Company of Heroes - 'Combined Assault' mod idea Thread

Hey, guys!

Well, i was looking around ModDB at all the good CoH Mods out there, but I got fustrated at the lack of inclusion of Factions other than the main European powers (UK, USA, Germany). I wondered: 'What would it be like playing CoH as if it was the start of WW2 instead of the end? What about Germany's allies that fought the Soviets during the war?' So I came up with this mod idea.

Basically, it'd add a bunch of new factions to the game modeled around germany's allies and other states attacked by Germany in the beginning of the war. Each would be slightly unique, however i've grouped the most similar together on the list to save space. Here it is:

Italy
Hungary, Poland
Romania
France, Belgium/Holland
Finland/Norway (One faction)

Now, for the detail stuff!

ITALY
Italy, I imagine, would have decent-cost and above-average buildtime, and would have 5 men in a squad (4 with rifles, 1 with an SMG). They would be mobility-based, so I imagine they would have custom halftracks, german-leased ones, or 5-ton Trucks. They would have 2-man Combat engi squads that would build their buildings much like the USA. Tactics (As I project) would revolve around the use of Infantry with mobile support and off-map arty to push forward. They would have a decent amount of tanks, but their strength relies on their crack infantry combined with the amount of mobility they have.

Perhaps this for the tiers?:

T1: Guastatori (2-man construction and engineer squads), after construct of first-level building then has Fucilieri (5-man rifle squads, one squadmember having a Breda-30 SMG instead of the usual Carcano 91 rifle), the AS42 Sahariana (Can carry 5 men, has an upgrade choice that can replace it's transport area with a BOFORS AA Gun), and a Sniper (Standard, one-man sniper unit).

T2: Autoblindo A4B1 (Can drop mines and lock itself down in a sector to double/triple it's field of view), 47/32 Light AT Guns (Fires faster, does only 3/4 normal AT damage), Light Mortar team (3-man, shorter range), Mod. 37 HMG Team (3-man), AT Rifle upgrade availible for Fucilieri

T3: L6/40 Light Tank, Semovente 75/18 Infantry support tank, Bersaglieri (4-man assault infantry, much more health and has all Breda-30 SMGs, can be upgraded with 'Shreks).

T4: M41 Medium tanks, (Don't know what else to add here. Feedback?)

I've also figured out the Doctrines! Yay!
CCNN Doctrine: Has various propaganda abilities, such as instantly killing a member of a squad to break supression, forcing enemies to retreat, slower walkspeed in a sector, etc. As well as Blackshirt Infantry (5-man elite infantry, lower health but much harder to supress or pin)
Mobile Operations doctrine: Various abilities related to speed and fast response, such as temporarily speeding up infantry/vehicle speed, lower upkeep, and eventually unlocking a combat battlegroup of Mountain Infantry (Like fucilieri, but with more health and having Assault rifles) and Semovente 90/53 Heavy tank destroyers from off-map.
Air Support doctrine: allows for airstrikes and scouting missions, and allowing for the drop-in of Italian Paratroops, Pack AT Guns, and the call-in of a Lancia Da 90/53 (Truck with AA/AT Flak gun mounted on the back, basically mobile arty like the German 88 guns)

I'm guessing they could make forward HQs, and possible make forward Medic stations as well- Garrison a building and convert it to a Field Hospital instead of a Forward HQ.

FINLAND/NORWAY (My personal favorite )
The finns would focus on Elite infantry with a lot of versatility, and mobile defence. For starters, they'd have access to a standard Infantry unit (5 men with rifles or carbines), Combat Engineers, and Cossacks (3-man Cavalry squad that can go decently fast and fire while moving. They'd have less health than average, though, and fire slower than average. They'd also be able to mount and dismount, Perhaps? I'm not so sure about this unit's mechanics just yet.) I also had an idea that they could build Mobile Emplacements (Maybe a command tree ability?) You could click on an MG Squad or Mortar Squad and tell it to 'Dig in', whitch would turn it into an emplacement, and when you need it moved you click the 'Dig in' button again and it'd pack it up as normal, and be usable as normal. I imagine it would be immobile while dug in, there would be a cooldown timer, and the emplacement itself would have much less health than the average emplacement.

