As the second major expansion of the WWII strategy game Company of Heroes 2, Ardennes Assault has decided to twist the established formula with an entirely new single player campaign with completely new units, abilities and mechanics. For those unfamiliar with it, Company of Heroes 2 is a real-time strategy game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sega. Set at the height of World War II, the vanilla campaign follows a Soviet Red Army company from their brutal combat retreat through Western Russia in 1941 to victory in the Battle of Berlin four years later.
Real-time strategy
What differentiates Company of Heroes 2 from other real-time strategy games is the emphasis on unit placement, terrain and cover. Placing units inside vehicles and structures is nothing new (the original Command & Conquer) had similar mechanics since 1995. But Company of Heroes 2 allows infantry and artillery units to take refuge behind walls, trees, bags of sand and even vehicle wrecks, most of which can be destroyed with explosives by ramming them with armored vehicles.
The game goes so far as to introduce what it calls negative cover, where units take extra damage when in open roads or empty fields. Soldiers are also somewhat good at taking cover themselves, although it can be difficult to position a large army correctly. Heavy machine gunners, in particular, seem to have an annoying habit of taking the wrong path and taking time to reposition themselves.
Infantry squads can collect discarded weapons, up to and including artillery pieces, from the battlefield, making it easier to recover lost units from more expensive units and even steal them from the enemy. This might not seem like a big deal, but a well-positioned anti-tank gun can turn the tide of a battle. There is something to be said for turning the costly toys of the enemies against them. However, players need to be careful, as enemy infantry can and will try to do the same thing.
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