Commander Update Preview and Public Beta 2021

Hi everyone,

We are excited to announce that the first preview of the Commander Update is now available!

This time around, we are doing things slightly differently. We are releasing this preview as a Beta, as opposed to a Steam Mod. This will allow for easier iteration, and better quality control between the preview and the final update.

To access the beta:
- In Steam right-click Company of Heroes 2
- Click Properties
- Navigate to Betas
- Select "communitytest"
- Close the properties window
- Wait for your game to patch to the Beta build

We will update this preview branch with each new iteration over the coming weeks.

As always, community testing and feedback is essential to help ensure this update is as good as it can possibly be. Please take the time to test these changes and provide your thoughts in the designated feedback threads:

- General Feedback
- AEF Feedback
- British Feedback
- Ostheer Feedback
- OKW Feedback
- Soviet Feedback

Thanks so much!

Overview of old versus new line-ups:
Commander Balance Patch 2021 Spreadsheet

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

I didn't expect it to be so soon, considering that the last patch was not too long ago.

Overview of old versus new line-ups:
Commander Balance Patch 2021 Spreadsheet

Indeed a welcome surprise, good timing.

LET'S GO

Wow, blown away recently.

Something good happening at Relic internal it seems. New management, new hires, new budget, who knows.

Since this is a beta that we opt into on Steam, does this mean these changes will be in automatch if we queue up on the commander beta version of the game?

Overview of old versus new line-ups:
Commander Balance Patch 2021 Spreadsheet

These changes seem pretty good, I really like that Soviets are getting an artillery barrage at last, the B-4 in Tank Hunter tactics earned a chuckle as well. The only one I question is replacing Shock Troops with Assault Guards in Anti-Infantry Tactics, unless it was meant to be a slight nerf to the commander by replacing Shock Troops with a less durable but still capable unit. The M2HB in Lend-Lease is also weird because the Soviets did not use it aside from the ones that came with their vehicles, and even then they often replaced them early on because they were concerned the foreign ammunition shipments would dry up.

Overview of old versus new line-ups:
Commander Balance Patch 2021 Spreadsheet

Update Festung Support with the swap of the LeFH

Update Festung Support with the swap of the LeFH

Thanks, fixed.

Eliminating counter barrage on Advanced Emplacement Commander.... literally the ONLY remaining reason to even chose this commander after all the nerfs to emplacements. This, plus eliminating the Mortar from Lend Lease... do you guys really want Brits to have no counter to OKW leig spam? And no, the new and "improved" brit Mortar Emplacement is still an emplacement so easily dies to Leig spam because it CANT MOVE.

Balance team keeps eliminating defensive options for Brits and seemingly insisting Brits need to be offensive and attack like USF, except pretty much all our core units are defensive in nature. Every single element of that advantage has been slowly eliminated (trenches, Bren dps, emplacement defense, Land Mattress DPS, ATG bonus vs light vehicles, etc...) yet nothing has really been done to improve their offensive capabilities to compensate.

This is why Brits haven't been played competitively by top players in 1v1 tournaments pretty much past initial release. Before you continue to nerf brit defensive capabilities implement ways to make them more offensively viable first.

hello my friends. very happy to see relic's making these changes.
I would like to suggest something new, perhaps a way to create your own commander. my suggestion would be for the player to have a number of cp points available to create his commander. as each skill already has its value in cp I think it would not be so difficult. obviously a skill like IS2 or tiger would cost more points than one like recom for example. I think it's really fun to think about that idea

hello my friends. very happy to see relic's making these changes.
I would like to suggest something new, perhaps a way to create your own commander. my suggestion would be for the player to have a number of cp points available to create his commander. as each skill already has its value in cp I think it would not be so difficult. obviously a skill like IS2 or tiger would cost more points than one like recom for example. I think it's really fun to think about that idea

There is a mod for that, but it'll never happen in life game.