New Factions I would like to see in Company of Heroes 2

So we are a little over a year into the release off Company of Heroes 2 and so far we have received quite a few patches to fix the issues many people had when the game first came out. We have also seen a multiplayer DLC/expansion released introducing the Oberkommando West and U.S. Forces factions and a new single player Battle of the Bulge centered DLC is about to be released as well. The developers of CoH 2 have stated they have a 5 year plan for the game and are open to introducing more factions. Here is what I would like to see, and it may be mostly multiplayer based because that is the majority of what I play.

There are several new factions that can be added to the game to spice things up. Frankly I am tired of the Germans with both OKW and the Ostheer forces already being in the game, plus we had the American army in the first game as well. No, we need something different than the same old European and Western Asia settings and factions we currently have. Some people I have seen suggest that Relic add North Africa next. But really what does that net us? For the sake of flavor it would have to be Italy and Britain/US. I really can’t deal with another German faction in the Deutches Afrika Korps (aka DAK). The German factions are spread pretty thin with units as it is across their western front and eastern front armies, it would be extremely difficult to add yet another German army and make it feel different from the others.

The Italians would be an interesting addition I think. They could have their base military units but German commanders to fill in any specific infantry and armor needs they may have. The Italians themselves weren’t bad per se, but they suffered from having horrible leadership in their officer corps both at the highest and lowest levels. You could add the British Expeditionary Force which was made up of the British of course and supplementary units from across the empire. But then you would be forced to deal with the issue of this taking place in the early war period. How would the British be able to make up for the fact that the Ostheer and Oberkommando West armies are both using more advanced weapons and vehicles?

 What I personally would like to see is Relic bring us factions from the Pacific Theater. The U.S. Marines could be designed to play differently enough from the USF to make them feel unique and not like a clone army. Being an amphibious assault force would allow the Marines to use amphibious tracked vehicles as their sort of gimmick if you will and allow them to cross rivers and lakes carrying squads of infantry. This would add another dimension to the game since you would now have to be worrying about being flanked. I won’t go too into detail as to what they could be equipped with or what special units they could have (maybe in another post) but Marine Raiders and Sniper units are the two main ones that spring to mind.

Then we have Imperial Japan. The Japanese seemed a little light on the Anti-Tank front so you could introduce some mechanics to make up for that. Give them cheap AT options like grenades, rocket launchers, and AT guns. Their armor was also a bit lacking so maybe give them cheaper armor or reduce the manpower resource that the tank units take up so they can field more than other factions to make up for the fact that they are more easily destroyed. The Imperial Japanese Navy had their Special Naval Landing Force which was a Marine like unit that could either be dropped into combat as paratroopers or make amphibious assaults. I would also give them the ability to use amphibious vehicles in the same manner as the Marines. 

Sometimes I see people complain that the Pacific Theater mostly had naval battles but really this is fiction. Of course large portions of the combat did take place at sea but more than enough battles were fought on land to make this seem absolutely silly. People also mention that the Japanese had weak AT and armor but really I trust that Relic are good enough at their jobs to come up with game mechanics to negate these things and allow the Japanese to be on the same footing as the other factions.

So that’s it, my thoughts on the next faction. I would still like to see the Italians added as well, but not the Germans, please god anything but the Germans again!