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Units Army  Infantry or "Inf" (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. A standard high-level defensive tactic is to mass produce infantry, on the basis that your opponent can't kill all of them, and use them to shield your more expensive units. 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. Light Tank or just "Tank" (7000G). Pretty fast, decent armour, packs a good punch against infantry and most light ground units but not up to much against air units or its big brother the medium tank. Reasonably cheap and pretty versatile, a mainstay of many an army. Medium Tank or "Md Tank" or "Middie" (16000G). "Medium" doesn't really do these guys justice. The most powerful land unit Advance Wars 1 has to offer. Slower than a small tank and a lot more expensive, but a lot more powerful both in attack and defence, Middies annihilate most ground units. Their main weaknesses are air units and long-range attacks. Anti-Air Tank, or AA (8000G). As the name suggests, the AA's primary role is to marmalise aircraft. But it's also a very powerful unit against footsoldiers. 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. Artillery, or Artil, 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. 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. Again, best used at chokepoints behind some kind of meatshield. 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, and make really good harriers in the early game. But they can't stand up to tanks or even AAs. 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), 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. They do have a special third use in the first Advance Wars game though, which we'll learn about shortly. Missile Launcher (12000G). Essentially rockets with a focus on surface-to-air rather than surface-to-surface. They're powerful: under normal conditions, a full health missile launcher can one-hit kill any air unit. So on paper, that sounds pretty good. Unfortunately, they have a lot of weaknesses: they're slow, heavily specialised, and it's very easy for B copters and bombers to just fly into their range shadow and take them out. So they're somewhat situational. They have a few uses though, like rendering enemy airports useless by setting up within range of them.Air Force  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. 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. Bomber (22000G). The game's most powerful attacking unit, capable of one-shotting many surface units and not being far off at killing medium tanks and battleships, either. Even anti-airs can only beat them if they get the first shot in. Bombers are helpless against fighters, though. Fighter (20000G). The kings of the skies, fighters are how you gain and hold air superiority in Advance Wars. They're devastating attackers against bombers, B copters and T copters - and to add insult to injury, those three units can't even attack fighters. They also have the largest movement range of any unit in the game. They can't do anything against surface units, though.Navy  Battleship (28000G). The most powerful long-range unit in the game, able to hit anything between 2 and 6 squares away from them. They provide great fire support, and - amazingly for a long-range unit - have good armour. But they're the most expensive unit in the game (you know you've made it if you've got the financial power to spam battleships), and are defenseless against air units and submarines, requiring cruisers to escort them. As naval units, they can only travel on sea or reef tiles. Lander (12000G). Naval transports that can carry two of any ground unit: this includes vehicles as well as footsoldiers. This makes them a key part of any island-hopping assault. They can't resupply. They are the only ship in AW capable of travelling on shoals (the yellow-and-light blue beach areas around some coasts). Landers can pick up and drop off their passengers either in ports or on shoals. Landers carry no weapons, and are vulnerable to indirect fire (including battleships), air units and submarines. Submarines or Subs (20000G). Subs have the ability to dive to hide themselves from view. While dived, submarines can only be seen by units in neighbouring squares, and can only be attacked by cruisers and other subs. However, when dived, subs use fuel a lot more quickly (and they don't carry much of it to begin with), so you'll need APCs on standby to stop them sinking. Subs prey on battleships and landers, but fall quickly to cruisers. They have no anti-air or ship-to-shore capabilities. 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. COs Orange Star Andy  "Andy's Anthem" A pretty awesome guitar coverAndy's stats are average, vanilla: he's essentially the benchmark all other COs are compared against. His CO Power, Hyper Repair, heals and repairs all your units by two hit points (assuming they're damaged, anyway) and makes them all a little more powerful. Background/Personality: Cut Andy open and you'd see the word "PROTAGONIST" running through him like a stick of rock. He's also pretty derpy, and is the source of many of this game's more bizarre quotes. Despite this derpiness, he's an excellent mechanic and a solid all-around CO with no particular weaknesses (or strengths, but why focus on the negative?). Nell  Nell's Theme  Nell's special ability is that she is luckier than most COs: to explain what I mean by that, I'm going to look at health meters in more detail. The 10HP scale is actually a simplification of a 100HP scale (which is represented by the bar you see during battle screens). So the expected damage percentage really means it'll knock