My name is Atrocious, and I have been playing Regiments for about 350 hours. After a significant amount of varied gameplay, along with plenty of ragequits and doses of community toxicity, I have gotten in my opinion a good feel for the general theory of the tactical gameplay of Regiments. This guide will serve as a compilation of my general gameplay knowledge and wisdom that I have acquired through experience or the advice of others. I am experienced in writing Steam guides and figured I would use this as both an opportunity to contribute some hard-earned wisdom and exercise my technical writing skills. I will be making an effort to avoid colloquialisms and confusing wording as much as possible in my pursuit of semantically neutral writing skills; if you are not a native English speaker and are confused by my wording at any point, feel free to ask for clarification in the comments!

It is worth noting that I am not a hardcore wargamer or modern military nerd by any means; I have never played games like Wargame: Red Dragon or Warno, and cannot speak to the deeper aspects of realism presented in Regiments itself. Regiments is, first and foremost, a game, and it must concede a certain amount of realism for the sake of interesting and impactful gameplay. War is hell, after all.

One other thing I would like to mention is that this guide is moderately verbose. Regiments is a complex game, and my intention is to provide the highest amount of information on the game's mechanics that I can. Readers are encouraged to at least gloss over each section in this guide and, if more thorough information is desired, to read through sections slowly and not get caught up on trivial details.

There are three topics in this guide that I will be covering elsewhere due to just how in-depth they are: unit theory, Operations, and the War Path game mode. I will likely write guides of their own for these topics in the future.

As always, I am not omniscient in terms of gameplay knowledge and best practices, so this guide should be considered a flexible resource. If you see anything that is blatantly wrong or could just be worded less confusingly, please let me know in the comments section.


First and foremost, I would strongly recommend playing the game's tutorials. Although they are trivially outdated, as is unfortunately tradition for many indie games, they offer great insight into not only the controls of the game itself but also basic unit tactics. This can be especially valuable if, like myself, you do not already come in from a hardcore military nerd background and aren't already intuitively familiar with specific unit types such as Bradleys or Shilkas. Once you've completed every tutorial the game has to offer (there aren't a lot and they are relatively short), you'll be good to start.

Even if you're a self-identifying false beginner at Regiments and have already completed all the tutorials, it can be good to go back to them every once in a while if you feel that you need a quick soft reset on your gameplay knowledge.

Another invaluable gameplay reference asset is the game's Regipedia, which is incredibly useful for reading up on the game modes and mechanics of Regiments, as well as looking up the granular stats of each unit in the game. It is strongly recommended to gloss over the Regipedia after having completed the game's tutorials and look back at it any time you need to verify something during gameplay. (You can always pause the game if needed!)

Note: for the purposes of this guide, 'pausing' the game refers exclusively to using the game's tactical pause feature (Space bar by default). Exceptions will be clearly listed as needed.

In this section of the guide, I will go into detail about all of the specific mechanics of Regiments gameplay (as detailed in the Regipedia) as well as offering some of my own tips and tricks for how to best navigate them.

At its most basic level, Vision refers to the mechanics of seeing the enemy while not being seen yourself when possible. Each unit has its own Line Of Sight (LOS) capabilities, which govern both how far the unit can see on its own and how easily it can make out enemy units within its LOS radius. Units that are in cover (i.e. concealed by trees or urban terrain) will naturally be harder to spot, which can be advantageous for any units in a defensive posture. Firing weapons from cover will gradually apply a penalty to your unit's stealth modifier, allowing even deeply-hidden units to be spotted after a while. Additionally, units that are on top of hills will be able to spot enemies a bit further out, which can be especially useful for recon units (detailed later in the guide).

When an enemy unit is spotted, you will need to identify the group to determine how best to respond to their presence. Weapon accuracy against unidentified units is penalized, which is reduced with further Identification to the point where the accuracy impact is eventually nullified. Unit Identification starts out low from the initial detection, and as time passes, the unit will be more precisely identified down to the very model of the vehicles they are using. Identification speed is faster if your own units are closer to the enemy, decreasing to just a few seconds for full identification at point-blank range (~400m). Unit Identification occurs in three phases:

* Stage 1: Initial Unit Identification. This is the first stage of the Identification process, when you have just spotted an enemy unit. You will only be able to determine the size of the enemy platoon (i.e. how many vehicles the platoon contains) at this stage. Accuracy debuff: -20%.
* Stage 2: Surface-Level Identification. After an amount of time passes, you will be able to identify the unit's Type (MBT, IFV, etc). Accuracy debuff: -10%.
* Stage 3: Granular Identification. At this stage, the enemy platoon has been fully identified, determining the specific type of platoon you are facing against (T-72M, Marder 1A4, etc). Accuracy debuff: -0%. From here, you will be able to select the enemy platoon and compare the stats of the enemy vehicles to the stats of whichever platoons are engaging them, allowing you to maximize the material-efficiency of killing the enemy unit.

Fighting enemy units at night time can pose an extra layer of difficulty in terms of unit Vision, Identification, and general weapon accuracy. All units have different Night Vision stats, which provide varying levels of mitigation of the negative effects of the dark. The classes of Night Vision in Regiments are as follows, ordered from least to most effective:

• Basic: Slight mitigation of low-light conditions
  
• Advanced: Moderate mitigation of low-light conditions
  
• Thermal: Near-total mitigation of low-light conditions

It is worth noting that Advanced Night Vision is something of a misnomer; that is, it was invented prior to Thermal Night Vision, and is actually less effective at seeing in the dark than Thermal is.

When a platoon takes damage from direct or indirect fire, they will gain a certain amount of Suppression, represented by the orange bar on their icon. When a unit gains Suppression, its rate of fire and accuracy will become significantly stunted. A unit's suppression can be reduced by bringing the group out of the line of fire if the situation is becoming dire, as well as through other methods that will be mentioned later on. This isn't quite as bad for units like MBTs, which are designed to soak up enemy weapon fire, but it can be devastating for weaker units.

A unit's facing relative to other enemies can have a direct impact on its effective survivability. All armored vehicles in regiments have significantly stronger armor values (mentioned below) along their forward arcs than they have on their side or rear arcs. Moreover, the defensive bonuses from entrenchment are only 60% as effective from the sides, and not effective at all from the rear. This makes it worthwhile to flank enemy positions whenever possible.

Most vehicles in Regiments have a certain amount of armor for shrugging off weapon damage. Armored vehicles have armor covering their forward, flank, and rear arcs, with most of their armor plating concentrated at the front. To penetrate a vehicle's armor, you need to hit it with a weapon with an appropriate armor penetration value. There are two kinds of armor penetration damage in Regiments: AP and HEAT. A unit's frontal armor will often have two numbers listed, X/X, where the blue number represents its AP threshold and the orange number represents its HEAT threshold. If the AP of a weapon is precisely equal to the Armor of an enemy unit's facing, the hit chance is equal to 35%.

For example, the Leopard 1A4 has a frontal armor rating of 8/8, meaning that it has significant resistance against any weapons with an effective AP or HEAT penetration value of <8, which will deal a lot less damage even on a direct hit. Tanks in particular will also have a separate armor rating for their turrets, but this only applies in special cases which will be mentioned later in the guide. Its side and rear armor both have a rating of 3, making them relatively vulnerable to flanking maneuvers.

After enough use in the battlefield, a platoon will have taken enough damage and lost enough of its vehicles that it will no longer be of practical use to you anymore until it has been Retreated and Refitted. After you order your platoon to Retreat (double-tap Q by default), it will deploy smoke grenades if it has them and start reversing towards the spawn point, despawning after a few seconds. Smoke grenades will reduce the accuracy of incoming fire against the Retreating vehicles, which can help improve their odds of a successful Retreat when under enemy fire. After the unit has Retreated, its spent Deployment Points will be placed into a separate pool, where they will be returned to your main Deployment Points pool after a certain amount of time. The unit will be unavailable for an amount of time indicated on the unit's icon in your deployment bar. Once this timer runs out, the unit will become selectable in your deployment bar again and can be redeployed as normal if you have enough Deployment Points to bring it back in.

