There’s been so much Company of Heroes news in the last couple months, we knew we had to recap it all and showcase some of the amazing content our players have been creating! With CoH3’s launch approaching fast this month on February 23rd and the Multiplayer Tech Test behind us, we’re not going to waste anymore time. Let’s get into it!


Our final public test of Company of Heroes 3 concluded in January, and we want to thank all 154,000 players who took part! This last push allowed us to iron out any remaining technical issues before launch and it was a great opportunity for our team to get a head start on your feedback. You can find all the details here, along with the results of our testing and an outline of how we plan to tackle your top points of feedback. You can also check out our video recap!





We’re incredibly excited to be bringing Company of Heroes 3 to our fans on Xbox Series S and X and PlayStation 5 later this year with the support of our SEGA partner studios. You can find all the details and our FAQ here, along with our reveal trailer and console gameplay reveal here.




We just completed the third installment of our Deep Dive series looking at CoH3’s launch factions. This time we “risked it for a biscuit” as we hit the field with the British Forces. Check out the behind-the-scenes insights from our developers Matt Philip and Will “MonolithicBacon” Ward.



Stay tuned for our Deutsches Afrikakorps Deep Dive coming in the next couple weeks!

Want to start theory crafting and learning the ins-and=outs of all four factions before launch? Check out our detailed Tech Trees, now available in the https://www.companyofheroes.com/en/media.









Company of Heroes 3 is going to be the biggest game at launch in the franchise’s history. If you still have questions about what you’re getting in the game at launch, you can find all the answers here, along with details about our post-launch content plans. Don’t forget to check out our Community Schedule for the remainder of February and March!




We were thrilled to be joined in London by two of our partners, A_E and VulcanHDGaming, for an exclusive preview of CoH3 at the end of November. Be sure to check out their channels for the matches from the preview and their coverage of last month’s Tech Test!





Coming out of last month’s Tech Test, Greyshot117 seems to think the Italian L6/40 is overpowered! What do you think? Can it dominate the meta at launch?




During the Multiplayer Tech Test, we hosted a screenshot contest for players to show off their coolest moments from CoH3. This entry from Vetkin showing off the Italian Guastatori was one of our favorites!



Our community moderator, DemonicSpoon, wrote up a terrific new player guide for PvP in CoH3. If you’re hesitant about jumping into competitive play, this is a good place to start! Find the link to it here.

Inuki over at The Iron Cast has put together 12 awesome tips for beginner players. Check it out so you’re ready for launch!



Sarge is an old hand at RTS games and has been creating some great new tutorials and videos for both CoH2 and CoH3. In this video he shows off how to turn a tactical retreat into an advantage.



We also love seeing the projects, screenshots, art and more that you are creating and working on! Be sure to tag us @companyofheroes and use the hashtag #CoHCommunity so we can check out and share your amazing creations.

KingDarBoja on Discord has been working on some amazing models of WW2 Italian tanks, and we can’t wait to see them when they’re finished!



That’s a wrap for our second Wire Report! With CoH3’s launch in just a few weeks, we’ll have another recap of all the news and updates soon. Submit your content for consideration by using the hashtag #CoHCommunity or by sharing screenshots, links and videos on our Discord or Forums.


Pre-Order CoH3
Official Forums
Steam
Technical Support
YouTube
Twitch
Discord
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

We wanted to thank everyone who took part in our most recent Company of Heroes 3 Multiplayer Tech Test! This was our last push to test our online infrastructure and to nail down any pesky bugs and crashes before we launch on February 23rd. Over 154,000 players took part in the Tech Test, which was four times more than what we had for the Mission Alpha in July! We can’t thank you enough for helping us with this crucial step.


Over the course of the test, we received over 650 bug reports from the community through our new online form. Your testing also helped us identify crashes well before launch so that we can already investigate fixes. All these reports along with your feedback is going to help us deliver a great Company of Heroes experience when we launch just over a month from now!


So, what did we want to accomplish with this test? And did we achieve those objectives?

• Test server load and overall stability. This includes things like match performance, player logins and overall matchmaking.
  
• Test matchmaking queues and how they worked individually.
  
• Test wider array of different PC setups, hardware and software compatibility, and game client stability.
  
