[quote name='cheapfrag']Just curious why you feel the British were especially detrimental to the game as a whole?[/QUOTE]
Well, the original CoH was really based on mobility and offense. You can't really hunker down in one area and expect to win. Sure, there were a few exceptions (like the Wehrmacht bunker that could be very powerful when deployed correctly) but usually you always had to keep your forces on the move, capturing points and such. The British, though, as introduced in OF were a faction based on emplacements. I think there are three different fixed guns you can build as the Brits, and then there are the trenches that any infantry can build. (The defensive buffs given by the trenches were unreal.)
Unlike the original two factions, they were based on building up one area of the map so it could not be assaulted. I just found -- and many CoH players agreed with me -- that in games involving the British there was much less mobility, as their entire faction was based on defense. You knew that you'd find a huge blob of British emplacements somewhere on the map. With the original factions, the Americans and the Wehrmacht, there were many different possible outcomes, and you always had to be on your toes because you could be attacked from any angle. With the British, you knew that they would not attack, they'd be turtling up. It just seemed like Relic tried something new and it didn't really work, and it ended up sort of ruining the balance as a whole in the game. Others may have liked the Brits, but I found their defensive nature to really affect the whole game in a negative way.
Sorry for such a long post, but the original CoH is one of my top three games of all time (my favorite RTS to this day including Starcraft 2) and the failure of the expansions was really disappointing to me at the time (and still is). So far, all of the news about CoH2 seems excellent. I can't wait to see video footage of the game and learn more about how the factions will work. I'm gonna have to build a new computer for this one, but it will be worth it!