Infantry, ranks

When you first start playing for a side, you're only a Private. This limits your choice of units. To gain ranks, you need to complete missions. The higher priority a mission is (1 is highest, 3 is lowest) the more experience is gained. Extra experience is gained for kills and captures, though no one knows the exact amounts. In order for a mission to succeed as infantry or a truck, all you need to do is survive 10 minutes and RTB - return to base. This means despawning within the vicinity of a friendly depot or army base. All other units need to get a kill, and then despawn after the 10 minutes. Bombers can settle for simply dropping their bomb load and returning after 10.

Upon reaching Corporal, most units in the game become available, and Lieutenant makes all of them accessible. Keep in mind that these ranks need to be reached not only for each army (French, British, German), but also each service (naval, air, ground). So just because you're a French ground general and a British air colonel doesn't mean you get to pilot the Type 1934 destroyer on the German side. Also, once Lieutenant is reached, you can post priority 3 missions. These aren't going to gather much attention but are useful nonetheless. However, posting missions isn't a beginner concept and thus beyond the scope of this guide.

Infantry

Infantry are the core of the game. Most players play as infantry; they're necessary, they're vital. Infantry make the best scouts, they're quiet, hard to spot and can easily take cover. They're the only ones that can capture facilities, they're the best units to infiltrate towns and strike from within, they're necessary to root the enemy out.

Infantry controls are basic. WASD keys move the infantryman around, buttons 1-5 select weapons, 0 selects binoculars (available upon reaching captain rank). Q and E turn the head about 60-70 degrees left and right, respectively. Shift runs, 'n' makes the mouse move only the head. V puts an infantryman in prone position and F in crouched. T toggles between the standard jog and walking. Keep in mind that an infantryman makes a lot of noise while jogging, so if you're sneaking up to a tank to sap it, use crouched or even prone (if you're worried about being visually spotted).

Riflemen are the most basic infantry in the game. They're cheap, expendable, and always what you should spawn in as if you're not sure of the status of the town. Rather than spawning a tank in a forward base or army base that's potentially been camped and thus losing it, a rifleman is the best choice because he is expendable. Once you're sure it's safe, or something else is needed, pick another unit. Riflemen carry 100 rounds of ammunition for their rifles, 2 high explosive grenades (watch it, they're really powerful), 1 smoke grenade, the all-but-useless knife (every infantry has one), and the ammo pack which replenishes the primary ammunition for whoever you give it to. Save these for light machine gunners, because they're always running short. Submachine gunners and Sappers are good choice for the ammo pack as well.

Rifleman