It is crucial to order your units to Retreat if possible rather than to allow them to be destroyed by enemy units. If a unit is completely destroyed, they will take much longer to redeploy and suffer other permanent debuffs depending on the context of the game.

Extended fighting will result in a unit gaining Experience. This will eventually increase their Veterancy level, granting the unit stacking buffs in a number of areas, including accuracy and suppression resistance. A unit can gain a maximum of three Veterancy levels through the accumulation of Experience. If a unit is destroyed before it can Retreat, it will lose a level of Veterancy, making it important not to lose these stronger units whenever possible.

There are other sections from the Regipedia that I will not be covering here, such as mobility obstacles and objective zones, which I will discuss in detail in later sections for the sake of cohesiveness.

This section of the guide will cover the general principles of military science and tactical theory as they apply to Regiments. This is arguably the most crucial section in the entire guide, as it lays the basic groundwork for how to secure even the slimmest chance of a satisfying victory in the game. In general, the keystone of any victory lies in the following principle:

War is a matter of defeating the enemy in as many areas as possible; numbers, technology, positioning, etc. This is the most basic cornerstone of all tactics throughout history, and it is a matter that most would-be tacticians fail to comprehend to horrendous results. If you wish to have even the slimmest chance of victory in battle, you must learn the different kinds of advantages that your enemies will seek to leverage in the battlefield, as well as how to secure and exploit those advantages yourself. Good commanders leverage an opportune advantage against their enemies; the best commanders will leverage as many as possible. The following tips will go over some of the different advantages you can leverage, and how best to secure them.

Flanking enemy units allows you to fight any enemy on your own terms. Attacking enemy forces head-on should only be done as a last resort, or to facilitate other flanking maneuvers. All units in the game are universally less armored from their non-frontal arcs, especially their rear arc. Additionally, cover and Entrenchment are universally less effective at protecting a unit from the sides (partial coverage negation) and the rear (total coverage negation). Any units that are being attacked from multiple arcs at once will become cannon fodder for any concentrated offensive. On that note, if your own units ever become outflanked (i.e. attacked from multiple arcs at once), they must Retreat immediately to avoid vehicular losses. No unit will survive getting outflanked. Plan accordingly.

This can be difficult to achieve in the short term due to the limits on how many platoons you can front at any given time, but it is a necessary advantage to press nonetheless when you can. When a unit formation is massed, the impact of losing one or two vehicles will not be quite as severe as if it were a single platoon you are fighting with. Moreover, having more vehicles facing the enemy will mean that more weapon fire can be massed against a single target at a time, allowing for tactics of accuracy by volume against otherwise well-covered targets. When trying to outnumber your enemies, ensure that your forces do not stay too densely packed together; otherwise you will be especially vulnerable to artillery fire.

This concept refers to gaining an advantage over your enemies in one (preferably several!) of a variety of technical vehicle stats; armor, accuracy, speed, etc. This will mean that, when you and your enemy are on roughly equivalent footing in terms of numbers, your units will have the technical advantage and will be able to secure a probable victory via attrition tactics. However, bear in mind that, of all the advantages to be discussed in this section, a technological advantage is generally the least impactful; inferior numbers will result in your units being attrited faster than the enemy, and no amount of technological superiority can save you from an unexpected flanking maneuver. Outclassing your enemy implies that you are both on equivalent footing in the field, which is very rarely the case in practice.

All weapons in Regiments have a certain maximum range. This can be exploited against enemies with shorter-ranged weapons to attrite them without yourself being fired upon by them. For example, tank cannons have longer ranges than IFV autocannons and most other weaponry found among mechanized infantry units, allowing them to sit comfortably at their maximum weapon range (2400m) and snack on any mechanized platoons that can't reach them (~1800m). Conversely, ATGMs are designed to deal significant HEAT damage against targets at even longer ranges (~2800m), allowing them to outrange even the infamous Main Battle Tanks and their comparatively lacking cannons. However, do be careful not to put your units in the line of fire of other units when attempting to outrange targets. The game's Line-Of-Sight tool (C by default) can be very helpful for this purpose.

You should always be seeking opportunities to leverage these advantages against enemy forces, allocating and reallocating your forces as necessary and convenient to do so. Conversely, if any of your platoons are being attacked under these sorts of circumstances, they will have blundered (even if just accidentally) into a fight they cannot win. Have them Reverse (R by default) out of trouble or Retreat from the battlefield to avoid probable losses. These concepts will be referenced to some degree throughout the rest of the guide. Please dedicate some time to meditating on these concepts and make sure you have a deep understanding of them. Smarter minds than you or I have failed to grasp these concepts before!

This section of the guide will go over all of the different unit types available in Regiments, as well as the general theory behind how they can be adequately used in the field. Each section will go over a unit type's basic uses as well as tips for how to make the best use of such unit types. More specific factional differences will be covered in a separate guide.

Main Battle Tanks will be your bread-and-butter combat units in Regiments, equally capable of both offensive and defensive tactics in the battlefield. MBT platoons are typically grouped into units of four tanks, which helps improve the group's survivability and can mitigate the long time it takes for tanks to reload their weapons.

There are two main features to Main Battle Tanks: their armor and their main cannons. MBTs will often have very strong frontal armor, which allows them to soak up a significant amount of firepower. They will also have large main guns capable of direct-firing strong shells at enemies, typically firing either APFSDS rounds for piercing armored vehicles or firing HE-FRAG rounds for dealing with infantry and other unarmored enemies. The well-rounded weaponry and heavy armor of MBTs makes them perfect for leading assault charges and acting as anchor units for the rest of their force. Bear in mind that there are many weapons in Regiments that are specifically designed to pierce the heavy armor of tanks, so don't always just throw your tanks at enemies and hope for the best.

Light Tanks are much smaller and relatively outdated tank frames that have lower stats than Main Battle Tanks in nearly every regard. However, they are relatively cheap and often more easily deployable in larger numbers than MBTs to account for their weaknesses, which makes them good for offensive flanking maneuvers.

Armored Personnel Carriers are the first of two types of mechanized infantry units and the next most common unit you will find in the battlefield behind Main Battle Tanks. Compared to MBTs, APCs are a bit more agile but have only enough armor to shrug off small arms fire and are typically armed with only one or two machine guns. Their main strength lies in the infantry units they carry. These infantry groups are typically comprised of riflemen for general anti-infantry work, machine gunners for suppressing enemy infantry and damaging lighter vehicles, and AT units, which carry short-range RPGs that can deal very high HEAT damage to incoming vehicles. Infantry groups may also include more specialized infantry units, such as ATGM launchers for attacking enemy tanks from a distance, or MANPADS units for protecting against enemy helicopters and jets. Having an APC's infantry squads deployed will allow them to bring all of their weapons to bear and even provides some ablative protection for the APCs themselves, but indirect fire such as machine guns or mortars can quickly tear through exposed infantry units, making it a good idea to keep them inside their transports while the group is on the move. And remember: infantry are disposable; vehicles are not.

Unlike MBTs, APCs fight very well in cramped terrain with minimal sightlines. When using APC platoons in an offensive stance, it is crucial to get them close to the enemy before they can get shot at. This is most often accomplished through the use of flanking tactics and cover movement, which can maneuver the platoon through areas that your target doesn't have LOS on and allow them to stage powerful ambushes against targets at point-blank range. Another great way to use dismounted infantry is as a support fire asset away from your tanks, allowing them to make good use of their auxiliary weaponry from a distance. Where mechanized infantry really shine, though, is in a defensive posture, when they have the chance to fully entrench their positions and fight the enemy on their own terms. The versatile infantry combined with the protective weapon fire of the APCs themselves can allow the platoons to make excellent use of entrenchment when positioned properly, making for a great stationary defensive measure when not outflanked.

