Your first battle
How to Play, opened from the title screen, begins with Training. Basic Training's five lessons are open from the start; each is a small battle on the Fall Weiss map, the first battle of the war, and every step is checked by what you actually do. The enemy never moves in a lesson, and it ends when its last step is done. Finish them all for the Basic Training award.
1. First Moves
Select a unit, move it, use the roads, end the turn.
- Your units are the counters without a dark pennant. Tap the Panzer II to select it.
- The bright line shows where it can go this turn. Tap a hex inside it to move there.
- Roads are fast in any weather. Select the infantry and move it onto the road.
- When you have done all you want, tap End Turn. In a battle the enemy then moves; in training it stands still.
2. Attacking
Read the forecast, attack, and wear an enemy down.
- Select your Panzer III, then tap the enemy outlined beside it. The forecast shows what each side will likely lose.
- Tap Attack to go through with it.
- A unit attacked again in the same turn defends worse. Attack the same enemy with your infantry.
- Each unit may move once and attack once a turn. Tap End Turn.
3. Objectives
Take ringed towns, and read the orders.
- Towns ringed in the enemy's colour are objectives. Move the Panzer II into Lodz to take it.
- Take Poznan with the infantry too.
- Tap OBJ at the top to see every objective, and what a decisive victory needs.
- Take them all by the decisive turn for a decisive victory. Tap End Turn.
4. Ground and Digging In
Use forest and towns, and dig in.
- Forest, towns and mountains protect whoever stands in them. Move the infantry into the forest beside it.
- A unit that has not moved can dig in for more protection. Select the artillery and tap Dig In.
- Tap End Turn.
5. Supply and Refit
See your supply, and bring a worn unit back to strength.
- Supply keeps an army fighting. Open the Supply view with the switch under the status bar.
- A worn unit in supply and away from the enemy can refit. Select the damaged Panzer III and tap Refit.
- Tap End Turn.
Each of the Field Manual's ten chapters, once your commander has learned it on a posting, opens a lesson of its own: Tempo, Sieges, Fighting the Weather, Cutting Supply, The Expert's Habits, Suppression, Fighting Armour, Fighting Infantry, Guns and Aircraft.
Then start a campaign. The first battle's tips walk you through it, and before turn 1 you may deploy: tap a unit, then a shaded hex to move it there or another of your units to swap them.
The turn
Tap one of your units to select it. A bright line shows where it can reach; tap a hex inside it to move.
Tap an enemy in range to see the odds, then tap again to attack. Each unit may move once and attack once.
When you have done all you want, End Turn. The enemy moves, and a Report from the Front sums up its turn: what it attacked and what it cost you. Watch Turn shows it move by move, the camera following each action close up (Settings can turn that off); Continue goes straight to your turn. Read the last report again from the ☰ menu.
Before the first turn you may deploy: tap a unit, then a shaded hex to move it there or another of your units to swap them. Begin Battle when your army is set.
Touch and hold any hex, or tap an enemy, to see the ground and the unit on it. Tap OBJ at the top for the objectives and what each victory needs.
A unit’s card lists everything in force on it under In Force: the weather as its type feels it, the ground, digging in, tactics, wear from attacks, and supply trouble. Small symbols beside its name in the bar show the same at a glance, trouble first, each coloured by whether it helps or hurts you.
Drag to move the map and pinch to zoom. The map can be dragged a little past its edges, so units in the corners come out from under the buttons; a unit you select near an edge slides into view by itself.
Winning
Most battles: take every ringed objective by the end of the last turn. Taking them all by the decisive turn earns a decisive victory, which opens the better branch of the campaign.
Defensive battles: you start holding the objectives and must still hold enough of them when time runs out.
Some battles are won by destroying the enemy force. The briefing always says which.
Combat
Attack strength against defence decides how many of three dice hit. Soft targets (infantry, guns) and hard targets (armour) use different attack values.
Terrain protects: towns, forts, forest and mountains all raise defence. A unit that digs in gains more.
A unit attacked several times in one turn defends worse each time. Soften a position with artillery and aircraft, then send in the tanks, then the infantry.
Fire from beyond the target’s reach is not returned. Artillery within two hexes also supports its neighbours in attack and defence.
