Company of Heroes 3 Company of Heroes 3 Multiplayer Guide Part 1: Overview

Introduction

Hello, if you're here, then just like me, you probably need a little help.

I have been playing Company of Heroes since 2014 or so, beginning with Company of Heroes 2. I was a Wehrmacht main for the longest time. I only played them for the better part of two or three years. I do a bit of streaming and have a Youtube channel. I will be doing a series of guide videos to accompany these guides in the future, and I encourage you to look at them as they will help you visualize what I am going to talk about below. I will do my best to be brief, as there is a great deal of content to go through, and I am sure that reading guides does get a little bit tedious.

This guide will provide an overview of the game as viewed from a Multiplayer big team perspective. I consider big team to be either 3v3 or 4v4. I strictly play with randoms, so my perspective may also be colored based on that information. My most played factions are USF and Wehrmacht, though I also enjoy DAK. I have played British Forces only sparingly, so my perspective will also be skewed there. That all being said, I have a few hundred hours in the game, and over a %50 win rate in large team games with all three of my favored factions, so I like to think that I at least know a little of what I am talking about.

I am also a strong proponent of combined arms strategies, where you have specialized units that make up for one another's weaknesses with excellent strengths. Massed strategies have their place, but typically when your whole build is working together, you will get better results out of your individual units.

So without any further ado, let's dive into it.

Multiplayer Basics

Multiplayer is a land fraught with many risks. I think it is difficult for some to get into and enjoy multiplayer in a game like Company of Heroes 3 because the stakes are so high. You're in the game for a long time, with multiple other players. You want to win, and so do all of them. As such, things are always at a risk of getting heated, which can be a scary prospect, and no one likes losing repeatedly. Especially when it feels like you are doing everything right, and still can't make any headway.

So allow the first points that I can convey to you be these:

Play to have fun, and forget about the negativity of others. It's okay to get some criticism, but don't absorb the negativity of others.

Immerse yourself in what you are doing, and play in a way that feels impactful to you.

Don't listen to players who are trying to put you down, they don't know anything more of what they're doing than you do.

Don't be afraid to explore new strategies and play styles. There are some styles that are stronger than others, but you never know what is going to work unless you try!

I've gotten a lot of mileage from disabling chat, it's okay if you don't swing that way, but my perception is that my team of randoms rarely has anything good to say.

So, at it's core, Company of Heroes 3 is a moderately complex game. The basics of any company of heroes 3 multiplayer game are:

Capture at least two of the three conquest points (marked by stars) in the center of the map.

Hold those points until your opponents conquest value drops to zero.

It seems pretty straightforward, but straightforward goes right out the window when you actually start playing.

There are other territory points scattered around the map. These are resource points that you also need to control in order to generate resources to call in more powerful units and support abilities.

In general, it is okay to control only two points. The third is optional, and is only optional if your team is dominating the game at any stage.

Also, at any time, your team ought to be in control of approximately %50 of the resource points. This ensures some approximate parity in the resource levels between the two teams.

This is frankly all it comes down to in games, when you strip away the layers of any strategy. As long as you are accomplishing these things, then you will win games and progress in multiplayer team games.

Resources

There are three primary resources in Company of Heroes 3:

Manpower is the main resource needed to build all of your units in Company of Heroes 3. It is the quintessential resource required to bring the strength of your forces to your opponents.

Munitions are used to upgrade your units and call in powerful support abilities that can swing the tide of a game. These are crucial to staying relevant into the late game, so you can scale your efforts and remain impactful.

Fuel is used to call in vehicles and tanks. It is also often required for constructing the technology buildings in your base and researching new tiers of technology.

There are other resources that are crucial to success as well.

Command points are used to improve your battlegroups and unlock new battlegroup abilities.

Conquest value is your teams remaining ability to stay in the game. While it is best to keep this from ever going down, it is a resource that can be spent in certain ways to secure other victories.

Unit experience is a resource that accrues naturally. As your units gain experience, they will become a more effective fighting force. I consider this a resource as well, since you have to accrue it while remaining in combat with your opponent.

These are more or less ranked in order of importance. I consider all of the resources required to fuel your fighting force more important than taking conquest value, or protecting your own, since a strong economy is essential to staying relevant on the battlefield.

Units: Overview

Units are everything in the game that you issue orders to. This includes infantry, vehicles, tanks, emplacements, aircraft, and base buildings. Effectively, you want to optimize your build orders to ensure a strong core of combatants that are capable of addressing any situation commonly found in the game. To that effect, you need to know:

Which units will give you a flexible core.

Which production buildings will generate you the best value for producing that core.

The cost of those units and the best way to protect them.

The production buildings you build will ensure that you are utilizing your resources in a cost effective manner. Also, that you are able to effectively produce units that will generate value for you.

Infantry and team weapons are an important core unit that will be your predominant units for dealing damage and capturing territory.

I distinguish light vehicles from tanks because light vehicles are usually penetrable by small arms fire (infantry). They are good force multipliers, since they can be repaired without losing models, and typically resist small arms fire better than standard infantry does.

