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

CO Midriff er... Sami!

The map coming up is actually the hardest (and most tedious if unspoiled) non-secret map in the game in hard mode, where you can't see what you're doing. It's basically an exercise in carefully mapping all the positions that out-of-sight units could be so as to avoid being killed by them.

Huh. Naturally, having never finished the advanced campaign, I haven't seen that. It's funny, because it's one of the easiest maps in normal campaign.



Yeah, that would be pretty terrifying in fog of war, especially with only six turns to get to the center north island and stop that infantry from capturing if the wincon is the same.

Today, on Let’s Play Advance Wars, we fight Kanbei for the third and final time. The choice of Sami as our CO was unanimous, and we’re under orders to capture lots of properties, capture Kanbei’s lone base, and achieve victory by HQ capture. One of those things is entirely necessary in this mission and the other two are things there is never any reason to do. Which is which? Let’s find out!

Sonja: They're pretty good, aren't they? You can go on and on about their
superior number of bases, but they really just outlasted you, Father.

Kanbei: But Sonja...

Sonja: Father! Stop that whining! You're the Yellow Comet commander for
goodness' sake!

Kanbei: Yes, you're right... I am. What should I do?

Sonja: Well, first of all, we obviously need to match their number of bases.

Kanbei: Of course! Kanbei must have bases, too!

Sonja: Yes, but we also...

Kanbei : It is decided! Kanbei shall secure bases near the enemy!

Sonja : Father? Ohhhh... gone again. Doesn't he realize that the proper
location of bases is just as important as numbers?

Well, there’s some foreshadowing if I’ve ever seen it. Shades of Olaf and his “Olaf will have planes!” speech, which was slightly undercut by those planes having only enough fuel to last one turn.



Andy: Kanbei's got us surrounded!

Max: On top of that, we have to seize properties to win. Looks like things
are gonna get rough.

Sami: But look! This time we have an airport!

Andy: What's an airport, again?

Max: Airports let us deploy air units! Plus, damaged planes and copters can
go there to recover HP.

Andy: Oh, OK. Got it! That's cool, but isn't that Kanbei's base right there?

Sami: Don't worry about that one. Take a close look. That base deploys
ground units, right? Well, it's out in the middle of nowhere. It's
completely useless! Let's ignore that one and Capture some other bases
and cities. We need to Capture fifteen properties to win.

Oh, Andy, you’re precious. Let’s immortalize the thread title quote with a screenshot:



Poor kid; he must have really been deprived of an education as a youth. Though I suppose being trained enough to be a CO at age, what, thirteen? That’ll do it to you. Good thing Sami’s got the situation well under control, with a strategy all planned out and strengths matching the mission goal. We’ll ignore her advice to ignore the base, but her heart’s in the right place. Let’s take a look at the battleground again:



This mission is a nice change of pace from the last couple, which both have the potential to get harrowing. Here, we’ve got to watch out for Kanbei’s bomber and fighter early, and we’ve got to make sure to prevent him from capturing all the properties on his home island and the center-north island (giving him 15 properties, which is the special win condition here), but we can ignore most of his army and he really has no capacity to fight back since his only base is completely isolated from anything worthwhile.

Of course, we’re trying to capture Kanbei’s base and HQ, which will require a modicum of creativity. Our plan is to focus on taking out Kanbei’s fighter and bomber and capturing his base early, then to stop his infantry on the center-north island from capturing all the properties there, then to build up a force to take his HQ. Let’s get to it!



First off: it’s going to be a lot harder to capture that base if Kanbei builds a unit every turn from it. We prevent him from doing so by flying a fighter above the base, which prevents it from building anything using nice, simple Advance Wars logic.



We group the rest of our units up to avoid bomber, B copter, and fighter attacks. Our two infantries have started capturing the two southern neutral cities to get us some more funding; we’ve also built two more infantries, and whichever one isn’t attacked by Kanbei’s bomber will capture the northern city next turn. Kanbei can’t do anything really damaging to us next turn.



Kanbei: Oh, ho ho ho! Look what I have found! A base for Kanbei's troops! I shall deploy a mountain of troops!

Are you sure about that mountain, Kanbei?

Indeed, he doesn’t do anything of consequence. An infantry gets attacked as planned and the B copter and fighter advance. It’ll be more of the same for us this turn, as we work to eliminate the fighter and bomber.



The bomber is the first target; this also gets our fighter out of harm’s way. Our fighter takes the bomber down to 3 HP.



Of course, that leaves Kanbei’s base open, so we send an infantry over to it via T copter. This leaves our T copter open to fighter attack, but it’s a necessary sacrifice to take that base.



We clean up some more, with our missiles taking out Kanbei’s B copter and our anti-air finishing off his bomber. His fighter will have to wait for another turn.



We build a T copter to replace the one we’re about to lose and turn things over to Kanbei. Our B copter also sets out for the center-north island to stop Kanbei from capturing everything there.



Kanbei’s fighter takes out our T copter, as expected, but it’s the last threat within range of our troops and we’ve got ample firepower to deal with it.



Like so, with missiles and fighter. Our infantry will start capturing Kanbei’s base unopposed this turn, as well. Poor Kanbei never even got a turn out of it.



We fly another infantry up to the next island to capture more property. I seem to have forgotten about the northern city on our island, but it’ll soon be rectified.



Our B copter starts in on the center-north island. It takes on the tank first; we’ll capture Kanbei’s base long before his infantry finishes capturing these cities, and that removes any urgency in taking it out. Plus, Kanbei’s tanks can almost stand up to Sami’s B copters if given first strike. We send things back to Kanbei, who’s almost certainly ready for his power – destroying his bomber and fighter is almost enough to do that alone.



Kanbei does have his power ready, and uses it (quote: “Come back when you've matured some! Say, in ten years!!!”, which makes me wonder how old Sami is and how old Kanbei thinks she is). It doesn’t do him any good, as he can only execute a questionable attack on our B copter. We’ve really pretty much sewn the mission up at this point; we only need to capture 15 properties, and capturing everything not on Kanbei’s island will give us 16. It’s kind of a gimmick mission and therefore quite easy, but the need to capture Kanbei’s HQ will still make things interesting at the end. I’ll be skipping any of Kanbei’s turns from here on out that aren’t noteworthy.



