What's an airport, again? Let's play Advance Wars!

"Ships at sea, bombers in the air" is a Seinfeld reference after all (of a sort).

I didn't know that! Can you point me to it? Google isn't helping.

Youtube gets me the comedy album that it also (?) shows up on, but it's basically Jerry ranting about Chicken of the Sea tuna which roughly goes along the lines of "No chickens in the sea! Chickens on the land, fish in the sea, *random grumbling about other things*"

EDIT: Found a transcript of the comedy album though I coulda sworn it showed up in the show as well.

Advance Wars 1 isn't played competitively that much, but he functions competitively much like you'd expect him to based on the campaign. (It depends a lot on the map, unsurprisingly.) His CO Power is really powerful, but that's balanced by his weaker infantry; the attack penalty he gets on infantry (and other directs, but infantry is the most commonly used unit) makes life very difficult for him unless he can set up at a chokepoint, and he's going to have problems affording enough artillery to hold off the opponent unless he can stall out the game and make it go long.

(He gets much better, to the point of utter brokenness, in the sequels.)

Do infantry even get Grit's direct-unit penalty in this game? They don't count as direct units for the purposes of Max's boost, since that's kinda what Sami is for. And infantry is definitely a separate general unit type in the sequels...

wow, fuck, i just checked. so gritfantry do get the penalty. wow, along with them giving him an upgrade to base ranged attack power, it's no wonder he wasn't really considered overpowered until the sequels.

Heh, I remember the Max vs. Grit mission. So I'm voting for Max.

Max just keeps picking up steam here, going from a tight, tiebreaker win in the vote for the last mission to a 5-0 stomping in this one. Will his results in the field follow the same pattern against the gunslinger known as Grit? We’ll see.



Olaf: Grit! Where is that fool?

Grit: I'm right here. What are you bellowing about now?

Olaf: Bellowing? Let me tell you something, you...

Grit: My apologies, exalted commander. I am at your service.

Olaf: 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.

Grit: Riiight. So, I should wait here and...

Olaf: Wait? What do you mean wait? Bugs's troops are...

Grit: Oh, OK. Understood. If duty calls, your humble servant Grit'll answer!

Olaf: If I didn't know better, I might think you weren't taking this
seriously.

A few key character points are driven home here. Grit seems to think lying in wait is the right strategy here (that’s probably a good bet with Grit), but Olaf thinks Grit needs to be more aggressive in dealing with us. Of course, Grit knows exactly how to pacify Olaf: appeal to his massive ego. This scene does a great job of further establishing Grit as the brains behind Blue Moon, comfortable calling the shots in secret while letting Olaf bluster his way about at the head of the army.

Sometimes Advance Wars does story well (outside of just B-movie camp, which it always does well), when it cares.



Max: Fog of War...

Andy: What's "Fog of War"?

Max: Please tell me you're joking. See that gray stuff blocking your
vision? That's Fog of War. Now, I wonder where the enemy troops are
hidden.

Andy: How do we find 'em?

Max: 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.

Andy: Boy, that seems pretty simple.

Max: 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!

Uh oh. This doesn’t sound good.



It’s not good. Fog of war is a pain to play in to begin with, but it’s even worse here; we’re up against Grit, which means each and every forest could be hiding an extra-dangerous artillery, rocket, or missile unit. This is going to be a map to take it slow and make sure to check every forest, or we’ll be taking plenty of attacks from units we can’t even see. When Grit gets his CO power, we’ll be hard-pressed to avoid getting at least one unit killed; those super-powered, massive-range indirects are deadly.



Thankfully, we’ve got two recons at our disposal. On most maps, recons are good for nothing more than some early skirmishes against infantry; here, they’re worth their weight in gold. Recons have great movement and can see a five-square radius, meaning we’ll have to try our best to keep our recons alive and at the front lines if we hope to see Grit’s units before they attack us. The AI in Advance Wars doesn’t completely cheat in Fog of War like its Fire Emblem counterpart, but it doesn’t play it straight either. The AI will ignore any unit in a forest unless it has an adjacent unit, but aside from that, can see and attack everything, no matter if its vision should allow that or not.

Our plan of attack here will be to advance along the road toward Grit’s HQ, checking forests as we go. We’ll use our B copters to take out any indirect units we can see but can’t otherwise reach. We’ll try to have recons hopping from forest to forest spearhead our army so that we can tell what we’re facing before it blows us away.



