Thread for the discussion of the venerable Advance Wars series, known in Japan simply as the Wars series, having first appeared as Famicom Wars on the NES.
► Very basic overview
Wars is a series of tactical games in which you capture properties to generate income to build ground, air, and sea units to defeat your enemy by either destroying all of his units or capturing his HQ. Easy to learn, hard to master.
A 4-player free for all in Advance Wars 1.
Early on the series also added Commanding Officers (COs), non-unit characters who grant passive effects to allied units and have activated powers to turn the tide of battle.
Andy(?) activating his CO Power Hyper Repair, healing all of his player's units for 2 HP.
More importantly...
Whether you're a fan of the series tired of playing against the braindead AI or a total newcomer who enjoys getting stomped by his friends in games he doesn't understand, Advance Wars By Web (AWBW) is that for which you're looking! AWBW is a combined browser-based adaptation of Advance Wars 1, 2, and Dual Strike. You can play with your friends (me) using COs, units, and terrain from any of those games, make your own maps, and use any of the many community-made maps already available.
For the competitively minded, AWBW features automatic ranked matchmaking and an ELO system. Regular ranked matches allows waiting days between turns, making play possible even when one doesn't have much time, but there is also a live queue with a clock measured in minutes for those who want to play right now. Furthermore, AWBW has several useful tools not available in the original games: a damage calculator, a move planner, and a replay viewer.
Convinced? Great! Make an account, post your username in the thread, find the rest of us on the user list, and add us as friends! See below for the usernames of HQsers on AWBW.
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Communications about ongoing games are done in #mphq. You can join by entering '/join #mphq' without the single quotes in your IRC client after connecting to Rizon. @Nemesis has kindly provided an IRC bot (WIP as of this writing) that alerts the channel when it's your turn.
Don't know how Advance Wars works? Download mGBA, a copy of Advance Wars 1, and run through the tutorial. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes. (Or you can play the whole game. It's good!)
For all those dumb questions new players keep asking me:
► Mechanics FAQ
##### Is there a way to see how far an enemy unit can move/shoot/see?
Yes. Clicking and holding on an enemy unit will display its possible movement in blue. Doing so again will show its attack range in red, and doing so a third time will show its vision range in yellow.
##### Does joining an infantry with a capturing infantry reset the capture?
No. Captures are not reset unless the capturing infantry dies or leaves the tile.
##### Does X property type repair Y unit type?
Factories, cities, and HQs repair land units. Airports repair air units. Ports repair naval units. Labs and comm towers provide no repairs. Blackboats can repair any unit type.
##### Is there a drawback to repairs?
Yes. Repairs cost 10% of the unit's cost per HP healed; since repairs are typically done in increments of 2 HP, this means it usually costs 20% of the unit's cost. It's still usually worth it to repair your units.
##### Does X property type provide income, and if so, how much?
HQs, cities, factories, airports, and ports provide an income of 1k/turn. Labs and comm towers provide no income.
##### What are those white squares? I can't seem to capture them.
They're empty missile silos. Their only purpose is to be defensive terrain.
##### What happens when joining two units would put them over 10 HP?
The combined unit stops at 10 HP, but for every point by which it would go over, you receive funds equivalent to 10% of that unit's cost. You can take advantage of this by joining two units for extra funds to make an expensive purchase.
##### Why aren't my infantry finishing their captures?
You have to order them to capture again every turn. Infantry do not automatically continue captures they've started.
##### How can I resupply and refuel my units?
APCs and blackboats can resupply and refuel any unit type. Otherwise, you must leave it parked on a property that can repair that unit type.
##### How many and what types of units can transports carry?
APCs, transport copters, and blackboats can only carry footsoldiers (infantry and mechs). Landers can carry any type of land unit. APCs and transport copters can only carry one unit at a time while blackboats and landers can carry two.
##### Why can't I unload units from a transport?
The transport must be parked on terrain traversable by the carried unit to be able to unload. For naval transports, this means ports or shoals.
##### What is that radar dish building and what does it do?
It's a lab. On maps with no HQs, they serve as HQs. To defeat someone by lab capture, you must capture *all* of his labs. Otherwise, if the game creator set any lab-restricted units, they cannot be built unless you own a lab. If neither of these are the case, they don't do anything. Labs do not provide income nor repairs.
