Lash FAQ
by: verysoon1455
Advance Wars: Black Hole Rising
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Table of Contents
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I. Version History

II. Introduction

III. General Overview
-Stats
-CO Powers
-Basic Info

IV. The Terrain
-Terrain Chart
-Terrain Trends
-Unit Usage

V. Tips and Strategies
-Meatshields
-Defending HQ
-First Strike
-Early Deployment

VI. Countering CO's
-CO's

VII. Credits/Legal stuff

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I. Version History
------------------

3/14/09 - First version of guide complete
3/16/09 - Edited SCOP and Terrain Chart, I realized that her maximum stats are
actually 180/190, and not 150/190
3/17/09 - Grr, after a little trial I realized again that her max stats are
150/190. Heh..

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II. Introduction
----------------

Welcome to my first FAQ. As I was looking through the guides in gamefaqs, it
was to my dismay that I did not see a guide for Lash. So as a die-hard fan of
this great CO, I felt that it was my duty to make a guide for her. 

She's a great CO but, like Adder and Flak, she's underestimated and underrated
because she's a bottom tier Black HOle CO. 

Hopefully by the time you finish reading this guide you'll not only want to
use her, but know how to use her effectively.

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III. General Overview
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A. Stats

Basically all her units' stats are 100/100. If you want a chart here it is.

Infantry: 100/100
Mech: 100/100
Recon: 100/100
Tank: 100/100
Md Tank: 100/100
Neotank: 100/100
APC: 100/100
Artillery: 100/100
Rockets: 100/100
A-Air: 100/100
Missiles: 100/100
T-Copter: --/100
B. Copter: 100/100
Bomber: 100/100
Fighter: 100/100
Lander: --/100
Sub: 100/100
Cruiser: 100/100
Battleship: 100/100

Not impressed yet? Don't worry, you will be. For every star of defense a unit
is standing on, its firepower increases by 10%. I'll get more into that in the
next section.

B. CO Powers

Meter: oooo000

CO Power: Terrain Tactics
Movement cost for terrain that a unit can currently move on becomes 1. A recon
has 8 movement, but it gets hindered by forests and moves less. But using this
it can move all 8 spaces on any terrain that it can move on (that means it 
still can't traverse mountains, sea, etc). There is no attack or defense boost.

Super CO Power: Prime Tactics
Firepower and defense for all units are boosted by 10%. Terrain defense bonuses
are doubled. So, if a Tank is on a city, which has 3 stars of defense, and you
use Prime Tactics, that 3 stars is doubled, making it 6 stars of defense.

C. Basic Info
Quick and concise- she's mediocre in the air, so-so at sea, and great on land.
She does well on small maps since they usually contain lots of forests, cities,
and other highly defensive terrain packed together, giving many oppotunities 
for a unit to get onto them. However she does less well in large stages where
there may be airports and ports that require air and sea warfare. Also large
stages are mostly plains and roads, with forests, mountains, and cities 
scattered here and there. In short, for Lash, pick your battles. Take a look at
the map and try to see yourself playing this map with Lash.

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IV. The Terrain
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Alright, so all her units have 100/100 for stats, BUT her special skill is that
for every star of defense of the terrain that a unit is on, the unit's fire
power will increase by 10%.

So on Road, a Tank would have 100/100 because there's 0 stars of defense on 
road. But on City, a Tank would have 130/100 because there's 3 stars of defense
on cities. 3 stars X 10 percent = additional 30 fire power.

A. Terrain Chart

Here's a chart of all the terrains, so you can refer to them

         |Stars | Extra Attack 
--------------------------------
HQ       |  4   |  40%
--------------------------------
City     |  3   |  30%
--------------------------------
Base     |  3   |  30% 
--------------------------------
Airport  |  3   |  30%
--------------------------------
Port     |  3   |  30%
--------------------------------
Silo     |  3   |  30%
--------------------------------
Pipe     | ---  |  ---
--------------------------------
Pipe Seam| ---  |  ---
--------------------------------
Bridge   |  0   |  0%
--------------------------------
Road     |  0   |  0%
--------------------------------
Reef     |  2   |  20%
--------------------------------
Shoal    |  0   |  0%
--------------------------------
River    |  0   |  0%
--------------------------------
Woods    |  2   |  20%
--------------------------------
Mountain |  4   |  40% 
--------------------------------
Sea      |  0   |  0%
--------------------------------
Plains   |  1   |  10%
--------------------------------

