Advance Wars (Gameboy Advance) Perfect S-rank War Room Guide Author: Carl Woll (kikutaro) Version: 1.2 Original Date: April 1, 2002 Revised Date: May 3, 2002 Email: carlw@u.washington.edu This guide is (c) Copyright 2002 to Carl Woll. This document is protected by US Copyright Law, and is for personal use only--it cannot be reprinted in part or in whole, or be reproduced in any way or in any form (written or otherwise). It is a free document that cannot be used in any sort of commercial transaction, including selling it or giving it away as a gift. This faq cannot be referenced, altered, or used by anybody (including webmasters, publishers, and magazine staff) without my express written permission. It can be found exclusively at (www.gamefaqs.com). All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged and respected that are not specifically mentioned herein. Version history 1.0 April 1, 2002 - Initial version. Contains information regarding scoring and CO power activation, general tips, tips for battling AI, and walkthroughs for Spann Island, Land's End, Bounty River and Terra Maw. Other walkthroughs may be incorporated in future versions if demand is present. 1.1 April 8, 2002 Added overviews and walkthroughs for Point Stormy and Rivers Four. Added overviews for Spann Island, Stamp Islands, Ring Islands and Last Mission. Added more details on how technique is computed. Added an additional tip on freezing units in the AI tips section. 1.2 May 3, 2002 Added more details on scoring. This new information on scoring is a result of some ingenious work by Terence Fergusson. ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= 1. INTRODUCTION 2. SCORING 3. CO POWER ACTIVATION 4. GENERAL TIPS 5. TIPS FOR BATTLING AI 6. WALKTHROUGHS 6.1. Spann Island 6.2. Moji Island (TBA) 6.3. Duo Falls (TBA) 6.4. Sole Harbor (TBA) 6.5. Pivot Isle (TBA) 6.6. Land's End 6.7. Kita Straight (TBA) 6.8. Point Stormy 6.9. Ridge Island (TBA) 6.10. Mial's Hope (TBA) 6.11. Bounty River 6.12. Toil Ferry (TBA) 6.13. Twin Isle (TBA) 6.14. Dire Range (TBA) 6.15. Egg Islands (TBA) 6.16. Terra Maw 6.17. Stamp Islands (TBA) 6.18. Rivers Four 6.19. Ring Islands 6.20. Last Mission 1. INTRODUCTION Although there are other war room guides out there, I decided to add another one devoted solely to achieving perfect S-ranks. Moreover, there seems to be a few misconceptions in other faqs on various issues, along with a deplorable lack of discussion of some basic issues related to strategy, scoring and CO powers. I hope that this faq will correct and supplement the information currently available. 2. SCORING There are three components to achieving a perfect S-rank: speed, power and technique. Due to Terence Fergusson's ingenious work, we now have a very good idea of how the scoring works for all three categories. 2.1 Speed score The speed score depends on the number of days to complete a map, compared to the threshold value for that map. If you finish the map by the required day, then you will get a perfect speed score. If you take longer than the required amount of time, your score will be reduced based on the percentage extra that you took to finish the map. To be specific, determine the percentage extra that you took to finish the map. Divide this percentage by 3 and round down. Multiply this number by 5 to determine the speed points lost for the map. For example, Land's End has a speed requirement of 12 days. If you take 14 days, then your percentage extra is 2/12 or about 16.7%. Dividing this by 3 and rounding down yields 5. Multiply by 5 to find that you've lost 25 points on your speed score. See the end of this section to see the above summarized in a formula. 2.2 Technique score The technique score depends simply on the number of your units which have been destroyed as compared to the number you have created. For the war room maps, if the percentage of units lost (rounded down) is 10% or less, then you will get a perfect technique score. For the normal campaign maps, if the percentage of units lost (rounded down) is 20% or less, then you will get a perfect technique score. The threshold technique for advance campaign is currently unknown, so if any readers are interested, you can try to figure it out. For each percentage point more than 10% in a war room map (or 20% in a normal campaign map), you lose 3 points of technique. Hence, towards the end of a map, you should look at the status menu, which tells you how many units you created for each type, and how many units you've lost to see how close to a perfect technique score you are. If you need to see the above discussion summarized in a formula, check the end of this section. Two further comments are in order concerning the status menu and technique. First, the loss of a unit that was created by joining other units together counts as one unit lost, and not two (or more!). This is true on both the status menu and for computing technique. Second, the loss of a transport unit (APC, lander or transport copter) carrying other units counts as a single unit lost. However, in this case the status menu and the algorithm for computing technique will differ on the number of killed units. For example, if an APC carrying an infantry is destroyed, the status menu will list both the APC and the infantry as being killed. On the other hand, only the APC will count as a killed unit when computing technique. At any rate, to achieve a good technique score one should avoid having units killed if possible, by forcing the AI to damage many units instead of ganging up on a few units. Also, join units if they are weak and likely to be killed by the enemy. Note also, as described in the general tips section, that joining units can actually make you money. Monitor the status menu, and create as many units as necessary to reduce your percentage lost to less than the threshold for your map. The following table gives the number of units that must be deployed (those created in addition to those which were predeployed in the campaign maps) to achieve a perfect technique score in the war room and normal campaign maps based on the number of units that have been killed. Perfect technique minimum units ------------------------------- Units Killed War Room Normal Campaign ------------ -------- --------------- 1 10 5 2 19 10 3 28 15 4 37 20 5 46 24 6 55 29 7 64 34 8 73 39 9 82 43 10 91 48 11 101 53 Since the maximum number of units that you can have on the field at one time is 50, you might think that it would be impossible to have 8 units killed while creating 73 units. However, remember that you can join units together, allowing you to then create more units. I've actually gotten a perfect technique score with 9 units killed in this fashion (on Rivers Four). 2.3 Power score The power score is based simply on the number of units that the enemy has created, as well as the maximum number of units that you have killed in one turn. A rather bizarre method, I might add. Take the maximum number of units that you have killed in one turn as a percentage of the total number of units the enemy has created, multiply by 10 and then round down. Subtract this number from a 100 and multiply by 2. This yields the number of points you have lost on the power score. For example, if the enemy has created 38 units, and you have killed 3 units in one turn, then your percentage times 10 rounded down would be 78. Subtracting this number from a 100 and multiplying by 2 yields 44, so that your power score would be down 44 points. From the above discussion it is clear that the ground rules for achieving a good power score need to be amended from what I have said in earlier versions of this faq. YOU NEED TO MAXIMIZE THE NUMBER OF UNITS KILLED IN A SINGLE TURN! Typically, you will kill the most units on your final turn. If this is the case, then make sure that you kill as many units as you can on the final turn, and don't simply damage the most expensive units. Damaging a battleship to 1hp does nothing for your power score. In fact, it may be a good idea to simply damage many units on the penultimate turn, and then finish them off on the final turn. Of course, the enemy will usually have its severely damaged units run away or will join them together (leaving less units to kill), so you don't want to hurt them too much. On the other hand, if you leave the enemy with too many units he will kill a lot of your units resulting in a poor technique score. You will have to weigh the pros and cons of the above yourself. Of course, if you knew how many units the enemy had deployed, you would be able to determine exactly how many units you need to kill in one turn. The problem is that the only way to know this (on maps with bases) is to keep track of them yourself. You may think that it is also likely that you will kill the most units on a turn earlier than the final turn, but I think that's unlikely. Obviously, you will have more units at the end of a map, so it will be easier to kill a lot of units at the end of a battle. Moreover, earlier in a mission, it's much more important to eliminate the enemies powerful units rather than just eliminating a whole bunch of weak units. Based on this, I would expect that the best strategy for achieving a good power score (as well as a good technique score) is to kill the most units on your final turn. Note that just as with the technique score, killing a transport unit carrying other units counts as a single unit killed, and killing an enemy unit which has been joined with other units also counts as a single unit killed. As stated above, damage taken or given has no relevance to ones score, contrary to what has been written elsewhere. On the other hand, damage taken or given is the only thing that matters when it comes to CO powers, as described in the next section. 