Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Commanding Officer Statistics and Information FAQ FAQ By Xenesis Xenon Version 2.2 Introduction: The purpose of this FAQ is to provide you with the information on all the COs in Advance Wars 2. This FAQ is probably all spoilers, so don't read it if you don't want to know. Whether helps you out shoot your friends or take down a foe in the war room, enjoy! For strategies on the use of individual COs, please refer to the wonderful In depth CO FAQs that various authors on the Gamefaqs Advance Wars 2 board have written. Contents: -Introduction -How to use this FAQ [FAQ] -How CO Power Stars Work [STA] -How the Luck CO Powers work [LUC] -CO Information Orange Star Army -Andy [AND] -Sami [SAM] -Max [MAX] -Nell [NEL] -Hachi [HAC] Blue Moon Army -Olaf [OLA] -Grit [GRI] -Colin [COL] Yellow Comet Army -Sonja [SON] -Kanbei [KAN] -Sensei [SEN] Green Earth Army -Eagle [EAG] -Drake [DRA] -Jess [JES] Black Hole Army -Flak [FLA] -Adder [ADD] -Lash [LAS] -Hawke [HAW] -Sturm [STU] -Thanks [THK] -Version History [HIS] -Legals [LEG] -Contact Info [CON] Use the find function and the codes [XYZ] to go straight to that section. How To Read this FAQ [FAQ] Commanding Officer Name Unlocked: How to unlock this CO. CO Type: Star CO or Normal. Star CO's have abilities or attributes that apparently make them more powerful than any given normal CO and have no weaknesses, although it's a point of hot debate. CO Power: X + Y $Q/R- Stars Required for CO Power, Then additional stars for Super CO Power Plus cost Unit Price: 100% - Cost of the CO's units, 100% being normal. Direct Vehicle:100/100 - Direct Vehicle Unit's Attack/Defence strength in percent Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 - Indirect Vehicle Unit's Attack/Defence strength in percent Planes: 100/100 - Plane Unit's Attack/Defence strength in percent Copters: 100/100 - Helicopter Unit's Attack/Defence strength in percent Direct Sea: 100/100 -Direct Sea Unit's Attack/Defence strength in percent. Battleship: 100/100 - Battleship's Attack/Defence strength in percent. Soldiers: 100/100 - Soldiers Unit's Attack/Defence strength in percent Other Info: None - Additional information on CO's abilities CO Power-None: - Information on CO power effects and enhancements SCO Power-None: - Information on Super CO power effects and enhancements Winning Phrase: What the CO says when they win in the war room or VS Mode. Pro: Benefits and advantages that this CO has in combat. Con: Disadvantages this CO has in combat. How CO Power Stars Work [STA] Each star in the CO Bar is worth $9,000 damage taken. The amount added by causing damage is half the amount that is added when you take damage. Every time a CO power is used, this amount per star increases by $1,800. How The Luck Works (Nell and Flak) [LUC] The damage values for the luck powers are the maximum potential damages of the luck powers. However, there are a variety of factors that reduce the maximum luck damage that can occur. Every terrain defensive star reduces the maximum luck damage by 10% of it's maximum value. Also, CO defense lowers the max luck damage. Normal COs have up to +10% luck. This is also affected by the above. So, say Nell used Lady Luck on Kanbei's units sitting on a plain. The maximum luck would be calculated by multiplying +100% by .6 (30% Defence and 1 Terrain star) to produce a maximum luck of +60% damage. Orange Star Army Andy [AND] Unlocked: Initially available for use CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3+3 $27,000/$54,000 Unit Price:100% Direct Vehicle:100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 100/100 Direct Sea: 100/100 Battleship: 100/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: None CO Power-Hyper Repair: Restores 2 HP on all units. +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Hyper Upgrade: Restores 5 HP on all units, Adds +1 Movement to units and Improves Offence. +10% Defence, +20% Offence Winning Phrase: 'All Right! And I'll win next time, too!' Pro: His CO powers make his units extremely hard to kill, because they come back on high health. Great at battling anything, anywhere. Probably one of the easier COs to use, because of his healing powers which allow you to excel in long, drawn out confrontations. Hyper repair is wonderful for combating Hawke, Drake