How to Play Command Of War

Command of War, despite its simplistic looks, is actually one of the more difficult strategy games I've played in a while. After a few runs, however, I think I have a solid grasp on how to find some amount of success.

1: Basic Controls and Gameplay

The game comes with a tutorial built in to explain how it works, but they go away quickly and are hard to keep track of. I'll go over the basic concepts and controls here.

To see information on a unit, you'll want to right-click on the corresponding icon on the bottom. Left-clicking on the icon will have you purchase it. Under each trench, you'll notice two buttons. The one on the left will let you tell your men to skip that particular trench and various other settings, while the one on the right will let you order every single troop in that trench to move onwards. You can also manually tell each unit to advance by simply clicking on them - this is useful for splitting your army up to avoid artillery.

You can take control of snipers and machine gunners by right-clicking on them and clicking the crosshair on the right. This can be useful if you need to prioritize certain enemies. You can also tell them to move up and down the trench with W and S, which is extremely useful for minimizing important artillery losses.

To collect intel, you need to gather XP, which is gained by killing enemy units. You can use them to unlock powerful new units and artillery that will prove essential to your victory. You can also gather intel from completing missions, which you can view by clicking on the icon in the bottom right.

Every unit in a trench will gain a passive defense bonus - some more than others. Therefore, if your aim is to simply kill as many units as possible while minimizing casualties, stacking up in a trench is in your best interest. However, that will leave you open to enemy artillery, as clumped groups of units will die by the droves. It's in your best interest to split your army as much as possible.

2: Basic Strategy

In the beginning, you'll have access to very few units. None are as cost-efficient as the first unit - the rifleman. Purchasing it comes with three basic units, while the Sniper and SMG units only come as one. To start the game off and get the EXP necessary for your stronger units, I recommend spamming riflemen at the beginning of the game. Set them up in the second trench line but keep a good portion of them in the first trench for when an artillery strike hits. The enemy will likely not have the units to overwhelm your position in the beginning and will do little else but feed you EXP.

Once you have the units you want (I recommend at least having a commander), you'll want to gather the units you have planned for your offensive near the back while your more disposable riflemen hold the front. As soon as you have the money needed for a tank, purchase it and get your offensive force ready to move along with it. Let the tank take the brunt of the attack from the forces in the trenches as you advance.

After that, reinforce the newly acquired trench with riflemen, machine gunners (if you have them), and snipers. As you do that, repeat the process of gathering an offensive force behind them. Do note that the enemy AI will be trying to do the exact same thing as you, so you may be forced to fall back and start over at some point. Just keep upgrading your units and be patient - this is a tough game.