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Eeevil posted:I don't really get how fog of war is better for Andy than Max. Neither of them has a sight range modifier, and indirects seem like they'd be worse in fog, not better. Indirects actually are more dangerous in fog missions because you don't need to rely on a meatshield to keep them safe - you can dash them into a forest in range, since the AI at least pretends to play by the same rules.
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Feb 24, 2012 00:35
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I thought that in AW1, indirects could fire on your units even if the enemy AI couldn't "see" them. Might be wrong, though.
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Feb 24, 2012 00:55
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Until AWDS, the AI could see where your units are except in wood tiles. Iirc AWDS actually had it play by the same rules entirely.
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Feb 24, 2012 00:57
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Cernunnos posted:Unless Grit starts with several recons deployed he won't be much of a problem since Artillery and Rockets only have 1 vision. Unless that was nerfed later and they have decent vision in this game. My only experience with Advance Wars is a few hours of Dual Strike. With AWDS, the AI improved enough that it no longer needed to rely on this crutch and could play fog of war similarly to a human (or at least, on a level where it knows where everything is but needs to spot it to attack it, regardless of whether it's in a forest or reef or not). And I think with AWDoR the AI plays just like a human in fog of war? But they also change how fog of war works in AWDoR to make it less "ugh".
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Feb 24, 2012 01:01
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I think you people don't understand it's not you playing this game. Max. Schadenfreude all the way. Suffer for our sins.
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Feb 24, 2012 01:28
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Gotta be Max, since you shouldn't be trying to lure enemies into your traps but rushing through theirs! 
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Feb 24, 2012 01:31
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Just caught up with the LP. I'll comment on some things if they come up, but I like the way you're going about it. Just a quick correction: Eagle has 80/100 naval units, not 90/100.
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Feb 24, 2012 01:58
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I'd say Max because indirect units are a pain to use in Fog maps unless the game specifically wants you to.
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Feb 24, 2012 02:05
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I'm going for Max for max power!
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Feb 24, 2012 02:06
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Never stop using Max.
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Feb 24, 2012 02:48
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Since Orange Star is supposed to be based off America, it's only right we do the American thing: use Brute Force to achieve all our goals/win missions. As a result: I changed my mind! Use Max!
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Feb 24, 2012 02:59
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Its a tough one, I think those 2 indirects could be a difference maker, they usually are in Fog of War. Andy.
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Feb 24, 2012 03:10
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Oh no fog of war! YOU NEED TO BEAT IT UP! MAX!
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Feb 24, 2012 03:19
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Fog of War? Stick with Max.
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Feb 24, 2012 09:13
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Okay, time to close the poll. Andy 12 Max 22 It was a close-run thing for a while, but a late surge gave Max a clear lead! Actually, the more I think about it, the more I like about using Max here. A key part of fighting the AI in fog of war is making good use of forests, and to do that you need to clear out the spotter units in those forests. Max's extra firepower should help reduce the possibility of some 1HP infantry being able to blab your position back to Grit's rockets. Don't get me wrong, Andy would probably do a perfectly fine job, but I think it's advantage Max.
