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~~~~~ ADVANCE CAMPAIGN MODE ~~~~~
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*=novice
**=beginner
***=intermediate
****=advanced
*****=Verean
*****1/2=Verean master
******=MASTER
******1/2=super MASTER
*******=ULTRA MASTER
Yes we got it the legendary guide on how to beat ADVANCE campaign mode.
Lets just get right to the point from the line on is the guide.Enjoy.
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Advance Campaign S-Rank Guide
Level 1 - It's War!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 6
Advance Campaign opens up with a suicide speed level, where you
must rush your transport full speed ahead to capture the base on day
six. You can lose every unit except your infantry and a tank, as long
as you capture the base in time. Impossible, you say? Welcome to the
real Advance Wars.
To accomplish this task, you must protect your transport at all
times, blocking any enemy access at just about any cost. Allow your
other units to be damaged over your tanks. Don't get in the way of the
southern rocket launcher, try to work your strategy around its range of
fire. For a basic strategy briefing, on day one move your units
forward, day two move the APC forward and protect it, day three protect
it again, day four blockade or distract the enemy units to the left
from reaching your transport moving across the bridge, and day five and
six, capture the base while distracting the enemy mid tank near the
base and holding back the rest of the enemies to the left.
Here is the full walkthrough. Day one, move your mech northeast,
attack the tank with your tank from the south, move your northern
infantry northeast (two steps south of your mech), move your northern
artillery west of your north, load up the transport and move it north,
move your second tank south of your north artillery, your recon north,
and your artillery north of your recon.
Day two, destroy the tank with your mech, attack the artillery
with your artillery then your wounded tank from the north. Move the
transport where the enemy artillery just was, and drop your infantry
off to the east. Move your tank north above the infantry you just
dropped off. Move your other infantry east next to the river, move
your other artillery east of your damaged artillery, and your recon
west of your damaged artillery.
Day three, load the infantry into the transport and move it four
steps west of the mid tank. Surround the transport with artillery from
the south, healthy tank from the east, and damaged tank from the north.
Move your damaged artillery west of your healthy artillery, and move
your recon one step southwest of your damaged artillery. Attack the
tank with your mech from the east.
Day four, move your transport east, and drop the infantry west
onto the bridge. Attack the rocket launcher with your healthy tank
from the north. Move the damaged tank west of your infantry. Your
other units are now irrelevant.
Day five, begin capturing the base. Attack the rocket launcher
with your healthy tank from the south. Move your damaged tank east of
the mid tank. Use your CO power, if you feel like it. On day six, you
can capture the base just in time for Christmas, with two fully healthy
tanks and the transport unit surviving! Let it snow, Olaf.
Level 2 - Gunfighter!
Difficulty: **** (13 days) ***** 1/2 (10 days)
Days: 10-13
You have to build a force from scratch to take out Grit's
overpowering army in this level. You must complete the level between
10 and 13 days. There are several key strategies to keep in mind on
this map. Manipulate Grit's CO attack and prepare beforehand when you
know he's going to use it. All of his distance units gain two extra
range points, so make sure you're not going to get blasted away by his
attacks when he uses his CO power. You should be good at measuring
distances and adding and subtracting range points hypothetically.
Second, you need to be able to manipulate the AI to your
advantage, especially with Grit's distance attack units. In your
arsenal are the recon units. These units are excellent against
distance attacks for three reasons, first because they have the highest
terrain movement range and can deal 50-60% damage to rockets and
artillery, and second because their presence causes the AI to retreat
their distance attack units in fear of being attacked, giving you
breathing room to continue a sustained and healthy assault on other
ground units. Third, they are cheap, disposable, and can easily move
quickly in swarms to injure and destroy a group of enemy artillery and
rocket launchers. Creating decoy APCs is a good idea, as well. When
rushing your APC through the east portion of the map, use the distance
unit blind spots to your advantage. Get out there and bust Grit's
chops!
Finishing in 10 days makes the level into a semi-suicide speed
challenge. Basically, you must charge the base a day early, with one
less recon and one less tank. You must build the APC on day 5 and have
a force of two recons, a mid tank, and two APCs by day 6 to launch off
with, and then drop off on day 8 to capture at 10. You do not have
enough time or resources to attack the tank or build a tank of your own.
The tank will be rampaging around your HQ throughout the level. You
can solve this by creating infantry decoys and using strategic
blockades with your other units. Not being able to kill the tank
causes a further problem in that you cannot build Grit's CO meter high
enough to trigger its use on day 6 while your units are safely out of
range. To solve this problem, you need to send in a recon to attack
one of the rocket launchers early on to increase Grit's CO meter. Use
master AI manipulation to keep the enemies attacking decoys, manipulate
the distance units into an acceptable formation, manipulate Grit's CO
meter, avoid Grit's distance attacks, and rush through the level. Good
luck!
Day one, move both infantry northwest, create two recons. Day
two, attack the artillery with your infantry(keep doing it), move the
other infantry west to the city, move your two recons back, one step
behind the factory and one step behind the HQ. Day three, move your
two recons to the farthest east cities, create a mid tank in the east
factory, and move your infantry one step behind the west factory. This
step will often screw up. What you want to have happen is the recon
attacks your recon to the northeast, the tank attacks the infantry in
the stream, and the mid tank moves in the mountain corner. If this
didn't happen, turn on-off the game and try again with a fresh start.
Day four, attack the mid tank with your mid tank, move your
southeast recon ahead and attack the rocket launcher, attack the recon
with your recon from the east and infantry from the north. Create an
infantry and recon. Day five, attack the mid tank with your mid tank
from the south, move your 1hp infantry north next to the artillery,
destroy the recon with your recon sitting on the city, move your
factory recon two steps east, move your infantry one step south of your
recon, and create two APCs. Day six, this is the big day! Load your
infantry into the undamaged APC, move your mid tank forward, your empty
APC to the left of it, your recon above it. Move your other recon
above the empty APC and your full APC below it. Create a recon and
infantry. (Yes, Grit's infantry is bopping on your base).
Day seven, use your CO power. Attack the infantry stomping on
your base with your recon from the north and infantry from the south.
Attack the rocket launcher with your mid tank, attack the rocket
launcher and recon pair you're your two recons from the west, move your
full APC west of the city, move your empty APC on to the city. Create
two more recons. Day eight, move your APC up and drop the infantry off
to the north. Move your recon up and attack the rocket launcher, move
the other recon south of the APC, and move your mid tank south of your
recon. Move your two recons forward, finish off the infantry, and
create a recon and infantry.
Day nine, attack the rocket launcher to the south with your two
recons from the north and east, and the rocket launcher to the north
with your mid tank. Begin capturing the base. Day ten, finish! How
d'ya like them grits?
Level 3 - Air Ace!
Difficulty: *****
Days: 6
The air ace level is back with a vengeance, and Eagle has a whole
fleet of air units ready to turn your army and air force into Swiss
cheese. This is the second suicide speed level, and you must complete
it by day 6. That means your transport copter can't stop to hide at
all. You must drop the infantry off by day 4, and the pressure is on
to keep your transport copter from being destroyed (although it will
certainly be injured and destroyed after dropping the infantry off).
Your transport copter literally doesn't have a square to spare when it
comes to charging full speed ahead towards the enemy base. There's
little chance you'll have any units left to speak of by the end of the
level.
Here's the strategy briefing. You need to destroy four
helicopters and the tank by day two. On day two, you must also be
simultaneously arranging your units to Eagle's air units west past your
transport copter while he uses his CO power on day three, so that you
will have less units to deal with in the final stretch on day four and
five. Also on day three, protect your transport on all four sides by
land while he uses his CO power. On day four, you must lure the bomber
up in the north and destroy it, and also blockade any remaining air
units from reaching your transport copter. Your execution must be
perfect.
Unfortunately it's difficult to write a day by day for this level,
since the enemies will act so randomly. For example, just on day one
the enemy helicopter formation can be completely different depending on
random factors (similar to Rivals Advance, sneaky helicopters!).
Day one, load a mech into the transport copter and a mech into
the APC, then create an APC and load it up with an infantry. Move the
transport copter north of the middle part of the bridge. Attack the
helicopter with the anti-air by the factory. Attack the enemy tank
with your helicopter from the north and mid tank from the west. Move
forward your missile launcher and APC, move your tank south of the
anti-air that attacked the helicopter, and fill in the rest of the gaps
with anti-air. Finally, move your artillery one step east and infantry
south.
In some cases Eagle's helicopters will shy away from your missile
launcher. If this is the case, you can either try to play through it,
or turn off-on the game and try again. It's easier to just turn off-on,
but I have completed the level with the helicopters shying away, by
getting in a hit on a jet with an anti-air to trigger Eagle's CO power.
On day two, destroy any helicopter blocking the road with an
anti-air from the south. Use your judgment as to what anti-airs to
move and use, based on how far back they are, and what helicopters they
can damage. Move your transport copter south of the factory, and
surround it with the tank to the north, the mid tank to the east (can
be switched with mid tank), an anti-air to the south, and move the APC
to the west, dropping the mech north into the mountains. Move your
artillery as far as it can go on the road, and use the missile launcher
to destroy any helicopter north of the artillery. Move your second APC
south of the artillery and drop the infantry east, and move your
infantry northeast. Create another APC.
If you haven't quite gotten Eagle's CO meter full, it will get
there after he finishes attacking your units. When he attacks, you'll
want to make sure that at least three helicopters and the bomber are
distracted to the west by your artillery, missile launcher, infantry,
and APCs. Hold out the fort, and the path should be relatively clear
for the next step. If there are way too many units in your way, or
your transport copter was injured or destroyed, then you'll have to
play around with the arrangement around the transport copter to fit the
situation you're in. It's just one of those facts of random AI.
Sometimes all it takes is switching the mid tank with the tank in
position.
Day three, use some fancy footwork to accomplish your tasks. Use
your CO power; with Eagle's CO power-weakened units and your CO power-
strengthened units, you should be able to pulverize his jets and tank.
Clear the road of any obstacles. If your tank is weak, retreat it and
use the mid tank in its place to destroy the tank, then take out the
jet blocking the road. Reload an infantry/mech into your APC, and
drive it up in front of the bridge up ahead, dropping the infantry/mech
to the east. This is bait for the bomber up north. Use the rest of
your units to blockade or destroy any air units that are threatening to
attack your transport copter. Move your transport copter out of any
air-unit range, but remember it must be moving full speed ahead,
whether to the east or northeast. Ok, so it does have one square to
spare, but you should be moving as fast as possible! To the west, keep
distracting Eagle's bomber and copters, and make another APC.
The rest of the level is straight forward. Day four, destroy the
bomber you've baited, fly the transport copter north of the base and
drop the mech south on to the base. Days five and six, capture the
base, the rest of your units are irrelevant.
Level A4 - Max Strikes!
