Quick Start Guide

Starting the Game

• When you join, you'll see a team selection screen. Choose one or the other, or use auto-assign.
• If you're on a classic map, you'll be staring at a Commander Voting screen. Make your choice and it will go away. (Or "," is the default to cancel this window.)
• While you're waiting for the vote to finish (it won't take long, the vote is about 20 seconds) you can choose a squad by opening the squad window (default "." key) and join or create one.
• You'll then be staring at a class selection screen. Pick your class and your weapons, and hit 'accept.' ("n" is the default to open and close this window.)
• Finally, a Spawn Map will pop up. Here, you get to choose where you spawn into the game. At the start, you only have one spot- that big fuzzy dot on the map. Click on it, and you're ready to go!

How to get into the action

1. Commander: At the very start of a match, you'll get a commander voting screen. ("," to turn it on and off) Vote for someone who already has a lot of votes. Do not command if you are new, wait until you understand the basics of the game and understand what research is useful.

• A good commander won't guarantee that you win the game, but a bad commander will guarantee that you lose it.

2. Choose the Engineer class at the start of any classic map. Yes, the Scout sounds really cool, but it is near useless unless you know exactly what you're doing. An Engineer can do everything you need early in the game, so you'll be prepared for anything that hits you.

3. Join a squad and move out right away. There is no Vehicle Factory, no armory, and very little in terms of defenses.

• The sooner you reach the front lines, the sooner you can establish a good defensive barrier to defeat the enemy. Don't dawdle around the base!
• If you noticed someone who did good in the game before, follow them if they are an Engineer and watch what they do.
• Believe it or not, but the most deaths among new players come from enemy mines. ALWAYS keep a lookout for them on the ground.

4. Use your teammates!

• You can get extra ammunition from engineers from ammo boxes they can drop or from an armory which you will not have at the start of the game. Just use the request ammo voice command and an engineer should be willing to help you.
• Those Riflemen are really good at killing people. If you're an Engineer, don't be afraid to let them charge into the fray first.

Once the combat really heats up

• By pressing enter you can chose where you spawn. After a while into the game the commander may have a forward barracks set up closer to the front lines, or there may be an APC closer to the front. You wont have to spend any time walking to the enemy by choosing to spawn in one of these new areas.

How to use the Engineer class

-Turrets are really cool. However, placing them right next to your Barracks at the start of the game is a bad idea. You're wasting time: you need to secure forward bases and refineries quickly at the start of the game or the other team will win. So move up and place a turret closer to the enemy, instead.

-Get the repair upgrade skill. It lets you build a lot faster meaning your wasting less time building and more time moving up. This is really important at the start of a game when there is a lot of stuff to build. Plus, if you need to create a turret in an emergency, you'll be very grateful that you could build it before the enemy started shooting at you.

-Cameras display enemy infantry on your regular screen, almost like a free wall-hack. This can be useful on a map like crossroads where everyone is packed in a small area in the middle.

Turrets

-The best way to destroy a turret is 3 engineer grenades. Alternatively, a grenadier is a good way to destroy turrets as well. Shooting them with your machine gun though, is not a good way to destroy them.

-Level 1 turrets you can throw grenades at from a distance they can't hit you from but once they get to level 2 and 3 you will need a new tactic for killing them. Either tanks or grenadiers are a basic way but you can try using walls to creep up on them with another engineer or use the geometry of the map to find a way to get close without them shooting you.

Walls

-Again, one of your first ideas might be to build a giant wall around your base. NO. Bad. See point 4.

-Walls can be used to provide cover from turrets and to block in tanks or enemy command vehicles. An effective use is to use them to defend buildings against rocket fire. Also if you have a forward APC that is visible to the enemy it is a good idea to put walls in front of it so it can't be rocket sniped.

-Shooting walls is not an effective way to remove them. Using the engineer calculator(building tool) you can deconstruct them.

Vehicles

-See Vehicle_customization

-As a general rule of thumb, if your going to buy a jeep, just get an APC instead and park it somewhere safe and walk the rest of the distance.

-Do not waste your tank. This is not BF2, they don't respawn for free. They cost your team money, generally money your team cannot afford to lose. Fall back and repair rinse and repeat. Engineer is a good class to be for in tanks with repair upgrade as you can repair your tank in the field and give yourself ammunition.

-Going close to an armory or on a repair bay will give you ammunition. Also, engineer's ammo box they drop will give you ammunition.

-Until you get upgraded armor your tanks will be very weak, be extra careful. Also until you get upgraded engines your tank will overheat very easily.

-Watch out for mines. They hurt your tank, a lot. Another class that is good to be in a tank is grenadier because you can chose the mine defusal skill that will let you drive over mines without setting them off.

-Standard cannon doesn't do that good damage to buildings, if you come across a bunch of level one turrets get out and use your engineer grenades. HE cannon on the other hand does excellent damage.

-Keep an eye on your heat levels. If someone is a distance aways from you and driving in circles and you are sitting there spamming your weapons he might just be baiting you and once you are red(overheated) and cannot run or fire your weapons he will swoop in and kill you.

-Wait till you have a shot to shoot. You have to take your tanks speed and the enemy's tank speed into account when firing it is tricky, keep practicing.

-Pay attention to your surroundings. If your fighting in no mans land and behind the enemy tank he has a base with some turrets and behind you you have some base and turrets try running away. The enemy might think you are damaged and risk taking a few hits from your turrets to kill you. Once you lead him to your turrets start blasting him and try to ram him so he can't escape the turrets range. This also gives you a longer distance you can chase the enemies damaged tank before you run into his turrets. This is just one example, use your surroundings to your advantage, pay attention to what is going on.

-Stay together. Two medium tanks are better than one heavy tank. Make sure to work as a team. If the enemy is focusing fire on your friendly tank and you still have full armor try ramming the enemy tank to block his shot of your teammates tank. Also focus your fire on one target to get it down quickly.

-If there is a lot of different options for weapons/armor/engines and whatnot and your not sure what type of tank you should make and what you should customize it with try asking one of your better teammates or your commander.