Company of Heroes

During summer last year, I was playing some ladder games when I thought I'd do the 4ES Strategy invented by Marinez. I, being a noob, accidentally made a Barracks after I had already made four Engineers, so I thought "Well I might as well just roll with this and see how it goes." As it turns out, I won the game quite convincingly, and to my surprise I kept on doing it and beat some level 16's quite well with it too, so I began thinking this could easily be a mainstream strategy. With some more time trying to refine it, eventually I came up with this so I officially present you with a new strategy born from the original 4ES, "Biosparks' 4ES Barracks Start".


This build order is very specific, meaning if you don't follow it, things could go very badly and we don't want that.







You don't want to be dedicating yourself to any major engagements with only Engineers and two Rifles, but you have a ridiculous amount of capping power, so the Wehrmacht can't really keep up with you, unless he' piospamming. Note that you can't let yourself get cut off on maps like Semois and Angoville, so make sure you guard your strategic point well. Once you obtain Flamers, you can aim to flank an MG and harass a bit more, but again do not engage fully unless you catch the MG off guard and know you can win.



At this point you have to judge what to get to counter your opponent. If you pressured your opponent a lot in the early stages, he'll most likely go T2 so be careful of PaKs and get a Sniper or two against his infantry vet. If there are extended T1 units from him, then expect a Puma and have combination of mines, AT gun and stickies handy. Be prepared with more AT guns if he's going for eventual T4.

Do not research BARs at any point in the early game. You will need your AC's to make up for the lack of Riflemen on the map. BARs can be researched later when you have an extra Rifle squad or two in the late game.


You can go Infantry or Airborne depending on your situation and how you need to react. I usually go Airborne to punish my opponent for blobbing. If they go Defensive doctrine, Infantry should be more useful. When combined with a good supply of munitions, you can litter the map with mines, and deploy Rifles and Engineers everywhere to halt their advances. Armour can be useful sometimes, though I wouldn't go out of my way to get it.




Do not, I repeat do not use this strategy against Panzer Elite, period. I've tried this strategy and it usually works but there are a lot of variables that just make it so hard to pull off. Infantry Halftracks destroy Engineers with the current suppression, Scout Cars also just laugh at Engineers, so really your only chance to win is if he goes for 4 PG's to fast AC, so it's too much to gamble on.