Essentially if you think about it, the maximum amount of stats a unit can have 
is 150/190. 4 stars defense is max, giving a +40%. Prime Tactics gives a 10%
boost in firepower giving a grand total of 90%, giving a total of 190% in 
attack. Prime Tactics also boosts the 4 stars of defense (40%) to 8 stars, 
which is +80%. With the additional 10% boost in defense, it's 190%. Believe it
or not, that's how it is. :D And the doubled terrain doesn't affect the 
firepower, so if the 4 stars was doubled to 8 stars, it would still only be
140%.

B. Terrain Trends

Here, Ill talk about how maps are typically laid out. Each tile (which is a
1x1 space on the map) is surrounded by four other tiles of terrain. So if I say
50% road, that means the terrain I'm talking about is typically surrounded by
2 out of the 4 possible tiles.

1. Properties - 25% road/plains, 50% mountain/woods, 25% property

2. HQ - 100% property 

3. Mountains - 25% road/plains, 50%-75% mountains, 25% forests/properties

C. Unit Usage

Here, I'll talk about Lash's usage of units.

Infantry-
Good for capturing; high firepower on cities makes opponents think twice before
attacking. Also good for early strikes; if an enemy infantry is capturing, you
have a power advantage in attacking it, properties are rarely surrounded by
roads, bridges, or rivers, they're usually surrounded by forests, plains, 
mountains, and/or other properties, thus giving you high firepower. Also good
for defending your HQ against the opponent sending infantry overseas/overair 
straight to your HQ. Because the battle will take place around your HQ, your
infantry can do huge damage, with 130% on a base and 140% on the HQ. Using 
anything more expensive would be an unnecessary waste of money.

Mechs-
For Lash, Mechs are for pure offense. Leave the capturing to infantries, Lash's
Mechs can easilly move on mountains to deal massive damage. You can move them
onto woods if you want, but save those positions for other units that can't
traverse mountains. Mountains are often next to roads or plains, both of which
have little defense, meaning your Mech, with 140% attack, will do huge damage.
As for defending against your HQ, deploy Mechs if the opponent sends tanks or
other vehicles overseas to your HQ. These things are vitually indestructable
on mountains, especially with Prime Tactics turned on. Even the strongest
bombers will do 4 damage tops.

Recon-
Lash's recons are good; great for first strikes. As said before, cities are
often surrounded by forests or plains, meaning your recons will have high
firepower on enemy soldiers trying to capture. Usually you'd do around 55-60%
to a soldier capturing property if you're on plains/forests. Terrain Tactics
makes Recons able to move everywhere.

Tank-
Her tanks are pretty useful both as attackers and shields for your much more
useful indirects (I'll get into this later). Try your best to take advantage of
your tank's high movement to get onto a city or forest when attacking. Make 
sure you deploy a fair amount of these before making indirects.

Md Tank-
Bad..Low movement limits opportunities to get onto highly defensive terrains as
they'll likely be out of reach. I don't suggest having more than one or two of
these. If you have enough cash for a Md Tank, make 2 tanks or 1 tank and 1 
artillery or 1 rocket.

Neotank-
Mehh..well..Lash does better in small maps anyways. If it's a really large map,
she won't do that great. Like I said before, pick your battles, so if it's such
a large map where you can produce Neotanks easilly, you shouldn't be using
Lash. But anyways, Neotanks are great, but are a waste for Lash. Neotanks on
their own can already do 100% to most units, and if you put them on terrain,
you'll see 120%+, which is a unnecessary waste. I'd choose Md Tank over Neotank
for the sake of saving funds.

APC-
Well it's a transport unit not much you can say..Prime Tactics increases the
effectiveness of terrain so you can place on of these on a neutral property to
prevent it from being captured by the enemy. Because of the high defense, it 
won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Meh, just use it to transport soldiers.