Our first move is to send our rear recon into the farthest forest it can reach…



…but we’re immediately notified that Grit’s infantry has beaten us to it. Placing an infantry here, close enough that we’ll run across it before we get into any real trouble, is a nice way to remind the player about Fog of War without really causing them any danger; the player is almost certain to run into and expose this infantry on his/her first turn, before there’s really any danger, and it’s easily disposed of once it’s been uncovered.



Like so, with another “don’t mess with Max” damage estimate.



Our first recon revealed a tank and artillery lying in wait for us; we send our second recon into another forest to reveal more territory near our starting point. Looks like that tank and artillery are the only thing we’ll need to worry about right of the bat.



We advance our tank force into forests before loading a mech into our T copter and sending it across the water to drop our mech into a forest, where it can watch out for any Blue Moon troops coming around the mountain range. We reveal a missile unit parked on a Blue Moon city, perfectly prepared to blast our T copter out of the sky. Uh-oh.



Luckily, one of our B copters can reach the missiles. We send it over to blunt the threat and succeed in damaging it enough that our T copter should survive. Whew.



We send our other copter across the water as well to weaken Grit’s tank. His artillery is a bigger threat, but as long as we stay back out of its range or in forest cover, our tanks will have no trouble with it next turn.



We conclude our turn by forming up the rest of our forces at the rear. Our rockets and artillery are nearly useless, since we’re using Max – in Fog of War – against Grit – and need to constantly advance against Grit’s cowardly indirects. We’ll give them the lowest movement priority throughout the mission.



Grit starts off with one of his patented Fog of War surprise attacks, pounding our APC with a rocket unit in a forest somewhere. Map inspection reveals that the rockets must be in one of two unseen forests, either east or southeast of our APC.



His missiles get their crack in as well. Even at half-power, they take our T copter down to 4 HP.



Grit brings a recon out where we can see it and attacks our APC with his wounded tank, bringing it down to 1 HP. No more combat for you, APC. We also hear some driving noises from somewhere in the fog; it’s clear that Grit has more than just indirects back there.



First things first; we finish off that pesky missile unit, giving our B copters more room to work with, and then we give our T copter a nice seaside vacation.



We take advantage of an unexpected opportunity to get our rockets some work, letting them finish off Grit’s tank. This will likely be the extent of the run our indirects get in this mission, but we’ll see! Now to look for those rockets that hit our APC.



We send our recon out to scout the southern forest, and it strikes gold. A tank steps down to finish off the job. Good work, fellas.

A thought occurs to me here and I sneak a peek at Grit’s CO meter; yep, it’s full already. Missiles and rockets are valuable units; destroying them will fill up a CO meter in a hurry. Grit’s full CO meter means we’d better not leave any units outside of forests anywhere near the front lines; if we do, they’ll take a pounding from Grit’s beastly indirects.



We send our other tank up into the forest next to Grit’s artillery and wipe it out. If our tank didn’t have the power to take it out completely (if, say, we were Andy instead of Max here), this would be a bad move, as any other lurking indirects could then see our tank and destroy it. Not so here.



After shuffling around the rest of our ground units so that they’re either in forests or well out of range, we take a gamble by bringing our B copter up to attack Grit’s recon. We cripple the recon, but if there are any more missile units within 8 square of our B copter, it’s bye-bye B copter. We cringe with fear as we pass the turn baton to Grit.



This is a terrifying sight at this point in the mission if you didn’t realize it was coming.



Thankfully, no crosshairs appear over our B copter, and we arrive back on our turn unscathed. Grit’s recon fled back under cover of darkness, and no new units emerged. This turn can go a whole lot worse than that for the unprepared.



Without any visible enemy units, our first priority is to advance our recons, and we do. Our recon forest-hops and says “hello” to not only Grit’s wounded recon, but also a rocket unit sitting pretty on a city.



You can see how this could have gone very poorly for us. The range shown is the CO power-boosted range, so it’ll shrink by 2 squares on Grit’s turn, but that’s still nothing to mess with. We’ll need to take this rocket unit out before driving our ground forces around the mountain range.



We take another risk with our B copter to do that. I’d actually be OK losing this B copter as long as it takes out the rockets first.



We move our ground forces up, using forests when in the rocket unit’s range. If all goes according to plan, we’ll destroy the rockets next turn and begin the push around the bend.



Thankfully, Grit has no answer for the second turn in a row, though there’s still plenty of movement noise behind his lines. One wonders what his plan is with all that movement.



