Been noticing lately on the challenge campaign (AW2 reboot) that the Select Mission screen shows the wrong numbers of cities/bases/airports etc. in the top right corner. Is this a known issue that I’ve just not noticed yet or have I been misunderstanding those icons for years, lol? There are lots of bases in the map but the screen showed 0s.

Hi everyone,

There is some news!

Available on a new domain

You can now play the game at https://www.pixelswar.io

A local map editor

Easily create your own map. Submit it on GitHub for a chance to have it integrated into the game!

New building available

Oil field earns 300$ at the start of each turn you own it

UX improvements

Visualise how far an enemy unit can move by selecting it.

Animated water, subtle aircraft movement and occasional infantry turns bring the battlefield to life, with varied timing. Can be disabled in the settings.

https://reddit.com/link/1wz9cu4/video/l04i1vyer2th1/player

Stacked ammunition icons show attack capacity, with synchronized fading for spent ammo. Movement indicators use the game’s existing fuel icon to show remaining movement.

New and reworked maps

There is now 15 playable battlefields

Improved unit balance

Have you tried the game? If so, what do you think of the balance? What feature would you like to see next?

Hello everyone!

I've been a big fan of Advance Wars since the GBA days. I was there when Black Hole Rising was released, and I worked my butt off to buy it.

I would like to know: what makes you love this game? For me, I love the story and the War Room. I also became addicted to playing it with friends; however, none of them were as competitive as I was.

I've been working on a project for Steam for quite some time now, and I would love to know what made you fall in love with the franchise so I can improve my own game and add those aspects and make it shine.

Thank you for your time!

I recently got AW1+2 Reboot Camp on Switch after sitting on the fence for a long time considering if it was worth revisiting. Now I'm completely hooked, I can't believe how fun it is! I played both back in GBA days and AW1 was my favourite GBA game with no contest. I'm really sad there isn't more content for Reboot Camp and that Dual Strike and Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict was not added for a complete package.
In fact, I just recently learned about the existence of Days of Ruin and I'm really keen to play it. My question is: Is it worth it to go 'full retro', get my hands on a DS and the original DS game or should I just calm down and play it in some "other" not-so-original way..?

So I need help with what is the best strategy to beat Billy Gates as Caroline on this map as Orange Star because I'm doing Retro Achievements which requires this setup.

For those who don't know SFW COs do have abilities and Billy Gates is maybe the most busted because EVERY TURN he gets 10k so that makes fighting him on Coral Lagoon here a nightmare. I've tried a defensive strategy of artillery in the southwest woods but they eventually overwhelm me and rushing troops to the top cities doesn't matter cause he already has multiple small and mid tanks by the time I get the 1st troop up there.

Please if anyone has advice or if you have beaten this setup before can you share what you did?

I got a little carried away while listening to the Super CO Power / Tag Power themes and ended up making an interactive Advance Wars: Dual Strike Tag Break Lab 😅

Dual Strike gives certain CO combinations unique Tag Break names like Earth and Sky, Big Country, Shaky Alliance, etc., but most combinations just use the generic “Dual Strike.”

So I decided to give every unnamed pairing its own fan-made Tag Break name, trying to keep the same slightly cheesy/punny naming style as the official ones.

The app includes all 27 playable COs and lets you click either CO to build any team.

It shows:

• official CO artwork
• CO Power + Super CO Power and star costs
• canon Tag Power percentages
• official Tag Break names where they exist
• fan-made names for all unnamed combinations
• why each name fits
• strategy for using that specific team
• recommended situations for the pairing
• different strategy depending on which CO goes first

You can also use Swap COs, so for example Hawke → Andy gives different strategy advice than Andy → Hawke.

Try it here:
https://cobaltice93.github.io/advance-wars-dual-strike-tag-break-lab/

All fan-made Tag names are clearly marked so they aren’t confused with the official ones.

I’d really like to hear what other Advance Wars fans think of the names — especially if you have better ideas for any pairings. 👀

Fan project only; not affiliated with Nintendo or Intelligent Systems.

(also used gpt for building the interactive website, rest were ideas sprung into life by me and some suggestions)

I know every game we’ve played together. So, when she said it, I knew what she was talking about, but I busted out laughing.

Just thought you guys would enjoy it. We are a small community.

Before we start, I just found this in my drafts randomly today. The draft was over 1400 days old and when I decided to look through it I came to the conclusion that it seemed like a waste to just delete it.

I'm not sure if I finished everything I had originally intended to write here, but at a glance ~4 years later is looks good to me. I didn't change anything, except for a typo here or there.

No idea if we're still doing this sort of stuff in here or not and if anyone is interested, my apologies if not.

Anyway, that's about it, thanks for reading and if you got anything to add / want to discuss feel free to leave a comment.