2.4 Formulas for determining scores Below I will give formulas for determining one's score. I prefer to think about penalties, that is, how short of a perfect score I am. So, below I give the maximum possible score for that category followed by a formula for how the penalty is scored. Where they appear, [...] means to round the term in brackets down to the nearest integer. If the penalty is less than or equal to zero, then you get a perfect score for that category. Note that as given below a perfect score is 1000, but in this case the game shows a 999 as only 3 digits are allotted for the score. 2.4.1 Speed The maximum speed score is 500. The penalty for finishing the map late is given below. Note that the penalty can't be bigger than 500, so if it takes you 49 days to complete a 12 day map, you will get a speed score of 0. Let S = speed requirement T = days taken Then the speed score penalty (if T>S) is Speed penalty = 5 * [100 (T-S)/(3 S)] 2.4.2 Technique The maximum technique score is 300. The penalty for losing too many units is given below. Let C = units created (including predeployed units) L = units lost X = technique threshold For war room maps X=10, for normal campaign maps X=20, and for advance campaign maps X is currently unknown, but much larger than 20. Then the technique score penalty is Technique penalty = 3 * [100 (L/C) - X] 2.4.3 Power The maximum power score is 200. To get a good power score you need to kill a sizeable fraction of the enemy units on one of the turns of the game. The penalty for not doing so is given below. Let E = enemy units created (including predeployed units) K = max enemy units killed in one turn Then the power score penalty is Power penalty = 2 * (100 - [1000 (K/E)]) 3. CO POWER ACTIVATION Note: Some of the information in this section was first discovered by Uiru. The CO power meter increases based solely on the amount of damage given or taken by the CO. Moreover, dishing out damage increases the power meter four times slower than receiving damage. The amount of damage required to trigger the CO power varies for different CO's. Also, each time the CO power is used, the amount of damage required to trigger the CO power again increases by a set amount. The following chart lists for each CO the amount of damage needed to trigger the first CO power, and the increase in this amount required to trigger each subsequent usage. CO Damage Increase Sami 25000 5000 Andy 30000 6000 Max 30000 6000 Nell 30000 6000 Sonja 30000 6000 Grit 30000 6000 Olaf 30000 6000 Drake 40000 8000 Eagle 50000 10000 Kanbei 50000 10000 Vs Sturm 50000 10000 For example, Eagle must receive damage in the amount of 50,000 to be able to activate his CO power for the first time. Hence, if Eagle loses two bombers (44,000) and an artillery unit (6,000), then he will be able to use his CO power. Alternatively, if Eagle manages to do 200,000 worth of damage, he will again be able to use his CO power for the first time (e.g., as an unrealistic example, if Eagle destroys 10 fighters). Note that partial damage also counts, so that damaging a medium tank from 10 to 4 would account for .6 x 16,000 x .25 = 2400 (the .6 corresponds to 60% damage, and the .25 corresponds to the reduction for meting out damage as opposed to receiving damage). To use his CO power a second time he will need to receive 60000 damage (or dish out 240,000), for the third time he will need to receive 70000 damage, etc. Note that Kanbei's units are worth 20% more than everybody else's units, so that destroying one of Kanbei's rockets would increase his power meter by 18000 instead of 15000. Perusing the chart reveals an interesting correlation between the Advance Wars maker's opinion of the effectiveness of a CO's power with the amount of damage needed to trigger that power. 4.0 GENERAL TIPS 4.1 Leapfrogging infantry Leapfrogging infantry is a very useful technique to transport 2 infantry with a single APC as quickly as you could transport 1 infantry with an APC. Basically, arrange an infantry unit 3 or less squares behind an APC, with another infantry unit 1 square ahead. Then, load the APC with the trailing infantry unit, send the APC and the leading infantry as far forward as possible, and unload the infantry forward. Repeat on each subsequent turn. With this technique, all CO's can transport 2 infantry anywhere (barring terrain issues) as quickly as you can move an APC (6 squares). Moreover, using this technique, Sami can transport 2 infantry 7 squares each turn. It is also possible to transport 2 mechs using a similar strategy, but in this case the maximum speed is 5 squares each turn for all CO's. 4.2 Refueling It makes perfect sense to refuel land units with an APC. What isn't realistic is the capability to refuel both air and sea units (even a submerged sub!) with the APC. However, you should make use of this capability. Therefore, don't hesitate to refuel units with an APC when you can, especially sea and air units. Moreover, it's possible to create fuel out of thin air! Just place two APCs next to each other. Even if both APCs are almost empty, they will each receive full fuel tanks at the beginning of the next turn. 4.3 Repair Costs Assuming sufficient money is available, damaged units will be repaired at the rate of 2hp per turn, and the cost of repairing a damaged unit is 10% of the units purchase cost for each hp repaired. 4.4 Joining units Joining units can be a very effective tool to enhance ones technique score, as it reduces the number of weak units that can be eliminated. Moreover, when units are joined whose individual hp would add up to more than 10hp, the extra hp is converted into money at the rate of 10% of the units purchase cost for each hp over 10. Hence, joining units can also provide another way to make money, which is especially useful when you are only a little bit short of the funds necessary to create a desired unit. 4.5 Other tips There are many other tips that could be mentioned, but most of these have already been discussed in other venues, and I will perhaps add some of these later. 5.0 TIPS FOR BATTLING AI 5.1 AI targeting emphasis The AI has been programmed to usually attack APCs and transports of various kinds before targeting other units. In addition, the AI will attack more expensive units before less expensive units, and all other things being equal, the AI will attack units that are on the weakest ground cover (the algorithm is more complicated than the above). However, note that the above tendencies are not ironclad, but rather are what would happen in the majority of cases. The AI rates the units that it would like to attack and then rolls the dice to figure out which unit it will attack. The targeting emphasis can be exploited in many ways, by decoying enemy units so as to protect your more valuable units, and by drawing enemy units into range to be attacked. 5.2 AI infantry/mech targeting It turns out that the AI infantry/mech units will in general not attack infantry/mech units that are located on terrain with better defensive cover. For example, many times the AI will have infantry on the bases surrounding it's HQ while the HQ is being attacked, and instead of attacking and destroying the capturing infantry unit, those units will just run away. This AI deficiency is one of the primary reasons that most maps can be defeated in a very short time. 5.3 AI submarine movement The AI is extremely fearful of having a submarine run out of fuel, and will invariably surface immediately after submerging. The only exception occurs when the submerged submarine can attack another unit. This AI deficiency can be usefully exploited on any of the sea maps, but especially Terra Maw and Bounty River. 5.4 Blockade When a choke point exists, where one of your units can only be attacked by a single enemy unit, the AI will not rearrange it's units so as to have the optimal unit attacking. For example, if an APC is blocking a choke point, and the AI has an infantry attacking the APC, with a medium tank right behind the APC, the sensible thing to do is to retreat the infantry and have the medium tank blow away the APC. Instead, the AI will never retreat with its infantry, and will keep attacking the APC with its infantry no matter how little damage that attack will do. 5.5 Healing units When the AI has damaged units that are being repaired, they will usually not attack any units until they are completely healed. However, exceptions do occur. 5.6 Freezing indirect attack units In general, if the AI can attack a unit, it will. Hence, it is possible to "immobilize" an enemy indirect attack unit by putting a unit in range of the indirect attack unit. This tactic can be useful if you don't want the enemy unit to invade your territory, or retreat to defend his territory. Moreover, this tactic can be useful for enhancing your technique score on some maps. Note that there is a limit of 50 units on the field at one time. Hence, on some of the longer maps (Rivers Four is the prime example) you may run up against this limit. Place a unit in range of an AI indirect attack unit (making sure that the unit won't be destroyed), and have other units of the same type nearby. Each time the unit is attacked you can join a healthy unit with the damaged unit to bring it back to full health. This tactic will reduce the number of units you have in the field, allowing you to build more units. A similar tactic is possible with direct attack units, especially during a blockade. 6.0 WALKTHROUGHS This section will present walkthroughs for most of the war room maps. However, before each walkthrough, an overview of the strategy is presented, so that you can try to get a perfect S-rank on your own without reading the walkthrough. 