Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Hard Campaign Walkthrough Version 1.01 26 June 2009 By Jeroen van Lent (HPD/heropsychodreamer01) E-Mail: [email protected] Copyright (c) 2009 Jeroen van Lent Table of Contents: 0. Disclaimer 1. Introduction 2. Orange Star Campaign - 01: Border Skirmish - 02: Orange Dawn - 03: Andy's Time - 04: Mountain Ops - 05: Sea For All - 06: POW Rescue - 07: Test Of Time - 08: Liberation 3. Blue Moon Campaign - 09: Toy Box - 10: Tanks!!! - 11: Reclamation - 12: T Minus 15 - 13: Two-Week Test - 14: Nature Walk - 15: Neotanks!? - 16: Factory Blues 4. Yellow Comet Campaign - 17: Silo Scramble - 18: Show Stopper - 19: Sensei's Return - 20: Duty & Honor - 21: A Mirror Darkly - 22: Foul Play - 23: Sea Of Hope - 24: The Hunt's End 5. Green Earth Campaign - 25: Sea Fortress - 26: Drake's Dilemma - 27: Sinking Feeling - 28: To The Rescue - 29: Navy Vs. Air - 30: Rain Of Fire - 31: Danger x9 - 32: Great Sea Battle 6. Black Hole Campaign - 33: Hot Pursuit - 34: Final Front 7. Credits and Acknowledgements --- Version history: Version 1.01 - 26 June 2009 - Minor spelling/grammar fixes - Granted permission to neoseeker.com and supercheats.com for hosting this guide. Version 1.0 - 23 June 2009 - First release of the guide --- ------------- 0. Disclaimer ------------- This FAQ/Walkthrough has been written by Jeroen van Lent under the alias of HPD or heropsychodreamer01. This guide is protected by copyright. No material inside this guide may be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any website other than gamefaqs.com, warsworldnews.com, neoseeker.com or supercheats.com without permission from the author. Nor may it be otherwise distributed without permission. Use of this guide on any other website or as part of any public display is strictly prohibited and a violation of copyright. --- --------------- 1. Introduction --------------- This guide has been written for Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising and exclusively covers the Hard Campaign thereof. It has been written with the intention of covering up a blank area in walkthrough coverage for this game. While documentation on the Normal Campaign and the War Room is pretty extensive for this game, I've found that there wasn't much reliable documentation on the Hard Campaign. I hope that this guide finally fills up this space. This guide aims to provide strategies for all of the Hard Campaign missions that will allow the player to achieve a perfect 300 point S-Rank score on this mission. All of these strategies have been confirmed to yield said result. I am aware of the fact that there may be better or more effective strategies out there that I did not incorporate in this guide. If you happen to have a better strategy for a mission, please send it to me and I will consider adding it to this guide (of course giving you the proper credits). Getting a perfect 300 S-Rank score in many cases relies on knowledge of AI movement patterns and knowledge of how the scoring mechanism works. While I could provide you with all of these in this guide, I probably never could do this any better than Translucent Air did in his S-Rank Walkthrough. This guide is hosted on gamefaqs.com. The information I heavily make use of is located in the "General Tips & Strategies" section of that guide. However, I will give you some quick pointers here. Enemy units will not attack your units when the matchup is heavily disadvantageous to them. You can use this fact to block enemy units' advance through a choke point by placing one of your units in front of a unit that will not attack it. It will in general not move away to make room for a unit that will attack it but rather sit there and block the entire enemy army trying to pass through the choke. Enemy units that have 1 or 2 HP left will generally seek to either join or retreat and heal. Use this knowledge to your advantage to, for instance, send back enemy Bombers to heal up and clog up an airport, limiting enemy deployment while draining funds from the enemy. The AI always seeks to have at least 5 Infantry-type units deployed at any given time. Use this to restrict the enemy from building large units by killing Infantries. The Speed score always depends on a certain perfect speed limit that's a set number of days that's different for every mission. These time limits are given in this guide. After passing the speed limit, your score will gradually drop. Power score is based on the number of units you destroy in one day compared to the total enemy units built in the entire mission. To get perfect power you will need to destroy at least 1/10th of the total number of enemy units built in one day. The current total number of units can be viewed on the intel screen. The requirement is rounded up, so if there are 42 total enemy units built, you'll need to destroy at least 5 of them in one day. Technique score is similar to power score, only it depends on the amount of units lost compared to the total number of units you built. In Campaign or Hard Campaign, you may not lose more than 1/5th of the total number of units you have built throughout the entire mission (in War Room this is 1/10th). This, too, can be viewed from the intel menu. Also, this is rounded up, so if you lost 5 units, you'll have to have built at least 25 units in the end for perfect technique. A good strategy for perfect technique is to mass-produce Infantry from every available base once your victory will soon be secured regardless of what you build. On a final note, since most of the campaign is more or less non-linear, there can be a discrepancy between the order in which the missions are listed here and the order in which you play them. The order I have chosen to list the missions is exactly the same order as the missions appear in the ROM itself. --- ----------------------- 2. Orange Star Campaign ----------------------- Mission 1: Border Skirmish *** CO: Sami Enemy CO: Flak Perfect speed limit: 9 days The main difference with the Normal Campaign map is that Flak now has more units set up against you. It's not a hard mission, though, and if you've just completed the Normal Campaign, it shouldn't be a problem for you at all. If you have trouble beating this mission, you might not be ready for Hard Campaign yet, and I suggest you should practise some more on War Room or the Normal Campaign. The main thing you should focus on in this map is defense. Hold Flak's troops at the bridge and don't let them get any closer. You should directly head towards the city with your Tank and place your indirects correct so they are able to fire on day 2. On the second day, switch your Tank for your MD Tank on the city and hold out against Flak. Most of the time his units won't even attack your MD Tank, so you're pretty safe there. Place Mechs on mountains for vision, but watch out where you'll place your B-Copters, as Flak has some A-Air riding around. Flak will also send some Mechs over the river in the south, so you want to have your A-Air placed there and fire at every unit trying to pass the river. Your Mechs will be of some assistance here. After the A-Airs and Mechs are destroyed, move in with your B-Copters and Mechs. Seek and destroy the Rocket as soon as possible. Once you've done that, the main threat is gone and you can move past the bridge and destroy whatever is left. Destroy 2 units for a perfect power score. --- Mission 2: Orange Dawn **** CO: Max Enemy CO: Flak Perfect speed limit: 34 days The key to advance into Flak's territory with a decent speed score is to destroy the Laser Turret as fast as possible. The best way to do this is to rush towards one of the ports that have an entrance to the inner sea with a loaded APC (where the Laser Turret is located) and save up for a Battleship. Also send two Tanks forward to hold up Flak's troops from entering the island with the base and the two inner ports. If you can lure his troops into laser fire, it shouldn't be much of a problem. After the B-Ship has demolished the Laser Turret (which takes 3 turns to do), capture the base on the island (you should have captured everything else on that island by now) and keep deploying MD Tanks and regular Tanks. Along with the support of the B-Ship, Flak's units should fall easily for your superior numbers, and his choke points will get smashed away. Just remember that Flak mustn't get hold on any property on the island with the base. If you manage to do that, you're safe. It may take some days to mop up Flak's force though, but the time limit is very easy on you this mission. You probably need to destroy 4 units in one turn to get a full power score. --- Mission 3: Andy's Time *** CO: Andy Enemy CO: Flak Perfect speed limit: 17 days This mission is incredibly easy to complete. All you have to do is build a T-Copter and an Infantry on day 1 and send that straight towards the base left of the Black Cannon. But keep out of its range while doing so. Capture the base once you get there (use the T-Copter to block off any unit wanting to attack your Infantry), and deploy a Rocket from it. The Rocket only needs to fire twice at the Black Cannon (it won't even need to move in place from there) and your objective is complete. You can do it in a mere 10 days using this strategy. Note that there is a lab map to get here. It is located on the neutral city 2 spaces north of the left Minicannon. You can send another T-Copter loaded with an Infantry past the Minicannons to capture this city quickly (you want to build it on day 2). Build some more Infantry to capture nearby cities, and send out some B-Copters to hold off Flak's advance a bit and, more importantly, to get the power score. It shouldn't be hard to finish off 2 of Flak's units for a power score of 100. --- Mission 4: Mountain Ops **** CO: Sami Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 23 days This is easy. All you do is spam mechs, basically. The only thing you need is a solid opening: Infantry on the north base, APC on the other. Move Infantry to capture north city, move APC to springboard another Infantry towards the first northern base, start Mech spam on the south base. Begin capturing the northern city, load infantry into APC and unload one space short of its max movement. The Infantry will take two turns to get to the base either way, so if you stop short the APC can move back to pick up the infantry that finishes capturing the city next turn. After that just build Artillery at the north and shield them with Infantry or Mechs, your two starting bases can crank out Mechs. Spam Double Time to move your giant column of Mechs faster and hit harder or Victory March on the HQ. It's long and tedious but not difficult by a long shot. --- Mission 5: Sea For All **** CO: Andy Enemy CO: Hawke Perfect speed limit: 12 days This mission is incredibly easy, if you look closely at what Hawke builds. Just pass the first day. Hawke will build a B-Copter. Just counter by building a Cruiser and watch how it obliterates the copter. Hawke will also build a Fighter and a Bomber occasionally. Counter the Bomber with a Fighter, and the Fighter with either another Fighter or a Cruiser. And this is basically the only strategy you need to win. Keep on destroying whatever Hawke builds within two turns and you should have destroyed everything in no time. If Hawke uses one of his powers, just counter with a Hyper Repair. Do not bother to build any B-Copter at all, or any sea unit other than a Cruiser. If Hawke DOES build a Cruiser, counter it with a Bomber, but he almost never does that. You