Our recon, emboldened by the impending demise of Grit’s rockets, moves out of cover to finish off Grit’s recon and scout the territory north of the mountains, revealing nothing waiting for us there. Our B copter finishes off Grit’s rockets.



The rest of the turn is spent advancing the rest of our units. This is becoming somewhat of a pattern here, spending a lot of time just waiting for units to catch up; perhaps I should have been more aggressive. Oh well.

That mech we dropped off in the forest at the start of the mission has finally emerged to stand on a mountain and give us some more vision. It’ll be in trouble if anything dangerous lurks in the two forests east of it, but standing on the mountain should allow it to weather the storm.



On Grit’s turn, our lead B copter’s luck finally runs out, and even with Grit’s direct attack penalty, his anti-air one-shots it. Godspeed, comrade.



That’s all Grit can do on his turn, though, so we start off by moving our mech and recon up to advance our line of sight. We reveal an artillery that isn’t an immediate threat, but will again make it difficult for us to advance.



Another turn, another cautious advance. Our CO power is ready, meaning we can lay down some serious hurt if Grit will bring up enough units for it to be worth our while.



Grit’s turn is again calm, as he moves his anti-air up to meet our units but does nothing else we can see.



We move an infantry up onto a mountain for better vision, but still can’t see any more enemy units. OK, enough dilly-dallying; time to advance.

A 1-2 punch from our Md tank and tank clears the way forward, and that’s without even using our power. Maybe we should have been more aggressive earlier.



We send our B copter forward to scout a couple forests for indirects, but the search comes up empty.



We advance our units once more. There has to be something else back there, right?

Grit does nothing once more on his turn.



We do some more scouting for enemy units in forests, coming up empty each time. Where are they?



Still nothing as we continue the advance and end our turn. Is it possible we’ve been so afraid of nothing this whole time?



Nope, there they are!



We do some recon scouting and find the offending unit along with one of his cowardly buddies! Might as well finally use our power, huh?



Hey Grit! I will grind you to dust between these massive slabs of meat I call hands!



I miss the screenshot on the first attack, but why yes, our recon did do 7 HP damage to an artillery! Our Md tank isn’t too shabby either.



A tank finishes off the last artillery, but the mission doesn’t end. Grit must have yet more indirects hiding somewhere.



That means it’s time to start capturing his HQ. Our T copter brings a mech to within moving distance so we can start doing do next turn. In the meantime, we send our B copter north so that it can investigate the northeast island next turn. We stop its movement so that it’s 8 squares away from the nearest forest on that island, which should keep it safe from any attack. Over to Grit.

Errr…



Oh gosh, I didn’t even think about any of our tanks.



Oh right, Grit’s missiles with his power have 8 range. Whoops, forgot his normal +1 to range. Why did Grit arm that island so heavily?



With our last B copter down, we have no way of taking the fight to Grit’s final troops even if we wanted to. We take two days to finish off our HQ capture. That works too.



Grit: Howdy Max. Long time, no see.

Max: 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--

Grit: Aww, Maxie. Don't be like that. I got my reasons for doin' what I do,
you know? Man, I'm getting out of here before you get started
preachin' again. See y'all down the road!

Max: Hold it, Grit! Dang! He got away. But what's he doing with Blue Moon?

Seems like Grit and Max have some history, huh?

We receive perfect power and technique scores, but our speed score is low enough to drag our overall score down to an A-rank. Oh well. This is a difficult mission to score well on; you need to hurry to Grit’s HQ but not take too many hits from Grit’s indirects, especially when his CO power is active. I’ll take my A-rank and move on.

Here’s what the map looked like initially without the fog of war:



That’s quite a lot of indirects. Knowing how the troops are laid out coming in really takes the teeth out of this mission, but it’s almost necessary to score well.

We’ve got another CO choice for our next mission, and it’s a familiar one. This time I’ll give you the map so you can take it into account as you make your choice:



We’ll see a new win condition in this one as well!

Our choice once again is:

Andy, who asks one of the great questions of all-time?



Or Max, always focused on the mission at hand?

I vote Max of course.

That's actually not the mission I remember it being. Huh.

The mission I was thinking of had a handful of Max's forces in the bottom-left corner, your HQ around the middle to the right, and you had to snake around two mountain ranges to stop an infantry from capturing it within five or six turns or so. Peppered by Grit's indirects all the while.

