Eastern Front is a free mod for Company of Heroes. Following the ethos of mimicking a Relic Entertainment expansion pack, Eastern Front has succeeded in adding two full new factions, the Soviet Red Army and the German Ostheer, packed with unique and exciting units to the existing armies - a feat never before achieved in the Company of Heroes world.

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Time to talk about some changes for the upcoming patch!

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Hello comrades,

It is time to talk about some of the upcoming changes for the Soviet and Ostheer factions in Eastern Front. Since we couldn't release our previous patch due to the issues with Company of Heroes updates, we continued working and improving the build, so we have now what we think it is more balanced and enjoyable to play rather than in previous versions. We will start talking about Soviets.

One of the big changes of the Soviet army, is the removal of the upgrades in the Support Barracks used to unlock the units, now they require additional buildings to be unlocked. We also replaced the ZiS-2 anti tank gun with the ZiS-3, because the latter was more common and the ZiS-2 is a much stronger AT gun and having the most powerful AT gun (zis-2) available so early in the game just looks/feels strange... so the ZiS-3 was a better choice. However, would that mean the end of the appereance of the ZiS-2 in Eastern Front mod? We don't think so.


ZiS-3 will be the regular anti tank gun that you can recruit from the Support Barracks. ZiS-2 now is a special unit for the Propaganda War Strategy Command Tree. You can get it unlocking the second right-hand side upgrade on that tree, and it will replace the ZiS-3. If you have several ZiS-3 units on the field, they will remain as it, but you can pay some resources to convert them into ZiS-2. If you recrew a lost ZiS-3 as Soviet player, you can upgrade it as well.

The Tank Hall also got some tweaks, being the most important ones: getting a third upgrade in order to unlock the mighty IS-2 and you can now use T-34/85 and SU-100 in the same match. We are still working to get the new models onboard, we hope to get the T-60 and the T-70 to replace the old models when this new patch rolls out.

Conscripts also got a boost, they now can recrew heavy weapons, although you surely know how delicate they are, so it is up to you how to use it in your favor. The Commissar call-in was also removed, in it's place you now get an ability that let you select a Conscript squad and convert it into the Shtrafnie squad(whose squad leader is equipped with a PPD-34 submachine gun).


And now, the last change to report about the Soviet Army... is that they now can use Heavy Machine guns. Yes, you are not dreaming nor drunk.

We tried several workarounds for blob suppression weapons based off vehicles, but all of them are gimmicky and do not work right.

  • First try was the Ford GPA, which doesnt work because it's destroyed by frontal assault with SMGs, fausts, schreck hits and Hafthohlladung as it's immobile while in suppression mode.
  • Second was T90 with lockdown, also doesnt work properly because it's also suffering the same problems as above.
  • Third is suppression with Red banner Strelky with DP28. Also doesn't work because it limits strategy. Always Red Banners + DP28 or you'll loose to lategame Axis blobs - without suppression they can just run through your army, much like the old USA rangerspam when they had no exhaust effect after "Fire Up", just that Axis do not even need it because Soviets can't suppress.

This is something that soviets already suffer from since a very long time. Only chance to fix this seems to be by adding a hmg type weapon to them... and so we did.


However, this weapon, the SG-43 Goryunov, it is just a temporal replacement as a heavy machine gun team. Our real goal is to finish this one:


Meanwhile, we will remain using the placeholder(Credits to DMz). There are more subtle changes for Soviets, but that will be for another time. For now let's talk about Ostheer...

The Sturmpioniers now get Gewehrs 41 when purchasing their combat upgrade.


Landser squads can now get three MP40 instead of a MKB42(W)


Or two Panzerbüchse 39 anti tank rifles.


Ostheer can now produce mortar teams when selecting the Support pool.


Panzerfusiliers no longer get MP40/IIs, they can get now MG-34s.


Jägers no longer have Gewehr 43 as upgrade; they don't have MP44s, but they use something similar...


The Support Army Troops tree no longer gives you either Wespe or

Panzer 38t, you now get a Panzerjager squad with a Luchs light tank for support.

(Wespe is it's own call-in at the end of the tree and Panzerjagers are no longer available as regular unit)

First new unit: the Skirmish Commander, only one available at the field, just like the Soviet Command Squad... however both use different abilities.



Second new unit: Bombardier Team, composed of one soldier equipped with a Granatbüchse 39 and two more using MP40s. Replaces the LMG Team.


Thanks for your support,

Archaic Entertainment Team

Post comment Comments
LCH98
LCH98

" You can get it unlocking the second right-hand side upgrade on that tree, and it will replace the ZiS-3"

Does this mean the removal of the 152mm "Pushka"?

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blackbishop Author
blackbishop

@LCH98
If you mean the M30 howitzer, yes. It will moved to other tree IIRC.

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LCH98
LCH98

My bad, the M30 is a 122mm, i did not notice.

