Advance Wars by Web Games

[BRickAstley]

Background: I have been starting to get into game development on the side recently, and I think my first attempt at making something will be a prototype of an Advance Wars game. So I've been on the internet searching for various Advance Wars reviews/critiques/game design musings, and I came across a site called Advance Wars By Web. It's an older site that appears to have avoided any legal recourse, and does what it says on the tin, lets you play Advance Wars by Web. I pinged scooter, who I knew was also a fan of the series, and after looking at it a bit we decided to try a test game; here's is the report.

If you don't know anything about Advance Wars, I'm not going to give a full primer right here. Look at this link to see a description of units, and click through to some of the initial turn reports in that LP to get gameplay examples.



This is the starting slate. Scooter is Dark Blue, I am Black (Yes, the creator of this map picked a wonderful color contrast here ). Game starts pretty symmetrical, scooter is given one starting infantry to balance out me going first.

BRick: Ah
there it's started
there was a tiny 'start game' button in an odd place
your turn
scooter:
yours
this is cool
I nearly picked Max too. He's got to be one of the most popular COs I imagine
and now I feel the need to track down the background music on youtube
was I supposed to start with an extra infantry?
oh yeah I probably was as a boost for going second
also I'm shocked this website hasn't gotten sued into oblivion

BRick: yeah it was a 2nd player boost
yours
he seemed like a solid option, though i'm under no assumptions i'll be good

I didn't think to take screenshots during the early game, so I'll have to make arrows on the base map to give a sense of it. The first fiveish turns are as standard as AW turns go though, building infantry and capturing properties. We both sent troops in roughly the same pattern (red, then orange, then yellow), and each built a harassing recon that wouldn't survive long. Of particular note was that the recon I built in the east managed to keep scooter from capturing the circled city, causing a funds setback. Though we were both making a few mistakes, and finding peculiarities in the game interface.

scooter: hah. so it seems when I click a unit and choose "check move" you can't get the red dots to go away until you select something else
or the turn rolls
BRick: yep
yours
and when I refreshed for a next turn, it still showed your units 'check move' but in its new position
though i'm just refreshing the page, so maybe that's up there in the url?
scooter: oh it could be
yours. and yeah if you clear URL it'll go away
and I made a mistake already
BRick: oh so did I
yours
scooter: intended to leave myself 7k the next turn for a tank. 1k short
BRick: when the turn rolls, you lose your 'C' capture indicators
so i moved off of my base#3 without capturing it
scooter: yeah. you have to remember. you can check the capture remaining by clicking the tile
oh ouch, oops
.....
i apparently moved this recon to the only tile that all your infantry are safe from
....
hah this interface is so bad. but I love that this exists
BRick: this reinforces my desire to try making a spiritual successor, it's a simple enough concept for an initial game, and there's people who'd be interested, and a lack of games like it out right now
XCOM and Fire Emblem are closest but they're much more RPG-like
this is Chess with Guns and a little economy management
oh noes my recon
get an AW clone up and running that can be player on a computer or on mobile, with some basic/reliable online multiplayer and/or PBEM?
scooter: yours
yeah if something like this had a better interface and a mobile option it would be cool
also I've really bungled this center of the map business but whatever
and I probably should have picked max too
wait seriously, your regular tank can 1-shot my recon? I figured I'd have 1-2 hp left.

At this point, we'd both captured most all of 'our' cities, with the excepting being his circled city in the north i mentioned earlier, and the circled city in the middle I moved off of because I thought it was already captured when it wasn't. we both had a ton of infantry in the middle scrapping it out, and each had a pair of tanks (yellow pointers) that were busy hunting down and killing the other's recon (red X). The exchange he just mentioned was the tank next to his recon right there in the middle, and my recon was in the north running from his two tanks up there (unsuccessfully).

