Company of Heroes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Core Set Miniatures
• 1. Objective
• 2. Setup
  • Map Setup
• Building Boards
  • Starting Units
• 3. Round Overview
  • 3.1 Turn Order
• 4. Maneuver Phase
  • Basic Movement
  • Obstacles to Movement
  • Unit Types
  • Regular Infantry (Green) Units
  • Weapon Teams (Green) Units
  • Light Vehicle (Yellow) Units
  • Heavy Vehicle (Red) Units
  • Emplacements (Purple) Units
  • Transport
• 5. Damage Phase
  • Damage Phase Overview
  • Assign/Deal Damage
  • 5.1 Damage Types
  • Unit Damage and Range
  • Multiple Damage Types
• 6. Defenses
  • Defense Rolls
  • 6.1 Static Defenses
    • Cover in Buildings
    • Unit Defense Upgrades
  • Resolving Damage Example
  • Destroying Units
  • Victory Points from Combat
• 7. Additional Combat Rules
  • Pinning (Machine Guns)
  • Sight
  • Range
  • Spotting
  • Camouflage
  • Building Cover
  • Buildings Blocking Attacks and Sight
  • Building Health
• 8. Supply Phase
  • Supply Phase Overview
  • Capture Objectives
  • Adjust Incomes
  • Collect Resources
    • Incomes to Stockpiles Example
  • 8.1 Supply Phase Purchasing
  • 8.2 Additional Supply Phase Events
• Ready for Your First Command!
• After Your First Battle
• 9. Experience
  • Gaining Experience
• 10. Commander Cards
  • Commander Ability Types
  • Commander Card Examples
• Basic Icons Reference

Components

Note that the 2 Player Core Set has reduced counts than those shown here. Use the Master Inventory List to see the exact counts in the 2 Player Core set. (www.CompanyOfHeroesBG.com)

• 4 HQ Boards
• 12 Building Boards
• 21 Commander Cards
• 54 Damage, Status, and Unit Dice
• 12 Pip Dice (Building Health)
• 120 White and Orange Cubes
• 10 Mortars, AT Guns & Machine Guns
• 36 Command Point Cubes (cp)
• 8 Emplacement & Bunker Tokens
• 12 Field Defense Tokens
• 4 Base Tokens
• 16 Flag Tokens
• 16 Resource Tokens
• 2 Sand Timers
• 24 Clear Infantry Trays & 6 Vehicle Trays
• Basic Rulebook, Advanced Rulebook & Mission Book
• 4 Double-Sided Map Panels

Core Set Miniatures

• 24 x US Riflemen
• 6 x Bazookas
• 2 x Majors
• 6 x Panzerschreck
• 24 x German Grenadiers
• 24 x Soviet Conscripts
• 24 x British Infantry
• 6 x Piats
• Willys Jeep
• M8 Greyhound
• M4A3 Sherman
• M10 Wolverine
• M7 Priest
• Kübelwagen
• Sd.Kfz. 222
• Ostwind
• Sturmpanzer
• Panzer IV
• Tiger
• M3A1 Scout Car
• T-70 Light Tank
• T34-76
• SU-76 Assault Gun
• SU-85
• Universal Carrier
• Staghound
• Cromwell
• Churchill (with 6lb and AVRE Turret)
• Centaur AA

See the miniatures page insert included in this box for repair and paint options. The bottom of each turret includes a code to help match turrets to their chassis.

1. Objective

Your objective in the Basic Rules Mode is to gain the required amount of Victory Points at the end of the Supply Phase. If both teams tie, play until one team has more Victory Points at the end of the Supply Phase. You gain Victory Points by:

• Destroying enemy units
• Controlling Victory Point hexes

2. Setup

It is recommended for 2v2 games to play on medium maps (2 panel) or large maps (3 panel). For 1v1 it is recommended to play on a medium map. The small, single-panel maps are special scenarios.

The players divide into two teams and sit on opposite sides of the board. Each player should have the following:

1. HQ Board with 8 white cubes as shown
2. All three Building Boards from selected faction
3. Nine Command Point (cp) cubes of one color
4. A faction's miniatures and six infantry trays

Flip the second tier and third tier building boards face down, so that only the first building board is showing its units. You can only produce units from "unlocked" (face up) building boards. Use white cubes to set your incomes to 1 and your stockpiles to 4, except for Victory Points which start at 0.

Place the two matching map boards in the center of the playing area. Make sure that all dice, cubes, and markers are within reach of all players. Note that players can play on small, medium, large and huge maps.

