Invasion Machine – Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Basic Menus

Basic Infantryman’s Radial Menu

So for the most part when you select any soldier and right click; this radial menu will pop up with a number of options that you will use to command the soldier. Some of the specialists have their own unique options depending on their role but I will cover those in another section.

Tactical Menu

For lack of a better term, I will just call this. “Tactical Menu.” Feel free to correct me Invasion Machine! Anyway this will show you a bunch of useful information that I will cover in different sections of this guide.

Rules Of Engagements

This is the default settings for the rules of engagements. I haven’t changed a single thing and you can edit this of course at your own discretion. I will put my recommended ROE at the bottom of this image.

I personally use this setting but honestly edit the ROE to your liking. Whatever your playstyle is do you prefer to take prisoners and interrogate them. You can even render aid to enemies If you like. Obviously my ROE is pretty hostile.

Option 1 – Hostile If Carrying Weapons

Option 2 – Weapons Free

Option 3 – Hostile If Enemy Appearance

Option 4 – Weapons Free

Option 5 – Weapons Free

Order Of Battle Menu

This is a useful menu for keeping track of how many troops you have on the field and it has several filter options as well. It can tell you whose in combat and If they are in vehicles or not. If you click on the soldiers name, it will teleport your camera to him. If you click the double arrows next to his name on the right, it will select him.

Dispatch Menu

To deploy forces into the AO. Look at the top left of your screen and click “Dispatch Your Units To AO”

Click the desired vehicle

Once the vehicle is selected it will bring you to this menu.

From here you will fill the vehicle with whatever soldiers you have at your disposal. This is where you can edit their load-out. I highly encourage you to keep the unit perks in mind when giving them certain weapons. I plan on making a little section where I explain the unit perks to the best of my knowledge.

Buying Units

After accumulating enough command points which is the currency that allows you to buy units and build things. I believe it’s 60 command points that you need to be able to even purchase anything. When you have enough points it will show an option at the top left. “Buy Units Using Command Points.”

Currently I think the prices of units are going to be reworked so I won’t get into it until that is updated. The test branch and the actual game have different prices. All I can say is spend wisely, the more you play the game the better you will be at knowing what you need.

Relations with the Locals and Command

The game already pretty much tells you about this stuff but I will just give a quick summary.

First I will start with command. In my experience it’s easy to have command like you. Unless if your entire army gets massacred or something this shouldn’t be hard to keep positive. The higher their relationship with you, the better chance you have of getting better equipment from them. Just do their missions the best you can and kill the enemy. If you can do that effectively you should be okay.

Now the hard part is the locals. Its easy to ♥♥♥♥ up with them and hard to gain their trust. Keeping them happy is a pain. It will be a constant juggling of humanitarian aid and fighting your adversary. The more they hate you the more the civilians will offer aid to the enemy. To my knowledge I think they will tell the enemy where your units are, sometimes will sabotage your unguarded vehicles, and hide insurgents in their houses.

There is a drug trade in this game and I know you are supposed to disrupt it. However there really isn’t much for them to do until you help them build up business and provide them jobs. Until you give them another way that is pretty much all they have from my understanding. So I recommend focusing on providing security and building up social projects. which I will get to in a later section.

Basic Movement Controls

How to move

There are two ways to move your dudes.

1: The Pleb Way – You can right click and select “Move Here”. In the radial menu

2: The Chad Way – While holding shift and right clicking on the desired position you want to move to.

This way skips using the radial menu altogether.

Follow Him Order

To have a soldier follow someone. Select any soldier and right click on the person you want said soldier to follow.

Select Movement

Select Follow Him

تهانينا! He will now follow the interpreter!

Stances

There are three different methods to change your soldier’s stances.

1: Radial Menu Way – Select Movement on the radial menu.

Assuming your soldier is standing then you will see these two options. The options will vary depending on stance

2: Tactical Menu – Click the arrows to change stance

You can use the top and bottom arrows to change the soldier’s stance.

