Getting Started I

“Oh, finally!” you say, “a part of the guide you didn’t just copy from your last one.” Yeah, well, don’t be a smartalec. This section will address the number-one request my guide for AirLand Battle had - a simple runthrough of the game’s UI and how to get started.in a basic multiplayer match. You know the basics of gameplay and you know what units do what, but how does it all come together? That is to say, once you’re in a game, how do you put all this theory into practice?Well, let’s refer back to the lobby screen.Whether you join someone’s lobby or make your own, you’ll see the same kind of information. Choose your preferred deck, and take the time to say hi to the lobby and see who answers you and how they act. I always take it as a good sign when my teammates are willing to be sociable, and a bad sign when they aren’t.Once the game starts, you’ll see something like this:Your starting zone or zones are highlighted in red - these are the zones you’ll deploy your. The array of forces you choose to start with is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in the game. In the top left, you’ll see this:The number might be different, but that’s your current command points bank. This is the bank you will buy new units from. Click it (keyboard shortcut: ~), and your deck will open up.You’ll start with one FOB and one command unit deployed. You must have one command unit deployed to start, and can’t delete your last command unit. Now, what units to select? Well, that depends on what you want to do. Hit Enter, and the chat will come up (hit Shift + Enter to type a message visible to all players, or just Enter to type a message just to your team)You and your teammates should be sorting out where you’re going using this and using flares.Don’t bring a ton of tanks into an urban zone - remember what we said about urban combat and armored vehicles? Don’t bring a ton of infantry into a big open field. Remember the types of units and how to use them. How do you choose which area you want to go? Well, it depends on what you’re good at, what your deck is designed for, where your allies are going, and so on. Zoom out and take a look at the map.This should be getting covered with flares, laid down by your allies indicating where they intend to go. If your allies aren’t indicating where they’re going, don’t be afraid to just ask. That’s what the team chat function is for.Let’s say we intend to attack Dmitri-Elena. You can generally draw a line across the mid-points of the map to roughly determine where the fronts will end up, unless your side or the other side does something unusual - always have a contingency plan if they do something unusual, like spamming units, sneaking units, or so on. Most players will head for the mid-point of one area of the map - honestly, I prefer a deeper attack at the start, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we need to learn to walk before we can run, no? If we’re attacking Dmitri/Elena, we’d lay down a flare there. Now, what next?Take a close look at where you intend to go - in this case, Dmitri/Elena. What’s the terrain like? Where are the chokepoints where the majority of enemy forces might get held up? Where are the roads enemy forces will Fast Move towards? In this case, we have two bridges here, and another to the left. Those make useful chokepoints. We also have a lot of urban area - this means infantry is the order of the day.Now, what’s off to our flanks? There’s more towns to our left, and open fields to our right. Keep an eye on both areas, lest you get flanked by the enemy. Don’t let them cross that bridge to your left either, or they’ll simply go right around your forces.Now that we know what we plan to do, let’s buy up the forces needed to do it, shall we? There are a lot of choices that you need to make here - and make them fairly rapidly, because you’ll only have a couple of minutes to lay down your starting force. This is part of the fun of Wargame - you never have all the time you need to thoroughly think through everything. This is real-time. You’ll need to operate on instinct and training as well as strategy and tactics. All the same, don’t buy the first units you can - be calm and thorough.- slow is smooth, smooth is fast. It may take a few tries before you get the hang of it, but don’t worry, after a few games you’ll be making these snap judgments and decisions withof time to spare.See that road connecting our spawn zone to our sector of interest? That’s where you’re going to place your forces - on the road leading to your area in the spawn zone closest to the area you’re traveling towards. Since we’re going into an urban zone, let’s start with infantry. If we were attacking different types of terrain, we’d bring different units - there is no one “optimal” opening. Work on judging what you need based on the situation at hand.This may not be your exact assortment of infantry, but if you’ve followed the basics of deckbuilding it should be something somewhat like this. Our fastest infantry is always going to be in helicopters, our next-fastest will always be in 150km/h ground transports (in this image, those would be the BTR-60PB and BTR-90, not the BMP-2 Obr. 1986). It doesn’t do us any good if the enemy gets there before we do, of course, so let’s order up some helicopter infantry first. My only helicopter infantry is Gornostrelki ‘90 - light infantry in Mi-8TV transport gunships. I’ll order four of them in two pairs of helicopters. I’ll also order some Motostrelkis in BTR-60s as backup - always be prepared in case your enemy attacks your helicopter transports with anti-air helicopters or jets. It kinda sucks getting your entire starting force shot down with no backup, and the Motostrelki are cheaper to boot. When you select units, you can place “ghosts” in your starting spawn zones, where your units will be when the game starts.Once you’re done with that, choose the rest of your forces. Try to go for medium-cost or cheaper forces that cover a decent range of contingencies and keep your options open. Consider what you really need - will your units need to resupply very early on? If not, buy your logistics trucks later. Don’t dump all your starting points in a few high-end units in most cases, either - I’d rather have several medium tanks to one super-heavy tank.