Company of Heroes players are able to play against Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts users. Those who own both games can either play as the Americans or the British against the Wehrmacht or the Panzer Elite. Those who own only Company of Heroes can play only as the American or Wehrmacht armies.
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British 2nd Army
The British are the new Allied army in the series. Their primary advantages are defensive. A greater number of static defences can be built, such as slit trenches and anti-tank emplacements. These emplacements have an associated population and manpower cost to prevent the map being overrun with defences. Their standard unit, the Infantry Section, has stances that alters their speed and reactions. Though more effective than their American counterparts, most British infantry move slower in neutral or hostile territory unless led by a Lieutenant or Captain, which are extremely expensive. The British mainly rely on officers, such as the Captain, Lieutenant and the Cromwell Command Tank, to improve effectiveness. British bases can be packed up and redeployed at different positions, but at the cost of freezing resource income. Veterancy for the British is also unique. Only officers can become veterans. As they gain rank, they gain new abilities and benefits for their soldiers. Infantry units can become more mobile if mounted in the Bren Gun Carrier, and engineers get support from the fast moving Stuart tank early in the game.
The command trees for the British army in the game are based on famous branches of British and Commonwealth armed forces. The three trees are:
Royal Canadian Artillery: this heavy-artillery based regiment allows the player to use creeping barrage, counter-battery fire, overwatch, and allows the player to deploy Priest Self Propelled Gun and supercharge artillery shots.
Royal Commandos: players who choose this regiment can deploy commandos, who are adept at harassing enemy infantry, and the light Tetrarch tank via a Hamilcar Glider. As long as the glider remains on the field, it is capable of producing specific units (depending on which glider was called in), as well as in certain cases reinforcing nearby units, although all gliders apart from the HQ glider must be in connected territory to produce more units. Other abilities include tracing enemy troop movements, intercepting Axis messages, and planting decoy flares. This regiment is inspired from the Parachute Regiment, SAS and the 6th Airborne Division which saw action during the Normandy campaign.
Royal Engineers: this regiment gives players access to three variations of the Churchill tank (MkIV, AVRE and Crocodile), improves entrenchments and the mobile H.Q, and allows tanks to entrench themselves.
German Panzer Elite
The Panzer Elite, also called the Kampfgruppe Lehr is a faction designed by the game developers who draw their inspiration from the Panzer Lehr Division and mish-mash of German units that opposed the Allied forces in Operation Market Garden, including the 2nd SS Panzer Corps and Luftwaffe paratroopers.
The Panzer Elite mainly focuses on speed and vehicles. They cannot build static defenses apart from a few doctrine-specific heavy weapons. They rely instead on the use of halftracks and similar light vehicles to hold territory and increase resource income. They also don't use support weapon crews, instead they use support halftracks, for example, instead of an anti-tank gun, they have an anti-tank halftrack. Unlike other players' halftracks, Panzergrenadiers (the standard Panzer Elite infantry) can fire heavy weapons, such as Panzerschrecks, StG44 automatic rifles, or mortars, from inside the vehicle. They can also repair vehicles, but at a slower pace than standard engineer units. At the same time, the Panzer Elite has Kettenkrads and Bergetiger repair units.
The three doctrines for the Panzer Elite are:
Scorched Earth Tactics: Allows the player to construct environmental defenses (i.e., blocking a road, or sector artillery). Players can also completely disable or booby trap strategic points or buildings and use the Hummel Mobile Artillery Platform.
Luftwaffe Tactics: Allows the player to deploy Wirbelwind flakpanzers, Henschel Hs 129 ground attack aircraft and Fallschirmjäger. Luftwaffe ground forces install Flakvierling and FlaK 88 turrets, and can blanket areas with Butterfly Bombs (with Type 70 fuses). Players using this doctrine also receive advanced repair even if the player has not researched the skill yet. This allows them to repair vehicles far faster than the standard Panzergrenadiers.
Tank Destroyer Tactics: Allows the player to deploy Jagdpanther and Hetzer tank destroyers, while the infantry has improved ability to detect and engage enemy tanks. Panzergrenadiers also gain access to Tellermines and squads are issued a double number of Panzerschrecks and anti-tank grenades.