should be able to win within 10 days and an easy S-Rank. --- Mission 6: POW Rescue **** CO: Max Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 22 days This is fun, if you've taken a gander at the fogless version. Even if you haven't or choose not to, all you need to know is that the opposing side only has 4 anti-air units, and of those only 3 of which will actively move against you unprovoked, *and* they're spaced out such that you'll only deal with 1 at a time. Once they're gone, your copters can move about unchallenged. Remember that the AI sees everything in Fog of War unless it's in a forest or reef. Move all units north except for the Infantry and Mechs, they can hang out on the mountain range to bait and delay incoming rockets, maybe even attack them. Your MD Tanks and copters should have front row seats; you want them to have the widest range of attack. The AI should have moved a number of units into firing range on its first turn, including an A-Air and Rocket. Unfortunately you'll probably have to move into cannon range to destroy some units; remember that cannons target based most expensive unit first and you have no way of repairing your copters unless you join them, so if something must get hit, make it your Tanks. There are cities you can rest on after the first and second cannons anyway. However, if you drop a unit to 1 or 2 HP, it's not really worth the cannon damage to finish it off. If you get your rocket to the forest directly west of the HQ, it can destroy the A-Air and Rocket sitting there, the AI shouldn't bother to move them or anything. --- Mission 7: Test Of Time ***** CO: Andy Enemy CO: Flak Perfect speed limit: 7 days You need to advance quickly in this mission. Don't even bother with whatever is located to the north, it's the units on the bridge that matter, as well as the B-Ship. The B-Ship can easily be taken care of by a Rocket/Artillery combo. Place an Artillery immediately on the city and your two Rockets in its range. The B-Ship will ALWAYS attack one of your rockets and will probably bring it down to 2HP. Blast the B-Ship away the next turn and make sure to keep your crippled rocket safe, since it may be quite useful again once you get your SCOP. Place one MD Tank in the gap between the mountains near the bridge to hold off any units coming from the north. Do NOT destroy them immediately. They'll only waste your precious time. Just let them come. Most likely, the AI will place a pretty weak unit in front of your MD. You can take that one down with an Artillery to 3 or 4 HP then and swap your MD with a regular Tank. The AI won't move or attack with the low HP unit, and therefore blocks every unit there, allowing you to concentrate on the center field. The other MD Tank should OHKO the rocket on the shoal immediately. If you can't see it, place an infantry on a mountain or shove a recon forwards. Next turn, use your MD tank combo to OHKO Infantry and other nasty units. If you can't OHKO them, use your indirects to assist you. Move your loaded APC with you, ready to capture. A few mechs or other units might assault you from the shoals on your way, so have something ready to counter that. Don't let them attack your indirects or APC. Your SCOP should be charged and used here as well. Once you conquer the bridge, there is still one big threat to take care of, which is a Rocket located in the middle of the three eastern forest patches near the lab. Use whatever you have left to spot it and get rid of it. As long as it can't desturb you anymore, you're fine. Place your APC in a safe location and drop your infantry near the lab, so that it can capture the next two turns. There shouldn't be anything left to prevent you from winning, but still make sure to guard it well. You never know. Getting a high score is pretty easy once you know this strategy. You won't lose many units (if at all), and still destroy quite a few with your SCOP. If you are good, you can use your indirects to pick off the HP of the units gathered north of your starting point and destroy them with your SCOP for a good grip on the power score. Using this strategy, I got 300 points in a matter of 6 days. --- Mission 8: Liberation ***** *** Recommended CO: Max Enemy CO: Flak Perfect speed limit: 15 days This mission is very tricky to get a 300 point S-Rank on. It requires a good deal of luck to get the enemy move just right. Flak is absolutely madly deploying units from his factory. It is impossible to stand against his onslaught for very long with the low amount of funds that are provided. So, what you have to do is sneak towards the pipe seam from the right, capture the neutral base, build an MD tank from there and use it to blow up the pipe seam by day 10. You really don't want to drag it out much longer, as Flak will really get on your nerves by then and will probably ruin your chances of pulling off a win. This is even more important if you want to achieve a perfect S-Rank on this mission. Taking much longer will most likely be hurting your power score. Flak will pretty randomly move his units in this map. Sometimes his units will come straight for your main base (which is generally bad) and sometimes they will move towards the pipe seam (which is generally worse). Most of the time, however, his units will either move to the left side of the map, which makes it a lot easier for you. In some cases he will even block his own factory doors, effectively stopping certain units to be produced. Now, on day 1, produce an APC from the eastern base and an Infantry from the base west of it. Use the APC to transport this Infantry to the neutral base, dropping it off two squares below the base, with the APC located on the missile silo. Immediately when you have captured the base, produce an MD Tank from it and try to destroy the seam with it. A Max MD Tank only needs two hits for this. Use the APC to carry another Infantry west from the neutral base and drop it off as close to the seam as possible. It can help out with d ealing with the infantry there that will try to block the MD Tank's path. Also, Flak will probably build an Artillery from the base right below the seam. If you send an Infantry unit in its range, it will attack that Infantry instead of move so Flak can't produce anything else from there. Use one of the two missiles that you have at your disposal and the MD Tank to take it out. The Infantry can block the base that turn so Flak can't produce anything from it again. At your main base below there's not much your units can do aside from defending against whatever Flak sends your way. You can capture the neutral city next to the missile silo to the west, but it's useless to try to capture anything else as that will get you too close to the factory or the bulk of Flak's army. Flak has a missile that he will launch at you just before you can build the MD Tank. A Tank and one or two Infantry will probably be enough to lure it to your main base and not hit anything important. As you'll probably need one missile to deal with that one Artillery, you have one missile left to use. Use this one wisely, probably to help you gain a decent power score. As for getting the power score right, it will entirely depend on how Flak moves his units. Early on, he will probably start harassing your main base with a recon, an A-Air, a tank, a B-Copter or a combination of these. Build whatever is needed to repel this attack, mostly sticking to Mechs as they're cheap. Hopefully you can trap one of these units and keep it alive until you can destroy three units in one day. Most likely this day will be the final day when you blow up the pipe seam. You can build a couple of tanks from the captured neutral base to destroy a few units Flak will eventually send towards the seam. Between this front and the one near your HQ, as well as one remaining missile, you should be able to pull it off. If you can't, it'll probably mean that you have to restart the mission. Alternatively, you can decide to use Sami for this mission and capture the base directly below the pipe seam. Send an Artillery behind your APC on day 2 to destroy the pipe seam in a ridiculously short amount of time. Credits to Dragon Fogel for pointing this out to me. However, I never really got the AI to cooperate enough to let me get 300 points using this strategy. Don't let that bother you much, though, as this strategy is also confirmed to work. If you don't have any luck with Max, you might want to give this option a go. Andy is definetely the worst choice for this map, as he has neither Sami's fast transports to get to the base below the seam in time or Max's direct combat power that really helps him in achieving 100 power. With nothing that works in his advantage here, you really shouldn't be using him. --- --------------------- 3. Blue Moon Campaign --------------------- Mission 9: Toy Box ***** CO: Olaf Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 27 days This mission is pretty easy to win, but annoying to win quickly. There are lots of choke points on this map and annoying locations of bases, making advancing with your units to be quite difficult. The biggest choke point on this map is just north of the eastern neutral base (the one surrounded by mountains on the north, west and south sides). You really need to hold this choke point to stop Lash from advancing. All of the territory behind this choke is then up for grabs. Capture every city in this territory and the neutral base near the choke to build up an advantage in income. Build a sizeable army of tanks and artillery first to hold the choke and later to press through. If you can, try to use your artillery to stop Lash from capturing the neutral base west of the one near the choke. When you receive enough income, build an army of MD Tanks, as they're best suited to take out Lash's units when you have little room to maneuver. Don't forget to take the Lab Map from the city three spaces west of the neutral port. This battle probably will take a good amount of days, but the speed requirement isn't really that strict. As this map prevents any quick advances from both sides, don't bother with Blizzard and stick with Winter Fury to actually do some damage to Lash's units. --- Mission 10: Tanks!!! **** CO: Grit Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 7 days This mission really focuses on Grit's awesome indirect power. Essentially, the Rockets are your only offensive weapon. However, they're so very effective that they can quite easily dispose of Adder's massive tank army. Here are a few pointers for this mission: Most of Adder's tanks will take the northern path. Only a few are likely to go south. So, keep a minimal defence there and have your Rockets mainly positioned among the northern path. Adder has some Mechs trying to scale the mountains. Don't let them! Use your western Mechs to take them out and keep them away from your Rockets. Prioritize what you're going to shoot at. Take out Mechs first, then Neotanks, then whatever crosses your path. Use the missile silos in the east to your advantage. Send your eastern Mechs to seize them. Make sure to keep your recons alive. Without vision it's hard to shoot. If you position them and your artillery at forest tiles with mountains surrounding them on both sides, enemy units can't move in and attack them right away. Favour Snipe Attack above Super Snipe. You won't need the extra +1 range that it gives and you can trigger your COP twice. --- Mission 11: Reclamation ***** CO: Colin Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 20 days This mission