• Optimize the game by discovering and reducing crashes and bugs.
  
• Test client and server-side maintenance and patching.

On all counts, this test was extremely successful for our team. We had 4x our estimated players and we had no server issues. Our average gameplay latency or matchmaking times were both lower than our targets, and we continue to look at ways to improve both. We were able to test over 1,400 different processors and video cards across different hardware setups, and we found and fixed several crashes related to configurations, rendering and game mechanics. Additionally, we found some fun bugs related to AI and economy exploits.

Our data also showed that certain GPU models that are slightly older were experiencing worse performance than they should have been getting. The Tech Test allowed us to identify this issue early, and we’ll continue to make improvements based on that player data and feedback. Our goal is to make the game playable on as many configurations as possible at launch.

After our first hotfix, we were also able to cut our crash rate almost by a third. We’re going to continue this work over the next month to reduce our crash rate even further. No game can ever have a 0% crash rate, but we can try to get close!

The team at Relic accomplished our goals with this test, but we also want to let you know how we plan to tackle your feedback.


One of biggest topics of discussion during this Tech Test focused on the look, feel and readability of the game right now. First, the version of the game we used for the Tech Test was about a month old, and a major lighting pass wasn’t quite ready for this build of the game, but you’ll see updated versions in our upcoming Deep Dives. We’ve also identified a couple of key issues that were contributing to degraded visuals. For some users, game scaling was defaulting to a Low setting, meaning they were seeing subpar resolutions and blurriness. Additionally, we found two rendering and map bugs that were causing lighting shadow artifacts and missing terrain details, so we really appreciate everyone calling these out! We have most of these fixes internally already and look forward to showing the game again closer to launch.


Before: Tech Test with bugs


After: Latest version with bugs now fixed


Before: Tech Test with bugs


After: Latest version with bugs now fixed

Additionally, we plan to start vehicles in a state that is slightly more weathered, so they don't feel as 'clean' when they are first produced.


Before: Original vehicle starting state


After: New vehicle starting state - slight weathering


Reference: Full weathering state


There was a lot of discussion about CoH3’s sound design and some concerns that it didn’t quite meet expectations. We found an issue where Sound Output Quality was defaulting to Low or Medium for some players instead of High, which would significantly degrade the audio experience. We approached CoH3’s sound design with an emphasis on realism with gunshots and explosions having more of a “crack,” whereas past CoH titles had more of an old-school Hollywood “kapow!” Therefore, the team is re-working and optimizing several audio FX including cannons, machineguns, explosions, off-map artillery and more to give them that heavy impact. Not only that, but the team is working on the final audio mix and will be completely re-mixing the audio for all our tanks for launch.


We’re happy to be providing more quality-of-life options for players including things like WASD camera controls, customizable keybinds, and more camera settings. We did see that some players had frustrations when navigating those settings menus or when things weren’t controlling in-game as they were used to in CoH1 or CoH2. Your feedback has been critical in identifying those pain points, and we hope to improve on those systems post-launch.


Finally, we know there’s been a ton of discussion about balance, systems, unit abilities and more. Though this recent test was more focused on testing our online infrastructure, all these discussions are giving us a head start on fixes, balance patches and quality-of-life changes that we want to address in the first few weeks and months after launch. We’re continuing to work on features and systems we know players want, and your feedback is helping to shape and inform what those systems look like, and we want to deliver them in the best state possible without compromising the core game at launch. We’ll have more news on some of those big post-launch updates as soon as we have all the details.

Be sure to keep your feedback coming in the weeks and months ahead, as that’s going to help us prioritize it and continue improving this game and franchise that we all love so much. From everyone at Relic, thank you for taking part in the Multiplayer Tech Test and we can’t wait for you to play the full game at launch.

The British Forces are a stubborn and efficient fighting force. Aided by their Commonwealth allies, the Brits can do it all - from digging in and weathering the storm, to striking out and punishing the enemy with a range of mechanized options.

Welcome to the Company of Heroes 3 Multiplayer Tech Test! This is our last big development push before launch and we’re extremely excited to finally get it into your hands.

Your participation will allow us to prepare for launch by testing our infrastructure on a larger scale. The test also helps us identify new bugs and issues that cannot be caught without having thousands of people playing the game at the same time.

