Without doubt the best WW2-RTS around and certainly plays out to be one of the most solids RTS:es out there right now.
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Company of Heroes is one of those games which might take some time to get into if you're not familiar with the Dawn of War series but after a few runs on the really nice tutorial there wouldn't be any problem to take on the CPU player for practice. First thing you'll notice is not only the simply lovely graphics but also the really enjoyable voice-acting for the units, they're not only there when you click on them as a response but they're also saying things like "moving out" just to the other guys within the squad without having you doing anything to them. And as another thing to the voices is as in Act of War: Direct Action the units will also respond once they see and is taking fire or engaging fire on an enemy target. But this time around they will respons more accurantly what the threat is, if it's an enemy Scout Car or light armor they will yell at you in the radio once they've started taking fire.
As this game is about taking strategic points and different resource-points around the map, just as in Dawn of War, you won't have to worry as much about building an incredible base either. There's a few buildings avaible for you to build but they're not always required since you can also call in special reinforcements depending on your sides specialisation and number of Experience you've gained that specific round (just as in Command & Conquer: Generals). On the Axis side they won't be able to build the P2 Tiger for an example but will instead have to call it in when the side has gained enough experience and manpower-resources which is the most basic resource in the game but it will also decrease in income as you command more troops on the battlefield. The campaign plays out to be fairly good, some documentary-like-cutscenes which can from time to time be quite interesting but in the same time feel a bit stretched out. And the campaign itself is quite slowly moving forward and just feels like an preperation for the multiplayer, which is this games' strong point.
In the Multiplayer no round is the other alike since there's too much strategies to use for capturing and defending vital targets. Even when you face the same opponent round after round there's small chance that person will use the same tactics more than once since there's alot of different ways to counter. Nations are quite balanced, though the tanks could feel a bit over-powered from time to time as it's really hard to counter when rushing with 3+ tanks, but that's also why they're so expensive. Allies are better prepared to fight in the start of the game, their infantry will, to most point, be better when you start the game up. But after a while the Axis will gain ability to improve and build more sophisticated soldiers and ofcourse call in heavy P2 Tiger Tank(s) to face about any threat. But this doesn't tell that the game will turn uneven at any point, not even when the Axis would have gained their upper hand later on in the game since with some clewer counter there's always multiple ways to bring the Axis team backwards. Excellent handeling of troops and ussage of cover will forever stand on the positive side of this game as it's all quite unique. Pathfinding is never really a problem, as in any RTS of these days, but having guys getting stuck anywhere is very rare. Interesting resource gathering and usage as well, you'll have to know what you'd like to do in the start of the round if you want to win, eventually. This game is certainly worth checking out if you're into Multiplayer RTS:es.