Greyfield being D tier is extremely fitting considering that, canonically, he's a really shitty CO. Lin even calls him out for it, says that he was mediocre at best.
He is good in maps that have combined weapons(air and sea units), but if its only one type or two and not the three he is pointless, specially without sea.
And his specialization being what it is kind of fits too. Where he only excels when he is in a dominant position anyway. When things get tough he can't do anything.
Seems like Greyfield was designed intentionally as if he were trained in a different war. he has better logistics and benefits from large concentrations of high cost naval units, which simply don't exist now that the world economy has ceased to exist. in another way, te desire for world conquest might also feed into this
Right. He was an admiral, a high-ranked military officer. Perhaps of an american-rubinelle sixth naval fleet or smthing. He can be really deadly, but only in pre-deployed condition where he has his hands on a-carriers that are fully equipped + funds to rebuild lost seaplanes from a-carriers after using resupply power. In this case he will crush almost any co. But in regular match his specialty and power are useless
I always thought of Greyfield's ability as a "win more" power. In order to benefit from resupplying materials means that you already have rigs and/or carriers that used theirs. To want to use them again would mean you're probably just pushing deep into your opponent's properties already and need more frontline units and repairs. The fact that his power wants to be used from a winning position and that his shitty CO zone does very little to get him there is strangely in-character for Greyfield.
Grey-field seem like pre-deployed naval & air mission in campaigns, not war rooms or competitive match where you don't have to worry about fuel or ammo or material unless the map has fuel, ammo, material shortage as gimmick which is currently non-existent. Greyfield seem outdated CO designed for fighting against Drake's fuel shortage (and ammo shortage due to his stall strategy) which doesn't exist in AW:DoR.
Something about fog of war in this game: You can't scout by moving your unit then canceling, but when you move a unit, it clears the fog of war across the ENTIRE path of their movement, instead of just showing their vision where they ended. This includes all vision blocking forests/cities/etc that you passed by
Better yet, the CPU opponents have to play by the same rules! No darkshooting bullcrap or unfair unit position awareness, not even against Penny on a rainy FoW session.
Mangs: "She's not so bad you guys, she just has some daddy issues!" Literally right next to him in her official profile: "She is *extremely* cruel and vindictive."
It's a dumb little addition, but I love how the CO is inside the bar in combat on normal units but has their full picture during battle when they're in the unit.
It's not dumb, it's attention to detail and it's ingenious as you can tell at a glance if the CO is in the unit or not both in combat or on the field screen :)
@@Flawskiii for what? she is a clone of a male scientist that was made with that appearance. on hindsight, this makes liking isabella, penny and tabitha very weird indeed
@@Flawskiii 8? no she doesn't, she is a little tinier than isabella, the difference is the clothes and personality, and like i said, she isn't even a human, calm down man
I can forgive Forsythe being so relatively mediocre with his abilities considering his existence in the story mode hinges on the idea that he is a legendary CO. Him having no CO Power is supposed to add into the fact that in terms of the story and character, he doesn't need it as he is just that skilled as a commander and even so, despite his skill, they made sure to elaborate that while he took part in a massive war with lots of bloodshed in the past, he captivated people as he despised war crimes and didn't treat prisoners as some objects but as fellow people, just on different sides. He is all about dignity, respect and skill and I think that shows in his CO abilities, and he even appears in your own briefing where he HELPS YOU to fight himself just cause he has that much respect to Brenner and his crew and Lin even thanks him for his presence and knowledge. And I thoroughly believe that's why his skillset is the way it is, you are supposed to just think over relying on some CO Power. He is the personification of relying on your own wits to overcome enemies instead of your powers. Heck, even hence his name being "Foresight". And that basically means you play Forsythe depending completely on your own skill as you can't rely on your CO Power. That is a fun CO IMO as he enables you to just rely on your skill and understanding the game.
@Mangs Okay, so here is how the mechanics and stats work in Days of Ruin. It's a bit long, but I wanted to cover all the details. The formula for damage is (Base Damage) * (Attacker HP / 10) * (Total Attack Power / Total Defense Power). Luck ranges from 0 up to the Attacker's HP. Units level up whenever they destroy an enemy unit. The ranks are I, II, and Veteran. These provide a boost of +5/+0, +10/+0, and +20/+20, respectively. If a CO personally leads a unit, then that unit instantly becomes Veteran ranked. It also becomes a CO Unit, causing it to emit a CO Zone. The CO Zone a CO Unit emits varies and can be as small as 0 spaces wide, or as large as 5 spaces wide. As you charge the CO's Power (if available), the CO Zone's range can expand further; by +1 space for a half-charge and by an additional +1 space for a full charge. Each CO Zone always provides a +10/+10 standard boost to all of your units within it, regardless of the CO's actual specialties. The stars (★) that you see in the biographies each represent a +10 boost and are ADDED to the existing +10/+10 that the CO Zone provides, assuming the units match the CO's specialties. EXAMPLE: Tasha's CO Zone has a range of 1 space to start and can be expanded up to a maximum of 3 spaces. It gives all of her units a +10/+10 standard boost whenever they are within it. Thanks to her specialty, however, all of her Air units also receive a further +40/+20 boost, meaning they now have a total boost of +50/+30 within her CO Zone, as opposed to the +10/+10 boost that her Ground and Naval units have. Terrain Stars provide units a +0/+1 boost per Terrain Star per HP. EXAMPLE: A unit has 10 HP and is on Plains, which provide 1 Terrain Star. It thus receives a +0/+10 boost. Another unit has 6 HP but is on a City, which provides 2 Terrain Stars. It thus receives a +0/+12 boost. Com Towers give a +5/+5 boost to all of your units. Sandstorms give a -30/+0 penalty to all units. CO Powers expand the CO Zone to cover the entire map when activated and provided an extra effect depending on the CO. They can only be activated when your CO has a fully charged Power Meter. For every 5 HP of damage that your units within your CO Zone deal to enemy units (cumulative total), you charge one point in the Power Meter. For every 5 HP of damage that your units within your CO Zone receive from enemy units (cumulative total), you charge one point in the Power Meter. It takes six points for a half-charge and twelve points for a full charge. NOTE: Due to intentional choice, a glitch, or an oversight, counter-attacking an enemy that is outside of your CO Zone will not charge your Power Meter at all. That's all, folks! Everything in Days of Ruin in a nutshell. EDIT: Forgot to address your comments on Rain, @Mangs, Rain actually makes it so Vision = 1 for all units. It's not -1 vision like in the prior games. Also, even without Fog of War on, Penny is always immune to the vision penalty of Rain whenever it does randomly Rain.
13:35 The way defense works is that it divides the damage value by 1+percentage/100. For example, a 50% defense boost divides the damage by 1.5, whereas the same boost in any previous advance wars games would halve damage. This means that if a unit with a 50% firepower bonus attacks a unit with a 50% defense bonus, the bonuses would effectively cancel out and produce the same damage values as a 2 units fighting with no increased defense or firepower bonus. This was not the case in the previous games Hope this helps!
Thanks for confirming, that's pretty much exactly how i figured it would work when he said it changed. @@robertharris6092If the unit has no firepower boosts the unit will live X% longer. 50% defense = needs 50% more hits to destroy.
@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz and that is why Waylon power gives 270% defense, combine this with his CO zone and you have 300% defense in your air units for 1 turn.
Thinking about their abilities, and these tiers you made, it makes me wonder how deliberate all of these are. Waylon is a cowardly pilot whose abilities are all defensive and meant to keep his sorry ass alive, Tasha is blinded by revenge so her abilities are all offensive and largely make her ineffective (as you'd expect of someone so obsessed with revenge they weren't thinking straight), Grayfield is all but outright stated to have been a crappy wannabe soldier before the apocalypse and so is largely ineffective without massive support, Penny is a batshit insane broken girl whose CO powers are weird, unlike any other, and entirely random and unpredictable, Lin the cold analytical strategist has the stat boosts of both the heroism-obsessed Will and Brenner combined but they're slower to work since she's more reluctant to rush in and spends more time gathering intel, Isabella is out of place compared to the other COs but is insanely effective at movement and ranged attacks which makes sense if you consider her backstory (no spoilers) and how she has encyclopedic knowledge of how units work and move, Tabatha's abilities are focused on affecting herself with her other units being an afterthought, Gage whose quiet and focused on getting the job done is largely designed to just quickly build up an offensive and take the opponent down from a distance as quickly and effectively as possible, Forsythe who is an honorable man who doesn't fight dirty is designed to just be largely effective overall in any scenario and focuses on long-term buffs to all his troops without sacrificing that for a quick dirty strike with a CO power (or is perhaps too old to use one now), and of course Caulder is OP as fuck since he's the final boss. Maybe I'm overthinking it and drawing conclusions from coincidences, but it's like the developers actually didn't care about balance or tiers or anything, and were focused 100% on giving them abilities that fit their personalities and backgrounds. It might even explain why you don't actually get to pick which COs you want to use in the campaign and are forced to use a specific CO for each mission, and maybe the reason they added a no CO option to VS mode was they knew the character were unbalanced.
well, i think it makes sense to an degree that youre not gonna have the best of the best NCOs anymore after the world fell to ruin, youre barely going to still have leaders that are better then randomly selected soldiers baptized by fire maybe you dont even have those anymore.
to paraphrase Whoisthisgit's view on Waylon, "to play waylon well, you have to become Waylon" stay just out of the enemy range and push them back, while growing your CO zone in the process, using it when you have pushed them back far enough to cut through their defences.
Love the irony. The STORY says that Finn is irresponsible, selfish, and rides his men to their deaths for thrills and comfort; all too eager to sacrifice them to save his own skin. The GAMEPLAY makes Finn into a defensive air commander who relies on supporting his wingmen by leading the line from the front, refusing to be too cavalier and instead pushing forward gradually, minimising casualties while bottling the enemy, then popping his Power to make a sudden, explosive wildcat strike on enemy air defenses while minimising friendly losses. Sure, he'd still sack a friendly to save himself, but even O'Brian would do the same. Finn and Zadia should have had each other's kits. Maybe Finn was planned to be a completely different kind of man earlier in the scriptwriting?
Use a lot of indirects and make sure that they are on Waylon CO zone (the air units have high movility so is not that hard) and when you are close to get wingman (bad company) buy a lot of air units to do a big push
Awesome Video Mangs! Great content as always. However, there are a few things here that need to be amended, in case folks are looking for good and reliable information about this game and these COs. First: All CO zones buff attack and defense by 10% regardless of the stars mentioned. This is default. What this means is that Forsythe actually buffs all of his units by 20/20 (attack/defense). This goes for all COs. Penny is the only CO in game that only gives the default buff. The default buff effects all units regardless of CO speciality. The stars distinguish either an extra buff or a specialty like Will buffing ground units by 20/0, it's actually 30/10. Second: The level up system works as follows; Level one: 5/0, level two: 10/0, and level three: 20/20. So, Forsythe's CO has 40/40 in total. 20/20 from Vet (level three), 10/10 from CO his zone, and 10/10 from default CO zone buff. Third: Defense works exactly how it should have in the first place! Will gives 30% attack total to any direct ground units in his CO zone, therefore you multiply his firepower by 1.3 times. Brenner has 30% defense to all units in the CO zone, thus you divide damage by 1.3 times. They cancel each other out, and this can easily be tested with COs who buff both attack and defense equally, like Caulder and Forsythe or Lin. Terrain stars work this way also. Fourth: No CO in game wants to CO a unit that will expressly be used during power. Why? You forfeit your CO unit's turn upon activating the power. Gage in a battleship is quite contrary to how you would use him. Most COs want to be in a unit that isn't very expensive but can support the building of power. The ideal CO units are; Tank, Recon, Flare, Anti-Air, Anti-Tank, Gunboat, and Battle Copter. There are some off picks like Cruiser for Naval combat, but for the most part, you only want the above-mentioned CO units. Easy to reinforce them (join units) in order to extend longevity, especially for COs like Tabitha. Medium and War tank are both good options, but again they are not as easy to reinforce and highly expensive. Fifth: Naval combat is awesome in DoR! Yes, you need decent funds, but some of that is alleviated by Gunboats, and reduced prices. Greyfield is arguably better than you give him credit. He is a CO that Loves the flying side of Naval combat i.e. Carriers and Seaplanes. Yes, that is highly expensive, but so is the 37,500 you just spent on COing a single battleship (another reason why that is not recommended at all). He synergizes well with Naval warfare but especially well with Seaplanes. He is also one of those COs who likes COing a Cruiser or Gunboat. If the early game of either a naval or air combat specialist is going to be ground heavy, COing a tank or other such recommended unit is still a fantastic idea! Remember that unit will be at Vet and get the 10/10 default buffs! Definitely not useless. Sixth: Air combat and specialized COs. For the most part, air combat is the same, except now we have dusters! Fast early game Battle Copter destroyers, as well as light vehicle and infantry harassers. They do well against fighters and bombers too! Seaplanes are not air units (though they act just like them and are pretty much air units in all respects) as they cannot be built outside of a carrier! Tasha and Waylon are both COs who actually like hopping into any air unit of your choice. The reccomended CO units like tanks and such are still good, but because of their buffs and powers, you want to play them in an air unit like normal, and then clump them up and push with their air units during power! You are correct that air units are harassers, scouts, hit and runners, they do that just fine. Their powers are what change up the air game for them. Tasha bombers one shot anti-air and pretty much anything else, her fighters are kings of the skies, so using her power she can reach even those out-of-reach well positioned missiles, air units, AA and so on. Waylon becomes the definition of nigh invincible upon popping his power. Mangs didn't give numbers here, but Waylon's power gives 270% defense on top of what they have. That means his units have 310 defense and his CO has 330 along with any Vet unit in his air units! This means you divide damage by 3.1 or 3.3!!! This is incredible. Leading to anti-air dealing around 20-25% to bombers upon getting the first strike! He's nuts and can truly make a ball of air units and roll into your HQ on power use. Seventh and finally: The changes made to this game are awesome! Defense being properly applied, naval units being better and cheaper, many units being cheaper or more effective. The addition of Bikes, flares, and many such unique units. COs having no weaknesses! Altogether makes for a fantastic AW game, and my favorite in the series! Most of this information is hard to come by, so I completely understand why Mangs didn't necessarily cover all of this in his video. But for clarification sake, these things needed to be stated. It's a shame that this game wasn't well enough received, because it plays sort of like Super Famicom Wars, but newer and better!
you forgot one last detail, Fog of War is now fair against the AI!, I was about to play the campaign with hacks that take out the fog of war if it was the same as in older entries, but when I saw the enemy getting surprised by finding my units and not being able to shoot me from the dark, I was happy.
@@MrSasukeSusanoo This right here! Absolutely right! Actually, Super Famicom Wars has fair Fog as well. It's why these two games are by far my favorite. Too many good reasons to love DoR.
DoR had the misfortune of coming out at the wrong time, and coming out on a console that couldn't really handle what they wanted. I actually liked how they reinvented the series, and gameplay wise it needed a shake-up because it didnt change all that much from AW to Dual Strike. And though it's a small thing, i at least never got the feeling of "why are we throwing away people in a horrible meatgrinder while being so cheerful" that the other AW games had.
One thing I really like is that you can annihilate half your enemy's army, and NOT have to suffer them wasting your time with their superpower afterward, because this game doesn't reward you for losing like the previous ones. No global health draining CO who starts with a huge mass of expensive units, forcing you to let them repeatedly kick you in the shin no matter how hard they're beaten.
I don’t mind them treating war as the serious and messed up thing that it is, or that they explored new gameplay stuff. I just wish they did it using the old esthetics and characters, as the dissonance between colourful characters and graphics with the real consequences of war could’ve been quite powerful. Would’ve also been cool if they explored the ideologies of each individual nations, what they actually fought for, and how the morals of the individual COs either lined up, clashed or got challanged by the very nations they fought for. Could’ve been really interesting. Instead we just got drab late 2000’s esthetics that felt like a fruitless attempt to rope in the CoD crowd. Which, fine, it’s very much a product of its time. It’s just bot what I personally wished for. Though I do still respect game devs who dare to challenge what they’ve done previously and try something new, without feeling limited or trapped by their established audience.
i had never heard of it until I watched this channel I played all the other AW games tho as they came out and I even had a DS and 3DS but this game never came to my attention smh. not sure what happened there
It mostly suffered from the characters being overly generic: Lin is the only one that really stands out. Dual Strikes suffered from much the same, but it had the excuse of having too many characters to develop.
@@kiennguyentrung7331 True, but Infantries are cheaper and produced en masse anyways. Nothing says 'Legendary CO' more than having your boss with a rifle be next to you on the battlefield.
I kinda disagree with the morality of Days of Ruin being black and white. Lin, Gage, and Tasha are far from being morally perfect, while Waylon's just a self-interested mercenary, not really all that evil in the grand scheme of things. It's just that Will and Breener are so comically heroic and Calder & Grayfield are so comically evil that they kind of bleed over the whole story.
@@holdinmcgroin8639 the way I look at it is that Caulder and co represent evil in the high level abstract sense, in that most people wouldn’t run into someone like them, whereas the Mayor is almost assuredly someone you’d meet in real life
When I think of this game's morality, I think of the refugees turning against the heroes and just being huge assholes out of self-preservation and paranoia. The generic civilian characters doing that instead of showering you with praise and items was at least a breath of fresh air.