Kanbei’s base is officially ours! Hooray!



Our B copter continues subduing that tank. Back at home, we continue capturing what we can. We refrain from building anything in order to save our money up for bombers. They’ll be needed for the stretch run.



A turn later, we’ve got a new airport and an infantry on the northwest island working on improving our funding further. At this point, we’re pretty much waiting to build up two bombers, then going for the jugular. Kanbei has quite a lot of anti-air defense, and we’ll need the bombers to protect the infantry we send to capture his HQ.



We keep attacking with our B copter and move our fighter adjacent to enemy territory. This is designed to draw Kanbei’s anti-airs away from his HQ; you can see all three of them on the right side of the screen. Since the only thing we can get over there to attack them is bombers, and they hurt bombers just as well as bombers hurt them, we’ll need all the help we can get in dealing with them. This should hopefully buy us some time.

The anti-airs take the bait. While our fighter can probably take an attack and draw them up further, I retreat and don’t risk it. This is probably a mistake, but a small one.



Here we are at the end of our turn. Bomber 1 is deployed and we’re still capturing cities.



Our next turn sees our bomber get some seasoning, as it’s pressed into action to help our B copter suppress the center-north island.



One more turn and we’ve got our strike force ready: two bombers and a loaded T copter.



On our next turn, one of Kanbei’s T copters is perhaps more enterprising that it should be in trying to retake his base. Nothing our fighter can’t handle, though that is a depressing amount of damage for a fighter to do to a T copter.



We also prepare our strike force to invade Kanbei’s territory. Our B copter felt left out, so we let it join the gang despite its uselessness against anti-air. Maybe it can be a shield for something better!



That pesky T copter just keeps on coming. No longer.



Hey there, mech. Aren’t you glad you got selected for this daring mission?

Note also that we’re starting to spam units. While not really necessary here, this is a standard tactic for increasing your technique score, since a deduction to technique only occurs when more than 20% of your total units have been destroyed. The more units you have, the better your technique!



Back in the northeast, our T copter drops off its cargo. Our bombers can’t do anything this turn without getting destroyed, so we hold them in reserve until Kanbei’s anti-airs respond to the new threat.



They do so quickly. This is not a good mission to be a T copter.



Our infantry is still unscathed, though, and makes it to Kanbei’s HQ. Now we need to ensure it survives Kanbei’s next turn with at least 4 HP. Sami’s improved capturing really helps here.



Bomber squadron GO!

That was actually a little bit underwhelming. Still, only those 4 HP anti-airs can reach our capturing infantry, so most of our work is done.



I remember Sami’s power a bit late. Oops, there’s some more damage that could have been done. Still, Double Time will at least help our infantry defend itself.



As well as helping our B copter chip in with some more damage to an anti-air. I attack from the left to keep the B copter out of missile range; while it would be nice to block the anti-air in, the missiles would undo that quickly.



Kanbei’s fresh anti-air comes up and takes out a bomber, but the other two join with each other, and we’re home free.



But first, a look back at our unit-spamming efforts at home. Our T copter numbers have rebounded nicely.



We end things. Despite only owning 14 properties, capturing Kanbei’s HQ still ends the mission.



Kanbei: By my sword! What a horribly useless base that was! And I was defeated in such a short time! Was that base in a poor location?

I think that’s a clear yes, Kanbei. Even aside from its isolation, unguarded bases near your enemy are rarely much use.

We come in a little short of a perfect score because of speed. I think this is the best we could have done while capturing Kanbei’s HQ, and it’s still an S rank! I do wish Sami would give Bugs some credit, though.



We finished the mission in 12 days, and needed to do it within 12 days to see the secret missions next, so we just snuck in there! No need to repeat this one.

Next time, we don’t have a CO choice, but we do have a new opponent:



And here’s our map. Strategy suggestions are welcome as always:



This actually turns out not to be much to go on. Who knows why Max keeps including all these indirects in his forces.

Capture ALL the things! Yes, even the HQ. But also the other buildings too.

Come on, man, now you're just getting carried away

Fair enough.

But at least have a majority of the buildings captured by map's end. Put those infantry to work.

Today, on Let’s Play Advance Wars, we face a new foe. It’s Kanbei’s daughter, Sonja, who is about as different from Kanbei as it gets, both in terms of personality and capabilities. We weren’t allowed a CO choice this time, so it’ll be Max taking her on. We’ve also got a mandate to capture as many properties as possible, so that’ll be interesting.

Sonja: Father, you're impossible! Do you know why this keeps happening? You never let me finish what I'm trying to tell you!

Kanbei: Uh...

Sonja: I will admit that your Imperial Forces don't generally lose, but... Let's just blame the enemy for being too strong this time.

Kanbei: Hmm...

Sonja: This time, I'll take command.

Kanbei: Sonja! Kanbei will not allow his daughter to be placed in harm's way! Why, if the unthinkable were to happen...

Sonja: Father, you hush! There's something I need to investigate. And, I need first-hand intel to formulate a strategy.

Kanbei: But, but...

Sonja: Ok, Father, take it easy. How's this? At the first sign of danger, I'll retreat. Ok?

Kanbei: You must promise to avoid unnecessary risks. Understood?

Sonja: Of course, Father. I'll be back.

One wonders why Kanbei let Sonja choose the military as her career if he was going to refuse to allow her to ever be in harm’s way. Perhaps he’s this much of a pushover every time she does. Either that or one can become a CO in Advance Wars’ world just by wishing for it very hard. Now that I think about it, Andy’s example points to the latter.



Max: Andy? Sami? Hey, Bugs! I can't find Andy or Sami! The two of them have disappeared! Huh? What the...? I'm surrounded! Are those Yellow Comet troops? Man, I've been set up!

Somebody set us up the ambush!

I’m sorry, I’ll stop. Anyway, Sonja here seems to have mysteriously managed to split Max off from the other COs, so we’re stuck him with him here. Max, you didn’t take indirects again, did you?



Dammit, Max, you’re worse than Andy! At least load up on the tanks a little bit!