Infantry Fighting Vehicles are another type of mechanized infantry unit similar to APCs; they carry similar kinds of infantry and are a bit more agile than MBTs. However, IFVs have a significant advantage over APCs in particular: much heavier weapons to use against enemy units. IFVs are often armed with autocannons, highly versatile and very balanced weapons that can rip through dismounted infantry units, quickly neutralize light vehicles, and even suppress heavily armored vehicles with consistent fire. Many IFVs will also be armed with other weapon systems as well, such as heavy machine guns and ATGMs, making them powerful supporting units even with their infantry squads still mounted.

Unlike APCs, IFVs have a lot more offensive utility thanks to their heavier weapons, allowing them to better contribute to direct offensive pushes and act as a force multiplier for MBTs. The heavy autocannons of IFVs also make for a powerful organized defensive asset when entrenched, punishing APCs that get too close or MBTs that expose their flanks. The infantry carried onboard are more just an added bonus to their health and their effective potential firepower! In terms of their positioning tactics, IFVs fall somewhat in between MBTs and APCs, covering less space than MBTs but making better use of it than APCs. In general, IFV platoons are more effective in all areas than APCs, but tend to cost more Deployment Points to bring in, so remember to be smart with your DP budget.

Assault Engineers are a type of specialized infantry unit group that are typically carried into the battlefield on APCs. They are specialist units, focusing primarily on offensive support tactics. Their most notable ability is to break through static Barricades significantly faster than other units would be able to. This can be invaluable in Attack missions, where lucrative attack routes might be barricaded to slow down or divert offensive pushes. Most Assault Engineer groups are also equipped with specialized Fuel/Air Explosive (FAE) rockets, which are not useful against vehicles but can quickly kill large swaths of dismounted enemy infantry, even if they are actively entrenched.

Assault Engineer groups are primarily an offensive tool for digging out both dense Barricades and heavily-entrenched infantry groups. Bear in mind that Assault Engineer groups are very vulnerable to return fire, much like other mechanized infantry units, so be sure to keep the enemy's attention with MBTs or other units while they work.

Combat Engineering Vehicles are a specialized variation of Assault Engineer platoons that don't rely on dismounted infantry for their combat engineering functions. They combine the dedicated offensive utilities of Barricade removal and infantry destruction with the armor of tanks, making them more apt at direct combat than their dismounted counterparts. However, they generally have slower reaction times than dismounted Assault Engineers and can't make use of infantry for ablative cover. CEVs are only found among the armies of the UK and USA factions (NATO), and are relatively expensive to deploy.

Tank Destroyers are mechanized units armed with a relatively high amount of ATGMs for hunting down enemy MBTs from a long distance. Tank Destroyer vehicles will also sometimes have a stealth modifier, allowing them to close to more reasonable distances or wait for better engagement opportunities before firing off their torrents of guided missiles.

As dedicated ATGM platforms, Tank Destroyers perform best as support assets in battle, providing a significant threat against enemy MBTs from a distance. Like other mechanized vehicles, they are very vulnerable to return fire and should be very carefully preserved for use against enemy tanks.

Note: there are two units available to the West German and Belgian factions (NATO) that are technically classified as Tank Destroyers due to their focus on HEAT damage but do not meet the aforementioned criteria for conventional Tank Destroyer units. These units are the KanJPZ-90 and JPK-90 tanks. Treat them as light tanks for the purposes of general deployment.

Recon Vehicles are fast, agile, and stealthy units equipped with powerful optics, making them superb at performing battlefield reconnaissance ahead of an offensive push or keeping a close eye on your otherwise open flanks to respond to enemy attacks in advance of their arrival. Recon Vehicles are essential for offensive pushes with lighter combat units, helping you to plan out your attacks in advance and identify the most lucrative routes for punching through. They are also capable of identifying units much faster and from further away than other units, allowing them to support other dedicated offensive pushes as well. In a defensive posture, the high mobility of Recon Vehicles can make them excellent for spotting incoming enemy advances and facilitating future counterattacks.

When using Recon Vehicles, it is crucial to order them to Hold Fire (H by default) after they spawn in; otherwise they will shoot at anything they find and invariably blunder their stealth maneuvers. It is also crucial to move Recon Vehicles through concealment such as forests or urban areas so that they can make the best use of their very high stealth modifiers. Recon Vehicles should not use their weapons at all unless they have very good opportunities or are being attacked themselves. Recon Vehicles are also very fragile for mechanized vehicles, making it critical to order them to Retreat the moment they come under potential threat of engagement. Recon vehicles should generally be kept moving at all times in order to cover the most ground and map out as much of the fog of war as they can.

Recon Tanks are tanks that have been kitted with stealth technology and recon-grade sensors, allowing them to serve the dual role of both forward observation and basic tank combat. The powerful sensors and added Stealth modifiers of these vehicles make Recon Tanks exceptionally useful units when performing flanking maneuvers. However, do bear in mind that these are still relatively light tank frames, and extra care should be taken to avoid accidentally blundering these units.

Attack helicopters are an excellent on-demand close air support unit that can act as a powerful force multiplier against enemy forces in the battlefield. They carry a relatively small but lethal payload of powerful weapons that can be deployed against targets at a moment's notice thanks to the high speeds of the helicopters themselves.

The most powerful application for Attack Helicopters is to use them in flanking maneuvers. Their exceptional mobility combined with their very strong weapons makes them an excellent asset for outflanking enemy forces, especially when your own forces are in a defensive posture. Enemy units will orient themselves to avoid getting outflanked, especially from the rear, which can be especially dangerous if they are being attacked by two units at once from extreme angles; helicopters excel at these sorts of flanking maneuvers. However, it is crucial to exercise caution when maneuvering helicopters, as they have little to no armor plating and are very vulnerable against dedicated AA weapons. The best practice is to send attack helicopters after units with degraded air defenses and/or unit groups that have overextended themselves (i.e. enemies that have pushed too far and are separated from the rest of their forces).

Recon Helicopters combine the superior optics of Recon Vehicles with the high vantage and speed of helicopters, making for an even more versatile recon unit than their mechanized cousins. Recon Helicopters are often unarmed and even more fragile than attack helicopters, but their long-range optics and high maneuverability make them excellent for quickly assessing the enemy's frontline from one end to the other before your tanks can even get into position.

Anti-Air Artillery refers to units that have air-scanning radars and are equipped with rapid fire autocannons that fire HE rounds. The main use of AAA units is to defend against enemy air threats, particularly nearby helicopters, which would otherwise be difficult to defend against for most ground units. AAA units can also help defend against incoming Close Air Support planes, suppressing them to reduce their accuracy and even causing them to Panic and break off if they fly too close.

AAA platoons are a good basic air defense unit, able to tear enemy helicopters apart on the off chance that they engage you, as well as suppress incoming Close Air Support planes, acting as a good supporting asset for your other units. In situations where air control is secure, AAA units can also use their cannons to rip through light vehicles and dismounted infantry, but they should not be used for this purpose at all when you have more capable units available for the task.

Surface-to-Air Missile units are powerful air defense vehicles equipped with strong air-searching radars and long-range anti-air missiles. The main utility of SAM units is to provide a wide umbrella of protection against incoming enemy CAS planes, protecting your forces from otherwise devastating air strikes. Do bear in mind that SAM platoons tend to have a hard time engaging more than two CAS planes at once, so the threat of multiple simultaneous CAS jet and/or helicopter attacks should be met with a combination of SAM and AAA air defenses. SAM units can also engage enemy helicopters, but it's generally more material-efficient to use AAA units for that specific task. SAM units can only fire their missiles while they are stationary, making it crucial to exercise careful discipline with their re/positioning.

