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Commanding

Commanding is the most important role on the team — and nothing beats winning a round as commander. You're voted in, you drive the Mobile HQ, build the bases, and set the strategy. Don't be scared to take it: you only get good by doing it.

For a deeper playbook, see Commander strategy. For the custom controls used while building, see Action shortcuts.

High-level commanding (by Net_2)

1. Don't be afraid of losing the HQ. It happens to every commander — you'll lose plenty before you're good. Losing HQs and getting good aren't just correlated, they're causal.

2. Not taking risks is the greatest risk you can take. It comes down to fire and motion. Motion: keep moving your bases (e.g. building attack bases to hit enemy bases) so the enemy reacts to you, not the other way around — that's control. Fire: artillery doesn't just suppress, it demoralizes — teams quit when bombarded. If you don't do it, the enemy will.

3. Friendly environment → teamplay → victory. As commander you set the tone. Toxicity breaks coordination and loses rounds. Teach new players, let people fail as a learning opportunity. War is mind games — on your own side too.

4. Terrain is your best friend and worst enemy. Get higher than the enemy: tracked vehicles get a speed boost downhill and a penalty uphill, and you're a hard target from above. Build your base on the side of the hill facing away from the enemy — they have to go around the whole hill to even see it.

5. With more than 6–8 players, focus on commanding. Build bases and static defences, upgrade tech as fast as possible, and move base often (fire and motion). You're also the last line of defence for the HQ when the statics fail.

Mobile HQ (MHQ) basics

  • The MHQ is your mobile spawn and your most important vehicle: LAV-25 (HQ) on BLUFOR, BTR-90 (HQ) on OPFOR. Move it strategically to support the front and protect your economy.
  • Deploy costs 500 supply (this is a server lobby setting — 500 is the default and the minimum). You can't deploy near a town you don't own or an enemy base. Don't deploy inside buildings (against the rules) — you can fully wall it and put a camo net on top.
  • Repair a destroyed HQ with 25,000 supply and a repair truck (a marker is auto-created for the wreck). A second repair costs 40,000 supply; after that, supply repairs are locked. If supply repair isn't an option, the in-game Recover HQ action rebuilds it for $200,000 cash. Getting a fresh HQ this way drops all your towns' supply value to 10, collapsing your income until they recover.
  • If no human takes the commander role, the AI Commander (AICOM) runs your side automatically — it builds units, captures towns, and executes orders. Take the commander seat yourself if you want direct control; the AI will hand it over immediately.

Bases & factories

Buildings: B Barracks · LF Light Factory · HF Heavy Factory · AF Aircraft Factory · CC Command Center · AAR Anti-Air Radar · SP Service Point. Upgrade tech to improve what each base produces. Rotate factories with CTRL; put the spawn sign on a road (LF/HF) or open field (AF) so vehicles don't get stuck.

Early-game playbook

When you deploy your first HQ, build Barracks, Light Factory, and a Command Center. Don't rush a Service Point — it's a waste of supplies early; you'll only want it later for rearming artillery and servicing aircraft.

You also start with more AI than everyone else — 14 vs. 4 for normal players at Barracks 0. Use them: send AI to capture nearby towns, or spread them around the map as spotters to report incoming threats (select with F1–F12, click the map to send).

You can place up to 260 objects. Wall your producing factories but leave a gap in each so they stay enterable (rules). Use the commander shortcuts (below) to wall fast.

Upgrade order

There's no single "correct" order — upgrade what your team needs — but a strong early priority is Gear 3 · Barracks 1 · Supply 1 · Light Factory 2, before a Heavy Factory:

  • Gear 3 — good weapons + launchers (e.g. MAAWS for BLUFOR).
  • Barracks 1 — +4 AI per player (8 total) and better units.
  • Supply 1 — boosts early town supply income; can decide whether you hold a contested town.
  • Light Factory 2 — unlocks ambulances + armoured Humvees (great for capturing towns without tanks). If you took LF2, Ambulance Range 1 is cheap (500 supplies) and worth it.

Only after these, if your supply income (SV/min) is healthy, build a Heavy Factory and take HF1 (a bare Heavy Factory only gives you a T-34 / AAVP7A1). Artillery (Reload, then Ammunition) is a late-game investment that pays off over time.

Moving the HQ & counter-bases

Never move the HQ while your base is under attack unless you're sure you'll survive. A good time to move is once the towns around you are captured and you want to push toward enemy towns. Use what your team and spotters report — where the enemy base and towns are — so you don't suicide the HQ. To pressure the enemy, set up a counter-base behind a hill near their base: you get the uphill advantage and line of sight to their base, while they have to come around the hill to even see yours. (Remember to delete the HQ walls with the delete shortcut before redeploying.)

Defense building rules (Build 89)

Build 89 introduced a server-side threat gate for static weapons and minefields. You cannot place new statics or mines around your base unless there are at least 3 enemy ground units (not aircraft or GUER) inside your base perimeter range. The gate exists to prevent commanders from pre-stacking defenses before any contact — defenses are a reaction tool, not a free passive upgrade.

Additionally, each base area has per-category caps on player-placed defenses:

  • Static weapons (MGs, AA, AT pods, mortars, artillery): up to 25 per base area. This is raised from the prior 10 cap.
  • Fortifications (walls, barriers, sandbags, razor wire, camo nets, WDDM compositions): separate cap — check the in-game build menu for the current limit.
  • Mines: separate cap — check the in-game build menu for the current limit.

The caps scale with barracks level. Higher barracks unlock more budget. The OTHER category (ammo crates, MASH, lights, spawn markers) is uncapped.

Garrison dressing (Build 89): GUER-controlled towns now spawn a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun and a night searchlight in the contested zone. Factor this into approaches on GUER towns — the ZU-23 is effective against both helicopters and light vehicles.

Commander shortcuts

Options → Controls → Custom controls:

  • Use Action 14 — toggle automatic walls when a factory builds.
  • Use Action 15 — reselect the last object (static weapon / wall).
  • Use Action 16 — toggle automatic manning of defences (static arty like D-30 / M119).
  • Use Action 17 — delete the base object you're aiming at (walls / statics).
  • Use Action 13 — send newly spawned units to your current waypoint (shift-click the map). Toggleable; rebind from the default Insert key.