Welcome to Act of Aggression, an oldschool real-time strategy game from Eugen Systems in which three diverse factions--the US Army, Chimera, and Cartel--must build bases, gather resources, train units, and of course wage battle in an effort to reign supreme!

This guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to play the game and also serve as a reference to each faction's units and buildings.

You can customize some of these controls in the Controls section of the Options menu.

1. Resource Panel
   Shows your available resources, including (from left to right) Dollars, Aluminium, Rare Earth Elements, Electricity, and Electricity Stock.
   
   
2. Stockpile Meter
   Represents how much Aluminium (blue) and Rare Earth Elements (red) you've stockpiled and whether or not your stockpiles have room for more.
   
   
3. Satellite View Button
   Click to enter or exit Satellite View, which grants you an even greater view of the battlefield.
   (NOTE: This button becomes unavailable if you run low on Electricity.)
   
   
4. Flare Buttons (Multiplayer Only)
   Click once to select a flare, then click anywhere on the 3D view or minimap to place it. The four types of flares are, from left to right, Attack, Defend, Help, and Custom.
   (NOTE: Flares can only be seen by allies.)
   
   
5. Minimap
   Shows the entire map, including terrain, resources, units, buildings, fog of war, and more.
   
   
6. Control Group Panel
   Shows all of the control groups you've assigned. Click a button once to select that particular control group or twice to both select and jump to it.
   
   
7. Unit/Building Information Panel
   Shows all of the information pertinent to the currently selected unit(s) or building, including name, hit points, weapons, occupants, and more.
   
   
8. Unit/Building Action Panel
   Shows all of the available actions or upgrades that the currently selected unit(s) or building can perform.
   
   
9. Aircraft Panel
   Shows all of your available aircraft. Click a button once to select that particular aircraft, then click anywhere on the 3D view or minimap to deploy it.
   (NOTE: You can queue up multiple aircraft for deployment by clicking a button(s) more than once.)
   
   
10. Quick Base Access Button
    Click once to select your HQ or twice to both select and jump to it.
    
    
11. Tactical Weapon Button
    Click once to select a tactical weapon, then click anywhere on the 3D view or minimap to launch it.

Before you can train an army and decimate your opponent, you must first build a base. In Skirmish and Multiplayer games, you'll start with just an HQ and a single recon unit.

The base building process can best be broken down into three steps:

1. Placement
   
2. Payment
   
3. Construction

First select your HQ, then click a technology level followed by the icon of the building you'd like to place in the Unit/Building Action Panel (see the User Interface section). Finally, place the building by positioning it in a valid location and clicking once more.

Although refineries can be placed almost anywhere on the map, most other building must be placed near another. This distance limitation is represented by a grid extending from pre-existing buildings. If the grid is visible when attempting to place a building, then at least one of the building's own grid spaces must overlap it in order to be placed.

Some buildings, like the US Army's LEM, the Chimera's Outpost, and the Cartel's Extension Module, expand the base-building range. For more information, see each faction's Buildings section.

Once you've placed a building, it will then gradually be paid for at your HQ. If at any time the resources aren't available, payment will halt until they arrive. To see how many resources have already gone towards payment and how many remain, you can either highlight the HQ or select it, then highlight the building's button in the Unit/Building Information Panel (see the User Interface section).

Once payment is complete, a construction unit will automatically depart from your HQ and travel to the building's desired location, at which time construction will begin.

If either the construction unit or the under-construction building are destroyed in the process, you'll lose out on both the resources and the building itself. Therefore, make sure to place your buildings wisely!

You can repeat this process more than once to queue up multiple buildings for construction, in which case they'll be paid for and constructed one at a time in the order in which you place them.

You'll want to start gathering resources as soon as possible in order to afford more units, buildings, and upgrades.

The three types of resources are as follows:


Although you'll always start with at least one Oil and Aluminium field near your HQ, you'll need to send your recon unit around the map to discover others. Resources are always randomly generated across the map and recon units are the only ones that can reveal (or "see") them, therefore scouting early on is paramount to success.

To gather resources from a field, simply construct a refinery near one--preferably in the center so that it covers as many nodes as possible. The more nodes a refinery covers, the more resources it can harvest. Put another way, a refinery covering a small number of nodes will only remain operational for a short period of time, whereas one covering a larger number can continue extracting resources for much longer.

When placing a refinery, both the type of resource and number of nodes it's covering are represented above its silhouette. The refinery shown below, for example, is covering 14 Oil nodes.