A ground unit that destroys an enemy beside it may take its ground: tap the arrow before you end the turn to move in (and take the town there), or leave it where it stands.
Morale
Every unit has morale, aircraft too: Broken, Shaken, Steady, Confident or Inspired. Each step above Steady adds a point of attack and defence; each below takes one away. A Broken unit cannot attack.
Nothing predicts it. Morale moves only when a fight goes clearly better or worse than its odds: hit harder and lose less than expected, and a unit rises a step while the enemy it fought falls one. Driven out of a town, a unit falls a step.
It spreads. A surprise touches the units beside it half the time, the same way. And at the start of its turn a unit drifts a step toward its neighbours when most of them stand above or below it. The forecast counts a unit's morale as it is now.
At the ends of the scale a unit may gain a trait, by chance. Reaching Inspired: Leader (the units beside it never fall below Shaken) or Careless (−2 defence, and it will not dig in). Reaching Broken: Unbreakable (never below Shaken again, +1 defence) or Fearful (−1 attack, and it starts each battle Shaken).
Traits stay with a unit like medals; a unit holds one from each end, and a new one replaces the old. Fearful lifts after a battle won without losing a unit; Careless lifts when a hard knock leaves it Shaken or worse. Morale itself returns to Steady for each battle.
A small ▲ or ▼ on a counter shows its morale; the unit's card shows the step, its traits, and why it moved. Matches begun before this version play without morale.
Earned traits
Besides morale's four, a unit earns traits by what it lives through, never by chance, and keeps them from battle to battle like medals. The unit's card says how each was earned.
Tank Hunters: destroy 3 armoured units in a battle; +2 attack against armour. Street Fighters: hold a town or city through 3 attacks in a battle; +2 defence there.
Winter-Hardened: come through a battle with 5 turns of snow; snow neither slows it nor cuts its fire. Mud-Wise: the same in rain and mud.
Ambushed under fog of war, a steady unit becomes Alert (it sees a hex further); a shaken one becomes Hesitant (a hex less movement under fog, until it wins a battle).
Shell-Shocked: lose 6 strength between two of its turns; −1 initiative, and repeated attacks wear it down twice as fast, until it takes replacements or the battle ends.
Battle-Weary: fight 4 battles in a row while others of the army rest; −1 attack and movement until it sits one out. An army with no one to spare never tires this way.
Matches against another player have earned traits only in Battle Mode, from this version.
The enemy
The computer sees what you see and rolls the same dice. Difficulty changes how well it plans, and the handicaps the setup screen names.
On Normal and Hard it chooses a main effort, gathers a few hexes short of a defended town, and goes in together once enough has arrived, or when time is running out.
It clears the units beside a town before striking the garrison, and puts its attacks on one unit at a time. Hard also goes for the guns covering the town, and picks the unit it can destroy that turn.
Defending, it sends reserves to the towns under pressure, puts its fire on the units at its gates, and counter-attacks a town you hold weakly.
On Easy it marches on the nearest town and attacks piecemeal. Signals Intercept tells you where the enemy's main effort is aimed.
Movement
Roads are fast in any weather. Forest, rivers and mountains are slow; armour cannot enter mountains or marsh.
Moving next to an enemy ends your move. You may pass through your own units but not stop on them.
Bad weather slows most units off the roads, vehicles and guns most of all; infantry walks through rain. Weather has a page of its own.
The ground at a glance
| Ground | Move cost | Move cost, armour | Defence |
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| Clear | 1 | 1 | — |
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| Forest | 2 | 4 | +4 |
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| Mountain | 3 | cannot enter | +6 |
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| City | 1 | 1 | +6 |
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| Village | 1 | 1 | +3 |
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| River | 3 | 5 | — |
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| Swamp | 3 | cannot enter | +1 |
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| Beach | 2 | 3 | — |
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| Airfield | 1 | 1 | — |
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| Fort | 1 | 1 | +8 |
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| Road | 1 | 1 | — |
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Movement points to enter a hex off the road; a road costs 1 for any ground unit. Aircraft fly over everything at 1 a hex. The defence bonus goes to whoever stands there.
Weather
Bad weather slows armies, blinds guns and aircraft, and leaves tanks and guns stuck in mud easier to hit. The tables show each type of unit.