Mortars are indirect fire support units that can apply steady suppression to enemy units from moderate distances (~4km), wearing away enemy infantry and slowing down other enemy units in the area. Mortars are capable of automatically attacking targets on their own, and will calculate their own lead solutions when firing on moving enemy units. Mortars make for an excellent general-purpose force divider in any engagement, softening up enemy units with steady suppression and making them less effective overall. Mortars come in one of three forms in the game:

1. Mechanized Mortars: These are APCs that have had their passenger compartments replaced with open platforms for a mortar tube to shoot through. Mechanized Mortar platoons do not rely on infantry for their firepower, making them more mobile overall but also making them more vulnerable to counterbattery fire. Frequent repositioning is recommended to make the best use of mechanized mortars.
   
2. Mortar Squads: These are mechanized infantry squads that contain soldiers with man-portable mortar tubes. Unlike Mechanized Mortars, Mortar Squads will need to deploy like any other mechanized infantry unit, making them less mobile overall but improving their resistance to counterbattery fire. Additionally, Mortar Squads will have attached Riflemen infantry and the machine guns of their transports for support, providing them a limited measure of self-defense against incoming enemy forces.
   
3. Towed Mortars: These are semi-portable mortars that are towed by trucks and are crewed by attached Riflemen. These mortars differ from mortar squads in that they are completely immobile while deployed. However, when given time to properly Entrench before engaging enemy forces, Towed Mortar platoons benefit from a very high counterbattery resistance, making them excellent defensive force multipliers when properly positioned. Additionally, towed mortars typically have a higher caliber than other mortar types, applying more suppression and damage per shot than others.

Artillery units are another common indirect fire support unit in Regiments. Unlike mortars, artillery units are less mobile and can't automatically engage or lead targets, but they fire much stronger shells over a significantly longer distance, often with enough of an effective range to cover most of the map and bring down fire support almost anywhere in the battlefield on demand. Artillery units also have very slow reaction times, making them much harder to use on short notice than mortars. Any artillery fire ordered to a given area will be much more accurate (i.e. have less spread per shot) if any allied units have direct Line Of Sight to the target area.

With their powerful shells and incredible range, artillery units are best used in an offensive posture, raining down a steady hail of shell fire onto entrenched enemy positions from a significant distance. Your artillery can even be used against the enemy's own mortar and artillery units as they are firing, making it significantly harder for them to deliver extended support fire. It can be helpful to prioritize hitting enemy groups that are stuck at Barricades or crossing fords/rivers to best capitalize on their situational defense penalties. It is also best practice to keep your artillery units near your spawn point or pair them with supply trucks (mentioned later) to keep them adequately supplied with ammunition in between fire missions. Bear in mind that the enemy will engage your artillery units with their own if fired carelessly, so make sure your units are positioned properly to mitigate counterbattery fire and collateral damage.

Rocket Artillery is very similar to standard artillery units, but instead fires a wide volley of long-range explosive rockets at a given point. These rockets deal less direct damage and are much more spread out, but can inflict a significantly higher amount of suppression against enemies per projectile than regular artillery units would be able to. This is great for adding a significant amount of suppression to a clump of enemy forces before engaging them, greatly limiting their effectiveness against your own units.

Like with regular artillery, rocket artillery should be positioned carefully when they fire to ensure that they can quickly resupply after expending their ammo and don't get their allies caught in the crossfire of any counterbattery fire missions targeting them. It is worth noting, however, that rocket artillery units are usually completely unarmored and thus much more vulnerable to enemy counter-battery than artillery tanks would be; make sure to have them reposition elsewhere once they finish a fire mission. Another important note is that rocket artillery barrages eat through a significant amount of ammo in a short period of time; this not only makes them need to resupply very frequently, but also consumes a lot more of your Supply Points to do so, which can be devastating in Operations.

Command Units are a specialized unit type that are used for technical support of nearby allied units. Command Units have a certain Command Radius, within which allied units will find a significant number of improvements, including increased suppression resistance, improved accuracy, and increased rate of fire. Command Units can also be very useful in the backline, improving the aim speed and reload times of artillery units, as well as greatly increasing the speed at which allied units repair and refit within supply zones.

Command Units can range from unarmed mechanized platforms to command-capable Main Battle Tanks, with varying capabilities for self-defense and direct fire support of nearby units. Command units tend to come in smaller platoon sizes, meaning that they should generally not be handling direct combat unless absolutely necessary. Also bear in mind that units with greater firepower will often have smaller command ranges, meaning that allied units will have to remain closer to the command unit to benefit from its improvements. In general, command units are excellent general-purpose force multipliers that can greatly improve the performance of nearby units in nearly any situation.

(The character limit for Sections in Steam Guides is causing me quite a lot of frustration!)

One of the newer types of units in Regiments, Air Assault Infantry are infantry units that are deployed to the battlefield via transport helicopters. Unlike mechanized infantry, Air Assault Infantry units have a more consistent movement speed across different types of terrain, can entrench faster, and can't be targeted by ATGMs at all. However, their independence from mechanized units makes them much more vulnerable to anti-infantry weapons. Air Assault Infantry platoons are great for short-notice defensive maneuvers and flanking enemy forces. Air Assault Infantry are still vulnerable to flanking while entrenched, so be sure to exercise good LOS control with them to maximize their potential. It is also important to be careful with the precious transport helicopters themselves, which are especially vulnerable to dedicated AA defenses.

Supply Units are trucks that can be loaded up with supplies and used to resupply allied units away from your spawn points. After they stop at a location, they will eventually start resupplying allied platoons within a designated radius. This will restore depleted ammunition, HP, and infantry units to all friendly platoons that are also holding position nearby. If for technical reasons you need to not be resupplying units from an allied AI force, you can use the Switch Mode function (X by default) to resupply your own units exclusively.

It is worth noting that Supply Units cannot restore vehicles to platoons that have lost some of them already; you still need to Retreat those units to restore them to true full capacity. When looking to resupply helicopters, it can often be much more material efficient to have them resupply exclusively from spawn zones due to their already very high speeds; this will also save the supplies in supply trucks for the rest of your relatively slower ground units.

In the context of Regiments, a Company refers to a triad of platoons where two platoons are directly attached to a lead platoon. Company unit groups are often composed of much weaker units, and are commonly used by regiments with limited access to cold-war-era military technology. Company units make up for the relative lack of quality in their units by way of sheer quantity of them. However, the two platoons that accompany the lead lack the appropriate communications equipment for direct command contact, so they are not directly controllable themselves. If the lead platoon is destroyed, the rest of the remaining platoons will automatically fall back. Also bear in mind that most of the Company's firepower will typically be concentrated in the lead platoon, so position accordingly if it has heavy weapons you wish to make use of.

Though the individual vehicles will be quickly torn apart by most enemies, Company units are capable of bringing a high amount of massed firepower and effective lifespan to the field, making them great anchors for offensive pushes of any kind. Ordering them to perform a fast-move will cause them to shift from their typical line formation to single-file, allowing them to maneuver a bit faster towards staging areas. However, the lead platoon will be exposed when moving in this way, so don't Fast Move them (or any unit, for that matter...) directly into combat. Mechanized infantry Companies will often provide a significant amount of short-range firepower and ablative protection in the form of their infantry groups, making them good at close flanking maneuvers and incredibly powerful in defensive postures. Tank Companies bring a very large amount of light or otherwise outdated tanks to bear; their cannons are typically inaccurate and somewhat weak compared to those of more modern tanks, but the sheer volume of fire allows for the penetration of stronger defenses through accuracy by volume. Make sure your Companies are adequately supported while they fight, as they are much harder to sustain than an individual platoon would be.

Another consideration for Companies is the fact that their formation literally revolves around a single platoon. Companies have a very specific center of gravity, which can cause the whole formation to fall apart when destroyed. However, this drawback can be used to your advantage with creative positioning. With the Company's lead platoon sitting in cover, you can draw fire to your Company's flanking platoons, which would be more likely to be exposed and could distract the enemy from the Company's lead platoon. Conversely, when an enemy Company is advancing towards you in the open (a common tactic among the AI in Regiments), you can effect a swift kill by focusing down the center platoon as best as possible. Once the center goes, the rest of the platoons will immediately retreat. Remember: when working with Companies, your flanking platoons should be considered to be somewhat disposable; the lead platoon, however, is not.