off that many hit points, plus a luck bonus between 0 at 10 extra hit points. For Nell, this luck bonus ranges from 0 to 15 instead. Pretty handy quality for a tutorial CO to have, makes everything run just that little bit smoother. Her CO Power Lucky Star, which we don't get to see during the course of Field Training, can increase that luck bonus to ludicrous levels. Background/Personality: In this game, Nell isn't yet the commander in chief of Orange Star - she still has superiors, although who these superiors are we never actually learn. She definitely seems to be in charge of the other Orange Star COs, at least. Nell is very fond of teaching, and will rarely pass up an opportunity to tell you things about the game. Which might annoy you after a while. Max  Max's ThemeSo: Max. Max gets a +50% attack boost to all of his non-infantry direct combat units. Tanks, planes, B copters, recons, AAs, submarines, cruisers... And that's +50%, which means they do half as much damage again. His CO Power, Max Force, boosts that damage again and gives his direct combat units +1 movement range. Max does have a big weakness, though: his long-range units are... well, not very long range. They take a -1 range penalty and a -10% firepower penalty. That can get pretty annoying, but the +50% firepower boost on over half the game's units compensates way more than enough. Background/Personality: Graduating from Orange Star's CO academy around the same time as Nell and Grit, Max is Orange Star's powerhouse, a brawler who likes to get up close and personal. He's something of a showoff, but he's also a very loyal friend - although this in turn makes him rather overprotective of his fellow Orange Star COs. He's also got some insecurities about his failings with long range units. Still a good guy to have around, though. Sami  Sami's Theme Awesome guitar coverAlthough Max is the best CO in AW1, I'd say that Sami's my favourite. Certainly a lot of my fanboyism for Sensei in AW2 stems from learning to love infantry and mechs with Sami in AW1. They get superior firepower and, most notably, capture at 1.5 times the standard rate (rounded down). Now okay, that still means she takes two turns to capture a property at full health. But it means that a 7HP Sami footsoldier can still capture a property in two turns. It also means that if a full health Sami footsoldier starts capturing a property, you've got to knock it down to 3HP or less to stop it finishing the job the next day. Sami's transports also have an extra movement point, and her CO Power, Double Time, increases the firepower and movement of her footsoldiers. The drawback? Her non-footsoldier direct units take an attack penalty. Not as bad as Grit, but it can still be frustrating. Hopefully you won't have to worry too much about firepower with the queen of HQ Capture in charge, though. Background/Personality: Orange Star's special forces commander, and one of the game's more serious-minded COs. While it's not official, she's effectively Nell's second-in-command by virtue of being more responsible than Max or Andy. Sami isn't particularly strong academically, but her diligence tends to make up for it. She does have some tender spots though... particularly where Eagle and a certain other CO we haven't met yet are concerned. Have I mentioned that I really like her theme tune yet? I really like her theme tune. Blue Moon Olaf  Olaf's ThemeLike Andy, Olaf has vanilla stats, with one difference: his units are experts at moving through snow, and suffer no movement penalties from it. On the other hand, he suffers terribly in rain: most COs are only minorly inconvenienced by rain, but for Olaf it's as bad as snow is for most other COs. His CO Power, Blizzard... well, makes it snow. And again, makes his units a little more powerful. Background/Personality: The commander in chief of Blue Moon. Orange Star and Blue Moon have never been on the best of terms, but one day Olaf just decided to up and invade Orange Star. Why? drat good question. Maybe we'll find out at some point. In the meantime, it's enough to know that Olaf's pompous and boastful and something of a jerk, but not to be underestimated. Grit  Grit's ThemeGrit's the long range expert in Advance Wars: his indirects can hit one square further away. Artillery that normally hit 2-3 squares away from them get upgraded to 2-4 squares, Rockets that normally hit 3-5 squares away from them get upgraded to 3-6 squares, and so on. Interestingly, in the first Advance Wars he doesn't get an attack bonus on his indirects. What he does get though is a whopping 20% attack penalty on his direct combat units. Since the majority of the game's units are direct combat, this is a problem. That range boost is a big enough bonus that he can hold his own, though. His CO Power, Snipe Attack, makes it even crazier, adding another two squares of range and a massive attack bonus to his indirects. Background/Personality: A brilliant marksman, at one point Grit used to work for Orange Star, but he defected to Blue Moon for some unknown reason. He's laid-back to a fault, and can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but he's dependable enough and a good person underneath it all. Isn't very fond of Olaf's invasion of Orange Star. Green Earth Eagle  Eagle's ThemeEagle is the air unit specialist CO (although one could easily argue that Max has considerably better air units): his air units have increased attack and defence (I think 115% and 110% respectively?) and also consume less fuel per turn (with planes that use up 3 fuel units per turn instead of 5, and copters that use no fuel per turn instead of 2). His ships, however, are weaker, with only 