Multiplayer Essentials

Victory Conditions

Victory Point means you need to hold a majority of the Victory Points on the map to reduce your opponent’s total to 0 to win, although you also win if you destroy all of your opponent’s buildings—this is the most commonly played mode. Annihilation lacks Victory Points and requires the destruction of your opponent’s buildings. Games played to Annihilation take longer and are less balanced. The Company of Heroes 2 experience is best when you use Victory Points.

Normal Pattern of Games

In the early game you don’t need to worry about defending your base or attacking your opponent at the very start. You need to secure the resources needed for your strategy and play as offensively or defensively as your strategy requires. If your strategy relies on early aggression, focus on attacking your opponent’s cut-off points and force decisive engagements in which you ought to have the advantage due to your strategy. If you’re aiming for conservative early play to facilitate fast-teching or the construction of a combined arms force, try to harass your opponent in diverse areas of the map to avoid being pulled into decisive engagements.

If you have less than half the map, you’ll have a resource disadvantage that will lead to your facing superior enemy forces. This doesn’t mean you absolutely need to hold half of the map for the entire game, but if you don’t, you need a good reason for it. For example, you might intend to place two Fuel Caches on sectors near your base and defend a third of the map until your Fuel advantage allows you to retake the map with early breakthrough units. Alternatively, you might decide that it’s more important to deprive your opponent of resources than to hold most of the resources yourself: If you control only a quarter of the map but also control your opponent’s cut-off points, you’ll have a resource advantage.

The mid game is defined by the use and countering of light vehicles and combined arms forces. Depending on your strategy, you’ll either want to invest in early vehicles yourself or in counters to them; in terms of resources, early vehicle production will limit your Fuel while vehicle counters will draw on your Manpower or Munitions (for example, AT guns cost only Manpower while Panzerschrecks, Panzerfausts, and AT grenades cost Munitions. This is also when you’ll often begin building more specialized units to supplement your force of versatile units. One or two Mortars or Snipers would not be strange, and it’s much safer to do this now than earlier when you’re still establishing map control or later when you’ll often be spending your resources on tanks or other vehicles.

The late game begins with the arrival of heavy tanks and artillery on the battlefield. Battles become more decisive because vehicles cannot Retreat and are not easily replaced. While resources are still important for replenishing infantry, rebuilding units that you’ve lost, and using Commander abilities, Victory Points become the primary sites of battles. Whoever has units that complement each other better in battle has the advantage at this stage of the game, because the focus turns from harassing points to creating and destroying fortified positions using combined arms.

Units and Synergy

Unit Roles

• Support: Increase the effectiveness of other units (non-upgraded Half-tracks, Engineer/Pioneer, Artillery Field Officer).
• Mainline: Versatile units that can function independently and in both offensive and defensive capacities (Grenadiers, Conscripts).
• Assault: High mobility, short range (Panzergrenadiers, Shock Troops, PPsH submachine gun-armed Conscripts, Scout Cars).
• Anti-garrison: Powerful against units garrisoned in buildings (Engineers/Pioneers with Flamethrower, Penal Battalion with Flamethrower, Conscripts with Molotov Cocktails, Panzergrenadiers with Bundled Grenade).
• Anti-tank: Able to damage or disable vehicles (Guards Rifle Infantry, Panzergrenadiers with Panzerschrecks, Conscripts with AT Grenades, Grenadiers with Panzerfaust).
• Fire Support: Low mobility, long range (Sniper, Mortar, MG, AT Gun, Elefant).

When you consider how specific units will work together in your army composition, you first need some framework for analyzing units in terms of roles. Beyond that, you need to understand the difference between versatility and specialization in unit design.

Versatility

A versatile unit has the ability to act independently and engage any unit it comes across. Most units deemed versatile are able to damage both infantry and vehicles with some effectiveness. Infantry like Conscripts, Guards Rifle Infantry, Grenadiers, and Panzergrenadiers are able to engage any enemy they come across, providing they have the requisite upgrades, like AT grenades for Conscripts and Panzerschrecks for Panzergrenadiers. Versatile vehicles are notable for not requiring support units to be effective: Tanks with turrets can more easily engage targets alone by circle-strafing, kiting, and unit blocking (see Advanced Tactics), the Soviet M3A1 Scout Car and M5 Half-track can be loaded with varied infantry units to increase the vehicle’s effectiveness against particular unit types (for example, Guards Rifle Infantry against light vehicles or Combat Engineers with a Flamethrower against garrisoned infantry). More mobile vehicles are inherently more versatile because they can move to engage only those units against which they excel while avoiding other units. Versatile units are inferior to specialized units when analyzed role by role, but investing in versatile units allows a player to fill all necessary roles with a smaller number of units and fewer resources invested. For example, a Soviet player can build an SU-76 to counter German light vehicles and provide artillery fire support against enemy infantry, or build a Katyusha for more powerful artillery fire support but without any ability to engage enemy units outside of its barrage ability.