Roads never slow ground units. Artillery and aircraft lose most in attack, so bad weather favours whoever is holding a town, a fort or a dug-in line: their protection is never reduced.
Mud and storm keep aircraft on the ground, except on a city’s runways: from a city they take off, in a storm at a point more per hex and with less attack. One that lands away from a city stays down while the weather lasts.
Rain, snow and mud cut every unit’s sight by a hex, a storm by two. Mud, snow and storm shorten supply off the roads.
Winter Gear lifts the snow’s slowing for the rest of the battle; Mud Engineers lift rain and mud for three turns; Clear Skies clears the weather for two turns, for both sides.
Matches begun before this version keep the older weather rules: every ground unit slowed alike, every aircraft grounded in mud and storm, and no weather in a fight.
The weather tables
Extra movement a hex, off the road (aircraft: every hex)| Unit | Rain | Snow | Mud | Storm |
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| Infantry | — | +1 | +1 | +1 |
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| Armour | +1 | +1 | +2 | +2 |
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| Artillery | +1 | +1 | +2 | +2 |
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| Anti-tank | +1 | +1 | +2 | +2 |
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| Air defence | +1 | +1 | +2 | +2 |
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| Reconnaissance | +1 | +2 | +2 | +2 |
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| Aircraft | +1 | +1 | — | +1 |
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Attack lost| Unit | Rain | Snow | Mud | Storm |
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| Infantry | — | — | — | — |
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| Armour | — | −20% | −20% | −20% |
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| Artillery | −40% | −40% | −40% | −40% |
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| Anti-tank | — | — | — | — |
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| Air defence | −20% | −20% | −20% | −20% |
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| Reconnaissance | — | — | — | — |
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| Aircraft | −40% | −40% | — | −40% |
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Own defence lost| Unit | Rain | Snow | Mud | Storm |
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| Infantry | — | — | — | — |
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| Armour | — | — | −10% | — |
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| Artillery | — | — | −10% | — |
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| Anti-tank | — | — | −10% | — |
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| Air defence | — | — | — | — |
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| Reconnaissance | — | — | — | — |
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| Aircraft | — | — | −40% | −40% |
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Aircraft lose defence only when held on the ground away from a city. Terrain, forts, digging in and smoke are never reduced. Every cut takes at least a point.
Supply
Supply runs 6 hexes across country from your map edge and 12 along a road; mud, snow and storms shorten it off the roads. Towns you hold pass it on 4 hexes (8 by road) while they are connected to your edge. Railheads, the rail junctions, supply as far as your edge in any weather.
Enemy units block supply, and so do the hexes next to them unless your own unit stands there. Enemy aircraft slow it. A unit out of supply loses strength every turn and cannot refit.
Surround a city or fort and it is besieged. Its garrison lives on stores first: 3 turns in an objective city or a fort, 2 in another city. Then it is out of supply, loses Dig Deep and 2 points of its defence every turn, and from the siege's third turn can no longer stay dug in.
Break the ring and supply comes back at once. Opening a corridor into a pocket pays prestige, cheap refits and experience. The Airlift tactic supplies one pocket for a turn.
Call up a unit from the Supply view: one a turn, to a town your supply reaches with no enemy beside it. It arrives at the start of your next turn at a railhead, a turn later elsewhere. You may have up to five units more than you began the battle with. A unit of your own army left out of the battle comes up as it is, for half its price; a new unit comes Green, a quarter dearer than at headquarters, and in a campaign stays in the army afterwards. The computer may call up units to replace its losses and, beyond that, two more on Normal and five on Hard (none on Easy). Your opponent in a match may do all that you can.
Every town or airfield you hold pays 5 prestige at the start of each of your turns, and every objective 15, from the second turn on. The enemy's towns pay the enemy. The battle dossier shows what yours pay. In a campaign, what you spend in the field is spent, but of the towns' pay still unspent at the battle's end only half goes back to headquarters.
Tap the supply button under the status bar for the supply view: shaded ground has no supply, hatching marks the front (in supply, but too close to the enemy to refit), a cross in a disc marks a worn unit that can refit where it stands (brass at a discount), dashed lines run to your towns, rail discs mark junctions, and tags mark stores, pockets and sieges.