This section of the guide will go over how to analyze the different playable regiments in the game and use both the current composition and Task Forces to form your plans of action for whichever missions you are playing. I won't be going into detail on every single playable regiment in this guide; that task alone would take up even more space than the previous sections already have! However, I will provide some general tips for being able to determine which roles a regiment would be best suited for based in both their surface-level platoon composition and the Task Forces that they can call in.

Let's start with an example of a relatively simple regiment: Panzerlehrbrigade 9, one of the playable regiments on the NATO side (West Germany).
This specific visual for the regiment's overview was acquired by selecting them for play in Skirmish and hovering over the ? icon next to their name; this can be done with any regiment you select.

On the right side of the image, you can see the platoons that the regiment has available by default. Panzerlehrbrigade 9 in particular focuses primarily on the use of Leopard 2A4 platoons, powerful modern tanks with strong weapons and armor. The regiment also includes four other platoons for supporting their advance: a recon platoon for early spotting work, a mechanized infantry platoon for taking enemy ground, a mechanized mortar platoon for suppressing enemy units, and a AAA platoon for providing a local air defense umbrella. The regiment also comes with a divisional Artillery Smoke support option for on-demand Line Of Sight blockage. At a surface level, this regiment is very tank-heavy and well-balanced, making for a very forgiving force composition that offers a lot of breathing room for newer players to get the hang of before moving on to more complex forces.

On the left side, you can see the different Task Forces that the regiment can call in to bolster its overall composition. Task Forces are useful for expanding your regiment's capabilities in specific areas to better adapt to whichever game mode you are playing and enemy forces you are facing off against. If you are focusing more on defensive actions, calling in a Task Force focused on mechanized units will be helpful for establishing strongpoints ahead of enemy pushes and help hold areas better. If enemy Close Air Support (helicopters or jets) will be especially problematic, you can bring in a Task Force with an extra AAA or SAM platoon for some added air defenses. If all you are looking for is a general force multiplier for an already well-rounded composition, you can bring in a Command Group, which offers not only an extra Command vehicle platoon but often provides a grab-bag selection of a few different types of units with it for even more rounding of your regiment. Task Force selection is all about adapting your intended tactics for whichever specific threats you will be facing in the battlefield.

Going back to Panzerlehrbrigade 9 in particular, the only potential drawback of the group is its very heavy focus on tank use. This could be problematic if the enemy forces have invested heavily into ATGM units, such as IFVs or Tank Destroyers. If this were to be the case, you could call in a Task Force specifically for thinning out the anti-tank presence, such as cheaper IFVs for killing the enemy's mechanized ATGMs, extra mortars/artillery for suppressing said groups, or even recon units for outflanking their fortifications and defeating the enemy in detail. There are many different ways to approach situations like these; it's mainly a matter of exploiting your enemy's compositional and positional weaknesses and leaving some breathing room for adapting your tactics to whichever unexpected threats come up.

Let's also take a look at another example regiment: the 40th [Motorized] Rifle Regiment on the side of the Soviet Union (Warsaw Pact).
This regiment in particular focuses less on pure tank power and more on its mechanized units and supports. Its overall composition is apt for flanking maneuvers with its available recon platoon and extra support assets, but it also has good utility for defensive actions as well. Like with Panzerlehrbrigade 9, the 40th Motorized Rifle Regiment has a variety of different Task Forces to call in as needed, offering their own selections of extra platoons and divisional support options for expanding your regiment in relation to the specific threats you will be facing.

Overall, it is crucial for players to understand the factions they are working with and the units they have to offer in order to best determine which tactics to use against enemy forces.

All playable regiments will include at least one Tactical Support option. These are indirect on-demand support options provided by auxiliary units from the division your regiment is attached to. These can be used as quick force additive options for balancing out an otherwise slightly unfavorable engagement, and should be used as needed.

This section of the guide will go over the general types of Divisional Support options available in Regiments, but not the specific options themselves, which would be beyond the scope of this guide to cover.

Divisional Artillery refers to artillery support fire missions ostensibly executed by divisional artillery groups outside of the battlefield. These are primarily used for applying moderate HE-FRAG area damage and suppression across the given call-in radius, with the specific balance between the two varying depending on the artillery option used. Like with regimental artillery, all Divisional Artillery call-in options have less spread when deployed in areas that are covered by your team's Line Of Sight.

Artillery Smoke refers to Divisional Artillery shells that are specifically used to spread high amounts of thick smoke across the designated area. While this deals no damage to enemy units, it is exceptionally useful as an on-demand temporary LOS blockage tool. Artillery Smoke can be deployed either directly on enemy units or between them and your own units, providing either total or directional temporary LOS blockage respectively.

In an offensive posture, you can deploy Artillery Smoke to cut off the LOS of otherwise well-positioned enemy entrenchments, allowing you to face less of their frontline at a time and defeat enemy forces in detail. Clever deployment of Artillery Smoke can also allow you to push APC and IFV groups closer forward towards enemy positions through open terrain, letting them make much better use of their infantry's devastating close-range firepower. In a defensive posture, smoke can be useful for goading enemy units out of advantageous firing positions in cover, leaving them completely exposed once the smoke clears.

Artillery Illumination is a specific Divisional Artillery option that is available to all forces in any match played on a map set to one of the night time environments. This support option can be called in at no Support Point cost, but it still has an associated recharge time between uses. When called in, the Artillery Illumination support deploys a number of bright flares that provide significant illumination of a very wide deployment radius. The night-based accuracy penalties for all illuminated units are completely nullified for a time, equivalent to seeing them at daytime.

The Artillery Illumination support option can be very cleverly positioned to illuminate enemy units instead of your own, allowing them to benefit from the cover of darkness while leaving enemy units fully visible. This is especially valuable for Warsaw Pact forces, where Thermal Night Vision technology is significantly rarer across the units in their factions.

Close Air Support refers to calling in jet planes from divisional airbases to bring in specific payloads of powerful weaponry. Unlike Divisional Artillery support, CAS options have the benefits of not only shorter call-in times but also the ability to automatically lead moving targets in their kill radius, making them much more useful against moving forces. However, the jet planes themselves will be vulnerable against hostile Anti-Air assets in enemy territory. These can Suppress your CAS jets, which will decrease their overall drop accuracy, or even cause them to Panic, which can force them to break off their attack runs before they can even drop their payloads. CAS groups consist of two planes; if any of these planes are destroyed during their attack runs, it will incur a significant delay to the amount of time it takes to deploy the support option again, so be mindful of enemy air defenses whenever possible. When choosing where to deploy CAS, a tooltip near the cursor will denote the approximate hostile air defense presence in the area, reading either LOW or HIGH. CAS should generally not be deployed at areas denoted as having a HIGH air defense threat value.

AAA units can provide short-range defense against incoming CAS, which is mainly useful for Suppressing them before they can drop their payloads. Hostile SAM units are even more dangerous against CAS, whose AAMs can easily engage CAS jets from a significantly longer distance than AAA. These missiles can easily force CAS jets to break off their attacks with their strong missile payloads and can even destroy enemy jets entirely if enough missiles hit. Do note that for the game's purposes, there are no explicit differences between the different CAS jets in terms of their call-in times and damage resistance values; any factional differences are purely for lore-flavoring purposes.

Air Patrol is a newer kind of Air Support option which focuses on hunting down enemy aircraft in the designated area. When called in, the Air Patrol option designates a specific wide rectangular area (a 'killbox') to monitor for hostile helicopters and jets. When an enemy air vehicle is detected in this radius, an Air Patrol jet armed with mid-range Air-to-Air Missiles will fly in and engage the group with 1-2 missiles before breaking off and leaving the killbox. There are 4 air-to-air missile payloads across 2 jets per Air Patrol; when either value has been completely exhausted, the support option will end. This can be a powerful on-demand anti-air support option that can quickly attrite hostile air units, making for an excellent air support option when cleverly used. However, the Air Patrol jet planes are still just as vulnerable against enemy AA measures as their CAS counterparts (and are even vulnerable to engagement from hostile Air Patrol support options as well!), meaning that any use of this support option should be deployed mindful of the enemy's own air defense presence.

