether you stomp your opponent, or you’re being stomped), play will last anywhere between 10 and 25 minutes, shortened by the ability to surrender and clear evidence of when someone is too far ahead to defeat. In comparison with other games, these times are quite reasonable. For more casual players this game will not feel like it is wasting your time, especially when compared with other options.

Two equally skilled players battling it out usually ends in a very close game, but not simply because they’re close in skill. Company of Heroes 2 has added content to make matches far more interesting throughout each stage of the game. While the player that acquires an early-game advantage over the opponent has a strong chance of claiming the victory, the presence of a primary resource income based on army size rather than territory control allows for the constant threat of a comeback. Many professional and recorded matches have even already shown this mechanism in play with great back-and-forth gameplay. However, this does not mean that the player in a better position is gutted of his advantage. Territory control grants a substantial amount of secondary resources used for upgraded weapons, vehicles, and epic off-map artillery (not to mention control of the Victory Points is necessary for victory). The game does a nice job of maintaining players’ optimism and enjoyment, leading to a fun experience for players and viewers alike at any stage in the match.

One of the key elements to making a successful video game is allowing the player to decide how they want to play, as opposed to forcing them to play in a certain fashion. In Company of Heroes 2, there are quite a few variations to normal build orders, most of which are still viable. There will always be a popular build order for each faction, such as a four Conscript opening or a Grenadier-HMG-Grenadier build order, yet these are not required to win a game. If you want, you can play Germans and build three MG-42s right at the beginning and still feel like you have a chance at winning. Every unit has strengths and weaknesses, including the HMG’s extreme vulnerability to Scout Cars, yet that does not mean it isn’t a viable strategy. Every risky strategy has a counter, and every safe strategy can be punished. Play how you like, but remember that a single strategy will not work every single game; eventually, someone will find a way to beat it.

That brings me to my next point: the metagame. With a surplus of available strategies and build orders, the current meta should continually evolve, creating a Company of Heroes 2 that will be vastly different in several years simply by the efforts and theorycrafting of the community. The developers will likely tweak numbers every now and then to spark a change in the meta, making certain units more viable and others less strong, but it is nice to know that the game will evolve regardless of their work (although perhaps less effectively and at a slower pace).

The Community

Multiplayer games are best when you play with people you know and when you form relationships with new people. Find someone in real life to play Company of Heroes 2 with and share stories of epic victories. Find a hero: a player you really admire whose games you watch and for whom you cheer. Watch twitch streams, watch YouTube shows. Delight in things you do well and enjoy making fun of yourself when you totally fail. Create imaginary friends, like Fred the Tiger Commander, and talk to them while you play. Please stream yourself on Twitch.tv doing this so others can join in the fun. There are many ways to enjoy Company of Heroes 2, from playing in tournaments to casual 4 vs. 4 matches against AI opponents, but they all depend on how much you enjoy competing or laughing with your fellow players.

Your best experiences will be tied to the people you interact with, either during games or around the community, not winning a few more matches. If you wish to be respected, be kind whether you win or lose.

The Player Life Cycle

• The Typical Newbie: Passive with his units until he has the “perfect” army finished, moves his entire force as one group, doesn’t like people who attack early (“no rush 20 mins”), prefers to play on maps with few movement channels (often bridges) so he can focus on only a few areas of the battlefield. We’ll all been there.
• Custom Team Games Only: This player has some knowledge of the game but prefers to play in large team games because he likes big battles with lots of units.
• Finds a Partner/Clan: This player starts to get annoyed that he can play well in a match and still lose because his allies are much lower in skill level. He realizes that coming up with strategies with a partner and trying them out in games sounds really fun!
• Beyond: There are many destinations for players. Those who get really interested in continually improving their skills and mastering the game will gravitate toward 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 (arranged teams). Others might be less interested in improving their own playing skill, but wish to be more involved in the community; these people will become modders, map makers, tournament organizers, writers, and artists. Enjoy Company of Heroes 2 in whatever way is right for you. I just want to expose you to how much fun it can be to improve your playing skill in such a thought-provoking game.