Map Setup

Lay the two Trois Ponts map panels in the center of the play area as shown. The map panels are identified by the compass icon on the bottom row of each panel. This setup is for a medium sized map. There is a new default starting Trois Ponts map, located in the Mission Booklet. This map will identify which hexes have resource control points.

Starting Income: 1 Manpower (yellow fist icon), 1 Munitions (red icon), 1 Fuel (green icon).

Starting Stockpile: 4 Manpower (yellow fist icon), 4 Munitions (red icon), 4 Fuel (green icon).

Opposing players sit on opposite sides of the map, next to their teammates if applicable.

Players determine the length of the game by choosing a victory condition below.

Victory Condition	Points
Short	13
Medium	15
Long	18

For your first game we recommend playing the Short Game Mode to 13 victory points.

Building Boards

Each faction's building boards detail which units the player can spawn and their stats and upgrades. Each player starts with their first building board face up (unlocked), but will be able to unlock two others throughout the game, giving them access to more advanced units.

Each unit has a health value, range, attack, and bonus abilities listed in the first row. Upgrades and other abilities are listed in the second row of each unit along with their upgrade cost. (p. 12)

Each unit in the Company of Heroes Board Game is divided into one of four unit types. These types are indicated by the color of their health symbol on the building board. The types of units are Infantry (Green), Light Vehicles (Yellow), Heavy Vehicles (Red), and Emplacements (Purple).

Diagram labels (Building Board anatomy): Health, Range, Attack, Bonus, Cost (base stats, the first row of each unit); Experience Upgrade and Munitions Upgrade (the second row of each unit); Unit Name.

Starting Units

At the start of the game, players choose two "green health" squads, i.e., infantry squads, to spawn from their tier 1 building board. Identified by their green health symbol under their health column. Infantry are divided into two types: regular infantry and weapon teams. Both types are considered infantry whenever a rule refers to just "infantry," like in the case of your starting units. Some rules will specify regular infantry or weapon teams.

Infantry is the unit type shown by the green heart health symbol.

For example, the US can spawn either two Riflemen, two Mortar Teams, or one of each, because they are green units from their tier 1 building.

When spawning an infantry squad, place one infantry figure in an infantry tray for each point of health the squad has (the number on the green health symbol) and place them on a hex in your team's spawn area. When spawning a weapon team, such as a Mortar Team, place the infantry figures and also a weapon miniature of a mortar, machine gun, or anti-tank gun. The weapon miniature does not represent health.

As players purchase new units they will spawn in their team's spawn area.

On the Trois Ponts map, the spawn area is the back row of the left map panel (from the team's perspective).

Spawn Areas: Most maps identify the spawn area as the back row of either the left or right panel.

Team 1 Spawn Area and Team 2 Spawn Area are marked on the map panels.

3. Round Overview

The game is divided into rounds and each round has three phases:

1. Maneuver Phase. Teams determine turn order then take turns spending command points (cp) to move their units.
2. Damage Phase. Teams simultaneously assign/deal damage (these terms are synonymous) by placing damage dice. Defenders roll any applicable defense dice, remove destroyed infantry figures, and apply damage to vehicles, buildings, and emplacements.
3. Supply Phase. Occupied resource hexes are captured, incomes are adjusted, stockpiles are collected, and resources are spent on units, building boards, upgrades, and commander tiers.

3.1 Turn Order

At the beginning of the first round, determine which team is going first by rolling three damage dice each. The team with the most green symbols, followed by the most black symbols goes first.

The next round the other team goes first and turn order continues to switch at the beginning of each round. Going second is usually tactically advantageous. If there is a skill discrepancy between the teams, have the less experienced team go first the first round so that they will be able to go last on the second round (when units usually come into first contact).

Note that the team that goes last in a round, must purchase their units first during the supply phase, in order to help balance the advantage.

4. Maneuver Phase

Basic Movement

All units may move one hex per cp, up to a maximum of three cp per round. To move a unit, place a cp cube in the target hex then move the unit. Keep all cp with the unit to track how much that unit has moved this round.

This infantry squad has spent three cp so it cannot move anymore this round. Note that the term "round" is different from a "turn." A round is the full cycle of all phases. A turn is a division in the Maneuver Phase where team members spend up to 3 cp to move units.

