There are also changes for the OKW, the Soviets and the classic German faction

Jul 4, 2014 07:23 GMT  ·  By

The development team at Relic working on the real-time strategy title Company of Heroes 2 is delivering the first major update for the new The Western Armies expansion, which is mostly designed to introduce more balance to the multiplayer modes by eliminating some of the advantages that the United States was enjoying.

The company states on the official site that one of the major problems was the M151A AA half-track, which was too good when dealing with both infantry and light vehicles.

The team explains, “Another issue was its ability to get out of danger without suffering too much damage. With making minor tweaks to the units stats believe units like the 222, Puma, and other forms of soft AT will have an easier time dealing with this unit.”

The Volley Fire ability of the Rear Echelon units has also been tweaked in order to eliminate instances where it could be used to win fights with better German infantry units.

Relic adds, “There was also an exploit with the modifers that were applied when rear echelons equipped with bazookas would fire bazooka shells rapidly. With the new implementation of the ability Volley fire will now have its strength and weakness. The suppression modifers have also been tweaked so there will be very rare cases that a squad will get pinned.”

The HE shells of the Sherman M3 75mm have also been improved in order to play their core role of killing infantry in groups.

The changes to the Soviet side are more limited, with the biggest one being an improvement to the PPSH.

For the Oberkommando West, the biggest changes are an improvement to the flak gun of the Schwerer Panzer HQ, which should make the building a better defensive tool, and an improvement to the core stats of the Panzer II that should make it more useful.

The Puma special unit now should be better able to take out enemy vehicles, and some ability costs were slightly increased.

A lot of players have been complaining about the overpowered nature of the United States, and it will be interesting to see whether the multiplayer of Company of Heroes 2 is now a more balanced experience or if other factions will be seen as too easy to win with.

Relic has promised that more patches will be offered, based on community feedback, and that more armies will be added in the future.