Your feedback during this test is critical. Though the game is essentially ready for launch, your feedback on your experience - everything from faction balance to units to systems and more - will help inform fixes and patches in the first few weeks and months of the game’s life. This will also help us iterate on quality-of-life improvements, feature priorities, future iterations of gameplay elements and content.

• Match performance - server calls during matches
  
• Logins - server is capable of handling large numbers of player logins
  
• Matchmaking - server can match players quickly and efficiently based on our parameters

We will be changing access to certain game modes during the Multiplayer Tech Test to monitor how the queues work individually. This will vary with the number of players testing at any given point in time and will be communicated in Community Spaces (forums, Discord) and social media.

A large group of players testing the game with different PC set-ups will give us the chance to test a lot more hardware and software configurations than we would ever be able to do with our team. We will be focusing on learning about:

Software configuration issues
Crashes - We will be monitoring crash reports to ensure CoH3 is optimized for as many configurations as possible. Help us by filling in the Bugsplat report should you get one! Our team reads every single one of these and the more information we get, the better we can understand the issue.

With a large group of players, we are going to be able to discover new bugs and issues that we never had the chance to encounter during internal testing. This will help us squash as many critical issues in the launch window as possible. {LINK REMOVED} You can report a bug by going to this link. Be sure to select “Report Feedback or Bug” under “Nature of Enquiry.”

As we plan to support CoH3 for a long time, we are using this test to make sure we are ready to deliver updates and perform maintenance without a hitch. We will be testing this both on the client side (when you need to download a patch through Steam) and on the server side (when the update is deployed via our servers and downloaded in-game).

• Mission Zero – First time launch tutorial (skippable). Note that there are many tutorials and first-time-user tooltips that will not be present in this test, but you will be able to experience them at launch.
  
• As this test is Multiplayer focused, Tactical Pause will not be available. However, at launch, Tactical Pause will be available in the singleplayer Dynamic Campaign Map in Italy, in the North African Operation, and in singleplayer Skirmish.
  
• Multiplayer Modes & Skirmish vs AI:
  1v1
  2v2
  3v3
  4v4
  
• All 4 Launch Factions
  US Forces
  Wehrmacht
  British Forces
  Deutsches Afrikakorps
  
• All 12 Launch Battlegroups
  US Forces: Airborne, Armored and Special Operations Battlegroups
  Wehrmacht: Luftwaffe, Mechanized and Breakthrough Battlegroups
  British Forces: Indian Artillery, Armored Support and Air & Sea Battlegroups
  Deutsches Afrikakorps: Armored Support, Italian Combined Arms and Italian Infantry Battlegroups
  
• Maps (Note: We will have more multiplayer maps included for launch!)
  
• 1v1
  Road to Tunis
  Twin Beaches
  
• 2v2
  Pachino Farmlands
  Torrente
  
• 3v3
  Gazala Landing Ground
  L'Aquila
  
• 4v4
  Mignano Gap
  Winter Line
  
• Automatch & Custom Games
  Victory Point Mode
  Annihilation (see note below)

Registration
January 4th – January 13th
Playtest registration can be found on the CoH3 Steam store page here.

Multiplayer Tech Test
Wednesday, Jan 11th @ 10am PT to Monday, Jan 16th @ 10am PT

Planned Downtime
January 12th from 1pm PT to 3pm PT
Dependent on player numbers

Backup Downtime
January 13th – 10am PT to 12pm PT
We will only use this downtime if we did not conduct maintenance on January 12th
Dependent on player numbers

Once the planned downtime is complete, we will be providing access to the Annihilation victory condition.


For those that have been with us since we first revealed Company of Heroes 3, you know we want to hear your feedback and you know we take it seriously. Please share your thoughts and concerns, as that’s how we continue to improve CoH3 in the days ahead.

As a reminder, we won’t be able to make any major design, feature, or gameplay changes before our official launch on February 23rd. However, your feedback will inform future iterations, balance changes and patches in the weeks and months ahead. Our team’s focus for launch will be to squash any newly discovered critical bugs and crashes – anything that’s a showstopper. For example, if your game consistently fails to launch, that is something we need to know about so we can fix it before launch.