Imo the problem is that there's very little nuance when the characters present their motivations for being good/evil. Good characters will state they do it to help other people or to keep their word while bad characters will state that they are evil because they are taking opportunities or because they don't see other lives as meaningful (with that being said, Greyfield works incredibly well as an over the top heel). There's very little personal stakes, except for characters like Tasha or Lin who want revenge.
I disagree with the notion that every character should be morally gray, even in a brutal setting like DoR (though it depends what you mean by "morally grey"). Most people care for their own first and then maybe help out others if they have enough left over (though maybe you should save it, just in case?). A smaller number of people have stronger senses of justice than others, and would act as heroically as they feasibly could. Some people aren't really heroic but do good deeds for the praise and respect it earns them. And some people like Caulder and Co. definitely do exist - remember that Caulder doesn't do evil because he likes evil as such, he simply wants to indulge his perverted curiosity as much as possible. It's not really that different from Waylon, really - he wants to indulge his desires and fights to ensure that happens. He has *different* desires than Waylon, since he wants knowledge rather than material wealth and carnal pleasure, but both of them just want what they want and don't give a shit about anything else.
One thing i never see mentioned about Caulder is that his units will start to accumulate kills because they never die, becoming as strong as the CO unit eventually.
Fun Fact: This is the only Advance Wars game where you can play with no CO. This is an absolutely horendous idea since you'd be giving a huuuuuge handicap, but you get a kickass theme instead. So there it is ladies and gentlemen, the hidden E rank CO: Litterally nobody
Technically, due to a glitch, you can play with no CO in Dual Strike. The game will crash if you try to use your super CO power, open the CO menu, switch COs, win the match... but you can play with no CO.
A few misconceptions mangs has that I wanna clarify. The CO zone's 10% to attack and defense isn't counted in stars. Isabella technically has 20% to both, not 10% CO powers gives the day to day buff to all units, not just ones that the CO originally effects. Will's power can spread his day to day buffs to aircraft Edit: also, the Veteran bonuses go +5/+0, +10/+10, +20/+20. Thank you to someone in the comments for pointing that out Edit 2: once again incorrect. Units not normally affected by the CO will only get the 10/10 when they use their power
The veterancy mechanic is also +5/+0, +10/+0, and +20/+20 for the three levels, not +10/+10 per level. So while he is 10/10 too low with the effect of every zone, he still ended up with the correct power of the CO unit since he was 10/10 too high on the power of a veteran unit.
About Isabella, thanks to how battleships work in this game, with her CO power they obtain 4 more range, so in maps where there are a lot of water she can attack at enemies at 14 squares of distance, 7 for mobility and 7 for range.
I came here to say this. It is ridiculous enough that when the battleship's range marker extends it can't actually fit on a DS screen anymore, even when zoomed out, meaning that if you can place your battleship in the right spot it can hit targets that are 4 squares off screen. The move and shoot ability of the battleship is ludicrous when both can be amplified simultaneously
She is the most broken and my friends don't allow me to use her because I am a grit main since AW1 . This is why I just use tabitha. Yes I love artilleries
Lore-wise, technically it is possible considering it's part of the story. (Spoiler alert) Since Caulder create his clones to find a perfect copy for his immortality, they're usually tested in a controlled environment to make sure external factors do not affect their personality. Isabella is an example of his clones affected by external factors (cinnamon roll-like personality) compared to his similar replicas Lutera, Isabella's real name. If Tabitha got amnesia like Isabella in the story, it's possible for Mangs's waifu dream.
Ah yes, Days of Ruin. The second best Advanced Wars game, only losing out to the true king, Battalion Wars II. Another IS game with some chick named Lin and some dude nicknamed the Beast that I played a bit too much as a kid. Always had a good time with it, despite getting trashed by my buddy's Isabella after school.
I wish The Beast from campaign was a CO. Always felt like he should've been a spiritual successor to Sami and have him have capture game related traits and abilities (cause hes a raider).
@@kittogashi8561 Maybe 1* offense and defense for infantry, and lower starting fuel, but defeating an enemy with a unit replenishes a bit of ammo and fuel on them? Something not crazy, so he still eases you in, but playing in to his raider aesthetic and setting him apart a bit.
I feel like the game really suffered from introducing CO mechanics way late. They tried to focus on the narrative and that's nice and all, but that wasted a lot of potential. Having the Beast roam around in a recon buffing his units would have been a nice place to introduce it.
Weird. I really don't like the Days of Ruin soundtrack, with a couple exceptions. It was the weakest part of the game for me. A lot of tracks just sounded to me like they were trying to compensate for a lack of material by turning up the distortion.
Here to clear up some misinformation: the 10% attack and defense from CO zone is applied BEFORE any benefits from the CO themselves, so, 1 star is functionally a 20% boost, meaning Isabella's zone does make her units stronger than say, a Gage zone with no indirects.
And one thing too about fog of war iirc you dont need to be adjacent on the building to reveal it you can have a unit path pass it and reveal it by just passing it
@@localmilkanyoulocalmilkan3930 That isn't just buildings, every unit scouts the entire path they move along and the extra vision is lost when your turn ends.
@@HomingRocket1 honestly, feel bad for Andy, he's kinda like Merlin from fgo where they did one thing, once, and that's all people know him for now. On the other hand,airport memes are fire
sadly not true, its more like start of turn well +5 hp to the top 1/2 of my death ball. Hmmm I did not buy aa at the start of this and I am out of cash plz no more choppers
@@generalforsythe3944 The fact that you don't have a CO power should be considered a war crime by the developers. The devs being the ones committing the crime...
@@generalforsythe3944 mine would be dependent on the mode, if it is fog of war I would be able to see what they can, but if it is normal I would increase the level of all my units by one unless they are veterans.
I kind of like the balance of Days of Ruin over the OG games. More indirect units,CO powers feel more effective,warships are not useless,etc. CO sniping is a interesting strategy and allows for more interesting strategies.
Navy in DOR actually feel powerful and influential. Cruisers especially got the biggest underrated buff as they can now attack other boats and are actually tank brawlers worth their cost. AW 1/2/ds cruiser gets zoned out and crippled by a single battlecopter, but the DOR cruiser takes almost no damage from copters and shoots them down in return, even bombers without attack boosts won't completely destroy them and will take enough return fire to take off a lot of their bite against other targets. Meaning cruisers can actually zone out aircraft as long as the enemy isn't massively outvaluing you. Add the cheap and cheery gunboat that can swarm out to find subs as well as ward off the more pricey units like battleships through numbers and you get actual naval combat that feels like a strategy you can use to win even when aircraft are an option.
@@MrDadhhg Yeah, sea warfare is an actual option in DoR. A cheap skirmisher unit that's even cheaper than black boats were, cheaper battleships that move, all together it's a lot better to play water than in AW1, 2, DS.
I actually love the battle animations in DoR. The attacks feel impactful, visually, and audio wise. When an artillery unit is attacking, it feels like their attack hits hard, same for a battleship or MD tank unit's attacks. And the audio itself really shines with this game, since the running engines of the vehicles used in the battle animations is something I don't recall the wars world games doing (as far as replaying dual strike goes), from the vrrr'ing of the land vehicles, to the reee'ing of the fighter/sea planes. Even the sounds of bullets from infantry/AA/Any unit with a mounted gun bouncing off the metal exterior of other units is a uniquely crisp sound that the wars world games doesn't really compare to (where the wars world comparison of an infantry/AA unit attacking a unit with a tough metallic exterior like a tank are relatively soft sounding in comparison). *Edit* I forgot to even mention that the destruction animations for the larger naval units is amazing in comparison to the wars world games. A sinking battleship/cruiser/sub/carrier in DoR literally explodes, splits in half, and starts sinking in to the sea and it looks awesome. They even show the bows of the ships as they're sinking, which is something you'd never see unless they're destroyed. That was something they didn't need to do at all, but they did just cause it was a cool to see a warship sinking Titanic style. Also, the artist responsible for the character designs of this game is the same person who creates the artwork for the more recent King of Fighters games. Which is pretty cool, honestly. This game deserved so much more love than it got. Though I can understand why it didn't since it was such a jumping of the shark from the wars world games.
I LOVE the old cartoony animations from the original series, and the vibrant colors it used, but the sound design was adequate, sure it was punchy and crisp, definitely fitting for the cartoon. But the sound design in DoR, is absolutely FANTASTIC, the different engine sounds give you a sense of how heavy the vehicle is. The sound of the machineguns, going from a "ratatat" from the bikes to a "BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM" from the Cruiser's AA cannons REALLY sell the kind of power these guns have behind them. The sound of the plating on the armored vehicles was also SUCH a joy to hear, because it made you really feel like the armor actually did something, and the fact that it is absent when taking a hit from the main guns of a tank or explosives just drives the point TANK KILLING WEAPONS home. I would LOVE to see more animation from DoR and a little more color.
I love the sound of the units of both dual strike and DoR, but the DoR was the only one that made me create a map only to hear every single unit shoot sound of the game. the soundtrack and the sound design of this game is amazing, incrível, wünderbar, i had to say in three languages because only one wouldn't describe how amazed i got by this game soundtrack.
About the projectile attacks however... (Bazooka, Cannons, Rockets, Bombs, Seaplane Missle hitting ground units.) They go exactly to the ground units especially the ones about to be destroyed in the animation. When there is only 1 unit in the animation, All those missile projectiles just go straight to that 1 unit like they are so fixed. When I first notice it, It was dam savage but then I realise it doesn't feel realistic. The artillery and battleship are also like that but you wont notice that much cause the splash effect covers the area like you coudn't tell who exactly got hit since its splash dmg animation which is good.
Im a very new Advance Wars fan but a long time KoF fan, so even though the tone and artstyle of this one is looking way outta left field for AW, I already came in loving this specific artist in general so I can't be mad lol. He does great work
DoR is in my opinion, the best game in the series. I love AW in every respect. But I love how they rebalanced the game, changed how COs and units work. Even made defense work exactly the same as offense. It's no longer broken. The naval rebalance is the best in the series. The animations are amazing alongside the art style. Too many good things to praise about this awesome game. My favorite COs are probably Greyfield and Forsythe. Favorite units would be; Seaplanes, Tanks and bikes.
Caulder's children actually seem more like they were the offspring of Sturm: Penny ignores weather like how Sturm ignored terrain, and Tabitha got his huge firepower and defense boost genes plus a bomb that replicates the effect of meteor.
Caulder is Andy after he became insane when he learned what is an airport is, this is why his CO zone has Hyper Upgrade. Or he could be a stray Andy clone, AWDS showed they all become pale and ghostly when they start to age.
@@mauricesteel4995 caulder is a clone he tell us himself that he KILLED the original because the original would make clones of himself and experiment on them (basicly torture them) and his children are clones of himself modified making them clones of clones and we know that they can live very long cus one of the doctor that was healing isabella when she had the creep the guy said that she has a mutation where the clone will live longer then the heroes themself on top of that with those clones you can simply create thousands of them and harvest their organs and the mutation that help them live longer then the original
Regarding the fact that Lin's power increases vision by 2, I think you forgot to mention in the video (I didn't double-check) that FOW in Days of Ruin functions differently as in previous installments; when a unit moves around the map, every space along the traveled path that is within the vision range of that unit gets revealed for the remainder of that player's turn (even hiding places get revealed if the traveled path is adjacent to them, if I remember correctly). This means that units with big vision ranges can reveal a huge chunk of the map when moving. So, in my opinion, this makes increasing vision by 2 even more powerful in Days of Ruin than in previous games.
This can be used as a very effective strategy, especially with air units. If you're playing in a map with a single airport and a lot of hiding tiles, always use high mobility aircrafts such as Duster and Fighters to scout an area you suspected contains a unit.
I want Tabitha to be A-tier so badly but the thing holding her back is something that people keep mentioning that I'm not sure if it's a bug or not - her CO Zone doesn't charge on counter-attacks, only when she initiates combat. So it will take several attacks for her to get her first zone charge. You're right in calling her all-in - if you can start the ball rolling, you can snowball out of control, but getting her going is a tough task. Firestorm is just literally Sturm Meteor Strike plus Kanbei Morale Boost so it's absolutely insane. Other than that I'd agree with most of these tier placements. People will complain that Caulder isn't as good as you say because "it costs money to repair your units lol" but the infinite value engine he has honestly makes him into potentially one of the most broken CO's ever made in Advance Wars, and DEFINITELY the strongest DoR CO by a country mile. And I'm DEFINITELY in the Days of Ruin fandom - it was oddly enough my first Advance Wars, since I came into the series a bit later than most, and going back to other AW games I felt what existing AW fans probably felt going into DoR - a feeling of "This isn't what I expected/am used to." I love the extra mechanical depth of Days of Ruin and the extra effort that went into rebalancing the game. I just wish there were more places to play DoR online like AWBW does with AW2.
People don't understand Caulder power, why do you want to build more units if you have basically an invencible group that don't die and kill everyone at their sight.
It's not a bug (edit: or at least, it's not a Tabitha bug). It's a very consistent rule that applies to ALL COs. If the attacker in a combat is not inside the CO zone, there is no meter gain. Tabitha is just the only CO where this literally never applies on the enemy's turn (and only while she has 0 zone). Most of Mangs' analysis on how to play against her is correct, but you can't just throw her in a war tank because a CO war tank costs way too much and will run out of ammo quickly. A normal tank is probably the most popular option, but battle copters and medium tanks work too. Putting ANY CO (Gage included) in an indirect that isn't a battleship is generally terrible because you will fall way behind on charging if the opponent just denies it targets or suicides into it. A very important thing to do against a tabitank is to be willing to suicide mechs into it while it has 0 zone to drop it out of OHKO range on your units.
I never bothered trying to build Tabitha meter when I used her. I'd often send her out solo to handle important task knowing she can handle it, or at least make enemy move around her. She deletes anything she initiates on, and tanks like a champ. Just don't worry about her power, and you have a tanky suicide unit that can get stuff done with little support.
@@whichDude Exactly besides the +1 Zone can be a bait, with 0 you have to manage around 1 unit, but the +1 is still a very restrictive size, can make you have some sub-optimal moves like moving Tabitha to from engagement to engagement, i'd rather counter bait the opponent into overcommiting to destroy Tabitha and use it to my advantage I have a uber unit that will win every 1v1 and is a HVT that cant be ignored. When they dont ignore it, thats your time window
Tasha strategy: Use her as a kamikaze unit and send her screaming into the enemy CO's unit. The veteran unit boosts will cancel each other out, leaving them at the mercy of a Bomber with 140% firepower. Sure, the anti-air unit will likely destroy her next turn, but your opponent will have lost his CO meter.
He says a lot of things are "broken" when he actually means "strong," and when he says "very strong," he usually just means "solid." He exaggerates a lot.
I honestly really like the animations for this game. They definitely don't move as better as the originals, but the camera view that makes all the vehicles look tall, angled, and imposing, and the way larger units almost crumple in on themselves when defeated is very satisfying.
Thia is completely personal, but I didn't really liked that the battle animation used both screens. I like seen the animation front to front, and having one above other felt weird (Maybe except for bombers)
I like the far more liberal use of camera shake and the far larger muzzle blasts and impacts. Especially ships since now they actually break apart and sink rather than just disappearing or drawing back. Guns also fire slower so you can take them in. That being said in very large and long games with lots of war tanks and battle ships the slow fire can get annoying but usually there is only like 1 or 2 of each unit on the field so it's not a big issue.
I really like the battle animations here, mostly because the units look more detailed and you can appreciate those sexys T-34 (Lazurian tank), M1 Abrams(Rubinelle Md tanks), Hind-Ds (Laz B-copter) B-52 Stratofortress and A-10s (Rubinelle Bombers and seaplanes) Those Flaks 88 (both) also get a mention for depicting a rarely seen hardware
Waylon is definitely a B or better. Couple of notes. Waylon's air units are bulky enough that Anti Air isn't necessarily a hard counter, and he can absolutely wrest air control out of everyone else. You obviously still don't want to take frivolous anti-air fire, but on a turn when it matters, it isn't as easy as one Anti-air per air unit to really ward off his air units. His Power is one of the strongest push engines in Advance Wars. If he parks a buffed copter or duster on a choke point, perhaps one a bomber just opened, then I'm sorry, unless you have stockpiled 4 or so missiles covering that choke point, you are simply NOT breaking that point. Waylon can thus very effectively practice encirclement tactics. Take a choke point behind the ZoC, park an air unit there, and now all the units caught in that are screwed. And don't forget, he has no weakness in other units. Waylon can just menace with his CO power, punishing attempts to overprepare for his air units with his other units, or simply cover indirects. His air unit buffs really facilitate using those air units as support to ground units and for mind games. You need to build, on average, 1.5 as many units specialized to bring down air units to contest his, which comes out of the units they have to fight Waylon's other units, and those units have to perpetually live in fear of air units blowing them up, that aren't instantly dead to AA or missiles. Waylon isn't really an air "specialist" in a traditional sense. You aren't spamming copters, you are supporting your other units with air units that aren't so instantly defeated by anti air. I actually find copter spam to be a pretty rubbish way to use Waylon, and investing in more durable and harder to deal with dusters, bombers, or Seaplanes if available is much much better. Waylon is kind of an unintuitive CO. It's hard to look at his capabilities and instantly see how he should be played. Which, honestly, kinda fits his character. Waylon isn't someone who is going to fight conventionally, he's a rat bastard who is going to fight cheaply. I think someone else once said "If you want to be a good Waylon, you can't play Waylon, you need to BECOME Waylon."
So, strategic bombing campaigns combined with fighter sweeps to deny the enemy from all Air capabilities and long range artillery strikes, followed by strafing runs on infantry units to support your armor and your own infantry?