and Olaf's damage based powers, as a 3 star CO power is working against a more expensive power to nullify most of the effects. Con: He's got no real weaknesses, but no real strengths either. Can tend to be trumped by specialists in their fields. Sami [SAM] Unlocked: Initially available for use CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3 + 5 $27,000/$72,000 Unit Price 100% Direct Vehicle:90/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 90/100 Copters: 90/100 Direct Sea: 90/100 Battleship: 100/100 Soldiers: 130/100 Other Info: 1.5 x Capture Rate, rounded down. All transports have +1 Movement CO Power-Double Time: +1 Soldiers and Mech movement. Improved Infantry and Mech offence and defence. Soldiers: 10% Defence, +20% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Victory March: +2 to Soldiers movement, Improved Infantry and Mech offence and defence. Allows for the capture of any property in one day with the capturer on any amount of HP. Soldiers: +10% Defence, +50% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'Mission accomplished! Awaiting orders!' Pro: Great for stealing cashflow from enemies. Solid Mech units can waste a lot of more expensive ground units easily. Good at deploying quickly and getting a good start early game. Great at playing an economic battle and causing pain to opponents with cheap units, while she can save up a healthy reserve of cash, allowing you to outnumber the opponent with expensive units. Con: Pretty ineffective at Air and Sea, unless she's got a solid cashflow. She will have a lot of troubles in a map that depends on air combat. She also can have trouble late game, as her higher end units are a bit on the weak side. Max [MAX] Unlocked: Initially available for use CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3 + 3 $27,000/$54,000 Unit Price 100% Direct Vehicle:120/100 Indirect Vehicle: 90/100 Planes: 120/100 Copters: 120/100 Direct Sea: 120/100 Battleship: 90/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: -1 Indirect Unit maximum range. CO Power-Max Force: Improves Direct Vehicle, Air and Sea unit Damage and +1 to their movement Direct Vehicles: +10% Defence, +20% Offence Direct Sea: +10% Defence, +20% Offence Copters: +10% Defence, +20% Offence Planes: +10% Defence, +20% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Max Blast: Improves Direct Vehicle, Air and Sea unit Damage and +2 to their movement. Direct Vehicles: +10% Defence, +40% Offence Direct Sea: +10% Defence, +40% Offence Planes: +10% Defence, +40% Offence Copters: +10% Defence, +40% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence. Winning Phrase: 'Wahoo! Easy as pie!' Pro: Great in the air, sea and open land maps. Strong Directs make mincemeat out of enemy units. He's capable in many situations and can cause untold damage to the enemy with his powers. He is very mobile, as his powers boost movement, allowing him first strikes as well. Con: Gets murdered in maps with lots of chokepoints due to his poor indirect units. Any maps with restricted movement will cause him trouble as well, as the opponent can hurt him severely with indirect. Flounders a bit at fog of war, as it's hard to deal with opponents with direct units in FoW. Nell [NEL] Unlocked: Complete Campaign with an A or better rank CO Type: Star CO Power: 3 + 3 $27,000/$54,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 100/100 Direct Sea: 100/100 Battleship: 100/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: Lucky-can do up to +15% damage. CO Power-Lucky Star: Improves Luck. She may do up to +60% extra damage. Average Bonus: +25% damage +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Lady Luck: Improves Luck more. She may do up to +100% extra damage. Average Bonus: +59% damage +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'Nicely fought! See you again.' Pro: Often does extra damage. Can kill on 90% attacks sometimes. Great with hordes of cheap units to take maximum benefit from her CO powers. Under her super power, Infantry can kill neotanks sitting on the road. She's strong in maps with no terrain cover because that's when her powers have the most potential for damage. She's great at bending the rules of unit to unit damage. With enough troops, battle copters will take out AA's, Soldiers will take out neotanks and so forth. Con: Very