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Official Advance Wars: Dual Strike topic!

Any general tips for Newbies to the series... I keep getting my ass kicked
 
Yeah, Cruisers can now attack all sea units. I think it was added more for logical reasons (why WOULDN'T they be able to?), than actual functionality.

Suikoguy, I've posted a few "noob advice" posts in this topic, and there's also this topic:

http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=61507&highlight=advance+wars

The biggest piece of advice that will help against the AI is to always watch the enemy's firing range. If you have a md tank and he has a md. tank, look at his tank's firing range, and park yours one square outside of it. Make him move into range of YOUR units, never vice versa.
 
Sapienshomo said:
The hard mode is FUCKING hard. I had a little trouble on the first mission already.

I got an A on the first Hard mission and figured I wouldn't try to S the Hard campaign.. then I went and S-ranked the next dozen missions with some effort. I should've gone back and redid the first one when I had the chance.

GaimeGuy said:
Is it just me or did they make Cruisers more versatile in what they can attack in AWDS?

What does that mean? Are you mixing them up with the brand new Carriers maybe? Those have a very long indirect anti-aircraft range.
 
ChrisReid said:
What does that mean? Are you mixing them up with the brand new Carriers maybe? Those have a very long indirect anti-aircraft range.

Think he was saying that Cruisers had the capability to attack ships now, whereas before they could only attack subs and air units. I find them to be extremely annoying to take out now BTW... just hugging my battleship and whittling them down while destroying subs argh!
 
BorkBork said:
Think he was saying that Cruisers had the capability to attack ships now, whereas before they could only attack subs and air units. I find them to be extremely annoying to take out now BTW... just hugging my battleship and whittling them down while destroying subs argh!

Ha, I myself misread what he was saying. I was thinking Battleships, but he said Cruisers. Yeah, Cruisers gained the ability to properly attack directly in AWDS. I always thought it was a tiny bit odd that Cruisers could attack subs and copters, but not something like a landing ship or Battleship. I really think how they have just a very minor attack rating versus something like a Battleship is a good addition to the game.
 
Question about two-front missions: how is money accumulated? Does each CO have his or her own funds that are acquired from his or her part of the map? Is there any way to transfer funds from one CO to another?
 
Prospero said:
Question about two-front missions: how is money accumulated? Does each CO have his or her own funds that are acquired from his or her part of the map? Is there any way to transfer funds from one CO to another?

I haven't played a two-front map in a while, but I'm 99% certain that they're all predeployed... meaning funds on the top map have no impact, because neither you nor your enemy can build units up there. In campaign, that is. War Room is different. There's no way to transfer funds.

What's a better question is whether the bottem CO gets the top CO's funds when the top front is complete... I don't ever remember checking.
 
Thanks. I just got smoked on a campaign mission with a two-front map (it's the first time you meet Yellow Comet, and they challenge you to a friendly battle) and that wouldn't have happened if I'd been able to spend the second CO's enormous sum of gold.

I'll have to be more careful with conserving units, then.
 
You can send units to the top screen by moving it over the HQ, or a factory. "Send" becomes one of the menu options.
 
GDJustin said:
I haven't played a two-front map in a while, but I'm 99% certain that they're all predeployed... meaning funds on the top map have no impact, because neither you nor your enemy can build units up there. In campaign, that is. War Room is different. There's no way to transfer funds.

There is the last map against
Van Bolt's big oozium
in campaign mode where you can build on the top map as well. But yeah, funds don't transfer.

What's a better question is whether the bottem CO gets the top CO's funds when the top front is complete... I don't ever remember checking.
Hmm, I was about to ask that question too.
 
GDJustin said:
You can send units to the top screen by moving it over the HQ, or a factory. "Send" becomes one of the menu options.

Yeah, I've got that--my problem (at least with my first run through the map) is that my bottom CO's funds are stretched too thin to build the anti-air units that I need against Sensei on the top map while also building the artillery and infantry to hold off Grimm. There's a river on the bottom map that I can exploit, I think.
 
Are the secret missions less secret or do the intro's give you a good idea when you can find, say, the map for the new tanks? IE In AW2, they would give you somewhat of a clue but I was too dense to see them and had to check GameFAQs to just realize that you could find maps for the Neotanks.

Is it the same in AWDS? I just finished the 11th mission and
I found the black boat mission and map.
I hope I don't miss any other missions like this.
 
That map is probably the first real campaign challenge, in my opinion.

