HLL Boot Camp - The Basics [U10]

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about Hell Let Loose before you dive into a game.

Disclaimer

You are not allowed to copy this Steam guide - whole or in part - for any reason. You may link people to this guide so that they can read it in the intended format, which is on the steamcommunity.com website. I reserve all creative rights to this guide to the extent allowed by the Steam Terms of Service.‎‎‎‎‎

Table of Contents

This guide is of substantial size and content. Please refer to this table of contents for a concise breakdown of the guide.

United We Stand; Divided We Fall - The core concepts of Hell Let Loose. It is your #1 priority to learn and follow this as a guideline in order to be successful at the game.
Chain of Command - The command structure. This is a game of logistics, and proper delegation and management is tantamount.
Comms - A more in-depth look at how voice chat works, the limitations of it, how to best utilize it, and a deep dive into procedure words and brevity codes. Split into multiple segments due to character limits.
Garrisons, Outposts, and Airheads - How spawn points work. The information in this section is critical for achieving victory.
Supplies and Logistics - The supply chain metagame. Logistics are a huge aspect of the game, and have a monumental impact on your success.
Strategic Resources - The commander abilities and how they are utilized. If you think of this game as an RTS, these are the equivalent resources.
Game Modes - The two different game modes. Similarities and differences between them are covered here.
Infantry - The backbone of combat as infantry. Goes over each class and their role in the game.
Recon - The all-important role of the recon teams. This shows you the importance of a recon team and how they can turn the tide of a battle.
Tanks - A link to my other guide. Tanking 101 does a much more in-depth analysis of tanks, and also teaches you the basics of tanking as well as how to identify vehicles of all types.
Conclusion and Afterword - My closing thoughts on this guide. Reiterates the main takeaways of this guide. I also give my opinion on a few things.

Without further ado...

United We Stand; Divided We Fall

First and foremost, there is something EVERYONE should understand about Hell Let Loose: this isn't Call of Duty. This is a team-oriented game, where you have to communicate, cooperate, and coordinate with other people to win. It is a baseline expectation that if you join a public game, you will be doing this with everyone on your team. Remember to keep your ego in check - if you spend more time arguing with your allies than fighting the enemy, you are a detriment to progress and morale, and the consequences of that negatively impact your entire team.

Hell Let Loose is not about getting kills. If you kill the enemy, great - it takes them at least 10 seconds (but usually around 30 on average) before they can get back into the fight and keep contributing to their side. But that's all it does - your enemy is forced to respawn, which at most delays them. This is not the primary objective of the game. Your overall objective is to attack and/or defend control points on the map to secure victory, and you accomplish this by building defenses and resource nodes, placing garrisons and outposts (more on that later), and coordinating defense and attacking maneuvers with your team.

So how does this affect your score? Well, there are 4 categories for score:

Combat effectiveness - Arguably the least important score. This is simply how many points you racked up from getting kills. You can be the MVP even if this is zero, and you shouldn't worry about combat effectiveness unless you are playing a role whose goal is to get kills (and even then, it's not as important as the other scores).
Offensive effectiveness - A measure of your efforts in taking and holding enemy control points, contributing to capture power, and the time spent in enemy territory. This is important, because without a good offense, a team is doomed to fail. Being effective with offensive score means your team is proactive, and not reactive - which is to say, you are taking the initiative, pushing the objective, and claiming real estate for Uncle Sam, Erwin Rommel, or Mother Russia depending on whose side you're on.
Defensive effectiveness - A measure of your efforts in holding friendly control points, contributing to reinforcement power, and the time spent in friendly territory. Defense score is critical - if nobody is defending a point, the enemy can just waltz right in and take it, which often ends in defeat. This score is especially important when you are on the defending team in the Offensive game mode.
Logistic effectiveness - Arguably the most important score. This is how effective you were at the logistics element of the game. That means placing garrisons, providing supplies, generating strategic resources, reviving infantry as a medic, using abilities as a commander, and generally supporting your team.

You might hear the term "blueberry" get thrown around a few times in comms while playing the game. Blueberry is a derogatory term for someone who is acting mindlessly in a game of HLL and ignoring all of these core concepts. The name is derived from the blue ally markers on the map which resemble dozens of tiny blueberries, often wandering around with minds of their own, not paying any attention at all to the main objectives, being oblivious to their squad lead, or haphazardly trying to rush the attack point with zero cohesion whatsoever. Do not do this. The team that has the most blueberries on their side will usually lose.

Always keep in mind that teamwork is your top priority. Wars are not won by Medal of Honor recipients alone. It takes a concerted effort from many people working together to achieve victory. Hell Let Loose is no stranger to this.

Chain of Command

Hell Let Loose utilizes a "chain of command" style system. If you have played games like Squad, you will already be familiar with how this works. There are 3 tiers in the command structure and it works best when strategy comes from the top down and tactics are delegated to the individual squads. As such, voice chat is an integral and critical aspect of the game, and must be utilized accordingly. All chat is by default push-to-talk.

Here is the command structure:

The Commander - Each side can have one commander who oversees and controls the entire battlefield. The commander has near-absolute authority over everyone, and his orders take precedence. The commander also has unique abilities at his fingertips. He can call in airdropped supplies, spawn tanks and other vehicles, send in bombing and strafing runs, activate strategic abilities like reinforcing points, or dropping a temporary spawn point for the entire team (called an airhead) in friendly or enemy territory. It is also the commander's imperative to do logistics work behind the scenes, like running supplies within friendly territory and deploying/dismantling garrisons for the team.
The Squad Leaders (Officer, Tank Commander, and Spotter) - Squad leaders are the commander's direct reports, and are directly responsible for the units in their squad. Officers are in charge of infantry, tank commanders are in charge of their tank crew, and spotters are in charge of their sniper. All squad leaders must communicate and coordinate with each other, monitor the needs of their squad, and employ effective strategy on the tactical level. Squad leaders must contend with the command chat as well as their own squad chat, act as a link between the two, and mentally filter information and prioritize what is more important.
The Units (Infantry, Tank Crew, and Sniper) - The individual unit(s) that make up the squad. The units make up the vast majority of a team. Their role is to listen to the squad lead and follow orders. Infantry are the main workhorse of the battlefield and have the most diverse set of roles, tank crew are the people who help operate a tank along with the tank commander, and the sniper works with the spotter to suppress the enemy and pick off high value targets.