3: Hotkeys – The Chad Way

Press Z to stand up.

Press X to crouch.

Press C to prone.

As of right now you cant change keybinds yet. So you will have to use these default keybinds for now.

Tactics

So the tactics menu in the radial menu only has two options.

Overwatch Command

Overwatch is essentially putting your guys into alert mode. They will drop into a crouched stance and have their weapon ready. The moment they spot an enemy, they will quickly engage them. You can use this to set up an ambush or guard areas and people. There are two methods of doing this.

1: Radial Menu Way – Select Overwatch.

2: Tactical Menu – Click the button that looks like a shield.

Recon But Don’t Engage Command

This works similarly to overwatch but your soldier will go prone instead of crouching. He will not engage enemies unless if it’s to return fire. This is useful for a sniper if you want him to just provide you intel on hostile positions. To put your soldier in this mode, select this option in the tactics radial menu.

Outstanding! You now know the basic fundamentals of movement.

Specialists and Unit Perks

Specialists

So when you start the game, you will be given a sniper, medic, combat controller and a EOD soldier. These are extremely useful soldiers so use them wisely.

Combat Controller

For me the combat controller is a must have, since I hate taking casualties.

So just like you would any other soldier. Select the Combat Controller and right click. His radial menu will have one unique option.

The Combat Controller can call in an A-10 Strike or an Artillery Barrage. These are really the only two options you need as of now. He does have a bunker buster and I think a drone strike but it’s not in the game yet.

I used the artillery barrage the most since it’s the cheapest and fastest support option. It’s extremely effective and is pretty accurate regardless If your combat controller can see the enemy it will boost the accuracy of the fire mission. This is a effective way of dealing with large group of enemies or even countering enemy mortars. If you ever find yourself against crappy odds then the combat controller is your man.

Medic

Now we will move onto the medic, obviously he is the one that is gonna heal your wounded men. All of your troops are issued buddy medical kits but they aren’t really effective. They are mainly useful for buying time for the actual medic to get there. When your man goes down and assuming he isn’t dead from a direct hit from a rpg. (How most of my men die.) When you select your medic and right click on the wounded man you will be able to heal him.

Now there are two ways this can go down. He can either be critically wounded and need to be extracted immediately which means there’s nothing the combat medic can do to stabilize him. If your lucky and can get him back to HQ fast enough then he will live. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen for me very often.

Second is he is stabilized and also needs to be extracted but you aren’t racing the clock with him. When it comes to extracting the wounded, it’s best to use an ambulance humvee for this. Which to my knowledge is the only medical vehicle on this game and is also very expensive. If you cant do this then it’s best to move him somewhere safe until you can. Otherwise when you put him in a non medical vehicle he becomes unstable and can die.

Also important FYI the helicopter unfortunately isn’t considered a medical vehicle. It’s the fastest but anyone wounded you put in there will become unstable. That was an expensive and frustrating mistake. I hope that will change in the future or there will be a medical chopper or something.

The Sniper

I don’t really use the sniper too often other than recon or maybe trying to pick off an RPG insurgent. It’s not really worth buying him for how much expensive he is.

You can use him to take aimed shots which will one tap enemies which is a option in the radial menu. So how you would do it is right click on a hostile you want to kill then click on Engage/Detain

After clicking that you will see “يخطب – Take Aimed Shot.” You can do this with any soldier by the way but the sniper or a marksman will have the best results obviously.

The sniper will go into a prone position and line up the shot. It will take a few seconds but when he fires it should insta kill whoever he is targeting. It’s easier If hes not being shot at so try to be the one that gets the first shot off.

EOD Specialist

The man they call for IEDs.

Gonna be honest I don’t use him very often since I have only driven over one IED in all my time of playing and I didn’t even see it happen. So at the moment only thing I can say is If you see something sketchy on the road then use him to check it out. Invasion Machine If you see this, whenever you can let me know how the IED’s work and I will update this.