These fog of war missions with pre-deployed units tend to be “find the indirect” affairs, and this one is no exception. We’ll need to tiptoe our way up north, checking forests as we go, to get to Sonja’s HQ. We’re also mandated to capture as many otherwise-useless properties as possible, so that’ll make things a bit interesting. There’s really no special strategy here other than to watch those forests closely.

Let’s take a look at Sonja before we get underway:



Sonja’s got a standard military-looking design; much more conventional than Sami’s midriff-and-a-big-gun look. She also seems to be leaning into a fierce wind given the way her pigtails and skirt are billowing.

Sonja is, in my opinion, the worst CO – bar none – in Advance Wars. Her unique attributes are one extra vision for all units, hidden unit HP, and bad luck. Yes, bad luck. Unlike most COs, who will randomly do something like 0-10% more damage than the estimate shows, Sonja will do something like 5-15% less damage than the estimate shows. This not only hurts her overall effectiveness, it makes it hard for her to execute battle-plans, as units miraculously living through an assault that should have wiped them out can really put a wrench in an advance or a defensive formation. Her two advantages aren’t anything to write home about, either: extra vision is a small boost in fog of war and useless otherwise (and of course is useless for the AI Sonja, who can already see everything but forests on the map) and hidden unit HP is a pure gimmick that only matters against those with poor memories (at least when used by the AI; human players could probably pull off some tricks with it, but I don’t have much experience in that realm).

That bad luck just weighs Sonja down like a stone, and her advantages are almost useless in single-player battles. Which, I suppose, makes it a very good thing that we’re facing her instead of Kanbei here.



Sonja’s CO power, Enhanced Vision is similarly useless. She gets two additional vision for her units and she can see into forests and reefs without having a unit adjacent to them, but she only gets the same attack and defense bonuses as Andy does on his power (in other words, tied for the least of any CO). Enhanced Vision is completely lackluster when not fighting under fog of war, and even then, it’s not a gamechanger like some other CO powers.



We’re pretty familiar with Sonja’s character already, and this page sums it up well. Kanbei’s daughter, check; intelligence genius, check, though of course we won’t see her do anything genius-like in game.

Her “Miss” here is particularly funny given the name we selected for ourselves. I’d like to think someone who voted for Bugs had this in mind, but it certainly didn’t occur to me until now. She’s actually one of the friendlier COs toward us and our army.

Let’s get the goings underway here.



So I accidentally a screenshot or two here, but in the process of moving up our troops and focusing on capturing property, one of our mechs discovered an enemy rockets cherry-picking in our base. Max’s tanks are perfect for this situation, and we don’t have to worry about that rockets anymore. It’s an ill omen for this mission that Sonja’s already on top of us like that, though.



The rest of our first turn passes uneventfully as our units fan out and prepare to search forests and capture properties. We hand things off to Sonja.



Sonja: CO Max and Bugs, right? I'm here to evaluate your combat prowess.

Someone should let Sonja know that engaging us in battle may not be the best way to evaluate our combat prowess. Perhaps watching the many other battles we’ve fought would work?

Sonja strikes hard on our turn, pounding our two capturing infantries with a hidden rockets and then a tank. This may put a dent in our capturing potential…



Sonja ends her turn after moving a few infantry into sight. She’s still got some units hiding back in the darkness, though, as proven by lots of driving noises on her turn.



Sonja’s rockets would seem to be most likely hiding up in this cluster of forests. If they were any closer to our troops, they’d probably have hit a juicier target than that infantry, though the AI does sometimes like to attack infantry.



I again blow some screenshots as our tank drives up and fires at Sonja’s tank, knocking it down to 3 HP. Here we can see Sonja’s hidden HP in action; in a relatively simple map like this, it’s more of a nuisance than anything bigger. Our artillery and rockets also drive up to the front lines.



Our recon does some forest investigating but comes up empty. Looks like the enemy rockets are up north. Our infantry are still capturing away.



Two of our tanks go to explore other forests, and the second exposes a couple tanks. We should be able to spring a nice trap on them if we can lure them south.



We end our turn without much more action. If those tanks move south, they’re in for a world of hurt.



Sonja’s pesky rockets strike again. Off-camera, her 3 HP tank also attacks this tank, leaving her tank at 2 HP and ours at 1.



And her tanks manage to find and then hit one of our tanks. Not cool, Sonja. Back to us.



Our Md tank and tank combine to punish Sonja’s tanks. They both get wiped out, as the second one only had 7 HP to begin with.



Our wounded tank goes off to clear some forests.



Our mech in the southeast has finished capturing his city, but is about to run into some opposition. He ain’t scurred.

Back in the west, our indirects get in about all the damage they’ll do this mission, finishing off Sonja’s tank and wounding an infantry.



Our 1 HP tank does some combination scouting and hiding and comes up empty on the scouting part. Looks like Sonja’s rockets are hiding in the dark forest just southeast.



Since our 4 HP infantry is in rocket range, we abandon capturing that right city and join our two infantry. The infantry and indirects should be more than capable of handling Sonja’s infantry.



Lastly, our APC takes our other mech up to scout and eventually capture and finds a sneaky artillery! Sorry, APC! Sonja takes over…



And immediately hits us with a slightly-botched-screenshot Enhanced Vision. I think this won’t be too bad, since we’re not currently relying on forests to hide too many things.



She does get off a couple sneaky indirect attacks, though, killing our gimpy tank and wounding our APC.



We come back to our turn with some juicy targets sitting right in front of our units. We’ll clean them up and press on.



Our mechs start out by hitting some largely-inert targets.



After our APC flees the artillery’s range, one of our tanks finds Sonja’s rockets in the last place it could be hiding.





In the west, we cripple one infantry and destroy the other. Thanks, indirects! I really don’t wish you were a tank and a Md tank or anything!



We end our turn with some more fruitless scouting. Sonja does nothing of note on her turn, so we get another crack at the units we can see.





We quickly clean those units up. Time to do some more scouting.



Our tank finds a rockets! Sonja has some serious firepower in this mission. We can’t manage to take out the rockets this turn, so we end ours. Sonja does nothing and we get another go.



