[GUIDE] COH2: What is suppression?

Suppression plays a key role in Company of Heroes 2.  It allows you to face off against a larger army and win as long as you have the right positioning and units available.

What is suppression?

Suppression is a state that infantry go into when faced with overwhelming firepower.  When a squad of Conscripts hears the roar of an MG42, they dive to the ground for cover instead of doing whatever they were ordered to.  They move at a crawl and take much longer to use unit abilities, if at all.  The suppressed squad will fire at enemies at a very slow rate.

If an infantry is continually suppressed, they will eventually go into a state of being "pinned".  This prevents them from shooting, moving or using any abilities.

Only the MG42, Maxim and bunker MG reliably suppress infantry, usually within the first two bursts.  Vehicle mounted machine guns and the Grenadier LMG do not, though they can "add" to suppression to help pin a unit.

How to get rid of suppression?

Time is the only factor that reduces suppression (excluding retreat).  If a suppressed squad is not being fired at by a machine gun, they will be back to normal in a few seconds.  Pinned squads take longer to revert out of the pinned state.

What's the downside to suppression?

Infantry take significantly less damage from small arms fire (SMGs, rifles, machine guns, etc.) when suppressed or pinned.  That's why they dive to the ground, after all!

This means that a suppressed squad can actually have a machine gun shooting at it for a very long time until the squad is completely killed.

Suppression damage resistance does not apply to explosives and flames, so grenades, mortars and flamethrowers are all excellent weapons to use against suppressed squads.  Their inability to move prevents them from dodging grenades unless they retreat.