Company of Heroes 2 is coming! Relic, makers of Homeworld and Dawn of War, have finally announced the sequel to their glorious, Nazi-stomping World War II strategy game.

If you want to read every shrapnel of information, you'll need to run out and buy the next issue of PC Gamer magazine - on sale in the UK on May 9th, and the US May 22nd. UK readers even get Company of Heroes 1 free with every issue.

But if you want to know the basics, read on below for how Relic intend to follow the best real-time strategy game of all time.


It's set on the Russian front. You control the Soviets in their fight to repel the invading Nazi force.


Snow plays a major part on the battlefield.


The cover system has been revamped.


The game is due out 2013.


We'll have loads more information on Company of Heroes in the coming weeks, as and when we're allowed to talk about it. Or you could order a PC Gamer magazine right now.

The issue of PC Gamer UK arriving with subscribers right now has something very special on the cover: Company of Heroes 2. Relic, makers of Homeworld and Dawn of War, are returning to their classic Nazi-stomping RTS.

The magazine contains the exclusive first details based on our trip to Relic's offices, but you can read the key details right here in our Company of Heroes 2 info post.

Not familiar with the original? We've got you covered there, too. The magazine on UK shelves comes with a free Steam copy of Company of Heroes 1 for every reader. We gave it 94% when we reviewed back in 2006, and we think it still stands up today. But you can play it and tell us if we're wrong. (We're not wrong.)

The magazine will appear on newsstands on May 9th, or you can camp out to by a physical copy of PC Gamer Issue 241 via My Favourite Magazines.

One of the best real time strategy games ever made is ridiculously cheap on Steam this weekend. Company of Heroes and both expansions are available individually or as part of the complete pack at 80% off. The original game is just £1.39 / $1.99. The complete pack, which includes Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valour, costs just £5.39 / $9.99.

Company of Heroes has a superb single player campaign that features some of the best RTS missions in PC gaming. You start out with a single squad of men, fighting through enemy territory to secure reinforcements, and end up as a well drilled force builds bases, constructs tanks and takes entire towns. The asymmetrical Allied and Axis forces are almost perfectly balanced for competitive mutiplayer, and it's especially good in co-op against a force of hard AI.

Both expansions have lacklustre single player campaigns, but the addition of British and Panzer Elite forces in Opposing Fronts makes it easily worth the extra cost. Tthe German Panzer Elite specialise in lightly armoured fast vehicles, and have a tendency to mount any gun of any size onto a half-track to blitzkrieg foes from unexpected directions. The British have a degree a of manoeuvrability thanks to their mobile bases, but specialise in building trenches and holding ground. They're most notable for their incredible artillery, Churchill tanks and Commandos who come crashing into the fight in a glider.

Tales of Valour is the most disappointing part of the package. With an uninteresting series of quick single player campaigns and no new factions (a smattering of new units for existing armies is added instead), it's the one you should drop if you're looking to save a bit of money on the deal. If you're interesting in playing co-operatively with friends, the £1.39 / $1.99 is worth it for the survival map, an early precursor to the brilliant Last Stand mode in Dawn of War 2.

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