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 Is there a new game announced? No. IntSys is still too busy making three Fire Emblem games in one to pay Advance Wars any attention. Wait, back up. What is Advance Wars? Advance Wars is the other turn based strategy game series by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo. Starting on the Famicom and seeing multiple Game Boy/Color releases and a Super Famicom remake, the series finally made its debut outside Japan with 2001's Advance Wars for the Game Boy Advance and the name stuck.  So, it's Fire Emblem: Modern Warfare? Not really. Unlike Fire Emblem, there's no RPG elements, units are not unique, the story exists mostly as an excuse to drive the gameplay, and everyone is expendable. To go into a bit more detail: COs: Commanding officers, or COs for short, are your named personalities. Unlike Fire Emblem, they don't get down in the mud themselves, but their effects from behind the scenes are quite important. For example, Max, a protagonist in the first three Advance Wars games, has stronger direct combat units, but flounders with indirect combat units. On the other hand, Colin's units are all cheaper than normal, but they also lose a bit of firepower. CO selection therefore influences your strategy heavily throughout the match. Units: Units in Advance Wars are not unique. Any tank hits just as hard as any other tank, ignoring CO bonuses. When a unit dies, they are of course removed from the battlefield, but most maps have deployment properties you can use to build new units as you need them. More powerful units, as you'd expect, generally cost more. Multiplayer: Fire Emblem is traditionally a single-player game relying on its story for content. Advance Wars, on the other hand, has had multiplayer ever since the Famicom, and it's always been a big draw. While all the games have fairly extensive single-player campaigns, high score "War Room" modes, and AI players that can play well on just about any map you can throw at it, the game truly shines in multiplayer. All the GBA and DS games support both system link and pass and play multiplayer, and the latter is intact in the Wii U Virtual Console releases. As for online multiplayer? See below.  Sounds great. Which game should I get? I'd say Advance Wars on the GBA is the best place to start thanks to its detailed tutorial, but all four of the main titles are quite good. Advance Wars is the first in the series, unless you're Japanese. It doesn't have quite as many COs or map gimmicks as later games, but there's still over a dozen COs, and its tutorial is the best in the series. It's available on the Wii U eShop for 8 dollars, or you can try to find a used copy on Amazon or elsewhere. Paul.Power did a Let's Play if you want some more details! Picking up where the first game left off, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising adds several new COs, new map gimmicks, and a higher tier of CO powers, but overall is just more Advance Wars. This is not a bad thing: it's often considered the best game overall. Also available on the Wii U eShop. Paul.Power did this one too. Advance Wars: Dual Strike moves to the Nintendo DS, and with it uses the top screen for tactical info at a glance. AWDS also introduces Tag Battles, where you choose two COs and can switch between them at the end of your turn... or if both CO meters are charged, execute a deadly Dual Strike, where both activate their CO powers on back to back turns, letting you move twice. By far the fastest game, Dual Strike is usually called the least balanced, but it's a heck of a lot of fun and probably my personal favorite. You'll have to find a used copy for this one. This one was LPed by Alkydere. Finally, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (or Advance Wars: Dark Conflict in Europe) totally left behind every existing character and the entire plotline for a new, darker setting. It also nerfed CO powers massively, arguably a little too much. It's notably better balanced balanced than the previous game though, and it introduces unit promotions to make losing a unit who has been with you most of the match sting a bit more than some fresh newbie. Its final mission is also probably the most difficult battle in the series. You'll have to find a used copy for this one too. Seraphroy graced us with a Let's Play of this one. So, I can play these online? Unfortunately, online support for DS titles ended some time ago. Fortunately, a fan stepped up and implemented an online play-by-mail style game! Advance Wars By Web supports all the COs and units from the first three games, quite accurately. It can at times be a little slow and finicky, but once you get the hang of using it it's pretty serviceable. There's also a tournament style Let's Play of this one currently active on the forums, come join in! 