90% attack (not too bad really, considering what Grit got hit with). Eagle's CO Power is Lightning Strike, which lets his non-footsoldier units have a second turn (although with greatly reduced attack and defence values, making him vulnerable to counterattacks). Background/Personality: The Green Earth COs in general play off European history and stereotypes, and Eagle is Germany - with a powerful airforce reminiscent of the Luftwaffe and Lightning Strike being a dead ringer for the tactic of Blitzkrieg. Green Earth as a whole has a somewhat Germanic feel (well, Hind helicopters aside), but the COs are a bit more varied. Anyway, Eagle has a big ego and a burning hatred of Andy. Why? Well, we don't know yet. Can't spoil everything for you. He can also be somewhat uptight. But again, he's not a bad person at heart (I'll think I'll be saying that a lot in these dossiers). Drake  Drake's ThemeDrake is the naval specialist, and not just because we can see his navel  . His ships and subs gain two extra defence stars and +1 movement point, but interestingly they don't get an attack bonus. A bit like Grit in that regard, then. Much like Eagle gets a naval attack penalty, Drake gets an air attack penalty, but also like Eagle his ground troops are average. Drake's CO Power, Tsunami, knocks 1HP off all enemy troops in a kind of anti-Hyper Repair (it also works even if there's no water on the map. No, don't question it, just shrug and say "Advance Wars"). It can't kill 1HP units, though, just like Andy can't heal beyond 10HP. Drake's also immune to rain the same way Olaf is to snow - and it's rumoured that random weather tends to follow him around...Background/Personality: Character-wise, my favourite CO, this big-hearted former pirate likes to take it easy and - though he doesn't look it - is probably one of the smarter COs. If Eagle represents Germany, Drake represents Britain with his superior navy - and he seems to be specifically based around the privateer Sir Francis Drake, a major hero in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In that battle, the English ships were more manoeuvrable and better defended than the Spanish ones - and just when Spain thought they could get away with a retreat, a storm whipped up and wrecked even more of their ships, which Tsunami parallels. Then there's the rain, I guess. We do get a fair bit of it over here  . But yeah, I like Drake. Just a shame about that face...Yellow Comet Kanbei  Kanbei's ThemeAll of Kanbei's units get a +20% boost to attack and defence. This can make him a tricky CO to deal with, especially in terrtain that boosts his defence even further. His weakness is that his units also cost 20% more: figures that the first time you fight him is a predeployed map. Kanbei's CO Power, Morale Boost, ramps his attack and defence up to crazy levels. Background/Personality: The Emperor of Yellow Comet is proud, honourable, popular and so dumb he makes Andy look like Richard Feynman. He generally has to rely on his daughter Sonja to be the brains of the Yellow Comet outfit - which can cause problems, since he's also rather overprotective of her. Kanbei's armies are some of the best trained in Wars World, but the extra training and equipment comes at a high price. He's also got one of the game's uglier faces, although at least he doesn't stare into your soul the way Grit does. Sonja  Sonja's ThemeSonja's main gimmick is that she can see further in Fog of War: she gets +1 vision range as stardard. Her CO Power, Enhanced Vision, does exactly what it says on the tin - an extra +1 vision range, and - crucially - the ability to see into forests and reefs even when not standing next to them. She also hides the HP counts of her units from her opponents, replacing them with a "?". Sonja's weakness is that she's unlucky. Whereas regular COs get 0 to +10 luck points on top of expected damage, and Nell gets 0 to +15, I think Sonja's range is -5 to +5 (it was in AW2, at least). All of this does make Sonja a rather situational CO, but put her in her element and she's a handful. Background/Personality: Kanbei's daughter, but it's safe to say that she didn't get her brains from him. Probably the smartest character in the game, and a firm believer in the importance of good intel gathering, Sonja is key to working out why the hell we're all suddenly at war with each other and unravelling the mystery of "him". She's got some issues in other areas though: she can be pretty snooty, and I can't help but feel sorry for Kanbei a bit at times when she criticises him (granted it's usually deserved). Arguably her over-analytical nature is the cause of her bad luck, with an inability to go with the flow at times. She has something of a rivalry with Sami that'll be expanded on in the next couple of missions. Aaaand there's one other guy who I'm not going to spoil here. Fanart The Legend of Nell (SupSuper)  Sonja invites Max to deal with it (ScotchDK)  PROBLEM, MAX? (KDavisJr)  The Drake Array (First Row: Looper, Waffleman_, KataraniSword, Endorph, KataraniSword. Second Row: Friend Commuter, Elth, Heatwizard, Tengames, a boxing teahorse. Third Row: Friend Communter, Mustard Snobbery, Randalor, Bruceski)            Nightmare Avatar Drake (Animation by SupSuper, individual frames by Looper, Heatwizard, Tengames, a boxing teahorse, Friend Commuter, Mustard Snobbery, Randalor, Bruceski.  The Future of LPs (SupSuper)  Minecraft Wars (Er... me. Grit arty, Sensei B copter, Sami mech and Drake battleship).  Advance Robot Engaged! Transform! (Pierzak) 
