Advance Wars -- War Room: Spann Island
1Just when you thought you were safe... it comes right back to haunt you!
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Wait, this isn't Advance Wars 2... this is the previous game! Why?! No, you can't make me go back! It's impossible! I refuse!
...what do you mean this was always the plan?! I said WHAT?! No, I don't think so. I would never have conspired to do this to myself in the distant future. Curse you, past-me!
Don't get me wrong. I actually do like the War Room... ... ... in theory. But a lot of these scenarios have been around since before "Advance Wars" Itself! They get updated a little here or there, maybe a little retouch on the map layout. Move a city here or there. Maybe the new game's slightly different mechanics change how effective a particular choke point would be. Maybe the new game's CO balance makes it more effective if you swap the opponent. Or a new player choice means you can REALLY steamroll the thing with a brand new flavor of cheese!
Um... so... regardless... I figure the "least" insane way to approach this would be... to take it from the top! ...the top of what we're capable of, at least. Without crossing time, space, and international waters, I mean.
Plus... technically... my coverage of the original game never really wrapped up. It just went into hibernation. Why do I feel like this is a nasty trend with the stuff I'm really passionate about, but not especially great about showing?
It also addresses a serious shortcoming of the Campaign to properly flesh out the package. That is, except for the super secret final mission, Rivals! ...you don't really get to take much responsibility for the early stages of a confrontation.
Sure, you might be given some amount of production facilities, or a particular mission might hinge massively on controlling a strategic location from which you can deploy further reinforcements... but it's incredibly rare that you get to oversee the whole procedure from start to finish with nothing but what you can scrape together yourself. (Plus, often enough, you'll be restricted in what you can build anyway, because that's the way the scenario was designed!)
This might seem like I'm splitting hairs and all, but there really is no substitute for the experience of starting yourself a merry ol' war and finishing it under your own steam. And short of actually having friends nearby to play with, this is the sad excuse for the nearest substitute...
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Spann Island
Drake vs. Olaf
As you can see, unlike the campaign, you're afforded free choice of CO to tackle these challenges and challengers. This is... kind of a big deal, because the choice you make will impact the nature of the battle you're about to wage immensely, and not even in just the obvious fashion you might surmise based on the CO's particular unit preferences.
It also gives me a chance to flex all those purchases I made in Hachi's shop, especially given that you get to control most of them between zero and one time, depending on how the climactic showdown against Sturm plays out...
Oh, and you can't use Sturm here. Bummer, right? (Especially since he has his day-to-day unit stats flipped and his CO Power meteor is severely watered down... it's like he's a totally different character! ...within the same game, even!)
As a matter of course... I'd LIKE to say that my goal will be to use the under-served characters more than the raw deal they generally got in the Campaign... ... ... but the nature of these maps and their extreme variability in design and intended approach might prevent me from being quite as evenhanded as I'd like to be.
But, in that spirit... here's Drake! ...no airports means that he's not going to be disadvantaged in battle, right?! Plus, Olaf hates the rain! ... ... ...oh, right... he doesn't cause rain in this game... only in random weather might he influence the odds of it starting up, and these maps will always be in Clear weather, no exceptions or variation.
Also there will never be Fog of War.
... ... ...this game REALLY hates Sonja, doesn't it?
(Maybe I can still find an excuse sometime?! Fingers crossed!)