14 DAY TRIAL // I first met Company of Heroes 2 in its multiplayer form during the early spring beta period, when I managed to play around 10 matches before Relic got back to the drawing board for some tweaks before the game went gold.
I returned to the strategy title in early June when the open beta period started, with more maps for multiplayer and some changes to the balance.
Now Company of Heroes 2 is officially out and the full extent of the multiplayer is available to all who have bought the game, although some disparities remain in terms of General availability.
I have played enough to get to level 40 and I have understood that the most important resource for a competitive player is his limited attention.
The Relic team has made a design decision to set the camera close to the battlefield, giving players plenty of occasions to micromanage his forces in order to flank enemies or avoid their special power use.
But most multiplayer matches involves parallel battles in at least two areas of the map and when my attention is focused on one of them, I often fail to notice as one of my other squads gets into a bad situation or ends up annihilated.
I saw the same happen to many other medium-level players and the success of many over 60 gamers who defeated me had an edge in the distribution of their own attention resources.
Other than attention I find that solid use of indirect fire, coupled with scouting units, is the best force equalizer in Company of Heroes 2.
Solid use of the various artillery pieces can take out an entire infantry assaults and can stop armored forces dead in their tracks.
Good players also have a solid knowledge of the powers for the Generals they use and they know exactly when to deploy them for maximum effect.