Tanks are useful since they can absorb large amount of damage, and deliver enough fire power to knock out emplacements and other tanks.

Aircraft and artillery are capable of delivering huge amounts of damage to concentrated areas, and providing vision to bring your firepower to bear against the enemy.

Emplacements are important because they are usually cheap, and tough. They also don't cost population, so you can use them to lock down flanks and low traffic areas. They do eventually become susceptible to heavy firepower.

Infantry

Infantry make up the core of most builds. These units are moderately mobile, and deal decent damage to most enemies. They come in many different flavors depending on which faction you are playing, and affect the battlefield in different ways.

Infantry are trained in squads, usually ranging from 4-6 men each. As they take damage, they will lose models gradually.

Your engineer type infantry are there to improve the battlefield, and conduct repairs on damages vehicles and emplacements. They are usually capable of constructing light field defenses and emplacements. Some engineers make better combatants than others, though their use in combat is often overshadowed by later infantry.

Your core infantry are usually a tier 1 or tier 2 infantry. They will make up the bulk of your units. Core infantry are versatile enough to command respect from any threat on the battlefield. They usually are capable of dealing with infantry with proper use, and engaging tanks and light vehicles in some limited capacity.

When using core infantry, all efforts must be made to spread them out, but keep them within eachother's field of fire. The reason for this is threefold:

[1] This limits the ability for all squads to be damaged by incoming artillery fire/grenades.[2] You can exploit multiple angles to partially flank opposing infantry, improving your damage output while limiting theirs.[3] If you encounter a machine gun, you are more capable of responding to it in a way that does not become a full route as your entire force is suppressed. Typically, a machine gun can only suppress a few enemies at a time, while the rest can move around to flank it, or fall back to a position where an engagement is more favorable.

In my experience, green cover is the only reliable cover. Yellow cover does not sufficiently mitigate incoming damage to be considered effective, and should only be used when there is no other cover whatsoever.

When engaging an opposing infantry formation, some other rules are useful when followed.

[1] Utilize cover to mitigate incoming fire, only maneuver units not being targeted by your opponents units. [2] Push the flanks with your un-targeted units. Cover is directional, so your enemy's open backs will always improve your own unit's damage output.[3] Utilize grenades to flush your opponents units out of cover, they will often be forced to back away from their cover momentarily, stopping them from firing, and making them easier targets.[4] Always do your best to focus down a single unit at a time. If you can kill a unit quickly, do so always. Do not attack retreating units that you cannot kill. Focus on mitigating your opponent's firepower by forcing retreats as quickly as possible.[5] retreat your squads individually as best you can. Few situations call for a full retreat, and your healthy squads can always return fire and continue fighting. Do not under any circumstances keep a squad with two men or less in combat unless you can guarantee their safety.

If engaged by light vehicles, they will likely engage you outside of your range to limit incoming damage, you must not let this behavior intimidate you. Push them off, then fall back into green cover to limit the damage that they can effectively deliver.

Take note of the types of weapons your infantry possess. In almost all cases, bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles that fire slower are much more effective at long range, whilst automatic weapons like assault rifles and sub-machine guns are more effective at close range. The only time that this is not the case is for heavy machine guns.

Specialized infantry are mid-tier infantry designed as a hard counter to a specific unit type. It is not recommended for these types to be your core infantry, as their weaknesses are too easily exploited by an attentive opponent.

Your elite infantry are higher tiers of infantry, and are often more specialized than your core infantry. They will almost always sacrifice the ability to engage one type of unit to engage another type of unit more effectively.

Elite infantry and specialized infantry take many different forms, and aren't always a full grade above your core infantry. In almost all cases, your elite infantry will become many times more effective when supported and covered by your core infantry. The reason for this is because their limitations are often more glaring, and need to be compensated for, if only slightly, by your other units. This is the core of a combined arms strategy.

In the end game, you may have up to 6 or even more squads of infantry. By this point, your infantry are an incredibly strong force to be respected. Controlling them will inevitably result in blobs, and while an effort must still be made to spread them out, do not attempt to spread them out so much that one side of your formation is not capable of supporting the other.

It is important to utilize your infantry for other roles as well. They are effective at providing vision for vehicles and artillery. They are also effective at screening and defending more vulnerable units. All efforts must be made to gain veterancy for your infantry, to keep them effective into the late game.

Only one infantry squad can capture a point at a time. It is not necessary to use all of your infantry to capture points. When you are not threatened, spread out your infantry to capture ground more quickly.

Team Weapons

Team weapons are heavier support weapons used to bring additional firepower when infantry alone are not enough. The most common types of team weapons are:

Machine Guns

Mortars

Anti-Tank Guns

Towed Artillery

Team weapons are effective battlefield implements, but suffer from some extreme limitations. They almost always come with a deploy time which can mean the matter between life and death. Therefore, it is recommended that they always be protected by infantry, and that they only be utilized alone in extreme circumstances.

