So You Think You Can Cast?

Whether you’re fiercely duking it out on the fields of Langres in hopes of bumping yourself up the ladder, or playing an MVGame with mates for some good, ole fashioned, noob the Hoch, one thing is abundantly clear: We’re simply hooked on Company of Heroes. Call it an addiction, call it a passion, simply call it what you will. CoH junkies refuse to acknowledge this is just a game. It is indeed a community.


It doesn’t matter if you’ve just caught the CoH bug, played since pre-beta or are coming back to your longtime gaming love after a brief hiatus and some time apart. We all have a part to play in the CoH universe. Some administrate, while others write strategy guides. Some take time out of their busy schedules to offer up that much needed helpful advice to your forum quandary, while others snicker as they troll behind the invisible information super highway we call the internet from the plush surroundings of the “man cave” that is their parent’s basement. And, then there are the game casters; who aside from those that play the game, are quite possibly the most exciting, informative and integral part to new player recruitment.




AmiPolizeiFunk and ImperialDane coughed up the goods, shared the wealth and spilled the proverbial beans about what it takes to entertain and inform thousands daily like a routine trip to the fridge. These gents are indeed global, and yes, even your girlfriend likes them better than you.


The titans of train wreck, anomalies of Angoville and sapphires of Semois have the market covered. Ami’s prize fight production of Sunday Night Fights has delivered some of the most epic matches in CoH history; “I wish I could have run SNF long before we ever made the first show. I wanted to see Bo5 show matches between the best players in the game, simply out of a sheer joy of seeing the game played at the highest level.” While Dane’s PropagandaCast takes you through an informative ride through time; filling the history void in the modern art of casting through an eclectic voice over, with better grammar and diction than most native English speakers. “I felt like there was something I could do to fill that gap and provide something there. Plus, it also gave me a chance to actually talk about World War Two, and actually work on my English.”




Take a second to reminisce about the first time you connected with an educator. Now imagine that connection is CoH, and zing! Jackpot, baby. Professor Dane immerses you in all things WW2 strategy, and has them played out before your very eyes in glorious high definition; “I just look at the force usage, the map type and then I usually pluck something from my memory that fits the bill. If it’s a Wehrmacht largely infantry force, it’s an infantry unit. Panzer Elite can be different things depending on different maps so in terms of history I can also use some later stuff like the Panzer Brigades. While Relic likes to say that CoH is just Normandy to Market Garden in terms of units, that’s not quite true. It stretches to the Battle of the Bulge and a bit beyond with some, and the Panzer Elite fits ridiculously well with the Panzer Brigades. Not the SS as some people seem to like to tout.”


We all know by now, it is not a great game on Semois until the church crashes to the ground. We know this from watching the game’s best competitors dish it out on the scorched ruins of software Europa live via SNF. Ami combines the death and destruction of WW2 with your favorite professional sports announcer flare; “I was born lucky. I grew up listening to two legendary radio voices in the world of sports — Vin Scully, the lifelong voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chick Hearn, the voice of the L.A. Lakers. These guys had so much character, and were so smooth, that you just got a great feeling, no matter where you were, as soon as you heard their voices on the AM Radio. And they’re wacky and creative too. Every once in a while, I try to throw in an homage to one of those guys on an SNF cast, with a line like ‘and the mustard’s off the hotdog!’ or ‘you can close the refrigerator door on this one, the butter’s getting cold.’”


Whether it’s an intricate pro series like SNF or sticking to a grueling one and sometimes two PropagandaCasts per day schedule, you can’t pull it off without dedication, lots and lots of planning and of course hard work. But, then again, is it really work if you’re doing what you love?




