Welcome to my guide. It's wordy, but ultimately informative. Most of the information here is overworded anyhow. Chances are, if you think you know how something works, then you probably know exactly how it works.

But if you still don't, then this might just be the guide for you.

Hey, we all have to start somewhere.

The camera controls in CoH are very simple; To move the camera around, you may either move the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen in the direction you would like it to move, use the arrow keys on your keyboard, or alternatively hold down the middle mouse button and move the mouse around. The further your mouse is to the edge of the screen, the faster you move.

The Mouse-Style of camera movement tends to be slower, as it needs to accelerate. This can help with trying to find units, as opposed to zipping past them with the Arrow-Sytle. Not a life-or-death detail, but it's something to keep in mind should you choose to use these as your only form of camera movement.

Holding down Left-Alt will allow you to rotate the camera around the center of the screen. You may do this if you need to get a different angle while entering a wooded are or other obstructive environment, or if you just want to get a better look at your units.

The scroll wheel on the mouse will zoom the camera in and out of the center of the screen. Mostly for getting a better view on the combat, but it has it's uses.

To undo all camera rotations and return to the default angle and zoom, press the backspace button twice.

Tips and Tricks[/i]

If you Alt-Tab or Shift-Tab, and return to find that you're involuntarily rotating the camera around, simply left click anywhere in the 3-D view to get out of rotation mode, and hit backspace to return to the default view if it changed.

If you need to get your camera somewhere far away quickly, there are a few more ways to do it. If you notice the minimap on the bottom left of the In-Game HUD, you can actually click it to move the camera where you clicked. If you lost track of a unit, or if they're under attack, or you need to see and direct them for any reason, you can select them twice to move the camera to them.

If you click a unit and double tap their icon, or alternatively click their picture to the left.



If you think you're ready to go out there and kill some krauts/yankees/tommies, hold your horses, we've still got lots of learning eft to do!

Besides the 3-D World that you see on most of your screen, you'll notice that there is also a sort of dashboard on the bottom. Almost every single action that you can do with the dashboard has some sort of shortcut, and a few of them are paramount to know, but this will be covered in this part of the guide.

If you're starting to question the amount of information in this guide, try to understand that a great deal of people are intimidated simply by the upfront value.


Mini-Map - Self-Explanitory; A miniature view of the entire map from a top-down perspective. The Map will rotate along with the camera if you do so, so don't worry about being too disoriented.

Tactical Map - Brings up a larger, more detailed version of the mini-map. You can control units from this screen, but you cannot drag and select multiple units like you normally can. You must individually select them or select a Squad.


Map Pings - Dual Function system that allows for communication with your teammates through the mini-map; Especially useful if you have no microphone, as you can ask for support in a specific way other than "that fuel point in the corner". Includes Attack/Defend/Capture (Red/Yellow/White). Note that the AI will obey the Attack and Defend commands, and may build units accordingly in order to suit the situation ie. A defend command MAY cause the AI to make more Machine Guns and AT Guns, whereas an Attack Command may result in more offensive armor and infantry types. I HAVE NOT TESTED THE DIFFERENCE. DON'T QUOTE ME ON IT. However, the AI will undeniably follow your commands, so if they aren't doing anything, you may want to tell them to attack. Note that this may break your strategy if you do it by Accident, so stick to the Capture command unless your goal is to order the AI to do something.

Command Points/Doctrines - Doctrines are an important part of gameplay, and can be a big game changer. There are 3 doctrines, each of which differ depending on your chosen nation. The layout is typically like this:



Command points are required to unlock bonuses and units inside relative to your chosen doctrine. You can earn command points by earning XP, and you earn XP by doing the following:

Constructing buildings and defenses (high xp), killing enemies (medium xp) or losing units (very low xp)

So yeah, don't just send 4 Engineer Squads to get mowed down by an HMG and expect that you'll be calling in the 3rd Coming of Jesus. With the money spent on those 4 Engies, you could have built a bunker and got more XP than all of them combined. Manage your units well, and the XP will be pouring in.