EDIT: Oh, right, a vote. This looks like a map that's gonna need a lot of force. A map where you're going to need to plan in order to get the max damage.

...I dunno who to vote for. :P

We're on the wrong path for that one (it's mission 5A, not 5M). You'll need to wait for the next supplementary update, coming soon.

...Wait, it was Andy's mission? Huh, I thought it was Max's.

Oh, it's Max's, it's just on Andy's path. Max forces himself in for 5A; the player doesn't get a choice. Take a look at the end of the second-to-last update.

I think Andy asks a good question.

I agree; we need to learn the answer.

Supplemental Update: Mission 5 (Andy’s Path)

Back on Andy’s path, Andy has just shown Max that he can lead his troops surprisingly well for a twelve-year-old boy. Now it’s Max’s turn to show off what he can do. This is one of the more clever missions in the game, and it’s the one that aturtledoesbite was looking for.



Grit: Hey! Junior!

Andy: Stop calling me Junior!

Grit: You’re just a regular fireball, ain’t you? By the way, how’re you and Big Maxie getting along?

Max: Grit? In the Blue Moon Army?

Grit: Yep. Things happen, you know. Blue Moon helped me out of some trouble, and I always pay my debts. But that’s neither here nor there, big fella. You must be getting old if they’ve sent you out to test Junior here.

Max: What? Why you…

Grit: I tell you what, why don’t I just lend you a hand testing him out? You boys survive the next five days and you’ll know what he’s made of. Think you can take me, old dog? Bring it on boys!

Max: Grit, you are one arrogant piece of work!

Another reference to Grit’s history, another excellent nickname from Grit, and another example of Grit knowing exactly which buttons to push to get someone to do what he wants. A master manipulator, that one.



Max: Blast! Grit’s troops are all around me! If I stay put, I’ll be blasted to smithereens. If I retreat, our HQ will be captured… How am I gonna get out of this?

Max is so incensed that we can only select him for this mission, not Andy. Grit and his death stare are ready and waiting for him; here’s the mission map:



Look at all those indirects. For some reason, Big Maxie’s brought an indirect squad of his own, though he also has a strong tank force. The terms of victory here are new ones: all we need to do is survive for five days to complete the mission.

Of course, with our HQ exposed in the middle of the enemy, we can’t just hunker down and expect to win. The infantry east of our HQ will capture it in four turns if left unmolested, which means that we need to reach our HQ by our fourth turn; we’re going to have to advance right into the teeth of Grit’s indirects, and with all those mountains blocking our path, they’ll have plenty of chances to take potshots at us.

We’ll need to use our APC as rocket bait and get as much use out of our own indirects as possible in order to make it to our HQ in time without suffering too many losses.



We can make things a little easier by taking out an artillery right off the bat. Max + Grit = overkill.





Even with that artillery out of the way (ignore its presence in screenshots 1-3 above), Grit’s got us hemmed in pretty well. We should be able to stay out of the way of all but the closest rockets; we’ll need to soak a hit from it so we can advance our units.



One of our rockets takes a target of opportunity and softens up an artillery. The rest of our units advance and/or hide. The plan is for Grit’s rockets to attack our APC, letting our artilleries smash it while our tanks advance; our rockets in the south can hopefully do some damage as Grit’s troops advance to meet us. Indirects are pretty much one-time use weapons for Max here since Grit’s indirects outrange his by two squares.



Post-Grit’s turn, our rockets and APC have taken hits, but our rockets still has enough juice to finish off the offending artillery.



And our twin artilleries get some action. This is rare for Max artillery, at least with me controlling him.



I sneak a peek at Grit’s CO power meter and decide not to do any more attacking this turn; Grit’s CO power would pretty well shut down our advance for a turn. You don’t want to face rockets with a 60% damage boost.



Our units cozy up to Grit’s tank but leave it alone. They also stay out of indirect range. Next turn will be the big push; we can’t throw away more than a turn or so here with that infantry racing toward our HQ.



Not much action from Grit except a demonstration of how much worse his tanks are than Max’s. That’s a 10 HP attack from Grit doing 3 damage and a 7 HP attack from Max doing 5 damage.



And that 7 HP tank is ready to finish off the job right away. We’ve got a problem here, though; none of our tank brigade can actually reach Grit’s units. We can’t afford to hang back here (we’d actually have to retreat a couple squares to avoid Grit’s power); we’ll need to get creative.