Machine guns are effective tools for suppressing enemy infantry. While some machine guns are more effective than others in this role, it is recommended that at least one heavy machine gun be incorporated into any build to limit the effectiveness of enemy infantry and control key points on the map.

Mortars are indirect-fire weapons used to bring firepower down on fixed positions and enemy team weapons, as well as to wear down infantry and light vehicles. They are effective at forcing your opponents to move continually, and limit the effectiveness of their own team weapons.

Anti-Tank Guns are long-range facing weapons that are capable of bringing down tanks and vehicles with relative ease. They are not effective against infantry, but they are extremely effective at bringing down emplacements and buildings, due to their long range and heavy armor piercing damage. They can also be ordered to attack ground through smoke, concealment, and the fog of war to bring down distant targets that may otherwise escape.

Towed Artillery is a heavier type of indirect fire than mortars, usually used to bring more destruction to a battlefield when mortars alone are not enough.

Most team weapons are facing weapons, which means that they can only attack in a single direction. The arc of fire varies widely for different unit types. Because of this, they are almost always susceptible to attacks from the rear. Therefore, it is recommended that they always be protected by core infantry, to mitigate the risk to an otherwise valuable battlefield asset by flanking maneuvers.

If a positions is compromised, there should be no hesitation in relocating team weapons to a safer position, or retreating them back to your HQ. These are assets which are only effective when they are protected and supported, and losing them can mean the difference between winning a game, and handing it to your enemy.

All efforts must be used to try and fully eliminate your opponents team weapons, either through stealing them, or destroying them after they have been secured. The only thing better than a dead machine gun, is a free machine gun.

Team Weapons are extremely vulnerable to artillery and airstrikes. They should be evacuated to safer ground immediately if they become targeted by this type of fire. This could mean something as simple as ordering them to path to another location. They will do you no good if they are de-crewed by artillery, and re-crewing them will become difficult, if the enemy overruns the cleared position shortly thereafter.

While team weapons are effective counters for different unit types, it should not always be assumed that they will defeat any type they counter in a vacuum, and discretion must always be used to ensure their safety when deploying them against your opponents.

Vehicles

Vehicles are any singular, motorized unit that is not a tank. They are almost always armored lightly enough to be penetrated by the small arms fire of infantry, and therefore must respect the presence of infantry near them. Vehicles differ from tanks in that they often bring much more utility to the battlefield than tanks do.

The most common light vehicles are:

Recon Vehicles

Trucks

Half-Tracks

Tankettes

Recon vehicles are extremely light vehicles. Most of them are extremely mobile, and capable of capturing territory quickly. Some are fixed with machine guns which do not suppress infantry for engaging infantry and other light vehicles. They are usually extremely susceptible to small arms fire, and must be protected religiously or be lost.

Recon vehicles can be an important factor in turning the tide of early engagements. They can deliver the edge that you need to wear down an enemy in the open. their high mobility also makes them ideal for flanking units in cover, or bringing down retreating enemies that are almost completely destroyed.

Trucks are often unarmed, but bring utility to the battlefield in other ways. Most of them are capable of reinforcing squads, and most of them can carry squads across a battlefield if time is of the essence in reaching an engagement. Since they can reinforce squads away from the HQ, it is useful to park them near the front line where you are fighting.

Trucks are also extremely lightly armored, and must be protected as jealously as recon vehicles. They are important assets for holding ground without fully retreating, especially when supply lines become extremely long.

Some trucks are also capable of being upgraded to heal damaged infantry, or with weapons mounted on their rear to fill another role. In most cases, upgrading a truck will remove it's ability to reinforce squads.

Half-tracks are similar in role to trucks. Though typically a little more expensive, half-tracks are usually also more heavily armored, and are often equipped with a machine gun for engaging infantry. They typically have the same ability to reinforce squads and be upgraded, but the same limitations and loss of abilities still apply.

Vehicles are effective support units that have the ability to engage the enemy. Though they typically lack the firepower and sustainability to hold a position on their own. For that, you need armor.

Tanks

Tanks are the heaviest ground vehicles available. They typically possess not only the firepower required to bring down stubborn targets, but also possess enough health and armor to soak up massive amounts of damage.

Tanks, like any other unit type, come in a variety of flavors. They mostly share the above traits to one extent or another. They still suffer from a few limitations.

[1] They typically lack the vision required to maintain situational awareness required to keep them safe.[2] They are highly mobile from a macro perspective, since they move fast over open ground, they can cover large distances quickly. That being said, they are tough to maneuver in close quarters, and are easily outflanked by infantry if they get close.[3] While they can take a beating, they also take a long time to repair, which means that there will be a good deal of downtime not only for them, but any repairing units, which might be used elsewhere.

As such, they are again most effective when supported by infantry, reconnaissance units, and team weapons. They can operate independently, and are extremely capable of supporting one another when their numbers approach a critical mass. Though reaching such extremes can be expensive, and requires patient, proper play to get to without throwing a huge advantage to the enemy.

The common flavors of tank are typically light, medium and heavy.

