Combat engineers are also indispensable given their ability to 'stage' the battlefield, setting up life-saving fires, which in turn are a necessity for entrenched infantry units like mortar crews and machine gun teams. Deep snow slows infantry down, blizzards cause them to freeze to death more quickly, and shelter has become even more important. The poor, doomed Russian conscript squad is Duffy and McDermott's introductory course on the capricious nature of what the Russian forces referred to as 'General Winter.' This goes beyond more limited visibility or a different coat of paint - snow and cold had an effect on just about every tactical consideration in the level I was shown. So exposure to the weather is a critical component of the cold tech system.' 'With the wind and the blowing snow, it's going to feel like minus-60, and exposed flesh will freeze in a matter of minutes under those conditions.

'There were many cases in the winter of 1941 where the temperatures got to minus-40 Fahrenheit,' Duffy tells me. The Eastern Front was the site of the biggest, bloodiest battles of the Second World War, and the Russian winter played a particular role in that.

There are only objectives and strategies, which units use to navigate the world of Company of Heroes 2.īut it's the cold that defines Company of Heroes 2. Now, each unit is governed by a basic AI that also extends to computer opponents. Formerly, every map had specific paths for each unit type scripted into the level. Pathfinding, the way units determine how they go from one point to another, has been changed completely. While the rebuilt Essence Engine 3’s 'cold tech' is a big part of the equation, there are more fundamental foundational changes in place. And Relic wants players to understand just how cruel with Company of Heroes 2 next year.Įarly on in my hotel lobby meeting with game director Quinn Duffy, Relic Studio marketing manager James McDermott, and communications manager Simon Watts, it’s clear that they’re eager to show off some of the big changes that Company of Heroes 2 brings to the series. He dies in the cold, the final casualty in a column doomed by a tactical misstep in minus-60-degree weather. The last member of a conscript squad on the Eastern Front stumbles to his knees in a snow drift.

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