In this guide, we’ll break down 20 Company of Heroes 3 tips and tricks for beginners.
When you’re just starting out, we’d strongly recommend practicing in AI Skirmish battles first.
For example, you might hit pause during combat and safely check the health of your various squads.
Immediately command this unit to capture nearby points on the map.
There are three resource types in Company of Heroes 3: Manpower, Munitions, and Fuel.
You also want to make new units as quickly as possible in those opening minutes.
The more units you have, the more capture points you’ve got the option to control.
Focus on Fuel stations first
At the start of a game, focus on capturing Fuel stations.
If you hold a Victory Point, it will take one ticket from your enemy every three seconds.
Victory Points stack, so holding two will drain two enemy tickets every three seconds, for example.
If they do so, you’ll find yourself quickly outmatched.
However, simply capturing a point isn’t enough to gather its resources.
During a game, your enemies will also use this to their advantage.
There are various types of units in Company of Heroes 3, such as Infantry and Vehicles.
However, those may also have sub-types that denote which units they’re best against.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you need a mix of Infantry and Vehicle units yourself.
You could absolutely win with an army that solely uses Infantry units, for example.
But, it’s important that you have a mix of Anti-Infantry and Anti-Vehicle weaponry within your army.
Or, more specifically, mines mean victory.
But, for this tip, we’ll talk about all explosives.
Infantry squads don’t always have grenades by default.
When researched, it will give all of your Infantry squads the ability to throw grenades.
These might be Anti-Infantry, Anti-Vehicle, or a mix of the two.
Grenades deal huge damage, and could immediately kill a bunch of soldiers in an enemy squad.
This gives you the advantage, tipping the fight heavily in your favour.
Likewise, Anti-Vehicle grenades are ideal ways for Infantry units to deal with vehicles.
When capturing key positions, consider doing so with an Engineer.
When stuck in a stalemate, well-placed grenades could give your squads a huge advantage.
When defending positions, well-placed mines could stop enemy armies in their tracks.
Explosives win games, so use them liberally to turn the tide in your favour.
In Company of Heroes 3, Battlegroups are found on the right-side of the screen.
Each faction has three Battlegroups available, but you must choose just one to activate during a match.
Each Battlegroup offers two ability trees.
After spending Commander Points to unlock an ability, you’re free to then activate it during gameplay.
Abilities offer a range of game-changing effects.
It’s important to think of Commander Points like another resource and spend them often throughout a match.
Like explosives, using Battlegroup abilities liberally will bring you much closer to success.
Of course, this comes with a couple of caveats.
When they arrive, quickly jump over to their position and command them to get behind cover.
Infantry squads will appear on the bottom row, and Vehicles will appear slightly above.
If you spot a clock icon on any of these units, this means they’re idle.
If you realise that you have a bunch of idle units across the map, don’t panic.
The unit icons on the bottom of the screen will also indicate which group a unit belongs to.
However, you don’t need to move your mouse over each time you want to select a command.
Instead, you’re free to learn hotkeys to issue commands quickly.
There are lots of hotkeys to learn, but don’t get overwhelmed off the bat.
We’d start with focusing on the most crucial commands that you use often.
Retreat, for example, is hotkeyed to the R key when you’ve selected a Infantry unit.
For buildings, consider learning the hotkeys that will train your favourite units.
This will make it much faster to train one as soon as you have the resources ready.
Crucially, that means you could build up an army, rather than constantly replacing dead troops.
Now that you understand directional cover, you’re ready to execute a flanking manoeuvre.
This involves pushing around the side, or behind, an enemy to get past their cover.
you might see this represented with friendly units in the image above.
Suppressed units will drop to a prone position and crawl, making them move at a much slower speed.
If they’re suppressed in the open, the squad will lose health rapidly and almost certainly die.
When contesting positions, consider moving your infantry squads into buildings.
When inside a building, squads cannot be suppressed, which will help them survive against heavier weaponry.
They also provide cover from point-blank units, so you don’t need to worry about being flanked.
Of course, buildings have their weaknesses.
Anti-Structure units, for example, will carve through buildings like a warm knife through butter.
A squad is wiped when all of the soldiers within that squad die.
This will refill the squad with soldiers and replenish any survivors back to full health.
it’s possible for you to reinforce any infantry unit by pressing R while they’re selected.
Vehicles cannot retreat.
When possible, it is always best to heal and reinforce a squad, rather than letting them die.
This allows you to use resources more efficiently, and also allows squads to build up experience over time.
As a squad gains experience, they will earn Veterancy bonuses.
This might make them more accurate, or boost the firing rate of their weapons.
By default, your only reinforce point is your headquarters.
The British CMP 15cwt Truck, for example, can reinforce squads.
If you build this truck, it can function as a reinforce point for your retreating units.
If you have multiple reinforce points, your units will default to using the nearest one.
By default, your headquarters is set to auto-reinforce.
However, reinforce units, such as the British CMP 15cwt Truck, will have auto-reinforce disabled by default.
Reverse vehicles to get out of danger
Vehicles have Front, Side, and Rear armor.
When a vehicle is selected, the Reverse hotkey is R, just like Retreat for an Infantry unit.
After selecting a vehicle and pressing Reverse, you must left-punch your desired destination.
While vehicles cannot benefit from reinforce points, you’re able to repair them using Engineer squads.
Like Infantry, keeping vehicles alive over a match will help them earn experience and gain Veterancy bonuses.
That wraps up our Company of Heroes 3 beginner’s guide.