Artillery-
Ahh Artilleries are where Lash shines. Usually i like deploying a few tanks, 
and a few of these. The ratio of tanks to artilleries should be 3:2 or 2:1. 
Place these on high defense terrain. Forests are usually close to the battle, 
so place it on those. However if you can place it on a city yet still be able 
to have enough range to attack, then do that. These will generally do 80% 
average. I usually like picking off Mechs because they're annoying but die
easilly. One shot should kill a Mech, if not it will be low health. Using Prime
Tactics is a good idea, especially if your front lines are starting to wither.
So an enemy tank will do 4 damage tops to your artillery assuming it's on 
proper terrain.

Rocket-
VERY GOOD. Place one on a city far away from battle, but still being able to
shoot enemy units from where it is. WHile artilleries pick out soldiers, use
rockets either destroy tanks/AAirs or weaken Md/Neotanks, so your directs can
press forward and destroy enemy indirects. These will typically do about 85 to
100 damage on cheap vehicles, but on stronger ones like Neotanks it'll do about
65%. Again, Prime Tactics will make Rockets indestructable. They'll most likely
be on cities so it will both recover health and have 60% defense, with the 
additional 10% boost. 

A-Air-
These are basically the only anti air unit you need. They're cheap and they
rape soldiers too. Since properties are usually surrounded by high defense
terrain, these'll do at least 90% to enemy units trying to capture. If placed
on good terrain, these things can destroy a Bomber in 1 hit. Don't attack
Fighters, though, as it's not recommended that you use air units and it's an
unneccessary boost to your enemy's CO meter. 

Missiles-
Just don't deploy these..They're expensive, low movement, and they just over
kill enemy planes at an unecessary amount when placed on a city. Just stick 
with AAirs.

Fighter-
Air units get no terrain boost, thus they get no attack boost. For less than
half the price you can get an AAir. But if you have a lot of cash to spare, it
never hurts to deploy just one fighter just in case you need to quickly 
dispatch a Bomber that your AAir can't reach. But in all, make 2 AAirs instead
of 1 Fighter.

Bomber-
Bombers are great units but they get no terrain bonuses which is icky. I'd
rather get a Neotank since they DO get terrain bonuses. Only reason why I'd
get one is to take out indirects from the back lines, but B Copters are a
better solution. Bombers are very good, but they're not for Lash.

Battle Copter-
Again, Lash is so-so with air because air units get no terrain bonuses. I'd
get a Battle Copter over a Bomber because it's cheaper and the only reason why
you'd deploy any of these is to destroy annoying indirects that your ground
units can't reach. If you have the money for a Bomber, get 2 of these instead.

Transport Copter-
Read APC section. It's just a damn transport unit :P

Battle Ship-
Ehh movin' into sea unit territory now. Reefs are the only sea terrain with 
terrain bonuses, but are still rare. The best thing to do is to just place one
on reef. You can OHKO any sea unit this way, and can do massive damage to
ground units. I guess it's good to have one, but you can live without a 
battle ship, I'd rather have Rockets.

Cruiser-
Well you can't NOT have a cruiser, because of Subs. Not much strategy to this..
just take out any subs. Cruisers usually do 80% to Subs but on reefs it'll
OHKO.

Lander-
Yeah...it's just a transport unit. Eh..yeah whatever. :) Do whatever you want.

Submarine-
Ah reefs are great for Submarines. If you're lucky enough to have a clueless
enemy battleship or sub sit next to a reef, by all means go there and make
some noise. You'll do substantial damage to other subs and do about 60% to
battleships. If it's a cruiser, however, next to the reef, only attack it if
you have used Prime Tactics, because in that case, your Sub would be 130/150.

So as a wrap up, Lash is good at ground units because of the abundance of high
defense terrain. She does alright in sea and air battles considering there are
no terrain bonuses to help her out. 

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V. Tips and Strategies
----------------------

I went over a lot of these in my Unit Usage section, but here's all the 
strategies and techniques for Lash that I used all wrapped in one with a ribbon
on it. (Rihanna reference =P) And I'm not gonna have fancy names, the names 
will just foreshadow what the strategy is.

A. Meatshields
Typically in battles, there is a single road, and on the sides are mountains
or forests and in the back are cities and forests. Your tanks will block the 
single road, acting as shields for your indirects to plow away at the enemy.
At the same time you can slowly advance your directs. From the sides have a few
mechs/infantry attack from mountaintops.