Resources/Income - Your total resource pools and the rate per minute at which they automtically increase. The higher the income, the more you can afford to squander it. The lower the income, the more you will have to rely on more frugal tactics. Plain and simple.

Population - The amount of population points you currently are using, and the total amount that you are allowed to use at all. The right number decides the total amount of units you are allowed to field at any given time, while the left number is the total amount of population you are using. The number goes up as you get points, and down as you lose em. SO DON'T LOSE EM.

Unit Portrait - Useless when you have infantry selected, but if you have a vehicle selected, it will tell you if any part of the vehicle is damaged. If something is damaged, get your Engineers out there and fix it, or it will be a bit more than damaged when an Anti-Tank gun rolls around.

Unit Effectiveness - A list of predetermined Niches that the unit fills. These numbers are ultimately pointless statistically, and they don't really provide any bonuses; It's just a way to tell how the unit will perform against certain opponents as the game intends. Again, not a decider, just a potential.

Selected Unit Window - Shows the icons of all the units you have selected. Useful for when a squad has multiple types of units and you need to use a special ability, or if you just want a recap on the units you have selected.

Unit Upgrades - List of potential upgrades available to a unit. Upgrades vary from weaponry, to passive bonuses. Certain weapons can only be obtained this way, and they will put a great deal of effectiveness in your force.

Unit Action Window - Blocks which each correspond to an action, ability, or tactic. Every single action on this list has a shortcut in the Standard game, and there are a few that you will want to know particularly; No really, embed these shortcuts into your brain:

• H - Halt; This will tell your units to stop whatever they happen to be doing, and stop moving. The reason this is so important is because you don't want your units being baited into a machine gun nest, and units are more accurate when standing still. That is ALL units that are able to move while firing, including tanks.
  
• A - Attack Move; Tells your units to move to a location on the map, and effectively engage whatever units they encounter on the way. Normal movement commands with the Right Mouse Button will also see your units engaging units they come across, but rather than stop moving, and find cover, they'll continue to run to their destination while inaccurately firing their weapons. That being said, sometimes you don't want your advance to slow down for any reason, so use this conditionally.
  
• T - Retreat; It's rarely a bad idea to accept a defeat and allow your units to live to fight another day. There are exceptions, but if you notice that your units run into a machine gun nest, or if you hear loud screaming, only to find that there is a big hole where your blob of infantrymen used to be, retreating is generally the wisest course of action until you can more effectively deal with the enemy's forces. Not to mention that reinforcing a squad to full strength is ALWAYS cheaper than buying a new one, especially in terms of vehicles. However, vehicles don't actually have this ability, so you'll either have to fight it out and take the hits as they come, or manually pull them back if they run into trouble.

These are the most important UNIVERSAL action shortcuts. There are also vital ability shortcuts for units such as the American Riflemen and the 2 grenade abilities it has, so if you find yourself needing to use these abilities often, try and remember the shortcut for it, which can be found in the tooltip that appears when you hover over the ability.

Building Tabs - Easy access to the various unit-creating structures at your disposal. If you think you're missing a building, you can check this bar and see if any of the tabs are blanked out. Eventually, you'll probably have your own Plan of Action worked out though, so you may skip some of thee buildings entirely if it fits your strategy.

Unit/Squad Badges - Expanding menu that identifies the units that comprise each squad, or in the blank badge's case, your entire army. I'll admit I f***ed up a little bit by not demonstrating this part a little better, but when you create a squad (which you will learn to do soon), a new badge with the corresponding squad number will appear, and that badge wil display all the units in it when you hover the cursor over it.

See? Not so hard. These descriptions were a little wordy but each element of the screen does pretty much what you'd expect it to do. If you happen to forget any of this, you can always check back again.

Now that you know what you're looking at, it's time for the fun part; Actually playing the game.

