If this is your first time playing WiC, it is highly recommended that you play the Tutorial so you get used to the in-game controls and abilities that are offered.
HUD Quick Start
The Upper Left corner is your Tactical Aid menu.
The Top Middle is your in-game timer and the USA/NATO and USSR flag bar. At the start of a match, both side's flag will be 50% of the bar. You will win the match if you fill this bar completely, claim the majority at match end, or reach the victory conditions in Tug of War, Domination or Assault.
The Upper Right corner is your Reinforcement menu.
The Lower Left is your MiniMap. Note the group of white circles. Each circle will be connected to its nearby circle. In order to capture that group, friendly units must be in the group of connected circles.
The Lower Right is your selected unit menu -- the two empty squares next to the menu will be where your special unit abilities will be located. The small + icon next to that is to replenish depleted infantry squads if you have enough reinforcement points.
WiC MP for newbies:
Once up to speed thanks to the Tutorial, go select Multiplayer at the main menu and register an account through Massgate, this will be your login credential for multiplayer. Once logged in, you will be at this screen:
The Play Now button is like the Quick Connect feature in Battlefield 2 and can be customized. The "Servers" button to the left is the server browser and can be filtered accordingly. Below we have joined a server playing Domination mode and you will have this screen once you have chosen a side (NATO/USA or USSR) when you connect:
Once a Class Role is initially selected you will have the screen below to select your drop zone:
Valid drop zones are the glowing yellow grid-lines on the map. Click anywhere in there and you will designate your LZ. This can be changed at anytime and available LZ areas will change in Assault and Tug of War gamemodes. There may be times in Assault and Tug of War maps where you can lose ground and the LZ must be relocated before sending reinforcements. Conversely, you can gain ground and optionally relocate (recommended that you do since you will not be at the "frontline" of the battle). Once your LZ is set, you are "playing", but you have not yet called your units in.
In order to call down your units click on the blue button in the top right corner:
The 4000/2000 are your reinforcement points. You have 6000 points total and you cannot lose/gain this total amount. The 4000 points represent your AVAILABLE POINTS while the 2000 points represent QUEUED POINTS that are steadily given to you during the match until the points reach zero. Each unit costs various amounts of points and units that are destroyed will refund your points to your QUEUED POINTS pool.
You can switch teams by clicking the small flag icon above your unit menu and you can switch roles by clicking the icon next to the flag icon.
Bear in mind the strengths and weaknesses of the class you choose and the fact that there is a cost penalty if you choose a unit outside of your class role if it is available -- this will be highlighted in RED. Example: selecting Light AA Vchicles (Support role) as an Armor role.
Throughout the game, you will gain Tactical Aid (TA) points for doing various actions (attacking, capturing points, repairing, or from a friendly donation by a teammate). If you wish to give TA to a player, press/hold Tab to bring up the scoresheet and click the "1" or "5" button next to the player's name. The TA menu is in the top left corner.
You will have 3 different categories of TA. The "First Aid Cross" contains non-damaging TA Abilities such as Radar Scans and Parachute drops; The "Crosshair" are precision strike abilities such as Napalm and Tank Buster strafing runs -- friendly fire is minimal. The "Radiation" symbol are highly destructive, area wide weapons such as Artillery, Daisy Cutters and Nukes.
The three varied numbers next to each TA ability is the cost of 1, 2, or 3 strikes. So if I had 180 TA, I am able to launch 3 nukes on the map. TA Strikes are not instantaneous and have a static cooldown period after they are used (so deploying 1 has the same CD if you deployed 3)
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Game Modes
Domination:
This will be very familiar to Battlefield players and holds the same concept. Hold the majority of the command point groups by the end of the round. Controlling the majority of groups will shift your flag bar in your favor. Controlling all the CPs results in a Total Domination alarm and the flag bar will shift faster than normal.
Tug of war:
This is the RTS Version of Frontlines: Fuel of War. You will have a frontline of command points that must be all held to shift the line forward. In order to "secure" the frontline forward and prevent the enemy from holding the line, you must have a friendly unit on the next line of command points. The shifting of the frontline will also shift your LZ drop areas. Each frontline gain will shift your flag bar 1/3rd, capturing the 3rd frontline will result in a Total Push and victory.
Assault:
This is an attacker / defender role that is similar to Tug of War. Instead of a frontline of command points, there are command point groups similar to Domination. Once the command point is taken, the next point will appear and the process repeats. At the end of the round, the teams are switched on the same battleground (so buildings destroyed in the first half stay destroyed). Unlike Tug of War and Domination, there is no flag bar but the number of points defended/taken that is denoted by the side that has taken it.
Win conditions:
Perfect Assault -- the attackers pushed the defenders off the map. When the side swap, the other side must beat their attack times. See below:
Beat the attack time of previous attackers. If the 1st half attackers took Point ABC in 2 minutes, the 2nd half attackers can win if they capture it under 2 minutes. If the 1st half attackers failed to take the first Command Point initially, then the 2nd half attackers has the entire round to take the first CP and win.
Getting Started in Multiplayer!
Linear Mode
