Officers in coh 3

This is completely suggesting and thinking thread. Its not sure will we get coh 3 or will this topic be addressed in any form in future. So lets talk "what if" there will come coh 3 about this topic.


Officers have had weird place in company of heroes as series. There has been many iterations of them in first and second game. I want to address them in this thread and how to possibly change them to third game if possible.

Coh 1: In first game officers came only for wehrmacht and brits. German officer was special unit that had no fighting capabilities whatsoever, but held multiple other valuable abilities, such as artillery barrage and supervising building to train units faster. As for the brittish, officers were much more important for the faction. They were not only essential for tiering up, but the veterancy of tommies were tied to them and they were as such important for the faction. Alongside the veterancy boosts, with artillery regiment they were capable of giving artillery support, including command cromwell smoke barrages. This officer system however was flawed few way. As one man units, they were fragile and required constant micro so you could keep them alive. you could attach them into squads, but when you retreated tommies, you had to do it induvidually to officer, otherwise he would have simply just walked the whole way back to hq.

Coh 2: in second game, officers became much less specialized support units and were generalized more. German artillery officer was in original form weaker grenadier squad that had access to accuracy boost, smoke barrage and coordinated barrage. Reworked version function much better, serving as light cqc squad with bost accuracy and durability boost, smoke, coordination barrage and small heavy mortar barrage. Okw officer is still in quite weak form. While he has respectable damage, support abilities as single squad forced retreat and mark infantry target and passive accuracy. This however encourages blobbing, as you need to keep as many infantry units as close as possible and officer can also screw you over as losing officer model sends every surrounding infantry unit running back to home.

Usf officers are in their core Basically just bit different riflemen (except for major), with only main difference being single weapon upgrade, bit different veterancy, single thompson and ability, smoke and supervise for cap. Major imo has very good officer design. he has smoke for onfield support, light artillery barrage and recon flight that get better with veterancy. These abilities however see never much in way of action, due to him being just retreat magnet to ambulance and rarely leaving this place.

As for the british the airlanding officer is in all a commando squad with one less member, but with attack boost and recon flight. This makes him quite functional as cqc unit to work with sections as he still has gammon and boost and reconflight can have its uses.

For soviets there is commisar, which has both combat helping abilities and grenade, but also a healing ability

Looking from perspective, we can see that first game officers were meant to be specialized, yet important part of the army, where as in the second game, officers are very generalized having less features that forces you to use them diffirently compared to normal rifle infantry, but with the cost of not having as powerful abilities. This asks the question: what direction should we take officers into? Do we want more specialized ones with intresting and unique abilities that can be used to change battlefield around them, or do we want generalized ones that can be used in conjuction with your other units, requiring less micro?

My personal idea for officers to coh 3 is to be starting unit for every faction and direction what you want them to do could be defined as the game goes. For example wehrmacht officer could become panzergrenadier fuhrer, who could be aggressive officer with automatic weaponry and aggression boasting boost, or pioneer fuhrer, who could have bundle grenades and defense boosting abilities.

But what you think? Let me hear you opinions towards this topic.

I never liked the idea of officers. This is acceptable as a unit in the commander, but absolutly disgusting as an unlock for tiers (British - CoH1, USA - CoH2), for me they are superfluous as a unit. I would like that when I opened the USA tier, the officer would not appear on the battlefield, but would be available to buy once for free.

I never liked the idea of officers. This is acceptable as a unit in the commander, but absolutly disgusting as an unlock for tiers (British - CoH1, USA - CoH2), for me they are superfluous as a unit. I would like that when I opened the USA tier, the officer would not appear on the battlefield, but would be available to buy once for free.

Yes i personally dislike usf officers, as they feel to me as unnecessary unit i did not want, like if i wen t for lt, i dont want to purchache capitain tier as i already will have 3-4 rifles and lt and i dont want 6 unit.

Yes i personally dislike usf officers, as they feel to me as unnecessary unit i did not want, like if i wen t for lt, i dont want to purchache capitain tier as i already will have 3-4 rifles and lt and i dont want 6 unit.

Exactly

Yes i personally dislike usf officers, as they feel to me as unnecessary unit i did not want, like if i wen t for lt, i dont want to purchache capitain tier as i already will have 3-4 rifles and lt and i dont want 6 unit.

I mean I'll take free infantry if it's given to me but if I could choose I'd rather not have to tech for healing, nades, and weapon upgrades. Just limitations of the faction I guess.

Well the thing that drags officers down is the absolute garbage design of the usf which hasn’t been fixed and never will. Tiering up should never give you an elite infantry unit with vet 3 sprint. Now, as for the ideal design.

First thing we need to ask is: Should it be a single unit or a squad? Single unit diminishes combat capabilities, but allows special abilities with quite a bit of counterplay. On the other hand a squad makes the officer much more useful and allows integration into the army by participating in battle. In my opinion the major/okw officer design is the best one. 3man squad that can fight in a pinch and has utility capabilities like a mobile retreat point, mark target and recon. Another concept that could be stolen from steel division 2 is giving veterancy gain boosts to nearby infantry.