You can fill out this survey after you have played the Multiplayer Tech Test to help us continue our work on CoH3! {LINK REMOVED}https://bit.ly/3weK3vD

You can leave your feedback on the community forums here.
Or on our official Discord: https://discord.gg/companyofheroes


{LINK REMOVED} You can report a bug by going to this link. Be sure to select “Report Feedback or Bug” under “Nature of Enquiry.”

Should your game crash and you receive a Bugsplat screen, please add as many details as possible in the comment box and click “Send Error Report.” Like we said, our team reads every single Bugsplat report we receive, so please submit them as they help us track and resolve issues!

• To replay the tutorial mission, you will need to delete your save file under Documents > My Games > Company of Heroes 3 - Playtest
  
• If a user begins a game in a Custom lobby and a player tries to join after that lobby is no longer available, they may encounter a crash.
  
• Twin Beaches has the incorrect territory point income and Victory point count.
  
• Battlegroups may show as pink placeholder boxes after finishing an automatch game.
  
• If a player leaves while a match is loading, there may be an error loading match stats afterwards.
  
• There is a slight chance that if the host of a lobby searches for an automatch game, then fails the search and leaves the party, once they try to rejoin they will not see themselves in the lobby.
  
• If a lobby host selects “Start Match” as a player is changing their Faction selection, they may load into the game with Battlegroups that do not function.
  
• The Smoke Launcher ability on the Panzer III cannot be used more than once.
  
• When certain units pick up a team weapon from a different faction, they may use that unit’s voice lines.
  
• White Phosphorus tracer rounds have the wrong color.
  
• The 251 Medium Carrier is missing a voiceline to indicate when Auto-Reinforce is enabled or disabled.
  
• Stuka Anti-Tank Loiter ability is not functioning as intended.
  
• All Loiter abilities are targeting units in a larger area of effect than intended.
  
• Constructing and repairing may cause certain units to t-pose.
  
• Text chat box may get wider than intended when typing long messages.
  
• Wehrmacht Sniper is missing Veterancy descriptions.

How do I sign up for the Multiplayer Tech Test?
Visit the official Company of Heroes 3 Steam store page here and scroll down to this prompt.

Click “Request Access” - if it is before the test has begun on January 11th, you will be notified that you have been registered. Once the test begins, we will be providing access to all players. The test will not be restricted or limited in any way to anyone that has registered. After the test is live on January 11th, if you have clicked “Request Access,” you should now have a prompt to download the test.

I've requested access but I can't seem to play or can't find the game?
If you've followed the steps above, the game should be in your Steam library. Open your library and search for Company of Heroes 3 - Multiplayer Tech Test.

Do I need to pre-order Company of Heroes 3 to access the Multiplayer Tech Test?
No. The Multiplayer Tech Test will be available for free to any Steam user that wishes to have access. Request access and download the test using the steps above.

Are you limiting access to the Multiplayer Tech Test?
No. You don’t need to “stand in line” or wait your turn to get access. All players who have requested access will be granted it once the test begins on January 11th. We may be limiting modes as we test our servers (outlined above under Queue Testing), but we will not limit player access.

How long is the Multiplayer Tech Test running for?
The Multiplayer Tech Test will begin on Wednesday, January 11th at 10am PT and will close on Monday, January 16th at 10am PT.

How do I report a bug?
{LINK REMOVED} You can report a bug by going to this link. Be sure to select “Report Feedback or Bug” under “Nature of Enquiry.”

Where can I leave feedback?
You can leave us feedback on our official forums here.
You can also join the discussion or look for teammates on our official Discord server here: https://discord.gg/companyofheroes

How can I get help with a technical issue?
You can view our knowledge portal here.
You can also submit a ticket to {LINK REMOVED} SEGA Support directly here.

Will the Multiplayer Tech Test support WASD camera control or customizable keys?
Yes, full WASD camera controls will be available, along with the ability to customize keys.

Will the Multiplayer Tech Test support localization in other languages?
No, but all localization will be available for launch on February 23rd. You can find the list of all supported languages on our Steam page.

What are the minimum and recommended hardware specifications for CoH3?