Difficulty: ***** (6 days)
Days: 6
This level is a much more sinister version of the normal Andy Max
Strikes, and the third suicide speed level. You must capture the base
on day five. Olaf isn't stupid this time around, and has placed a
rocket launcher and a mid tank to defend his base. However, in order
to get the S-rank, you have no time or money to build a land invasion
force, so you have to evacuate immediately. You must land your
infantry by day four and capture the base by day six. Winning the
level is exact and precise down to each unit movement. There really is
only one way to win. While the actual routine isn't so difficult, I
gave it five stars because of the difficulty it takes to figure out how
to complete the map with the S-rank.
The key to winning the level is placating the enemy battleships
with plentiful APCs coming from your factories, giving you enough time
to rush your sea units past them and taking the base. You'll want to
have APCs constantly coming out of your bases whenever you have the
money to do so. You'll want to have APCs one step northeast of the
factory closest to the shore, one step southeast of the factory, and on
the factory itself. Keep the weakened APCs on the south east target
spot. Don't screw this up or your sea units will be toasted by the
enemy battleships looking for some fresh targets. That is just a
supporting goal, though.
The major goal of the level is the sea battle and base capture.
Day one, load an infantry into your lander and move it south two spaces.
Move the southern tank as far south as it can go. Dive your sub at the
north most reef, and move your battleship south one step. Up north,
move your artillery forward one space, and your northern tank in front
of it. Move your northern infantry north.
Day two, load the tank into the lander, move the battleship
forward between the two enemy battleships, and move your lander west of
your battleship. Attack the north east most battleship with your sub
from the west. Up north, attack the enemy mid tank with your artillery
and tank, and move your infantry between your two units.
Day three, attack the north east most battleship with your
battleship, move your transport two steps away from the shore, and rise
your sub east next to the bridge. Up north, just hold the enemy back
at the bridge as long as you can.
Day four, move your lander onto the southern part of the shore
and drop your infantry to the north and tank to the east. Move your
sub north one space. Move your battleship east. Day five, attack the
rocket launcher with your tank from the east, start squatting on the
pot, and on day six, relieve yourself of this map.
I've tried to complete the map on 5 days, and experimented with
it. The problem is that the mid tank won't get off the base unless you
rise your sub near it without any other targets. Since the lander and
battleship both must take a hit on the way there, you need to have your
land units destroyed to bring your CO meter high enough to use. I've
also experimented with combining the tanks to provide extra income to
buy more APCs, or buy a lander. With a cargo of two infantry, I've
managed to get the infantry capturing the base on day four.
Unfortunately, there is nothing to protect it against the rocket
launcher, mid tank, battleships, and mid tank approaching from the road.
Level M4 - Max Strikes!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 5
This is an elimination level, and you must destroy all of Olaf's
forces by day 5. It doesn't require a great amount of skill, but you
do need to know when to retreat and when to advance. You need to have
your land tactics down cold to be able to mash Olaf's units.
By sea, move your battleship two steps east and one step north of
the southwest reef. Move your first sub onto the north most reefs, and
your second sub as far as it can go east. Day two, move your APC onto
the southern most piece of land as bait. Attack the battleship
farthest to the east and destroy it, and attack the north east
battleship. Day three, move your lander southeast as bait, attack the
two remaining healthy battleships, and move your battleship north onto
the reef. Day four, finish off the last of the sea units, and move
your battleship further northeast to the coast to get an aim on any
enemies in your range on day five.
The real action of this level is of course by land. On day one,
you'll want to stay your artillery and move your tanks back behind the
artillery. Olaf will rush his units towards you, and you can take the
initiative to trash his forces. Make sure you destroy the mid tank,
don't let it get away, or it'll run back to repair itself. There
should only be one weak tank left. Make sure to cover up your
artillery with infantry fodder. On day three, Olaf will use his CO
power, bang up a tank or two, and you'll be able to use your CO power -
so use it. The combination of roads and increase tank movement will
allow you to punch another serious hole through Olaf's units. Make
sure to target the enemy rocket launcher, and don't let either enemy
mid tank attack your mid tank. Distract or barricade the enemy mid
tanks with weak small tanks or infantry. On day four, Olaf should only
have his two mid tanks and a few infantry and artillery left. Throw
all the force you have left into the subsequent day four and five
attack, including luring the enemy mid tank in range of your battleship,
and you should come out victorious by day five. The win is almost
always down to the last unit, so don't take anything for granted or
leave any unit behind.
Level A5 - Max's Folly?
Difficulty: **
Days: 6
This is a very easy level. All you have to do is keep the enemy
infantry off of your base, and you're home free. Day one, move your
infantry one step southeast onto the mountains. Surround it with
artillery. Attack the enemy rocket launcher with your rocket launcher.
Move your tanks and your other rocket launcher as far north and round
the corner as possible. Move your other infantry to the right. Keep
your APC put.
Day two, your APC will be destroyed, and your infantry will draw
the enemy mid tank. Clobber the mid tank with your artillery and move
your small tanks around the curve to the south (avoid Grit's potential
attack range), and move your rocket launcher one step northwest of the
city. Keep your mid tanks put. Grit will use his CO attack and kill
your artillery and southern rocket launcher.
Day three, rush your tanks up and around to damage the enemy
infantry. Move your surviving rocket launcher into position to blast
the enemy infantry the next turn. Move your mid tanks south down the
road. Day four and five, blast the enemy infantry with your rocket
launcher, and move your mid tanks down to give the enemy infantry and
distance units some serious hurting. After that, you've won an easy
victory.
Level M5 - Sniper!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 5
Like most Advance Campaign maps, this one wouldn't be nearly as
hard if you didn't have to complete it by day five. However, it is
still a rather easy level to complete. You must have mastered fog of
war tactics to get through this level. I also recommend Max here, for
his power. Let's start with the hidden unit locations. In the forest
two steps south of your tank is an infantry, in the fourth forest south
of your tank is a rocket launcher, in the fourth forest from the left
is an artillery, on the mid-north city is a missile launcher, on the
city surrounded by mountains is a rocket launcher, in the forest next
to the enemy base is a rocket launcher, and on the northeast island are
a rocket launcher and missile launcher. There are two anti-air units,
a mid tank, a tank, and several artillery units.
Since your transport is your main concern, you must first
eliminate or distract the anti-air units (they are both heading towards
you) and definitely distract the artillery from firing on your infantry
as it captures the enemy base. You'll want to move your transport
along the southern part of the map, as the north part contains missiles
and the anti-air units, among other enemies. You must rush forward to
engage the enemy ASAP to allow your transport copter to work without
being assaulted. This means that your units must essentially survive
until round three, upon which you should recklessly cram them up the
northern part of the road to distract the enemy units.
On day one, move your rocket launcher as far forward as possible,
same with APC, and transport copter. Move your infantry forward to
reveal the infantry in the forest, then move your recon unit around to
blast it. Hide your mid tank in the forest where the infantry was,
hide your tank in the forest that it can reach, and move your other
units forward. Do not move your helicopter to its farthest reach south,
because the anti-air unit will destroy it. Instead move it above the
transport copter. Grit will attack your APC and a small tank will
attack your transport copter.
On day two, destroy the small tank with your rocket launcher and
helicopter, destroy the anti-air unit with your mid tank, move your APC
to the southern forest to reveal the rocket launcher and then destroy
it with your small tank. Move your artillery as forward as possible,
because it will be the next fodder piece. Move your transport copter
as far forward as possible (after clearing out the anti-air unit and
tank). Your artillery will be attacked, and your APC will be destroyed
for good (or some other unit, depending on where the hidden enemy
artillery has fled from its previous location).
On day three, destroy the revealed enemy anti-air unit with your
mid tank, and rush your units forward. It doesn't matter what happens
to them now, they're only going to be fodder to distract the enemy from
your transport copter. Move your helicopter up northeast to threaten
the artillery from moving back towards the base, but not too far
northeast, or it'll be shot down by the missiles in the northeast
island. Move your transport copter forward, drop your infantry off to
the east (the rocket launcher can't touch it). Day four and five, just
rush your units in to be mashed to paste. Nab that base and the S-rank
is yours, an easy win for an Advance Campaign level.
Level A6 - Olaf's Navy!
Difficulty: *** (6 day base capture) ****** (6 day elimination)
Days: 6
Olaf's Navy requires you to finish the level by day 6 to get an
S-rank. The level is not difficult if you attempt to capture the base,
but an elimination S-rank in 6 days is almost impossible. The increase
in difficulty comes from the huge force of troops approaching from the
north and east, your decreased forces (one less infantry, tank, and
recon), and even less time to complete the level in. It's frustrating,
trying to stretch my limited units to the absolute extreme, and then
getting caught up on having to run up to nail the rocket launcher and
mid tank up in the corner. Well, it's possible with Max. It took me
even longer than Rivals Advance.
Let's look at Olaf's units. For the land battle, Olaf has units
in several directions. From the north, 2 mid tanks, 2 tanks, and 1
artillery, from the east, 1 artillery, and 1 mid tank. His stationary
units are 1 mid tank on base, 1 rocket launcher in forest left of base.
By sea, Olaf has 3 battleships, 3 subs, and 3 cruisers. In total, Olaf
has 4 mid tanks, 2 artillery, 2 tanks, 1 rocket launcher, 3 battleships,
3 subs, and 3 cruisers. You have to eliminate all of them by day 6
with a tiny number of units, and barely take any damage!
The battlefield is separated into three zones, and you must
separate your units into three teams to deal with the enemy forces.
The three teams you have are the sea team, the strike team, and the
southern defense team. Since you'll be smashing Olaf's units every
which way but right, his CO meter will fill up at every opportunity.
He'll use his power on day one, three, and five. It's helpful to draw
a chart as you work your way through the level.
Max 6 day walkthrough. Day one, attack the artillery with
your recon, move your tank east into the forest, move your mid tank
east of the neutral city, and move your rocket launcher and APC
northeast along the road. Move your infantry/mechs north. Move your
lander one step south, your battleship south into the reef, dive your
sub one step south, and move your artillery straight east.
Day two, attack the artillery with your recon, attack the mid
tank with your mid tank. Move your rocket launcher behind your recon,
then your APC behind your rocket launcher, then your tank north of your
APC. Move your east most mech northeast, your other mech east, your
infantry on the road behind your APC, and your other infantry southeast.
Move your lander south of your recon, and your artillery southwest of
your lander. Attack the northeast battleship with your sub from the
north, and the northwest battleship with your battleship.
Day three, move your tank east along the road, attack the mid
tank with your mid tank from the south, and move your APC east along
the road. Attack the mid tank with your rocket launcher. Move your
mech in the forest east, and your other mech north into the forest.
Move your infantry on the road behind your rocket launcher, and your
other infantry one step east. Attack the southeast cruiser with your
battleship, and the northern battleship with your artillery and sub.
Move your lander south of your artillery.
Day four, move your APC east to the corner of the road, move your
mid tank north of your APC, and your tank west of your mid tank.