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Feb 24, 2012 10:16
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Field Training Missions 10 and 11 (or "You might enjoy the challenge!") Only doing two missions this time, but the good news is that you get to see one of them twice.  Back to Field Training for another classic mission.   We've finally got bombers and fighters ready to go! Three units each!Nice. But I bet there's a catch. There's always a catch.  You've only got them for this mission, but...Yeah, figures. Still, it's better than nothing.  It seems Olaf's troops have appeared on the far shore. Your job is to get over there and take them out in one fell swoop! Let's get moving! Quick, let's get in there before Olaf gets mobilised! Day 1  We were able to prepare our troops before Olaf's troops came ashore, so all we need to do now is attack! It's always smart to check your data. You know which units can Attack which units, right? If you forget... Just check the unit's data. You know to move the cursor to the unit and press the R Button to check its data, right? OK! Good luck!R button, shmaR button. Let's get to work. And since Nell's interested in how quickly we can win this, we're going to keep an eye on the clock even more than usual here.  Olaf's got a missile launcher in the heart of his defence. Better get rid of that, or at least heavily damage it. I send in a bomber to take it on.  And yeah, like I say, missile launchers are useless unless you keep them protected - which is tricky when you're dealing with air units.  I also get some sweet, sweet revenge for Mission 8 by targetting Olaf's medium tanks with my other bombers.  So far, so good.  The best unit I have for dealing with fighters is my own missile launcher, though. I can use it to take one of Olaf's fighters down this turn. But he still has another fighter. I could engage it with my own fighters, but I'd need two of them to bring it down, and one of them would suffer counterattack damage.  So instead I'm going to keep that fighter busy with my T copter (thanks for the tip, Rorac!). The AI should prioritise targetting it, and that means the fighter will stay in range of my missiles. It should also distract Olaf's damaged missiles, too. It's another sacrifice ploy, but time is of the essence.  So what about my other indirect, the rocket? Well, I reckon the best use of my resources here is to use it to target Olaf's lander (I've just realised he gets a lander here before the next mission formally introduces them - curious, that). Hmm... it's still got 4HP left. That's going to need two B copter shots to finish off.  So let's do that.  Now let's move on to the fighters. One of them gets to clear out a bomber...  Boom. Don't worry, I know it says 2 there but that's because I took the shot when I did. That bomber got one-shotted.  The other two fighters get the less glamorous duty of getting rid of Olaf's T copters. But it's got to be done.  And that's the turn. Went pretty well, I thought. But I've made a mistake. A really dumb mistake. See if you can spot it.   They found my landing forces? Augh! There's no way around it! We'll have to make due with what we've got!Isn't it "make do"?   Olaf takes the bait of the T copter. He attacks with the missile launcher first (the AI likes to attack with indirects first) which is just as well: because the missiles are damaged, the T copter survives, which means that the fighter also targets it.   But here's where the really dumb mistake creeps in. I let Olaf's B copters attack my own B copters. I should have been paying more attention to shielding them. It's not going to stop me winning, but... it'll probably slow me down... Day 2  Oh well, might as well keep going. We're still in a good position here.  The fighter stayed in missile range thanks to the T copter, so let's clear it out.  Whoosh.   Olaf's bombers come in for a world of hurt, too.   At least I can take out one of those B copters with my third fighter. Although that leaves the other one...  Bombers roll down and take out what's left of Olaf's ground troops. But that still leaves that one 8HP B copter. So close to a two-day finish, here.  Maybe I'll get really lucky? I doubt it, but you never know.  Yeah, no.   Even Nell's luck can't save me here.  3HP away from a two-day finish.  Olaf rubs some salt into the wound by taking out my 2HP B copter. Day 3  Well, may as well finish this.  A victory. A good victory, even. We've got Olaf running off with his tail between his legs. But still rather bittersweet.  You cleared this map in three days?Should have been two. Should have been two. Incredible! I'm really impressed that you've developed your skills so much! Keep up the good work!Thanks, Nell, but it's not helping. Augh!!! How could my landing forces be defeated?!? Now I'm in trouble! Just wait until next time!And don't you start, Olaf!  But I know I can do better.  So let's try this again. goddamn finally bombers and fighters my superiors weren't asshats for once *deep breaths* Day 1 i sure love words did you know words are made of letters? they can also be formed into sentences too! let me tell you about homestuck All right, let's do this.  Going to start by attacking the lander first, this time, and then build around that. Hmm. I did more damage this time round. Maybe it'll only take one B copter to finish it off...?  Well, what do you know. Maybe it was just a bit of bad luck last time? No. There must be something more to it than that.  