Light Tanks are typically faster, more lightly armored, and have smaller guns than their heavier counterparts. Their guns typically fire faster, and are therefore more capable of engaging infantry and light vehicles. They are ideal for flanking team weapons and emplacements, or supporting multiple fronts where a dynamic situation requires a balanced response.

Medium Tanks are well rounded workhorses. They typically have a reliable gun that can engage all enemies effectively. They also possess enough health and armor to take punishment without immediately throwing in the towel, and en masse can force positions where your opponents do not have sufficient anti-tank defenses. This final point makes them extremely important for forcing breakthroughs which can be used to exploit your opponent's weakly defended back line.

Heavy Tanks are the masters of punishment. They typically have the thickest armor, and the most powerful armaments for bringing down the most stubborn foes. They rule the battlefield, capable of taking extreme damage and still functioning. With a great deal of health and armor, they can provide a strong front and repel the most intense assaults. They can eliminate choice targets with ease, to take the pressure off of your other units. They also make the biggest targets, and many opponents will hunt them with impunity with the hopes of winning the glory in bringing these monsters down.

Tanks are independently an extremely effective unit. Massed, they are capable of delivering punishing firepower on demand anywhere they are needed. And should they break through a location, they can sweep back lines and wreak havoc where it hurts the worst.

The armor layout of a tank is another very important consideration. Typically, the front of a tank is always the most heavily armored portion, and this is the side that should be kept facing the enemy. Do not underestimate the use of reversing tanks away from enemies. In almost all cases, reversing the tank should be how you maneuver it to deal with approaching threats.

Before you have a critical mass of tanks, it is important to support them with your other units. Infantry can screen other infantry from getting too close, and team weapons can suppress your opponent's attempts to counter them. Your light vehicles can take the pressure off of your supply lines, allowing your support units to repair and support your tanks far from home. Your tanks are also fantastic tools for supporting your infantry. They can bring down emplacements, and engage machine guns and other team weapons with minimal risk.

Whilst they must always respect anti tank guns and anti-tank infantry, keeping them close to your own infantry and team weapons gives them an answer that they desperately need to stay in the fight.

Emplacements

Defensive emplacements are crucial tools used to defend areas while you direct your attention elsewhere. Emplacements vary in their function and effectiveness.

The most common emplacements are machine gun emplacements. Machine gun bunkers and nests behave like standard machine guns, except that their facing is fixed. They are typically more resistance to small arms fire and mortars. But their fixed position makes them susceptible to indirect fire from mortars and artillery.

Heavier emplacements typically include anti-aircraft and anti-tank emplacements. These are typically larger, harder hitting guns that benefit from improved range and damage to make up for their sacrificed mobility.

Whilst these tools can be powerful aids in holding positions, it should always be remembered that these emplacements are extremely vulnerable to indirect fire, since they are unable to move.

In my experience, the best use of emplacements is to slow enemy advances and provide you with forewarning before losing critical points on the map. Due to the reasonable costs in manpower associated with constructing them, I believe that in most cases, an additional mobile unit is almost always more valuable to you. This of course changes in the late game, where population caps are reached and you tend to float a lot of manpower when you can no longer produce units.

Heavier emplacements do scale well in the late game. A 17-pounder emplacement in the center of the map can be a huge deterrent to enemy tank pushes. One must simply be mindful that these are huge targets, and may become a liability. Great care must be made to maintain them, since indirect fire will often kill your repair teams quickly.

Emplacements are most effective as the backstop for a defense. It is much more suitable to use your core infantry to occupy the space in front of them, and only fall back behind your emplacements if an enemy push becomes unbearable without them.

Aircraft

Aircraft are an unusual unit in Company of Heroes 3. While you do not directly control them, and they do not count against your population cap, they are still units with a model which can be engaged with the right tools, and directly countered. This can make one of your most powerful assets into a liability.

Aircraft have a couple of roles that they fill quite effectively.

They provide vision in the form of reconnaissance overflights.

They can strafe targets, suppressing infantry and dealing moderate damage to vehicles.

They can obliterate stationary targets with precision strikes.

They can disperse concentrated forces with widespread destruction.

Aircraft are an interesting unit type, since they often possess a much higher amount of health than other units. This is because when they are over the battlefield, they must sustain constant fire from anti-aircraft guns. This means that utilizing anti-aircraft guns in aircraft heavy matches can lead to wildly inflated damage numbers, which is quite satisfying.

It must be noted that aircraft can be destroyed rather efficiently by only a few anti-aircraft guns. Due to their being easily countered this way, using an aircraft heavy strategy must be considered with some trepidation. That being said, they are extremely powerful, and their ability to deliver huge amounts of firepower on precise targets should not be underestimated. This is compounded by the fact that they are often called using munitions, instead of fuel or manpower. It is important therefore to ensure that if conducting an aircraft heavy build, that anti-aircraft guns are targeted and destroyed with high priority.

A few other tips on the use of aircraft include:

Use dive bombs to eliminate stationary targets, or targets where your opponents are not paying attention.

