Every battle or skirmish in Company of Heroes 3 involves a mountain of tactical and strategic decisions. You cannot just sit back and let your troops advance without having a proper plan of action.
You need to capture resources, build and expand your base, train and manage your units, defeat and capture enemy territories, and a whole lot more.
That being said, you are likely going to be overwhelmed the first time you play Company of Heroes 3. Do not fret though. There are a few basic tips that every beginner should know to increase their winning chances.
Company of Heroes 3 tips every beginner should know
Spend your Skill Points wisely
With every victory in CoH 3 battles, you will gain skill points. You can use these points to improve your side of the factions. These changes in terms of using skill points can involve you unlocking advanced vehicles or squads that can aid your side in battles.
You should invest these skills mostly in vehicles like tanks, etc. Keep tabs on your skill point menu and be sure to use them as they will change the outcome of battles in your favor.
Activate Tactical Pause
Company of Heroes 3 features a Tactical Pause, meaning that you can stop the game at any point to take a breather. During this phase, you can observe the battlefield to rethink your next moves.
Once you have activated a Tactical Pause, you can start issuing orders that will line up in a queue. For example, you can order one unit to flank an enemy stronghold while ordering another to grenade the front entrance.
All of your queued orders will start rolling out when you resume the game.
Look out for environmental hazards
Just because you do not see enemy troops does not mean the battlefield is a safe place. Always keep an eye out for environmental hazards. These include areas on the map where defensive points have been rigged with explosives or a barrel of poisonous gas.
You need to disarm or avoid these environmental hazards for your own safety. In some cases, you can also use them again enemy units.
Capture nearby points early
The first step to victory in Company of Heroes 3 is to secure all resources. Hence, the first thing you should be doing early on is finding and capturing all nearby resource points.
This will allow you to not only expand your area of control but will serve to generate Munition and Fuel as well.
You can deploy cheap units to rush early to capture these points and even if you lose them you won’t suffer much. You can position infantry, anti-tank, and even bazookas on these points
Pick weapons from the floor
This may serve as a useful tip for you in Company of Heroes 3 as you will find a lot of weapons lying on the battlefield. These include weapons like:
- MGs
- Submachine Guns
- Bazooka
- Anti-tank guns
So all you need to do is pick them up after the battle. You can assign different squads accordingly to the weapons as well. Moreover, if you manage to salvage these unique weapons, you will be able to see the gun being highlighted under the unit icon.
Use the minimap
Company of Heroes 3 gives you the option of accessing the minimap. This feature is extremely useful as once you build up an army, handing them commands can be somewhat difficult. Using the Minimap you can speed up this process and send commands to your units with relative ease.
As every decision you make can change the outcome of the battle. You need to make sure that you get all of the troops moving at the same time following the minimap commands. This way you can keep a check on them even if they run up against any enemy along the road.
Make use of Hotkeys to issue commands
This is a very helpful tip that you will resort to using mostly down the road. When the battles ensue there are often situations where you are fighting at multiple points but are not quick to act on certain actions.
CoH3 offers you Hotkeys that you can use to issue commands. You can assign these keys accordingly like “ R key- retreat”. These can be resourceful in tough battle situations and by deploying them you can keep the fight going on in your favor without losing much as well.
Use buildings as cover
Finding imminent cover should be your priority in the wake of battle. If the enemy deploys heavy weapons like an “MG turret” the units will become suppressed.
This will result in them getting into a prone position making their movement slower. Due to this, your faction will suffer heavy damage at enemy hands.
Taking these into consideration you should locate them behind the building. This will help them in surviving the attacks against the heavier weaponry that their foes deploy. As the building will act as cover for you to plan your next move accordingly for the time being as well.
Reinforce your squads
In CoH3 you have to resort to different means to heal your squad and reinforce them. You can deploy the “British XMP 15cwt Truck” which can fulfill the purpose of reinforcing your squad. This will cause you to lose some manpower, but it will make sure that your troop is safe from enemy attacks.
In worst-case scenarios, it will ensure that your squad gets to make a safe retreat in the face of a losing battle.