Once a refinery is constructed, a single tanker will appear nearby and the refinery will begin extracting nearby resources and stockpiling them inside. The tanker's job is to enter the refinery, wait until it receives a full load, then deliver it to your HQ or another nearby resource drop-off site, at which point you receive the resources. Since refineries can often extract and stockpile resources faster than a single tanker can keep them cleared out, it's often a good idea to train one or more additional tankers to optimize the process.

Although it isn't necessarily a resource in the same sense as Oil, Aluminium, and Rare Earth Elements, Electricity is nonetheless just as, if not more important than those resources for one big reason: Without a sufficient amount of it most of your unit production buildings and base defenses will power down, leaving you wide open to devastating attacks.

Rather than being spent on units, buildings, and upgrades, Electricity is instead consumed by certain buildings from the time they're constructed until they're either sold or destroyed. To see which buildings consume Electricity and exactly how much Electricity they consume, see each faction's Buildings section.

The US Army, Chimera, and Cartel each produce Electricity differently.

The US Army features one Electricity-generating building per DEFCON level.

At DEFCON 3 they can resort to Field Generators, which are cheap but produce just 2 Electricity and can easily be destroyed if targeted by the enemy. At DEFCON 2 they can construct Power Plants, which are considerably more expensive than Field Generators but also produce a whopping 8 Electricity and are much more resilient. Finally, at DEFCON 1 they can construct Accumulators, which both produce (4) and stockpile Electricity.

Stockpiled Electricity functions similarly to a backup generator in that if your base runs low on power, the stockpile will keep it running for a limited period of time until either you restore power by constructing one or more of the buildings described above or the stockpile runs dry, in which case your base will finally power down.

The Chimera is unique in that their HQ produces 10 Electricity and stockpiles it, meaning they can go for much longer than the US Army before having to produce Electricity-generating buildings.

When the need arises for more Electricity they can construct Outposts, which require a significant amount of Aluminium and aren't very resilient but produce 4 Electricity and can serve several other, non-power-related purposes.

The only Cartel buildings that generate power are those in the Black Ops category, which makes them similar to the Chimera in that they aren't nearly as reliant on generating Electricity early-on as the US Army.

Their lone Electricity-generating building, the Tokamak Generator, produces 8 Electricity much like the US Army's Power Plant. It also stockpiles Electricity, which is something the Power Plant doesn't do. Its performance comes at a heavy price, however: If destroyed, it creates a massive explosion that deals heavy damage to all surrounding units and buildings. Needless to say, it's best to place these generators as far away as possible from other crucial buildings.

For more information on the buildings described above, see each faction's Buildings section.

Many buildings can train units with which you can defend your base or even attack the enemy's.

To train a unit, first select a unit production building, then click the icon of the unit you'd like to train in the Unit/Building Action Panel (see the User Interface section). The unit will gradually be paid for and, once payment is complete, appear in front of the building from which it was trained.

If you'd prefer the units go someplace else when trained, you can set a rally point by first selecting the proper unit production building, then right-clicking anywhere on the ground. The rally point is denoted by a white crosshair connected to a line extending from the building in question.

You can repeat this process more than once to queue up multiple units for training, in which case they'll be trained one at a time in the order in which you chose them.

When the battle dust has cleared, the player who commanded his troops most effectively will most often be victorious.

To move a unit, first select it, then right-click where you'd like it to go. In most cases it will automatically fire on any enemy units or buildings that it encounters along the way.

If you're moving more than one unit and you'd like them to travel at the speed of the slowest one, hold CTRL before right-clicking to make them move homogeneously. Alternatively, you can turn on homogeneous movement by default in the Controls section of the Options menu.

To order a unit to attack, first select it, then either right-click on an enemy unit or building that you'd like it to attack or press Q, then left-click where you'd like it to go. If you use the latter method, the unit will move towards the destination and stop to fire on any enemy units or buildings that it encounters, moving again only when no more targets are nearby.

Homogeneous movement can also be applied to attack moves by first pressing Q, then holding CTRL before left-clicking on the destination.

You'll often want to give a unit multiple orders and have it carry them out one at a time without you needing to be there every step of the way. Waypoints are the best way to accomplish this. To assign a series of waypoints, simply hold SHIFT while issuing orders either via the mouse or the unit's Unit/Building Action Panel (see the User Interface section).

It's usually a good idea to put large groups of units in formation so that the more heavily-armored, assault-oriented ones are up front and the more fragile support units are near the back. To accomplish this, first select the units, then move your cursor over the destination and hold right-click and drag. The potential formation will be shown as a silhouette. You can rotate the formation by moving the cursor around the silhouette and adjust its width by moving the cursor closer to or further away from the silhouette. Once you release the right mouse button, the units will travel to the destination before assuming formation.

