Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising -- Campaign Mission 12: Neotanks!?
0Didn't you hear? The war is un-postponted and will be arriving soon!
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I don't know how to tell you guys this, but I don't think I'm going to make this war run its course before it becomes visually outmoded.
Maybe it belongs in a museum?
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Campaign
Mission "12": Neotanks!?
Blue Moon is certainly excitable when it comes to its heavy vehicles, huh? Well, I suppose Neotanks are something new and exciting, so I'll forgive them in this specific instance, at least.
...or they would be, except Orange Star already unraveled the secrets of the Neotank when they stormed a different lab, right? Don't you guys share information? ...I mean, um... at least when world-dominating weirdos are involved, I think it'd be okay...
And would you look at that... this um... "Lash" is distinctly lacking in her usual, um... shall we say... "charm"? General sass levels are way below nominal! I'm pretty sure this is just a recording...
Then who's commanding the Black Hole troops, really? Also, why bother having such a system in the first place? Why not... just destroy the evidence as soon as you detect enemy activity? (How did you determine it was "enemy" activity?)
Golly gee, we're letting computers run the war now, huh? ... ... ...don't answer that.
Moreover, why on earth would those plans have led here, an AUTHENTIC secret base? Lash was all but begging us to find them. Now she doesn't even personally show up to her own party? Or, for that matter, why isn't this a trap? It really should be with all the details we're not sweating. (Good thing for O Bearded One that it isn't, since that'd really manage to steam his whiskers.)
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Anyway, since all that strategery and misdirectionality are well above our pay grade as simple CO folk and our expendable toy soldiers, it's probably best to focus on the mission as stated on paper instead of in the clouds and under advanced scrutiny of the script.
To win here, you have to take the Lab in 15 days. It's not extremely well defended, but it's on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area that can be leveraged rather effectively for troop production in the face of an enemy attack. There are also a couple existing defenders holding the area down that you're going to want to shore up forces enough to topple before you can actually take the lab properly.
On your side, there's a fair amount of defensive terrain, but you're not actually here to DEFEND, so that's not really so much helpful as it is a minor nuisance for traversal. You've also got quite the vast array of Silos close at hand, and the Backlash protocol's troopers will be understandably distracted taking over cities to fund more defenses of its own.
It's obviously quite tempting to throw as much might as you can (and then some) towards the Md. Tank and Rockets holding the lab, but there's plenty of time yet before you're ready to launch your assault, way more Silos than you'd need to wipe them down to minimum strength, AND a much better use for them in the meantime: you can grind the enemy economy to a halt by damaging the ground forces just enough to turn their next capture attempt into one that'll take several days longer with just a couple well-placed missile strikes.
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I elected to use Olaf, because while Colin or Grit could just easy easily do the job, it's hard to know if either of their specific strengths or weaknesses will play into a scenario before actually sortieing out to see what all the fuss is about.
Also, I guess Olaf kinda needs SOME attention now and again, if only so he can feel like he's not just warming the bench. Poor fella!
In honesty, Colin is clearly the better choice here, since we're trying to win a footrace AND do so on a budget... while also trying to outpace the enemy finances. Of course, the number of cases where Colin ISN'T the best option will be extremely far and few between, because the silver-spooned wonder kid is even more busted than the engineering wunderkind.
Grit can certainly leverage some massive mileage out of his absurd range, but the laid-back nature of indirect combat and requirement that you call most of your shots a whole turn in advance doesn't really aid our sense of urgency.
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Your reward for clearing this mission is... Neotanks! ... ... ...again!
But this time, they come in blue!
(This also throws off the mission counter once again, even more than the already nonlinear nature of the ordering... since it was purely optional that we discover and arrive here in the first place.)