Company of Heroes 3 - US Forces Overview

Overview

Company of Heroes 3’s US Forces faction is designed to represent an early war US Armed Forces that fought in the Mediterranean theater from 1943 through to 1944. Like previous installments of the faction in Company of Heroes, the US Forces caters to an aggressive playstyle that benefits from superior production, mobility and combined arms. Featuring a familiar unit roster while introducing new faction mechanics and an updated tech structure, the US Forces faction allows the player to be flexible with their strategy and adapt their tactics as necessary at each stage of a match.

Army Attributes

Strengths

• Flexibility – The US Forces’ tech structure and unit composition allows for a variety of build orders and strategies that the player can adapt at each stage of a match
• Production – A significant aspect of the Army’s strength lies in their numbers and their ability to out-maneuver, flank and overwhelm their opponent
• Combined Arms – The US Forces faction is at its optimal performance when utilizing a combination of infantry, vehicles and air support in coordinated assaults
• Reconnaissance – The US Forces will excel at reconnaissance and information gathering through their various units and capabilities. 
• Air Superiority – The US Forces will possess the ability to build and utilize planes in a unique manner through the Air Support Center.

Weaknesses

• Support Weapons – American heavy machine guns and mortars lack the stopping power, fire rate, range and other attributes of their superior German counterparts
• Armored Vehicles – The American armored vehicles have strength in numbers, but their thinner armor and lower penetration make them vulnerable in frontal assaults
  
  

• Scouts – A mobile reconnaissance squad with strong utility and fast territory capturing capability
• Engineers – The toolbox of the US Forces, capable of constructing defenses, repairing vehicles and emplacements, and assaulting fortifications when upgraded with flamethrowers
• Captain – This “lead-by-example” squad is effective against enemy infantry and comes equipped with a variety of upgrades and abilities to support their forces in the field

Upgrades

• Infantry Support Center – This upgrade is 1 of the 2 required for the faction to “tech up,” improves munitions income and unlocks various infantry-focused global upgrades
• Air Support Center - This upgrade is 1 of the 2 required for the faction to “tech up” and unlocks access to Air Support abilities such as high-altitude recon runs, strafing runs, and bombing runs
• Mechanized Support Center - This upgrade is 1 of the 2 required for the faction to “tech up” and unlocks various global upgrades that improve light and medium vehicles

Barracks

The cornerstone of the US Forces, capable of deploying Riflemen, Jeeps and Mortar Teams.

Units

• Riflemen – The backbone of the US Forces utilizing strong firepower and scalability through veterancy and upgrades such as BAR light machine guns, Sticky Bombs and Mk. II Grenades
• Mortar Team – A versatile indirect fire support team that can displace enemy team weapons and counter garrisoned units and static emplacements
• Willys Jeep – Called the workhorse for the US Forces, the Willys Jeep is an effective sniper-hunter and comes well-equipped for reconnaissance and fire support

Upgrades

• Grenades Package – Riflemen are equipped with short-range anti-vehicle explosive weapons and Mk. II ‘Pineapple’ Grenades for additional explosive power
• Browning Automatic Rifles (BAR) – Riflemen are equipped with powerful, high rate-of-fire rifles that are effective at all ranges

Weapon Support Center

The WSC provides the US Forces with additional fire support allowing for diverse builds and supports defensive playstyles in both 1v1 and team games.

• Heavy Machine Gun Team – A powerful anti-infantry support weapon capable of suppressing multiple squads and defending key positions
• Bazooka Team – A specialized anti-vehicle squad that can ambush the enemy and defend against armored assaults.
• Sniper – An elite unit that is highly effective at bleeding the enemy’s manpower and countering static support weapons
• M3 Halftrack (w/ Medical, Quad .50cal & 75mm Upgrades) - This mobile reinforcement platform can bolster the frontlines and transition to a powerful anti-air/anti-infantry weapon, 75mm mobile anti-tank gun, or medical support vehicle.

Motor Pool

This mechanized production building allows the US Forces faction to push the advantage and continue their aggression with a light armored assault and anti-tank weapons.

• Greyhound – Equipped with a 37mm turret and upgradable with a .50cal machine gun, the Greyhound is a fast and deadly armored vehicle capable of destroying enemy infantry and light vehicle targets
• 57mm Anti-Tank Gun – A formidable defensive tool, the 57mm AT gun is the US Forces’ hard-counter to German armored vehicles
• Chaffee Light Tank – Small but fierce, the Chaffee Light Tank is fast, mobile, and packs a punch with its 75mm main gun, but can go down quickly if not handled with care.

Tank Depot

The final tier of the US Forces unlocks a host of armored tanks and destructive power capable of dealing the final blow to the enemy.