BRick: it was a 91% shot
yours
scooter: weird. should have left me with 1hp left
typically 95% would have been necessary
BRick: and if the math on this one follows the regular game, there's an invisible 0-10% added on randomly
for the luck aspect
scooter: ah. I forgot there is some randomness
BRick: not a ton but enough
the question is, will you one shot my recon?
scooter: yep. 93%, dead
BRick: lol
fair is fair then
wait what
i thought that infantry had already captured the middle city
ughhhhhh
one thing you cannot do is have a unit move, check combat %, and then exit out of the move if you dont like it
scooter: yours
yeah I noticed that too
it's a pretty important feature
not loving my situation.
and I don't know how I missed that you could walk onto my west city

This is referencing the city 2SE of his Western base, i had moved up 2 infantry to secure capturing it.

scooter: I clicked on the "ABWB changelog" and it's just a blank page
also wish there was a movelog to the side
I refresh and have to remind myself of what you did
BRick: oh that's hilarious about the changelog
yours
scooter: OH NO
hahah
I've had a tank sitting on my northern base for a few turns now
totally missed it somehow
or at least 2 turns I think
BRick: wait i thought you just built that one last turn?
you built your first two at the same time
scooter: did I?
maybe I did. somehow it slipped my mind that I had that
BRick: and they both got hit by my tanks hard
and then you combined those

This is when I started having the presence of mind to snap some screenshots. after some heavy warring in the middle I had come out on top, my tanks were able to hit his tanks first, and knock them out before too long. You can see the city in the west that scooters units are around, he just finished wiping my infantry I had over there capturing it. That capture had shifted the income numbers from 11k for each of us to 12k to 10k in my favor, so things were close to a tipping point.

scooter: which ended up being pointless because combined they still couldn't survive the next turn
yours
BRick: Max Force
scooter: tried suiciding my 1hp infantry into your 5hp. noticed you had 9 left to capture. I had 4%, adn I was really hoping to drop you to 4hp to cost you a capture turn.
but nope, flawless loss

The point where I said Max Force was when I fired off my CO's power of the same name, which boosts all direct attack power and crucially, gives all my non-infantry +1 move for the next turn, which allowed me an effective blitz.

Before:


After:


That was crippling enough that the game didn't last much longer:

scooter: haha this game is over. I'll try to eke out a couple more turns
BRick: it wouldnt have been as bad if I didn't have that +1 move frommy power
i've got super co, and it doesn't really matter with no units to use it
cause it doesnt help infantry right
yeah. and my infantry are weaker anyway
i think max's are neutral
this map is lower on cities than I expected, so the weaker infantry hurt me a lot too
they're neutral on defense, stronger on attack
because they're still direct units
ahh
i thought they were an exception so Sami is worth something
hey get away from my battle copter
I could be wrong
alright, moved and resigned
gg

With the unit advantage and a 15k to 9k funds advantage, the game was as good as over here anyways. If we had kept playing I would have sent my loaded APC with all my good units up to his HQ and gone for a capture to end it quickly.

Overall I had a lot of fun. The interface isn't the best, but the core fun of the gameplay is definitely there. Good game from scooter, we were both shaking off the rust, I just got luck with the CO matchup and made a couple fewer blunders. Going to setup and play another game.

Any questions? Anyone else interested in playing?

[ipecac]

Any questions? Anyone else interested in playing?

I would love to play. Is Fog of War possible?

[BRickAstley]

Any questions? Anyone else interested in playing?

I would love to play. Is Fog of War possible?

Yes it is! just didn't use it yet.

[BRickAstley]

Rematch with scooter on this map:


BRick (Sensei) vs. scooter (Hachi)

Starting a game with ipecac on this map:


ipecac (Sami) vs. BRick (Max)

Both games are fog of war, so can't really post while in progress. But I will be taking screenshots as I remember.

[BRickAstley]

Apparently I am dumb, and didn't realize there is a built in ability to view a turn by turn replay of the game.


Replay of the first game

[BRickAstley]

Apparently I am dumb, and didn't realize there is a built in ability to view a turn by turn replay of the game. Thanks ipecac!


Replay of the first game

[Bobchillingworth]

I'd be interested, been a while since I played AW.

[Fenn]

Same here, I'd be glad to play against humans.

[Cheater Hater]

Add me to the list--I know of AWBW's existence (and might even have an account I made a while ago), but just haven't bothered trying to play random people.

As for why the site still exists, I think of how clunky it is--it just changed web servers recently causing a lot of instability, and the interface is very clunky (as you realized in your first game). It's also based on AW2 (with a lot of AWDS stuff clumsily added in), which is over ten years old at this point.

(also, don't forget I'm still willing to help you on the game development stuff Brick if you want it )

[scooter]

Well, I had hoped to tell you all about how I got revenge on Brick by stomping him in a rematch. In fact, I was pretty close to being able to do exactly that. I had a very strong grip on this game. But...



Oops.