Company of Heroes 3: Fire & Steel

Game Info

Company of Heroes 3: Fire and Steel is a Battlegroup DLC pack consisting of four Battlegroups for Multiplayer and Co-Op/ skirmish vs AI. US Forces – Heavy Weapons Battlegroup Superior team weapons and halftracks control the battlefield before heavy armor arrives to finish the fight. Requisition .50 cal heavy machine guns or off-map batteries of the devastating Black Dragon howitzer as part of Weapons Team support, or call in the Cavalry, with Assault half-track variants, 3-inch towed Anti-tank guns, and the implacable M26 Pershing heavy tank. Wehrmacht – Terror Battlegroup Shatter the enemy’s willpower with airstrikes, suppression and superior infantry tactics. Devastating heavy weapons will destroy anything that remains standing. Use unorthodox Terror Tactics such as field interrogations, the Stuka’s iconic Jericho Trumpet, or V1 Rocket Strikes to force the enemy from the field, or show the enemy no quarter with Weapon Superiority and the King Tiger heavy tank. British Forces – Canadian Shock Battlegroup Seize territory to gain unparalleled momentum on the battlefield, and deploy powerful incendiary weapons to displace any who dare deny your movement. Call upon Canadian Shock Sections and aggressive battlefield tactics to secure ground in a Shock Assault, or deny the enemy what they stubbornly refuse to cede with Incendiary Weapons, including the indefatigable Churchill Crocodile. Afrikakorps – Panzerjäger Kommand Battlegroup Cripple the enemy’s advance with defensive obstacles, enabling powerful anti-armor weapons to make the killing blow. Use Stalling tactics, including Roadblocks, Minefields and Defensive Positions to buy the time you need to deploy your forces; elite Tank Busters and Tank Hunting tactics including the Elefant Tank Destroyer will crush even the strongest enemy armor.

Name

Companies

Relic Entertainment

Released

2/25/2025

Platforms

PC (Microsoft Windows)

Type

Real Time Strategy (RTS)

Social Networks

0

izigame

members favorited

Reviews

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 1:29:42 PM

136 Steam users votes up

Harris

Steam user

Let's start with a few words of background. After going independent, Relic decided its way of supporting CoH 3 shall be battlegroup packs. This is problematic for following reasons:
1) Battlegroups require more resource investment in terms of assets and such, and necessitate making content on a scale Relic can no longer afford;
2) Battlegroups are themselves not without flaws, in some ways they are inferior to commanders system we had in 2. Having to choose between two unlocks every step of the way means there will inevitably be meta picks, every battlegroup will be mostly played a certain way, effectively reducing it to a CoH 2 commander. Creating a situation where CoH 3 is perceived as having less content than the last game.
3) You can realistically only go so far in terms of making every battlegroup have unique content, eventually it all devolves into either meaningless reskins of things that already exist, or reuse of things from other battlegroups, that is starting to sound too similar to CoH 2 commanders.
All of it leading to a reality where the content takes too long to make and the game is barely updated. And then there's Relic and the game's community, whose goals are entirely different. We got a half-baked game that spread itself thin on "features" nobody asked for like console release and turn-based campaign. So we're obviously looking forward to the game making a comeback, being showered with free content and stuff. Meanwhile as Relic went independent, it needs money, and it needs money RIGHT NOW. And so we're pushed into this toxic relationship where Relic is no longer able to bring us joy it would in the good old days, and our choice is effectively limited to either buying mediocre overpriced DLC like this one, or putting a once renowned gamemaker out of its misery.
Now that we've set the stage for this review, let's look at the DLC itself. We have 4 battlegroups that, for months, were advertised as "heavy tank battlegroups". However, they are not - they're just your average battlegroups filled with random stuff that just so happen to have a heavy tank at the very end. When I think of a heavy tank battlegroup, I think of something like CoH 2's Armored Assault or Soviet Industry. Abilities for better tank performance, survivability, repair, economic ability to get them on the battlefield earlier. You won't find any of that in this DLC.
Speaking of earlier, the whole problem with heavy tanks that had to be addressed while making such DLC was to allow them to be used before 30 minute mark - when, you know, the game is already over. It was to balance heavy tanks against other units on the battlefield. So how does Relic address this issue? It... doesn't. These tanks will only be seen at the end of a drawn-out 4v4 game, and even then the sacrifices needed are just not worth it. Unfortunately, Relic's approach to risk&reward when it comes to heavy tanks is all risk and no reward.
But alright, maybe this random battlegroups they are selling us under the guise of "heavy tanks" are actually good? No, they're not. And if you've read my preface with inherent flaws of battlegroups you're gonna understand why. Take the new DAK battlegroup for example. At the beginning, you have to choose between minefields and roadblocks. Like, I'm not joking, the entire ability is building roadblocks. And those roadblocks are nothing more than a reskin of tank traps already in the game, with the sole difference being they can't be crushed even by heavy tanks... which basically don't exist anyway. Why were this two abilities not rolled into one, like CoH 2 would have it?
Well, maybe the British BG is better? Meet Canadian Shock Troops, which are basically Jagers 2.0 - a 6-man squad that can be upgraded with 1 PIAT that wrecks tanks AND damages infantry. That's after the community has been begging for months to get rid of all-purpose infantry that encourages blobbing... American Heavy Weapons? You get .50 cal machine guns, you get clown cars... Problem is, I already played all of that in CoH 2, for over 1000 hours I may add. I don't see any new idea in this DLC that would serve to meaningfully improve my experience. All those units and abilities are cannibalized CoH 2 factions, especially the Soviets. Regurgitating them in 2025 is a clear sign of creative bankruptcy.
I bought this against better judgment just to keep lights on at Relic. But make no mistake - at this point it's palliative care.