They would upgrade through a Tier system, like the Wehrmacht. (This time called 'Requisition Priority' ) I have tiers worked out, I think, so here we go:

T1: Levie Infantry (Conscripts) (Upgradable to MP40s instead of rifles on T2, 5-man), slightly more speed and capping power than later units Small Mortar, Heavy MG, Cossacks, Engi Squads
T2: 5-Ton truck (Convertable to Medical Truck** and Supply truck***), Assault Infantry (Upgradable with AT Rifles OR Recon detachment [More on this later*], basically more effective, better-trained infantry with 2 rfles and 2 MP40s), Heavy Mortar, Upgrade to Cossacks to some description, (Don't know what else to put here, Feedback helpful )
T3: Infantry support tanks/Light tanks, Armoured Cars, Mountain Infantry/Scandinavian Infantry (Elite infantry, 4-man, lots of upgrades, Can campflauge like the Sniper and Recon Upgraded teams, Command Team (Has special abilities that improve the troops around him), AT Guns and trucks get an availiblle upgrade to have an AA Cannon mounted on it, various other upgrades and availible upgrades (Feedback?)
T4 [Final tier]: German Medium tanks, heavier AT Support, can dig in CPs****, (Don't know what else. Feedback?) Command Cossacks/Finnish Guard Cossacks (One of the two).

The tiers are kinda there, but i'm still wondering about a lot of the stuff. Basically, the higher tiers unlock better, more versatile infantry and more German-leased requisitions, such as Panzer IVs. The finnish frequently used Russian T34 Conversions and T26 conversions (Repainted) as tanks, so maybe it'd be a choosable thing (Like the kettengrad and Schwimmwagen). Tactics would work in using your infantry in an All-purpose role- Attack, Defend, Cap, etc. It'd be jack-of-all-trades infantry unless you Upgrade them. Once you got a point, you could defend it with mobile emplacements. I imagine there wouldn't be many vehicles.

*: Recon Detachments are an Upgrade to the Assault Infantry that let it see farther and have a Marksman on the squad (Like the UK, but more costly). It would also have a temporary Camoflauge ability like the Sniper of the US or Wehr.
**: The medical truck would function like a Casualty clearing station. You'd lock it down and it'd heal and reinforce anyone in it's radius. However, when locked it'd be, of course, immobile.
***: Supply trucks would be like the German Scout car. You could lock a CP down, like an Observation post, but, like the Scout Car it'd be immobile.
****: Dug-in CPs basically means having a circular trench area around a CP that's built by Engineers. I think this was included in another CoH mod, correct me if i'm wrong)

FRANCE
France, Like in WW1, Focuses very heavily on Static Defence and Artillery. As such, they have deployable and movable infantry support artillery from T2 and all infantry squads can build defences. The downside is that they don't have much Infantry support (Outdated vickers team, no mortars, not much AT) and very little vehicles (Almost all their tanks are only Light tanks). At the start of a match, they'd get basic 4-man infantry squads called 'Line Infantry', 2-man Recon units (Guys with carbines and a longer range, you get a sniper when you recearch it at T3), Renault UE Carriers (Like Bren carriers, has 4-man capacity) and a 4-man Vickers team (2 on the gun, 1 defending, 1 officer with a pistol and binoculars).

You, like the UK, must 'Buy' more buildings to advance levels (Still unsure wether the French would get trucks or unlock Buildings like the Wehr), and the 2nd level building unlocks an Infantry Support Gun (Short-range arty), Renault Halftracks + armored cars, and an AT Rifle upgrade for the Infantry (Still thinking of what I could add here - Feedback welcome).

T3 Could probably have Combat Engineers (Able to build stronger, completley static bunkers, has flamethrower upgrade and mine detect upgrade, etc etc, 4 man), Some gun upgrades get availible, the SA-37 Anti-tank gun, and finally the FT-17 and FT-31 Light Tanks (The difference being the FT-31 was an Infantry support tank, and had a stubbier barrel like the British Churchill AVRE.

T4 would have a French Legionnaires squad (Highly elite 4-man squad with Stickies, Smoke grens, and SMGs for all, etc), The Char B1 Heavy tank, and the Combat Engis can build artillery bunkers and full-on howitzers. (Unsure what else to have here. Feedback?)

All french buildings would be able to call in off-map directly on them, and the Legionnaires would be able to directly call in an Arty strike (Would cost a lo of Muni's, though). In terms of tactics, I can see going agressivley for VPs and establishment of a frontline, then holding said frontline with Defences and Emplacements. French units would be terrible for health/morale and offence, though, so any attacks would have to be in large use with Arty and heavier tanks/armored vehicles. I know CoH isn't a very static game, but I think strategy would really become interesting if playing with a more static-based faction.

POLAND
The poles and the Hungarians would be much the same, the major difference between the two is that the Poles focus much more on the use of large blobs of infantry with support from their few light tanks and vehicles and support weapons. Their squads would come in 5 or 6-man squads of cheap infantry with rifles (Later upgradable to SMGs), Vickers MG Squads, a 3-man Recon unit with a Sniper and 2 longer-range riflemen (Marksman team, can cloak in cover when immobile and has longer FoW sight distance/can see farther and see cloaked units), and a 3-man Command team with area buffs for anyone in his range. They would also have a Bike availible like the Wehr.