There are 3 different channels for voice chat:

Command Net (Default PTT Key: "X") - Accessible to the commander and squad leaders. Allows global communication between squads. Any time squad leaders are talking on command net, their username will appear in RED and will be accompanied by their squad letter. Any time the commander is talking on command chat, his username will appear in YELLOW and will be accompanied by an asterisk.
Squad Net (Default PTT Key: "C") - Accessible to the squad leaders and their respective units. Allows global communication within squads. Any time squad leaders or units are talking on squad net, their username will appear in GREEN and will be accompanied by their squad letter.
Proximity Chat (Default PTT Key: "V") - Accessible to all players. Allows local communication with all nearby friendly players. People talking on proximity chat will be louder when close by and quieter when further away, and generally quieter overall than squad net or command net. Any time squad leaders or units are talking on proximity chat, their username will appear in BLUE (or WHITE before U10) and will be accompanied by their squad letter. Any time the commander is talking on proximity chat, his username will appear in YELLOW and will be accompanied by an asterisk.

Comms [WIP]

In Hell Let Loose, communicating with the team is critical to coordination and to your team's success at the game. As mentioned in the previous section, the chain of command and segregation of voice chat channels has been implemented to help squads manage comms with the rest of their team. Specifically, command net is the strategic level of this, where squad leaders and the commander can all communicate with each other. So how does this work?

Command net can be quite hectic, so to help identify each other over comms, Hell Let Loose marks all transmissions from each player with a squad letter, which on command net should be used phonetically as a callsign. Below is a table of all the phonetic callsigns as follows for each squad letter, which directly translates to the phonetic alphabet. It is good to memorize the phonetic alphabet for each letter so that you can call squads phonetically instead of just saying the letter itself normally, so there is no mistake with who is being called. Note that I have also included the NATO phonetic alphabet in the table alongside with the period correct phonetic alphabet that Hell Let Loose uses. This is because both alphabets can be used interchangeably, and many players will use NATO phonetic instead. If you are in an SL role, you should take note of your callsign and listen for both the WWII phonetic and NATO phonetic variants over command net.

Squad Letter	WWII Phonetic	NATO Phonetic
| * |	COMMANDER	(or COMMAND)
| A |	ABLE	ALPHA
| B |	BAKER	BRAVO
| C |	CHARLIE	CHARLIE
| D |	DOG	DELTA
| E |	EASY	ECHO
| F |	FOX	FOXTROT
| G |	GEORGE	GOLF
| H |	HOW	HOTEL
| I |	ITEM	INDIA (or INDIGO)
| J |	JIG	JULIETT
| K |	KING	KILO
| L |	LOVE	LIMA
| M |	MIKE	MIKE
| N |	NEGAT	NOVEMBER
| O |	OPTION	OSCAR
| P |	PREP	PAPA
| Q |	QUEEN	QUEBEC
| R |	ROGER	ROMEO
| S |	SUGAR	SIERRA
| T |	TARE	TANGO

Note that a de facto total of only 20 squad lead positions can be filled on each side at any given time. This means you will never see any squads that go beyond TARE, which is the 20th letter in the alphabet. This itself is an exceedingly rare occurrence since the number of squads in any given game is usually far fewer than 20, and in practice, you will usually not see anything past NEGAT even in a full game.

One of the biggest challenges that SL roles face is the simultaneous management of and reconciliation between their own squad net and command net. This alone can make the role overwhelming when command net is buzzing with the activity of several SL's. As a result, it's generally important to keep command net clear of everything except pertinent information, and exercise brevity over comms (called "gingerbread") when a (rare) majority of the team is actually communicating. Even when command net is relatively quiet, bear in mind that every SL also has to contend with their own squad net which may have lots of chatter.

Naturally, you will encounter SL's who just love shooting the breeze with each other on command net, or be compelled to do this yourself. This is generally okay - that is, until it starts causing problems for your team. As a rule of thumb, just remember that there is a time and a place for natter. You don't want to distract SL's from their objectives or obstruct important info from getting through. Don't be afraid to give a friendly, but firm reminder to your fellow SL's and ask them to stop if this is happening to you. At the same time, the expectation is that if other SL's ask you to cut the chit-chat or call for "brevity" or "gingerbread", you should keep command net clear unless you have pertinent information that is strategically or tactically relevant.

Comms [Procedure Words]

You may want to familiarize yourself with real-world procedure words when talking over comms. This can be a fun way to become more effective while giving a slight RP edge to your gameplay. PROCEDURE WORDS[en.wikipedia.org] are used in Hell Let Loose a lot more commonly than brevity codes (and as such, players are more likely to understand them).

Here are a few of the most commonly used procedure words in Hell Let Loose as well as some less frequent, but useful examples:

AFFIRMATIVE (or AFFIRM): "I am confirming receipt of your last transmission, and answering YES to your question"

BE ADVISED: "I have an important tactical update or piece of strategic advice for you: [...]"

BREAK (said multiple times in quick succession to interrupt a transmission): "I have pertinent information that I need to share with this net, please stop talking immediately so I can relay the message now: [...]"

COME IN: "I am trying to call you, please respond with 'GO AHEAD' or 'GO FOR [CALLSIGN]' "

COPY <THAT> (or UNDERSTOOD): "I am confirming receipt of your last transmission"

CORRECTION: "I made an error when relaying information, here is the correct info instead: [...]"