Waylon can actually also afford to cluster his air units, unlike Tasha, because they get a buff to their survivability over all, and losing less HP from clashes means doing more damage overall before getting shot down or pulled back to be repaired: that's another reason copter spaming is counterintuitive to Waylon's playstyle: Waylons wants to use few hard flying units that can shrug off some blows to join his main "fleet" and copters are way too vulnerable to most units that can shoot back at them. That said, copters can still be useful to Waylon in another way: because of the limited nature of CO zones compared to day to day powers, the average player expects Waylon air units to be clustered together closer to him, which is what you should do! ...but, assuming you are playing with FoW, if you end up sneaking a battle copter in on the other side of the map, that battle copter can do anything it wants because most anti air units will be focused on Waylon's Fleet to beat it back, giving you free reign to bomb land and sea units, take out missiles that threaten the rest of your air units, scout for information, etc. Fittingly, this strategy relays on stealth and backstabbing, both concepts that resonate well with a cowardly scumbag like Waylon
I love playing him in that one river challenge map. Build an early copter, load him in and he becomes an incredibly tanky and mobile spearhead to contest the map with.
You have definitely solid points, the only problem is being skillful enough to make it count, even if Waylon's units don't instantly die, an AA missile can still bring a fighter for example down to 4 hp, and then his units are not much of a menace. Well placed AA which is something always present against Waylon, is going to make him hurt a lot. You really have to go around the AA, being brought down specially by missiles just takes away your firepower and now you have weak units, you could join them, but you'd just be giving the AA less targets to take down, and if you don't, say bye to Waylon and his defensive buff. Waylon seems B on paper and someone skillful perhaps could make that real, but in practicality it's C overall, Aircrafts are still really vulnerable against AA, you can sacrifice some, but you shouldn't think your units are invincible either, and as Mangs say, building up the air co zone is always more difficult and risky than ground and sea. Still good points though, great analysis
"Every character is black and white" - Not Lin This is my favorite Advance Wars game, btw. Love the gameplay and mature story that has more depth than most AAA games nowadays
I've noticed that the Advance Wars series has subtly gotten darker with time, having DoR being a massive spike. In BHR, there were a few moments, such as Olaf wandering the mangled ruins of his hometown, still remembering its landmarks from when he was a boy, and the end when Sturm tries to kill everyone in a last ditch attempt, only to be shot by Hawke who promptly takes over Black Hole. Next was DS, where the very planet was being drained of its energy to keep some 200-year old fart alive. And then there's this game...holy hibachi...
Battalion Wars is more of a squad based shooter and the COs are more for narration. Mangs would have to make a tier list for every UNIT if you want that to happen.
@@HomingRocket1 Nonono my dude, just an AWBW list, as he's mentioned its "official" list he disagrees with; it's also in an interesting position balance-wise by the breadth of COs available, as well as factoring in most likely banned aspects. Mitebcool.
So, we've gone through every CO, over every game in the franchise, ranking them to the best of his ability, going over what works in AW and what doesn't, and seeing where the ideas come to a head in the right ways. What's next? I'd honestly like to see Mangs take a crack at *designing* a CO at this point. Maybe something he'd like to see, or something he feels like never got to be put into use. I dunno, seeing Mangs theorycraft some new niche would be enjoyable for me, at least.
I can kinda see Isabella's theme making sense given her origin in the game; she might as well be from an entirely different world from all these seasoned commanders, cut throats and survivors. It's largely a upbeat synthetic song. Major props for this! This is the game I wished I played but had my handheld stolen.
Also, if I remember correctly, isn't Caulder so intentionally broken that the game simply doesn't allow you to pick him in Multiplayer? Good thing, too, since he'd have to be banned by the community anyway for his comically huge advantage over everyone else. He's an endgame big bad designed to be overcome with teamwork and overwhelming numbers, not something designed to be fair in a 1v1 fight where everyone has equal resources. You can play him against the AI, but at that point you're basically just on a power trip, so it doesn't really matter.
You can use him against other players and the AI in the single DS multiplayer modes (in the DC version at least). I can't speak for multiple DS multiplayer though
@@greg_mca As I understand it, he was usable in anything that WASN'T the online multiplayer, only modes where either there are no other humans, or everyone present has to know everyone else.
Forsythe is the most fire emblem like character in this game, even his name is similar to another fire emblem unit who is also part of the black sheep of fire emblem franchise just like how this forsythe is part of the black sheep of advance wars
What if you loaded Waylon into a mid or war tank, then surrounded him with air units? Use the CO unit to punish anti-air, fighters to dissuade fighters, and battle copters to keep direct ground units away from the CO unit.
certainly a strategy worth considering, but I think the straightforward approach is what should be used most of the time. The AI typically loads him into a duster, and that's a very appropriate pick. The low(ish) cost lets him get rolling fairly early, and the high mobility and ammo supply, and wealth of things it can shoot at ensures he can build momentum quickly, all while being untargetable by most units thanks to it being a plane. Waylon's goals for his CO unit aren't usually scoring kills- he wants to safely harass and delay his opponent's progress until his big guns arrive. That's when he can create an unkillable death ball of air units and press the attack where other CO's can't.
I'd like to see a video about the Days of Ruin units and how they compare to the Dual Strike and earlier games. DoR had a pretty different unit mix, with Bikes, Dusters and that damn Anti-Tank (what a pain!). I also liked the Aircraft Carrier, fun unit to use, as well as Battleships getting a sweet buff.
I don’t play competitive, but they always seemed to have ridiculous defense and clogged up choke points. The low movement is definitely a weakness, though.
@@Jfrost9101 They're two very different units for completely different purposes. Recons are more expensive for their mobility, firepower, and defence over Bikes, and while Bikes can capture they just don't have the vision. Bikes do get interesting on plains compared to Recon because of their tire types though, so it really comes down to what unit is for what job.
So, to make Waylon work, you need a very unorthodox air strategy of using your air units to "contain" the enemy, which means "clustering" your air to form a "net" that your opponent cannot profitably approach, since air units are almost always more mobile than ground units. When you have a sufficient force to break the stalemate, pop his CO power and target all anti-air units in range. Anything close to you will be pretty much helpless, and you can mop up the mess the following turn.
That and encirclement tactics with his power. If you can clear a chokepint with a bomber or rockets, and park a duster or battle copter on that choke point with his power active, there is basically nothing the other player can do to get in and support the entrapped units, or stop a capture Waylon starts.
One really fun thing about the battle animations for DoR/DC that isn't immediately obvious is that you can actually hold the L/R buttons during them to either speed them up or slow them down, which is pretty cool.
Yeaaah... having a more focus on darker visual, quasi realistic and less is more kind of animation is... kinda not widely accepted when you compared the previous advance war more cartoonist art style (it might be because the Hiroaki, the artist for SNK that tries to match Shinkiro artistic quality kinda influenced it but meh)
On the comment on Brenner, that's exactly why it's an interesting spin for DoR :P In the trilogy, you get your power and you use it almost right away in many situations. With DoR, especially Brenner, you can simply hold onto it. The positive is that your CO zone is increased, so more of your units get the buff. You don't gain more power, but you keep the zone that you expanded, helping more units on the field. It's a bit of strategy when to use it, but if you don't, you're still fine since you still give the buffs to the units. Lin is the brains for the Brenner Wolves and even though she can be tough and fall of favor on some people, she is loyal to the Wolves and Brenner. Kind of funny how the CO power and zone play with what the character is. Of course being the brains for the Wolves, she gathers intel, so no shock she can have her units go double time and see hidden units. NOTE: Recons can still be viable! FoW changed. Notice that the unit doesn't move immediately when you select a space? The mechanic changed. If you have any unit move, their vision carries over EVERY SINGLE SPACE it lands and treats it as a vision. While cities are a great place to hide, the recon can move by the city and expose your units, so be careful! With Lin, if this happens, that one recon unit can give a heavy feedback on the map! Combo this with the flares since they can spot hidden units without being trapped. Once you get a good idea where exactly some of the enemy units are, use the recon to scout. Isabella learned from both Max and Grit lol. More mobility and then you have Grit's insane coverage. Something I want to point out that's important: Flares also increase their range! So if you are wondering if there are any units hiding, use the flare's increased range from Isabella's CO power to scout before you attack. Once you know how to move around the fog, it can give a pretty insane coverage and scout intel. Something to add about the CO zones when he talked about Tasha: Even though they don't get a buff, units in the zone can still charge her power up. Even if, say a rocket, isn't getting the buffs, but it is in the zone of Tasha, you still build up your CO power. If I'm not mistaking, every 10 unit damage (including infantry kills by the way), the bar fills to two. After three kills, the CO zone increases. For Tasha, it's best to probably move your units as a whole or be with your indirect to help build the zone. Once the indirect has done its turn, move Tasha to the front lines and try to score a kill. Then support her with a ground tank unit to prevent her from being shot. Gage: Keep in mind, they also change how bridges work. Now, your naval units CAN move into it. This is most likely due to the fact that you're still in the seas, so how is the ship not able to traverse under the bridge? :P The funny thing with this is you can do something illogically stupid, say, putting a sub that is submerged on the bridge lol Forscythe: Keep in mind, if your unit is able to kill something, they rank up. You could have a unit hit another to soften the blow and then have a stronger unit go for the killing blow and they rank up. Remember: Rank up also increases their strength. Waylon: I could give my two cents on this (especially since you pointed out on Eagle's 'horrible' CO power in AW2 :P). Air defense. When is the last time you hear defenses on the air? Aside from Isabella and a few others that buffs units in general, not much. Waylon is a bit tricky since, yes his air units are vulnerable to anti-air and fighters, but they aren't going to get shot down fast. Transport copters become road blocks. You could move your unit that's carrying an infantry, drop them off on one side of the T.copter, and then use the T.Copter to block the enemy from advancing. It is INSANELY hard to take his units down that's on the air. Also, rigs. Suspecting he'll mention it on Greyfield, so will hold that comment for a bit :P But to turn on the tables, you're pulling your units back on a Wingman. It becomes a mindgame. What if he doesn't use it? What if he does? Are you going to let those cities fall just because of Waylon's wingman? I mean you could try to shoot him, but the moment someone knows he's going down, POP wingman. Then your units are exposed. You play around the opponent's expectation and that can lead to a devastating blow. I think you have to do like Sonja did and just play around your opponent's expectations. By playing mindgames, you will throw your opponent off. Greyfield: Getting back to rigs, there's one indirect effect that the rigs do and this is something that could help out, even on ground: Coverage. If you let the rig build a temp airport, sure you don't get the funds, but you essentially build a forest for your ground units. If you position it on the map that could help your indirect units move into the temp airport, you could also give them the defenses by hiding them there. Temp ports also is interesting. Normally, your ships, outside of transport and gunboats, can't traverse through the beach. With the temp port, though, your ships now have an extra space to move into. Also, they are hidden. Putting that with the carrier can also be pretty insane. Commence the attack with your sea planes and then have the carriers dock there. When they are done, they'll go back to the carrier. They are also hidden, so your opponent needs to do something to spot them. Also, one thing, with the temp airport/port, the units movement is also lessened. So in a plain movement, recons are slowed down. But in a temp airport? Their unit can traverse over it to scout further. Tabitha: There's one counter you can do, but it's going to take a lot: Indirect units. Take into consideration that the CO power does not build up if the commander is under attack and they did no damage. The only time you do is when any unit in the CO zone does damage to the opponent, including your commander. Respond fast on her big units. A wartank? Get anti-tanks. A bomber? Get fighters/duster. A fighter? You could surround the CO with your units and they can't do anything outside of deleting their unit. Caulder: Funny you should mentioned that since, while it is a bit broken at times, may I present to you: War Room Challenge. You could simulate it and see who's stronger: Sturm or Caulder (not completely reliable since Caulder, you can spam the CO power to 'load' him up and it costs no money to do that). If I had the choice: Possibly Caulder. The reason why is because right off the bat, you get 50% Offense and Defense. Not only that, but that whole Meteor Strike thing that Sturm does? You could have Caulder go on defense and use something as a Duster to have his most expensive units get hit by the meteor and then the next day, he'll recover the units. Sturm isn't going down without a fight, though, since his units have the global buff, so nothing to sneeze at. The thing that's a HUGE kicker for Caulder: His extra cost to load is just the same as the others. So, if you really wanted to, just deploy a recon and have him go for the throat. In the main campaign, I've seen him being loaded in Dusters/Fighters. Much like Forescythe, rally your units and have him go on something really mobile.
About Waylon: You are underrating the impact of wingman, regardless of the enemies Anti Air's, His flying units basically get a free turn of invincibility where he can basically push and you have 2 options: Retreat or Suffer the consequences. If you retreat you are giving free reign to Waylon's Ground troops and if you don't retreat you're losing units to his Fliers. Regardless if the next turn there's Anti airs he will already have done the damage and has pushed or crippled the enemies troops enough that the balance of the game changes. And if the enemy literally just spams Anti airs, then their Ground Forces will be severely weakened.
One other thing was what he mentioned about how enemies will simply run their anti-airs back when Wingman is popped. If that's the case... can you not just pop Wingman later? That leaves the enemy with anti-airs that can't be hitting Waylon next turn, and Waylon with free reign to obliterate some units safely without fear of anti-air retaliation
@@Jfrost9101 And honestly, I see forcing the AA to retreat as a massive victory, because that gives you complete control of that airspace. They basically decide it’s not worth defending anymore
Go search up covers in TH-cam. That's the closest thing you're gonna get to remasters to these old compressed songs. Sad thing is AW:DoR covers are the least amount of attention given. I know there's a Will metal cover and The Beast Metal Cover and oh boy is it absolutely on point.
I... I really miss this game. AW2 was my first AW game and as much as I loved it. The darker theme and bangin soundtrack of Dark Conflict reaaaaally left an impression on me. I used to boot it up purely to listen to the music on a night, Penny (Lili), Tabitha (Larissa) and Weylon (Finn) have the best music.
So I made a mod for Commander Wars that would let Sturm and Caulder duke it out, it's just up to Mangs if he wants to do the match with someone and download the mod and Commander Wars.
Greyfield is better than Flak, though. Greyfield has no downside, he's just an "average" CO if he can't build a navy, and sitting on a useless power is kinda good. Flak is just average, with a downside, and very weak powers, also with a downside.
I've barely played the Advance Wars series, and yet somehow I have an intricate understanding of all the COs, map design, campaign strategies and unit strengths/weaknesses. And it's all your fault. Thank you for the endless hours of entertainment/info :D (Actually, have you done a unit-by-unit breakdown?)
Here is my unit breakdown Tanks: good Missiles: never build unless Grit, even when fighting Eagle (use anti-air) Mechs: Spam in early-midgame on small maps with decent base count
Im bored, so heres a wall of text for the most important units in my opinion Infantry: Bread and butter unit and main filler, you'll always build some of these basically every turn. They capture your buildings and bodyblock for your indirects. Basically pawns in chess, incredibly important Mechs: Slower infantry, pretty situational. Use defensively against many tanks to get cost effective trades, especially in mountains. Mech spam is infamous, but I don't think it's that strong since they do get beat by 2 infantry, which is cheaper. Recon: Vision unit for fog of war, also an early rush unit and indirects counter. Really good against infantry if you have to interrupt a capture really early, like a comm tower. Otherwise not that worth it in my opinion, because it delays your first tank. Tank: Your favourite unit as long as your name isn't Grit. This unit will kill essentially anything you throw it at, especially Infantry who cannot really scratch them. This is your core army unit, you want a lot of these. They get countered by battle copters, while they themselves counter Anti Air. Artillery: Indirect units are really good as long as you can protect them. You won't have a lot of these, but they can push through stalemates eventually and apply constant pressure. You want a few indirects in your army, and it will usually be Artillery. Battle Copters: These kill tanks and also scout for you. They can't really be touched by most units, but Anti Air kills them in one go, which is why you want to play hit and run strats with this Unit. Anti Air: You build these against tons of Infantry but especially against enemy Air units. They completely annihilate them once they get close, but they are usually more like Area denial for Copters until they get killed by tanks. Tanks->Anti-Air->Copter->Tanks is the "weapon triangle" of this game. Those are the units you will build the most. Other units are usually too expensive to justify using over these, but they are mostly just upgrades anyway. Rockets in particular can be situationally useful, but the game can be over before you justify building them, same with Bombers and Fighters. Medium Tanks are good eventually, but more regular tanks tend to be better than 1 Medium. APCs and T-Copters are sometimes needed on big maps but not too many of them. Dont buy naval units besides landers.
