Advance Wars by Web Games

[ipecac]

The boot system def. still has a few bugs remaining- check out this game for example, where one of the players should have been booted 11 days ago.



RE: unloading tactics, is there a chart anywhere documenting differences between AWBW and the Gameboy games?

http://www.amarriner.com/awbw_forum/view...php?t=9086

[Bobchillingworth]

Thanks, guys!

[Bobchillingworth]

I guess the League system isn't working either, I should be enrolled in two games at a time, but haven't recieved any since my one idle game was automatically deleted.

[Xmo5]

Yeah it looks like neither function is working for me, I'll follow up in it.

[Cheater Hater]

GG Fenn in our duel! Any idea how I managed to get the upper hand so quickly? Is it that I just expanded more quickly? Was the effort you expended to get that corner airport you never used your undoing? Or is Rachel just not actually a low-tier CO?

[Xmo5]

IMO it all came down to the SCOP turns. Fenn didn't score as significant of an advantage as he needed to to protect himself from your counter. I consider Rachel to be a better CO than Grimm, and part of that is the fact that Grimm has to be played differently than other COs. Some COs, like Javier, Hawke, or Rachel, for example, don't really need (significantly) modified tactics to capitalize on their d2d powers, but Grimm is a major curveball, arguably more than any other CO. This makes him harder to use, even if he could be used to good effect in theory. Max is similar in that regard; some people, myself included, struggle to use him to his full potential because he requires some unique twists, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I think it boiled down to Rachel coming back with a great SCOP counterattack. Fenn was winning pretty much up until that point. A couple of things I will say about the opening though:

1) First infantry(ies) should almost always go to neutral base(s), with rare exception. There may be cities along the way, but more bases=more infantry=more cities and units. You might make a case for sending one infantry after a city first in this case, since there are two neutral bases and they're a ways off, but the sooner you can get to a base the better. At least that's the AWBW meta.

2) APCs aren't usually worth the cost. If you can afford an APC, you should be using that money for a tank either this turn or next unless you *really* need to rush to something or have a very unique need.

[Fenn]

To add to the above, going for the corner airport was definitely a mistake, and not at all worth the 7500G for a Black Boat. Between that and the APC I didn't get enough vehicles on the field early on, which gave CH a positional advantage from the get-go. For instance my effort to capture both Comm Towers really could have used two extra Tanks (or two Recons and an Artillery).

[Cheater Hater]

IMO it all came down to the SCOP turns. Fenn didn't score as significant of an advantage as he needed to to protect himself from your counter. I consider Rachel to be a better CO than Grimm, and part of that is the fact that Grimm has to be played differently than other COs. Some COs, like Javier, Hawke, or Rachel, for example, don't really need (significantly) modified tactics to capitalize on their d2d powers, but Grimm is a major curveball, arguably more than any other CO. This makes him harder to use, even if he could be used to good effect in theory. Max is similar in that regard; some people, myself included, struggle to use him to his full potential because he requires some unique twists, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I think it boiled down to Rachel coming back with a great SCOP counterattack. Fenn was winning pretty much up until that point. A couple of things I will say about the opening though:

1) First infantry(ies) should almost always go to neutral base(s), with rare exception. There may be cities along the way, but more bases=more infantry=more cities and units. You might make a case for sending one infantry after a city first in this case, since there are two neutral bases and they're a ways off, but the sooner you can get to a base the better. At least that's the AWBW meta.

2) APCs aren't usually worth the cost. If you can afford an APC, you should be using that money for a tank either this turn or next unless you *really* need to rush to something or have a very unique need.

I feel like our meta with capturing stuff in front of us comes from our civ roots--a lot of our micro decisions in the early game revolve around avoiding wasting worker turns, and beelining to a base wastes a bunch of turns when they're so far away. The map also revolves around it--the bases aren't that good (especially the one by the airport, which is reduced to foot soldiers), and the increased funds per base means foot soldiers become less important. As a counter-point I beelined the base in our FFA, though that was just one wasted turn while in this game it would have been three or four.

I feel like I'm one of the people here that uses more transport units than usual--I like the flexibility, and it helps reduce the wasted foot soldier turns early while still serving as a meat shield against AAs and tanks later.

[Xmo5]

Fenn:

Agreed with the blackboat, though in this case it didn't hurt you too much since you still ended up with the funding advantage (for the most part) and the only tower for a good bit of the midgame.

Cheater Hater:

As far as wasted worker turns, I've always hated that as well, along with cities spaced 4 tiles away from each other for similar reasons. However, it's typically beneficial to have more bases sooner, even at the expense of some extra funding for a few reasons.

1) It gets more units on the board faster. Unit count (along things like unit value/type and income) is one of the main defining features of "who's winning?"

2) In combination with 1, it gets you moving closer to the front with more units. Yes, wasting turns for capturing nearby cities is painful, but in a lot of occasions, it's good to send a couple infantry forward to make sure they capture things near the front before your opponent does the same and the front lines start skewed in his favor. You can always catch up on your backward cities later, but the ones near the fronts are time-sensitive and neutral bases frequently allow you to contest them sooner and stronger.

3) While slows down your capture near the beginning, the advantage of building extra infantry increases your rate of income increase and the sooner you capture your base, (usually) the sooner you hit max income. There are factors here that are map dependent, including base position/importance and distance, which could make this untrue or less potent. Your map is probably borderline, though I haven't done the math, and probably one where I would compromise and rush for one base while sending a slower, but still quick infantry to the other, capturing probably a single near city along the way.

If I weren't so lazy, I'd be really interested to simulate a couple of expansions on that map and see which one ends up being optimum because I think your points are significant and worth consideration on this map, more so than many others.

[Cheater Hater]

GG everyone--I guess the advantage of sneaking a Victory March is just too big in a FFA.