Company of Heroes 2 closed Beta

[Monte Carlo]

I am not allowed to talk about the alpha I might or might not be involved with atm

[IndiraLightfoot]

Well, it seems I've been smitten by a game that smacks me up all the time. How's that for a healthy relationship?

 

After the super-duper nice kick of having beaten the Kharkov Pursuit scenario, I started playing my first comp stomp matches. I lost the first (on easy), but then I won three in a row.

 

Next step: Start taking multiplayer matches a bit more seriously. I watched several of ImperialDane's excellent videos and "Lehrs" (as he jokingly misspells them, referring to the Panzer Lehr division, when he gives us mp noobs Unterrichten). I've been playing a dozen or so mp-matches before, but then always 3x3 or 4x4, just to get the odd undeserved victory in amongst my betters.

 

Diving into the fray: I'm happy to report that I've played 17 consecutive matches (almost all German) in 1x1 and a few 2x2, and lost all of them. It's 0-17 to the COH2 community versus myself. And still, I really love this game!

 

Having played ARPGs, some easy CRPG and a few story FPS and adventure games this spring, where difficulty is merely a veneer, I've now got use to real difficulty, as in other humans desperate to win! I have nothing at all against losing, as long as the game's fun, and I have the feeling I'm learning a bit for each attempt. When I started, my unit preservations was extremely bad, now it's just bad. I also know that I can keep up pretty well even against high-ranked played up until 7 minutes, then I have trouble with the transition into more mechanized assaults - and I'm also terrible at defending against tanks. The fastest player took me out in 14 minutes. The longest game 1x1 was 48 minutes, and in that case, the stats afterwards showed that it was pretty close. While I'm playing, I try out all sorts of different commanders and orders of unit building. When there are lots of things going on at the same time, or if the assault/barrage is too heavy, I panic a bit and do stupid things. I need to keep my cool a bit more. I still have no idea how you effectively defend VPs, and I suck at keeping my few tanks alive for very long.

 

I know. It sounds horrible. Why don't I quit? Because it's a challenge and each game turns out differently. What more can you ask for?

Hmm, an expansion...

There's one coming up with two new factions in twenty days from now.

Alright. GG, hf & gl!

Edited June 3, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[Monte Carlo]

I'm usually in the mid-fifties on my win / lose ratio as both Germans and USSR - my USSR ratio is a smidge higher.

 

I usually play 3 v 3 and 3 v 4

 

There are now some kewl trailers for the CoH2 Western Front Armies.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmeJBJHmisg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-1esHlSXNY

[IndiraLightfoot]

I still play COH2 almost exclusivally atm! It's so addicitive, despite my stacking losses sky-high!

 

At least I am slowly, slowly getting better at it. I've spent a lot of time practising vs the AI in custom games, and this comp-stomping is very informative. The only thing I don't like about the AI is its obsession with capture points. As soon as you leave one, it will sneak a unit there to take it back. While Easy is indeed easy for me, I still have quite some trouble beating the AI on standard.

 

Of course, I've also kept on playing multiplayer matches, and more or less lost all of them. It's utterly weird how many first-minute dropouts there are, though, and some people seem to need anger management badly. This makes 3x3 and 4x4 matches pretty much a pain atm. I mostly stick to 1x1 (no dropouts there) and 2x2. Another problem with COH2 is the match-making system. Today I got teamed up with one of the absolute top players in 1x1 (admittedly, he told me he was drunk, so that's a handicap, at least   ). Still, he managed to take me out in 16 minutes, which is the 2nd fastest loss I've had to a human player. He capped those points like there was no tomorrow, but I got a few tips from him, and he was very polite, so all's well. Hopefully, a better match-making system will turn up and hopefully remedy some of the frustration for COH2 players. I don't mind though, so far, since almost anyone is a hard enough opponent for me.

[Monte Carlo]

On June 24th, when the Western Armies is released, there will be hordes of noobs coming online. Feast on their sweet flesh.

 

If you want some sparring / practice then just look me up.

[IndiraLightfoot]

A couple of days ago, I finally won a 1x1 vs a human player with the Ostheer. Yay!

 

Otherwise, I've been fooling around with custom maps with much higher pop caps. In one 3 h match, I had 42 Elefants and 30 StuGs assaulting squadrons of heavy Soviet tanks and at least 50 T-34/76s. It was an epic tank battle, which I finally won. Those kind of maps are great for getting bulletins that would take forever to get otherwise.

[Monte Carlo]

A couple of days ago, I finally won a 1x1 vs a human player with the Ostheer. Yay!

 

Otherwise, I've been fooling around with custom maps with much higher pop caps. In one 3 h match, I had 42 Elefants and 30 StuGs assaulting squadrons of heavy Soviet tanks and at least 50 T-34/76s. It was an epic tank battle, which I finally won. Those kind of maps are great for getting bulletins that would take forever to get otherwise.

 

Man, you must have a helluva video card to handle that sort of scale.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Nope. It's three years old, but it has a pretty decent graphics memory, and my ram is like 16 GB on this x64-system, which is always nice. During the match, where like 40-70 infantry took part on both sides (we were two humans playing it), plus some scout cars, all up at the same time, I got like five red-letter warnings that I was lagging the game for my opponent because my graphics couldn't handle the load. Still, there was never any real bad lag, just occasional lag spikes in the midst of the tank battles. The din of the war was roaring. Well, pretty soon, I'll upgrade both my pc and my broadband, and then it will be easy-peasy.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Believe it or not, but the Western Fronts expansion is getting released 23h earlier than expected (Relic has confirmed this)!

It's like 20 minutes left...

[Monte Carlo]

Downloading now....

[IndiraLightfoot]

Well, I've played this a lot this summer, almost exclusively. We're talking hundred and hundreds of hours (each and every spare time I've got). It's now my 2nd most played game on Steam after my beloved Civilization V. It's very hard to fault this game - so much is perfect. I like all factions, but the US gets to hard for me to micro-manage, the Ostheer is a bit underwhelming (or rather nothing new has come out for it). The Soviets and the OKW are those factions I reckon are almost impeccable. I still mostly play the AI - comp-stomping - like practice, and I have done lots and lots of idling too while working (farming war spoils while not really playing for real - I'm a get-all-content-sucker, so I use that as my lottery instead of wasting money a real one). To top it off, this autumn, Relic will release more theatre of war scenarios that'll deal with the Battle of the Bulge and other exciting stuff:

http://www.incgamers.com/2014/08/company-of-heroes-2-ardennes-assault-announced

Edited August 26, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[IndiraLightfoot]

I'm happy to report that for the very first time, I got a closed alpha invite, and this for Relic's upcoming changes/additions to the game. I'm so very thrilled about this, and curious!

[Monte Carlo]

I'm happy to report that for the very first time, I got a closed alpha invite, and this for Relic's upcoming changes/additions to the game. I'm so very thrilled about this, and curious!

 

Me too --- see you on the battlefield!