Specialization

A specialized unit is exceptional at one role or in certain situations, but it requires the support of other units to make up for its broader weaknesses. One example is the AT gun: It’s powerful against vehicles in frontal engagements, but loses against any infantry unit or team weapon it comes up against, and it can be flanked if left alone. In choosing to build specialized units, you are increasing your army’s effectiveness in a narrow area but by a large amount. If your opponent invests heavily into vehicles, you can counter them with a smaller investment in specialized anti-tank units like the AT gun, SU-85, and Elefant. This means specialized units are good units to build in response to your opponent’s army composition. However, it’s risky to invest in specialized units if you’re not positive that you’ll need their capabilities. Building multiple AT guns before you know your opponent even has an initial vehicle is both unnecessary and wasteful. It’s easy to render an opponent’s investment in specialized units worthless if you can alter your army composition accordingly. For example, if your opponent continuously calls in Shock Troops as Soviets, dedicate your resources to defense and to obtaining Fuel until you can produce tanks. Your army composition will typically include specialized units to fill in the gaps in roles left after the versatile units are chosen, or you’ll form your army around a specialized unit to allow it to reach its maximum effectiveness.

Units in Groups

You can look at a Grenadier squad as a single unit. It can beat Engineers one-on-one, it can beat Conscripts at long range, it can beat Mortars and AT guns. A Grenadier squad suffers against Snipers, it is shut down by HMGs, it has limited effectiveness against vehicles, with its Panzerfaust primarily disabling rather than destroying them. Its Rifle Grenade can be useful against Snipers and HMGs if it manages a good hit, but it’s not something to rely upon. It can acquire an LMG42 upgrade to increase its effectiveness against infantry so long as it remains stationary, which allows it to excel at its main role but provides no increased flexibility, and incentivizes you to use it more defensively.

You can look at a group of units that consists of a Panzergrenadier squad with Panzerschrecks, a Pioneer squad with a Flamethrower, and a Half-track to carry them both. It’s not important that Pioneers are ineffective at destroying vehicles because their role in this group is to clear infantry from buildings, repair the Half-track, and attack infantry that tries to rush the Panzergrenadiers or Half-track. It’s also not a concern that the Panzergrenadiers give up some of their offensive power against infantry when they get the Panzerschreck upgrade because both the Half-track and Pioneer squad can make up for it. I look at a group like this as a highly mobile and highly versatile assault force particularly suited for capturing points in lightly defended territory (usually flanks) where you’re unlikely to find a combined arms force. Players typically capture territory on flanks with individual infantry squads and defend them with infantry or HMGs garrisoned in buildings. Once they see their point is under attack, the first units to respond are generally light vehicles, medium vehicles, and infantry squads—weapon teams, Snipers, heavy tanks, and AT guns are too slow. Light vehicles are a major problem for infantry without anti-tank weapons, and they are strong counters to Half-tracks—Soviet examples are an M3A1 Scout Car with an infantry squad of some sort firing out of it, a Half-track with one or two infantry squads firing out of it, a T-70 light tank, or a T-34 medium tank.

So how do you use this group of units? Send them to a lightly defended point. The Half-track is there for mobility, both to get to the point quickly and to escape if need be. It also allows your infantry squads to reinforce in the field, meaning you’ll always win fights against enemy infantry so long as they don’t vastly outnumber you simply because you can replace your loses. Such a group should not engage defensive positions of HMGs and AT guns, or attempt to fight in protracted battles.

Infantry vs. Vehicles

Infantry are nice because they can “repair” themselves by spending Manpower, which is called reinforcing. Vehicles cannot repair themselves and must have an infantry unit spend time repairing them (some exceptions are commander abilities and veterancy)—the good part is vehicle repairs are free, but there’s the opportunity cost of the repair squad not being able to capture, get into position, or fight. Other things to note: Infantry can Retreat, meaning you have a good chance of escaping most situations with the squad intact, preserving its veterancy level, even if you need to spend resources to reinforce. Vehicles can’t Retreat, and if they’re destroyed any veterancy is lost. A vehicle that is used carefully and repaired consistently will require fewer resources to sustain and will be difficult for your opponent to deal with. Infantry are more forgiving.