There are three turns in the Maneuver Phase. Players must spend three cp per turn. They can divide this cp amongst multiple units, spend it all on one unit, or forfeit any they do not want to use. All players on a team spend their three cp at the same time and they can only spend their own cp. It cannot be stockpiled or shared. Turns alternate between teams. Once all players have spent or forfeited their nine cp, remove cp from the map and move on to the Damage Phase.

Players can spend cp on any of their units in any order.

For example, in a two-player game, Player One spends two cp to move an infantry squad and one cp to move a jeep. Having spent three cp, the turn switches to his opponent. The opponent spends 1 cp to move a tank, then forfeits the remaining two cp because he wants to see what his opponent will do first. On Player One's second turn he spends 1 cp to move his infantry squad again. That infantry squad has now used up 3 cp and so cannot move again this Maneuver Phase.

Obstacles to Movement

Units cannot move through hexes with water, through red impassable terrain lines, or through enemy units. They may, however, move through, but not end movement on, an allied unit. Only One Unit May Occupy a Hex.

Buildings are hexes with green heavy cover lines on every side and depicted with an image of a building. Only certain infantry (green) units may move into buildings (see p. 5).

Unit Types

• Infantry (green heart)
• Light Vehicle (yellow heart)
• Heavy Vehicle (red heart)
• Emplacements (purple heart)

All units move the same in the Basic Rules, with a few exceptions described in the next section. The primary difference between unit types is what types of damage they are resistant to. In the Basic Rules there are no firing arcs and all units can fire in any direction.

Regular Infantry (Green) Units

Regular infantry refers to all infantry that are not weapon teams. Regular infantry and Machine Gun Teams are the only units who can enter buildings. Units can enter buildings with normal movement, but they cannot leave the building during the same round. Buildings provide defense dice in combat (see p. 8).

The player spends one cp to move their Riflemen Squad into the building. The player may have more cp to spend this round but cannot use it to have the Riflemen leave the building.

Weapon Teams (Green) Units

Mortar, Anti-Tank Gun, and Machine Gun Teams are a subset of infantry, indicated by a 'No-Fire' icon in the bottom right of their unit portrait to show that they spawn 'packed up'. A weapon team must spend one cp to deploy, but packs up free. Weapon teams can only attack when deployed.

Mortar Teams and Anti-Tank Gun Teams cannot enter buildings.

Mortar Teams may not attack adjacent units, as indicated by their greyed out range.

Light Vehicle (Yellow) Units

Light vehicles spawn with a speed upgrade as indicated on their building board. A unit's speed die can be used once per round as an additional CP, before it uses any other CP. Speed dice do not count towards the max cp of the unit or the player. In essence, units with a speed die get a free move or action each round.

In this example, the Jeep (a light vehicle) moves three hexes by spending three cp in one turn. It then moves a fourth hex by using its speed die. Had the movement been divided up over several turns, the speed die could have been used during any one of those turns.

Light vehicles are resistant to Anti-Infantry and High Explosive damage. Unit resistances, a type of defense, are identified on the Defense Matrix on the back of your Tier 3 Building board (see p. 8).

Heavy Vehicle (Red) Units

Heavy vehicles, in the Basic Rules, move the same as other units. Heavy vehicles are resistant to High Explosive damage and are completely immune to Anti-Infantry and Flame damage. In the Advanced Rules they may assign damage to multiple targets.

Emplacements (Purple) Units

Emplacements are stationary units and never move once constructed. By default, emplacements built on resource points will capture those points during the Supply Phase.

Emplacements are constructed by adjacent infantry with the wrench icon during the purchase step of the Supply Phase. Emplacements cannot be constructed onto rivers or across impassable terrain or from inside a building or transport vehicle.

Transport

Some vehicles have the transport ability. This allows standard infantry (non-weapon teams) to enter and leave the vehicle at the same costs of moving into a building (one cp to enter and cannot leave the same round that it entered). Infantry can fire out of the vehicle as normal and cannot be targeted directly, but if the vehicle is destroyed so is the infantry. (Note that units cannot spawn inside of transport vehicles.)

5. Damage Phase

Damage Phase Overview

Hopefully your maneuvering has put you into an advantageous position for combat! The Damage Phase follows these steps when they are applicable:

1. Pin. Machine Gun Teams can pin one valid target, that is the unit they will attack this round. (see p. 10).
2. Assign Damage. The first team assigns damage by placing damage dice showing their unit's damage type on the target's hex. This team assigns damage for the entire team at once. Then the second team assigns all damage.
3. Defense Rolls. The players go through each unit being attacked one by one and roll any defense dice to reduce damage; laying down infantry figures to represent losses or placing damage cubes on vehicles as needed (see p. 8).
4. Remove Destroyed Units. Fully destroyed units are removed from the board and the attacker's team gains a Victory Point. Note that all damage is considered simultaneous so destroying a unit does not affect the damage they assigned to their target.

