Commander Guide, Strategies, How to be a good commander!

In this guide, I present all the abilities of the commander, how to use them and where and when you should use them. I provide visual examples and talk about strategies in depth. I also show how to use the binocular, place marks, build garrisons and many other stuff !

Full Video

Role Playstyle

In case you don't watch the video here is the text used for it. But I highly recommend to watch the video because I will show you critical footage and images related to this guide.

After watching this video you will be 100 percent comfortable with the commander role, you will learn what you can do and also how to do things properly! I will teach you strategies with examples that are not presented in any other video so stay tuned! I’m pretty addicted to this role, I have level 10 so I have a decent amount of experience, lets dive in.
Role playstyle
As a commander you gotta choose one role and do it well then you can mix later, or choose what suits you at that moment.

1.RTS commander (HQ commander) - HIGH game impact. First up is the RTS commander, I call it like that because 100 percent you will be spending all of your time using abilities on the map, moving squads around and thinking of the next move. This style feels a lot like playing chess, which is a very cool part of the game.
This style is best combined with one of these options, you can switch whenever you think it's the right moment!
a) + Camper (img + camper) - Stay defensive in your last unlocked strongpoint, here you will be building garrisons around the strongpoint, you need to have at least 3 or 4 garrisons around, always try to check on them if they got enemy close (Keep this in one mind, I will come back to it later).

Stay prone in bushes near a garrison and do your job on the map. Enemies most of the times will just rush to the garrison to take it down without taking any caution, meaning free kills for you

When to use this? When there are only 1 or 2 squads making it to the strongpoint.

b) + Artillery support, here we got 2 use cases
Case 1: All friendly squads are attacking and enemy squads defending, they pretty much stuck in their strongpoint.
Redeploy fast by pressing esc>redeploy and jump on artillery.
You need to break enemy defense before capturing it, first spam HE over the strongpoint, after the defense receives a big hit start dropping a curtain of smokes in the strongpoint to cover the attack of your team. This combo commander + arty can make a great comeback!

Case 2: All friendly squads defending and enemy squads attacking.
Your strongpoint is heavily attacked, all your squads are pinned down inside the strongpoint, redeploy and jump on arty then drop HE around the strongpoint and help your team to extend. Arty is a lot more effective than you using a gun on the frontline.

When to use this? Where there is a large stack of enemies that attacks or defends, you need to break them. Arty was the key in WW2, do the same in this game. Don’t forget that artillery has a great impact on the morale of the person, also creates the suppressed effect and you know how annoying it is.

Mix between these 2 strategies camper or arty support according to the situation even better if you have a squad focused on arty. If there is none, you do it!

2.Second styles is Frontline Commander - LOW-MEDIUM impact. Here you will be more focused on the FPS part as other soldiers and sometimes use the abilities according to the situation, you still have 2 smokes in your loadout which can help tremendously on the battlefield, even better if you are a good FPS player. This style is a lot more relaxing for casual games which is fine after some hardcore RTS play styles.

Feel free to change the style whenever you want.

Resources

Very very short talk about resources, you have manpower, ammo and fuel as resources that are produced per minute, a more in depth cover over resources you will find in the engineer guide complete linked into the description!

Abilities part 1

Manpower Abilities, you can see the required amount on right side(picture)
Reinforce, 40 manpower cost - increase capture power in a friendly sector. When there is a fight over the sector, there are 3 states: Losing, Contested which means capture progress is on hold and Capturing. (video)

Use this ability when your sector is in a Loosing state and you have some friendlies there and many are on the way. Using this ability will win you precious time because the sector might turn into Contested status depending on how many people you have inside. This will be great until your squads will make it back to defend.

To use this ability, press on it, then put it in the controlled sector, placing it in the enemy sector won’t work.

Encouraged, 30 manpower cost - Friendly sectors will generate double the amount of resources, does not include nodes.This does not include nodes, so be aware of that. You can see production per minute goes from 3 to 6.