Attack the west most mid tank with your rocket launcher. Attack the
two tanks with your mechs from the mountain positions, then attack the
west most tank with your infantry from the east. Move your recon
southwest into the forest. Attack the battleship with your sub, the
northeast cruiser with your battleship, and the west most sub with your
artillery.
Day five, use your CO power. Attack the mid tank with your mid
tank from the east, and your tank from the south. Move your APC north
onto the base. Attack the north most tank with your mech, the north
most mid tank with your rocket launcher, the artillery with your recon
from the east, move your infantry north, and attack the tank with your
mech from the east. Attack the west most sub with your artillery, the
south most sub with your sub from the north, and the west most cruiser
with your battleship.
Day six, take out the trash! Expose the rocket launcher with
your APC and attack it with your mid tank, attack the mid tank with
your tank from the east, attack the other mid tank with your rocket
launcher and mech from the east, attack the artillery with your recon,
the cruiser with your battleship, and the last sub with your artillery
and sub.
It is possible to finish this level in 7 days with Andy.
Completing the level in this short amount of time is incredibly
difficult, and it can only be accomplished down to the very last unit,
down to the very last hit point. You may enjoy the challenge, if
you're looking for one. Those of you who are sane, I wouldn't
recommend it! And yes, it's still an A-Rank.
To complete Olaf's Navy with Andy in 7 days, you will need to use
the tank, mid tank, and recon to move east and north up to the mid tank
and rocket launcher. Use the APC, and sea units for the sea battle.
Use the infantry, mechs and rocket launcher to handle the two mid tanks,
two tanks, and artillery. You will have to use the rocket launcher and
artillery to attack both land and sea units throughout the game. Move
the rocket launcher on to the bridge, and the artillery southeast by
the shore. Good luck!
Andy 7 day walkthrough. Day one, attack the artillery with your
tank, and move your mid tank, recon, and rocket launcher east along the
road. Move your infantry/mechs north. Move your lander one step
northeast, move your battleship into the reefs, and dive your sub two
steps west. Move your artillery south of the shore forest, and your
APC to the left of it.
Day two, destroy the artillery with your tank, and the mid tank
with your rocket launcher then your mid tank. Move your recon forward
one step southeast of the bridge, on the west part of the shore. Move
your mechs/infantry east. Move your lander south of your APC, your sub
one step east of your APC. Destroy the northwest battleship with your
artillery then your battleship.
Day three, move your recon three steps east of the city, next to
the road, move your mid tank onto the city, and your tank west of your
mid tank. Move your rocket launcher three steps east. Move your mech
on the shore one step north onto the mountain, and your infantry on the
road one step east. Destroy the southwest sub with your artillery and
then sub, and attack the west most sub with your battleship.
Day four, move your tank three steps east of the city, then
attack the mid tank with your mid tank from the east. Move your
weakened infantry south onto the shore, attack the two tanks with your
mechs, from the mountain south and from the road east, attack the tank
with your infantry from the south, and attack the east most mid tank
with your rocket launcher. Destroy the southern cruiser with your
battleship, then destroy the east most battleship with your sub. Move
your artillery two steps north. Finally, use your CO power at the end
of the turn.
Day five, destroy the mid tank with your mid tank, and move your
tank north on to the base. Attack the healthy mid tank with your
artillery, the sub with your rocket launcher, the 3HP tank with your
mech, and then the remaining tank with your infantry from the east.
Move your remaining mech east into the forest. Destroy the battleship
with your battleship and sub.
Day six, move your tank north of the forest to expose the rocket
launcher, and attack it with your mid tank. Attack the left most mid
tank (6HP) with your artillery. Attack the cruiser with your rocket
launcher, the other cruiser with your battleship, and the healthy sub
with your healthy sub from the west. Move your two mechs south of the
two mid tanks.
Day seven, finish up the rest of the trash. Use your CO power.
Destroy the mid tank with your artillery, the artillery with your mech
and rocket launcher, and finally destroy the sub, cruiser, tank, and
rocket launcher. Massacre! Poor Olaf's never had it this bad. Note
the lack of ammo in your units.
Level M6 - Blizzard Battle!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 8-9
Capture twelve bases in eight to nine days. This is a fun level,
I always liked it, and the new hot spot you get put into makes it even
better, although not incredibly difficult, once you know the basic
tactics needed to win. Max is the best character here, obviously.
Once again, the key to a quick victory is to move your initial infantry
forward and create new ones to grab the secure land around the base.
This time, Olaf is dangerously close to winning. If he captures even
one city on your side, which he is about to do, you're going to lose.
You need to immediately respond to the emergency threat of enemy forces
coming from above. Once again, your APC will become a decoy/transport.
Day one, move your tank and mid tank northeast. Load your
transport with a mech and drop it off two steps below the factory.
Move your two infantry north, and move your other mech northeast.
Create two infantry.
Day two, attack the enemy mech on the city with your mid tank.
Attack the other enemy mech with your small tank. Begin claiming the
factory with your mech. Move your APC decoy onto the city next to your
mech. Your mech and APC will both be damaged.
Day three, attack the enemy tank coming over the southern bridge
with your mech. Create a tank to send over and defend the area, and
move one of your infantry to the east to help with the southern bridge,
and the other north. What you want to do on the southern bridge area
is move your small tank in front of the eastern city to hold off
attacks while your infantry works on the cities. The best way to keep
the heat off of your tank is to wait for the enemy infantry to show up,
because it won't attack your tank, it will just sit there. Keep the
enemy stalemated there if you can. Up north, move the APC off of the
city, and kill the enemy mech with your mech. Destroy the enemy
rockets with your tank, and destroy the enemy artillery with your mid
tank. Begin claiming the two northwest cities with your two infantry.
The enemy tank will finish your APC off and the enemy mid tank will
clobber your tank.
Day four, attack the enemy mid tank with your mid tank. Move
your weakened tank onto the northeast city, to stop any infantry from
stepping there. Finish claiming the northwest cities. Move your
weakened mech in front of the enemy tank but don't attack it. Finish
off the enemy tank on the southern bridge and move your newly created
tank & infantry closer to the space.
After this, it's just a matter of holding back the enemy and
taking the rest of the territory while finishing off the rest of the
enemy forces. Olaf will not send any more invasion forces to the
northern bridge, only lots of infantry that you can clobber with your
mid tank (it's essential that you keep your mid tank healthy). Create
infantry, APCs, and maybe some more attacking force. You can leave the
enemy mid tank hanging around if it's only got 4 HP, it won't be able
to stop any of your infantry from claiming bases. Just distract it
with an APC and destroy it when you have time. Nab all those cities
and you'll get the S-rank.
Level A7 - Olaf's Sea Strike!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 9
After the incredible difficulty of Olaf's Navy, you'd think that
the 'hidden' level of the game would be a deadly masterpiece.
Unfortunately, it's a tad on the easy side, with a leisurely 9 day
requirement and a full armada to mash Olaf's bath toys into sea debris.
The level is so easy, it doesn't need a full day by day walkthrough.
It's a walk in the park.
You can picture this level as a Sonja fog of war level with sea
units. Olaf has added all manner of ships into the corners around the
level, and has beefed up his island defense with rocket launchers and
mid tanks. At sea, he has two attack subs and one stationary in the
northeast corner, three attack battleships and one stationary in the
reefs northwest of the base, and three cruisers, one of them stationed
northeast, one in the reefs south of the base, and one in the far
northeast corner reef. On his island, he has two infantry and a lander
by the north shore, a mid tank on the city, a mid tank south of the
curve in the road, a recon in the forest by the south shore, a rocket
launcher in the east most forest, and a rocket launcher in the north
forest.
For a briefing, move your units forward and turn Olaf's Sea
Strike force into sea kibbles. You can use the APC to distract the
battleships, destroy the two subs, bait the cruisers into range, and
generally wreck mayhem on poor Olaf. Revenge! For the north shore
invasion force, use an infantry and tank, and for the south shore
invasion force, use a tank and mid tank.
The first target is the battleship in the northeast corner,
execute it so that you can land your troops. Once the sea opposition
has been eliminated, cram the sea units around the island to distract
the rocket launchers (except your battleships!), destroy the landers
and infantry, land your invasion force, and execute/distract/block the
mid tanks.
Level M7 - History Lesson!
Difficulty: ****
Days: 5
A pretty rough five day speed level, but not so bad as to be a
suicidal five stars. Grit has distance units tucked away all over the
map, and you'll have to deal with all of them in one way or another.
Let's start with the unit locations. On your land, there's a rocket
launcher hidden in the north most forest. On Grit's land, there's an
artillery in the southeast most forest, that can only hit his base area
when he's using his CO attack. On the middle island, there's an
artillery in the southeast forest. And once again, most annoyingly,
there is the battleship in the northeast corner of the sea.
You must race your subs to the enemy battleship, and race your
lander to land by day three while providing decoys, taking non-fatal
damage, and hiding in the reefs. Day one, load two infantry into the
upper lander, and load two mechs into the other lander. Move the
infantry transport into the northeast reefs, move the battleship into
the southwest reefs, move the mech transport below the infantry
transport, move the cruiser below the battleship, dive both subs and
send them as far as they can go to the northeast, move your two tanks
as far north as they can go, and move your recon next to the tank
farthest north. Grit will not be able to touch any of your units.
Day two, move your mech transport to the closest piece of shore
and drop the mechs, which will simultaneously reveal the hidden enemy
sub. Move your cruiser up and blast it to bits. Move your subs as far
forward as they can go northeast once again. Move your transport far
east, and move your battleship two steps into the northeast reef. Move
your tank forward and attack the enemy infantry, move your recon
forward and attack the enemy artillery, and move your other tank north
onto the city. Grit will attack your mech transport (really just a
decoy) and destroy your cruiser, which is no big deal.
Day three, do not use your CO attack just yet. Attack the
remaining enemy infantry with your tank, move your recon unit next to
the forest with the rocket launcher, and move your damaged tank up to
attack the rocket launcher. Move your subs forward again, move your
battleship two steps north and two steps east, move your mech transport
northwest as bait, move your infantry transport onto the north part of
the shore, dropping the infantry off, move your mech units in the line
of artillery fire.
Day four use your CO power. Move your farther away sub forward
and attack the enemy battleship, then move your other closer sub and
finish it off. Clean up the rest of the trash on your land space,
begin capturing the base, and attack the enemy tank with your
battleship. On the next turn, the base is yours.
Level 8 - Sami's Debut!
Difficulty: *****
Days: 9-?
The designers have decided to turn a slightly difficult level in
normal campaign into a nasty, ball busting level for advanced campaign.
You'll be absolutely swamped with enemy air units and you're as blind
as a bat to boot. There's an enemy mid tank and bomber sitting around
the base, not to mention stationary helicopters & a fighter positioned
mid way across the map. Add Eagle's CO attack into the mix and you're
in for a world of pain. This is not a speed map, however. You can
spend plenty of time on the map, I had a full speed score finishing on
day 9, so I'm sure there's some leniency here. You'll want to use Max.
