Barbedwire Studios and Digitalmindsoft released Gates of Hell: Ostfront on 11 June 2021, covering the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 with more than 250 vehicles and 100 heavy weapons. Armour is modelled plate by plate with real thicknesses and angles, so an 85mm round can bounce off a Tiger's mantlet, kill the loader without setting the tank on fire, or cook off the ammunition depending on exactly where it lands. You can command it as a top-down real-time strategy game or take direct control of one rifleman or one tank gunner at any moment.
Starting Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront is a strategy game built around Plate by plate armour penetration and Direct control of any unit. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Soviet Union | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Finland (Talvisota) | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| United States (Liberation and Airborne) | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Britain and Commonwealth (Finest Hour) | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Soviet Union. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Britain and Commonwealth (Finest Hour) as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Plate by plate armour penetration
Every vehicle carries its historical armour layout and every shell its historical performance, so range, angle and shell type decide the outcome rather than a hitpoint bar. APCR carries no explosive filler and punches through more armour but does less inside the tank, while HEAT ignores range falloff entirely.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Plate by plate armour penetration works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to The Siege of Sevastopol
The German campaign's Crimean siege, built around fortified positions and heavy guns rather than manoeuvre. Progress comes from reducing strongpoints one at a time with artillery and engineers instead of driving armour forward.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for T-34/85: it's the most accessible early upgrade. The 85mm ZiS-S-53 gun in a three-man turret gives the Soviet mainstay a real chance against German heavies at closer ranges, and its sloped hull front bounces rounds that would defeat the same thickness laid flat.
Step 4: Understand Direct control of any unit
Pressing the direct control key drops you into first or third person on any selected soldier, gun crew or vehicle, where you aim manually and lead moving targets yourself. A human gunner in a StuG III routinely lands shots the automatic targeting would decline to take.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Pavlov's House
The Soviet Za Rodinu campaign's Stalingrad set piece, defending a single fortified building against repeated assaults. It is the clearest demonstration of why soldier inventory management matters, because you will run out of ammunition before you run out of attackers.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Plate by plate armour penetration
Every vehicle carries its historical armour layout and every shell its historical performance, so range, angle and shell type decide the outcome rather than a hitpoint bar. APCR carries no explosive filler and punches through more armour but does less inside the tank, while HEAT ignores range falloff entirely.
Direct control of any unit
Pressing the direct control key drops you into first or third person on any selected soldier, gun crew or vehicle, where you aim manually and lead moving targets yourself. A human gunner in a StuG III routinely lands shots the automatic targeting would decline to take.
Individual crew and seat swapping
Tanks carry modelled commander, gunner, driver, loader and hull gunner positions, and a penetration only kills the crew sitting where the round landed. If your gunner dies the vehicle is not lost, because a surviving crewman slides into the empty seat and the tank keeps fighting at reduced efficiency.
Soldier inventories and looting
Each infantryman carries a physical inventory of weapons, magazines, grenades, mines and medical supplies, and runs dry if you never resupply. Bodies and supply crates can be looted mid battle, so a squad that started with Mosin-Nagants can finish an engagement carrying captured MP 40s.
Dynamic Campaign unit persistence
The Dynamic Campaign gives you an army group that carries between battles. Surviving squads accumulate experience, damaged vehicles need repairing rather than replacing, and losses are permanent, which makes a won battle that cost three tanks a worse result than a stalemate that cost none.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Driving a Tiger straight at a T-34/85 at close range because the armour looks better on paper
The Tiger's plates are flat and its turret traverse is slow, so a pair of medium tanks that get to its sides will kill it.
2. Playing entirely in top-down view
The automatic gunner declines difficult shots and will not aim at weak points, so leaving anti-tank guns and tank destroyers on auto throws away most of their value.
3. Advancing infantry across open ground without smoke or suppression
Machine guns pin a squad within seconds and pinned infantry in the open take casualties until they break.
4. Never checking soldier inventories, then wondering why a squad stopped firing
Ammunition is finite per soldier and the game will not top it up for you.
