FRONT​LINE // BLACK SOIL

Three hexes: your rear, the BLACK SOIL AO, theirs. Six flags — two keeps, four gates, ZOLOTA BALKA in the middle — and any flag can be contested at any time. The front is wherever your trucks can keep soldiers armed; a deep raid with no resupply behind it dies to the garrison, not to a rulebook. Take the enemy KEEP to win the war. Trucks haul you up the road; the factory (1-7 nearby) arms you. Rockets fell treelines, collapse trenches, and level buildings — the steppe wears its scars. Friendly fire is ON.

W A S D move · mouse aim · LMB fire · Q cycle pistol/primary/bazooka · C crouch · Shift sprint · R reload
G grenade · X AP/FRAG rounds · B build · E construct/drive
TOUCH: left half = move stick (full push sprints) · right half = drag to aim, pull further to fire

You spawn with an M17 sidearm and carry two weapon slots — the EW jammer pack takes one. Guns feed from real magazines: one in the well, two spares, each depleting separately. Reloading swaps the fullest spare in and pockets the partial. V consolidates loose rounds into full mags — takes 20 seconds, getting shot interrupts. Ammo is manufactured: top off at the factory — bazooka rockets included (3 carried; an AMMO restock refills the bag). Set AUTO-KIT to rebuy your kit each respawn (if you can pay).
EW: jammers — carried (jams while held) or built as masts — are broadband: every drone link inside the bubble dies, yours included. Enemy bubbles are invisible until your feed goes dark.
INDIRECT FIRE: FPVs are cheap and everywhere — cycle to FPV (Q), fire to launch. You cruise above everything; fire again to commit a TERMINAL ATTACK RUN — the drone drops low and hits the first thing it touches, friend or foe. Your body stays behind, so launch from cover. RECON UAV (¤8): two minutes of eyes, no warhead — paints contacts on your map. INTERCEPTOR (¤14): fast counter-drone bird — hold an enemy drone inside the 7.5° boresight cone for 0.6s to LOCK; then it tracks and rams on its own. Vehicles are bought at the MOTOR POOL.
FIRE MISSIONS go through a FORWARD OBSERVER: buy the [O] RANGEFINDER (it replaces your primary — a sidearm/drone/jammer still fits, and the glass sees +50% further). It works like a laser designator: with the glass up, click to PAINT the target (you must be within ~100m of it — that closeness is the observer's job and his risk), then T orders the battery: warhead × shell count × dispersion, priced per shell (¤75 Coalition / ¤37.5 Pact) — a single ranging round or one smoke shell is a legal order. Warheads: HE (the all-rounder), CLUSTER (bomblets — murder on infantry in the open, useless on bunkers), WP/SMOKE (a screen nobody — man or bot — sees or designates through, plus burning ground beneath it). Dispersion is what you ask for; the Pact's guns stay loose no matter what — that's their discount. Bots play by identical rules — hunt their observers and the guns go quiet.

BOMBER DRONE ([M], ¤300): a Vampire-class heavy lifter carrying 3 AP + 3 FRAG bombs. Fly it out like any drone, then Z to begin a BOMBING RUN — it climbs and the feed swaps to the belly camera: a reticle straight below you and a live wind readout. Bombs drift the whole way down, so aim upwind of the target, not at it. X picks AP or FRAG, LMB releases. Endurance matches a recon bird, so fly it home and press L to LAND & RECOVER — set it down within ~15m of yourself and the airframe goes back in your pack with any bombs still on the rack. Stand at your factory or a forward bunker to re-arm the rack free. Enemy interceptors can kill it at any stage, climbing or not.
WEATHER: every war deals its own wind. High wind scatters artillery and pushes it downwind — and it will carry your bombs a long way. Check the wind before you call fire.

ARMOR: each side fields a tank and an IFV (more at the MOTOR POOL). They take a 2-man crew: the commander/driver drives and works an independent remote MG, the gunner works the main armament — tank: 40 rounds (20 AP / 20 HE, X to load) plus a coax MG; IFV: an autocannon (AP/HE feeds) plus guided ATGMs that follow your aim. Q switches the gunner's weapon, and Z swaps you between the driver's and gunner's stations — alone you can man either one (the hull sits still while you're on the gun); with a crewmate aboard, Z trades your seats. Everything is limited ammo, rearmed at the motor pool. Abrams, Bradley and BMP crews bail out when knocked out; the T-90M cooks off and takes its crew with it.

Walk into a trench to drop in — crouch in it and rifle fire can't touch you. Stand to shoot over the lip. Sandbags stop bullets unless you're right up against them.

FORTIFY: build a PILLBOX ([6], ¤45) and any soldier — you or AI — can man it (E) and gun from behind concrete. A FORWARD BUNKER ([7], ¤90) is spawn + armory: your side respawns at the deepest one and re-buys kit from its stock (normal prices — it carries availability forward, never discounts). Bunkers finish EMPTY: load free crates at the factory (pack: 4 slots, 6 with a ¤15 rucksack · truck bed: 36–46 slots, riders take space, 8 aboard max) and press F at the bunker to unload. Dying hands you the spawn menu: deploy at the rear FOB or any standing forward bunker, on your click, never automatically (SPACE = quick rear). Kill the enemy's bunker — or the truck feeding it — and the salient starves; stock burns with the structure. BUNKERS fortify with U: T2 ¤80 · T3 ¤180, then build it out. Six strongpoints in a diamond — gates matter for where they sit on the road, not what they pay. Income is a flat trickle for everyone; spend like it matters.