# How to Play Hamburger Hill: Your First Campaign Battle > Hamburger Hill starts a campaign with New Game: read the first newspaper, pick Riverbend or the beaches, check your squad, then fight the battle in first person. This wiki covers the Wesware game only. It is not about the 1987 war film, the 1969 Battle of Hamburger Hill, the board games of that name or Antagonistic: Hamburger Hill, and UBG76 is not the game's developer or official site. Page: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/guides/how-to-play/ - Game: Hamburger Hill - Verified version: 0.8.3 - Verified date: November 2, 2026 Hamburger Hill starts its campaign with New Game. A newspaper sets the scene, Col Hard offers you two ways into the war and you then fight the first battle yourself in first person, with a 12-man squad. Between battles you spend money on recruits and end the turn. We played this way in the 0.8.3 Linux build on November 2, 2026. This guide follows the screens in order and points out the mistake that cost us our first squad leader. For the keys in one place, see the [controls table](/wiki/hamburger-hill/controls/). ## What is on the Hamburger Hill main menu? The main menu has New Game, Quick Play, Tutorial, Options and Quit, with Load Game added once a campaign exists. New Game is the campaign. Quick Play sets up single battles with your own rules, and Tutorial is a trench training range. If you have never played a shooter with squad orders, start with the Tutorial: it gives one order at a time, such as "Move up to the post", with the key to press under it. Before your first battle, open Options. The Gameplay tab sets Violence, which starts on High, the game speed, hit markers, camera shake and the art style. The Controls tab lists every key and has no Look keys for the keyboard, since you look with the mouse. ## What does the campaign map show? The campaign map shows Granovia, a made-up country, split into [12 provinces](/wiki/hamburger-hill/provinces/). The bar across the top holds five readouts: | Readout | What we saw on turn 1 | |---|---| | Turn | 01 | | Money | $126,672,125, with +$25M next to it | | Date | March 1976 | | Support | 148 | | Weather | Clear | The right side shows your army as portraits, with Recruit and Inventory buttons, and the targets you can attack. The End Turn button is at the top right, next to a gear icon that opens Options, Save, Main Menu and Quit. ## How do you start the first battle? Col Hard asks "What'll it be, Sarge?" and offers Drop on Riverbend or Storm the Beaches. We picked the drop. That opens the battle setup screen, where you choose how to go in and the time of day, then look over the squad. Each soldier has a role and a kit: a gear level of Light, Medium or Heavy, a primary and a secondary weapon, two pouches and two kit slots. The Leader box marks the man you play. You can leave the kits as they are for a first battle. Press Assault and answer Yes to Ready. ## How do you fight a battle? You play the squad leader in first person. W, A, S and D move you, the left mouse button fires, the right button aims down the sights and R reloads. G throws a grenade and X changes the grenade type. The HUD at the bottom shows your squad's faces, the time and compass, your grenades and your ammo as rounds loaded and rounds in reserve. Your squad follows orders from two keys: - **F** switches between "Hold here" and "On me". - **V** cycles the squad mode through "Hold your fire", "Defensive" and "Offensive". Every order shows in the log at the bottom left, along with news such as "You've been spotted" or a soldier going down. If your leader dies, you can carry on as another member of the squad. When we pressed Enter after our leader fell, control passed to the machine gunner. ## What did our first battle teach us? On an airborne drop you must press E to open your parachute when the screen says "[E] Open Chute". We did not, and our leader landed as Killed in Action. The [airborne guide](/wiki/hamburger-hill/guides/airborne-drop/) covers the drop step by step. We then left the battle from the pause menu, and it was scored as "Riverbend Lost": 9 of the 12 men were stamped KIA and Support fell by 60. Back on the map our army list was empty, and Col Hard said "We should recruit. We have no men left." ## What do you do between battles? Recruit, check your gear and end the turn. The Recruit screen priced each Rifleman, Machine Gunner, Medic, Radio Operator or Engineer at $5,066,885 and a Flamethrower at $15,200,655 in our game. The Auto button builds a balanced 12-man squad. Ours came to $60,802,620. End Turn moves the war forward a month. Our second turn opened on a new paper, The Stateside Herald, reporting that no paratroopers had come back and that the GPA had taken Red Clay Valley from the Warlords. Money went up by about $25 million and Support fell a little. Save from the gear menu before you try anything risky. ## What