Minimum:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel i5 6th-gen or AMD Ryzen desktop processor with 4 cores @3GHz, or equivalent performance
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, AMD Radeon R9 370, or equivalent performance
Storage: 40 GB available space

Recommended:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel i7 8th-gen or AMD Ryzen desktop processor with 8 cores @ 3GHz or equivalent performance
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5600, or equivalent performance
Storage: 40 GB available space


If you're still reading this, we thank you for being a dedicated Company of Heroes player and helping us to make the best game possible! See you on January 11th!

Follow us on your social channel of choice for Company of Heroes news, memes & tech test instructions:

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube

Get ready for our public Multiplayer Tech Test which starts on January 11th! This test will be available to all players for free. All you need to do is visit Company of Heroes 3's Steam store page to register.

• Navigate to the Steam store page for CoH3 here
  
• Underneath "Pre-Purchase" you'll find "Join the Company of Heroes 3 Playtest"
  
• Click "Request Access"
  
• That's it!

If you've registered before the test goes live on January 11th, you'll be notified once it has begun to download it. If you register after the test has started, you should be prompted to download it right away.

We'll have more information on the test, it's contents and an FAQ going live just before testing begins, so keep an eye out for that. Otherwise, we'll see you on the battlefield on January 11th!

It’s been a whirlwind year for Company of Heroes! With only a couple of months before we launch CoH3, we wanted to recap all the news we’ve shared with you, along with some of your feedback that made it into the game.

Our team will be taking some time to rest over the holidays, so things will be quiet for a bit. We hope that you and those close to you will also get a chance to enjoy the holiday season and will ring in a happy new year! Our team will be back in full swing as we get ready for January’s Multiplayer Tech Test and CoH3’s launch in February.

The start of 2022 was quiet, as the team was heads down working on the game and getting some big things ready. We had some great announcements this year and kicked those off in July with our North Africa reveal. We announced that CoH3 will not only include the Italian Dynamic Campaign, but also the North African Operation giving players the chance to see the Deutsches Afrikakorps with their Italian Battlegroups in action for the first time in the series. Players had a chance to test them out in the Mission Alpha, and a few thousand lucky folks got a chance for more hands-on time at both Gamescom and PAX this past Summer.


The great thing about the Mission Alpha (and the Multiplayer Pre-Alpha and Pre-Alpha Preview before it), is that these public tests give us an opportunity to review your feedback, process it, and make changes in CoH3 to improve the experience.


Another important aspect for us when it comes to CoH-Development is being as transparent as possible – both when it comes to the development process and the decisions we’re making. As an example, we grilled our Executive Producer with your questions while we were at Gamescom in August!


In December we also revealed that CoH3 will be coming to consoles later in 2023, giving so many more players a chance to experience the action, strategy and tactics of the Mediterranean theatre. The team has had tremendous support in this effort from our SEGA partner studios, ensuring Relic can focus on delivering an amazing PC experience at launch, while also overseeing the work to bring the game to Xbox and Playstation 5. The major design difference for the Console Edition is to adjust the HUD and to build out controller support. The team is adamant that we have to deliver on our intended vision for CoH3, regardless of platform.


One question we see a lot is “what sets CoH3 apart?” or “what am I actually getting?” The answer is … a lot! CoH3 will be our biggest game at launch, and we have a ton of plans to keep supporting it in the future. You can find an exhaustive list of everything coming on launch day here. In September we also announced that mods will be coming to CoH3 at launch, and you can find more details on modding support here. You can also check out our developer diary from July that outlines our plans for the future.


Showing off gameplay throughout the development process has been incredibly important for us, even if the game was early, had some obvious bugs, or needed a bit more polish. Fancy trailers are great to get hyped up, but we know gameplay is paramount. We hope that you’ve been able to see the iteration and progress since we started showing footage in the Summer of 2021. Though we had to move our launch date from November to February, we knew it was the right call. There’s been a lot of improvement along the way, especially if you compare this video from last December with our Campaign Update livestream in June or our recent US Forces Deep Dive in October.



Our team is also developing a lot of programs to support the cool things our community is working on. In March we first launched a Support Request Form for community run events and tournaments, and then in July we debuted our official Creator Program, which we’ll be expanding down the road!