Controls

• Left Click - Selects Units and Designates Targets for Abilities; Double clicking or Ctrl-Clicking will select all units of the same type in the vicinity; You may also Shift-Click to select multiple units individually
  
• Right Click - Gives orders to selected units; Clicking the ground will order a move, clicking a point will order a capture, and clicking an enemy will order an attack; Shift-Clicking will Queue up orders of any kind in any order and combination, provided that the actions can actually be performed
  
• Shift-Number (Top Number Bar) - Places all the selected units into a squad, which can be easily selected simply by pressing the corresponding button

Thats it. There are also shortcuts for certain actions but there are simply too many to list. If you find yourself using an ability a lot, hover over it with the mouse cursor and find out that the shortcut is.

Now then, the Gameplay itself.

Now then, the Gameplay itself. First, base building.

Base building is simply the process of setting up different structures so that you may advance your Technology Tier, and produce more units. Each faction has their own version of it, as listed below:

USA

• Barracks - 1st Tier Building; Creates core infantry and light vehicular recon, Contains 3 Upgrades for US Riflemen
  
• Weapons Support Center - 2nd Tier Building; Creates Support Weapons such as the HMG and Mortar as well as the Sniper
  
• Motor Pool - 3rd Tier Building; Creates first dedicated anti-tank weaponry, light armor, and a halftrack troop transport
  
• Tank Depot - 4th and Final Tier Building; Creates 3 Medium Armored Vehicles, which are the strongest non-doctrinal units the US has to offer; Has 2 tank based upgrades
  
• Supply Depot - Support Structure and gateway to 3rd & 4th Tiers; Contains upgrades that lower unit-keepup and help Riflemen gain experience quicker
  
• Triage Center - Support Structure; Heals units within the vicinity ***WILL NOT BRING DEAD MEMBERS BACK OR RECOVER CASUALTIES***

British Commonwealth ***Part of Opposing Fronts Expansion Pack***

NOTE: British base building is strange, in the way that the "buildings" are not actually built; They are called in in the form of trucks, which are able to do what is called "Set-Up", meaning that the command trucks are able to become mobile should the situation demand it. THE TRUCKS MUST BE SET UP IN ORDER TO PRODUCE UNITS.

• HQ Command Truck - 1st Tier Mobile Building; Creates Core Infantry and the Leiutenant, one of the units required for British Veterancy; Also creates light recon/troop transport
  
• Field Support Truck - 2nd Tier Mobile Building; Creates engineer infantry, light armor, and the Capitain, another British Veterancy unit
  
• Armor Command Truck - 3rd and Final Tier Mobile Building; Creates Medium/Heavy Armor, and the Command Tank, another Veterancy unit

Wehrmacht

NOTE: In order to advance up the tech tree and build more than the Wehrmacht Quarters (which is initially enabled), the player must purchase a tier upgrade in the HeadQuarters

• Wehrmacht Quarters - 1st Tier Building; Creates Light Infantry and support weapons, as well as light vehicular recon
  
• Kreig Barracks - 2nd Tier Building; Creates Core Infantry and support weapons, as well as Troop Transport
  
• Sturm Armory - 3rd Tier Building; Creates Light/Medium Armor, as well as light artillery and an officer capable of light support in the form of Off-Map Call-ins
  
• Panzer Command - 4th and Final Tier Building; Creates Medium/Heavy Armor
  
• Kampfkraft Center - Support Structure; Contains ONLY Upgrades, all of which give Veterancy to the corresponding unit type

Panzer Elite ***Part of Opposing Fronts Expansion Pack***

• Logistik Kompanie - 1st Tier Building; Creates 2 light recon vehicles and a support halftrack
  
• Kampfgruppe Kompanie - 2nd Tier Building; Creates anti-tank infantry and more light support halftracks
  
• Panzer-Jaeger Kommand - 3rd Tier Building; Creates anti-personal infantry and anti-infantry light armor, as well as a mobile anti-tank gun
  
• Panzer-Support Kommand - 4th and Final Tier Building; Creates light anti-tank halftrack, Medium-Light anti-infantry tank, and a specialized repair vehicle

Each faction has it's own framework, and will function differently, but ultimately, all units boil down to one of a handful of unit types.