To use it just click on it and confirm on radio, nothing special

Final Stand, 30 manpower cost - For 1 minute, you won’t lose any resources while using any abilities. Just make a habit and use these after that, encouraged, supply drop, recon, strafing run and bombing run. Depending on the situation, reinforce and airhead. Don’t forget also to spawn tanks for your team.
In this example I will use..(video)

Dismantle Garrison, 50 manpower cost - When you reach the limit of 10 garrisons, you can use this ability to destroy a garrison remotely. But I don’t think its worth it unless manpower is a luxury for you but that won’t be the case. It’s a lot cheaper if you respawn to a garrison and destroy it manually. Note that only the commander can destroy garrisons on site.


Establish Airhead, 75 manpower cost - Listen listen, this ability is the most amazing thing you can use. It’s basically a temporary garrison that lives for x minutes (INSERT MINUTES HERE) (video).
Airhead is just a crate attached to a parachute dropped by a plane, if you see it dropping behind your lines you need to hunt it asap! (video)
Strategies:
1.Drop the airhead usually behind buildings in the enemy territory with a minimum distance of 100 meters of the enemy strongpoint, that's half of this square.
2.Second tip would be to tell all your squad leaders where you are going to drop the airhead and which sector if you have time. (video)
3.Write in chat also and let everyone know that you are dropping the airhead so they can start redeploying or wait for the airhead to be available. Why would you do this? Because some of the squad leaders won’t tell their members about the airhead.
4.After the airhead is available to spawn, tell squad leaders in voice chat and other team players in chat to spawn on it(video) . This will drastically increase the number of people spawning on airhead and the bigger the assault will be!
5. After everyone spawns, use your smokes around the airhead to cover everyone that spawned or the friendlies that will spawn on next wave
6. Or you can use the smokes to cover the assault behind the strongpoint (video). Don’t forget to tell your squad leaders to do the same! The enemy won’t even know what is going to happen, they will think that there are some of their smokes thrown randomly, this will be an amazing ambush.
7.You can use airhead as an distraction for the enemy, so they will call reinforcements to defend and get some pressure of your strong point

Abilities that cost munition
Supply Drop, 15 ammo cost - plane will drop 100 supplies at a specific location, click on the ability, click on the map and then confirm (video) nothing to fancy, it will take some time until it reaches the ground

Strategies:
Have around 4 or 5 supply crates around and inside the strongpoint, check this on map Hill 400 how I did spread supplies around, these later will be transformed into backup garrisons
Don’t be afraid to drop supplies inside the enemy strong point too if you have a decent amount of ammunition and you are sure that they left it, go for it! It will come handy later when you are going to capture the strong point, you will have supplies already available there for a garrison.
Drop 2 rounds of supplies in the edge of the map for the engineer nodes, be aware that there is a chance that they are going to be tracked by enemies. Try to deploy them at the start, it will be hard for them to estimate the distance

Recon plane, 25 ammo cost - plane that will spot enemy infantry and tanks. Infantry will look like small dots and tanks will be marked with big diamond red shape like this(picture).
To use this, click the ability, click on map, click on the circle if you want to change the position, green area is the spotting rang and direction
Strategies:
When spotting multiple stacks of enemies, try marking the different stacks with different marks, because you can’t place multiple enemy markers. You can use observe marker, attack marker, defend and other. You will wonder why I suggested that, it’s because the enemies won’t be marked forever on the map but the markers you place will last longer for your team, so they don’t forget any critical information.
Don’t forget to mark enemy tanks with enemy tank marker, you can combine with enemy light vehicle or other markers
Don’t just recon over the enemy strong point, use this critical ability for defensive situations too. Remember when I told you to have at least 3-4 backup garrisons around ?They will act also as an observer tower, they will turn red once when enemies are close to them. In case you notice something suspicious recon on your red garrisons (video) as I did here and counter attack with some specific squads. I told you this will be like chess.
A very important tip. Listen closely. Watch your friendlies direction, which way they face,there are small triangles attached to their position (image). This will give up the enemy location they are trying to kill. For example an MG got them pinned down, they will be stationary for a long time you gotta read it. Estimate the distance, send recon plane then you can go with a quick strafing run to eliminate it (video)
Tell your squad leaders where you will be using the recon plane, hopefully they will spread the info inside the squad.