You don’t want all infantry because you’ll be forced to spend a lot of Manpower throughout the game to reinforce. You don’t want all vehicles because you won’t be able to repair them. The ideal army composition makes use of both vehicles and units so the strengths of both forms of repair are available, and the weaknesses mitigated. Some strategies will tend more toward one end or the other. For example, a Scout Car-centric early game with Soviets will have fewer effective units (units that are able to engage in battles and capture territory) than a Conscript-heavy strategy because Combat Engineers must constantly be in the Scout Cars or repairing the Scout Cars. You might have two Conscripts, two Scout Cars, and two Combat Engineers, which gives you four effective units. In contrast, a Soviet player might have four Conscripts and two Engineers at nearly the same point in the game, which is six effective units. You also see this situation occur in the late game. A German player who is using heavy tanks like Tigers as the core of his army will need several Pioneer squads to keep them repaired and to capture points. Another German player might have Panzergrenadiers and AT guns, neither of which require repairs, so this player can contest more of the map at the expense of higher reinforcement costs.

Differences by Game Size

1 vs. 1

1 vs. 1 matches require the most attention to many areas of the map and put the most pressure on a player to create a diversified force that has counters to possible enemy units. In a team game you can rely on your allies to build AT guns in the mid game, but in a 1 vs. 1 a failure to build sufficient anti-tank units will lead to an early loss.

You will not be able to contest every area of the map, at least at the beginning of a game, so it’s important to plan out which areas you intend to focus on holding and where you will harass your opponent’s points. The capture order (see Multiplayer Maps) you select will play a large role in determining the outcome of games, as will your build order and success in early battles. If you lose one of your first few units, you’ll be at a significant disadvantage unless your opponent makes a similar error, and it’s more difficult to rebound from errors in 1 vs. 1 games.

All of these factors make 1 vs. 1 matches the most challenging and stressful. You cannot ever blame a loss on teammates and it quickly becomes evident just where you stand in skill as compared to your opponent. For these same reasons, 1 vs. 1 matches are wonderful practice for games of any size. Team games have the additional factors of communication and coordination, but the heavy emphasis that 1 vs. 1 matches place on unit control and tactical decisions transfers well to success in larger games. A good 1 vs. 1 player will often be able to dictate the pace of a team game and be more comfortable in choosing a build order and army composition as the pressure is considerably lower. If you want to excel at Company of Heroes 2 you ought to become reasonably proficient at 1 vs. 1 games, even if you don’t intend to focus on them.

2 vs. 2

Map size plays a major role in how 2 vs. 2 matches play out. Smaller maps that are commonly used in 1 vs. 1 matches, like Kholodny and Pripyat, can be contested in their entirety by a team. Each player will pick an area of the map and generally fight one opponent in that area. This isn’t possible on larger maps as there is too much territory to contest. On maps like Rzhev, Oka River, and Moscow Outskirts, teams should concentrate complementary forces from both players to establish control over chosen areas. Enemy territory can be harassed, and the front line should be contested, but if both teams are similar in skill level, the players who are best at using their forces together will beat a team of individualists.

At the beginning of team games, pay attention not just to where you see enemy units, but the players to whom those units belong. This gives you information about whether your opponents are concentrating their forces in a single area or dispersing across a broader front. It can be very powerful to concentrate forces in the early game of a 2 vs. 2 if you’re able to completely overrun one side of the map, but if you don’t succeed the increased capping power of a spread-out enemy team will grant them an advantage. Determining whether or not to join forces also depends on the type of armies your team builds: Two Soviet players who both go Tier 1 for fast Scout Cars are better suited to spreading out and taking advantage of their mobility, but if one player goes for a Special Rifle Command with fast Scout Car build and the other goes with a Support Weapon Kampaneya with HMG and Mortar build, combining the forces together makes for a superior combat group.

In team games you need to consider the Commander selections of your allies and synergies between Commanders. Sometimes doubling up on Commanders, like the one that gives German players access to the Tiger, can be a powerful late-game strategy, but complementary forces tend to be more versatile—for example, one Soviet player using IS-2s and another ISU-152s.

3 vs. 3 and 4 vs. 4

In 3 vs. 3 and 4 vs. 4 matches, the maps themselves are larger and the entire map is contested by both teams, but each player typically spends the whole game fighting over a small piece of it. The area over which each player fights can be thought of as a lane. For example, on Steppes it is typical for one player from each team to fight over the north in a tug-of-war style, with victory meaning one player not only holds the northern points on his team’s side of the map, but those in the middle as well.

