Gameplay Overview

Dust Front RTS is a single-player strategy game that plays out on two connected layers: real-time battles where you build a base and command an army, and a turn-based global map where you manage territory, economy, and technology. This page explains the overall loop and links out to the systems behind it, including Base Building and Resources, Units and Armies, and The Global Map.

For the wider context of the world you are fighting over, see World and Setting.

The Two Layers

Battles are fought in real time. Strategy is decided in turns. Each layer changes the other: what you research and capture on the global map shapes the forces you bring into a fight, and the outcome of each fight shapes the territory and resources you hold.

Building Your Force

In battle you establish a base, gather resources, and assemble an army for the situation at hand. You raise factories to produce vehicles, facilities to refine minerals, and barracks with storage; every building also has weight on the global map. Full details are on the Base Building and Resources page.

Your arsenal spans tanks, aviation, infantry, and vehicles of various purposes. You can lead careful strategic maneuvers, overwhelm the enemy with cannon fodder, or pound entrenched positions with carpet bombing. The unit roster and how troops carry over between battles are covered in Units and Armies.

Asymmetrical, Outnumbered Battles

A defining feature of Dust Front RTS is the asymmetrical fight: you frequently face an enemy superior in both number and strength. Victory comes from smart maneuvering and the right composition rather than from matching the foe head-to-head. The challenge is built around the campaign and its forces, not other human players.

Battles run on clear win and loss conditions. A recurring rule is that if all of your buildings are destroyed, you are defeated, which makes base defense as important as offense. Mission objectives can task you with destroying enemy factories, warehouses, watchtowers, or mutant incubators, or with holding a position.

Procedural Missions

Missions combine handcrafted goals with procedural map generation and external rules, so the terrain and the shape of each engagement vary from one battle to the next. Paired with the non-linear campaign, this keeps repeated playthroughs from unfolding the same way.

Technology and Progression

Between and during campaigns you advance through technology branches that unlock new units and buildings, then improve and equip them. Research is organized into doctrines and gated by your industrial development; the systems are detailed on the Technology and Doctrines page. At the highest level of the conflict, rare faction superweapons can reshape the strategic situation, as described under Superweapons.

Planning on the Global Map

Above the battles, the global map is where you measure the value of your power. Mining and production within territories feed a strategic economy, captured regions generate events you take part in, and your troops gain ranks as veterans you can redeploy. Major actions resolve on the next turn, so you plan ahead and anticipate enemy maneuvers. See The Global Map for the strategic layer in full.