Advance Wars: Dual Strike - Money Survival Guide v.1.0 - July 3rd, 2007 (c) Copyright 2007 Heffenfeffer Hey folks, welcome to yet another guide by me which covers a single nuance of a great game. Man, I love Advance Wars - it's like chess for the modern age. With annoying teenagers commanding entire armies who alone are the last, best hope of the entire world. And no, it's not Buffy: The Vampire Slayer The Game. Blast! I lost the game! Anyway, Money Survival is often tossed aside after one gleans the few medals that you can get from playing it a couple times, but it occured to me to see just how far I could get with a suitcase full of cash. It turns out farther than I had once thought even close to possible - would you believe that you can last through over a hundred missions? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 0: Overview I: Setting Up - What To Pick And Why Ia: The Cash Ib: The COs Ic: The Skills Id: Star Power - A Primer Ie: The Units II: The Missions IIa: Silo Sweep IIb: Bad Pangaea IIc: Chokepoint IId: Cold Shoulder IIe: Crowded Plain IIf: Narrow Road IIg: Triple Threat IIh: The Gooping IIi: Single File Isle IIj: The Swarm IIk: Grit's Gambit III: Miscellany ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 0: Overview "Press the Space Bar. No! The Space Bar! The big key below all the little keys!" - Myth: The Fallen Lords Tutorial ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Right, so what's in this guide, you ask? Welp, pretty much it's a guide on how to get the farthest you possibly can in Money Survival Mode. An exercise in optimization, if you will. And hopefully by reading this guide you'll learn a little more about the game in general as well as have a fun time. Hey, you're spending your spare time reading a guide about how to beat a video game, after all! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part I: Setting Up - What To Pick And Why "We go to war with the army we have." - Donald Rumsfield (Ret. (Ear.)) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part Ia: The Cash "Money money money mooo-ney....Money!" - The OJ's ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash is fairly simple for Money Survival - you start out with 500,000G if you're playing with 11 maps, and 600,000G if you're playing with an infinite number. As the sole finite resource of Money Survival (you can take as long as you want both turn-wise and real-time-wise, as opposed to the other two Survival Modes) it serves as a 'score' for the 11-map marathon of how much you conserved and the lifeline for Infinite Survival. (As an aside, if you, for some reason, don't have Infinite Survival available yet, then you'll need to beat the 11-map course (with any amount of money left over) then purchase the course from Battle Maps for 1,000 points.) So let's talk a bit about the stuff that makes this world go round...first off, your money supply will not increase, ever. You don't recieve any income from your properties, neither the "Combat Pay" nor "Gold Rush" skills work, and the "Gold Rush" and "War Bonds" CO Powers do nothing to increase your money supply. And combining units so that they have a total of more than 10 HP won't give you any scratch either, cheeky one. Secondly, all the maps but two (to my knowledge) require you to purchase *something* in order to beat it and continue. Thus, the more money you save, the longer you'll last (or 'survive', if you will.) Finally, don't forget that it's not just buying stuff that'll cause your money reserves to dwindle - repairing stuff will also wear away at your profits. So something to keep in mind is that you shouldn't park ground units on your cities, bases, or HQ unless you know that you'll take less than a point of damage in attacks. Same goes for air units and airports and sea units and harbors (though I don't think we'll actually be using any sea vessels...) Remember, a penny saved is a penny earned! Now go take your change jar to the bank and earn some interest on that sucker! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part Ib: The COs "...and when he heard the sound of ready money in large quantities, he reached for the rule book and threw it away." - Douglas Adams, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Given that the above section was all about how money was the most important facet of this mode, you Advance Wars veterans can guess who's gonna represent us in this here survival. Ayup, it's the only two COs that can purchase things for cheaper than retail price, Colin and Hachi. Other COs strengths in this mode don't override the incredibly huge discounts that both these guys enjoy. (Though there are circumstances that can lead to other CO's being able to complete individual missions for cheaper than these guys can. The C+H team still gets the overall nod, however.) Add that to Hachi's +40% discount with his powers as well as Colin's ability to destroy Tanks with Infantry with his Super Power and you've got a force to be reckoned with. So let's talk a little bit about these guys: Colin has two general characteristics about him. First