Desert Storm can be best described as 40 minutes of mayhem. There are four buildings on the left and four buildings on the right, all of which are available at the very beginning. 10 minutes later the three center buildings open.
The object of the game is to occupy and hold as many buildings as possible to score points. Obviously the team with the most points wins the game. Individual points toward individual rewards are scored through attacking and killing your opponents.
It is important to understand that the game provides you with a full regiment of the best troops you can produce. Your "real" troops are not part of this battle and what you had before Desert Storm you will still have after Desert Storm has ended. So there is no risk at all, and the rewards for this event are the best in the game.
The following is a full-screen map, the important items of which will be described afterward intended as a quick start guide for familiarity.
Examining this screen should reveal everything you need to know about the Desert Storm event. We sill start at the very top and work around the screen clockwise.
The number of troops we currently have. This number will go down as battles ensue. You can heal with healing speedups or if your team has captured and continues to hold Hospital buildings then they will auto-heal slowly over time, but you must then collect them.
The number of Diamonds you have to spend. If you spend any Diamonds during the event you will lose them permanently when you return to the regular game.
The blue left side of this scoreboard is always your team, regardless of which side your team is on. Up top is the actual current score. Below that, on the extreme left and right is the rate of scoring based on what buildings your team is currently holding. Moving inward toward the center, the numbers next to the little person icon is how many people you have in the event at the moment. And dead center is the time left in the event. If you tap on this score banner options such as the ability to leave the event will appear. WARNING: if you leave the event for any reason you cannot get back in. So if you want to make room for a backup to get in to get rewards for being in the event know that you cannot later swap back in.
This miniature map enables you to quickly jump to various areas. The miniature green house on the right center is the Safe Zone for one team and there is another on the opposite side. Of greatest importance are the four little house symbols with the plus sign + on them. Those are the four Hospitals and the key to winning the battle. The way we do it, you will be assigned to initially go to one of the four Hospitals in order to take it and hold it. This way, as fighting ensues and you hold all four Hospitals, the other team will run out of troops while yours are slowly replenished. Naturally the other team will want these Hospitals as well and at the beginning these four buildings will be the focus of the battle at the beginning. In general it seems best to take a building with your second squad so your first squad remains available to fight with.
Lastly with this tour of the interface, we see three items. Up top is a button to collect your auto-healed troops. If there are any, they will be added to your available troops. In the center is the heal button: be very careful with this as you might inadvertently trigger healing all of your troops at once and the only way to get them will be with healing speedups that you will lose from your real inventory. Some people buy these healing speedups exclusively for the Desert Storm event -- otherwise, avoid this center button. On the bottom is the teleport button. It will tell you how much time you have to wait until you can teleport, generally a two-minute countdown timer from the last teleport. Know that after teleporting you are stuck there for two minutes! If you have difficulty teleporting during the battle, tap this button to make the teleport possible.
Hopefully this rough draft helped you get up to speed somewhat. Nothing can truly prepare you for the all-out battle that is Desert Storm. It is a fun event rich in rewards that can help you get over the fear of just digging in your heels and fighting until you run out of troops. If you do run out of troops, "perish" the thought, you can call in a backup or you can continue to jump into battles and scout your enemies relentlessly trying to draw fire to yourself so your teammates can take care of business.