We make it count right away, but the mission doesn’t end. Looks like something else of Sonja’s is hiding.



All these units will hopefully draw her out.



Oops. Sorry, APC! At least it’s not hard to figure out where that came from.



We also draw out a tank, with less disastrous results. Let’s clean up this new mess…



…with Max Force!

Tank and recon (good job, buddy!) take out Sonja’s tank…



And our mech finds her artillery and the Md tank overkills it. That ends the mission! We were a little lax on our capturing mandate, but it’s really hard to do here!



Sonja: Max, you have underdeveloped indirect-combat skills. You compensate for this weakness with a predilection for direct combat. In areas where you can attack with multiple units, you're a titan.

Max: Wha...?

Sonja: In tight quarters, though, you tend to become a target for indirect fire. Try pulling your foe out into wider terrain: you'll like the results. Or is strategy your department, Bugs?

Max: Who... Who are you?

Sonja: It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Sonja. I'm a Yellow Comet CO. I've taken the liberty of separating you from your companions. So, now...

Max: Hey! (yawn) What the...? So... sleepy... Zzz...

Sonja: Sweet dreams, Max.

So Sonja is drugging our COs so that she can bring them out, one at a time, and have us kill some of her units, all so that she can understand that Max is good with tanks? I don’t think Advance Wars is taking this seriously! Or maybe Max insisting on always bringing indirects to battle masks his weakness with them to observers. Probably the former.

We pull off a perfect S-rank here. This is a mission that can go strongly either way; if you carefully scout Sonja out and use forest cover as much as possible, it’s not too bad. But if you blindly advance and don’t kill off the indirects as you go, you can get decimated. It’s a nice advanced fog of war tutorial; pity it comes nineteen missions into the campaign.



Next time, we again have no CO choice, as Sonja continues her reckless intel-gathering spree. It’s Sami’s turn to take on the wunderkind. Here’s the map we’ll be fighting on:



We’ll have a capturing battle with Sonja, as the first to capture 15 properties wins. Strategy advice or challenges, anyone? Be as specific as you'd like and I'll give it a try!

Bah! I've had enough of capturing now.

Win by rout!

Oh god...

(It should at least be interesting!)

I vote for Sami

Maybe you could try cutting off her access to bases as quickly as possible to help you get the rout?

Does the HQ count as a property?

That will certainly help, though I'll also have to make sure I own fewer than 15 properties to avoid ending the mission early.

It does, but capturing the HQ will end the mission just as if it were the 15th property, so it kind of doesn't. If that makes sense.

So then sonja has 14 on her island alone. The good thing about the bases is you don't have to capture them to deny her the use of them. Just stand on them...

Follow up question: Do bases provide income or just cities?

All properties in Advance Wars provide 1000G per turn income. HQs, cities, bases, airports, and (sea)ports.

It’s time for Let’s Play Advance Wars. Today, Sonja, continues her reconnaissance tour of our army’s COs, with Sami getting her turn in the spotlight. We’ll compete to see who can capture the most properties, except…we’re going for the rout! Who says you should play to your CO’s strengths? Not me, boy.

Sami: Bugs! I finally found you! Max! What are you doing sleeping? Wake up, you big lug!

Sonja: You're wasting your breath. I've seen to it that he'll be asleep for quite some time.

Sami: You... Sonja! I might've known! Splitting the three of us up... This was all part of your strategy, wasn't it!

Sonja: Of course. Brilliant deduction. I've got Andy secured in a nice, safe place, too. If you want him back, you just have to get past me. The first person to secure sixteen properties on this map wins. Got it? Good. Ready, set, go!

Sami: Hey! Come back here! Sonja!

Sonja and Sami are kind of Advance Wars nemeses, though like many story-related things in the game, it’s a very minor point. They don’t work nearly as well gameplay-wise against each other as, say, Max and Grit, though. Who knows how we let Sonja sneak into our army to drug Max in the first place…



Sami: This is just perfect! Set up by that little brat again! Bugs, she didn't get you, too, did she? Oh, good. That's a relief. We'd be lost if you got knocked out, too.

Oh, great. Fog of War... This is Sonja's forte. Well, we have to cross the water here, so we must protect our landers. We'll have no chance of victory if we can't transport our troops. Let's try and use the reefs for cover as we go. I think Sonja's forgotten that I'm an infantry troop specialist, though. If we need to capture properties to win this, then it's as good as done! Get ready, Sonja! We're comin' for you!

Sami displays quite the range of emotions during this speech. It’s really a virtuoso performance. Take a look:





Sami delivers good advice, especially the bit regarding the landers; but they’re not quite as important as she makes them sound, since we’ll have ports to replace them if we need to. Of course, since we’re fighting Sonja, we’re in fog of war again. Here’s the map:



This doesn’t bode well for the length of the mission. If we were playing this the way it’s intended to be played, we’d only need to take the properties on the near north and south islands to reach 16 and end things. Since we’re going for the rout, we’re going to have to press on all the way to Sonja’s HQ and clean out any units hiding around it. We’ll forge straight ahead with our naval units, using our two landers to distribute our ground troops north and south, then hopefully have the southern island force meet up with troops landed at Sonja’s HQ from the north island. We’ll focus on capturing properties that can produce units, since we’re going to have to stop at 15 properties.



We send our naval units out first. The sub is intended to draw any lurking cruisers into battleship range, while our own cruiser makes them take the long way around and come up short of their target. We’ll need to get cruisers out of the way so we can send our own sub hunting up near Sonja’s HQ.



We also send landing parties north and south. We don’t build anything before ending our turn; we’re saving up for another battleship. Gotta love those full-strength Sami indirects.



Grit: Nice to see you again, Sonja.

Sonja: Grit! Did you discover anything?

Grit: Nope. Not a darn thing. I was able to follow His Beardedness, but...I think Olaf himself has been tossed by the wayside.

Sonja: Oh...

Grit: Maybe Olaf'll realize that he's been used. That'd be nice. He ain't such a bad guy, you know? Let's move on to somethin' else now, Sonja. Don't you think you're taking things a tad bit too far? There's a whole mess of folks after you, darlin'. Like all of Orange Star.