##### What is that air raid siren building and what does it do?
It's a comm tower. It provides the player who owns it, and his team, with +10% attack to all his (their) units. Comm towers do not provide income nor repairs.
##### Why can't I build X unit type?
It's either banned or lab-restricted. Lab-restricted units can be built if you own a lab. Banned units cannot be built at all. The game creator chooses which units are banned and lab-restricted when creating the game. You can check which units are banned and lab-restricted by clicking Menu at the top of the game page and then Info.
##### Why can't I build any more units?
The game creator set a unit limit. You cannot build units in excess of the unit limit. If you want to build more, you must delete some of your existing units. You can view the unit limit by clicking Menu at the top of the game page and then Info. It is also shown on the Your Games page entry for the game as a box with a fighter icon and a number, if enabled.
##### Why was my unit destroyed when the damage calculator showed a percentage less than its current HP?
The true HP value of a unit is an invisible percentage; the displayed value is the percentage rounded up to the nearest tens place and then divided by ten. Ex: a unit has 91% health internally; this is rounded up to 100, then divided by 10 to result in a displayed HP of 10. Thus, attacks that don't do any visible damage still do 'chip' damage, sometimes resulting in a unit being destroyed by a subsequent attack that wouldn't have been enough on its own.
##### Why did the game suddenly end? or, What is a capture limit?
The game creator can set a capture limit. If a player holds a holds a number of properties equal to the capture limit, he wins immediately. Labs and comm towers do not count towards the limit. You can view the capture limit in game by clicking Menu at the top and then Info. It is also displayed on the Your Games page as a box with a city icon and a number, if on, or a greyed out box with the word OFF, if off.
##### Do you get a refund when deleting a unit?
No.
##### Do repairs heal 20% exactly or do they top off the unit's HP to the visible value?
不明
##### How does AWBW prioritize repairs when a player doesn't have enough money to repair all his units?
Repair priority is checked by columns (top to bottom) starting from the left. Units which the player doesn't have sufficient funds to repair are skipped.
##### In what order does Sensei infantry spawn when there's a unit limit preventing him from spawning on every city?
By rows (left to right), starting from the top.
Want to become the one doing the stomping? Here's some gameplay advice:
► Tips
Get The First Hit: Attack power and defense are based on unit health. The attacking unit hits before the defending unit counterattacks. Therefore, do your best to ensure that yours is the attacker.
Don't Allow Free Hits: A healthy unit is much more useful than a weakened one. Check where your opponent's units can reach before placing yours. Don't leave your valuable units in attack range of your opponent's units unless you have more waiting in the wings to avenge them and you have unit/production superiority on that side of the map to reinforce if it becomes a protracted engagement.
Control the Middle: A unit in the middle of the map can easily reach any other part of the map. If you commit your units heavily to one side, they cannot quickly react to attacks and opportunities on the opposite side.
Pick a Side: On most maps your production bases will be clustered towards one side or the other. The one with more is called your strong side. If you must commit to a side, commit to your strong side. When committed, try to avoid engagements on your weak side. Focus only on holding your properties and minimizing losses.
Use Terrain: Ignoring CO effects, it's better to attack from a city or other defensive terrain than from a road because you'll suffer less damage from the counterattack. Likewise, if you must position a unit somewhere the opponent can reach, do your best to put yours on defenisve terrain and ensure the opponent's unit cannot attack from defensive terrain.
Build (Infantry) Continuously: Your bases should always be producing. If your choice is between building one expensive unit or both a cheaper unit and an infantry, the latter is usually superior. Infantry are essential for capturing properties and body blocking for your more valuable units.
Build Counters: Is your opponent building Battle Copters? Build an Anti Air. Did he build a Medium Tank? Build an Artillery. Does he have many Light Tanks and no Anti Air? Build Copters.
Protect Your (Expensive) Units: Sometimes you have to put something valuable in range of an enemy unit. If you can, use infantry or significantly weakened units to block the spaces from which it could be attacked. This is especially important for indirect fire units because they must be placed near the enemy and cannot counterattack.