Let's start with some unit statistics and battle strategy. Eagle
has five bombers in transit, one fighter in transit, two helicopters in
transit, one bomber stationary by the base, and one fighter & two
helicopters stationary near the northeast bridge. You're going to have
to eliminate the fighters and the helicopters as the primary targets,
but keep your anti-air units long enough to be able to handle the
northeast road portion of the map, including eliminating almost all of
the bombers and air units. This means the rest of your units will act
as bomber and helicopter fodder to allow your anti-air units and air
units to survive. When I say 'move a unit forward', I mean along the
road, not through the field.
Nine day walkthrough with Max. Day one, load a mech into your
APC and move it forward, dropping the mech to the right. Move your mid
tank south of the mech, and your tank, artillery(keep it on the road),
missile launcher, and anti-air forward. Move your infantry north. Load
a mech into your transport copter and move it east of your missile
launcher. Attack the west most copter with your fighter from the west,
and the other copter with your copter from the west.
Day two, attack the bomber with your anti-air from the west, and
your fighter from the south. Move your artillery east of your fighter,
your missile launcher west of your fighter, your mid tank east of your
artillery, your tank one step west, and your transport copter west of
your anti-air. Move your copter northwest, and move an infantry south
of your missile launcher and south of your copter. Eagle some times
acts erratically, but I think this is the safest and most reliable
method.
Day three, use your CO power. Attack the fighter with your
missile launcher, the bomber with your anti-air from the west, and the
tank with your tank from the west. Move your transport south of the
tank and drop the mech off east. Attack the bomber with your fighter
from the north. Move your infantry north of your tank, and move your
mid tank northeast into the forest by the city.
Day four, move your missile launcher forward, destroy the mid
tank with your mid tank from the east and tank from the north, attack
the infantry with your anti-air from the west, load your mech into the
transport copter and move it between the four units. Attack the copter
with your infantry, and move your fighter east of your tank.
Day five, attack the fighter with your missile launcher, and the
copter with your anti-air from the east. Move your tank east, your mid
tank south of your tank, and your missile launcher east. Move your
transport far northeast, and move your infantry west of your missile
launcher.
Day six, use your CO power. Attack the bomber with your anti-air
from the east, and the copter with your fighter from the east. Move
your tank east by the river, and your transport copter east by the
river. Move your infantry and missile launcher forward.
Day seven, move your infantry east to expose the bomber then
destroy it with your anti-air, destroy the copter with your fighter.
Move your transport copter east on to the mountain northwest of the
base, dropping the mech east. Day eight, begin capturing the base.
Move your fighter south of the same mountain. Day nine, finish
capturing.
Level 9 - Kanbei Arrives!
Difficulty: *****
Days: 5
This level is the fourth suicide speed level, following levels 1,
3, and A4. Kanbei is coming at you with a gigantic force, and you have
to slip a transport by him with Sami, capturing the HQ on day 5. It's
just as vicious as the other ones, so be prepared for a struggle. The
key to completing the level, in short, is first move all of your units
except infantry, mech, rocket launcher, and transport to the northeast.
This will bait almost every enemy up there, leaving the south bridge
somewhat vulnerable. Day two, move your northeast units to the middle
of the map, blocking enemy access to your transport. Day three, move
your transport across the bridge and drop your infantry off. Move your
units southwest and your spare infantry/mechs forward. Day four & five,
take the base, using the APC as spare bait for the mid tank that's
chased you.
Now for the full day by day walkthrough. Day one, attack the
north rocket launcher with your north mid tank, attack the north
artillery with your north tank from the north. Move your other mid
tank west of your mid tank, and your other tank west of the enemy
artillery (do not attack it). Move your two artillery forward next to
your tanks. Move your rocket launcher one step east. Load your
southwest infantry into the APC and move it north of the southeast city.
Move your mechs east/northeast, and your infantry west of your rocket
launcher.
Day two, move your APC forward. Attack the southern tank with
your healthy tank, rocket launcher, then mech. Attack the weakened
artillery with your healthy artillery. Attack the damaged rocket
launcher with your mid tank from the south, and attack the tank that is
one step east of where the rocket launcher used to be with your mid
tank from the south. Move your damaged artillery where the rocket
launcher used to be. Attack the artillery with your remaining tank
from the east. Move your mech and infantry east, and move your APC one
step northeast of the rocket launcher.
Day three, move your APC forward and drop the infantry south of
the southwest city by the base. Attack the 1hp tank with your mech
that's right next to it, move your other mech east and destroy the
artillery, and move your infantry east. Day four, begin capturing the
base and move your APC onto the southwest city. Day five, finish
capturing.
Level 10 - Mighty Kanbei!
Difficulty: **
Days: 6
Come on now, this level is just silly. You need to take over the
base by day 6, and use Sami. It should be incredibly obvious what
you're supposed to do, but here's a guide anyway.
Day one, attack the enemy rocket launcher with your rocket
launcher, and finish it with your infantry. Attack the enemy tank with
your other rocket launcher and tank, create an infantry in the east and
west factory, create an APC in the southwest factory, move your mech
north, and move your eastern tank east on to the bridge.
Day two, attack the enemy tank with your tank to the south.
Create two decoy APCs, and begin capturing the two cities to the north
with your infantry & mech. Move your damaged infantry behind your tank,
and begin churning out decoy APCs to satiate Kanbei's bloodthirsty
invasion. Load your real APC up and move it one step south.
Day three, destroy the enemy artillery to the south with your
tank and start moving your APC towards Kanbei's base. Don't block up
Kanbei at the bridge, let him into your territory, spreading your decoy
APCs around to draw him further into your territory. Day four,
continue the same, and drop the infantry off. Day five, use your CO
power and capture. A stupidly easy win. The developers are just
trying to catch you off guard for Kanbei's Error.
Level 11 - Kanbei's Error?
Difficulty: *****
Days: 9-11
At first glance, this level seems unfair. Moving your air units
anywhere gets you clobbered, bombers, fighters and helicopters storm
your base and annihilate your units, and by day six, Kanbei captures
his last city. However, with the right technique and understanding,
the level is difficult but not impossible. Kanbei's Error consists of
three stages. The first stage is holing up and destroying the invading
air forces while decoying fighters with some transport copters, the
second stage is damaging and destroying the infantry on the northeast
island by day 6 with your helicopter, and the third is actively
capturing the bases with clear skies. All of these will be overlapping
in terms of completion and execution, so you'll be performing several
activities at once. You must capture the cities in 9 to 11 days, and
use Max. For a perfect S-rank, you need to finish in a speedy 9 days.
Nine day walkthrough, Max. Day one, move your units into a 3x3
formation around your base:
Infantry (create), infantry, infantry (create)
Transport, missile launcher, anti-air
Fighter, helicopter, infantry
Day two, attack the northern enemy bomber with your fighter from
the south, and the enemy fighter with your anti-air and missile
launcher. Move your northwest infantry into the transport, and drop it
off at the northwest island (use it to capture the cities there
throughout the level). Move your northeast infantry onto the north
city and begin capturing. Move your remaining infantry north one step,
create an infantry on the right factory, and create an transport copter
on the airport. Move your helicopter far north.
Day three, attack the copter with your fighter from the east, and
the fighter with your missile launcher, the other fighter with your
anti-air. Create two infantry, finish capturing the north city. Move
the two transport copters west and south of the north city. Move your
copter northeast into the forest.
Day four, use your CO power. Attack the northwest fighter with
your missile launcher. Load your healthy infantry into your transport
copters, and move them to the middle island, dropping your infantry
north at the northern corners. Attack the copter with your fighter
from the north, and the other fighter with your anti-air from the south.
Move your copter southeast next to the northeast island forest. Create
two infantry and a transport copter.
Day five, begin capturing the mid island bases. Attack the tank
with your helicopter from the west, and move your fighter south of the
tank. Move your middle island transport copters in the two north spots
above the infantry. Move your missile launcher one step south and
attack the bomber. Load up the transport copter on the air port and
move it north. Begin capturing the southwest city. Create an infantry
in the east factory and use it to capture the southeast city.
Day six, finish capturing the mid island cities. Finish off the
bomber with your anti-air from the east. Attack the infantry with your
copter from the south, and move your fighter east of your copter. Move
your loaded copter east, close to the northeast island.
Day seven, finish off the infantry with your copter from the east.
Load the two infantry into your transport copters. With the closest
transport copter, drop the infantry north on to the northeast city.
Move the other two transport copters north and east of the forest,
dropping the infantry units east onto the two cities.
Day eight, destroy the tank with your copter from the south,
begin capturing the cities, and move your surviving transport copter
north of the anti-air. Day nine, finish capturing.
Level 12 - Divide and Conquer!
Difficulty: *** (9 days) **** (7 days)
Days: 7-9
This is a fog of war memorization level. However, you still have
to play it well to get an S-rank, no matter how well you know the
terrain. You need to complete it by days 7-9, which means things are
going to get a little hairy near the end of the level. Let's start
with the unit locations. Inside the first mountain curve you start out
at, there are two rocket launchers in the southeast and middle forests.
On the second mountain curve to the east, there is an artillery unit in
the forest to the north of the city. On the third mountain curve above
your party is a rocket launcher in the forest northwest of the city.
On the fourth mountain curve to the northeast of the third curve, there
is a rocket launcher two steps east and one north of the city there in
the forest. And behind the last mountain curve by enemy base, there is
an artillery unit in the upper forest.
Completing the map by day 7 turns the map into a fairly difficult
challenge. Day one, move your two infantry east. Attack the rocket
launcher with your northwest tank. Move a mech north, then attack the
rocket launcher with your other mech. Move your southeast tank north
into the forest, and your mid tank and recon east along the road. Move
your APC one step northeast, your artillery west of your recon, and
your rocket launcher north of your artillery.
Day two, attack the rocket launcher with your two infantry. Load
your healthy mech into the APC and drop it east on the mountain,
exposing the enemy artillery behind the second mountain curve, then
destroy it with your tank. Attack the tank with your rocket launcher
then mech. Move your mid tank, recon, and artillery north. Move your
remaining tank two steps east.
Day three, move your mid tank to the forest that is the west most
of the three pieces of forest. Move your APC east of your mid tank,
and your healthy tank south of your APC. With the rest of your units,
clean up the two tanks and the artillery, they won't be making the rest
of the trip. Let them get mashed up so that your CO meter rises up.
Day four, move your APC northwest into the forest piece inside
the fourth mountain curve. Move your mid tank north of your APC, and
your tank one step northwest. Day five, move your APC northeast on to
the road and drop your infantry east. Destroy the rocket launcher with
your tank, and move your mid tank north of your tank. Day six, begin
capturing the base. Use your CO power and let the mid tank have it.
Day seven, finish.
Level 13 - Sami Marches On!