DISREGARD: "Please ignore my current or last transmission, it is an error or is no longer relevant"

DO YOU READ <ME> (or HOW COPY): "I need to know if you are able to hear me, please respond with 'AFFIRMATIVE/AFFIRM' or 'COPY' "

GO AHEAD (or GO FOR [CALLSIGN] ): "I am confirming your call, please transmit your message"

RADIO CHECK: "I am testing my microphone quality, please respond with 'I READ YOU' and how well I am coming through"

I READ YOU: "I am responding to your radio check, here is my feedback: [...]"

• LOUD AND CLEAR (or LIMA CHARLIE or ROGER or 5 BY 5): "Your mic sounds perfect"
  
• WEAK BUT CLEAR: "I can understand you, but your mic but it is too quiet, adjust volume and/or gain up"
  
• STRONG BUT DISTORTED: "Your mic is too loud and sounds garbled, adjust gain down"
  
• WEAK AND DISTORTED: "Your mic is quiet and sounds garbled, adjust gain down and volume up"

NEGATIVE (or NEGAT): "I am confirming receipt of your last transmission, but answering NO to your question" or "I am confirming receipt of your last transmission, but declining your request/order because: [...]"

OVER: "I am ending my transmission, please confirm receipt of this transmission and reply to me"

OUT: "I am ending my transmission, no need to reply"

ROGER <WILCO>: "I am confirming receipt of your last transmission, and will follow orders given"

SAY AGAIN <LAST> (or SAY AGAIN <LAST> FOR [CALLSIGN] ): "Please repeat to me your last transmission, I either did not fully hear what you said, or it was too ambiguous"

I SAY AGAIN: "I am repeating to you my last transmission at your request to say again, my transmission was: [...]"

STAND BY: "I am confirming receipt of your last transmission, but currently preoccupied, please hold for me to contact you again" or "Please hold for further orders" or "Please hold for an event to occur"

THIS IS [CALLSIGN]: "I am telling you what my callsign is: [...]"

Comms [Brevity Codes] [WIP]

BREVITY CODES[en.wikipedia.org] are less commonly understood among players, but can be much more potent in terms of conveying more info in fewer words.

Here is a list of brevity codes that are commonly used in Hell Let Loose, as well as a few less common ones that are still very useful and good to know about:

ADVANCE or ADVANCING: "Move forward" or "Moving forward" (towards the enemy)

BANDIT: "Enemy unit"

CHECK MAP(S): "Please refer to your map for my information"

CONTACT: "We have a visual on enemy presence, or enemies are in close, but we are not in combat yet"

ENGAGE (or ENGAGING): "Combat with the enemy" or "I am initiating combat with the enemy" or "The enemy has initiated combat with me"

GINGERBREAD: "Communications are busy, please use brevity and be as concise as possible"

GRID <SQUARE(S)>: "I am about to give map coordinates: [...]"

[GRID #], NUMPAD [#]: "Sub-grid coordinates inside a grid square, in the layout of a keyboard numpad"

KNOCK IT OFF or CEASE FIRE: "Stop shooting immediately"

M-S-R: "Main Service Route" (road marked in solid, bold red on map, usually a main road)

OSCAR MIKE: "On the move"

R-T-B: "Return to Base"

TALLY <HO>: "I am visually confirming the target you have marked, and will be engaging immediately"

TARGET: "I am marking a target for you to attack" or "Look at this target"

VISUAL: "I am visually confirming the target you have marked, but have not engaged yet or will not necessarily engage"

VIC: "Vehicle"

WEAPONS HOLD or HOLD <YOUR> FIRE: "You may not attack or fire weapons under ANY circumstances"

WEAPONS FREE or CLEARED HOT or CLEARED TO ENGAGE: "You may start acquiring targets and fire weapons when ready"

WINCHESTER <AMMO TYPE>: "I am out of ammo for [...]" or "I am completely out of ammo"

Comms [Example Scenarios]

Now that you have seen many of the procedure words and brevity codes to use, and know how to address squad leaders by their callsigns, let's take a look at some example scenarios of what might be likely to happen in a Hell Let Loose game. Note that every single scenario here is in an optimistic vacuum. In reality, communications rarely go this smoothly so this can be taken with a grain of salt, but ideally this is what it should sound like.

Scenario 1: Able SL does a radio check

ABLE: "THIS IS ABLE, RADIO CHECK, ONE-TWO, OVER."
BAKER: "COPY ABLE, THIS IS BAKER. I READ YOU WEAK BUT CLEAR, OVER."
ABLE: "BAKER, ABLE. AFFIRM, STAND BY."
BAKER: "ROGER, ABLE."
[Able SL adjusts his microphone settings...]
ABLE: "BAKER, THIS IS ABLE. RADIO CHECK, OVER."
BAKER: "ROGER ABLE, READING YOU LIMA CHARLIE."
ABLE: "ABLE, AFFIRM. OUT."

Scenario 2: Commander hails Able recon squad to give orders to place a garrison

COMMAND: "ABLE, THIS IS COMMAND, HOW COPY? OVER."
[Commander waits a few seconds with no response...]
COMMAND: "ABLE RECON SQUAD, COME IN, DO YOU READ? OVER."
ABLE: "COMMAND, ABLE, STAND BY, IN COMBAT. WAIT ONE."
COMMAND: "ROGER ABLE, STANDING BY."
[A minute passes...]
ABLE: "COMMAND, THIS IS ABLE. GO AHEAD, OVER."
COMMAND: "ABLE, CHECK MAP. PLEASE ADVANCE TO AND SECURE MY REQUEST GARRISON MARKER, GRID SQUARE: FOXTROT FOUR, NUMPAD NINE. DROPPING SUPPLIES FOR GARRISON. PLEASE BUILD A GARRISON WHEN THE SUPPLIES TOUCH DOWN, OVER."
ABLE: "ROGER WILCO, COMMAND. WE ARE OSCAR MIKE, OUT."