Unit Types

Engineer Infantry - Builders not designed for heavy combat, or really ANY combat. However, at the very start of the game, they're all you've got. You should keep one or two of these squads around for the entirety of the game encase you need to repair or rebuild vehicles or structures. Try not to spam them in the beginning, as they will be easily and quickly wiped out by just about any non-engineer unit.
Example Units:

• US Engineers
  
• WE Pioneers
  
• CW Sappers

Light Infantry - Generally a title reserved for the Wehrmacht Volksgrenadiers, this type of infantry is really only meant to be a form of filler until you can get Core Infantry. Expect light infantry to take Heavy losses against any form of infantry on a higher tier.
Example Units:

• WE Volksgrenadiers

*US Riflemen could technically be considered a "stepping stone" like the Volks if you're going for Airborne or Rangers, but they have the ability to be called "Core".

Core Infantry - These are the guys that your force should be centered around; They are versatile, usually come with a variety of upgrades, and are fairly durable. However, they are nothing without the proper support, so don't forget to throw in a few support units such as HMGs. As with all units, spamming is discouraged, however tempting and deadly it may be, as it will end up being nothing more than a big, expensive target.
Example Units:

• US Riflemen
  
• WE Grenadiers
  
• CW Rifle Section
  
• PE Panzergrenadiers

Heavy Infantry - These are units that are designed to more or less take a beating, while still being fairly adept at dishing them out. Generally call-ins, they are either very well rounded or very focused in ability, and, although tempting, spamming this kind of unit will often times result in nothing more than an expensive target, as they are expensive not only to call in, but to reinforce and upgrade as well.
Example Units:

• US Rangers
  
• WE Stormtroopers
  
• WE Knight's Cross Holders
  
• PE Luftwaffe

Support Infantry - This type of infantry is designed to assist the rest of your force in advancing or defending. An HMG, for example, is quite adept at mowing down infantry. However, the trade off is that they fire on a fixed Arc, and cannot move or turn without having to set up, which takes an agonizing few seconds. The sniper is very mobile, but very fragile. Each of these units is specialized, and should avoid stepping out of their boundaries in all but the most desperate of situations. Support units also come in the form of officers, which provide bonuses to troops around them, though they themselves generally have difficulty in direct combat.
Example Units:

• HMG Squads
  
• Mortar Teams
  
• AT Gun Teams
  
• CW Lieutenant and Capitain

Light Recon - This type of unit is designed to scout out the front lines before the main force arrives. A sniper may also perform similar duties, more stealtily and offensively at that, but the point of light recon is to be cheap in price and, for lack of a better term, annoying, only one of which is effectively fulfilled by the sniper.
Example Units:

• US Jeep
  
• WE Motorcycle
  
• CW Bren Carrier
  
• PE Scout Car

Light Armor - This type of unit is designed to mainly attract attention during the early game. Proper usage will leave the enemy feeling overwhelmed, possibly resulting in a retreat. Thats not to say that these units aren't very effective fighters, quite the opposite. They are generally effective more-so against infantry than vehicles, but as with everything in nature, there are exceptions.
Example Units:

• US T17 Armored Car
  
• WE SdKfz 234 Puma
  
• CW Stuart Light Tank
  
• PE Armored Car

Medium Armor - This type of unit is meant to make up the majority of one's armored force, as they are usually well rounded in capability against both infantry and vehicles. However, they will usually fall quite easily to Heavy Armor, and sometimes to other Medium Armor, if not utilized correctly. Most Medium Armored units in the game have destinct advantages which can help to decide the outcome of a battle, such as the Commonwealth Cromwell's Speed or the American Sherman's heavier armor. These should be excersized regularly, but not relied upon.
Example Units:

• US Sherman
  
• WE Panzer IV
  
• CW Cromwell
  
• PE Hetzer

Heavy Armor - This type of unit is designed to combat Medium Armor, as well as to spearhead an attack, due to it's durability. As a result, they are generally slower, and because of their ammo of choice being AP (Armor Piercing) rather than HE (High Explosive), they have limited success against infantry, if any. Like most Heavy Infantry, they mostly come in the form of call-ins.
Example Units:

• US Pershing
  
• WE King Tiger
  
• CW Churchills
  
• PE Jagdpanther

Heavy Artillery - Guns that make big noises tend to make big holes. Artillery is no exception. These are (mostly) stationary emplacements that are designed to either support or hold the frontline from a distance. The crews are always vulnerable, and cannot effectively return fire at the normal infantry engagement ranges. Also, the use of HE Rounds means that artillery, for the most part, is meant for Anti-Personal use, and not as a tank-killer.
Example Units:

• US 105mm Howitzer
  
• CW 25 Pounder Artillery

Mobile Artillery - Artillery that can move about around the map. Particularly annoying against players that can't push, but a mere nuisance against players with significant armor. Less protected than normal artillery, these can't be taken over after destroying the unit, which is both a positive and a negative. On the plus side, the user must buy a completely new one rather than simply re-man it. On the negative side, neither can you.
Example Units:

• WE Nebelwerfer (This is actually an infantry manned weapon, like HMGs and AT Guns, so it can in fact be taken over)
  
• CW M7 Priest
  
• PE Hummel 150mm Mobile Howitzer

I'll rename this section once I come up with a better name for it... maybe "nuances" or something...

Anywho, there are quite a few forces at work in Company of Heroes that new players may be a little oblivious to, so lets cover them very quickly.

Cover - Scattered around the battlefield, there are tons of things that your soldiers can use as cover. Walls, rocks, trees, boxes, barrels, and perhaps most importantly, buildings. There are 5 stages of ambient cover:

• Negative Cover, which makes it MUCH easier to be hit and suppressed
  
• Neutral Cover, which doesn't change anything statistically speaking
  
• Medium Cover, which gives a small increase to survivability
  
• Heavy Cover, which gives a very large increase to survivability
  
• Very Heavy Cover, available through the British Slit Trenches

Buildings vary from bonuses to detriments, depending on the material the building is made out of, the number of windows, and so on. So there isn't a concrete way to describe building cover, but know this: ANY form of positive cover is good for keeping your units alive against almost all weaponry, but Flamethrowers are designed specifically for burning the enemy out of cover. If you see 13 Panther Tanks and a Flamethrower-Equipped Engineer squad coming towards a unit in cover, the engineer might just be the biggest threat. (An exaggeration of course but you get the idea)

Suppression - Machine Guns are deadly things. They spit enough lead out to make a Chinese Toy Factory collectively cower in fear, which is far more than enough to do something similar to a poorly trained rifleman. Suppression comes from every weapon in the game, but the only weapons that will effectively suppress infantry are HMGs, Mortars/Artillery, and Mines. The way suppression works is similar to filling a bucket with a hole in it; You need to keep pouring water in to fill it up, and even when it becomes full, it's still going to drain. It is because of this that normal small arms are not very effective at suppressing infantry. Each bullet has a suppression value, and HMG rounds are significantly more suppressive than others, matched with a high fire rate, causing a massive build-up of suppression.

Normally with no suppression, a unit is at full fighting capacity. Once they accumulate enough supression, the unit's icon will begin to blink yellow; Your unit(s) have entered the Suppressed state, and a number of things will happen; Your units will fire slower and less accurately, and they will move very slowly in a prone position. If they continue to sustain further suppression, they will enter the Pinned state; They will be completely immobile, and will fire very rarely and inaccurately; Your units are useful only as a target in this state, and they have absolutely NO chance of returning effective fire, unless your units get lucky enough to throw a grenade, but the reaction time is so dramatically slowed that the likelyhood of you successfully throwing a grenade is very very low.