@ThePompf Your tips are good, but for the current video they don't work that well, i'll correct some of the tips and add some of mine if you don't mind :p -The dor infantry compared is kind of useless compared to the other aw they used to be the fast cap and the "i got some money left" unit, but now that mech are cheaper and that there's bike, it's just not as good anymore -The mechs are fire, they are cheaper as said before, their firepower is still as good as it used to be and they're the perfect counter against anti tanks as they usually drain 50% of their HPs leaving the machines defensless against tanks -The bikes are as cheap as mechs, and very fast, if you can afford them in the begining you gotta spam them, it's better than making an apc bringing mechs and infantries around, -Recons, everything you said is good, but i have to add that now that you can scout on every tile you drove each turn, it can easily become a patrol unit going left and right constantly wich lets them see the entire map everytime, very handy -The flare, an unit that us slightly tankier than recons, but still get heavily destroyed by tanks and mechs, they're very good at killing foot units but their main force relies on scouting, they're the indirect version of recons basically, being able to shoot flares around the map discovering tiles in a range of 2, this is the ideal unit to spot rockets or make sure you don't get trapped, useless if the map is not fog of war though -Landers, they can take 2 of any ground units, wich is very good for deplacing armies, even if the map isn't an heavy naval map, if played correctly, pulling 2 war tanks on an unwanted place can be devastating, also you can put an infantry inside of an apc inside of a lander wich is funny (you can also do the same with infantry inside of T-copter inside of cruisers btw) -Gotta add that i totally don't agree with what you said about the rockets, every time i build one, i easily manage to make up with the price of it, and even making more than that, sometime i handle an area with just a rocket and some meat shield, it carries hard -Battleships, on dor they're just fucking good no reason not to buy them unless it ruins your economy too much ig -That one is very situationnal, but if you happen to have a carrier pre-deployed, you should just never build fighters, sea planes hits harder and everything, they lack fuel and ammo yes but when used correctly, they can literally destroy anything
Will is basically what Jake should have been. The young, energetic and passionate CO who never gives up and inspires you. Throw in superior music and better abilities, and he completely eclipses jake
Greyfield's CO Power seems to be build exactly for Sea Planes. Since those things run out of fuel as fast as they run out of ammo, popping it allows you to continue the offensive (If you're willing to let a sea plane hang around), giving the plane one or two more turns before it has to return to refuel. Just don't overextend it, or it'll run out of fuel on the trip back!
Caulder/Stolos doesn't have a Co power for a reason. The owl's nest (his base and theater of the last battle) IS his power. Lasers. Multiple factories (that I believe spawned units for free), and multiple spots to destroy while Caulder grinded you down. I genuinely believe giving that guy a CO power would have made the campaign impossible to win.
His AI was terrible about protecting his weak spots. All those cool gadgets and zone power means nothing if the AI doesn't react to a bomber being able to make a beeline straight to weaknesses with no resistance. Same with Will in a Wartank. AI is so busy trying to overwhelm you that it doesn't leave any kind of protection for the instant win weak spots.
In case you were interested in specific numbers, *Wingman* gives your air units a 270% boost to Defense. Yes, you read that right, *two hundred and seventy percent*. When combined with the +30% you get from his day-to-day, that means that his air units have QUADRUPLE defense during Wingman.
@@greg_mca It's the same formula as AW 1 and 2 Fire Power. Say your anti-air deals 10 dmg, with 20% Power Increase, you multiply by 1.2, meaning it now deals 12 dmg. So, Wingman, it multiplies the health of his units by 2.7, (+0,4 because CO power) So the copters would have 31 hp (10 x 3.1). Now the copter takes that 12 dmg, so it ends up with 19 hp, displaying a 6 or 6/10 hp (since is around a 40% decrease and units hp is displayed in 100% and multiples of 10%)
I was going to say check WarsWorldNews (www.warsworldnews.com/wp/aw4/co-aw4/waylon/), but that is wrong. But yeah, the game value is 300% Defense to the air units during his CO Power. Well +310% if you count the default.
The Battle animations of AW1+2+DS are timeless and amazing. Unfortunately I think the Reboot's Battle Animations are also pretty bad. I would love to have a option in the Reboot that allows for me to revert it back to the original graphics.
* tread sound effect * * tanks lead forwards and bound back as they slam on the breaks * * satisfying pause * BLAM BLAM! * orgasmicly satisfying recoil * * units dying *
@@lucaseirfeldt9664 In my opinion not just that, while i do think that the style is way too shiny insted of just being the animations also look a bit wonky if you look at them carefully, for exemple the infantry flails around a bit too much when shooting, it could be because it's a work in progress but still
Aw yeah. I admit I didn't initially like Days of Ruin when I got it, but now I'm coming to appreciate its unique take on the world and the deeper tactical gameplay that it offers.
@@BigKlingy I agree completely, she KNOWS that the smartest tactical thing may not be moral and chooses to NOT take those options, she advices the best she can given moral limitations, but she HAS moral limitations, strong ones at that. The only time she puts her morals to the side is when she took out Greyfield, choosing to kill him on the spot as an act of revenge, instead of capturing him and holding a trial (in which he would have likely been executed anyways, but the point stands), i.e. bring him to justice.
In terms of a challenge between Sturm vs Caulder, I recommend looking up an AW2 mod called "War Room Challenge" by Xenesis. It is simply a collection of very difficult to S rank maps for veteran players to try and complete. It does a few balances of the CO's but more importantly they actually incorporated Caulder into it. Thus, you can do a match of Caulder vs Sturm.
I may be alone on this, but I actually prefer Days of Ruin's graphics over the classic series. I get that most people scoff at gray-brown aesthetics because they feel too Call-of-Dutyiesque, but when I think of war games, I really don't like cartoonish graphics. Maybe if Days of Ruin had more greenery it could be both more realistic as well as more colorful, but remember that it's a plot point that the athmosphere was altered.
I think the biggest problem with graphics is the battle animations. They’re... lacking. I think more people would forgive the gritty color scheme if the animations didn’t look like animated cardboard.
@@Davtwan I think they are just as good. Sure they are more static but the screen shake, sound design and sound effects more than compensate. Also some animations look better especially the naval units which now actually break up and sink.
It's definitely the Reboot announcement that brought me back! I was on a Zoom group meeting with the Boss, you know, work from home stuff... When i just randomly had the craving to listen to some AW CO Themes, when i saw that it was getting a Remake, and Holy Sh!t! I screamed out loudly in excitement.... forgetting that i wasn't on Mute... So yeah. Sure wasn't paying much attention through the rest of Meeting through, but sure as hfil really feeling to see what the community has been upto lately. And found you, an absolute Legend! Many many thanks for definitely being a very respectful presence in this community and doing your part in keeping it alive. And what a treat this is! Days of Ruin is my Favourite AW game in terms of memorability, but second to only Black Hole Rising in terms of Overall Fun. Not to mention, i was always a sucker for stories of the "hope in complete and utter despair" type.
Cruisers actually got MUCH better in Days of Ruin, since they actually take much less damage from air units now and can do decent damage to other naval units. They also hard-counter the new Gunboat units, for what it's worth. (Greyfield is still terrible though.) ALSO: If Penny uses Stormfront and makes it rain, she will still pretend that the fog it brings doesn't exist for that turn. (And the AI doesn't cheat nearly as hard at fog of war as it did in previous games.)
I actually liked Days of Ruin more than the other games. It felt like the old games told there nice little story and with dual strike overstayed there prime. Days of ruin was something fresh mature and the themes of the Co's were crazy good. I would love to see another game like that.
I liked all of them but Days of ruin in my opinion is my favorite one. One of the main reason why I liked days of ruin better was because it’s more strategic based and frankly I just liked the story better. Days of ruin is criminally underrated.
Also, no matter whether Forscythe is good or not, the fact that he's clearly inspired by Robert E. Lee makes him awesome in my book. I also like the way they mechanically show his old age and experience - he *starts* at the maximum CO zone instead of having to level up into it, and indeed *can't* level up at all, because he's already learned as much as he's ever going to.
As someone who often came to your channel to watch your AW content, being the type of guy who looked up your old playthroughs, the ones where you started every video with a rhyme, this new wave of content is a blessing. Seeing you mention the fun fact about Waylon's theme that has been on that video since time immemorial was the icing on the cake for this one, loved it.
Omg, you mad man. You did it I love this franchise, as much as I loved the original ones, this one hits a little different to me for some reason. AW 2 is still My favorite though lol
Days of Ruin wins out for me. It's so much more developed and imaginative than the previous games -- and I still really liked those. Reboot camp kind of annoys me because if I could pick an Advance Wars game to be remade, it would be Days of Ruin every time.
Tabitha is generally considered closer to C tier and for good reason. She doesn't charge on counterattacks. You really can just suicide infantry/mechs/etc into her to give her no power charge and deny her the ability to go on the attack. Also, don't pop firestorm when you get it. Firestorm's strength is that with a CO zone of 2, nothing can get to Tabitha through the extreme defense of her units. Any efforts to push through her will require an INCREDIBLY dense concentration of force... which you can immediately respond to with firestorm into a total wipe. So long as you have firestorm and a defensive blockade around Tabitha, there really is very little the enemy can do to stop the snowball, and if they do actually muster a force to push into you, firestorm stops that immediately. Also, common Tabitha strategy is to put her in a recon or other fast unit and bully out captures early. the enemy loses funds with how badly you stall them, and they HAVE to respond immediately or you threaten zone.
@@Ubersupersloth Advance Wars By Web, basically lets you play online against others with any co from 1, 2, and DS. COs from 1 or 2 use their 2 iterations, COs from DS use how they are in DS.
I dunno about putting Waylon in the same tier as Tasha, seeing as his day-to-day ability complements his specialty with air units a lot better; focusing less on their already high offense and more on their crippling lack of defense against their counters such as Anti-Airs, and this boost shows in a big way. I would argue that this is a BIG reason as to why the one major fight in the Campaign versus him is one of the most annoying missions to fight, despite not being "late game," because of how his air units have such a presence on the map because of how his abilities work. Sure, he could be countered by lots and lots of Anti-Air, but the caveat to this is those Anti-Air become vulnerable to GROUND units that anyone would be an idiot to not include.
@@i_am_jarvistm7220 Imo he is low A, his playstyle takes time to get used and needs buildup (you need to build 12-20K fund cost Air Units to properly use him, Copter spam is a waste of his strength) for heavy Air presence, but he also needs players to build a decent enough ground force to support/Spearhead major Pushes
It was my first advance wars, I still remember the first time I played this game when I was 6 or 7 being amazed by it, it was the first time I had seen this kind of game. Just last week I replayed days of ruin and it's still a great game, love it.
Tabitha is my favorite CO. Iove putting her in the heaviest hitting unit I can afford and watch the damage rating climb so high it just says MEME% when I go to engage a unit. Tatsumaki energy FTW.
Isabella and Forsythe get 20 attack and defence in practice, 10 from the universal CO boost (which is hidden) and another 10 from their own bonus. Penny is the only CO that doesn't have CO Zone bonus and only gets the universal boost.
I never played Days of Ruin, and when you said Caulder's abilities my eyes literally opened up more like never before An AW1 Max BUT with his ability affecting all types of units, with 50% more defence (which is even better than firepower), no flaws at all, and that can heal 5 whole fucking HP in a wide area every single turn? And I thought Sturm was scary Jesus freaking Christ
AW1 : "what's an airport again?"
AW:DOR : "what's a war crime again?"
War Crimes? You mean trolling the enemy?
If there is no geneva, then no one can uphold the standard
War Crimes? I call them "suprise tactics".
War crimes? The only law is the beasts law
@@freetimeidiot4541 "prime tactics"
Greyfield being D tier is extremely fitting considering that, canonically, he's a really shitty CO. Lin even calls him out for it, says that he was mediocre at best.
Him being money hungry also works honestly, he doesn’t strike me as someone who is good with a tight budget
He is good in maps that have combined weapons(air and sea units), but if its only one type or two and not the three he is pointless, specially without sea.
But in my guess, the worst CO in the game is in fact "no CO"
And his specialization being what it is kind of fits too. Where he only excels when he is in a dominant position anyway. When things get tough he can't do anything.
*INSOLENCE! I WANT THAT EGG EXECUTED!*
The level bonuses are actually I: +5/0, II: +10/0, and Vet: +20/+20 so only max level units get a defense boost
Ahh ok. Thanks for pointing this out.
@@Mangs1337 I demand a public apology for you intentionally and maliciously spreading this misinformation.
@@WetBoy LMAO
I'm pretty certain the Veteran level only gets +10% defense.
In fairness, he DID warn us how knowledgeable he was about DoR.
Seems like Greyfield was designed intentionally as if he were trained in a different war. he has better logistics and benefits from large concentrations of high cost naval units, which simply don't exist now that the world economy has ceased to exist. in another way, te desire for world conquest might also feed into this
Right.
He was an admiral, a high-ranked military officer.
Perhaps of an american-rubinelle sixth naval fleet or smthing.
He can be really deadly, but only in pre-deployed condition where he has his hands on a-carriers that are fully equipped + funds to rebuild lost seaplanes from a-carriers after using resupply power. In this case he will crush almost any co.
But in regular match his specialty and power are useless
I always thought of Greyfield's ability as a "win more" power. In order to benefit from resupplying materials means that you already have rigs and/or carriers that used theirs. To want to use them again would mean you're probably just pushing deep into your opponent's properties already and need more frontline units and repairs. The fact that his power wants to be used from a winning position and that his shitty CO zone does very little to get him there is strangely in-character for Greyfield.
Grey-field seem like pre-deployed naval & air mission in campaigns, not war rooms or competitive match where you don't have to worry about fuel or ammo or material unless the map has fuel, ammo, material shortage as gimmick which is currently non-existent. Greyfield seem outdated CO designed for fighting against Drake's fuel shortage (and ammo shortage due to his stall strategy) which doesn't exist in AW:DoR.
Something about fog of war in this game: You can't scout by moving your unit then canceling, but when you move a unit, it clears the fog of war across the ENTIRE path of their movement, instead of just showing their vision where they ended. This includes all vision blocking forests/cities/etc that you passed by
yes way more logical and biggest game changer
I'm just now playing dual strike on an emulator now that my dor cartridge died and it has been awful going back to the old way
Better yet, the CPU opponents have to play by the same rules! No darkshooting bullcrap or unfair unit position awareness, not even against Penny on a rainy FoW session.
The AI uses this mechanic quite a lot
@@NotABot55 And this is why I think DoR is the best AW. I wish the AI didn't cheat in DS...
Mangs: "She's not so bad you guys, she just has some daddy issues!"
Literally right next to him in her official profile: "She is *extremely* cruel and vindictive."
still better than most women out there nowadays based waifu
She reminds me of Peri.
@@MOORE4U2 Peri story is super sad but at the same time made my happy when I oathed her first.
Mangs is already sold because pigtails
He isnt even in a relationship with her and he's already justifying her abusive behavior. Mangs is born to be a battered househusband
It's a dumb little addition, but I love how the CO is inside the bar in combat on normal units but has their full picture during battle when they're in the unit.
It's not dumb, it's attention to detail and it's ingenious as you can tell at a glance if the CO is in the unit or not both in combat or on the field screen :)
Scientist: S rank.
Hot girls: A rank.
Men and Boys: B rank.
An absolute mix: C rank.
Failure of a villain: D rank.
Wrong. Why isn't Penny in A rank then?
@@izalco2867 JAIL!
@@Flawskiii for what? she is a clone of a male scientist that was made with that appearance.
on hindsight, this makes liking isabella, penny and tabitha very weird indeed
@@Ricardo_Rick Penny looks like she's 8, are you seriously even going to try and justify liking her???
@@Flawskiii 8? no she doesn't, she is a little tinier than isabella, the difference is the clothes and personality, and like i said, she isn't even a human, calm down man
I can forgive Forsythe being so relatively mediocre with his abilities considering his existence in the story mode hinges on the idea that he is a legendary CO.
Him having no CO Power is supposed to add into the fact that in terms of the story and character, he doesn't need it as he is just that skilled as a commander and even so, despite his skill, they made sure to elaborate that while he took part in a massive war with lots of bloodshed in the past, he captivated people as he despised war crimes and didn't treat prisoners as some objects but as fellow people, just on different sides.
He is all about dignity, respect and skill and I think that shows in his CO abilities, and he even appears in your own briefing where he HELPS YOU to fight himself just cause he has that much respect to Brenner and his crew and Lin even thanks him for his presence and knowledge. And I thoroughly believe that's why his skillset is the way it is, you are supposed to just think over relying on some CO Power. He is the personification of relying on your own wits to overcome enemies instead of your powers. Heck, even hence his name being "Foresight".
And that basically means you play Forsythe depending completely on your own skill as you can't rely on your CO Power. That is a fun CO IMO as he enables you to just rely on your skill and understanding the game.
So in short: Mangs is a C rank Co
He's certainly moved up in the world and become a seasoned knight since he served under Clive and Alm...
Also a thing about him is he cant be setback by is Co Unit dying.
You can always promote another unit without losing CO power.
TBF, the bandit also helps you beat him, so the helping area shoudnt really be put into account.
And just like that, I now love Foresythe IMMENSELY more than I did before, and I'll gladly be using him more often in the future!!
@Mangs
Okay, so here is how the mechanics and stats work in Days of Ruin. It's a bit long, but I wanted to cover all the details.
The formula for damage is (Base Damage) * (Attacker HP / 10) * (Total Attack Power / Total Defense Power). Luck ranges from 0 up to the Attacker's HP.
Units level up whenever they destroy an enemy unit. The ranks are I, II, and Veteran. These provide a boost of +5/+0, +10/+0, and +20/+20, respectively. If a CO personally leads a unit, then that unit instantly becomes Veteran ranked. It also becomes a CO Unit, causing it to emit a CO Zone.
The CO Zone a CO Unit emits varies and can be as small as 0 spaces wide, or as large as 5 spaces wide. As you charge the CO's Power (if available), the CO Zone's range can expand further; by +1 space for a half-charge and by an additional +1 space for a full charge. Each CO Zone always provides a +10/+10 standard boost to all of your units within it, regardless of the CO's actual specialties. The stars (★) that you see in the biographies each represent a +10 boost and are ADDED to the existing +10/+10 that the CO Zone provides, assuming the units match the CO's specialties.