As far as base building goes, I think it should be more like the USA- First 2/3, then A Supply building and the final 2. Speaking of T2, I imagine this would have a 3-man Sapper Squad (Upgrades include flamers and minesweeps), an Armored Car/Scout Car, a Truck (5-ton truck, functions like a Halftrack) and some Upgrades get availible. They would also have access to the TKS instead of the bike (A switchout option like with the Kettengrad/Schwimmwagen switch option), a small, fast tankette that could be used for scouting (Has an MG- maybe it could cap as well, like the Kettengrad?)

T3 would have an AT Gun, AT Rifle upgrades for the basic infantry, and the 7TP Light tank, Along with a 7TP/DW variant that had twin MG Turrets instead of a Gun, making it faster and better at supressing infantry rather than vehicles. (Perhaps some other stuff? Feedback.) This tier would also add 3 or 4-man infantry squads, Uhlan Infantry, that would focus more on close-range combat and would be much more survivable and harder to pin down. (Also, an unrelated Idea- maybe instead of having full-on MG or Mortar Crews, they could have 'Weapon Teams' of 4 men, and then upgrade them to either Mortar or HMG?)

T4 would add the UK-leased-to-Poland Crusader Tank (Smaller, faster tanks used in North Africa). I'm unsure what else to add this tier. Feedback, anyone?

As you can see, Polish tactics revolve around use of massed infantry with support tanks to push forward. They can and probably will win an infantry-on-infantry fight- however, they are heavily outmatched when it comes to Tanks. The Crusader tank's armor is quite thin, allowing it to go faster at the expense of defencive power.
What do you guys think?

ROMANIA
This faction is much more tank-based and vehicle-based, contrary to the Poles, and only gets acual infantry squads at T2. In addition, I project they'd use the officer system as with the UK (Except 'Officers' would be teams of 2-3 men, an Officer, a flag carrier, and a Radioman). Perhaps they wouldn't have halftracks, but instead use a 'Ride Tank' or 'Ride Vehicle' ability that allows them to, well, ride on tanks as if they were halftracks, and dismount them later.

As for base construction, I really don't know. I don't think they fit in well with the UK's Trucks system, but a conventional building style like the US Doesn't fit either. Suggestions? As far as initial constructs, i'd say a 4-man Combat engineer squad with Rifles, and a 2-man Officer squad (Locotenet with pistol + banner carrier). then (If we're going for the US-style of building here) in T2 We'd get Weapon Support crews (4-man weapon teams that can upgrade to either HMG or Mortar, allowing for more versatility), cercetași (4-man recon infantry, like the UK's recce section upgrade), and the Skoda R2 Light tank. Stickies/grenades availible for recearch.

For T3, i don't have many ideas- The best one I have is that it'd add SdKfz.222 Scout Cars/Armored Cars, TAC 43 Resita AT Guns, TACAM T-60 Tank Destroyers, and Vanatori upgrade to the Cercetași (Making them more close-range and better infantry, changing them from cercetași to vanatori). (Unsure what else to add.)

T4 would have the T-3 and T-4 Tanks unlocked (T-3 being the Panzer IV G IST and T-4 being the standard Panzer IV), and engineers can build 150mm Schneider Heavy Artillery guns. Other than that, I'm out of ideas, really.

Romanian tactics focuses on the heavy use of vehicles to attack positions scouted by light infantry and defended by the Weapon teams. If it'd be possible, i'd like them to be comparable to the Germans in terms of tank power (Although i doubt that'd be possible). Let me know what you guys think.

I'm also currently out of ideas for the Hungarians and the Dutch, although the Hungarians had Hussars (Elite cavalry), so we could probably have that as a higher-level ground unit. The dutch... well, I have absolutley nothing for them. The romanians did switch sides during the war, so we could allow the Romanian faction as both axis/allies (Although that would probably break the game, and it'd be wierd playing in MP as Romania vs Romania...). Bear in mind this is just ideas (To be honest, not the best planned ones as well ) and thus is subject to change and interpretation. I think it'd make a good mod myself, but if it was a mod it'd have to be compatible and in collaboration with the Eastern Front mod team (As many of the factions presented here fought the USSR Alongside Germany in Operation Barbarossa). New maps would be awesome if it'd happen- I'd love to play as Poland and the US Assaulting Italy on a Monte Cassino map.

Well, that's it. Feel free to feedback, I guess.

EDIT: I have a site that has the models for all the vehicles/Squad sizes/Layouts/etc under the sun. I got a book for it too. If anyone needs clarification on what something is, I can give you links.

Edited by: daviddye