Why?

[Unkn0wn]

Video Tutorial: http://www.moddb.com/mods/8627/europe-in-ruins/videos/82744/europe-in-ruins-full-tutorial#imagebox

Be warned, this guide is outdated! Watch the video tutorial above for a more up-to-date walk-thru.

So, you've decided to give Europe in Ruins a shot...  This guide will tell you everything you need to know about setting up your first company, creating battles, installing files, and playing the game.

Step 1: Registering
The first step to being able to play Europe in Ruins, is simply registering on the forums.  Once you are registered, you can register for the war control panel by using the upper left menu or by clicking this link: http://www.europeinruins.com/index.php?page=10

Now you will be asked to fill in some information, pick a side, a doctrine, and a name for your division.  Your division name should be numerical (ie, 123).  It will turn it into an ordinal and add your selected doctrine onto the end of it (ie, 123rd Airborne Division).

You will also have to select your preferred doctrine abilities.  You can hover you mouse over the dotted-underlined text to get a brief description of each ability.

Step 2: Your First Company
Now, it's time to create your first company.

From the War Control Panel click the Company and Squad Management link.

Click the 'Commision another company.' link at the top of the page.  You will then be asked to type in a name using A-E as the first letter.  The first letter is included when you submit so if you type 'ble' into the box with 'A' select in the drop-down, your company will be named 'Able'.

Now select your starting resourced.  Using the three settings below.  Each time you increase a resource, it increases by 15% but the other two drop by 8% each.  You may only increase three times maximum.  Sometimes the default resources are the best.

Now click Submit, then click Back To Company Summary.

Finally, click the name of the company you just created.

Squad Purchase
First, click Purchase Squads at the top of the screen.  You will get a screen similar to the following:



Simply enter the amount of units you wish to purchase of a certain unit type in the blank box next to their names, you will also see the unit's cost displayed. Keep in mind that you have limited resources, so some units may not be available for purchase as you might lack the needed resources.  Also, some units are only available to selected doctrines (the one you chose when you signed up for the war control panel).

Once you have the values you want, click Submit, then on the next screen click Submit again to finalize your purchase after you have reviewed your selections.

When you feel good about the composition of your company, move on to purchasing upgrades.

Upgrade Purchase
Click Purchase Upgrades at the top to access the upgrade purchase screen.

Each of your units purchased in the previous step that have buyable upgrades will have drop-down boxes next to them.  You can only purchase one upgrade at a time for each squad.  Select the upgrades you want and click Submit.  Once you confirm your selections click Submit one more time to finalize the purchase.

Take care to note how many munitions you may need for the ability in game, so don't overspend.  You will also want to save some munitions for doctrine abilities.

Now it is time to move on to platoon management.

Platoon Management
The final step to getting your companies from the website to the game is to organize them into platoons.  Platoons are groups of units which make it easy to call in your troops inside Company of Heroes.

Currently, you must have a minimum of 8 pop-cap in each platoon.  There are 6 categories of platoons and 8 groups in each category.  You are free to use the categories as you see fit, we simply named them into groups that we thought were relevant.

The categories are: Core, Assault, Infantry, Armour, Anti-Armour, Support

To assign a squad to a platoon, simply click on the category name which will expand the 8 groups.  Then drag them from the unassigned area into the specific box.  If the box is red, then you either have too many or not enough units (PopCap) assigned to that group.  When you are finished assigned all your squads, click Submit.

Example


First platoon has too much pop. (4x12 = 48)
Second platoon has too little pop. (6)
Third platoon is good. (2x6 = 12)
Fourth has too little pop. (2x3 = 6)
The fifth and sixth are good.

If for some reason, the platoon management system doesn't work, you may click the link at the top that says " You can also use the older platoon management, which doesn't require javascript."  With this system, you will see a list of all your units with 2 drop-down boxes beside them.  The first is group position, the second is the category.  For example, if you want your Mortar team to go to 1st Infantry, simply select 1 in the first drop-down box and Infantry in the second drop-down.  Press submit to save your platoon configuration.

You must assign all your units to platoons if you want to be able to use them in-game.

Also note that airborne units only drop into battle when they are in an "airborne only" platoon.  Meaning the group is comprised of only Airborne and/or Airborne AT.  If they are mixed with other units, they will spawn normally.

When you are done, click the "Back to Company Summary" to see a summary of your units, their upgrades, and their platoons.

You are now ready to get your company into a battle.  Click the Control Panel Home link.

Step 3: Installing the Mod
Before you can actually play any battle, you must download the latest version of Europe in Ruins first. All you need to do is download the latest version: http://www.europeinruins.com/releases/EIR_Setup.exe

After downloading, run the installer to your main Company of Heroes file.

Note that from here on, the launcher will always keep your game up to date!

Step 4: Setting up a Battle
All that remains now is finding an opponent and setting up the battle.  There are generally two ways to find a battle.  Ventrilo and the "chat" function within the launcher.
 
After finding an opponent and arranging the match, one participant has to actually create the battle on our site or in the launcher (advised).  To do this you go to the Control Panel and click the Battle link.  Or when using the launcher click on "create a battle".

Select the game size (1vs1 -> 4vs4 max) and your company. (double check to make sure you're using a company you have created!)

Wait for players to join your game and once everyone is in, everyone needs to ready up.  The launcher will then proceed to automatically download & extract the battle files and ask you if you want to run "Europe in Ruins" to play.  If you are using the website, you will have to manually download & extract the battle files or use the given "battle id" to insert into the launcher.

Step 5: Time For Action
After having gone through the battle creation & download process you are now ready to play.  Ingame, the correct game will be amongst the only "white" games in the list, the other games (non-modded) should be greyed out.

If you are hosting, make sure game mode is set to "Europe in Ruins VP", also make sure the Relic Online profile you are using matches the Relic Online profile you have entered upon registering with the control panel. (Case sensitivity applies!!)  It's also important that if you are Axis on our site, you play Axis inside Company of Heroes, or vice-versa.

In-Game Basics
This video tutorial should tell you all you need to know about the in-game basics of Europe in Ruins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCkFRYPknx0

The Objectives
At the start of every game, the defenders have a setup time while the attackers will generally have to wait until their forces are deployed.

In the MCP mode, the objective is to hold as many sectors as possible, doing so will increase your popcap, allowing you to field more troops... and eventually decrease your opponents popcap (the gainrates on popcap will be shown at the top of the screen).  Whoever manages to push the other opponent off the map or annihilate his opponent wins.

Sectors are captured by simply moving into an unoccupied sector.  The more units you have in a sector, the faster it will turn.  Certain units can't capture sectors.

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask.  Most of the community is friendly and extremely eager to help new players get started!