Thank GhostWarrior its Friday!: Company of Heroes 2

Hi there, 

It’s Friday so it’s time for my Friday update! I thought an obvious starting point would be Company of Heroes 2. 

Along with Verdun, this is probably SB5’s most played game and certainly our most played Strategy Game. We converted to COH2 from COH and on the whole it was improvements all round. If you’ve not played COH2 it’s a WW2 RTS. The factions include; Wehrmacht, Oberkommando West, US Forces, Soviet Union and as of September, The British Forces.

An old favourite of mine, the Elefant Tank Destroyer. Despite being and infantry commander, the lure of these wonderfully moddeled vehicles is always there

There’s a nice variety of units. Light infantry, Assault Infantry, Anti-tank infantry, Snipers, Scout Tanks, Heavy Tanks and Tank Destroyers to name but a few! For those of you familiar with the COH series it retains (and in my opinion, streamlines) the doctrine system. Every faction gets a wide selection of ‘vanilla’ units. Before the battle you can select from a growing number of Commanders that give you additional special units (like Elefant Tank Destroyers) and abilities (like Air Support). With SB5 games this is a key part of our strategy, and we plan before the battle who’s doing what.

A rough outline of SB5 strategy is to push out to a defensive line (preferably somewhere that limits the enemy frontage such as bridges or cliffs). My roll tends to be the assault force. So while I provide some units for the defence I’ll be building up an assault force. This is always a difficult choice for me because by nature I’m and infantry commander. I love nothing more than elite infantry rushing from Coldsteel’s defensive line, bombing from crater to crater supported by accurate artillery from Tinglyed, but in bigger games infantry tend to be a bit fragile so I usually end up attacking with tanks (although with some beautifully modelled Tiger I’s, T34-85’s, IS-2’s and Elefants it’s not a terrible second choice). I will note that COH2 makes it easier to look after infantry than the original COH.

Post battle statistcs: the mainstay of RTS gaming. Also proof that while they are fragile, infatry can be a viable option even in big games.

There’s some great gameplay features including ‘true-sight’; this means that while all units have a spotting radius, it can be blocked by buildings, hedges and hills. The intelligent squad movement system the original COH is carried over.

There’s a fairly active Steam community surrounding COH2 with lots of community maps. Some of the original maps have been well remade for the sequel. All in all, it’s a fantastic sequel that defiantly improves on the original and has the characteristic great visuals and replayability of the Company of Heroes series.  

Thanks for tuning in! Have a great weekend

GhostWarrior

ZOMBIES!

Hi,

As I mentioned in my Intro post I mentioned that I was working on a wargame of my own called....

Re-cention

Its a small squad level game set about 120 years after a Zombie Apocalypse, and humanity is starting to rebuild. The burgeoning settlements are now starting to expand into each others territory, which has of course lead to conflict

Two Groups of Fighters battle it out in close quarters

Use of cover is essential

 Of course a Zombie game would not be complete without Zombies, and since the apocalypse is now out of living memory, people have learnt how to deal with them - Single Zombies are easy to dispatch but a horde will overwhelm even the best fighters.

Zombies can become an annoyance, left unchecked they become a serious threat  

Trapped between the Enemy and the Zombies.... What would you do?

I've only just started play testing so there are still a lot of creases to iron out, but it seems that it'll turn out to be a fun, quick wargame that will force players to make some rather difficult choices. I'll keep you guys updated as it goes!

See you next time!

NFTR

Coldsteel

Tinglyed

Looks like I'm second, so here goes my introduction...

I'm Tinglyed, although I go by Colonel Scipio on the blogosphere.  If you play Verdun, and you've ever been machine-gunned from halfway across the map you may be familiar with my Verdun name  of [SB5]MG08/15.  I'll give you a quick rundown of my games:

Wargaming

I already have quite an extensive blog detailing all my wargaming.  I used to be big into WH40K, but now I've moved on to historical, including 2mm.  We often like to run extensive, immersive sandbox campaigns like our American Civil War one a few months back.

I also have lots of Pre-Dreadnought Naval, Mordheim, WW2... you get the idea.  Basically I play immersive games quite casually with mates.