Paul.Power fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Mission 1: It's War! (or "An Arrowing Experience") Okay, so I cheesed through the final mission of Field Training offscreen, like Nell suggested. So let's get going!  Any Campaign, so long as it's New.  Welcome to Cosmo Land, the setting for AW1. AW2 is Macro Land, AWDS is Omega Land. They're all meant to be separate continents on Wars World.  Really? Continents?Wrong game, Andy. This is the one where you ask about airports.  Oh right, yeah, I forgot! Sorry.*ahem* Anyway...   Here so soon? But, wait... something's not right here. Nell wouldn't leave Orange Star's capital city unguarded. Which means... A new commanding officer? Ha, ha, ha! Excellent! I've lost a few battles lately, but no more! An Orange Star Army without Nell is no match for me! Time to teach this raw recruit what war's all about!You know, this Olaf guy seems like a bit of a jerk. Well, we're here to deliver some comeuppance.  Hey there, Andy. I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Or at least, a bizarre one.  Meet Olaf's chair. Olaf really likes sitting down. I mean, okay, most people like sitting down. I'm a pretty big fan of sitting down myself. But that chair follows Olaf everywhere in this game.  Nell? Is that you? Is this a transceiver?I have no idea what "this" is. A nearby flowerpot? Some earpiece that Andy got given without being told what it does? The GBA itself? Who knows. Either way, Andy seems pretty surprised by the concept of radio communication.  That's right, Andy. I'll be using it to contact you from here on out. As this is your first real command, I wanted to check up on you. No worries here! This is going to be easy! Oh, Andy! You're nothing if not enthusiastic. Let me give you a few words of advice. First, let's talk about your CO Power. You can use your CO Power when the Power Meter is full. The meter fills up gradually over the course of battle. Once it's full, you... well, I'll cover that when the time comes. Oh, I also have to tell you about the Terms of Victory. The Terms of Victory explain what you need to accomplish to fulfill a mission. Do you see Intel on the Map Menu? Select it and you'll see three new menu items: Terms, Status, and CO. If you select Terms, I'll explain what you must do to win on that map. You should also take a look at the other two items when you have the time. There's a lot of useful intel in there.Get used to Nell talking a lot. Especially when we go through Field Training. I did't mind it too much back in 2002, though. This game has a lot to take in, and Advance Wars provides an exhaustive crash course. OK, Andy. You listen to Paul and do your best! Good luck, Paul! Take care of Andy!Day 1  Here's the situation. It's a pretty straightforward map, predeployed with neither side receiving bases. A river runs through the middle of it, splitting the map naturally into northern and southern fronts. Check against AW2 and you can see a few small graphical differences: the trees and cities seem more rounded, and the cities have a little perspective effect to them. I actually kind of prefer the AW1 style here, it's friendlier.  The plan is to send troops along each of these two fronts, converging at Olaf's HQ in a pincer strike. The major threats are Olaf's medium tank and two rocket launchers, circled in red (or should I say orange?).  Let's start off by attacking this tank that Olaf so obligingly left out in the open.  One thing this game undeniably does better than Advance Wars 2: the little animations of the COs being happy and sad depending on the outcome of a battle. They brought them back for Dual Strike, but even then it wasn't really the same. Olaf's terrified expression here is just priceless.  Arrows II: An Arrowing Experience. But yeah, loading a mechanised infantry unit into an APC and moving it up a bit. May well come in handy later.  Moving the rest of the units on the southern front up.  In the north, my tank attacks Olaf's tank and my AA chips in a couple of extra damage for good measure.  All the infantry shuffle upfield.  Olaf tried using his damaged tank to attack my AA. I guess it wasn't a terrible move exactly, but he certainly looks scared. Day 2  Tell you what was a terrible move, though: sending his artillery CHARGING up to my frontlines. Yeah. I uh...  I guess I believe in gifts?   Artillery assaults artillery, mech finishes off tank, and you get to see just how scared Olaf looks when you actually kill one of his units.  Tank finishes off arty, AA attacks infantry.  What's happening in the south?  Well, there's another rogue artillery to deal with. My own artillery leads the bombardment, and my recon cleans up.   The first of those "major threat" units I mentioned, the rocket launcher, takes a pounding. BOOM!  And after that I attack Olaf's AA with a small tank.  Moving people up and... yeah, that's basically it.   Here we go. First CO Power of the game. Time to talk about COs, then. Paul.Power's CO Notes: Andy "Andy's Anthem" A pretty awesome guitar coverAndy's stats are average, vanilla: he's essentially the benchmark all other COs are compared against. His CO Power, Hyper Repair, heals and repairs all your units by two hit points (assuming they're damaged, anyway) and makes them all a little more powerful. Background/Personality: Cut Andy open and you'd see the word "PROTAGONIST" running through him like a stick of rock. He's also pretty derpy, and is the source of many of this game's more bizarre quotes. Despite this derpiness, he's an excellent mechanic and a solid all-around CO with no particular weaknesses (or strengths, but why focus on the negative?). Paul.Power's CO Notes: Olaf Olaf's ThemeLike Andy, Olaf has vanilla stats, with one difference: his units are experts at moving through snow, and suffer no movement penalties from it. On the other hand, he suffers terribly in rain: most COs are only minorly inconvenienced by rain, but for Olaf it's as bad as snow is for most other COs. His CO Power, Blizzard... well, makes it snow. And again, makes his units a little more powerful. Background/Personality: The commander in chief of Blue Moon. Orange Star and Blue Moon have never been on the best of terms, but one day Olaf just decided to up and invade Orange Star. Why? drat good question. Maybe we'll find out at some point. In the meantime, it's enough to know that Olaf's pompous and boastful and something of a jerk, but not to be underestimated.  