Overview
The 2.0 Anniversary Update celebrates the 2-year anniversary of Company of Heroes 3, and will be available for download on Tuesday, February 25th, 2025. This update includes many new additions to the game, including four new Battlegroups in the new Fire & Steel DLC, a return of some fan-favorite maps from CoH1 and 2, Campaign improvements, multiplayer balance changes, and more! For full details, you can check out the patch notes tomorrow morning.
Fire & Steel Battlegroup DLC
Reinforcements have arrived! The Fire & Steel DLC will unlock a new Battlegroup for each of the four factions. The DLC pack will be available for purchase tomorrow, February 25th, 2025, so wishlist it now on Steam so you don’t miss it on day one!
US Forces – Heavy Weapons Battlegroup
Superior team weapons and halftracks control the battlefield before heavy armor arrives to finish the fight. Requisition .50 cal heavy machine guns or off-map batteries of the devastating Black Dragon howitzer as part of Weapons Team support, or call in the Cavalry, with Assault half-track variants, 3-inch towed Anti-tank guns, and the implacable M26 Pershing heavy tank.
Wehrmacht – Terror Battlegroup
Shatter the enemy’s willpower with airstrikes, suppression and superior infantry tactics. Devastating heavy weapons will destroy anything that remains standing. Use unorthodox Terror Tactics such as field interrogations, the Stuka’s iconic Jericho Trumpet, or V1 Rocket Strikes to force the enemy from the field, or show the enemy no quarter with Weapon Superiority and the King Tiger heavy tank.
British Forces – Canadian Shock Battlegroup
Seize territory to gain unparalleled momentum on the battlefield and deploy powerful incendiary weapons to displace any who dare deny your movement. Call upon Canadian Shock Sections and aggressive battlefield tactics to secure ground in a Shock Assault or deny the enemy what they stubbornly refuse to cede with Incendiary Weapons, including the indefatigable Churchill Crocodile.
Deutsches Afrikakorps – Panzerjäger Kommand Battlegroup
Cripple the enemy’s advance with defensive obstacles, enabling powerful anti-armor weapons to make the killing blow. Use Stalling tactics, including Roadblocks, Minefields and Defensive Positions to buy the time you need to deploy your forces; elite Tank Busters and Tank Hunting tactics including the Elefant Tank Destroyer will crush even the strongest enemy armor.
Learn more about these Battlegroups in our exciting shout cast with the development team!
MAPS
The 2.0 Anniversary update sees the addition of five new & classic maps, bringing back some fan-favorite maps from Company of Heroes 1 and 2, including a new community map created by GBPirate. Building upon existing terrain maps, territory has been made from scratch and cover has been adjusted to make improvements while keeping the identity of the original maps.
Angoville - 1v1
A cutthroat competitive map, returning to the original CoH1 territory style. Expect dramatic cut-off gameplay and severe fighting over two sides of the map, bisected by a daunting main road and hedgerows. Slight resource adjustments and tighter capture circles aim to produce exciting and tense matches for players.
Langres - 1v1
A compact and iconic CoH1 map makes a return, blending the CoH1 and CoH2 versions. This small parcel of farmland, separated by hedges and farmhouses has seen some of the bloodiest battles of Company of Heroes to date. This was a highly requested map addition to CoH3 purely for how short, sharp, and brutal the games played on this map are – we hope you have fun with it!
Crossing in the Woods - 1v1 and 2v2
A returning community map focused around a simple woodland and shallow river crossing. We have blended the territory layouts of CoH1 and CoH2 into something players should find familiar but refreshing. Crossing in the Woods will be available in two formats: the original sized map will be available for 1v1, and a new resized version will be available for 2v2. While these maps will feel very familiar for CoH1 and CoH2 players, we also highly recommend them for new players due to how streamlined they are.
Djebel Pass – 1v1
Our 2.0 community map has been completed by GBPirate and has undergone a complete redesign from the original “Kasserine Pass” - one of our first community submissions to the Steam Workshop. This enclosed desert canyon features challenging rotation gameplay around ancient ruins and a beautiful stream.