Encirclement
A ground unit is encircled when it has no way to trace supply back to its own edge, a railhead or a connected town. Being merely beyond supply's reach is not enough: it must be sealed in.
Cut off two or more enemy units with one move or attack, or a garrison in a town, and you have closed a ring: the camera pulls back, the ring is drawn round the pocket, and the unit that closed it gains experience. The pocket is named for the nearest town.
A trapped garrison lives on its town's stores first. Each turn a trapped unit begins out of supply, it loses a step of morale. At the start of its turn it surrenders if Broken, and one time in three if Shaken. An Unbreakable unit never surrenders: it has to be taken by storm.
Every unit that surrenders counts as destroyed and pays 25 prestige. A tank, gun or anti-tank gun is taken intact one time in three, worth a third of its price more, and joins your army weak and Green. It is the only way to have an enemy's machine in your army. A captured unit can never be upgraded.
The same rules hold for your own units, and the enemy closes rings too. A red ring mark on a counter shows a unit in a pocket, with its turns of stores left; its card says where it stands. Break the ring, or reach it with supply, and the clock stops at once.
The result screen lists every pocket of the battle and what became of it. Matches begun before this version play without encirclement.
Colour and text size
If red and green, or blue and yellow, are hard to tell apart, choose Colour vision in Settings: the map, its keys and the combat odds change to colours you can tell apart. Enemy counters always carry a dark pennant in the corner, whatever the colours.
For larger text, choose Text size in Settings. It adds to the text size set for your iPhone or iPad in the Settings app; town names, strengths and odds on the map grow a little too.
Your commander
You are the commander: one career across every campaign and Quick Battle. Every battle brings experience (more for a decisive victory, more on Hard) and Command Points (1 for fighting, 2 for a marginal victory, 3 for a decisive one).
Each level gives an attribute point. Attributes strengthen the whole army: Aggression and Resolve add attack and defence, Mobility speed, Logistics cheaper refits, Training faster promotions, Intelligence longer sight.
Command Points unlock tactics: battle tactics like an Artillery Barrage, unit tactics like Rally, weather tactics like Winter Gear. Take as many into battle as you have slots (one more at levels 5, 10, 15 and 20) and use them from the Tactics button.
The enemy commander grows with you — about half your level on Easy, level with you on Normal, ahead of you on Hard — and uses tactics of its own.
Ranks
Levels 1 to 20: Major (1–2); Colonel (3–5); Brigadier (6–9); Major General (10–13); Lieutenant General (14–17); General (18–19); Field Marshal (20).
Attributes
| Attribute | Effect (up to 5 ranks) |
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| Aggression | Ranks 3 and 5: +1 attack for every unit. |
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| Resolve | Ranks 3 and 5: +1 defence for every unit. |
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| Mobility | Rank 3: +1 movement for armour and recon. Rank 5: for every ground unit. |
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| Logistics | Each rank: refits, replacements and upgrades cost 5% less. |
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| Training | Ranks 2 and 4: units need one action fewer for each promotion. |
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| Intelligence | Ranks 1, 3 and 5: your units see one hex further under fog of war. |
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Tactics
| Tactic | Kind | Command Points | Uses a battle | What it does |
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| Artillery Barrage | Battle | 3 | 1 | Corps artillery strikes an enemy unit within 4 hexes of your army: 2–3 strength lost (never below 1), and it counts as attacked. |
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| Air Superiority | Battle | 4 | 1 | Until your next turn, enemy aircraft cannot attack. |
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| Smoke Screen | Battle | 3 | 1 | Your units on and around a hex gain +4 defence until your next turn. |
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| Reconnaissance in Force | Battle | 3 | 1 | Reveals every enemy unit within 6 hexes of your army for this turn. |
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| Airlift | Battle | 3 | 1 | Transport aircraft supply one pocket: every unit cut off with the one you choose is in supply until your next turn, and a besieged garrison's stores and siege stand still. Not in mud or storms, or under enemy Air Superiority. |
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| Rally | Unit | 2 | 2 | One unit regains 3 strength, free of prestige. |
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| Dig Deep | Unit | 2 | 2 | One unit entrenches at once and gains +2 more defence until it moves or attacks. |
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| Assault | Unit | 4 | 1 | One unit may attack a second time this turn. |
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| Hold the Line | Unit | 3 | 1 | One unit cannot be forced back or worn down by repeated attacks until your next turn. |
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| Forced March | Unit | 2 | 2 | One unit gains 3 more movement points this turn. |
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| Winter Gear | Weather | 2 | 1 | For the rest of the battle your units move through snow as if it were clear. |
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| Mud Engineers | Weather | 2 | 1 | For three turns your units move through rain and mud as if it were clear. |
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| Clear Skies | Weather | 4 | 1 | A forecast break: the weather is clear for two turns. |
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Postings and the Field Manual
Your commander works while the game is closed, up to a day at a time. Choose a posting on the Commander page.