Fuel and Munitions Caches are more important in team games, and grow in importance alongside the number of players, because you don’t need as many units yourself to hold onto map control and the caches increase the resource income of all players on a team. Don’t over-invest at the beginning of the game in caches, but constantly consider if you can spare the Manpower—you’ll be happy in the late game if you have enough Fuel to match or exceed your opponents in heavy tank production, or the Munitions for increased use of Commander abilities like air strikes and artillery.

Even though most players will stick to their lanes, always be aware of the tactical situation faced by each of your teammates and consider whether you might be able to assist them. When you build an assault unit like a T-34, it may actually be more effective to assist one of your allies in driving off a Half-track with Flame Projectors than to attempt to battle AT guns with your infantry force. Perhaps you just reached 6 Command Points and have the Munitions for Railroad Artillery Support when playing Festung Armor Doctrine as Germans—you must ask yourself, is there a major enemy defensive position somewhere on the battlefield that you could strike instead of using it on a single HMG on your side of the map? While the lane concept is useful for simplicity, the most effective teams will often ignore it in favor of uniting forces to achieve victory in chosen areas.

Build Orders

A build order is the sequence of units and buildings you create in a game. Typically, a build order is rigid in the early part of a game and becomes more flexible in offering a few possible directions as you enter the mid game and late game.

Standard and Extended Early Game

The first question to ask yourself when creating a build order is, “What do I want my first six units to be?” As Soviets, this might mean four Conscript squads and two Combat Engineer squads. As Germans, this could be two Pioneer squads, two Grenadier squads, one Heavy Machine Gun team, and one Mortar team. Both of these build orders are relatively standard openings.

It’s also possible to rush for the next tier more rapidly by restricting the units you produce from Tier 0 (as Soviets) or Tier 1 (as Germans). For example, as Soviets, you might build two Conscript squads and a second Combat Engineer squad and then immediately begin constructing a Special Rifle Command, followed by two Scout Cars to round out your first six units. As Germans, you might build a Grenadier squad, an HMG, and a second Pioneer squad while teching to Tier 2 to construct a Leichte Mechanized Kompanie so that your fifth and sixth units can be Panzergrenadiers.

How soon should you build a Special Rifle Command or Support Weapon Kampaneya as Soviets? How quickly should you tech to Tier 2 as Germans? Your answer to such questions ought to be determined by your strategy more so than by any tactical situations that arise during the game. As a game goes on, adapting to your opponent’s units and strategy becomes more important than any pre-planning, but in the early to mid game it’s critical to go in with a solid strategy and execute it as well as you can.

For example, you might decide that you want to use a heavy Tier 1 as Germans with three Grenadier squads, two HMGs, a Mortar, and a Sniper, in addition to the second Pioneer squad you build at some point to get more flamethrowers on the field. This build order qualifies as an extended Tier 1, meaning that you’re deliberately delaying teching to higher tiers to get more early units on the field and seize superior map control. What’s the weakness of this strategy? You’ll have to rely on Panzerfausts and mines to counter Soviet vehicles, which is problematic against anything heavier than the M3A1 Scout Car—it’s difficult not to lose a great deal of map control to a fast T-34 unless you already have a Pak 40 on the field ready to thwart an assault, or at least Panzergrenadiers with Panzerschrecks. You also won’t have any strong assault units of your own: Holding territory won’t be much of a problem with your team weapons, LMG upgrades for Grenadiers, and a Command Post bunker for reinforcement, but it takes far longer to use a Mortar or Sniper to drive off enemies in a defensive position and take sectors than a Half-track with Flame Projectors or Panzergrenadiers with Bundled Grenades, especially if the latter two Tier 2 units are supported by a Mortar or Sniper you built earlier. These are merely considerations, not arguments that one strategy is inferior and ought never to be used. As a German player, if you’re confident in your ability to seize ground early and hold it against Soviet infantry and team weapons using Tier 1 units alone, you can place a great deal of pressure on the Soviet player far sooner than if you need to wait for Tier 2.

Teching

Tech refers to the production buildings a player currently has available—it’s analogous to the use of the term tier. Teching is an investment in a new production building with the intention of creating units that are not currently available. The specific tech level a player chooses, like German Tier 3 or Tier 4, dictates which units will be more represented in an army’s composition. The time at which a player chooses to tech is also important because it’s a resource investment that delays unit production in favor of acquiring a key new unit or the counter to an opponent’s unit.