Use loiters to control space and deny access to critical areas of the map.

If an enemy is using any aircraft, an investment in one or two anti-aircraft guns is almost always worth it just to deny them value.

Anti aircraft guns become much more effective in the late game, due to their massive spikes in damage from gaining veterancy.

Base Facilities

Base buildings can also be a crucial path to victory, or a hamstring that brings about defeat. Increasing your technology level by building comes at a significant cost in both manpower and fuel. And doesn't generate value for you until long after you've completed the building. The timing of building these valuable structures is crucial to ensuring success. You don't want to build them too early, and descend into irrelevance on the battlefield as your opponent outpaces you with unit production. You also don't want to build them too late, and get out scaled by your opponents' better technology. Few strategies succeed by only building one base building.

Your base buildings will determine which units that you produce. Since it is important to have a balanced, combined arms strategy to cope with changing battlefield conditions, it is also important to ensure that your base buildings can provide you with a balanced unit roster. One must know not only how to use their units, but also how much each one costs, and which technology levels spike their power most effectively.

Most base buildings will have a balanced roster with units that are capable of dealing with different threats. And it is important to know not only how they work together, but how they mesh with your other units. The two main threats you will have to face are infantry and armor. There are multiple methods of dealing with these two threats that range from high damage, low mobility deterrents, to fast moving, hard hitting units with good kill power.

Typically, choosing one building over another comes with trade-offs between utility, and more or less capability to deal with either infantry or armor. Sometimes choosing a few cheaper deterrents can be more valuable in the short term than waiting forever for a huge powerhouse that will emerge too late to make an impact.

All in all, when building base buildings and choosing technologies. I will always encourage you to utilize a balanced composition without any great weaknesses, and fits a play style that you enjoy, and are practiced in.

Battle-groups

Battle-groups are an incredible force multiplier to any strategy. They often come not only with strong call ins that can turn the tide of battle, but also units which will strengthen your core composition, and allow you flexibility in your approach to any situation. There are also many powerful passive abilities which can utterly change the outcome of what might be a difficult match-up, and can completely change the way a faction plays or feels.

In any battle-group, it is not only important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the battle-group's early abilities, but also the best path to help you generate the most diverse value as quickly as possible. For new players, I always recommend battle-groups that have at least one powerful artillery call-in that can break up a dug-in position. It is important to note, however, that the abilities along the way to that call-in should be of value to your overall strategy. Anything less is leaving free value on the table that could improve your strategy immensely if wisely chosen.

The way you utilize your battle-group can vary widely based on your play-style. Sometimes a unit call-in is a key factor in strengthening a weak point in your strategy. Sometimes the passive abilities are huge force multipliers based on the units that you are relying on to maintain presence on the battlefield.

Again, always be mindful of the command point cost to unlock your battle-group abilities. A strong unit or call-in may be appealing. But other abilities within the battle-group may be more valuable to you if unlocked earlier.

Another thing to note is that some abilities are indirect traps in my opinion. An ability may be powerful in the early game, but the high munitions cost might hamstring you from calling in more necessary, effective abilities that could have turned the tide just a little bit later. And always, if you are not utilizing a battle-group ability, ensure that you are not saving and sacrificing for it. Don't get shoe-horned into choosing the same path in every game, as battlefield conditions can be a huge determinant in which abilities are effective and which ones are not.

Playing Multiplayer: Match Overview

Most multiplayer team games play out in roughly the same way. The strategies change, and the way that you compensate for your opponent's strategy will change, but the overall flow of the match will almost always be the same in my perception.

An early opening phase, where everybody will have mostly just infantry and extremely light recon vehicles.

A middle game, where players are hitting their power-spikes, and the battlefield will be in flux.

A late game, where players have massed armor, extremely dug-in positions, elite, tough infantry cores, and artillery capable of sterilizing the battlefield.

I also often perceive a decision-making phase between the opening phase and middle game where players adapt their strategies to cope with their opponent's play-style. If players do not adapt, they will be quickly countered and destroyed by an attentive opponent.

In all though, most games play out the same, infantry engagements and machine guns dominate the opening phase. Killing power begins to increase along with the risk to the individual units. The middle game begins with the first few major engagements no longer just being skirmishes, and the first vehicles and light tanks begin to appear. The battlefield enters a state of flux, where machine guns become susceptible to indirect fire, tanks, and massed assaults. And the late game begins with the emergence of massed armor, heavy tanks, and overwhelming artillery saturation. In the end game phase, it is often unsafe to operate alone, and many engagements are made or broken by how well one coordinates their attacks with their teammates, and does not let their army get isolated.

Opening Phase

As said before, the game begins with an opening phase. Each player is taking ground, deciding which area requires the most of their attention, and rushing to deploy infantry and light support capable of controlling space. In addition to these steps, an attentive player can also do the following:

See which of their teammates are dominating their sectors, and which ones are struggling. This is not always immediately obvious, but it can quickly become clear if a teammate is pushing across the middle of the map, or losing a few of their key units and struggling.

