Windows Company of Heroes 2 announced - It's time to get very excited

Well I was pretty excited to read this, only to find that the key they gave me had already been redeemed.

If anyone has a spare beta key I'd be over the moon and would supply a lifetime amount of rep!

 

You could ask family or friends to like it on facebook and try another key

Shame it didn't work for you

 

Looks like they added more keys and this time around I had better luck. +Rep Mr Happy for letting me know in the first place!

 

Its a pleasure, glad you got it sorted,

I always rep back, Thanks

 

I had some hands on time with the Beta yesterday evening. It was my mate and I as Germans vs. two easy AI Russians and we got absolutely mullered!

Now we were both pretty slow off the mark, and in a game of continuous escalation that will get you killed. However, we found we were constantly shelled by arty from very early on, which we never recovered from. It was not fun!

It is very different than the original COH in both good and bad ways.

Now I admit, we have not played more than 2 games and 1 and 1/2 hours total play time, and I do like the true sight, longer engagement ranges, slightly bigger maps and the introduction of hostile weather elements etc.
But my initial thoughts are that the tiering mechanic has become obsolete via the early artillery.
As in Tier 1 is normally weak infantry and MG team. They then become soft countered or augmented by snipers and mortors, so diging in some defences early on is viable.
Then by Tier 2, you start to get more mobility and some light arty. This can help attack defences but defences are still viable on the whole.
Then by tier 3, lots more mobility with better tank and atry and 'call ins', to effect breakthrough actions, and prevent permanent turtling.

This system of escalation has always worked well for COH and my initial experiences make me think it has been watered down a bit but I will keep playing and see how it goes

 

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to like my video card (HD5970 OC) as the 'mist of war' is just one big flashing light show - had to exit after five minutes as it was giving me a headache!

 

anyone know how long does this closed beta last?

need to post process 800 holiday photos from last week, but don't want to miss out on playing this.

 

I've played three skirmish games, all as Russia, so far. First time I got absolutely hammered as I didn't know the build order, but second/third time round I pulled out a win.

It is different in some ways to COH, and I'm not sure in some ways. My main issues are:
- Artillery seems to be almost constant, from early on. I don't know if that's because the German players get earlier access, but artillery in COH was a late-game thing that also cost a lot of munitions. Plus you didn't get a really irritating indicator down the side saying "Incoming Artillery" - you had to use your eyes and spot the smoke.

- Loss of defensive positions (ie: bunkers and MG nests). This is what I really dislike - the maps are bigger, but you can't pin down areas from infiltrating infantry by dropping nests/bunkers. Defensive lines are nearly non-existent (so far anyway), as they're constantly disrupted by the artillery.

- Not sold on vehicles, but I need more play time. The Soviet tanks all felt basically the same, and there didn't seem to be upgrades (such as the MG on the Sherman in COH, or bulldozer blades etc).


Basically, I need to play more, and I think they need to do some serious balancing work.

EDIT: Just found out that there's an NDA (seriously?) so no screenshots

 

common with Beta's

 

True, but they didn't actually inform anybody when issuing keys!

 

Not played too long yet, but initial thoughts:

-zoom level can't go out far enough. Always a complaint fixed by mods for CoH 1, so it'd be nice if Relic realised that screen size/resolution has increased since 2007.
-Friendly colour choice is poor - light baby blue (that gets lighter when hovered over )against white snow, excacerbated by the fact that the enemy is bright red, where the eye is always drawn
-Minimap contrast is also poor - white borders/points on mostly white maps...
-Balance is much the same as CoH 1, the whole thing is about rushing early on with mortars/AT guns/snipers. Difference is that CoH 1 can escalate as the conflict progresses making for some epic games, this doesn't appear to do so as easily.

I will admit, I've played mods for CoH 1 like Blitzkreig and Europe at War which increase damage output, range and change the characteristics moving the balance to natural escalation, so was hoping that they'd pick up on this and have a similar mode. The damage output and range of units is increased, which is good, and balanced, but the units feel a bit pointless when AT guns/mortars/snipers exist...

 

I fixed my flashing and fps issues by disabling crossfireX for the exe.

Now I have had a chance to play I am a little disappointed. Playing a simple match against the CPU (me as Russia, CPU as Germany) it is almost impossible to move anywhere. As soon as you advance a unit anywhere you are immediately bombarded by Arty and Mortar fire and if that doesn't kill you (and as it is deadly accurate it invariably will), the flame-thrower infantry and trucks are on you very quickly.

Ok, so I have only put 30 minutes into it so far, but I never got further than about 100 yards. It's a wee bit frustrating!

 

Yeah, Relic have acknowledged the mortars are overpowered, so expect some tweaking in that area.

I just think it moves too fast from early to late game. COH was great for infantry battles, whereas this is a rush to vehicles as soon as you can, with mortars providing the upper hand early on.

 

mortars have been toned down since the alpha so they are not as bad as before. Their accuracy was reduced and the rounds don't seem to land as quickly. they are just more dangerous now because of the lame bridge maps that promote arty spam. Otherwise they are countered just as easily as before.

 

You can counter them, sure, but the issue is their rate of fire more than anything. I ran in to a trio of mortar squads in one very early game, and I simply couldn't touch them with my conscript squads due to the volume of rounds landing. I had to race for a vehicle to get them to back off, which ruined the whole infantry-play side of the game.

 

if you let him get 3 mortars that early then you are doing something terribly wrong.

 

Not one single player I might add...

 

The maps are bigger now and infantry including mortars are cheaper. So its very common now to see multiple mortars early on.

 

while i cannot speak for 3v3 or 4v4, i can say that in 1v1 or 2v2 mortars are very counterable if you sneak one squad behind and molotov them as Russians. German mortars die easily with their 3 man crews. Flamers do the trick, infantry grenades do the trick ( need about 2 to 3 for grens), light tanks/vehicles do the trick.

 

Open Beta linky



Open beta now on, not sure for how long though