Difficulty: ***** (7 days) ***** 1/2 (6 days)
Days: 6-7
Sonja has made the level more difficult for you, replacing the
artillery in the northern island forest with a rocket launcher,
sticking a mid tank on the north island, and adding a second battleship
by the southern island. Not only that, but she will actively create
cruisers & subs and is right about to capture all of her bases. All
you need to win in terms of property is all the north and south island
cities/factories/ports except one. The clincher is that you must
finish the level in 6 days, so you'll have to race through the level
like lightning the way only Sami's troops can. This isn't a suicide
map, though, since you'll be trying to keep most of your units alive.
It's a complicated, precise, and a very difficult level to figure out
the S-rank strategy, so it gets a nasty five stars. You can't miss a
beat at all. With that said, let's get cracking. Just a note, when I
mention the 'north shore', I mean the one directly to the right of your
home island. The 'far north shore' is the shore running vertically on
the north island.
Six day walkthrough. Day one, load your south infantry and mid
tank into the south lander and move it to the south shore, dropping the
infantry south, mid tank east. Load your APC and infantry into the
north lander and move it to the west edge of the north shore, dropping
the APC north and infantry east. Move your mechs and rocket launcher
one step east, and create two infantry. Move your battleship into the
closest reef, and the cruiser into the reef, and dive your sub north of
your cruiser.
Day two, attack the mid tank with your rocket launcher, and move
your infantry north and begin capturing the city. Move the two landers
back to the south and northwest of the rocket launcher. Load a mech
into each one, and an infantry into either one, then move your factory
infantry forward and create two infantry. To the south, attack the
tank with your mid tank from the south, and begin capturing the factory.
Destroy the battleship with your battleship and sub, and move your
cruiser east into the next reef.
Day three, destroy the mid tank with your battleship, and finish
capturing the city with your infantry. Load the up lander that's
missing the infantry. Send the north lander to the far north shore,
between the two forests, and drop the mech east and infantry north.
Send the south lander to the far east corner of the north shore,
dropping the mech north and infantry west. Create a lander and load it
with the two infantry. Destroy the sub with your cruiser from the west,
and move your sub northeast on to the neutral sea port. To the south,
attack the tank with your mid tank from the north, and finish capturing
the factory.
Day four, use your CO power. Attack the battleship with your sub
from the north, and move your cruiser one step east of the neutral sea
port. Capture the factory with your mech, the sea port with your
infantry, the city with your other infantry, and the two cities to the
north with your infantry and mech. To the south, move the lander to
the west bit of south shore and drop the infantry off. Attack the tank
with your mid tank from the north and your weak infantry from the east,
then create a mech in the factory.
Day five, finish capturing the locations on the north island.
Destroy the battleship with your sub. To the south, attack the west
most tank with your mid tank from the east. Begin capturing the sea
port and city with your infantry and mech, and create a mech in the
factory. Day six, finish capturing.
Level 14 - Sonja's Goal
Difficulty: ***** (8 days) ***** 1/2 (7 days)
Days: 7-8
The final Sonja map is a difficult FOW tactical map, in the vein
of Sami Wings of Victory and Sami's Debut, and knowing all the unit
locations won't save you this time. You have to complete the level by
day 8, so there's no time for leisure. Sonja has two bombers, three
helicopters, one stationary fighter & mid tank near the base, two
rocket launchers to the mid left and mid right of the map, two subs, a
cruiser, a battleship, and several small tanks running around the map.
You can't rely on the reefs, because Sonja will use her CO power often,
since you'll be destroying so many of her units during the level.
Completing the level in 7 days for a perfect score is even more
difficult. Your lander and transport copter have very little time to
stop, and the map becomes a semi-suicide speed level with unit
sacrifice and AI trickery.
Here's the strategy briefing. You need to move your sea and air
forces northeast and land on the shore near the base. Your first
objective is handling the sea and air forces coming at you, and there
are a lot of them. Scramble your units northeast, speeding past the
rocket launcher, copter, battleship, etc. There are different ways to
play the level, but this is a reliable method. You'll have to use
almost every AI trick and strategy in the book to win.
Day one, dive your sub one step north and destroy the sub with
your battleship (make sure it's destroyed). Move your cruiser east and
one step south, and move your copter one step northwest of your cruiser.
Load a mid tank and infantry into the lander, and an infantry into the
transport copter. Move your lander west of your copter, and your
transport copter one step southwest of your cruiser. Move your anti-
air south into the forest, your missile launcher, mechs, recon, and
rocket launcher east, move your APC two steps north, and move your tank
west of your missile launcher.
Day two, attack the copter with your anti-air from the east, and
the sub with your cruiser from the south. Move your sub two steps east,
your lander one step west, your sub one step southeast, and your copter
south of your lander. Move your mechs, recon, and rocket launcher east,
your tank north of your anti-air, and your missile launcher south of
the north mountain.
Day three, attack the west bomber with your missile launcher, the
east bomber with your anti-air, and the cruiser with your rocket
launcher and sub from the north. Move your lander east into the reef,
your cruiser east into the reef, your battleship north of your sub,
your transport copter and copter far north, and your mechs and recon
southeast.
Day four, use your CO power. Move your transport copter east, on
the spot west of the forest, your cruiser north of your transport
copter, your battleship south of your transport copter, your lander one
step northwest of your transport copter, and your copter north of your
lander.
Day five, move your lander to the west part of the shore and drop
the infantry east and mid tank north, and move your copter north of
your infantry. Move your transport copter northeast on to the forest
and drop the infantry east. Attack the fighter with your cruiser from
the south. Day six, move your transport copter east of your infantry
and your copter one step north. Capture the base on day six & seven.
Level A15 - Captain Drake!
Difficulty: *****
Days: 9
A nasty Drake level that will take numerous reattempts, it's a
very precise map and tough to figure out. It's the same setup, except
this time Drake has an extra battleship, and a huge army of units
proceeding west along the road at you. The clincher is that you need
to capture a city on the southwestern island before Drake's troops
overwhelm the area, and by day 9, as well. You'll be creating mostly
infantry from the factories, but once you have all your infantry set up,
you can create recons and APC decoys for the approaching enemy invasion.
Go for the east island first, then the central island with your
infantry. Drop the tank off on the mid island and take care of the
infantry, staying out of enemy fire. Move your APC w/ infantry inside
and artillery & mid tank to claim the city, and move your subs
southwest to tackle the enemy battleship and act as decoys for the
enemy rocket launcher.
Day one, load your tank into the lander and move it south, to
the bit of shore away from enemy battleship fire, and drop the tank
south. Dive your subs southwest, your APC one step west, your
artillery and mid tank south as far as possible, and create two
infantry.
Day two, move an infantry into the APC and send it far south,
move your other infantry into the lander and create two infantry. Move
your mid tank two steps south, and your artillery right behind it,
attack the battleship from the east with your sub, and move your other
sub forward. Attack the eastern infantry from the north with your tank
(out of battleship fire range).
Day three, load a second infantry into the lander and drop them
off on the east island, on the spot southwest of the west city on the
island, and use them to capture the cities. With your extra infantry
left, use it to capture the cities near your base. Create an infantry
on the northeast factory and a recon on the southwest factory. Finish
off the damaged infantry with your tank, attack the enemy tank with
your mid tank from the west, attack the enemy mid tank with your
artillery, and move your APC south of your artillery and drop the
infantry off west. Attack the enemy battleship with your healthy
battleship from the east.
Day four, use your CO power. Move your recon far south onto the
road, and move your extra infantry onto the southeast shore, move your
lander back and load it up with an infantry, then create two infantry.
Attack the enemy infantry with your tank, attack the enemy mid tank
with your mid tank from the south, move your artillery in front of the
other mid tank, begin claiming the city with your infantry, and rise
your sub one step west(fodder). Create two infantry.
Day five, if it starts raining on this day, you're screwed,
you'll have to exit the map and start all over. Move your lander to
the previous mid island drop off point, and drop the infantry off.
Finish claiming the southwest city, and attack the enemy infantry with
your mid tank (bastard!). Create two infantry. Move your recon to the
southern edge of the bridge. Day six, continue to line your
recon/infantry along the southeast shore as decoys for the enemy
battleship. Begin claiming the cities on the mid isle and keep going.
Line your new infantry up along the southeast shore and create two more
infantry. Day seven, continue to provide fodder for the enemy
battleship and other units invading your territory, day eight and nine,
take the last two mid island towns.
Level M15 - Captain Drake!
Difficulty: **
Days: 5
Max has a very easy time compared to his comrades in this rainy
level. All you've got to do to win is smash up Drake's naval force in
5 days, much like the normal campaign mode. Just use fine tuned,
battle worn sea tactics to win. This map is so easy and short that it
doesn't really need a thorough day by day walkthrough, so I'll just
give a summary here.
Day one, move your units south, dropping the rocket launcher to the
left island. Day two, move the damaged transport south to the reef to
reveal the battleship & destroy it w/ western sub & rockets. Destroy
the other northeast battleship with your two subs, and move your other
units forward out of range of the southeast battleship (move the
eastern cruiser & battleship closer to the attack limits near the mid-
map square than to the southwest limits). Day three, use your CO power
and kick some ass, making sure to move three of your subs & your west
battleship to the southwest corner of the map where a battleship and
sub await you. Use the eastern cruiser to dunk the sub to the
southeast. Day four & five, destroy the enemy cruiser & battleship to
the southwest and the southeast battleship with one sub. A slight
relief from all the rough maps hanging around later in the game.
Level S15 - Captain Drake!
Difficulty: ******
Days: 9-11
Sami's Captain Drake is my favorite Advance Campaign level in the
game. Along with Rivals and Olaf's Navy, this is a masterpiece of a
challenge, and only the best players will be able to figure it out on
their own. Levels such as these elevate the Advance Wars level to it's
highest point: as a complex tactical puzzle with only one solution. In
this chess game, each game piece requires perfect use. When I first
played through the level, I managed to complete it in 11 days, but a
perfect score requires an incredible 9 days. If you want to challenge
yourself to the best Advance Wars has to offer, this is the level to
beat.
Drake has added a rocket launcher, three mid tanks, infantry
quickly invading your territory, and artillery posted around the forest.
He has a new sea force to the east of your land mass in addition to his
original forces (two battleships, a cruiser, and a sub), a battleship
near his southeast port, and will create sea units as well. You must
scramble your cruiser & two subs northeast to take care of the
battleships so you can begin capturing the factories, while dealing
with the southwest fleet that will be coming north. By land, you need
to capture cities and the factories efficiently, use expert FOW tactics,
hold off the enemy advance into your territory, and move as fast as
possible to your goal, Drake's northeast city. This level is tough as
it is, but the reason it gets six stars is because in addition to all
this, you must capture the last city by day 9!
You'll be performing several tasks at once here, taking care of
the southwest and northeast fleets, landing your units and taking the
factories and towns, holding back the enemy advance, managing your CO
power, creating units, etc. The factories are the first buildings you
want to capture, and you'll want to use APCs as decoys for the
northeast battleships. Once you're finished with your sea units, use
them all as fodder at the appropriate times. Even with a walkthrough,
this level is incredibly difficult, so I can only help out so far.