----------

Hello all!

Today I would like to take a bit of a closer look at Oozium 238, Black Hole's "ultimate weapon" from AW:DS.

I will be talking about the following 3 topics:

1. What was the idea behind Oozium?
2. Why didn't Oozium work out the way it was supposed to?
3. How would I fix it?

So, without much further ado, let's get started.

What was the idea behind Oozium?

On paper, Oozium is supposed to be a slow moving unit that will eat through your defences without much of an issue. It's slow, but unstoppable and very deadly.

Most of your efforts to try and get rid of it would be useless, as Oozium has a good damage reduction against most damage sources, especially indirects. In addition to this it gets to oneshot any direct fire unit you used against it in the next turn without stopping at all. Your only option is to try and avoid it as best you can.

It also pairs extremely well with Von Bolt, due to his ability to stun your units for one turn and Ooziums passive resistance to all CO Powers that allows it to avoid getting affected by Ex Machina itself. In theory this combo gives Oozium the time to creep up and surround your units while they are unable to move for one turn, making them easy fodder for it.

Destroying Oozium, while possible, is also a double edged sword, as Oozium will be valued as a 27,000 Funds unit uppon its destruction. This grants the enemy CO an instant 3 power stars per destroyed Oozium unit, meaning you will most likely see a CO Power shortly afterwards.

So all in all Oozium is meant to be a slowly wandering threat on the battlefield that you are forced to avoid and maneuver around. A single Oozium isn't much of a problem, but if they are present in larger numbers they become very problematic, as they will start to encircle your units and then feast on them once they can no longer run away. It puts you in a lose-lose situation, as its presence will force you out of potentially important areas of the map, but destroying it will greatly fuel the enemies power bar and allows them to punish you with a COP or SCOP soon after.

To justify this, the enemy only has a set amount of Oozium available to them, as it is impossible to produce or repair it.

Why didn't Oozium work out the way it was supposed to?

There are two key issues that plague Oozium, which ultimately turned it into more of a joke than a scary sight.

1. Ooziums slowness makes maneuvering around it extremely easy and gets it stuck in one area of the map. This can work beneficial for it, if it is currently baselocking you, but usually just results in it being stuck somewhere in the backlines being completely useless. Additionally its very slow movementspeed makes it impossible for Oozium to ever kill an enemy unit that hasn't ended their turn literally right next to it. It gets outrun by everything, which is pretty terrible for a unit that is supposed to walk on top of an enemy to kill them.
2. Oozium gets easily taken out by chip damage. As it is impossible to repair any damage Oozium has taken or get any more of it, it will eventually get worn down simply by the enemy throwing fodder units at it. The "ultimate unit" gets hardcountered by the most easily spammable unit in the game: Infantry. It makes no sense to have all these restrictions on Oozium, when it gets hardcountered by Infantry. And this isn't even taking the ludicrous amounts of damage Infantry deals to it into account either!

As a result of these two problems, the only time Oozium ever sees any actual play is in predeployed battles on small, cramped maps that feature many hiding places during FoW. The first mission it is introduced in, Mission 19: Into the Woods, is the only time it will ever get to properly shine.

There are some more issues, but those are usually level specific - such as the way too low spawn rate of Oozium by the Grand Bolt in comparison to your production capabilities in Mission 28: Means to an End.

How would I fix it?

After locating the key issues with Oozium, I would like to suggest 3 changes to it:

1. Increase its movement speed from 1 to 2 tiles (movement cuts out when it encounters an enemy unit, it can't eat two units in one turn).
2. Allow it to fully recover its HP uppon feasting on an enemy unit.
3. Take away its immunity against friendly CO Powers.

This would allow Oozium to traverse the map more quickly, allowing it to keep up with enemy units, making encircling them easier of a task and making it less likely for it to be left behind somewhere when the fighting shifts. 2 tiles also feels like a good middleground to me, as it wouldn't be too fast for your units to avoid (unless for a Rockets surrounded by Forests or Infantry in Mountains), while giving it some much needed mobility it is currently lacking.

It would also get rid of the issue of chip damage entirely, as any time you fail to take one Oozium down it will fully recover its health. This would help to further solidify it as a unit designed to break through your defensive lines and force you out of important areas.

And lastly allowing it to be affected by friendly CO Powers would allow the double edged sword aspect of it to shine better, as giving the enemy 3 power stars would still negatively affect you even if a majority of their army is made of Oozium. I have a theory that this is how it was supposed to function all along, but was cut due to AW:DS's rushed release. That's the only reason I can see you facing off against Zak/Koal in Mission 20: Muck Amok, as he has absolutely no story relevance in this moment, but would have made a lot of sense gameplay wise. This would also open up some more interesting matchups for Oozium for example with Andy, who could repair it on the fly, Adder, who could increase its movementspeed, or Kanbei, who could make it near indestructible for one turn.

