2. Kaiser Wilhelm: First Contact

Level Medal 1: Kill 200 Infantry

Level Medal 2: Repair 20 Times

The first major strategic issue that you need to fully comprehend as you dig into this first official level is down to the Medals for this (and later) levels. Specifically the task of obtaining them is generally not one that includes getting both in the same go.

The best way to get them is to focus on them one at a time.

Unlocking the first medal is the harder of the two - so go ahead and get the second one for repairs done first. For the first though, there are two basic factors you need to consider - you only get credit for the troops you shoot yourself. And to complete this will mean learning to trust the Anti-Tank Turrets to deal with the tanks while you target the Infantry that accompanies the last Tank Wave.

Bear in mind that this is not supposed to be easy - you will likely have to try to unlock it several times before you actually get it.

Basic strategy for unlocking the first Medal is to build the two Anti-Tank Turrets to either side towards the front, then build MG Turrets for all the other spots and not man them. That way they will take a little damage from the attacking waves and you can then repair them quickly - which will see you getting the 20 repairs you need relatively easily.

The 200 Infantry on the other hand will not go so smoothly. The major strategy for them is to learn where they appear at the start of each wave so that you can focus your fire on their spawn spot. That way you get them before they spread out. Once they spread out they are a LOT harder to kill!

Bear in mind though that you will only be able to focus on a single wave spawn point for each wave, so once you have eliminated the entire spawn for that, you will have to take out as many of the other spawn as possible with them spread.

The best way to address that is look for and learn the choke points that each will face, so that you can focus on those - as it does make it easier to get more of them in a shorter period of time.

During the Tank Waves it is especially important that you eliminate as many Infantry as possible because THAT is the bigger threat to your Toy Box. The Infantry will get through where the Tanks will not. Plus that final wave is also your last chance to get to 200.

From our experience you can expect to find a starting measure early on as you begin learning the patterns - and you should see that kill total begin to improve and increase once you do learn the patterns until, finally, you get the 200 Infantry you need.

Once you have unlocked both Medals, you will want to then do a minimalist run through where you basically try to spend as little money as you can, skip as many timers as you can, and be as aggressive in manning the turrets as you can, in order to obtain the highest score you can.

That really is all that there is to it for the most part. At least for now.

Whether you opt to spawn a Hero is a personal call. We have seen the totals go both ways, but as the Heroes are better at killing troops, that may be an obvious choice to make.

Another thing to bear in mind is that with each successive run through as you are aiming at specific small goals, you are also building XP for your Hero, and additional Tokens for expansion content. So really that scenario is win-win!

When you complete this level you should have unlocked the Achievements Emperor (100g) Completed Kaiser's Intro Campaign Mission, and Close Calls (10g) Killed 10 units threatening your toybox in one mission.

You will also unlock a new Hero -- Phantom.

200 Infantry Strategy

If you are having trouble unlocking the Medal for killing 200 Infantry the following strategy WILL help make that a sure thing....

The trick to getting all 200 of the Infantry units is to only built ONE turret. An MG Turret. And the best place to build it is the spot closest to the Toybox.

Once you build that turret you then upgrade it as quickly as you can. Basically you want to FULLY upgrade it, because a fully upgraded MG Turret can easily deal with both sets of tanks as well as the Infantry.

As far as we know this is the only way to unlock that particular Medal pretty much guaranteed. Otherwise you will have to grind and grind and get really lucky and even then, if you have more than one Turret the chance of it not killing any of the Infantry - and thus subtracting them from the total - is slim to none.

So there you have it - the secret to unlocking what is basically a difficult Medal otherwise.

All New Heroes

Okay so we start all over again with a new Hero - and an all new set of weapons.

BEFORE we progress here you need to remember that there are some rules to apply no matter what Hero you are using, and they are:

1. Select your New Hero from the Hero Selection Menu

2. Open the Customize Army Menu and pay to unlock all of the units.

3. DO NOT pay to unlock all of the weapons / unit upgrades!! These you will get for free with each new box after completing each level of the campaign! Seriously, do not waste the money right now.

4. Play through the levels but, unless this is the Hero you plan to use to complete all of the challenges, try not to beat your head against the wall doing them with each Hero (unless you want to that is)...

So there you go, four simple rules for each Hero.

Hero: Phantom

There are few differences for this Hero and no changes to the strategy for winning the level.

That said, the same strategies apply for unlocking the challenges for this level - which is to say you will want to do everything with one fully upgraded MG Turret for the first challenge, and you will want to place three basic turrets in the front to repair for the second.

Your Score Run will be basically the same as above as well.