Study historical battles and Study troop weakness each work through five chapters of the Field Manual. Every chapter explains part of the game in depth and adds advice on the battlefield: siege odds, weather briefings, which of your units best answers an enemy, and more.
Train troops gives your commander 5 experience an hour, and drills one Green Battle Group unit you choose: a point of experience every 2 hours, up to Trained. Command Points can train a unit no further than that either: anything better is earned in battle. Campaign armies learn only in battle.
Switch on Study reminders in Settings for a notification when a chapter is learned, and add the Panzerkeil widget to your Home Screen to see your commander's progress at a glance.
The chapters
| Chapter | Posting | Hours | Training lesson it opens |
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| The Decisive Turn | Study historical battles | 4 | Tempo: Take two objectives in one turn. |
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| Sieges and City Fighting | Study historical battles | 6 | Sieges: Cut a town off from its supply. |
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| Fighting the Weather | Study historical battles | 8 | Fighting the Weather: Move in the mud, and see aircraft grounded. |
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| Supply Lines | Study historical battles | 10 | Cutting Supply: Leave an enemy unit out of supply. |
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| The Expert's Habits | Study historical battles | 12 | The Expert's Habits: Use every unit that can fire before the turn ends. |
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| Suppression | Study troop weakness | 4 | Suppression: Wear down a dug-in enemy with repeated attacks. |
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| Breaking Armour | Study troop weakness | 6 | Fighting Armour: Hit tanks with weapons made for it. |
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| Breaking Infantry | Study troop weakness | 8 | Fighting Infantry: Catch infantry in the open with armour. |
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| Guns and Flak | Study troop weakness | 10 | Guns: Fire artillery from beyond the enemy's reach. |
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| Aircraft | Study troop weakness | 12 | Aircraft: Strike with the Stuka. |
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Hours are each chapter's study after the one before it on the same posting. A day away is the most one absence counts.
Multiplayer
Play any of the 48 battles against another player through Game Center: invite a friend or let Game Center find an opponent. Each of you commands one side.
Take your turn whenever you like and tap End Turn; your opponent gets a notification. Opening a match replays their last turn before you move. A turn not taken in time (24 hours unless you chose otherwise) passes over.
Leave a match at any time with Back to Matches (on the Waiting banner, or in the ☰ menu); moves you have made are kept until you tap End Turn. The Multiplayer button on the title screen shows how many matches are waiting for your move.
Each commander brings the tactics they have chosen; attribute bonuses are off, so the battle is decided by play. Swipe a match in the list to resign or ask for a rematch.
History rarely made a fair fight, so each battle is labelled. Even battles favour neither side. In the others one side is Favoured and the other is a Challenge, which pays 1 extra Command Point for a win, or a Hard Challenge, which pays 1 extra for playing it through and 2 more for a win. Resigning earns none of this, nor does letting the clock play most of your turns. Find an Opponent draws your side at random; when you invite a friend you can choose.
Tap Chat to talk with your opponent at any time, during your turn or theirs (while you wait, Chat sits beside Back to Matches). Your opponent gets a notification; set messages like “Good luck!” are a tap away. Messages are filtered; touch and hold one to report it, or block the player from the chat’s menu. Chat can be turned off in Settings. A match begun on an older version of the game has set messages only; Chat then opens those and says why.
If your opponent has been quiet for a while, swipe the match and tap Nudge to remind them, once every 12 hours. The match list shows the time left on each turn, your record against each opponent, and a rematch button once a match is over.