EXAMPLE: Tasha's CO Zone has a range of 1 space to start and can be expanded up to a maximum of 3 spaces. It gives all of her units a +10/+10 standard boost whenever they are within it. Thanks to her specialty, however, all of her Air units also receive a further +40/+20 boost, meaning they now have a total boost of +50/+30 within her CO Zone, as opposed to the +10/+10 boost that her Ground and Naval units have.
Terrain Stars provide units a +0/+1 boost per Terrain Star per HP.
EXAMPLE: A unit has 10 HP and is on Plains, which provide 1 Terrain Star. It thus receives a +0/+10 boost. Another unit has 6 HP but is on a City, which provides 2 Terrain Stars. It thus receives a +0/+12 boost.
Com Towers give a +5/+5 boost to all of your units. Sandstorms give a -30/+0 penalty to all units.
CO Powers expand the CO Zone to cover the entire map when activated and provided an extra effect depending on the CO. They can only be activated when your CO has a fully charged Power Meter. For every 5 HP of damage that your units within your CO Zone deal to enemy units (cumulative total), you charge one point in the Power Meter. For every 5 HP of damage that your units within your CO Zone receive from enemy units (cumulative total), you charge one point in the Power Meter. It takes six points for a half-charge and twelve points for a full charge.
NOTE: Due to intentional choice, a glitch, or an oversight, counter-attacking an enemy that is outside of your CO Zone will not charge your Power Meter at all.
That's all, folks! Everything in Days of Ruin in a nutshell.
EDIT: Forgot to address your comments on Rain, @Mangs, Rain actually makes it so Vision = 1 for all units. It's not -1 vision like in the prior games. Also, even without Fog of War on, Penny is always immune to the vision penalty of Rain whenever it does randomly Rain.
13:35
The way defense works is that it divides the damage value by 1+percentage/100. For example, a 50% defense boost divides the damage by 1.5, whereas the same boost in any previous advance wars games would halve damage. This means that if a unit with a 50% firepower bonus attacks a unit with a 50% defense bonus, the bonuses would effectively cancel out and produce the same damage values as a 2 units fighting with no increased defense or firepower bonus. This was not the case in the previous games
Hope this helps!
So basicaly it just cancels put firepower bonuses instead of actualy reducing the damage of a unit even if it has increased firepower.
Thanks for confirming, that's pretty much exactly how i figured it would work when he said it changed.
@@robertharris6092If the unit has no firepower boosts the unit will live X% longer. 50% defense = needs 50% more hits to destroy.
Wait so DOR actually learned math???
@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz YES!
@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz and that is why Waylon power gives 270% defense, combine this with his CO zone and you have 300% defense in your air units for 1 turn.
Thinking about their abilities, and these tiers you made, it makes me wonder how deliberate all of these are. Waylon is a cowardly pilot whose abilities are all defensive and meant to keep his sorry ass alive, Tasha is blinded by revenge so her abilities are all offensive and largely make her ineffective (as you'd expect of someone so obsessed with revenge they weren't thinking straight), Grayfield is all but outright stated to have been a crappy wannabe soldier before the apocalypse and so is largely ineffective without massive support, Penny is a batshit insane broken girl whose CO powers are weird, unlike any other, and entirely random and unpredictable, Lin the cold analytical strategist has the stat boosts of both the heroism-obsessed Will and Brenner combined but they're slower to work since she's more reluctant to rush in and spends more time gathering intel, Isabella is out of place compared to the other COs but is insanely effective at movement and ranged attacks which makes sense if you consider her backstory (no spoilers) and how she has encyclopedic knowledge of how units work and move, Tabatha's abilities are focused on affecting herself with her other units being an afterthought, Gage whose quiet and focused on getting the job done is largely designed to just quickly build up an offensive and take the opponent down from a distance as quickly and effectively as possible, Forsythe who is an honorable man who doesn't fight dirty is designed to just be largely effective overall in any scenario and focuses on long-term buffs to all his troops without sacrificing that for a quick dirty strike with a CO power (or is perhaps too old to use one now), and of course Caulder is OP as fuck since he's the final boss.
Maybe I'm overthinking it and drawing conclusions from coincidences, but it's like the developers actually didn't care about balance or tiers or anything, and were focused 100% on giving them abilities that fit their personalities and backgrounds. It might even explain why you don't actually get to pick which COs you want to use in the campaign and are forced to use a specific CO for each mission, and maybe the reason they added a no CO option to VS mode was they knew the character were unbalanced.
Nah it's absolutely deliberate.
Gage is a sniper too, hence the indirect buffs
Lin only effects ground units though. Brenner effects land air and sea.
well, i think it makes sense to an degree that youre not gonna have the best of the best NCOs anymore after the world fell to ruin, youre barely going to still have leaders that are better then randomly selected soldiers baptized by fire
maybe you dont even have those anymore.
wait, what about Brenner and Will?
to paraphrase Whoisthisgit's view on Waylon, "to play waylon well, you have to become Waylon" stay just out of the enemy range and push them back, while growing your CO zone in the process, using it when you have pushed them back far enough to cut through their defences.
Just use a bullshit amount of bombers and battle copters
Yeah, if the opponent keeps his anti air out of range, you can basically push him back with the threat of his power.
So just 8th Air Force the enemy into oblivion?
Love the irony.
The STORY says that Finn is irresponsible, selfish, and rides his men to their deaths for thrills and comfort; all too eager to sacrifice them to save his own skin.
The GAMEPLAY makes Finn into a defensive air commander who relies on supporting his wingmen by leading the line from the front, refusing to be too cavalier and instead pushing forward gradually, minimising casualties while bottling the enemy, then popping his Power to make a sudden, explosive wildcat strike on enemy air defenses while minimising friendly losses. Sure, he'd still sack a friendly to save himself, but even O'Brian would do the same.
Finn and Zadia should have had each other's kits. Maybe Finn was planned to be a completely different kind of man earlier in the scriptwriting?
Use a lot of indirects and make sure that they are on Waylon CO zone (the air units have high movility so is not that hard) and when you are close to get wingman (bad company) buy a lot of air units to do a big push
Awesome Video Mangs! Great content as always.
However, there are a few things here that need to be amended, in case folks are looking for good and reliable information about this game and these COs.
First: All CO zones buff attack and defense by 10% regardless of the stars mentioned. This is default. What this means is that Forsythe actually buffs all of his units by 20/20 (attack/defense). This goes for all COs. Penny is the only CO in game that only gives the default buff. The default buff effects all units regardless of CO speciality. The stars distinguish either an extra buff or a specialty like Will buffing ground units by 20/0, it's actually 30/10.
Second: The level up system works as follows; Level one: 5/0, level two: 10/0, and level three: 20/20. So, Forsythe's CO has 40/40 in total. 20/20 from Vet (level three), 10/10 from CO his zone, and 10/10 from default CO zone buff.
Third: Defense works exactly how it should have in the first place! Will gives 30% attack total to any direct ground units in his CO zone, therefore you multiply his firepower by 1.3 times. Brenner has 30% defense to all units in the CO zone, thus you divide damage by 1.3 times. They cancel each other out, and this can easily be tested with COs who buff both attack and defense equally, like Caulder and Forsythe or Lin. Terrain stars work this way also.
Fourth: No CO in game wants to CO a unit that will expressly be used during power. Why? You forfeit your CO unit's turn upon activating the power. Gage in a battleship is quite contrary to how you would use him. Most COs want to be in a unit that isn't very expensive but can support the building of power. The ideal CO units are; Tank, Recon, Flare, Anti-Air, Anti-Tank, Gunboat, and Battle Copter. There are some off picks like Cruiser for Naval combat, but for the most part, you only want the above-mentioned CO units. Easy to reinforce them (join units) in order to extend longevity, especially for COs like Tabitha. Medium and War tank are both good options, but again they are not as easy to reinforce and highly expensive.
Fifth: Naval combat is awesome in DoR! Yes, you need decent funds, but some of that is alleviated by Gunboats, and reduced prices. Greyfield is arguably better than you give him credit. He is a CO that Loves the flying side of Naval combat i.e. Carriers and Seaplanes. Yes, that is highly expensive, but so is the 37,500 you just spent on COing a single battleship (another reason why that is not recommended at all). He synergizes well with Naval warfare but especially well with Seaplanes. He is also one of those COs who likes COing a Cruiser or Gunboat. If the early game of either a naval or air combat specialist is going to be ground heavy, COing a tank or other such recommended unit is still a fantastic idea! Remember that unit will be at Vet and get the 10/10 default buffs! Definitely not useless.
Sixth: Air combat and specialized COs. For the most part, air combat is the same, except now we have dusters! Fast early game Battle Copter destroyers, as well as light vehicle and infantry harassers. They do well against fighters and bombers too! Seaplanes are not air units (though they act just like them and are pretty much air units in all respects) as they cannot be built outside of a carrier! Tasha and Waylon are both COs who actually like hopping into any air unit of your choice. The reccomended CO units like tanks and such are still good, but because of their buffs and powers, you want to play them in an air unit like normal, and then clump them up and push with their air units during power! You are correct that air units are harassers, scouts, hit and runners, they do that just fine. Their powers are what change up the air game for them. Tasha bombers one shot anti-air and pretty much anything else, her fighters are kings of the skies, so using her power she can reach even those out-of-reach well positioned missiles, air units, AA and so on. Waylon becomes the definition of nigh invincible upon popping his power. Mangs didn't give numbers here, but Waylon's power gives 270% defense on top of what they have. That means his units have 310 defense and his CO has 330 along with any Vet unit in his air units! This means you divide damage by 3.1 or 3.3!!! This is incredible. Leading to anti-air dealing around 20-25% to bombers upon getting the first strike! He's nuts and can truly make a ball of air units and roll into your HQ on power use.
Seventh and finally: The changes made to this game are awesome! Defense being properly applied, naval units being better and cheaper, many units being cheaper or more effective. The addition of Bikes, flares, and many such unique units. COs having no weaknesses! Altogether makes for a fantastic AW game, and my favorite in the series!
Most of this information is hard to come by, so I completely understand why Mangs didn't necessarily cover all of this in his video. But for clarification sake, these things needed to be stated. It's a shame that this game wasn't well enough received, because it plays sort of like Super Famicom Wars, but newer and better!
you forgot one last detail, Fog of War is now fair against the AI!, I was about to play the campaign with hacks that take out the fog of war if it was the same as in older entries, but when I saw the enemy getting surprised by finding my units and not being able to shoot me from the dark, I was happy.
@@MrSasukeSusanoo This right here! Absolutely right! Actually, Super Famicom Wars has fair Fog as well. It's why these two games are by far my favorite. Too many good reasons to love DoR.
DoR had the misfortune of coming out at the wrong time, and coming out on a console that couldn't really handle what they wanted. I actually liked how they reinvented the series, and gameplay wise it needed a shake-up because it didnt change all that much from AW to Dual Strike.
And though it's a small thing, i at least never got the feeling of "why are we throwing away people in a horrible meatgrinder while being so cheerful" that the other AW games had.
One thing I really like is that you can annihilate half your enemy's army, and NOT have to suffer them wasting your time with their superpower afterward, because this game doesn't reward you for losing like the previous ones. No global health draining CO who starts with a huge mass of expensive units, forcing you to let them repeatedly kick you in the shin no matter how hard they're beaten.
I'll have to agree Days Of Ruin is my Favorite Advance Wars game.
I don’t mind them treating war as the serious and messed up thing that it is, or that they explored new gameplay stuff. I just wish they did it using the old esthetics and characters, as the dissonance between colourful characters and graphics with the real consequences of war could’ve been quite powerful. Would’ve also been cool if they explored the ideologies of each individual nations, what they actually fought for, and how the morals of the individual COs either lined up, clashed or got challanged by the very nations they fought for. Could’ve been really interesting.
Instead we just got drab late 2000’s esthetics that felt like a fruitless attempt to rope in the CoD crowd. Which, fine, it’s very much a product of its time. It’s just bot what I personally wished for. Though I do still respect game devs who dare to challenge what they’ve done previously and try something new, without feeling limited or trapped by their established audience.
i had never heard of it until I watched this channel
I played all the other AW games tho as they came out and I even had a DS and 3DS but this game never came to my attention smh.
not sure what happened there
It mostly suffered from the characters being overly generic: Lin is the only one that really stands out. Dual Strikes suffered from much the same, but it had the excuse of having too many characters to develop.
Mangs: "I put my Forsythe in a Bike on occasion."
Me, trying to get into the Salty Spittoon: "I put him into Infantries to up my capture game."
Makes me wonder if Forsythe could be good on a horse?~
Upping the Ante -of Stupidity- by saying...
"I put him on the one lone Recon unit guarding the HQ. And still win the match"
Bikes can also capture you know
@@kiennguyentrung7331 True, but Infantries are cheaper and produced en masse anyways.
Nothing says 'Legendary CO' more than having your boss with a rifle be next to you on the battlefield.
@@PenumbraVIII Gigachad general comes out of the HQ and joins the bois.
360noscopes Infantry to interrupt a cap.
Refuses to elaborate.
Leaves.
I kinda disagree with the morality of Days of Ruin being black and white. Lin, Gage, and Tasha are far from being morally perfect, while Waylon's just a self-interested mercenary, not really all that evil in the grand scheme of things.
It's just that Will and Breener are so comically heroic and Calder & Grayfield are so comically evil that they kind of bleed over the whole story.
Also dont forget the Mayor being pure reprehensible evil.
@@holdinmcgroin8639 the way I look at it is that Caulder and co represent evil in the high level abstract sense, in that most people wouldn’t run into someone like them, whereas the Mayor is almost assuredly someone you’d meet in real life
When I think of this game's morality, I think of the refugees turning against the heroes and just being huge assholes out of self-preservation and paranoia. The generic civilian characters doing that instead of showering you with praise and items was at least a breath of fresh air.
Imo the problem is that there's very little nuance when the characters present their motivations for being good/evil. Good characters will state they do it to help other people or to keep their word while bad characters will state that they are evil because they are taking opportunities or because they don't see other lives as meaningful (with that being said, Greyfield works incredibly well as an over the top heel). There's very little personal stakes, except for characters like Tasha or Lin who want revenge.
I disagree with the notion that every character should be morally gray, even in a brutal setting like DoR (though it depends what you mean by "morally grey"). Most people care for their own first and then maybe help out others if they have enough left over (though maybe you should save it, just in case?). A smaller number of people have stronger senses of justice than others, and would act as heroically as they feasibly could. Some people aren't really heroic but do good deeds for the praise and respect it earns them. And some people like Caulder and Co. definitely do exist - remember that Caulder doesn't do evil because he likes evil as such, he simply wants to indulge his perverted curiosity as much as possible. It's not really that different from Waylon, really - he wants to indulge his desires and fights to ensure that happens. He has *different* desires than Waylon, since he wants knowledge rather than material wealth and carnal pleasure, but both of them just want what they want and don't give a shit about anything else.
One thing i never see mentioned about Caulder is that his units will start to accumulate kills because they never die, becoming as strong as the CO unit eventually.
You know what, you have a point there
I think we found Kanbei’s brother
More like the brother who found his sock which belonged to god
You really need to focus fire on Caulder first with indirects and then head on, otherwise that tean will wreck everything
And there's a good chance that all of the IDS soldiers are clones... And (SPOILERS)
Caulder is also a clone...
Btw, the Artist of Days of Ruin is the same of the KoF series.
Back when it was new I was amazed by the noticeable traits from art in this compared to Neo Geo Battle Colosseum and KOF Orochi Saga
No wonder i thought Isabella looked like Kula and Will like Kyo, heck, Will helping/saving Isabella is kind of like K's relationship with Kula
Wait fuck really? Damn that's cool!
i didn't know, but this explains why the art looks kinda like '03-XI art
that explains so much
Penny: "Darude!"
Will: "What?"
*Random Sandstorm appears*
Will: "Oh..."
Time for the Seizure Procedure!
Fun Fact: This is the only Advance Wars game where you can play with no CO.
This is an absolutely horendous idea since you'd be giving a huuuuuge handicap, but you get a kickass theme instead.
So there it is ladies and gentlemen, the hidden E rank CO: Litterally nobody
The Beast would like a word with you.
I can totally picture the beast arguing with a commander that doesn't exists
Technically, due to a glitch, you can play with no CO in Dual Strike. The game will crash if you try to use your super CO power, open the CO menu, switch COs, win the match... but you can play with no CO.
I have been bamboozled.
Or both players can agree to play without a CO.
A few misconceptions mangs has that I wanna clarify.
The CO zone's 10% to attack and defense isn't counted in stars. Isabella technically has 20% to both, not 10%
CO powers gives the day to day buff to all units, not just ones that the CO originally effects. Will's power can spread his day to day buffs to aircraft
Edit: also, the Veteran bonuses go +5/+0, +10/+10, +20/+20. Thank you to someone in the comments for pointing that out
Edit 2: once again incorrect. Units not normally affected by the CO will only get the 10/10 when they use their power
This
Bump, Mangs needs to see this. Global +40% defence to all units will probably make him bump up Waylon
I wanted to make a post about this. Mangs has been inconsistent about this throughout the entire video (or counted it as the veterancy bonus?)
The veterancy mechanic is also +5/+0, +10/+0, and +20/+20 for the three levels, not +10/+10 per level. So while he is 10/10 too low with the effect of every zone, he still ended up with the correct power of the CO unit since he was 10/10 too high on the power of a veteran unit.
Thought it worked like this. I was getting confused watching the video lol.