Assign/Deal Damage

The team who went first this round assigns/deals damage first. (The term assign or deal damage are used interchangeably.) This is done by announcing attacking units and placing damage dice from all attacking units onto all defending units, for the whole team. Units with more than one damage type cannot split their damage amongst multiple targets unless they are a heavy vehicle (red heart icon). Note that all damage is simultaneous, destroyed units still get to attack this round.

Multiple attackers can target the same hex. This is often important to overwhelm a target's defenses.

Attackers place dice showing the type of damage their unit is doing. (In the above example the attackers both do Anti-Infantry damage so they place dice showing the Anti-Infantry icon.)

5.1 Damage Types

There are four different damage types. They are used to determine whether the target gets defenses or not.

• Anti-Infantry
• Armor Piercing
• High Explosive
• Flame

Each damage type does one point of damage, the primary difference between damage types is whether a defender is resistant or immune to it. Flame and High Explosive (HE) have the following advantages:

HE damage is considered indirect, which means it can fire over buildings.

Flame damage ignores all defense rolls, but heavy vehicles are immune to flame.

(Pro-tip: in the advanced rules HE damage has variable damage allowing it to miss, hit or crit, and HE and Flame damage can damage buildings.)

Unit Damage and Range

Use your building board to determine a unit's range and damage. Default damage is under the attack column. Most units in the game have a range of two, like the Grenadiers below.

Diagram labels (Wehrmacht Headquarters 1 example): Range (the range column); Damage (the attack column); Upgrades (the upgrade row under each unit).

Once you construct the tier 2 building board, you will have access to more units and unit types.

Multiple Damage Types

Units place all of the damage they have access to when attacking. For example, an Sd.Kfz. 222 Armored Cars deal one AP (Armor Piercing) and one AI (Anti-Infantry) damage. All damage must be applied to a single target.

Upgrades can be purchased during the Supply Phase (see p. 12). Only the Munitions Upgrades are available in the Basic Rules.

6. Defenses

Once all damage is assigned, players go through each defending unit and apply any damage. In some cases, the defender will get to make defense rolls to reduce damage. There are two types of defenses, resistances and static defenses. Resistance is variable and determined by what type of damage is targeting the unit, while static defenses provide a set amount of defense. Use the Defense Matrix found on the back of your tier 3 Building board to identify resistances.

Defense Matrix (rows are unit types; columns are damage types: Anti-Infantry, Armor Piercing, High Explosive, Flame)

Unit type	Anti-Infantry	Armor Piercing	High Explosive	Flame
Infantry (green heart, G)	dash	shield	dash	dash
Light Vehicle (yellow heart, Y)	shield	dash	shield	dash
Heavy Vehicle (red heart, R)	No Fire	greyed shield*	shield	No Fire
Emplacement (purple heart, P)	shield	dash	dash	dash
Building (house icon)	No Fire	No Fire	dash

The unit types are represented by the health symbols with their row showing what damage types they are resistant to.

• Shield icon: The shield icon means the defending unit gets to roll a defense die for each point of damage of that type dealt to them. For example, if three armor piercing damage were dealt to an infantry squad it would gain three defense dice. This will stack with static defenses like Cover.
• 'No Fire' symbol: The 'No Fire' symbol means that unit type is invulnerable to that damage type. For example, red units (heavy vehicles) are immune to Anti-Infantry and Flame damage.
• Dash: The dash means that the unit has no inherent defenses against that damage type. Damage automatically hits if there are no special defenses like cover or upgrades.
• Greyed out shield with asterisk*: The greyed out shield with the asterisk*, in the red unit's row, is a reminder of frontal armor defenses for heavy vehicles which is not used in the Basic Rules and can be ignored for now, being instead treated like a dash.

Defense Rolls

When a unit receives a 'defense die,' it rolls a damage die to see if it blocks one point of damage. Green and black symbols are a success and the damage is reduced by one. A red symbol is a fail, which means that a point of damage is not blocked.

Die faces: the red faces (crossed-out infantry and flame) are a FAIL; the black faces (infantry and tank) and the green faces (High Explosive star and speed) are a SUCCESS.

Each successful defense roll blocks a point of damage. In some cases, a unit will roll more defense dice than there is damage assigned, this only increases their odds of defending. Apply the remaining damage to the unit by removing infantry figures and adding damage cubes or a pip die to vehicles.