Anyway what I can help you with Is how to check for IED. So in the EOD radial menu you will see a option. “Look for IEDs here.”

Right click on where you think it is. Once that is done, a circle will appear and the EOD soldier will start looking for it. He should do it by himself but if he doesn’t then right click on the IED Marker and select. “Investigate IED Marker” in the radial menu.

Unit Perks

If you click on the selected soldier’s name it will display you their stats.

Natural Leader

Soldiers with this perk reduces combat stress to nearby units and are less affected by suppression fire.

هادئ

They are less affected by combat stress and receive less stress overall. Mean they can stay in the field longer without needing a break.

Marksman

Hand this man a DMR and he will start picking insurgents off. Of course they are great shots so you can’t go wrong with them. They perform better with aimed shots.

HMG Specialist

Make sure your M2 gunners are HMG Specialists. The more they rank up the deadlier they become on ma deuce. Stat wise They have a boost in accuracy and suppression while on the humvee turret.

Inexperienced Medic

This is a negative perk, I advise against using any soldiers with this perk to heal anyone. They are likely to make mistakes during the treatment process and can even kill their patients.

Squads

Squads are useful If you want to assign a group of soldiers together. If you have medics in the squad they will auto heal a wounded soldier. They will move as a unit and in a basic formation unlike a single soldier. If you need to move just one soldier in the squad; there is a option in the radial menu to move only the selected soldier. The option is called. “Move just him.”

To assign soldiers to a squad. Hold left click and highlight the soldiers you want to place into a squad.

When they are selected right click and click “Squad.”

You will see a option. “Create New Squad.”

For quick selection you can assign a group of solders to a hotkey by highlighting the entire group then holding left control and pressing any number from [0-9]

Here is a tip for squads. If you have given any of your units a m249 saw. Select the soldier with the m249 and In the tactical menu where it says “My Squad Role”

Should look like this. They will perform better with suppressing the enemy.

Threats You Will Face

Now that you understand the basics of the game. It’s time to face your adversary. It’s gonna be tough, it’s gonna be bloody and it’s gonna ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck.

Your enemy won’t always wear a uniform, they don’t always drive a “hostile” vehicle. They won’t always fight you head on.

Ambushes

Your adversary will strike you where you least expect it. They will be where you don’t want them to be. The insurgents will set up ambushes and attack the convoys you send out. Their ambushes can be unpredictable so be vigilant. They use a variety of different weapons such as AKs, PKM light machine and SVD snipers. I recommend moving troops on foot to explore new areas. Utilize high ground when possible.

RPGs

By far the most dangerous threat you will encounter are the insurgents with RPGs. They are accurate and their fire rate is fast. Do not send armed humvees after them. If you see them in a group of insurgents. Always target them first, the faster you kill them the better.

Mortars

Were you waiting for more? There mortar teams that will ♥♥♥♥ your day up if you let them. The way you find these a-holes is everytime they fire. A black cloud of smoke comes out of their barrel. Keep your eyes peeled for them. When you find them hammer them with artillery or send your soldiers to kill them directly.

Armored Truck With MG

Beaware OPFOR has armored vehicles with turrets too. This vehicle can take a beating and possibly kill your men If not dealt with quickly. I see these from time to time patrolling the roads. I advise taking them out with CAS or using your armed humvee with the fifty-cal supported by infantry.

Pickup With Rocket Pod

So this is a pickup truck with a rocket pod attached to it. I have only been attacked by these once but it’s what it sounds. They will launch rockets at you and it can get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ real fast If not dealt with immediately. I call CAS on these A-holes whenever I get the chance. I advise you do the same since If your guys get hit, no medic will be able to save them. Also don’t send your vehicles near them.

Snipers In Buildings

Sometimes insurgents will be inside buildings and shoot at your guys. They can either be snipers or dudes with aks. Best way to deal with them is have a squad or armed humvee suppress the building and move another squad up. You need to be quick here with this or your dudes will be sniped

Select your squad and click. “Garrison Here” Make sure everyone in that squad is selected and at the building or they will sit there and not go in. This can make them easy targets.

