Strategic playbook

Three openings

Convoy economy, armored breakthrough, and coastal siege are the three reliable plans. You only get three building slots — pick a plan and commit.

1 — Convoy engine (Hub + Logistics upgrades)

Take the flank depot you can defend, leave a Maus on the drive home, add a Hub and a level or two of Field Logistics. Outgrow the enemy into armor and guns. This plan dies the instant Berliets die — enemy flankers hunt them, so don't starve the road to look strong elsewhere. Protect each crate route and its 20-second restock window.

• Secure first: win the closest land depot, then park one Maus on the truck road before you queue the Hub — no lane, no economy.
• Time your Hub for when a truck is mid-delivery — the flat bonus lands on the next pay, and the third Berliet arrives just as the second depot flips.
• Research Field Logistics only while trucks are moving; the +18% per Logistics level is wasted if the road is contested.
• Keep a Workshop near a bend in the road — its burst heal on delivery tops up the escort that just took a shell for the Berliet.
• On Micro, a drained depot restocks one crate every 20 seconds; don't burn two trucks on one tapped depot — send the second to the next flank.

2 — Armored breakthrough (Plating → Ballistics, Workshop if static)

Plating to live through first contact, then Ballistics once you have mass. Attack-move toward the depot or building that matters, focus the nearest defenders, turn every won brawl into map pressure — flip the depot or pop the support building, then swing to HQ. A Workshop is the stay-and-heal pick if the front isn't moving.

• Attack-move as a wedge, not a clump — Form Line across the road, then focus the nearest defender that threatens your lane.
• Peel, don't chase: kill the AT or MG that counters your Maus first, then turn the won fight into a depot capture, not a map chase.
• Plating first if you trade face-to-face; Ballistics first if you already control the angle and need to convert windows into kills.
• Keep one Maus on Hold on a ridge — it won't chase a scout into a rocket trap while the rest pushes.
• Reverse-then-smoke with a hurt Maus lets the pack trade and back out; the smoke buys the half-second to break focus fire.

3 — Coastal siege (Radar before Pen, then screen)

Radar first when water matters — without it you can't see a submerged I-400 to counter it. Creep I-400s offshore near the enemy HQ at long range, focus the HQ, move after each surface launch — anti-air will answer if you linger. Keep nearby land with Maus or AT so the beach is unusable for the enemy — a single AT line can screen a boat counter while subs do the long, soft siege vs HQ.

• Sit just off the beach at max missile reach, focus the HQ, fire, then slide 1-2 tiles — firing surfaces you for anti-air.
• Never missile without Radar vs Radar: if they have Radar and you don't, your sub is visible and theirs isn't.
• Screen the beach: one AT line on land stops enemy boats from waddling in to kill your surfaced subs.
• Pen timing: subs drip every half minute — don't throw one away; pair the first two and sail them together.
• Boats can't flip buoys — use subs to flip, boats to kill the enemy sub trying to flip yours.

How to manage the economy — the 3 rules

Supply and tech are your economic engines, so every decision is spend vs save vs move. The island punishes hoarding and rewards flow.

• Never sit on 400+ supply for more than 10 seconds — an upkeep tax trickles away the big pile; spend on units, research upgrades, or build.
• One depot = one Berliet; two depots = two Berliets — splitting trucks avoids piling two trucks' claims on one starving depot.
• Route a Berliet to a salvage yard once your front is secure — tech is mandatory for army upgrades.
• Hub + Logistics 1 pays back versus a baseline truck in about seven deliveries; anything before the lane is safe is just expensive optimism.
• Stock is the limiter: crates return every 20 seconds (15s for salvage caches), so protect throughput, not just the flag.
• When in doubt, build presence over tech — a Maus holding a depot for 30 seconds earns more than Plating 2 you can't use.

How to attack — without throwing

Brightwater rewards attacks that turn a won fight into map control, not chase. Here's the checklist before you right-click the enemy HQ.

• Attack with a lane, not just an army: is a Berliet safe behind you? If not, you're feeding.
• Focus the counter first: see AT? Hit AT. See MG? Sting it with Aquila. See Maus? Answer with AT. Then take the depot.
• Use attack-move through ambushes (turrets fire on the move), direct move on clean roads — speed matters.
• Keep a reserve: one Maus or one AT on Hold near your truck road catches the enemy's counter-push — Veteran especially punishes an empty lane.
• Garrison before you siege: a ruin/town near the target gives your infantry 40% shell cover and a faster flip while your Maus do the heavy lifting.
• Roads are for repositioning, not brawling — you go faster but take a bit more shell damage on them.

Branching — your three support slots are the campaign's fork

Think Hub economy, Workshop+Radar brawl core, or Pen coastal plan, with Barracks/Boatyard/Drone Pad as the flex picks for infantry, boats and drones. Both sides share the same roster and the same big HQ; Sudden Death after twenty minutes decays both HQs by 5 HP every 6 seconds down to a floor of 1 while doubling depot capture bounties, buoy income, and truck deliveries. A small anti-hoard bite on piles above 400 supply nudges you to spend. Pick the branch that matches the lane you can actually hold, then keep a reserve — the classic loss is an empty truck lane right after you thought you were winning.

• Hub economy if you own and can protect a land depot — you outscale.
• Workshop + Radar if the fight is static and subs are out — you outlast and reveal.
• Pen + Radar if water matters — you outrange, but only if you also hold the beach on land.

Counters to remember

If you can't name the answer to the enemy's last buy, you don't need another Maus — you need the building that buys it.

• They spam Maus? Park Rotkäppchen AT behind a G11 MG screen (Barracks) — rockets love armor, MGs love the screen.
• They spam infantry? Launch Aquila (Drone Pad) — stings shred foot, or just splash them with Maus shells.
• They go I-400s? Radar first, then your own subs/boats plus HQ anti-air — reveal, then duel.
• They hug the coast with boats? AT on land + your subs underneath — don't chase with Maus into water.
• They play wide with fast trucks or Raiders? Garrison a depot for faster flip and tiny regen, and keep a Maus on the lane — hoarders pay a tax, truck hunters pay with their trucks.