For example, an infantry unit in a building is assigned 3 AP damage. It rolls 3 defense for the AP damage and 2 defense for being inside a building. The infantry unit would roll 5 defense total.

Remember that all damage is considered simultaneous. Destroyed units still return fire that round, so it does not matter which units are resolved first.

6.1 Static Defenses

Static Defenses are different than the resistances found on the defense matrix. While resistances are variable, static defenses provide a set amount of defense dice.

Cover in Buildings

In the Basic Rules, only buildings provide cover and are represented by a hex surrounded in green lines. Ignore all other green and yellow cover lines.

If an infantry unit is inside a building it gains 2 defense dice when attacked. These defense dice stack with other defense dice the unit has this round. Buildings do not provide cover against Flame damage.

Unit Defense Upgrades

Some units have a unit defense upgrade, noted by the shield die. This grants one additional defense die each damage phase. Note that Flame damage ignores this defense die also.

Resolving Damage Example

In this historically unlikely example, the British Infantry Section in the middle is being attacked by a US Riflemen Squad, a German Grenadier Squad, and a German Sd.Kfz. 222.

We see from the attackers' building boards that Riflemen and Grenadiers deal one AI damage each, and the Sd.Kfz. 222 deals one AI and one AP damage. In this example none of these units have purchased upgrades so only their default damage is used. A total of four damage dice are placed on the target.

Because the Infantry Section is a green unit, the Defense Matrix indicates that the unit gets to roll a defense die for each point of AP damage assigned to them.

With three AI damage targeting this unit, three infantry are laid down immediately. This Infantry Section then rolls a defense die for the AP damage. If it succeeds the squad will have one health left; if it fails the unit will be destroyed.

Destroying Units

All damage in the Damage Phase is considered simultaneous, so any units with zero health still get to attack before they are removed. After both teams have assigned and resolved damage, remove units with zero health.

Victory Points from Combat

When a team destroys an enemy unit, that team gains a Victory Point and increases their Victory Point stockpile by 1 on their HQ boards.

Heroic Sacrifice: If a unit has the Heroic Sacrifice ability, that unit rewards no Victory Points when it is destroyed. (Only found in Commander Cards and the OKW Expansion.)

7. Additional Combat Rules

Pinning (Machine Guns)

Pinning is a negative status effect that can be inflicted on green units (regular infantry and weapon teams). A pinned unit cannot deal damage, capture control points, spend cp, move, or use abilities. They still receive defense dice, reinforcement and can spot for allied units. In the basic rules pinned units remain pinned until the end of the round. Units in buildings cannot be pinned.

Machine Guns (MG): At the beginning of the Damage Phase, before damage is assigned, all MG Teams can choose a unit within range, that they can see, to pin. They can only attack the unit they selected to pin this round. Machine Gun Teams themselves cannot be pinned.

Sight

All units have a default sight range of two hexes. If a unit can see further it will be marked with this eye symbol. A unit must be able to see a target to attack it or it must use a spotter. Sight range and firing range are different stats. This means some units can see farther than they can shoot and some can shoot farther than they can see; the latter requires a spotter (see Spotting below).

Range

All units have a default firing range of two hexes, the same as the default sight range. If a unit has a longer range than two hexes, it will be marked under the range section of the building board. Many units have or can upgrade to an additional +1 sight and +1 range identified by this symbol.

Spotting

Any allied unit automatically spots for all other allied units. This is important for units with a range longer than their sight (Anti-Tank Guns, Tank Destroyers, indirect weapons like mortars and artillery, etc). Thus, any enemy unit visible to an allied unit is "visible" to all allied units. Regardless of whether a unit has a spotter, it cannot fire through buildings unless it is HE damage, which is considered indirect fire.

Camouflage

The Soviet sniper has the camouflage ability, meaning it can only be spotted by adjacent units. While spotted, camouflaged units can be targeted as normal.

For example, a mortar four hexes away can target a camouflaged sniper if an ally is adjacent to the enemy sniper, otherwise it cannot.

Building Cover

Any Infantry unit inside a building has 2 defense rolls by default when taking damage. Infantry in buildings cannot be pinned.

Buildings Blocking Attacks and Sight

Building hexes are marked with an image of a building and are surrounded on all sides by heavy cover (green). Buildings block sight and attacks. Units can see and attack into buildings but not past them.