Scenario 3: Able encounters resistance at objective and requests backup

ABLE: "COME IN COMMAND, THIS IS ABLE, OVER."
COMMAND: "ABLE, GO FOR COMMAND."
ABLE: "COMMAND, BE ADVISED: GARRISON IS UP, BUT OVERRUN. IT'S BEEN SPOTTED BY ONE TIMES ENEMY INFANTRY SQUAD. WE'RE ENGAGED AND HOLDING OUT. REQUESTING BACKUP, OVER."
COMMAND: "ROGER THAT ABLE, STAND BY. BAKER, CAN YOU ASSIST? OVER."
BAKER: "COMMAND, BAKER. NEGATIVE. WE ARE PINNED DOWN BY A TANK."
COMMAND: "COPY BAKER. CAN YOU GET A POSITIVE ID ON ENEMY ARMOR? OVER."
BAKER: "ENEMY TANK IS ONE TIMES PANZER FOUR... CORRECTION: TIGER."
CHARLIE: "BAKER, THIS IS CHARLIE. WE'RE IN A JUMBO SEVENTY-SIX. ROLLING UP BEHIND YOU TO ASSIST. CAN YOU MARK IT FOR US? OVER."
BAKER: "ROGER THAT, CHARLIE, THANKS. TIGER IS MARKED."
CHARLIE: "AFFIRM BAKER, WE HAVE A VISUAL. TALLY ONE TIGER. ENGAGING! OUT."
ABLE: "THIS IS ABLE, WE'RE STILL IN COMBAT AND CAN'T HOLD OUT MUCH LONGER! REQUESTING IMMEDIATE SUPPORT, OVER."
DOG: "ABLE, DOG INFANTRY. WE ARE NEARBY AND MOVING TO ASSIST."
ABLE: "DOG, ROGER. OUT."

Scenario 4: Able spots a garrison behind enemy lines, calls in air support, and the team pushes the objective

ABLE: "COME IN COMMAND, BE ADVISED: ENEMY GARRISON SPOTTED, ABLE GARRISON MARK. ACTUAL. CHECK MAPS. DELTA SIX, NUMPAD NINE."
COMMAND: "COMMAND COPIES. ABLE, MAINTAIN VISUAL. REPORT ENEMY MOVEMENTS, OVER."
ABLE: "ROGER, OUT."
[A few minutes pass...]
ABLE: "COMMAND, THIS IS ABLE, OVER."
COMMAND: "ABLE, GO FOR COMMAND."
ABLE: "MULTIPLE INFANTRY SQUADS SPAWNED IN ON GARRISON. CHECK MAP, REQUESTING BOMBING RUN ON MY MARK, NORTHEAST TO SOUTHWEST."
COMMAND: "ROGER, AFFIRM. BOMBING RUN ON THE WAY. ALL UNITS NEAR DELTA SIX, DANGER CLOSE, CHECK MAPS FOR A-O. ETA ONE MINUTE."
[A minute passes...]
ABLE: "COMMAND, THIS IS ABLE. SPLASH. GOOD EFFECT ON TARGET."
COMMAND: "ALL UNITS NEAR DELTA SIX, BE ADVISED: GARRISON IS DOWN. PUSH INTO THE STRONG POINT."
CHARLIE: "BREAK, BREAK, BREAK! EASY, THIS IS CHARLIE. OUR TANK WAS KNOCKED OUT. YOU HAVE A PANZER FOUR ON YOUR LEFT FLANK, HE GOT US SIDE ON. CHECK MAP FOR CHARLIE TANK MARK, OVER."
EASY: "ROGER THAT CHARLIE, THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP. WE SEE HIM, OUT."
COMMAND: "CONTINUE PUSHING INTO THE STRONG POINT, THEY HAVE NO GARRISON."
DOG: "COMMAND, DOG. WE ARE MOVING INTO THE STRONG POINT. MODERATE RESISTANCE. REQUEST SUPPORT, OVER."
BAKER: "DOG, THIS IS BAKER. MOVING TO ASSIST."
COMMAND: "ALL UNITS NEAR THE STRONG POINT, REPORT STATUS."
ABLE: "COMMAND, ABLE, WE'RE BEHIND THE STRONG POINT. NO RESISTANCE."
DOG: "THIS IS DOG, MODERATE RESISTANCE. WE'RE CAPPING."
COMMAND: "ROGER, GOOD JOB ON THE CAP. WE'VE TAKEN THE POINT. CLEAN THEM UP AND PREP FOR NEXT PUSH, LET'S KEEP THE FORWARD MOMENTUM GOING."

Garrisons, Outposts, and Airheads

In all of Hell Let Loose, nothing is more critical than garrisons. You will learn exactly how critical they are the first time you lose a game from playing with a team that doesn't build any. So what is a garrison, and why are they so important?

Garrisons

Simply put, a garrison (or "garry") is a spawn point for your entire team - anyone can spawn on a garrison. Garrisons can be placed anywhere within friendly territory or unlocked enemy territory. They provide an unparalleled strategic advantage and are a means of projecting control over the battlefield. A good team will have a defensive garrison for spawning behind or within controlled points, backup garrisons on points behind the front line in case of the current defensive position being overrun, and one or more forward garrisons for staging attacks on the enemy. Without a garrison, you are useless. Without you, it is useless.

Garrisons can only be placed by the commander, officers, and spotters. They cannot be placed by tank commanders. A garrison within friendly territory costs 50 supplies to place, and a garrison within unlocked enemy territory costs 100 supplies to place. Garrisons cannot be placed in neutral territory or locked enemy territory. A garrison spawns friendly units who are deploying on it in set timed intervals of 40 seconds. Any garrison with enemies nearby will light up with a warning. If enemies get too close to a garrison, it will be overrun: the icon will turn red and it will be disabled until the enemies leave or are removed from the area. Be mindful of the team's garrison limit; only 8 garrisons can be active at a time. Also, no two garrisons can be built within 200 meters of each other. This forces you to spread your garrisons out.

