If you've played Kantai Collection (Kancolle) it's basically that but with guns. The reason why I mention Kancolle is because it's incredibly like Kancolle. It was originally developed and released in China in 2016 by MicaTeam during the height of Kancolle's popularity and so it was in many ways a revamped clone. The biggest change is the removal of the RNG-powered compass. No one likes Compass-chan. No one.  You build girls (in game terminology: "tactical dolls"). You have a bunch of different resources with which to build them with. You go on supply runs to get those resources. You have instant repair and instant construction. And then you use them to blow up other tactical dolls.

The story, or as much of the story as I was able to get through during the three days of the closed beta, involves a deep penetration recon by the girls of the AR team who belong to the Grifon & Kryuger PMC. Their operation goes awry and you, as the closest commander in the region, are tasked with their recovery. Your enemy are the rogue tactical dolls of Sangvis Ferri Industrial Manufacturing and they will do everything they can to destroy you.

So who is the target market for Girls Frontline? People who like both guns and cute girls (read: me). Your tactical dolls do everything cutely. Fight, reload, and pose after winning; everything is cute. They even die in an adorable manner.

This is Mosin Nagant. She's on a horse

The game is fairly free to play friendly if you have time or if you manage your resources well. Players willing to spend some cash have extra convenience if they buy additional quick builds or quick repairs. One of the most time consuming parts of the game are waiting for new tactical dolls to be born and after battles waiting for them to be repaired. You can, if you have enough resources, keep playing for an indefinite amount of time. Play your cards right with the daily missions and you'll gain more quick repairs and tactical doll construction contracts. You should never blow through the entirety of your construction contracts because that'll make doing the dailies of the next day that much more difficult.

You're going to be here. A lot

In between battles your tactical dolls will hang out in the dorms. They start out spartan with nary a piece of cardboard and some ammo cans to sleep on. I legitimately felt bad for them and wished I could do something but alas, that was not to be in the closed beta. A decked-out dorm will serve to make your dolls stronger so this is something you'll want to do when you can.

They're pretty happy, all things considered

This is your typical mission screen. You start with a command post that you must defend and deploy your echelons (read: squads) to destroy the enemy and conquer their bases. Along the way you will have to capture other nodes and heliports. The more heliports under your control means more flexibility and mobility for your echelon. All the while you're both fending off Sangvis Ferri and destroying their forces on the field.  When your echelons make contact with the enemy they'll automatically begin fighting.  You can to some degree move them around battles but this is only if you need to block an enemy from reaching your edge of the area (this is a loss) or if you need to swap the places of a damaged doll and a healthy one.  Your tactical dolls will, by default, retreat if they reach critical health.  Shuffling them around can keep them on the field for longer periods of time while keeping them alive.

There are a slew of different guns in game ranging from the 1911 and Glock to the M4A1 and M1918 BAR. That last one is a gift for players upon launch. She, alongside all the other Machine Gun girls, has a downside in that she eats ammo at a voracious pace. If you have enough ammo then a group of MGs will make quick work of most enemies though. Most echelons should have a balanced mix of SMGs and ARs.  The most powerful tactical dolls also have the longest build times. These are the ones you'll want to use instant construction on or, if you happen to be going to sleep, let build overnight.

Not having the most powerful girls should not prevent you from using the ones you do have though. All of your tactical dolls can be cloned upon reaching certain levels and will be a force multiplier on the field with extra health and firepower which means their normally low hp is not a liability. A lowly two star tactical doll with a dummy or two can be as strong as a higher ranked doll on her own. This is also where your extra tactical dolls will be used; a doll of the same kind can be used for the dummy in place of the scarce resources needed to make them from scratch.

_{Dummy link before and after. Notice the HP and combat ratings}

One thing I did notice is that the difficulty ramps up rather quickly. By the time I reached chapter three I was no longer mowing down the enemy and in fact was becoming outmatched. To be honest I had to cheese the last boss of chapter two by calling in some backup from a high leveled friend who had a slew of high ranked heavy-hitters. This is how the game slows your progress and in ways makes you consider spending some coin. Trying for higher ranked tactical dolls. Repairing faster so you can make another attempt at victory. This is the grind that you will find in all other mobile games and I'm sure With time I would have been able to either add more dummies to my echelons or build more high-rank dolls. 

_{Sometimes you need bigger guns in the form of friends}

So what should you focus on first? Building up your teams. You'll want at least one strong sweeper echelon that can seek and destroy the enemy and the others should be at least able to hold the line and defend your heliports and command post. Try to get a couple of four or five star tactical dolls with which to use as your cornerstones. Make sure to manage your resources well; they'll be used for practically everything so you'll be pulled in many different directions at once. Spare echelons can go on supply runs so even if you aren't actively using them on the field they'll still be useful. Keep building up your echelons and forming dummies when you can to keep your lesser ranked dolls strong until you can get the higher ranked ones.  If you don't mind spoilers the wiki has a great list of recipes and build times.  It does ruin the surprise of a new tactical doll but at least  you'll have your disappointment up front, right?  

_{Some of the high-rank tactical dolls I was able to get}

If Kancolle-with-guns sounds interesting to you you should definitely pick up this game. As someone who has been grinding Granblue Fantasy and Fate Grand Order this is a breath of fresh air and you can play as much or as little as you want. I'm looking forward to the open beta and have it installed already. Girls Frontline is currently available for download on iOS and Google Play. Visit the main site for the English version here.