Lone Eagle lacks contextual depth as to the location and setting it has going on but the neutrality of it's historical background makes it quite ideal for diverse factional presence, making it easy for all 5 armies to logically be present.

The most striking aspect of Lone Eagle is the grand scale of the map that differs from what you typically expect from a standard CoH2 map. Primarily open fields speckled with tree lines and occasional wrecks of vehicles with a few landmarks and buildings at possible combat hotspots.

Lone Eagle creates a unique and rather refreshing battlefield that favors long-ranged combat. It'll be difficult to fight in as, primarily USF, there are only a few locations that support close-quarter assault troops. Use of mechanized transport is wholly recommended to skip travel time and hasten reinforcements to the frontline.

And speaking of the frontline, the map is divided by an entire riverline, with 4 man-made bridges and 1 natural land bridge. In gameplay, these become extreme choke-points which more or less causes the early game to become a stalemate where both sides are reluctant to cross and make an effective assault.

However, once a breakthrough occurs, it's extremely easy to scatter and divide forces should there be any vulnerability. While there is a 3v3 version of this map, I feel as though the 2v2 variant works much better as it opens up the larger possibility of being flanked and makes the match that much more interesting.

One of the best features of this map is how it's designed. My personal motto is that there is beauty in simplicity and Lone Eagle is a shining example of how you can create beautiful landscapes without needing to invest into so much detail.

In fact, the design and overarching layout is reminiscent of old school RTS and reminds me of my times such as in Warcraft III : The Frozen Throne which is accentuated well in a bright blue and white color schema, offset slightly by small hints of orange from dimly lit lanterns.
It's practically reminscent of a campaign.

In areas where there are detail, they are used effectively and add more flair and immersion as you play on the map. In example, you will find that all player bases have campfires surrounding them, making it feel that much captivating. The subtle additions of plane wrecks, a lone wooden house and even a buried castle, all give faint clues to those that have previously tread these lands, and is an effective way to convey environmental storytelling that's concise yet compelling at the same time.

Lone Eagle does not utilize very much mud or the more rough and gritty elements of maps such as the Ardennes where there are plenty of black, yellow and darker colors that generally set a bleak and dismal mood. Opting to refrain from using western European architecture and minimizing the presence of artificial constructions; the lack of stone roads and dominating presence of Mother Nature/General Winter makes the map interesting and fun to play on.

Enough about the nostalgia and the looks. Let's take a dive at how Lone Eagle works in actual battle.

Much like many other maps of a similar scale; use of mechanized transport is highly recommended to cut down on deployment time and improve the mobility and reactivity of your army.

The map is extremely symmetrical and one feature I greatly appreciate is how well defined territory lines are. Rather than using curves and circles to define the territory zones, Lone Eagle uses sharp, polygonal shapes to outline each control point, making it easy to map out your combat, and clearly defines your points of interests without having you look too deeply into it. The minimap is extremely clean as a result and helps smooth out the tactics.

An interesting design choice was to exclude the use of Heavy Snow, where infantry will find themselves slowed down. The map does not make any use of this mechanic and thus, it's actually not as unforgiving as one may believe it to be and personally, I feel like it's a good thing. This means that legging it to your destination isn't going to punish you as hard, but you generally want to find ways to get yourself to the frontline faster to which we move on the other notable aspects of Lone Eagle.

Due to the wide snow fields being mostly unobstructed, it makes it INCREDIBLY easy to develop fortifications and entrench yourself all throughout the area. With how the layout of the map is formatted, it makes it easy to create checkpoints and fallback positions and thus, the longer the match goes on, the more and more difficult it will be to make an assault.

Expect hefty use of machine guns and bunkers as a result of the rather stiff and diminutive entry points. Notably, artillery guns will need to be positioned near the river to make effective use of them and thus you will be given the equal opportunity to knock them out should you get the chance of making a necessary breakthrough.

If you intended to send out a traditional battle group, you may find it difficult to dislodge opponents who have the territorial advantage and may have to look to "alternative" means of bypassing your enemy's defense. Look towards the housing.

Infiltration Specialists are worth their weight in gold. Due to the highly choreographed battlelines being bottlenecked at 5 areas across the river, being able to wreak havoc behind enemy lines is a massive boon, and considering the amount of ground needed to cover; unconventional tactics of distracting your enemy by having them send out patrols and whatnot adds a level of complexity to the gameplay that other maps don't have.

This also renders the map as the perfect level to utilize paratroopers as there are numerous landing zones that could be taken advantage of, allowing for rapid deployment of forces to various sectors and is of course, the main theme of the map with the "eagle" motif. This, with heavy entrenchments, leads to a unique blend of gameplay that specializes in stealth, sabotage and exploitation that will lead to victory.

This is emphasized with the placement of the Victory Points. Breaking from conventional map design once again, Lone Eagle only has two VPs, which are located right next to the team's HQ sectors. This leads to a lot of in-fighting and creates a rather unique scenario where you need to REALLY fortify every position you can and keep watch of areas you haven't locked down.

Fuel Points are divided into three, with one at the natural land bridge depot acting as an area of contest and is another centralized hotzone. What's interesting is that there are two fuel caches placed directly behind the base sectors which both have a building that specialists can spawn from. From a tactical standpoint this means that vehicles will come out MUCH more earlier than other maps but also opens up the opportunity to do some sneaky backcaps to hinder enemy progress.

Tuning Packs

• All Units (170 Added)
  
• Spearhead
  
• Wikinger's Theatre of War
  
• The Advanced Powers

Gamemodes

• The Last Tiger
  
• Capture the Flag
  
• War Drive
  
• TCM Increased Popcap and Adjusted Income with Zoom
  
• Tactical Commands
  
  
  Closing Statements
  Lone Eagle is both an unconventional and traditional RTS map that rewards players for making effective use of their faction's elite units. Airborne paratroopers and infiltration specialists create an interesting game of cat and mouse, and invokes a rather serene mood offset by the dread of a breakthrough. The map encourages conducting patrols which something unexpected of a CoH2 match, all while creating a scenario where entrenchment and slow-paced combat does not feel mundane or annoying.
  Just from map design alone, you can expect old-school tactics to synergize and work out quite nicely for you.
  
  Overall, a well-refined and excellent map that defines itself with simplicity and stands out through it's thematic distinction and tactical gameplay.