Kind of sucks to be on the receiving end of snow this time.  Olaf looks so happy that his crippled 4HP infantry is having a negligible effect on my artillery piece. Day 3  But now we've got to deal with a bunch of snow.  Not Olaf, though. As noted, he has no problems with snow, as the attack range on his medium tank demonstrates. Best stay away from that for now. Luckily there's a nice forest I can attack his mech from...  It may be a medium tank attacking a mech, but the +40% (four star) terrain bonus from the mountain and the +10% defence bonus from Olaf's CO power mean that I can only deal half damage. Better than nothing though.  After that, my small tank finishes off the rocket truck. The cloud of black smoke you see is the rocket truck exploding - normally I forget to screencap that.  Note how the snow would give my recon a hard time crossing it. It's fine on the roads, though: Wars World must have a very good gritting service.  So let's finish that mech off.  Moving the rest of my southern troops up. I've left my artillery very exposed here, but don't worry about that. I have a secret weapon. A secret weapon ringed in green.  So instead let's look at the north. A bit of cleanup left to do here.  Arty and tank tackle AA, AA kills 4HP infantry.  And my mech moves in to start working on the infantry up here.  Eesh. Snow really cripples infantry.   Yes, the secret weapon worked! Olaf sent those AAs to target my harmless APC instead of the artillery. Day 4  There's a reason for this: for some reason in Advance Wars 1, the AI has a serious APC fetish. Given the choice between attacking an APC and attacking practically anything else (I think it prioritises HQ-capturing infantry, but that's about it), it will go for the APC. I guess they really want to avoid HQ sneak attacks. This gives APCs a valuable third role beyond their intended roles of troop transport and supply truck: they're your decoys. Want to stop that rocket launcher crippling your medium tank? Give it an APC to fire at. It's like galvanisation, only for armies. I'll almost certainly be using it a lot in the coming conflict.  Artillery and tank take out the offending AAs while an infantry gets to work capturing.  Medium tank and recon take down a mech.  Forgot to screencap it, but there was an infantry there. You can at least see the explosion it left behind.  The rest of my northern units line up outside the range of Olaf's tank.  And my battered APC retreats a little and drops off its passenger, just in case it somehow got killed with the passenger on board and cost me two unit deaths. Day 5  Andy's CO Power meter is almost full. It's so almost full that my very next attack causes it to topple over the edge:  Nell? What is it? Your Power Meter is full! Andy's CO Power lets you repair all damaged units, right? Do you know when it's best to use it? Um... No, I don't. Well, I guess I'll have to tell you. Since you're able to repair all of your units, you should use your Power when you have damaged units. Oh, and one more thing. When you use your Power, all of your units will be a little stronger for that turn. Don't forget what I just told you, OK? Is that clear? Not really. But that's OK. I'll just let Paul decide.Ladies and gentlemen, Orange Star's bright new hope. Oh, well... I guess that'll have to do. Paul, you're in command. Good luck! I do have some damaged units right now, but I'm not going to use Hyper Repair just yet. I have a plan.  The plan is basically to put an infantry and mech into the range of Olaf's northern tank, in order to lure it forward. Means I have to deal with one less unit when I reach the HQ. Divide and conquer, as it were. I'll take some damage, sure, but that's what Hyper Repair's for.  Shuffling some stuff around.  And Olaf's taking the bait. He's smiling now, but the boot will be on the other foot soon. Day 6  Right then, let's rock.   As with Olaf and his chair, Andy is really attached to those wrenches. In this game he seems to like pretending to be a moose with them.  Much better. 2HP isn't a huge deal (and it's certainly a comedown after AW2 and Hyper Upgrade's 5HP) but every little helps.  Having fallen for the bait, the northern tank lands straight in the arty/mech combo trap.  In the south I'm killing the remaining infantry unit and moving my APC up a bit.  Hmm. Hmmmm... that medium tank...  Well, you know what? The bait trick worked once, maybe it'll work again. This time I'm using my own medium tank as bait (if nothing else, at least it can take some punishment from Olaf's middie).  General unit moving in the north.  Once again, Olaf takes the bait. I get a little lucky: his medium tank only chips 4HP off of mine. Day 7  Right then.  Speaking of luck, I did pretty well there to take off 5HP with one artillery shot then.  My medium tank cleans up.  Man, this baiting trick's working out so well I'm going to use it again, this time to see if I can lure out Olaf's 7HP tank. Setting up so I'm in range of the tank, but not the rocket.  Hopefully it'll work.  