Paying attention to what type of threats they are facing. Are they running up against machine guns and struggling to take ground? Are they able to identify key units or behavior that can help them determine which battle-group their opponent is facing? Are they fighting in a 2v1 situation where they simply can't compete with their opponent's material advantage?

Determine which resources are key to their success, and the success of their team. Are they playing a manpower heavy playstyle? Do they want a huge stockpile of munitions for the late game. Do they want to prioritize fuel for massing tanks and rushing technology?

Determine whether their opponents have a cohesive force, or are spreading their units too thinly. If a player is concentrating their force while their opponent's attention is elsewhere, they may be able to secure ground and a strong early advantage by pushing a thinly spread defense.

The opening phase is always dominated by light skirmishing and confrontations where threats are numerous, and resources are limited. Typically, a player can spread out, and capture resource objectives while slowly pushing to the center, ensuring a robust early income. Alternatively, one can rush the center with recon vehicles, cheap infantry, and airdrop call-ins to try and secure the center as quickly as possible and slow down the enemy's advance. Protect your units, but get the most out of them. This is the time of the game where it is easiest to micro manage your unit's movement, since they are literally all that you have.

Rush out your core infantry as quickly as possible. This may include a machine gun, or mortar. having one of each, or multiple of either is possible, but also risky, as they are not as versatile as core infantry, and a skilled opponent can exploit their weaknesses too easily.

Spread out your units and move forward slowly. If playing with a machine gun, keep it protected with additional infantry so that it cannot be killed by a single flanking squad. You can use buildings to protect it and give it some added flexibility if it is at a critical area, but be mindful of mortars and flamethrowers, which will wear down units in buildings very quickly.

Concentrate your firepower onto single squads to try and bring them down quickly. Once you have two or three squads, you can eliminate squads in the open relatively quickly. If they retreat, switch to another target unless the squad has one man left or extremely low health, and a squad wipe is possible. You need to keep your firepower on squads that are actively engaging you to reduce their killing power as quickly as possible.

If you encounter a machine gun from the front, immediately disengage from it and displace, spread out to both sides of it. Try to operate in areas where it is not present to pressure your opponent to re-locate it to a less optimal location. If you have a mortar team, bombard it to force it to re-locate it, or drop smoke in front of it to blind it so that your infantry can approach close enough to overwhelm it. Utilize buildings and hard cover to counteract the suppression effect of the machine gun if possible, and draw fire to an obvious target while another squad pushes a vulnerable flank if possible.

If you encounter a machine gun from the side, push it immediately. If there are other infantry around, engage them first while pushing it. Once on top of it, throw everything you have at it, try to wipe it, and steal it if it is safe to do so. The only thing better than a dead machine gun, is a free machine gun.

If a machine gun suppresses your entire unit, you have no choice but to retreat. The damage per second is too high, especially if engaged by other infantry. Unless it is close to overwhelmed and close to death, the risk to your own units is much to high.

If you have a recon vehicle, use its mobility to take ground quickly, avoid open confrontations without support. You can use recon vehicles to flank, and their added firepower against the backs and sides of your opponents infantry should not be underestimated. Especially as veterancy improves their accuracy.

If you encounter a recon vehicle, concentrate your fire on it. If your opponent is not paying attention, and your infantry are in range, it will go down extremely quickly. If your opponent is paying attention, they will be forced to pull it back, taking it out of the fight and taking the pressure off of your units.

Some match-ups between recon vehicles are more favorable than others, in my experience, dingo<4x4 truck<kradschutzen<kettenkrad. This knowledge can be used to bully, chase, and easily destroy your opponent's recon vehicle if they are not protected.

Machine guns are always lethal to recon vehicles. If your recon vehicles are targeted by a machine gun, it is almost always lost almost instantly.

Mortars and machine guns should be retreated immediately if they are attacked without supporting infantry nearby. Nothing is worth giving your opponent a machine gun or mortar early, as they will utilize it to tip the balance of power against you.

Aggressively seek engagements to start building experience for your units and your battlegroups. Veterancy is extremely valuable, as even a single rank greatly increases the effectiveness of your infantry and the lethality of your recon vehicles.

Once all of the territory points on your side of the map are captured, concentrate your units together and try to develop the killing power necessary to bring down entire squads.

Once you have 3-5 units, as well as your first battlegroup abilities, consider building your tier 2 building. If you have not mixed one or two anti-tank capabilities into your build, now is the time to do it as you will likely begin seeing light vehicles and tankettes very soon. Even if you don't, there is a high chance that your opponent has built some light emplacements, which they will also be effective in engaging. At this point, you are transitioning from the opening into the early middle game.

The end of the opening phase should be a time for a player to consider the effectiveness of their strategy so far. What is going well, what needs to change? What would counter their opponent's current strategy? What is their opponent going to do next? Could their team benefit from building a resource cache or two, if so, which points are safe enough to do so? Has their opponent locked down a point? Has another opponent overextended and are they able to be flanked? Have they completely lost their side of the map? If so, perhaps they can concentrate their forces elsewhere and upset the balance of power in another crucial engagement, allowing them to gain ground and generate value elsewhere. These are all considerations that a savvy player can take to adapt to a critical battlefield condition. Getting tunnel vision on a single strategy is not doing justice to a flexible approach to winning a game.