Launching our first Wire Report in November was a labor of love, and we can’t wait to showcase the work of the development team, plus all the awesome content from the community. If you want us to see your content and get a chance for us to share it in future Wire Reports, don’t forget to include the hashtag #CoHCommunity when you post!

We have so much planned for the coming months, including a public Multiplayer Tech Test, more faction deep dives and even some chill play sessions between the community and the team. Oh, and, you know... CoH3’s launch! February 23rd is getting so close, and we can’t wait for you to start playing and sharing your experiences. Enjoy the holidays and we’ll see you in January!

Company of Heroes 3 will be releasing on Steam on February 23, 2023 and will be the biggest game at launch in the franchise’s history. CoH3 brings the series’ intimate, boots-on-the-ground storytelling to two brand-new theatres of war, one with branching storylines where players make difficult historical choices, and the other being a focused narrative-driven experience offering a ‘classic CoH’ approach, all with our acclaimed tactical gameplay. We plan to support CoH3 for years to come, with plenty more updates and content coming post-launch. Today we want to cover everything you’ll be able to experience on day one.



Jump into two singleplayer experiences right at launch with the Dynamic Italian Campaign and the North African Operation.

Dynamic Italian Campaign

• The new Dynamic Campaign Map delivers full ‘sandbox-style’ gameplay, allowing players to command the overall war effort and experience an unprecedented level of strategic choice.
  
• Command ground, air and naval forces, build supply lines, and develop a Partisan spy network to crush enemy advances. No two playthroughs are ever alike!
  
• Choose your forces and upgrade your veteran companies to match your playstyle. Each of the 5 starting Companies can be upgraded uniquely so that they function radically differently from one another.
  
• Players have agency to play their way with branching storylines and multiple endings, introducing a level of re-playability no CoH game has ever had before.

North African Operation

• The North African Operation offers players a more traditional and linear CoH3 experience – with no shortage of action.
  
• In the sprawling deserts of North Africa, players will be in full control of the overwhelming vehicular power of the Deutsches Afrikakorps as they fight against the British forces for control of North Africa in this moving narrative-driven experience.

Skirmish vs AI

• Take on the enemy AI in singleplayer skirmish.
  
• Play solo, or with AI teammates across 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4 maps.
  
• Victory Point win condition – Hold the victory points and deplete your enemy’s tickets to win.
  
• Annihilation win condition – No holds barred. Destroy the enemy base to win.

• Queue up as one of four factions in automatch for one-on-one or team games pitting the Axis vs the Allies.
  
• Victory Point win condition
  
• Includes 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 maps
  
• 4x Factions: US Forces, Wehrmacht, British Forces & Deutsches Afrikakorps
  
• 12x Launch Battlegroups - Battlegroups are the evolution of the Doctrine and Commander systems from CoH1 and CoH2. This new system now offers ten choices split across two branches in each battlegroup. What's more, players will have to make exclusive choices in each branch. Battlegroups let you customize an army with unique squads, specialized units, and new abilities.
  
• US Forces: Airborne, Armored and Special Operations Battlegroups
  
• Wehrmacht: Luftwaffe, Mechanized and Breakthrough Battlegroups
  
• British Forces: Indian Artillery, Armored Support and Air & Sea Battlegroups
  
• Deutsches Afrikakorps: Armored Support, Italian Combined Arms and Italian Infantry Battlegroups
  
• Over 120 Playable Units
  
• 14x Launch Multiplayer Maps

• Queue up for cooperative matches against the enemy AI with friends and other players.
  
• Modes include 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4.
  
• Victory Point win condition
  
• All available multiplayer maps

• Create custom games for private or public lobbies/matches
  
• Use game mods from the Steam Workshop.
  
• Custom games allow you to have more granular control over your match settings. Set the number of Victory Points (250 to 1000), change the Starting Resources (Standard vs High) or apply a modding tuning pack from the Workshop.
  
• Modes: Victory Point win condition & Annihilation win condition

Modding Support

• The Company of Heroes 3 Essence Editor and modding will be supported on launch day. Find all the details here.
  
• Modding support comes with the latest that our brand-new Essence Engine 5 has to offer, and new capabilities to build more incredible Company of Heroes experiences than ever before.
  
• Once created, mods can be published to the Steam Workshop to enable an easy and familiar path to downloading and playing community content.
  