If you'd like to order a unit to fire on a position regardless whether or not an enemy unit or building is there, first select the unit, then press T and click where you'd like it to attack. If the designated area is beyond the unit's weapon range, the unit will automatically move until it's within range. This ability is especially useful for artillery units since most of them can shoot much farther than they can see.

By default, most units will automatically attack nearby enemy units and buildings. If you'd rather they hold off until manually ordered to attack or they come under attack themselves, first select them, then press F to enable Hold Fire. You can repeat this process at any time to turn it back off.

Stealth Units have Hold Fire enabled by default.

Scattered around each map are banks that contain a large amount of Dollars. If garrisoned with infantry, the funds will be siphoned directly into your account. Unlike resource fields, banks are visible at the start of each game and their locations never change. Each infantry you garrison in a bank nets you 5 Dollars every two seconds.



Banks, houses, and other neutral buildings can be occupied by infantry and used as cover. Infantry inside these buildings can not only shoot out, but will also take much less damage in combat than if they were standing outside them.



Combat can also be waged inside buildings by most infantry units. If infantry from opposing factions occupy the same building, they'll automatically wage battle inside. Although you have no direct control over these battles, you can monitor their progress by selecting the appropriate building and studying the HP bars below each occupant's icon in the Unit/Building Information Panel (see the User Interface section).

Aircraft produced at each faction's Air Control Center can be called in from off-map to perform air strikes. To call in an aircraft, first click its icon on the Aircraft Panel (see the User Interface section), then click where you'd like it to attack. If the aircraft is a bomber, it will drop its payload upon reaching its destination; otherwise it will seek out relevant targets in the general vicinity (ground attack aircraft will target ground units and buildings; air superiority aircraft will target other aircraft).

You can see all of the currently-deployed aircraft as well as their fuel and ammunition on the left-hand side of the screen, just above the minimap (see the User Interface section). You can also select these aircraft at any time and give them brand new orders if you so desire. Once aircraft have expended all of their ammunition or run low on fuel, they'll automatically leave the map to rearm and/or refuel. You can also manually order them to evacuate by first selecting them, then pressing V.

Provided they don't attack, units with optical camouflage are completely invisible to all enemy units except those with stealth detection capabilities. Stealth units also have the Hold Fire ability enabled by default, which enables you to easily sneak them past enemy forces without firing so much as a single shot. If undetected, stealth units also inflict 2x damage with the first shot they fire in combat.

It's important to keep units and buildings in tip-top shape at all times. Thankfully, all three factions are capable of doing just that.

When it comes to healing infantry, the US Army has the Dustoff, a medical helicopter produced at the Field Hospital. The Chimera, on the other hand, can remotely heal infantry via its Prison in exchange for Dollars. Lastly, the Cartel can utilize one of its own infantry units, the Punisher, to heal fellow soldiers.

For vehicles in need of repair, the US Army and Cartel have mobile options in the form of the Hercules and BREM-80U repair vehicles, respectively. The Chimera must instead rely on Repair Outposts, which are static but can be upgraded to cover a large area.

To fix damaged buildings, the US Army and Chimera must have a Logistics Center or Repair Outpost (respectively) within range of them. Unlike the Repair Outpost, the Logistics Center can't be upgraded to increase its area of effect and therefore must be placed with extra care. The Cartel's method is the farthest-reaching of them all: After researching Repair Drones at the HQ, all of their buildings will automatically (albeit slowly) be repaired over time.

When defeated in combat, some infantry will become wounded rather than die. Wounded infantry are represented by a dot above them and will lay immobilized until they're either killed, healed, or captured by the enemy as a POW (prisoner of war).



Similarly, pilots, which are represented by stars, will sometimes emerge from the wreckage of destroyed vehicles and can also be taken as POWs. Unlike wounded infantry, however, pilots can freely move about and even return to their HQ for a resource bonus. It's often a good idea to order pilots back to your HQ as soon as possible to reduce the chances of them being captured by the enemy.

The only units that can capture POWs are infantry, and not all of them can do so. To see which infantry have this ability, see each faction's Infantry section. Each POW you capture earns you 500 Dollars. Additionally, if you've constructed a Field Hospital as the US Army, a Prison as the Chimera, or a Prison Module (at the Barracks) as the Cartel, POWs will be detained inside your faction's respective building at which point they not only generate 4 Dollars every couple seconds, but can also be traded for other types of resources.

• Construct buildings and train units according to how many resources you have in reserve. For example, if you've few Dollars but plenty of Aluminium, consider spending as much Aluminium and as few Dollars as possible until you've balanced things out.
  
  
• Grab the bank nearest your base as soon as possible in order to simultaneously give yourself a boost in income and fortify one of your base's entrances. Consider garrisoning it with a mixture of anti-infantry and anti-tank soldiers.
  