There are 3 ways a garrison can be removed:

Dismantled by a friendly - All garrisons can be manually removed by the commander, or the squad lead who placed it. This is done by walking up to a garrison and holding "F" on it until it disintegrates. The commander also has a special ability with a cooldown that can target any friendly garrison on the map and instantly remove it, for a cost of resources.
Dismantled or destroyed by an enemy - If an enemy player is close enough to a garrison, they can walk up to the garrison and hold "F" on it until it disintegrates. Any enemy unit can do this. Also, explosive weapons like bombs or tank shells (but not artillery) will wipe out enemy garrisons that they hit.
Destroyed by point capture - If a friendly point is captured and the sector a garrison is in comes under enemy control, any garrisons or outposts within that territory will be destroyed. Similarly, if a garrison is in unlocked enemy territory, and that territory becomes locked as a result of a point being captured, it will destroy any garrisons or outposts within that territory.

Outposts

What is an outpost? Well, think of an outpost (or "OP") as a mini garrison that only your squad can spawn on. You can place an outpost the exact same way you would place a garrison, except rather than costing supplies, they can be placed for free with a cooldown of 2 minutes. An outpost spawns friendly units who are deploying on it in set timed intervals of 20 seconds. On the map, an outpost will appear with the squad letter above it to show which squad it belongs to. Any given squad can only have 1 outpost active at a time. Outposts can only be placed by officers and spotters.

There are 2 different types of outpost:

Infantry outpost - Infantry outposts are a spawn point for infantry units. They can be placed in friendly territory, neutral territory, or unlocked enemy territory.
Recon outpost - Recon outposts are a spawn point for recon units. They can be placed anywhere - friendly territory, neutral territory, unlocked enemy territory, or locked enemy territory.

There are 3 ways an outpost can be removed:

Replaced or dismantled by a friendly - If a squad lead places a new outpost, it will destroy their previous outpost, since only one per squad can be active at a time. Squad leads can also manually dismantle their own outpost.
Destroyed by an enemy - If any enemy unit gets too close to an outpost, it will automatically be disintegrated; there is no need to walk up to it and dismantle it. Outposts can be destroyed by tank shells, but not by artillery or bombs.
Destroyed by point capture - If a friendly point is captured and the sector an outpost is in comes under enemy control, any garrisons or outposts within that territory will be destroyed. Similarly, if an outpost is in unlocked enemy territory, and that territory becomes locked as a result of a point being captured, it will destroy any garrisons or outposts within that territory. Note that recon outposts can never be destroyed by point capture.

Airheads

Lastly, an airhead is a special type of garrison that can only be placed by the commander. It is functionally identical to a garrison, with a few caveats:

Exclusivity - Airheads can only be called in by the commander from the map screen, and can be placed anywhere on the map except in locked enemy territory. Airheads do not count towards your team's garrison limit, and can be deployed even if your team has reached its garrison limit. Once deployed by the commander, the ability goes on a 10-minute cooldown. Another airhead cannot be deployed again until this cooldown timer finishes. Airheads also cost a significant amount of the manpower resource, which tends to be the most scarce, so they are an expensive investment. This investment will often pay off though - a successful airhead will typically yield decisive results, and may achieve or expedite victory for the team.
Air drop - As the name suggests, airheads are dropped onto the battlefield via parachute. This makes them slow to deploy and easy for the enemy to spot, and since the airhead is of critical strategic importance, it will almost always be targeted by the enemy if spotted. However, a clever commander may attempt to disguise an airhead as a regular supply drop.
Time limit - The airhead will eventually disappear after being active for only 2 minutes, spawning a total of 4 waves spaced apart by 30 seconds each. This means if you are a squad lead spawning on an airhead, consider deploying your outpost and a permanent garrison in a nearby place, so that you can continue to spawn nearby once the airhead is spent.

Bearing this in mind, it is generally a good idea to hide your garrisons and outposts in places where they will not be easily seen or accessed by the enemy. The best places to do this tend to be in trenches, on the inside of walled courtyards, or behind buildings. You should never place a garrison out in the middle of an open field or in the middle of a road where it can be easily spotted from a long distance away.

As a squad lead, you should always have an outpost up. One could argue they're not necessary if you have a garrison nearby already - this could not be further from the truth. Outposts have twice the respawn frequency, allowing your units to get back into the action much faster after being killed in combat. They also will survive heavy ordinance like artillery and bombing runs even if the nearby garrison does not. As a squad lead, you have a duty to establish and defend garrisons, and in practice, your garrison will often be destroyed by the enemy. At that point, your outpost is the only means of getting to that location again. If you are a squad lead with an active outpost near a garrison that was just destroyed, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to rebuild the garrison as quickly as possible, and that can only be done reliably if you can respawn on your outpost.

Supplies and Logistics

Hell Let Loose utilizes a logistics element that adds several extra considerations to gameplay. Earlier in this guide, you read about garrisons costing 50 supply in friendly territory, but 100 supply in enemy territory. So what are supplies?

Supplies are a resource utilized by the commander, squad leads, and engineers (more on that later). Supplies are needed to build garrisons, fortifications, AT guns, repair stations, and resource nodes:

Fortifications - defensive structures which can only be placed by engineers. This includes (but is not limited to): barbed wire, Czech hedgehogs, Belgian gates, barricades, and bunkers. The latter two of these can be upgraded to more effective versions for a supply cost.
AT guns - blueprints for these can only be placed by anti-tank infantry, but they must be built by different units. AT guns can be manned by any unit. They consist of a gunner and loader seat. Each shell costs 5 munitions to fire. Effective at ambushing and destroying enemy vehicles and tanks.
Repair stations - structures on the map which automatically repair nearby damaged friendly vehicles. These work much faster than blowtorches for repairing tanks and are best placed in cover near main roads with lots of friendly vehicle traffic.
Resource nodes - structures on the map which generate munitions, manpower, and fuel for the team that can only be placed by engineers. Up to 4 of each node type can be placed for a total of 12 nodes. Nodes will not generate any resources if placed behind your faction's lines on the map. Before U10, nodes would generate more resources based on how far ahead of your lines they were placed, rewarding players for putting nodes in "high risk" areas.

