The Best Tips to Play and Enjoy Burden of Command And Ease The Difficulty Curve

I went out of my way to pester Luke, the head honcho behind Burden of Command to let me post something before my review. Instead, of just writing a couple of basic first impressions (you can read those here), I have compiled a list of 10 tips that might help you make the most of the game, and save you some headaches while you climb its learning curve.

10 – Pay Attention In Bootcamp

The game plays very differently from traditional wargames, and even if you are a seasoned strategy gamer, you’ll have to wrap your head around its “Order System”. Burden of Command comes with an extensive boot camp (it’s probably two or three hours long) that covers all the basics and establishes your character’s relationship with his men. The boot camp also has some amazing narrative flair you should enjoy, instead of rushing through.

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9 – Use The 4Fs Of Combat

The boot camp should be enough to acquaint you with the idea of the 4Fs of fighting. For the unaware, the 4Fs of combat stand for Find, Fix, Flank and Finish, meaning that you should spot your enemy before he spots you, suppress them to keep their heads down, manoeuvre to a superior position to catch them off guard and then launch a final attack to eliminate the threat, either by killing them, or having them surrender. Failure to adhere to these principles will result in dead men, and failed missions.

8 – Be Aggressive

Burden of Command lets you know very early on that constantly firing on already suppressed units won’t do much, and killing suppressed units is harder than killing non-suppressed ones, and that’s because they’re already behind cover, waiting with their heads down for the hail of lead to stop. This means that playing extremely cautiously, firing at a distance waiting for one lucky shot to down a single man is probably not the best course of action. You need to take the initiative, be aggressive, flank the enemy and give them no chance of fighting back.

7 – Use Combined Arms Tactics

There’s a big array of weapons at your disposal, make sure you know how to properly employ them to achieve tactical superiority. Machine guns, mortars, artillery, and tanks all have their use on the field of battle, and you’ll want to maximize the use of these supporting weapons to minimize casualties and maximize your chances of success. Heavy machine guns and mortars are excellent for pinning down the enemy. Tanks can provide direct fire support and shock the enemy, but all of that is to no avail if you don’t manoeuvre your infantry to assault, capture or kill the enemy.

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6 – Think Of Your Units As Real People

The moment you start looking at your units as if they were real people and not pieces on a chess board, you’ll see that a lot of design decisions start to make sense. Order them across an open field without suppressing fire? They’ll probably refuse. Order them to assault a fortified position while they’re disorganized? They’ll fail. Letting them on their own without an officer near to bolster their spirits and give them directions? They’ll be a lot less useful. Surrounded by enemies? They’ll try to retreat. Under heavy fire? They’ll scatter and look for cover. The Burden of Command tries to treat units as if they were real people, and people don’t really want to die, so if you want your men to do as you command, you need to do your job as a commanding officer by laying the groundwork for their success. Take care of them, and they’ll take care of you.

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