Minimize Angles of Attack: When placing units to block the advance of multiple enemy units ('building a wall'), try to position your units so that only one side of each is exposed. If a unit can be attacked only from one side, it likely cannot be destroyed and other enemy units will not be able to advance beyond your wall. Conversely, if your wall has a 'corner', then the corner unit can be attacked twice and destroyed, allowing other enemy units to proceed. Don't use weakened units in a wall for the same reason.
Time Your CO Power: CO powers are very powerful, even those of Tier 4 COs, but their impact is heavily dependent on the game state. Try to make sure you use your CO Power on a turn in which you can make many attacks to fully benefit from its buff to your units. Sometimes this requires waiting a turn or two to get your units in position. Note that ALL CO Powers, in addition to their specific benefits, also give +10% attack and defense to all your units, and that both the specific and generic buffs last until the beginning of your next turn.
Don't Kamikaze: Weakened units do very little to no damage, so attacking with them is rarely worthwhile. Instead, they should be withdrawn to cities and repaired or used as blockers for your healthier units (though not in walls). Kamikazeing them saves the opponent actions he would have otherwise needed to spend getting them out of the way.
Please also see the Units and Gameplay sections of AWBW Wiki's Metagame article.
Humita has a helpful three-part series on improving in AWBW:
If you really want to go down the competitive rabbit hole, I also recommend watching videos by Deejus, a very skilled AWBW player. He can be pretty cringy at times but his advice and analysis are solid. Here's a video of his for low-rated players:
A different team has made separate a web adaptation of Days of Ruin, which featured somewhat different mechanics from the rest of the series, called Tiny Wars.
Commander Wars is a different standalone Advance Wars clone with support for modding and custom COs.
Wars World seems to be yet another Advance Wars web adaptation, but it's still in development.
Still hesitating for some unfathomable reason? Here are some REAL IRC QUOTES (mostly) from HQsers who were tricked into happily consented to playing with me!
► HQsers having FUN!
<Kalarion> I'm boutta get tastefully raepd
<Kalarion> flock me I don't remember what any of these do
<Kalarion> OH FFS
<Kalarion> I didn't realize I had to redo the cap action
<Kalarion> I wasted a turn because I thought it was automatically applied if you stayed on the square
<Kalarion> motherFLIPPER
<Kalarion> vehicles can't cap?!
<Kalarion> nnnnnnnnnnnGRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
<Kalarion> I've forgotten so much
<Rusty_Shackleford> whiteshark learns how to play a game then invites someone who never played it to a competitive match
<Rusty_Shackleford> hmm
<Kalarion> ffs
<Kalarion> forgot I had another factory
<Kalarion> oh well I didn't have money anyways
<Kalarion> I moved my tank on top of an open factory like a retard
<Kalarion> think it's ogre
<Norfleet> Kalarion getting pummelled, I guess?
<Kalarion> absolutely crushed
<Kalarion> end your turn so I can resign
<Norfleet> How do I take my turn?
<Norfleet> No, I don't know anything. Good to know, though.
<Norfleet> I think you clearly win, but I have a few more random buttons I want to push to figure out what they even do.
<OysterSauce> Do HQs take more than 1 turn to capture? My gambit has failed then
<OysterSauce> rip
<Norfleet> I made one major error early in the game that essentially crippled everything...
<Norfleet> Namely, I expected capping infantry would actually do their jobs without having to be reminded of them.
<Norfleet> So it doesn't function as a backup HQ unless there are no HQs owned.
<Norfleet> Although I guess that may soon be put to the test.
<WhiteShark> whoah, stealth bomber
<Norfleet> I have no idea what it really does or how well it works, but I am clearly losing, so I may as well try out random Nazi Wunderwaffe.
<Norfleet> Admittedly, it clearly isn't THAT stealthy given that you can FUCKING SEE IT...
<Norfleet> There goes 24K, I guess.
<Norfleet> If it was supposed to be stealthy, it clearly hasn't succeeded.
<OysterSauce> I forgot to build units last turn
<OysterSauce> oh when did my entire army get wiped out
<OysterSauce> my block has been rocked
<OysterSauce> going to look up what the buildings do right quick
<OysterSauce> oh of course the tanks can drive through water WHY NOT
<OysterSauce> my empire is crumbling
<OysterSauce> CRUMBLING, I say
<OysterSauce> I consneed
<Norfleet> This is a deeply frustrating map that seems intent on obstructing you from accessing anything even in your own territory.