Keiya fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Feb 3, 2016 |
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Jan 5, 2016 21:08
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How to use Advance Wars By Web Culled mostly from experience and this wiki page that might also help, here's a quick crash course on using AWBW. Registering This is the most intuitive thing, but there's a bit that will trip you up. After registering, you have to hit 'log in' and log in manually. Setting up a game Click 'categories' next to 'maps' on the side. Do NOT click 'create game', that drops you into a list with every map available in a drop down and is about as user friendly as DOS without a manual. You'll usually want to play on S-rank or maybe A-rank maps, they're the ones that the AWBW community has found to be most balanced and fun. When you find a map that appeals to you, click 'play on this map'. Set a name, and if you want a private game password. "Country" and "CO" are your own country and CO, and if you select tags "Tag CO" is your tag CO. The rest sets up the map conditions. You can usually leave them alone, but you might want to ban the COs Hachi, Sensei, Colin, Grit and Kanbei. They're usually considered a bit too good. Keiya fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jan 5, 2016 |
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Jan 5, 2016 21:09
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Keiya posted:
It really depends for Grit whether or not the map is an open space. As for other CO bans I'd recommend, Nell is on that list.
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Jan 6, 2016 02:29
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I know Advance Wars already, but am new to AWBW. How does it compare? Here's how AWBW's ruleset is cobbled together:
This is a bit of a weird hodge-podge that takes out the "less transparent, but quite useful balance wise" CO Power mechanics changes from AWDS, which means that infantry and artillery still rule the metagame (as opposed to DS's infantry, tanks, recons and Black Bombs). Recons and tanks still get a look-in though, especially for early-game harassing. It also means that there are a few weirdly overpowered (oh my goodness AW2-stats Kanbei) and underpowered (AW2-stats Jess  . Then again, AWDS Jess was pretty OP. But so was everyone else in AWDS...) COs out there.Other things of note: there are fourteen countries in AWBW, with nine extra countries added on to the familiar five. Yes, this means that games can be up to 14-player. Yes, these games are usually quagmires of player timeouts. Some maps also have glitchy black "teleport tiles" that started as a bug and became a feature: they allow cost-free transport along them, a bit like railways from the earlier Civ games. I am completely new to Advance Wars! (disclaimer: pictures are from AW1 - AWBW doesn't have cool in-battle animations. Sorry!) Combat  All units start with 10 hit points*. Units with no number are at full health, units with a number are at that number of HP (for instance, the 6HP tank in this picture). There are no armour or firepower stats, instead all encounters are abstracted with a big ol' damage chart (every 10% is one hit point). This damage percentage is then modified further by things such as CO abilities, terrain defence boosts and the HP total of the attacking unit (eg a 6HP has only 60% of the attack power) to give you an expected damage for your attack.  Direct combat between two units is resolved by the attacking unit shooting first, and then the defending unit counterattacking with whatever it has left. Indirect/long range units shoot from afar, and cannot be counterattacked (though they also cannot counterattack themselves). Capturing  Footsoldier units (infantry and mechs, as well as motorcycles in Days of Ruin) have the ability to capture properties on the game map. All properties start with 20 capture points, and a footsoldier removes as many capture points per turn as it has HP - so a full health infantry can capture a property in two days. Properties you own can heal your units for 2HP a turn, provide funds (typically 1000G per property per turn) to build new ones with - and of course, build those new units. Bases build and heal ground units, airports build and heal air units and ports build and heal naval units. Cities cannot build units, but can heal ground units. The single most important property you own is your HQ - if it gets captured, you lose. But hey, if you capture your opponent's HQ, you win! It's one of two ways to win, along with destroying all enemy units (Rout). Units Here are some of the more common units you'll be using. There are many others, but as a rule of thumb in Advance Wars by Web, cheaper units are generally more cost-effective and if you're in a position to build the more expensive units then you've probably won already.  Infantry (1000G). The bread and butter of most armies. Infantry move slowly and are weak in both attack and defence, but they can capture properties, board transports and they're very cheap to produce. So much so that even though they're weak on defence, pound for pound they're the best defensive unit in the game and are routinely used to "meatshield" your more expensive units. Think of infantry like pawns in chess: you want at least as many of them as all your other units combined, and where possible you should be building them from spare bases every turn rather than letting them go idle. Mechanised Infantry or "Mech" (3000G). Actually they're more like anti-tank infantry than mechanised infantry (since that implies some form of transportation), but whatever. Mechs are even slower than normal Infantry, but are a little more solid defensively and much more powerful attackers - their bazookas allow them to hold their own against small tanks and the like. Like infantry, they can capture properties and board transports. Mech flooding was the first cheesy tactic devised