Company of Heroes
- Michael Harrowing
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Having no familiarity with the computer game that inspired this boardgame, nor the 1st edition version, I hope that this review reflects the games as found, unaffected by the genuine and heartfelt fandom around. That said my ignorance may not do justice to the obvious nostalgia of so many players, and the faithful commitment of the developers, either of which might be big factors in your enjoyment of this tabletop experience.
Company of Heroes 2nd Edition is a big heavy game (both in rules & ambition, and in physical weight & table presence) which seeks to transport players into WW2 era battles across Europe. On this point, CoH is one of the most impressive thematic successes I have ever come across in a boardgame – the imagery and the mood is captivating, and whilst I cannot claim to be a history expert, the attention to detail is rich and convincing. On the table, CoH has amazing presence, with large double-sided maps (Stalingrad and Ardennes Forest) and genuinely impressive production values through an array of tanks and miniatures bespoke to the four factions of Brits, Soviets, Russians and Wehrmacht – and that is just the base game! Our version included the full three terrain expansions which add various 3D buildings in differing states of destruction, forests, flag capture points and other terrain, but there are further faction expansions with more quality minature recreations of favorite units and vehicles. All put together, the presence on the table is truly impressive.
Unit deployment on the board is done through a series of small trays which hold the miniatures and dice in place together. Theoretically, this allows for a quick visual display of the type of until (determined by the miniature weapon one has fixed in the tray), and the unit health (determined by the number of miniature soldiers fixed in the tray). Additionally, there are slots for dice to mark abilities and vehicle health. This physical indication is one of the best ideas in the game but it doesn’t quite go far enough to provide clear information in what becomes a quickly crowded, and frankly messy, play area.
Gameplay itself is based around three core phases. In the first phase, each player alternates spending three ‘command points’ to manoeuvre units or activate abilities such as setting up weapons or building defences. Command points can be used on a single unit or split across several, but no unit can ever perform more than three actions. When 12 command points have been spent per team, the next phase of 'targeting' comes into play.
The targeting phase is a matter of deciding which enemy unit each of your own units are shooting at, and assigning the relevant number of dice, with each die face representing the kind of firepower used. Assignment can be done in any order the players deem appropriate, and then, one by one, each unit conflict is resolved by consulting a chart/matrix that determines the amount of damage according to who was being targeted with what. All shooting is deemed to occur simultaneously, so two units my mutually destroy one another in a single turn.
Following this, players check to see who is left and which units are in control of which ‘capture points’, then income and points are drawn from those capture points which enables each player to recruit or more units, develop their abilities, unlock all the exciting tanks, or command unique special ‘Commander’ moves for the next turn of the game.
Whilst there is much deliberation about who should go where and when during the manoeuvring phase, we found the bulk of the decision times was taken up in the recruitment phase as players decide which troops to field to gain an edge on their opponent. Manoeuvring was mainly led by whichever static capture point you desired, and responding to you opponents’ previous movements; and deciding which units to purchase and where to set them out felt largely like a strategic guessing game, with greater consequences on limited resource budgets.
For two players, this is a fairly long game – frankly you’d want it to be for the amount of content there is to set up and then put away. With four players it is a very long game. And whilst it is fun to play as a war general over a vast field of conflict, in the end it was all a bit much! – especially since there is no real catch-up mechanism and it became clear who was winning and losing many turns before the end of the game.
The flow of the game through three distinct phases begins to feel like three different kinds of waiting, with no satisfying crescendo of tactical winning. Arguably that's an accurate simulation of the nature of warfare in the real world. CoH inovolves a frustrating amount of rule-flicking to confirm specific rules. That's only to be expected in this kind of game, but after the umpteenth time of jumping from one end of the manual to the other because the glossary was incomplete, I was beginning to worry about the integrity of the staples holding all the pages together.
Not only the rulebook, but the table itself begins to become an indecipherable mess with so many units and so many dice. I’ll say that again. There are SO MANY dice required for marking and rolling - and they all look the same! Designers Bryan Kromrey and the late Chris Gabrielson, and publishers Bad Crow Games, have innovatively combined the dice so that they mark unit abilities and display firepower targeting and determine hit points and defence against hit points – but it becomes a genuinely exhausting experience to scrutinise the closely placed piles of dice on the table.
In addition, several stupid problems could be found, including: not being able to track stockpiles over five, buildings not actually fitting in hexes, command point markers not aligning in hexes, no markers for identifying units, tank trays unable to hold enough marker dice and knocking over other units. Honestly, with this being the 2nd Edition, I found this unforgivable – especially the lack of a quick-view reference guide.
Casual gamers will drown in just the base game, let alone the huge volume of terrain and unit expansions available. Heavy gamers and miniature lovers may find something here – especially since the flow and general process of the game is quite clear. Fans of the original computer game, and history buffs will find a tabletop delight to pour their hours into.
(Review by Michael Harrowing)
