Game flow[edit]
The game takes place across 17 maps, 15 of which are initially selectable, and 2 unlockable maps. You are free to select any available map at any time; you are not required to attempt each map in the order they are presented. Once a map is selected, the game will begin by setting up the Red Star and Blue Moon armies in their initial states. This state determines which cities, factories, airports and seaports are already under each armies control, as well as which ones begin neutral. The state also determines how much money you start out with. The Red Star army always takes the first turn. One army will win they game under two conditions; either they wipe out every unit of the opposing army, or they successfully capture the enemy headquarters with an infantry unit.
Turn flow[edit]
Once a turn begins, a player has several options. To bring up the options menus, press 
on any tile. The menu will appear at the bottom of the screen. From left to right, the options are as follows:
- Build: Use Build when the map cursor is over your headquarters, factories, airports, and seaports to bring up the menu of units that those structures are capable of producing. Each structure may only produce one unit per turn, and those units appear on the map with their turn ended. In addition, you may usually use build on the closest unoccupied city to your headquarters.
- Units: Select Units to check the stats of your currently active units, including how much health, fuel, and ammunition each one has remaining.
- Stat: Select Stat to see the current statistics about both teams. The main screen shows how many cities, airport, and seaports are occupied by either army, and how many are neutral. It also shows how much money each army has, as well as how much money is incoming each turn. Press
or 
to see how many total units both armies have produced. Press down or A again to see how many total units both armies have killed. Press down or A one more time to return to thre first screen. Press 
to return to the map. - Supply: Select Supply to provide any unit that is situated on a friendly occupied city with a resupply of ammunition and fuel. In addition, any damaged unit will restore two points of health, up to the maximum of 10.
- End Turn: Use End Turn to end your current activity to turn control of the game over to the opponent. Until you select End Turn, you retain control of the game.
- Option: Select Option to view the current settings for the game that you initially set when the game began. The only two you may modify is the animation and music settings.
Unit control[edit]
As long as a unit has not been moved or performed an action for the current turn, you may select it at any time by placing the map cursor over the tile and pressing 
. You may cancel the selection by pressing . Some information about the unit will appear, and the unit will begin to blink. While the unit is blinking, you may move the cursor to any tile that the unit may legally move to. (Unlike more modern versions of the game like Advance Wars, the range of possible movement is not highlighted on the map.) Press again to move the unit into the position you requested. At that time, the action menu will appear. If you do not like the position where the unit moved to, you may cancel the movement by pressing . You are not required to move a unit in order to make it act. If you wish to act without moving, simply press on the blinking unit.
When the action menu appears, you may have one or more options to choose from. The one option that you always have is the Wait command, which ends that unit's turn. Other options that a unit may have, depending on the type, include attack, capture, or load. A unit can choose attack if at least one target is within range of the unit. For direct attack units like tanks and infantry, a target must be in a neighboring tile. For indirect attack units like artillery or anti-air missiles, a target must be within that unit's range, and the unit must not have moved.
Only infantry and mechs may choose capture if they are standing on cities, factories, airports and seaports. Only infantry may capture headquarters. Each structure starts out with 20 points. When capturing a structure, the health of the unit is subtracted from the structures points. To successfully capture the structure, the unit must continue to capture it until the structures points are reduced to 0, and the unit must not leave the city. If the unit leaves, is killed, or successfully captures the structure, the points are reset to 20.
In order to use the load command, a unit such as an infantry or mech must move to the location of a helicopter or APC. Lander ships are capable of transporting two units at one time. Once a unit loads onto a vehicle, both units end their turn, so if possible, position the vehicle first before loading them because you won't have the ability to move them after they are loaded. If a transport unit is destroyed, the loaded unit perishes. After moving a loaded transport unit, you will have the option to unload it whenever you arrive on an "empty", and there is an adjoining "empty" tile available. "Empty" in this case means unoccupied grass, road, or structure tile. The tile may not contain trees or mountains.