I would suggest not helping out the top front as much. It doesn't really matter what's going on up there, so it isn't worth crippling your main front by sending units up really early on. I believe I beat that map without even winning the top front, in fact.

I would suggest APC-ing an inf unit to the center to launch all the rockets ASAP, and building the cheapest units possible to stave off the mech flood that comes over the river. Maybe another mech supported by an artillery unit. You don't need to use that river as your point of invasion... just prevent it from being his.
 
So, what IS the point of submarines? The only thing I can think of is that their submerge ability allows them to be invincible for however long you have fuel. But that's pretty much it, and by itself, it's somewhat worthless.
 
RE4 vs. SH4 said:
So, what IS the point of submarines? The only thing I can think of is that their submerge ability allows them to be invincible for however long you have fuel. But that's pretty much it, and by itself, it's somewhat worthless.

Stop Cruisers from attacking while submerged, take out aircraft carriers, black boats, and battleships quick I guess. They're the only direct attack naval unit that can take out a loaded lander in one hit :)
 
BorkBork said:
Stop Cruisers from attacking while submerged, take out aircraft carriers, black boats, and battleships quick I guess. They're the only direct attack naval unit that can take out a loaded lander in one hit :)

I could've sworn that they weren't able to attack while submerged...

I await more sea missions. :D
 
Subs exist to complete the sea rock/paper/scissors dynamic. Battleships dominate cruisers (and land units within range), so subs exist b/c bships can't touch them. So then CRUISERS exist to counter the subs :)

Without any of these three units, one of the other two would be too invinceable.
 
GDJustin said:
What's a better question is whether the bottem CO gets the top CO's funds when the top front is complete.

No, what happens is the remaining material (units definitely, perhaps cash also) is contributed to the power meters on the lower screen. So when you finish off the top front, you'll notice the second CO often comes down and you can immediately execute a Dual Strike.

BorkBork said:
There is the last map against
Van Bolt's big oozium
in campaign mode where you can build on the top map as well. But yeah, funds don't transfer.

*You* can't build on that top map though. That's one of the second-front missions where you can't turn AI control off.

skinnyrattler said:
Is it the same in AWDS? I just finished the 11th mission and
I found the black boat mission and map.
I hope I don't miss any other missions like this.

That's the first one. A couple missions later you'll be in the running for black bombs and then a few missions later piperunners. I never use either one, so I would only worry about the black boats laboratory search. But if you do want to hit every mission for completeness, there is always a small offhand comment in the introductory text that will clue you into the presence of a map hidden in a city.

RE4 vs. SH4 said:
So, what IS the point of submarines? The only thing I can think of is that their submerge ability allows them to be invincible for however long you have fuel. But that's pretty much it, and by itself, it's somewhat worthless.

They're an excellent way to attack Battleships, Landers/Black Boats and Aircraft Carriers. They're not invincible when they're submerged. If they've been spotted, Cruisers will chew them up very fast.
 
What's the best way to rank up? Or have you guys just been going at it through Campaign? I'm about to find a DS battle with 4 CO's on my side, use the exp booster and try to level up in 6 battles or something. I'm dying to find out what the higher ranks give you.
 
skinnyrattler said:
What's the best way to rank up? Or have you guys just been going at it through Campaign? I'm about to find a DS battle with 4 CO's on my side, use the exp booster and try to level up in 6 battles or something. I'm dying to find out what the higher ranks give you.

Yeah, just campaign works well. I recently got 2200 experience points/store dollars for one mission in the hard campaign. Otherwise, doing the smaller war room maps will work. That's probably what I'll end up doing for some of the COs I don't like as much. You get the last few skills by beating the normal and hard campaigns, so you have to do it sooner or later.
 
skinnyrattler said:
What's the best way to rank up?

I've been playing the War Room maps that I'm already familiar with from AW1/2, with a single CO and with skills off. When playing at that difficulty (which really is the same difficulty as AW 1/2) you can level up a CO after S-ranking 2 battles.

Spann Island used to be easy for me to consistently S-rank, but now my performance on that stage can run anywhere between S and C--I don't know why.

Sole Harbor is still easy to S-rank for me, though Drake is a bastard of an enemy CO. (Tsunami! Tsunami! Tsunami! Tsunami!)
 
There are some "cheap" ways to take advantage of save slots to level up uber rapidly, if anyone is interested...
 
Prospero said:
Spann Island used to be easy for me to consistently S-rank, but now my performance on that stage can run anywhere between S and C--I don't know why.

