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Moscow or Bust - Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front strategy guide

The devil's in the details

Moscow or Bust - Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front strategy guide

Battle Academy 2 may be the best game I've played on the iPad. It's so good, I want to convince everyone to try it. But as a historical strategy title it might appear daunting - even though it's engaging and accessible.

To demonstrate how easy it is to get lost in the game, here's a strategy guide with a difference. Rather than just hints and tips, we're going to play through the opening turns of a scenario, making tactical notes as we go.

All this unfolded over thirty minutes of real time. So it's a strategy game that can be played in small chunks. And by presenting things this way, you'll hopefully see what a rich, detailed and exciting world the game presents.

Scenario 2, Campaign 1 - "You Always Need the Landsers" Turn 1

You start off picking some of your troops for this battle, to supplement the ones the game gives you. The scenario sounds like it's going to need lots of infantry, but doesn't give you any to buy. So I'm going to just buy the biggest tanks I can afford, some Panzer IVs.

We start just to the south of a small town, which is probably crawling with Soviet infantry. So sending tanks in would be suicide - the troops will wait until my Panzers draw adjacent then assault them with grenades and finish them off.

So instead I drive up my two armoured cars full of scouts, and debark them into buildings on the left and right edges of the town.

The rest of the armour starts shelling likely-looking hidey holes. Sometimes, barraging an empty square will cause soliders hidden there to panic and reveal themselves. But nothing stirs in the houses.

Turn 2

The scouts on the left have revealed some troops concealed nearby. I shell them with my Panzer IV tanks and these ill-trained conscripts rout off the map.

With the path clear I can now move those scouts forward, one square at a time to make sure they stay in cover. I then set them to not fire, ensuring they won't inadvertently reveal themselves to passing enemy units.

They don't see any more infantry, but there are enemy T-26 tanks parked in the street. On paper, they shouldn't be a match for my Panzers. But there's an "achievement" in this scenario to win without losing more than five tanks. So I'm going to play it careful.

However, I don't want to delay my advance - we're on a time limit. So I start driving armour around the town to the left and right, keeping away from lines of sight and buildings, but leaving the exit roads covered. After they've moved, I ensure they're pointing forward so the heaviest armour is facing any likely attacks.

But I can't resist taking a pop at those Russian tanks. We've got various support options available, one of which is airstrikes. So I aim one at where the enemy armour is congregated.

Turn 3

For the first time, enemy units we can see start to act. One of the tanks drives down and into the field of fire of my own armour. The tank reacts automatically, firing at the T-26.

It scores a hit, but the shell is deflected. The game signals that the Soviet crew have panicked and become "suppressed". That means they won't fire back any more until they've recovered some morale.

The air strike comes in, but misses. However, there's an anti-aircraft gun hidden in the field behind the village, which opens fire on the aeroplane. I was lucky not to be shot down!

With the enemy tank suppressed, I can safely move forward units to engage it without fear of danger. But the only ones nearby are feeble Panzer II and III - they bombard the target, but do no damage.

Again, because it's suppressed, I can risk moving up my scouts for an infantry assault. When I check the tooltip for the actions I find that normal fire has a better chance of success than a close assault. That's because it's only a tiny scout detachment. So I choose to fire and get lucky. The target is reduced to a wreck.

Turn 4

Another Soviet tank in the village tries to escape. But it drives adjacent to my scouts, who promptly destroy it. There's only one T-26 left, on the right hand side.

Two of the other support options at my disposal are a medic and a rally. The former replaces infantry losses, and the latter removes suppression. Between them, they can put a damaged infantry unit right back into fighting shape.

So, I risk another infantry assault from my other scouts on that last tank. It fails, and the squad is damaged. But I patch them straight up again.

I move up some more tanks to take care of it. In doing so, one stumbles over a Soviet MG still hidden in the village. It hadn't fired at me because it's of no use against armour plate. It's fortunate I didn't move any infantry into its firing arc.

My big guns destroy it easily, and then move to take out the T-26. It fires one shot and then is out of reactions for the turn. Units get two shots, but it used one against my infantry assault. So I can attack it safety. After a few stray shots, it's reduced to twisted metal.

With that threat removed, I can roll forward beyond the town, toward the woods. As soon as I do so, however, I'm peppered with anti-tank fire from among the trees. There must be a lot of artillery secreted there.

Annoyingly, because I have no infantry and tanks can't see very well, I'm not able to pinpoint their locations. All the game tells is is that shells are incoming: the firing units don't appear on the map.

I expected this. Those trees are an obvious place for an ambush. But I didn't have much choice, having only two scouts units to scour the area.

Fortunately, the game has scripted some reinforcements for me. A bunch of trucks and armoured cars appear, with a precious cargo of soliders.

They can't reach the treeline. So to save those squashy trucks from armour-piercing shells I drive them up behind the nearest cover, waiting for next turn.

Turn 5

And that's where we're going to leave it. The next task is to get those infantry into the woods. If I go on foot, it's slow but I can stay in cover of the trees. If I drive them up in troop carriers, one lucky shot could leave me with a mass of corpses.

I hope this has illustrated how the game challenges the player with the same conundrums that faced historical commanders. And also how you can best go about solving them.

And if that rich narrative has left you tantalised about the possibilities the game offers, well. Then my job here is done.

Matt Thrower
Matt Thrower
Matt is a freelance arranger of words concerning boardgames and video games. He's appeared on IGN, PC Gamer, Gamezebo, and others.