GAME IMPROVEMENTS
Audio
We’ve made several Audio improvements to punch up immersion while you play. There were a number of maps where ambient audio sounds were missing, so these have been added to liven up the experience. Two new music tracks have been added to the rotation of what you’ll hear in the main menus, and we’ve adjusted the music escalation near the end of a Victory Point match, so things feel more tense. We’ve also changed the flow of the end-of-match music, so it carries the right momentum in Victory or Defeat. We recast and re-recorded all the intel lines for the US Forces announcer to make this more of a serious and down-to-earth character and now have an all-new US Forces heavy tank actor. Plus, there's new voice over and FX for the brand-new Fire & Steel Battlegroups, and lastly, we revisited older Battlegroups to improve generic Intel callouts for some abilities and upgrades.
Campaign
To improve the Italian Campaign experience, we’ve focused on making player decisions be more impactful on the moment-to-moment gameplay. The choices you make when deciding which Companies you build matter, and Companies now have specific roles, making them more unique. This change carries over to RTS battles, with tweaked starting rosters for several Companies. Plus, players will be able to field all-new heavy tanks, the M26 Pershing and the Churchill Crocodile. Though these heavy tanks are only available in the Fire & Steel DLC pack for multiplayer and skirmish, our singleplayer fans can take them for a free test-drive in the campaign! Companies will now have specific roles on the Campaign Map, with several changes to abilities, costs, healing and movement. This push to have them fill specific roles will make your choices matter when planning your turn.
Building defenses is now more important as attack waves can spawn from any enemy territory and wreak havoc if you are not paying attention. Be sure not to stretch yourself too thin, as the enemy will now give you more of a challenge!
Additionally, we’ve focused on how it feels to move units to make them more responsive. Units now move, rotate, and turn faster, and some bugs with attack animations have been fixed. Some older long animations could make the game feel unresponsive, this timing has been tightened up, so it now feels better to move and take territory.
The Loyalty system has received an overhaul with the removal of penalties, so progress is now permanent. New tooltips will now provide you with more details on how to earn Loyalty with each Commander. Loyalty passives should now be more useful and strategic, allowing you to be more efficient throughout your campaign.
Finally, we’ve added 8 campaign skirmish maps, including 2v2 maps you’ll play with an A.I. ally and new 1v1 maps. We’ve also made several changes so you will be doing more varied skirmishes throughout the Italian Campaign, and getting to do them more frequently earlier on.
Multiplayer Balance Changes
This update will also include several reactive and preemptive multiplayer balance changes - some in response to the unfolding meta after our Orchid Spider update, and others in anticipation of the arrival of our new Battlegroups in the Fire & Steel DLC pack.
You can find the full list of balance changes in tomorrow’s patch notes, but here’s a quick overview:
- We wanted to make armor gameplay more dynamic, with greater risk and reward, so heavier vehicles will take more damage when hit in the rear armor. This encourages players to think about vehicle facing and positioning. The side armor of some vehicles has also been adjusted.
- Many tank machine guns that were underperforming have been strengthened to make it harder to rush later tier vehicles, while not overpowering the main gun. This makes cover more important for infantry against vehicles.
- Tank riding will now be faster and easier.
- Late game technology and unlocks have been slowed down to give units like light vehicles more time to shine on the battlefield. This will also make rushing the final tech structure riskier.
- The construction of most field defenses is now faster, at the cost of not allowing units to capture while they are constructing objects.
- Barbed wire is now more effective and a risk to vehicles, particularly lighter vehicles, that try to roll over these defenses.
- Demo Charges will now be more effective against all targets.
- Adjustments have been made to the US Forces Mechanized Support Centre, moving the halftracks to Motor Pool. Motor Pool has also received some improvements. Wehrmacht Support Elements have been adjusted due to changes for slowing their late game, allowing them to play an extended mid-game with access to Side Skirts.
- Significant changes coming to the Wespe Self-Propelled Artillery to give opponents more time to react to barrages.
- The Afrikakorps GRB Grenade Launcher is now immediately available and has been buffed to make it more effective in clearing infantry positions.
- Improvements to the Semovente
You can learn more about the new maps, campaign improvements and multiplayer balance changes in our 2.0 Anniversary Deep Dive with the team!
The 2.0 Anniversary Update is out for PC on Steam on Tuesday, February 25th at 10am PST! Jump into our official Discord to discuss the update and find others to play with. Let us know which Battlegroup you’re most excited for!