About Isabella, thanks to how battleships work in this game, with her CO power they obtain 4 more range, so in maps where there are a lot of water she can attack at enemies at 14 squares of distance, 7 for mobility and 7 for range.
I came here to say this. It is ridiculous enough that when the battleship's range marker extends it can't actually fit on a DS screen anymore, even when zoomed out, meaning that if you can place your battleship in the right spot it can hit targets that are 4 squares off screen. The move and shoot ability of the battleship is ludicrous when both can be amplified simultaneously
She is the most broken and my friends don't allow me to use her because I am a grit main since AW1 . This is why I just use tabitha. Yes I love artilleries
@@user-ov2kx8ql5i gage?
Isabella is the best Co, her power is too good and i love her song.
Mangs whipping out the ‘I can fix her’ for Tabitha.
Lore-wise, technically it is possible considering it's part of the story.
(Spoiler alert)
Since Caulder create his clones to find a perfect copy for his immortality, they're usually tested in a controlled environment to make sure external factors do not affect their personality. Isabella is an example of his clones affected by external factors (cinnamon roll-like personality) compared to his similar replicas Lutera, Isabella's real name.
If Tabitha got amnesia like Isabella in the story, it's possible for Mangs's waifu dream.
Ah yes, Days of Ruin. The second best Advanced Wars game, only losing out to the true king, Battalion Wars II. Another IS game with some chick named Lin and some dude nicknamed the Beast that I played a bit too much as a kid.
Always had a good time with it, despite getting trashed by my buddy's Isabella after school.
Thank you for reminding me of Batallion Wars.
**runs off to download them both**
Lin... Lyn
The Beast... Batta the Beast...
I need help
Ok but when are we getting battalion wars tier list kappa
Ah Battalion Wars good game lots of memories
Battalion Wars.
Nice.
I wish The Beast from campaign was a CO.
Always felt like he should've been a spiritual successor to Sami and have him have capture game related traits and abilities (cause hes a raider).
Absolutely agree. Or make him the true Flak, high offense, more ammo use or something, I dunno.
@@kittogashi8561 Maybe 1* offense and defense for infantry, and lower starting fuel, but defeating an enemy with a unit replenishes a bit of ammo and fuel on them? Something not crazy, so he still eases you in, but playing in to his raider aesthetic and setting him apart a bit.
I feel like the game really suffered from introducing CO mechanics way late. They tried to focus on the narrative and that's nice and all, but that wasted a lot of potential. Having the Beast roam around in a recon buffing his units would have been a nice place to introduce it.
@@Jfrost9101 Weird but thematic. Mebbe add recons to his specialty, make him a fast starter.
@@luigiye6243 One of the commanders is a literal little girl, so that's a terrible excuse. He has 100x her experience.
The music in this game is genuinely incredible.
lin's theme... all the badass themes i wish got a fucking clean remaster man
Weird. I really don't like the Days of Ruin soundtrack, with a couple exceptions. It was the weakest part of the game for me. A lot of tracks just sounded to me like they were trying to compensate for a lack of material by turning up the distortion.
Requesting Mangs rate all CO themes again 😂
@@AaronRotenberg somethings wrong with your ears, or you dont like rock and techno.
Tbh the biggest issue I have with the OST is that we never got a high quality version of them, just the crusty DS quality ones.
Here to clear up some misinformation: the 10% attack and defense from CO zone is applied BEFORE any benefits from the CO themselves, so, 1 star is functionally a 20% boost, meaning Isabella's zone does make her units stronger than say, a Gage zone with no indirects.
And one thing too about fog of war iirc you dont need to be adjacent on the building to reveal it you can have a unit path pass it and reveal it by just passing it
@@localmilkanyoulocalmilkan3930 That isn't just buildings, every unit scouts the entire path they move along and the extra vision is lost when your turn ends.
The 10/10 also applies to all units and not just the one the CO boosts, which is sometimes an important feature.
This confused me a lot about his Isabella analysis since I was sure she had a moderate boost to everything.
So Forsythe gives 20/20 to all of his units in CO zone then? In that case he might be better then he seems.
Fun fact: the composers of the CO themes in this game also did the soundtrack for Paper Mario Thousand Year Door. Yoshito Hirano and Yuka Tsujiyoko.
Does explain the bangin soundtracks
Oh huh. You know I can kinda hear it.
I can definitely hear it, especially in the themes of Caulder and his children.
@@SomeFreakingCactus I hear a little of ttyd's doopliss theme in penny's theme
No wonder they both slap.
In Days of Ruin, rain doesn't reduce your vision by 1, it SETS your vision to 1. Basically every space becomes a forest.
Sturm- Drops meteor on Caulders deathball
Caulder at the start of his turn- so anyways...
Sturm: NOO! YOU CAN'T REPAIR YOUR UNITS AFTER MY METEOR STRIKE!
Caulder: Haha, CO Zone go brrrrrrrrrrrr-!
Just Andy's hyper upgrade, every turn
@@megatennepster3833 and he knows what an airport is.
@@HomingRocket1 honestly, feel bad for Andy, he's kinda like Merlin from fgo where they did one thing, once, and that's all people know him for now.
On the other hand,airport memes are fire
sadly not true, its more like start of turn well +5 hp to the top 1/2 of my death ball. Hmmm I did not buy aa at the start of this and I am out of cash plz no more choppers
*forsythe's CO unit dies*
literally everyone playing as him: oh no, anyway
@@generalforsythe3944 The fact that you don't have a CO power should be considered a war crime by the developers. The devs being the ones committing the crime...
@@generalforsythe3944 If you had a power, what would it be?
@@generalforsythe3944 mine would be dependent on the mode, if it is fog of war I would be able to see what they can, but if it is normal I would increase the level of all my units by one unless they are veterans.
@@generalforsythe3944 don't want to battle
I kind of like the balance of Days of Ruin over the OG games. More indirect units,CO powers feel more effective,warships are not useless,etc. CO sniping is a interesting strategy and allows for more interesting strategies.
Navy in DOR actually feel powerful and influential.
Cruisers especially got the biggest underrated buff as they can now attack other boats and are actually tank brawlers worth their cost. AW 1/2/ds cruiser gets zoned out and crippled by a single battlecopter, but the DOR cruiser takes almost no damage from copters and shoots them down in return, even bombers without attack boosts won't completely destroy them and will take enough return fire to take off a lot of their bite against other targets. Meaning cruisers can actually zone out aircraft as long as the enemy isn't massively outvaluing you.
Add the cheap and cheery gunboat that can swarm out to find subs as well as ward off the more pricey units like battleships through numbers and you get actual naval combat that feels like a strategy you can use to win even when aircraft are an option.
@@MrDadhhg Yeah, sea warfare is an actual option in DoR. A cheap skirmisher unit that's even cheaper than black boats were, cheaper battleships that move, all together it's a lot better to play water than in AW1, 2, DS.
I actually love the battle animations in DoR. The attacks feel impactful, visually, and audio wise. When an artillery unit is attacking, it feels like their attack hits hard, same for a battleship or MD tank unit's attacks. And the audio itself really shines with this game, since the running engines of the vehicles used in the battle animations is something I don't recall the wars world games doing (as far as replaying dual strike goes), from the vrrr'ing of the land vehicles, to the reee'ing of the fighter/sea planes. Even the sounds of bullets from infantry/AA/Any unit with a mounted gun bouncing off the metal exterior of other units is a uniquely crisp sound that the wars world games doesn't really compare to (where the wars world comparison of an infantry/AA unit attacking a unit with a tough metallic exterior like a tank are relatively soft sounding in comparison). *Edit* I forgot to even mention that the destruction animations for the larger naval units is amazing in comparison to the wars world games. A sinking battleship/cruiser/sub/carrier in DoR literally explodes, splits in half, and starts sinking in to the sea and it looks awesome. They even show the bows of the ships as they're sinking, which is something you'd never see unless they're destroyed. That was something they didn't need to do at all, but they did just cause it was a cool to see a warship sinking Titanic style.
Also, the artist responsible for the character designs of this game is the same person who creates the artwork for the more recent King of Fighters games. Which is pretty cool, honestly. This game deserved so much more love than it got. Though I can understand why it didn't since it was such a jumping of the shark from the wars world games.
I LOVE the old cartoony animations from the original series, and the vibrant colors it used, but the sound design was adequate, sure it was punchy and crisp, definitely fitting for the cartoon. But the sound design in DoR, is absolutely FANTASTIC, the different engine sounds give you a sense of how heavy the vehicle is. The sound of the machineguns, going from a "ratatat" from the bikes to a "BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM" from the Cruiser's AA cannons REALLY sell the kind of power these guns have behind them. The sound of the plating on the armored vehicles was also SUCH a joy to hear, because it made you really feel like the armor actually did something, and the fact that it is absent when taking a hit from the main guns of a tank or explosives just drives the point TANK KILLING WEAPONS home. I would LOVE to see more animation from DoR and a little more color.
I love the sound of the units of both dual strike and DoR, but the DoR was the only one that made me create a map only to hear every single unit shoot sound of the game. the soundtrack and the sound design of this game is amazing, incrível, wünderbar, i had to say in three languages because only one wouldn't describe how amazed i got by this game soundtrack.
About the projectile attacks however... (Bazooka, Cannons, Rockets, Bombs, Seaplane Missle hitting ground units.)
They go exactly to the ground units especially the ones about to be destroyed in the animation. When there is only 1 unit in the animation, All those missile projectiles just go straight to that 1 unit like they are so fixed. When I first notice it, It was dam savage but then I realise it doesn't feel realistic.
The artillery and battleship are also like that but you wont notice that much cause the splash effect covers the area like you coudn't tell who exactly got hit since its splash dmg animation which is good.
Im a very new Advance Wars fan but a long time KoF fan, so even though the tone and artstyle of this one is looking way outta left field for AW, I already came in loving this specific artist in general so I can't be mad lol. He does great work
DoR is in my opinion, the best game in the series. I love AW in every respect. But I love how they rebalanced the game, changed how COs and units work. Even made defense work exactly the same as offense. It's no longer broken. The naval rebalance is the best in the series. The animations are amazing alongside the art style. Too many good things to praise about this awesome game.
My favorite COs are probably Greyfield and Forsythe. Favorite units would be; Seaplanes, Tanks and bikes.
The top tiers are caulders children.
Oh wait I mean clowns.
Tabita still gives me nightmares.
Tabitha is easily my favorite. Her theme and style are perfect. Matchless.
Caulder's children actually seem more like they were the offspring of Sturm: Penny ignores weather like how Sturm ignored terrain, and Tabitha got his huge firepower and defense boost genes plus a bomb that replicates the effect of meteor.
Caulder is Andy after he became insane when he learned what is an airport is, this is why his CO zone has Hyper Upgrade.
Or he could be a stray Andy clone, AWDS showed they all become pale and ghostly when they start to age.
@@mauricesteel4995 caulder is a clone he tell us himself that he KILLED the original because the original would make clones of himself and experiment on them
(basicly torture them) and his children are clones of himself modified making them clones of clones and we know that they can live very long cus one of the doctor that was healing isabella when she had the creep the guy said that she has a mutation where the clone will live longer then the heroes themself on top of that with those clones you can simply create thousands of them and harvest their organs and the mutation that help them live longer then the original
Letting her alive more than 3 turn is bad really bad
When agaist her i always send all my unit or if i figthing my friend in custom map Rush B'omber'
Regarding the fact that Lin's power increases vision by 2, I think you forgot to mention in the video (I didn't double-check) that FOW in Days of Ruin functions differently as in previous installments; when a unit moves around the map, every space along the traveled path that is within the vision range of that unit gets revealed for the remainder of that player's turn (even hiding places get revealed if the traveled path is adjacent to them, if I remember correctly). This means that units with big vision ranges can reveal a huge chunk of the map when moving. So, in my opinion, this makes increasing vision by 2 even more powerful in Days of Ruin than in previous games.
You do remember correctly, it was a whole strategy if you needed to scout things
Yeah, that is a nice feature nice it's so much easier to hide.
This can be used as a very effective strategy, especially with air units.
If you're playing in a map with a single airport and a lot of hiding tiles, always use high mobility aircrafts such as Duster and Fighters to scout an area you suspected contains a unit.
I want Tabitha to be A-tier so badly but the thing holding her back is something that people keep mentioning that I'm not sure if it's a bug or not - her CO Zone doesn't charge on counter-attacks, only when she initiates combat. So it will take several attacks for her to get her first zone charge. You're right in calling her all-in - if you can start the ball rolling, you can snowball out of control, but getting her going is a tough task. Firestorm is just literally Sturm Meteor Strike plus Kanbei Morale Boost so it's absolutely insane.
Other than that I'd agree with most of these tier placements. People will complain that Caulder isn't as good as you say because "it costs money to repair your units lol" but the infinite value engine he has honestly makes him into potentially one of the most broken CO's ever made in Advance Wars, and DEFINITELY the strongest DoR CO by a country mile.
And I'm DEFINITELY in the Days of Ruin fandom - it was oddly enough my first Advance Wars, since I came into the series a bit later than most, and going back to other AW games I felt what existing AW fans probably felt going into DoR - a feeling of "This isn't what I expected/am used to." I love the extra mechanical depth of Days of Ruin and the extra effort that went into rebalancing the game. I just wish there were more places to play DoR online like AWBW does with AW2.
People don't understand Caulder power, why do you want to build more units if you have basically an invencible group that don't die and kill everyone at their sight.
It's not a bug (edit: or at least, it's not a Tabitha bug). It's a very consistent rule that applies to ALL COs. If the attacker in a combat is not inside the CO zone, there is no meter gain. Tabitha is just the only CO where this literally never applies on the enemy's turn (and only while she has 0 zone).
Most of Mangs' analysis on how to play against her is correct, but you can't just throw her in a war tank because a CO war tank costs way too much and will run out of ammo quickly. A normal tank is probably the most popular option, but battle copters and medium tanks work too. Putting ANY CO (Gage included) in an indirect that isn't a battleship is generally terrible because you will fall way behind on charging if the opponent just denies it targets or suicides into it. A very important thing to do against a tabitank is to be willing to suicide mechs into it while it has 0 zone to drop it out of OHKO range on your units.
I never bothered trying to build Tabitha meter when I used her. I'd often send her out solo to handle important task knowing she can handle it, or at least make enemy move around her. She deletes anything she initiates on, and tanks like a champ. Just don't worry about her power, and you have a tanky suicide unit that can get stuff done with little support.
I just let tabitha get into that sweet AntiTank and put her on a choke until I get her full charge and start marching to victory
@@whichDude Exactly besides the +1 Zone can be a bait, with 0 you have to manage around 1 unit, but the +1 is still a very restrictive size, can make you have some sub-optimal moves like moving Tabitha to from engagement to engagement, i'd rather counter bait the opponent into overcommiting to destroy Tabitha and use it to my advantage
I have a uber unit that will win every 1v1 and is a HVT that cant be ignored.
When they dont ignore it, thats your time window
Tasha strategy: Use her as a kamikaze unit and send her screaming into the enemy CO's unit. The veteran unit boosts will cancel each other out, leaving them at the mercy of a Bomber with 140% firepower. Sure, the anti-air unit will likely destroy her next turn, but your opponent will have lost his CO meter.
14:34 he said it, he said Lyn was broken
clip the audio, put a Lyn jpeg and victory is assured.
Well, she is hecking cute and valid.
He says a lot of things are "broken" when he actually means "strong," and when he says "very strong," he usually just means "solid." He exaggerates a lot.
Lyn is a liar, everyone from Sacae is broken
We're gonna see memes of this on his next stream, aren't we?
I honestly really like the animations for this game. They definitely don't move as better as the originals, but the camera view that makes all the vehicles look tall, angled, and imposing, and the way larger units almost crumple in on themselves when defeated is very satisfying.
Thia is completely personal, but I didn't really liked that the battle animation used both screens. I like seen the animation front to front, and having one above other felt weird (Maybe except for bombers)
I like the far more liberal use of camera shake and the far larger muzzle blasts and impacts. Especially ships since now they actually break apart and sink rather than just disappearing or drawing back. Guns also fire slower so you can take them in.
That being said in very large and long games with lots of war tanks and battle ships the slow fire can get annoying but usually there is only like 1 or 2 of each unit on the field so it's not a big issue.
I thought the war tank deflating was the only bad animation in the game.
I really like the battle animations here, mostly because the units look more detailed and you can appreciate those sexys T-34 (Lazurian tank), M1 Abrams(Rubinelle Md tanks), Hind-Ds (Laz B-copter) B-52 Stratofortress and A-10s (Rubinelle Bombers and seaplanes)
Those Flaks 88 (both) also get a mention for depicting a rarely seen hardware
Waylon is definitely a B or better.
Couple of notes.
Waylon's air units are bulky enough that Anti Air isn't necessarily a hard counter, and he can absolutely wrest air control out of everyone else. You obviously still don't want to take frivolous anti-air fire, but on a turn when it matters, it isn't as easy as one Anti-air per air unit to really ward off his air units.
His Power is one of the strongest push engines in Advance Wars. If he parks a buffed copter or duster on a choke point, perhaps one a bomber just opened, then I'm sorry, unless you have stockpiled 4 or so missiles covering that choke point, you are simply NOT breaking that point. Waylon can thus very effectively practice encirclement tactics. Take a choke point behind the ZoC, park an air unit there, and now all the units caught in that are screwed.
