About Ash of the Front: A Dieselpunk Real-Time Strategy
Ash of the Front drops you into a forty-year war grinding through the Valley of Sorrow, the last pass to Calder — a city where the lights still burn. The Ash Corps holds the valley. The Rust Legion is coming through. Before every mission, Marshal Weyland briefs you from the top left of the screen, and the weight of that fictional dieselpunk world settles in fast.
Command companies of gas-masked soldiers, tanks, and artillery across a destructible landscape where shells crumble walls, houses collapse, and fire spreads through grass. Infantry goes prone, rushes forward, and occupies buildings to fire from the windows. Hundreds of soldiers can be on the field at once, and the chaos feels earned rather than decorative.
One scene shows craters and dark purple stains scattered across a dirt field lined with sandbag fortifications. In another, ruined grey brick buildings stand with empty yellow-lit window frames amid the combat area. A cemetery with grey headstones and a low black fence occupies the upper-left quadrant of one battlefield.
How to Play Ash of the Front: Follow Orders, Hold the Line
Every mission comes with a clear objective from Marshal Weyland — take and hold points, destroy batteries and tanks, or keep the enemy away from your HQ. Completing a mission earns tokens, which go into the HQ Arsenal to upgrade your army.
Campaign and Skirmish
- A 12-mission campaign spanning breakthroughs, last stands, tank battles, a raid with no reinforcements, and a citadel siege
- Skirmish on a random map
Theatres of War
- Mud
- Dead winter
- Mire
- Ash waste
- Fog
Weapons and Strikes
- Tanks
- Mortars
- Gas
- Air strikes
- Heavy artillery
HQ Arsenal
Tokens earned in battle fund army upgrades through the HQ Arsenal, letting you develop your forces between missions.
Controls
Mobile
- Tap a squad: selects it
- Tap the ground: squad runs there, firing on the move
- Tap a building: company occupies it and fires from the windows
- One finger pan: moves the map
- Two fingers: zoom
- All button: selects the whole army
- Line button: draw a firing line with your finger
- Halt button: stops movement
- Clear button: drops the selection
- Swipe reinforcement/strike cards (bottom): browse available cards
- Tap a strike card, then tap the map: calls the strike on that target
- Long press and drag: box-selects multiple squads
PC
- LMB: selects a squad
- LMB drag: box-selects several squads
- RMB: gives an order
- RMB drag: deploys a firing line
- RMB on a building: occupies it
- 1–0 keys: call reinforcements
- Z/X/C/V keys: call strikes
- WASD or screen edge: move the camera
- Mouse wheel: zoom
- Esc: pauses
Games You Might Like
If the tactical depth of Ash of the Front appeals to you, the broader strategy games collection on Playgama covers everything from base-building to real-time command, and the war games category gathers military titles that share the same gritty, conflict-driven focus.
For something with RPG-flavored army-building across historical eras, Age of Heroes lets you develop heroes and lead forces through castle sieges and tower defense battles. If holding a position against relentless enemy waves is what you enjoy most, Base Defense 2 puts you in charge of placing and upgrading defensive towers to survive each incoming round.