Conversely, overuse of your own helicopters could cause enemy forces to bring in their own Air Patrol support, effectively denying your forces a significant portion of the airspace when used. These hostile Air Patrol jets will engage all air units in the area, including your own CAS jets. However, do bear in mind that these jets are still vulnerable to high-altitude air defense options, so double up on your air defense umbrella if the enemy establishes an Air Patrol over your position.

Recon Support is a helpful support option for analyzing the enemy's frontline or other positions of interest ahead of concentrated assaults. After a certain call-in delay, all enemy units in the given radius will be revealed as if they have been initially spotted by your own units. This reveals all enemy platoons within the radius and monitors them for a short time, accounting even for moving units. However, this option only reveals the number of vehicles in each platoon and does not provide any further information on them on its own.

Rally is a support option which rapidly decreases the amount of suppression for all allied units in the given area. This is equivalent to a supercharged Command radius, where all affected units will rapidly shed any suppression they gain, as well as acquire a temporary bonus to their accuracy and rates of fire. This support option is best used on your own tanks if they are at around 50% suppression or have just come into an equal-footing engagement.

This section of the guide goes over the specific game modes of the Skirmish mode in Regiments, which offers the opportunity for more casual combat gameplay in a variety of specific settings. In any given game mode, it is crucial to understand the exact objectives of whichever mode you are playing and how to most efficiently play the objectives. There are four game modes available in Skirmish: Attack, Meeting Engagement, Static Defense, and Mobile Defense.

Most Regiments gameplay revolves around capturing and holding designated Objective Zones around the map. Knowing how best to work with Objective Zones will improve your overall tactical gameplay. One thing worth noting is that not all unit types capture platoons at the same speed. In general, dismounted mechanized infantry (APCs and IFVs) and engineering vehicles will capture Objective Zones faster than tanks, and recon vehicles will capture them at much slower rates. Using mechanized infantry platoons to capture points will also have the added benefit of allowing them to fight better in the cramped terrain that Objective Zones typically occupy.

Attack is one of the simpler Skirmish game modes in Regiments, and involves your selected regiment pushing forward and capturing enemy zones. Enemy forces will have a number of platoons scattered throughout the area to help defend their zones, requiring the player to adapt their offensive tactics to whichever compositions they come across. Remember to Retreat any platoons of yours that receive too much damage, as this will help restore their forces and make them available for redeployment even faster.

One important aspect of the Attack game mode is enemy Counterattacks, where the enemy forces will send several platoons to counterattack your own units and try to retake whichever zones they have lost. Whenever a Counterattack is deployed, you will see a message on the top of the UI providing an estimate of the size of the enemy's counterattack. For example, you might be informed of an incoming Counterattack consisting of 1-3 enemy platoons. You don't want to ignore any incoming counterattacks, but if you dedicate too many of your forces to fending off counterattacks you will invariably lose your tactical momentum and fall too far behind. One trick I like to use to prepare for the counterattack is to average together the size range values to determine the minimum number of platoons to allocate to the short-notice defense. This involves looking at the two numbers for the estimated amount of incoming enemy units and finding the number directly in between the two. In the aforementioned example of 1-3 units, the key number would be 2. This will be the minimum number of platoons you will need to allocate to defend your points with. If the enemy is sending the maximum number of estimated units for their counterattack or the units they have sent outclass whichever units you have allocated (e.g. a mechanized infantry platoon and a mortar platoon versus a counterattack of two enemy tank platoons), then gradually redirect other forces to the defense as needed. If you ever find yourself having to round the average, always round the number up.

Another example would be where the enemy might send 5-7 or even 8-10 platoons in a counterattack at higher difficulty levels! In these cases, you would determine the average number of incoming enemy platoons either mathematically or by simply finding the number directly in between the given minimum and maximum values, which can be done intuitively after a while. (In these example cases, the average numbers would be 6 and 9, respectively.) For particularly large counterattacks, you will need a combination of superior numbers and/or great positioning and entrenchment to push back the incoming enemy forces. It may also be the case that another Counterattack is announced before or during your defense against the current one; in cases like these, determine the average number for the new range and add that to your initial average for the minimum defense. It is generally important to remain wary of incoming enemy forces at any Objective Zone on the map while an enemy counterattack is still at large; in cases like these, what you don't know can hurt you, and quite badly at that.

Overall, the Attack game mode is all about maintaining your operational momentum through the use of supply trucks and retaining enough flexibility to respond to enemy counterattacks as needed.

Meeting Engagement is a king of the hill-type game mode about fighting against enemy forces for control areas. There will be seven specific Objective Zones to contest, which can be captured much like Capture Zones in the Attack game mode. The main difference is that enemy forces will have their own regiment(s) looking to do the same, requiring the player to strike a careful balance between striking offense and active defense in order to gain and maintain control of the Zones, as well as to accumulate control points to win the skirmish. A big factor that can complicate matters is the occasional shift of active Zone locations to different Areas of the map. The Zones will be active in one of three or four Areas around the map at a time; inactive Areas will be marked on the map with their effective radii, allowing players to plan ahead for future pushes.

It is vital to remember that controlling Zones and staying ahead of your enemies is the only win condition in this game mode, so don't get too caught up in the thrill of the fight. Beating back enemy forces is only half the battle; the other half involves minimaxing your cap power to keep ahead of the enemy team in terms of your control points. This involves careful planning prior to even the initial deployment of your forces to ensure that you can both quickly capture as many Zones as possible and prevent the enemy from taking more than what you already have. The theory presented here will be complex, so be sure to read through at a reasonable pace!

When the Zones first spawn in and are still neutral, your first priority is to start taking as many of them as you can, as quickly as you can. In general, you want to send your fastest units towards the nearest Zones as the highest priority. This is most often done with either recon platoons or mechanized infantry, which each have their own tactical advantages and drawbacks. Recon platoons will be able to leverage their high speeds to move onto a point much faster than most mechanized infantry platoons can, but they will be slower to capture zones. Mechanized infantry, however, are generally slower by comparison but can capture points much faster by moving onto them and deploying their infantry units to help secure the area. Do also bear in mind that tanks are somewhere in between recon vehicles and mechanized infantry in terms of movement and capture speed, and helicopters themselves can't capture Zones at all.

Another unit type that particularly shines at this task is Air Assault Infantry, which effectively combine the versatility of infantry with the uniquely swift mobility of helicopters. Spawn a group of Air Assault Infantry into the field, pause the game, and use an alt-move order to have the helicopters deploy their infantry at the given waypoint. This allows you to move a unit group onto a Zone and start capturing it significantly faster than other units could. Additionally, Air Assault Infantry are able to Entrench significantly faster than their mechanized counterparts and can't be outflanked, allowing them to serve as a quick defensive option for whichever Zones they are deployed on as well. However, do remember that these are just open infantry units and are very vulnerable to mortar/artillery fire, so be sure to reinforce their defense with other platoons as quickly as possible. Additionally, be aware of enemy forces in the desired drop area, as they can easily tear the transport helicopters apart if they are moved forward into contested territory.

There is also a subtle exploit to be made in the specific geometry of the Zones themselves. Notice how the shapes of the Zones are squares, not circles. This means that Zones do not have a specific radius, and therefore it is typically quicker to enter a Zone from one of its corners than from a flat side. This can allow your units to enter a Zone and start capping it trivially faster by entering by the closest corner of the Zone if possible. This is only a minor benefit, but in a game mode determined more by initiative and speed than by raw strength in arms, every second counts. Literally.

