More main map

If you choose a city on your side in the main map, a flurry of depots will appear, and depending on the city, also possibly docks, naval yards and an airfield. This may make choosing the specific depot/army base/dock difficult to choose, so look to the left of the map. You can check off what appears - ie, if you don't want depots to appear, click them off. Also the green buttons are for zooming in and out of the map. Clumsy, but it works.

Zoom in on couvin using the green buttons

A wide view

Some of the enemy cities may be under attack as well. It's an awful long drive, never mind walk, from one of your towns to the enemy. Fortunately you don't have to travel all that distance. Between all connected cities on opposing sides are forward bases, which we'll explain in a second.

Infantry spawns in Army Base

Army Base bunker which holds radio

Vehicle spawn at Army base

Army base from outside

In each city, there will be at least one army base and several depots. The army base is what stores all the ground units for that town - anything from a basic rifleman to the mighty Matilda tank. The depots can spawn only infantry, and only when a mission is posted in them. An army base can spawn basic units all the time, but the rest of the units become available also only when a mission is posted there. Missions are divided by priority - 1, 2 and 3. Priority 1 gives you the most experience, priority 3 the least. A mission will show you the target, the name of the poster and the starting point. Sometimes, they'll have comments in them - look for these. You can often find warnings not to spawn tanks if it's dangerous for the tanks, or what the purpose of the mission is.

Mission selector

Unit selector

Now, all towns are interconnected through a network of depots. If a city has four of them, each of those is named after a nearby city. Eind, for example, has depots to Weert, Panningen and a couple of other towns. In return, those towns will have depots for Eind.

Now, if a city is connected only to friendly cities, it's considered not to be a front line town and thus safe from attack and capture. However, if the enemy captures a town with a depot to that city, the city now becomes a front line city. A forward base will pop up between the two. Only one forward base can exist between any two hostile cities, and control of that forward base is what drives much of the action in the game.

Forward bases draw on the army base of their host city. They can spawn any and all units that appear at the army base. If the Allies control the forward base, it appears closer to the Axis town. If the Axis control it, it will pop up near the Allied city, but it's always a relatively safe range away, often in trees or bushes and always near a road between the two cities. If you look at the screenshots below, you'll see that Hasselt, being connected by depots to Diest, Paal and Helchteren, has forward bases up and active with all three British towns since they're hostile. However, the Brits could get any or all of these forward bases back by blowing them up.

Hasselt's Forward Base to Diest

Hasselt's FB to Paal

Hasselt's FB to Helchteren

To take back a forward base, the enemy's needs to be destroyed. To do this, you need 16 satchel charges - 8 on the vehicle spawn building, and 8 on the infantry spawn building. A Sapper is the only unit in the game who carries satchels, and he only carries four. So in order to take down that base, you need 4 sappers. If any action in the city is going on, the forward base is very likely to be defended and thus you'll need extra help to demolish it.

Now, not only does the side that controls the forward base have a quick attack route to the enemy, but it is also capable of using its spawnable depot in the enemy city. If the Allied town of Eind is attacked from the Axis town of Weert, the Axis attackers will be trying to capture the Weert depot in Eind. This is because once the depot is captured, if Axis hold the forward base between the two villages, they'll be able to spawn infantry in Eind from the Weert depot there. This is what is often meant by the 'spawnable'. So how do you get it?

Infantry spawn at FB

Vehicle spawn at FB