The solution? Rockets and artillery as bait! They’ll take a pounding from Grit, but at least our precious tanks will be safe. This is somewhat of an AI loophole, as the AI typically prefers to attack units with worse defense if possible -- mostly independent of the type of unit.

Of course, having to soak attacks during Grit's power probably means that holding off on activating it was a waste, since we could easily have done the same last turn. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.



Grit’s infantry reaches our HQ and starts the capture. This is our “one turn left” sign.





There goes our fire support. Grit doesn’t mess around on his power. Thankfully, we’ve survived with our tanks intact and we’ve got our CO power to boot. Of course, doing 170% damage to rockets isn’t really any better than doing 110%, but at least it’s more impressive.



One Md tank clears the way to the HQ…



…and another one ganks the capturing infantry, securing the mission.



We pull a couple attacks for kicks and power score-boosting, then kick back and wait for the cavalry. The mission will end after one more turn, and Grit’s bag is out of tricks.



Max: Ya…yahoo!

Grit: You’re awful beat up to be celebratin’.

Max: Well…

Grit: Yeah, exactly. You know, Maxie, you never were any good at indirect combat. Why, if you’d have just used those big boys a little more, you wouldn’t have taken such a poundin’.

Max: Um…

Grit: And as long as I’m givin’ you what-for, what’s up with you and the kid? He ain’t got your particular shortcomings, so give him a break! He’s pretty darn good, and you know it. C’mon Maxie, what do you say?

Max: Yeah…I guess you’re right. Hey! Andy! Sorry for being such a jerk!

Andy: Huh? As long as you’re cool, I’m cool. Hey, Grit!

Grit: What’s up, Junior?

Andy: How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me Junior?

Grit: Whoa! I hear you, I hear you. My apologies. Well now, look at the time. Gotta go, boys! See y’all later! Take care, Junior.

Andy: …

Quite the cordial exchange between people who have just killed many of each other’s men. Max sure came around quickly on Andy, especially after Grit tried to sabotage him by suggesting he use his indirects more. Not cool, Grit.

We sacrificed a few too many units for a perfect score, but we still achieve an S-rank and we’re on our way to the final mission on the alternate path. This is a tough mission to score well on; hold back a little too much and your HQ is captured, game over. Forget about one of Grit’s units or his CO power and you’ve just lost five units. It’s a difficult balance to strike, but it ends up being a nice, short, punchy mission with enough depth to require multiple plays to develop a good strategy. Would anyone else have done something differently?

Back on the main path, the voting for our next CO is still open! Looks like Andy and Max are tied now; plenty of time to sway the vote for your favorite. Let’s hear it!

I vote for Andy

Mission 6 (Max’s Path)



You decided that we need to find out the answer to Andy’s question from the end of the last update: does Olaf get cold when he makes it snow? We’ll follow Andy into battle to find out.

Olaf: Blast! We're running out of opportunities.

Grit: I don't see the need to get so worked up. It's not like this was Blue
Moon property to begin with.

Olaf: What did you say? After all my work and planning?

Grit: It's common theft, man! Nothing more, nothing less.

Olaf: Why, you insolent little...

Grit: Whoa! Hold on chief! Don't you think it's time to move out? Like you
said, the Orange Star troops are knocking on our door.

Olaf: Grit! You're pushing your luck! Don't go anywhere, you understand?
I'll deal with you when I get back.

Grit is still toying with Olaf. It’s a good thing he’s not the one overcome with nationalistic fervor.



Nell: Bugs! Andy! Max! Can you hear me?

Andy: What is it, Nell?

Nell: I've learned that this is a vital deployment point for Olaf. If we can
drive him from the region, we may just cripple his army!

Max: Really? This may be where we can end this conflict with Olaf!

Nell: That's right! You just need to capture as much property as possible,
and fast! The first army to secure twelve properties will win this
battle! Stay alert and good luck!

Max: Let's see... Yep, we've got bases for deploying troops, and... OK!
Understood. Let's go!

As Nell says, we’ve got a new win condition here. We only need to own twelve properties to achieve victory, but if Olaf gets to twelve first, we lose. The reason why this is the case at this point in the campaign is hand-waved a bit, but I don’t mind. The new win condition spices up gameplay and strategy enough that I’m happy to see it no matter the justification.