Player Types

As with using personality types to understand people and the way they interact with one another, Company of Heroes 2 players can be analyzed by playstyle and the strategies they tend to prefer. This approach is especially useful if you play against someone consistently, because it gives you an advantage in predicting what course of action your opponent is likely to take. When you’re playing against a human player, try to ask yourself which of these categories he falls into and tailor your own strategic and tactical decisions accordingly.

Hans

Highly aggressive early gameplay; prefers to always be on the attack and dictate the course of the battle. Hans is dangerous if he’s able to seize most of the map at the beginning of a match and hold onto it. The ideal counter is to use his preference against him: Pick a strategy yourself, like the Ivan playstyle, that is best countered by defensive play. For example, fast-teching to an assault vehicle may throw off a Hans who has focused on producing versatile infantry without adequate anti-tank support. A steady advance to his cut-off point using multiple team weapons, like HMGs and Mortars, with supporting infantry would also be troublesome for Hans, as he’ll desire to defend himself by throwing all of his infantry against you.

Ivan

Conservative approach that capitalizes on an opponent’s mistakes; willing to accept an early game with little territory and slower expansion. Ivan relies upon over-aggressive opponents who squander their resource advantage by engaging in battles where Ivan has a superior force or position. A player who begins with an aggressive early game but transitions into a conservative mid game will excel against Ivan because neither will take large risks, but Ivan will have fewer resources. Do not concern yourself with winning a game too early against an Ivan. Instead, scout his positions and produce the proper counters to the units he builds, foiling any attempts to expand.

Dieter

Willing to accept a weaker early game to get a fast assault unit, usually a vehicle. Dieter is like Ivan, but rather than rely on his opponent’s aggression, he relies on failures in his opponent’s prediction. The problem for Dieter is his assault unit must be effective enough on the battlefield to make up for his lack of map control in the early game. If you can successfully predict which unit Dieter will build, and ready the proper counter, you will be at a strong advantage in battlefield superiority.

Vlad

Prefers a force with many fungible units (able to perform the roles of others) and redundancy in key units (HMGs and AT guns) to increase resilience. Losing any one unit won’t be a problem for this player as others can fill the gap. Vlad’s strength is that his army will not fall apart after losing a battle or even a unit, and it won’t have any obvious weaknesses. However, if you can mix specialized units into your army and support them effectively, Vlad won’t be able to stand against your forces in equal fights. For example, a Vlad that uses several Grenadier squads without team weapons will be susceptible to HMGs, Snipers, and Mortars supported by other infantry. Vlad doesn’t have any major weaknesses, so you must either be of similar skill to your opponent and use specialized units to gain an advantage, or be higher in skill and make superior tactical decisions. There is no direct counter to Vlad.

Klaus

Prefers to rely on key, micro-intensive units (Snipers/light vehicles); highly effective but not resilient to losses, as losing a specific unit might cause the entire strategy to fall apart. For example, a Klaus might rely completely on a Half-track with Flame Projectors to counter mass infantry, as compared to relying on Grenadiers supported by HMGs. (New players who love a specific unit might be in this category, but I’m in this category too!) Klaus succeeds or fails depending on how well he controls his critical units. To counter Klaus, it can be worthwhile to invest many resources in defeating his key units for the psychological effect of thwarting his preferred strategy and causing frustration or confusion, even if the resource trade-off is in Klaus’s favor.

Sergey

Enjoys beating people with wildly unexpected strategies. In the first Company of Heroes, a German strategy known as Piospam was discovered nearly a year after the game’s release; it relied on many units of Tier 0 Pioneer squads instead of the more typical build order involving main line infantry and HMGs. Another unexpected strategy involved acquiring a high Munitions income at the start of the game and placing a great deal of mines to protect an early Sniper against infantry and light vehicle attacks. It’s hard to predict whether your opponent is a Sergey unless you’ve played before. However, Sergey’s main weakness is the resource inefficiency of atypical strategies. They’re atypical for a reason, and Sergey decides to use them more for novelty and psychological value than for their unequivocal superiority. As a counter, play conservatively until you can think of a counter to whatever strategy you see.