off, his units cost only 80% of the usual base price. However, this comes with a caveat that they only have 90% of the usual base offense. Generally, though, you can just buy a more powerful unit or attack one more time to counter this liability. His CO Power, however, is next to useless. Granted, Gold Rush is far from useless in normal skirmishes, since for just two stars he gets a bonus 50% of whatever's currently in his coffers - the problem is that this bonus just doesn't apply in Money Survival. (If it did, well, one could go on indefinitely. Really now, using it here would give 290,000G or more in one shot!) His Super CO Power, on the other hand, is smashing. Literally. With Power of Money, his units get a 1% firepower boost for every 300G in the bank. Thus, they get double their power if you're sitting pretty on 30,000G. Since you can start out with twenty times that amount, I'm sure you can infer what sort of effect this has on...well...everyone. As far as basic Colin strategy goes, though, it's pretty simple. Use him to buy just about everything (with one exception, below.) Watch his lower power levels, though, they may not be enough to handle some of the tougher scenarios. Thus, you should probably swap in Hachi after buying when it's time to attack, and swap Colin back in just in time to deal the final blow. (That way you start with him on the next map, and you won't have to waste a turn switching to him when you need to purchase stuff. I'd still recommend wasting the turn, though, as it's much better to waste time than money. The polar opposite of life, really.) On to Hachi! This special CO is frequently referred to as 'broken', and for good reason. First off, he gets 10% off of all purchases - but unlike Colin, he has no drop in power for any units! Secondly, his CO power needs only 3 stars, and it's a doozy - he can purchase things for 50% off of base price! Needless to say, this one you should use early and often. Finally, his Super CO power is a cheap as free 5 stars and allows land units to be deployed from any city you own at that low, low 50% off base price discount. So, yeah, that's about why he's broken. Oddly enough, Hachi will be your powerhouse unit thrasher for maps that require a bit of thrashing - it may seem unusual since he's got no real special abilities, but it's still better than bargain-basement boy's attacking prowess. However, his units are still more expensive than Colin's when his powers aren't active. Thus, start with Colin to buy stuff, swap in Hachi, then swap Colin back in once you're pretty much assured victory before the next map. Don't forget to leave Hachi in charge when you want to lead off with one of his powers, though. It's possible to go it alone with one CO, as well - but why would you want to? Both of them have significant advantages that one alone cannot top. Plus, you get the ability to use Tag Powers, which can really save you a lot of dough in a couple situations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part Ic: The Skills "He shops at discount stores, not just any will suffice/ He has to find a bargain 'cause he won't pay retail price/ He never asks for sugar and he's hardly a schlamel/ But if you want to haggle, Oy, he'll make you such a deal!" - "Weird" Al Yankovic, Pretty Fly for a Rabbi (with apologies to all Jewish folks) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that you've got your two COs, it's time to decide which skills to allocate them. Let's assume for the moment that you've gotten both COs up to at least Level 9 and beaten Hard Campaign so that you've got access to all the skills. Going with the general "Money is Power and/or Survival" theme, obviously two non-negotiable skills are going to be Fire Sale and Sale Price. Together, these two skills will drop prices an additional 13% from units' base price for purchase and (though you should never use this latter one) repair. This gives Colin units for 33% off and Hachi units for 23% off (and 63% off when he uses either CO power.) So two skills left. Since there're no more directly-related money skills (remember, Combat Pay and Gold Rush don't work) it's vital to pick the skills that will end up saving you the most money. Thus, number three on the list for both is Star Power. This will boost the speed that Hachi can use his CO Power, thus letting you buy units for cheaper prices more often. As well, it will let Colin charge up his half of the Tag Power posthaste, thus letting you tear through units like 1-ply toilet paper. Now there's only one skill left - Since there're no more linked to money, I recommend Synergy for both. This sucker combines Brawler and Sniper in one handy package with the minor stipulation that the power increase goes to the other guy. But, since both of your COs'll be taking this ability, even that caveat goes away. The extra edge in attacking will help you get rid of enemies faster with fewer troops, thus saving money. All other Skills tend to be weaker versions of the above skills or too specialized - good for just a few given situations and not useful on all maps. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part Id: Star Power - A Primer "And did I mention she's a world famous billionare bikini supermodel astrophysicist?" - "Weird" Al Yankovic, Close (But No Cigar) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following section is taken from Xenesis Xenon (whose name is unpronouncable by apparently everyone) from the GameFAQs AW:DS forum under the "Common Questions" thread: ------------------- How does CO power charging work? Why do some units give such weird amounts? How does Star power affect it? Each unit in AWDS is assigned a 'star value', which gives you a certain amount of charge. When that unit is destroyed, the defender gets the full star value, while the attacker gets 1/2 of the star value. A full star in the bar is worth 1 star point the first time, and they increase by 0.2, until you hit the 10th usage, where it drops back to 2 star points per star for the rest of the game. Star power multiplies the charged amount by 1.1, so a Stealth would charge 2.2 instead of 2. The list of complete star charges, by Kotetsu: Infantry = 0.4 Mech = 0.4 Recon = 1 Tank = 1 APC = 0.8 MD Tank = 1.6 Neotank = 1.8 Megatank = 2.2 Artillery = 1 Rocket = 1.4 Anti-Air = 1 Missles = 1.4 Piperunner = 2 Oozium = 3 Fighter = 1.8 Bomber = 1.8 B-Copter = 1.2 T-Copter = 1 Stealth = 2 Black Bomb = 0.6 Battleship = 2.2 Cruiser = 1.6 Lander = 1.2 Sub = 1.8 Black Boat = 1 Carrier = 2.2 --------------------- The main use of Star Power in Money Survival is to get Hachi to buy you stuff for cheap. Thus, the more you get, the less you have to pay to get stuff, and therefore the more maps you can beat in Infinite Mode. Generally, you only need to get Hachi to 3 stars to work your magic, but there are a few cases where you need 11 stars between the both of them in order to use a money- saving Tag Power. Later versions of this FAQ will note how much Star Power you'll gain from destroying and/or sacrificing units. Yeah, sacrificing. Look, if you want to make an omlette, you're gonna have to kill a few dozen people. Do you want to save cash or not? It's worth noting that the increase for Star Power cost only applies to whichever map you happen to be on at the time. The upshot of this is that whenever you finish up a map having used Star Power, the value of each Star will drop from 1.2 to 1.0. As folks on the Internet say - W00t! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part Ie: The Units "Careful down there. That fueling equipment was installed by the lowest bidder. One time I had to fly a couple of gassed technicians to the emergency room." - Jock, Deus Ex ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Normally I wouldn't bother with a unit price guide, but I think it's necessary because when using either Colin or Hachi (with CO power active) in combination with the 13% off discount, a cheat sheet is quite helpful. Hachi Colin Hachi (with CO Power) Infantry 770 670 370 Mech 2310 2010 1110 Recon 3080 2680 1480 Tank 5390 4690 2590 Md Tank 12320 10720 5920 Neotank 16940 14740 8140 Megatank 21560 18760 10360 APC 3850 3350 1850 Artillery 4620 4020 2220 Rockets 11550 10050 5550 Anti-Air 6160 5360 2960 Missiles 9240 8040 4440 Piperunner 15400 13400 7400 --------- Fighter 15400 13400 7400 Bomber 16940 14740 8140 B Copter 6930 6030 3330 T Copter 3850 3350 1850 Stealth 18480 16080 8880 Black Bomb 19250 16750 9250 (I'm not bothering with naval units, as none are necessary to win here. Plus they're all as expensive as all get-out! Geez Laweez! Air all the way!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part II: The Missions "We're on a mission from God." - The Blues Brothers ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rightie-O, now that all the preliminaries are out of the way, it's time for someone else to tell you how to beat this game! Each one of these mission strategies is broken up into two major sections - the first details how to beat said mission in an infinte-type marathon struggle, where the results (and Star Power) of the previous missions feed into the next. The second details how to beat each particular mission with the least amount of money possible, future amounts of Star Power and such be darned! (Mainly so that the info page for Money Survival shows a nice, incredibly low amount of cash spent for each individual mission.