Online Gaming

Online I play a bit of a mish-mash really, I have over a hundred games on Steam and I love pretty much all of them, but to summarize I mainly play historical RTS and FPS games.  Two big ones are Company of Heroes 2 and Verdun.

When I'm on COH2 with the rest of the SB5 gang, I often play a support role.  Lots of mortars, AAA, rear-line security troops - allowing the others to smash forwards with 'fighting troops'.  My big love is artillery, and many's the time SB5 have advanced across the map under an expertly-micromanaged rolling barrage of 105 shells.  Hurrah!

In Verdun, my first love is the Landser machine gunner.  Before my last account was wiped I had about 35,000 kills and 350,000 rounds fired - testimony to my favored tactics of suppressing fire, or firing constantly into a gap and wait for the enemies to appear.  Although I do get stuck in when needed, I'm very much a long-range gunner!

I also like to bring my love of artillery to the trenches, so if we're not playing as Landsers I often go as the officer to call in artillery.  Of course this is a popular role so we have to take turns - but Coldsteel likes to play machine gunner to so mixing it up gives us all chance to play the roles.

I'll try to do some updates in the future about tactics etc, and what we're all up to.

Thanks for reading,

Tinglyed

Ghost Warrior

Hi all,

Just thought I’d start by introducing myself. I’m GhostWarrior and currently studying towards a history degree (combined with a nine month old daughter leads to an interesting work/life/game balance!)

Tabletop Wargames:

I’ve been a table top wargamer since I was 11 (I’m 28 now) and got in to the hobby through Warhammer/ Warhammer 40K. However, since I’m not the CO of a major international computer company I can’t afford GW products which (among other things) has led to a very satisfying shift towards more historical wargaming. Having recently finished an ACW and ECW 2mm campaign I’m now looking at running my own Arab-Israeli air war campaign. I still have some left overs from my 40K days including a Strom Wolves (my own chapter) command squad. I also have some 28mm ACW confederate sharpshooters and 28mm fallschirmjäger. Having a child has a major impact on your expendable income, but if you're smart then theres still a world of gaming oppertunities out there.

 Haakon, leader of the Storm Wolves 1st Company. Wonderfully painted by Tinglyed

Online gaming:

I’ve been online gaming for about the same amount of time. Traditionally my role in SB5 (as far as FPS’s go) has been the roll of Sniper. Something about sitting at the back of the map and picking off unsuspecting Machine Gunners is quite satisfying. However, I’ve recently undergone in a shift in tactical thinking and become a huge advocate of offensive spirit. This has changed the way I play a lot of online games (including Verdun, CoH2, Total War 2 to name a few), being much more aggressive and favouring the Grenadier role particularly in Verdun. In strategy games, I tend to play the assault role having a fast moving, hard hitting force focused on a point to break through the enemy lines and into the enemy rear. 

Me and Tinglyed Sturming down a trench in RO2. It was interest in the First World War (in particular in German Stormtrooper units) that really kickstarted a shift in my tactical thinking.

I’m aiming to do a weekly update with general musing about something military/ gaming orientated every Friday.

Look forward to hearing from you all in the future!

GhostWarrior

Welcome to SB5 Gaming!

Hello and Welcome!



Welcome to the online home of the SB5 gaming group, a group of friends that have a mutual love for games and gaming, both online and wargames.



Ill let the others introduce themselves, so for now a little about me...



I am Coldsteel, an aspiring Computer Game Designer and am currently working on a wargame of my own (watch this space). I have a live and let live approach to playing wargames and share the belief that if a game is not fun then its not something that I'd want to continue putting my time into. I'm always up for a challenge and tend to get stuck in when playing solo. I have a wide collection of models and armies and enjoy trying out different tactics.



Playing online is a little different - with Strategy games like Company of Heroes I take up a support role, taking up defensive positions while the others get their attack forces up, then I use a small, hard hitting force to back up the man attack and use surgical strikes to help the other guys out.

In FPS's I usually play as a either a gunner, suppressing the enemy before the others get stuck in, or I pick up a gun that spits out a torrent of bullets and a few grenades and get in hard and fast!



I also run another blog chronicling my Warhammer 40000 space marine chapter which you can check out here



I've also invested in some video capture software so hopefully you'll be able to see us play soon!



That's all for now, thanks for stopping by and I look forward to see you around!



NFTR



Coldsteel