• At launch, you will be able to create: Maps & Scenarios, Game Modes, Tuning Packs

• Over 40 main missions + 8 singleplayer skirmishes
  
• Full Tactical Pause – Take total control over the pacing of single-player action. Plan your attacks, then effortlessly queue up lethal precision plays that will give you the edge in battle.
  
• Tactical Map – Bring up an interactive tactical overview during a skirmish or online match to outwit your opponent.
  
• Key Remapping – Customize your inputs and keys to your preference.
  
• WASD Camera Control – Swap between default grid keys and WASD camera control presets.
  
• Ping System – The ping system provides three options for players, allowing them to indicate locations to defend, to attack, or pay attention to.
  
• Updated Social Systems – Seamlessly create your party, add new friends, report a player, or invite someone to a match.
  
• Next Generation Destructible Environments – Open up new movement paths for your units by completely collapsing structures and other obstacles, which adds a whole new strategic element to battlefield destruction.
  
• Tank Riding – Infantry can now ride tanks, allowing for new combined arms tactics and powerful rapid strike maneuvers.
  
• Towing – Large team weapons such as the German Flak 36 or British 17-pounder can be rapidly deployed and re-positioned to react to the shifting battlefield.
  
• Breaching – A new way for infantry to deal with powerful garrisoned buildings.
  
• Side Armor - Provides deeper and more strategic gameplay. In addition to frontal and rear armor values, side armor now rewards positional play and clever flanks.
  
• Verticality – Nullify your opponent’s cover advantage with height and elevation. This system provides unique benefits and buffs (or debuffs) to units, offering another strategic dimension to classic CoH combat.
  
• Enhanced Recon – Specific units and abilities allow players to detect threats just beyond the edge of the fog-of-war for a tactical advantage.
  
• Traversable Trenches - Vehicles can pass over trenches, providing more realism with vehicular combat.
  
• Pre-Order Devil’s Brigade Cosmetics – We know players love to personalize their Company of Heroes experience. The Devil's Brigade will be the first cosmetic theme for the US Forces, and we will have more coming post-launch with different looks and rarities for all factions so you can customize your armies.
  
• Company of Heroes 3 will launch with English language support, and text localization in Traditional & Simplified Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish, and Turkish.

• Store – We want to support CoH3 for years to come while also providing players cool things to earn and unlock. An in-game Store is a critical part of that. This will be rolling out shortly after launch and it will offer players fun ways to customize their experience with cosmetics and more. Players can unlock Store items in two ways – with either a paid currency (War Bonds) or an earned currency (Merit) which is gained through Challenges. Certain cosmetics will not be available with Merit, but we will keep an eye on things and ensure the Store feels fair when players choose to engage with it.
  
• Challenges – This new system will test your skills, challenge you to use new tactics and strategies, and provide fun goals to accomplish while playing CoH3. Challenges will refresh on a regular cadence, and we’ll have more details on how they work soon. Challenges will provide players a way to earn Merit and gives players the flexibility to choose how they unlock items in the Store.
  
• Ranked Seasons – We want to ensure that CoH3 is stable and that the game balance and the ‘meta’ are on solid ground before we introduce ranked seasons. This gives us time to review match data, fine-tune balance, and roll out any major patches or fixes necessary before players start climbing the ranked ladder.
  
• Multiplayer Maps – To add more variety to the competitive and co-op landscape, we plan to introduce new maps on a regular basis.
  
• Replays v1.0 – Replays are a critical part of reviewing and sharing matches, while also supporting other forms of content creation and events. However, we knew that prioritizing Replays for launch would have risked the core game, or it would have meant releasing this feature in an incomplete state. We made the decision to continue working on the 1.0 version of Replays and to release it after launch. This first version will have parity with CoH2’s Replay functionality, and we will continue working to improve it based on your feedback.
  
• Observer Mode v1.0 – Just like Replays, we know many of our players and community event organizers rely on Observer Mode. Our intent is to roll out a solid Replay system first, and then we’ll be able to finalize our Observer mode based on the reception to the Replay system and the feedback you share with us.
  
• Expansion #1 – Our first expansion will include new additions to CoH3's singleplayer. We'll have more details on what's included in the months ahead!
  
