Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront: Complete Guide

How to survive and win in Gates of Hell: the Men of War-style micro that sets it apart from other RTS games, Conquest (the dynamic campaign) after the big 2026 AI rewrite, the DLC lineup, and the habits that keep your tanks and squads alive.

Researched September 2026 — current as of Update 70 (v1.066.0, September 21, 2026) and Hot Fix 1 (v1.067.0, September 24, 2026), with the Poland DLC "First to Fight" and free Content Update 7 announced. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

What Kind of Game This Is

Gates of Hell is a WWII RTS from Barbedwire Studios and Digitalmindsoft, the spiritual successor to the Men of War series. It covers the Eastern Front (June 1941 to May 1945) in the base game, with more fronts in DLC. Every soldier has an inventory, every tank has modeled armor and internal components, and you can take direct control of any unit, including first-person gunner views in vehicles.

Modes:

• Single-player campaigns: 12 historical missions in the base game, all playable in co-op.
• Conquest: the dynamic campaign, solo or co-op. Build a persistent army group, research units, and fight a changing war.
• PvE and PvP skirmish: maps from 1v1 to 4v4, with Doctrines that define your special units and a chosen war stage (Early, Mid or Late).
• Editor and Steam Workshop: a full editor and mod support.

Quick Start

1. Play the first campaign missions and a Conquest on easy before multiplayer. Micro is unforgiving and the AI will teach you.
2. Pause often in single-player. Queue orders during pause; it's how most players handle the micro.
3. Line of sight rules everything. Units only see what they can actually see. Scout with infantry before sending tanks.
4. Armor is simulated. Frontal armor on heavier tanks can shrug off small guns. Flank for side and rear shots.
5. Infantry stay behind cover. Crawl, use buildings and trenches. Standing in an open field gets squads killed by one machine gun.
6. Keep ammo and repair near the front. Supply trucks and engineers keep your army fighting. Every unit's inventory is real.
7. Use direct control for key shots. Taking control of an AT gun or tank to aim at a weak spot is often the difference.
8. Preserve veterans in Conquest. Your army persists; experienced units are worth more than new ones.
9. Engineers win defensive battles. Mines, obstacles and foxholes turn a weak position into a fortress.
10. Join the official Discord if you want co-op partners; the developers link it from every announcement.

Core Mechanics

Views and control

• RTS top-down: the classic view, select and order units.
• Third person / direct control: control a single soldier or vehicle yourself.
• First person gunner view: for vehicle weapons, aim precisely at armor weak spots.

Switch instantly. A good habit is to run the battle top-down and drop into direct control for tank duels and critical AT gun shots.

Infantry

• Stances matter. Prone soldiers are much harder to hit and harder to spot.
• Inventory: every soldier carries specific ammo, grenades and tools. Resupply from boxes, trucks or dead soldiers.
• Squads and specialists: riflemen, machine gunners, AT troops with rifles, grenades or launchers, snipers, medics, engineers and more.
• Buildings and trenches provide strong cover but can be demolished by HE.
• Bayonets and melee exist, but charging across open ground is suicide.
• Smoke blocks sight lines; use it to cross open ground or to blind an enemy tank.

Vehicles and armor

• Realistic armor and ammunition. Each vehicle has an accurate armor layout and historical ammo loadouts. Penetration depends on the shell, the angle and the range.
• Internal components are modeled. Hits can knock out the engine, tracks, gun or crew instead of destroying the tank.
• Crews can bail and be replaced. An abandoned vehicle can be recovered and recrewed by any friendly infantry.
• Repair broken tracks and components with engineers or crews carrying repair tools.
• Ammo types: load AP against armor and HE against infantry and guns. Switch manually when needed.

Artillery and air support

• Off-map artillery and airstrikes are available depending on mode and doctrine.
• Mortars and field guns are your counter to entrenched infantry and guns.
• AA guns protect against enemy air support; in the latest Conquest, the enemy bot evaluates airstrikes against your forward zones.

Engineering

• Mines: land mines and magnetic mines. Anti-tank mines on roads and chokepoints stop armored pushes.
• Obstacles and wire: channel enemy movement.
• Foxholes and trenches: dig in on defense.

Conquest (Dynamic Campaign) in 2026

Conquest is the game's most popular mode and got a major AI rewrite in Update 70 (v1.066.0).

How it works

• You build and maintain an army group that persists between battles.
• Operation day advances the war and changes what equipment is available.
• You spend command points (CP) and money on units and research.
• Each battle is an attack or defense across a large collection of maps.
• Campaign length can range from short to unlimited.

