Company of Heroes 3 has proven to be an honest and faithful sequel to the acclaimed franchise. In addition to a number of new features, there are several major Company of Heroes 3 gameplay changes that the community had been waiting for a long time.
Veterans as well as fans of the franchise will be happy to know that many of their requests and feedback have been addressed in the new installment. These Company of Heroes 3 new features and gameplay changes reduce some of that old clunky handling of units while improving overall quality.
Company of Heroes 3 differences and changes
Units can automatically vault obstacles
A new feature added in Company of Heroes 3 is that your infantry can now auto-vault over obstacles. Vaulting was done manually in Company of Heroes 2 and it was not permitted in Company of Heroes 1.
Now, your infantry will have a brain of their own and they will vault over walls and fences to move forward. This feature is terrific because along with the automatic jumping, it also allows you to navigate maps easily which have a lot of obstacles.
In Company of Heroes 2, it was not possible as maps with a lot of obstacles were micro-intensive and very hard to navigate. In CoH 3, the auto-vault feature also presents new and improved animation as compared to its predecessor.
Units gain combat bonuses on higher grounds
An innovative feature in Company of Heroes is that instead of a flat ground surface verticality is added. This height in the gameplay is not just a treat to the eyes, but it also directly impacts your ranges and cover.
Players can have the benefit of height by which they can exploit the cover of a team on lower grounds provided that their unit is placed correctly. It also affects the sightline and sight range through the placement of castles, dunes, and towers.
In Company of Heroes 2, units did not have the benefit of height and everything was on a flat ground surface.
Units can auto-reinforce
The auto-reinforce feature in Company of Heroes 3 is very welcomed by players. When a squad has retreated, it automatically reinforces and gains its strength back, provided that you have enough available manpower and you have not exceeded the Population Cap.
In Company of Heroes 2, for a retreated unit you had to move your camera back to the base and give them input to reinforce. With the auto-reinforce, you don’t have to move back to the base so you get more time to control your units as well as enjoy the game.
The auto-reinforce feature can also be turned off so you don’t have to worry about the expensive units reinforcing themselves and reducing your manpower.
Squads have greater spacing
In Company of Heroes 3, your squad is much more spaced out than it was in Company of Heroes 2. This has proven to be beneficial as AoE weaponry deals lesser damage to a spread-out squad in CoH 3 as compared to a clumped-up one in CoH 2. The squad occupies almost double the area now, that it occupied before.
Squad formations are spread out
In Company of Heroes 2, 4 infantrymen were at the front in the shape of a V in your squad. The V formation for the squad was quite vulnerable because as the squad moved forward only 1 man led at the front and 3 were behind him. The man at the front got targeted the most by the enemy unit and got wiped out pretty quickly.
In Company of Heroes 3, the squad formation is such that out of 6 men, 4 are at the front and 2 at the back. The damage gets divided between the 4 men at the front so it is durable.
Considering the squad spacing behind cover, in CoH 2 the squad would get very clumped up behind cover. When moved somewhere else, the men would stay clumped up until they reached their positions. This would make them vulnerable to weaponry such as flamethrowers.
In Company of Heroes 3, the squad gets clumped up behind cover almost the same way it did in CoH 2 but now they spread out quickly when moved from behind the cover. This fanned-out squad is at the advantage of lesser damage at the hands of AoE weaponry.
Squads can breach to clear enemy-occupied buildings
The new breaching mechanic in Company of Heroes 3 lets you take control of a garrison or building instead of destroying it to the ground. All factions in CoH 3 have at least one breaching unit.
If your enemy unit is garrisoned, they are at the defensive advantage, and it is necessary to break their defenses to take them out. Spending some munition, you can deploy your breaching unit and it will make the enemy unit evict the garrison.
The breaching status is displayed by a yellow bar at the building and if a unit evicts before this bar ends, it will receive no damage. If the breach is complete and the enemy unit does not evict, they end with a substantial amount of damage.
The best time to use the breach mechanic is to look for garrisons that have a high strategic value. If the enemy ends up leaving the garrison, you will acquire a building of strategic importance and even if the enemy unit chooses not to evict, they will end up with loads of damage. This will be a win-win situation for you.
In Company of Heroes 2, you had to destroy your enemy’s garrisoned building to the ground. There was no way for you to turn the garrison to your advantage by making them evict. CoH 3 new breach features allow you to do so.
Engineers can auto-build structures
In Company of Heroes 3, when you gain enough resources, your engineers will automatically start the construction of a production building. You simply just need to click on the icon for the building.
In the previous game, you had to manually signal your engineers to start the construction.
In Company of Heroes 2, Eastern factions needed engineers to construct while Western factions didn’t. This division is also obliterated in Company of Heroes 3.
Victory Points tick rate is reduced for shorter games
In Company of Heroes 1 and 2, the victory tick rate was updated every 4 seconds. In Company of Heroes 3, it is reduced to 3 seconds which makes games almost a quarter shorter.
Some players have welcomed this feature while others have suggested that the games feel too short now. This feature is up for discussion as the developers have stated that it can be changed upon feedback.
Tanks have received side armor
An innovative feature added to the vehicle-play is the Side Armor in Company of Heroes 3. In the Company of Heroes 1 and 2, tanks had Front Armor and Rear Armor. The Rear Armor had almost half the armor value of the Front Armor.
In CoH 3, the Side Armor has half the armor value of the Front Armor. The Front Armor is the strongest and the Rear Armor is the weakest with the Side Armor in between.
Recon units can gather intel in the fog of war
Company of Heroes 3 has given much credit to the Reconnaissance unit as it can help you identify and track different unit types in the Fog of War. Recon units are integral to your gameplay and if you don’t put your Recon Unit to use, you will end up degrading the strength of your company.
You can activate a Tactical Pause
One of the most awaited and handy features, in the Company of Heroes 3, is the Tactical Pause. This feature lets you pause the game in Single Player Mode and examine every inch of the battlefield, think your plan through, and organize your troops without worrying about anything else happening on the battlefield.