unreliable. Her powers often fail you and you end up slaughtering your own troops by a strong counterattack from the enemy. Also, playing Nell will cause bouts of nostalgia for those who have played Advance Wars 1. Hachi [HAC] Unlocked: Complete Hard Campaign CO Type: Triple Star CO Power: 3 + 2 $27,000/$45,000 Unit Price: 90% Direct Vehicle:100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 100/100 Direct Sea: 100/100 Battleship: 100/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: None CO Power-Barter: Unit Deployment Cost is reduced to 50% +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Merchant Union: Unit Deployment cost is reduced to 50% and allows deployment from any allied city. +10% Defence, No Offence. Winning Phrase: 'Done already? Better luck next time!' Pro: Normal units for a cheaper price means that on a day to day basis you can beat out the enemy with more numerous troops. CO powers are dirt cheap to charge up as well. He's capable of building a huge army at minimal cost, and his powers allow him to deploy them anywhere, just about. Con: None of his powers boost his units, or debilitate the opponent, so he never really has gamebreaking CO power turns. Blue Moon Army Olaf [OLA] Unlocked: Complete Blue Moon Campaign CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3 + 4 $27,000/$63,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 100/100 Direct Sea: 100/100 Battleship: 100/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: Unaffected by Snow, Affected by rain with normal Snow penalties CO Power-Blizzard: Causes it to snow until Olaf's next turn +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Winter Fury: Inflicts 2 Damage on all enemy units, causes it to snow until Olaf's next turn. +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase:'Olaf's troops know no match!' Pro: The only kind of weather he's affected by is rain, which slows down the enemy anyway. His movement hindering powers allow him to set up easily when the enemies have reduced movement because of the snow. He's also good at whittling away the enemy's HP with his super power. Con: Blizzard is a very hard power to use tactically. Highly ineffective on maps loaded with roads and shoals. He's also a tough CO to use well, as he requires a good knowledge of how to manipulate enemy troops, rather than buffing his own forces. Grit [GRI] Unlocked: Complete Blue Moon Campaign CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3 + 3 $27,000/$54,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:80/100 Indirect Vehicle: 120/100 Planes: 80/100 Copters: 80/100 Direct Sea: 80/100 Battleships: 120/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: +1 Indirect Vehicle and Battleship maximum range CO Power-Snipe Attack: Gives +1 Indirect Vehicle and battleship range and improves indirect Vehicle and Battleship attack power. Indirect Vehicle:+10% Defence, +30% Offence Battleship: +10% Defence, +30% Offence Other:+10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Super Snipe: Gives +2 Indirect Vehicle and battleship range and improves indirect Vehicle and Battleship attack power. Indirect Vehicle:+10% Defence, +30% Offence Battleship: +10% Defence, +30% Offence Other:+10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'Not bad, y'all! Don't be a sore loser!' Pro: Once he's installed himself in a part of the map, he's incredibly difficult to remove. He's probably the best defensive CO in the game. He is capable of defending any map area competently and his cheap artilleries and rockets are more than a match for your opponents. Con: Tends to get trumped on maps which feature high amounts of air units. He also often has trouble at sea, because of his weak cruisers and submarines. He gets attacked from too many sides on maps without chokepoints for his indirects to be useful. Also, with his weak directs, he's highly vulnerable to early game rushing. Get him before he's prepared and grit is in serious trouble. Colin [COL] Unlocked: Complete Blue Moon campaign, and buy either Grit or Olaf CO Type: Normal CO Power: 2 + 4 $18,000/$54,000 Unit Price: 80% Direct Vehicle:90/100 Indirect Vehicle: 90/100 Planes: 90/100 Copters: 90/100 Direct Sea: 90/100 Battleship: 90/100 Soldiers: 90/100 Other Info: None CO Power-Gold Rush: Multiplies current funds by 1.5 +10% Defence, No Offence. SCO Power-Power of Money: Damage is improved based on how much money he possesses. More money, more damage. +10% Defence, +3.33% (.1/3, 3sf) Offence Per 1000 Cash The formula for his unit power with his SCO is as follows: Unit Strength ~ 90 + 0.00333x(Current Funds) Offence Multiplier = .9 + .0000333x(Current Funds). Notes: Colin's units have this much power at these funds: 90/110 at 0G 100/110 at 3003G 110/110 at 6006G 120/110 at 9009G 130/110 at 12012G 140/110 at 15015G 150/110 at 18018G 175/110 at 25526G 200/110 at 33033G 225/110 at 40451G 3420/110 at 999999G (Ouchies!) Winning Phrase: 'Whew... I won! I really won!' Pro: Cheap and numerous units help overwhelm the enemy. Also, filling up his bar fully and using gold rush 2-3 days in a row nets enough cash to topple any enemy with ease. His super power can do disgusting damage with enough funds too. Will almost always have more targets than the opponent can shoot. Con: Weak units tend to get wasted by CO's with stronger counterattacking capabilities. He does poorly on maps with very low amounts of unit deployment buildings. Often he starts to have trouble late game, as he no longer has a tech level advantage to compensate for his unit's low firepower. Yellow Comet Army Sonja [SON] Unlocked: Complete Yellow Comet Campaign CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3 + 2 $27,000/$45,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 100/100 Direct Sea: 100/100 Battleship: 100/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: +1 Vision, 150/100 when Counterattacking, Bad luck-May do less damage than expected, up to -10%. Hides HP from enemy. CO Power-Enhanced Vision: +1 Vision and allows vision into reefs and forests. Note: Cannot see dived Submarines. +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Counter Break: +1 Vision, allows vision into reefs and forests. Counterattacks before the enemy's attack and boosts counterattack strength. Note: As Sonja is striking first, she does not get her counterattack bonus. Note: Cannot see dived Submarines. +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'That settles that! It takes brains to win!' Pro: Is very strong in Fog of war. Her extra vision, hidden HP, reef and forest invading vision and boosted counterattacks are a nightmare for most enemies in Fog of War. Also, her CO powers are very cheap and her super power practically guarantees that your big and beefy units will remain in good condition until your next turn. Because of all this she is a very versatile defensive CO. Con: Her unluckiness means that she can fail to kill on an 100% attack. She has limited usefulness outside of fog of war, simply because her CO power and inherent abilities are oriented towards Fog of War. [KAN] Kanbei Unlocked: Complete Yellow Comet Campaign CO Type: Normal CO Power: 4 + 3 $36,000/$63,000 Unit Price: 120% Direct Vehicle:130/130 Indirect Vehicle: 130/130 Planes: 130/130 Copters: 130/130 Direct Sea: 130/130 Battleship: 130/130 Soldiers: 130/130 Other Info: None CO Power-Morale Boost: Boosts attack power +10% Defence +20% Offence SCO Power-Samurai Spirit: Boosts attack and defence power, counterattacks are now 150% strength. +30% Defence, +20% Offence Winning Phrase: 'Kanbei is victorious! We shall meet again!' Pro: Units are as tough as nails. His units are famous for getting 'Why the **** won't it DIE?' responses during a game. His units can quite easily overpower the enemy because of their superior attributes. He is incredibly powerful on small maps where the extra cost is barely noticed. When using his Super power, units on mountains and HQ's are invincible. Con: He's always going to be at a numbers disadvantage due to his high costs. On large maps, he's going to have trouble keeping up with all the expensive units deployed because of his costs. He performs poorly on maps with few cities and lots of buildings to deploy units. He is also quite vulnerable to early game rushing, as his poor troop numbers and slow expansion rate will give him trouble. Sensei [SEN] Unlocked: Complete Yellow Comet Campaign and buy either Kanbei or Sonja CO Type: Normal CO Power: 2 + 4 $18,000/$54,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:90/100 Indirect Vehicle: 90/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 150/100 Direct Sea: 90/100 Battleship: 