in Advance Wars, until someone eventually realised that, pound for pound, the best counter to mechs was infantry. Now we have to deal with infantry floods instead  . Light Tank or just "Tank" (7000G). Pretty fast, decent armour, packs a good punch against infantry and most light ground units. But it's not up to much against air units or its bigger tanky brethren - but then, you won't be seeing the big tanks too much in AWBW. Reasonably cheap and pretty versatile, making them a a mainstay of many an army. In particular, light tanks play a huge role in the AWDS metagame, managing to crack the stranglehold that artillery have there. They don't work quite as well for that in AWBW, but they're still usually a wiser investment than the bigger tanks. Artillery, or "Arty" (6000G). Artillery are the most basic long range unit, able to hit things two or three squares away from them. They pack a significant punch for their cost, and because they strike from a distance they're immune to counter-attacks. But they're slow, they can't move and fire on the same day, and their defence is paper thin. As a result, Artillery at their best at chokepoints, behind some kind of meatshield - either a heavily-armoured tank, or a large number of infantry. Another mainstay unit in high-level play, as they offer one of the best firepower-to-cost ratios in the game. Artillery are the reason why you don't see the larger tanks in play much - three artillery and four infantry (22,000G) will easily stomp a neotank (22,000G) with good positioning. For the longest time, infantry and artillery working together were considered unstoppable, but light tanks and recons are an effective counter under AWDS rules and can even be useful in AWBW provided you strike before the artillery player is set up. Recon (4000G). Recons are very fast units, but don't have much in the way of armour. They can take on footsoldiers and long-range units well enough, though - which makes them important harrassment units in multiplayer. As well as disrupting capturing infantry, they can force your opponent to deploy a tank earlier to deal with the recon when they might want to still be producing infantry to develop their economy. Recons also have fantastic vision ranges in Fog of War**, and are a must for good intel gathering in such conditions. Armoured Personnel Carrier, or APC (5000G). APCs can transport footsoldiers around the map (just as well, as footsoldiers are slow buggers. Getting an infantry-loaded APC to a key location as soon as possible is often the deciding factor in a game), and double up as supply trucks to keep your forces fuelled and armed. They carry no weapons (and infantry inside APCs cannot fire out) and aren't that well armoured despite their name, so keep 'em escorted. Battle Helicopter or B copter (9000G). The light tanks of the skies, and even more versatile: they can get over awkward terrain easily, making them invaluable flankers on maps with chokepoints. They're decent attackers against most surface units, and take little damage back as tanks can't use their main cannons on them. They have a few massive weaknesses, though: they get taken apart easily by anti-airs and fighters. If there are AAs around, one option is to try and park your B copter somewhere the AAs can't reach (over the sea, or behind rivers or moutains), though at some point you're going to have to go on the attack. Still, that's what coordinating your attacks with your other units is for. Transport Helicopter or T copter (5000G). If B copters are flying tanks, then T copters are flying APCs, able to transport one footsoldier at a time. Because they can fly, they can reach places that APCs can't - to make up for this, they can't supply units the way that APCs can. Anti-Air, or AA (8000G). As the name suggests, the AA's primary role is to marmalise aircraft, and they do a very good job of mincing B and T copters. It's a lot less effective against tanks, though: Tank > AA > B-Copter > Tank is one of the simplest examples of a rock-paper-scissors triangle in AW. Pretty fast, can move the same distance per turn as a small tank. AA are also very powerful unit against footsoldiers, being able to one-shot both infantry and mechs, although pound-for-pound you're better off using recons or other footsoldiers.  Medium Tank or "Md Tank" or "Middie" (16000G). Medium tanks are about the most expensive unit you'll see in AWBW, most of the time, and mostly they're used as a defensive unit: they're slower than light tanks, and 16000G is just a bit too much to send charging willy-nilly into artillery range. Rocket Launcher, or Rockets (15000G). Rockets are Artillery+: they do more damage and have a greater range of fire (three, four or five squares away). But their range shadow is larger, and they are even more slow and poorly armoured than artillery. Generally speaking, artillery will give you more bang for your buck, but as with medium tanks, sometimes you just need to save up for that little bit extra.There's a whole bunch of units I haven't mentioned here (I haven't even gone into the naval game at all) but these are the basics. COs A key part of strategy in any of the Advance Wars games is your choice of commanding officer, or CO. Some COs specialise in certain unit types, such as Sami, whose infantry and mechs not only get an attack boost but a property capture boost (they take off capture points at 1.5x their health rounded down. This has no real effect when they're at full health, but it can make a huge difference when they've taken damage) but whose non-infantry direct combat units (i.e. tanks, recons, AA, copters, planes, etc, etc... most units) take an attack penalty. Max has beefy direct combat units but reduced range on his long-range units, while Grit has extra range and firepower on his long range units but really anemic direct combat units. Other COs might have a more economy-focused angle, such as Colin, whose units are cheaper but have reduced firepower, and Kanbei, whose units are more expensive but have increased firepower and defence. Both of these, incidentally, are kind of horribly broken (Colin is 80% cost for 90%/100% attack and defence. Kanbei is 120% cost for 130%/130% attack and defence. Yeah), so you might not win friends if you play as them.  