Introduction to "Company of Heroes" Boardgame

At our regular "5th Saturday" game on May 29th, we gathered at Bryan's house in his "man cave" building for an introduction to the "Company of Heroes" board game that he helped develop.

 https://www.companyofheroesbg.com/

This is a two-level game with tactical-level play happening on the game board as the players pit their infantry squads supported by various other types of combat commands against each other and on the 'strategic' level as you decide what new units to build using the resources that you gain through the tactical play.  This 'strategic' level is displayed on an individual player's control board which tracks the manpower, munitions, and fuel resources you have as well as your combat experience points and victory points.  You start with three levels of "builds."  The basic command has three 'units' that are available to you.  Then you can progress through two more powerful levels as you gain resources and can unlock them.

All of the game pieces are 15mm sized, from the individual soldier figures through the supporting guns and tanks to the buildings, including a beautiful multi-piece cathedral.

For the first game, Ed and Phil each played Germans while Bryan had Americans and I had British.  Bryan and I 'won' that round.  In the second game, Ed and Phil continued with Germans; I switched to Russians; and Bryan switched to OKW Germans (Yes, we had Germans fighting Germans in this game.).  Again Bryan and I prevailed as 'darkness' fell (getting late and the three of us had long drives back home).

Here are some pictures I took with the camera on my new phone of scenes from the second game, which was played on the Stalingrad terrain boards.  The river was iced over and infantry could cross anywhere.  Vehicles could only cross at the railroad bridge or where the ice was thick enough (denoted by the tracks on the ice).  Please click on the images for a larger picture.

My Russian T-70 light tank and an infantry squad get ready to engage Ed's German SdKfz 222 and German infantry squad.
The blue flags indicate that I have possession of a munitions resource point (tank's location) and a victory objective (infantry's location).
In the background you can see Ed's and Phil's player control boards with the white cubes marking the resources each has accumulated.

Further to my left, one of my infantry squads is attacking Ed's German kubelwagon.  The three yellow cubes on my infantry squad base indicate that I have moved them three hexes, the maximum move for an infantry squad.  Behind the kubelwagon is a manpower resource point that Ed controls.
The background shows more of Ed' control board.

On Bryan's side, one of his panzergrenadier squads (near red-flagged fuel resource point is attacked by Phil's German SdKfz 222 while Bryan's rocket-equipped SdKfz 250 series half-track gets ready to bombard some of Phil's Germans.
In the background, Phil is lifting a new build combat vehicle out of the tray that contains the forces available to him.

As you can see from the pictures, the figures and vehicles are very well cast.  They come in basic colors but you can easily paint them.

All in all it was an enjoyable game that entailed a lot of 'strategic' thinking about what to build at the end of each turn.  I think this is definitely a game I'll enjoy playing again.

As the link (above) indicates, the version 1.0 has been sold out but they are working on a version 1.5 release.