Middle Game

The middle game is very often a dynamic evolution of the early game. If one side has gained a great deal of ground, there are typically two ways of capitalizing on it:

Lock down the center and build resource caches to solidify your resource and victory point lead.

Flank a nearby opponent, and throw the enemy into disarray to gain additional ground elsewhere.

Both of these approaches have merit depending on the play-style of your opponent. If the enemy has a lot of indirect fire, stay mobile and flank exposed positions. If they're massing infantry, build a machine gun, minefield, or emplacement to simplify your defensive strategy. If they build light vehicles, deploy some anti-tank units if you have not already done so. If you have a strong resource lead, consider teching up further and building a medium tank or two to overwhelm your opponent's resistance.

In the middle game, almost all strategies are benefited by building a tank or light vehicle.

A tank can provide flexibility and pressure machine guns to relieve pressure from your infantry. It can also chase and bully positions without sufficient anti tank capabilities, providing free damage to drive your opponent out of an entrenched position. It can also engage isolated emplacements to re-open flanks and break through a defensive line.

A half-track or medical truck can reinforce squads without retreating all the way to base, shortening your supply lines and keeping your infantry concentrated.

Light Vehicles can provide utility similar to that of a tank for a fraction of the cost. They are often also more mobile, and capable of chasing retreating squads if they are not protected.

At this point, if your infantry are massed, you have the killing power to eliminate squads. Consider taking long flanks, and attacking your opponent's isolated units from behind. The player almost never has the reaction time to retreat the squad before they are low enough to risk a wipe, especially if you chase them with your infantry and light vehicles.

The same applies to light vehicles, if your infantry are massed and have anti-tank capabilities, they are likely capable of eliminating an isolated light vehicle if your opponent is not paying attention.

Your team weapons are now also becoming extremely vulnerable. Even if defended with infantry, they will be quickly wiped and rendered useless if flanked. You must be willing to relocate them constantly to avoid enemy indirect fire and movement, which has definitely by now become noticeably more destructive. Use corners to break line of sight and force your opponents units in too close for them to react. As soon as a machine gun fires its first shot in this stage, its position is compromised, and it is in danger of being destroyed.

Flanks at this point can be absolutely devastating, especially when timed with a teammates push from the front when your opponent isn't aware. They are capable of clearing multiple team weapons, destroying emplacements quickly, and eliminating squads retreating from the frontal assault with relative ease.

By the mid-game, you should have built at least one resource cache. Resource caches are valuable as they provide resources for your entire team, making them a force multiplier in multiplayer matches with more players. Just don't build so many that your main army doesn't have the staying power to hold ground.

Always, always provide a strong, united front to your opponents. Do not let your units get isolated. If you see yourself being encircled, do not hold your ground if you are not supported by a teammate. An attack from two sides on a compromised position is always devastating. You will not hold the ground for long afterward, and it is often not worth losing your units at this time.

Use an emplacement or two to assist in locking down key locations and flanks. Be sure that you protect them, as they are now vulnerable to tanks and indirect fire. And don't build too many of them, again your army will lose staying power and mobility as you fight to protect these precious assets.

By the time that you have placed the battlefield into disarray, or been placed into disarray a couple of times, the battlefield may have shifted wildly. You may have your final base building placed, and are deploying multiple medium tanks, or a heavy tank or two. Perhaps you have even lost a tank or two. Your infantry may begin to start seeing level 3 veterancy at this point, fighting constantly for the whole match at times. You or your opponents may have built a rat's nest of emplacements, mines, barbed wire, machine guns, and flamethrowers. It is at this point that resources become less important than victory points to some extent. It is at this point, that you have reached the late game.

Late Game

If you have made it to the late game, and your army is intact, then you are already set up for success. Many on the battlefield have probably already taken considerable losses, and you are ready to help them take considerably more.

Late game is an extremely dangerous stage. Massed tanks, elite infantry, and artillery saturation is quite common. If the enemy sees your force, you are immediately compromised. A player who fights alone in the late game does not fight for long. Massed assaults, devastating flanks, crushing artillery capable of killing tanks and emplacements rapidly will have to be contended with in order to achieve victory. As the conquest points of both sides dwindle and losses mount, the victory points become far more valuable than the resource points.

That being said, resources never lose complete relevance until the conquest value of one team or the other gets below fifty or so. If your team is below fifty, the situation is critical, and all reasonable efforts must be made to hold the victory points. If your opponent's team is below fifty, they will be doing everything in their power to turn the situation around. The tactics begin to become extremely underhanded. The enemy must be expected to do anything.

Massed tanks can only be countered by a larger massing of tanks. You must coordinate your tanks with your teammates to take ground and deal enough damage to overcome your opponents. Artillery can wipe entire infantry formations, and spreading them out, keeping them out of the line of fire is more crucial than ever.

