Multi-player games support up to sixteen players and can be played on a LAN or over the Internet. Three types of maps are featured: domination maps, where players must control command points to win the game, assault maps, where one team defends a series of command points which the other teams assaults, and tug of war maps, where teams must fight to capture a series of command points on the front line, whereupon the line shifts towards a new set of points closer to the losing team. One side plays as either the United States or NATO, while the other as the Soviet Union. Neither side has any sort of advantage.
When players first begin to play a game, they choose one of four roles to play. The four roles are Infantry, Armor, Air, or Support. The infantry role commands regular ground forces, the armor role mainly controls various types of tanks, and the air role controls various types of helicopters. The support role is the most broad, filling the remaining units such as artillery, anti-air units, and repair units. Although it is possible to mix roles, units in a role other than your own are weaker and more expensive.
All of these roles have their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, when placed in cover (like buildings or forests), the infantry squad can remain hidden until they attack or are attacked by enemies, creating decent ambush points, but they are very vulnerable to fire when on open ground. Armor is good for assaulting, holding, and defending command points. The Armor role is also very efficient at engaging large amounts of enemies, but is easy to ambush and very weak against air units. Helicopters move very fast and can ignore all terrain obstacles like buildings or forests, and are also strong against all ground units. However, just two anti-air (AA) units is enough to destroy a whole squadron of helicopters in seconds. Helicopters can not capture command points. The support role provides services that no other role can provide, such as
long range artillery fire, repairing of vehicles, and anti-air units, but is useless in close-combat.
One more aspect of the game is Tactical Aid (TA). As you do things like capture command points, destroy units, or fortify your team’s captured areas, you receive TA points. These tactical aid points can be spent on heavy long-range fire support, extra units, or radar to see hidden or not-visible units. Based on how much TA you have, you can call in fire support like air strikes, napalm, chemical bombs, carpet bombs, and even nukes. You can also get additional units dropped right into the areas that they are most needed. Some units in the game are only available through Tactical Aid points.
Each player starts the game with 4000 reinforcement points, which they spend to get their early units. This number will increase over time, and playing well will make it increase faster. After a brief period of time, you will be able to call in more units, maybe while your other units are waiting for repairs. Meanwhile, you can use up your built up TA points to wreak havoc on the enemy.
Around each important landmark on all of the dozens of playable maps will be tiny circles called command points. Each command point will have two-four of these circles, and the point is captured when you or your allies have units in all of them. You can then reinforce these points by simply leaving units in them, which will build up an anti-infantry fortification first, followed by an anti-tank fortification, and finally an anti-air fortification.
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