6.1 Spann Island Perfect S-rank time limit: 10 days CO: Sami Overview: Many different strategies are possible for this map. The walkthrough below is probably the fastest. Basically, create an APC on day 2, a mech on day 3, send the mech 2S, 2W of Olaf's HQ on day 4, then finally, begin capturing Olaf's HQ on day 6. Walkthrough: Day 1: Create four infantry units. Day 2: Move upper northern infantry 3E and capture city. Move lower northern infantry 3N and capture city. Move both southern infantry units 3E. Create an infantry in the upper northern city, and an APC in the easternmost southern city. Day 3: Finish capturing two cities, and begin capturing 3 cities. Move the APC 2E, and create a mech in the easternmost southern city. Day 4: Finish capturing 3 cities. Move the northernmost infantry 3E, and the other infantry 2E, 1S. Load the APC with the mech, and move the APC 4E, 3N, unloading to the east. Create a tank in the easternmost southern city. Day 5: Move your easternmost infantry 2N, 1E and attack his infantry. Move the infantry located 4E of your HQ 1N, 2E and finish off the infantry you attacked previously. Move the remaining southern infantry 1N, 2E. Create a recon in the northernmost city, and a tank in the easternmost city. Now for where to move the APC, the tank, the mech and the remaining infantry units. Here is where you will need to begin to think for yourself. Olaf's artillery unit will go somewhere (I've encountered at least 4 different locations). You will need to move the mech closer to his HQ (either 2N, or 1N, 1E, or 2E) making sure that the mech is out of range of the artillery unit (if you can attack the artillery unit too, all the better). Then, you will need to decoy Olaf's tank, so that it will not attack your mech, and so that you will be able to block the tank from attacking your mech on the next turn, when the mech begins to capture Olaf's HQ. If you will not be able to prevent the tank from attacking your mech, then you need to decoy the tank to a position where your tank can attack his tank. He will make a recon on his next turn, and a recon attack in addition to a weak tank attack on your mech (when the mech is on Olaf's HQ) should only weaken your mech to at worst 4hp, which is sufficient to finish capturing the HQ. Here are more specific instructions for a couple cases: 1. Olaf moves his artillery unit just north of your APC. Leave your APC in the city, move your mech 2E, and move the tank 6E. Both the APC and the mech will be out of range of his artillery unit, and his tank will attack your APC. After his tank attacks your APC, you will be able to attack his tank with your tank. 2. Olaf moves his artillery unit 4W. Move the mech 1N, 1E, move the tank 6E, move your APC 2S, 1E, so it is behind two of the infantry units, and so that his tank can't attack your APC, and move one of your infantry 2W of his artillery unit. His artillery unit and his tank will combine to destroy the infantry unit, as the road provides less defensive cover than the plain (where your mech is). On your next turn, block the tanks path back to his HQ with your APC (but out of range of the artillery), so that his tank is unable to attack your mech. You should be able to figure out what to do if his artillery unit goes somewhere else. Day 6: Begin capturing the HQ. Destroy as many units as possible. At this point, you should have enough units to ensure a perfect technique score, as you've created 10 units, and you should have lost at most one unit. If you lose 2 units, then you will need to create 19 units to get a perfect technique score. However, you do not have enough days to do so now (but note that you could have created an extra infantry unit on day 4 or 5, in which case creating 4 units on days 6 and 7 will give you a total of 19). At any rate, you could create a tank in the easternmost city that might be able to attack one of his units. You do not need to create any other units. Day 7: Destroy as many units as possible. Finish capturing the HQ. 6.2 Moji Island Perfect S-rank time limit: 13 days 6.3 Duo Falls Perfect S-rank time limit: 13 days 6.4 Sole Harbor 6.5 Pivot Isle 6.6 Land's End Perfect S-rank time limit: 12 days CO: Sami Overview: Using Sami, you need to capture the airport as quickly as possible. Once the airport is captured, you must create a transport and send it to the enemy HQ as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, since a blizzard will slow down your transport copter, you must avoid causing too much damage to Olaf so that he doesn't trigger his CO power until after you have unloaded your infantry. When you do drop off your infantry, have a fighter nearby, as a fighter in the area will freeze his battle copters. Meanwhile, it's important that Olaf send his whole army after you, vacating his HQ. Hence, you will not want to press forward an attack too far towards his territory, so that most of the fighting should take place north of the base next to the water. To avoid triggering a blizzard, you are only allowed to kill or nearly kill 3 or 4 units, depending on whether Olaf's medium tank enters battle. One of the units you will need to kill is the initial battle copter Olaf creates, since it would destroy your transport copter. Another unit you will need to kill is the infantry unit Olaf drops off next to your HQ. Finally, if Olaf sends his medium tank into battle, you will need to kill or nearly kill it. If he doesn't send his medium tank into battle, then you can kill his tank instead, and damage an A-Air instead. This A-Air will try to eliminate your transport copter, so if you can't damage it without triggering a blizzard, you will need to surround your transport copter so that the A-Air can't kill it. Killing the allowable units as delineated above will still usually leave several more enemy units in battle which you must not damage. 1. One of these units is typically a battle copter or possibly several battle copters around your HQ. Here you must maneuver your infantry units around so that only 1 battle copter will attack any single infantry unit. Use the fact that when given a choice, the copter will always attack the infantry unit with the smallest amount of defensive cover. Once the infantry units are attacked, join them up to bring them back to full strength. On the turn that you drop off the infantry unit near the enemy HQ, create one or two A-Air units as necessary to destroy the pesky copters. 2. Other units may swarm your northern territory, and since you are not allowed to damage these units until the turn when you drop off your infantry next to the enemy HQ, you must engage in a holding action where as few units as possible are exposed to multiple attacks. To perform this holding action efficiently, utilize the choke point provided near the base next to the water. For example two infantry units located 1N,1W and 1N,2W of the water base would work, although you may want to replace the infantry with either an APC or a tank. Finally, you want Olaf to abandon his HQ. Sometimes Olaf will keep some units at home. In this case, you will need to send some weak units, such as an APC or an A-Air unit right up against his rockets, to draw out the rest of Olaf's units. Below I will describe the walkthrough. Note, as always, that you may need to adjust some of your actions once battle is joined, especially starting around day 8. Walkthrough: Day 1: Create infantry in the N, W, and S bases, and an APC in the E base (that's right, the APC is created as far away from the airport as possible). Day 2: Load the S infantry into the APC, send the APC 2N, 5W, and unload the infantry N. Send the other infantries 3W. Create an artillery unit in the N base, and some infantry units in the W and S bases. Day 3: Load the APC with the infantry located to the southeast (here we see leapfrogging infantry in action), send the APC 3N, 4W, and unload the infantry to the north. Start capturing the city, send the infantry in the mountain 1N, 2W, send the infantry in the W base 1N, 2W, and send the infantry in the S base 2S, 1E. Send the artillery 1N, 4W. Create an artillery unit in the N base, and some infantry units in the W and S bases. Day 4: Most of the time, the battle copter Olaf created will move 4N, 2W into a city, and I will assume that this is what happens. If the battle copter doesn't move to the city, then it's actually a bit easier to get a perfect score, but I will let you figure that one out. Now, finish capturing the city, start capturing the base, and start capturing the city SE of the 4 bases. Load the APC with the other infantry (leapfrogging infantry again), and send the APC 4N, 3W, and unload the infantry to the north. Send the infantry in the S base 3S, and send the final infantry 1N, 2W. Send the artillery unit on the road 3N, 2W and send the artillery unit in the N base 1N, 4W. Create an A-Air in the N base. Now the walkthrough will branch depending on what Olaf's medium tank does. Most of the time, the medium tank will retreat 5E, and sometimes it will move forward, either 2W, or 1N, 4W. Branch 1 - Medium tank retreat Day 5: Begin capturing the airport and the city southwest of the bases, finish capturing the base and the city. Send the infantry in the city 1N, 2W, and the infantry on the road 2N, 1W. Send both artillery units 2W, 3N, and send the A-Air 1N, 5W. Send the APC 4S, 3E. Create an infantry in the N base. Day 6: For the rest of this walkthrough you will need to think for yourself and adjust your actions accordingly. Here I will assume that Olaf moved his tank NE of his copter. If he retreats his tank, you will need to expose some of your units to get Olaf's army to chase you (and evacuate his headquarters). You may need to adjust this walkthrough if he advances his tank elsewhere. Finish capturing the airport and the city. Begin capturing the two cities that you can. Load the APC with the other infantry, move the APC 4N into the woods, and unload the infantry W. Kill the infantry with your two infantry, starting with the infantry in the N base, leaving his transport copter alone. Send the