Ever find yourself wondering how in the world do I improve my odds in combat? Them troublesome dug in troops of the enemy slowing your inevitable victory like the roaches they are? Tired of wondering how a skill works in game or how is the best way to take a town? Don't worry even though the devs can hardly document, I know this game just as much as you. I figured I would put some useful information together to help out new people such as myself with the game. Such as make sure you scout the enemy and don't fly your planes over an unscouted city or you'll lose an entire air division. Or that all loses effect your prestige awarded at the end of a mission. Last but not least caution is advised but charge the enemy time is not on your side in the later levels.

Now I'm sure there are a few units you don't use, but I'll try and go over them.
Firstly there is your,
Standard Infantry

• Recommended to engage "soft Targets" as their hard attack stat is weak
  
• Inexpensive compared to other troop types
  
• Upgrade with soft attack items and Flamethrower to destroy entrenched enemies
  
• Backbone of the army
  
• Arguably upgraded to Pioneer as fast as possible
  
• They are prone to loses
  
• Main fighting force in close quarters
  
• Might take some loses assaulting cities, buildings, fortifications combat

Anti-Tank

• Recommended to engage "Hard Targets" as their soft attack stat is weak
  
• Moderately priced as far as AT units are concerned
  
• Upgrade with Hard attack items and Extra Ammo(3 rounds go by quick)
  
• Defensive Support unit, can set ambush in forest,cities, and building hexes, if armored unit approaches at 1 hex and unit not spotted opens fire, be wary of enemy AT in forest/city hexes
  
• Not very mobile attach vehicle to unit to improve movement
  
• Can support troops getting attacked by armor
  
• Weak soft attack and defense means severe loses assaulting cities, buildings, fortifications

Scout

• Recommended to keep away from combat unless cleaning up weakened units
  
• Inexpensive
  
• Upgrade with Sappers and or air defense items
  
• Support unit Helps spot enemy units, and can not get ambushed, getting detailed information about enemy troops extremely important
  
• Great mobility
  
• weak in all forms of the word, severe loses assaulting cities, buildings, fortifications, tanks, pretty much anything that sneezes in its direction will make it hurt

Artillery

• Recommended to engage soft targets, but effective at engage hards ones as well
  
• expensive
  
• Upgrade with extra Ammo(important) and maybe soft attack/Ground defense items
  
• Support unit helps defend units that are being attacked, absolutely destroys infantry anywhere they hide, got some peasant infantry dug in? This bad boy will make it rain so much heat they wont want to sit in their holes
  
• Not very mobile attach vehicle to unit to improve movement
  
• weak in all forms of close quarter combat keep keep away from combat these guys are rear line troops

Fighters

• Recommended to engage all other air targets
  
• Very expensive
  
• Upgrade with radar and maybe bombs to turn it into a bomber once you've annihilated the enemy air force
  
• Air Superiority unit helps defend your air space while your friendly bombers rain ordnance from the sky
  
• Not very effective at engaging ground troops without bombs but if there are no more enemy planes good at weakening troops before an attack
  
• Beware of enemy Anti-Air
  
• Is not affected by hexes underneath

Strike Bombers

• Recommended to engage ground forces not covered by Anti-Air
  
• Very expensive
  
• Upgrade with explosive ordnance and maybe Extra fuel for the larger maps
  
• Air Support Unit helps friendlies by raining ordnance from the sky
  
• Not very effective at engaging ships and cant engage enemy planes
  
• Beware of enemy Anti-Air and Fighters
  
• Is not affected by hexes underneath

Strategic Bombers

• Recommended to engage ground forces not covered by Anti-Air and Naval Units
  
• Very expensive
  
• Upgrade with explosive ordnance and maybe radar don't bother with torpedoes
  
• Air Support Unit helps friendlies by raining ordnance from the sky
  
• Effective at engaging ships and cant engage enemy planes
  
• Beware of enemy Anti-Air and Fighters
  
• Is not affected by hexes underneath
  
• at higher unit levels can engage AA with impunity (recommend targeting AA first before laying waste to the rest of the forces at higher levels)

Tanks
Strong Against Hard Targets
Strong Against Soft Targets

• Recommended to engage targets depending on type of tank either Anti-Soft or Anti-Hard look at tank stats to determine which it is
  
• Moderately priced as far as units are concerned
  
• Upgrade with Hard attack items and Soft attack items
  
• Assault unit Engage Target in "clear" hexes to prevent Close Combat debuff, if you make an enemy surrender or retreat you get to move and attack again provided you haven't used all your move points moving first
  
• Very mobile
  
• Panzer Divisions are the Back Bone of your Army they'll be taking all the hits and making most of your pushes
  
• Weak close defense stat means severe loses assaulting cities, buildings, fortifications

You get prestige from completing missions, capturing flag points and capturing surrendering enemies. Prestige is used to reinforce units. At the end of a mission any damage done to auxiliary units given by high command subtract from the total prestige given.