Any unit that has a hammer in its loadout can help build or upgrade as long as supplies are available. This includes (but is not limited to): riflemen, automatic riflemen, support, and engineers.

Supplies must be delivered to a given location through the use of logistics. Care must be taken where supplies are fielded since any enemy unit can dismantle them in the same way garrisons are dismantled, by walking up to it and holding F. There are several means by which supplies can be fielded:

Supply drops - the commander can order a supply drop of exactly 100 supplies anywhere on the map at a small cost of the munitions resource. These take a few minutes to arrive, and since they are airdropped, the parachute can be spotted from some distance away by friendly and enemy forces. The ability has a cooldown of 2.5 minutes.
Support infantry - the support role can drop a supply crate of exactly 50 supplies on demand. The ability is free but has a cooldown of 5 minutes. Each support infantry can only have one supply crate on the field at a time; placing another supply crate over this limit will destroy the previously placed one. Additionally, once a support drops supplies, he can switch role so another person in the squad can take the support role and drop more supplies. The primary use of support infantry is to provide supplies to the officer so he can build a garrison, making that squad self-sufficient. However, they can also be utilized to help build fortifications, AT guns, or a single resource node.
Supply trucks - these vehicles spawn at the friendly base, either naturally or spawned in by the commander at a small cost of the fuel resource. Each supply truck carries 2 pallets of 150 supplies each for a total of 300 supplies. Coincidentally, 150 supplies is the exact amount needed for one of each resource node type, making supply trucks ideal for building nodes. An empty supply truck can return to base to reload its supplies for free. If you are running supply trucks, DO NOT drop supplies in the middle of a road. Supplies will block roads until completely consumed, blocking the movement of friendly vehicles. They are less effective at blocking enemy vehicles since they can be dismantled by the enemy but not friendlies.

Supplies and logistics are the underrated backbone of Hell Let Loose. You can be the MVP just by doing supply runs, building defenses, and generating resources for your team.

Strategic Resources

Aside from supplies which are utilized mostly by units in the field, there are 3 other resources which work independent of supplies. The primary role of resources are allowing the commander to use abilities. Resources are collected automatically at a flat rate, and more can be generated if the team builds resource nodes on the map. A team's current resources and resource income can be seen along the top of the map when it is open. The resources are as follows:

Munitions

The munitions icon is an ammo box. Munitions are required and consumed by friendly AT guns and artillery, which cannot be used when that team runs out of munitions. Munitions allow the commander to use the following abilities:

Supply drop - as explained in the Supplies and Logistics section above, this ability allows the commander to drop supplies on the map at a low munitions cost.
Recon plane - a spy plane sweeps over a large area of the map, revealing enemy infantry (red dots), enemy trucks (hollow red diamonds), and enemy tanks (solid red diamonds) at a moderate munitions cost. This info is only visible to the commander and squad leads, who must drop tags on it for regular units to see. An exception to this is the infantry Support class (since they carry a radio) and regular crewmen inside a tank (since the tank has an internal radio). Recon planes are very useful for determining where to send bombing and strafing runs, and if they catch a spawn wave (i.e. lots of infantry clustered in one place), the commander can estimate an enemy garrison location.
Bombing run (Americans & Germans) - a bomber plane drops several bombs in a line, killing any infantry not in cover and destroying light vehicles at a high munitions cost. Can destroy enemy garrisons with a direct hit.
Katyusha strike (Soviets) - the Soviet equivalent of a bombing run. Saturates a large area of effect with explosive rockets, killing any infantry not in cover and destroying light vehicles at a high munitions cost. Can destroy enemy garrisons with a direct hit.
Strafing run - an attack plane swoops in at high speed and strafes the ground in a line, ripping exposed infantry to shreds at a moderate munitions cost. Much less effective than a bombing run or Katyusha strike, but also much faster and more difficult to avoid. Ironically, strafing runs can actually kill infantry on the ground floor inside buildings while bombs cannot, since the attack ignores walls and other structures (whereas bombs will land on top of a building).

Manpower

The manpower icon is a boot. One manpower point is lost whenever a unit spawns in on a friendly garrison (but not on an HQ, outpost, or airhead). In the Offensive game mode, when the attacking team runs out of time to capture points - and IF AND ONLY IF the current capture point is contested - the game goes into overtime, and manpower is slowly drained instead at a steady rate of 5 per second. The attacking team's manpower is displayed instead of the game timer, and they lose if manpower runs out. The timer is reset to 30 minutes if the point is captured before the team runs out of manpower. Manpower also allows the commander to use the following abilities:

Establish airhead - as explained in the Garrisons, Outposts, and Airheads section above, this ability allows the commander to drop an airhead on the map at a high manpower cost.
Dismantle garrison - this ability can be used to target any garrison on the map and instantly dismantle it at a moderate manpower cost.
Encouraged - doubles global resource generation for the whole team at a moderate manpower cost.
Reinforce - doubles the team's capture power in target friendly sector at a moderate manpower cost. Great for holding points under attack, but only if friendlies are already present. Does not work in enemy sectors.
Final stand - prevents your team from losing strategic resources of any kind for a few minutes, at a high manpower cost. While final stand is active, all commander abilities are free! Final stand has been removed from the game and is no longer available to commanders.

Fuel

The fuel icon is a jerrycan. Without fuel, vehicles will only be available if they spawn naturally. Fuel allows the commander to use the following abilities:

Spawn heavy tank - allows the commander to spawn a Sherman Jumbo 76 (Americans), Sherman Jumbo 75 (Americans), Tiger 1 (Germans), Panther (Germans), or IS-1 (Soviets) at a high fuel cost.
Spawn medium tank - allows the commander to spawn a Sherman Medium (Americans), Panzer IV (Germans) or T-34 (Soviets) at a moderate fuel cost.
Spawn light tank - allows the commander to spawn a Stuart (Americans), Luchs (Germans), or T-70 (Soviets) at a low fuel cost.
Spawn scout car - allows the commander to spawn a Greyhound (Americans), Puma (Germans), or BA-10 (Soviets) at a low fuel cost.
Spawn supply truck - allows the commander to spawn a supply truck at a low fuel cost for delivering supplies.
Spawn transport truck - allows the commander to spawn a transport truck at a low fuel cost for carrying troops.