A-Air 3N, 3W, and the southern artillery unit 2N, 3W. Create an APC in your new base (from now on, I will call this the water base). Day 7: Finish capturing the cities, begin capturing the base west of the airport. Move the infantry west of the now damaged APC 1N, 2W and begin capturing the city, move the healthy APC to the east of this infantry unit, and move the damaged APC 2S. Move the two artillery units directly south of the infantry and the healthy APC. Move the A-Air 1W, 5N and destroy the copter. Create a transport copter in the airport and rockets in the water base. Now for the 3 infantry near the 4 bases. Move the southernmost infantry unit 3N, and the southeastern infantry unit 3E. Day 8: Use the rockets to damage the A-Air, and destroy the tank with the artillery units. Finish capturing the base and the city. Send the transport copter 1S, 6E, and load it with an infantry unit. Retreat the easternmost infantry unit 3W to avoid the battle copter, if necessary. Move the APC in the city 1N, and the APC near the base 3N, 1W (southeast of the other APC). Move the A-Air into the city (next to the two APC's). Move the infantry southwest of the rockets 2N. Create a fighter, and some infantry units in the W and S bases. Day 9: Move the transport copter 6E and the fighter 1S, 8E. Near your HQ, move the southwestern infantry 1E to bait the copter and create an A-Air in the S base. From this point, try to destroy as many units as possible, and try to create as many units as possible without losing too many units. Day 10: Destroy any copters near your HQ. Move the fighter and the transport copter as far east as possible, and drop off the infantry either N or E. I usually drop off to the east if there is a battle copter there, otherwise N, the opposite of what you would expect. With the fighter nearby, Olaf doesn't do anything with his copters that are sitting on airports, and just watches as you capture his headquarters. However, a copter that isn't on an airport will try to attack your infantry. If there are any other units nearby, they will first attack your transport copter, ignoring your infantry. If there are two units (besides the copters) which can attack your transport copter, then you will not be able to finish by day 12. Either restart, or don't send the transport copter in yet, and wait until Olaf's units head to battle. Of course, you won't get a perfect speed score then. For the rest of your units, try to avoid losing any units, either by running away, or by joining, or by sacrificing. Day 11: You should be able to use your power now. Do so, and then begin capturing the headquarters. Destroy any battle copters. Destroy what you can, but make sure that he can't kill any units. Retreat all damaged units. Move the damaged APC in the base 2N, and create another APC in that base. Create as many infantry units as possible in the four bases. Day 12: Destroy as many units as possible. Create as many units as possible. If you did things properly, you should not have lost many units and created well over 30 units. As long as you lost only around10% or less of your units, you will get a perfect technique score. Your speed and power scores should also be perfect, giving you a perfect S-rank. Branch 2 - Medium tank advance Day 5: Begin capturing the airport and the city southwest of the bases, finish capturing the base and the city. Send the infantry in the city 1N, 2W, and the infantry on the road 2N, 1W. Send both artillery units 2W, 3N, and send the A-Air 1N, 5W. Send the APC 4S, 3E. Create an infantry in the N base. Day 6: Here I will assume that Olaf moved his medium tank 3N of one of your artillery units. Hit the medium tank with your artillery unit. Finish capturing the airport and the city. Begin capturing the two cities that you can. Load the APC with the other infantry, move the APC 2N, 1W, and unload the infantry N. Kill the infantry with your two infantry, starting with the infantry in the N base, leaving his transport copter alone. Send the A-Air 3N, 3W, and the southern artillery unit 2N, 2W. Create an APC in your new base (from now on, I will call this the water base). Day 7: Here I will assume that Olaf moved a tank 1N of his medium tank. Finish capturing the cities, begin capturing the city 4E of the airport and the base west of the airport. Hit the medium tank with your artillery unit, and retreat the damaged artillery unit 3S, 1W. Move the A-Air 3N and kill the copter. Move the healthy APC 2N, 2W and the damaged APC 3N, 4W. Create a transport copter in the airport and a tank in the water base. Now for the 3 infantry near the 4 bases. Move the southernmost infantry unit 3N, and the southeastern infantry unit 3E. Day 8: Finish capturing the base and the city. Move the transport 1S, 6E, and then move the A-Air 2N to protect the copter. Move the APC in the city 1S, 2E, and then join the two APC's. Load the copter with an infantry unit. Move the damaged artillery unit into the nearby city, and move the tank to one square south of the APC. Move the infanty located 2W, 4S of the water base north two squares. Create a fighter, and an infantry in the water base. Retreat the eastern most infantry unit 2W if it is going to be attacked by a copter, and create an A-Air in the E base to kill the copter. You will probably need to do this on day 8 or day 9. Day 9: Move the transport copter 6E and the fighter 1S, 8E. If the battle copter went west instead of south here, then the copter may be destroyed, in which case you will have to try again. However, the transport copter may survive the battle copter, in which case things can still work out. If the medium tank retreated, then load the now severely damaged APC with the damaged infantry unit, and run away to the south. If the medium tank finished off the APC, then the damaged infantry unit will also be history, and two units will be lost. Retreat the damaged A-Air unit to the south. Move the infantry unit in the water base 1N, 1W, and move an infantry unit to one square south of the tank. Send the infantry unit in the base next to the airport to capture a city. Retreat the eastern most infantry unit 2W if it is going to be attacked by a copter, and create an A-Air in the E base to kill the copter. Create an infantry unit in the base next to the airport, and some rockets in the water base. Day 10: If the fighter can kill any copters, do so, otherwise send the fighter as far east as possible. In both cases, keep the fighter out of reach of any A-Air's. Send the transport copter 7E and unload the infantry unit to the east. If the eastern most infantry unit (near the four bases) was damaged, retreat it and send another unit as a sacrificial lamb if another battle copter is approaching. Move the A-Air off the 4 bases, and kill the copter with the A-Air. Retreat the damaged infantry unit in the base next to the airport to the west, and create an APC in that base. Destroy what you can, making sure that none of your units will get killed. Create as many infantry units as you can in the four bases. Day 11: You should be able to use your power now. Do so, and then begin capturing the headquarters. Destroy any battle copters. Destroy what you can, but make sure that he can't kill any units. Retreat all damaged units. Move the damaged APC in the base 2N, and create another APC in that base. Create as many infantry units as possible in the four bases. Day 12: Destroy as many units as possible. Create as many units as possible. If you did things properly, you should not have lost many units and created well over 30 units. As long as you lost only 10% or less of your units, you will get a perfect technique score. Your speed and power scores should also be perfect, giving you a perfect S-rank. 6.7 Kita Straight Perfect S-rank time limit: 25 days 6.8 Point Stormy Perfect S-rank time limit: 15 days CO: Max Overview: With Max this is an easy map, as the only difficulty is getting the perfect speed score. As always, it's nice to be able to capture bases close to the upcoming battle as soon as possible, and for this reason I build an APC on the first turn. Then, create lots of tanks, some A-Airs, some fighters and some bombers. On day 11 create a transport copter. Load up the copter with an infantry on day 12 and head to Olaf's HQ. Drop off the infantry on day 13, capture the HQ by day 15. Alternatively, you may be able to just send one or two of your APCs to Olaf's HQ by day 13. Walkthrough: Day 1: Create an APC in the E base, and infantry in the NE and SE bases. Day 2: Load the APC with the infantry from the SE base, and move the APC 3E and unload to the east. Move the infantry in the NE base 3E. Create six infantry units. Day 3: Load the APC with the infantry from the E base, and move 6E unloading to the south. Move the infantry not located on bases 3E. Begin to capture a city with the infantry in the NE base. Move the infantry in the NW base and the SE base 1N, 2E. Move the infantry in the W base 2E, and the infantry in the SW base 1N, 2W. You can't capture the western city this turn because it will get attacked by the battle copter. Create an APC in the E base. Day 4: Begin capturing the base. Load the APC north of this base with infantry, and move the APC 3E, 2S unloading to the south. Finish capturing the city, and begin to capture the four cities that you can (capture the eastern city of the pair north of the base you are capturing). Load the other APC with an infantry, move the APC 5E, unloading to the east. If Olaf's battle copter comes to visit on this or any succeeding day, create an A-Air, and expose an infantry either by creating an infantry in a base within range of the copter (before day 6), or by moving an infantry within range of the copter (after day 5). Otherwise, create nothing. Day 5: Finish capturing the base and cities. Begin to capture the base south of your eastern