is fairly standard in its setup and really not all that hard, considering this this is Hard Campaign. Lash starts with a couple of pre-deployed units, but they won't really move from where they are. Only a Tank and a Recon will come to harass you early on. Basically your strategy is to preferably use Mechs to dispose of the Recon and Tank, then cross the river to capture the middle bases. Then use the three missile silos and superior units to overwhelm Lash. Also immediately send two Infantry south to capture the airport and bases there. The laser is not really in your way as long as you are aware of its firing range. It's probably more often even hurting enemy units instead. Remember that it can't kill your units, so use that to your advantage when firing the missiles. Don't bother with Power of Money. Just use Gold Rush whenever it's useful and build a couple of Bombers. It's shouldn't be hard to win this one. --- Mission 12: T Minus 15 ***** * COs: Olaf, Andy Enemy CO: Flak Perfect speed limit: 12 days This mission requires you to capture the 8 cities surrounding the giant missile within a 15 day time limit. There are essentially three fronts on this map. Firstly, we have the northern front where Flak has a relatively small force. Here, Andy helps you out with a couple of Bombers, B-Copters, a Fighter and an APC. Also, Olaf keeps his most important units here: his two Infantry and Mech units. These are essential to acquire victory, so keep them at full HP at all times. Secondly, we have the middle front. This is where most of the fighting will happen, as Flak's main host resides there as well as the giant missile with the cities surrounding it. These are well guarded by Rockets, Missiles and A-Air that you need to take out first. Olaf has a sizeable army here consisting of MD Tanks, two additional Tanks, a Rocket and a Missile. Thirdly and lastly there is the southern front where Olaf's defenses are at a bare minimum. You only have three A-Air, two Mechs and a Rocket to hold off Flak's aerial division consisting of Bombers and B-Copters. These will head straight for your precious units, so watch out! Fortunately, you can capture the airport just before Flak's Bombers can reach you. Also, Flak will have a single base here and a couple of assorted units. This map all boils down to careful micromanaging your units. At all times, before you move your units into position, check the enemy attack range and make sure that you don't accidentally move into the range of a Rocket or a Missile. If you can do that, you should be able to win this map. Don't forget that indirects can fire across pipes! Use this to your advantage. Now for strategy. Have Olaf on the northern front capture the neutral cities first. Keep the other units out of the range of the Rockets near the missile. Andy should send a Bomber and the Fighter towars Olaf to strike down the pipe seam here. The Fighter won't have much use except for blocking off the entrance to the seam, so no enemy units can hurt the Bomber after it destroyed the silo. The rest of Andy's forces should first dispose of what little units Flak has on the northern front, then move in to the middle section to attack Flak from the rear. On the middle front, you should advance until you reach the range of the enemy Rockets. Keep out of their range until Flak's assault is over. He will first send two Tanks and two A-Air towards you, but keep your MD Tanks at the head of your army to protect your other units. You can dispose of them quite easily. The next wave of units will be larger, but by then you will have managed to pull off a Winter Fury and have moved your indirects into position enough in order to repel this assault as well. Once it's over, Andy will have moved in and finished off the western part of the units protecting the missile. Dispose of the Rockets and Missiles and head in with your Infantry and Mechs to capture the cities. The southern front is easily worst off, but even with this few units you should manage. You can capture the airport before Flak can reach you. Move your A-Air around it, but keep out of Bomber range. Flak should use his first Barbaric Blow before he has the chance to reach the airport with his bombers, doing you little harm with it. Now you have first strike on three of the Bombers with your A-Air. With a bit of luck (as Barbaric Blow is still in effect at this point), your A-Air should survive with enough HP. The Rocket that you have should move north, then west along with the second Mech. You can use them to lure the Bombers and B-Copters into the range of the Missile on the middle front. With your surviving A-Air, you can take out all of the enemy air units. Build a Bomber from the airport when you have acquired the funds to dispose of the Artillery guarding the pipe seam, then have it destroy whatever Flak sends your way. Continually build B-Copters after you've built the Bomber to assist it. Be sure to carefully place the Infantry and Mech units to capture the cities in an efficient way, so you finish the mission objective with a couple of days left to spare. If you finish with 4 days left on the clock, you should receive a perfect speed score. --- Mission 13: Two-Week Test ***** CO: Colin Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 15 days This mission can be really annoying at times, depending how you play it. Fortunately, with a little bit of AI manipulation, it becomes pretty easy. You have to hold your own for 14 days against an opponent with a massive advantage. Fortunately for you, there's a giant choke point separating your base from the rest of the map. All this rest is essentially Lash's. You have just enough time to capture the city just southeast of your eastern base before the enemy reaches you. Use your Tanks to get the enemy units down to 3-4 HP so they will not attack your Tanks or retreat/join (they will only do that when they reach 2 or lower HP). Do not destroy them, as you don't want fresh units to take their place. By doing this, you're preventing Lash from advancing as her own units are in the way. Now, you can focus on building indirects, A-Air, Missiles and Infantry. With the indirects you can stomp whatever is beyond the units blocking Lash's path. The Missiles (you only need one of these) can kill B-Copters that occasionally appear together with your A-Air and hurt the Bomber that will come to strike you after a couple of days have passed. The Bomber will hopefully be left with 1 or 2 HP, so it'll retreat to heal. When it does, it will block off the airport for a couple of days, making your life even easier. The Infantry you will basically build to protect your indirects and the blocking Tanks from air units and enemy Rockets. Also, when the B-Ship does decide to start harassing you, have some Infantry work as a decoy for that as well. Keep retreating damaged infantry and replace them with fresh ones. On the last day, destroy enough units for a perfect power score while making sure Lash can't suddenly destroy enough units to hurt your technique score. --- Mission 14: Nature Walk ***** *** CO: Grit Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 14 days Just one unit needs to reach the HQ in order to complete this mission. This mission would've been hard, were it not for the vast forest that lies in front of you to hide in. Moving through the forests at all times will keep you safe from harm in most cases. Also, when no enemy unit can spot you at the beginning of their turn, the Black Cannons will not fire. Advancing slowly and carefully is the trick here, picking off the enemy units with your indirects and tanks whenever you can, making sure no enemy units can spot any of yours at the beginning of their turn. Keep in mind that the AI cheats in FoW and can see everything that's not dived or located in a forest/reef with no enemy unit adjacent to it. On day 1, move all of your units into forests, as there are enemy units close by right away. Get rid of these, then advance north. If you have the opportunity to pick off enough units in one day for a perfect power score, make sure to get it. The units near your HQ will not attack you, so you can safely ignore them. You should be able to win this map without losing a single unit. --- Mission 15: Neotanks!? ***** * Recommended CO: Colin Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 14 days This map requires a bit of rushing to get to the Lab before the timer runs out. Since you start out with little funds and a lot to build, I recommend you choose Colin. Initially, you want to build a good deal of Infantry to capture the few properties that you can easily get and to fire the missiles. After that, build an A-Air, an APC and a couple of tanks and rush to the Lab. Early on, Lash will send four B-Copters towards you, keep a Neotank, an MD Tank and a Rocket near the Lab and will try to take the middle right base with a Mech, Tank and Artillery. Everything else will mainly stick to the upper left part, which is none of your concern. The Infantry units that you will build on Day 1 should move towards the northern and western missile silos and the eastern one should head for the cities. On day 2 you build another three infantry and send them in the same directions. Preferably, you want to fire two missiles on day 3 (one from the northern two silos and one from the western two silos). You want to fire these at the four B-Copters, the Mech, the Tank and the Artillery. If you're lucky, you can hit all seven units, bringing everything down to 4 HP. The B-Copters will go for the northern infantry that just fired one of the northern missiles. However, it should survive to fire another missile the next day on the four B-Copters. An A-Air can take care of the rest, as the 1 HP copters will all join together. The pre-deployed Tanks that you have should at first protect the capturing Infantry in the shouth so the B-Copters won't go after them, but as soon as the copters have moved west, you can rush in and kill the Tank, Mech and Artillery before the Mech has the chance to finish capturing the base, making your life a lot easier. Load one of your eastern infantry into an APC and have it go to the Lab. You might want to capture the base first, but it's not really necessary. In the west, it's possible to capture the neutral airport. You need to build a good amount of infantry and an artillery. An enemy A-Air will try to bring down the Infantry, but if you keep joining it with fresh Infantry and shoot it when the Artillery arrives, you can eventually capture it. Use it to help you get a full power score. The A-Air that destroyed the B-Copter can come in to help at this front. Keep an infantry close by to fire the remaining western missile. The three remaining missiles all should be fired at the Neotank, Rocket and MD Tank protecting the Lab. The Lab doesn't heal units, so hit them to 1 HP. A Tank or three and the APC with the loaded Infantry can finish off these units and capture the Lab before anything can come in from the northwest to prevent you capturing it. Destroy three units in one day for a perfect power score. --- Mission 16: Factory Blues ***** ** Recommended COs: Colin, Kanbei Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 21 days The recommended COs on this mission are Colin and Kanbei. Kanbei (as well as the other Yellow Comet COs) can be unlocked by beating the Yellow Comet campaign first. The factory mission of that campaign (The Hunt's End) is easiest with Max as assisting CO anyway, so it's really recommended that you finish that mission before