I bought this game because I remember playing its demo as a kid in the 90s so I wanted to refresh memories but I can't seem to figure this game out, even though I've read the manual. It seems as if the game assumes I am familiar with the tabletop game (which I'm not) or something, the mechanics are completely lost to me: what options are available to me, what's a mistake and what's a good move...

For example I'm not even sure what determines victory/defeat. It seems after a certain number of turns the fight ends. I can guess it's because of the points or there's a turn limit or both. But neither turn limit nor the number of points seem to be displayed anywhere.

And on the first map what am I supposed to do? The point marker (whatever its called) is right next to the orcs, they get it quickly and sit there shooting at me whereas I have to crawl my way up there slowly with my infantry through open terrain... 3/4 of my army is still alive and the scenario ends suddenly with a defeat.

Thankfully I've read that I got to screen my tanks with infantry, cause intuitively I thought it should be the other way round, as in shielding squishies with the "tankier" stuff. That's about the only thing I get about the game atm. Still I'm not sure how it actually works, the orcs can theoretically target whatever they want and forming a tight wall is impossible wit hthe limited number of squads, is it just about soaking opportunity fire or what...

Hi!

Victory is achieved when the opposing players morale reaches zero. For every unit you loose, your morale will sink. An for every objective marker you hold the enemy will loose 25 morale each turn. So it is important to secure at least one objective marker to even the morale drop.
The larger forces and stronger units you have the higher your morale will be at the start of a battle, your current morale is displayed on your right side of the screen bellow the mini map.

As for tactics, there are no easy way to explain how the game works but I found it effective to bombard the enemy with artillery and creep slowly ahead with my ground forces.

For the first mission i usualy load my thunderhawk with all five squads of marines and fly them across the river to hid in the bushes (cover to obstruct line of sight is a lot more efficent than screening with infantry). The predators will drive to the bridge and capture the first point turn one. While the whirlwinds will bombard the enemy at the second objective.

At turn two i will move my predators slowly towards the refinery while gunning down orks with priority on war buggies. The thunderhawk will then drop of the marines at the bunkers at the right hand side of the refinery and continue supporting them while securing the refinery.
And remember to always put your thunderhawk in cover before you end your turn, it is quite flimsy...

It may not be easy to pull off but should get your trough the intro mission. Another tip is to notice how the AI manage to stay one square outside your line of fire and hide behind any obstacle. I have seen tanks hide behind lamp posts!
Use this AI behavior to your advantage and herd them in to a trap, think that you are manouvering detatchments across the map, not individual squads.

Well, I guess thats enough text for now. Hope it helps a little bit. It can be quite a difficult game but realy fun once you figure it out!

Thanks!

I checked the manual with ctrl+f for victory points. The information is there, but it's quite hidden even though you'd think it's quite an important thing to know.

Actually I wasn't talking about the intro mission, my bad, I meant the actual first mission/territory from the strategic map. It's a huge empty space of concrete and my men are sitting ducks while orcs are shooting at me from near the victory point.

And how does opportunity fire work? Manual is, again, a bit vague. Do you have to save an attack? Or you can safely spend all your movement points as long as you don't attack? How many shots you get?

And the officer units, what's their purpose? Do they boost morale of units that are close or something? Cause seems that they are pretty worthless combat-wise, due to their limited range. And what happens if they die?

One mistake I made was that I was advancing from two sides, but in fact the distance for the left side was somehow shorter (isometric squares fooling with me :/ ) and I ended up having only half an army fighting the orcs while the other half was still on it's way for a few turns (even though visually they seemed to be about the same distance). Plus I accidentaly selected "one regiment at a time" mode that really screwed my movement with squads getting stuck behind squads from other detachments that I couldn't move.

This game's mechanics are a bit hidden and unexplained, even though it seems like it could be a bit fun once I get it down. The manual is a bit messy. I also bought Warhammer: Rites of War, and I figured it out in no time compared to Final Liberation, even though I haven't played Panzer General at all.

Sorry for taking so long too answer, I am away at work for three weeks.

I see, the first mission with the Imperial Guard. This one is a bit tricky, I usually put my troops in the chimera and line them up in front. Then I drive them to the edge of the area covered in concret and form a line with laasguns in front and rockets in back, then I just walk one step forward each turn and hope they actualy hit something. I dont grab their objectives untill they are mostly routed tough, and I keep the bombards hitting their warbuggies as these are a huge threat to the chimeras.
The thud guns on the other hand, not very usefull. I try to advance them up behind my infantry but they rarely get too see any action. As for troop transports, it may be usefull too know that troops that embarks first disembarks last, good too know so assault troops wont be disembarked behind rocket infantry. What difficulty are you playing? I just finished on medium and tried hard difficulty, but I cant seem to get past this mission on hard since my old tactic doesn't doo too well against that insane amount of enemies, my victory points will bleed dry long before the enemy is routed.

When it comes too opportunity fire you have too leave one shot unspent, even if you leave two shots they will still only use one for opportunity fire.

I think the officers reduces the suppression gained on nearby troops, i will have to do some reasearch on these in skirmish mode. The commisar unit isn't all that great since he along with a rhino takes one whole slot.
On the strategic map you could probably sell the thud guns and commisar and buy something usefull for the first mission but I am not sure if the troop selection is too good that early on.

On the strategic map you can right click on individual sqauds and sell them for some points or put them in reserves and transfer them to other companies were they could be needed. You may actualy put entire companies in reserve and transfer the to other regiments, this is quite usefull at times. But one regiment may never be smaller than one company with at least one detatchment.

I played the tabletop game back in the '90's and this videogame is not at all like the tabletop version!

I'm not going to dispute the advice given above, in fact fact I'm taking it on board myself!

I just wish the "Charge" "Hold" "Advance" and "Fire" markers were in play though. ;)

Sorry, that was a tabletop reference.

The OP is old but forgive me.. This same mission has me stumped on Easy. I'm trying the general tactics listed below. Each time my troops morale drops and they break even though I am pushing the Orks back.

Think I am not moving the infantry forward far enough to disembark. There are then too many Orks and the crossfire is intense, so morale collapses.

Another problem is that when I load my infantry before starting the mission I cannot see which company the Chimera belongs to. Clicking on the unit leaves a blank after the word "Company" at the bottom of the screen. So I have no idea how they are grouped and how to easily identify them later, so I can deploy my infantry with the rocket launchers in the back row as recommended.

Lastly, how do I make the bombards more accurate? I'm firing on 29-32% and still hitting about once every other turn.

Hope this helps someone else.

I've completed this mission after another try. The secret was to restart the game from scratch using the Turn for All Units rather than Turn by Company setting on the first screen. I had it on Turn by Company, and could not change it from within an existing game.

This meant that the Orks could field their units much more quickly than I could. They just run out into the open and start firing while I am loading my troop carriers and trying to deploy them. And also moving the useless Thud Guns (until up close) gave them another chance to mow down my infantry.

On Turn for all Units it was quite easy.