Used to learn a variety of skills for your general which will help you out in the missions to come. I recommend getting recon plane first as it will help you locate enemy anti air emplacements if you have no recon vehicle nearby and need to make an Airstrike without fear of AA surprise attacks.

Used to reinforce units and call in skills from your command vehicle such as the recon plane previously mentioned. Each turn you will be given command points to spend on your skills if you so choose. The points given are directly relates to how many core units you have under your control the more you have, the less command points you will receive per turn. Recommended to keep the core unit count below 20 that way you'll have points to spend on abilities if you want otherwise get all the core units you want.

Attacking
There are a few different Stats that get included when you attack
Firstly, there is your main attack stats but also included are your initiative, supports, defense, skills, debuffs, and current tile you are attacking, but also level of intelligence.

Spotted
Attacking this unit with little information will often result in an attack that reduces the units strength by 1 point

Spotted with Unit type
Likewise to not knowing the unit type but you have a higher chance of doing more damage

Spotted with full Intel
Gives you an estimated result on how an attack will resolve keep in mind this is an estimate and is possible to do more or less damage then the estimate. Likewise the same goes for your troops for the estimate. This estimate does not include hidden supporting units such as AT guns or Artillery Units you have yet to spot.

Attacking with Armored units
Keep in mind armored units suffer greatly when in attacking a forest or city hex. As well as attacking a unit with more then 3 or more levels of fortification. This will give you the close combat debuff which will essential make your attack a suicide run resulting in casualties you may have not wanted. Also keep an eye out for any AT guns as they will be helping counter your assault and increase casualties on your end.

Which is why if you do attack a unit make sure its either weakened or its in a clear hex. If your armored unit has overrun and manage to make a enemy unit retreat or surrender you will be able to attack and move again.

Defending
Same as with attacking except its on the enemies side of things most likely in earlier levels and beyond if the AI knows its at a disadvantage it wont attack it will just hold up in its hex and build up fortification. The spotting rules apply to your units as well so if they have no scout vehicle chances are they don't have much intel on your unit and even less if you're in a city or forest hex. This means most of the damage they will be doing will most likely be 1 point of strength. Don't forget if your armor is in a city or forest hex it will get the close combat debuff when it gets attacked by units within 1 hex.

• Clear:
  no buffs or debuffs
  
  
• River:
  -6 debuff to all defensive stats except range defense and -2 to all attack stats
  and only infantry can attack on these tiles unless there is a bridge even then you still have the debuffs listed above
  
  
• Forest:
  +2 to all defense stats except range defense and +1 to camouflage
  prevents units with a range of more then 1 hex from attacking through the hex unless it has howitzer fire skill
  
  
• Mountains:
  +2 to all defense stats except range defense and +1 to camouflage
  prevents units with a range of more then 1 hex from attacking through the hex unless it has howitzer fire skill
  
  
• City:
  +2 to all defense stats except range defense and +1 to camouflage
  prevents units with a range of more then 1 hex from attacking through the hex unless it has howitzer fire skill
  
  
• Building:
  +4 to all defense stats including range defense and +1 to camouflage
  stacks with city tile so beware of enemy units in these buildings they are pretty dug in artillery or infantry with flamethrowers are your best friend
  
  
• Rough:
  +1 to all defense stats except range defense
  prevents units with a range of more then 1 hex from attacking through the hex unless it has howitzer fire skill
  
  
• Desert:
  same as clear
  
  
• Rough Desert:
  +1 to all defense stats except range defense
  prevents units with a range of more then 1 hex from attacking through the hex unless it has howitzer fire skill

• roads:
  Wheeled and tracked - allow for every movement point used to count for 1 per hex
  
  
• clear:
  wheeled - requires 2 points of movement to cross unless you have an all terrain movement speed
  tracked - allow for every movement point used to count for 1 per hex
  
  
• forest,mountain:
  wheeled - requires 2 points of movement to cross
  tracked - requires 2 points of movement to cross
  
  
• river:
  any - both are stopped when attempting to traverse a river and only until next turn can they fully cross
  
  
• Trains:
  you can mount your troops on trains to move them quickly on the battlefield be warned they are vulnerable and can only disembark at other train stations.
  
  
• Boats:
  Any unit can be boarded on a boat but only infantry can land on the clear hexes and storm the defenses. Other units such as tanks, AT guns, Artillery, and AA guns require a port to disembark from their boats and units are vulnerable to attack. Enemy ports prevent units from landing near clear terrain in their area
  
  
• Planes:
  only infantry units that do not have a vehicle or a heavy item equipped have this option. They can only be disembarked on another friendly airfield unless they are paratroopers.