Sonja: Really? Actually, I don't think I've done enough. This is invaluable intel that I'm gathering. I must continue!

Grit: Well, if you're that determined, I guess I ain't nothin' else to say. I'll go see what else I can find out.

Sonja: OK. Thanks, Grit!

Grit seems to be firing his eyeball lasers at us from across the map. What’s he doing here? He seems to have some inside information about Olaf. Maybe that’s why Olaf attacked us way back at the start of the campaign…



Sonja has a tank drive up and dent our cruiser, and her own cruiser does as we planned. Excellent.



Our battleship and sub combine to remove that cruiser. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the screen there, our forces reconfigure themselves to let the mech out of the APC and get it ready to capture that factory. The lander returns to our home island to pick up another load.



We advance our forces in the north, with the Md tank running into an artillery in the forest it meant to hide in. We send the northern lander back for reinforcements as well and duck our cruiser into the nearby reef before ending our turn.



Sonja brings up a sub, a lander, and a tank in the south into our view. That’s kind of her.



In the south, our rockets attack that tank, removing it as a threat we need to worry about, and our mech starts capturing the factory. If we were just going for the normal victory, we’d actually be well on our way to victory already.



We land reinforcements in the south. That recon ought to help us see threats before they’re right on top of us.



Thanks to an AI quirk, in which idle (read: non-attacking) subs will alternately dive and rise on consecutive turns for fear of running out of fuel, Sonja’s sub is on the surface, and our cruiser and sub can team up to wipe it out without needing to find it first.



Our battleship lends a hand and wipes out that tank in the south. In the north, our Md tank pounds the artillery, freeing up the infantry to start capturing a city. We also land a mech and tank on the north island. Only an infantry is left on our HQ island. We’re still saving up for that battleship; it should be available next turn.



Sonja has her power ready already and fires it off. It can be dangerous if you’re relying on a lot of your units being hidden in forests, but we’re not here, and only our capturing infantry in the north takes a few damage from the wounded artillery. Thanks to Sami’s improved capturing, it won’t even slow down the city capture.



We face no immediate threats on our turn. Another tank has rolled up in the south, but it’s a ways off, and we have forests to protect us.



Our rockets and battleship have targets in sight, wounding the tank and lander, respectively. It’s actually our sub that’s giving us the vision to see the tank with its powerful periscope.



Our sub and cruiser advance and uncover some powerful enemy units. Looks like we’ve got a storm coming in the south; meanwhile, the battleship in the north is an immediate target, as it covers much of the north island with its range.

Our Md tank finishes off the artillery in the north and we end our turn there.



Sadly, Sonja gets her first kill on her turn, as one of her landers blunders into our cruiser and her battleship takes it out. It was sad. We’ve also lost our vision on the army in the south heading toward us.



Let’s fight back.



We move up our recon in the south, and all is once again made clear. We’ve got some work to do down there.



Our mech, freshly finished capturing the factory, hops up into the forest and attacks the nearby tank. The tank turns out to have been the one our rockets wounded last turn, so it’s destroyed.



We move up the rest of our units and run right into a surprise Md tank. This doesn’t bode well for our tank. We’ve also finally built that second battleship to help with bombardment.



Sonja’s tank has evacuated the north island, so we get our Md tank ready to come over to the south island and help out there.



Our sub starts in on that pesky battleship. Annoyingly, Sonja has built another sub, so our sub’s not going to get away with this unscathed. I wish we still had that cruiser. Over to Sonja again.



Sonja’s rockets thankfully took a go at our APC, but the artillery attacked our tank. It’s not long for this world.



Next, the battleship attacks our north island mech to no significant effect, and Sonja’s sub takes on our own.



Ouch.



The Md tank destroys our tank, and we’re back on our turn. Not too bad, all told.



After advancing our second battleship and bringing an infantry up to protect the rest of our forces from that Md tank, our rockets attack the Md tank, taking a nice chunk out of it.



Next, our recon and mech team up to eliminate Sonja’s lead infantry and hide themselves from Sonja’s sight once more.



Finally, our lead battleship cripples that rocket unit, and we’re done in the south for now. We build another mech to take advantage of Sami’s strength.



In the northeast, our sub chips away once more. Hiding was an option here, but that battleship just covers too much ground to leave it at 5 HP. Possibly the wrong decision.



Our mech starts capturing that port so that we can get another sub up and running, and we end our turn. Sonja’s got a little surprise for us…



…again. Shouldn’t be too bad this time, since we’ve neutered a lot of her ranged attacking capability.



We take some lumps, but it’s not too bad. Our sub is finished off, we lose the infantry in the south to artillery and Md tank attacks, and our mech takes a light hit.



After a mech advances and reveals Sonja’s Md tank once more, a recon and mech combine to take out her infantry.

Our freshly-arrived Md tank hits Sonja’s…



…and our rockets and battleship finish off Sonja’s artillery. We’ve finally gotten our second battleship up to the front as well.



We’ve lost Sonja’s lander, so one of our landers goes back and finds it. Since we’re going for the rout victory, we can’t afford to let it hide somewhere and forget about it. We’ve also finished capturing the port on the north island close to Sonja’s HQ, so now we can start dumping naval units right in her front yard. We end our turn. This is just about the point where we’d be done if not for the rout condition, but we’ve still got a lot of unknown territory to cover and wipe clean.



Thankfully, Sonja doesn’t really do much on her turn. She retreats her Md tank and sub and her lander near our HQ runs away again. Oh well.



Our Md tank finishes off its retreating counterpart, and we move up our units behind it. Our recon uncovers an enemy rockets, which now has quite the cornucopia of targets to choose from. We’ve also snuck a battleship into the nearby reef to provide fire support.



Our lander goes hunting for Sonja’s again, but comes up empty. That’s moderately annoying. Over to Sonja.



Sonja has…well…kind of a slapstick turn. She parks a tank on our HQ, which would be a loss for us if it were an infantry, but is instead just a humorous diversion. Her lander comes out of hiding, which is a relief, and her sub offers itself up as a sacrificial lamb by parking right next to a cruiser we built a couple turns ago specifically to deal with that sub.