90/100 Soldiers: 140/100 Other Info: Transports have +1 Movement CO Power-Copter Command: Creates 9 HP Soldiers on all of your cities ready to be used, boosts Copter attack power. Copters: +10% Defence, +25% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Airborne Assault: Creates 9 HP Mechs on all of your cities ready to be used, boosts Copter attack power. Copters: +10% Defence, +25% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'Hm hm hmmm... I've still got what it takes!' Pro: His cheap units are VERY strong. He's effective with what's probably the two most versatile units, Battle Copters and Mechs. His powers are great in the fact that they give you a free Soldiers/mech flood AND give his copters a boost to the level of power that they are actually stronger than AW1 Max's Copters under Max Force. He's also good at pulling cash out of nowhere by using his CO powers. Con: He's very weak in sea battles. He's probably always going to come out second in a battle with heavy amounts of indirect fire units. As such, he is unsuited to maps with low mobility and heavy sea unit usage. Green Earth Army Eagle [EAG] Unlocked: Complete Green Earth Campaign CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3 + 6 $27,000/$81,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 115/110 Copters: 115/110 Direct Sea: 70/100 Battleship: 70/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: Aerial Units use 2 less fuel per day. Planes use 3, Copters use 0. CO Power-Lightning Drive: Improves Aerial units' attack and defence Planes: +20% Defence, +15% Offence Copters: +20% Defence, +15% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Lightning Strike: Allows non Soldier units to carry out another order after they are in wait mode, boosts aerial attack and defence power. Planes: +20% Defence, +15% Offence Copters: +20% Defence, +15% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'Another victory! Was there ever any doubt!' Pro: Air units are extremely good, with the less fuel use and improved stats. His Super CO power allow for some amazing unit feats, like moving and then shooting rockets, or dropping off a pair of Neotanks off a lander and then shooting the nearby coastguard units. His SCO power is probably THE single most powerful tool for breaking a stalemate. He values speed and mobility, which his preferred units grant him. Con: His sea units are worthless. The only sea unit that's worth Eagle's while is the lander. In maps with no air, he's significantly handicapped. Also, his CO power is pretty darn worthless in 99% of all situations, so he's usually better off saving for his SCO Power. Drake [DRA] Unlocked: Complete Green Earth Campaign CO Type: Normal CO Power: 4 + 3 $36,000/$63,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle: 100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 70/100 Copters: 70/100 Direct Sea: 100/110 Indirect Sea: 100/110 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: Naval units have +1 Movement, All of Drake's units are Unaffected by rain, and the chance of rain increases by 7% when Drake is in play. CO Power-Tsunami: Inflicts 1 HP damage on all enemy troops and halves their remaining fuel. +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Typhoon: Inflicts 2 HP damage on all enemy troops, halves their remaining fuel and causes it to rain until Drake's next turn. +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'I won this time! I can't be beat at sea!' Pro: His CO powers allow him to rule the seas and surprisingly enough, the skies. With the fuel cutting power, enemies will have to constantly refuel their troops taking them away from conflict at the front lines. They will also have to spend more money on APC's to do so, leaving them with less offensive troops. His ships may not look like much, but the extra movement gives them a guaranteed first strike on a day to day basis in any sea battle. His immunity to rain means that he can easily move through forests and plains while the enemy is bogged in the mud. The damaging attribute of his CO powers also helps immensely to give Drake an advantage. Con: His air units are in most situations, useless. While his CO powers give him a definite air superiority, his air units are not going to defeat anything anytime soon. Because of this, he has trouble on air