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IIa: Silo Sweep "War is hell, but peace sucks." - Department of Defense (unofficial) slogan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Right, the obvious solution to this one is to build two infantry, use them to launch the nukes, and take out the weakened Neotanks once they combine. However, we can do better - you only need one infantry to do the job. Thanks to AW:DS's spotty AI, you can predict certain trends which you can exploit. One is that on this mission, the Neotanks will try to outrange your Md Tank - by moving so that they can attack you with their 6 Move, but you can't fight back with your 5 Move. So, you can keep them on their side of the map long enough to launch all nukes with just one guy. Not even base repairs are much of an issue, as since Jess only has her HQ, she can only restore 1 HP per three turns. So: Day 1: Start out as Colin, and move your Md Tank 4 right. Build an infantry from the top base. Now that the buying part's over, swap out to Hachi. Jess will move her Neotanks into the woods, surrounding the silo on her side. Day 2: Move your Md Tank 1 left, just out of range. Move your Infantry 2 up and 1 right, towards the silos. Jess will move her Neotanks one space left. Day 3: Move your infantry 3 right and your Md Tank 1 left. Jess will move her Neotanks 1 left. Day 4: Move your infantry 3 right (that's right, don't launch the left nuke yet) and your Md Tank 1 left. Jess will move her Neotanks 1 space left. Day 5: Move your infantry 1 right and launch the nuke so that it hits all three of Jess's Neotanks. They still pack a wallop at 7 HP, though, so move your Md Tank yet another space left. Jess will move all three Neotanks several left for the kill. Day 6: Don't worry, though, and move your infantry 2 left and launch the nuke so that it hits all of Jess's Neotanks (and none of your units.) Use your Md Tank to destroy one of her now 4 HP Neotanks. Jess will merge the other two in the nearby forest into an 8 HP Neotank. Day 7 and on: Move your Md Tank to attack Jess's Neotank. Odds are that you'll drive her down to 4 HP and be yourself driven down to 7 HP. From here on, trade punches with Jess until her Neotank folds. So long as you get the first shot on her 8 HP Neotank, you should manage to destroy it. Since she's now all outta units, you win! (Note: This is pretty much the optimal approach - sometimes Jess's tanks will retreat to her HQ to try and repair and slowly come after you again. If that's the case, then you should march your Infantry slowly over to the other group of nukes and give her what for. It doesn't quite give the same amount of Star Power, but there's something innately satisfying about dropping four nukes on a set of tanks.) Total Units Purchased & Cost: 1 Infantry - 670 G ------- Record: Pretty much the above tactic, except that you've got to do this on the second wave, with Hachi's CO Power built up (and Hachi in charge at the start of the map.) Purchase the Infantry with Hachi's CO discount and the cost for this entire mission drops to 370 G. (Expect to see a lot of this tactic throughout the guide.) Total Units Purchased & Cost: 1 Infantry - 370 G ------- Infinite (and 11 Map, too) Notes: Nothing too noteworthy here, aside from the fact that you'll want to save a little scratch later on by building up some Star Power now. Three stars will cut the cost of the next mission in half, and save serious cash overall. Problem is, while you'll have a Tag charged up from doing this in Infinte Mode, you'll have to build up three stars from zero when doing this the very first time. Thus, lead off with Colin as before, and purchase two Infantries this time. Lead both to the nukes, but only launch one duo. (Usually, I go with the top set.) Now here's where sacrificing comes into play - when Jess merges her Neotanks, attack the 4 HP one with your Md Tank. (You may have to reload to get in a position where this is possible.) This'll attract Jess's ire, and she'll tear a pound of flesh out of you with her 8 HP Neotank. Not to worry, though, you're still doing OK. While she's doing that, move your top Infantry (or whichever one already launched the nukes) to attract the Neotank. Use the bottom Infantry to launch nukes at the bugger once it kills the one that was on top. Now, this is where luck comes into play (and a little math, which I'll spare you.) It is possible to get three stars from these leftover units, and here's the trick: You'll need to kill the Neotank with your remaining Infantry - but - the Infantry needs to be at 3 HP or less. Yeah. It all comes down to luck, natch. Don't forget, save and reload is your best friend. (Good thing you only have to do this manuever once at the very beginning, eh?) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IIb: Bad Pangaea "He's boxed in!" "Yeah? Well, I'm card-bored." - Crow & Mike Nelson, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Future War) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- You're fenced in by Minicannons here, and Infantry Specialist Sami has an Infantry and an APC which she'll attempt to capture your HQ with. Luckily, you've got a variety of painful ways to thwart this stealthy HQ capturer. ------- 11 Map/1st wave of Infinite: Don't bother with direct attacks here - it's time for some non-Nickelodeon Rocket Power. Day 1: You get a turn for free here, so swap out to Hachi if you don't have him selected already and End Turn. Sami will load up the Infantry on her APC and make a beeline for your HQ. Day 2: Activate Hachi's "Barter" CO power, and then build a Rocket (Rocket? Rockets? Rocket Launcher? Feh.) out of your lower left base and an Infantry out of your upper right base, then End Turn. Sami will pull her APC right up next to your HQ and offload the Infantry right smack dab on it. Day 3: Luckily, you