Getting Started in Bcof

A basic guide for people who are new to Battle Cry of Freedom and need some help getting around everything

Guide Intro

This guide is to help people who are new to the game, or new to the linebattle genre in general, to better understand the basics of Battle Cry of Freedom. The guide will start off with the most basic aspects of the game and cover more complex things as it goes on.

The Menus

From left to right I will explain all the main menu buttons

Play
Brings you to the server browser (I will show you how to find servers later in the guide)

Profile
Is your character and uniform customizer (This will also be covered in more detail later)

Options
is Options I recommend turning down your settings if you have a weaker pc and turn them up if you feel like you can in a match.

Scene Editor
How you can make your own maps in Battle Cry of Freedom
Here is a tutorial series by the devs to make your own map
https://youtu.be/6dL4zpCGYWg?list=PLKfSqrkIMKYpvcwtdVx2diPSxyUQ8yOE8

The last two are self explanatory, one is credits and the other is quit.

Customzation

Once you hit Profile in the menu you can see 4 different sub menus

Profile
Here you can change your name from your steam username, which is the default, to a new username, in most cases adding tags to it if you join a clan, and select your banner by clicking it (It's a little flag that goes over your head in game). You can have multiple profiles to have different names and faces also. Also you can choose what accent your character has.

Face
This is where you customize your characters face. In Battle Cry of Freedom you have two faces, one for your white character and another for your black one, the latter at time of writing only applies to the 54thMA.

Uniform
You can see all your different uniforms select a regiment, then company then unit and then hit gear.

Gear
This is where the magic happens where you can play barbie with your character, I recommend customizing one or two guys for all of your regiments.

Classes

There is a few different classes in Battle Cry of Freedom

Line Infantry
The bread and butter of the army
Armed with muskets

Sharp Shooters
Hiding in the bushes these guys kill from afar
Being Armed with rifles these guys are the sharpshooters of the game.
Stay far from your enemies if they get close you are in disadvantage in melee.

Artillery (Arty)
They shoot the boom boom guns
Probably the most complex role having to do the most jobs. Sitting the back of the map shredding enemies needs a whole guide on it's own but here is a basic video guide
https://youtu.be/LtdH0XerQ9g

Sappers
Building defenses on the front lines and supplying men
Hit J and get a list of things you can build for your team.
From Defense to Ammo you support your team

Flag Bearers
Rallying Men Around the Flag you able to bring a sword with you also to defend yourself and to attack enemies

Musicians
Hit J to bring up your music menu by playing music you give buffs to guys around such as more accuracy.

Surgeons
Carrying Bandages around they can see who is injured and heal them
To heal slap them with your bandage don't accidentally use your knife

Filtering servers

There is going to be many servers to choose from probably alot of them empty I will show you how to filter servers.

The first thing you will want to do is hit the little human icon left to Name this should filter servers from from most players to no players. This should help you you find other players also playing the game.
The next thing you should check out is all the boxes in the bottom for different servers for example if the servers have voice chat on, max ping or forcing first person only.

Movement

Battle Cry of Freedom has 3 different movement speeds
Walk,Run and Sprint (official names)
Walk is like a slow March to go into it you hit shift and to go out of it hit shift again
Run the default speed is more like a fast march
Sprint allows you to sprint hit alt to sprint you can only sprint for so long before running out of Stamina.
Another trick is if you hit Y while moving you go into right shoulder shift which allows you to recover your stamina faster.
(A Soldier in Right shoulder shift)

Voice Chat

CapsLock is the default push to talk

Voice chat is automatically enabled if disbisbled go to options, audio and then voice chat to make sure the box is green and then save settings and restart your game. To mute people go into the leaderboard if they are talking should show a green mic on there name left click there name and then hit mute.

Shooting

Aim right click and shoot with left click.
V for first person and B for iron sights with your gun. R to reload
jk

A bit more then that so when you notice you selecting your troop you can see what type of ammo and gun you are picking. The different guns and ammo have more or less accuracy which you can change out by click on them.

Ammo Types & Benfits
Buckshot - Shotgun ammo in your musket
Buck and Ball - 3 shots loaded into your gun and fired will tear people apart at close range
Round Shot - Just short range and low accuracy what they used in the revolutionary war
Pritchett - Worse version of Mine Ball (it got nerfed)
Minie Ball - More Range does more damage then pritchett

Types of Guns
Shotguns -
Get close pull trigger
Muskets -
The least accurate of the guns these old things can only shoot Buck Shot, Buck and Round.
Rifled Muskets -
You can start hitting stuff at longer ranges and can pick from Pritchett and Minie Ball
Rifles -
The most accurate of the guns and the longest to reload you can hit stuff up to 120 meters accurately
Breech-loaders -
Also rifles but they have a new type of loading technology that allows them to load in half the time of a normal Rifle, only the Union Sharpshooters have these.

BulletDrop and Wind
Every gun has a different range when your bullets start going down so I recommend testing out the gun to find it's range. In the top mid right there is also a wind indicator to show you wind speed and direction something else to account for.

Take off your Bayonet using N to have less sway and also N to put it back on

Melee basics

If you ever played Warband or Holdfast you can easily skip this section but if your new games with melee system this will be a good read.

The Basics
X - To go into Melee mode
You have 4 directions for attack and block from that not all weapons can attack in all directions and some can't block.
To change directions move your mouse in the direction and hit Attack (being leftclick) or Block (right click)
Melee is turn based meaning lets say if you block you have turn priority meaning if you both immediately throw stabs yours will land first

More Advanced stuff
Other then attacking and Block some more advance topics

Holding
Holding your attack to hopefully to get the enemy to stop blocking and to throw your stab. Only hold for a short period of the time or they will reset up there block

Feinting
Doing wacky movements to try throwing your enemy offguard and getting them to miss there blocks

Dragging
Instead of attacking your enemy directly, stab and drag your attack hopefully causing them to let go of there block.

Chamber/Chambering
If you throw a attack at the right timing you can block a enemy attack and throw a stab at them. If you want to try to land on you must match the same attack direction and then when you notice them going for a attack also throw your attack at the same second do a little mouse flick in the direction of the attack to get a bit more time for it to happen.

Buffs

Different Buffs and there icons on the bottom of your screen

[undatoka]

this game is unplayable , everything is blurry like i forgot my glasses totally useless

[undatoka]

can this be only played online ?

[airxsteel]

Thanks for the info

[gideon09876]

I need to update this guide again

[NoxBach]

Very useful

[gideon09876]

Looking to join a North American Battle Cry of Freedom regiment to attend linebattles and sieges with 300 other players.
Join the 74th Pennsylvania we are a Casual Regiment that plays mostly line and sharpshooters.
We have 4 events per week Monday,Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 8pm Est
Just show up when you want
https://discord.gg/mUUEP2crTW

[Apathetic Beaver]

very cool noob