Game:

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (2003)

Duration: 41:09

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Didn't you hear? The war is un-postponted and will be arriving soon!
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Well, I failed my alleged purpose of trying to spread awareness that this game's existence as a digital download for Wii U was expiring with still most of a month remaining before it'd resurface in a new, WayForward-ier form...

But the war must go on!

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Campaign
Mission "11": Toy Box

I mean, maybe if you'd bothered to go home once in awhile and clean up, y'know? And if Olaf's not been home in THAT long that his most relevant memories to wax nostalgic over are boyhood playdates... um... how many people from this place WOULD even be able to remember him? (Plus, he's much older-looking in the original Japanese art, with a white beard super reminiscent of a certain jolly old elf.)

Oh. Oh wait. No. I get it. The REAL "toy box" here is that this is a sales pitch from the developers to goad players into using the map designer mode, right? Because that's more or less what this looks like someone did, just kinda haphazardly dropping mismatched tiles into strange places and all that.

W-Wait. Lash claims responsibility for this one? Like, she FIDY this... somehow?! D-Did she... invent it? Hijack it? Will this ever get acknowledged or explained?!

Nope.

But you can bet your lump of coal Olaf will remember this. He has a well-documented capacity to hold a grudge, after all.

That said... this toy box is a TINY map. It can't even escape the screen boundaries! So the battle itself is staggeringly straightforward otherwise.

Straightforward about playing directly into Lash's strengths, too. All this irregular terrain serves to give her an appreciable offensive boon more or less for free, what with high-value boosts strewn haphazardly about. Be careful to avoid setting yourself up for a hefty reprisal for daring to park someplace carelessly close to an inexplicable natural (or otherwise) fortification.

That said, her movements ARE still painfully ingrained in the AI's sense and sensibility of what constitutes a reasonable move, so it's not especially difficult to deliberately bait her away from openly flaunting her advantage. Just be mindful that this might occasionally require holding off on an otherwise favorable unit matchup because of where it happens to be sitting or cede first strike privileges to catch her units on a less lucrative location.

Also take care to make sure your attempts to secure any of the plentiful choke points available stay warm of any location that happens to be fortified on both sides, lest your defense boost be negated by her double-dealing personal boosts.

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Slightly complicating matters is her early taunt that this game has "prizes" for the intrepid warmonger, which actually refers to another of those pesky Black Hole secret laboratory locations.

...wait, Lash WANTS us to find it? Raid HER toy box? ... ... ...implying she also KNEW we'd be walking away from this battle at all?

Unless it was meant to be a clever bit of bait that'd have secured her win... but then why even make the bait so nonspecific and REAL?

The semi-obvious "of course it'd be out there" nature of the city required to find it means that you'll have to deal with a rather congested route much closer to her HQ than yours, and trying to pin down safe passage in a hurry comes with its own myriad potential pitfalls.

Wait... that wasn't even THEIR property to begin with. Why would you leave something like that THERE?!