Once you start the battle, you can only reposition your troops by moving them, using up their action points. When a unit is selected, all the tiles it can move to are highlighted. Also, most units will have the option to “Move Fast” or “Hunt“. Moving fast gets to the destination quicker but makes you much less accurate if you attempt to shoot that turn. When hunting, you move slower but have no accuracy penalties and are more likely to sneak up on enemy tanks and get off the first shot.
Some of the main actions a unit can perform when selected are listed below:
Fire AP & Fire HE - When targeting an enemy unit you can shoot at it IF you can see it, are in range, and have shots remaining. Each remaining shot is shown by a bullet symbol on the unit panel.
Loading/Unloading – To load a unit onto a transport you must be adjacent to the transport and have enough movement points remaining. Once loaded, the unit moves with the transport until you choose to unload it, or until the transport is destroyed. To Unload a unit, select the transport and select an adjacent tile to unload to. You cannot unload through hedges or in to terrain you cannot move through. Support weapons, such as mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-tank guns cannot move alone and must be loaded onto a transport.
Turn – Select an adjacent tile and the unit will turn towards it. Facing is very important as units are better at reacting to enemies to their front. Also most vehicles have their strongest armour at the front. Always try to approach enemies from the side or rear.
Hold Fire – Tell the unit to holds its fire and stay in ambush. Units holding fire will not engage enemy units unless they have been attacked. Units automatically stop holding fire when they shoot. Holding fire is very important when defending. You must take the best shot, not the first shot. Wait until the enemy is close and your initial attack will be more effective. Surprise is your key advantage. Give away your position too soon and you’ll pay dearly.
Assault – Infantry can assault enemies on adjacent tiles if they have enough action points remaining and have not already attacked. Assaults are much more intense than normal attacks and can result in heavier casualties. If the attacker wins they take the enemy position and the defender is destroyed. If the assault fails the attacker takes high casualties. Assaults are very useful against heavy fortifications because the units inside these structures are very resilient and do not surrender easily.
Overrun – Veteran Tanks can use this attack against adjacent infantry in open terrain. The infantry have one chance to knock out the tank before it reaches them and they are destroyed.
Flame – Some units are equipped with flamethrowers and can make flame attacks. These are very short ranged but can be lethal, especially against un-armoured targets.
Bombard – Certain units, such as Mortars or Howitzers, are capable of indirect fire, able to fire at any tile within their range. Target the enemy unit and a small barrage is called down on them.
Suppress – Units can shoot into terrain that provides cover, even if they cannot see an enemy unit, in case an enemy is hidden there. Whilst inaccurate, this fire can often suppress the enemy so they cannot return fire.
Bulldoze – Wrecks slow down vehicles and can be removed by bulldozing. It uses up a number of action points to do this.
Sniper – when a unit becomes Elite it gains new skills. Sniper is one of those skills. Snipers always hit their target and are never revealed, but sniping takes up the unit’s full turn.
Scout – infantry can use the scout command to increase their spotting range.
When you bring up the infantry orders buttons, if you see an eye icon, the unit has scout area available as an order. The positive of this is the ability to see up to 10 squares away, the negative is that it uses all the AP for that turn.
Scout Area ; LOS +2 CoverLOS +1
Reverse - reverse armour away from the enemy, protecting your rear.