<Norfleet> Like someone built this weird wall thing on the map...
<Norfleet> And yet our bases are OUTSIDE the wall, completely exposed.
<Norfleet> What the fuck is this shit?
<Norfleet> It looks like I have driven the knights from my shores.
<WhiteShark> a temporary setback
<Norfleet> They will soon return, and in greater numbers.
<OysterSauce> whiteshark is dominating the center btw
<OysterSauce> you guys are responsible for that, so attack him
<Norfleet> The FUCK is that.
<Norfleet> I just spotted some kind of giant squid monster crawling across the landscape.
<Norfleet> It has a long snout and 4...appendages of some kind.
<Norfleet> I knew there had to be a squid monster in a Japanese game.
<Kalarion> right, never use that DOGSHIT ABILITY on a map with fog of war and lots of players
<Kalarion> got it
<Kalarion> WTF
<Kalarion> units with no ammo can still counterattack?!
<Norfleet> It's like there's an infinite WhiteShark horde, I wonder how much of Gregz clay that WhiteShark actually owns.
<Norfleet> Yeah, like I was saying, WhiteShark got to eat two players' lunches.
<Norfleet> Neither Gregz nor GhostCow could prevent him from eating their lunch, and then molesting their corpse afterwards.
<WhiteShark> NotOrange, when are you going to take your 1v1 turn
<NotOrange> When I can stop crying everytime I look at it.
Last edited by WhiteShark on February 8th, 2024, 18:38, edited 43 times in total.
I was noticing that the CO portraits got consecutively worse for the original cast from 1 to 2 to Dual Strike. Definitely prefer AW1 Sami and Sonja over their other versions. For no discernible reason the localization changed the name for nearly every CO, which is driving me nuts. Kanbei was originally Kikuchiyo, and they changed it clearly knowing that Kikuchiyo was a reference to Seven Samurai because Kanbei is the name of a different character from the same movie...
@maidenhaver I'm down to play right now if you want, though I'm playing another game concurrently so there may be small delays. Make a game and invite me if you want. Top left Games -> Create -> pick a map from the dropdown on the right and load standard settings.
EDIT: Time for bed, but I'll be on tomorrow.
Last edited by WhiteShark on January 8th, 2024, 06:18, edited 1 time in total.
It's over. I made two critical errors that led me to fail capping @Norfleet's HQ at the very last moment and @Oyster Sauce turned on me at the same time, leading to both our downfalls. Sorry @Kalarion. Good game, everyone.
The last 4P FFA with fog was pretty fun, but I think FFA probably works better with even more people, so I'm trying to recruit even more people. @GhostCow said he could play in a couple hours. @Val the Moofia Boss are you interested in playing with us? Anybody else is welcome as well.
Hopefully I'll have the game up in the next hour or two, but I can't make the lobby until I have a headcount because the number of players on any given map is fixed.
>"I've got all night."
>leaves when Norfleet takes too long to hit ready
I actually do have all night tonight. No maps where Grit and Olaf are banned. The idea some autist thought of banning COs in advance wars like this is serious business is very funny to me.
It's dangerous to build that many indirect fire units without support. If they don't have units to protect them, they just get run down. I also suggest focusing more on building infantry and capturing early to keep your economy up. We can rematch later if you want. I'd also like to see you play against @Kalarion.
It's dangerous to build that many indirect fire units without support. If they don't have units to protect them, they just get run down. I also suggest focusing more on building infantry and capturing early to keep your economy up. We can rematch later if you want. I'd also like to see you play against @Kalarion.
The second HQ FFA, this time featuring @Kalarion, @GhostCow, @Norfleet, @Gregz, and me, has concluded with me as the victor. Good game everyone. I know it was a bit rough for the new guys but hopefully you now have a better grasp on the game for next time.
We'll start the next group game sometime tomorrow. I need a headcount, though, so watermelon this post if you want to play. I'm also thinking about doing teams instead of FFA this time, so let me know what you guys think. @Val the Moofia Boss@maidenhaver@Oyster Sauce are you guys in?