In short, don't walk into a machine gun if you don't have a plan. If you do anyway, Retreat is likely your only option.

Armor/Penetration - When Tanks were first invented, anti-tank guns were subesquently made so that they could be combatted against by normal infantry. Normal small arms weren't powerful enough to pierce the heavy armor of the day, and armor only got heavier going into World War II (with the possible exception of the Russians but thats a different story).

Now that you've gotten an ultimately irrelevant history lesson, Penetration works in percentages, being that each weapon in the game has a percent chance to "pierce the armor" of EVERYTHING. That means, Tanks, Cars, Buildings, and even Infantry. However, the game isn't coded so that 57mm AT Rounds will bounce off Nazis (although that definitely would've helped). Penetration chances are increased on all vehicles by attacking from the rear, which is defined by the entire 180* Section that comprises the rear part of the tank. The following picture should describe it a bit better than I just tried to:


The Red are dictates all angles which would be considered a Rear Armor Hit.

The Light Green dictates all angles where it would NOT be a Rear Armor Hit.

Always try to aim for the rear armor if it won't result in your forces being decimated, as it will more likely cause full damage, and is significantly more likely to cause a critical hit, which will do things along the lines of disabling the engines, Breaking the Main Gun, and so on. Simultaniously, try to avoid getting your own rear armor hit, which can be more easily controlled by holding the right mouse button and drag in the direction you wish to face your vehicles. This also works for Machine Guns and Anti-Tank weapons, so be sure to utilise this so that you don't get flanked.

Terrain/Building Destruction - As you call in mortars, artillery, and other high-powered weapons on the map, the map itself will start to deform, and small dents in the map will form. If these craters become deep enough, infantry may be able to get a small amount of cover from them, which is something to consider while advancing. Building Destruction is one of the more obvious features, seeing as how every building has a health bar. Remember this as you decide where to put your artillery strikes, even if the enemy hasn't used a particular building yet. The reason why is because any building in friendly territory can be turned into...

Forward Barracks - If you find a neutral building in your territory, you are able to convert it into a reinforcement point for your forces by sending in infantry units. A "Convert to Barracks" button will appear after your forces occupy the building, assuming you are able to make one. If you want to spend 260 Manpower, which isn't a bad deal for a unit-producing structure on the frontlines, then the building will display flags of your faction, and will not be enterable by enemy forces unless they attempt to enter, at which point, it will try and un-capture the building, which will result in a 260 Manpower bust. Thus, you should consider the situation at hand before going for a forwards barracks.

Defensive Structures - You may notice that your engineer units have multiple Building menus. One contains your base buildings, and the other contains a list of Defensive Structures. Universal defensive structures include Barbed Wire Fences, Sand-Bags, Tank Traps, and mines. Also present are structures such as Machine Gun Nests and Bunkers, which are active defensive structures, which means that they can actually hurt units that come by similar to infantry (mines can also hurt, but you can't tell mines where to aim). The British have some more active defensive structures, but those will be covered in the faction specific guide. But these structures can be indespensible to a proper defensive strategist, with Barbed Wire directing infantry into a machine gun, Sand-Bags giving FREE Heavy Cover, and so on.

Tank combat in Company of Heroes involves a fair bit of Randomness to it. Unless you're playing Blitzkrieg mod, there WILL be times where what you wanted to happen, or worse yet what you needed to happen, will not, due to a bad "Penetration Roll", we'll call it.

Penetration in Company of Heroes involves Three basic parameters, each of which has more advaced sub-componoents to it. These components are:

• Base Penetration Value of the Attacker
  
• Range Between both the Attacker and the Target
  
• Recieved Penetration of the Target

The first part is self explanitory; If your gun isn't strong enough to penetrate armor in the first place, then chances are it probably won't have a fun time. An unfair but relevant example would be a Stuart tank versus a Tiger II. The Stuart's main gun simply isn't very strong to begin with, and thus would have trouble penetrating most armor at all.