When they enter your guys will fight insurgents up close. I am unsure exactly how the fighting is calculated but I think the results are random. (Correct me if I am wrong) You win most of the time but I encourage you to have a medic nearby.

One last tip for buildings, when taking over villages; clear every single house to ensure no insurgents are hiding inside. If you get lazy with it then it will cost you one day.

IEDs Insurgents will place Improvised explosive devices around the map. Personally I have been lucky enough to not have to deal any of these yet. I don’t have any photos to provide here. From what I have discovered from the developers older message on the discord.

There are two types IEDs

1: Pressure Plate IED – These are placed on the ground and triggered by a contact plate. Meaning if you drive over or step on them. Your guys are gonna have a bad ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ day.

2: Wired IED – These are still hidden so you won’t see the wires. This one though will have a guerrilla hiding nearby with the trigger.

My advice is when entering a new area. Scan the area ahead and move up your guys on foot slowly first. Look for anything weird. There is no harm with using your EOD Specialist proactively. Try to think like them, where would you put an IED that would do the most damage. Anyway I will update this as I learn more myself.

Traffic Control

Traffic Checkpoints and Combat Wrecker Vehicle

So at some point, you will want some guys to set up checkpoints on the roads. I mainly do this to try and catch insurgents hiding in civilian vehicles. You can do this to disrupt the drug trade as well.

To view these options you need to select a soldier and right click on the road.

يختار “Traffic Control” in the radial menu.

It will give you three options in the menu. I will go over two out of three of the options below.

The one option I am confused about is. “Keep Civilians Away” I thought it would turn vehicles around and your solder would send them back the way they came. Developer let me know if you see this and I will update it.

1: Stop Incoming Traffic – Should you need to bring traffic to a halt for whatever reason. Use this command. Keep in mind if you do it too long then your relations with the locals will go down and you will piss people off.

2: Inspect Passing Vehicles. – Now if you want to stop and check the vehicles. يختار “Inspect Passing Vehicles in the traffic control radial menu.

The designated soldier will stop cars and will give you the ability to search if you think it’s suspicious.

When a vehicle is stopped this menu will pop up. If you aren’t watching the traffic stop than a notification will display on the bottom.

The more experienced your soldier is, the better he will be with determining what vehicle is a threat and who is just a civie. If sucks then you will have to go off your judgement with this one. If you search the vehicle it will piss off the locals as shown in the menu. I will usually search a vehicle if it’s like a truck with a bunch of people since more often than not for me. Its a bunch of insurgents in a cargo truck that are trying to get into my lines.

If you are wrong this menu will pop up and you will lose relations with the locals. So becareful next time.

Now if you are right and there are enemies in the vehicle.

When you proceed to search them. Assuming the soldier is correct, this window will pop up.

They will be removed from the vehicle and arrested. Unfortunately right now the prisoner system is a mess. When they are removed from the vehicle they just stand there and become unresponsive yet are still your prisoners. When you right click on one of the vehicles to put them in to transport them back to HQ, they refuse to comply.

So here you will have two options.

1: Dangerous Option – Right click on the insurgents and release them and your men will just kill them. However there is a risk they can kill you.

2: Kill them with an aimed shot and move their car out of the way since it was be under your control temporarily.

Invasion Machine or Experienced Players should you know a better way to this let me know and I will update it.

Hearts And Minds

Winning The Hearts Of The Locals

While fighting the war, you will also be a tasked with helping the locals through various ways. You can pay them off with command points, deliver them food and medicine. Building up social projects to provide them with “legal” jobs and stuff to do. Provide them with security by stationing soldiers around their houses. The more powerful you get and once you become the most powerful faction in the game, this will also increase relation because they prefer to support the winning side. I don’t pay them off personally, I just deliver them resources, provide security and work on social projects.

