Ash of the Front

Mission briefing

For forty years the war has ground down the Valley of Sorrow, the last pass to Calder, the city where the lights still burn. The Ash Corps holds the valley. The Rust Legion is coming through. A grim real-time strategy in a fictional dieselpunk world. Command companies of gas-masked soldiers, tanks and artillery while Marshal Weyland briefs you before every mission. • A 12-mission campaign: breakthroughs, last stands, tank battles, a raid with no reinforcements, a citadel siege. • Hundreds of soldiers at once: infantry goes prone, rushes, occupies houses and fires from windows. • Destructible world: shells crumble walls, houses collapse, fire spreads through grass. • 5 theatres of war: mud, dead winter, mire, ash waste, fog. • Tanks, mortars, gas, air strikes and heavy artillery. • HQ Arsenal: army upgrades for tokens earned in battle. • Skirmish on a random map. • English and Russian.

Field manual

On a phone: tap a squad to select it, then tap the ground and it runs there, firing on the move. Tap a building and the company occupies it and fires from the windows. One finger pans the map, two fingers zoom. Buttons on the right: All selects the whole army, Line lets you draw a firing line with your finger, Halt stops, Clear drops the selection. Swipe the reinforcement and strike cards at the bottom: tap a card, and for a strike tap the target on the map. Long press and drag to box-select. On a PC: LMB selects a squad (drag a box for several), RMB gives an order, RMB drag deploys a firing line, RMB on a building occupies it. 1–0 call reinforcements, Z/X/C/V call strikes, WASD or screen edge move the camera, wheel zooms, Esc pauses. Goal: follow the marshal's orders (top left) — take and hold points, destroy batteries and tanks, keep the enemy away from your HQ. Win to earn tokens and upgrade your army in the HQ Arsenal.

Launch orders: press Launch mission above and the game loads on this page itself — nothing downloads and no form stands between you and the first move. It is designed for a landscape (wide) screen and takes its orders from mouse, keyboard or touch, depending on the mission. It is built wide, for a landscape screen — rotate a phone sideways, or give it a tablet or monitor to stretch out on. If it offers a fullscreen control, use it — a fight this size deserves the whole screen.

Field notes for action operations

• First run is reconnaissance. Spend it learning where the danger actually spawns from instead of chasing a score — most action games announce their patterns honestly in the opening minute, then repeat them with worse manners.
• Movement is a defensive stat. A moving target at half health outlives a stationary one at full health in nearly every game on this board, so keep relocating between shots, strikes and reloads.
• Learn the exit before the entrance closes. In arena and chase games alike, the players who survive longest are the ones who noticed the second doorway while everyone else was watching the first.

Ash of the Front — questions from the ranks

What does it cost to play Ash of the Front?

Nothing at all. The mission is free from the first order to the last — no sign-up, no download, no paid tier guarding the good levels. The advertising around this page is what keeps the board free.

What sort of mission is Ash of the Front?

Ash of the Front is filed in our Action theatre. Like every operation on this board, it is a browser game — read the briefing above for the publisher's own account of what you are deploying into.

Can I run Ash of the Front on a phone or tablet?

Yes. It plays in the browser on phones and tablets exactly as it does on a computer. It is built wide, for a landscape screen — rotate a phone sideways, or give it a tablet or monitor to stretch out on.

Do I have to install anything before playing?

No installation of any kind. Ash of the Front is an HTML5 game: press the launch button and it loads on this page, and closing the tab leaves nothing behind.

After-action

Mission complete, or still pinned down? The full Action theatre is one click away — The main hall of the board: 469 operations where something is always moving, exploding, escaping or being chased. If a game has a pulse and a problem, it is probably filed here.