To check whether sight/attacks are blocked, draw an imaginary line from the center of the unit's hex to the center of the target's hex. If it intersects two green hex lines of a building then the attack is blocked. Note: the attack line must fully intersect the two green hex lines to be blocked, not just run along the edge of them.

This Riflemen Squad cannot see through the building to the hex on the other side. All other hexes are visible to the squad since their line of sight does not fully intersect the building.

Building Health

In the Basic Rules, all buildings are indestructible.

8. Supply Phase

Supply Phase Overview

During the Supply Phase each team captures objectives, adjusts incomes, collects resources, and then spends resources.

There are four resource types: Manpower, Fuel, Munitions, and Victory Points. Manpower and Fuel are used for purchasing units, Munitions are for upgrades and special abilities, and Victory Points are the win condition.

Resource icons: Manpower (yellow fist), Fuel (green jerrycan), Munitions (red icon), Victory (blue star).

The four resources are represented on the HQ board as incomes and stockpiles. Incomes determine how fast your stockpiles grow. Stockpiles display how many resources you have gathered and are able to spend.

Stockpile Caps. Resource stockpiles cap at 9 except for Victory Points, which reset back to 0 with an orange cube to represent 10.

Capture Objectives

All green and purple units can capture control points. Emplacements (purple) must be built on the control point to capture. If your team has one of these units or a vehicle with the 'capture' ability on a control point, remove the other team's flag (if applicable) and mark that control point with your team's flag (if you have Terrain Pack 1 with flag pole miniatures, otherwise use the flag tokens found in the Core Set). Pinned or retreating units cannot capture.

Adjust Incomes

For each control point that your team captures, the corresponding income on each team member's HQ board increases by one. For each control point that your team loses, each team member's income decreases by one. All income fluctuations affect the entire team.

Collect Resources

After control points and incomes have been adjusted, each player increases their stockpiles by the corresponding income.

Be careful to adjust the stockpiles section and not the incomes section during the collection step.

Incomes to Stockpiles Example

1. In this example, a team captures a Manpower Control Point. Each team member increases their Manpower income from one to two.
2. During the collection step, each team member's stockpiles go up by the amount of each income level.

Each team member will spend their stockpiles seperately.

Remember not to "spend" your income levels. The income track is just a record of how many resources you will collect each round.

8.1 Supply Phase Purchasing

After players capture, adjust incomes, and collect resources, players spend their resources in the following ways, in any order they wish:

Purchase New Units: Each unit's purchase cost is located on their building board. Subtract this amount from your stockpiles to spawn a new unit and place it in your team's spawn area. Sometimes players may wish to keep their purchases secret or choose what to purchase based off of the enemy's choices. In these situations, the team that went last this round must purchase their units first, (to help balance the advantage of going last).

Purchase Upgrades: Most units have two or more upgrade options located in the lower section of the unit tile on their building board. Each unit can purchase each of their upgrades once. Experience is not earned in your first game so the experience-based upgrades are ignored for now. Track purchased upgrades by placing the corresponding die in the unit's tray.

Note that upgrades only affect a single unit per upgrade, they do not upgrade all units of that type. All units can purchase upgrades regardless of where they are on the map. They can also spawn and immediately be upgraded in the same purchase step.

Diagram labels: Unit Name; Health; Range; Attack; Bonus; Cost (Base Stats); Experience Upgrade; Munitions Upgrade (Upgrades).

A US Riflemen Squad is a versatile unit; they can choose either extra AP or AI damage for their Munitions Upgrade.

Construct New Buildings: By paying the amount identified on the back of the building boards, players can flip them over and immediately begin purchasing its units.

Soviets and Germans (and OKW) must unlock their buildings in order (2 before 3). The US and the British, however, can pay extra to unlock their tier 3 building first, as indicated on their building boards.

OKW Buildings (a faction expansion not included in the Core Set) require first constructing a SWS supply truck and then converting it into an emplacement somewhere on the map. They are the only faction to have their building board represented as a unit on the map.

8.2 Additional Supply Phase Events

Some unit abilities take place during the Supply Phase as well:

Reinforce. Units or locations with the reinforce icon heal all damaged adjacent infantry one health. This allows an infantry unit to be healed twice if it is adjacent to two reinforcement units. Units from different nations reinforce each other as long as they are on the same team. Units cannot reinforce an ally from inside a building and vice versa.

For example, if a wounded infantry squad was adjacent to two US Jeeps (which have the reinforce ability) it could restore two health during the Supply Phase, but the infantry squad cannot exceed its maximum health.