heavy maps. Jess [JES] Unlocked: Complete Green Earth Campaign and buy either Eagle or Drake. CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3 + 3 $27,000/$54,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:110/100 Indirect Vehicle: 110/100 Planes: 90/100 Copters: 90/100 Direct Sea: 90/100 Battleship: 90/100 Soldiers: 90/100 Other Info: None CO Power-Turbo Charge: Grants vehicles +1 movement and an attack bonus. Resupplies all units with fuel and ammo. Direct Vehicle: +10% Defence, +20% Offence Indirect Vehicle: +10% Defence, +20% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Overdrive: Grants vehicles +2 movement and an attack bonus. Resupplies all units with fuel and ammo. Direct Vehicle: +10% Defence, +40% Offence Indirect Vehicle: +10% Defence, +40% Offence Other: +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'Never give up! That's my motto! Pro: Her small day to day boost makes more of a difference than it appears to. She's going to be popping units more often than usual. Even with her weak troops, she's surprisingly good at air and sea combat, if only because her troops never tend to run out of fuel and ammo because of her powers. She's a pretty good all round CO, despite her unit stats. She never usually needs APCs except for deploying Soldiers for capturing. Not quite an all rounder, but stats in the right places make her a good CO. Con: Her Soldiers and mechs are THE worst in the game. If there is an Soldiers battle for property early game, she'll usually lose, so the early game is very dangerous for Jess. She's also going to have a harder time on a naval or air heavy map because of her weaker units there. Strategy: Black Hole Army Flak [FLA] Unlocked: Initially available for use. CO Type: Normal CO Power: 3 + 3 $27,000/$54,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 100/100 Direct Sea: 100/100 Battleship: 100/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: Dispersion- Attacks can fluctuate from weak to strong. He can do up to +15% or -10% damage. CO Power-Brute Force: Increases dispersion range. Can do up to +40% damage, or -20% damage. Average Bonus: +19% damage +10% Defence, No Offence. SCO Power-Barbaric Blow: Greatly increases dispersion range. Can do up to +80% or -30% damage. Average Bonus: +45% Damage +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'What was that? A waste of my time!' Pro: Often does extra damage. Can kill on 90% attacks sometimes. Great with hordes of cheap units to take maximum benefit from his CO powers. He's strong in maps with no terrain cover because that's when her powers have the most potential for damage. He's great at bending the rules of unit to unit damage. With enough troops, battle copters will take out AA's, Soldiers will take out neotanks and so forth. Also, he has goggles and a hazard yellow jacket. ;) 'Ze goggles! Zey do nothing!' Con: Very unreliable. His powers often fail you and you end up slaughtering your own troops by a strong counterattack from the enemy, especially when your firepower drops. He's also completely overshadowed by Nell in every way. Adder [ADD] Unlocked: Complete Campaign. CO Type: Normal CO Power: 2 + 3 $18,000/$45,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:100/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 100/100 Direct Sea: 100/100 Battleship: 100/100 Soldiers: 100/100 Other Info: None CO Power-Sideslip: Units gain +1 movement. +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Sidewinder (US/Aus)/Snakebite (Europe): Units gain +2 movement. +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'Heh heh heh... What did you expect?' Pro: He's a good all round CO with no particular advantages, except his CO power. It's a very cheap first strike for all units. With this, Adder can often rule the skies and the seas. Because ALL his units get the boost, his capturing troops can run marathon lengths to the next city to capture out of nowhere. He's great at advancing masses of troops to and through the front lines and beating indirect units. His powers are good stalemate beaters. Cons: To use his powers effectively is quite difficult. He's also very all round so he can often lose in the specialist areas. Probably the most difficult CO to use simply because he never gains any firepower bonuses in any areas and only ever has average