Fast-Teching

This is the technique of building a higher tier, Fuel-intensive production building earlier than is normal to allow the production of a powerful vehicle at a time when the other player would have difficulty countering it or would not expect it. The disadvantage is that fast-teching requires an investment of Manpower that would otherwise be used to build more early tier units, like infantry. This means that the player engaged in fast-teching will have a weaker army until the key vehicle is complete.

Back-Teching

Players, especially when using Soviets, will often skip a tier by not building its production building and instead aim to build a different one earlier. For example, with the Soviets it’s typical to build either the Special Rifle Command or the Support Weapon Kampaneya near the beginning, and then to build the Tankoviy Battalion Command or the Mechanized Armor Kampaneya next. Later in the game it may become desirable to construct the building from the first set that wasn’t initially chosen. Perhaps you chose the Special Rifle Command for early Snipers, and now you want access to AT guns to support your T-34s, so you build the Support Weapon Kampaneya—this is back-teching. When to do it is highly situational, but the overriding question to ask yourself is, “Do I have the tools necessary for the current game situation or should I invest in new ones?” It’s most resource efficient to limit your production buildings, but this also limits the versatility of production abilities.

Starting Build Orders

A build order is an optimization of an idea. Once you have a decent understanding of the various units and their roles, you can begin thinking about what type of effect you’re looking to achieve and what the best build order is to achieve it. For example, as Soviets, you might decide that you want to secure a strong early Fuel income and get a fast T-34 to establish map dominance wherever the German player doesn’t have AT guns. The crux of the strategy is getting the T-34 as early as possible to make a strong impact before its hard counters begin to appear (for example, StuG, Panzer IV, Panther). You might think that building an early Fuel Cache would help you with this. When should you get it? Why not build two? What kind of opening build will allow you the extra Manpower to do this and protect these locations against enemy attacks? Multiple build orders might be viable in achieving this goal, so you’ll need to engage in testing and tweaking to find the optimal one. Often, the initial production building and first few units you create are referred to as a start.

Soviet Special Rifle Command (Tier 1) Start

The Special Rifle Command start provides access to mobile, aggressive units like the Penal Battalion and Scout Car, and the Manpower-bleeding fire support of the Sniper. Manpower bleed refers to the steady killing of enemy infantry that must be replenished through reinforcement, putting a strain on a player’s Manpower supply. The Scout Car defines this start, especially when carrying Combat Engineers upgraded with Flamethrowers. The Soviet Tier 1 start struggles against well-defended positions and vehicles (unless Guards Rifle Infantry are available), and must rely more on harassment using its mobility. The available Tier 1 units do not excel at locking down areas of the map and defending. This start performs best when you are constantly harassing lightly defended areas and using high mobility to attain local advantages in unit numbers. Building fewer Conscripts, like two or three squads instead of four, before constructing your first production building works well because Special Rifle Command units themselves can be used to capture territory. This means that Conscripts aren’t relied upon as much, except in countering early vehicles with AT grenades and in building sandbags to fortify territory.

Soviet Support Weapon Kampaneya (Tier 2) Start

The Soviet Tier 2 start provides access to strong defensive and fire support units in the HMG and Mortar, as well as the most powerful early anti-tank unit: the AT gun. An army composed of Tier 2 units tends to lack mobility, apart from its Conscript squads, and it cannot defend a broad front effectively because its units perform best when they are concentrated. It is ideal to produce several Conscripts squads, usually four, before building the team weapons that define Tier 2, at least in 1 vs. 1 matches, because you’ll need the mobility of Conscripts to obtain map control in the early game. In team games it’s more viable to build the Support Weapon Kampaneya early, after two or three Conscripts, so that you can produce an HMG and get it into a key building earlier in the game.

German Infanterie Kompanie (Tier 1) Start

This start is composed of versatile Grenadier squads supported by team weapons and Snipers. The units you choose to produce from these options determine how aggressive and mobile you can be as a German player. The earlier you produce HMGs, and the more you have, the better you’ll be able to defend locations against infantry attacks. If you focus on building several Grenadier squads, you’ll have a more mobile force that can vie for map control in several areas at once. An early Mortar can be used to attack fortified locations and as fire support in punishing advancing enemies, but it reduces your army’s ability to spread out and capture points. And an early Sniper provides a mobile fire support unit but requires protection, meaning your units will need to move as a group to a greater extent. Most German Tier 1 build orders start with two Grenadier squads for the ability to establish map control using their mobility, before adding on an HMG, Mortar, Sniper, or additional Grenadiers. Use your first Pioneer squad to build the Infanterie Kompanie immediately when the game starts.