I know you wish you could bomb and shell to your hearts content but alas in war your cant endlessly shell your opponent. Especially not if you want to take his resources.
Be careful of using artillery, bombers, or naval units to attack supply depots Every attack risks doing damage to the supplies on the hex meaning if you do enough damage no supplies for you. Advised to send in pioneers to secure the full amount of resources for your assault. (applies to later missions and much larger maps where advancing is slow. Make sure you advance on resource hexes with a cube or risk running out of fuel or ammo.
Orange cubes means resources are running low.
Red cubes means your resources are out.

Surprise!
There a few instances with units that can auto attack in where you or your enemy's unit can get surprised. During these cases the unit takes damage without returning fire and stops dead in its tracks without the ability to attack for the rest of the turn. Some of these units include AT guns and AA guns. Making effective use of these ambushes requires that the unit doing the ambush is not spotted. So moving you unit after it has surprised someone is preferable as it resets the spot on your unit so it can surprise again next turn.

Some missions will give you naval units and almost always the enemy will have more ships than you.
For Starters,
BattleCruisers

• These boys will lay waste to land units and decimate destroyers
  
• They can attack for a grand total of 6 times
  
• Plus 1 Torpedo strike
  
• Mainly used to engage other naval units
  
• Decent AA defense 2 attacks with each
  
• Any naval unit that approaches at 1 hex gets auto attacked

Cruisers

• These boys will lay waste to land units and decimate destroyers
  
• They can attack for a grand total of 6 times
  
• Plus 1 Torpedo strike
  
• Mainly used to engage other naval units
  
• Decent AA defense 2 attacks with each
  
• Any naval unit that approaches at 1 hex gets auto attacked

Destroyers

• These boys will lay waste to air units and do decent damage to ground troops
  
• They can attack for a grand total of 2 times
  
• Plus 1 Torpedo strike
  
• Mainly used to engage submarine units
  
• Great AA defense 2 attacks with each and get to support nearby naval units at a range of 2 hexes
  
• gets to use sonar to locate submarines and bombomets to sink subs out of the water

Submarines

• These boys will snipe any naval unit out of the water be wary of destroyers you do less damage to them out of shear principle
  
• They can attack for a grand total of 1 time with singular naval gun (very weak)
  
• Plus 1 Torpedo strike (Super effective against Troop Transports, Cruisers, BattleCruisers)
  
• Mainly used to engage other naval units make sure you have enough move points after your torpedo strike to disengage away especially if there are destroyers nearby
  
• No AA defense
  
• Spots naval units and remains hidden unless spotted with sonar or you engage with the main gun, if you do get spotted simply move away and the unit will hide again (don't get spotted)

You are able to select which gun you would like to fire at the bottom right of the selection screen when you press on a naval unit each has its own damage and range

As you may already know naval units are ridiculously powerful against ground units a single cruiser can lay waste to your offensive make them your priority with "Strategic Bombers" and get them out of the action as quickly as possible. You do not need to sink a naval unit to make it combat ineffective each gun type has Hit Points and once they are gone they can not be used.

Skills offered for getting gold or silver victories in missions



most of these are self explanatory
except for this one I was confused and perhaps still am, but from what I gather when you attack your units with this skill will receive less damage on the offensive. Never retreating from battle is self explanatory if hes holding the line he does so to the last man.




A must skill for any unit that supports being able to provide covering fire for multiple attacks will save precious lives on the battlefield.

helpful for increasing overall damage a unit does

helps to win initiative in the sky which give a +4 to all defense potentially leaving you with fewer loses or none at all.

crucial on mission where it rains consider giving it to fighters to allow you to destroy their airforce while leaving you completely unharmed.

allows the AA to support allied air units in the area important if you have no fighter cover

great choice for your bombers allows them to annihilate hard target

important for artillery you'll be going through shell like they're hotcakes during enemy turns. Watch them all get demolished by a single artillery with multisupport and this bad boy.

helpful skill especially if you want to get bonus overruns and or prestige for making the enemy retreat

helps in gathering intel which is helpful especially if you want to do your full damage

give this to your scout or infantry and make it rain more damage always better

helps infantry with taking less damage when using your infantry to storm cities and fortifications


Skills given to a unit due to a hero being assigned causes unit to re-select skills previous skills are not kept and must be chosen again from a bigger skill pool

Some of the Rewards for completing side objectives include

• Brand new core units
  
• Captured enemy Weapons
  
• Units for future missions

Rewards for Gold victories include

• Command Vehicle Upgrades
  
• Overall campaign upgrades
  
• Weakened enemy opposition

Some upgrades and bonuses are given for silver Victories

Good luck out there Gentlemen The Lightning War Awaits .
There wasn't a real guide anywhere after searching so I decided to put some work in to make one for people who might have gotten this game during the steam sale like myself. I'll continue updating this with more information as I come across it or if I remember things I forgot to put on here that I thought would be useful. Thanks for your patience.

Appreciate the work I've done? Donate some prestige so I can recruit some more units in my Army :D

https://paypal.me/vuldino?locale.x=en_US

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