Let’s take a look at the mission map:



There are a couple things of note here. One is that Olaf has us outmanned, both in terms of troops in the field and properties already under control. His army is significantly stronger than ours, especially with those two extra Md tanks, and his 6-3 advantage in property hurts us not only because Olaf is closer to the magic 12 properties, but also because Olaf will have more manufacturing power than us for a while. It would take some time for us to gain the upper hand in this mission if we had to win the normal way.

The second notable thing is the distribution of properties on either side of the river. There are eleven properties on either side of the river, meaning that we’ll need to capture all the properties on our side and one on Olaf’s side in order to win. The property just across the bridge in the center of the map is the obvious target, and it’s the one that we’ll go for here. We’ll send most of our force north while sending a mech east with some support to capture the bridge cities.



Here goes the mech to the east. Everything else we have in the field at this point will head north. Our immediate objective is to capture the northern base so that we can deploy units right at the front lines; the vast majority of the fighting will be in the north, so we’ll need all the advantage we can get there.



Our other units move north, with infantry capturing cities as they advance. Until we capture some more properties, we’re only taking in 3000 G a turn. This is 3 infantry, 1 mech, or 3/7 of a tank; it’s not much.



Here’s the income disparity listed out.



We build a couple infantry to help with capturing before ending our turn. I think my reasoning here was that we can’t afford a tank for another two turns anyway, so we might as well use up the surplus we’d have on our third turn now.



Olaf advances his forces to meet ours. In addition to the movements shown in this screenshot, his northern artillery moved west, just south of his tank. That puts the base in his range, so we’ll definitely need to do some fighting right away if we want to capture it quickly.



After our infantry move up or finish capturing as applicable, our Md tank opens the hostilities by pounding Olaf’s tank…



…and our tank follows suit on his artillery. This is not an ideal situation, as Olaf’s Md tank now has a free shot at our own and his artillery is still in the fight as well, meaning that it can stop our mech from capturing the base next turn by damaging it.



We keep our southern mech moving east and end our turn. We don’t deploy anything this turn so that we can afford a tank on the next one.



Olaf’s artillery does chip away at our mech. Oddly, his 2 HP tank hangs around but doesn’t attack; who knows what it’s thinking. Olaf’s Md tank also opens up on our own, gaining the upper hand in that battle.



As the next day dawns, our mech finds itself with a tank to battle in the southeast. Good thing we sent a mech over there instead of an infantry.



Our infantry squad moves up. They’ll be doing the bulk of the capturing here; we’ll need everything on our side of the river in the north.



We don’t have many good fighting options in the north. Our Md tank plays sacrifical lamb by weakening Olaf’s Md tank instead of running, and our tank finishes off his artillery, but we still don’t have an answer for his Md tank, even at 5 HP.



We’ve finally saved up enough to buy another tank, and we do before ending our turn. We’ll need it to protect our mech as it captures the bridge cities. We also buy another infantry with the surplus from capturing two more cities last turn.



Olaf’s Md tank finishes off ours and his tank further weakens our mech in the north. His southern tank wanders about aimlessly a bit. He’s also starting to amass forces on his side of the southern bridge; our mech will need backup soon.



Back on the offensive, we find that Olaf has positioned his southern tank perfectly for our new tank to finish it off without slowing up at all. Excellent!



In the north, we have the numerical advantage, but that Md tank still looms large. We’ll need to keep capturing properties and try to whittle it down whenever we get a chance.



Our tank gets to work on whittling. It can only take the Md tank down to 4 HP, but every bit helps.



Our last action on this turn is to move up the APC so that our mech on the newly-captured base is less exposed. We’re in good shape here in the north; we’ll need to keep it that way until we can capture both bridge cities in the south.



Olaf called in a blizzard on his turn and took our APC down to 5 HP with his Md tank. His 2 HP tank finally decided to retreat. We keep capturing as many properties as we can in the meantime.

Our tank keeps up the barrage on Olaf’s Md tank. It gets lucky here and manages to take the Md tank down to 2 HP.



We’re finally ready to use our CO power, and we do, bringing our troops back near full strength.



Our mech gets in on the fun against that Md tank. Down to 1 HP now.



Our last action on our turn is to advance our tank in the south. The plan is for the tank to block off access to the city on the far side of the bridge while the mech comes up and captures it. This will take another four turns, so our tank rests on the city for now for the defense boost.



All Olaf did on his turn was to advance a recon up to our southern tank. We blast it as our mech finally finishes capturing the city on our side of the river.