And don't forget, he has no weakness in other units. Waylon can just menace with his CO power, punishing attempts to overprepare for his air units with his other units, or simply cover indirects. His air unit buffs really facilitate using those air units as support to ground units and for mind games. You need to build, on average, 1.5 as many units specialized to bring down air units to contest his, which comes out of the units they have to fight Waylon's other units, and those units have to perpetually live in fear of air units blowing them up, that aren't instantly dead to AA or missiles.
Waylon isn't really an air "specialist" in a traditional sense. You aren't spamming copters, you are supporting your other units with air units that aren't so instantly defeated by anti air. I actually find copter spam to be a pretty rubbish way to use Waylon, and investing in more durable and harder to deal with dusters, bombers, or Seaplanes if available is much much better.
Waylon is kind of an unintuitive CO. It's hard to look at his capabilities and instantly see how he should be played. Which, honestly, kinda fits his character. Waylon isn't someone who is going to fight conventionally, he's a rat bastard who is going to fight cheaply. I think someone else once said "If you want to be a good Waylon, you can't play Waylon, you need to BECOME Waylon."
So, strategic bombing campaigns combined with fighter sweeps to deny the enemy from all Air capabilities and long range artillery strikes, followed by strafing runs on infantry units to support your armor and your own infantry?
Waylon can actually also afford to cluster his air units, unlike Tasha, because they get a buff to their survivability over all, and losing less HP from clashes means doing more damage overall before getting shot down or pulled back to be repaired: that's another reason copter spaming is counterintuitive to Waylon's playstyle: Waylons wants to use few hard flying units that can shrug off some blows to join his main "fleet" and copters are way too vulnerable to most units that can shoot back at them.
That said, copters can still be useful to Waylon in another way: because of the limited nature of CO zones compared to day to day powers, the average player expects Waylon air units to be clustered together closer to him, which is what you should do!
...but, assuming you are playing with FoW, if you end up sneaking a battle copter in on the other side of the map, that battle copter can do anything it wants because most anti air units will be focused on Waylon's Fleet to beat it back, giving you free reign to bomb land and sea units, take out missiles that threaten the rest of your air units, scout for information, etc.
Fittingly, this strategy relays on stealth and backstabbing, both concepts that resonate well with a cowardly scumbag like Waylon
Now youre starting to get the waylon style, brother
I love playing him in that one river challenge map. Build an early copter, load him in and he becomes an incredibly tanky and mobile spearhead to contest the map with.
You have definitely solid points, the only problem is being skillful enough to make it count, even if Waylon's units don't instantly die, an AA missile can still bring a fighter for example down to 4 hp, and then his units are not much of a menace. Well placed AA which is something always present against Waylon, is going to make him hurt a lot. You really have to go around the AA, being brought down specially by missiles just takes away your firepower and now you have weak units, you could join them, but you'd just be giving the AA less targets to take down, and if you don't, say bye to Waylon and his defensive buff.
Waylon seems B on paper and someone skillful perhaps could make that real, but in practicality it's C overall, Aircrafts are still really vulnerable against AA, you can sacrifice some, but you shouldn't think your units are invincible either, and as Mangs say, building up the air co zone is always more difficult and risky than ground and sea. Still good points though, great analysis
Days of Ruin was the only AW title with an actual storyline. I watched your old playthrough, and the story is what I will love Days of Ruin for.
"Every character is black and white" - Not Lin
This is my favorite Advance Wars game, btw. Love the gameplay and mature story that has more depth than most AAA games nowadays
69th like 😏
"If you kill me, you're be just as bad as me." "Yeah, guess I am."
I've noticed that the Advance Wars series has subtly gotten darker with time, having DoR being a massive spike. In BHR, there were a few moments, such as Olaf wandering the mangled ruins of his hometown, still remembering its landmarks from when he was a boy, and the end when Sturm tries to kill everyone in a last ditch attempt, only to be shot by Hawke who promptly takes over Black Hole. Next was DS, where the very planet was being drained of its energy to keep some 200-year old fart alive. And then there's this game...holy hibachi...
YES
MY DUDE
_THAT MEANS CAN WE GET AN AWBW (IN YOUR OPINION) TIER LIST TO CAP THIS OFF?_
Battalion Wars is more of a squad based shooter and the COs are more for narration. Mangs would have to make a tier list for every UNIT if you want that to happen.
I think he meant Advance Wars By Web
@@HomingRocket1 Nonono my dude, just an AWBW list, as he's mentioned its "official" list he disagrees with; it's also in an interesting position balance-wise by the breadth of COs available, as well as factoring in most likely banned aspects. Mitebcool.
Does awbw change anything?
I thought they use aw2 for everyone that isn't from ds.
@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz it changes some things but mostly that AWBW play with a differant ruleset than mangs
So, we've gone through every CO, over every game in the franchise, ranking them to the best of his ability, going over what works in AW and what doesn't, and seeing where the ideas come to a head in the right ways. What's next?
I'd honestly like to see Mangs take a crack at *designing* a CO at this point. Maybe something he'd like to see, or something he feels like never got to be put into use. I dunno, seeing Mangs theorycraft some new niche would be enjoyable for me, at least.
Even though gage isn't that good he's still my favorite due to his theme being so awesome.
He's one of my faves too
i have a simillar thing to jake from dual strike and waylon in this game
For me Lin, Tasha n Tabitha
I can kinda see Isabella's theme making sense given her origin in the game; she might as well be from an entirely different world from all these seasoned commanders, cut throats and survivors. It's largely a upbeat synthetic song.
Major props for this! This is the game I wished I played but had my handheld stolen.
*emulators intensify*
Ok now that’s all over. Mangs. We demand you make a waifu CO tier list!
What about the husbando tier list?
Yes!
He should do this for his 90k special
@@aasgier9091 Every husbando is a waifu to me and I won't accept other outcome.
@@aasgier9091 Put 'em together. "How Babe/Hunk Are the Advance Wars CO's?"
14:24 For a moment I read "The 12th Battalion's unfappable second in command".
And I was like, "Are you sure about that?".
Also, if I remember correctly, isn't Caulder so intentionally broken that the game simply doesn't allow you to pick him in Multiplayer? Good thing, too, since he'd have to be banned by the community anyway for his comically huge advantage over everyone else. He's an endgame big bad designed to be overcome with teamwork and overwhelming numbers, not something designed to be fair in a 1v1 fight where everyone has equal resources. You can play him against the AI, but at that point you're basically just on a power trip, so it doesn't really matter.
You can use him against other players and the AI in the single DS multiplayer modes (in the DC version at least). I can't speak for multiple DS multiplayer though
@@greg_mca As I understand it, he was usable in anything that WASN'T the online multiplayer, only modes where either there are no other humans, or everyone present has to know everyone else.
Forsythe is the most fire emblem like character in this game, even his name is similar to another fire emblem unit who is also part of the black sheep of fire emblem franchise just like how this forsythe is part of the black sheep of advance wars
The black sheep is Fates though, not Echoes.
must... not.... say.... it...
I'm a Forsyth to be reckoned with!
FUCK
Deep Strike is such a ridiculously strong CO power.
It gives Isabella's battleships +4 range. +4!
Deep strike with a force of battleship is absolutely deadly, if she pops it with a ton of battleships in her force, you will lose
What if you loaded Waylon into a mid or war tank, then surrounded him with air units? Use the CO unit to punish anti-air, fighters to dissuade fighters, and battle copters to keep direct ground units away from the CO unit.
certainly a strategy worth considering, but I think the straightforward approach is what should be used most of the time. The AI typically loads him into a duster, and that's a very appropriate pick. The low(ish) cost lets him get rolling fairly early, and the high mobility and ammo supply, and wealth of things it can shoot at ensures he can build momentum quickly, all while being untargetable by most units thanks to it being a plane. Waylon's goals for his CO unit aren't usually scoring kills- he wants to safely harass and delay his opponent's progress until his big guns arrive. That's when he can create an unkillable death ball of air units and press the attack where other CO's can't.
Seems like a diversion in character design but that's pretty great actually
I'd like to see a video about the Days of Ruin units and how they compare to the Dual Strike and earlier games. DoR had a pretty different unit mix, with Bikes, Dusters and that damn Anti-Tank (what a pain!). I also liked the Aircraft Carrier, fun unit to use, as well as Battleships getting a sweet buff.
I don’t play competitive, but they always seemed to have ridiculous defense and clogged up choke points. The low movement is definitely a weakness, though.
Sami with bikes isn't real, she can't hurt you.
@A Cool YooToobist One of the things I noticed in my playthroughs Infantry/Mechs take less damage from anti-tanks.
Would be interesting seeing a comparison between, say, Recons and Bikes, and explaining why one is better than the other.
@@Jfrost9101 They're two very different units for completely different purposes. Recons are more expensive for their mobility, firepower, and defence over Bikes, and while Bikes can capture they just don't have the vision. Bikes do get interesting on plains compared to Recon because of their tire types though, so it really comes down to what unit is for what job.
So, to make Waylon work, you need a very unorthodox air strategy of using your air units to "contain" the enemy, which means "clustering" your air to form a "net" that your opponent cannot profitably approach, since air units are almost always more mobile than ground units. When you have a sufficient force to break the stalemate, pop his CO power and target all anti-air units in range. Anything close to you will be pretty much helpless, and you can mop up the mess the following turn.
That and encirclement tactics with his power. If you can clear a chokepint with a bomber or rockets, and park a duster or battle copter on that choke point with his power active, there is basically nothing the other player can do to get in and support the entrapped units, or stop a capture Waylon starts.
The graphics and animations were why the game wasn’t widely accepted, but the mechanics are top tier
One really fun thing about the battle animations for DoR/DC that isn't immediately obvious is that you can actually hold the L/R buttons during them to either speed them up or slow them down, which is pretty cool.
Yeaaah... having a more focus on darker visual, quasi realistic and less is more kind of animation is... kinda not widely accepted when you compared the previous advance war more cartoonist art style (it might be because the Hiroaki, the artist for SNK that tries to match Shinkiro artistic quality kinda influenced it but meh)
@@James-oj6ru It actually sold better than Dual Strike. I wouldn’t say it bombed, really.
On the comment on Brenner, that's exactly why it's an interesting spin for DoR :P In the trilogy, you get your power and you use it almost right away in many situations. With DoR, especially Brenner, you can simply hold onto it. The positive is that your CO zone is increased, so more of your units get the buff. You don't gain more power, but you keep the zone that you expanded, helping more units on the field. It's a bit of strategy when to use it, but if you don't, you're still fine since you still give the buffs to the units.
Lin is the brains for the Brenner Wolves and even though she can be tough and fall of favor on some people, she is loyal to the Wolves and Brenner. Kind of funny how the CO power and zone play with what the character is. Of course being the brains for the Wolves, she gathers intel, so no shock she can have her units go double time and see hidden units.
NOTE: Recons can still be viable! FoW changed. Notice that the unit doesn't move immediately when you select a space? The mechanic changed. If you have any unit move, their vision carries over EVERY SINGLE SPACE it lands and treats it as a vision. While cities are a great place to hide, the recon can move by the city and expose your units, so be careful! With Lin, if this happens, that one recon unit can give a heavy feedback on the map! Combo this with the flares since they can spot hidden units without being trapped. Once you get a good idea where exactly some of the enemy units are, use the recon to scout.
Isabella learned from both Max and Grit lol. More mobility and then you have Grit's insane coverage. Something I want to point out that's important: Flares also increase their range! So if you are wondering if there are any units hiding, use the flare's increased range from Isabella's CO power to scout before you attack. Once you know how to move around the fog, it can give a pretty insane coverage and scout intel.
Something to add about the CO zones when he talked about Tasha: Even though they don't get a buff, units in the zone can still charge her power up. Even if, say a rocket, isn't getting the buffs, but it is in the zone of Tasha, you still build up your CO power. If I'm not mistaking, every 10 unit damage (including infantry kills by the way), the bar fills to two. After three kills, the CO zone increases. For Tasha, it's best to probably move your units as a whole or be with your indirect to help build the zone. Once the indirect has done its turn, move Tasha to the front lines and try to score a kill. Then support her with a ground tank unit to prevent her from being shot.
Gage: Keep in mind, they also change how bridges work. Now, your naval units CAN move into it. This is most likely due to the fact that you're still in the seas, so how is the ship not able to traverse under the bridge? :P The funny thing with this is you can do something illogically stupid, say, putting a sub that is submerged on the bridge lol
Forscythe: Keep in mind, if your unit is able to kill something, they rank up. You could have a unit hit another to soften the blow and then have a stronger unit go for the killing blow and they rank up. Remember: Rank up also increases their strength.
Waylon: I could give my two cents on this (especially since you pointed out on Eagle's 'horrible' CO power in AW2 :P). Air defense. When is the last time you hear defenses on the air? Aside from Isabella and a few others that buffs units in general, not much. Waylon is a bit tricky since, yes his air units are vulnerable to anti-air and fighters, but they aren't going to get shot down fast. Transport copters become road blocks. You could move your unit that's carrying an infantry, drop them off on one side of the T.copter, and then use the T.Copter to block the enemy from advancing. It is INSANELY hard to take his units down that's on the air. Also, rigs. Suspecting he'll mention it on Greyfield, so will hold that comment for a bit :P But to turn on the tables, you're pulling your units back on a Wingman. It becomes a mindgame. What if he doesn't use it? What if he does? Are you going to let those cities fall just because of Waylon's wingman? I mean you could try to shoot him, but the moment someone knows he's going down, POP wingman. Then your units are exposed. You play around the opponent's expectation and that can lead to a devastating blow. I think you have to do like Sonja did and just play around your opponent's expectations. By playing mindgames, you will throw your opponent off.
Greyfield: Getting back to rigs, there's one indirect effect that the rigs do and this is something that could help out, even on ground: Coverage. If you let the rig build a temp airport, sure you don't get the funds, but you essentially build a forest for your ground units. If you position it on the map that could help your indirect units move into the temp airport, you could also give them the defenses by hiding them there. Temp ports also is interesting. Normally, your ships, outside of transport and gunboats, can't traverse through the beach. With the temp port, though, your ships now have an extra space to move into. Also, they are hidden. Putting that with the carrier can also be pretty insane. Commence the attack with your sea planes and then have the carriers dock there. When they are done, they'll go back to the carrier. They are also hidden, so your opponent needs to do something to spot them. Also, one thing, with the temp airport/port, the units movement is also lessened. So in a plain movement, recons are slowed down. But in a temp airport? Their unit can traverse over it to scout further.
Tabitha: There's one counter you can do, but it's going to take a lot: Indirect units. Take into consideration that the CO power does not build up if the commander is under attack and they did no damage. The only time you do is when any unit in the CO zone does damage to the opponent, including your commander. Respond fast on her big units. A wartank? Get anti-tanks. A bomber? Get fighters/duster. A fighter? You could surround the CO with your units and they can't do anything outside of deleting their unit.
Caulder: Funny you should mentioned that since, while it is a bit broken at times, may I present to you: War Room Challenge. You could simulate it and see who's stronger: Sturm or Caulder (not completely reliable since Caulder, you can spam the CO power to 'load' him up and it costs no money to do that). If I had the choice: Possibly Caulder. The reason why is because right off the bat, you get 50% Offense and Defense. Not only that, but that whole Meteor Strike thing that Sturm does? You could have Caulder go on defense and use something as a Duster to have his most expensive units get hit by the meteor and then the next day, he'll recover the units. Sturm isn't going down without a fight, though, since his units have the global buff, so nothing to sneeze at. The thing that's a HUGE kicker for Caulder: His extra cost to load is just the same as the others. So, if you really wanted to, just deploy a recon and have him go for the throat. In the main campaign, I've seen him being loaded in Dusters/Fighters. Much like Forescythe, rally your units and have him go on something really mobile.
About Waylon:
You are underrating the impact of wingman, regardless of the enemies Anti Air's, His flying units basically get a free turn of invincibility where he can basically push and you have 2 options: Retreat or Suffer the consequences. If you retreat you are giving free reign to Waylon's Ground troops and if you don't retreat you're losing units to his Fliers. Regardless if the next turn there's Anti airs he will already have done the damage and has pushed or crippled the enemies troops enough that the balance of the game changes. And if the enemy literally just spams Anti airs, then their Ground Forces will be severely weakened.
One other thing was what he mentioned about how enemies will simply run their anti-airs back when Wingman is popped.
If that's the case... can you not just pop Wingman later? That leaves the enemy with anti-airs that can't be hitting Waylon next turn, and Waylon with free reign to obliterate some units safely without fear of anti-air retaliation
@@Jfrost9101
And honestly, I see forcing the AA to retreat as a massive victory, because that gives you complete control of that airspace. They basically decide it’s not worth defending anymore
1:00:55 "I've seen people put [Tabatha] inside a rocket" and they launch her into the other HQ and she's PISSED! xD
I would love an remastered soundtrack of this game, the CO themes are AMAZING!
Go search up covers in TH-cam. That's the closest thing you're gonna get to remasters to these old compressed songs. Sad thing is AW:DoR covers are the least amount of attention given. I know there's a Will metal cover and The Beast Metal Cover and oh boy is it absolutely on point.
I... I really miss this game. AW2 was my first AW game and as much as I loved it. The darker theme and bangin soundtrack of Dark Conflict reaaaaally left an impression on me.
I used to boot it up purely to listen to the music on a night, Penny (Lili), Tabitha (Larissa) and Weylon (Finn) have the best music.
Can't get enough of that Brenner theme
Personally I prefer Lin's theme, but Brenner's is a banger
GaMetal has a cover of it on his channel
I prefer Waylon's because yes
But brenner is pretty good aswell
That drop slaps.