units. You really need to take advantage of his first strike. Lash [LAS] Unlocked: Complete Campaign. CO Type: Normal CO Power: 4 + 3 $36,000/$63,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle: 100 +10xZ/100 Indirect Vehicle: 100 +10xZ/100 Planes: 100/100 Copters: 100/100 Direct Sea: 100 +10xZ/100 Battleship: 100 +10xZ/100 Soldiers: 100 +10xZ/100 Other Info: Each defensive star will add 10% to attack power, Excluding Aerial units as they don't get terrain benefits. Note: Z=Number of Terrain defence stars. Eg. If Lash's unit is on a forest (2 stars), Z=2. Therefore the unit would have 100+10x2 Offence, Or 120% If it is in a forest in Prime Tactics, the unit has 4 defence stars, Z=4 So the unit has 100+10x4, or 140% offence. CO Power-Terrain Tactics: All movement costs drop to one. +10% Defence, No Offence (Normal terrain attack bonus) SCO Power-Prime Tactics: Doubles terrain defence stars for Lash's units, all movement costs drop to one. +10% Defence, No Offence (Normal terrain attack bonus) Note: She gets double her usual firepower from the terrain bonus, due to the SCOP giving double defence stars. Winning Phrase: 'Hee hee hee... Hm? Broken already?' Pro: Free bonuses on the ground never hurt anybody. She's got the trump card in any map that's rich in mountains, forests and cities. Admittedly, her CO power is practically worthless for all intents and purposes. In most situations you are usually better off using her SCO power instead. Con: On road heavy, air and sea maps, she's not usually that useful at all, due to the nature of her powers. She's very dependent on terrain to be effective, so often has trouble battling in a broader variety of situations. Hawke [HAW] Unlocked: Complete Campaign. CO Type: Star CO Power: 5 + 4 $45,000/$81,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:110/100 Indirect Vehicle: 110/100 Planes: 110/100 Copters: 110/100 Direct Sea: 110/100 Battleship: 110/100 Soldiers: 110/100 Other Info: None CO Power-Black Wave: Inflicts 1 HP damage on all enemy units and heals 1 HP on all of his units. +10% Defence, No Offence SCO Power-Black Storm: Inflicts 2 HP damage on all enemy units and heals 2 HP on all of his units. +10% Defence, No Offence Winning Phrase: 'You're not weak--I'm just way too good!' Pros: All his units pack a little extra punch. He's going to one shot kill anything that normally nets a 95% attack percentage. He's great in large maps, and in mulitple person battles. The more players, the better for Hawke. A fantastic all round CO. Cons: His CO powers take a LONG time to charge. By the time most CO's have their super, Hawke's just gotten his CO power. His CO power is also pretty ineffectual, because it happens so rarely. His super is nice, but takes a LONG time for the power of it. He's also pretty bad in small maps simply because he's almost never going to see his CO powers. In Fog of war, his powers also reveal the location of all his units to the enemy. Sturm [STU] Unlocked: Complete Campaign with an S rank. CO Type: Triple Star CO Power: 0 + 10 $90,000 Unit Price: 100% Direct Vehicle:120/120 Indirect Vehicle: 120/120 Planes: 120/120 Copters: 120/120 Direct Sea: 120/120 Indirect Sea: 120/120 Soldiers: 120/120 Other Info: Penalties on terrain is always 1, is affected normally by snow, Does not possess a CO power. CO Power: None SCO Power-Meteor Strike: Strikes the highest value group of enemy units in a 5x5 diamond which causes 8 HP of damage and improves attack and defence. Sturm's units are worth negative money for value determination. +30% Defence, +20% Offence Winning Phrase: 'My name is Sturm. Hear it and tremble,' Pro: Incredibly strong units for normal price. His troops are capable of beating most CO's in their specialty areas. His units breeze through forests and reefs like they were roads and mountains like they were footpaths. His Power, will make mincemeat of any enemy, because not only does it decimate the enemy's most expensive force, he gets a disgusting power boost. Con: His super power takes ages to charge. Also, if you use him, your friends will hate you, because Sturm is a cheap CO. Strategy: Version History [HIS] 1.01 Added Sonja's Bad Luck Fixed Sensei's net power. 