In the north, our mech finally finishes off Olaf’s Md tank. We only have two more cities left to capture up here, but we note that one of Olaf’s infantry has halfway-captured the city closest to the river. If he completes that capture, we lose the mission, so we’ll need to hit that infantry with something next turn to forestall that.



A freshly-built tank serves to both wound that infantry and stop the rest of Olaf’s infantry flood from crossing the river. All we need to do up here is take that last city on our side of the river.



Our other tank finishes off the capturing infantry, and the city is open for our own infantry to swoop in.



We advance the rest of our troops as much as we can, with another infantry ready to assist the first one if it comes under fire, and end our turn.



Olaf attacks our tank holding the northern bridge, but leaves the infantry alone for some reason. Well and good for us.



Our southern tank begins to hold the line for our mech. Both of Olaf’s artilleries are thankfully out of range, so it should be able to do the job without much trouble.



We finish our capture in the north and swap in a fresh tank to hold the bridge. At this point, we’re only waiting on that mech to finish the capture in the south. We end our turn.



Olaf has wised up and moved up an artillery to threaten us in the south, but we only need to hold for one more turn.



Our tank cripples Olaf’s, which should end any threat to our mech. We do some skirmishing in the north (not shown), and end our turn.



Olaf’s artillery takes out our tank, but his tank retreats, and our mech is home free.



Spending spree back at our HQ!



We make the final capture.



Olaf: Grrr... Not again! He will not be pleased with me if this losing
streak continues. Grit!

Grit: Yep.

Olaf: Get out there and stop that cursed Orange Star Army!

Grit: Easier said than done, Boss. You didn't leave me anything to work
with.

Olaf: Don't get saucy! Rally the troops and do something! I have to go and
pay him my respects. Don't fail me, Grit!

Grit: Well, I'll be a... Olaf just tucked his tail between his legs and ran
away. Where does that leave me? Guess I'll mosey on down and clean up
his mess.

Don’t get saucy! Err, wait, to whom is Olaf paying his respects? Sounds fishy…

The game shows us an animation of how many properties we owned against how many Olaf owned, which is nice if unnecessary. We struggled a bit here in both speed and power – the main culprit in both of those rankings is taking too long to finish the mission, which directly hurts our speed rating and makes it tougher to max our power score, since power is based on a percentage of the enemy’s total units that were destroyed in one turn. We would have done better here to send an infantry along with our mech to the southeast, allowing us to capture properties and fight simultaneously on that front.

Wait a second, we never got to find out whether Olaf gets cold when he makes it snow! Aw, man...



Next main update, Max loses his temper again and we’ll be railroaded into another Max v. Grit grudge match. Here’s the map we’ll be fighting on:



Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can come up with to vote on, but feel free to offer strategy suggestions, as specific or general as you’d like! They will be followed, and we’ll see just how they turn out.

Also of note, for you Sami enthusiasts: we’re nearly there!

Stay tuned for another supplemental update showing Andy’s path.

So... does he?

I think it's one of those timeless questions, like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. The world may never know.

Either that or Andy was distracted by something shiny long before he had a chance to ask.

I'd say, though, that given his cold-weather clothes and warm hat, Olaf does get cold when he makes it snow. He just makes a point not to show it.

it takes three! Everyone knows that!

Well, he used to be a Santa Claus, after all.

(while I generally favor the localization's re-design of some characters, sometimes ridiculous > sensible)

Kanbei was ruined, though

I can't be the only one clicking on the screenshots to try to see the enemy units' attack and movement ranges, can I?

I would be if the DS editions hadn't spoiled me with it's fancy top screen, such that now my brain can't help but assume that the screenshots are bottom-screen only.

What I'm trying to work out is how the touchscreen controls were so good in 3 (AWDS), and so bad in 4 (AWDC/AWDoR), despite being effectively the same. It's probably something to do with the way the screen scrolls.

Supplemental Update: Mission 6 (Andy’s Path)

We’re back again after far too long. This time, we take a look at Andy’s path for the final time before they get back together for good. Looks like the bearded one is on the warpath again! Let’s see what he wants.

Nell: Bugs! Everyone! Can you hear me?

Max: Nell? Is that you? What’s wrong? You sound upset.

Nell: There’s no time to worry about me. Olaf’s naval units are on the move! Blue Moon must not be allowed to regain its momentum! It’s imperative that you hurry and secure as many bases as possible.

Andy: Got it! Let’s get moving!

