Company of Heroes 3

Company of Heroes 3 is the massive 2023 real-time strategy sequel developed by Relic Entertainment. Arriving a full decade after the freezing meat-grinder of the Eastern Front in CoH2, this third installment completely shifted the theater of war. It bathed the franchise in the bright, sun-drenched, and treacherous environments of the Mediterranean Theater, focusing entirely on the Allied invasion of Italy and the sprawling desert tank battles of North Africa.

At launch, it was the largest and most ambitious game in the franchise’s history, launching with more playable factions, more units, and more campaign content than any previous Company of Heroes game.

The Two Campaigns: Sandbox vs. Classic

To satisfy both new players and hardcore traditionalists, Relic split the single-player experience into two entirely distinct campaigns:

• The Italian Dynamic Campaign: Building heavily on the beloved meta-map from CoH2: Ardennes Assault, this is a massive, sandbox-style grand strategy experience. You command the combined US and British forces pushing north from Sicily into Rome. You manage naval assets, establish supply lines, call in partisan strikes, and physically move companies across an interactive map of Italy. When a battle initiates, you drop down into the classic RTS layer to fight the skirmish. Furthermore, it introduced the Full Tactical Pause, allowing single-player commanders to freeze the game, queue up multiple commands, and watch the chaos unfold perfectly synced.
• The North African Operation: A much more traditional, linear, narrative-driven RTS campaign. Played from the perspective of the Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK) pushing back the British, it strips away the grand strategy map in favor of highly curated, classic, vehicle-heavy missions that tell a parallel story of the local civilian population caught in the crossfire.

Four Asymmetrical Factions

For the first time in series history, the game launched with four fully distinct multiplayer factions, utilizing a new Battlegroup system (the evolution of Commanders and Doctrines) that allows players to highly customize their tech trees mid-match:

• US Forces (USF): Highly aggressive and versatile, relying heavily on Airborne paratroopers, Special Operations, and elite infantry squads capable of dynamic frontline assaults.
• Wehrmacht: The traditional, heavily entrenched German defensive force. They rely on methodical, terrifying combined-arms pushes, devastating artillery, and robust Luftwaffe support.
• British Forces: The resilient masters of positional warfare, featuring sturdy infantry, devastating Indian Artillery support, and iconic mid-game armor like the Matilda and Crusader tanks.
• Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK): A hyper-mobile, highly mechanized faction built explicitly for the open desert. Almost their entire army relies on half-tracks and light armor, and their infantry gain massive combat buffs when fighting directly alongside vehicles.

Gameplay Innovations and the Essence Engine

Built on a massive update to Relic’s proprietary Essence Engine, CoH3 refined the core mechanics (like TrueSight and directional cover) while introducing several major tactical additions:

• Verticality: Elevation is no longer just cosmetic. Units sitting on a cliff face or second-story building now receive massive accuracy and line-of-sight advantages over troops below, completely changing how mountainous maps are played.
• Breaching: Instead of just throwing a grenade at a garrisoned building or blowing it up with a tank, specialized infantry can now physically breach structures, flushing out the enemy and instantly taking control of the building.
• Side Armor and Towing: Vehicle combat was deepened with the calculation of side armor, rewarding perfectly angled ambushes. Additionally, light vehicles can now physically hitch and tow heavy anti-tank guns (like the legendary Flak 36 or British 17-pounder) across the map, making defensive lines much more mobile.
• Tank Riding: Infantry squads can jump onto the back of medium and heavy tanks, allowing for rapid, combined-arms strikes across large distances.

Development, Independence, and the 2026 Expansion

Company of Heroes 3 had a somewhat bumpy launch in early 2023. While the core tactical gameplay was praised, some veteran players criticized the UI, early balance issues, and a lack of specific quality-of-life features present at the end of CoH2‘s lifecycle.

However, the post-launch story of this game is a massive triumph. In early 2024, Relic Entertainment officially spun out from Sega to become a fully independent studio. With their newfound independence, they doubled down on the Company of Heroes community. Over the next two years, they relentlessly patched the game, overhauled the UI, and released a massive string of highly praised expansions that completely transformed the multiplayer sandbox.

The 2025 Fire & Steel expansion successfully reintroduced franchise-favorite super-heavy armor (like the King Tiger and the M26 Pershing). Currently, the community is gearing up for the highly anticipated Dare & Destroy DLC, releasing globally on May 14, 2026. This massive update introduces four brand-new Battlegroups—including the highly requested Free French forces for the US and the brutal Siege Breaker tactics for the Wehrmacht—proving that the franchise is healthier and more dynamic than ever.

Key Features:

• The Mediterranean Theater — Fight across the sweeping deserts of North Africa and the treacherous, highly vertical mountain passes of Italy.
• The Dynamic Campaign — Master a massive, non-linear grand strategy map, balancing naval bombardment, partisan networks, and supply lines.
• Four Launch Factions — Command the US Forces, Wehrmacht, British Forces, or the highly mechanized Deutsches Afrikakorps in competitive multiplayer.
• Tactical Advancements — Utilize Breaching to clear buildings, Towing to reposition heavy artillery, and Full Tactical Pause to perfectly orchestrate your single-player assaults.
• A Thriving Live-Service Era — Experience a continually evolving multiplayer ecosystem, heavily supported by the newly independent Relic Entertainment with major expansions stretching into 2026.

Release Platforms:

• Microsoft Windows (PC) — February 23, 2023
• PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X|S — May 30, 2023 (The “Console Edition” features a fully redesigned radial-menu UI optimized specifically for controllers).