B. Defending HQ
Sometimes your enemy will transport units over straight to your HQ. If they
transport only infantry/mechs, then deploy a few infantry. If there are 
vehicles transported over, deploy mechs. Since the battles will go on around
your HQ, your units will be either on a base/city or the HQ meaning they will
have 130% or 140% attack. This is more than enough to quickly wipe out the
enemies. And if the enemy sent over like a Neotank..well..if he's really that
stupid, then you shouldn't even be reading this since you could beat him with 
Sonja anyways.. =P

C. First Strike
By first strike i mean very early in the game. This strategy is mainly to 
hinder enemy cashflow by attacking foe soldiers to prevent them from finishing
capturing a property. Moving your own soldier onto mountains and attacking the
enemy will do quite a lot of damage. Recons can attack from woods. This
strategy is fairly generic, but Lash just gives it an extra kick.

D. Early Deployment
Sometimes it's good to deploy an artillery, or some other indirect, very early.
This way you can place them on a captured city/forest and you can pick off
coming enemies to prevent swarming.

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VI. Countering CO's
-------------------

This section will talk about how to play when facing CO's. Different CO's
require different strategies to fight.

A. Andy
He's dangerous. Usually when Lash attacks, she usually brings a whole bunch of
enemies down to very low health, but not dead yet. If Andy manages to use his
COP, or god forbid, his SCOP, he could plow right through you. So for Andy,
watch his CO meter, but more importantly, gang. So let's say your rocket got
a tank down to 3 health. You might think "Oh it's low health, it can't do any
harm at this point," but Andy's COP will boost that 3 into an 8, so kill it.
Have a 50/50 between directs and indirects.

B. Max
This is where the meatshield technique works well. He's going to use a lot of
directs, but of course, your own directs will stand little of a chance. THat's
why you snipe Max's directs down with your indirects and attack from the side
with superpowered foot soldiers. His indirects should pose little of a problem.
He's by far one of the easiest CO's to fight.

C. Sami
Sami usually has a bunch of infantry and mechs on the front line with a couple
of tanks and lots of indirects from behind. This is where you will need a lot
of indirects and less directs. While your indirects pick out the infantry one
by one your directs will have a clear path to Sami's indirects. She shouldn't
be too hard, just have more indirects than directs.

E. Nell
I haven't played against Nell many times so I have little experience with her.

F. Hachi
The counter to unit swaming is meatshield. It's best not to gang here, instead
distribute the damage. Let's say you get an enemy Recon to 1 health. Don't kill
it, instead use your rocket to shoot the tank behind the recon. There's no 
point to swarming if your whole army is low in health. Again, use indirects 
more often.

G. Olaf
He's annoying to fight, the snow limits your movement as well as opportunities
to get onto terrain. Still, have a nice balance between directs and indirects.
Olaf's army is usually also balanced. Other than the snow, Olaf is easy. Don't
lose any sleep over fighting this guy.

H. Grit
UGGGHHHHH!! I haaaate fighting Grit. Have many directs and a few indirects.
The strategy for fighting Grit is the same when you use any other CO; spam
direct units. THere's no way to avoid a bad technique score when fighting this
guy. Have a few indirects placed on cities to take out his tanks, of which he
has very little. Then have your tanks blast away at his artilleries and
rockets. Like usual, deploy 2 tanks instead of 1 Md Tank. Foot soldiers are
very helpful here if there are mountains on the side. Mechs will OHKO any 
indirect or weak directs while infantries will do around 40% to indirects.

I. Colin
Basically the same strategy as you used against Hachi. Have many indirects to 
weaken enemy units with directs as attacking meatshields. Because if you don't
distribute your damage, you're gonna get Blitzkrieg'd, especially if Colin uses
Power of Money, which is extremely powerful. 

J. Eagle
You should have very little trouble fighting Eagle on land since his COP only
powers up his air units and his SCOP takes a longass time to build. On the
other hand, Eagle will dominate Lash in air battles, like he does against any
other CO. But you'll have little trouble taking on his powerful airforce with
a good amount of AntiAirs. Missiles actually aren't a bad idea here; becuase of
Eagle's high defense in his air units, placing a missiles on woods/city, or 
even plains, will be able to OHKO any air units of the Prince of the Skies.

