“Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.” –Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 4
In Company of Heroes adaptability is essential to victory. In one sentence, it can be summed up with negating your opponent’s advantages. If you can learn to master it perfectly you put defeat behind you because you are ready for anything the game, or your opponent can throw at you. It is my goal to teach you how to adapt in any circumstance that you will find in CoH, and you will learn to capitalize on what your opponent does – no matter what “super-over-powered-completely-unbeatable-strategy” he is using. The truth is that in any remotely well designed game there is no sequence of actions that will allow you to win no matter what your opponent does. A player wins in strategy by forcing his opponent into a series of actions that are going to make him lose. Just like a game of chess is over many moves before the last one, so is CoH. There are certainly imbalances in CoH, but there is no magic mixture of units that can beat any other unit mixes, equal resources provided. Some units do their job too well, but it is your job to take that advantage away from your opponent. How will his horde of Marders beat your horde of AT infantry? How will his Commandos or Fallschrimjagers beat your tanks?
“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.” –Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 4
This quote means that you can secure yourself against being beaten by making sure you are prepared for anything, but you must actually win by exploiting what your opponent does. Basically, what you need to do is play the game so you force your opponent down a path he can’t win with. A good example of this is by gaining fuel control you decide where you tech up, you don’t get forced into it. It is crucial you adapt to what your opponent does, but you actually initiate the cycle of adaptation by forcing your opponent to adapt first, and then you capitalize on his initial adaptation with one of your own. You need to force your opponents hand and then adapt, not have your hand forced and your opponent adapt to you. This helps you change the battlefield so that you don’t get stuck in a hole that you can’t get out of. It is entirely possible to win without initiating the first cycle of adaptation, but much harder. My goal is to teach you how to win in both cases in case something goes wrong (which is very likely to happen, this is warfare).
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - George S Patton
If in this example you are the American faction, playing against a Wehrmacht opponent and you have control of both fuels. In this situation you decide if you want to get upgraded Rifleman or rush a Quad or even a Crocodile. Your opponent is forced into either teching to tier 2 (and thereby forfeiting a fast tier 3), which counters your upgraded Rifleman) because if a Quad comes out too quickly he won’t have any way to respond. This is something you can use to your advantage because if you think he is worried about you getting tanks you can get snipers and upgraded rifleman – the perfect counter to a T2 army. Your opponent will probably adapt to this and ease up on buying anti-tank to increase his chances in the game vs. your infantry strong army. This is where you spring your trap because all along you meant for him to do this and now you have a crocodile tank out because you still controlled the fuel. This doesn’t sound much like adapting, and it really is not because you force your opponent into something– but the point is to show a good example of how you trap your opponent and force him into a hole he can not possibly hope to climb out of.
Now it is going to be a rare game where you manage to defeat your opponent without altering your plan at all. The key to adaptation is to realize that victory is your only goal all along – you give your opponent a slight push to force his hand and then you punish him for showing that hand. What you do is force your opponent to make a decision like going tier 2, or tier 3, and then you purchase what units you need to defeat what your opponent bought. Adaptability in CoH is achieving victory no matter what circumstances affect the battlefield. These are often hard to fore-see before the fight begins no matter how much you play and how many replays you watch. Whatever happens, you need to be able to make up traps for your opponent dynamically – not just watching what the ‘pros’ do or using pre-programmed responses. Always remember that you are never in the exact same situation as anyone else, and no one else will ever be in your exact same situation as you so trying to use the same tools as someone else to solve your problem is going to be disastrous.
Next we are going to focus on the ‘shit hits the fan’ side of adaptation. It obviously takes more skill to successfully pull this off than making a strong first move and simply riding out your opponent’s attempted counters. What happens after all, if you get in a situation where your attempt at a strong first move is a failure? Or you get pushed into making a permanent decision? Here is an example: you trying to force your opponent on to the left side of Angoville by taking control of the bottom right-hand side house (you are top, your opponent is bottom) and you take the house but your opponent has taken the top-right hand side house and cut you off. You both have each other cut off from the right hand side, so do you try to push him off your cut-off point to get the ‘blood flowing’ again? Do you try to link up by the left hand side to negate the advantage of your opponent’s strong position on your cut-off point (which has now lost its advantage as you are not really cut off)? There are technically millions of moves that you can execute now, but only a few optimal ones (meaning you’re massing your troops in the strongest formations and distributions).
Remember, you want to negate your opponent’s advantage of having the left-hand side and cutting you off on your right-hand side by taking away the actual cut-off. This can be done by linking your territory up with a few strategic points. He can move his forces to try and cut off your new route of supply, but then you can take back the buildings guarding your original resource route. He can move a small amount of forces to the new route, while keeping a few men in the crucial houses so you can’t move in there. Now he is split and provided you have all your forces together, you can fight him off at your new link-up route. This should be easy, as he does not have all his men in one place and you do (provided an even battle at this point) you will win by a landslide. 5 Rifleman Squads vs. 3 Volksgrenadier Squads means that the American player will win not just with two Rifle Squads left, but somewhere around 4 relatively healthy ones. Now the American player (you) can go and take out the two remaining squads in the buildings with relative ease and take control of the map while your opponent sits in his base and regroups.
“And if we are able thus to attack an inferior force with a superior one, our opponents will be in dire straits” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 6
Here is an example a little later on in the game, with you as the adapter. You are playing Wehrmacht on the bottom of Angoville, and your opponent as Americans on the top. Your opponent has controlled the fuel the entire game up to this point (about 7 minutes into the game) and his absence of Rifleman upgrades tells you that he is rushing an anti infantry impact unit (most likely a quad). You do not have the fuel to beat him to tier 3 or even match him – but you have had two high munitions and a medium munitions connected almost the entire time. You should have enough fuel to get to T2 and pump out some grenadiers with Panzershreks. This negates practically any advantage your opponent had in rushing a Quad, as it can only stay in combat for around 10-15 seconds before it is forced to retreat against even one Panzershrek. The Grenadiers also help out against Riflemen, and with a bit of veterancy they will eat even fully upgraded Riflemen alive. By negating your opponent’s advantage you take the initiative and now get to attack, as opposed to being forced to try and fend off your opponent’s advances without being over-run.Now let’s say shit has really hit the fan and you don’t have enough munitions for more than a single Panzershrek. This may be enough to fend off armored cars but will have a hard time against two Quads, or even a supported Quad and M8. You will need to get a PaK gun out as manpower-only anti tank, because you don’t have the munitions to invest in a more rounded solution (grenadiers with shrecks do well against both Riflemen and armor, the PaK does not). It is a classic example of negating your opponent’s advantages.
It is also important to remember that you should adapt to the map and terrain as well. Don't forget what I have taught you about negating the enemy's advantages and maximizing your own. It is also important to remember that your opponent is likely to adapt to your strategy, even if your strategy is just an adaption to what he did. Remember to strike while your iron is hot, if you have the initiative you need to milk it for all its worth, because when your opponent counters you'll lose ground. In the end this cycle is about maximization/minimization. Maximize your time that you have with your superior (adapted) forces, and minimize your opponent's time when he has hard counters on his side.
May not be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of Steven "Suprise" Uray.
No comments:
Post a Comment