should you try next? Once the campaign makes sense, set up a few battles in [Quick Play](/wiki/hamburger-hill/modes/quick-play/). You can pick from 14 presets, change the weather and insertion, fight as any of the [three factions](/wiki/hamburger-hill/factions/) and try the five Squad Kit roles without paying for recruits. ## Which wiki entries support this guide? Use these entries to check the game facts discussed in this guide. - [Campaign](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/modes/campaign/): Campaign is the main Hamburger Hill mode, started with New Game: a monthly turn-based war across 12 provinces of Granovia where you spend a budget, keep public support up and fight each battle yourself. - [Tutorial](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/modes/#tutorial): Tutorial is the Hamburger Hill training course on the main menu, a trench range where on-screen orders such as Move up to the post walk you through the controls. - [Rifleman](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/roles/#rifleman): Rifleman is one of the six soldier roles in Hamburger Hill. The basic soldier. Our starting campaign army had 8 of its 12 men as riflemen. - [Medic](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/roles/#medic): Medic is one of the six soldier roles in Hamburger Hill. Carries the Med Bag kit. The 0.8.0 notes say medics can carry rifles from Medium rank. - [Riverbend](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/provinces/#riverbend): Riverbend is one of the 12 provinces on the Hamburger Hill campaign map of Granovia. - [Squad order](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/controls/#squad-order): Squad order in Hamburger Hill uses F on the keyboard by default and LB on a gamepad. - [Squad mode](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/controls/#squad-mode): Squad mode in Hamburger Hill uses V on the keyboard by default and D-pad left on a gamepad. - [Use](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/controls/#use): Use in Hamburger Hill uses E on the keyboard by default and Hold X on a gamepad. ## What else do players ask about how to play Hamburger Hill? ### Should I play the Hamburger Hill tutorial first? It helps. The Tutorial button opens a trench range with step-by-step orders, starting with moving up to a post, so you learn the keys before a real battle. ### How many soldiers do you start with in Hamburger Hill? Twelve. Our starting army had 8 riflemen and one each of the Machine Gunner, Medic, Radio Operator and Engineer roles. ## Which other guides can help you play? 3 more guides cover Hamburger Hill. - [Hamburger Hill Airborne Drop: How to Open Your Parachute](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/guides/airborne-drop/): On a Hamburger Hill airborne drop you wait for the green light, walk out of the plane and press E when [E] Open Chute appears, or your soldier lands Killed in Action. - [Hamburger Hill Download: Free Builds for Windows, Mac and Linux](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/guides/download-and-install/): Hamburger Hill downloads for free from Wesware's itch.io page as a zip for Windows, macOS or Linux of about 375 to 405 MB, and it has no browser version. - [Which Hamburger Hill Game Is This? The Wesware FPS Explained](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/guides/which-hamburger-hill/): The Hamburger Hill game this wiki covers is the 2026 single-player FPS by Wesware, set in the fictional country of Granovia, not the 1987 film or any board game. [See all guides](https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/guides/) ## Which sources support this page? UBG76 play test of the 0.8.3 Linux build and Hamburger Hill on Wesware's itch.io page support this page, verified against version 0.8.3. - UBG76 play test of the 0.8.3 Linux build A new campaign played through turn 1 and into turn 2, offline, on November 2, 2026. - [Hamburger Hill on Wesware's itch.io page](https://weswaregames.itch.io/hamburger-hill) ## Start - Hamburger Hill Wiki: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/ - Game modes: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/modes/ - Weapons: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/weapons/ - Soldier roles: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/roles/ - Factions: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/factions/ - Quick Play maps: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/maps/ - Quick Play settings: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/quick-play-settings/ - Campaign provinces: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/provinces/ - Controls: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/controls/ - Options: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/hamburger-hill/options/ - Game wikis: https://ubg76.uk/wiki/ - All games: https://ubg76.uk/games/