Advance Wars

1. Play Field Training. The tutorial covers movement, terrain defense stars, unit matchups, and fog-of-war—mechanics that matter in every mission. The controls are simple; the depth is not.

2. Memorize the weapon triangle. Infantry beats Mech, Mech beats Tank, Tank beats Infantry. Air units dominate until you field Anti-Air or Missiles. Recon cars scout; they don’t fight. Hit R mid-battle to pull up Intel—range and damage tables you’ll reference constantly.

3. Capture properties fast. Income wins wars. Deploy Infantry or Mech, move onto cities or bases, select Capture, then finish next turn (two turns total). More properties = more funds per turn = more units on the field.

4. Spread out. Artillery and Rockets punish clumped formations. Use forests and mountains for defense stars, and screen expensive Tanks with cheap Infantry—never leave armor exposed.

5. Bank funds for the mid-game. Early maps reward Infantry spam, but you need a mixed force—two Infantry, one Tank, one Artillery—then 3,000–5,000G in reserve for the turn you need a Medium Tank or Bomber. Running dry mid-campaign loses missions.

6. Exploit Fog of War vision ranges. Recon units see 5 tiles, Infantry see 2, most vehicles see 3. Park Recons on mountains to spot for your Artillery before the enemy knows you’re there.

7. Test COs in War Room. Max buffs direct-combat units, Grit extends indirect range, Sami accelerates Infantry captures. Run the same map with three different Commanding Officers to learn the meta.

• Capture properties turn one. Cities and bases generate funds every turn—the more you control, the faster you rebuild. Infantry and mechs are cheap capture units; build them immediately and spread before you commit to armor.

• Indirect units fire from range and never counterattack. Artillery, rockets, and missiles soften targets without taking return fire—screen them behind cheaper directs (tanks, recon) so enemy units can’t reach them.

• Terrain defense stars stack with unit type. Infantry on a mountain (4 stars) shrugs off tank fire; mechs in forests (3 stars) become excellent ambush units. Rivers and plains offer zero defense—never end a turn exposed unless you’re baiting.

• CO Powers charge from damage dealt and received. Trading blows with cheap units (infantry vs. infantry) builds meter faster than one-sided slaughter. Some COs (Grit, Kanbei) have Powers strong enough to justify soaking hits intentionally.

• Fog of War hides enemy positions until your units see them. Recon units have the widest vision range (5 tiles); scout with them before committing expensive indirects. Forests and reefs block line of sight—enemies can hide in them one tile away.

• Fighters beat copters, copters beat tanks, tanks beat everything else on the ground. The rock-paper-scissors is strict: a single fighter shreds a battle copter in one volley; a battle copter deletes a medium tank. Send the right tool.

• Joining damaged units of the same type refills HP and ammo. Two half-health tanks merge into one full-health tank—crucial for keeping veteran units (higher firepower from experience) alive through long campaigns.

Mission 11: “Kanbei’s Error?” — The Fog of War Intro

Advance Wars stops being a tactics puzzle here and starts demanding recon discipline. You charge infantry forward into the fog, lose them to hidden artillery, then watch Kanbei’s absurdly expensive units steamroll the map. The unblock: build a recon unit on turn one and sweep the treeline before committing infantry. Kanbei’s CO power makes his units cost 20% more but hit 30% harder — you cannot win a straight slugfest. Use the central forest to bait his tanks into bad trades, then flank with your own armor once his advance stalls.

Mission 13: “Sami’s Debut!” — The Airport Rush

Sami’s infantry move two spaces farther than normal, and the mission brief tells you to capture the enemy HQ. What it doesn’t tell you: Eagle has bombers parked on airports, and if you don’t neutralize them by turn three, they’ll strafe your infantry columns into paste. Build an anti-air on turn one, push it up the left road, and keep it between your capturing infantry and Eagle’s northern airport. Ignore the temptation to build tanks early — Sami’s foot soldiers are the win condition, and they need an AA umbrella to survive the approach.

Mission 15: “Nell’s Land!” — The Two-Front Collapse

The map splits your forces across a river with only two bridges. Players turtle on one side, let Nell’s units mass on the other, then get overrun when her Lucky Star CO power triggers a string of critical hits. The solution is counterintuitive: abandon the southern bridge entirely on turn one. Consolidate everything north, use the chokepoint to force Nell into single-file engagements, and let her waste money replacing units. Her power is random — you can’t plan around it, but you can minimize the number of combats where it matters.

The Fog of War Attrition Trap

Every fog map after Mission 11 punishes players who treat recon units as optional. If you’re losing infantry to surprise artillery or getting your tanks picked off by hidden mechs, you’re not scouting. Recon units cost 4,000 — less than two infantry — and their vision range turns ambushes into free kills. Build one per front, keep it one row behind your advance, replace it if it dies. The AI doesn’t scout; you must.