With default stats across the board, Andy is an excellent CO for new players looking to learn the game, without being a crutch like some of the more broken COs: balanced and versatile, he can adapt to any situation, and his CO Powers - Hyper Repair and Hyper Upgrade - restore 2HP and 5HP to all units respectively, with Hyper Upgrade also giving them a movement and attack boost. Vanilla may not be the most exotic flavour, but it goes with anything and hey, still tastes pretty good. Other mostly vanilla COs to try include Jake, Rachel, Olaf, Sasha, Sonja, Lash, Adder, Koal and Kindle. My personal favourite CO is Sensei, but he's horribly broken so I rarely get a chance to actually use him .* Technically they have 100 hit points and the expected damage is the exact amount of HP that should be knocked off, plus a luck bonus (0 to 10 HP by default). But it's abstracted down to 10HP for the purpose of a) display and b) calculating things like attack power. ** So yeah, you can play with fog of war on as well. Different units have different vision ranges (recons and footsoldiers in mountains have some of the biggest vision ranges), and forests and reefs can't be seen into unless you're standing next to them. You have to have vision on a unit to be able to attack it - there's no radar or "ground firing" or anything. Paul.Power fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jan 13, 2016 |
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Jan 10, 2016 19:54
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You just like Sensei because you can flood the world with infantry and B.Copters. Also because he's an old guy who does not give a poo poo. And he's awesome. There's lots of reasons to like Sensei actually. I still favor Lash mostly because she's the resident mad scientist though.
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Jan 11, 2016 20:51
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Considering we haven't had a started game in this thread yet, I might as well post one: Game: AWBW Goon Revival Pass: goons Players: 4 Banned COs: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Sensei, Kanbei, Nell Banned Units: N/A Link: http://awbw.amarriner.com/gamescurrent.php?maps_id=65300 Let's play, goons. Slur fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jan 13, 2016 |
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Jan 13, 2016 20:41
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Paul.Power posted:If there are AAs around Also joined the game, guess it's time for Pink Cosmos to rise again and for Slur to bother me on Skype to take my turns.
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Jan 13, 2016 21:13
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KennyMan666 posted:You seem to be lacking the end of your sentence here. Keiya posted:I still favor Lash mostly because she's the resident mad scientist though. Joined Slur's game as Red Fire. And I'm being crazy and going with Jugger, because screw it. Let's see if I can get something cool out of that bag o' bolts. Paul.Power fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Jan 13, 2016 |
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Jan 13, 2016 21:27
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Lash is the best CO, with the best hair, and the best theme.
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Jan 14, 2016 00:04
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Just posting ITT to say that Slur is a cheater and nobody should trust him.
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Jan 14, 2016 00:48
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Junpei Hyde posted:Lash is the best CO, with the best hair, and the best theme. Lash's theme (and the Black Hole Army dudes in general) owns but whenever I think of Advance Wars, Nell's theme is the first one to pop to mind. Also gently caress Grit's CO Power.
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Jan 14, 2016 00:55
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Lately I've been wondering if Grit is as overpowered as people say he is.
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Jan 14, 2016 15:37
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Slur posted:Lately I've been wondering if Grit is as overpowered as people say he is. He is on the right maps.
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Jan 14, 2016 23:03
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http://ctomni231.github.io/cwtactics/ So this is in development apparently. Hopefully this will replace AWBW in the future when it's completed, and hopefully it will be more convenient.
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Jan 18, 2016 06:14
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This looks fun, a pity I have jack poo poo experience with the series, let alone the multilayer meta game. Couldn't hurt to try at some point I suppose. I wish AW was still relevant so I had an excuse to want a version of  or  with Caulder saying "FASCINATING".
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Jan 21, 2016 05:29
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since a couple of other people posted i made another game Game: b2bgoonsquad Pass: plains Players: 4 Banned COs: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Sensei, Kanbei, Nell Banned Units: N/A Link: http://awbw.amarriner.com/gamescurrent.php?maps_id=29887 Endorph fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jan 22, 2016 |
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Jan 21, 2016 05:38
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The site is back again? I am honestly impressed.