Did you use a certain CO every time? I could get 300 points with Sturm a lot of the time, and I used to do that every night before I went to bed. Now I find myself trying out different COs, and I've yet to find one that clicks on Spann Island the same way. Not Hachi, because they've changed it so you have a fifth deployment factory right in the lower middle. Maybe a Colin or Sasha to take advantage of that spot. Or maybe a Jess/Hawke/Max for power hitting?

Sriram said:
Can someone please explain to me how ds battles work? What does winning on the secondary front achieve exactly?

It depends on the mission. At the most basic level, clearing the second front will give you back your second CO and a maxed out power meter. In several instances, you need to destroy the second front objective in order to move forward on the primary field.
 
Sriram said:
Can someone please explain to me how ds battles work? What does winning on the secondary front achieve exactly?

It either makes it easier to win on the bottom screen, or sometimes it's not possible to win the bottom screen (or would take hundreds of days) until you win the top battle.

For example, in one mission, there's something on the top screen that can hurt your units on the bottom--take it out and you're much better off. In another, there's a forcefield over your bottom screen objective, which means you can't hurt it until you take out the forcefield generator on the Endor moon. Yeah.

The thing that stinks about DS battles is that half the time, you aren't given the option to take control of the top screen--you have to let the CPU do it. And let's face it, the CPU is stupid. When you have to leave the CPU in control, the only way to win is to throw units at the fight. Which is likely to drag down your score.
 
GDJustin said:
There are some "cheap" ways to take advantage of save slots to level up uber rapidly, if anyone is interested...

I'm interested -- I wouldn't necessarily do it, but weird glitches always interest me.
 
GDJustin said:
That map is probably the first real campaign challenge, in my opinion.

I would suggest not helping out the top front as much. It doesn't really matter what's going on up there, so it isn't worth crippling your main front by sending units up really early on. I believe I beat that map without even winning the top front, in fact.

I would suggest APC-ing an inf unit to the center to launch all the rockets ASAP, and building the cheapest units possible to stave off the mech flood that comes over the river. Maybe another mech supported by an artillery unit. You don't need to use that river as your point of invasion... just prevent it from being his.

Thanks--I tried this last night with a slight variation and it worked fine. (Instead of waiting for the mech flood, I stationed artillery and rockets on my side of the river as soon as I could make them, and bombed hell out of the factory whenever it generated a unit.) I APC-d two infantry up to the middle of the map to launch the missiles and take the factory; then I choked the enemy's economy and sent another infantry unit in an APC down to capture the base.

The second front I paid little or no attention to whatsoever. Once you decide to ignore the second front completely, the map becomes pretty easy.

ChrisReid said:
Did you use a certain CO every time? I could get 300 points with Sturm a lot of the time, and I used to do that every night before I went to bed. Now I find myself trying out different COs, and I've yet to find one that clicks on Spann Island the same way.

On older versions of AW, I'd play through Spann Island with Andy or Max--not 300 points each time, but close enough to it.

On AW: DS I've had the best success on that map with Kanbei.
 
I finished it last night! Got an A rank overall even though I had about 17 s-ranks. I then unlocked the gallery and sound test mode and listened to all the tunes.
Moving onto the war room now and I think I will use one CO with skills on to get my ranks up as that gives you 2x exp points. I have Rachel & Sasha at rank5 so I want to get them maxxed out.
 
skinnyrattler said:
I'm addicted but I don't think my DS lasts as long. I think I've been getting 8 hours. I miss the SP's battery life.

I'd say closer to six or seven hours--I've run down the battery twice since I bought the DS (just for this game) and my game's clock is at 12:20.
 
I'm stupid, I went through the first ten campaign missions (got the game today) wondering "when can I build rockets and anti-air units?", not realizing that there are now two side-by-side lists of units, instead of one scrolling one.
 
Morts said:
I'm stupid, I went through the first ten campaign missions (got the game today) wondering "when can I build rockets and anti-air units?", not realizing that there are now two side-by-side lists of units, instead of one scrolling one.


I don't know how you missed that, but that's pretty funny. I would hate to have gone that long without either unit.
 
Jeff-DSA said:
I don't know how you missed that, but that's pretty funny. I would hate to have gone that long without either unit.

What gets me in the very first mission of the hard campaign is that you can't build all the units yet. I'd kill for a Medium Tank in that one.