Hans and Ivan Play CoH2

Meet Hans. When he’s not “fighting the Soviet dogs” in huge 4 vs. 4 battles with his friends, he’s playing football or studying business at the local university. He’s an avid German commander and his favorite unit is the Tiger. Why? Hans: “It’s big, it’s loud, and I like to play ‘Eye of the Tiger’ when it comes on the battlefield!”

Meet Ivan. He reads Sun Tzu and Clausewitz in his free time to study military strategy. He aspires to be a top tournament player and practices for hours when he doesn’t have school.

One day, Hans and Ivan were paired against each other in a 1 vs. 1 automatch game.

“My Flame Projectors melt them all!” Hans says. He has a crazed look on his face as the poor Conscripts flee toward their base, away from his deadly upgraded German Half-track.

“Oh, you built an anti-tank gun! I love these” said Hans as his Half-track of Doom runs circles around the it, causing a great deal of havoc as the weapon’s crew catch fire. “Aha, oh you try to touch this, you try, ahahah!” Ivan looks grim, but his resolve hasn’t broken yet. Artillery shells rain down around the Half-track and the remaining Conscripts, bodies fly through the air.

“You would target your own squad with a barrage? This is madness!” Hans said.

“In Soviet Russia, death is … Oh, hey, Hans, aren’t these explosion effects brilliant? Look, look, ENGINE DAMAGE, I’ve got you now!”

Ivan sends in a SU-85 tank destroyer to finish off the infernal German vehicle that has claimed twenty-nine sons and daughters (“My poor Snipers!”) of Mother Russia.

Frantic clicks and smashed keys emanate from Ivan’s speakers. Hans must be worried now.

The SU-85 crushes a wall en route to its wounded target. It begins to cross a frozen river when its treads lose their grip on the ice, causing the tank destroyer to slide laterally into range of the Half-track.

“This is over, Hans.” Ivan’s lips curl in anticipation of the kill.

Hans is ready. He waves his arms like a magician.

“SMOKE SMOKE SMOKE!” A dense cloud immediately expands to conceal the Half-track entirely. No sign of it remains.

“Damn it, Hans! You’re going to make me come over there?”

“You can’t see me. You can’t see me. Ahahaha!”

Ivan sighs. Hans has way too much fun with this.

As the SU-85 advances into the fog of war, seeking a clear shot, Ivan hears a deep rumble through his speakers. “Oh fudge.”

A Tiger.

Hans can barely contain himself. “EHEHEHE AHAHA EHEHE. This will be the death of you, Comrade!”

Ivan smiles. “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

A Soviet T-34 had been prepared for just such a situation. It sprang into action, closing with the Tiger. VROOOM! “Ramming speed!”

SMASH! Both the Tiger and the T-34 are immobilized and their main guns are destroyed. Hans is devastated, he had been preparing to close out the match with a final attack led by the Tiger.

Ivan predicted this. He knew that he needed to throw off Hans to take back more points on the map. By disabling the Tiger, he nullified Hans’s large resource investment in the fearsome heavy tank and created an opportunity to force a protracted battle in the open. Hans desperately sought to reach the Tiger with his infantry to protect and repair it, but Ivan’s HMGs and SU-85 were able to lock down the area. They had previously struggled against Hans’s mobile units, but once that advantage was removed, the Soviet units could steadily chip away at the Tiger and annihilate the units rushing to support it.

“That was a nasty trick,” said Hans. “I had you beaten! It won’t save you next time.”

Ivan nodded sagely, “Maybe so, but I can always count on you to get overconfident and throw a game. You’re my favorite angry German for a reason. Good game!”

“Yes, yes, good game. Now it’s time for my Tiger and I to do some real hunting in 4 vs. 4!