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Jan 21, 2016 06:36
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Gamerofthegame posted:The site is back again? I am honestly impressed. It goes down for short bursts of time, before going back up again. The servers aren't the most stable, but at least the guy cares enough to make sure it's up every so often. Glad to see you two back, Gamer and Endorph. AlphaKretin posted:This looks fun, a pity I have jack poo poo experience with the series, let alone the multilayer meta game. Couldn't hurt to try at some point I suppose. Get some friends in here and make some games. It's the best way to keep AW relevant among us anyways.
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Jan 21, 2016 06:59
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Endorph posted:made a ffa game. map is 4 islands with a 1v1 on each island, with airports and regular ports for transport to other islands. Hopped in as WorstCaseSenerio.
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Jan 21, 2016 21:44
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Senerio posted:Hopped in as WorstCaseSenerio.
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Jan 21, 2016 21:45
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Endorph posted:grats everyone, we're off, with two andys I was under the impression this would be like the last thread where COs with damage-based powers would run rampant in that game.
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Jan 22, 2016 16:44
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Slur posted:I was under the impression this would be like the last thread where COs with damage-based powers would run rampant in that game. and sturm, but that's more for his D2D than his COP
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Jan 22, 2016 16:48
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Endorph posted:if you know me you'll know i only pick weirdo COs like flak, adder, and koal Koal was actually a really good choice for this map. His early to mid game benefits from the long stretch of road on each island.
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Jan 22, 2016 17:16
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All weird COs are, in fact, good. Especially city lady city lady owns just park a rocket in any property ever and sip some fine wine
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Jan 22, 2016 17:31
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olaf is the best co because he makes the map look really pretty hello advance wars thread
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Jan 22, 2016 17:35
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Wanna do a diplomacy gimmick game? Not sure if fog of war should be on.
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Jan 22, 2016 17:43
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that map looks terrifying in fog of war
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Jan 22, 2016 17:45
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Gamerofthegame posted:Wanna do a diplomacy gimmick game?
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Jan 22, 2016 17:55
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Endorph posted:looks like a few too many people for this thread imo you'd be hard pressed to find a good eleven person map imo edit: mostly because they don't really show up in the search
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Jan 22, 2016 18:03
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since a couple of other people posted i made another game Game: b2bgoonsquad Pass: plains Players: 4 Banned COs: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Sensei, Kanbei, Nell Banned Units: N/A Link: http://awbw.amarriner.com/gamescurrent.php?maps_id=29887
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Jan 22, 2016 18:07
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Endorph posted:since a couple of other people posted i made another game Joined.
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Jan 22, 2016 18:11
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Endorph posted:since a couple of other people posted i made another game Oh God this map again! Alright, time to hold my glory intact!
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Jan 22, 2016 19:09
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welcome to black hole, jess
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Jan 22, 2016 19:20
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Gamerofthegame posted:Wanna do a diplomacy gimmick game? actually i bet there are just enough people here let's give it a shot Game: Goon Diplomacy Pass: nellsthebest Players: 8 Banned COs: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Sensei, Kanbei Banned Units: N/A Fog: heck yeah um i've never used awbw before i hope i did that right
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Jan 22, 2016 22:30
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Endorph posted:welcome to black hole, jess the one time i don't pick kindle
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Jan 22, 2016 22:32
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Gamerofthegame posted:the one time i don't pick kindle I never liked Jess due to her 90% infantry.
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Jan 23, 2016 07:24
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Looper posted:actually i bet there are just enough people here let's give it a shot
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Jan 23, 2016 08:20
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Looper posted:actually i bet there are just enough people here let's give it a shot http://awbw.amarriner.com/gamescurrent.php?maps_id=23587 :x
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Jan 23, 2016 14:42
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everyone's making ffas, so here's a 1v1 for whoever Game: meet me in the parking lot Pass: goon Players: 2 Banned COs: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Sensei, Kanbei, Nell, Javier, Sami, Lash, Sturm Banned Units: N/A Link: http://awbw.amarriner.com/gamescurrent.php?maps_id=47721
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Jan 23, 2016 15:11
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Slur posted:I never liked Jess due to her 90% infantry. Her Infantry's 100% in AWDS.
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Jan 23, 2016 18:01
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