The three move around the map independently of one another, meaning it's possible-if you're not thinking ahead-for one to get cut-off from the others and potentially become surrounded by the Germans. This becomes especially poignant when deciding which areas of the map to attack with each company. Like it or not, presuming you're playing on a challenging difficulty level, all three companies must be thought of as a single, larger entity. It's all very well and good saying that you're going to concentrate on making your mechanised company as good as it can possibly be, but if they end up being wiped out, your remaining support and airborne units are going to find it tough going if they've never been in battle before. You have to balance the use of each company to suit not only your preferred play style, but also to facilitate your wider strategy for the war. Using a specific company in battle is both a risk and a reward in that it's possible for them to die, and take no further part in the campaign, but winning engagements is the only way to improve their skills. Each comes with its own abilities in combat, but what's more important is to stay aware of their relative health and experience levels. It works rather well, in part thanks to the additional complexity that comes via the provision of three different companies-support, mechanised and airborne-which are persistent throughout the campaign. Replayability is the aim here, with the emphasis firmly placed on multiple playthroughs creating new conflicts and problems.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Taking a particular region can cause enemy reinforcements to populate an adjacent area, which in turn forces you to rethink your original strategy for something more reactive, lest those fresh dangers get out of hand.

Win a skirmish in a region and it's under your control for the rest of the campaign, but the impact of dismantling German positions is felt elsewhere. Instead, Relic say the goal with Ardennes Assault is to provide players with a means to influence and change the events of that year.Īs such, the campaign is set across a map of Belgium split into different regions, each representing individual battles for you to fight and conquer. Its story is a reimagining of 1944's Battle of the Bulge-a conflict that saw the German army attempt to wrestle control of Belgium away from American forces-but it's not a historically accurate retelling of those events. Having found success with its previous Company of Heroes 2 standalone expansion, the multiplayer-only Western Front Armies, Relic is looking to repeat the trick with the exclusively single-player Ardennes Assault.

Company of heroes 2 walkthrough