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Josh is the Lead Designer of Company of Heroes and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. Thank you to the members of our community who participated in this Question and Answer.

Q from Phizzle: “How did you choose what type of playstyle to base the new armies on?”

A: We had two goals with the new armies. First, we wanted armies that would introduce unique play styles to Company of Heroes. Secondly, we wanted Opposing Fronts armies to have a good dynamic without the other armies. In terms of play styles, history helped out. We knew the next Chapter for CoH would conclude the D-Day story and this mean the British. Historically the British and Commonwealth armies were characterized by a more cautious, defensive nature. For the Panzer Elite again history was the main inspiration. The German doctrine of Kampfgruppes (or battlegroups) suggested a small fast moving and hard-hitting army based around Panzer Grenadier doctrines.

Q from High Elven Lord: “Why was the decision made to give the "Panzer Elite" giant concrete structures despite their offensive play style?”

A: They’re sure distinctive aren’t they? All the Axis forces have heavy buildings to signify that they’ve been in Europe for years and have had time to establish themselves.

Q from High Elven Lord: “What was the design reason behind giving the "Panzer Elite" more Halftracks and armored vehicles than actual Panzer tanks?”

A: The root of the Panzer Elite has always been based on the Kampfgruppe (battlegroup) doctrine employed by the Germans. From the beginning it was designed as a mobile and hard-hitting force comprised of elite infantry, supported by specialized vehicles and armor,.

I can see that the inclusion of the word “panzer” leads some to expect “tanks” specifically but by-and-large the Panzer Elite has its fair share of tanks: Panzer IVfs, Wiberwinds and Panthers. It’s the Tank Hunters (Marder, Hetzer and Jagdpanther) that gives it its bite.

I always wanted to call the army Kampfgruppe Lehr which is what the unit you fight with in the single-player game is called, but Panzer Elite I think does a better job at defining the army: it’s an elite mechanized force. It does not fight with number and a tonne of tanks, but with finesse, skill and speed.  

Q from Dragonfire86: “ Who did the historical research for OF and why did you end up having Germans based on tank hunters and the Wehrmacht based on Tanks?”

A from Quinn Duffy, Relic Designer: Part of the difficulty in designing new armies for a WW2 based game is that there aren’t really very many ‘armies’ to use, so instead, we look to elements of those armies for inspiration. We wanted to look at the spectrum of armies we had, and find some new roles. The British are the most defensive on the spectrum, then the Wehrmacht, then the Americans and the Panzer Elite are the most mobile. The most mobile type of unit in the German army was the Panzer Grenadier, or Mechanized Infantry battalion. Panzer Grenadier battalions used lots of halftracks for firepower and support, and provided the maneuver and recon element for Panzer Divisions. We also wanted to differentiate the types of units in the army – the halftracks and infantry are very mobile, while the heavy hitting units require some forethought and set up to be really effective. It makes for an interesting combination.

Q from Purplemonkey177: “What other ideas for the expansion pack were considered but eventually tossed?”

A: I could tell you, but then I would vanish. I am being watched.

Q from ILegiosa: “What is your favourite part of the day?”

A: Getting coffee first thing in the morning. It’s tradition. Seriously it is. This is something that a small cadre of us have been doing since the Homeworld days, Nice stroll to the local café then back to the office to blow stuff up (in the game). Next up, just about every time something new goes into the game. It’s like Christmas sometimes.

Q from Stinger911: “What is the basic over-arching design philosophy of the multiplayer aspect of Opposing Fronts as compared to regular CoH? In particular, I'm referencing Americans vs Wehrmacht compared to British vs Panzer Elite.”

A: We wanted to really increase the Team-Based aspect of CoH with Opposing Fronts.

Q from ChocoboKnight99: “How often do you guys get to come online to play the game?”

A: As often as we can... during this stage of development it is pretty hectic (I wish I could have a web-cam strapped to my head so you guys see what shipping a game is like). But we do play online, in fact a number of our artists and animators are pretty involved. They just keep their identities secret.

Q from natrapsmai: “How do you receive input from the beta testers and use that input to formulate a better design?

A: By reading the forums and listening to what you and the Balance Team have to say. We then take that information, run our own tests to devise a number of solutions and test them until we’re happy. I will be honest and say that we were not as responsive on CoH, mainly because our patching process was slow, and because we were also working on two whole new armies. We’ve implemented a few systems to allow us to be more agile when responding to issues. Things like Beta Patches that are distributed to our community will allow us to better incorporate feedback once OF ships.

Q from Phazon88: “Will the weather carry over to the older vCoH maps if someone has both games?”

A: Weather will be available on all CoH and OF maps.

Q from Iro43: “What was the reasoning behind the decision to replace the Tiger Ace with the King Tiger? Was it a part of the tank hunters doctrine but then for one reason or another (imbalanced, too many tanks?) you moved it over to the Wehrmacht, or was the king tiger intended for the Wehrmacht from the beginning? If it’s the latter, can we expect other new units for the Americans or Wehrmacht?”

A: The King Tiger was always on the wish list for COH. In fact the Tiger Ace in single-player was supposed to be the King Tiger. So when we started OF we finally got the chance to add the real deal. I always felt like we cheated you guys by giving you a “tiger-ace” in name only.

In terms of new units for the Americans consider the King Tiger an experiment. J

Q from Dragoon7: “What aspect do you think the CoH dev team works are you most impressed / proud of? (balance, map design, new content creation, new gameplay ideas, time between concept and implementation.)”

A: Wow. You know, I can’t speak for everyone so I won’t try but I can say for myself what I am most proud of is all the individual work everyone on the team did to make CoH and OF the games that they are. There are literally hundreds of thousands of man-hours that have gone into the game and every minute of that was under the pursuit of making the most cinematic, immersive and visceral game possible. Looking at it that way, I can’t pick one single thing since CoH and OF without looking at the total picture. It’s been a great adventure and we’re only just starting.