Company of Heroes Company of Heroes - Opposing Fronts

Company of Heroes + Opposing Fronts

System: PC
Genre: Real-time strategy
Hersteller: THQ
Publication year: 2006 / 2007
Company of Heroes guides the player back to the time of World War II. The game begins on D-Day, i.e. with the Allied landing in the Normandy on June 6th, 1944. During the campaign, the player fights his way through France and has to conquer e.g. Carentan and Cherbourg on his way east. However, not every campaign mission is designed to be a conquest mission; there are also missions which are defensive battles, i.e. when a town or a hill has to be held within a given period of time.
Company of Heroes is not as easy as it sounds, however. The player has to take resource points toincrease his limit on units and to have resources - manpower, ammunition and fuel - ready to research unit upgrades. Moreover, the construction of the vehicles costs manpower and fuel, and using certain abilities such as throwing hand grenades oder using special abilities costs ammo. It is also important to hold the conquered territories, for resources are only awarded if the lands taken are adjacent. If this is not the case, no resources will be given for territories that are cut off.
Each of the units has its strengths and weaknesses. An M-10, for instance, is designed to hunt enemy tanks, but its rear plating is very bad. Apart from that, a single M-10 is good against a German Pz-IV, but is lost against an elite tank such as the Tiger or the Jagdpanther. A motorbike is fast and can be used for fast reconnaissance as well as for taking out enemy snipers, but should do a runner as fast as possible when enemy infantry or even vehicles are on their way.

Opposing Fronts comes up with two new campaigns and with 2 new factions. On the Allied side, the player can now join the war with British forces ans liberate Caen. For the first time, there is also a German campaign; with the Wehrmacht elite, the player can repel Operation Market Garden; those who know the movie "A Bridge too far" know what I mean.
The priorities of the new factions are also different. The regular Wehrmacht and the US army are fairly balanced as far as offensive and defensive are concerned. The Wehrmacht elite, however, is focused on attacking, whereas the British army is very defensive, using many defensive positions and has only few tanks to launch an attack with.

All in all, Company of Heroes makes a very good impression to each and every respect. The fun really begins in the multi-player mode. The server are relatively stable, which contributes to the fun. The only minor downer I could find is that there is only a US-campaign in the game, but not a German one, if one does not have Opposing Fronts. The Wehrmacht troops can be chosen in the multi-player mode. German and Allied troops can only act as enemies, and can never be in one camp, such as Wehrmacht elite plus British army. This is, however, logical, if the historic background of the game is considered.
There is a second add-on by the title of Tales of Valor. It has new campaigns, but no new factions. This is, from my point of view, a pity, for much potential has been thus been wasted. A Russian campaign, for instance, could have indeed been possible.