Beginner's Guide: Your First Match

Before You Enter

Open openfront.io. We recommend creating an account first (to keep your stats and skins), then click Single Player to start your first match.

Recommended settings for your first game:

• Map: Europe Classic (familiar geography, plenty of chokepoints).
• Difficulty: Set every Nation to Medium, with 5 Bots.
• Mode: FFA.
• Options: Enable Peace Time, and disable nukes (uncheck Nukes).

Your First Minute In-Game

1. Pick a location: Click a flag on the map. Good starting spots include the French peninsula, Italy, or the Balkans — places with sea access and natural chokepoints.
2. Set the attack slider: At the bottom of the screen, set the Attack Ratio slider to 60-70%.
3. Spawn immunity: For the first 5 seconds nothing can hurt you — expand freely.
4. First expansion: Right-click a land tile next to your border to push troops into unclaimed territory.

UI at a Glance

Location	Number	Meaning
Top-left	Troops / MaxTroops	Current troops / cap
Top-left	Gold	Total gold
Bottom of screen	Attack Ratio	Share of troops committed per attack
Right-click empty land	Build Menu	Construction options
Right-click your own land	Radial Menu	Quick build and upgrade

Your First Building: City

Open the Build Menu and pick City (125,000 gold). Place it in the center of your territory, away from borders. Once built, your troop cap rises by +250,000.

Short of 125k gold? Keep expanding for another 30-60 seconds — your baseline income of 100/tick will get you there.

Your First Port

After your City is up, save another 125k for a Port. A Port must be placed on a coastal tile (the edge where blue sea meets your land). Once built, trade ships will spawn at random intervals.

Your First Defensive Structure

Watch where your opponents are expanding, then place a single DefensePost (50k) on the border where an attack is most likely. It will slow the enemy down enough for you to retreat or counter-attack.

A Half-Hour Debrief

Don’t worry about winning your first match. Afterwards, ask yourself:

• How much territory did you claim? Note your peak Tile count.
• Who did you ally with? How did the alliance fall apart?
• When did opponents start building nukes? How many SAMs went up?

Bring these observations into the Game Mechanics series, and your next match will improve dramatically.

Recommended Next Steps

• Basics: Spawning and Expansion
• Economy: Gold, Trade, and Population
• FFA Spawn and Early Expansion Guide