When Sami says this level could be a tough nut to crack, this time she
really means it. Good luck!
The AI in the level is aggravatingly random. I have no apparent
explanation for it's erratic behavior. You'll also have to be dealing
with random, changing weather conditions. The weather seems to change
as you continue to move your units on any given day. It always helps
to keep a few movements behind with your saves, always make sure you
won't get stuck with a bad piece of weather.
It's almost impossible to write a day by day for this level,
because the AI loves acting erratically. Instead, I'll give a strategy
briefing, plus the first few days of walkthrough.
The two battleships to the east will attempt to blast your units.
You must send your subs and rocket launcher to take care of the cruiser
and sub as they approach you from the east, and destroy the two
battleships. Even so, you will be dealing with the two battleships for
the majority of the level. Taking care of the cruiser here is the most
annoying part of the level, since you will have to keep retrying the
map until the cruiser doesn't barge straight ahead, but keeps its
distance. Now, you don't necessarily have to do this, but I would
recommend it, because you'll be able to move your subs farther. You
should dive one sub and keep one exposed to bribe the cruiser. Unload
your rocket launcher on the road and move it into the western piece of
forest that's on the north part of the land. Once the cruiser is in
view, blast it with your rocket launcher and subs. After that you
should dive your other sub as well. The enemy battleships may move
around in different spots, depending on the AI and what units you have
available for the battleships to attack on the land mass.
Instead of trying to barge into Drake's territory, you must use
your battleship, cruiser, and a lander to move south. Drop a mech off
on the southwest shore of Drake's as yet unoccupied territory as fast
as possible, and capture the city next to the shore. There will be a
sub, cruiser, and battleship to deal with. What you should do is
destroy the sub with your cruiser, keep the battleship without targets,
and keep your battleship in the reef close to your starting island.
Keep your lander safely away from all attacks. It's a basic naval
exercise.
Now, the largest part of the battle will be on your land mass.
Capture the factories and cities as fast as possible. The key to
winning is decoys, strategic losses, being comfortable with enemies
crawling all over your land mass, and using your capture abilities.
Create only infantry and APCs to take the heat off your units, and try
to keep your combat units alive as long as possible. Provide range
support with your battleship in the reef and your rocket launcher. Pay
attention to the enemy infantry and mechs trying to capture your cities,
don't let them capture anything. Concentrate on the closest cities,
and attempt to capture the city to the southwest last.
Day one, load an infantry into the APC, and load the APC and
rocket launcher into the southern lander. Load an infantry and mech
into the northern lander. With the southern lander, move west of the
north piece of road and drop the rocket launcher east, APC south. With
the northern lander, move west of the mountain and drop the infantry
east, mech south. Move your two subs northeast, and your battleship
southwest into the reef.
Day two, drop the infantry east into the forest, and begin
capturing the factory with your infantry and the city to the east with
your mech. Move your rocket launcher northeast into the forest. Move
your subs northeast hugging against the land, diving the one farther
ahead, and keeping the other one behind exposed. Move your landers
back, and load a mech into the north one, and your mid tank and tank
into the south one. Attack the tank with your battleship.
Day three, attack the cruiser with your battleship and the other
cruiser with your rocket launcher. Move your subs forward and attack
the cruiser with your dived sub, and dive the other sub (this is
assuming that the cruiser stayed back instead of rushed forward). Move
your infantry forward and begin capturing the factory, finish capturing
the city and factory (as a note, sometimes I have seen the artillery in
the forest NOT attack the mech on the city. If this happens, I can't
predict what will happen afterwards). Move your APC south of the
southwest factory, move your tank lander west of the mountain and drop
the tank north, mid tank south. Move your mech lander to the south bit
of shore on your base island, and your cruiser one step southwest of
your battleship.
Day four, attack the sub with your rocket launcher and subs,
attack the sub with your cruiser from the south, and attack the
battleship with your battleship. Move your lander south into the reef.
Move your tank into the forest next to the factory, and attack the tank
with your mid tank from the north. Finish capturing the factory, and
move your infantry north to begin capturing that city. Move your APC
east of the northeast factory and create an APC. Move your cruiser by
the shore one step north.
Day five, attack the mid tank with your battleship and mid tank
from the north, and attack the battleship with your two subs. Move
your rocket launcher south into the forest, your infantry on the
factory northeast to begin capturing the city, continue capturing the
city with your other infantry, move your tank onto the southeast city,
your APC onto the sea port, and create a mech in the southwest factory
and an infantry in the northeast. Move your lander south to the shore
and drop the mech south.
Day six, attack the battleship with your battleship, destroy the
other battleship with your west sub from the south, and move your other
sub southwest. Continue capturing the cities, begin capturing the sea
port, and the two cities with your mechs. Attack the tank with your
mid tank from the west, and the artillery in the forest with your
rocket launcher. Create an APC in the west factory and an infantry in
the east factory.
Day seven, continue capturing all locations. Load the infantry
into the APC, move the APC to the city by the mountain, and drop the
mech west into the forest. Attack the artillery with your rocket
launcher and the battleship with your subs, move your cruiser next to
the shore with the city to see the infantry on it, and attack with your
battleship and mid tank from the east. Create two APCs.
Day eight, finish the capturing infantry with your battleship,
and begin capturing the city with your infantry. Attack the mid tank
with your rocket launcher, the battleship with your sub, move your
lander west of your infantry, your APCs north and east of your mid tank,
and create two APCs. Continue capturing the northeast city. Day nine,
if your infantry has at least 4HP, then capture that city, and the
northeast city.
Well, just like Rivals Advance, there is a good chance the AI
will screw around and not act predictably. In fact, the map gets to be
a real big mess. Just use your noggin!
Level A16 - Naval Clash!
Difficulty: **
Days: 10
An incredibly easy level. All you really need to do is flee your
units around the northeast area, keeping them alive for 10 days. It
doesn't matter how many units you lose as long as you keep the missile
unit alive and away from enemy attack. Consider everything but the
lander w/ the missile launcher in it as fodder. This level doesn't
really need a walkthrough, all you need to do is steer clear of enemy
attack range and near the end of the level use your units as fodder to
protect your missile launcher lander. Andy's never had it this easy.
Level M16 - Naval Clash!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 7
Another fairly easy advance campaign level for Max. You need to
destroy all the units by day 7, so you'll have to begin rushing your
units eastward by day two, using your lander and APC as decoys to allow
your units to pass unharmed. Use your recon effectively to view
enemies in front of your land units, then overtake them. When you have
the opportunity, use your CO power and smash the enemy units on the
bridge, or launch the CO power with your units on the bridge. Drake
has a rocket launcher and three mid tanks, plus several smaller units
along the way. By sea, have your subs dive and injure the two
battleships to 4-5 HP on day two, and move your other units forward.
Afterwards, send one sub north to the remaining enemy battleship, raise
one sub to the east to get a better view of the bridge and bait the
enemy cruiser, and use your cruiser and lander as bait for the enemy
rocket launcher or battleship. The level is fairly straight forward
and there shouldn't be a big problem completing it, even if it is down
to the last unit. Just use decoy and unit management tactics
effectively.
Level S16 - Naval Clash!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 8-10
This map would be much harder if the developers forced you to
speed your units up, but you can take a leisurely 8-10 days invading
the enemy territory and capturing the base. There are no air units,
and only a battleship and sub coming after your landers. The challenge
here is taking out Drake's land troops, which include two mid tanks,
two rocket launchers, artillery, and mechs/infantry. However, the
invasion only needs some basic tactical skills, like using the APC,
cruiser, battleship, and even landers (not to be killed, obviously) as
decoys. After taking care of the sea threat (don't bother with the
enemy cruiser, keep your sub dived), move your battleship east along
the invasion strip, to provide firepower support and scare the enemy
rocket launchers out of hiding and away from your advancing troops.
When you start off the battle, keep your sea units put and wait
for the enemy battleship and sub to approach you, then execute them.
If you have to, use your lander to reveal the sunken enemy sub and
smash it with your cruiser. Continually drop off your units at the
shore with your landers, with the mid tank, two tanks, rocket launcher,
and APC going first. Use intelligent land tactics, FOW tactics, and
Sami's Mechs & CO power to your advantage. If you need to use a CO
power, consider throwing your cruiser to the enemy as bait, which will
increase your CO power meter considerably. You will definitely get
beat up and lose units, but as long as you can stomp down the enemy
base, it's not a big deal.
Level A17 - Wings of Victory!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 8-9
This level isn't too difficult, once you get past the initial air
invasion. Eagle will send three bombers and two fighters after you,
and they're all easy to bait into your hands. On day one, you should
hide your fighters behind the line of units, load & move your air
transport & bomber north, and move your mid tank and rockets north
(towards the forests). On day two, move the air transport & bomber
further north out of fighter range, hide the mid tank in the forest,
and move the rockets forward. Day three, attack the bombers with your
fighters, the fighters with your anti-air and missile launcher, and the
anti-air, tank, etc. with your bomber, mid tank, and rocket launcher.
Eagle will waste a turn combining his bombers & fighters, and then use
his lightning strike. If possible, surround Eagle's fighters with
ground units so they can't cause any trouble. Crush them afterwards.
Since technique points don't matter here, you can just stuff up
the mountain passage with fodder and allow your air units to pass by
the north, destroying the bomber in the north sea area with a fighter.
When approaching the base, there will be a missile launcher in the
forest two steps below the base, and a bomber in the southeast corner
of the map. You must finish the map by day 8-9. To speed things up,
use your CO power when you bomb the missile launcher and kill the
southeast bomber with your fighter. As long as you take care of
Eagle's initial attack, the rest of the map is a piece of cake.
Level M17 - Wings of Victory!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 7
This map is similar to Andy's level, except here you'll be
sending out units in a search and destroy mission after baiting Eagle's
units. On day one, position all your units to strike, using all units
to full advantage once Eagle is in your target sights, and then
demolish him. He will then send several more copters, a fighter, and a
bomber (he can only reach you after using the CO power, though).
Afterwards, you need to rush out into the FOW to destroy the units left
hanging around. There is a tank and infantry on the north side, two
bombers, one in the northeast and one in the southeast, and some other
units hanging around. The key to winning quickly is to ignore the
infantry, tanks, etc. left over from the invasion and leave those to
your ground troops, immediately launching your air units out to destroy
the enemy units. You must eliminate the units by day 7.
Level S17 - Wings of Victory!
Difficulty: ***** 1/2
Days: 5-6
Once again, Sami is faced with a tough as nails battle against
Eagle. This time the name of the game is suicide speed, a five day air
rampage. The level will test the strategy and thinking skills of any
Advance Wars player worth their salt. There are two fighters, four
bombers, three anti-air units, a missile launcher two steps south of
the base, an insurmountable number of ground units, and two more
bombers in the northeast and southeast corners of the map. You've got
an assortment of units, and most of them will be fodder. The three
units you want to keep alive by the end of the map are your two
fighters and your infantry on the base. I won't spoil the fun for
anyone who wants to try this map on their own, but the full walkthrough
is right here for anyone who thinks it's impossible or wants to try it
out themselves.
