There’s a new Company of Heroes coming, and it’s going to be a lot different. In our overview you can find out all the details about the real-time strategy hopeful.
Company of Heroes 3 will be the next big RTS project from the developers at Relic after Age of Empires 4. This marks the studio’s return to its in-house brand. Both predecessors are considered to be two of the best real-time strategy games of all time.
Company of Heroes 3 is still in development for quite a while. But already at least a year before the release, the studio has revealed its plan of attack almost completely. Many details have been talked about at length, and Company of Heroes 3 has even been playable.
In this article we collect all the hard facts about the new RTS for you and expand the individual points as soon as new information is known.
Table of Contents
Release: When is it coming out?
Expect at least another twelve months of development. The developers have not yet given a concrete release date. At the time of the announcement, however, they said that the release was still “over a year away”. That could mean the end of 2022. But maybe it won’t be something until 2023.
Trailer: Anything to see yet
There is. Quite a lot, actually. There are both CGI and gameplay trailers and more.
Campaign: What’s new?
Strategic Map
The single player campaign of Company of Heroes 3 is the biggest known innovation so far. There will be no stringent storyline as before. Instead, you can expect an open, turn-based strategy map. There you can move armies and attack cities or enemy forces at your own discretion. The supply of resources and the raising of new companies will also be handled here.
Allies in Italy
The first campaign highlights the Allied invasion of Italy. Here we play on the side of the British and Americans. You can always recruit units from both factions. Italy is defended by the German Wehrmacht. Which is historically correct at this point. In the course of the campaign, you can either stick to the historically documented course of events or make your own plans.
There is still story
There will not be a story told over many cutscenes as there used to be. There are still supposed to be, but nowhere near as many. The story will focus on the disagreements between the allied forces.
For the duration of the campaign, we are assisted by three advisors from different countries, each with their own personality and goals. We have to talk to them and we can also mess with them.
More campaigns?
In addition to the Italy campaign, Relic is also talking about a campaign in North Africa. Whether this part belongs to the Italy campaign or works independently is still unknown. It could possibly be a campaign from a German perspective. But that is still speculation. The announcement trailer, in which we are clearly in a German tent, provided the clue.
Real-time: What changes to the gameplay?
Unlike the campaign, there won’t be any huge upheavals in the real-time battles. In essence, CoH 3 remains true to its predecessors. In the third part, too, offensive RTS battles are in the foreground, base building remains rather functional. However, there will be more units than ever before as well as a few interesting detail improvements:
– Breach: Units can now storm occupied buildings.
– Pause: Battles can be paused in single player mode, so we can give you multiple orders at your leisure.
– Destruction: Buildings and terrain are destroyed even more dynamically.
– Vertical Maps: Especially in Italy there are a lot of mountain villages, which makes for a slightly more vertical map.
– Movement: The control of units has been improved. So in CoH 3 they automatically jump over obstacles.
– Side Armour: Tanks now also have an armour value for their sides.
Multiplayer: What modes are available?
Company of Heroes 2 and even the first part are still played today, but mainly in multiplayer. So multiplayer is also very important for CoH 3. However, not much is known about it yet, and it has not been playable yet either. The developers promise more factions, units, maps and game modes for multiplayer than in the two predecessors for the release.
The new modes probably include various skirmish types and a variety of PvP options. Those who prefer to play with friends will again get a co-op mode with its own missions. But here, too, details are still scarce.
Factions: Who to play with?
Both in the single-player campaign and in multiplayer, there are supposed to be more factions than any Company of Heroes ever had at release. So far, however, only three of them are officially known.
– American
– British
– German Wehrmacht
In the campaign there are also Italian partisans, but they function as support units and not as an independent faction. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that a few more factions will be added. After all, about 13 nations were involved in the war in Italy on the Allied side. Most of them, however, will probably appear in the form of special companies. For example, the Indian artillery on the British side.
Presumably there will be an alternative version for Africa in addition to the German Wehrmacht in Italy. In addition, a real faction for the Italian army still seems obvious.
Demo: What about Alpha or Beta?
Company of Heroes 3 is being developed closely with the community. That’s why anyone who registers on the website has been able to play in a version of the RTS this early. This pre-alpha already started at the announcement on 13 July and runs until 4 August at four in the morning.
