I downloaded this game through File Planet and I printed off a copy of the rules. The rules are not easy to read. There is a tutorial and it is not the best tutorial you could find. What is awesome about this game is the authenticity of combat on the Eastern Front in WWII. You can zoom in to the guys at squad level and watch them fight and die. It is part RTS game and TBS game. The TBS portion is a one over the world view and then the real "meat and potatoes" of the game is the RTS portion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Ka9zYG ... _embedded#
I have two rifle platoons. The first one has 4 9-man rifle squads and 1x 50mm mortar section. The second platoon has 3 9-man rifle squads and 2x 7.62mm MG teams. I deployed the 2nd platoon around this stretch of road east of a major river amongst buildings of a small town. the enemy will have to move up a gentle slope of a river bank to reach this platoon dug in around this small town.
The first platoon is dug in, inside a forest with excellent overwatch of both a secondary road and the primary road leading east and north toward where the 2nd platoon is dug in.
Now, I clicked the feature to insure they were dug in. I didn't want them to jump up out of their foxholes because I knew the enemy was using Haltracks with machineguns mounted on them.
I click the button to start the RTS portion after deploying my platoons. Within a few minutes, three German halftracks come into view. Two of them had 7.62mm MGs and the third had a 57mm AT gun. This may have been a reconnaissance element for some larger force. One of the halftracks moved to the north along the secondary road my 1st platoon was covering. The other two vehicles moved along hte primary route toward where the 2nd platoon was dug in.
I was able to call in a flare with my artillery battery to illuminate the battlefield (Night time fighting). The 1st Platoon fired on the near vehicle and the infrantry dismounted. I used my 50mm mortar to fire HE on the dismounting infantry. The four squads of 1st Platoon were close enough that they were all putting effective fires on the German squad in front of them. When their buddy started taking fire, the other two vehicles came over to help out. I had the advantage because my Russian Infantry were dug in, inside a forest and the vehicles were not about to enter the woods to take me out.
I zoomed in for a closer look and saw with horror as all four of my squads jumped out of their foxholes and charged into the machine guns and AT gun; probably firing HE now. The German Panzergrenadier Platoon chewed them all up.
So then I moved the view over to the 2nd platoon dug in on the far side of the river. The platoon had already left their position and were running in single file down that primary road -- running right toward their eventualy virtual deaths.
Pure Frustration. I'm sure I'm missing something here. I had a nice little Company sized Area Ambush set up and my little Virtual Warriors gave up. They panic and charged right into the enemy machine guns.