Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies is out, and, as explained in our review, provides welcome rejuvenation to Relic's strategy sequel. In this new trailer, the game's executive producer Greg Wilson explains the standalone expansion's* new War Spoils feature. Also he jumps out of a plane.

War Spoils are rewards earned for playing the game. You can get new commanders, passive buffs or cosmetic skins and Relic plan to expand this system in the future, with even more types of bonus content. As mentioned in the video, right now, there's also free paratrooper faceplate to be nabbed. Head here to secure your loot.

*I was going to use the word "expandalone" here, because "expandalone" is a brilliant word. Unfortunately, I am alone in holding this opinion.

Company of Heroes 2 has spent the last year being tweaked, balanced, and building an online community, and the latest DLC, the Western Front Armies, is a great step at advancing that success. The main game didn t do so hot with scripting and acting out a campaign storyline, so this DLC ditches that: there s no new single-player included. Instead, the focus is entirely on adding new blood to the multiplayer servers with the arrival of the German Oberkommando West and the US Army.

CoH2 was a big improvement over the first Company of Heroes in many ways, but when we changed the theater of war we left our favorite armies and playstyles behind. Bringing those legendary units and battlefields into the new graphics and physics engines of CoH2 feels better than an upgrade: playing as the Western Germans and the Americans after spending so much time with them in the CoH1 is like welcoming old friends to your fancy new house.

The German Army runs on organization. Unlike the other armies, the German Oberkommandos begin with a single headquarters building and a supply truck. In order to build more advanced units, the supply truck needs to be driven onto captured ground and converted into one of three mobile HQ buildings, one each (roughly speaking) for support, armor, and defense. Converting the truck takes some time and resources, but the end result is a network of reinforced hardpoints that invading armies will have to slowly chew through.

The first German supply truck converts into the Battlegroup Headquarters while soldiers provide cover.

Playing as the Oberkommandos is an exercise in heavy, awkward hardware. The West German Army has only three infantry unit types supported by a dozen varieties of vehicles, but I noticed some repetition in the ranks. The SdKfz 251 and 251/17 half-tracks, for example, are essentially the same vehicle twice, except that the mark 17 specializes in attacking aircraft. While aircraft can be called in on bombing or strafing runs, they are so rare that I ve only seen them once or twice. In an effort to make the Oberkommando a more vehicle-heavy army, Relic sacrificed some unit individuality.

If the Germans run on supply chains, the Americans run on star power. Unlike any other army in CoH2, the American base begins fully formed. American players will have to work, however, to recruit the officers needed to run these supply lines. These officers are powerful individual units that allow you to field advanced infantry support, anti-tank, and armored units.Together, the two new armies are well-realized looks at the national attitudes and circumstances that inspired them. The Americans, well-equipped but far from home, slug it out against the Germans and their world-famous infrastructure.

I particularly loved diving into the Infantry specialization with the Americans. The basic rifleman squad can get upgraded weapons and abilities until they are resourceful, mobile, and powerful. A handful of rifle squads charging in with light vehicles for support is not only effective, it feels amazing. The adaptive mobility of the American forces in general make them kings of the early game, mopping up in the space before defensive lines have been set long enough to be heavily fortified. The US infantry does have one failing, and that is its weakness against buildings. I longed for a squad of engineers with demolition charges, and their omission feels a bit like an oversight. If the Americans need to destroy a bunker, they ll have to call in armor to do it for them.

The fully constructed American base bustles with activity.

This DLC isn t just about the new armies, it s about adding a shot of new energy to the existing CoH2 multiplayer landscape. There are eight new maps set on the Western front, and I found them all to be well-balanced and varied. The heavily hedgerowed Faymonville Approach map quickly became my favorite for one-on-one comp stomps.

These armies and maps fit neatly into the overall CoH2 ecosystem while maintaining their individual personalities. No matter what army I played, I ended up rolling out my tanks or fully upgrading my infantry in about the same amount of time. The new maps and armies mesh well with the existing game, and that s no small accomplishment.

If you ve been holding off on buying CoH2, you can dive straight into the multiplayer without buying the full game if you buy one of the two new DLC armies. I d say that $13 for a single army is too much, but since a new player can get access to the online servers, all other players, and all 31 of CoH2 s maps for a quarter the cost of the full game, I m inclined to call that a bargain instead of a fleecing. For long-running COH2 fans who already have access to all of that content, though, $20 for two new armies and a handful of maps is a bit steep.