It is also vital to pay attention to the progress the enemy team is making in their caps, specifically the Objective Zones they are in the process of capturing themselves and any other Zones adjacent to them. All active Zones are arranged in a hexagonal shape, so when the enemy team starts capturing a Zone, typically the one closest to their spawn first, that will mean that they are also threatening to capture other Zones from that one. For the Zones on the edge of this hexagon arrangement, they would be threatening the center Zone and the two Zones at either side of what they have just captured. By this same token, control of the center Zone means that they would be both actively defending all the Zones they have captured and directly threatening whichever Zones they haven't, making the center Zone a very valuable area to capture!

Also bear in mind that the AI does tend to 'deathball' through Zones, sending a dense clump of forces to capture only one or two Zones at a time. While this does make them hard to stand in the way of, it also opens their previously-captured Zones up to being outflanked by quick units once the consummate deathball group shifts to a new Zone. For Zones that have not been recently captured and are not being actively threatened or defended, you can shift one or two platoons over towards those likely open Zones to start capturing them with little resistance. When using this technique, do be careful when moving units across the 'artery' of the enemy's deathball, which is the most direct line between the deathball and the enemy team's nearest spawn zone. The enemy team will be sending platoons down the artery to replenish the deathball as it loses units, which could run into your flanking units and become especially problematic if, for example, one of your recon platoons runs into an enemy tank platoon!

After a certain amount of time has passed, the current area will deactivate and one of the previously inactive areas will activate, removing the current Zones and activating new ones elsewhere on the map. When this happens, both your forces and the enemy's will need to move across the map to start capturing the newly activated Zones. You may want to have your slower assets (tanks, support units, etc.) hold position in order to finish off any enemy forces they are actively engaged with, buying you precious time to start capturing Zones before the enemy team can. Any platoons that had been moving to the previously active Zones should now change course towards the newly activated areas instead.

A capture area shifting to another part of the map can be very disorienting at the worst of times, so it is best practice to keep an eye on the area shift timer and start your pushes in advance. In maps with three potential capture areas, if the currently active area is in between the two inactive areas, move one or two platoons towards the inactive areas and have them sit just outside the given radii (or within the radii if static defenses are disabled) while the combat occurs in the active Zones. If the currently active area lies near one of the edges of the map, start moving forces to sit in between the two inactive areas, just beyond the area where they overlap. That way, once the active capture area shifts to another part of the map, you can start moving your idle forces onto the newly-activated capture Zones much faster than if you were to deploy them at that very moment. in larger maps with four potential capture areas, if the currently active capture area is one of the central areas, send two or three platoons to sit just outside of the overlap between the two inactive areas and one platoon to sit outside the radius of the other inactive area. In cases where the active capture area is one closer to the edge of the map, send two or three platoons to sit just behind the overlaps between the inactive areas.

This way, once the active capture area shifts to another part of the map, you can quickly pause the game and order your forces to move onto one of the newly-activated capture Zones. For the units that are now far away from the active area, if there is still plenty of time left, maintain their current positions in preparation for future area shifts; if there won't be enough time for another area shift to occur, start moving them towards the active area. This is a very efficient way to quickly adapt to active area changes and gain even more cap power over the enemy team.

Static Defense is a Skirmish game mode in which you are tasked with aiding in the defense of a large number of control Zones across the map. This is essentially the opposite of the Attack game mode, where you are tasked with holding as many Zones as possible against many waves of enemy assault.

It is worth noting that in this specific game mode, all units are capable of Entrenching, including Main Battle Tanks, but mechanized and air-dropped infantry units will still Entrench faster than other units.

This phase is where you can spend Engineering Points to set up extra Engineering Support (ES) platoons, static fortifications that can aid in the direct defense of your control zones. You can spend Engineering Points to deploy extra platoons in the blue radii around your spawn and control Zones, including mechanized infantry strongpoints, air defense platoons, and mortar platoons, although tank platoons can't be placed down manually in this way. These should mainly be used to complement the other static fortifications that your AI ally will have already placed down. It is also worth noting that once these units are placed down and spawned in after the preparatory phase, they will not be under your direct control and will never Retreat. This means that these units should be placed so as to limit their relative Lines Of Sight only to helpful and necessary angles, and backline units such as mortar and anti-air units should be farther away from the frontline than mechanized strongpoints. It is generally best practice to think of these platoons as ablative armor for your frontline, pushing back a small amount of enemy force before breaking. They can be resupplied by your own supply units, but this should be done only if they have not lost any of their vehicles yet.

There are five different types of Engineering Support units that can be placed before the battle:

• Recon: For the most part, these will be the most useful Engineering Supports available. Recon is crucial in Static Defense in order to cover more of the map's potential sightlines and spot enemy attacks before they can reach your control zones. Moreover, the very low ES point cost of these units means that they can be placed in very high quantities, greatly increasing your effective LOS with proper positioning. Recon ES is most useful when placed on the edges of elevated hills and/or in areas with wide terrain coverage, allowing them to best capitalize on their superior optics to monitor a wider area. Each Recon ES will also contain a single squad worth of infantry to act as close-range token defenses and increase the overall lifetime of their Recon units.
  
• Strongpoints: These are entrenched mechanized infantry platoons that can help add to the static defensive strength of a control zone. At the most basic level, Strongpoints can act as token defenses to fend off weaker enemy assaults or delay enemy forces before they can take the area. Where Strongpoints really shine, though, is in more fluid defensive structures, where your other units can pull back to their positions and entrench near them to add to the point's defensive strength when required.

The next three ES types are much more situational and should be used more carefully than other types. These are Anti-Air Artillery, Anti-Tank, and Mortar platoons. These are more situational because they will run out of ammo fast and quickly become virtually useless to the rest of your defenses. Because they act as static fortifications, they will never resupply on their own and can be easily overrun by enemy pushes. Moreover, it can be very inefficient to resupply these ES types with your own supply trucks; they die too easily and your precious supplies will be better saved for your more mobile defenses. These three ES types are best used as short-term force multipliers, positioned in the mid to backline areas to help act as emergency force multipliers. Do not rely on these ES types, or any other type for that matter, for the bulk of your defensive efforts. Keep your lines fluid, and use careful positioning to prioritize the defense of threatened control zones.

You can also spend Engineering Points to place down your own Barricades. At the most basic level, Barricades can be useful for holding up otherwise lucrative attack routes, forcing the enemy to either go around a different way or dedicate some of their precious time and resources to breaking through it instead of actively capturing a nearby zone. Depending on the map played, Barricades can also be cleverly deployed to create 'kill zones' for the enemy to move through; these can goad enemy forces into moving towards a capture zone through a specific route that can be structured to make it very expensive for them to pass straight through. This can be very advantageous in a defensive posture, especially for points that aren't at the frontline itself.

During this phase, you can also deploy your regiment's own units in the radii around the spawn and control zones. You should spend as many of your Deployment Points in this way as possible, as it will take a lot of precious time to move your units from the spawn zone to the frontline. Like with the static platoons deployed using Engineering Points, your units will start out fully entrenched from the start, as they will have had time to dig into their positions beforehand. You will still maintain full control of your own units as usual and can (and should!) reposition or Retreat your units as needed.

Once you've finished preparing your defenses and moved on from the preparatory phase, the game will start paused, allowing you to issue orders to your forces before enemy platoons begin spawning in and attacking. The greatest threat to your defenses will be concentrated flanking maneuvers, which the AI is programmed to perform wherever possible. This can be especially problematic in situations where the map you are playing on has a significant amount of padding between your outer capture zones and the absolute edges of the map, where enemy forces will take the opportunity to outflank your positions and attack them from unexpected angles.

You will still continue to accrue Deployment Points, which should be used to deploy the rest of your regiment over time. It is generally good practice to be constantly deploying units as soon as you can afford them; if they won't be useful now, then they will definitely be useful soon. Units should be sent towards active combat areas as your top priority, but if the combat is relatively light for the moment, your units should be sent to sit between the active combat zone and the other edge of the map on standby for other incoming enemy pushes.