But it seems Olaf is wise to my tricks this time. Bad time to hit a Blizzard. Day 8  Ugh. Would you look at all this snow, jamming up my units just when I want to move in for the kill. Also Olaf didn't take the bait this time. I think that's due to a quirk of the AI, actually - units that are being repaired on a city tend to stay put and not move off them until fully healed. In hindsight I should have anticipated that.  Oh well, all I can really do is move up a bit. A very small bit.  Sure, now Olaf attacks. Day 9  It's a bit messy.  But hey, I've seen a lot worse. Arty, tank and mech work together to clean up that tank.  I try my best to finish up this turn, but it's not happening. Oh well, hopefully it won't cost me too much. Day 10  Not much else to say really.   So let's finish this off.   Who in the world are you? My name's Andy! I'm the CO. This is my advisor, Paul. Advisor? We needed no advisors when I was in the Orange Star Army! Hrumph!Olaf used to work for Orange Star, huh? That's interesting. Wonder what made him switch to Blue Moon? Be that as it may. Paul! Andy! It takes a lot to best me. I'll remember your names. Mark my word! Hey, grandpa. Who are you? Who am I, you ask? Throughout Orange Star I was known as... Nell's papa? That's right, Nell's... What? No!Well played, Andy. Well played. That's what I get for being nice to children! No respect! Grrr... You just watch yourself, little boy! I was a little bit slow on the speed front - could have been a bit more efficient at the end there - but still good enough for an S Rank. As before with Advance Wars 2, while I'll obviously look to do as well as I can, a perfect run's a bit beyond me. In Advance Wars 1 you get little bars to represent your scores, rather than Advance Wars 2's way of just straight-up giving you the numbers.  The better you rank, the more coins you get. Nell had a little spiel here about spending those coins in Battle Maps, the game's shop, but I think we've heard quite enough from her for now, and we'll be hearing plenty more from her soon enough. Tune in next time as...  ... we go back to basics. Paul.Power fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Feb 16, 2012 |
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Feb 16, 2012 19:47
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Fantastic! Looking forward to this.
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Feb 16, 2012 20:12
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I've actually played AW1, unlike AW2; since I'd sampled the second game first, going back to AW1 felt a bit like a regression. It's a pretty good game, but the changes AW2 made were definitely for the better, in my opinion...? More differentiation of COs and all that. All the same, AW1 is still solid.
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Feb 16, 2012 20:17
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It says a lot about AW1 that, ignoring Aerial and Naval units, what you saw in the very first battle was the entirety of your land-bound units. There were no surprises; MdTanks were the big boys on the playground, but could still be taken down by liberal application of indirect fire and distraction. Somehow, despite this (or perhaps because of it), AW1 still remains the hardest of the English-translated Nintendo Wars games.
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Feb 16, 2012 20:23
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I completely forgot about APC baiting in this game. Now that you mentioned it though I remember relentlessly abusing the hell out of it. I miss the AI having a giant weak spot that you could always exploit if a mission was too tough/you were too lazy to figure out how to do things on your own.
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Feb 16, 2012 20:25
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Gonna be following this closely.
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Feb 16, 2012 20:26
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Hot drat, ground floor. This is the only AW game I ever played a few levels of before getting bored with it; Let's see what all the hubbub is about. 
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Feb 16, 2012 20:32
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KataraniSword posted:It says a lot about AW1 that, ignoring Aerial and Naval units, what you saw in the very first battle was the entirety of your land-bound units. There were no surprises; MdTanks were the big boys on the playground, but could still be taken down by liberal application of indirect fire and distraction. In the later AW games you had far more methods to mitigate a lack of skill in tactics: Super CO Powers, Tag Breaks and the Skill system, loving COLIN. In AW1, your only real bennie is your CO Power, which isn't going to turn a whole battle around, just give you a slight edge. As such, it requires a bit more proficiency in playing against the AI and managing your forces.
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Feb 16, 2012 20:42
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Paul.Power posted:
Um. I think there was an error here. Also, this game, hell yeah. This game was pretty much the first game I ever seriously "played" on the GBA. I think I chose well!
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Feb 16, 2012 21:24
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Well, I guess I'll have to tell you. Since you're able to repair all of your units, you should use your Power when you have damaged units. Oh, and one more thing. When you use your Power, all of your units will be a little stronger for that turn. Don't forget what I just told you, OK? Is that clear?