doing this one. Kanbei's forces will be pretty much only pre-deployed in this map, so his strength helps a ton. Colin I prefer over Grit to use here, as the map is very open and Colin's cheap units makes you able to produce expensive units quickly. However, Grit is still a decent choice on this map if you mass produce Artillery and have Kanbei act as a shield for them. Olaf is immediately out as a viable option, as his snow will hamper Kanbei's forces more than Lash's. Kanbei will deal with most of the combat. With him, capture the two cities near his starting location and later on take the western airport. From there he can build some B-Copters and take control of the entire western side. Another important job for him is to block the factory doors by placing his units in front of them. Once that is accomplished, any difficulty that might have existed on this map will be gone. There are three missiles on this map. Two of them are located at around the middle. Lash will pretty soon head for these missiles. If she manages to fire any, they are almost certain to hit the bulk of Kanbei's army, significantly reducing his fighting strength. You do not want to let this happen. So first have his units move towards the center, so they can deal with keeping Lash away from the properties there, as well as the missiles. Also, this allows Kanbei to instantly deal with anything that's produced from the factory. The A-Air should move north first, though, as three B-Copters will close in to attack early on. The A-Air should have no problem with them whatsoever. Once the copters are down, one of the A-Air can finish off the Artillery protecting the western airport and have one of your Mechs capture it. By then, you will probably have reached the factory doors, removing Lash's largest threat. Whoever you chose as your BM CO, his role will be to support Kanbei in advancing and capturing the eastern airport. First focus on capturing every property close to you, then head for the airport. The Artillery guarding it is stationary, so you might be able to slip an Infantry past it and capture it. From there, produce Bombers and have them head for the pipe seam. As supporting units, Grit will rely mainly on Artillery, while Colin will use his Gold Rush whenever he can in order to mass produce stuff like MD Tanks or Neotanks if you have those. Of course, once you have the airport, both should switch to Bombers (Grit needs at least one to take out the seam). Don't forget that the Blue Moon army needs to get the power score, which probably means that you'll have to destroy at least 5 or 6 units in one day. With Kanbei wrecking everything in sight this might be a problem. So keep in mind to keep a couple of units alive and move your units into position to have BM destroy enough in a single day. Grit won't have much trouble with this when he uses his powers, and Colin should have enough strong units deployed by then to pull it off without too much trouble as well. Once you have it, destroy the pipe seam with a Bomber or a Neotank, maybe in combination with a Kanbei B-Copter coming in from the west. --- ------------------------ 4. Yellow Comet Campaign ------------------------ Mission 17: Silo Scramble **** CO: Kanbei Enemy CO: Flak Perfect speed limit: 18 days This mission is not all that hard. Your main concern here will be rushing to the farthest properties to prevent Flak from getting a foothold anywhere. At the very least, you'll want to capture the bases on the small outer islands and fire the missiles on there before Flak can reach them. Also you have to take over the middle island. If you can do all that, you can keep firing missiles on everything Flak has and complete the mission quickly enough. If you're good, you can even stop Flak from capturing both the base somewhat south of the northwestern small island and the base next to the northern port, south of the bridge leading towards the center island. If you can achieve this, you're really in good shape, but in order to do that you'll need to fire three missiles on each of the two capturing infantries and then reach it with a Tank or A-Air to finish it off. When you've successfully foiled Flak's plans at these parts using an army of Tanks combined with a barrage of missiles, he'll go down easily. Just keep rushing for the bases and the missiles. --- Mission 18: Show Stopper ***** ** CO: Sonja Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 38 days This mission starts off tricky as Adder will have a good amount of units ready to attack you, while you have only a few forests to hide in and no choke points to take advantage of. So this means that you'll just have to hold off Adder with whatever means you have until his initial assault is over. After that, you can slowly advance and complete your objective, which is destroying the 8 minicannons surrounding the giant fortress. HQ capture is also an option, but since the HQ is all the way to the northwest and guarded with B-Copters to boot, destroying the cannons is a lot quicker. Your main concern when keeping Adder at bay will be guarding the two neutral bases. As long as Adder can't capture them, you can outlast him easily enough. It's possible to send an APC with infantry toward the northern neutral base and capture it before Adder arrives there to stop you. To accomplish that, you'll have to build an APC from your northwest base and an Infantry from another on day 1 and drop it off in the forest three spaces south of the northern base. You'll have just enough time to capture it and get the Infantry safely back to a forest. You can guard it by placing an Artillery in a nearby forest. Most of the time, Adder won't spot it and you can pick off the Mechs heading towards it. Don't bother deploying anything from it yet, though. That'd be basically suicide at this point. The APC you an use later on to ferry an Infantry towards the neutral base to the west, but only attempt this once you're sure the road is clear. Adder will immediately send a Bomber assisted with three B-Copters towards you from the west. Build two A-Air to deal with them, but keep them pretty close to your base, so the Bomber doesn't get first strike. He'll also have a few Recons near your base that will move in to strike. An A-Air together with a Recon of your own can take them out easily enough. The rest of your build pattern will be pretty straightforward. You'll mainly deploy Tanks and Artillery at first to repel Adder's ground forces. Then, when the coast is clear, send som infantry to capture the remaining properties before advancing west beyond the mountain range. At this point, you'll want to have a couple of Rockets and MD Tanks. Carefully use forests to hide and Recons to scout ahead. You'll quickly discover that Adder has a pair of Rockets guarding both passes. Both are placed on cities, one on the north and one on the south. Also, in the north is a B-Ship tactically placed to make your life miserable. Use a pair of Rockets of your own, placed in forests to take out the rockets. For the B-Ship you'll need a couple of Artillery and the Rocket that took out the northern Rocket and maybe an MD Tank for the final blow. Try to distract it by having an infantry attempt a capture at one of the cities. The B-Ship is likely to attack the infantry instead, allowing you to blow it to bits with your indirects. Once these units are down, the Minicannons are safe to destroy, using mainly MD Tanks. Or are they? Nope, Adder still has some units positioned near the cities to the west. Among those are a Neotank, an MD Tank, yet another Rocket and yes, another B-Ship as well. The best way to get rid of them is to use your MD Tanks as bait for the Neotank and MD Tank by advancing them forward slowly until they attack you. Preferably you'll want them to attack while Counter Break is active. Have some indirects and fresh MD Tanks stationed behind them to take them out. To take out the B-Ship, use the same strategy as with the previous one by having one infantry work as bait by attempting to capture the western one of the two cities south of the fortress. At the same time, move your indirects into position and blast it into oblivion next turn. The Rocket is hiding in one of the forests. Use some tanks coming in from the north to flush it out and kill it. It's probably in a forest just west of the fortress. Finally, there are still a few B-Copters guarding Adder's HQ. Watch out not to move in their range with anything other than an A-Air, as they will attack you as soon as you move into their range. Also, the southwesternmost city should be captured, as this is the city which holds the secret Lab Map. Make sure to get it before you smash the final minicannon. Once you get it, destroy the final cannon and complete the mission. Phew. --- Mission 19: Sensei's Return ***** CO: Sensei Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 27 days Sensei is really suited for a mission like this one. Unfortunately, Adder is aware of this and has several anti-air devices deployed. He also really likes to build A-Air and missiles, so watch out for everything that flies. Other than that, you shouldn't have too many problems with this mission. Have your deployed two Infantry move west immediately. They should take the neutral base and city closest to your base. Build two Infantry and a T-Copter. On the next day, ferry the first Infantry north towards the neutral base in the far north. You'll be able to capture it before the enemy can. On day 2, build another T-Copter and have it ferry the other infantry towards the base in the middle, with the airport directly adjacent to it. Beware of moving across the ocean, though, as Adder has some Cruisers roaming the seas, ready to blast any air unit foolish enough to try to cross the ocean. You can probably keep out of range, though. You should be able to drop off the Infantry on day 4 in range of the airport. After that, have it capture the base there. Once you have gained control of all these properties, it'll be a walk in the park to take out Adder. On the south front, after you've captured the base and the city, Adder will start attacking you. Use some Tanks and a pair of Artillery supported by Mechs to fend them off. Don't forget that Sensei's Mechs really pack a punch. You don't really need any more assistance here in order to hold your own. You can build a fleet of MD Tanks supported with the occasional Rocket that you'll build from the northern base that you captured. Maybe have some B-Copters assist them, but be very careful with deploying them, as Adder probably has 3 Missiles waiting for you near his HQ and probably an A-Air as well. And if you didn't take out the Cruisers yet, beware of them too. A B-Copter can take on a Cruiser when it gets first strike, though, especially during COP or SCOP. Dispose of enemy units, block Adder's bases and capture the HQ. --- Mission 20: Duty & Honor ***** * CO: Kanbei Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 17 days This mission can be very annoying, as you really need to rush forward in order to save your precious cities from being captured. Adder will complete his capture by day 10 or day 11, depending on how he moves his units and when he gets his powers. Keeping out of laser fire is vital, as you can't afford to let your units get hurt that badly. It fires on every even day (day 2, 4, 6, ...), so move forward when it won't fire. Careful micromanaging your units is the key to victory on this map. Take out the northern laser quickly using one of your Rockets. This will open up the