Her rockets in the southeast does not fire, which is nice; it must be repairing itself, and the AI does not realize there’s literally no downside to it attacking in that situation. A couple more of her units come up to meet our ground force.



At this point, I decide to stop capturing properties, under the mistaken impression that 15 wins the mission instead of 16. Oops. It would have been nice to be able to capture one of Sonja’s bases near her HQ later on.



We build a couple mechs to deal with that tank on our HQ. Honestly, I should be churning out infantry for these bases to boost our technique score at this point. Oh well. We’re not going to score well anyway.



Our cruiser and battleship take out Sonja’s sub and lander. It’s a big relief to get that sub out of the way; our battleship armada is quite vulnerable to them.





On the ground front, our Md tank, battleship, and recon attack Sonja’s ground forces, destroying that rockets and crippling the tank and infantry.



Our recon uncovers some trouble. Sorry, ground force! We build a sub from our forward port to finish off Sonja’s battleship (and then provide vision for our battleships) and end our turn.



*sigh*. Not a good time for this.



We lose the recon, and with it, all our vision of Sonja’s forces, and our Md tank gets knocked down to 2 HP. Not ideal.



Revenge!



Not that these mechs needed it, mind you. Sami’s mechs are great, but awkward in a campaign setting where speed matters. 2 movement is hard to work with.



We bring up some naval units and our sub starts on Sonja’s battleship. Looks like it’ll take a while…



…so our battleship finishes the job.

We pull back our wounded Md tank and pass the turn baton back to Sonja.



Sonja attacks our lead mech with a rockets and a wounded mech, but can’t finish it off. She also attacks our cruiser with a tank, resulting in no damage either way.



Our battleships cripple Sonja’s two tanks, perhaps overreacting in their desire to get revenge for our cruiser. I’m hoping the tanks will join instead of repair, as they’ll probably be close to full health by the time we get back to them if they do repair.



Our sub and rockets work on landers. I’m confident this is a mistake; we can kill those landers any time. Our sub would be better off sailing south for vision on Sonja’s ground army. Perhaps then our rockets would have a more appealing target.



Our mech also takes out Sonja’s in what is likely to be its last turn. I’m not sure what we have in those landers, but it ought to be a fun surprise for Sonja next turn!



That was a nice Sonja turn. We lost the mech to that pesky rockets, but her tanks joined and her landers vacated their ports, opening up lots of landing spaces for us! Let’s get to work.



We make landfall. These were perhaps not the most intimidating units to load in our landers. A couple tanks would be nice, but I guess I’m hell-bent on saving up for more battleships.



Our sub finishes off one of Sonja’s landers (Why?) and our battleship finishes off her tank (OK, that makes more sense).



I am not very happy with myself right now. Not only are those landers not worth focusing on, I attacked in the wrong order! Rockets and battleship polish off another lander.



Another battleship takes out another lander (*sigh*), and we’re done for this turn. We build another battleship, finally.



Oh, come on!



We don’t get off as easily this time. Our mech in front of our rockets got destroyed by enemy rockets and infantry, our APC took a hit from an infantry, and our infantry was crippled by an artillery.



Our sub, cruiser, and lander move up, and much of Sonja’s force is revealed.



Our rockets and a battleship start in on a tank and an artillery.



After our APC retreats to safety and prepares to resupply the low-ammo battleship, another battleship and a mech combine to take out the infantry threatening our invasion force.



We build a tank from our southern base and end our turn in a reasonable position. Everything but our naval scouts are out of the range of all indirects, and our naval scouts should be able to retreat and be replaced by a dived sub next turn.



Unfortunately, those naval scouts take three indirect hits, eliminating the lander and crippling the cruiser. Sorry, guys. Sonja also builds a Md tank right in our face, which is not very nice. Guess our battleships have some more work to do. But first!



Double Time!





Rockets defeat tank, battleship wipes out infantry, and battleship and mech wound Md tank. Not bad.

We build a Md tank on our north base to send over and end our turn. I’m not sure why I didn’t move the sub up for vision and block the port with the cruiser instead here. I suppose I was worried the enemy rockets were close enough to wipe out the cruiser.



Sonja’s Md tank whittles down our mech to 3 HP, and that’s all she can muster. Not bad, but we’re going to have to start making inroads against those indirects hiding in the southeast corner. This is taking too long.



A battleship and mech finish off Sonja’s Md tank, and we’ll occupy her base with our other mech. Blocking her production properties is crucial to ending this quickly, as otherwise we’ll face a steady stream of infantry and landers.



We finally get our sub up to the front lines for vision, once more marveling at its powerful periscope.



Our rockets cripple Sonja’s southern mech…



…and the two battleships left to act take out the other. We’ve also ferried our Md tank to Sonja’s HQ island. We build another battleship before ending our turn.



Sonja shuffles her troops around and builds another infantry. A helpful AI quirk is a desire to always have at least five infantry and/or mechs on the field at all times; keeping them below that number will cause them to build more instead of more dangerous things like Md tanks.



We bring three battleships up to better firing positions before firing on Sonja’s new infantry with the last battleship.



Our rockets take out an infantry and our tank hits an APC before we end our turn. The tank is intended to have the helpful side effect of keeping the rockets in place for our battleships.



It works a little too well, as the tank takes rocket and artillery hits and is destroyed. Sonja’s other artillery hid, and she produced another mech. We need to block that last base.



We finally wipe out that rocket unit. This needed to be a much higher priority.





Our northern battleship and an infantry take out Sonja’s new mech, and we finally block that base with our wounded APC. Our last battleship takes out another infantry. We’re making progress at last, but this took much longer than it needed to.



Sure, why not?



On Sonja’s turn, our Md tank takes a rocket attack of unknown provenance (grrrrr) and a half-strength infantry almost takes out our blocking APC. Our own infantry cleans up.



Our rockets wipes out a mech and our battleships move up into better position. Our Md tank also wounds an artillery. We’re sick of this mission; it’s time to end it.



Our Md tank also finds the enemy rockets; it still has 2 shots left, despite the low-ammo indicator. Too bad.



