Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts is a stand-alone expansion to Company of Heroes. The expansion features campaigns for its 2 new factions, the British and Panzer Elite. It also allows these factions for multiplayer play. The campaigns are not nearly as long as the original's United States campaign but its not as short as the later expansion, Tales of Valor's campaigns. The multiplayer is unchanged except for added weather effects and maps.
The British single player campaign follows the Western Front and allows the player to utilize artillery, gliders, and sapper commanders. As in the first game, the player will be in an assortment of missions that focus on assault, defense, or special operations. The British faction is more defensive, with their slow movement speed and new focus on emplacements. The British have their tech buildings wrapped into trucks that are call ins. These trucks also operate as observation posts once deployed into a territory. The British are able to erect machine gun emplacements, mortar emplacements, anti-air emplacements, and anti-tank emplacements. This lends well to their defensive style and offers a strong method of map control. The British's 3 commanders allows the player to either reinforce their positions or allow a more offensive style.
The Panzer Elite are the mechanized forces of Germany. The faction has one base infantry unit in its Panzer Grenadiers. This unit is versatile in attack, defense, and can repair vehicles and buildings. They can be upgraded with anti-infantry gewhers or mp44s or anti-vehicle panzerschreks. The Panzer Grenadiers are initially weak but can be upgraded to be stronger over the span of the game. The campaign focuses on Kampfgruppe Lehr as they try to repel Operation Market Garden. The 3 commanders: scorched earth, tank hunger, and luftwaffe are available in single player and multi-player. Scorched earth allows for traps to be set in buildings and capture points. It also allows point denial via artillery and calldowns. Tank hunter improves anti-tank weapony through mines and heavy tanks. Luftwaffe offers a more defensive infantry focus with some air support.
The new factions are not as fun to play against in the multiplayer. On release, the game suffered from imbalance as the new factions were not balanced. With balance patches, the game has become better. The British were overpowered against the Wehrmacht, but the roles have now reversed with the Wehrmacht being favored. Likewise, this occurred with the Panzer Elite and United States. The new factions are also frustrating to play against. As the Wehrmacht, the British can be infuriating to deal with as the British infantry section is far superior to the Wehrmacht's tier one options. The Wehrmacht cannot easily dislodge emplacements until the late game which requires them to survive the onslaught. The United States versus Panzer Elite match up is also not fun to play. The Panzer Elite can utilize their versatility to spam a single unit that the United States can only counter with riflemen. The game becomes a slog of blob versus blog that is not a fun departure from the tactics based match up of United States versus Wehrmacht.
Although, the new factions may not be as fun, the game is still enjoyable for its single player. I would recommend Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.
Grade: B
