Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies

Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies is the massive 2014 standalone multiplayer expansion for Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes 2.

After spending a year in the freezing, highly controversial, and grueling meat-grinder of the Eastern Front, Relic decided to return to their roots. This expansion shifted the theater of war back to the hedgerows, ruined French towns, and dense forests of the Western Front. Crucially, just like Opposing Fronts did for the first game, this was a standalone multiplayer release. You did not need to own the base CoH2 game to buy this expansion and immediately jump into competitive matchmaking.

Even better, it completely integrated the player bases: a player using the new US Forces could seamlessly match up against a player using the base game’s Soviet Red Army or Ostheer.

The Two New Factions: Extreme Asymmetry

This expansion introduced two of the most mechanically distinct, highly asymmetrical factions in franchise history, drastically altering the competitive meta.

• US Forces (USF): The masters of hyper-aggression and mobility. The USF does not build traditional base structures to tech up. Instead, their base is fully built at the start of the match. To unlock heavier units, players must spend resources to deploy specific Officers (the Lieutenant, Captain, and Major). Each officer fights on the field as a highly capable combat unit and simultaneously unlocks a new tier of vehicles and infantry. The USF relies on incredibly versatile Riflemen, weapon racks that allow infantry to dynamically grab bazookas or BARs, and the unique ability for their vehicle crews to physically hop out of their tanks to repair them mid-battle.
• Oberkommando West (OKW): Representing the elite, desperate, late-war German forces. The OKW fields the most heavily armored and deadly units in the game (like Obersoldaten infantry, the terrifying Sturmtiger, and the massive King Tiger tank), but they suffer from severe resource income penalties to balance their sheer power. Furthermore, they do not build bases in their HQ sector. Instead, they call in three sWS Half-tracks, which must be driven out onto the physical battlefield and deployed into massive forward operating bases (a Flak HQ, a Mechanized HQ, and a Panzer HQ). This allows them to secure territory and heal troops directly on the frontline, but leaves their tech structures highly vulnerable to enemy artillery.

Maps and The “War Spoils” System

Alongside the factions, the expansion introduced eight beautifully rendered new multiplayer maps set across the Western Front, featuring vibrant green countryside and shattered Belgian towns that stood in stark contrast to the bleak, snowy wastelands of the base game.

However, the expansion also introduced the War Spoils system. Moving away from standard progression, Relic implemented an RNG-based loot drop system where players randomly earned “supply crates” after matches containing passive stat-boosts (Bulletins), cosmetic vehicle skins, and premium Commanders. While the core faction gameplay was universally praised, this RNG loot system was heavily criticized by the community for being overly grindy and unrewarding. (Relic would eventually listen to the community, completely gutting and rebuilding the loot system a few years later to allow players to directly purchase exactly what they wanted with earnable in-game currency).

Development and Legacy

Released in June 2014, The Western Front Armies was exactly the shot in the arm that Company of Heroes 2 needed.

By bringing back the Americans and the late-war Germans, the expansion triggered a massive wave of nostalgia for the 2006 original. The USF and OKW were praised for requiring completely different mindsets and build orders compared to the Soviets and Ostheer. The success of this standalone multiplayer sandbox directly paved the way for the release of Ardennes Assault later that same year, which took the newly minted US Forces and gave them one of the greatest single-player campaigns in RTS history.

Key Features:

• Return to the West — Leave the freezing Russian winter behind and fight across eight brand-new maps set in the lush, war-torn environments of the Western Front.
• The US Forces — Master a hyper-mobile, highly aggressive Allied faction that utilizes battlefield Officers to unlock tech tiers and versatile, multi-role infantry.
• Oberkommando West — Command an elite, resource-starved Axis faction that builds its tech structures directly on the frontline and deploys massive late-war armor.
• Standalone Multiplayer — Jump directly into the competitive matchmaking pool without needing to own the base Company of Heroes 2 game.
• Cross-Front Matchups — Experience massive, chaotic “what-if” battles where the Western US Forces can clash with the Eastern Ostheer, or the OKW can fight the Soviet Red Army.

Release Platforms:

• Microsoft Windows (PC) — June 23, 2014
• macOS & Linux — August 2015
• (Currently available on Steam, functioning natively as an integrated part of the complete Company of Heroes 2 multiplayer client).