Profile of Nadzinator

Gaming: the most inspirational history teacher I've ever had.

From Age of Empires, to Civilization, and now Company of Heroes; my desire to hit the history books started with them.

Nice work!

In my experience, tactical map lag only happens when you open it first. So turning it on and off at the beginning would help.

This has been my experience as well.

Also, I suggest that you measure your APM each game. You can find several free programs on the internet for that. Even though CoH requires less APM compared to Starcraft, 100 (preferably 200) is the minimum APM to be competitive in my opinion. I improved my APM from ~110 to ~160 quite quickly by using an action counter. It helped me a lot especially in late game.

Thanks for sharing this bit. Any recommended software or method for COH2? Does the program slow down the game at all? I have no experience with this, and any other advice would be appreciated.

Grid Keys
I switched over from the classical hotkeys to using grid keys. All hotkeys are now mapped to characters my left hand can reach and now I never really have to move my left hand from its place.

AutoHotkey
Use this for any key mappings that you really think can be in a better place for you. I use it for the tactical map. 0 on the numpad is a silly place to have it. I've mapped it to CAPS lock. Which brings me to my next point...

Tactical Map
A lot of people swear by it. I still can't get myself to check it a lot, but it comes in very handy when things get messy and you need a big picture. It shows you which units are engaged in combat and you can immediately double click on them and start micro managing them. You can also give direct orders (such as attack move, and shift clicking) directly from there.

Attack Move
Saves you a lot of work for units that fight best at range. Just shift click to the capture point, and even an ongoing engagement, and they will stop and engage any targets at max range. If shift clicking into a battle, just be careful you don't shift click too deep into enemy territory because if you haven't given them any additional orders since the attack move, after the engagement they will automatically keep pushing forward (say, into an MG, ambushing tank, bunker, etc.). Obviously, don't use this for units that fight best at short range, such as shock troops or flame units.

Tab
I always forget to use this, but it's very useful. When you have a group of units selected, hit tab to select individual units and give them orders without having to mouse over them and select them individually. Really handy when trying to select a squad that's bunched up with another squad and you can't seem to select it.

Stress
When fighting gets really tense, adrenaline kicks in. You lose fine motor control and start missing keys and making idiotic decisions. I take breaks in between intense 1v1s by watching replays and/or messing around in 4v4. It sounds silly, but it helps a lot.

As a final note, since I've started doing all of the above, I really almost stopped using control groups entirely. Which is weird, because I used to use them constantly for COH1 & 2 and all RTS games in general. I still use them for artillery and some tanks, but that's about it. Anyone else have the same thing happen to them?

I used to play COH and really enjoyed it and I've been watching COH2 videos on youtube and the games are pretty epic.

Just wondering if online is still alive though?

Sure is. I think it takes longer to learn than COH, simply because of the number of factions and commanders, but it's well worth it.

You'll hear complaints about balance issues and bugs, but don't let that discourage you. If you diligently read up on all patch updates and major forum topics, you can easily manage around these issues. Plus, they're constantly being fixed.

The game is fun, challenging, and always changing (new maps, patches, new commanders, etc.). I highly recommend you start by reading some of the guides on this site (mind you, they're slightly outdated now), reading the forums, and watching loads of (recent) replays.

Great initiative!

Question: do we get to choose which country to represent? For example, I have dual citizenship, raised in a 3rd country, and now residing in a 4th country. I know, third culture kid problems...