Company of Heroes: How not to lose, and how to deal with it!

Company of Heroes for the PC was named E3 '06 best of show, and best strategy game of '06 and it's stand alone expansion (Opposing Fronts) had similar praise as well. These are both great semi-hardcore strategy games for the PC.
You can buy them on Steam, Valves digital distribution program for you who know not, for 19.99 (Original game) and Opposing Fronts for 29.99. Or you can save yourself 9.99 and buy them in a "Golden Edition" for 39.99. This is what you want if you're gonna buy this game, 'cause once you get the original and play online with the OF users, you're gonna die to have it yourself. So download those and continue reading this article.
Anyway, I was noticing while playing the game today, a lot of my opponents had very...low...strategic skill at this game. One of the biggest mistakes they made was not moving up enough in the first 2 minutes of the game. This is where the game is ultimately decided. The players who move up and capture and hold key points in the very beginning usually win. Another mistake that is made very often is the player moves up, and stays put without meeting any resistance. When this happens, your enemy is usually building up his(hers) force and preparing to take the map with an army. When this happens and you are just waiting around in your territory, you can't be building because your attention is on you borders. If you press and punch through with a group of engineers and totally cut off supplies, they can't build an army. You do this and you have already won the game.
MID-GAME: It seems you're in a deadlock, fighting over the middle control points (unless it's a Control Points game, those are over faster than Annihilation games) you have two or three options. As follows for each commander tree: Infantry: get some howitzers! These guns can make the game for you if you have two or three of them. Unfortunately, this doesn't work unless you have an ally or two. And keep pounding there base, soldier! Airborne. Do a recon of an area via plane then drop a squad of paratroopers and an AT gun behind enemy lines. Keep adding to them and cut off the enemy's supplies. This will stop them dead in their tracks. Now just punch through their line and rescue the para forces while defending the points you took. Armor: This is the hardest tree to use right. (Airborne being the easiest) The tree on the right is best used in the beginning and mid game, where the tree on the right is expensive, so you either have to suck to use this tree, or be really good because of the cost. I can't tell you much, except your Calliope Launcher is really nice and can be used for punching the crap out of your enemies invading force when used right.
END-GAME: If you're winning right now, sit tight, defend your points, and build up your armor. Then crush them! Muah-haha!
If you're losing, well, you're losing and unless your enemy makes a huge blunder walks into your minefield that you forgot about. Or your King Tiger/Pershing tank goes on a rampage in their base. Anyways, as we all know, defeat tastes like soggy Graham Crackers in your mouth, and there's nothing you can do about it except make it as frigging HARD AS POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO WIN. This tactic is also really fun. One of the best ways to do this as the Whermacht is build bunkers in random places all around the map. It'll take them a long time to find them. Booby traps are fun put in them as well, such as mines, people, tanks, and artillery strikes. As the American's, you can make lots and lots and lots of engineers and send them throughout the map to die. Or just keep them repairing your base from the back. That's really annoying too. But the best thing of all to do in this situation is use your off map reinforcements to hassle them around. Infantry battle groups are the best because there's so many dang things to kill! But you have to face it some time, that you are going to lose the game and eat those soggy Graham Crackers. Eww.


Check out this great article about what we learn from gaming on 1Up.com. It's really cool.

What I'm playing: Company of Heroes: Ecstasy