A finished match shows once in your list with its result, then goes on your record: tap Your Record at the bottom of the list for your results against each opponent and the full history. Wins also count on the Multiplayer leaderboard.
Every turn your opponent sends is checked by playing it again on your own copy of the battle. If one does not check out, the match stops and is marked Disputed; the banner says why, and Details for a report gives the figures to send us. The mark goes, and the result counts again, once a later turn checks out.
Battle Mode: you fight with your own Battle Group, one for each side of the war: tap its banner under Your Battle Groups on the Multiplayer screen. Name the army and give it an emblem; your opponent sees its name, rank, record and best three units before the battle, and you see theirs. Setting up a match, you choose your side and the weather (the season's, or one kind for the whole battle); your opponent moves first.
Each unit has its own page: tap its tile. Titles come with battles fought (Blooded, Seasoned, Hardened, Old Hands, Legends) and with feats (Tank Killers, Sky Hunters, Spearhead, The Wall, Unbroken). Every battle won adds an honour to each unit that fought it. Titles and honours are for show; medals are what change a unit in battle.
After a match, a short ceremony shows who was promoted, who earned a title, a feat or a medal, and who lost a grade. Share a unit's card from its page. Touch and hold a tile for its orders, or pin a favourite to the front.
The same banners are on your commander's profile: tap one to open it, or raise the side you have not yet. Tap your best unit on the title screen to open its page.
Fog of war
You see only what your units can: recon furthest, aircraft and the rest less, and less again in rain, snow and mud. Ground out of sight is shaded.
A move into unseen enemies stops where they are found: an ambush. Scout before you commit the armour. The enemy plays under the same fog.
Fog of war is chosen with the difficulty when a campaign or battle begins: always on for Hard, on to begin with for Normal, off to begin with for Easy. Battle Mode matches are always fought under fog; Scenario matches never are. The Intel view keeps enemies you have lost sight of where they were last seen, for two turns (longer with a commander's Intelligence).
Map views
The switch under the status bar changes what the map shows. Battle is the plain map. Supply and Intel show a one-line summary; tap it for the full panel, and tap the map to fold it away.
Supply shows where your army can be supplied and refit, your supply lines and railheads, and every pocket and siege.
Intel shows each objective and who holds it, where the enemies you know of could strike next turn, how far your army can see, enemies last seen, and what victory still needs. With a commander's Intelligence it also brings word of enemy reinforcements, and it always gives the weather for the next three turns.
Buy intelligence with prestige, each piece once a turn: aerial reconnaissance over a point you choose, agent reports from an area, a signals intercept (where the enemy is massing and its next reinforcements), the enemy's supply, and once a battle a dossier on the enemy commander. In Battle Mode matches too, at the same prices; your opponent is not told what you bought.
Under fog an enemy's strength shows only as a range (7–8), unless your recon is beside it or you fought it this turn or last. Destroy a unit or put it to flight and prisoners give away what else is near.
Stars and the operations
Every battle offers three stars: win it, win it decisively, and lose none of your units.
The main menu offers two operations, the same for every player: one short battle each day and one each week, each with a twist (a blizzard, a veteran enemy, fewer turns). Your best score goes to that day's or week's Game Center leaderboard.
Win the Daily Operation day after day to build a streak. A new one begins at 08:00 UTC, midnight on the US west coast.
Each campaign keeps a score, shown at Headquarters and on its own leaderboard. Every battle adds its stars, speed, enemy destroyed and army kept. Battles further into the campaign are worth more, up to double; Hard pays double and Easy about a third. A longer road through the campaign earns no more: only your best battles count, as many as the road of decisive victories has. A win your side never had in the real war pays a quarter more, and winning the campaign adds a bonus.
Campaigns grow harder as they go, and battles your side lost in the real war are harder than those it won.
The twists
| Twist | What changes | Score |
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| Blizzard | Snow for the whole battle. | ×1.2 |
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| Grounded | Your aircraft stay on the ground. | ×1.2 |
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| Veteran Enemy | Every enemy unit is a grade more experienced. | ×1.4 |
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| Against the Clock | Three turns fewer to win. | ×1.4 |
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| Understrength | Your units start at 8 strength. | ×1.3 |
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| Enemy Reserves | The enemy fields two extra units of its best type. | ×1.3 |
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How scores and the leaderboards work, in full: Leaderboards.