APC, and the city northeast of your western APC. Move the western APC 1N, 5W, and the eastern APC 1N. Move the remaining infantry 3S. Create nothing. Day 6: Finish capturing the base and the city. Move the two western infantry back to your HQ, and leave them there. Load the western APC with the infantry to the north, and move 5E, unloading to the east. Move the infantry on the NE base 3E. Load the eastern APC, and move the APC 6S, unloading to the east. Begin capturing a city with the remaining infantry. Create a tank in your new base (which I will refer to as the middle base). Day 7: Finish capturing the city. Begin to capture the port and the airport near your newest base (which I will refer to as the southern base). Load the western APC with the infantry to the west, move the APC 6E and unload to the south. Move the tank 3E, 1S. If an A-Air is in position to attack the infantry on the airport, move the southern APC to block the A-Air. Otherwise, move the southern APC 6N. Move the remaining two infantry 3E. Create a tank in the middle base, and a medium tank in the southern base. Day 8: Finish capturing the port and the airport. Load the APCs with the infantry farthest away from battle, and move the APCs south and unload somewhere, taking care to avoid putting any units on the base. Move the tanks and infantry closer to battle. Attack with your medium tank, or just move the medium tank closer to battle, taking care to be out of range of a bomber. Create an A-Air in the southern base, and a tank in the middle base. Days 9,10: The rest of your moves will depend on what Olaf does, and you will have to think for yourself. In general, you should work on capturing cities, transporting infantry to Olaf's HQ on the APCs, and destroying Olaf's army (duh!). For the rest of the battle I usually build one fighter, two bombers, perhaps another A-Air and some more tanks (the fighter and the bomber should be created on days 9 and 10, with the order depending on what Olaf does with his units). If he builds a battleship, kill it with a bomber. For the rest of the battle Olaf will probably create a blizzard every other turn. Deal with it. Use the APCs as decoys if necessary. Day 11: Create a transport copter, and make sure that an infantry unit is available to be loaded onto the copter. If you are unable to deliver an infantry unit to Olaf's HQ by APC, then this copter will provide insurance. The copter should be able to reach Olaf's HQ in two days even with a blizzard. Days 12-14: Deliver an infantry near Olaf's HQ by day 13, and begin capturing the base on day 14. Remember that enemy infantry and mech units will usually not attack an infantry on their HQ, so target other units first to defend your infantry. You should also begin to monitor your status to make sure that you haven't lost 11% or more of your units. Create more units if necessary. Another issue arises once battle starts, and that is when should you use your CO power. Since Max is so powerful, the major benefit to using his CO power is that your mechanical units (tanks, A-Airs, fighters, etc.) can move one more square than normal. I usually save this power until the movement bonus becomes extremely useful. Day 15: Destroy units, create units to enhance your technique score if necessary, and capture his HQ. 6.9 Ridge Island 6.10 Mial's Hope 6.11 Bounty River Perfect S-rank time limit: 22 days CO: Grit Overview: This map is really quite simple. Capture territories as quickly as possible, while also building a couple of landers to invade Sonja's territory. Invade with an APC and a medium tank, taking care that your lander does not get destroyed, while allowing your APC to act as a decoy and be destroyed if necessary. Meanwhile, damage Sonja's rockets with your medium tank, and use your CO power when it becomes available to eliminate all of Sonja's indirect attack units. With your second lander (or possibly with your first lander after it gathers new units on your island) drop off another APC if necessary. At any rate, you will need to drop off an APC no later than day 16 in order to finish the map in 22 days. Send your APC to Sonja's HQ, along with possibly one or two medium tanks as well as a few battleships to act as escorts. Transport all of your rockets to Sonja's island. Capture the port on Sonja's island, and create a battleship there if necessary to act as a sacrificial lamb. When Sonja attacks the battleship, your CO meter will rapidly increase, allowing you to use your CO power a second time, and eliminating a large number of Sonja's units so that you can achieve a perfect power score. Walkthrough: Day 1: Create 3 infantry. Day 2: Move the infantry in position to capture the two northwestern cities, and the port. Create 3 more infantry. Day 3: Begin capturing 3 cities. Move the infantry on the southern base 3S, and move the infantry on the middle and upper bases 1S, 2E. Create 3 more infantry and a lander. Day 4: Finish capturing cities. Load the lander with the infantry on the lower and middle bases, and move the lander 1S, 5E. Move the southernmost infantry 1S, 2E. Don't move the infantry in the upper base. Move the other two infantry units 3E. Create an APC in the middle base. Day 5: Move the lander 6E. Move the two southernmost infantry units towards the lower middle cities. Move the two easternmost infantry units to the east, the top one 2E, and the bottom one 3E. Load the APC with the infantry, and move 1S, 5E without unloading. Move the two infantry units in the northwestern cities towards the port, so that they can reach the port on the next turn. Create a lander. Day 6: Load the lander with two infantry units, and move 1S, 5E. Move the other lander 6E. Move the two southern infantry units towards the lower middle cities. Begin capturing city with one of the infantry. Move the APC 6E, unloading to the north. Move the final infantry 2E. Create nothing. Day 7: Move the eastern lander 1N, 2E and unload both infantry units. Move the other lander 6E. Move both southern infantry units towards the lower middle cities, and begin capturing one of them. Finish capturing city. Move the infantry north of the APC towards the base to begin capturing it on the next turn. Begin capturing the city east of the APC. Create a rocket in the top base. Day 8: Finish capturing two cities. With the two infantry units that were unloaded from the lander, begin capturing the port and the middle city (northwest of the base). Begin capturing two other cities and a base with the other infantry units. Move the eastern lander around the horn. Move the other lander 6E. Move the rocket 1N, 1W, and the APC 2N, 2W. Create another rocket in the top base near your HQ. Day 9: Finish capturing properties. Move the southernmost infantry back towards your HQ, and move the remaining infantry (2S, 3E of the APC) 2E. Move the rocket in the base 2E, and the other rocket 1N, 1W. Continue moving the northern lander around the horn, ending 4N of your new port. Move the other lander 2S, 4E and unload the infantries E and S. Create nothing. Day 10: You may begin to engage in battle with Sonja on this turn. Feel free to attack her major units with your rockets, but do not attack an infantry that is capturing the city. For some reason, when this infantry is attacked, Sonja decides that it's a good idea to keep her rockets to the south, making it difficult to invade later on. In the southeastern part of the map, begin capturing the base and a city. Begin capturing all three properties near the port. Move the infantry that captured the lower middle cities back to your HQ. Move the infantry to the east of the APC 2S, and move the final infantry 3W (ending up 1N, 2E of the APC). Move the southern lander 2E, 4N and the northern lander 1N, 5W. Create a medium tank in your newest base (which I will refer to as the northernmost base from now on). Here you will need to make a judgement call, as to whether to create another rocket on this turn, or to wait so that you can build a battleship on the next turn. If it looks like Sonja has a lot of sea units ready to enter the fray, build a rocket. Otherwise, hold off to build a battleship. Day 11: Attack units with your rockets if possible (avoiding the infantry in the city until after the infantry captures the city). For the rockets, the primary targets are healthy submarines. It is not necessary to kill any 1hp or 2hp subs, as they will just run away, so attack landers before you attack any 2hp subs, as you don't want any landers to escape the gauntlet of your rockets. Finish capturing properties. Move the lander 6W. Load the APC with an infantry, and move the APC south of the lander to supply it with more fuel. Move the medium tank 1N, 4W. Move the other lander 3N, 3W. Create an APC in the northernmost base. Move the remaining infantry towards your HQ. If you didn't create a rocket on the previous turn, you should be able to create a battleship on this turn. Day 12: Attack units with your rockets if possible. Begin capturing the last two properties in the southwest. Load the western lander with the medium tank and the APC, and move within range of Sonja's beachhead, keeping out of range of any submarines and her rockets (typically 4W, 1S). Move the other lander 1N, 5W. Move the new APC 1E, and create a medium tank in the northernmost base. Move your remaining infantry towards your HQ, making sure that one of the infantry is in position to be loaded onto the APC next turn. For the rest of the map you will mostly create rockets and battleships. You will want to create 4 battleships (3 may be ok) to eliminate any units Sonja creates as you make a mad dash for her HQ with one of your APCs. You may need to create some more APCs to resupply your rockets. Otherwise, just build rockets until the end of the battle when you may need to start creating as many units as possible to get a good