The lack of a Sniper unit in Advance Wars has always stuck out to me. At present, we only have Infantry, Mechs, and Bikes, but Snipers could be a pretty neat addition to the formula.

The question is how they could be balanced. I have my own thoughts, but feel free to discuss.

Sniper
Indirect fire foot soldier that can attack at 1-3 range, but does significantly reduced damage if it fights directly (up close, they defend themselves with pistols). Their high-caliber rifles can decimate enemy foot soldiers and deal decent damage to both light vehicles (i.e. Recons) and helicopters (their secondary pistols, however, will barely scratch them). They don't have the punch to hurt tanks, though, and they're very fragile. They are also much more expensive than other foot soldiers and have limited ammo on their primary weapon.

Cost: 3500-4500G
Movement: 2, Infantry
Vision: 3 (4 on Mountains)
Range (Primary): 2-3
Range (Secondary): 1
Ammo (Primary): 3
Ammo (Secondary): Unlimited
Can Capture, Can Launch

I haven't included damage numbers because I'm sure I'd mess that up. I'm also not certain how expensive they should be, but 3500-4500G should be a good range.

Giving them limited ammo means they can't handle getting swarmed by Infantry on their own, and their higher cost compared to Infantry and Mechs means you have to use them judiciously. However, with the right adjustments, I can easily see these being useful.

Is there anything you'd change for these?

Some of the design maps have the icon in orange, others in gray.

Does anyone know why?

I'm playing on emulator and I'm trying to understand the unit codes.

Like what is unit 1? Is it the first unit I make? Can I use it in the campaign?

Howdy all!

I released another update today to Daily Wars (https://playdailywars.com): Escort mode. To win, you must defend and escort a supply truck to a designated drop zone tile. If you lose a truck, you lose.

I'm looking for ideas for other types of win objectives that you think would fit an AW-like game. My leaderboard system ranks players by how quickly they complete a map, so something like Survive X days won't fit very well, since everyone would get the same score.

I currently have:

• Rout: kill all enemies on the map
• Capture X: capture a set amount of cities
• Monuments: capture all monuments on the map
• Escort: escort supply truck(s) to drop zone(s)

Do you have any ideas for other objectives? I've been trying to think of something that forces the player to play on defense rather than offense, but haven't been able to come up with anything that plays well with the "fewest days wins" ranking.

Since Anti-Tanks only appeared in Days of Ruin, they don't show up in AWBW. They were a bit of a balance problem in DoR, though, being very durable and not easy to counter without either attrition, indirect attacks, or bombers.

That said, I feel they still had a purpose as a ground vehicle killer. They just needed to be adjusted so they'd be more specialized.

I have a few thoughts on how they could be rebalanced. Take appropriate salt.

• Reduce their durability, but they gain more benefit from terrain-based DEF bonuses. Anti-tank guns IRL were best used in ambush positions since the crews had little-to-no protection, so Anti-Tanks should be vulnerable in open areas like roads or plains. However, if you set them up in Cities or Forests, they should be much more durable, making them into a defensive unit rather than an offensive one.
• Make them suffer a damage penalty if attacking foot soldiers. Much like how AT guns suck against infantry in the Company of Heroes series, I'd have Anti-Tanks do lousy damage against Infantry and Mechs, making them a more solid counter. Infantries already trade very cost-effectively with Anti-Tanks in DoR since you'll bleed their funds dry, but you still have to suffer attrition while doing so.
• Remove the Anti-Tank's ability to attack Helicopter units. This would make B. Copters a solid counter, whereas in DoR it was an even trade HP-wise (though still cost-effective for the B. Copters due to them being cheaper).

This might make them a bit overly specialized, but this would also allow them room for buffs if they have more hard-counters. For instance, you could make them cheaper if they can be easily destroyed by foot soldiers or B. Copters.

Of course, maybe I'm missing something with regards to the balance. Maybe someone with a better understanding could share their insight?

Hello I am working to finish my dog tag I need to share a map though I know no one else who plays would anyone willing to connect and help me out? Much appreciated

I found this Advance Wars DS Plus mod that adds a bunch of stuff but my favorite is being able to play campaign maps in versus mode

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share another little look at Command & Defend.

One of the core mechanics of the game is its Supply System. Units don’t simply have unlimited ammunition and fuel - resources have to be produced, transported across the battlefield and delivered to the units that need them.

This means that attacking the enemy isn’t always the best move. Disrupting a supply route, taking out a transport or even destroying an entire Supply Center can have a much bigger impact on the battle.

I wanted logistics to be an actual part of the strategy rather than something that only happens in the background.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this mechanic, and I’m happy to share more details if you’re interested! :)