The Environment | Basic Information Company of Heroes 2 Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Company of Heroes 2 is an incredibly dynamic game, owing to not only the fast-paced gameplay, but also to the weather conditions and changing topography of the surroundings. All of this, thanks to the Essence 3 weather engine and the, so called, "True Sight", i.e. the faithful rendition of a soldier's range of vision, as well as the influence of weather on him. What does the True Sight consist in? in having the soldiers (and the player, as a result) not see what is behind every element of the surrounding that is higher than a single soldier. This gives an opportunity to set traps for the unaware enemy units by simply hiding behind a wall. The wall may be, however destroyed with artillery fire and, as a result, all units hidden behind that wall will be exposed . The range of vision is also drastically limited by snowstorms and, that is why it is so important to use the environment to your advantage.
A snowstorm itself deserves a separate paragraph because it is the biggest innovation since the times of the first installment of the game. Weather conditions influence not only the range of vision of your units. During colds and snowfalls, snow banks will start appearing, which will effectively slow you down. Also, rivers will freeze, which will give you the opportunity to walk over them. This, however, makes you vulnerable to the enemy fire or explosives which will destroy the ice and send all of your troops underwater. Finally and, probably most importantly, low temperatures may bring about the death of your units. This is signaled with a blue thermometer icon appearing next to the units. If the "mercury column" of such a thermometer reaches the bottom, the soldiers will start to die. To prevent this, lead your troops towards fires and hide them inside buildings and vehicles. This will cause a red thermometer icon to appear, which means that the soldiers are warming up and will soon be full of strength and stamina again.
Taking proper care of your soldiers during snowstorms may pose a decisive point between victory and failure. You will be informed about the incoming snowstorm verbally and with a large stopwatch in the screen that displays when the snowstorm starts. Start then a fire with your bomb squads or move your units towards buildings. The snowstorm itself, and the cover it provides can be taken advantage of to launch an offensive attack at the unaware enemy. During snowstorms the airborne units cannot be used, which will considerably weaken the enemy. Remember also to delineate the routes manually so that your soldiers can avoid snow banks and move around close to fires. To delineate a route manually, press, and hold down the shift key and click the points on the map that you want your units to march through.