technique score. Day 13: Attack units with your rockets. Again, you do not need to kill any subs, as a 1hp or 2hp sub will just run away, but destroying a sub is ok if there are no other targets for your rockets. Finish capturing the cities. Load the APC with an infantry unit, and load the lander with the APC and the medium tank. Move the lander 1N, 5W. Move the remaining infantry towards your HQ. Create a battleship in the eastern port. Now comes the hard part. You want to move the lander to Sonja's beach and drop off the APC and the medium tank. You want to make sure that your lander does not get killed, while losing the APC is okay. You also want the medium tank to survive without any damage. Typically, landing on the easternmost beachhead and dropping off your units will leave them out of range of any battleships, and then you will only have to worry about rockets and perhaps some tanks. If you drop off your APC in the city, it will probably be destroyed leaving the lander and the tank unscathed. Alternatively, you can drop off the APC to the west, in which case the APC and the lander may both survive. You will need to practice with various approaches to see what works best. Day 14: Move the lander on Sonja's beach to your beach. Be ready to load this lander with rockets, or possibly an APC with a loaded infantry. Bring your other lander in position to land on Sonja's beach. Attack something with your medium tank, targeting rockets first. If you have an APC, either begin making a mad dash for Sonja's HQ if the coast is clear, or use the APC and the infantry as decoys to protect your medium tank. If you can use your power, and you will be able to take out her battleships and most of her rockets, then do so. Day 15: If Sonja still has battleships which are protecting her beachhead, then load the lander near you HQ with two rockets, and unload those rockets on her beach. The other lander will unload just an APC in this case. If Sonja doesn't have any healthy units to defend her beachhead, then just unload the medium tank and the APC and let the other lander sit for a turn. The key goal here is to clear the area of any indirect attack units so that you can unload your APC to capture her HQ, and to begin ferrying your rockets over to get into position to destroy as many of her units as possible. Again, if you can use your power, and you will be able to take out her battleships and most of her rockets, then do so. In general, it's better to use your power sooner rather than later, as you will want to build up your CO meter to use your power again when your APC gets close to Sonja's HQ, in order to protect your infantry, and to kill as many units as possible. At any rate, unloading the APC on this turn is a good idea, as otherwise it may be difficult to get the APC to Sonja's headquarters by day 20, in order to finish the map by day 22. Unloading an APC from a lander onto the city on day 16 will allow you to just barely get an infantry unit into position on day 20 if there are no units in the way. Unloading on day 15 gives you a bit of leeway. Day 16-22: Move your APC to Sonja's HQ, dropping off your infantry if it will be safe and can prevent Sonja from using one of her bases. Get your battleships in position to protect your APC and infantry. Bring a medium tank as escort if possible. Meanwhile, capture Sonja's base and port. Which to capture first will depend on your CO meter. If you need to boost it quickly, then choose the port and build a battleship there. The battleship should take a lot of damage from submarines, boosting your meter quickly. Also, begin ferrying your now mostly useless rockets from your beach to Sonja's side. Get the rockets in position to kill as many units as possible. Finally, keep track of your status, and make sure that less than 11% of your total units have been killed, by creating units as necessary. 6.12 Toil Ferry 6.13 Twin Isle 6.14 Dire Range 6.15 Egg Islands 6.16 Terra Maw Perfect S-rank time limit: 19 days CO: Grit Overview: Using Grit, you need to capture the northern port as quickly as possible. Once the port is captured, you must first create a sub, and then a lander and send them to the enemy HQ. The lander must be created by day 11, so you have some leeway before you must create the lander. Meanwhile, you will need to create an A-Air, a missile and a rocket near your HQ, and some artillery units and A-Air units near the port for defense. You will also need to create one (but preferably two) APC and some infantry near your HQ, to load into the lander when it arrives. As always, towards the end of battle you will need to create as many units as possible to enhance your technique score, and since the power score can be difficult to achieve, you will need to make a concerted effort to kill (not just damage) as many units as possible. The two ports on the enemy landmass containing her HQ are the only entry points. Of these two, the northern port is the one to shoot for, since two sides of the port are exposed to the sea, making it less likely that Sonja will be able to block access to the port. Furthermore, I am recommending that you place a rocket 9 squares west of the port, so that a powered up rocket can destroy a lander sitting to the west of the port on the turn that the lander will enter the port. Some comments are probably in order on how to destroy the bombers and battleships that come visiting your HQ. If only a bomber is in range of your HQ, then you can destroy it by placing an infantry in range of the bomber, preferably on your HQ, as bait (if the bomber attacks an infantry unit elsewhere it most likely will be killed). Then, position a missile to cover the infantry unit. If a battleship is approaching, then make sure the battleship can't hit anything until it gets in range of your rocket, and shoot it. Since it takes two shots to destroy the battleship, you will want to have an APC nearby as a decoy so that the battleship will hit the APC, and you can finish destroying the battleship on the next turn. If both a bomber and a battleship are approaching, you will need to experiment on your own, although following the sacrificial infantry strategy should work again. Whatever you do, try to make sure that an APC, the A-Air (at full health) and an infantry survive until the lander arrives. Another comment is in order about the battle over the northern port. Since you must create the sub and a lander before anything else, you most likely will not have too many units to attack with for a while near the port. Here you need to create enough infantry, and position them so that not too many die until you get a chance to create enough units to defend. Once the infantry is damaged, you will need to join them up to create healthy units again, otherwise you will lose too many infantry to get a perfect technique score. This battle will probably take a little bit of practice. Finally, some tips when you are approaching the northern enemy port with your lander. Sonja may create a sub to attack your lander. The trick to destroying a sub without having a cruiser available is to rely on the fact that the AI has an intense fear of running out of gas. For this reason, a sub will always surface right after it dives, unless it can attack another sea unit. Hence, you can eliminate this sub by having a rocket appropriately positioned, and keeping all sea units of range of the sub. Sonja may also create bombers and A-Air units on her island towards the end. This usually spells a failed attempt at a perfect S-rank, but not always. For example, if Sonja creates a bomber on the airport directly west of her HQ, you can bait that bomber with an APC on your island. If the bomber has a choice between two APC's it most likely will attack the bomber on your island, as the shore has the weakest defensive cover. It's a rather difficult juggling act to safely and successfully transport an APC to the enemy HQ, while eliminating the sea and air units which can interfere with your takeover of the HQ, all the while conducting a rather difficult battle near your port. There is also the issue of when to use your power. Once battle is joined, your power will reload rather quickly, so it makes sense to use it sooner rather than later. On the other hand, if Sonja manages to blockade her northern port, you will really want to have that power available to clear the way for your lander to get to the port. Another factor to consider is that you don't want to partially damage a unit, for example a cruiser, and have that unit go to the northern enemy port to be repaired, blocking access to the port. All I can say is save at strategic points, and try, try and try again. The walkthrough below gives the basic outline of what you need to do, very detailed in the beginning, but rather vague towards the end, unfortunately. You will need to think for yourself at the end. Walkthrough: Day 1: Create infantry in all four bases. Day 2: Move the two western infantry units 3N, begin capturing the city with the NE infantry, and move 3E with the SE infantry. Create an APC in the NW base, and an infantry in the SW base. Day 3: Load the APC with the SW infantry, and move 3W, 2N, and unload the infantry to the north. Finish capturing the city, begin capturing the base (which I will refer to as the middle base in the future), and begin capturing the city farthest to the SE. Move the remaining infantry 3W. Create an infantry unit in the NE base. Day 4: Finish capturing the city and the base. Begin capturing the remaining city near your HQ. Move the infantry in the NE base 3E. Load the APC with the infantry located to the south, and move the APC 4N, unloading to the north. Move the remaining infantry 2N, 1W. Create an A-Air unit in the NE base (don't forget to do this, as the A-Air unit is needed to defend your HQ in a couple turns). Day 5: Finish capturing