K. Drake
Drake shouldn't be too much of a problem. His sea units only boast an extra 10%
in defense, which is pretty cute, but then again Lash's sea units can have a
potential 20% firepower boost (reefs). But you should play Drake over land
since you have a clear advantage over him in that area. Storm his HQ by land
with generic Lash tactics. Keep an indirect or two next to the sea so it can
snipe down ships. His CO powers are annoying but fuel shortaging isn't that
effective against land units. Just deploy an APC if you're afraid of that. 

L. Jess
Ah, Jess. Her ground units are only 110/100, so you can easilly match up to 
them. Your units will usually have higher stats than those of Jess's units, but
what you need to worry about is her CO powers. Have a balanced army, but be
sure to have many, many meatshields, as she will plow through your units with
Overdrive. That's basically your only problem. She's a challenge, but then 
again you will dominate in sea and in air battles.

M. Kanbei
Indirects indirects indirects! Your direct units won't stand a chance against 
his monstrous 130/130 units. He typically deploys a few tanks, then deploys a
Md/Neotank. You wanna get rid of his stronger units first, so keep sniping them
with all that indirects have got. As for tanks, weaken a tank with an artillery
or rocket, then finish it off with a tank. Your own directs will likely be
fighting on plains, or roads, so they'll be very weak against Kanbei, but you
must have your indirects on high defense terrain. Although if you manage to get
a Neotank or something to 2 health or lower, don't kill it, let it retreat into
a city. Repearing this expensive unit will drain Kanbei's funds. It'll likely
stay there and not attack until it's fully healed, so once it reaches over 5,
re-weaken it or kill it. 

N. Sonja
Sonja's a pain to fight because of her hidden health. Not like it matters, with
your indirects in the right places, your indirects will kill anything. Her CO
powers are just pathetic, in my opinion. As a counter to Counterbreak (lol), 
snipe any directs to prevent a strong counterattack. Sonja is pretty easy to
fight, don't sweat over her.

O. Sensei
Ah Sensei..all his foot soldiers have 140/100 by default, which almost cancels 
out the First Strike strategy. His copters are just killing machines too, with
a whopping 150/100. There's no trick to defeating him, though. Deploy a few
AntiAirs to take out his copters and soldiers. All of his other units are weak,
so attack them straight up with directs. Indirects aren't that great, since his
Bcopters will destroy them before they get to do anything anyways.

P. Flak
Not much of a strategy needed to fight Flak. His disperse rate tends to go on
the negative side more often than not. Do whatever you want, Flak is easy to 
beat.

Q. Lash
The human brain is much more complex and intelligent than a computer. Both CO's
stats are the same, so the way you play is 100% the deciding factor for the
outcome of the match. You're best off using manipulation, such as luring a 
tank away from your rocket by capturing a property with a less important
infantry. Stuff like that. Stages where you fight Lash will most likely have 
many forests for her favor, but the same goes for you. 

R. Adder
Easy. His CO powers give no boosts, meaning if you use Prime Tactics, he won't
leave a scratch on you, even if he has an extra 2 movement. Just have a nice
balanced army between directs and indirects and a brain and you're set to go.

S. Hawke
Sure, all of his units are 110/100, but if you think about it, most of many
stages will be occupied by terrain with at least 1 star of defense, meaning
you'll match up to him quite nicely. His CO powers take uuuber long to build up
so that's another plus. He'll do a tad bit better than you would in air and sea
battles, but that won't really matter, 10% is tiny. Don't be intimidated, he's
not that hard to beat. 

T. Sturm
There's not much to say here..Sturm is obviously the best CO in the game hands
down, and will boast many many advantages over you. Have some directs stand on
roads to block, and other directs attack from the side from forests or cities.
Be sure to have several indirects on cities sniping from behind. FIghting 
Sturm 1 on 1 never occurs, except on Missile Plains, where you have an
abundance of Silos.

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VII. Credits/Legal stuff
------------------------

A. Credits

-Gamefaqs for hosting my guide and acting as a channel for my love of Lash to
spread to others

-The readers of this guide to help promote it as well as opening their eyes to
a very unique CO

-Me, for writing it. (gosh I sound self-centered)

-www.warsworldnews.com - this is the biggest and best Advance Wars forum/FAQ
site. This is where I got the stats for the CO's, but you should check it out,
it's got lots of great stuff.

B. Legal Stuff

I'm not gonna copyright this FAQ, so you can claim this as your own. Although
I would question why you would.. o_o Uh, yeah.