Tips for Company of Heroes

I've been playing for a while, but am trying on Hard difficulty and am getting my butt kicked. Looking for some advice from some CoH vets.

1) What exactly is a "combat group"? I assume it's 2-3 squads of various infantry, a few tanks, and engineers/sappers? I usually try to have an AT squad, anti-infantry (machine gun) squad, engineers, and 1 or 2 tanks. Should I add an AT gun to this as well?

2) I always retreat when my squad gets down to 1-2 guys. It's much cheaper than creating a new one I know, but also only allows me to push for a few minutes before getting beaten back, then I have to replace, repair armor, and try again, and all the time it takes to do this the enemy reinforces. It's very hard to gain a foothold. Is there a better strategy than this? It's very slow going and can quickly become a stalemate. Only when I gain arty or ranger support do I start to make progress.

3) Base defense. I seldom use barbed wire, sandbags, AT obstacles, and barely use mines. I do use machine gun nests, but as they take up manpower and their field of fire cannot be changed once built so they're a gamble, especially because the computer knows exactly where to go to avoid them. AT guns are wiped out quickly by infantry.

I guess overall I'm just having trouble knowing exactly how much to allocate to where. If I build base defenses, it takes up manpower and resources and doesn't allow me very much offensive capability. On the other hand, if I'm too offensive, my base is a sitting duck and I'm hit from every angle. What's a good overall strategy?

Also am playing against the CPU and not online, and am playing Opposing Fronts. One more thing: is Tales of Valor worth getting?

You do know that the cpu on hard/expert cheat? They have extra health buff and if you ever watch the replays, you can see the AI getting instant reinforcements. Other than that, use barb wires to enclose a key cap point. If you have more time, use sandbags+tank traps. That will hold off the AI for a very long time. You can also use barbwires and tank traps in the open field to make all the cpu funnel in a killing point.

My playstyle against cpu -

US - rifle squad + bar spam backing them up with arty

Wehrmacht - Volk Spam + 88 emplacements backed up by medic bunkers

Pazer - g43 spam + tank hunters backed up by morter halftracks

everyone has their play style, this works for me.

Building barbed wire and sandbags are useless, as the engineers imprison themselves after building it, rendering them useless.

Building barbed wire and sandbags are useless, as the engineers imprison themselves after building it, rendering them useless.

Rekunta

Building barbed wire and sandbags are useless, as the engineers imprison themselves after building it, rendering them useless.

Rekunta

What's the use of barbed wire if the enemy engineers can just walk around the edges? Why even use them if I still need to use machine gun nests? Why bother?

What's the use of barbed wire if the enemy engineers can just walk around the edges? Why even use them if I still need to use machine gun nests? Why bother?

Rekunta

What I meant was all infantry. I don't see a point in building barbed wire, say to enclose a resourse point, when the infantry can just simply walk around the edges. And I can't enclose it, because my engineers moronically box themselves in after completion. So I guess what they're used for really is to creat bottleneck kill zones?

What I meant was all infantry. I don't see a point in building barbed wire, say to enclose a resourse point, when the infantry can just simply walk around the edges. And I can't enclose it, because my engineers moronically box themselves in after completion. So I guess what they're used for really is to creat bottleneck kill zones?

Rekunta

[QUOTE="Rekunta"]

What I meant was all infantry. I don't see a point in building barbed wire, say to enclose a resourse point, when the infantry can just simply walk around the edges. And I can't enclose it, because my engineers moronically box themselves in after completion. So I guess what they're used for really is to creat bottleneck kill zones?

Nick3306

This is the key to defeating AI players, IMO. Especially if you're Axis against Allies, more often than not they'll spam rifle/bar squads right out of the gate, so if you can identify and lock down key roads and funnel them into a deathtrap (say, of mortars, bunkers, mines, snipers?) you can run circles around them and capture victory points.

As for humans, though. It's another story. But the bottom line is, make use of barbed wire. It's free and goes up in seconds. If you're capping a VP, I immediately try to box in with sandbags and barbed wire, to prevent enemies from getting there for even just a few seconds. That is time enough to send in the reinforcements and hold the line. Love your engies/pios, but don't get too attached to them :P.