the city, and begin capturing the city northwest of your APC with the infantry located south of the city. Load the APC with the infantry in the base, and create another infantry in that base. Move the infantry north of the APC 3N, move the APC 5N, 1E, unloading to the north, and move the A-Air 2N, 2E. If a battle copter did not damage any infantry, then move the remaining two infantry 3N. If a battle copter did damage the infantry in the southeastern city, then you will not have enough money to create all the units I will be suggesting over the next few turns (you will have used up some money repairing the damaged infantry). However, by combining infantry you will be able to generate some more money. There are several ways to do this, with the optimal method depending on how much damage the infantry took. If the damaged infantry has 7hp, then you should move that infantry 3N, and join the healthy infantry with the damaged infantry, increasing your funds by 700. If the damaged infantry has 8hp, then you should let the damaged infantry stay where it was, and move the other infantry 3N, and join two of the infantry on the next turn. Day 6: Begin capturing the base (referred to as the northern base in the future), and finish capturing the city. Load the APC with the southwestern infantry unit, move the APC 3N, 1E and unload to the north. Move the infantry in the base 1N, 2W. Attack the enemy infantry unit in your HQ with the A-Air. The above moves leave the infantry units near your headquarters unaccounted for. If the infantry are all healthy, then just move them all 3N. If you joined two of the infantry on the last turn, then just move both infantry units north towards your HQ, keeping out of reach of a battleship if necessary. On the other hand, if you haven't joined the infantry, and one or both are damaged, then you will need to join two of the infantry on this turn to recoup enough money to build the units I am recommending later. Move the damaged infantry towards your HQ, but not so far that the undamaged infantry can't join with it. More specifically, if the copter attacked your previously damaged infantry again, move that infantry 3N, and join it with the infantry from the middle city. On the other hand, if the copter attacked the infantry in the middle city, then move that infantry 1N, 1E and join with the infantry from the southeastern city. Move the remaining infantry 2N, 1E. You should now have over 18000. Create a rocket in the middle base. Day 7: In this walkthrough I am assuming that a bomber and a battleship are both approaching your HQ with mayhem in mind. If only one of the two is approaching, then you will have to adjust your actions accordingly (it may have even been wise to create a missile on the previous turn, so you may need to experiment). If a battle copter has been attacking your infantry, you may now kill the battle copter with your A-Air, making sure that the A-Air is located out of range of a battleship if possible, or located on terrain with the most defensive cover if not. Attack the enemy infantry with one of your infantry, keeping out of range of any bombers if possible. Move the rocket from the middle base as close to your HQ as possible, keeping out of range of any enemy units. Move your other infantry close to your rocket, and out of range of any enemy units. Do not send the damaged units to a city to be repaired yet. Begin capturing the port and the city, finish capturing the base, and move the westernmost infantry 3N. Create a missile in your middle base. Day 8: Finish capturing the port and the city. Load the APC with an infantry and move 1N, 1E and unload to the north. Move your westernmost infantry 3N, ignoring the city. Move the missile towards your HQ. Finish destroying the enemy infantry with your rocket. If a bomber is coming closer, put an infantry in range of the bomber, but out of range of a battleship if possible, and make sure that your missile can destroy the bomber after it attacks your infantry. Create an APC in the middle base. Day 9: If an A-Air can attack the city 1N, 2E of the port, then move the infantry in the port 3N and begin capturing that city. Otherwise, begin capturing the city northeast of the port, and also the three other northern cities that you can. Destroy a bomber with your missile if you can, and attack the battleship with your rocket if you can. Move any damaged units to a city to be repaired, and move your other units towards your HQ, keeping out of range of any enemy units. You should have enough money to create a sub this turn. Do so. Day 10: At this point, you will need to respond to the enemy moves appropriately, and further detailed instructions are probably not useful. The battle near the northern port will become messy shortly, and you will probably need to create some A-Air units as well as more artillery units, and eventually a battleship. You will need to maneuver the units you do have near the port very intelligently, to keep your more powerful units safe and to force your infantry to take most of the damage. However, it's better to have all of your infantry units each take a little damage and then join them together rather than have any infantry killed. If more than 5 units total are killed, you will probably not get a perfect technique score. If one of your more expensive units must take some damage, try to make sure it is the APC that gets hit, and try to make sure that the APC is on a friendly city when it takes the damage. As for the battle near your HQ, you should have a missile, a rocket, an A-Air and an APC. You will want the rocket to eventually sit 9W of the northern enemy port. You will also want to move the missiles as far to the east as possible, probably 1E of your HQ, but you need to be wary of air units which can attack you. For this reason it turns out to be useful to have an APC to act as a decoy. However, since you will need the APC to load onto the lander when it arrives, it turns out to be useful to create another APC on this turn. In addition, you may want to use an infantry as a decoy. So, create an APC in the NE base and an infantry in the SE base on this turn, as well as an artillery unit in the northern base. If an A-Air is near your northern port, you may want to move your APC within range of this new artillery unit, so that you can damage the A-Air after it attacks your APC. For the rest of this walkthrough, I will discuss mostly what to do with the sea units, leaving the most of the rest of the units up to you. Send the sub south, diving if necessary to get out of range of any air units. Day 11: Before you send the sub south, make sure that the sub is not in range of any copters or bombers. If it is, send the sub south and dive, otherwise, just send the sub south. Create a lander. From now on, you should create mostly artillery units, and A-Air units from your northernmost base as needed, and nothing from your other bases, until it's time to create as many units as possible for a good technique score. For the rest of time, you will probably need to use your missile and A-Air to get rid of air units. Use the missile on bombers if possible. Also, you may need to shuffle your indirect attack units to keep them from being damaged. Use an APC or an infantry as a decoy if necessary. Day 12: Send the lander south towards your HQ. Move the sub to 2S, 2E of your HQ, and submerge the sub if it hasn't dived already. Refuel the sub with an APC. Day 13: Send the sub towards the northern enemy port. Send the lander towards your HQ. Here or on the next turn you should have enough money to create a battleship. Do so. Begin destroying as many units as possible, both near the northern port, and with the rocket near your HQ. Day 14: Move the sub towards the northern port, and hit a battleship if necessary. Send the lander south to a beach near your HQ. You may need to move the rocket and put the lander where the rocket is to avoid an enemy sub. You will load up the lander on the next turn. Around now would be a good time to start creating infantry units from all of your southern bases. If you lost an APC acting as a decoy, you may want to create another APC. Day 15: Load up the APC with a healthy infantry, and load the APC and the A-Air onto the lander. Attack any battleships with your sub, or a lander if there are no battleships, and send your lander to the northern port. Make sure only a damaged battleship can attack your lander. Bring the lander close enough to get to the port even if there is an enemy lander in the way, at most 4 east of the port. Position your rocket 9W of the enemy northern port. Day 16: At this point we are relying on the stupidity of the enemy AI. A human would see the lander coming and create something in the port. The AI rarely does so. A human, seeing the APC drop off the lander, would begin creating units near his base. The AI rarely does so. Of course, sometimes the AI doesn't act so stupidly, and you will not be able to enter the port, or after you do enter the port, the enemy will begin creating some units to defend. If this happens, you will need to restart. If a lander is blocking access to the port, use your power and destroy the lander with your rocket. Send the lander to the port, dropping off your two units, the APC to the east and the A-Air to the south. Day 17: Send the APC to the northwest of the enemy HQ, unloading an infantry into the north base, and either kill any airborne units with your A-Air, or block one of the bases with your A-Air. Day 18: Begin capturing the enemy HQ. Day 19: Finish capturing the enemy HQ. 6.17 Stamp Islands Perfect S-rank time limit: 12 days CO: Eagle Overview: For each of the 3 player maps, the basic strategy is the same. Defeat one of the enemies as quickly as possible, then concentrate on defeating the second enemy. Of the four 3 player maps, Stamp Islands is