Squirrel Killer said:
So, what do all of you Advance Wars fans think of Dai Senryaku? ;)

It has a lot less personality, so it's harder to get into. There's so god damn many units, that you're constantly checking tables of stats to see what your things can do.
 
ChrisReid said:
What gets me in the very first mission of the hard campaign is that you can't build all the units yet. I'd kill for a Medium Tank in that one.

First mission for the hard mode was brutal, still can't get a S-rank. Luckily the next few missions after that aren't too bad.
 
BorkBork said:
First mission for the hard mode was brutal, still can't get a S-rank. Luckily the next few missions after that aren't too bad.

I later managed to get 298 points with Grit. If you look, he has above-average strength with troops too. So the strategy I ended up using to really ace that one involved a screen of mechanized infantry, a couple tanks mixed in, and half a dozen artillery units. They marched right across the field. Grit's extra range for indirect combat is really super. In naval battles, I don't even use Drake, because Grit can just hold everything at bay with a couple battleships.. and he can slowly inch them across the sea without worrying much at all (Cruisers are so good at chewing up subs that even Grit can do that).
 
ChrisReid said:
I could get 300 points with Sturm [on Spann Island] a lot of the time, and I used to do that every night before I went to bed. Now I find myself trying out different COs, and I've yet to find one that clicks on Spann Island the same way.

I figured it out last night--the right answer here is Colin. The new factory at the bottom of the map makes it possible. This is for 2.5x exp (one CO, skills off).

Day 1: build infantry on all five factories, and send the one at the bottom of the map east to start taking the cities at the southeast corner.

Next, build a tank to sit on the bridge between the northeast and southeast sections of the map, to hold off Andy until you lock down those two cities in the southeast corner.

By now you should have the income to build two tanks every day. Take one day at some point to build a rocket launcher that sits on the bottom factory--you won't need to move it since you won't need that factory anymore, and the distance of the other factories from the enemy won't matter when you're basically flooding the map with your tanks. (The rocket launcher is necessary to cover the center of the map, the hardest area to hold.)

Keep moving your tanks in, use Power of Money when you get it, and plug the enemy factories when you get a chance, and you should be able to finish in 11-13 days or less. Each time I did this with Colin I got an S-rank with 280-290 points: 300 doesn't seem out of the question (but I'm still out of practice with AW).
 
ChrisReid said:
Squirrel Killer said:
So, what do all of you Advance Wars fans think of Dai Senryaku?
It has a lot less personality, so it's harder to get into. There's so god damn many units, that you're constantly checking tables of stats to see what your things can do.
How would you compare the two in terms of difficulty?
 
Anybody anywhere near to getting a star rank? As a gamer with limited time, it's gonna be brutal to level everybody up. But it's still a great game. I just feel compelled to level everybody up. One of the few games I think I should 'complete'.

BTW, Lash is the best character in the game. Tee hee
 
Hachi is lvl 10 for me, but no one else.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let you guys know that you get a special message from rachel if you run out of fuel on mission 1, same as you got scolded by Nell in AW2.

Basically since the level is so easy and it takes so long to run out of fuel, they know you ran out of fuel on purpose, and Rachel basically calls you on it. :D
 
skinnyrattler said:
Anybody anywhere near to getting a star rank? As a gamer with limited time, it's gonna be brutal to level everybody up. But it's still a great game. I just feel compelled to level everybody up. One of the few games I think I should 'complete'.

I've been playing Survival/Time, usually getting to stage 8 (of 11) so far. But that nabs you right around 1,000 pts. each time (and most likely a Level Up) for each of your COs for 25 minutes that feel pretty quick given the short Survival stages. Much better early on than the War Room, where a loss gives you squat.
 
Squirrel Killer said:
How would you compare the two in terms of difficulty?

It's really hard to say.. Dai Senryaku is a lot more cumbersome to play, so it's harder to get good. Advance Wars might be a harder game, but it's more fun, so you play it more and get better at it.

Prospero said:
I figured it out last night--the right answer here is Colin. The new factory at the bottom of the map makes it possible. This is for 2.5x exp (one CO, skills off).

I can get 290 with Sasha on 2.5x mode too. In the post above I dismissed Hachi, but now I'm not sure. He's 10% off instead of Colin's 20% discount, but Hachi's units are more powerful than Colin's. And he has a short power meter. When you're ready to super power it, you can pop in $11,000 Neotanks at the bottom right two cities and clean house.
 