upper part of the road for you. Have your Mechs scale the mountains east of your starting point. They can take out the enemy units there, including the MD Tank (Kanbei's units are ridiculously strong, so they will have little trouble even with that). After that, they should head towards the second laser and destroy that using more indirects and one of your Mechs. Take out the enemy Tank, Artillery and A-Air inbetween the laser paths using your MD Tanks. Keep rushing forward with them at every opportunity and have as many units move through as possible without putting them in laser range on even days. If you are too slow, the enemy Neotanks will reach the choke point at the bridge, along with a couple of Artillery. If they reach you, it'll be hard to push through. Have every unit available try to bust through the choke and reach the cities. Once you've foiled Adder's capture, mopping up the rest of the units is easy. --- Mission 21: A Mirror Darkly ***** CO: Sonja Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 9 days This mission is pretty fun and easy to complete. Lash needs to move one unit on your HQ in order to win the mission. All you have to do to make sure that that does not happen is to move one of your MD Tanks on it and keep it there at all times. The other one should be placed on a nearby city and attack from there. Move the Artillery and Rockets in the center field into the forests just southwest and southeast respectively. Lash will have trouble locating them there while you will have no trouble shooting things. Positioning of the units behind the mountain ranges is pretty straightforward. Have Mechs move on the mountains for vision, but in such a way that they can't be hit directly. The rest should be placed as close to the mountains as possible so they can strike the farthest. If Lash sends Mechs over the mountains, take those out first. The Neotanks have the next highest priority, as they can bring down the MD Tanks while at full HP. Artillery or Rockets threatening to take out any indirects or Mechs also should be taken care of immediately. After that, the only possible threat comes from the enemy MD Tanks, but they are so slow that they can be picked off by your indirects pretty easily. Lash won't attack your MD Tanks with anything else, so all other units are just cannon fodder for your indirects. Low HP Neotanks and hurt MD Tanks also won't attack them. Once the scary units are dealt with, have the MD Tank on the city and the Mechs move in to sweep the area of surviving units and complete the mission in 9 or 10 days. --- Mission 22: Foul Play ***** ** CO: Sensei Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 13 days This mission is not all that hard, as you've been given command of a good six Bombers and three B-Copters to wipe out Adder's large number of pre-deployed forces. Unfortunately, they can't reach the area where your HQ is located right away, as there are some pipes in between your air units and the HQ area. Your objective is to destroy the three minicannons, but for now don't worry about them yet and focus on taking out Adder's army first. Your small forces near your HQ will probably be overrun by Adder, but the trick is to hold out there for as long as you can so the Bombers and B-Copters can come in to help. What you want to do in order to hold out the longest is to move both your MD Tanks to the western choke and build a Tank from the east base on day 1 in order to keep the eastern one. That lone tank will be enough to hold Adder's advance from the right. Unfortunately, the MD Tanks will have a bigger problem holding the western choke due to Adder's Artillery. Have one standing on the city and move the other one northwest of it, so only one unit can attack one MD Tank initially. It'll probably have to retreat soon enough to keep out of Artillery range, but make sure to keep your block as long as possible. The Artillery on your HQ should focus on taking out the pipe seam and the A-Air south of it. Take out the A-Air first, then the seam. Build a Mech from the western base on day 1 to take out the seam quicker and head to the properties beyond it. In the southern front, the B-Copters and Bombers should split up. Have one half move north to destroy the seams leading to your HQ and have the other half take the long way around the eastern section and destroy Adder's forces there. Adder has an Infantry heading to a missile silo right away. Do not let it fire! If it does, it's certain to hit a Bomber cluster, which hurts you pretty badly. Rush a bomber towards it as fast as you can in order to stop it. Use your Bombers and Copters on day 1 to take out the nearby MD Tank and Artillery. It will trigger Adder's COP, which brings one of his Tanks in the northern front just north of the city holding the eastern choke. If you use the tank that you built from the eastern base on the first day to strike it from the city, it probably won't be doing anything after that. It'll keep on its spot, blocking the eastern choke. You now only have to worry about Adder coming in from the west and his Infantry and Mechs trying to scale the mountains. You should be able to hold most of Adder's forces out of your base until the Bombers arrive. After that, this mission will be a walk in the park. Make sure to use Airborne Assault. This will cause some Mechs to spawn from the cities in the northwest. Use them to take out Adder's Tanks there, as well as the Rockets, then have them fire the two nearby missiles to decimate Adder's army. There are also a base and an airport to be captured there. Once you have that airport, you can spam Bombers from it and move in to destroy the cannons. --- Mission 23: Sea Of Hope ***** ** Recommended COs: Sensei, Sami Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 18 days The heavy focus on using air units to rush to the enemy lab makes Sensei an obvious choice for this mission. You can win this map either by capturing the lab or routing the enemy. Both require the same strategy, though, and it probably won't matter in which way you win. I'd recommend to keep both options open, so you can still capture the HQ even if you have trouble routing the enemy. I doubt that routing will give you that much trouble though. You've been given the help of a small OS force controlled by Sami. She'll be able to deal with a lot of units that are heading for your base. Her usefulness drops later on during the mission, though, so use her B-Ships as much as you can. She's especially handy for taking out the Neotanks heading to your base early on. You'll be able to take them out before any serious harm can be done. Sensei's position is a little bit tricky in the beginning, as a couple of Bombers will be closing in on you immediately. Your best option to defend against them is to have your Cruiser advance to take one Bomber to low HP (probably a kamikaze attack, though), have only one Bomber move to Sami's forces and have her Cruiser take out that one before it can destroy more than one B-Ship and have the remainder taken out by an A-Air. Use some Infantry to lure the Bombers to the small island with the port and the airport and take them out from there (also be sure to capture the properties here as fast as possible). Sami will have dealt with the Neotanks by now, removing the only real threats in this mission. From here on, it'll be all about mass producing air units, specifically Bombers, and take out everything in sight. Eventually, you'll reach the island with the lab, where Adder has gathered a large portion of his army together. Just watch out for the Missiles and A-Air when you're going to land an assault here. You might be able to jam a T-Copter through and have it capture the Lab while using other air units to prevent Adder from attacking the Infantry/Mech, but you'll probably rout Adder just as soon as you can pull this off. --- Mission 24: The Hunt's End ***** ** Recommended COs: Kanbei, Max Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 25 days The final Yellow Comet mission is not as hard as it looks. Kanbei and Max is the ideal team here and makes this mission pretty easy to complete. As Max's Bomber is the only thing here that can destroy both the pipe seam and the minicannon guarding it in one hit, he's definetely the CO you want to use for this task. Kanbei's superior strength makes him the best YC CO to use. Sonja and Sensei don't have anything going for them here, so it's best not to use them. Max's job is easy. Capture the port, build a Lander, ferry an infantry to the airport in the northwest. Capture the airport and build two Bombers. Fly them towards the pipe seam avoiding anything that can hurt them. Destroy both the minicannon and the seam on the same day, possibly with the help of your powers for extra movement. You don't really have to worry about anything else, but you'll want to capture all of the properties on your own small island and the ones next to the airport. In some cases, Adder's Fighter, which he will produce from the factory, will come to harass you. Make sure to keep you Bombers out of its range (keep Adder's power bar in mind!) and build a Fighter of your own to take it out if it gets annoying. Hopefully, you won't need that long. You might also want to build a B-Copter at some point to assist your Bombers (especially if Adder decides to shield the minicannon with a unit). Kanbei's job isn't much harder than Max's. With him, you'll want to stall Adder as much as possible. The best place for that would be the narrow choke points to the east of Kanbei's starting location. The mountain range there splits up the path in two, with forests and a neutral base providing ample defensive cover and even a place to deploy from. Kanbei will be virtually indestructible here, so dig in and let Adder come to you. Adder will field lots of units, so keep an eye on the unit count and make sure to destroy enough units to get the power score. With a couple of Rockets, MD Tanks and a few other units like Mechs, Infantry, Artillery, Tanks and A-Air, it should be no problem to achieve perfect power, especially if you use your SCOP to get it. --- ----------------------- 5. Green Earth Campaign ----------------------- Mission 25: Sea Fortress ***** CO: Eagle Enemy CO: Hawke Perfect speed limit: 10 days This mission is pretty fun as well as pretty easy. You have a superior air force at your command to take down Hawke's air units and the minicannons. It's actually possible to finish this mission in a matter of three days, given correct AI movement, good positioning of your units and a Lightning Strike. There's not really much to tell about this mission. Hawke will send some air units your way, which you can easily get rid of. Keep your Bombers alive above all else, as these are the units that will destroy the minicannons. Try to pull off a Lightning Strike before Hawke can use Black Storm. In the three day strategy, this is an essential part, but even if you're not aiming for that it's good to try. You don't want to kill off all the enemy B-Copters for this just yet, but rather use your planes to create a wall around your copters to protect them. Use a Lightning Strike to punch through Hawke's units and destroy the Black Cannons. Watch out for the A-Air and the missiles and you'll be ok. --- Mission 26: Drake's Dilemma ***** ** COs: Drake, Kanbei Enemy CO: Hawke Perfect speed limit: 16 days This mission is really easy to complete, but what makes it difficult is getting the power score. Remember, Drake is the one who needs to destroy at least 1/10th of