Our Md tank gets attacked by the only artillery that can hit it, but survives due to that artillery being only 4 HP. It’s nice to have vision on the rockets still. The rockets attacks a battleship, but we have lots of those.





Three battleships and a Md tank can’t finish the job, leaving two wounded artilleries alive. We’ll need another turn to end things.

Sonja joins her artilleries, and one battleship attack is enough to end things at last.



Sonja: My, oh, my! You're much stronger than you used to be, aren't you?

Sami: Of course I am!

Sonja: But your basic abilities haven't really changed at all, have they? In an area with lots of properties to capture, your skills are adequate. But you're still poor at indirect combat. In straight-up battle, you'd move your infantry in and seize the enemy HQ. That's what you're best at, isn't it?

Sami: Ha... You're as good as ever at breaking everything down and analyzing it. But what are you doing, Sonja? Why did you attack us?

Sonja: I can't... I can't tell you, yet. You'd better look over there.

Sami: Huh? That's Andy! How did you...?

Sonja: I told him I had some new tools for him, and he followed me like a lost puppy.

Sami: (sigh)...

Sonja: He should be waking up anytime now. Bye-bye.

Sami: Come back... She's gone. Great. Sonja... You'll pay for this!

So I guess Sonja is a ninja now, too? We know what we’re doing next, at any rate.

We get a poor rating here. Speed could have been better if I’d been more aggressive with those indirects in the southeast, but a perfect ranking is likely impossible to do with a rout. Our technique score also took a hit; I could have boosted this by building a bunch of infantries, but largely forgot. Oh well. You’re rarely going to score well when a mission takes you 20 days, as this one did.

Sorry about this mission being such a slog! It'll become more of the norm as we get closer to the end of the game. It's interesting the way the game changes as you progress through the campaign; early on, you mostly fight with and against predeployed armies, and the game plays more like the puzzle game that ais posits it is. More and more as you move on, though, the game is the tactical strategy game that Wikipedia claims, as many different strategies can be employed to the same end. In this mission, I went with a battleship armada as my strategy, but if I played it again, I'd try a mech flood or Md tank army. The possibilities really open up as the maps do. This is my favorite aspect of Advance Wars; there's almost a neverending sense of wonder, as you're inspired to try different tactics to perform as well as possible on each mission.



These fog of war battles against Sonja are already quite tedious, but we’ve still got one left. Next time, Andy will take his turn being examined by Sonja in perhaps our toughest mission yet. What’s Sonja’s game, anyway? Here’s the map! Suggestions welcome!

Y'know, that big puddle of water seems really inconvenient. Let's just ignore it.

In other words, no using or attacking ships of any kind. Your four ships will just sit there, and you don't directly attack any ships that Sonja pulls on you (though I can't exactly fault retaliatory strikes).

EDIT: Obviously, you'll have to win via HQ capture.

The map looks interesting and your mix of units is pretty varied too.

Given that we've just canonically seen Max and Sami struggle with Sonja (because of some self-inflicted challenges), I'd really like to see Andy completely trounce Sonja. That would make her supposed intel look funny, ranking Andy as a tactical genius compared to Max and Sami.

I would not be opposed to the clever use of naval power in pursuit of this imaginary intel screw-over...

Yeah, I could go for some navy-and-indirect fun with this one.

I think that B. Copter needs to be the MVP of this mission. It should annihilate at least 5 enemy units, preferably naval units.

Been awhile, huh? Sorry about that! Let’s get this show back on the road; it’s once again time for Let’s Play Advance Wars. We pick things back up with Sonja continuing to explore our COs’ capabilities; she’s scheduled to conclude her self-destructive reconnaissance with Andy, our resident wunderkind. We’ll see if Andy’s sheer verve and enthusiasm can defeat Sonja’s cold, calculated logic.

Sami: Andy! Are you okay?

Andy: ...hmm...

Sami: Andy!

Andy: I'm... so... groggy...

Sami: Wake up!

Andy: Huh? Oh... morning, Sami.

Sami: Unbelievable! Here I am, working my tail off, and you're sleeping! Why am I the only one who's taking these things seriously? Sonja's been leading us around by our noses like a bunch of sheep! Oooh...! She makes me so mad! Ever since we were classmates, she's been the Queen of Strategy. Now here I am, losing units left and right, and my allies are all sleeping! Get up and get moving, Andy! It's up to you. You've got to go!

Andy: Boy... Sami's scary when she's mad.

Poor Andy. Hell hath no fury like a jealous Sami.



Andy: I've got to battle Sonja? I really don't want to.

Sami: If you mention that she gave you new tools again, I'm gonna thump you!

Andy: Yikes!

Sami: Do you have any idea what I had to go through? New tools! Hah! Oh, and don't expect any sympathy from me if you lose!

New tools? She can’t be that bad of a person then! I don’t understand why Sami has Andy fight this battle, but I suppose she’s got to go somewhere and work off all of that rage.

Here’s the map for this mission:



Thankfully, aturtledoesbite’s suggestion to not use or attack any naval units has been outvoted, though we will be going for an HQ capture here to avoid having to search for hidden units in all that territory in the northwest. Instead, our imperatives are to use our navy and B copter as much as possible. That should be much more doable.

There isn’t much interesting strategy going on here. We’ll advance both our army and navy east and then north, using the navy to clear out as many threats as possible so that our army can deliver an infantry to Sonja’s HQ for the capture. We have no information on the threats we face, so we may to improvise a little as we go along.



Our first turn’s advance doesn’t shed any more light on the disposition of the enemy forces. We’re careful to keep our more exposed navy as hidden as possible to avoid being surprised by anything. Let’s see what Sonja can bring to bear.



Sonja: This is the last test... Show me what you do, Andy!

A B copter emerges from the fog and pounds our lander, as a battleship peeks out from under the fog as well. Nothing we can’t handle this early on.



Andy: Um, Bugs? What's the deal with Sonja and Sami? Do they not get along? Yeah, I thought so. In that case, who knows what'll happen if I lose. Let's do it, Bugs!

Our sub goes ahead and weakens the enemy battleship. Let’s hope there aren’t any cruisers hiding in that fog.



