Quick Start Guide

Quick Start Guide

Once you have installed the game, your account has been created, and your game is patched up, you’re ready to play. The following quick start guide will help you hit the ground running.

System Requirements

As of Version 1.31 (released July 6, 2010).

Version 1.31 of game increases the minimum requirements for the video card. Quality hardware is strongly encouraged for the best player experience. While the game will run with 2GB RAM, one will gain significant performance increase with 4GB of RAM.

Recommended System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows OS: Windows XP/Vista /Windows 7 or Macintosh OS: OSX 10.6/OSX 10.5
• Processor: 3 GHz Dual Core or 2.66 GHz Quad Core
• Memory: 4 GB
• Hard Drive: 4 GB Free
• Sound: on-board or better
• Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 250 or Radeon HD 4850 or better* (Please install the latest drivers from your graphics card manufacturer!)
  • Integrated graphics hardware is not supported

Minimum System Requirements

Note: "Minimum" does NOT mean you will get good performance. But the game should load.

• Operating System: Windows OS: Windows XP/Vista /Windows 7 or Macintosh OS: OSX 10.6/OSX 10.5
• Processor: Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2 GHz) or better with SSE 2.0 support
• Memory: 2GB
• Hard Drive: 3 GB Free
• Sound: on-board or better
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 series or ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro or better* discrete GPU with 256 MB VRAM and supporting Shader Model 3.0 (Please install the latest drivers from your graphics card manufacturer!)
• Broadband Internet Connection
  • Integrated graphics hardware is not supported

Peripherals

Several types of peripheral devices can improve your enjoyment of the game.

• Joystick: Any brand name company (Saitek, Logitech, Microsoft, CH), 3 axis with throttle (Low cost sticks will be disappointing).
• Rudder Pedals: Optional, but well worth it if you fly a lot.
• Audio output/Input: A top quality headset or 5.1 sound system is highly recommended. A boom mic is recommended if you use external voice programs such as TeamSpeak (tm)
• Other supported devices: TrackIR (tm), Matrox TripleHead2Go (tm).

All trademarks shown are the property of their respective trademark holders.

Download and Install the Game

The most recent Installers and for the game can be download on our Downloads Page.

Note: These instructions are for PC and MAC.

Run the installer and follow the steps including choosing your game settings options.

Create an Account

To join with hundreds of others playing WWII Online: Battleground Europe you must have an account. That account must have an active trial or subscription to be able to access the game server. Create an account here: Create Account.

Practice Offline

After installing the game, it is very helpful to use the free Practice Offline option first. This will allow you to familiarize yourself with the game and its units as well as confirm that your system meets the minimum system requirements. Use the Practice Offline option in your Start Menu to begin this (Mac users: use the "Practice Offline" button). Select any unit and then click the Enter World button. You will spawn at a training base with shooting ranges and targets for infantry, ground vehicles and aircraft.

Playing Online

Select "Play Online" from the Start Menu to open the Battleground Europe launcher, confirm your agreement to the Terms of Service, enter your account Username and password, then click "Login." Select the Campaign server then click "Play!"

Mac

The Mac version of the game does not use the same launcher as PC. enter your login information into the fields, then click "Play Online!"

Basic Training

Tutorials

Choose which country you wish to perform training with (you only have to complete training for one persona) and click "Start Training." The Basic Training tutorials are required. When you complete those, additional tutorials become available. These tutorials will teach you how to operate in the game. Click the "Back" button when complete. You can continue training at any time by selecting the Training tab.

If you encounter any problems completing a training tutorial, enter "/graduate true" into the chat bar.

Preparing to Enter the Game World

Select your Persona at the Persona Selection Screen. You have a persona for each country and service branch. For instance, French Army and German Air Force are separate personae.

IMG PERSONA

You may be presented with a Squad Recruitment menu. Some game squads have recruiting officers to help introduce you to the game. You can join one of these temporarily to get some immediate help with the game. You may decline this offer if you prefer to learn on your own. This screen will be presented to you each time you log into the Campaign server if you decide to join a squad.

Select a Brigade from the Brigade Roster tab. There is a population meter displayed for each brigade to show where the greatest concentrations of players in the same country and branch are playing.

IMG BRIGADE ROSTER

Select a Mission from the list on the Active Missions tab. Any mission with a mobile spawn icon gets you closest to the action. You can also review the Theater Map and information about the Brigade in the Communications tab. Select a Mission and click "Mission Briefing".

IMG ACTIVE MISSIONS

Select a combat unit in the Ready Room tab and click "Reserve Weapon." When you begin, not all of the combat units will be available to you. More will become available as you gain rank and as the production of the Axis and Allies advances. The Briefing tab will list other players who have joined that mission and tell you what unit they have chosen to fight with.

When ready, click "Enter World" to join the fight.

Enter the Game World

If you have completed the training tutorials, you should be ready to fight.

Minimap

Once you spawn in look at the minimap in the upper right corner for a green arrow pointing to your Mission Target. The number pad – (minus) and + (plus) keys will zoom the minimap in or out.