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"Nell's papa?" I'm going to be that guy for the thread who starts sperging out over all the fun plot details from AW1 (including pretty much all characterization...) that just get dropped in AW2 from the perspective shift from just Orange Star to all the armies. Like that. A line that is NEVER actually explained at all. Was Andy just being Andy? Is Olaf actually Nell's father (which would explain why she hates him so much for betraying Orange Star.) Also the advisor as a character just vanishes for some reason. Also AW1 is just as hilariously broken as the other games at times. (Just wait till we meet Max this game. Oh god. XD)
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Feb 16, 2012 21:32
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legoman727 posted:Also the advisor as a character just vanishes for some reason. This, I think, was just IntSys going though a player self-insert phase. You might recall Fire Emblem 7, released not that far from AW, used a similar idea. They seemed to suddenly drop the idea after that. Maybe they just suddenly decided it was a silly idea and then pretended it never happened.
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Feb 16, 2012 21:39
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Fedule posted:This, I think, was just IntSys going though a player self-insert phase. You might recall Fire Emblem 7, released not that far from AW, used a similar idea. They seemed to suddenly drop the idea after that. Maybe they just suddenly decided it was a silly idea and then pretended it never happened. And then it's back for FE12 with My Unit, so... 
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Feb 16, 2012 21:41
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Fedule posted:Um. I think there was an error here. Allan Assiduity posted:I've actually played AW1, unlike AW2; since I'd sampled the second game first, going back to AW1 felt a bit like a regression. It's a pretty good game, but the changes AW2 made were definitely for the better, in my opinion...? More differentiation of COs and all that. legoman727 posted:"Nell's papa?" Incidentally, if you're wondering why I haven't put up Field Training 1 to 3 yet despite having it as part of the test post, I want to get Campaign Mission 2 finished up first. Thought it'd be nice to have a bit of a buffer for once. How long that buffer'll last is another matter...
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Feb 16, 2012 21:42
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Oh hell yes I'm on board for this. I've never finished this game, only gotten to the final mission and failed so it'll be cool to see things done in a way I never thought of.
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Feb 16, 2012 21:55
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Sweet. I loved your AW2 thread, and read it in the archives when I had an insomnia problem a couple months back. And now there's more of this. Yay! I'm not sure which Advanced Wars I started with, considering I just borrowed a friend's copy of it and only did War Room stuff. I went back and played both and I'll agree that AW1's campaign feels harder, but AW2's extra COs really made the game feel a lot...fuller. Had just enough new stuff that didn't break the formula.
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Feb 16, 2012 21:55
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Paul.Power posted:Haha, whoops. Thanks! I like to believe that Nell's head simply grows five times larger than normal when she needs to give tutorials. 
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Feb 16, 2012 22:25
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Oh yes, this game. This was my first Advance Wars, and oh boy can it be a challenge to beat, even with the Normal Campaign. Can't wait to see you tear this one apart! Are you going to mention the Design Maps glitch that allows you to pretty much instantly win any mission? It also allows you to save Campaign missions as Design Maps, which is also pretty cool (nonstandard map sizes!).
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Feb 16, 2012 22:28
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Oh I'll definitely be watching this. I never actually played AW1 so this will be entirely new to me. I've only played AW2, DS and DoR. I've only beaten DS though because I could never figure out AW2's final mission (on the normal campaign) and DoR's final mission made me want to throw my gameboy across the room.
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Feb 16, 2012 22:29
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Malachite_Dragon posted:Hot drat, ground floor. This is the only AW game I ever played a few levels of before getting bored with it; Let's see what all the hubbub is about. this is me as well so I will be happy to get in and see what all the fuss is about 
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Feb 16, 2012 22:36
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I was gonna get AW1, but then AW2 came out with every review pretty much saying "it's like AW1 but better in every way so get that instead", so I did. Interested to see how this turns out. I missed the arrows.
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Feb 16, 2012 23:40
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legoman727 posted:And then it's back for FE12 with My Unit, so...
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Feb 16, 2012 23:47
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SupSuper posted:I was gonna get AW1, but then AW2 came out with every review pretty much saying "it's like AW1 but better in every way so get that instead", so I did. Interested to see how this turns out. The error you made wasn't getting AW2, it was to not get both of them! AW1 is really fun even though it can be hard and a bit unbalanced (not like that gets much better in the sequels). WOOO arrows!
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Feb 17, 2012 00:18
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Sockerbagarn posted:The error you made wasn't getting AW2, it was to not get both of them! AW1 is really fun even though it can be hard and a bit unbalanced (not like that gets much better in the sequels). I find myself being a little bit like Deadpool. "How I missed you, little
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Feb 17, 2012 01:50
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Oh god this game. I remember playing one of the earlier missions that just turned into a WWI slugfest. I was young and silly and so I wasn't aware of the power of indirect fire, so that mission was pretty much an instant C from speed loss alone. But you seem a lot better at this, so I'm looking forward to it!
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Feb 17, 2012 01:56
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Davin Valkri posted:Oh god this game. Sounds like that could be mission 2 to me, it's almost a bit evil of them to make you face that person so early.