Will it be temporarily removed, or placed in a other tree in the same patch?
[Just wondering]

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dArCReAvEr
dArCReAvEr

Removed for now. Soviets have enough other artillery options during games - Katyushas, Spotter offmap arty, KV 2 artillery barrage, God of War, SU 76 arty barrage and of course Heavy Mortars. However, the M30 will return if it fits into a reward doctrine concept.

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Velancious
Velancious

What happened to the Panzer 38t?

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Woozle
Woozle

I was going to ask the same.

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blackbishop Author
blackbishop

Panzer 38t was a stopgap solution because it wasn't intended to be there. It will return in the foreign faction reward tree.

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BurroDiablo Creator
BurroDiablo

We'll likely add it to a reward doctrine, along with all the other foreign stuff we made.

edit - Bishops the ninja cat of doom.

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mac_bryan
mac_bryan

If you add the infamous 152mm ML-20 howitzers and 203mm B-4 howitzers. It will be a great achievement

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roman9441
roman9441

many good unit. I'm excited for the next version

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chs94
chs94

What will Wespe?Will the rewards transport in the next patch?

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dArCReAvEr
dArCReAvEr

Wespe is still a call in for Army Support. But now it comes as last unlock on the right side instead.

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[PhantomStranger]
[PhantomStranger]

Steep gun SG-43!I about such could only dream.Both models are superb, great job!Just don't understand which of them will be in the game or both models?ДШК will stand on the Soviet tanks (on ИС-2,ИС-3,ИСУ-152), as in COH 2?
Sevenbytes.ru

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BurroDiablo Creator
BurroDiablo

In the future, when the ИС-2 and ИСУ-152 models are updated :)

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[PhantomStranger]
[PhantomStranger]

Cool, thanks. Pleases the emergence of Т-60 and ЗиС-3!

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DukeOfJudea
DukeOfJudea

What about the new buildings for the soviet?

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blackbishop Author
blackbishop

@EITY10
We already talked about them in previous announcements, so there is nothing relevant to post about them right now. Unfortunately, the only one we could talk about is the Mustering Tent, but it is still unfinished.

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Guest
Guest

The mod is still running real choppy for me, will this next update fix that or is it just me?

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blackbishop Author
blackbishop

@Guest
That depends of your rig specs :\. But it is still a long path to replace our high poly models with their optimized version.

The next version should be an improvement for Soviets though, if the SU-85 now uses a proper model.

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Kestrel1993
Kestrel1993

IS-2 gun fixed? It was a lot of bugs.

And IMHO SU-100 damage is to low.

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blackbishop Author
blackbishop

@Kestrel1993
I think it should be fixed.

SU-100 was tweaked, though remember we are not aiming for realism, so it won't one shot anything... except kubelwagens, bikes and kettens, of course.

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Kestrel1993
Kestrel1993

SU-100 cant ones hot SdKfz.221 Scout Car :P

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dArCReAvEr
dArCReAvEr

This is done on purpose. Tiger I also cannot 1-shot jeeps either in vCoH. This is done to reward micro and to keep light vehicles useable lategame.

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chs94
chs94

A Panzerbüchse 39 against which the technique is effective?

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dArCReAvEr
dArCReAvEr

Against vehicles.

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Guest
Guest

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Panzerten
Panzerten

How will the ostheer take care of tanks ? With the Panzer büche because I don't think it can take care of most tanks because the Russians have high health, will the damage of the gun be improved to take care of soviet tanks or will the grenade launcher unit do that?

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Panzerten
Panzerten

I'm sorry for asking so many questions I'm just exited for the update, with Landser squad can they get both the anti tank and anti infantry close range packages or just one, with the Bombardier squad be able to load HEAT arounds or will they serve as an grouped anti infantry, will any doctrine rather than the new panzerjeäger and panzer group will change like in the fortress group and will the new officer unit boost infantry in combat.

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401Raven
401Raven

When playing with the Ostheer I noticed several bugs:

* The Famo could not recover enemy tanks nor my own panzers or those of my allies.
* The Panzernest couldn't be upgraded with an mg, nor upgraded to an aid station
* The concrete emplacement's upgrade to an aidstation does not return units back to the battlefield and every time it "empties" I got the message "We have lost a unit!"
* The Ju88 bomber strike is just one bomber coming in and it wasn't able to destroy an SU-152, is that normal?
* Soviet infantry was not suppressed by the MG34 at all and kept swarming in even as 2-3 MG34 teams fired at them
* Soviet Command Squads survive encounters with several Landser squads without any damage, killing all the Germans in return. Just by numbers the Soviets need to lose if you send 4-5 Landser against them.

And something I wish you would change in general is this stupid charging forward of infantry when you order them to attack. A Panzerschreck has a certain range and you definitely do NOT need to jump at the enemy and step on their toes to attack them. Stop that, no one except complete morons do that. One exception though, if closing the distance with the enemy is used for powerful melee combat attacks, then yes, but this rushing up and standing 10cm away from the enemy is pathetic.

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Guest
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willychong8921
willychong8921

What happen to the IS-3 and Kugelblizt??? I can't build them D:

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