Repair. Units with the repair icon can repair one adjacent vehicle or emplacement one health. They cannot repair other units from inside a building or vehicle.

Default Reinforcement Point. Each hex in a team's spawn area is a reinforcement point. Infantry located on a spawn hex will reinforce 1 health (up to their maximum) at the end of the Supply Phase.

Older rules used these symbols as retreat and reinforcement points on the map. They can now be ignored.

Ready for Your First Command!

You are now ready to play the Company of Heroes Board Game! Afterwards, return here for guidance on how to expand your game experience. You are also ready to learn and play the Solo/Cooperative rules, if you have that expansion.

After Your First Battle

After players feel comfortable with the Basic Rules, introduce experience and commander cards into your games, as found on the following pages.

Commander Cards may unlock abilities that are not detailed in the Basic Rules. When encountering an unknown ability while playing the Basic Rules look up the rule in the Glossary and/or Advanced Rulebook and apply it.

After players are comfortable using experience and commanders, you can decide whether to move on to the Advanced Rules or simply keep playing the Basic Rules with commanders and experience. The Basic Rules capture a lot of the experience of the video games while the Advanced Rules capture even more; but at the cost of increased complexity.

This is a list of the rules changed or added in the Advanced Rulebook:

1. Firing Arcs
2. Turreted and Non-Turreted Attacks
3. High Explosive Damage Rolls
4. Weapon Teams Deployment
5. Tank Facing
6. Retreat
7. Slow Vehicles
8. Advanced Pinning
9. Frontal Armor Defense
10. Battlefield Defenses
11. Miscellaneous Abilities

9. Experience

Experience is a resource that is earned from combat and stored in the experience section of your HQ board. It is spent like other resources during the Supply Phase, to upgrade units and unlock commander tiers. Each unit can purchase its Experience Upgrade once, just like their Munitions Upgrade.

Gaining Experience

Experience From Damaging Units. The first time a player successfully damages an enemy unit in a round, by contributing relevant damage dice to an enemy that loses health, they gain an experience point. (See examples of relevant damage below.) Players track this by placing a cube in their experience tray on their HQ board. Only 1 experience per round can be earned this way! To earn more than 1 experience per round requires actually destroying a unit.

Additional Experience From Destroying Units. When a player destroys an enemy unit they gain an additional experience point. If multiple units are destroyed, each unit provides an additional experience point to those who assigned relevant damage dice. This is in addition to Victory Points gained from destroying units.

Relevant Damage means assigning damage that has the potential to damage the target. Thus, assigning only AI or Flame damage to a heavy vehicle would not give a player experience if it was destroyed (unless the Flame damage caused it to fall into ice when playing on frozen maps - see Mission Booklet).

Damaging two or more enemies still provides only one 'damage' experience, because there is a max of one 'damage' xp per round. Destroying a single enemy squad in a round provides an experience for damaging it and one bonus experience for destroying it. Destroying two squads in a round provides one experience for damaging a unit, plus two experience points for destroying them. In total: three experience and two Victory Points would be earned.

10. Commander Cards

Commander Cards introduce pay-per-use abilities, new units, and powerful upgrades to a faction's army.

A player may choose any Commander Card from their faction at any time in the game, but after the player has purchased the first tier ability of that commander, they can no longer switch to a different commander.

Commander Card tiers are unlocked from left to right by spending the experience value in the top left corner of each tier. Unlocked tiers are marked by placing a cube in the commander track on the right of the HQ board.

Commander Card example (Ranger Company, tiers 1 to 4, read left to right):

• Tier 1, Ranger Company: Ranger Endurance Training: Riflemen may spend 4 CP per round.
• Tier 2, Ranger Weapons Training: Riflemen may purchase their munitions upgrade for 3 munitions, and may purchase it twice.
• Tier 3, 'Priest' Call-In: A 'Priest' Howitzer Motor Carriage spawns for free when first unlocking this level.
• Tier 4, West Point Reserves (Requires Tier 3 Building): The Major spawns with all of his upgrades. Whenever a Major is not deployed, one spawns for free [during the] Purchase Phase. (The words in brackets are partly obscured by the tier marker in the source.)

Commander Ability Timing. Commander abilities occur during the relevant phase, unless otherwise specified. This means maneuver abilities are activated during the Maneuver Phase, damage abilities occur during the Damage Phase, and unit upgrades and unit spawns occur during the Supply Phase. Commander abilities only affect the player's units not their team's.