The Orange Star crew is quick and to the point here. Despite Nell’s claim that captures are imperative, that is not the case in the slightest. In fact, there are no bases in the next mission! But I’m getting ahead of myself.



We get a choice of Andy or Max here. I’ll choose Andy, since it’s his path, after all.



The mission title promises naval combat! Does it deliver?



Max: Fog of War…

Andy: Hey Bugs, what’s Fog of War again? Do you remember?

(Bugs chooses No for kicks)

Max: The things I do for my country… (sigh) This gray stuff that’s blocking our vision, that’s Fog of War. As you can imagine, the enemy is out there, hidden.

Andy: Wow, that’s creepy. So, how do we find the bad guys?

Max: Well, recon units have a good vision range, so let’s send them out first. But they’re pretty weak, so we’ll have to protect them somehow. All right. Let’s get moving.

I regret answering “No” now after having to transcribe that. Good thing we picked the kid who doesn’t know why he can’t see anything!

Regarding whether naval combat is in store, I guess we don’t know yet, but signs point to yes with all that obscured water. Given our own anemic naval force, it looks like HQ capture will be the order of the day here. We’ll plan to send our ground forces all the way north and then east, staying as far away from the water as possible, while our naval units attempt to hold off the enemy.



We take our first turn without running into any opposition. As promised, ground forces go north while naval units prepare to defend. I’m hoping that our lander will draw any enemy ships into battleship and sub range.



Olaf: Hm hm hm… Hee hee hee… Ha ha ha ha ha! Behold! Olaf’s navy is here! It’s no longer just battleships, I’ve assembled a complete armada!

Grit: Um, pardon me, Your Stoutness, but if the enemy heads inland, your naval powerhouse’ll be useless.

Olaf: Now it’s my turn! My fleet will crush those detestable Orange Star fools! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Grit: But you don’t even have a single infantry or mech unit deployed, and… Man, he ain’t even listenin’.

Well, can you blame him, with all those battleships at his disposal? <drool>

We’ve got some opposition on land here, but Grit’s information on the disposition of Olaf’s forces tells us we’ve made the right move. We’ll continue along the same lines.



We continue moving units north, weakening a tank at the northern choke point. Our naval units dispatch a battleship, but are still outnumbered, especially if Olaf actually has other naval units as promised.



…and of course Olaf’s got his power already. Buckle up, naval units.



Olaf lays waste in the south, leaving our battleship at half-strength and wiping out our sub. We’re in good shape in the north, though; our artillery has already pounded his southern tank.



We take our turn solely in the north, resigning our battleship and lander to their fates. We finish off Olaf’s southern tank and pound his northern tank force to the breaking point, poising ourselves to bust through next turn.



Olaf’s tank retreated and his naval force wiped ours out. This simplifies things for our army; full steam ahead!



We advance a recon first, bringing Olaf’s HQ defenders into sight. We prioritize that rockets, taking it down to 2 HP; our Md tank should be able to run rampant over the rest.



Olaf pounds our lead recon, but can do little else of note. Mop-up time!



And mop-up takes one turn. It is only now that I realize I need an infantry or mech up there to actually capture the HQ.



Three uneventful turns later, the job is done.



Olaf: Grr… I… I lost again… This will be such a disservice to… him… if things continue this way. Grit!

Grit: Yep.

Olaf: Get out there and stop the Orange Star Army!

Grit: That’s easy to say, Boss. But you left me nothin’ to work with.

Olaf: Don’t get saucy! Just rally the troops and do something! I must go and pay…him…my respects. I’ll return later.

Grit: Well, well, he’s finally off to visit the mystery man. Think I’ll just tag along and see what I can see.

This sounds ominous! Olaf’s being evasive and Grit’s on his trail! Andy’s path concludes with this mission, though the game gives you no indication of such, and will meet up with Max’s after one more Max mission.

We did pretty well on the score here, only missing a smidgeon of speed for forgetting to bring an infantry to the HQ for a turn. This is really about as easy of a mission as it gets – as long as you know to avoid Olaf’s navy. Take the south bridge and you’re in for a world of hurt, as Olaf’s northern tanks catch up with your rearguard at the same time as the battleships finish off your navy and set their sights on land.

There’s actually a bonus mission that can be accessed by winning this mission by rout, though I’ve never been able to do it. That navy is just too strong! I’ll leave you with the fogless map; let me know if you have any brilliant strategies for the rout victory! If you do, I’ll try them out offline and we’ll play that secret mission if we can reach it!