No cruisers are uncovered, but we do find an enemy bomber that threatens much of the territory our army could advance into. We move our battleship up into closer reef cover.



Our cruiser also advances into a reef and our missiles take advantage of a rare opportunity to be useful, blowing away the enemy B copter.



We move our units up and end our turn, making sure to leave nothing visible for Sonja’s battleship or bomber to attack. We still don’t have any other targets in sight; will Sonja change that?



Yes, she will. Sonja brought a sub, cruiser, B copter, and tank into our view, and retreated her battleship back north. Her bomber thankfully got hung up on our sub (it must have a really, really tall periscope) and is now a sitting duck for our cruiser. Very nice.



After moving our lander to the safety of another reef, we go on the attack. Our battleship wipes out Sonja’s cruiser, giving our sub free rein to rule the seas. Our sub takes advantage by finishing off Sonja’s battleship.



Our rarely-useful cruiser puts a nice dent in the enemy bomber. Our army won’t have to fear it any more, since it can now only wound our units, not cripple them.



On the land front, our tank and B copter make first strikes on the enemy tank and B copter, respectively.



We advance the rest of our army and end our turn, uncovering an enemy artillery. Let’s hope it can’t hit us too hard.



That never helps.



Sonja got off plenty of attacks on her turn, most of which I was too slow to capture. Her sub attacked our lander, her bomber attacked our battleship, her artillery attacked our infantry, her tank attacked our recon, and her B copter attacked our T copter. We’ve got something ready that will help even the score, though:





There. Much better.



Our cruiser finishes off Sonja’s bomber. Our naval units can breathe easier.



Our tank finishes off its counterpart and our Md tank cripples Sonja’s artillery.

Our mech finishes off the artillery and our B copter hits Sonja’s B copter.



Our sub decides to have a look in the nearby forest, and strikes gold!



Well, that was a freebie.



Our lander runs and hides from the enemy sub, and we end our turn, having eliminated most of the imminent threats.



When we regain control, we find that Sonja has brought some more ground units down toward the front and surfaced her sub right in the middle of our navy. Thanks, Sonja!



Our rockets, overjoyed at having something to do, weaken the sub, and our battleship finishes off the enemy rockets.



Our own sub, having completed its scouting mission, finishes off the enemy sub.



Our cruiser scouts the sea to the north but comes up empty. We’ll probably leave it up there to see if there’s anything dangerous near the HQ.



Back on land, our forces advance, with our T copter ready to ferry an infantry to the HQ, and our B copter takes a bite out of the enemy tank. We end our turn there, having exhausted our movement. Should be reasonably smooth sailing from here to the HQ, right?



“Wrong!” says the fighter out of nowhere. You did your best, B copter.



Sonja’s wounded tank also comes forward to pick at our infantry a little. This is especially annoying since it means we’ll have to wait an extra turn if we use that infantry for HQ capture.



Thankfully, our battleship is still hanging around and quickly puts an end to that.



Our recon scouts ahead for any further trouble and finds only Sonja’s mech.



Our anti-air takes a chunk out of the enemy fighter and our tank advances and takes an attack of opportunity on the enemy mech.



We advance the rest of our units before ending our turn, leaving an infantry poised to run to the enemy HQ.



Of course, now that infantry is not as safe in a forest as before…



And indeed, after Sonja’s fighter rattles the paint on our T copter, yet another enemy tank comes out of the fog to cripple our infantry. Oops.



We strike back decisively, eliminating the enemy mech and fighter.



Our T copter ferries the near-death infantry back south and picks up a fresh mech. It’ll suffice for the capturing effort.



Our tank gets the first shot in on the enemy tank, though it can’t do much damage. It’ll need some support to take it out.

We provide it with that support, in the form of a battleship, before ending our turn.



Sonja’s tank proves to be a real stalwart, taking our tank down to 1 HP on her turn. Still, we should have enough cavalry on the way to get the job done.



Our battleship starts in on the tank, giving it a nice, solid punch.



Our anti-air and recon join the fray as well and are just barely able to finish off the tank. Good work, everyone.



We bring up our mech to capture the HQ (who is 1 space short of being able to start next turn) and scout out the area around the HQ as much as possible. Looks pretty safe for now. Will Sonja change that when she gets a chance?



Yes, but not much, as she has a tank attack our cruiser and we Hyper Repair for good measure.



We advance all our units to scout the surrounding forests and move our mech so that it’s one day’s march to the HQ.



This turns out to be a bit of a mistake, as Sonja’s tank claims the advantageous defensive terrain of the HQ, but we’ll pull through. We’ve certainly got enough firepower.



Our battleship and Md tank clear out the enemy tank without much trouble, and all that’s left is the capturing itself.



Which, of course, doesn’t take long.



Sami: All right, Sonja! Now I want some answers! Why have you been attacking us?

Sonja: All in due time, Sami. But first, Andy.

Andy: What?

Sonja: You don't have any weak points.

Andy: Well, of course not!

Sonja: But you don't have any special strengths, either.

Andy: Huh?

Sonja: Ha, ha. But that in itself is your strength. Don't you think Andy's easy to work with, Bugs? And if things start getting rough, Max and Sami are there to help out. All you need to do is have Bugs choose who fights each battle. If you do that, there's no one who can best you on the field of battle.

Sami: Hey! Don't ignore me!

Sonja: Sami.

Sami: Yeah?

Sonja: Very soon you and your friends are going to face an unimaginable foe. Take care of Bugs, and Andy, too.

Sami: How do you...?

Sonja: That's not your concern. See you again, Sami.

Sami: Hey! Hold it! She's gone again! She didn't really tell us a doggone thing!

Didn’t she, though, Sami? Didn’t she?

We pull off a perfect S-rank here, though we were certainly slower than we could have been. The big pitfalls here are Sonja’s navy, rockets, bomber, and fighter, and we dodged all of those with only minimal damage. It’s nice to have a fog of war mission with only one hidden indirect to dodge, for a change.

With this victory, we’re through with Yellow Comet and on to our next foe! We’ve got our most meaningful CO choice yet, with a different mission for each CO. Which CO will it be, Talking Time?





Andy?





Max?





Or Sami?