Company of Heroes

[Gunther]

This game deserves its own thread. I know several of you are already playing this. I have the demo and am enjoying it immensely.

I fought an Airborne Defense of Carentan this morning. I read the synopsis and my orders. It was my understanding that I had to defend three bridge heads and prepare for a German armored counterattack.

I created 3 AT guns, 6 Engineer squads, 9 Airborne Infantry Squads and 3 Machine gun teams. I had my Engineers lay concertina wire along the bridges and place mines on and in front of the bridges themselves. The Engineers set up Machinegun positions on the near side of each bridge and built sand bag walls forming a “U” shaped Kill sack on the near side of each of the bridges. The AT guns were placed behind the sand bagged positions and oriented their fires on the bridges.

While the Engineers were working, I sent 2-3 Infantry squads across the bridges to capture the supply points on the far side. They encountered two snipers and eliminated with only minimal casualties which were replaced prior to the German counterattack.

When the Germans finally attacked, I had 2-3 Airborne squads at each of the three bridgeheads either behind sandbags or in buildings overwatching the bridges. Each squad was equipped with a bazooka team. Each Engineer squad was equipped with flamethrowers and placed with the infantry defending each of these kill sacks. I had a MG Jeep behind the lines to act as a rapid deployment force to kill any infantry that broke through. I also had several Airborne Infantry and Engineers in the queue ready to come out as replacements as I started taking casualties. There was an additional squad equipped with bazooka in reserve to deal with any armored vehicles that punched through my defensive pockets.

The Germans attacked with Stug IIIs across the center and east bridges first. Each tank had at least 2 infantry and 1 Engineer squads in support following. The tanks easily rolled over the concertina wire and the mines slowed them down enough for the AT guns to kill them on the bridges. When the German Infantry pushed across the bridges they met a ferocious hail of machine gun fire and were stopped dead. I knew a second push was coming and made minor adjustments to my defense including building an additional sandbag wall for the infantry.

On the Second German push I watched as 2-3 tanks supported by 3-5 squads of Infantry and Engineers pushed across each of the three bridges. Wrecked hulls were piling up inside my Kill sacks and one even rolled over a MG position and made into my rear area where my one Airborne Infantry squad easily took him out with its bazooka. It was beat up pretty badly by the time it got free of my front line troops. This second push caused serious damage to my front line positions. I lost 3-4 rifle squads and 2-3 Engineer squads. I also lost 2 of my 3 AT guns and every MG position was gone.

The Germans made a third push with more armor and Infantry and I was struggling to keep up. I had replacements racing out of the HQ trying to get into the fight, but it was quickly turning south. One German Engineer squad made it deep in my rear and attempted to take a supply point but the Jeep raced over and killed them quickly. The German Artillery started dropping all over the place and the order came to fall back to the Secondary Headquarters, a church in the SW corner of the map. I pulled all survivors back which amounted to 1 AT gun, 4 Infantry squads and 2 Engineer squads however I was receiving replacements as I waited for this 4th push by the Germans.

The 4th push amounted to about 5-6 Stug III tanks and a company of Infantry with a platoon of Engineers. I was slowly getting replacements and holding them off. I had Artillery support and there was one Engineer squad stuck on the center bridge that was decimating German infantry with Artillery fire and flamethrowers. Just when I thought all was lost, a column of Shermans and US Infantry showed up and I was able to push the Germans back across the bridges, reclaim our original positions and advance across the bridgehead with US Armor.

Lessons learned: Don’t use wire obstacles on those bridges, the tanks roll right over it. Use it deeper in your own sector to interdict Infantry movement. Place a ton of mines on the bridges and on both sides of the bridges. Establish a secondary defensive structure deeper behind your friendly lines in case the enemy does get through. Have the jeep available to react to penetrations but keep it in a central location.

Great Game!

[rhonnin]

Where can one get the demo?

[RedChill]

It only gets better after that, i found all the campaign missions to be worthy of memory, especially Cherbourg, and the final two missions, one of which you have to hunt down the elusive Tiger Ace tank (which is a bitch to kill!)

[Gunther]

Rhonnin, the demo is on Fileplanet. When I downloaded it, it was on the home page.

Don't think I can afford to go buy this game in the store and live with my wife all at the same time.

[betasoldier]

I loved that mission Gunther. I didn't get to finish it though because my game crashed and I never bothered going back to do it again. My defense held with the occasional engineer leakers until the artillery slaughtered everything. It was all frantic and half the time I didn't even know what was going on. Just kept building and issuing orders. I had one sniper and I know he slaughtered dozens of Germans and allowed my troops to survive to make it to my hastily prepared secondary positions. Too bad my sniper didn't make it, but he slowed down the entire German force from his little building until all their tanks came up and knocked it down. I'm thinking about picking up this game, but if I do it'll be a while, kind of on the expensive side for me.

[Gunther]

A sniper huh? I tried it a little different this time. No one got past my defense on the second try. I put no wire on the bridges but they were covered in mines. No tanks crossed the bridges on the first push. they all went up in smoke at the north ends of the bridges. I lost no one At the bridges and pulled my men back to the church as soon as the GErman Artillery started. While the Airborne troops were slaughtering panzergrenadiers at the bridges, I had engineers setting up those Awesome machinegun nests behind the lines. I use sandbags, concertina wire and mines to Canalize the enemy right for the MG nests. When the German Arty went off, everyone moved back to the church. With the obstacles and MG nests keeping the Germans busy, I built more sandbags, concertina wire and minefields around the church and placed all my infantry, AT guns and Engineers behind them. When I say I lost no one. I mean I lost no one. I slaughtered the entire force. there was only one small token force left by the time the Shermans arrived and then I just rolled forward crossed the bridges and eliminated the one remaining tank.

On a side note, I had an awesome fight wiht the Skirmish setting too. I'm really getting into using my engineers to build fortifications and obstacles. the N-S route in the right center of the map was impregnable. The Germans could not get through there with anything. They tried to push tanks, Flamethrowing Engineers, AT guns and Infantry at me and could not get through. I had a Sherman there, all the standard Engineer stuff se up, 1-2 squads of Inf. at one time a .30 cal MG and an engineer squad. The natural choke point at the bridge became a TRP for my artillery. Many German graves on that bridge.

On the left side of hte map, It was a different story. my tanks (3-4) ran into an 88mm AT gun but the Rangers and Engineers attacking from entrenched positions resolved that crisis. maybe someday I will get it, but with BC coming out and it just being Christmas recently, not going to happen for a bit.