German Leichte Mechanized Kompanie (Tier 2) Start

The German Tier 2 start relies far more on Pioneer squads than the Tier 1 start as they’re the only unit available to you for some time. At the beginning of the game, produce two additional Pioneer squads and send them all out to capture territory. If you need to fight Combat Engineers or Conscripts, keep two of your Pioneer squads together for increased combat effectiveness. Tech to Tier 2 and build the Leichte Mechanized Kompanie as soon as you have sufficient Fuel so that you can begin production of Panzergrenadiers, Scout Cars, and Half-tracks. Your first Tier 2 unit should either be a Half-track that you’ll upgrade with Flame Projectors, if you have 120 Munitions, or Panzergrenadiers if you don’t have many Munitions at this point. If your opponent is building Soviet Scout Cars, produce a Scout Car of your own as soon as you can and consider upgrading its weapon—it can beat the Soviet Scout Car either way, but the upgraded cannon is far more deadly against vehicles. Continue to produce Panzergrenadiers and light vehicles supported by your early Pioneer squads. Similar to the Soviet Special Rifle Command Start, the German Tier 2 start provides a more mobile, aggressive style but it struggles against fortified locations (especially HMGs and AT guns, as there is no access to Mortars or Snipers). The Half-track with Flame Projectors can mitigate this weakness through its ability to annihilate units garrisoned in buildings with ease, but its high Munitions cost means that you will not want to risk losing it too soon after building it..

Adaptation Going Forward

After you have decided which start you want to use, you will proceed to tech to Tier 3 (and then straight to Tier 4, if you choose) as Germans or your choice of Tier 3 or Tier 4 as Soviets. Any start can work with whichever tanks you choose to produce, although the first tank you create is incredibly important. Once you have a tank out, you will have a short window during which you can use the tank most effectively, either by eliminating your opponent’s key units or defending your units long enough to capture important territories. Your opponent will not know when you will produce your first tank, although once they see the tank, they will change their strategy to counter whichever tech path you chose. This is the same for Germans as well as Soviets—your opponent will react differently if you create a StuG first rather than a Panzer IV, similarly to how they will react differently if you produce a T-34 rather than an SU-76. It is important that you keep your first tank alive until it has been as useful as possible, as you will likely not have enough Fuel for another tank any time soon. If you produce a StuG, keep it safe from infantry and position it to take out any vehicles or tanks your opponent throws at you. If you produce a T-34, don’t try to take on enemy tanks alone—use it to kill lone infantry squads or weapon teams, then turn your attention to the enemy tanks once you have additional T-34s or plenty of anti-tank support. Think about which tank you will need to secure an advantage on an opponent, produce that tank, then use it in the best way possible. If you lose your first tank before it can prove useful, you will likely be at an extreme disadvantage.

German Tier 3 and Tier 4 both offer a mix of versatile and specialized units, the main difference being the increased cost of Tier 4 tanks like the Panther and Brummbar. By contrast, Soviet Tier 4 units are more specialized, the SU-85 and Katyusha in particular, while Tier 3 units are quite versatile. For Soviets, the choice is more about whether you wish for Tier 3’s mobile style of play in which your vehicles can operate independently, or Tier 4’s combined arms style that relies upon your vehicles supporting one another and your infantry.

Bulletin Selection

Before entering a game you will select three Bulletins that provide statistical bonuses to specific units in your army. Be sure to create multiple sets of Bulletins to choose from so you can be sure that one of them will complement the strategy and Commander you intend to use. Bulletins that increase the effectiveness of units, whether accuracy, damage, speed, or another stat, will be better choices than those that decrease the cost of an upgrade or decrease build time. Why? Consider how many times you’ll be building a specific unit compared to the number of times that unit will be firing or moving. The 5% decreased cost of the Flame Projectors upgrade on the German Half-track will save you 6 Munitions if you get the upgrade once. Even if you build four Half-tracks and upgrade them all with Flame Projectors, a rather atypical situation, you’ll save a total of 24 Munitions using this bulletin. Always select bulletins that improve things that occur more frequently: Consider a bulletin that increases the damage dealt by Conscripts versus one that increases the damage dealt by T-70s—how many squads of Conscripts will you have and how often will they be dealing damage in a game as compared to your T-70s?