Any one resource type can be converted into another at the cost of a cooldown and a net loss. If final stand is active, resources can be converted at no cost, meaning you can get a bunch of resources for free! Final stand has been removed from the game.

Game Modes

Hell Let Loose features 2 game modes:

Warfare

Warfare is the most ubiquitous and popular game mode in Hell Let Loose. It is characterized by a steady tug-of-war style game where players must try to take and hold the next enemy point while defending their own. The game ends in victory if your team takes the last enemy point on the map, or takes and holds the center point on the map until the timer runs out.

Features:

5 strong points - there are 5 points on the map. At the start of the game, each side holds 2 points, and the middle point is neutral territory. The middle point comes under control of the first team to capture it. If a team captures the opponent's last point, that team is awarded victory.
Sector capture - of the points on the map, capture power can be directly contributed via troops in the 4 grid squares in and around the black circle of the strong point. The strong point triples the capture power of any unit inside it, but points can still be taken with no one inside the strong point.
Fixed game timer - the game ends after 1 hour and 30 minutes. Victory is awarded to the team that holds the center point when the timer expires. There is no overtime, and the timer cannot be extended or reset.
Equal resources - each side starts with the same amount of strategic resources banked, vehicles, HQ spawns, and artillery assets. You will have to outplay the enemy team in logistics to get a strategic edge on them.

Offensive

Offensive is the other game mode in Hell Let Loose. It is characterized by the defending team trying to hold all of the points on the map while the attacking team tries to take them. The defending team wins if they can hold a sector long enough for the timer to run out. The attacking team wins if they capture a point behind the defending team's lines.

Features:

5 strong points - there are 5 points on the map (or 9 pre-U10), and all of them start under control of the defending team. There is 1 point behind the attacking team's lines that they must capture to establish their headquarters. Every other sector has 1 point each, which must be captured by the attacking team. The last point on the map needs to be taken to win - this puts huge strategic importance on the penultimate sector, since supply trucks on the defending team cannot drop supplies on the last point to fortify it. Points taken by the attacking team CANNOT be retaken by the defending team!
Strong point capture only - The attacking team can only contribute capture power by being inside the black strong point circle on the map. Having troops in the grid squares around it is not good enough, and the attacking team must advance directly into the black circle.
Dynamic game timer - the game timer is set for 30 minutes. The attacking team has to capture all the points in a sector within this time limit to keep the game going. When a sector is fully captured by the attacking team, the timer resets to 30 minutes again. The defending team wins if the timer expires at any point in the game. Overtime occurs when the attackers run out of time, but are inside the strong point, and still have manpower banked - manpower will start depleting, and the attackers lose if they run out of manpower, or lose the capture and get pushed off. All of these factors mean that a single game of Offensive can last up to a maximum of 2 hours and 30 minutes plus overtime.
Asymmetrical resources - the defending team has artillery assets available, while the attacking team does not. The defending team starts with no resources in the bank and must rely on nodes to secure income, while the attacking team starts with a large amount of resources in the bank to tide them over before they need to start building nodes. The defenders start with 3 HQ spawns and 3 forward garrison spawns, while the attackers start with just 1 HQ spawn and must capture the first point before securing their remaining 2 HQ spawns. Overall, this gives an edge to the defending team, but rewards aggressive gameplay from the attacking team.

Note that as of U10, Offensive maps only have 5 strong points, or one per each sector. The game timers and resource allocation remains the same.

Infantry

Infantry are the true workhorse of Hell Let Loose. A single infantry squad consists of 1 officer (squad lead) and 0-5 units. The classes available in the infantry role are as follows:

Officer

The squad lead. Tasked with giving his squad orders and coordinating with other squads and the commander to secure map objectives. Can place tags on the map and build outposts and garrisons. Has access to command chat. Typical loadout consists of an SMG or rifle as well as frag and smoke grenades.

Rifleman

The basic well-rounded infantry unit. Tasked with attacking, defending, suppressing, and engaging enemy infantry, as well as dropping ammunition for friendly infantry and building structures. Typical loadout consists of a rifle, frag grenades, a hammer, a ballistic ammo box, and occasionally smoke grenades.

Assault

Offense-oriented infantry unit. Tasked with attacking and flanking enemy infantry. The assault class is highly effective at killing the enemy in close quarters combat, but struggles at long range engagements. Typical loadout consists of an SMG or rifle, frag and smoke grenades, and a hammer.

Automatic Rifleman

Offense-oriented infantry unit. Tasked with attacking, suppressing, and engaging enemy infantry. The automatic rifleman excels at close to medium range engagements and is a good upgrade to a rifle squad. Typical loadout consists of an automatic rifle or SMG, frag grenades, and a hammer.

Medic

Logistics-oriented infantry unit. Tasked primarily with reviving and bandaging friendly units. The medic is a critical addition to the battlefield, since a single medic can prevent large numbers of infantry from being forced to respawn. Medics can revive any infantry so long as they haven't been shot in the head or reduced to giblets. Typical loadout consists of a rifle or pistol, smoke grenades, morphine, bandages, and sometimes a box of medical supplies.

Support

Logistics-oriented infantry unit. Tasked primarily with providing supplies and helping with construction efforts. The support is a very important addition to a squad. The officer needs a support in order to be self sufficient with building garrisons, the AT needs a support to build an AT gun, and the engineer can be supplemented with a support to build nodes or defenses. Typical loadout consists of a rifle or SMG, a supply crate, a hammer, and sometimes ballistic and explosive ammo boxes.