Once more my missiles destroy a fighter, one of my bombers takes on Olaf's missiles, and I leave that T copter out as a decoy.  Fighters swoop in and take out the T copters and a bomber.  Bombers remove the medium tanks, being more careful about their positioning this time.  And this time my positioning's better. I can screen my B copters from Olaf. I think the luck did help a little: not having to use my second B copter to take out the lander meant I could put the bomber on that square instead.  Moving the other B copter up to a safe square. and i would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling co's and your blasted advisor!Day 2  T copter down, but its brave sacrifice will not go in vain.  There goes the offending fighter.  My fighters don't even have to move as they remove Olaf's bombers and one of his B copters. How considerate of them.  Bombers finish off Olaf's ground forces, and all that's left is that one B copter.  This time I make no mistakes.  Ta-daaa.  Woo-hoo! Nell has three different victory messages for this mission: a two-day win, a three-day win, and one for wins in more than three days. She's still fairly happy if you take that long, but she's extra happy if you win quickly. i don't understand basic strategy grr i'll get you next time! somehow! And this time, I deserve it.  But that's enough planes for now. Time to move on to ships (and yeah, as with the air units, we're learning about ships after we learnt about ships. Oh well). We're heading from the sublime to the ridiculous here, because I think this might well be Nell's most talky mission yet.  There are two units that require aid or they'll be destroyed. One of these is a T copter, which we've discussed before. The other is a lander unit. This is a naval unit you haven't seen yet.Well, except for that random lander that Olaf had in the last mission...  You need to protect these units and secure the land on the far shore. This is the mission that's been entrusted to you, Paul.Protecting transports is serious business. Except when using them as bait. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any bombers or fighters this time. But I did arrange for other units I think will be necessary to our success. I'll explain about these other naval units once we arrive. Time to get moving! Time to do some naval gazing... sorry, sorry. Day 1  ...Easier said than done, huh? It looks like it's almost done for...Yeah, it's not in the best of condition. I wish I could get a hold of the guy who's in charge of all these units that get damaged up before we show up.  If you leave the copter here, it'll be destroyed immediately. Hurry up and get it out of there! Can you select it? But there is a way to save it! Move it here! What, you mean on to our own cruiser? Okay.  Now the transport copter can't be attacked. That's right! You can puttransport copters onto cruisers. If you Load it, it'll be safe as long as the cruiser isn't destroyed! You can also Load battle copters onto cruisers. Cruisers can hold up to two units at one time. And by loading units, you resupply those units with fuel and ammunition. You have a battle copter, too. You should try it sometime.I dunno, that sounds like something I wouldn't use very much... but okay. Maybe.  Select it! You might be surprised by the kind of units they can attack. They can only Fire on air units and submarines. As for right now... Let's attack!  Yeah, that's some very good damage. Although again Nell's luck gives us the edge we need for a one-shot. Cruisers are very effective against subs! And like I said earlier, they're also effective against air units. Since they can only attack certain units, they are a bit limited. Once you learn their intricacies, thought, you'll be glad you have them! But learning that right off the bat is pretty hard. If you forget which units they can Fire on, press the R Button. The ever-helpful R Button! If you remember that, you'll always be able to get the intel you need.The ever-not-used R Button! Anyway, yeah, here's the final unit that we haven't met yet:  Cruiser (18000G). These are the anti-air and anti-sub naval unit, designed to protect battleships and landers from their main predators. Trouble is, while they're pretty good at dealing with subs, air units are more of an issue. Bombers do serious damage to them, and even B-Copters can knock them down below half health. A little-remembered fact about Cruisers is that they can also carry two helicopters, protecting them from Fighters and stuff and also refuelling them. They have no ship-to-shore capabilities.  IntSys hanging a lampshade on Nell's talkative nature here. And as I say, I think this is her most wordy mission yet. Well, let's move on to the next unit's capabilities. Next is the battleship. Battleships attack from a distance, so, don't move it... Just open the Command Menu.   Pretty good damage there. And it's hitting a long way away, too - six spaces. Did you notice that it has a large attack range?I did, actually, I was just telling the readers about it... That's right! Battleships have an attack range of two to six spaces! Rockets have a range of three to five. You may think it's only a little larger, but it's quite a big difference!True. Assuming neither unit is up against a side of the map or something, a battleship can hit 80 squares to a rocket's 48. 32 squares is a pretty serious difference. You'll understand better as you start to use them more. That's all on battleships for now.But I understand them now!... oh well, whatever.  