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Feb 17, 2012 02:14
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Sockerbagarn posted:Sounds like that could be mission 2 to me, it's almost a bit evil of them to make you face that person so early. No, it was the mission that introduces the alternate "total properties owned" win mechanic. Although I might have gotten bogged down on the next one too, I can't really remember it.
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Feb 17, 2012 02:15
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Ooh! Advance Wars 1 was the only one in the series I've ever played, so while I'm still following the other Advance Wars LPs and enjoying them, I'm glad to see one dealing with the one game I have played...even if it's been a good ten years and I literally remember nothing about the game. Just that it's ridiculously hard, but very rewarding, that Campaign chart Nintendo Power put out was an absolute godsend, and that despite every single difficulty I had with it, I completely and utterly annihilated The Final Battle in 28 days which...I think...was a big deal at the time. Always wondered if that meant I was some kind of idiot-savant. Like Andy, actually.
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Feb 17, 2012 02:16
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Davin Valkri posted:No, it was the mission that introduces the alternate "total properties owned" win mechanic. Although I might have gotten bogged down on the next one too, I can't really remember it. Yeah, the AI doesn't get a factory in the next mission so it's hard to get bogged down for too long. It manages to display a powerful force with the few units it possesses though.
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Feb 17, 2012 02:26
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My favourite thing about this game is that the campaign gets pretty much straight into it - there's no long tedious "tutorial phase" where they introduce new elements one-by-one unless you actually decide to go through the field training.
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Feb 17, 2012 02:31
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Ahh, this game. If I could find my drat copy of it I'd have taken a crack at LPing it, but as it is I haven't played it in years and back then I sucked at the game. Never even beat Advance Campaign because, while I ended up using a guide for it eventually, I made the genius decision to stumble into Rivals. I'd rather play the last mission of Days of Ruin again than AC Rivals.
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Feb 17, 2012 05:36
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Paul.Power posted:
I guess you could say he's an armchair general. I somehow managed to beat Advance Campaign through sheer bull-headedness and savescumming, only needing a guide for two missions. There's no way I was going to do AC Rivals, though. Especially since that means taking the hardest path through Green Earth.
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Feb 17, 2012 05:52
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The AW2 LP was fun, so looking forward to this. I've never played the series, so I wonder which COs will be returning from AW2.
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Feb 17, 2012 06:03
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Why is the medium tank medium if there's nothing stronger than it? There's no Large Tank and even "small" Tank isn't referred to as such. Still, this is the game I got with my GBA for Christmas (and my mom went back to the store to exchange the bundle she'd already bought for the AW one after hearing me gush about it, in a move I appreciate to this very day  ) and it still took me a couple years to get around to beating the next-to-last mission so it holds a special place in my gamer nostalgia & I'm glad it's finally getting covered.
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Feb 17, 2012 07:30
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You know, I really do like the art style a lot more. I guess the cartoony feel the game has from those rounded edges you mentioned, and the way COs are so much more animated in battle just brings it to life so much more than the later games. AW2 is better in the gameplay sense but this game just oozes charm and I like that a lot. The final mission also took me loving forever the first time.
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Feb 17, 2012 08:11
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Oh man did I love this game. It may not be the most balanced or most tactically involved of the Advance Wars games, but it always felt like the right amount of difficulty to my fourth-grade self. It will be fun to see how the game holds up much later, but I can already say that I still love the advisor touch. It's just fun to think that Orange Star has someone on the payroll just to curb the more idiotic tendencies of the commanding officers.
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Feb 17, 2012 08:15
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Vicas posted:You know, I really do like the art style a lot more. I guess the cartoony feel the game has from those rounded edges you mentioned, and the way COs are so much more animated in battle just brings it to life so much more than the later games. AW2 is better in the gameplay sense but this game just oozes charm and I like that a lot. ultimateluigi987 posted:Are you going to mention the Design Maps glitch that allows you to pretty much instantly win any mission? It also allows you to save Campaign missions as Design Maps, which is also pretty cool (nonstandard map sizes!). Next update is ready to go up, just messing about here hoping that I can get on to page 2 so I don't have to worry about having a huge number of images on the first page.
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Feb 17, 2012 09:55
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Paul.Power posted:Mmm. Although saying that, one really weird thing about the AW art is the COs' faces. There's something really... odd about some of them. Drake is practically nightmare-inducing. AW2's art improved on that at least. It isn't really that big of a deal. Your first update isn't *that* massive in terms of number of images, and by the time you get to the really long missions the thread will have serious traction, and there's nothing like votes to fill pages! (notice how I'm both helping you get to a new page AND telling you the issue doesn't matter! I'm not really sure what this is supposed to say about me.)
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Feb 17, 2012 10:06
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Fedule posted:It isn't really that big of a deal. Your first update isn't *that* massive in terms of number of images, and by the time you get to the really long missions the thread will have serious traction, and there's nothing like votes to fill pages! And hooray, this little conversation has taken us to the end of the page! Update to follow.
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Feb 17, 2012 10:16
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