Strategy Guide for Classic Mode (reliable 50+ classic tactics only)

Hello, muddied and bloodied. (Work in progress)

If you're like me, chances are you're here because you were a hardened veteran of the flash version of mud and blood (specifically, mud and blood 2). A lot of carryover exists in classic mode, which reflects the near identical mechanics of the flash version. For the sake of this guide, assume we are going in with a clean slate, so no medals are calculated into the advice given.

One more time, this is not a guide on campaign mode. This is a guide on the non-variant classic. As an additional disclaimer, the reader should note that this guide is just one of many strategies available and tailored towards a certain playstyle. Ultimately you should be able to glean what you like from it in order to incorporate the tactics used into your own gameplay. Right. Let's get on with it.


*SMALL SQUAD TACTICS*

Small squad tactics (6-man squad and under) is not only the name of the strategy employed but also the linchpin of success in most runs, no matter the late-game strategies used (waves 50-100). From the very moment of deployment you are given command of infantry and five command points.

The four infantrymen of the 29th come equipped with Springfield rifles (unless you have a medal modifying this attribute). With excellent range and stopping power, this is more than enough firepower to safely carry a well entrenched team of riflemen through 15-20 waves.

Speaking of waves, let's talk about them and command points.

At wave 1, you are given 5 command points. For efficiency, lets just call them cp. Depending on the kind of cover you are given close to your spawn area, it is generally advisable to recruit an engineer straight off the bat. This choice is because with the exception of a house, most cover is fairly mediocre and will get your men killed early on, if not outright. Preventing this not only saves you points, but also keeps a very important critical firing mass up. More on that in a moment.

After recruiting your engineer, make sure he remains in the rear of the line and behind whatever cover you can find. At worst, you may be able to hide him behind a tree until he is able to perform his role. Better your engineer lives than to risk his death in the open. Once you have 4 cp, you can take your first step towards consistently making level 50 - digging a trench. Where you dig this trench matters. I cannot stress this enough. If it does not have a good line of sight on the battlefield, it will be in your best interest to think of it as a fallback position later on.

-> The Ideal Trench has: a good line of sight, can be paired with another similarly placed trench, and can be spaced away from another trench to avoid fire spreading from one trench to the other.

-> The Ideal Fallback Trench has: a bad line of sight (the enemy has a hard time seeing it), spaced to the rear of actively fighting units, and is not tactically relied upon for fire support. The reason for all of this is that early on its purpose is to house the wounded or the panicked who routed from their positions. Later on, if you somehow survived late into the game, no trench is a bad one. Terrain likely no longer obscures anything, such is the nature of war. Here are some bits to consider waves 15-30:

a. It is generally safe to have all five men hang out in a trench early in the game until you can afford to build another.

b. If all four riflemen and your engineer survive, have two trenches spaced in the middle built vertically with good lines of sight - or at least, the best you can manage.

c. If death has scrubbed your men down a bit you needn't worry. Save the cp, skip the second trench, and work on the next most important thing: firepower, or previously alluded to, critical firing mass.

- Critical Firing Mass -

As waves increase, the likelihood of you being bombed, blitzed or otherwise rushed in some "random, unfair brutality" kind of way are increased. This is hard to prepare for and harder to repel without some setback, so thus adhere instead to some conventional military wisdom: control what you can control.

You may not be able to prepare for many of the things the director AI throws at you, but you can prepare for the steady increase of Germans attempting to cross your line each wave.

In order to preserve the life of your men, you will need an ever increasing amount of firepower (and fire-rate) to efficiently and quickly put down the enemy advance. The more bullets fly at you, the more likely your men are going to die. Medics are a nice bonus to have, but they heal very, very slowly and are often not worth the tedious closeness they will put you towards the 6-man rule. Instead, offense is the best defense. By pinning the enemy or outright killing them, the less likely your men are to die, plain and simple. Springfield's are not going to cut it.

In your toolbar you'll find something called ranger training. This gives one of your men boosts to max HP, improved aim, and a Garand. By itself, a Garand costs 3 cp. Ranger training costs 4 cp. You can see the obvious advantage. By giving firstly your best rifleman ranger training, and then giving ranger training to each other rifleman by order of best rifle skill, you can achieve a deadly front line able to handle themselves in typical wave battles and even many light blitz scenarios. Once each rifleman has received his training, equip them with grenades for extra wave clear and suppressive capabilities.

By this point it is likely the battlefield is becoming rather deadly, and if not outright dead at least some of your men are wounded. In either scenario, it's time to invest in replacements, fortifications, and buildings in carefully applied order.

Scenario 1: All five members of the squad are alive and equipped with grenades and Garands, minus the engineer.

If this applies to the run it is wise to invest now a gunner who, while equipped with a BAR, will not be immediately as effective as he could be. His primary field role is suppression, which means that with the extra investment of a light machine gun (Lewis or M19, the Vick under performs for its severe cost) can pour out massive amounts of rounds unto the battlefield on multiple targets (A BAR only has a measly 20 rounds, and he will have to reload this often). Given time, luck and experience, he will quickly become the most serious threat to the enemy waves of infantry that you can field.

Alternatively, you may order a scout. This gives you a massive advantage when the enemy has to cover distance in order to engage you effectively, as it allows your men to engage at a greater range. If this is a strategy you opt for, keep in mind your engineer can be equipped with a scoped weapon to make the most of this advantage. Before you do so, calculate the likelihood you're going to be dealing with mass infantry - in which case, I advise investing in the M3 grease gun for both the engi and the scout. I find SMG's shine brightest in repelling waves where the enemy does close the gap and manage to get close to your squad.

All this is of course modular and up for debate. What is not up for debate is the 6 man rule, which plays into the next step of small squad tactics. Put your thinking cap on for this next bit of meta-gaming.

-The 6 Man Rule-

Put plainly, if the player fields more than six visible soldiers, the director AI goes into hyper aggression mode - strafing runs, blitz after blitz, tanks, arty, you name it: anything to blown you to kingdom come and flatten your run into the stone age. This can be avoided with a camnet, which hides soldiers on the battlefield, allowing you to field more. It is that simple. By the time you reach this point, it is likely wave 50+. What you do past this point is up to you, commander.

Show them who's blood is in the mud.