Day one, load the eastern infantry into your transport copter,
and move it one step east, one step north, and one step east. Load the
mech into the APC and drop it off in the mountains one step southwest
of the transport copter. Move your other units into this 5x5 formation,
using the transport copter as a reference:
X,Tank,Recon,X,X
Mid Tank,Anti-Air,Fighter,X,X
X,Rocket,Fighter,X,X
Missile,Bomber,Infantry,Helicopter,Transport Copter
X,Mech,APC,Mech,X
Day two, attack the anti-air with your bomber from the north,
destroy the northeast tank with your rocket launcher and tank from the
north, the other tank with your mid tank from the east, and the
southeast fighter from the east. Move your copter south of your anti-
air, your transport copter east of your bomber, your fighter east of
your transport copter, and your missile launcher east of your rocket
launcher.
Day three, attack and destroy the fighters with your anti-air and
missile launcher. Move your transport copter forward and drop your
infantry off into the northwest forest, move your bomber northeast of
the enemy infantry, to expose the enemy bomber, then destroy the bomber
with your fighters from the north and east.
Day four, move your bomber northeast to expose the enemy bomber.
Destroy it with your healthy fighter. Use your CO power, and begin
capturing the base. Day five, finish capturing.
Level A18 - Battle Mystery!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 5
A five day map that is still pretty easy. Drake's units will
generally act stupid, so just crush them as they approach you. The
goal is to move a cruiser to the north most reef in the small cove that
you have to move east and back around to reach. Use the landers as
decoys for the enemy battleship to the northeast, allowing your cruiser
to pass by and your sub & battleship to destroy it. Once your cruiser
is next to the lander, blast it away with your battleship & rocket
launcher.
On day one, load the mid tank and rocket launcher into a lander
and drop them off to the east, dropping the rocket launcher south into
the forest and mid tank east. Move all of your sea units northeast or
east along the passage, diving the subs. Day two, move your empty
lander northeast to expose the enemy sub. Attack it with your cruiser
from the east and sub from the west. Move your cruiser south if you
can't see the enemy battleship that's southwest of your rocket launcher.
Once you can see it, attack it with your rocket launcher, battleship,
and sub. Move your mid tank onto the city, and move your other lander
onto the east shore.
Day three, attack the enemy sub to the southwest with your
cruiser and sub. Use your CO power. Destroy the enemy mid tank with
your rocket launcher & mid tank. Move your lander and battleship far
east, move your cruiser east and around the island (watch out for the
battleship in the corner), attack the battleship with your sub, and
move your tank just out of range of the artillery. Day four, finish
the enemy battleship with your battleship and sub. Continue moving
your cruiser south, and move your rocket launcher east. Day five,
finish moving your cruiser next to the reef, expose the lander, and
blow it to bits!
Level M18 - Battle Mystery!
Difficulty: ****
Days: 8-9
You're back trying to invade Drake's territory and claim his base,
and he's made it more annoying for you to progress. He has two
battleships, a sub, two cruisers, two artilleries, a rocket launcher, a
mid tank, and other assorted units. The key to winning is to place an
infantry into an APC and load it into a lander that you can drop by the
eastern shore to claim the base. You must complete the level by day 8-
9.
On day one, load the lander that can drop off with your mid tank
and recon, and drop them off north, recon into the forest and mid tank
to the left. Move your battleship northeast into the reef, dive the
sub south of the battleship, and move your cruiser northeast into the
reef. Load your other lander with the rocket launcher and tank and
move it south of the sub.
Day two, destroy the enemy anti-air with your mid tank from the
south, the enemy sub with your cruiser from the west, move your full
lander northeast to the reef (from the south) to expose the enemy
cruiser, and attack it with your battleship and sub (from the east).
Move your recon north into the forest. Move your empty lander back and
load it with your APC (infantry inside) and mech.
Day three, move your rocket launcher lander to the previous
lander point and drop off the rocket launcher north and tank west.
Move your cruiser north to the forest to expose the enemy artillery,
and attack it with your battleship and recon from the west. Attack the
enemy tank with your mid tank from the west, finish off the enemy
cruiser with your sub. Move your APC lander northeast.
Day four, destroy the enemy tank with your tank from the south,
destroy the enemy mid tank with your battleship and mid tank (from the
east), move your rocket launcher north, move your two landers northeast
into the battleship range. Move your cruiser below the enemy
battleship, and attack it with your sub from the west.
Day five, use your CO power. Attack the enemy tank with your
rocket launcher, move your small tank to the north most forest to
expose the rocket launcher, and then demolish it with your mid tank.
Move your battleship northeast into the next reef, move your cruiser
far east to the second battleship reef, move your sub far east, move
your empty lander south of the battleship, and move your full lander to
the east most part of the shore, dropping the APC north and mech east.
Day six, move your two landers to the south and east of the enemy
cruiser, move your cruiser north of the second battleship, and move
your sub forward and attack it. Attack the enemy battleship with your
battleship. Move the APC one step northwest of the enemy base and drop
the infantry to the north. Day seven, destroy the second battleship
and begin claiming the base. Day eight, finish claiming the base.
Level S18 - Battle Mystery!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 8
This is a fun Sami level, where you get to thwart Drake's moves
at every turn. Make good use of naval tactics here and you'll have the
map 'wrapped up' by day 5. To start out, you'll want to move your east
helicopter southeast to block off the passage, move your southern
transport copter east, and your infantry in between the three mountains.
Retreat your west helicopter, mechs, and north transport copter far
west. By sea, don't destroy both subs on day one or Drake will use his
CO attack and it's game over for your infantry.
Use the landers as decoy/blockade units, move the rocket launcher
up close for some cheap shots at the cruisers, and bait the cruisers
with far-away transport copters and helicopters then smash them to bits
with your battleship & rocket launcher. Show Drake how to play a real
naval battle. Even if you perform terribly, as long as you survive the
eight days you'll get a perfect score, so don't worry if your units are
getting trashed as long as you keep your transport copter w/ infantry
safe.
Level 19 - Andy Times Two!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 5
An easy 5 day speed level. The problem with this level, however,
is that you must rely on Eagle's units, which are always unpredictable.
The level is usually never the same twice. You have to rocket your
transport copter to the base with Sami using decoys, blocking up the
northwest passage, and holding off enemy units from your infantry.
The safest and most reliable way to get rid of the missile
launcher is by loading your lander with a mech and infantry, and moving
your battleship, sub, and lander north to the shore by Andy's base.
Use some naval tactics, drop off the infantry and mech, then destroy
the missile launcher with your battleship and units. Move your
transport copter east, northeast, then north, dropping the infantry off
on day three, using your CO power on day four, and capturing the base
on day 5. Make sure to use your tank and missile launcher to draw away
the majority of the enemy units across the bridge, or else there will
be too many to handle over by the base.
Level 20 - Enigma!
Difficulty: ***
Days: 12-16
Sturm is back for Enigma, and the map is pretty much the same
except for the fact that there is FOW, so you'll have to compensate
with some new strategies, even though generally FOW makes the map even
easier by crippling Sturm's view. First of all, you should read the
entire guide for Enigma normal campaign, because almost all of the
information still applies in terms of winning the map, with a few
exceptions and new actions you'll need to take listed below. You must
finish the map in 12-16 days.
If you use the FOW to your advantage, the map is even easier.
For example, your anti-air unit will be hidden in the forest and so
cannot be seen as you take out the different units. An even bigger
bonus is that you can send your transport copter to the northeast
portion of your land to lure the enemy fighter within striking distance
of your still-alive anti-air unit, leaving your factory to create some
other unit, possibly a recon (scare away distance units) or a tank.
One of the sticking points of the map is barging your way up the
road to Sturm's base. Since the path is riddled with forest, it
becomes difficult to progress since your front line unit will usually
be attacked and only that front line unit can attack the unit in front
of it that's in the forest during that turn. To remedy this problem,
create mechs and use the transport copter to drop them onto the river
and forest areas to expose and attack the enemy units from the side,
allowing you to bully your way through just like the normal campaign
mode.
The sea route is just as easy to land, and you can use the same
sub tactics as before. Just make sure you have at least three healthy
mid tanks to conquer Sturm's main base, or you won't be able to stem
the tide of units being built and units already present. Sturm has
added a rocket launcher hidden in the forest below his sea port, so be
careful with your landers. He also has more mid tanks, so make sure to
bring a strong force up the road with you to draw some forces away from
your landing party. When invading, use FOW tactics carefully and don't
let the enemy mid tanks start smashing your units around. Since Sturm
has a +20% offense and -20% defense, it's best for you to charge ahead
unless it risks being attacked by a mid tank, since your tanks can kill
most of his units instantly unless they're in a city or forest.
Level 21 - The Final Battle!
Difficulty: ****** (13 days) ****** 1/2 (10 days)
Days: 10-13
The final battle against Sturm is all about more units, and he
has a ton of them coming straight for you. This level is different
from the others in that you have to manage unit creation over time and
continue a sustained multi character assault on Sturm. The biggest
factor in slowing players down in this map is the fact that all of your
units can't be controlled at once. Although it is unique to this level,
you have to be able to take all of your units into consideration when
moving forward, planning out tactical strategies, attacking, and so on.
If you put a weak unit in front, a stronger unit of another character
may not be able to move as far ahead as they could have. If you attack
an enemy with a weak or ineffective unit, you may have blocked off an
attack for another of your characters stronger units. Always keep this
in mind throughout the level, and especially when charging into Sturm's
territory, where you will have plenty of busted up units.
The key to defeating Sturm is quickly demolishing his invasion
and moving in for the kill. He won't make many units aside from his
initial force. You must be able to build more units in response to
whatever he's building on his base, in order to move in and defeat him.
The battle is big and messy, but you need to know everything that's
going on several turns ahead of time. The levels will always be
different past day two, since Sturm will move his ground units and
copters into different formations randomly each time you start the
level, and he will build different units throughout the game depending
on what he feels most threatened by.
The guide is written with Olaf and Eagle as teammates. Generally,
the teammate on the left is only useful as a supporting role, so as
long as you have Eagle, you should be able to handle the battle fairly
well. In order to get a perfect S-rank, you need to win by day 10, and
perform almost flawlessly. You should manipulate Sturm's CO attack so
that he uses it on days 3, 5, and 7 or 8. Whenever he's used his CO
power, crush his units mercilessly.
Here's a walkthrough. Day one, you need to move into position to
attack Sturm's air units. It's preferable that you have Sturm move
almost every one of his air units into your attack range, especially
his fighters. With Andy, move the anti-airs to the northwest and
northeast, cover the transport copter from the east and west with
copters, move your mid tanks south of your copters, your APC a bit back,
your transport copter forward one step, your missile launcher forward,
begin capturing the city and factory, and create two infantry. Don't
mess up the enemy mech formation, you'll need it intact to survive.