After cruising through the campaign missions with S- and A-ranks, I am now getting my ass handed to me on Mission 24 (Pincer Strike). Dual Strike + Fog of War + Drake's Super CO power are consistently ruining me within the first four days--the first CO hits everyone for two points of damage and moves recon and scouts into my territory, then the second CO tags in and works me over with artillery and rockets (since the scouts can now see where my units are). I am getting dropped like a phat beat.
 
The music is awesome. Download the soundtrack and get these!

Rachel's Theme + Jake's Theme + Jess' Theme +Andy's Theme + Nell's Theme + Super Power Theme + Tag Power Theme + United For Peace
 
Prospero said:
After cruising through the campaign missions with S- and A-ranks, I am now getting my ass handed to me on Mission 24 (Pincer Strike). Dual Strike + Fog of War + Drake's Super CO power are consistently ruining me within the first four days--the first CO hits everyone for two points of damage and moves recon and scouts into my territory, then the second CO tags in and works me over with artillery and rockets (since the scouts can now see where my units are).

Sonya or a +1-2 sight range skill will reduce the fog of war. Take Sasha to counter the tag teaming. In addition to her all around wealth, her basic CO power will erase the enemies' power meters and prevent any dual strikes. She only needs to fill two stars to execute, and at level 5 you can enable quick-fill on the meter with the star skill. For the army in the Northwest, take at least a level 6 CO with the pathfinder skill. You'll be able to bust out of the mud/woods on your first term and smash up the artillery/battleship/rockets before they get their first shot off. If you've taken Sasha, you're also preventing Drake's CO power, however, if he manages to strike, it'd be good to have Jess. Drake cuts your supplies in half, and Jess' power replenishes everyone's supplies. Hawk counters Drake's tidal wave well too.

I just finished my second run through the hard campaign. Average score was 293, got 300 on sixteen of the missions.
 
Prospero said:
After cruising through the campaign missions with S- and A-ranks, I am now getting my ass handed to me on Mission 24 (Pincer Strike). Dual Strike + Fog of War + Drake's Super CO power are consistently ruining me within the first four days--the first CO hits everyone for two points of damage and moves recon and scouts into my territory, then the second CO tags in and works me over with artillery and rockets (since the scouts can now see where my units are). I am getting dropped like a phat beat.

I also did well with Sasha and Grit. Take the 2 vision upgrades and Grit can absolutely murder the the enemy indirect units when the fog of war rolls in.
 
I'm now playing through the campaign for the second time, trying to get nothing but S-ranks. I've made it all the way to mission 27, For the Future, and I can't for the life of me get an S-rank. No other mission really gave me any trouble, after playing through the campaign the first time I know exactly what needs to be done to win with an s-rank. But I must've played Mission 27 ten times or more, and the best I can get is an A rank.

Green Eagle can win easily with a single bomber, but then I get a low power score. Orange Star can force their way to the crystal, but by the time it takes to fight all the way up to it, I get a low speed/technique score. I've been using Grit as Blue Moon commander, and have him just picking guys of with battleships, maybe I should try and take out the crystal with him instead, taking out as many pipe walls and mini crystals as I can along the way.
 
@ChrisReid & BorkBork--thanks. I figured out the mission last night without using either of these strategies, actually--for me it was Sami and Grit on the top (both at rank 0), and Jake and Rachel on the bottom (both at rank 6).

The problem wasn't with picking the proper COs, so much as not realizing that I should just give up on defending against Drake's attack by sea (at the bottom of the map) since it doesn't change the state of play that much. The factory and airport in the middle are the key to the whole map--once I got that the rest of the mission just fell into place.

A funny thing I noticed is that the AI changes up its usage of the power meter depending on the COs it's fighting against. I didn't do eough experimentation to come up with valid conclusions, but with the combo of four COs I listed above, Drake went for the Tsunami every chance he got, instead of building up to a super CO power or a Dual Strike.
 
Prospero said:
A funny thing I noticed is that the AI changes up its usage of the power meter depending on the COs it's fighting against. I didn't do eough experimentation to come up with valid conclusions, but with the combo of four COs I listed above, Drake went for the Tsunami every chance he got, instead of building up to a super CO power or a Dual Strike.

I find a lot of that has to do where where the meter is at at the beginning of their turn. If they've got exactly the number of stars to do a level one attack, they'll go for it. If they've started to accumulate any fill on the second stage stars, then they'll wait for the super CO power. And if both are close to filling their entire meters, they'll do a tag.
 
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