the only one where the speed score poses a challenge. I like taking out Kanbei first on this map, although other people have claimed that you can also take out Olaf first. I haven't tried capturing Olaf's HQ first, but it might be easier to do so, as Olaf's blizzards can slow things down tremendously. Nevertheless, I will give an overview where Eagle captures Kanbei's HQ first. Using Eagle, create a transport copter and some bombers to take out Kanbei. By the way, let Kanbei take over as many territories as possible, since the moment you capture Kanbei's HQ all of those territories will be yours. Once you have Kanbei's territories, create bombers and fighters (1 or 2) to battle Olaf. When Eagle's CO power is charged up, do as much damage as possible, create a bomber (or 2), then use the CO power. Even the units you have just created can move again. It's easy to annihilate Olaf in 13 or 14 days, but I haven't been able to do so in 12 days. So, to get the perfect speed score, you will need to use your transport copter to deliver an infantry unit to Olaf's HQ and finish the map by capturing it. Walkthrough: TBA 6.18 Rivers Four Pefect S-rank time limit: ?20 days? CO: Sami Overview: For this map the CO to defeat first is obviously Max. Defeating Max quickly is the first challenge in this map. A nice walkthrough for this map by mtemisan already exists on the AWN website (www.consoletactics.com/awn), but mtemisan presents a method for beating Max which will only work some of the time, and which actually rarely worked for me. Also, I have some additional tips to improve your score once you've defeated Max. To defeat Max, mtemisan's approach is to send 3 APCs (with infantry) towards Max's HQ, and to arrange the APCs in such a way that Max is unable to kill Sami's infantry when she begins to capture Max's HQ. Once you have Max's territories, the rest of the map is easy. The only challenge that remains is to avoid losing too many units, which would impact your technique score. Still, a few words on what to do once you defeat Max are useful here. Some of these tips come from mtemisan's guide, and also from WrathOfGod25 on the awn forum. There are three fronts to this battle, the western front, the central front and the eastern front. On the western front, the two bases are not important, but you still can send some infantry there to capture them, and make a little extra money. However, you do not want to create any units from those bases, as Grit will be able to easily overwhelm your position here and annihilate any units you do create (you could create some infantry, but they will just have to run away). Trying to wage a battle on the southern shore with units you have created there will eliminate any possibility of getting a perfect technique score. Instead, capture 2 or 3 territories and then run away. In the process of capturing these territories, Grit will send many of his units for support, reducing the defense of his HQ. The objective at this front is to keep his units here, by providing sacrificial lambs for his indirect attack units. Moreover, by continually joining healthy units to the damaged units you will reduce the number of units you have on the field so that you will be able to create more units, and improve your technique score. A minor objective is to destroy some of his units. I usually use infantry as bait, and towards the end I create a few rockets here to take out some of his units. On the central front, the base located in the middle is not important, for essentially the same reason. The base and the cities here are too close to Grit's territory, and you will probably lose some units if you try to capture those cities and the base, especially when Grit gets to use his CO power. Instead of capturing these territories, arrange some rockets to attack Grit's units when he goes to capture them. Moreover, don't worry if your rockets will experience a little damage, as you should just send down a healthy rocket to join with the damaged unit and bring it back to full health. Remember that joining units will make you money! Also, as I mentioned above, it is difficult to achieve a perfect technique score, so joining units is good as it allows you to create more units (you will definitely hit the 50 units in the field limit in this map). A question arises about which units to hit here. It turns out that letting Grit take over these territories might be a good idea. Usually you will be unable to prevent Grit from capturing the base, but this is actually a good thing! If you also let Grit capture the other territories, he will begin to create rockets in this base. This is good, because each rocket he creates here will leave him with less money to create units at home to defend his HQ. If you keep killing Grits infantry and mech units which are trying to capture the rest of the territories, he will continue to create infantry and mech units here. A rocket in this base is also good for your technique score, as the rocket will damage your rockets allowing you to join units again. A final tactic here is to create some infantry and send them down to attack his full strength infantry and mech units. You infantry units will receive damage, and you can then join those units. Finally, we have the eastern front. From the 4 bases around Max's old HQ you will create 4 mechs every turn, and send them down to Grit's HQ. Again, you don't want to have too many units killed, so join damaged mechs at every possibility as you march towards Grit's HQ. Here another advantage to letting Grit capture the middle and southwestern territories emerges, as most of Grit's army is too far away from his HQ to help provide a defense against the mech swarm. Eventually, it will become obvious that you don't need to create any more mechs, and at that point you could concentrate on creating rockets to join up with damaged rockets, and creating more units in general to ensure that you get a perfect technique score. You should be able to finish this map well before it's time limit, so there is no rush to capture Grit's HQ once you are in position to do so. Instead, save the map, and then finish capturing the HQ. If your power numbers aren't good enough, then go back to the save point, kill some more units and then finish capturing the HQ later. As always, keep track of the units created and units killed on the status menu to see if you need to create more units. With the emphasis above on finding ways to create more units, you may be able to create as many as 90 or more units! Hence, you do have some leeway on the number of units you lose (if you create 91 units, you can lose 10 units). Below is the walkthrough for the first few days, just enough to beat Max. Once you beat Max, just follow the overview above to get a perfect S-rank. Walkthrough: Day 1: Create an APC in the north and two infantry. Day 2: Load the APC, and move the APC 3N, 4E. On this and the next couple turns you are free to send the extra infantry you create anywhere you choose. You may send them down to the southwest corner immediately, or use them to capture a city first. It's up to you. I won't describe what to do with these infantry any more. Day 3: The moves you must make on this turn depend on where Max creates his tank. I will assume that Max creates his tank in the northern base. If he creates a tank in the west base, then you should follow mtemisan's guide. With a tank in Max's northern base, move your easternmost APC 7E and unload to the east. Load the other APC, and move the APC 3N, 4E. Create an APC in the north and two more infantry. Day 4: Load your eastern APC with the infantry, move 7E and unload to the west. Move the APC west of the bridge 2N, 5E unloading to the east. Load the other APC, and move the APC 3N, 4E unloading to the east. Create nothing further. Day 5: Usually Max will attack the APC on the city in the forest. This is good. If Max attacks the APC on his base, this walkthrough won't work. Move your infantry 3E into the woods, out of range of the rocket, but in range to begin capturing the HQ on the next turn. Move the APC on the base onto another base out of range of the rocket. Load the wounded APC, and move the APC 1S, 5E, (north of the rocket) unloading to the east. Move the final APC onto the road close to the tank so that the tank will attack the APC. Begin capturing a city with the infantry the third APC dropped off. Day 6: If things worked out properly, the A-Air will have attacked your wounded APC. Now, arrange your infantry and APC so as to block off the A-Air from his HQ (move them to the east and south of the A-Air). Begin capturing the HQ. Finish capturing the city. Day 7: Finish capturing the HQ, and watch all of Max's units disappear. Create 4 mechs on Max's old bases, and a rocket over the central territory. Begin to follow the overview above. 6.19 Ring Islands Perfect S-rank time limit: ?20 days? CO: Sami Overview: Create a lander and a couple infantry units, load the lander with the infantry and send it to Drakes HQ and capture it immediately. With an overwhelming territory advantage, it's easy to then overwhelm Sonja. You could also capture Sonja's HQ first, and then work on Drake. However, you don't want to take over Drake's HQ and Sonja's HQ right away, as you will need to kill some units to get a good power score. I like killing Drake first, as his CO power is a bit annoying, whereas Sonja's power is laughable. Walkthrough: Not needed. 6.20 Last Mission Perfect S-rank time limit: ?30 days? CO: any Overview: Create a transport copter and an infantry, load the copter with the infantry and send it to Eagles HQ and capture it immediately. With Sami it's possible to capture Eagles HQ in this fashion every time. With other Cos you will need a bit of luck. With an overwhelming territory advantage, it's easy to then overwhelm Sami. Walkthrough: Not needed.