Details

Price: $13 / 10 for one army, $20 / 15 for the full DLC
Release date: Out now
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Relic
Multiplayer: Up to 4v4
Link: www.companyofheroes.com

The Western Front Armies reassures me that Company of Heroes 2 will have a stable and interesting future. I was upset when Relic and THQ abandoned their free-to-play version of the franchise in 2011, Company of Heroes Online, which we then thought highly enough of to put on our Top 100 PC Games list.

And it s clever of Relic, then, to release The Western Front in a way that feels slightly similar to free-to-play games. The expansion will add two armies to Company of Heroes 2 on June 24, but they ll be individually purchasable (or as a $20 package), meaning if you simply want to play as the US Forces, it ll be a modest $13 to do so. Relic strongly hinted to me that it intends to release more armies in the future, too: If the community wants armies we ll make them. I personally love working on and building armies because it s a lot of fun, but we ll continue supporting the game in big ways and in hundreds of little ways, Game Director Quinn Duffy told me. Speculating, that means there s a chance we ll see British, Japanese, or maybe Italian forces joining the game months down the line. I like the idea of these militaries serving as potential entry points for new players owning one army won t preclude you from playing against the others, of course.



What s best about this format for the expansion, though, is that The Western Front won t undercut the already-healthy custom map community (there s currently 1,500 entries in Steam Workshop) or the planned moddability of CoH2 that will follow TWFA s release. Duffy told me that Relic sees CoH2 as a WWII platform that it plans to work on for years to come, and this approach certainly doesn t contradict that both modders and Relic will be contributing content .

The plan is good, but so is the implementation, from what I ve seen. The match-and-a-half I played on two of The Western Front s new maps as the German Oberkommando West and US Forces was nothing but encouraging. Both armies have gotten tons of careful attention by Relic, whose animators continue to craft disproportionately expressive units. One of the iconic Oberkommando units, the Sturmtiger tank, is as nimble as a pregnant, armored mammoth, and you can hear its bassy engine struggling to push its weight, the audio for which is drawn from real recordings by Relic. And when the Sturmtiger finally launches its ridiculous, 380 mm rocket, the explosion temporarily deafens you if you ve got the camera nearby.



In controlling them, both new armies are distinct from CoH2 s existing forces, with the US operating as a hyper-versatile team focused on mobility and the Oberkommando being technologically advanced and outfitted with heavy tanks. And most of these playstyle distinctions seem to be driven by history. The US side performs well tactically by flanking, using cover, keeping mobile, and many of the game systems for the army support those approaches. Many of their tanks can fire very well on the move because tanks like the Sherman were equipped with gyro-stabilized gun mounts. They can also fire their abilities on the move to use smoke, for example, to cover their approach or their retreat away from the big enemy tanks, says Duffy. We describe the US as an army that bent, but didn t break, so the players need to be flexible, mobile, and not get into slug matches with heavier opponents. Find locations where their numbers can be used to make breakthroughs and grab territory, set up defensive lines with AT guns or artillery and look for the next tactical opportunity.



For the Oberkommando, it s interesting that Relic is trying to represent the battle-hardened but also resource-strapped state that the German army was in in late 1944. The OKW use their sWS Supply Half-tracks to gain extra resources from the map, but have to maintain supply lines effectively, says Duffy. Their half-tracks can also convert to their tech structures, each with a distinct role designed around creating battlefield synergy and team play. One building (the Mechanized Regiment HQ) can act as a retreat point where soldiers can be healed and reinforced, and the Battle Group HQ is equipped with a 3.7cm Flak cannon for effective area defense. It allows the OKW to really control their base territory plus-one and create and hold their own little Battle of the Bulge on every map. Duffy summarizes the style of the Oberkommando this way: Players have to grab territory, hold on, be active in the defense around a few hardpoints on the map, and use their mid-tier supporting vehicles and artillery options wisely. Heavy tanks can win the battle, but not the war.

The Western Front Armies should be a great start of Relic s next wave of work on Company of Heroes 2. Eight new maps, new content for mapmakers, UI improvements, a new War Spoils system, and better matchmaking are all part of the package in addition to the two armies, but maybe more heartening is Relic s commitment to making CoH2 moddable after the release of TWFA as it continues to add more content.