That being said, there is still plenty of open ground between victory points. It is still possible to find flanking routes. Great care must be taken to not lose your entire force, however.

If you have not been spending munitions, you typically have enough to call in multiple powerful strikes. It is crucial that these be used to maximum effect. Stationary positions piled high with emplacements and team weapons are an ideal target. Everything else typically has the mobility to avoid the fire of these strikes, but if they hit, they will devastate positions and absolutely shift the battle into your team's favor, often opening up a crucial position, or opening a route to strike your opponent's vulnerable positions.

Your tanks are precious assets, lighter tanks should be traded out for the heaviest possible tanks when possible. They should not be used alone, or allowed to be isolated.

Holding victory points must be prioritized at this stage in the game. You will also need units capable of dealing heavy armor piercing damage to deal with the heavy armor of your opponents, or enough heavy artillery to keep them out of the main actions. Keeping enemy armor out of commission and eliminating machine guns and anti tank emplacements is vital to opening the way for your infantry to capture ground supported by your armor.

At this stage, conquest value is usually low enough to make holding the victory points absolutely mandatory. In a situation where you must absolutely hold the points against extreme firepower, a few tips always apply.

Your artillery call-ins and indirect fire barrages are effective tools at deterring capturing infantry. They can provide time on target when no support is around to slow your opponents captures until you can bring an effective force to bear against their capturing units.

You can trickle in your infantry one by one, and retreat them to increase your time on points without risking your entire army at once. In the middle game, I wouldn't recommend this. But in the late game, it sometimes becomes necessary.

Smoke is an effective tool to help cover your infantry on the point. Note though, that smoke does not block indirect fire, and often becomes a magnet for grenades and flamethrowers.

Enemy's smoke can also be utilized against them, since they will hesitate to call artillery against their own units.

Losses are always unfortunate, but at this juncture, they must be expected. Do your best to mitigate them, never sacrifice your entire army for any reason unless your opponent's conquest value is below ten and it will guarantee victory.

I cannot stress enough the importance of remaining mobile. A stationary force will always come under indirect fire almost immediately. All efforts must be made to misdirect your opponents fire, and spread out their forces. Force them to overcompensate on lightly attacked points far on the outside of the battle, while your force takes the inside where it can react to multiple threats quickly. This is assisted by units that can deliver high amounts of shock quickly. Your opponent is almost always forced to overcompensate against these types of peripheral threats. Then strike your opponents and destroy their force piecemeal with a concentrated assault.

These are the best tips that I can provide for surviving the chaotic late game, and outlasting your opponents. I hope it helps, and good hunting!

Sportsmanship

Thank you for reading my guide. If you made it this far, I hope that you learned something. I know that I have. I actually learned a few things just by writing this guide. When I first wrote it, there were several things that I realized didn't make sense. I hope that most of what I have written now does make sense.

I'm open to feedback. And plan on adding images and making a Youtube video companion to this guide for those without the attention span to read an entire book.

Please note that I am a strong proponent of a balanced, combined arms approach. I do not prefer spamming strategies. I don't agree with infantry blobs. That being said, I do recognize their usefulness, especially for newer players, and if you are not prepared for them.

These are tenets that I follow in most of my games. Though I am guilty of deviating from them. It should always be noted that this doctrine is not the end all of this game. There are many different ways to play, and I encourage you to play, learn, and experiment. Only through playing repeatedly and often can one learn and grow enough to be an effective player.

That is another thing that I love about this game, and one this that keeps it from getting old for me is that there are a lot of different ways to play the game. While things often start and end in similar fashion, it is the rest of the game that is often diverse, and no two games are ever the same in my opinion.

A part of my goal in writing this guide is to encourage balanced approaches, and increase the skill floor for the game. I want to help lower the barrier to entry for newer players, so that they can enjoy multiplayer, learn, and improve without all of the toxic behavior. It is one of the limitations to the game and I hope that it eventually changes. I love the game, and I hate to see toxicity ruin it and keep others from enjoying it.

I can honestly say that the toxicity has gotten so bad that I have disabled text chat in my games. This limits my ability to coordinate with my team and makes me a worse player, but I think that it helps me enjoy the game much more. I have also learned to read the battlefield much better, and read the body language of my teammates, and let that influence my decision making, which I feel makes me a better player overall. I hope that your experience is better, and maybe in the future, the community can improve into one the is better for everyone :) I'd love to see 10,000 concurrent players, or even more. This is a great game, with a bright future, and I want to be in it, and hope you will be in it too.

If all of these tenets are followed, victory is still not guaranteed. Your opponent is just as skilled, and just as equipped as you, if not more so. Their tactics and strategies must always be treated with respect. It is easy to fall into the trap of contempt for your teammates and opponents. But I promise that harassing your teammates and underestimating your opponents is not a path to victory. Always remember that your opponents are the enemy, not your teammates.

Thanks again for reading, and good luck out there.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3354065356

Company of Heroes 3 Multiplayer Guide Part 1: Overview