And while I don’t know to what degree its inner workings have been grown from Total War stem cells, or whether it's more of an 'inspired by' job, it's similar enough to be played on instinct by Total War veterans, without feeling cloned. The campaign map - props to art director Tristan Brett - is beautiful. Because while the preview event was focused entirely on the 1943 allied invasion of Italy, North Africa will also be involved, and potentially other locations. It’s hard to tell how broadly Relic are defining the theatre, mind. Company Of Heroes 3 will whisk us away to the Mediterranean, for a jaunt through the only WW2 theatre (besides the Pacific) not yet tackled by the series. You can find out more about how to sign up over on their website.Īnyway, let's talk about the game. Honestly, it'd be best to see it for yourself - and as it happens you can do just that, as Relic have made a version of the build available for a couple of weeks. It’s one of those situations where to emphasise the rough bits would be unfair on Relic, but to make glowing assumptions about work yet to be done would be unfair to you. Because while the build I played showed off an impressive range of features, especially for a pre-alpha, there were definitely some rough edges. Now, just quickly: if I sound cagey there, it's only for the sake of fairness. I've ventured down the whale's gullet to have a go, and I think it looks promising. Sometime next year in late 2022, she will belch up Company Of Heroes 3, and it will have a brand new, Total War-style campaign map. Working away in the leviathan's guts, with the famous motto of the SAS in mind - “You’ve got to at least have a go, even if it's really hard” - Relic learned from their fellow strategy Jonahs at CA, and set about applying the knowledge to their landmark WW2 strategy franchise, Company Of Heroes. “Turns out,” says Littman, “it’s because it’s really hard to do”. But then along came Sega, gulping down strategy studios like a big mad whale, and Relic ended up in its belly - right next to Total War devs Creative Assembly. I'm not alone in this: David Littman, executive producer at Relic Entertainment, always wondered the same thing.

It's a tasty formula, and I've often wondered why more games over the years haven't adopted it. The Total War series are the Kinder Eggs of strategy gaming: a layer of delicious, map-based strategy, with a dramatic RTS toy hidden inside.

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