can counter her superior base capturing skills with your "smack-laying in a downward direction" skills. Ah, peace through superior firepower. Anyway, use your Rocket to attack Sami's Infantry, bringing it down to about 4 or 5 HP, and End Turn. Sami will try in vain to capture your HQ, and also move her APC out of your Rocket's range. Day 4: Finish off Sami's Infantry with your Rocket and End Turn. Sami will probably do nothing for the rest of this map. Day 5 and on: Use your Rocket to destroy one of the Minicannons surrounding the top right base so that your Infantry can capture Sami's HQ to win! Total Units Purchased & Cost: 1 Infantry - 370 G 1 Rocket - 5550 G ------------------------ Total - 5920 G ------- Infinte - 2nd wave and on: Of course, if you don't mind starting the whole thing over in Infinite Mode and going through at least one Wave so that you've got a fully charged Tag Power at the start, you could try this clever little beastie... Rightie-O, go into this with Colin and Hachi as your CO's, with Hachi in front, Tag Power at the ready. Day 1: Activate your Tag, and deploy a Mech out of your top right base, and an Infinte out of your top left. Swap out to Colin - with his Power of Money (and at least 300,000 G or so) he'll smash through the leftmost Minicannon he can attack like a chainsaw through butter. Move the Infantry down 1 and left 1 to make a tempting target. Sami will then eschew the APC and box in your troops in with her Infantry. Day 2: Since you're boxed in, take a few swipes at Sami's Infantry with yours, and ask your Mech to slowly cut through the right-facing minicannons that they can reach. Swap out to Hachi for the remainder of this engagement. Sami will echo Winston Churchill and attempt to defeat your Infantry despite being horribly outnumbered. Day 3: Use your Mech to obliterate Sami's troops, which she'll respond to by not doing all that much. Day 4 to Day 16 or so: Now continue sawing through the rightmost minicannons with your Mech (move it back onto the base so it can reload, natch.) Yes, this may seem a bit odd, but you'll see why we're up to this. Oh, by the way, keep the Infantry off the base. Haven't they heard of playing hurt? Day 17 or so and on: Now, use your Mech and Infantry to box in and damage Sami's APC. (Be sure to keep your mech within 3 squares of Sami's HQ!) Anyhoo, damaging the APC will cause it to amble to HQ for repairs. Now, let loose with your mech's bazooka! The APC will repair itself a bit. Why are we letting it? Well - remember that damaging things gets you Star Power, which equates to buying stuff for cheap! Thus, the APC will be stuck in an infinte loop of repairing, and you can build up Star Power until the cows come home. (You only'll need 3 stars for Hachi for the next mission, though.) Just a few basic things to remember: 1: Attacking with your Mech's bazooka when the APC's HP is 6 or less will destroy it - so don't! If you keep picking at it, it'll never heal! 2: Your Mech has just 3 shots with his bazooka, so you'll need to reload quite a bit. 3: When it's time to reload, drive the APC's HP down to 1. You can easily do this by shooting it with your last bazooka round when it's at 7 HP - this will do it 4 out of 5 times. If it doesn't, then shoot at it with your damaged Infantry as well, and that should drive it to 1 without killing it. Once it's at 1 HP, you can walk your Mech to the top right base and back in 4 turns, which will cause the APC to heal to 9 HP and stay put for its next whuppin'. So, yeah. Pick on that defenseless APC until you get your 3 stars to save cash. Whoo! Total Units Purchased & Cost: 1 Infantry - 370 G 1 Mech - 1110 G ------------------------ Total - 1480 G ------ Record - See above, except just don't build an Infantry. Take out Sami's troops with the Mech, and then pretty much just capture her HQ as her APC will run away from you. Total Units Purchased & Cost: 1 Mech - 1110 G ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IIc: Chokepoint "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-" - U.S. Civil War General, before being fatally shot by a sniper ------------------------------------------------------------------------- You've got a two-front battle on your hands here - Colin's headed for your bases and Sasha's got some folks that want your HQ. Both are packing Megatanks. Luckily, you've got eight Com Towers ripe for the plucking... Day 1: Since you've had Hachi selected from the previous mission, activate his CO Power and then use him to build an Infantry from the right base and a Rocket from the left base. Colin will move his units through the woods with his Megatank on point and Sasha will do likewise - though her Neotank will be on point instead thanks to its improved movement compared with her other stuff. Day 2: Move your Infantry up 2 and commence capturing a Com Tower, and then move your Rocket one space left before you End Turn. Colin will put his Megatank on point (within your Rocket range) and move his Infantry to fill in the gap. Sasha will continue augering her units through the thick forest on the other