the total enemy units built in order to achieve a 100 power score. But first there's the Black Cannons to be dealt with. In order to destroy them you'll have to move two B-Ships south through the reefs towards the two cannons. Just have them head south through the reefs at all times except for one moment, which is when you have to move all the way south through the narrow strait. Don't worry, you won't be attacked here. Have the first B-Ship move into range of the western cannon and the second one stand here as it can just hit the eastern one from there. If you attack both cannons at least once before Hawke can use Black Storm, you will finish this mission by day 8. If you do, you'll probably have to destroy 5 units with Drake in one day. Now to destroy these five units, the trick is to use your Subs for vision (have them dive or sit in reefs), your two remaining B-Ships in reefs ready to destroy some enemy units and your Cruisers as bait for enemy Rockets in order to charge up Typhoon. Don't let the Cruisers get destroyed, but join them all together after they've been hit by a Rocket. Build a Tank and two Recons from your bases in the far south to destroy some additional units. Kanbei's role is to deal damage to Hawke's units so Drake has something to destroy. He has a missile near his base to hit a cluster of units and he can build Recons (after two Infantry of course) to hit some Infantry coming in, as well as providing enough vision. With two B-Ships in the north, the second B-Ship that you sent south, the Tank and the two Recons as well as Typhoon, you should be able to destroy enough units in one day for perfect power. Try to destroy as cheap as possible units, like Recons and Infantry, so Hawke won't charge up his power bar as much. --- Mission 27: Sinking Feeling ***** **** CO: Jess Enemy CO: Lash Perfect speed limit: 15 days This mission isn't nearly as hard as the mission difficulty indicates, so don't feel intimidated by it. Your objective is to get rid of all the nine B-Ships within 17 days. However, if you want a perfect speed score, you'll have to finish it in 15 days. To do this, you'll have to advance quickly and build a lot of indirects, since those are practically the only things that can damage these ships properly. Also, Lash will be sending some air units your way after she manages to capture the airport in the far north. For that, you'll need to keep your A-Air alive in order to deal with them. First off, you'll want to capture the port with your Mech. After that's done, build a Lander, load the mech into it and ferry it to the small island in the west. The lab map is located in the southernmost city of this island, so be sure to head right for it and capture it. After that, have the Mech capture the other properties. Once you accumulate enough funds to build a B-Ship, build one. You'll want at least two in order to destroy the enemy B-Ships. Have the first one you build take out the Rockets southwest of the B-Ships before moving into range of the B-Ships. Don't forget to watch out for the two Subs. The rest of the units should move east. Between the river and the sea to the northeast, you'll want to build a wall with your Tanks and MD Tanks in order to face Lash's largest assault. Use the one city you have in this corner to your advantage, as it's providing excellent defense. Stick your indirects behind your tank wall and deal with the enemy assault as best as you can. You'll charge Overdrive in the process, which will allow you to plow through the enemy units and move onward. If you can get a Neotank down to 1 or 2 HP, that's great. Don't kill it, just have it retreat to the northern cities to heal. This will drain Lash's funds a great deal and will stall her air unit production. Now, have the Infantry loaded in the APC and move it towards the eastern base along with your A-Air, remaining Tanks, MD Tanks and the Recon. Destroy the few Infantry Lash has here (the one capturing the base and probably another one which she built) and capture it. Also have one Tank deal with the stationary Artillery protecting the neutral properties in the southeast so your remaining two Mechs can capture those. Move the Rockets south of the southern minicannon so it can take it out. Then have it move towards the B-Ships along with the Artillery. Keep a close eye on the range of all remaining enemy units and the remaining minicannon. The air units can be annoying, but can be dealt with. The copters can be blocked by putting A-Air in front of them. The Bomber Lash will eventually make can be lured down if it doesn't like to close in. Your Recon (at full health) placed on one of the cities is excellent bait for it, for example. If you manage to bust it down to 1 or 2 HP afterwards, it'll go back to the airport to heal, keeping both the bomber and new air units out of your hair for probably as long as you need to finish the mission. If you already have two B-Ships deployed, you can build some Rockets and Artillery from the base in the east that you captured. You'll want some to deal with the B-Ships. Use one to destroy the minicannon (maybe with MD Tank assistance). At this point, you might also want to take out the remaining Rockets with your two B-Ships and the Artillery with Tanks or A-Air. Now all threats have been removed (maybe there's still that healing Neotank; keep hitting it so it remains at low health or destroy it if you sent back the Bomber). Finish off the B-Ships and clear the mission. --- Mission 28: To The Rescue ***** *** COs: Eagle, Sami Enemy CO: Adder Perfect speed limit: 11 days This mission is annoying. Adder has a large force deployed in order to prevent you from reaching Sami. As it's your job this mission to protect Sami, she may not lose all of her units. Furthermore, you'll have to destroy the four laser turrets in order to win this mission. That, or capture Adder's HQ. The latter is much harder to achieve, though, so I suggest the former. The most important thing you need to do during this mission is to be really careful where you place your units. The number of anti-air units Adder has deployed is huge. Also, you need to keep an eye on the laser turrets, as they fire every day and are placed in such a way that it's pretty hard not to place units in their range of fire. On top of that, Adder's powers grant all of his units more movement, something which you also should keep in mind while advancing. You don't want an enemy A-Air to tear apart your carefully placed Bomber just because you forgot to keep track of Adder's power bar. So, at all times, watch out! You are warned. Before Eagle can reach Sami, he first has to deal with two batches of air units heading his way. Fortunately, you've been given the means to repel this assault. You'll have to split up your Fighters and A-Air. It's probably best to have the A-Air move north with one Fighter and have the other two Fighters move west instead. Some of the air units are likely to part from the main hosts and head for Sami instead. Ignore those, Sami will have to deal with them. Concentrate on taking out what's heading for you. Above all, you'll want to destroy the Fighters first, as they can really hurt your Bombers. And you'll want your Bombers alive above all, as they will be your trump card for destroying the laser turrets. If it means you'll have to sacrifice your A-Air and/or Fighters, then so be it. Your B-Copters and Bombers should move northwest, in the direction of the laser turrets. You'll want them out of the way from the enemy air force and have them reach Sami as soon as possible. Take out whatever ground units are blocking your advance and move in. Destroy the southeastern laser turret in the process, but don't forget to keep out of range of the remaining ones. When Adder's air force is defeated, have whatever is left also move toward Sami's place. Fighters can come in handy to take out a few B-Copters as well as preventing Adder from moving in with ground units. Blocking their path with a well-placed Fighter might just give you the breathing room you need to finish the mission. Additionally, you might want to capture the neutral airport south of Sami's place with a loaded T-Copter. You might want to have the APC move east of Sami's place and capture the neutral base, but wherever you move it, I doubt that it'll be very useful to you. That airport, however, is, as you can build a Bomber from there and have it destroy the southwestern laser turret. The last two turrets you might want to blast simultaneously, as there are Missiles guarding both. If you have a Lightning Strike saved up, that'll work perfectly. You might've used it earlier to repel Adder's remaining air force, though. It shouldn't matter. Once you've reached Sami, move your two Bombers from there and move in when you can. As a final note, Sami herself should just dig in and sit it out. Place the Rockets and Missiles in such a way that they can at least pick off a few units before they go down. The Mechs can at least get rid of the Infantry. The A-Air is likely to live if it doesn't have a Bomber get first strike on it. Use it to destroy Infantry and incoming B-Copters and Bombers. The APC should be taken good care of. Place it out of range of all enemy units. Since it can't attack, use it as the primary unit to protect. Once you meet up with Eagle, Sami should be safe. --- Mission 29: Navy Vs Air ***** ** CO: Drake Enemy CO: Hawke Perfect speed limit: 28 days This mission shouldn't be all that hard to beat. This map got completely turned over from the Normal Campaign version, but it's just as easy to beat. Hawke will advance very slowly on ground, so it shouldn't be much of a problem for you to gain a lot of ground quickly. You should be able to reach and capture the neutral base in the middle long before Hawke will reach it and even stop him from capturing the neutral airport and claiming it for your own. When the entire center section is yours, just overwhelm Hawke with superior forces. Dealing with the early air units is fairly standard. You have been given enough anti-air units to deal with all of them. Beware of the Bombers, though, as they can easily wipe out a Cruiser when they get first strike. It's not too bad if you lose some, though. In the mean time, just keep advancing on the ground, prioritizing on grabbing the neutral base in the middle. You should also capture the small island on the south with the neutral properties on them and at least fire the missiles on the northern island on whatever Hawke has that's annoying you the most at the moment. Hawke will build most of his air units from the northernmost airport, so it might not be entirely possible to capture all of the properties on the northern island. It doesn't matter, though, as long as Hawke doesn't get them instead. If you can, try to send back air units to airports to heal. This will halt air unit production for a while from that airport while draining a lot of Hawke's income. Power and technique shouldn't be much of a problem here, just overwhelm Hawke with a superior ground assault and he should go down easily. --- Mission 30: Rain Of Fire ***** ** CO: Jess Enemy CO: Hawke Perfect speed limit: 21 days The map is the same here as in the Normal Campaign version. Even the volcano pattern is exactly the same as before. And as with that version, the key to winning this mission is memorizing that volcano pattern. The volcano has two different hit patterns that it follows: one on odd numbered days and one on even numbered days. Every lava blast will deal 5 HP damage to friend and