• M18 Hellcat – The fast and agile 76mm Hellcat is the primary tank destroyer in the US Forces faction; what it lacks in armor it makes up for in speed, penetration and range
• M4A1 Sherman – One of the most iconic tanks in WW2, the Sherman has thick armor, a powerful 75mm main gun and can be upgraded with a .50cal machine gun 
• 105mm Bulldozer Sherman – Heavy frontal armor combined with a bulldozer blade allows this tank to plow through entrenched positions and devastate the enemy with short-range, high explosive 105mm shells
  
  

Mechanized Support Center
Overview

The MSC allows players to heavily invest in a mechanized strategy, focusing on a combination of light and medium vehicles. In addition to unlocking various upgrades for the M3 Halftrack, the MSC also provides passive repairs to nearby vehicles and grants access to a variety of global upgrades that improve light and medium vehicles in the core army.

Key Points

• Unlocks the following upgrades on the M3 Halftrack
  • M45 Quadmount
  • 75mm Motor Gun Carriage 
  • Medical Halftrack
• Unlocks global upgrades that improve the army’s mechanized capabilities
• Unlocks a Mechanized Repair Bay in the base that passively repairs nearby vehicles
  
  

• Unlocks the following air support abilities:
  • High Altitude Reconnaissance
  • Anti-Infantry Strafing Run
  • High Explosive Bombing Run
• Unlocks global upgrades that improve the army’s air support capabilities

The ISC is intended to allow a player to heavily invest in infantry and infantry-focused strategies. Once purchased, the ISC increases the player’s default munitions income and provides access to a variety of global upgrades focused on infantry economy, logistics, and support.

Key Points

• Increases default munitions income
• Unlocks global upgrades that improve the army’s infantry economy and support capabilities

Medical Station - Casualty Clearing

Overview

The Medical Station is the army’s primary in-base healing platform with a twist. In addition to passively healing nearby infantry and team weapons, the Medical Station also spawns Field Medics that roam the battlefield searching for and returning downed infantry from the brink of death. Returned casualties grant up to 6 free reinforcements in the base sector.

Key Points

• Unlocks Field Medics
  • Passive infantry units that automatically spawn from the Medical Station
  • Passively rescue casualties on the battlefield that provide free reinforcements once returned to base

While the overview is nice to see and US feel solid so far,

this balance approach sounds a lot like COH2 style side balance again where one side has all the 'overpowered' and low micro, easy to use and all-rounder units with the easy teching and wipe tools - and the other side has to play combined arms with weaker and highly micro intensive units with little room for error, which just is not good no matter how thematically fitting.

If you really want to go this route again then please make sure this is at least evened out between the factions, so that there is one faction on each side that is high skillcap combined arms and really not hoard it again all on one side, that was really poor in COH2 to this day. Maybe this works a bit better in 1v1 than in 2v2+ games but still this never makes sense.

You don't need to give one faction all the weak things and the other all the strong ones. Its not forbidden to give X the better MG and Y the better AT et cetera.

But this sounds again like one side stands with the much more powerful PAK and panthers against highly micro intensive shermans and 57mms which need to use an ability on the right timing and have 2x the micro to even compete against the other doing an attack move. 

This type of balancing sure works for the top 5% and 1v1 higher level players but not for anyone else. I am strongly above average but people I play with and for my friends and teammates that is neither fair nor fun. Each faction should have a at least somewhat similar share of combined arms, micro, (tech)choices, power spikes, powerful and weak units, just split differently, otherwise we get this huge difficulty and cause-effect imbalance again.

From this loadout the Bulldozer stands out, if that were to be the US lategame special trump card, allowing them to assert dominance on infantry while getting dominated in the tank department, that would make this more interesting. But if Wehrmacht gets a non doctrinal Brummbär as well which then likely again deals a ton more effective damage than the Bulldozer while Shermans stand as Panther lunch, then this sounds not good at all, and I play more Wehr than US.

I agree with another user up above stating that I see a lot of nostalgic features coming back. But It doesn't seem like innovation but a way to pull some old school coh1 players back. (But I'm always a die-hard fan for the old one).

1. Artillery support play-style is America's doctrine in WW2
2. US Special forces was quite extensive: Devils Brigade, 100th/442nd RCT, Darbys Rangers
3.  Late game, really specific task tanks. American armor was rather weak in regards of polar opposites to German armor doctrine. *Mobility/speed* vs *armor/balanced*

Thank you for sharing the US Forces Overview JT!

This really did remind me of COH original when reading it, for me that's a good thing but everyone's response afterwards was really spot on I believe. It's a balance to keep what was great but also advance the game, there is a fine line that will never please everyone but hopefully good enough to find a middle ground. I personally rarely play as US in Coh2 because my micro is awful, I always like the engineers tank traps unlocked right away, lol my turtle ways but as a faction my APM is slow and I'd always play better as Wehr due to what others mentioned were advantages to their tech tree and unit roster. I'm american, I'd like to play as americans too so I'm glad they are described as flexible but like @ShrikeGFX states, depending upon battlegroups selected, there should be some disparity for all factions opposed to strict theme locking absolute playstyles if that makes sense. I think it's good they have their general strengths/weaknesses but I also agree with him no matter your playstyle you can still select either Axis/Allies. That would be good for the game and I agree with him there.