Commander Ability Types

Passive Abilities are always active or trigger when a specified condition is present. If it uses the term "all" it will apply to all specified units that exist or will be spawned in the future, ie Spearhead Doctrine.

Pay-Per-Use abilities require some sort of payment each time it is activated. Commander pay-per-use abilities can only be activated once per round. (For example, the Spearhead's Fragmentation Bomb ability or the US Armor Tactician Ability to the right.)

Unit Spawns and Upgrades often provide free units, access to special units that can be purchased, or free upgrades when a unit type is spawned. A price shows the cost to spawn the unit.

Alternate Upgrade Choices provide different upgrades that units can purchase. These are purchased just like the unit's other upgrades found on their building board. These will usually show a price with an upgrade die and apply to only one unit per purchase.

Commander Card Examples

The first two tiers of 'Armor Company' for the US are passive abilities that apply for all rounds after they are purchased. The Armor Tactician ability is a pay-per-use ability that can be paid for and resolved at the beginning of the Damage Phase, before damage is assigned. The Veteran Wolverines ability spawns a free M10 Wolverine with any upgrade during the Supply Phase, and all future purchased M10 Wolverines will spawn with an upgrade of the player's choice (does not apply to M10's spawned before unlocking this Commander tier).

Armor Company card text: Assault Engineers: Riflemen may spawn with +1 repair and +1 Flame damage but lose 1 maximum health. Elite Vehicle Crews: Vehicles can self-repair 1 at the end of the Damage Phase if they did not attack. Armor Tactician: Heavy vehicles may pay 1 munitions to deploy smoke onto their hex at the beginning of the Damage Phase. Veteran Wolverines: Wolverine's spawn with any one of their upgrades. One spawns for free.

The first tier of Spearhead Doctrine unlocks the Recon in Force passive ability. This applies to all light vehicles because it says "all light vehicles", which means current and future. The second tier ability specifies that Mortar Teams SPAWN with their damage upgrade, which means it does not apply to current mortar teams, only new ones that spawn after this tier is activated. The third tier is a pay-per-use ability activated during the Damage Phase. This damage is applied simultaneously with other damage. Lastly, this doctrine provides access to Tiger Tanks. The first Tiger Tank spawns for free when unlocking tier 4.

Spearhead Doctrine card text: Recon in Force: All light vehicles gain +1 sight. Veteran Mortars: Mortars spawn with their Flame damage upgrade. One spawns for free. Fragmentation Bomb: Deal 2 HE damage on 3 visible, adjacent hexes during the Damage Phase. Tiger Call-In: Requires Tier 3 Building. One spawns for free.

Basic Icons Reference

Greyed out text in the source indicates rules only needed in the Advanced Rule set.

Damage types

• Anti-Infantry Damage (AI)
• Armor Piercing Damage (AP)
• High Explosive Damage (HE)
• Flame Damage
• Speed
• Spent Speed

Defense and combat icons

• Defense (shield)
• Smoke (Advanced)
• Sight (eye)
• Sight and Range
• Camouflage
• Veteran (Advanced)
• Pinned
• Slow (Advanced)
• Deployed (Advanced)
• No Fire
• Retreat (Advanced)
• Splash Damage
• Veteran II (Advanced)
• Sniper (Advanced)
• Range
• +1 Health (Advanced)
• Heroic Sacrifice (Advanced)
• Close Range Firepower (Advanced)

Resources and other icons

• Manpower
• Fuel
• Munitions
• Victory Points
• Repair
• Reinforce
• Turreted Attack (Advanced)
• Non-Turreted Attack (Advanced)
• Capture
• Transport
• Retreat Point (Advanced)
• Experience Cost (Advanced)
• Infantry (green heart, G)
• Light Vehicle (yellow heart, Y)
• Heavy Vehicle (red heart, R)
• Emplacement (purple heart, P)

Maneuver Phase

1. Determine Turn Order
2. Spend three cp per player alternating between teams until all nine are spent or forfeited

Each hex movement costs one cp.

Regular infantry and Machine Gun Teams can enter buildings for one cp but cannot leave the same round.

Damage Phase

1. Machine Guns pin
2. Assign all damage
3. Defender rolls applicable defense dice
4. Apply resulting damage
5. After both teams have finished remove any destroyed units and collect any applicable experience and victory points.

Supply Phase

1. Capture flags and adjust incomes
2. Collect resources according to income levels
3. Spend resources, spawn units, purchase upgrades, unlock buildings
4. Repair & Reinforce
5. Check for Victory Condition