Submarines use direct-fire to engage the enemy. They can only Fire on other naval units. Yeah, that battleship could mess me up if we let it go unchecked. Fire!  This is the kind of damage subs inflict on battleships when we aren't Max. Although again Nell's luck takes us into almost-Max territory. As you can see, subs can inflict heavy damage! Subs also have other distinct abilities, but I'll tell you about those later.Can't wait. Okay guys, brace yourselves because Nell has a lot to say about landers:  You remember APCs and transport copters, right? You use landers in basically the same way. Like the others, they can't attack. Let's try this one out. First, select this infantry unit. Now just Load that unit into the lander.  That I have, Nell. That I have. So, landers and T copters are basically the same. That's what you're thinking, right? Actually, there's a big difference. You can load two ground units at a time onto a lander! Landers carry land units, and cruisers carry copters. That's what I said, right?Sorry, what? I think I drifted off.  A medium tank? In a lander? Okay, I guess that's worth a shot.   Huh. What do you know.  Okay, you know what, fair enough, that is pretty handy. But there's one thing you have to pay attention to... On this map, you can only Load units onto a lander at a shallow shoreline. Eventually, you'll be able to do this at a port, but there aren't any here. Just be careful, because it's not like you can Load just anywhere. Next let's try to Drop the troops. Move it over here. You can only drop them at ports and shallow shorelines. True enough. But wait a second... There's a medium tank on this lander, too, right? Medium tanks can't move in the mountains, remember?It'd be a bit weird if I forgot that, to be honest. Medium tanks scaling mountains is certainly a scary thought. So, you can't drop Medium tanks in the mountains. If you're going to Drop both units at once, you'll have to think about it... Which terrain can you Drop them on? You know, previous times Nell has asked a question like this, she's actually let me decide for myself - which is a nice touch. Here she's spelling it out. Kind of a shame, really. But whatever. OK, now Drop the other unit. You can only Load and Drop at ports and shallow shorelines, so pay attention to where you can Drop when you're carrying two units. If you can just remember this, you'll have no trouble using Landers. If it gets me through this any quicker, sure. Oh, there's one more thing I have to say about sea units in general.Oh Glod. Like air units, sea units use fuel every day. Battleships, subs, cruisers, and landers all use one unit of fuel per day. If they run out of fuel, they'll sink, and you'll lose them. If you want to resupply them, select an APC and choose Supply -- the same as with other units. To recover its HP, you need to move this unit to a port. Unfortunately, there aren't any ports nearby. Well, you can do as you like with the rest of the units. When you're done, choose End. All right, are we done? We're done. For this turn, anyway. Nell's still promised to tell us something else about subs.  There's not much we can do right now. For now let's move my rocket and B copter up so we can do some attacking with them next turn. Let's also put a mech in the APC.  The other guys move up a bit.  If Nell hadn't taken out my air units, victory would be so much easier... But they can't use most of their troops, so that puts us on equal footing. To battle!Well y'know I do have a lander, Olaf. I can get a fair number of my troops over there... Day 2  "It's your turn." Count: 5. Fair play, Nell says this less than I remember, 5 missions from 11 so far. Figures it would come up in this mission though. Let me tell you one more thing about subs. Can you select one?Go on, then.  being attacked, so let me show it to you. Can you press the A Button and open the menu? Now choose Dive! Dive! Dive! Dive! That's right! When a sub Dives, it can only be attacked by cruisers and other subs. Plus, since submerged subs can still attack this is very useful.Yeah, as we saw in Max Strikes!, submerged subs are very handy to have. They're also a real pain if you're on the receiving end. They have a problem, though: But there is one thing I have to warn you about, and that's fuel. When a sub Dives, it uses five fuel units per day. That's about a one-day supply. If it runs out of fuel, it will sink, so watch your fuel closely. I'll leave the rest up to you. Good luck!Finally.  Okay, first up, my battleship can't hit anything back there. Let's move it up a bit.   Now let's celebrate my liberation from the tyrannical tutorial text with some battle screenshots!  And here's the main map version of that, complete with my medium tank finishing off one of the rocket launchers as well.  Lander moves back to pick up some more troops. I now have a mech loaded into an APC loaded into a lander. Fun times! There's also an artillery in there, too, making a grand total of three units inside that lander oh god i'm starting to sound like nell.  I move my cruiser about a bit because, I don't know, maybe Olaf has some submerged subs in here somewhere? Seems unlikely given this is Field Training, but you never know. Day 3  Right then.  My landed troops take out Olaf's stuff on the island. Next is the bridge.   Battleship takes out a cruiser. That's some good damage.   And continuing the naval theme, my sub takes out a lander.  Dropping off some more troops on the island. Got a nice looking chokepoint here.  And you know what? May as well appease Nell and try out putting this B copter in the cruiser. Well, that's that done.  