With your teammates, move your units into formation, away from any
potential attack, and create infantry and an APC for both. I recommend
saving at Eagle, with your helicopters and fighters unmoved. Try
experimenting with their position to get all of Sturm's air units into
your attack range. I really need to stress this: if you can destroy
his entire bomber and fighter fleet in one day, the map will be that
much easier.
Day two, use your tactical ability to destroy as many air units
as possible. Arrange the units of the left teammate so that they will
draw Sturm's CO attack. With Olaf, I was able to consistently draw
attacks with a column of two rocket launchers, two missile launchers,
and an APC. Move your left teammates other units north for later use.
You need to wall up with Andy and keep his anti-air, mid tank,
and copter units alive, using the enemy mechs as a buffer from attack.
You need to use Sturm's swarm of units against him, by jamming them up
and making them unable to attack anything. Destroy the mid tank with
your mid tanks, move your copter into the empty space and attack the
mech that isn't on a city. Move your other copter back, Begin
capturing the airport, move your other infantry next to the missile
launcher, create an anti-air west and infantry east.
Day three, give Sturm's units a serious pounding. Aim your
sights at his helicopter and anti-air units. Keep his mid tanks jammed
up and distract the tanks with APCs, transport copters, and infantry.
Sturm's tanks will not attack your helicopters, and his anti-air will
not attack your mid tanks, so use that to your advantage. Pay
attention to Sturm's order of ground unit movement: mechs, tanks, anti-
air, helicopters, then mid tanks last.
Day four, Sturm's CO meter is active again, so attack him with
caution. Don't trigger his CO attack, hold back if you have to. A CO
attack now would be devastating to your combined forces. Eagle's units
are just now able to move up for an attack on the next day.
Day five, rip into Sturm. Use Andy's CO attack, and especially
use Eagle's CO attack. This is the day where you should eliminate all
of Sturm's invasion force. Arrange Eagle's units so that his two
fighters, a mid tank, and an APC get hit by the CO attack.
Day six, start moving into Sturm's territory. Use Eagle's
smashed air units to pull attacks away from the bridge area, so that
your units have some room to barge in. Don't let Sturm stalemate your
units at the bridge, or you'll waste too much time. At this point you
should have captured most of the cities. Sturm shouldn't have too much
left except for anti-airs, missile launchers, a few mid tanks and tanks,
and some air units. Build recons, a few anti-air, and mid tanks. If
he has a number of missile launchers, build transport copters to move
into their range, so they don't try to flee from your ground units,
which can end up costing you a day or more of wasted time.
Day seven to ten, make it your priority to stop up Sturm's
factories and especially his air ports. If he makes too many air units,
you'll end up triggering his CO power destroying them, which could
cripple your frontline forces. He really doesn't have all that much
left, the real tactical challenge here comes from managing your newly
created units, moving in with effective kills, and blocking his
airports. This is the most difficult part of the level, because it's
hard to manage everything that's going on at once, hard to measure what
you need to build and move in to win, and hard to injure Sturm's units
that are on his cities and factories. Prepare beforehand by measuring
how long units will take to get into Sturm's base.
Level 22 - Rivals!
Difficulty: *******
Days: appx 16
The Advance Campaign finishes with a big bang; a level that I
believe is the most difficult in the entire campaign. The level is
separated into two waves of attacks. In the first wave, Eagle will
approach you with three helicopters, then four bombers by air, while by
land sending an invasion on each side of one tank, one anti-air unit,
and one mid tank. The second wave is a crushing blow as Eagle swarms
your area with accumulated masses of land units and a new batch of
helicopters. Eagle also has four fighters waiting to blast any air
unit you create, a missile launcher northeast of his island airport,
and will build fighters to stop you. To top it all off, the map has
been changed to FOW and you start with only two mechs and an infantry.
You must somehow build a transport and move it safely across the wide
map to land and capture Eagle's base.
Trying to defend yourself by land is a battle of attrition at
best, there's no way to win just by playing defensively, even though
it's possible to survive for quite some before being completely swamped.
It seems like Eagle has you completely sewn up. Just listening to all
of the helicopters, tanks and artillery rushing after me out there in
the fog was enough to make my jaw drop in disbelief.
Advance Rivals took me the longest of all the campaign levels to play,
and that was around 5-6 days of effort. After some failed attempts at
stalling out, I realized I would have to hold off the ground invasion,
bait the four fighters, and destroy the helicopters & bombers as they
come in. It takes expert skill to know how to manipulate the computer
AI, exploit it's weaknesses, and hold off enemy ground units in tight
spots initially, but there's so many variables and factors to consider
that it really is one of the toughest levels not only to plan out the
general strategy to but also execute it with attention to the minutest
detail. I can only help you so far, the rest is up to you.
You must defend yourself against Eagle's helicopters & bombers
with two anti-air units then a missile launcher on the SE factory (and
expert defensive, bait, decoy, and diversionary tactics), jam up the
farthest north and closest south bridges with infantry, and use other
infantry to protect your missile launcher. Once you've destroyed the
last helicopter, build a transport copter, next turn send it in hiding
and finish off the bombers, and make sure on the next turn that you
trigger Eagle's CO attack. I recommend trying to injure one of the
bombers to 1 hp so it will flee to an airport and take up space. Use
your CO attack after him, and smash his fighters to bits, while trying
to blockade one off with ground units. Do not let ANY of his fighters
escape, or they will fly back to heal themselves and raise hell for you
later, even if it means destroying a weak fighter vs. a fully healed
one. Build your first fighter and keep your transport copter protected.
Then, finish off the last of the fighters, send your transport copter
east, and your fighter southeast to approach an enemy helicopter.
Afterwards, you'll want to build one more fighter, and then your land
mass is irrelevant, let them all die. Now for the sky battle, Eagle's
second wave of copters will be zipping all around you, so be very
cautious. If he creates a fighter, dispose of it ASAP, and use your CO
power to attack it if possible. Allow injured helicopters to escape to
air ports so that they jam up Eagle's production capabilities. Do not
attack an injured air unit on an airport by any means - they will not
chase after your transport copter until they're fully healed. Eagle
will use another CO attack soon after your two fighters are available,
and will have at least 3 helicopters closing in on your position. Try
to destroy two of the copters and move the transport copter out of the
range of the third. You may also try to hold off the enemy near your
base and create empty transport copter decoys to satiate a couple
helicopters and make your journey a bit easier. When approaching the
missile launcher, move cautiously and stealthily, making good use of
it's blind spot. The island north of the missile launcher has an anti-
air unit on it, so avoid it at all costs. Once you approach Eagle's
base, he will most likely create a fighter and continue to produce
helicopters. Save your CO power for this moment when you can destroy
the helicopter in one blow and injure the fighter. All you need to do
is keep your fighters alive in order to swat the helicopters away from
your infantry as it works on the base. There won't be any ground
resistance to speak of, so all you have to do is capture the base and
you're home free!
Finally here's a rough day by day guide. You have to move your
initial infantry north to block the north bridge (the long bridge, not
the tiny one) and create new infantry to block the south bridge. On
day one and two create an anti-air unit, and use them to destroy two of
the three helicopters, and then create a missile launcher in the
southeast factory. On day three finish off the copter and injure the
bomber with the missile launcher, then make sure you don't let Eagle
get off his CO attack or you're screwed. Day four create a transport
copter and kick Eagle's bombers around with your anti-air, day five
hide your transport and allow the fighters to swarm your area when
Eagle uses his CO attack. Day six, destroy Eagle's fighters and don't
allow any to escape, try to blockade one with your ground units, create
a fighter. Day seven, you should move your transport copter & fighter
ahead. The rest of the map is holding off the ground unit invasion
long enough to squeeze out another fighter and then using your fighters
to navigate the map and eliminate threats for your transport copter as
it makes it's way to the base.
Here's the day by day, up to day eight. Day one, move your units
north, create an anti-air unit in the northeast factory and three
infantry.
Day two, to the north, move your infantry onto the east city, and
your mechs north. Move your new infantry on the west factories south,
your infantry on the southeast factory north of the bridge, your anti-
air south. Create two infantry in the west factories and an anti-air
in the northeast factory. You want Eagle to move two copters to the
east of the southeast factory.
Day three, create a missile launcher in the southeast factory,
and surround it from the north, west, and south with infantry. Destroy
the two copters, preferably the ones farther north than south. Move
the other two infantry onto the base and southwest factory. You want
Eagle's copter to attack the infantry west of your missile launcher
from the south, the bomber to move into missile attack range, the anti-
air to move onto the south bridge, and the tank not to move north of
the anti-air. If one of these doesn't happen, start the level over.
Yes its tedious, no you don't have a choice.
Day four, to the north, move your infantry south of the west city.
Back at base, move the anti-air that's northeast of the missile
launcher to the north of the base, move the infantry that's south of
the missile launcher northeast of it, attack the other copter with your
anti-air from the east, move your injured infantry north of the anti-
air, move the infantry that's north of the missile launcher to the east
of the missile launcher, and move the remaining two infantry north and
west of the injured infantry. Attack the bomber with your missile
launcher. Create a transport copter in the north airport, and three
infantry. You want Eagle to be attacking your infantry, obviously
nothing vital, and do not let him use his CO power, or he'll toast you.
Day five, to the north, attack the northern bomber with your
anti-air unit, and attack the tank with your injured mech. Back at
base, attack the northeast bomber with your missile launcher, and
attack the southern bomber with your anti-air unit from the north.
Move your transport copter west of the base, move your northwest
factory infantry onto the base, northeast factory infantry one step
south, southwest factory infantry one step east, weakened infantry one
step west, and the remaining infantry that's next to the tank to the
north of the tank. Eagle should use his CO attack and move his
fighters into your general area. Make sure he has moved a fighter to
the southwest that you can attack with your missile launcher. If the
fighter isn't there, start over from day three.
Day six, attack the southern fighter with your anti-air that's
right next to it. Use your CO power, attack the southwest fighter with
your missile launcher. To the north, attack the enemy tank then anti-
air unit. Create a fighter in the north airport.
Day seven, destroy the southwest fighter with your missile
launcher, move your infantry two north, then destroy the bomber to the
east of the transport copter with your anti-air unit, and destroy the
weakened fighter with your other anti-air unit. Move your fighter onto
the southeast neutral city on the island. Load your infantry east of
the transport copter into it, and move it five east, one north. Move
your infantry, making sure that fully healthy infantry are in front of
the enemy units to the south, and create an infantry in the southwest
factory. Keep your missile launcher protected and keep the enemy
fighter blockaded.
Day eight onward, you should use your tactical skills to navigate
the fighters and transport copters/decoys towards the base. This part
of the level is the most random, but it's also the easiest, so just use
caution and you should be able to snag the base.
Well thats about it for that thanks for coming!