Even if you don't, the impact of that turn-based confrontation will still change things.ДЄs you take more territory, you get more resources that can be spent on your troops. When you engage with an enemy on the map, you get to exchange fire before jumping into an RTS battle, and if you do enough damage you can wipe them out before the main fight. Everything you can do in a real-time fight, you can do on the turn-based map, whether it's using your air force to scout an area, your engineers to remove mines or your artillery to demolish enemy units. Relic has created a 'holistic loop' that keeps the campaigns feeling inextricably linked to the RTS battles. You'll have discrete objectives, but otherwise you can explore and conquer these maps however you want, letting you make your own route to victory. I had to liberate some partisan forces first, and then by making choices that favoured them, I unlocked a bunch of convenient perks.Д¬ompany of Heroes 3's campaigns are turn-based and take place on huge maps evocative of Total War. Instead, you'll use them on the campaign map to create traps and snatch up enemy intel. The partisans are a special faction in that you won't be commanding them like a normal army. The cooperation and tension between the Allies is a big part of the campaigns, so you'll need to juggle the desires of your subcommanders, who include an Italian partisan liaison. Importantly, you will actually be able to command both at the same time, giving you a very large toy box to play with. You'll be able to play as the German, UK and US forces, though on the campaign you'll just be playing the Allies.

What Company of Heroes 3 factions will be playable? What I could have done in four hours took me 11. I played through a small slice where I had to take Monte Cassino, giving me a road to Rome, but along with my main objective were countless other battles, side missions and territory to conquer. We've only seen the Italy, and it seems massive.

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