The Second part of this is also relatively self explanitory. The further away your target is, the harder it wil be to punch through it's armor. There are a numbered amount of exceptions to this, so just always assume that closer to the target equals better combat odds offensively. Just don't forget that you'll be closer ot their gun as well.

The last part is a little tricky. To begin with, every Gun in the game has what's called a "Combat Table". This Combat Table lists almost every unit in the game, and how the gun will react to it; Basic Infantry, Sniper Infantry, Soldier Infantry, M4 Shermans, M10 Wolverines, Panzer IVs, Panthers, and so on.

Every non anti-vehicular small arm, for example, has a 100% base penetration chance, or a 1.00. However the Combat Table says that they should react to heavy armor by having a 0.001 multiplier for both Penetration and damage done. Chances are, you've probably 'pierced" the armor of a Sherman with an MP40 before, but the damage was quite literally negligible, so you would never have noticed. But the same goes for Tank Weaponry; Each weapon reacts to different units in a different fashion.

Whats more, the King Tiger uses the same "Target Model" as the normal Tiger. However, the King Tiger itself as a unit applies a 75% Recieved Penetration Modifier once it is built.

So let's do some math. Lets assume the base M4 Sherman has a base Penetration value of 0.80, or 80%. It's target is a Panther Tank. Both units have no veterancy. The Range is (in CoH jargan) 30 meters, which, according to the files of the Sherman's gun, would lower it's base Penetration to 0.76, or 76%. The Sherman's applied penetration modifier on a Panther target model is 0.60 (Hypothetically speaking; These numbers are all educated guesses).

Therefore, "Base Penetration * Gun-On-Target Modifier * Recieved Penetration = Total Chance to Penetrate". When applied, this is seen as "0.76 * 0.60 * 1.00", which equals 0.456. Thus a Sherman Tank (for the purpose of this example) has a 45.6% chance to Penetrate the armor of a Panther. Hitting the rear of a tank would apply another modifier which could simply be called a "Flanking Modifier". This would usually apply a large modifier like 1.5 or higher, dramatically improving the chances of faster but less armored vehicles like the Sherman.

Certain veterancy bonuses for the Americans can help to improve this number by about 25%, but Wehrmacht Veterancy offsets this to a point, as do Panzer Elite Defensive bonuses. There are also a plethora of abilities that enhance penetration, usually by about 25%.

Congratulations! You've successfully sat through my wordy schpeal on Company of Heroes. There is of course more to cover, specifically on the topics of the factions themselves, and maybe even Modding the game. But in terms of the basic things that you should know about for the game overall, this covers it to a good extent. For more information on the stuff that I probably missed, you can go to:

• The Company of Heroes Wikia[companyofheroes.wikia.com]
  
• Company of Heroes General Discussion Forum on Relic News[forums.relicnews.com]
  
• Company of Heroes Modding Forum on Relic News[forums.relicnews.com]

These are generally where I've learned everything I know about the base version of Company of Heroes. Also extremely creditable is Corsix's Mod Studio, a link to which can be found on the modding forum listed above, but thats a story for another day. If you have any questions, comments, or criticism, go for it in the comments. And yes, I fully realise that pretty much all the information I listed in this guide comes directly from the Wikia; Hell I pretty much did a complete knock-off of the Penetration Picture. But regardless, some people may prefer the format or accessability of this guide better.

So there.

CHANGELOG

October 9th, 2013 - Added the defensive structures to the "Other Things" Section, as I realise I completely forgot to mention them.

June 21st, 2014 - Fixed a part in the Medium Armor section of the General Unit Overview; thanks to "Brown" for finding it;
"Found a little problem with your Medium Armor section. The Sherman has more armor than the Cromwell, and the Cromwell has more speed, respectively."

Also added on to the section by providing some example units.

July 26th, 2015 - Added a section better detailing Penetration in combat involving tanks