To say there’s a lot involved in a segment of SNF would be an understatement. Take Ami’s word for it; “Lemme attempt a brief outline: 1. planning a season schedule and format, 2. getting funding from sponsors, 3. managing artists to make splash screens, logos, videos, and original music, 4. picking players and arranging matches, 5. writing, editing, and portalizing announcements and countdown tickers, 6. getting guest casters and analysts, 7. improving tech overlays, synched webcams, all blended into the UI, 8. getting a sender and making sure everyone and everything is in the right place at show time, 9. doing the show (the easy part!), 10. posting all the post-production stuff, like cutting up VODs and linking them in replay threads, linking replays, making an index. Got time for more details? I could go on…”


You can bet the farm I did. Come to find out, Ami designed and orchestrated the format, original period artwork and funding, “The format for S3 actually came to me whilst eating at a pizzeria down the street. We’ve always been running a classic boxing theme, and the idea of breaking the season up into contender bouts and title fights just fit perfectly.”


While great ideas often come when you least expect them, a hefty purse to make the title of SNF Champion sweeter, seldom does. Ami caught a break; “I pitched the idea to Relic and to all of our utter surprise they agreed to put in $500 to the prize purse. It was a windfall, and I still don’t know exactly who to thank at Relic. I’m trying to pull some strings to find out who the ‘yes man’ at the top was, so I can give that person some credit.”




With 660 PropagandaCasts in roughly a year and five months Professor Dane’s CoH 101 course has something for everyone and is filling up quickly. This isn’t Ferris Bueller’s Economics class, you’re going to learn tactics and strategy; “I was inspired by the more ‘propaganda’ like abilities of the Wehrmacht; the ones where you get a voice blaring out in a nice loudspeaker. It’s more in how the forces actually fought, the differences between infantry and such. It’s the overall force compositions, which to me, makes it quite interesting; it rather enhances the immersion plus perhaps a bit subtly teaches people about how the forces fought. Some casters just take it more blow-by-blow without looking at it as a larger battle, but also one without the caster going ‘micro’ or ‘macro’ every 5 seconds…to me it felt like they never really went into depth and might as well have replaced ‘micro’ with ‘magic.’ And, while I figured a lot of players certainly quite nicely enjoy ‘micro,’ I wanted to focus on tactics and strategy, unit composition, frontlines, flanks…and actually talk about those things. I also wanted to help newer players get into the game and so try and stay away from the more technical jargon.”


A critical element to PropagandaCast is the diversity. Each game goes through a selection process. Dane is not for looking games to fill time, quality is paramount. He looks for even play, fair matchups and hard fought battles delivering solid and informative casts for every skill level; “I try to keep things varied as possible, PE games, Commonwealth, Wehrmacht, American maps and so on. So, if I’ve had a ton on Langres lately or I just get a ton of Langres games in my archive, I might look for games on other maps more intently, same applies with armies. Generally, I like to look at things when they aren’t quite standard, because that way you have something to contrast with, and depending on how it goes, you can usually also teach people something. Plus, it generally also happens to be more entertaining if say the Panzer Elite player goes for infantry halftracks or increased squad sizes early on rather than rushing for armored cars…things like that. As I try to teach players there’s always different ways of doing things, and perhaps that way, help them find the play style that suits them, but also teach them more about specific units.”


No matter what you’re looking for in a CoH production, you will find it in PropagandaCast and Sunday Night Fights. And, before you say, “To hell with you OskarMike, I’m gonna go watch some games,” allow me to leave you with some words of wisdom from two pros. If you want to cast, both Ami and Dane encourage you to, “Just Do It.” Dane says, “I’d suggest them to figure out what they want to do with their cast, how they want to stand out from the rest of the casters, how they want to make their mark on Company of Heroes if you will. Otherwise, be concise, clear and confident. Work towards avoiding all the ‘uhms’ and ‘ohs.’ It makes you sound a lot less sure and a lot less in control.” While Ami encourages you to just be yourself, “Get comfortable in front of the mic and then get to know the community. Get involved. Pick good games, and let your personality shine through. There’s plenty of room for up and coming casters, particularly now with the new game on the horizon. Oh, and do a dual-cast with me! I like meeting new people and trying out new things.”