Machine Gunner

Defense-oriented infantry unit. Tasked with defending and suppression of enemy infantry. The machine gunner works best when set up in a static emplacement overlooking an open area like a field or road where enemy infantry will come from, and pinning down the enemy with machine gun fire. The MG can be hip fired, but is much more effective with the bipod deployed. Typical loadout consists of a machine gun and a pistol.

Anti-Tank

Specialist infantry unit. Tasked with hunting, trapping, and destroying enemy vehicles tanks. Best utilized with ambushes or guerrilla tactics. AT weapons will only damage a tank if hitting the sides or rear. Typical loadout consists of a rifle or SMG, either an anti-tank weapon such as the bazooka, panzerschreck, or anti-materiel rifle, or anti-tank mines and satchel charges, frag or smoke grenades, and a wrench for designating AT gun placement.

Engineer

Specialist infantry unit. Tasked with constructing resource nodes and defenses, placing mines, and repairing friendly vehicles. Engineers are the logistical backbone of a good team. The commander relies on engineers to secure an income of strategic resources, and will often provide engineers with supply trucks when requested. Defenses must be placed by engineers but can be built and upgraded by any unit with a hammer. Typical loadout consists of a rifle, a wrench and hammer for placing and building structures, a blowtorch for repairing friendly vehicles, anti-personnel mines, and anti-tank mines. An alternate loadout for the engineer replaces the rifle with an SMG, and replaces the wrench, hammer, and mines with a satchel charge. However, this loadout should almost never be used, as the strength of an engineer lies in their ability to build structures. Overall, the nuances of the engineer class are complex enough to warrant having their own guide, which I may write at a later date.

Recon

Aside from basic infantry squads, there is a special type of infantry squad which can be fielded in battle: the recon squad. Where recon differs from infantry is their use case. Each team can only field 2 recon squads at a time, and they consist only of 2 units: the spotter (squad lead) and the sniper.

The recon team has special objectives that they must fulfill in order to bring effectiveness to their team:

Reconnaissance - as the name suggests, a recon squad must perform forward observer duties. This means communicating with the commander, other squad leads, and artillery teams, tipping them off to targets of opportunity, enemy troop movements, and incoming enemy tanks.
Offensive staging - recon teams must work with the commander to set up flanks on enemy strong points, or prepare to set up a forward garrison in position against the next enemy strong point once the current one is captured. Additionally, recon teams should be the first units on a capture point, and should relay tactical and strategic information to the rest of the team.
Sabotage - perhaps the most important aspect of an effective recon team. Recon must go behind enemy lines to sweep for and destroy garrisons, dismantle supply drops, destroy resource nodes, and deny use of artillery assets by killing artillery operators. A good recon team will always keep the enemy guessing as to their whereabouts.
Counter-recon - one potential use of a recon squad is hunting down and eliminating enemy recon squads and destroying their outposts. This becomes especially important for the defending team to do in the Offensive game mode.

Spotter

The spotter is the recon squad's counterpart to the officer. Spotters can do anything an officer can do. However, the outposts placed by a spotter can be deployed in locked enemy territory, allowing recon squads to go deep behind enemy lines. Typical loadout consists of an SMG or a rifle, frag or smoke grenades, and anti-personnel mines or a box of ballistic ammo.

Sniper

The sniper is the spotter's #2, and is responsible for long range engagements picking off high value targets. The sniper wields the only scoped weapon in the game, their faction's bolt-action rifle of choice with 8x zoom. Typical loadout consists of a scoped rifle, a pistol, frag or smoke grenade, and sometimes an anti-personnel mine.

Tanks

If you want a more in-depth guide on tanks, please see my other guide for this game: Tanking 101 - An Operator's Manual. Note that Tanking 101 is outdated as of U14 and is overdue for an update. However, all of the key concepts remain the same, so it is still quite useful.

Conclusion

If you have learned nothing else from this guide, here are the main takeaways for you:

Hell Let Loose is a team-oriented game - this isn't Call of Duty. You are expected to communicate, cooperate, and coordinate with friendly units to achieve victory. Wars are not won by a single hero as often portrayed in Hollywood movies, but rather a large effort from many people working towards a common goal. This game is no different.
Hell Let Loose is not about the kills - killing your enemies forces them to respawn at most, which simply delays them from their objective. Taking and holding points is more important, and often times, this is best achieved through running logistics for your team. You can still be MVP even if you end the match with zero kills.
Hell Let Loose is won and lost with garrisons - if your team has no garrisons placed, expect to lose in comedic fashion to the enemy. Without garrisons, nobody can spawn. Without a spawn point, your only hope of getting to the objective is hoofing it from the HQ, which takes several minutes, even if you are riding in a transport truck. Your best bet is to place garrisons and backup garrisons everywhere you can while denying enemy garrisons.

Don't be a blueberry.

If you keep these concepts close at heart, you will find it very hard to go wrong in Hell Let Loose. Always consider the core elements and build your gameplay and skills from that baseline.

Now go let loose some Hell.

Afterword

Thank you for reading this guide. Hopefully, this will give you some insight into the game, and if you're a new player, it will be a learning resource for you. If you found this guide useful, please rate it up and consider sharing it. If you found it confusing or otherwise disagree with any of the information, please leave a comment and I will do my best to correct it.

You may have noticed a lack of visual aide in this guide. I will most likely come back and add visual aide later, much in the same style as with Tanking 101. I just found in this case that the basic information was more valuable than having none at all, and this guide was rushed just a few days before U10 dropped. Don't worry, there will be images here in the future - it takes time to get good screenshots and edit them for the guide.

Hell Let Loose has become one of my favorite games of all time, and is one of the few online multiplayer shooters that I have consistently enjoyed to date. U10 seems like a promising update and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

So until next time, good luck and have fun!

[Bodyhanger]

How do I communicate if I have no voice box after surgery?

[BlueSwift]

Awesome guide, thanks for this

[Ξ Julius]

Great guide.

[jmmixed]

Thank you for writing this. My download is almost complete and I wanted to get off to a good start. I like your writing style.

[Arrwmkr]

Thank you helped me a lot :)