Company of Heroes, Relic Entertainment’s RTS from way back in 2006, is getting ‘ported’ – into a tabletop board game. Bad Crow Games has set up a Kickstarter page aiming to turn “one of the greatest strategy games of all time” into a tabletop recreation, full of complex and strategic elements that look set to honour its PC predecessor. Best of all for fans, it’s sailed past its funding target.
Based on the Kickstarter information, the board game looks pretty involved, packed with playing pieces and mechanics to delight any RTS fan looking to flummox or flatten their opponents with total strategic prowess. The game is a “streamlined board game experience” and “an interesting hybrid of strategy, unit tactics and resource management; just like the video games”, with “a large focus on securing, collecting and spending resources”.
Players will have to manoeuvre their units around the map from one of four factions, and chase down victory points or destroy enemy bases to win. The pitch seems primarily aimed at fans of the PC versions who also love a good tabletop, but Bad Crow games also says that playtesters who have never tried the originals really enjoyed it. The company talks about the fun choices and upgrade purchases you can opt for throughout gameplay, plus its simplicity. You’ll get to do all the spicy tactical stuff “without getting bogged down by a lot of calculation, dice rolling or waiting between turns”.
The player will choose to play one of four nations in the base game: Britain, the US, the Soviet Union, or the Wehrmacht, with a raft of pieces to use in your pursuit of victory. These include tanks and other vehicles, infantry, a pretty staggering 55 dice of different types, double-layered HQ cards, a load of other markers, buildings to defend or occupy, and a board map.
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The game will take around 60-90 minutes in standard mode and, according to its creators’ “highly subjective” comparison to other WW2-themed tabletops, it falls somewhere between Memoir ‘44 and Tide of Iron in terms of complexity and tactical depth.
There is a lot of information on bundle types and stretch goals that you can check out at your leisure on the game’s Kickstarter page, but if you want to pledge for the core set now it will cost you $99 (around £78). The funding campaign runs until June 26 and is currently due to ship in May 2020.