Olaf's turn - he rolls up to my medium tank and dishes out some damage. Day 4  He's right in the firing line of my indirects, though.   There goes another lander.  And while we're on an indirect fire theme, let's dish out some damage to these medium tanks.  And use my damaged middie to finish off the front one.  Busy screenshot, although it's mostly just logistics. Cruiser unloads B copter, lander loads infantry (in case I want to go for Olaf's HQ), sub heads over to the APC for supplies. It's not in trouble yet, but an ounce of maintenance and so on.  He's in pretty dire straits here, but Olaf wants to keep attacking. Day 5  Oh well, more fodder for the indirects.  Rockets kill the infantry in one shot, artillery finishes off the medium tank.  Let's move these ships around towards the last lander. May as well surface the sub given there aren't any threats to it at the moment.   Since my B copter's up here, I'll attack the lander with it. Arguably it'd be achieving more attacking the medium tank in the south. On the other hand, that middie's on a city, and would probably heal up any damage the B copter did right now.  Lander moves around, although once again it's looking like the rout will be faster. Day 6  Olaf sat there doing nothing. We're going to have to draw that medium tank out, I think.  So I send up the APC and arty, unloading the APC. It's not great chokepoint management, my artillery's exposed after all. But with a 99.99% chance of Olaf attacking that APC, the arty's pretty safe. I also move my battleship up so that the lander's in range.  Moving the B copter and medium tank up as backup for my arty.  Sub and lander continue their journeys. I also start capturing a city because hey, might as well liberate some more of Orange Star.  Like clockwork. Day 7  Nearly there. Once more we find ourselves with a bunch of ragtag units having to finish off a medium tank.  First up, the indirects do their stuff (and I finish capturing that city).   Then the B copter weighs in. Actually from here it should be pretty straightforward.  My own medium tank gets it down to 1HP...  ... and the mech applies the coup de grâce.  Boom!  Thanks to you, we managed to block his assault! Thank you! Keep up the good work! I never expected them to make it this far... Augh!!! Just wait until next time! Even her victory screen message for this battle is long. Geez. All right, so Max won the vote for the next campaign mission. Tune in next time for...  ... me being a bit too panicky and overcautious about dealing with Grit. Eh, they can't all be Dogfights. Paul.Power fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Feb 24, 2012 |
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Feb 24, 2012 23:42
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About a good 1/3 of the Blue Moon invasion force was most likely lost due to Olaf's fuckups in Field Training.
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Feb 25, 2012 00:05
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Hello there, fellow Advance Wars fans! Do you want to hang out in a chat room with other Advance Wars fans? Well, today's your lucky day! #AdvanceWars on synirc.net, providing all of your Advance Wars-related socialization requirements! This explains how to connect and all. (That turned out way cheesier than I expected. Ah well.)
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Feb 25, 2012 04:01
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Come to think of it, why was there even an independent Green Earth battalion running around unchecked in the middle of Orange Star territory? I'm pretty sure that's a violation of pretty much all the peacetime military protocol.
Pureauthor fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Feb 25, 2012 |
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Feb 25, 2012 05:47
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Pureauthor posted:Come to think of it, why was there even an independent Green Earth battalion running around unchecked in the middle of Orange Star territory? I'm pretty that's a violation of pretty much all the peacetime military protocol. Don't try to think of AW's plot in realistic terms. Down that road lies madness and/or Days of Ruin.
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Feb 25, 2012 05:52
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Walliard posted:Don't try to think of AW's plot in realistic terms. Down that road lies madness and/or Days of Ruin. Two good things!
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Feb 25, 2012 05:54
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Pureauthor posted:Come to think of it, why was there even an independent Green Earth battalion running around unchecked in the middle of Orange Star territory? I'm pretty sure that's a violation of pretty much all the peacetime military protocol. There's... a reason for that, actually. It won't be explained until much, much later, though.
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Feb 25, 2012 06:02
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I never really made the connection until now, but I think going for the 2 day dogfights mission was also a bit of training about how the AI is breakable. As far as I know it is literally impossible to do 2 days without giving up the t-copter, and there's nothing Nell really teaches you on that map so it sort of makes sense for it to be a "Hey, if you want to not get your rear end kicked, pay attention at what the AI likes to do" mission in a controlled environment.