Another option is officers as immovable units in your HQ that give you passive or activated bonuses. You could also put officers in light vehicles as sort of a command vehicle, which IMO should work like the ukf command vehicle with slight bonuses and neutered combat capabilities to balance it out,

What of we went for a more Dawn of War approach? What if we could get an officer unit and we could just attach it to a squad to give it bonuses? Obviously it would have to be more oprimized than then beits coh1 version, but it could be viable.

Well the thing that drags officers down is the absolute garbage design of the usf which hasn’t been fixed and never will. Tiering up should never give you an elite infantry unit with vet 3 sprint. Now, as for the ideal design.

First thing we need to ask is: Should it be a single unit or a squad? Single unit diminishes combat capabilities, but allows special abilities with quite a bit of counterplay. On the other hand a squad makes the officer much more useful and allows integration into the army by participating in battle. In my opinion the major/okw officer design is the best one. 3man squad that can fight in a pinch and has utility capabilities like a mobile retreat point, mark target and recon. Another concept that could be stolen from steel division 2 is giving veterancy gain boosts to nearby infantry.

Another option is officers as immovable units in your HQ that give you passive or activated bonuses. You could also put officers in light vehicles as sort of a command vehicle, which IMO should work like the ukf command vehicle with slight bonuses and neutered combat capabilities to balance it out,

What of we went for a more Dawn of War approach? What if we could get an officer unit and we could just attach it to a squad to give it bonuses? Obviously it would have to be more oprimized than then beits coh1 version, but it could be viable.

Eh I wouldn't really call them "elite". They're rifle squads with a non-transferrable thompson.

Single man officers would be too random IMO in the sense that they could easily die from random mortar/arty shells or tank shots without any real counterplay or skill involved on either side, even if they had a lot of health like in coh1.

Being able to attach an officer model to rifle squads and get the requisite abilities and thompson instead of getting a whole LT/CPT squad by itself would be an interesting concept IMO. Major is a good design I think though, since it really isn't going to be killing anything but also has some interesting capabilities and being 3 man means he's got a chance of surviving stupid RNG like I mentioned above.

Eh I wouldn't really call them "elite". They're rifle squads with a non-transferrable thompson.

Single man officers would be too random IMO in the sense that they could easily die from random mortar/arty shells or tank shots without any real counterplay or skill involved on either side, even if they had a lot of health like in coh1.

Being able to attach an officer model to rifle squads and get the requisite abilities and thompson instead of getting a whole LT/CPT squad by itself would be an interesting concept IMO. Major is a good design I think though, since it really isn't going to be killing anything but also has some interesting capabilities and being 3 man means he's got a chance of surviving stupid RNG like I mentioned above.

Good points. My characterization of usf officers as “elite infantry” would peobably make more sense as “pseudoelite infantry”, since they get the extra thompson and the smoke, as well as vet 3 sprint. To me this is bad for the very simple reason that you get the whole squad for free. If the officer was attached to a prexisting rifleman squad, not only would it be a lot more fair, but you could also expand upon the concept and make it a central theme for the faction, with cpt and lt giving really good buffs to their squad and potentially passive bonus auras to nearby units. I also agree regarding the major, as I think it’s a good unit and not too powerful.

So my proposal would be this: Instead of a new squad, the tech up would gove your squads access to either a cpt or lieutenant upgrade, just like ostheer upgrades grens to 5 man squads. The new officer could have a thompson or bar. Maybe cpt would give 20% speed, 20% accuracy and the ability to repair vehicles, while lt could give a grenade assault ability, mark target and camouflage. Of course, such changes would require additional balance changes to the entire faction to keep the power level constant. I don’t want anyone to think I’m suggesting double bar riflemen with a 6th man bar officer giving them bonuses and abilities.

The style this game has moved officers over time is the direction to keep IMO. The sturm offizier is bad design, and promotes blobbing. Permanent aura buffs shouldn't be on any units in the next game, even command style ones.

Targeted individual support abilities, as we got with the commissar and the latest version of "On me!" are the right style.

The style this game has moved officers over time is the direction to keep IMO. The sturm offizier is bad design, and promotes blobbing. Permanent aura buffs shouldn't be on any units in the next game, even command style ones.

Targeted individual support abilities, as we got with the commissar and the latest version of "On me!" are the right style.

I would say yes as soon as OKW Officer can actually vet up.

I would say yes as soon as OKW Officer can actually vet up.

Yes he definitely should be able to. That part is bad design as well, there's really no part of that unit i like

Yes he definitely should be able to. That part is bad design as well, there's really no part of that unit i like

They should prob remove his ober bodyguards though, at CP1 an psuedo ober squad is also quite OP. Give it back to the sturmofficer at maybe vet 4.