Medals and names
A unit of your army that does something remarkable in battle is decorated, under its own army’s name for the medal: an Iron Cross, a Military Cross, a Silver Star, an Order of the Red Star.
Each medal gives a small permanent bonus, kept through refits and upgrades: destroying four enemy units in a battle earns +1 attack; surviving five attacks in one enemy turn, +1 defence; taking the first objective of a decisive victory, +1 movement. Tap a decorated unit’s ribbons at Headquarters to see its medals and what it can still win.
In a unit’s dossier every number shows where it comes from: its base, each medal, and its experience.
Tap a unit’s name at Headquarters to give it a name of your own.
The medals
| Deed, in one battle | Permanent bonus | Named, German · British · American · Soviet |
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| Destroy four enemy units in one battle. | +1 attack | Iron Cross · Military Cross · Silver Star · Order of the Red Star |
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| Destroy six enemy units in one battle. | +1 attack, +1 defence | Knight's Cross · Victoria Cross · Medal of Honor · Hero of the Soviet Union |
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| Destroy three enemy armoured units in one battle. | +2 hard attack | Tank Destruction Badge · Military Medal · Bronze Star · Order of the Patriotic War |
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| Shoot down two enemy aircraft in one battle. | +2 air attack | Front Flying Clasp · Distinguished Flying Cross · Distinguished Flying Cross · Order of the Red Banner |
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| Destroy three enemy ground units from the air in one battle. | +1 soft attack, +1 hard attack | Luftwaffe Honour Goblet · Air Force Cross · Air Medal · Order of Alexander Nevsky |
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| Cost the enemy twenty strength points with artillery fire in one battle. | +2 soft attack | War Merit Cross · Mention in Despatches · Meritorious Unit Commendation · Medal for Battle Merit |
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| Survive five attacks in a single enemy turn. | +1 defence | Close Combat Clasp · Distinguished Conduct Medal · Distinguished Unit Citation · Medal for Courage |
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| Take the first objective of a battle, and win it decisively. | +1 movement | Assault Badge · Distinguished Service Order · Legion of Merit · Order of Glory |
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| Be cut down to one strength point, destroy an enemy unit, and see the battle won. | +2 initiative | German Cross · George Medal · Purple Heart · Order of Kutuzov |
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Other armies use their own names: Gallantry Cross, Hero's Star, Tank Destruction Badge, Flying Cross, Air Strike Clasp, Gunnery Medal, Defence Medal, Assault Badge, Medal for Valour.
Your army
Your core units go with you from battle to battle. Experience, shown as brass pips, makes them better at everything: each grade adds 1 to attack and 10% to defence, up to Guards.
A core unit destroyed is gone for good. Pull a badly damaged unit back rather than lose it.
Lost units leave places open. At Headquarters you can buy your own choice for them; any still open when you march are filled free by High Command, with green units.
Refilling a damaged unit with recruits is free, but replacing four or more strength costs it a grade of experience. Veteran replacements cost prestige and keep the grade. Upgrades to newer equipment keep it too. When units are below strength, Refit the army near the top of Headquarters refills every unit at once: free with recruits, or keeping every grade by paying for veterans only where recruits would cost one. Short of prestige, it keeps the highest grades it can afford.
In battle, a unit out of contact and in supply can rest for a turn to regain up to three strength, for prestige.
Experience comes with hard fighting, a step at a time. A lost battle does not end the campaign; it sends it down a harder road.
Attached units are lent for one battle only.
Win a campaign and your army marches in a Victory Parade: the road you took, your general’s order of the day, every unit that came through, the Roll of Honour of those lost, and a citation to share. The surviving unit that destroyed most is named Unit of the Campaign and wins the Campaign Star. Lose a campaign and your general gives a last order instead, before the Roll of Honour and the record of the war. Your commander’s profile keeps every campaign, won or lost, to watch again; each finale can be made into a film to share.
Grades
Green, Trained, Regular, Veteran, Elite and Guards. A unit needs 4 hard-fought actions to become Trained, then 7, 11, 16 and 22 for each grade after (fewer with a commander's Training).