How to increase the Population Cap in Company of Heroes 3
If you're a completely new player to Company of Heroes 3, then you might need some help understanding the plethora of interconnecting systems that dictate how battles go - especially when it comes to increasing the Population Cap to field a full army.
The game brings the iconic WWII RTS franchise back ten years after the previous entry, and while it's still the same experience you would expect, there are some notable additions.
How to increase your Population Cap
Population Cap has been a feature in all the previous Company of Heroes games, and while it works almost exactly the same here, the addition of a turn-based dynamic campaign map in Italy adds a new way that Pop Cap becomes important.
Essentially, this means that Pop Cap works differently in the real-time battles and the dynamic campaign map, so we'll cover both below.
Real-Time Battles
Click to enlargeIn real-time battles, which is the meat of the Company of Heroes 3 experience, Pop Cap dictates how many units you can field at once. This maxes out at 100, and each unit type has a specific amount of population that they add. You can see the current Pop Cap in the bottom right of the screen, next to resources.
It's worth noting that the population a unit adds doesn't directly translate to how many men make up that unit, as a sniper is a lone unit that can take up six populations.
To increase your Pop Cap in a real-time battle, such as a Skirmish, you will need to capture strategic points on the map, which are denoted by a circle with a dot inside. You should get a notification that your Pop Cap has increased once you've done this, allowing you to construct more units, or call them in.
This doesn't apply to all missions, as they are scripted and typically increase your Pop Cap after meeting certain objectives.
Dynamic Campaign Map
Click to enlargeIn the dynamic campaign set in Italy, Pop Cap represents the same thing (the amount of units you can field) but increasing the cap works differently. Ships and planes also take up the population, as they can be directly controlled on the dynamic map.
In this mode, you need to capture harbours, which are towns or cities located on the coast and denoted by an anchor symbol. You can then use these locations to call in more infantry or mechanized divisions once you have control.
Don't forget to check out our Company of Heroes 3 homepage where you can find even more guides, like how to break the Volturno Line and how to take Monte Cassino.