Now it’s time to breakdown how to do all this stuff.

Making Contact

After securing a village with your forces, send a interpreter to one of the houses but make sure he is guarded by at least one infantrymen. You have two options to either form a meeting which will bring everyone in the village at once or just talk to whoever is in that house. Just talking to them will give you information on their thoughts about your presence and who they support. It will also complete any missions command gave you.

Meeting Menu

The best way of getting a village to like you is to request a meeting. Hear them out, in the menu it will display their concerns and requests. Also how they feel about you. Scroll through the menu and it will sometimes show you a bunch of missions like. “Deliver them medicine.” Usually they want both food and medicine. I usually bring one truck full of both things and once I have completed the process of delivering it to them. Then I will go ahead and close out the meeting. Make sure to do all their missions before you disband the meeting. Assuming you have completed their tasks, after the meeting is concluded. You will receive many points in positive relations from them.

Also keep in mind the more they hate you and more support they have for the enemy. It will be much slower in winning their hearts. If they are hostile, there is a debuff to how much your missions do in making them happy.

How To Deliver Humanitarian Supplies.

So in the dispatch menu, select the 2.5-ton Cargo Truck and load up the truck with whatever HumAid supplies your missions require. After you drive the cargo truck to the desired village. There are two ways of delivering these supplies.

For this example it will be food but same concept for either resource.

1: Normal Way – Drive it as close as possible and select one or more soldiers, right click on the truck and click take MRE.

Once in hand right click on the desired building and select “Deliever Carried Item Here”

Now you just wait for your soldier to unload the truck.

أو

2: The Chad Way – Because ♥♥♥♥ waiting.

Park that ♥♥♥♥♥ right in front of the door. Close enough where your soldier will have room to squeeze in and deliver the carried item. Now if you do like I did in this screenshot. Your man will deliver all of the items within seconds.

Went from 19 MREs in the truck to 0 almost instantly. (Totally not a glitch. Don’t patch it please!)

Social Project

This one is pretty easy to set up. You will need load up trucks with construction materials and drive it to where the social project is.

With the truck selected right click and select. “Drop Item Construction Materials Into A Stockpile” and place it wherever is closest.

Select one soldiers or more and right click on the building and click. “Work On Opening The Social Project.”

Wounded Civilian

Sometimes they will bring you a dying civie and ask for help. One of your soldiers needs to render aid to him ASAP. (Preferably a medic.) If you wait too long then you will take a hit with your relations with them. Will say something like you ignored their cries for help. If you save him then it will give a decent amount of points.

Small Things You Can DoClean Up Bodies

You get a small amount of points for cleaning up the bodies. Overtime they will pile up along with cars.

Making Legitimate Arrests

When you arrest criminals it will make them happy. So when your traffic stops are going well then it should add some points to your rep.

How To Piss Them Off. (You shouldn’t do these things unless if you like chaos)Blocking traffic for too long.

Searching their vehicles or homes unnecessarily.

Searching their Political Leaders.

Calling missions near their villages.

Killing Civilians (God help you if a civie is killed from one of your fire missions.)

Not helping wounded civilians when they ask for help.

Failing their missions.

Closing Words

So that should be everything you need to know with understanding how to play the game. I hope it was helpful to you new players! As of this date there isn’t any other guides that will help you understand stuff. I had to figure out things as I played or whatever tips I could learn from the discord. I may do a guide on tactics in detail that could help everyone with any level of experience do better. Including myself depending on the feedback from other veteran players that chip in. I will probably reach out to everyone in the discord and gather some input.

Anyway as I learn more about this game and the more it’s updated, I will try to update the guide as quick as I can. I may do a shorter one that’s more concise for those who already have a good understanding of basic mechanics of RTS games.

Also this is a message to the developer. Love your game man and hope this helps new players understand the game better. Looking forward to seeing what you do in the future and hope to see this game become a full release. The concept is awesome and I love playing it even when some of the bugs can be frustrating haha. Keep up the good work man!