Tales of Valor

Company of Heroes has been one of my favorite RTS since Relic's last war game - Dawn of War (DoW). I've been playing the first game without the expansion (Opposing Fronts) since last year with my friends. Even though there were only two sides compared to the 9 factions in DoW, the game still had the depth. Since there was only two factions, the balance between both sides are far better.

A few months back, Relic released the latest stand alone expansion called Tales of Valor. This expansion gives the player 3 new single player campaigns, several "new" units and 3 new multiplayer game modes. I've read a few reviews of the game when it came out and it wasn't so positive since there wasn't anything game changing. I bought it only a few weeks ago over at Gamers Gate when they had a special deal - CoH Gold with Tales of Valor for $29.99 basically, you're just paying for the gold edition and you get the new expansion free. Now this certainly was a good deal as I get the Opposing Front factions and missions and the latest Tales of Valor stuff. However, I agree with the reviews I read months ago... there is nothing that makes me go wow with this game expansion. (also all you need to unlock the Tales of Valor content is the product keys after patching to 2.600)

What would make me go wow? Actual new units. The game adds "new" units which makes me feel like they are reskinned versions of existing units. How about a mechanic which allows a player to blow up bridges and require players to rebuild them if they want that bridge to be used again. Why can't buildings (the neutral ones) be rebuilt to be used as a bunker? How about a spy unit which is permanently cloaked yet will reveal themselves if they are near a unit. The spy is used to disable buildings for a short period of time. How about attack dogs?

Where is the Company of Heroes: Rising Sun Growling Bear (or The War on the East for short)? That would add 1 new faction for each side (and a whole slew of balance problems but hey it's new). Company of Heroes has been solely focused on the western front why not add the jungles and beaches of Asia, the hot desert of Africa and the cold Siberian Russia. Russian units could be similar to the orks and imperial guard of DoW where they would have a lot of population but not very powerful infantry. A commissar unit would certainly be great. The Japanese could use ambush style tactics with a lot of their units having the camouflage ability and a kamikaze ability that would let planes act as flying bombs.

What happens now to the series? Will there be a new expansion pack? I'm thinking Relic will probably focus more on their newest title – Dawn of War 2 rather than go back to this 3 year old game.