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Feb 25, 2012 10:15
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Mission 5M: Sniper! (or "Max vs. Grit: Round 1") So far we've just been pushing Blue Moon out of Orange Star. But now it's time to continue the pursuit into Blue Moon itself. After all, we'd like some answers from Olaf.  Where is that fool? I'm right here. What are you bellowing about now? Bellowing? Let me tell you something, you... My apologies, exalted commander. I am at your service.Pffhahahaha That's better. You just remember your place. Now, listen closely. Those units we saw earlier have advanced further into our territory. This is your chance to redeem yourself. Do what needs to be done. Riiight. So, I should wait here and... Wait? What do you mean wait? Paul's troops are... Oh, OK. Understood. If duty calls, your humble servant Grit'll answer! If I didn't know better, I might think you weren't taking this seriously.  The thread decided to go with Max, so here we go. It'll certainly be thematically appropriate for Max to face Grit.  Grit continues to stare into our souls. Day 1   What's "Fog of War"? Please tell me you're joking.He probably isn't, Max. Frankly, this is one of the more believeable questions he's asked. See that gray stuff blocking your vision? That's Fog of War.Advance Wars: reifying ontic dumping since 2001. Fog of War isn't just a visual representation of situational uncertainty brought about by poor intel, it's literally grey stuff blocking your vision. Now, I wonder where the enemy troops are hidden. How do we find 'em? Well, recon units have a good vision range, so let's send them out first. But if we leave them out in the open, they'll be sitting ducks. Our safest bet is to leapfrog from wood to wood. Units hidden in woods are almost impossible to spot. Boy, that seems pretty simple. You just don't know enough to realize the danger, Andy. If we can hide units in the woods, then so can our opponent. If we're not careful, hidden units will blow us away! All right. Let's move out! So okay, Fog of War. Any tile with a greyed-out effect on it, you basically can't tell for certain if there's a unit there or not. So how do we light the squares back up again? Well, all our units have a vision range (our best units here being our recons, with a vision range of five squares, and our tanks and B copters, with a vision range of three squares) and every square in that range is lit up - with a couple of exceptions. You can only see into forests (or reefs) if you're standing right next to them. Air units can't hide in them though, same way they don't receive movement penalties or defence bonuses. The AI gets a bit tricksy here though, because it can see the entire map except for forest/reef squares. And even then, they "know" that the unit's in there (they just can't fire on it) and will make spotting that unit a high priority. The strategy here is straightforward enough: we sweep across the map towards Grit's HQ, destroying anything we spot. If we haven't routed Grit by the time we reach his HQ, we shrug our shoulders and capture it.  A confession: while I was looking up map pictures for the game* (well, it beats composing them from scratch out of screenshots. No sense in reinventing the wheel) I saw the unfogged version of this map, and while I've forgotten a lot of it, a few things stuck in my mind. There are some missile units in the north of the map, an infantry unit in a forest near the start, a light tank and artillery west of it and a rocket in a forest to the south. The rest of it's kind of a blur though. * Thinking about it, I should really credit these things. This particular map, and the maps before it, came from Wars World News. Most of the maps I used in AW2 came from Advance Wars Net. I extracted some of the CO portraits for this game myself, but most of them are from Black Hole HQ Anyway, since I know about this infantry... I can steer around it. See, the thing about Fog of War is that if you run into a unit you can't see, your unit gets ambushed and immediately stops moving... which basically leaves it as fodder for the enemy indirects. So if you know the location of a unit in Fog of War, and you want to avoid an ambush, you've got to be careful with the path you select.  Yep, there's the infantry. And the tank and arty too.  Can we hit that infantry with our rocket launcher? Well, no, because we're Max.  Fortunately, Max has another solution to this problem.  As that infantry goes down, my B copters take on the other units. B copters can't hide in forests, but they should be fairly safe as long as they steer clear of those missiles.  Moving my light tanks and rockets up into forests.  More general unit movement, including sending my T copter downfield with a mech. Since there's no more forests to stick units into, I'm leaving my infantry back there for now. Day 2  Grit moves his damaged tank about a bit, and a recon emerges from the gloom.  B copters get to work on smashing them up.  I said that recons, tanks and B copters were our best units for vision, but we've got a couple of other tricks up our sleeve: infantry and mechs have a vision range of 2 under normal circumstances, but when they stand on mountain squares that climbs to 5. Even so... we still can't see into that forest diagonally down from that mech. Better do something about that.  T copter goes onto spotting duty and yep, there's a rocket launcher there.  Well we'll soon take care of that.  You seem to have a bad case of Exploding Rocket Syndrome there, Grit.  Tanks and recons move up to secure the forests.  And everyone else follows up.   Hoo boy. Brace yourselves, everyone... Day 3  ... well, except for the bit where he doesn't launch any attacks. I guess that's woods for you. Although the fact that nothing attacked the mech or southern tank suggests that the area's fairly clear.  