foe alike. Use this to your advantage. Try to lure Hawke's forces in range of a volcano blast on the correct day and have them get hit by it while avoiding getting hit as much as you can. The rest of the mission is pretty straightforward. You'll have to split up your forces early on, so you can grab the bases in the northwest and southeast corners. Hawke will also send his units toward them, so both clusters of neutral cities and bases will be the main battlefield. Getting the westernmost neutral base is easy enough, but after that Hawke will have reached your forces in the north. Try to at least keep him from grabbing the northernmost neutral base and hold his forces at bay at the northern bridge. If Hawke can't get to capture most of the properties, the advantage will be yours and you can push through. Once you drive away Hawke from these properties, the northern front will be yours. On the southern front, you will get company from Hawke before you'll even be able to reach the bases in the southeast. Keep Hawke from capturing properties here as well, but first deal with his early forces near the cities in the south. Of the cluster of three cities there, the easternmost one will get hit by the volcano on odd numbered days. Use this knowledge to your advantage and lure in Hawke's tanks to attack an Infantry capturing the adjacent city from that direction, so it'll get hit by the volcano. Having the volcano do most of the damage will cut your losses to a minimum and makes you able to advance somewhat quicker. Once you also possess the soutern bases, dealing with Hawke should be no problem at all. --- Mission 31: Danger x9 ***** **** Recommended CO: Eagle Enemy CO: Hawke Perfect speed limit: 9 days Use Eagle. In this mission you need to have a T-Copter rushing towards the lab to capture it. The lab area will be empty, and the main enemy forces are located in the south-east of the map, with some units near the location you start from with your B-Copters. You also have the option to rout the enemy in these nine days, which is very well possible, if not easier. Use your Cruiser for vision and to take out one of the B-Copters, which will be approaching your base immediately. Build an A-Air and take care of the B-Copters quickly. build a Recon in the middle to help provide your Rocket with vision. The Rocket should be able to fire every day, until its ammunition is depleted. Make sure your Recon doesn't get destroyed by the enemy Rocket. Use the Rocket to take out the Neotank and the A-Air, as well as the enemy Rocket and the Artillery if it threatens your Recon. Advance with your B-Copters, build a T-Copter and Infantry to capture the lab and build an Infantry to capture the airport in the middle section. Also quickly build a Bomber from your airport, and go take out the pipe seam and then advance southwards or take out the damaged units that go to the city to heal. When approaching the time limit, build Bombers from the middle airport. Take out the pipe seam leading to the front and attack. Don't build units from the south base the first few days, only when you're definitely winning. Try to use the Mech there to attack the enemy Artillery and as such expose itself and lure some Tanks towards it. Any unit that it can draw away from the choke near your Rocket is one less unit obstructing your advance towards Hawke's main area and the lab itself. Use a Lightning Strike at the right time and use it to break through enemy lines (the Recon will provide you with enough vision). If you manage to rout Hawke or capture the lab in less than nine days, you did a really good job on this mission. --- Mission 32: Great Sea Battle ***** **** Recommended COs: Eagle, Andy, Sonja Enemy CO: Hawke Perfect speed limit: 21 days Use a team consisting of Eagle, Andy and Sonja (you may want to place someone else on the YC force, but Sonja will make it the easiest for you here). Eagle will make up your main attacking force consisting of a dominance of air units. Andy should build land units to support Eagle's assault and defend against Hawke's early attacks. Sonja should try to take out the southern Black Cannon and try to claim that island, heading for the pipe seam. She will then move in with a Rocket to destroy the pipe seam and completing the mission. Remember that Eagle counts for power and technique on this mission. One important thing to keep in mind on this mission is to try to have Hawke build as few units as possible. Because of the Factory and the huge amount of bases and cities on the map, Hawke will always quickly rebuild units whenever he loses them. However, not destroying Hawke's units will result in him reaching the unit cap (max. 50 units deployed per army). In that case, he will not be able to build anything anymore. The factory will then also stop spawning units. To get a good power score, this is essential. This will also cause Hawke to fill up his power bar more slowly as you aren't dealing him that much damage. Another important thing to notice is that you'll be able to fire two missiles early on (both Eagle and Andy have one close to their base). Both of these missiles should be fired at the lone Mech on the island with the southern Black Cannon. This will reduce its HP to 4. Now, Sonja can come in with her Lander loaded with Infantry and remove the Mech from the base before it has finished capturing it. Now the island is up for grabs for Sonja. The strategy to beat this map is to have Eagle advancing north quickly, grabbing the airport on the forested island north of the bridge as soon as possible. He should also have the main part of the cities on the western island. Build a few B-Copters in the beginning from your airports, but switch to building Bombers and Fighters rather soon. Use the B-Copters, a Tank and an Artillery to take out the units on the island south-east of Andy's base. Once the area is cleared there, move on to support Andy with Fighters and Bombers. Build both air units according to your current needs (buy a Fighter if Hawke is building more air units, buy Bombers if he builds ground units. When you can, help Andy destroy the northern Black Cannon, as well as some of the minicannons that get in your way. Once Sonja is in place to destroy the pipe seam and you have placed your units correctly, destroy enough units to get a perfect power score. Andy should hold off Hawke's forces until Eagle arrives. He will have a rough time with this, so it's best to stick with the two choke points on the island with the northern Black Cannon. Destroy the Black Cannon using Artillery and then try to hold off Hawke who will be spawning lots of units from the factory and send them straight to Andy. A support force of A-Air and Missiles might help you with this. Try to take the base near the Black Cannon too, as it will help you getting new units to the right places when you need them. Once Eagle arrives, let Andy provide him a decent ground support with a variety of units. Hyper Repair and Hyper Upgrade are both really good powers to counter Hawke's and have your units last a bit longer. Just remember to refrain from destroying units, but rather focus on blocking Hawke's advance. Sonja will need to take out the pipe seam, making her the most important CO when it comes to clearing the mission. However, she's also the one who stays away from the frontlines. What you should do with her is loading your two Infantry in the Lander and directly head for the island with the southern Black Cannon. Avoid getting your Landers into either B-Ship or Sub attack range (they won't move if they can't attack). Drop off one Infantry on the southeastern island and then directly move towards the Black Cannon island. Use your remaining Infantry to dispose of the 4 HP Mech (Eagle and Andy should have fired their missiles on it) and capture the base. At your HQ area, you should build two Infantry only and capture the four neutral cities with them. After that's done, leave the entire area alone. The Infantry on the southeastern island should capture the neutral port first, then fire the missiles and capture the bases. You should be able to build a B-Ship from there at about the same time you can build a Rocket from the base on the Black Cannon island. Use the B-Ship and the Rocket that you move one space south to destroy the Black Cannon. After that, move your Rocket north and place it just below the pipe seam so it can just fire on it. Note that this is in range of the minicannon guarding it. In order to solve this, you should also build an MD Tank from the base there and place it on the neutral airport, which is also in minicannon range. The cannon will now fire on the MD Tank instead of the Rockets, allowing you to strike the seam with a full HP one. Switch the MD Tank for a healthy one next turn to ensure victory. --- ---------------------- 6. Black Hole Campaign ---------------------- Mission 33: Hot Pursuit ***** ***** Recommended COs: Kanbei, Drake, Grit Enemy CO: Sturm Perfect speed limit: 20 days Use a team of Kanbei in the middle, Drake on the left and Grit on the right. Notice that Sturm only has a pre-deployed force, just like in the NC counterpart. So if you don't want to have a really tough battle, don't let him capture ANY base at all. You need to defeat 5 units within one day to get a perfect power score. Who gets to compete for power and technique on this mission (as well as the next one) will be the CO who completes the mission objective (ie. the one who finishes off the third Black Cannon). The CO I suggest you do it with would be Grit, as he will be deploying more than enough Artillery to deal with power, technique and the cannons. Hot Pursuit looks like it's going to be a lot of trouble. Many people have found this to be the case. It's certainly one of the toughest missions that AW2's Hard Campaign provides. However, thanks to donnyton, there exists a strategy that makes this mission a joke compared to what it's like without it. For this strategy, the idea is to completely block Sturm's forces at the choke point in between the two central minicannons, using Kanbei's Tank. Notice how Sturm always moves his Infantry and Mechs in the same pattern: X = Minicannon _ = Empty I = Infantry M = Mech On day 2, it will look like this: _MI XMX _I_ The next day, Sturm moves them into this formation: XIX _M_ _M_ ___ _I_ And the bottom infantry is capturing the airport. The Infantry between the minicannons is the key to locking the entriety of Sturm's forces. Once Sturm has moved his units in this formation, use your A-Air to attack the northern Mech from the right. You need to be lucky for it to destroy the Mech (95% attack), so save beforehand. When the Mech is destroyed, use your Tank to attack the Infantry between the cannons. The Infantry capturing the airport can be easily dealt with using your Artillery and an Infantry that you produced on day 1. This Infantry should be destroyed, so that the Mech will start capturing it instead. The next turn, the cannons will have fired on the A-Air, bringing it down to 2 HP. Use your Artillery, Infantry and the damaged A-Air to destroy the Mech, build some stuff (whatever you deem necessary at this point) and wait for the next turn. Whatever you do, DON'T attack the Infantry with your Tank yet!. On Sturm's next turn, the Black Cannon will shoot down the Tank to 5 HP. Now you can use it to attack the Infantry and it should go down to 1 HP! The Tank will get hit again and also get down to 1 HP, but the Infantry will not attack the Tank, not even when Sturm uses his SCOP. It also can't