Strafing run, 50 ammo cost - Fighter plane that will attack on a direction in a single run. You apply it the same as the recon plane.
Strategies:
1.Use this directly after a recon plane spot, the attack will be very fast.
2.This ability works amazing when you put it in trenches, most of the times when there is a fight over an enemy strong point and it has trenches, usually they will be camping inside them with MGs and others, you can clear it with this ability. (video)
3. When a garrison is completely red it means the garrison is being dismantled by the enemy, send a fast strafing run over it and save it. I saved many garrisons with this tactic. (video)
4.This ability won’t do anything to tanks.

Abilities part 2

Bombing run, 75 ammo cost - Bomb run f a plane, place it as you can place a recon plane and the direction, be aware that it starts where the circle is closest to the designated starting point you selected
Strategies:
Try to learn the bombing run sound (video) it is pretty easy to notice it and it flies the highest altitude, follow its direction and estimate where the run it will be.

When you hear it try to alert all the squad leaders to take cover ASAP
When you start attacking the enemy strong point, try to bomb run behind as many houses as you can in that point, there is a big chance that you will destroy the enemy garrisons. The human habit is to place garrisons behind buildings and I’m pretty sure you can confirm it (video) .
Note that you can destroy tanks, even the tiger if it is a direct hit on the tank! Same applies to other tanks.
Tanks - To place a tank, select it and place it in one of your 3 HQ located in the main spawn, you will find a repair station symbol (this is the symbol, video) at your HQ that’s how you find out which it is.
Strategies:
As Axis side try spamming panthers and tigers all the time if possible, both tanks are amazing and have them ready for your team.
As Allies side try to spawn only the 76 mm sherman if possible this is the best one, if it is on cooldown and your team needs one, you can give the 75mm it’s meh

General tips & Loadout

General tips ,don’t leave yet I’m not done, there is plenty left to learn
-(video) at start of the game , try to get a squad to build garrison on friendly territory so you can drop supplies on the neutral point, if your team captures first the middle strong point you will be able to build a garrison asap

-Tell your squad leaders to get engineers to build nodes as soon as possible, even write in the chat and ask for nodes in case squad leaders don’t pay attention. If no one builds nodes DON’T give up, drop supplies somewhere, switch as engineer and build yourself the nodes. If you don’t know how to build nodes check my engineer guide in the description

-If the frontline advances, tell your engineers to move the nodes too, they will produce more, take your time and go and destroy the nodes so they can replace them.

-Assign at least 3 squads to defend, others can attack. If you capture more strongpoints, add more squads in defense, its a lot safer to hold and defend till the end instead of risking and losing everything in a domino effect which happen to me in the past!

-Write in chat which squads will defend, if squad leader dont pay attention, it’s members might will. Also helps you to have a history who you have in defense (video)

-Use recon squads as the queen in chess, recon is a multi tool that can be used in many ways,attack arty,protect flanks,kill enemy reinforcements
Assign recon to camp enemy arty, place an outpost hidden around their hq and spawn when needed, this one saved us many times
Assign them to protect flanks especially on open fields like foy or saint marie, one protect left other protect right
Attacking recon, I don’t like this one, because a moving recon is a dead recon, use it to kill enemy reinforcements that come from a garrison to the strongpoint



-Ask engineers to build at least one repair station on the frontline, this can be the deciding factor for winning the game. It will repair the tanks, most of the people don’t even bother destroying them or what they are

Loadout
(you gotta check the video)

[PlazaLord]

Heads up, the video is marked as private at the moment.