  
• Assign your most commonly used units and production buildings to control groups (see the Controls section). A great way to practice this early on is to assign your initial recon unit to one control group and your barracks to another since you'll probably be using them often.
  
  
• To quickly and easily scout the map, first select your recon unit, then hold SHIFT and right-click all of the locations on the minimap that you'd like it to travel to. Once finished, the recon unit will automatically go to the points you clicked, allowing you to focus on building up your base without ever having to select it again.
  
  
• To boost your economy early on, try building two refineries on your starting Oil field: One directly in the center, and another right beside it so that it covers at least a few nodes. Since you'll then have two nearby refineries extracting Oil rather than just one, the long-term income will more than make up for the initial cost of the additional refinery. You can also use this technique for Aluminium and Rare Earth, though Oil (which becomes Dollars) is often more important in the early goings of the game.
  
  
• If one or more of your opponent's buildings are unprotected, capture them with infantry and immediately sell them afterwards to both deny him further use of those buildings and give yourself a boost in income. Be aware, however, that in order to get the resources from selling the building, the construction unit that appears once it has been sold must safely travel to your HQ or another resource drop-off site.
  
  
• The US Army and Chimera's recon units can do more than just scout and reveal resources. Considering also using them to harass your opponent's tankers.
  
  
• Use napalm or other fire-based weaponry to force enemy infantry out of banks and other buildings.
  
  
• Fire smoke rounds at enemy units and base defenses to blind them, allowing your own units to storm in and attack without consequence.
  
  
• Unlike vehicles, infantry aren't inhibited by hills, cliffs, and other rough terrain. Use this to your advantage by hitting your opponent where he least expects it.
  
  
• Oil and Aluminium fields always have a "four corners" shape, therefore if you reveal at least two corners, you can cover them with your refinery and be guaranteed that the other two will be covered as well. Also, since refineries automatically reveal nearby resources you don't have to worry about manually revealing the other two corners with your recon unit.
  
  
• Sell refineries once they've exhausted all nearby resources and their stockpiles have been emptied out, because they'll no longer serve any purpose. Also consider selling the tankers that were assigned to it.
  
  
• Rotate refineries so that their entrance/exit arrows face your HQ or the nearest resource drop-off site to help minimize the time that it takes for your tankers to travel back and forth.
  
  
• Units that can heal infantry, like the US Army's Dustoff, the Chimera's Medical Namer, and the Cartel's Punisher, can do so even when the infantry are inside buildings. Use this to your advantage when trying to hold banks or other important buildings.
  
  
• Place buildings with Average and High Resilience near the front of your base, where most enemy attacks will likely arrive, and keep those with Low Resilience near the very back in order to minimize the chances of them being destroyed before you can repel your opponent.

The US Army, though still the most powerful military machine on the planet, is but a shadow of its former self. Recurring Defense budget cuts over the last several decades have led to a personnel shortage, worn and outdated equipment, and a drop in morale and discipline.

Despite being exhausted by endless fighting across the world, they remain a brute-force of veterans. Their units are tailored to specific roles and are often the best in their category, but they also lack some of the other factions' units' versatility.

All of the US Army's infantry are trained at the Barracks.

Most of the US Army's vehicles are produced at either the Light Vehicles Bay or Heavy Vehicles Bay.

All of the US Army's aircraft are produced at either the Field Hospital, Helipad, or Air Control Center.

The “Chimera Protocol" is an agreement that secretly binds several Member States of the United Nations. It was signed in the wake of the now-infamous "Shanghai Crash," an event in which the entire Chinese financial system collapsed, plunging the world into the worst recession since 1929.

The Chimera is a UNO funded task-force designed to have a plan in mind for every situation. Their units can be molded into specific roles through upgrades or left alone as jacks-of-all-trades.

All of the Chimera's infantry are trained at the Barracks.

Most of the Chimera's vehicles are produced at either the Support Bay, SPEAR Vehicle Bay, or SWORD Vehicle Bay.

All of the Chimera's aircraft are produced at either the Support Bay, Helipad, or Air Control Center.

The Cartel is a shadowy international organization that consists of influential politicians, high-ranking officers and popular industry and media figures. They intend to bring the US government to its knees in order to seize important economic & industrial assets, just as they did in Russia (1991) and China (2018).

The Cartel are stealthy operatives born out of private military contracts and armed with the latest prototypes. Fragile and expensive but stealthy and powerful, this secretive faction is difficult to master.

All of the Cartel's infantry are trained at the Barracks.

All of the Cartel's vehicles are produced at either the Vehicles Bay or Prototypes Bay.

Most of the Cartel's aircraft are produced at either the Helipad or Air Control Center.