So let's do some scouting. Paradropping a mech onto a mountain reveals a rocket launcher, as well as that damaged recon from earlier.  Well, my B copters can take care of that rocket launcher. Hope Grit doesn't have any AAs around here...  Oh okay, there it is. Killing that damaged recon with my own recon has exposed me to a world of hurt here.  Not much we can do about it though, so I just move the rest of my troops up. With that rocket launcher behind the mountains down, I'm fairly confident that this area is clear, so I'm leaving some of my units out in the open.   Yeah, there goes the recon  .Day 4  All right, we'd better take that AA down. We've been relying on our B copters a fair bit this mission, and that AA's a big threat.  So let's get in there.  Tank leads, mech cleans up. Now the next big question: where are those artillery? Hindsight and logic says that one of them should be in the square marked with an "!": I spotted arties on plains and road earlier, and it was the arty on the plains that fired at my recon. But I was starting to get spooked about the arty that didn't fire, the one that moved somewhere else. Could it be in the forest? (the ? square)  Nope. And now of course I've left my T copter in missile range (the city to the north) so that's another unit down. But what if the arty's in that other "?" square?  Nope. I also move my B copters into missile range because hey, if I'm going to lose the T copter anyway it may as well die for a cause.  And since I've cleared this forest I may as well use it as somewhere safe to hide a mech.  The stragglers advance.  Who'd be a transport unit in AW1, eh? Day 5  Hmm, no sign of those arties.  Oh wait, there they are. They're running away (Grit's armies in this mission are very much "Attack! Attack!... Retreat! Retreat!")  Unfortunately, the artillery are out of B copter range. Shame, I've got a bone to pick with them.  Oh well, I've also got a bone to pick with this missile launcher. So let's target it, instead.  Hmm, my B copters are starting to look a little low on ammo.  I send up my APC to resupply them.  Moving the other units up.  And the indirects continue to tail behind rather uselessly, like some kind of appendix. Day 6  Grit continues to run away.  So let's follow him. One of my tanks drives into a forest up close in order to keep an eye on him, while one of my mechs continues its mountaineering course.  Tanks and copters move closer. There's a rather dumb error here that leads to all kinds of silliness in the closing turns.  Everyone else moves.  Here's where the error hits in. And now I'm panicking about finding a rocket launcher on a city. Wherever could it be? Day 7  Taking that hit did at least charge my CO Power up. But I'm going to leave it a turn: I want to get in position first. Caution is the better part of valour, and so on.  First let's get this damaged medium tank to some kind of safety.  Then leapfrog the tanks down through the forests. Aha, there's one arty. No sign of these rockets yet, though.  They aren't on that city...  Oh well, whatever. I'm sure it'll turn up. In the meantime, let's get ready for using Max Force next turn. Day 8  Those arties continue to mess about.   Well we'll soon see about that.  First some vision. There are all the arties... but where's that rocket launcher? Wasn't it supposed to be on a city? (Have you guessed where it actually is?)  Oh well. My tanks take out two of the arties with one-shots.  Grit's got a Snipe Attack primed now, though...  I try to provide a distraction for him shooting my mechs with my APC. Although honestly I'd probably stopped thinking straight by this point. Again in hindsight I would probably have been better off using the APC to distract Grit's mystery rockets, whereve they were - and then attacking Grit's artillery with my medium tank. Even at 4HP, a Max Force medium tank should pack a good punch against an arty. But no.  Oh well.  Here comes that Snipe Attack...  ... and somehow my APC just survives. Day 9  Okay, sod this.  I've had enough of Grit's mind games. Let's just shut up shop and take the HQ capture.  Incidentally, that mystery city rocket? It's on the northeastern island, along with his second missile launcher. I'd remembered the missile on that island from my brief peek at the unfogged map, but not the rocket launcher. Oh well. Day 10  Before I finish this, I just want to deal with that arty.  For old time's sake.   Tank can't quite destroy it in one shot, so I send in my B copter to finish.  And there goes the HQ.  Grit? Is that you? I was wondering why I hadn't seen you around lately, and now I know. You're working for Blue Moon! You traitorous piece of gar-- Aww, Maxie. Don't be like that. I got my reasons for doin' what I do, you know?Well, no, we don't know. Perhaps you could enlighten us? Man, I'm getting out of here before you get started preachin' again. See y'all down the road! Hold it, Grit! Dang! He got away. But what's he doing with Blue Moon?Maybe he just really likes snarking Olaf.   Yeah... only an A-Rank (and correspondingly only nine coins rather than twelve). I think I took a day too long about it. But that's the problem with Grit: you can beat him easily enough if you're cautious, but the thing about being cautious is that it starts hurting your speed score and... well. Maybe I shouldn't have just shut up shop with an HQ capture and actually gone looking for the rocket and missile launcher. Maybe I should have just gone "screw it, I'm Max" a bit more. But hey, at least it got the job done. A win is a win and all that. And an A-rank's still a pretty solid result. So let's move on. We've got another choose-your-CO mission next. It's against Olaf, and this time we have a twist:  For this mission, we aren't being asked to win by rout or HQ capture (well, we could, but have you seen the stuff around Olaf's HQ? Discouraging, to say the least). Instead our goal is property capture - the first army to 12 properties (cities, bases, HQs, whatever) wins. Naturally Olaf starts with six properties and we start with three  . There are eleven properties on each side of the river, so we're going to have to grab at least one from the other side. This mission has a reputation as one of the toughest in AW1, because of how easy it is to lose: one slip-up and Olaf'll have his twelve properties.Don't worry about the little shield icons on some of Olaf's units, they just mean that the unit is set to defensive AI: it won't move unless we enter its movement range (again this is something that the site I got this from added to the map because they thought it'd be helpful. Continuing the credits theme, this map and subsequent maps will be from Wars Wiki).   