side. Day 3: Finish capturing the Com Tower, and then fire off a Rocket salvo at Colin's Megatank - this should knock it down to 8 HP. End Turn with a small smirk on your face. Colin will keep moving his Megatank and Infantry through the woods while keeping his Md Tank and Artillery out of range. Sasha will still hack through the forest with a machete, but her Neotank will've almost cleared it. Day 4: Send your Infantry over two spaces left to capture another Com Tower, and fire off another Rocket salvo on Colin's Megatank before you End Turn. Colin will continue to move his Megatank and Infantry through the woods, and Sasha will do likewise. However, her Neotank will clear the woods and start to make a beeline for your tanks on the other side of the river. Have no fear, though, we'll take care of it soon enough. Day 5: After capturing the second Com Tower, launch some Rockets at Colin's Infantry. This should either kill it outright or leave it barely alive with 1 HP - no matter. End Turn. Colin will move his Megatank almost out of the woods (and send his Infantry back to HQ on the off chance it's still alive.) Sasha's Neotank will now be in striking distance of your tanks on the other side of the river, and her other units should be just about out of the forest now. Day 6: Fire yet another Rocket salvo on Colin's Megatank, which should now have either 1 or 2 HP. Send your Infantry 2 down and 1 left to grab the Com Tower nearby. On the other side of the river, send your much-neglected Neotank over to attack Sasha's, which will yield a 9-3 post-battle report. Now bring your Tank over to add a little pain as well - this may destroy this lump of metal, but it also may leave it with a smidgen of life. End Turn and prepare for some deviations. Colin may try to bring his Megatank back to HQ for repairs (which is good) or he may park in the safe spot 2 below your Rocket (which is bad.) Either way, his other units are still 'fraidy cats that just won't come out to play. Sasha will more than likely try to mount one last attack with her crippled Neotank (should she have it), which will knock off 1 HP from whatever she attacked and result in her destruction. She may also just leave it there for you to finish off. Either way, she'll start bringing her Artillery and Megatank around for you to play with. Day 7: Finish capturing Com Tower #3, and then shove the Rocket one space right to reload that sucker. Move your Tank four spaces right, and move your Neotank 3 spaces right. Now would be a good time to switch to Colin and build up a Tag Power for the next mission. Colin has a few tricks to try. He may just have his Megatank slink back to the base, or he may decide to cancel his retreat and leave it in range. If he parked in the cubbyhole, however, he'll probably try to attack your Infantry. Since it's now at 1 HP at this point, this is actually not the harbinger of doom it once was. Believe it or not, your Infantry's counterattack will probably kill the darn thing. Either way, if it doesn't, your Rocket sure will. If you've decided to reload, Colin will also bring his other two units into the mix (finally!) to be hit in the face by Rockets. Sasha will continue moving her Megatank and Artillery right. Thanks to the Megatank's lumbering pace, the Artillery is now defenseless. (Heh heh heh.) Day 8: Have your Infantry attack Colin's Megatank if it's right next to you, or capture the lower right Com Tower if it's not. If the Megatank decided to cancel its retreat, give it what for with a Rocket. If it's still retreating, then let it go repair itself. (The Megatank repairing itself is optimal, as it provides more Star Power. Thus, you may want to save around Turn 3 or so until you get this turn of events. No skin off your nose if it doesn't, though - you've still got enough units to smash to get a Tag Power.) Either way, don't move your Rocket off the base. On Sasha's side of the river, use your Neotank to decimate, obliterate, and even defenstrate her Artillery. Whee! Sasha will continue to move her units as far right as possible. As well, her Rockets will be out of the woods in just two more days. Don't worry though, you can smash that thing to bits later. Day 9: It's time to set a little trap. Move your Tank onto the grassy spot just left of your HQ, and then auger your Neotank around to the right side of HQ. Leave the Rocket on the base (which just so happens to be five spaces below and one left of your Tank. Hmmmm...) Colin will move his units through the woods, and Sasha will grind your Tank into a fine paste. Days 10 and on: S'OK, though - use your Rocket to knock about 4 HP off that Megatank, and then use your Neotank to knock off about 3-4 more. Your Neotank should be capable enough to finish off everything on Sasha's side of the river, though it may take a few turns. Watch out though - never end your turn with a Neotank on one of your cities - it'll repair itself and needlessly cost you some cash! Proceed to wipe out all of Colin's units from long range - moving your Rocket to the center row's uncaptured Com Tower and then one space right back to base next turn is a surprisingly effective method. Also, don't forget to charge up both your COs' Star Power, and make sure to end this map with Hachi. Win by double rout! Total Units Purchased & Cost: 1 Infantry - 370 G 1 Rocket - 5550 G ------------------------ Total - 5920 G ------- Record: I'm still testing alternate strategies for this one - right now I'm checking to see if I can do it with Grit & Hachi, an Infantry, and an Artillery. In the meantime, the ol' Hachi-purchasing-stuff-instead-of-Colin- (with-CO-Power) hyphen-based strategy is hard to top... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IId: Cold Shoulder "If there's a problem, yo! I'll solve it!" - Vanilla Ice, Ice Ice Baby ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nell may seem like a pretty tough cookie on this deployment map - even though she doesn't start out with any units, she's got 13 cities to her name that can crank out quite a few expensive heavy hitters in no time flat. Have no fear, as there's a cheap-as-free strategy that you can use to finish this map with less than 3000 G spent. And all it costs you is a Tag Power! (Don't worry about an alternative solution - if you play through the previous missions properly, you should have a Tag Power built up, no matter what Wave you're on.) Day 1: Make sure that you start out as Hachi, and activate your Wonder Twin...erm...Tag Powers. This'll enable you to deploy ground units from cities - a quite handy ability. Build two Recons - one from each of the farthest right cities that you own. Next, use Change to swap out to Colin and get a free move on each of those Recons you deployed. Park each of them on one of Nell's factories - this way she only has one open factory - and End Turn. Nell will respond by using her whopping 13,000G to buy...an Infantry. Yeah, this AI isn't too bright, is it? Day 2: Bring each of your Recons over to attack that infantry - after taking it with both barrels, it'll crumble. Since you've wiped out all of Nell's units (erm, unit) - you win! Total Units Purchased & Cost: 2 Recons - 2960 G --------- Record: While less than 3000 G to complete this mission is quite impressive, if you change out your team, you can get this puppy done even cheaper. First off, dump Colin for Sami (yes, this means that you'll have to start a fresh wave of this stuff) and build up your CO Power Meters until you've got a Tag Power all set to go on this map. (Adder or Koal can work out in place of Sami for this strategy as well, thanks to their improved move speed with everything CO Powers (including Infantry.)) Day 1: This time, start out with Hachi, use your Tag Power, and build a Recon out of the bottom city in the middle and an *Infantry* out of the topmost city in the middle. Now swap out to Sami, use the increased movement of the infantry to capture Nell's topmost base, and park your Recon on another of Nell's bases. Nell will again use her 12,000G to build an Infantry. Day 2: Once again, you can beat the Infantry to a pulp with Sami's above- average Infantry and sub-par Recon. Win by rout of one guy! Total Units Purchased & Cost: 1 Infantry - 370 G 1 Recon - 1480 G ----------------------- Total - 1850 G ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IIe: Crowded Plain "The rain...in Spain...falls mainly...on the plain." "By Jove, I think she's got it!" - Eliza Doolittle and Prof. Higgins, My Fair Lady ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Believe it or not, this mission rewards you with a bit of a break. In fact, I'd recommend that if this is your first time following this strategy, you restart with Kanbei and another CO that you don't use very often, solely so that your Info Page for this mission will look absolutely absurd. Anyway, you've got two Rockets on either side of the map, and a Piperunner at the very top. To top it all off, you've even got an APC for mobile resupply purposes. Sure, Rachel can heal her trapped Megatank 3HP a turn by parking in a city, and she'll call down the thunder if you tick her off enough, but really, they're only minor concerns. Day 1 - Move yer Piperunner to what ends up being two left and four down (so that it's on a pipeseam), and then move your Rocket on the right two left and three up. Move the Rocket on the left two up and two right. We want to start off with Colin here, as he's got a bit more work to do to build up his meter, so End Turn or Switch so that you get Wall Street Kid. Rachel will blow a hole through the pipeline directly below her. Day 2 - Give Rachel's Megatank a volley with your Piperunner for a little Star Power boost, then move your right Rocket along the road as far as possible (so what ends up being three up and two left.) End Turn, and watch as Rachel repais all your damage before deciding on pulling down two and right two to blow another hole in the pipeline. Day 3 - Keep moving the rocket on the right along the road. It should be right next to the HQ when you End Turn. Rachel will then blow up another pipeseam, this one four left of where she is now. Day 4 - Give Rachel's Megatank a volley, then keep