The guide follows no particular structure, it will just mention some issues that - judging by a lot of YouTube videos I've seen - people have issues with. I will try to give some pointers to help understand the problem and the possible solution(s).

Everything in this guide pertains to the global campaign.

Once you started a new campaign, you will have two main enemies. And no, it's not the neighboring nations, it's stability and food supply.

Stability affects (at least to some degree) how often rebel groups spawn and whether or not your troops or cities will rebel.

You can increase stability through politics, a lot of options there will give you a flat +5 boost in stability and/or, especially the latter ones, an 5% increase in maximum potential stability (some of the options only available when at war offer a +10 boost). Mind the difference between the two: One is an immediate effect that you can also reverse/delete by bad decisions, one is a lasting but only potential effect.

Another important factor is establishing law and order in cities. If your stability rating keeps constantly and slowly decreasing, check the cities if one or more require police squads. To be effective, police squads must use police uniforms. A single squad, no matter if there are 5 (Recon Squad setting in the squad editor) or 10 troops in it, is enough for a population of up to between 300 and 360. So a minor city (farms, harbor, industrial) will require 1-2 squads, your capital can easily require 14-15 squads.

As for equipment, chose if you want them to be combat-effective (10 man, good weapons, RPGs - the way AI does it) or just for keeping stability up (5 man, minimal armament like pistols/shotguns). Also keep in mind that less than 20 troops in a battle will result in a fast surrender.


Food supply

There are three food items: fish, bread, and canned goods. They are consumed in order, meaning a city will use up canned goods as long as enough are available, then bread, and lastly fish. It doesn't matter how many different kinds of food are available, as long as there is enough of one. So you can easily supply a harbor and potentially another minor city with a single fishery built in the harbor town. Fish is the easiest food to supply as it doesn't require processing (e.g. bread needs a wheat farm and a bakery). It also generates more income than bread, but it is produced in the smallest quantities.


Sidenote: Alcohol and cigarettes

The necessity for these is often overstated. They aren't required as badly as many think. Just keeping law and order in the cities, as well as enough of at least one food type, will get you up to 60% stability without problems.

I've seen some YouTubers wondering why, despite having a 30-stack of troops initiate a battle,they are left with just some of them in the actual battle (3D FPS/RTS environment).

The answer is a setting in the gameplay options:



The Number of Units setting determines how many units (troops, AI-controlled instances) will be spawned in at the beginning of a battle. A setting of 120 (default) means that you get a maximum of 60 troops, as does the opposing side AI. The number of troops can be set between 60 and 200.

Another, fixed limit is the maximum of squads that will be spawned in, which is 10.

The troops are spawned/used according to the structure of the stack/battalion, starting at the top. Exceptions are defensive city battles, where the garrison will be used/spawned in before any troops from battalions currently in the city.

Playing with the setting and the structure of your troops/battalions can potentially give you an edge. The Ai will almost always use vehicles with a full 10-man infantry squad (Motorized setting in the squad editor). If you set Number of Troops to the minimum of 60, this means the opposing AI will usually start with 3 squads and a maximum of 3 vehicles. If you use the minimum troops setting (Armoured), you can potentially have 10 armed vehicles (tanks, IFVs or APCs) opposing the 30 troops/3 vehicles the AI will spawn, giving you superior firepower.


As mentioned, the 10-squad limit is fixed and can't be changed. However, you can work around it by using paratrooper drops if you have air units available, allowing you to have 12 or even more squads at a time. The downside is that you will only be able to select the first 10 squads using a keyboard shortcut (number keys 1 through 0 for squads 1 through 10), any further squad can only be selected by clicking on its tactical symbol in RTS view, or by selecting all squads (TAB as default).

The squad editor is probably the one game feature that attracts the most criticism. Unfortunately, most of it is really based on not quite understanding how it works...

The squad editor really does what it is supposed to do and works 100% as intended!

So, why are people having issues with it?

Firstly, you need to understand the different types of squads in the game. In the beginning, all your battalions and garrisons will contain squads that are simply called "Squad":



These are default squads that can't be changed in their structure, equipment etc. All you can do is hit the rearmament button (down left) and they will equip the best available vehicle, guns, and uniforms. No matter if there is actually any ammunition available or not...


The next type are four squads with standard names: Police, Militia, Regular, and SpecOps. These are based on the different uniform types and can be customized in the squad editor.



Lastly, you can create your own named squads, which may be the best way to do it.

When using squads created or customized in the squad editor, you have to remember the following:

Guns, ammunition, add-ons, vehicles and uniforms are not resources and never shared. They have to be present in the city that you create, rearm or resupply your squad/battalion in. If ammunition is missing, the squad will be created normally, but not of much use in battle. You can use the supply tab to see what's missing.

If uniforms or weapons are missing, the game will substitute them with the best item available (according to some internal value system). If add-ons (sights) are missing, the will just be ommited. Missing vehicles can be substituted (within their category, i.e. a truck for another one, but never an APC for a truck) or just ommitted if nothing is available.

So, if you just use in the squad editor what you actually have available, the game will create a squad exactly as you have defined it. If stuff isn't available, the results may surprise you. So there's honestly not much sense in creating SpecOps squads early in the game, as you haven't got the uniforms or weapons available (unless you start with a very high troop level, but that's another story).

More to follow, if necessary or requested...


One side note: The game seems to (ever so slightly, at least) favor the eastern/communist side. Especially if you have the Eastern Airborne Forces DLC installed. It may seem insignificant, but it can give you several advantages: an armoured car with a 30mm cannon as opposed to a .50cal machinegun, or artillery units within a year.