• Game Modes – We plan to build new, exciting, and limited time modes over the coming months to add some spice to the traditional CoH formula. We want to experiment with a ton of fun ideas to see what players like. Tank Royale? Last Stand? The options are endless!

We’re dedicated to building the biggest and best Company of Heroes game in the franchise’s history and we’re committed to delivering the post-launch content and features above at a quality that we can be proud of (and many are already far along in production). We know you’ll stick with us as we have a ton of fun and exciting stuff to share in the future that hasn’t been outlined here. But for now, we’ll see you at launch!

Welcome to our first Wire Report! These ongoing reports will be your one-stop-shop for the latest Company of Heroes news, developer insights, community content, and more. With the launch of Company of Heroes 3 just a few months away, there’s going to be a ton of cool stuff you’ll want to keep tabs on – so we’re collecting it all in one place!


Modding Tools at Launch

We’re so excited to bring modding support to CoH3 on day-1! Players will be able to create, share and play mods right away, and we aim to continue growing these tools based on your feedback for years to come.
At launch players will be able to create:

• Maps & Scenarios
  
• Game Modes
  
• Tuning Packs

You can find all the details here and be sure to check out the announcement video from our friends over at IGN.



Since this is the first Wire Report we’ve put together, we wanted to recap a ton of fun interviews with CoH3’s developers over the last few months.

US Forces & Wehrmacht Deep Dives

Our whole team is hyped to be showing off multiplayer in more detail! You can see the first in our series of deep dives on the factions here, starting with the US Forces, followed up by the Wehrmacht!



We’ll be doing two more of these deep dives before launch to cover the British Forces and the Deutsches Afrikakorps. Stay tuned!

Launch Date Q&A

We also put your questions in front of CoH’s Vice President of Production, David Littman, who’s in charge of the whole franchise. We discuss our new launch date, what the team is working on now, and how player feedback shapes CoH3.


Convention Season

It was great to get back to events and conventions again. There’s something special about watching over a player’s shoulder and being able to answer their questions in-person! Check out our show-floor interviews with the team and the reactions from our players at Gamescom and PAX West.



HUD Update

Based on your feedback coming out of the Mission Alpha in July, we’ve revamped the HUD and continue to work on final touches. Check out the iterative process below if you missed it.

Here was our first revamp of the HUD.



And here it is again with some more flavor and theming.




Black Forest Map

GBPirate has published a new CoH2 map inspired by Age of Empires and the real-life Black Forest. “This map is a tableau of sights of the Schwarzwald in southwest Germany. Designed for a competitive matchup, Black Forest should play fairly similar to most balanced maps in the 2v2 automatch pool.” Find the map on the Steam Workshop here and check out this video preview here.

UKF Off-Meta Guide

Looking for an off-meta guide to the UK Forces in CoH2? Elpern has you covered.

CoHloween!

Looks like tightrope had a scary CoH2 themed Halloween!


Eastern Front 3.0

The CoH1 modding team behind Eastern Front has recently released their next major update! Find more info on their major 3.0 patch on the Steam Workshop here. “This update features faction overhauls for the Soviets, Ostheer, and Panzer Elite, new weapon sounds, UI and visual improvements, map enhancements, quality of life improvements, bug fixes, and more!”



Screenshots & Fan Art

Q™ on the official Discord has been sharing some terrific CoH2 screenshots! Share yours on social media, in the forums, or in the Discord with the hashtag #CoHCommunity for a chance to be featured in upcoming Wire Reports!




We’ve all been there, JackTW! :D


That’s it for this Wire Report! We’ll have more news and updates in the next one. Submit your content for consideration by using the hashtag #CoHCommunity or by sharing screenshots, links and videos on our Discord or Forums.

Pre-Order CoH3
Official Forums
Steam
Technical Support
YouTube
Twitch
Discord
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Check out the sizzle trailer for the new look at the Wehrmacht! Defensive, Veteran and intimidating, the Wehrmacht will weather the storm before unleashing an array of devastating counterattacks to smash the enemy.

Check out our latest faction deep dive with the Company of Heroes 3 Gameplay team. We review two action-packed multiplayer games (including one with the legendary DevM!), discuss main rosters, Battlegroups, and all the new ways to play this classic faction.