So again, Andy or Max? Note that the mission after this (and the last mission on this path before the paths rejoin) has you automatically picking Max, so if you want to see some Andy, now's your chance. Who's actually better for this mission, I can't say (sure would be handy if we had Sami right about now though...).  Of course, before all that happens we've got Field Training to finish up (the A on the Fog of War mission came from me having to beat it to access Campaign). Stay tuned, etc. Paul.Power fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Feb 26, 2012 |
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Feb 26, 2012 15:12
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Welp. Might as well vote Andy.
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Feb 26, 2012 15:23
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Let's stick with Max.
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Feb 26, 2012 15:42
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Use Max. Andy just isn't awesome enough.
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Feb 26, 2012 15:51
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Maximum Max to the Max.
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Feb 26, 2012 15:54
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Young boys should not be leading armies, why is Andy even here?
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Feb 26, 2012 16:16
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No indirects on this map unless you want them, but then this map is all about holding and busting chokepoints. I think Artillery and Rockets are going to be too important, Andy. Also something you didn't mention about Fog of War. If you move a unit but change your mind and undo the move before giving the Wait or Attack commands, they lose the fuel used for that move. This can really make APCs invaluable to an indecisive player, since you're going to need to refuel often. njsykora fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Feb 26, 2012 |
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Feb 26, 2012 16:21
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njsykora posted:Also something you didn't mention about Fog of War. If you move a unit but change your mind and undo the move before giving the Wait or Attack commands, they lose the fuel used for that move. This can really make APCs invaluable to an indecisive player, since you're going to need to refuel often. Are you sure? I know that's true in AWDS but I thought that was a mechanic introduced to keep the player from cheesing to find stuff like submerged submarines. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't in the games before AWDS.
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Feb 26, 2012 16:31
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Alkydere posted:Are you sure? I know that's true in AWDS but I thought that was a mechanic introduced to keep the player from cheesing to find stuff like submerged submarines. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't in the games before AWDS. It's true, and it's always been that way. IntSys didn't overlook something like this.
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Feb 26, 2012 16:40
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Yeah, I've lost way too many bombers through that detail to forget it.
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Feb 26, 2012 16:42
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Ah, okay. I have a bad habit of ignoring fuel counters anyways until the "OMG, NEED GAS!" symbol starts blinking on a unit so I'd probably never have noticed it if people didn't bring it up in my thread.
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Feb 26, 2012 16:44
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Whenever we're presented with a choice, we probably aren't going to see much of him any more, so let's use Andy.
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Feb 26, 2012 16:55
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This game needs more Max.
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Feb 26, 2012 17:12
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unpronounceable posted:Whenever we're presented with a choice, we probably aren't going to see much of him any more, so let's use Andy. Paul.Power fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Feb 26, 2012 |
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Feb 26, 2012 17:19
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I'm putting a vote in for Andy.
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Feb 26, 2012 17:36
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Holding the chokepoints is essential in this mission. Andy is far better for this task.
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Feb 26, 2012 17:59
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As soon as Max appeared I never used Andy again unless forced.
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Feb 26, 2012 19:08
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