5. Treating Dynamic Campaign losses as free
Squads and vehicles carry over between battles, so winning an objective at the cost of your veteran armour leaves you weaker for the next three engagements.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Plate by plate armour penetration and Direct control of any unit
- Choose Soviet Union as starting build
- Clear The Siege of Sevastopol main content
- Acquire T-34/85 or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Pavlov's House
- Angle your hull before you fire, not after. The armour model uses real thickness and impact angle, so a Panzer IV sitting at roughly 30 degrees to an incoming shot presents far more effective plate than one facing square, and that difference decides whether a 76mm round penetrates.
- Take direct control of anti-tank guns. The automatic gunner will pass on shots it calculates as unlikely, but a human can aim at a specific weak point such as a turret ring, a driver's port or the thinner side hull, which turns a refused shot into a kill.
Tips for New Players
- Angle your hull before you fire, not after. The armour model uses real thickness and impact angle, so a Panzer IV sitting at roughly 30 degrees to an incoming shot presents far more effective plate than one facing square, and that difference decides whether a 76mm round penetrates.
- Take direct control of anti-tank guns. The automatic gunner will pass on shots it calculates as unlikely, but a human can aim at a specific weak point such as a turret ring, a driver's port or the thinner side hull, which turns a refused shot into a kill.
- Assign one soldier per squad as an ammunition mule and keep him at the back. Machine guns burn belts at a rate that will empty a squad's supply in minutes, and a pinned squad that cannot shoot back loses its position regardless of how good its position was.
- Loot everything. Bodies, wrecked vehicles and supply crates all hold usable weapons and magazines, and a Soviet squad that picks up German MP 40s in a building fight is objectively better armed than it was when it started the mission.
- Dig foxholes before contact, not during. Infantry in prepared positions survive artillery and machine gun fire that would wipe them in the open, and the engineering time is only available before the enemy arrives.
- APCR trades explosive effect for penetration. Use it when a target's frontal armour is otherwise beyond you, and switch back to standard AP once you have a flank shot, because AP with a filler does far more damage to the crew inside.
- Watch which crewman died rather than whether the tank survived. A vehicle that lost its gunner still drives, and pulling it out of line of sight for thirty seconds lets a surviving crewman take the seat instead of writing off the whole vehicle.
- Use smoke to cross open ground rather than to hide after being spotted. Vision is blocked in real time, so a smoke screen laid ahead of an advance lets a whole squad reach cover, while smoke fired on top of a pinned squad only marks where they are.
- In the Dynamic Campaign, repair damaged vehicles instead of buying replacements. Repairs are cheaper, and a veteran crew that has survived several battles hits harder and panics less than a fresh one in an identical tank.
- Mine the road approaches even on attacking missions. Anti-tank mines cost very little, counterattacks almost always come down the same route your own force used, and a disabled vehicle blocking a narrow approach is worth more than the mine that stopped it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which factions are in the base game?
Germany and the Soviet Union, with the German Ostfront campaign and the Soviet Za Rodinu campaign. Finland comes with Talvisota, the United States with Liberation and Airborne, and Britain, Scotland, Canada and Poland with Finest Hour.
Is this a real-time strategy game or a tactics game?
Both, and you switch freely. You can play it top-down like a conventional real-time strategy game, or drop into first or third person on any single soldier or vehicle crew position and aim manually, which the game calls direct control.
How does armour damage actually work?
There is no hitpoint bar. Vehicles carry historical armour layouts and shells carry historical penetration values, so the game resolves impact angle, range and shell type, then applies the result to whatever component or crewman sits behind that plate.
Can the campaigns be played in co-op?
Yes. The historical singleplayer missions support cooperative play, and the game also carries a PvE Dynamic Campaign, Conquest, and multiplayer matches from 1v1 up to 4v4 across more than 30 maps.
Do I need the DLCs to play multiplayer?
No. Germany and the Soviet Union in the base game are fully playable in multiplayer and the Dynamic Campaign. The DLCs add their own factions, campaigns and unit rosters rather than gating the base modes behind a purchase.
More Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Guides
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Overview
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Best Builds
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Tier List
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Walkthrough
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Tips & Tricks
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Weapons Guide
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Combat Guide
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Boss Guide
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Maps & Locations
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Crafting Guide
- Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Classes & Characters
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