Hello community friends. In this post, we'll share some info about a few campaign map features and how they've changed based on feedback from an earlier Pre-Alpha Preview.

Detachments and Emplacements 

On our Italy campaign map, you’ll control companies of US special forces, British armour and artillery, paratroopers, rangers, and more. In addition to your companies, you’ll requisition detachments – support groups that grant your companies extra capabilities. Most notably, many detachments will allow your company to construct emplacements – powerful structures that can be used for defense and support. 

Work in Progress – Companies can purchase and unlock detachments

What are detachments? 

In the Pre-Alpha Preview that we ran in July, detachments were independent actors on the campaign map, with their own movement and action points. This added a lot of complexity to each player turn, and we’ve made some big changes to address feedback – most notably, detachments now remain permanently embedded in your companies.  

With a company selected, you can open a menu to produce detachments. Early in the game, your choices will be limited, but more options will unlock as you earn skill points and purchase upgrades. A fully upgraded company can command up to three detachments. 

You’ll requisition detachments in order to strengthen your company, support other companies, and defend important locations. For example, a US Armored Company can requisition an engineer detachment to unlock the Repair ability, while a UK Artillery company can unlock a howitzer detachment, letting the company construct howitzer emplacements on the campaign map. 

Detachments grant your company support abilities and construction options, but they are not controllable units. On the campaign map, your focus is entirely on commanding companies and managing territory. 

 

Work in Progress – The humble supply cache (using placeholder visuals)

What can they do?  

Here are a few more examples of detachments and how you might use them on the campaign map. 

Logistics detachment – Available to US companies – Unlocks the Supply Cache emplacement 

All companies must be supplied in order to operate effectively. If you venture into enemy territory and remain there for too long, your company may run out of supply. You must connect captured territory to a port in order keep it supplied.

With a logistics detachment, you have the option to construct a Supply Cache to keep a company supplied in a territory that is currently cut off. This allows you to push up the map aggressively, if you’ve got the resources to construct the Supply Cache emplacement. A supply cache will also ensure that captured locations like Airfields and Partisan Hubs will be usable. 

Medic Detachments -- Available to US and UK companies 

The US and UK can both requisition medic detachments, but they function differently. With a UK company, the medic detachment unlocks a targeted Heal ability that can be used on friendly companies. With a US company, you’ll unlock the ability to construct a Triage Center that can passively heal nearby companies every turn. The US detachment excels at support, while the UK detachment can heal its own company. 

Work in Progress – The US medic detachment unlocks construction of this Triage Center

Howitzer Detachment – Available to US and UK companies 

As you might expect, a howitzer detachment allows you to deploy a powerful long-range artillery emplacement on the campaign map. This emplacement will automatically bombard enemies it can see within its cone of fire. The combat statistics of US and UK howitzers are distinct. 

Anti-Air Detachment – Available to UK companies – Unlocks the Bofors Anti-Air Emplacement 

Enemy-controlled airfields can be a major threat. Stuka bombing runs can devastate your companies and emplacements. To protect your forces, deploy an anti-air emplacement to destroy enemy aircraft. Replacing a bomber is expensive and will take time, giving you a window to advance and claim the airfield for yourself. 

Work in Progress – A pair of enemy emplacements: one for defense and one for support.

Enemy emplacements and detachments 

While detachments and emplacements are powerful tools, they can also be dangerous threats! The enemy has access to many of the same tools that you do. As you advance north towards the Winter Line, you’ll need to scout for enemy artillery and machine-gun emplacements, flanking with your companies or using support abilities like airstrikes and naval bombardment to destroy them from range. 

Work in Progress – An enemy howitzer emplacement guarding a main road

Effect on missions and skirmishes 

Companies with detachments are stronger in both mission and skirmish gameplay. Your company’s first (primary) detachment will grant you an extra starting squad, and all of your detachments will increase your chance of automatically winning a skirmish against an enemy company. Using detachments, you can further specialize your company’s role – attack, defense, support, or a hybrid role. 

Thanks very much for reading this post and helping with CoH-Development. Your feedback is helping us make a better game. 

This is an incredibly disappointing change, I doubt I will be playing the campaign at this rate as it'll be just as boring as total wars warhammer campaigns where you're moving one or two armies across the board and just waiting for the next battle instead of actually making the campaign map an actual game, too. I hope you don't continue bending the knee to people who saw the campaign map once and uninstalled the pre alpha and just repeated what they heard from others.

Surely there is a better method than just gutting the detachments, I was really looking forward to playing with them. Sending a AT gun to ambush the approaching enemy army with a rifle detachment to provide support sounds so cool, and if campaign just turns into boring move army from A to B to play skirmish, why even bother with a campaign map; just have a mission selector and save the dev time.

Hi Scary & Towers,

I hear what you guys are saying and I agree the detachments as stand alone units had some pro's to being its own unit. However, let's not pretend micro managing 50 lil hex units until the next RTS wouldnt wear thin after a while, we just saw a fragment of Italy. In addition having a mortar fight an infantry squad on campaign map was lame. It looks lame, not realistic and most of all boring. They explained just because companies become focus you can build out the campaign map with bunkers, AT, AA, medics, and I'm sure other features will expand upon the complexity and depth the campaign map will be in its own right. I think like towers mentioned throw baby out with bathwater is most accurate, eliminating them all together may be only way but perhaps there are exceptions or special hero mg, mortar, medic units that can standalone so to be limited in how many can be moved. Having them separated polluted the campaign map with too much filler movements that took away from actual strategy. Like open world maps before they created short cuts, it was fun to have random adventures enroute but after a while you just want to get to the action not spend traveling to the battle. I do get your points sometime strategy can be made by how you travel from point a to point b but that can still happen in their revision just not with the 10min of pushing every support unit to the front lines to get there. Keep an open mind losing standalone attachments will not ruin the game. It's an RTS game first and foremost just one with a dynamic campaign map feature not vice versa.

- Art of War