1.02 Added data for Andy, Olaf, Kanbei and Colin's CO power. Scrapped net power because it was inaccurate and pointless. Added my calculations on CO power gain. 1.03 Editing Phase 1.04 Changed Vehicle, Indirect and Direct into Direct Vehicle and Indirect Vehicle Fixed Sami's Double Time Description Added all CO Power stats apart from Hachi Ran it through a spell check 1.05 Completed Hachi's CO Information. Updated Counter Break info (Thanks Roma_Emu!) 1.06 Fixed a bit of info that was missed from Sami's Profile, regarding battleships. 1.07 Fixed Counter break +Vision info (Thanks Psychotic Guy) Added some Sami information that was missed (Thanks Psychotic Guy) 1.08 Added refined cost values about CO stars, plus information about it. 1.09 Added to CO stats. Now lists whether a CO is a Normal or Star CO. Fixed Some information that was lacking in Grit's Profile. Did some cleaning up with the formatting and arrangement Edited some information that needed a little more clarification Added the space for the CO Strategies section to each CO. 1.10 Individual CO Strategies for Co's Implemented in this version: Andy: 1 Max: 1 Sami: 3 Hachi: 1 Grit: 4 Colin: 1 Eagle: 1 Drake: 1 Kanbei: 1 Sensei: 1 Flak: 1 Adder: 1 Lash: 1 1.11 Added Lots of information to Nell, regarding her Luck. Added Lots of information to Flak, regarding his Luck/Dispersion Did a bit of cleaning up, making it easier to read. Fixed some typos in the strategies. Added definite Values for Sonja's Bad Luck and CounterAttack. Added The European version's name for Adder's SCO power. Added Pro's and Cons to using all the CO's. Corrected the fact that Sturm and Hachi are Triple Star CO's, not star CO's. 2.0 Complete Overhaul to the layout of the guide -Separated Strategies from General CO Information -Separated the Battleship from Direct Sea units in the CO information -Cleaned up some info. -Now that the CO specific FAQs have been written, I feel that they would be better served for your specific CO battling usages, the strategies section has been removed for each CO. However, as a thanks for the writers, their names shall remain in the credits. -Extended the pros/cons section for COs in which I felt was lacking. Included an update to Colin, PoM is +3.33% Per 1000g, not 3% (Increased accuracy now) Added a small tutorial on how to calculate Lash's Damage bonuses. Added the formula for Colin's damage bonus. 2.1 Updates, mainly concerning luck. A lot of major information regarding the specifics of luck has been added to the guide. This affects Nell, Flak and Sonja. Also, the how luck works section has been updated thanks to the efforts of Kireato testing new knowledge that I found. 2.2 Added the exact percentage that Drake causes rain. Thanks [THK] Kireato: Providing a better insight on how luck works. Roma_Emu: Sonja's counter break info-Pre emptive counterattacks Psychotic Guy: Telling me I missed some information on Sami, and correcting some Counter Break info. Strategy Contributors (GameFAQs Names): Vrynhorn EekOShark Iron Knuckle 9 meeptroid Shadow Dino Jax Omen immortalcell7 Evil Demon Creature ShadowFF6 daverath pkdragon MagicianofBlackChaos Thanks A lot guys! :) Legal Stuff [LEG] No material from this FAQ may be edited or changed in any way without my permission. Sites that are permitted to host this FAQ: GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) IGN Faqs (faqs.ign.com) Wars World News (www.warsworldnews.com) If you would like to host this FAQ, please contact me. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Advance Wars 2:Black Hole Rising and related characters are trademarks of Nintendo Pty. Ltd All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This FAQ Copyright 2003 Paul Whan Contact Information [CON] I can be contacted by email at apul (at) adam (dot) com (dot) au, xenesis (at) gmail (dot) com or on MSN Messenger as xenesis (at) hotmail.com (it doesn't receive email). I will only reply to inquiries regarding my FAQ. Please feel free to send corrections, critiques and mistakes that are present in my guide my way. Any other feedback is always welcome. I WILL NOT answer gameplay and help queries. Beat it yourself or ask on the Advance Wars 2 board. And, anyone who I find is treating me badly, I may find several spam lists to sign them up to ;). To those who steal my FAQ and put it up elsewhere without my permission, I hope guilt causes you suffering. PS. Australianism present isn't an error. And long live Vegemite! :P