How the Company of Heroes 3 campaign builds on DLC for Company of Heroes 2

The Company of Heroes 3 campaign uses a dynamic map that evolves throughout each run, and a new developer diary explains how different for🥃ces and missions fit into that evoluti꧙on.

Developer Relic Entertainment's latest deep dive focuses on the relationship between the map and the events of the campaign – that is, your campaign. The idea to build the map this way originally came from the Ardennes Assault DLC for Company of Heroes 2, but Relic expanded on it considerably f𝐆or the third full-fat game in the series. 

"The connection between that strategic campai𒁏gn map and the RTS battles is really the secret sauce, because it's a natural extension of commanding the battlefield," saꦬys executive producer David Littman. 

Campaign map lead Andrew Deneaul♏t stresses the importance of having the right types of forces for each mission. The player and their AI opponent both have accꦕess to land, sea, and ground forces, and the strengths and needs of each require different approaches. 

"Chiefly, the player has to capture airfields to be able to manage an inventory of aircraft," Deneault says. "It's no good to have bombers and fighters if you don't have somewhere to land and refuel. So in terms of the overall gameplay, land troops, ground troops such as campaign companies and detachments, will have to move inland, capture airfields, before managinꦡg inventory, building up inventory, purchasing aircraft, and then deploying them into battle." 

Senior campaign map designer Cameron White adds that "one of the navy's primary focuses is defending the supply lines and making sure you've got resources coming in and it's not being harassed b𝔉y the enemy. And they're also there to do some cool things like beach landings and to transport your companies to engage a mission or land on a beach and do a flanking maneuver."

"The result of the mission coming out affects the way the campaign map is gonna play going forward," White ♌adds, reiterating the replayability Littman describes. 

Compan𝓀y of Heroes 3 doesn't have a release date just yet, and its multiplayer pre-alpha ended earlier this month. You can sign up to potentially be included in future builds and test sessions through Relic's .

Check out the Company of Heroes 3 PC system requirements

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 ye𝕴ars, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.