Enemy forces will be looking to steamroll through your defensive lines with a significant number of platoons, which can number >11 platoons worth of units at the worst of times! A crucial concept to understand is the idea of overlapping fields of fire. This refers to units that are positioned so that one's field of fire (visible when holding the Shift key by default) is overlapping that of another unit. Your main defenses should usually be dense enough to beat back the larger enemy assaults as they push into your front lines; no unit groups should be allowed to get caught fending off overwhelming numbers alone.Even so, you will seldom have enough units to cover every control zone at once with appropriate numbers to fend off particularly large enemy assaults. Despite the being the so-called "Static" Defense game mode, having all of your units entrenched in completely static positions will significantly limit their effectiveness, leaving them unable to cover enough ground and making them vulnerable to getting cut off by enemy advances. The best way to strengthen your defensive lines across a wide area is through the use of two supporting assets: Engineering Support and counterattacking elements.

Your Engineering Support assets are uncontrollable after they are deployed, but this can be used to your advantage when coordinating the defense of midline control zones. When facing off against overwhelming numbers, you can have your main forces entrench near your static fortifications, which can be an economical way to thicken your defenses as needed to fend off larger forward thrusts. For example, if you have a forward screening element that consists of 3 platoons and you have spotted an incoming assault consisting of ~7 platoons, your own units will have to pull back from the frontline to avoid getting singled out and annihilated. This will have the natural effect of placing your units into OFF with your other static defenses, adding to the overall strength of your defensive lines. Now you may have a defensive line consisting of ~8 platoons, which should be more than enough to beat back the enemy's advance. You will lose ground in the short term, but once the enemy's assault is beaten back, you can perform a swift counterattack to retake the lost zone(s).

When setting up your defenses, it is a good idea to dedicate a certain number of your own units to performing counterattacks, particularly recon units and lighter tanks. Dedicated counterattacking elements have two primary benefits. First, you will be able to cover a wider area by setting up within reach of multiple control zones. Though a counterattacking element alone will not usually be large or strong enough to fend off entire assaults on their own, they can link up with the static defenses on other control points to create stronger OFFs. Second is being able to make your defensive lines much more flexible, allowing them to better blunt the forward thrusts of larger forward thrusts. As previously mentioned, you will lose control zones in the short term, but you will more than recoup these losses through a swift counterattack after the enemy's advance has been blunted. What your units lose in entrenchment opportunities, they will more than recoup through tactical flexibility.

Divisional support options can also be very effective tools for controlling the enemy's advance. One effective divisional support option is Artillery Smoke, which can be used to block off the enemy's precious sightlines towards your defensing units. Artillery Smoke can be especially devastating against enemy tanks, which will be attempting to outrange your platoons when possible. If their ideal sightline to their target is blocked off, they will creep forwards to regain LOS on their target, which can very quickly result in the platoon having overextended itself and being left out in the open for an easy kill. Divisional artillery and CAS can also goad enemy forces out of their most ideal positions, forcing them to resort to inferior tactics that can leave them overextended and exposed. If you have just lost a control zone and a massive clump of hostiles is present on the point, you can add to the cost of taking the control zone by bringing down artillery on it, whittling down their forces and blunting them a little bit more in preparation for their next advance. Every little bit of damage counts when it comes to countering deathblob tactics!

Mobile Defense is very similar to the Static Defense game mode, but the primary victory condition revolves around bringing supplies from active exfil (exfiltration) zones back to your spawn zone using specialized supply truck units (hereon referred to in the guide as 'exfil trucks' for the sake of brevity). When the game starts, there will be three exfil zones to collect the supplies from as well as two platoons of these exfil truck groups for collecting the supplies and bringing them back to your spawn zone.

Like in the Meeting Engagement game mode, speed is of the essence, and so route minimaxing is crucial to your victory here. Before you unpause and start the match after the deployment phase, you will need to determine which of the current exfil zones is closest to your spawn zone relative to the corners of each zone. Then select one of the exfil truck groups and order it to fast-move (F by default) to the closest corner of the nearest exfil zone. Next, manually plot a route back to the nearest corner of the spawn zone. (This must be done manually as shift-key order chaining is not possible for subsequent fast-move orders.) This will plot a route where the exfil trucks will move to the exfil zone, automatically stop and not move again until it has finished filling up with supplies, and return to base to drop the supplies off. All exfil trucks will pull a maximum of 100 supply points from these exfil zones, which all contribute to your overall victory point score. Once all 100 supply points have been extracted from an exfil zone, it will deactivate and a new exfil zone will activate elsewhere in the area.

(Note: if you do not want to go through the tedium of manually plotting routes for the exfil trucks to return to spawn, you can pause the game as soon as an exfil truck group is fully loaded up and issue a fast-move order back to the closest corner of your spawn zone. However, this method can become somewhat taxing when having to manage multiple exfil truck groups in this way.)

As previously mentioned, time is of the essence in this game mode, and so once an exfil truck group finishes dropping its supplies off back at spawn, you must quickly pause the game and plot a new route to the next closest exfil zone. Repeat this process until you reach 1000 victory points or the game's timer runs out. The rest of this game mode involves defending the area around your exfil points from enemy incursion, which can easily destroy your exfil trucks if they are allowed to.

This section of the guide goes over other general tactical concepts I have derived from my Regiments gameplay.

This adage of disputable origin (Moira, my beloved) represents a significant issue I have faced in most of my Regiments gameplay, especially in Skirmishes. This is the issue of passive unit tactics, where individual units and tactical potential are wasted over units being forgotten about. This can often happen when one becomes so fixated on the micro of a handful of platoons that the rest of one's regiment goes idle, leading to many shameful unit blunders after a while.

The best solution to this problem that I have found so far has been twofold:

1. Avoid passive unit behaviors
2. Use your unit control groups

I would define passive unit behaviors as units both sitting idle for long periods of time without any orders and not actively serving any purpose in the battlefield. When units are forgotten about and become completely passive, that results in them wasting Deployment Points at best and becoming vulnerable to awful blunders at worst. In general, every platoon you deploy should have a specific purpose to fulfill. Is the platoon attacking enemy units at the frontline? Is the platoon providing fire support for your frontline units? If not, then put it to work!

Do also bear in mind that idleness is not the same thing as passivity. This is especially noticeable in Defense missions, where a single Entrenched platoon in a good position with proper supporting assets can easily fend off numerous amounts of attacking enemy units before needing to resupply or regroup. In a defensive posture, moving a unit to a point and allowing them to Entrench can be a valid excuse to forget about them while you handle other tasks elsewhere. However, it's still crucial to not completely ignore your units, especially if they are coming under attack. Unless you are completely certain that they can fend off the attack on their own (i.e. the enemy attackers have blundered their advance in some way), be ready to send reinforcements their way or provide divisional support or artillery fire to aid in their defense. Even more important is to remember to have them Retreat if needed (preferably in advance!) if they have encountered overwhelming odds.

Control Groups are another somewhat underrated tool in Regiments for control and coordination of the many platoons a regiment can bring to bear. At the most basic level, Control Groups can be used as configurable hotkeys for quick unit selection, such as quickly selecting your artillery units or other support platoons. Ideally, however, 3-5 platoons would be grouped together in a single Control Group to act as an ad hoc company group for superior battlefield organization. This will help you not only have even easier access to different units, but it can help you strike a careful balance between piecemeal maneuvers (coordinating your entire regiment on a convoluted per-platoon basis) and deathball tactics (grouping every single platoon in your regiment into a massive clump and taking objectives via brute force), which will help you maintain adequate tactical flexibility for taking on more complex objectives.

Thank you for taking some time to read through my guide! I may not be the most experienced player in the Regiments community, but I have learned how the game works quite a lot and am excited to share some of my hard-earned wisdom with the community.

Some sections of the guide are relatively scant compared to others due to my own lack of sufficient experience with their subject matters to provide little more than basic information about them. If you would like to provide any general advice to include in the guide, or you have spotted any missing necessary details in the guide that I've missed, feel free to tell me in the comments section. Happy hunting, soldiers!