Company of Heroes Game Strategies: Learning Hotkeys

To excel in any RTS title you're going to have to learn your hotkeys. Hotkeys are basically shortcuts to options that would otherwise require you to use your mouse and find the exact item to be clicked. There are also many instances in which certain abilities can only be achieved via the use of hotkeys. For Company of Heroes the formula is no different. Either learn your hotkeys or watch your opponent slowly pull away from you until there's a gigantic gap.

CTRL + 1-0 By highlighting any unit and pressing control plus a number you'll assign that unit to the number. While this may seem like a waste of time at the outset of a game, it can help you locate a unit that you've lost track of, which can happen in massive 4v4 games or even a hectic 1v1 game. It's also important when micromanaging your squads and other units in a skirmish. Instead of having to click each individual unit in order to maneuver them, you'll be simply press a number while determining how you want to flank and opponent. This becomes extraordinarily important when it comes to managing armor in tank warfare. In many cases you can find your armor decimated when you're rushing to highlight a particular unit.

Company of Heroes, like many other RTS titles, features global hotkeys that work with every unit so long as they have the ability (Armor does not have a retreat command). A is Attack for every unit while G is Attack Ground for every unit that has the ability to do so. The rest are as following H for Halt, R to Reinforce, and T to retreat. These are notably the most important Global hotkeys in Company of Heroes when it comes to the basics.

Company of Heroes also has the distinction of not having to assign buildings to hotkeys. Any building that you create already has an assigned hotkey, which is pivotal to maintaining your war machine. Rather than having to scroll across the map you can simply use the F keys to select a building and from there you can utilize hotkeys once again to start the creation process for one of your units. For the most part each unit to be created is assigned the hotkey from the first letter in its name. There are exceptions so make sure to research the specifics such as a Sherman Crocodile being a C.

Being able to adequately manage your units through the use of hotkeys is not something that is learned over night, so don't expect to log onto Company of Heroes and instantly remember what everything means. Practice makes perfect and the computer is perfect fodder to learn the hotkeys and how you're going to utilize them.