What changed in Update 70

• Difficulty now scales enemy quality, not just quantity. Easy leans on older, lighter equipment; the highest difficulty (heroic) favors the best available gear for that nation and operation day. These are weighted preferences, so any unit can still appear, and rare equipment stays rare.
• Weight class (Light/Medium/Heavy) is gated by difficulty, strongest on tanks, then self-propelled guns, vehicles and towed guns. Infantry isn't affected.
• Force size is governed by the bot's own purchase logic, not your army value. The old exploit of bringing a few cheap units to starve the enemy of money is gone.
• Enemy attacks come in waves. Early waves act as reconnaissance and later waves grow larger. The bot measures how much of the previous wave is still fighting before sending the next.
• Defenders have garrisons around objectives, can counterattack after losing ground, and will retreat if all objectives are captured.
• Battle force identities: a battle may center on infantry or armor with smaller supporting elements.
• Netcode bandwidth optimizations for smoother co-op.

Hot Fix 1 (v1.067.0) fixed audio volumes for the StG 44 and SMGs, inventory stacked-item transfer in multiplayer, and missing overhead icons, and added a Conquest template (in MODS, then TEMPLATE) so modders can upgrade old Conquest maps to the new bot format.

Conquest tips

• Recon first. With waves now starting as reconnaissance, kill scouts before they relay your positions.
• Build a balanced core. A few veteran infantry squads, an AT gun or two, a medium tank platoon, and engineers.
• Retreat damaged units. Losing a veteran tank crew hurts more than losing a battle.
• Scale difficulty to your army. Since difficulty now changes enemy quality, heroic will field top-tier armor for the operation day.
• Defense is a prep game. Place mines and AT guns on the approaches before the first wave arrives.
• Collect from the battlefield. Abandoned enemy guns and vehicles can be captured and used.

Multiplayer and Skirmish

• Doctrines let you choose special units that fit your style.
• War stage (Early, Mid, Late) sets which equipment is in play.
• Maps range from 1v1 to 4v4, with 30 PvE and PvP maps in the base game.

Tips:

• Don't over-invest in a single heavy tank; a lost heavy can decide the game.
• Keep AT options spread across your force.
• Scout with cheap units, commit expensive ones only once you see the enemy.
• Play PvE co-op against the AI before ranked PvP.

The DLC Lineup

The Complete Edition bundle (often 75% off in sales, with an extra 10% bundle discount) contains:

Together the bundle includes over 1,000 tanks and vehicles and over 90 single-player missions and skirmishes, all playable in co-op.

Coming next

• First to Fight (paid DLC): Poland as the next faction. Its single-player campaign has 11 missions, playing as Polish, Soviet and German forces, plus 2 skirmishes. Polish cavalry is designed as mobile troops who dismount to fight, not as melee units.
• Content Update 7 (free): updates many original Ostfront environment assets to the newer visual standard and brings one of the largest Conquest updates yet.

Check the official news for release dates.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Moving tanks without infantry. Hidden AT guns and AT infantry will kill them.
• Showing your side armor. Face the enemy with your front plate and use hull-down positions.
• Leaving AP loaded against infantry, or HE loaded against a tank.
• Forgetting ammo. Units running dry at the key moment is the most common way to lose a won fight.
• Clumping infantry. One mortar or HE shell wipes a clustered squad.
• Ignoring abandoned vehicles. Recrew and repair them; they're free units.
• Playing heroic Conquest with a fresh army. Start lower, build veterans, then raise it.

Advanced Tips

• Aim at weak spots in direct control. Lower hulls, turret rings and sides are where many shells penetrate.
• Knock out tracks first against tanks you can't penetrate from the front, then flank.
• Use smoke aggressively. It's your best tool for crossing open ground or relocating AT guns.
• Chain your defenses. Mines at the approach, AT guns behind cover with a clear lane, machine guns covering the infantry route.
• Loot the battlefield. Take weapons, grenades and ammo from the dead; capture enemy guns.
• Use pause in single-player to line up simultaneous actions: smoke, a flank move and an AT gun reposition all at once.
• Mod and create. The editor and Workshop are strong; many players spend as much time in community content as in official campaigns.

FAQ

Is Gates of Hell hard for RTS newcomers? It's more demanding than typical RTS games because of the micro and realistic ballistics. Start with campaigns on easy and use pause liberally.

What is Conquest? The dynamic campaign mode. You build a persistent army and fight an evolving war across many maps, solo or co-op.

Which DLC should I buy first? If you like the base game's Eastern Front, Scorched Earth or Talvisota; for Western Front content, Liberation or Finest Hour (the Commonwealth). The Complete Edition bundle is the best value during sales.

Can I play the campaigns in co-op? Yes. All single-player missions, and Conquest, can be played in co-op.

Is the game still being updated? Yes. Update 70 landed in September 2026, with a Poland DLC and a large free Content Update 7 in development.

Are mods supported? Yes, with a full in-game editor and Steam Workshop support.

Sources

• Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront on Steam
• Complete Edition bundle on Steam
• Finest Hour on Steam
• Steam news for Gates of Hell (Steam Web API)