So I made a mod for Commander Wars that would let Sturm and Caulder duke it out, it's just up to Mangs if he wants to do the match with someone and download the mod and Commander Wars.
Tell more about it, please?
Petition to rename the lowest Tier level in every game Flak tier in honor of our glorious leader.
Greyfield is better than Flak, though.
Greyfield has no downside, he's just an "average" CO if he can't build a navy, and sitting on a useless power is kinda good.
Flak is just average, with a downside, and very weak powers, also with a downside.
only E rank will be flak tier, so greyfield ain't there
Flak is like Nell with cancer
@@user-ov2kx8ql5i more like under chemotherapy in a hospital during power outage and tightly low budge for bothy personal and equipment
“We can make her good”
Ey if Tabitha won’t still step on me than no dice, Mangs…I know what I like.
Lin's tummy is definitely top tier
Yesssss
And very cute and Valid.
Tasha's as well.
Yes that's definitely true
Uuoooooohh 😭
Days of Ruin I think if underappreciated. The change in how CO powers feels really good and much more strategic, in my opinion.
I've barely played the Advance Wars series,
and yet somehow I have an intricate understanding of all the COs, map design, campaign strategies and unit strengths/weaknesses.
And it's all your fault. Thank you for the endless hours of entertainment/info :D
(Actually, have you done a unit-by-unit breakdown?)
Here is my unit breakdown
Tanks: good
Missiles: never build unless Grit, even when fighting Eagle (use anti-air)
Mechs: Spam in early-midgame on small maps with decent base count
Im bored, so heres a wall of text for the most important units in my opinion
Infantry: Bread and butter unit and main filler, you'll always build some of these basically every turn. They capture your buildings and bodyblock for your indirects. Basically pawns in chess, incredibly important
Mechs: Slower infantry, pretty situational. Use defensively against many tanks to get cost effective trades, especially in mountains. Mech spam is infamous, but I don't think it's that strong since they do get beat by 2 infantry, which is cheaper.
Recon: Vision unit for fog of war, also an early rush unit and indirects counter. Really good against infantry if you have to interrupt a capture really early, like a comm tower. Otherwise not that worth it in my opinion, because it delays your first tank.
Tank: Your favourite unit as long as your name isn't Grit. This unit will kill essentially anything you throw it at, especially Infantry who cannot really scratch them. This is your core army unit, you want a lot of these. They get countered by battle copters, while they themselves counter Anti Air.
Artillery: Indirect units are really good as long as you can protect them. You won't have a lot of these, but they can push through stalemates eventually and apply constant pressure. You want a few indirects in your army, and it will usually be Artillery.
Battle Copters: These kill tanks and also scout for you. They can't really be touched by most units, but Anti Air kills them in one go, which is why you want to play hit and run strats with this Unit.
Anti Air: You build these against tons of Infantry but especially against enemy Air units. They completely annihilate them once they get close, but they are usually more like Area denial for Copters until they get killed by tanks. Tanks->Anti-Air->Copter->Tanks is the "weapon triangle" of this game.
Those are the units you will build the most. Other units are usually too expensive to justify using over these, but they are mostly just upgrades anyway.
Rockets in particular can be situationally useful, but the game can be over before you justify building them, same with Bombers and Fighters. Medium Tanks are good eventually, but more regular tanks tend to be better than 1 Medium. APCs and T-Copters are sometimes needed on big maps but not too many of them. Dont buy naval units besides landers.
@ThePompf Your tips are good, but for the current video they don't work that well, i'll correct some of the tips and add some of mine if you don't mind :p
-The dor infantry compared is kind of useless compared to the other aw they used to be the fast cap and the "i got some money left" unit, but now that mech are cheaper and that there's bike, it's just not as good anymore
-The mechs are fire, they are cheaper as said before, their firepower is still as good as it used to be and they're the perfect counter against anti tanks as they usually drain 50% of their HPs leaving the machines defensless against tanks
-The bikes are as cheap as mechs, and very fast, if you can afford them in the begining you gotta spam them, it's better than making an apc bringing mechs and infantries around,
-Recons, everything you said is good, but i have to add that now that you can scout on every tile you drove each turn, it can easily become a patrol unit going left and right constantly wich lets them see the entire map everytime, very handy
-The flare, an unit that us slightly tankier than recons, but still get heavily destroyed by tanks and mechs, they're very good at killing foot units but their main force relies on scouting, they're the indirect version of recons basically, being able to shoot flares around the map discovering tiles in a range of 2, this is the ideal unit to spot rockets or make sure you don't get trapped, useless if the map is not fog of war though
-Landers, they can take 2 of any ground units, wich is very good for deplacing armies, even if the map isn't an heavy naval map, if played correctly, pulling 2 war tanks on an unwanted place can be devastating, also you can put an infantry inside of an apc inside of a lander wich is funny (you can also do the same with infantry inside of T-copter inside of cruisers btw)
-Gotta add that i totally don't agree with what you said about the rockets, every time i build one, i easily manage to make up with the price of it, and even making more than that, sometime i handle an area with just a rocket and some meat shield, it carries hard
-Battleships, on dor they're just fucking good no reason not to buy them unless it ruins your economy too much ig
-That one is very situationnal, but if you happen to have a carrier pre-deployed, you should just never build fighters, sea planes hits harder and everything, they lack fuel and ammo yes but when used correctly, they can literally destroy anything
Will is basically what Jake should have been. The young, energetic and passionate CO who never gives up and inspires you. Throw in superior music and better abilities, and he completely eclipses jake
DOR is my personal favorite for the way it gave actual counter-play to COs.
Greyfield's CO Power seems to be build exactly for Sea Planes. Since those things run out of fuel as fast as they run out of ammo, popping it allows you to continue the offensive (If you're willing to let a sea plane hang around), giving the plane one or two more turns before it has to return to refuel.
Just don't overextend it, or it'll run out of fuel on the trip back!
It also resupplies materials, IRRC, allowing APCs to set up temp Airports, and Carriers to churn out more sea planes.
Caulder/Stolos doesn't have a Co power for a reason. The owl's nest (his base and theater of the last battle) IS his power. Lasers. Multiple factories (that I believe spawned units for free), and multiple spots to destroy while Caulder grinded you down. I genuinely believe giving that guy a CO power would have made the campaign impossible to win.
Specially if he gains 4 and 5 tiles CO zone
His AI was terrible about protecting his weak spots. All those cool gadgets and zone power means nothing if the AI doesn't react to a bomber being able to make a beeline straight to weaknesses with no resistance.
Same with Will in a Wartank. AI is so busy trying to overwhelm you that it doesn't leave any kind of protection for the instant win weak spots.
It says something that the final mission gives YOU an ABSURD eco advantage and is STILL hard.
In case you were interested in specific numbers, *Wingman* gives your air units a 270% boost to Defense. Yes, you read that right, *two hundred and seventy percent*. When combined with the +30% you get from his day-to-day, that means that his air units have QUADRUPLE defense during Wingman.
How does that work mathematically? How are the percentages applied?
@@greg_mca It's the same formula as AW 1 and 2 Fire Power. Say your anti-air deals 10 dmg, with 20% Power Increase, you multiply by 1.2, meaning it now deals 12 dmg. So, Wingman, it multiplies the health of his units by 2.7, (+0,4 because CO power) So the copters would have 31 hp (10 x 3.1). Now the copter takes that 12 dmg, so it ends up with 19 hp, displaying a 6 or 6/10 hp (since is around a 40% decrease and units hp is displayed in 100% and multiples of 10%)
I was going to say check WarsWorldNews (www.warsworldnews.com/wp/aw4/co-aw4/waylon/), but that is wrong.
But yeah, the game value is 300% Defense to the air units during his CO Power. Well +310% if you count the default.
The Battle animations of AW1+2+DS are timeless and amazing. Unfortunately I think the Reboot's Battle Animations are also pretty bad. I would love to have a option in the Reboot that allows for me to revert it back to the original graphics.
* tread sound effect * * tanks lead forwards and bound back as they slam on the breaks * * satisfying pause * BLAM BLAM! * orgasmicly satisfying recoil * * units dying *
I don't like the graphics of the reebot
@@amanofnoreputation2164 but it is more the style, They changed from the slight blockiness to super hd. It just looks odd
@@lucaseirfeldt9664 In my opinion not just that, while i do think that the style is way too shiny insted of just being the animations also look a bit wonky if you look at them carefully, for exemple the infantry flails around a bit too much when shooting, it could be because it's a work in progress but still
Everything also look the same and seems to have worse animations
Aw yeah. I admit I didn't initially like Days of Ruin when I got it, but now I'm coming to appreciate its unique take on the world and the deeper tactical gameplay that it offers.
"Days of ruin is very white and black with its characters"
Lin: im the grayest person around
To me Lyn is more "Good Is Not Nice/Good Is Not Soft" than morally grey.
@@BigKlingy I agree completely, she KNOWS that the smartest tactical thing may not be moral and chooses to NOT take those options, she advices the best she can given moral limitations, but she HAS moral limitations, strong ones at that. The only time she puts her morals to the side is when she took out Greyfield, choosing to kill him on the spot as an act of revenge, instead of capturing him and holding a trial (in which he would have likely been executed anyways, but the point stands), i.e. bring him to justice.
In terms of a challenge between Sturm vs Caulder, I recommend looking up an AW2 mod called "War Room Challenge" by Xenesis. It is simply a collection of very difficult to S rank maps for veteran players to try and complete. It does a few balances of the CO's but more importantly they actually incorporated Caulder into it. Thus, you can do a match of Caulder vs Sturm.
I may be alone on this, but I actually prefer Days of Ruin's graphics over the classic series. I get that most people scoff at gray-brown aesthetics because they feel too Call-of-Dutyiesque, but when I think of war games, I really don't like cartoonish graphics. Maybe if Days of Ruin had more greenery it could be both more realistic as well as more colorful, but remember that it's a plot point that the athmosphere was altered.
I think the biggest problem with graphics is the battle animations. They’re... lacking. I think more people would forgive the gritty color scheme if the animations didn’t look like animated cardboard.
I prefer it on all fronts despite maybe CO variety although it was a good mix
@@Davtwan I think they are just as good. Sure they are more static but the screen shake, sound design and sound effects more than compensate. Also some animations look better especially the naval units which now actually break up and sink.
It's definitely the Reboot announcement that brought me back!
I was on a Zoom group meeting with the Boss, you know, work from home stuff... When i just randomly had the craving to listen to some AW CO Themes, when i saw that it was getting a Remake, and Holy Sh!t! I screamed out loudly in excitement.... forgetting that i wasn't on Mute... So yeah. Sure wasn't paying much attention through the rest of Meeting through, but sure as hfil really feeling to see what the community has been upto lately. And found you, an absolute Legend!
Many many thanks for definitely being a very respectful presence in this community and doing your part in keeping it alive. And what a treat this is! Days of Ruin is my Favourite AW game in terms of memorability, but second to only Black Hole Rising in terms of Overall Fun.
Not to mention, i was always a sucker for stories of the "hope in complete and utter despair" type.
I really love the caracter designs from the guy who did the character designs for the nests ark of the KOF games
Oh so that's why Brenner looks so much like Maxima
Oh shit you're right I totally see the KOF 2002 UM designs now.
Cruisers actually got MUCH better in Days of Ruin, since they actually take much less damage from air units now and can do decent damage to other naval units. They also hard-counter the new Gunboat units, for what it's worth. (Greyfield is still terrible though.)
ALSO: If Penny uses Stormfront and makes it rain, she will still pretend that the fog it brings doesn't exist for that turn. (And the AI doesn't cheat nearly as hard at fog of war as it did in previous games.)
I actually liked Days of Ruin more than the other games. It felt like the old games told there nice little story and with dual strike overstayed there prime. Days of ruin was something fresh mature and the themes of the Co's were crazy good. I would love to see another game like that.
I loved the addition of Dusters, they really added much needed depth to air combat.
I liked all of them but Days of ruin in my opinion is my favorite one. One of the main reason why I liked days of ruin better was because it’s more strategic based and frankly I just liked the story better. Days of ruin is criminally underrated.
@@JWonn don't forget seaplanes
Also, no matter whether Forscythe is good or not, the fact that he's clearly inspired by Robert E. Lee makes him awesome in my book. I also like the way they mechanically show his old age and experience - he *starts* at the maximum CO zone instead of having to level up into it, and indeed *can't* level up at all, because he's already learned as much as he's ever going to.
General Lee wasn't the one who razed entire towns for siding with his enemies.
Me: Mom, can we have Lin at home?
Mom: We have a Lin at home.
Lin at home: Lyn
As someone who often came to your channel to watch your AW content, being the type of guy who looked up your old playthroughs, the ones where you started every video with a rhyme, this new wave of content is a blessing. Seeing you mention the fun fact about Waylon's theme that has been on that video since time immemorial was the icing on the cake for this one, loved it.
Omg, you mad man. You did it
I love this franchise, as much as I loved the original ones, this one hits a little different to me for some reason. AW 2 is still
My favorite though lol
Days of Ruin wins out for me. It's so much more developed and imaginative than the previous games -- and I still really liked those.
Reboot camp kind of annoys me because if I could pick an Advance Wars game to be remade, it would be Days of Ruin every time.
"Insolence! I want that egg executed!"
That really cracked me up. 😂
Eggsecuted!
@@germmanator Dr. Morris, is that you?
@@ardantop132na6 oh ho, hohohohoho
Cracked like an egg
Tabitha is generally considered closer to C tier and for good reason. She doesn't charge on counterattacks. You really can just suicide infantry/mechs/etc into her to give her no power charge and deny her the ability to go on the attack.
Also, don't pop firestorm when you get it. Firestorm's strength is that with a CO zone of 2, nothing can get to Tabitha through the extreme defense of her units. Any efforts to push through her will require an INCREDIBLY dense concentration of force... which you can immediately respond to with firestorm into a total wipe. So long as you have firestorm and a defensive blockade around Tabitha, there really is very little the enemy can do to stop the snowball, and if they do actually muster a force to push into you, firestorm stops that immediately.
Also, common Tabitha strategy is to put her in a recon or other fast unit and bully out captures early. the enemy loses funds with how badly you stall them, and they HAVE to respond immediately or you threaten zone.
I think youre wrong about forsythe and isabella. Im pretty sure their 10% bonuses are _on top_ of the standard 10% every other zone gets
Aparently heah whatever a CO description is ontop of the base 10%
Broooo i just finished watching your 6 year old lp of Days of Ruin, what a happy coincidence!
"If they merged the two games into one."
Is this a bad time to mention AWBW has ongoing testing of classic AW-style DoR COs?
“AWBW”?
@@Ubersupersloth Advance Wars By Web, basically lets you play online against others with any co from 1, 2, and DS. COs from 1 or 2 use their 2 iterations, COs from DS use how they are in DS.
That sounds fucking sick
wait what?! for real? this is seriously making me consider playing awbw when i got the time
@@gameknight504 yeah, while it takes finagling to get everyone in (co zones for example just aren't a thing), it's still an interesting project
I dunno about putting Waylon in the same tier as Tasha, seeing as his day-to-day ability complements his specialty with air units a lot better; focusing less on their already high offense and more on their crippling lack of defense against their counters such as Anti-Airs, and this boost shows in a big way. I would argue that this is a BIG reason as to why the one major fight in the Campaign versus him is one of the most annoying missions to fight, despite not being "late game," because of how his air units have such a presence on the map because of how his abilities work. Sure, he could be countered by lots and lots of Anti-Air, but the caveat to this is those Anti-Air become vulnerable to GROUND units that anyone would be an idiot to not include.
Yeah, Waylon is prolly B or A tier.
@@HighLanderPonyYT Easily B, not sure about A though.
@@i_am_jarvistm7220 okie
@@i_am_jarvistm7220
Imo he is low A, his playstyle takes time to get used and needs buildup (you need to build 12-20K fund cost Air Units to properly use him, Copter spam is a waste of his strength) for heavy Air presence, but he also needs players to build a decent enough ground force to support/Spearhead major Pushes
It was my first advance wars, I still remember the first time I played this game when I was 6 or 7 being amazed by it, it was the first time I had seen this kind of game.
Just last week I replayed days of ruin and it's still a great game, love it.
Tabitha is my favorite CO. Iove putting her in the heaviest hitting unit I can afford and watch the damage rating climb so high it just says MEME% when I go to engage a unit.
Tatsumaki energy FTW.
I like Days of Ruin very much for what it tries to accomplish with a new story
Isabella and Forsythe get 20 attack and defence in practice, 10 from the universal CO boost (which is hidden) and another 10 from their own bonus. Penny is the only CO that doesn't have CO Zone bonus and only gets the universal boost.
Mangs finally admits Lyn is A tier.
And holy FUCK I love the soundtrack of this game, Supreme Logician is my favourite track personally.
Best theme for best character!
I never played Days of Ruin, and when you said Caulder's abilities my eyes literally opened up more like never before
An AW1 Max BUT with his ability affecting all types of units, with 50% more defence (which is even better than firepower), no flaws at all, and that can heal 5 whole fucking HP in a wide area every single turn?
And I thought Sturm was scary Jesus freaking Christ
AW1 Max doesn’t buff defenses, Caulder does
In case he wasn’t busted enough
@@BoltTheEmolga Yes I forgot to add that up somehow, I'll edit it now
He's more like a mobile Samurai Spirit that pumps out daily Hyper Upgrades.
The only weakness being that the Hyper Upgrades aren't free.