Alternate Settings for Future CoH Games

Korean War only has one vote....

I guess you can just play CoH2 as Soviets vs Americans and get about the same thing. Lol

But seriously, maybe not in CoH, but I think the Korean War deserves more exposure other than just MASH and the intro of Hearbreak Ridge.

I voted a Vietman war (small fan of that period) but i have to agree that Korean War was really interesting theater. You can pull out 4 factions (USA, NATO, NORTH KOREA and CHINA) it's closer to the warfare style than cold war setting plus fact that this war is so unseen could work as advantage.

Fictional ww2 settings.

Pacific theatre. Marines vs imperial japan.

This setting for a CoH game might have unit diversity problems as neither side employed many vehicles and most combat was infantry based. And it wouldn't really be possible to include the theater's most characteristic trait: naval action.

Might be cool to explore in some kind of expansion or campaign with a focus on infantry or scripted naval landings, but I don't see how it could be the next step in the CoH franchise in which combined arms combat is the leading gameplay mechanic.

WW2: Axis Vs Allies.

"Axis" faction versus "Allies" factions. Unit composition and flavor consisting of the respective associated powers. "Allies" could potentially include USSR, but I think it'd be more ideal to utilize USSR in a more ahistorical setting: Allies v Axis v Comintern, strictly in the spirit of gameplay options. (A sort of 1945-46 FFA scenario, even? Those closing days of the war saw the allies drawing closer to conflict with the soviets and germans fighting germans, etc). A max of three factions to balance, ideally just two.

Alternatively, I think another ideal setting for CoH is still WW2, but with an isolated Western Front (USA/UK v Germany/Italy) an Eastern Front (USSR v Germany) and even an isolated Pacific Front (ANZAC/USA v Japan). As long as the factions are restricted to their theatres/time periods we could actually have all the major powers in play without bloating the number of factions or risking an unbalanced landscape.

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My personal favorite would be a Cold War “gone hot” alternate history scenario, focusing on the 1960’s-1970’s. Possible storylines would be the Cuban missile crisis acting as the catalyst for WWIII between the US and NATO forces against the Soviet Union and Chinese Communist forces.

EDIT: Having these four factions represented in game would also break up the Allies vs Axis formula and allow for any match up to make “sense”. US vs Soviets, Soviets vs Chinese, NATO/European Alliance vs US. (Could be a rogue European nationalist uprising or something as I think for storytelling purposes Europe and the US should remain allies, but they can still have a story mission putting them against each other so multiplayer has a reason to keep it a free for all.) Russia and China had stressed relations during the later part of the Cold War so its completely plausible for a China vs Russia scenario. This could also totally change up faction balancing and tournament setup.

Featured weapons would be lots of diverse and not necessarily “OP” modern weapons. Sure AKM’s and M16’s would be more powerful at close range than classic CoH infantry weapons, but the vast majority of troops in the US still had M14’s, which were primarily used in semi auto, Russia would’ve had literally millions of SKS semi-auto carbines in use, NATO forces were predominantly equipped with the FN FAL, also used mostly in semi auto and China had a smattering of old weapons to choose from. Basically, this setting would allow for a lot of diversity, especially since a fictional setting would allow you to play fast and loose with exact adoption times for equipment and weapons technology.

Kinda like the first Command and Conquer: Red Alert, but not like Red Alert 2 or 3. I just don’t think combat squid and Navy dolphins really fit the CoH franchise at this time....

Featured weapons would be lots of diverse and not necessarily “OP” modern weapons. Sure AKM’s and M16’s would be more powerful at close range than classic CoH infantry weapons, but the vast majority of troops in the US still had M14’s, which were primarily used in semi auto

I think modern weapons could be easily represented without resorting to mainly using the old semi-auto stuffs, or keeping all the automatic stuff as upgrades. I would love to see hundreds of AK's and M16's in use. With CoH's damage model, they wouldn't really be OP either, as damage values in CoH are nowhere near, and should probably not get near Men of War levels.

Also; To the Korean War guy, I do agree that that war needs some more attention and is ripe for vidya games, but the not-so-balance friendly nature of the two different factions would be hard to do in a RTS game. American Pershings going up against surplus T-34s? That would be a slaughter (as it was IRL).

I think modern weapons could be easily represented without resorting to mainly using the old semi-auto stuffs, or keeping all the automatic stuff as upgrades. I would love to see hundreds of AK's and M16's in use. With CoH's damage model, they wouldn't really be OP either, as damage values in CoH are nowhere near, and should probably not get near Men of War levels.

Also; To the Korean War guy, I do agree that that war needs some more attention and is ripe for vidya games, but the not-so-balance friendly nature of the two different factions would be hard to do in a RTS game. American Pershings going up against surplus T-34s? That would be a slaughter (as it was IRL).

I wasn’t saying to use purposely older stuff for balance reasons, I was saying that you can implement diverse weapon profiles withsi auto only rifles because that was what was actually in service at the time. The US army didn’t issue M16s wide scale until well into the 1970’s except in Vietnam. US troops in Europe were mostly still armed with M14’s for various reasons. It really depends on the time you set it in. A 60’s setting would be mostly M14’s while an 80’s setting would be virtually only M16’s. 70’s would be a mix.

I wasn’t saying to use purposely older stuff for balance reasons, I was saying that you can implement diverse weapon profiles withsi auto only rifles because that was what was actually in service at the time. The US army didn’t issue M16s wide scale until well into the 1970’s except in Vietnam. US troops in Europe were mostly still armed with M14’s for various reasons. It really depends on the time you set it in. A 60’s setting would be mostly M14’s while an 80’s setting would be virtually only M16’s. 70’s would be a mix.

Aye I can see that, and I agree, it would provide some interesting elements. Depending on the setting, M14's could be a slot-item as a designated marksman or something of the like, or the main weapon for your basic infantry squad.

I would love to see coh3 in ww2 afrika with the brits and italians as main factions.
Era could be 1942-1943 and as DLC wehrmacht and us could be introduced.

Afrika setting would be very welcome!
Factions:

• Heeresgruppe Africa (a mix of german and italian units)
  
• Brits and US
  
  

I would still like to see the WWII island hopping/Pacific campaign of US Marines vs Japanese.

If not, then the Cold War. Typical NATO vs WARSAW Pact. Plenty of good fictional material out there for reference. For example, Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising and Harold Coyle's Team Yankee (which also had a table top game based on it).