Hero: Star Bright

The thing to remember with Star Bright is that her weapons take a strange turn away from what we are used to up to this point. Specifically for example her MG is not so much a direct-fire direct-damage unit as it is a splash damage unit (it uses bubbles remember).

Her Anti-Armor turret is a Moon Beam - so that is relatively similar in effect to the other beam-based weapons, but still slightly different in that it is more diffused and very much less effective when it comes to infantry - so unlike the previous Heroes we cannot utilize Anti-Armor as a dual-purpose weapon platform with her.

Bear in mind that, just as was the case with the previous Heroes, the first eight or so levels are mostly being spent scoring bonus items like the toys (weapons) for the new hero as you work towards unlocking the medals / challenges.

So that said, applying the same basic strategy used with The Kaiser works well here with Star Bright.

Hero: Darklord

The basic turret design for the Darklord is pretty predictable - the MGs are thorn-throwers, the Anti-Armor shoot flame balls and etc. Not saying that is bad mind you, just that it is what it is. The problem with this Heroes weps tho is that they basically require more hands-on effort in terms of use.

They appear to be about as strong as Star Bright's weps but, sadly, not as versatile. That is to say that they do not have the same basic impact and effect levels that Star's do.

The consequence of this is that while the DL can be fun up to a point, this is not the hero you are going to want to use to do the challenges / score runs. Or maybe it is? Who can say? That is the beauty of this sort of game as different players will find different strengths from the different Heroes!

That said, you will basically be using the same strategy as we used for The Kaiser here.

With that noted though, there is one other thing to mention - this is the final base hero for the game. All of the ones that come after this are either DLC or part of the deluxe version of the game. What that means is that once you unlock all of the toys for this hero (assuming you did that for the others) you will unlock the associated Achievement,. So hey, there is that...

Hero: GI Joe Duke

I have to admit that playing as Duke is a pleasure. One of the reasons for that of course is the utter familiarity of the weapons that he has - which are basically modern (and more capable) versions of what The Kaiser brings to the battlefield.

What that means is that you can simply follow the strategy for The Kaiser run thru exactly - but far far more effectively. And that means that where The Kaiser struggled with some challenges, Duke will not. That is not to say that he is the perfect soldier - or hero as it were - for the game - but he is pretty darn close!

You could say that we really liked him because hey, we did! But that said, at range the MG turret has a lot of spread, and the Anti-Armor turret - which is a direct fire laser-based weapon (not beam mind you) that will limit its effectiveness at range.

Hero: GI Joe Cobra Enemy

The Cobra Hero offers you a collection of modern military weapons that, though similar to those used by Duke, differ in that they are more robust and provide a slightly more targeted damage envelope. What that means is that, of all of the Heroes, Cobra is very likely the best in terms of damage, targeting, and capabilities for the purposes of completing the collection of medal challenges for the game.

With that in mind you may want to consider using Cobra for your medal challenge run through - though it should be noted that Cobra is a Premium Hero (which means if you did not buy the deluxe version of the game, you will have to acquire this hero as DLC).

You use the same basic strategy for the level as you did with The Kaiser run through.

Hero: He-Man

You might think that it being He-Man and all, that his would be a more hands-on approach to turret combat but, well, not so much really. In fact his is very similar in many ways to that of The Kaiser save for the fact that his turrets are energy based.

Sadly that said - and admitting that we rather liked the He-Man cartoons of our youth - they are not the sort of energy weapons that don't have a lot of splash value - which means that while they get the job done, they do not offer the sort of extra flexibility or damage that we got from Star Bright and Cobra.

So while you can play with this hero okay, following The Kaiser strategies, He-Man is not likely to be your choice for getting the challenges done.

Also in MP play He-Man IS physical - which means he has to get up close and personal to dish for the most part, which also makes him an unlikely choice for that side as well. Unless of course you happen to be a fan, in which case well yeah, have fun!

Hero: Ezio

Have to admit that of all the IP and characters that Ubisoft has to choose from, this one is a bit of a surprise. Not the least reason being, you know, the era?

The test that we use to determine the relative strength of the turrets uses the armored units in First Contact. Each turret has its damage fully upgraded and then we time how long it takes them to take out one of the armored units attacking. The Ezio turrets had the worse times.

So due to the relatively weak attack capability this is not a hero we would choose for the challenges and score runs. That said, as a novelty it is still fun to play through the game using Ezio - and it certainly adds challenge to the game.

For the Ezio Hero you follow the standard strategy that is used by The Kaiser. Bear in mind though that the weaker attack and damage powers of Ezio's turrets means you will need to begin your attacks earlier and pay closer attention to how close you allow the enemy to get to your toybox.