Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies (PC)

The original Company of Heroes received a pair of expansion packs, so it was only a matter of time before the sequel got one as well. This time, however, the multiplayer experience and not the single player campaign has been extended.

The Western Front Armies is a standalone expansion that does not require the original game to play. Installing numerous expansion packs on top of a game can be a bit unwieldy, so it’s nice to be able to install Western Front Armies without needing the original game.

The new armies

Company of Heroes 2 focused on the Russians’ fight against the Nazis during World War II, and the Germans are represented with their Oberkommando West army in Western Front Armies. The other new addition is the US army, which comes with different attributed to the other forces in the game.

The Oberkommando is a mechanised force that uses a supply truck as its forward operating base. Instead of upgrading and reinforcing a standard, stationary headquarters, the supply truck can be repositioned and deployed as a command centre anywhere on your territory.

The focus of the US army is on infantry and the ability to switch out their weapons on the fly. Depending on the battle conditions, infantry can be easily called back and armed with such weapons as rifles and bazookas.

A team experience

In addition to the two new armies, Western Front Armies comes with new multiplayer maps. Like most maps in Company of Heroes 2, they are well-balanced and provide a decent challenge when playing against other people online.

The multiplayer focus of Western Front Armies may come as a disappointment to fans who were expecting a new single player campaign. It would have been nice to have used the two new armies and maps during scripted missions.

The expansion is reasonably priced, but some might find it pricey for an expansion that only contains new multiplayer armies and maps. The retail edition has both armies, but there is the option to buy them individually as DLC.