The most interesting center to me was the Air Support Center, maybe because it's new and I'm curious to see how strong/impactful it can be in the game but I'm also wondering if it's just same as Coh 2 really high cost and with limited use but fairly powerful or if they have more variety of options this go around. Like in Ardennes Assault you could upgrade your tree to add another plane for strafing for a price, so hopefully these faction centers have those sort of upgrades outside the BattleGroup tech tree.

The most interesting unit I saw was the Jeep has returned from coh 1 but it specifically states Willy's Jeep so I'm hopeful it's more than just a sniper hunter with a good sight radius. I have a friend who will often get a 4 or 5 star kubelwagen and it always impresses me especially against AI who can converge on units it wants destroyed really quickly. If the Jeep could last long in matches if micro-ed well, that would be cool but it'd have to have purpose beyond sniper hunting, it did state support so I'm hopeful.

The other difference I noticed in pre-alpha and this breakdown was the dedicated bazooka team. I see this can help allies counter germans but I'm curious how effective they are or how spongey they are against other infantry, I'm hoping they are not completely useless. I also sort of agree with @IntoTheRain where he said he'd rather stick with weapon rack system, or expand it, I liked that idea too. I also liked how it appears they are making the mechanized support center the "x" factor of whether you go medical/quad/motor gun carriage. I like that flexibility within one center. The fuel cost will be critical for that to work well. I wouldn't like to be limited to just one or two of those due to high fuel/cap cost. But I really like the feedback of having faster redeploy of MG to counter the lack of range and firepower of MG42, great idea. And maybe they even have secondary weapons while mobile or relocating? Shotguns on mg team for CQB and can keep them like that or lock em down with mg so sort of either/or type of unit or that could make them too OP, but just an idea others have mentioned more hand-to-hand or shotguns/bayonet style features.

The last point the medical station, I'm a bit confused by the casualty clearing, why would you cap it as 6 free reinforcements in the base sector? That seems like it would help early game but then after that it's just heal station. The 6 free just doesn't seem like a great value. I get they have to balance it so Allies aren't just stocked on manpower but 6 is like going to impact the game? Maybe in the elite 1v1 matches but I don't know, that specific number just stood out to me, like hmm okay. I suppose that's something, a nice perk but I'm sure they've ran all sorts of algorithms that determined 6 was the best number to not ruin the meta process.

- Art of War

Spiralshiroe wrote:

I agree with another user up above stating that I see a lot of nostalgic features coming back. But It doesn't seem like innovation but a way to pull some old school coh1 players back.

completely fine by me. they're entirely correct that doing this will bring diehards back in, and while this entire forum complains that their casual games aren't balanced, it would be nice to see the competitive edge back.

a lot of these faction changes make sense to me and will bring the flexibility in playstyle while encouraging aggression. the CCS reinforcement pool is an interesting idea -- relic fucked up coh 1 US upkeep, so if they use a similar approach here that would help alleviate the primary issue with the faction.

it's about time this community learns to play properly. I strongly encourage the devs to continue with this core philosophy of challenge and asymmetry. if you dumb this game down to what coh 2 was, you're never going to capture the actual competitive scene and especially not the coh 1 players.

Feedback:

1. if the Mechanized support center has repairing without micro, in my opinion there should be a risk-reward mechanic for build/not build it or the possibility to destroy it. In coh2 the OKW t3 was often placed in the field to get the vehicles repaired and back to the frontline faster, which also included the risk to get it destroyed more easily. If it's tied to the base sector you cannot destroy it. However I understand the idea of the thematically US-Production advantages etc.

possible solution: Maybe you could get the repairer models killed by rushing the base. if killed, you have to rebuild them with MP. This would encourage aggressive play and base attacks.

2. Similar case with the field medics. I guess the micro tax is that you have to click on the medics on the field if you see one to kill them. i preferred the old system in coh1 with the on-field centres, which had to be placed strategically and could be destroyed.

At least make the field medics a purchasable upgrade to the medical station so you have to make a decision if you want them

3. can recon/strafe/bombing runs be countered with Anti Air?

4. What Dane said about the snipers

Thank you for your awesome games relic

ImperialDane wrote:

Oh god snipers. One of THE worst designs in all of CoH history and they're back for the third time. ... They effectively break the core precepts of the game...

So your opinion is based on what? CoH1 or CoH2? Because in CoH1 nature of camo made them broken and spammable. In CoH2 only 1 out 5 factions have always awaible countersnipe strate of the bat and 2 factions have no counter sniping options what so ever. 

If Relic make them costly, add limit to them and all factions would have access to cheap counters which will nuke them to hell if played badly, they will be completly fine.

For the love of god, stop with the one faction being stronger endgame and you as the opponent have to play a perfect game to compete versus a faction that is more forgiving and has more options.

Make the different factions be in large have the same setup (all have access to mg,sniper,bike etc from the same type of building, so you are not limiting your starting army with the type of first building you pick to start with) but with a small difference so that you can pick the faction that fits you the best.

Factions should have the same overall strength at early game, mid game and endgame. Making it up to the players decisions being the winning actions.