W FEATURE
required to plonk down buildings and recruit squads,
but instead of being gathered, these were generated by
capturing and holding strategic points.
The small number of strategic points ensured there
was an endless supply of lively battles. Instead of
hunkering down and protecting your base, you had to
strike out, ordering your squads to travel all over the
map, not just to find strategic locations, but to reinforce
them, protecting them from enemy assaults. A morale
and cover system made its way over from the tabletop
game, as well. It was a tactical layer that necessitated a
bit more thinking and a little less screaming, “Blood for
the Blood God!”
With Company of Heroes, Relic swapped the grim
battlefields of Tartarus for Normandy. The things that
had set Dawn of War apart, Relic ran with. And it ran
far. Morale and cover were refined to the point where
playing an RTS without these systems suddenly seemed
crazy. Every squad was this squishy, vulnerable group of
soldiers which could be wiped out at a moment’s notice,
or broken and forced to flee for their lives. But with the
right commander, they could do wonderful things.
A tank might be able to make short work of some
infantry, but hide footsoldiers behind a wall, wait for
that tank to roll by, and you’d get a shot at its weak
points. Or the tank could just smash the wall and kill all
your lads. The Havok physics engine fuelled Company
of Heroes’ destructible maps, so units couldn’t get
too comfy. Luckily, cover was always clearly marked,
not just showing you where your units could seek
protection, but exactly how protected they would
be. There was also an unusual delineation between
troops and weapons. A weak squad of riflemen, for
instance, could capture an anti-tank gun, letting them
lock down a road all on their own. Infantry could pick
up abandoned weapons and commandeer them from
enemies, making them extremely versatile.
Company of Heroes often seemed more like a squad-
level wargame than an RTS, evoking the likes of Close
Combat rather than Command & Conquer. There were
even supply lines, though they were heavily abstracted.
Like Dawn of War, players fought over capture points,
but each point was connected to the rest, simulating a
supply line. Taking out just one part in the chain could
destroy another player’s economy and force another
confrontation. It wasn’t like taking out an enemyABOVE:Relic left
spaceships and Space
Marines for World
War 2.Company of Heroes’
fightswere full of
smoke, fire, and
crumbling buildings.