The Head's Up Display (HUD)

While you are in the game world there are head’s-up-display (“HUD”) elements around your screen that provide information about your combat status. You can turn them on or off with the Y key. These are all explained in the Training tutorials but are mostly self-explanatory, such as: Weapon and Ammunition, Health, and Stamina.

Communications

Basic functionality is simple: press Enter to open the buffer, type a message or Text Commands and press Enter again to send a message or execute command. There are six separate “radios” within the chat tool that allow you to customize your communications with various groups of players. Each of the six radios is bound to the function keys F1 through F6. You can use the Enter key to transmit on the default radio (usually this is local to the players near you), or simply press the corresponding function keys to open the buffer for transmitting on that specific radio or sets of radios.

Tuning the Radios

(Note: if you are spawned into the game world, hold the Right Alt key to bring up the cursor.) You can manually tune any of the six radios by clicking on the channel tuning elements along the top of the display. Clicking here will expand a tuning menu of predetermined channels and a custom tuning field. Clicking any of these menu items will automatically tune that radio to the selected channel. The Clear button will clear the tuning, and the Custom button allows for entering a soldier’s game name for private communications.

Game Strategy

Battleground Europe is fought on an accurate half-scale map of 1940's Western Europe. This map is dotted with a network of towns and cities. Each town is a varied collection of facilities, but always includes at least one army base, one "town center,” and supply depots linking the town to adjacent towns by road, rail or water. Game play is about gathering your forces, moving to and attacking a town with the object of capturing all the facilities and the army base there. Defenders spawn their own vehicles, guns, and infantry to resist the attack. Everything revolves around the infantryman. As the only unit that can capture anything, all of the weapons systems in the game – from long-range destroyers, to aircraft with tons of high-explosive bombs, to heavily armed and armored tanks – are ultimately only as good as their ability to deliver infantry safely to capturable facilities. There are of course many complexities involved, the greatest of which is the thousands of other players trying their best to prevent exactly that.

Cities

Territory is controlled based on the ownership of towns, also called “choke points”. These sit at strategic locations in the network of road, rail, and river lines across the map. They can be small villages with a mere handful of buildings, or sprawling cities like Antwerp or Brussels.

Objectives

Player-run High Commands determine the objectives of their forces by placing "Attack Objectives" on cities. These become the only places where players can capture anything. Thus, it determines where the fights will be.

Capture

Territory is gained by capturing the facilities of a city. Facilities are captured when infantry enter a Capture Building and hold it for enough time. The more infantry enter a defender's capture building, the faster the facility will be captured. “Capture Buildings” are easily identified by a large flag flying from them indicating their current ownership.

Facilities

Every CP is made up of a collection of facilities that all serve different purposes. Some are spawn points, some are supply depots, but all of them can be captured. A capture building will be present for every facility showing the flag of the country that currently controls that facility. Facilities are lightly protected by AI defenses, but their real security depends on defending players preparing to counter assaults.

Forward Bases (“FBs”), a.k.a. Fire Base

While some CPs are close together, often the distance between cities is long, so Forward Bases (FBs) are used to launch attacks closer to the target. FBs are effectively Forward Staging Points (forward spawn points) in the field represented by two military revetments (a vehicle tent and an infantry tent) that let vehicles and soldiers enter the game world just a few kilometers outside of the city they are attacking. Instead of using a distant army base as your staging area, FBs allow you to reduce travel time and move your supply line as close as possible to an enemy-held city.

Winning the War

When the Axis or the Allies have captured the majority of the map, that side is declared the victor for that campaign. Usually, an intermission event is offered for a day or two before a new campaign begins.

Brutal Combat

One shot can kill you, no massive health bar or healers in this game. Play it like you would a real war game and you'll live longer. Use cover, run, dodge etc. don't just rush in like Rambo. Do not be discouraged if you die a lot early on. You have to invest time and effort to learn in this game but the payback is a real blast. As infantry, use your binoculars (keyboard 0) to search for the enemy at a distance.

Teamwork

Working with others is the best way to survive. Join a recruiting squad to learn from an existing team. Work with other players around you to find and flank the enemy.

Land / Air /Sea

Try different vehicles. In addition to infantry, there are anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns, tanks, armored scout cars, fighters, bombers, transports, motor gun boats, freighters, destroyer, half-tracks and even trucks. All of these can be used to help your side.

Help and Customization

Program

The Settings program is in your Start Menu. It allows you to choose your video and audio options, as well as preferred languages. Some of these options are also available in the Preferences tab in the game.

Preferences Tab

The preferences tab has the various options to choose game, connection, video, sound and user interface options. Adjust these to suit the capabilities of your system and your desires.

Keymapper and Controllers

If the controls for various vehicles don't suit you, use the Keymapper to change them. Check the wiki for useful keymapping tips and tricks. The performance of controllers can also be modified here in the Controllers tab.

Getting Help

Do not hesitate to use the forums or the in-game Help channel (F6), or other radio channels to ask question. You can also send a Trainer a message by enter ".tr <question>" in the chat bar. The wiki also has a lot of helpful information.

WWIIOL Wiki

Welcome to the fight. Welcome to Battleground Europe!