retreat due to Sturm's own forces blocking off its path. You have now effectively blocked off the entire middle section with minimal effort. Keep the Tank in place, destroy the western and eastern minicannons using Rockets (not the middle ones, obviously) and capture everything you can reach. Kanbei's only role then will be to produce more expensive things than Grit, so that the Black Cannon will hit his units instead of Grit's. Drake will be playing his own game on this map. There are only two things he really needs to do. One is destroying the western Black Cannon using a Bomber. Note that Drake's Bomber will deal 66 damage to a pipe seam at full health. Once the cannon fired on it, it will still have 5 HP left and deal 33 damage. Add this up and you get 99 damage, just enough to destroy the cannon in two hits! The second is to laungh the two missiles on the bulk of Sturm's forces in the center (conveniently blocked off if you've followed my strategy). This will help Grit in achieving his power score as well as not getting as many meteors on your roof. Two missiles on the middle section are enough. Combined with Tsunami this will leave most of Sturm's forces with 3 HP left. Leaving them with fewer HP will cause them to start joining, making power score harder to achieve. With Drake, it is possible by rushing and careful positioning of your units to capture the neutral base in the middle section of Drake's area, just out of Black Cannon range. Build an Infantry and an APC on day 1 and have it rush towards the base. Drop the Mech off near the airport with your already deployed APC and use both APCs, the Tank and a Recon that you need to build from your eastern base to block off anything that can get to your capturing Infantry. You can finish capturing just in time. Now you can deploy from there instead of the bases near your HQ, which will get locked by the B-Ships. Don't attack the B-Ships under any circumstances. It's not necessary to kill them and doing so will only fill up Sturm's power bar by gigantic amounts. Focus on building a Bomber to destroy the cannon and enough units to deal with Sturm's ground forces. For Grit, the situation is slightly different than Drake's. Grit probably won't be able to take the northern neutral base just like Drake. However, it's enough just to take the one to his left instead and preventing Sturm from capturing the base. Just like Drake, Grit should also try to fire his missiles, but only two in total are really necessary. When you get to fire them, you might want to spend them on the B-Ships annoying Grit, especially when one tries to lock the western base. Of course, the main unit to build for Grit will be Artillery. Masses and masses of Artillery. You'll want them to reach the middle section so that they can help you get the power score. To destroy the eastern Black Cannon, you can repeat Drake's strategy and use a Bomber for it. The central you can try to shoot with either Bombers or Artillery, but beware of Sturm's forces that will still be lingering around there. Once you get a lot of Artillery in range, you can use your COP (or SCOP if you have it) to wipe out pretty much all of Sturm's forces. Kanbei can help even. Remember to use Kanbei primarily to draw Black Cannon fire towards his units instead of Grit's Artillery. Have Grit and only Grit destroy the remaining Black Cannon as soon as power and technique are safe. --- Mission 34: Final Front ***** ***** Recommended COs: Grit, Drake, Max Enemy CO: Sturm Perfect speed limit: 30 days At last, the final battle! Your objective is clear: destroy the Deathray within a 30-day limit. The map has changed since the NC version, making it harder to reach the Deathray. Two Black Cannons, several Minicannons (including one directly in front of the Deathray) and a bunch of pipes are blocking your way to victory. Sturm won't be defeated easily, that's for sure! You want to have Grit in the middle, Drake on the left and Max on the right. All three COs have a different objective, just like in Hot Pursuit. Grit should deal with the Black Cannons and hold out against Sturm's force, Drake defends against Sturm's navy and uses his powers for support as well as getting hit by meteors and Max goes off to blast the Deathray. Grit is capable of destroying the Black Cannons pretty easily using his Artillery. This is the most important reason of choosing Grit for the center CO. He is the only one who can reach the cannons with nothing more than an Artillery and still destroy them in two days only. He also can mass-produce Artillery that will rip apart Sturm's incoming forces. Start with capturing nearby cities and more importantly, bases. There are some key locations Grit should capture. Immediately head for the base just north of your starting point. It's much more important to have a third deployment location than to first capture a city and then move towards the base. Also, you'll want to load the second infantry into the APC and send it northeast. On day 2, you can drop off the Infantry in range of the eastern neutral airport, making you able to capture it. The APC should then move three spaces east of the capturing Infantry, so that it can carry the Infantry towards the eastern missile silo once it's done capturing. You'll then be able to fire the missile before Sturm can and nab an airport in the process! Back at your main base, produce Infantry the first few days. You'll want to have the Infantries you build on day 1 moving west and east. The one west should capture the city first, then fire the missile. You'll want to fire all missiles as soon as possible, as it will make your time against Sturm much easier. On day 1, also build a T-Copter. On day 2, build two more Infantry. The western one will go for the city that's immediately within its range. The second should enter the T-Copter (place it just in range on day 2) and then move towards the southeast corner of the map. Sturm has a base there which you can easily take. He'll build an Artillery there on day 1 and then nothing afterwards. Taking all this from him means more funds to you and less to Sturm. :) After this, it's time to build Artillery to deal with Sturm's units coming in from the middle and the right. Place an Artillery right beneath the right Black Cannon, so it can fire and destroy it in two hits. When the Deathray fires (this will be on days 7, 14, 21 and 28), move out of the way, as it hits you pretty hard (8HP!). Also try to destroy both the central minicannons and the left Black Cannon. Use your powers wisely, it can be more useful to just use your COP instead of your SCOP, as it gives the same firepower boost to your units. Once the Black Cannons are down, Grit's part in achieving victory is pretty much done. You'll have enough funds at your disposal to easily hold back Sturm. You can probably have Grit take the second meteor as well. It's easier for Grit to build a large cluster of units at this point. Drake has a lesser important, but invaluable role to play. He is the decoy CO. The main thing you should do is getting hit. Drake will divert Sturm's attention away from Grit and especially Max. Distract the B-Ships to fire at his units instead of going after Grit. Also, pack some big units together to distract the meteor from Max's bombers or Grit's Artillery. Use your COP whenever you get it. In the beginning, move towards the missile silos ASAP and fire them at the pre-deployed force coming in from the middle. Also, make sure to fire some on the incoming B-Ships. Capture the properties before the bridge as well, especially Sturm's cities in the corner. Once the left Black Cannon is destroyed, you can march onwards and block Sturm's base. If you did that, your objective is complete. Don't worry too much about it, though. It is enough just to hold your ground with Drake. I've found that building 2 Infantry and an APC on day 1, then saving up for a Submarine really helps. The Sub can take out the B-Ships (also fire two missiles on them total), giving you room to breathe. Sturm will move his Cruisers and Subs towards Drake then, but once you dive it, the AI will ignore it again. Sturm will also have an airport on an island in the west. In some cases, Sturm decides to be a bastard and move a Bomber towards Drake or a Fighter towards Grit instead of massing all of his air units near his airport (thereby wasting a tremendous amount of funds). While Grit can probably deal with the Fighter easily enough, Drake can be struggling trying to fend off a Bomber. You might want to restart if this happens, as it's just bad luck. Max will go for the Deathray, and with that also the power and technique scores. You need to closely watch your units and prevent them from dying. As Max will encounter the least amount of units, make sure you don't destroy everything at once, but leave some crippled units alive. You'll need them for your power score. When you start, first head for the missile silos and fire at those middle pre-deployed force, as well as the B-Ships going for Drake. Once you've fired all of the missiles, most of the middle units should be at 4 HP, most importantly the Neotanks. Also, the B-Ships will both only have 4 HP left. Then go capturing bases and cities. It can in some cases be possible to capture the enemy base that's located just in Black Cannon range. When Sturm leaves it unattended, have an Infantry capture it while using the T-Copter it came in as bait for the cannon. The copter should be hit, leaving the Infantry free to capture it. You need to build a Bomber fast to destroy the pipe seams blocking your way towards the Deathray. Also build B-Copters to deal with the units Sturm will build in the middle-eastern base. After a few B-Copters, build another Bomber to support the first one. Try to calculate the number of units you'll be able to destroy in one turn and check if it's enough. Most likely you will have to destroy at least 7 in one day. Your COP will be more important than your SCOP with Max as well. If Sturm decides to build A-Air from the south-eastern base, try to lure them with Grit in his artillery range and kill them before they could become a threat to Max. Once your power score is safe, kill the minicannon guarding the Deathray, and the Deathray itself. Be sure to try to manoeuver out of the range of the missiles and A-Air that might be guarding the central area. --- That's it then. Congratulations. You have just beaten the AW2 Hard Campaign! Be sure to check Hachi's shop, he might have some interesting things for sale... --- ------------------------------- 7. Credits and Acknowledgements ------------------------------- A big thanks to: Dragon Fogel for providing me with tons of strategic advice. donnyton for providing me with a superb strategy for Hot Pursuit, as well as giving tons of input on improving the guide. Translucent Air for his strategies for Sea Fortress and Drake's Dilemma, as well as providing input. Xenesis for all of the perfect S-Rank time limits, which were taken straight from the ROM itself. DieselPheonix for writing the guides for Mountain Ops and POW Rescue. The entire Wars World News community (http://www.warsworldnews.com). Everyone's support there proved to be invaluable in writing this guide. Everyone who is reading this. That is you. Thanks! --- If after reading this you have any remarks, suggestions, tips or other helpful comments of any kind, be sure to mail me at [email protected]. Or leave your comments on Wars World News (http://www.warsworldnews.com).
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