moving the rightmost rockets as far along the road (down and left now) as you can. Rachel will go for blood and wreck the pipeseam standing between her Megatank and your Piperunner. Day 5 to Day 15 or so - Move your Piperunner out of the way, and let loose with Rocket volleys. For the next few turns, you'll want to move your Piperunner so that it's one tantalizing square out of reach from Nell's sister so that it moves into an area covered by Rockets. Then fire on the Megatank and move the Piperunner out of danger. Repeat this process for a while (though you may have to move the Rockets over to the other side of the map - for some reason she suddenly decides to attack the pipeseams at random times.) Anyway, what you're waiting for here is for her Super CO power to be almost charged. See, you need to hit her once to get her to finish charging it, but you'll want your units far enough apart so that each missile will only hit one of your guys. Thus, each of your units needs to be five or more spaces away from any other one of your units. (I recommend keeping your Rockets seperated to start with, as the Piperunner and APC have much better fleeing abilities.) Anyway, once you activate her CO Power, swap out to the octogenerian money-grubber (Hachi, for those lacking access to a dictionary.) Rachel will then call down the thunder. What you're hoping will happen is that she'll reduce your Piperunner to 7 and one of your Rockets to 4. (If not, then time to give that Exit Map option a workout.) Day 16 or so and on - So, yeah, you're nuked and stuff. No matter - continue the previous pattern of baiting Rachel with the Piperunner and needling her with Rockets. Continue this pattern until you've got Hachi's CO Power (regular, at 3 Stars) charged. Then, it's time to spring the trap. Once again, bait Rachel with the piperunner, but make sure of two things: 1) She ends her turn off a city, but in range of at least one Rocket, and 2) The Piperunner is on a spot that she can only attack by staying off a city, and is in range of both of your rockets. The best way to do this is to follow this crap ASCII art: R R - Rocket PPPPR P - Pipe C_CP C - City PP_O O - Piperunner (on pipe) CPCP (underscore) - Plain CCCP - USSR Art skill - lacking Rachel will (hopefully) move to a plain that you can reach with one Rocket. (She's more likely to if that plain can only be attacked by the 4 HP Rocket.) Time to spring the trap - Hit her hard with whatever Rocket(s) can reach as well as the Piperunner. She'll respond by smashing AW:DS's most awkward unit in two. You can respond to this by plummeling Rachel mercilessly with Rockets. Any city she tries to go to for repairs at this point is covered by at least one of your Rockets, so let rip with one final volley to win by rout! (Note: It's possible that you'll end up slightly shy of having a Tag Power for Hachi. Don't worry - as long as you're less than a 1/3 of a star away, you're cool.) Total Units Purchased & Cost: Nuttin' - Nuttin' G ---------- Record: Well, the above strategy has no money spent, no Star Power spent, every available unit that can be sacrificed for Star Power destroyed, and a Tag Power built up from almost nothing coming in. Can't do much better than that, can we? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IIf: Narrow Road "That car will pass anything but a gas station." - Apocrophal ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kindle's about to go on a rampage here - she's got a whopping seven Megatanks, several cities under her posession, and you don't have any units at all. Sounds like a job for...two platoons of foot soldiers! Day 1: You get a day for free here, so swap out to Colin if you don't have him selected already. Kindle will move all seven of her Megatanks four spaces Right. Day 2: As Colin, deploy an Infantry out of the top base, and End Turn. Kindle will repeat her previous turn's strategy. Day 3 thru Day 10: Right, I'll dispense with the day by day walkthrough now (mainly because future missions are have either too much unpredictability or tedium to do otherwise.) Head up until you can't's heads up no mores, and then cut left. The Megatanks will proceed to follow you, a lot. Luckily, they won't catch up for quite some time, as those forest tiles the mapmakers so helpfully added will slow these behemoths down. Oh yeah - and when you land on that nuke silo on Day 4, don't bother launching it. No, really, leave it alone. Didn't the 60's teach us anything? (Mainly because launching it on the 'Tanks, even though it's a golden never-gonna-do-this-during-an-actual-battle opportunity, will cause them all to repair and refuel - which is something that you don't want happening.) Day 11 - Move your Infantry 3 left, where it should end up on another missile silo that it'll again fail to launch. Now would be a good time for some company, so deploy another infantry out of your lower base. Kindle will start splitting up her Megatanks, some going towards each infantry. Day 12 and on: Keep moving your lower infantry left towards Kindle's HQ, and capture it when you get in range. Luckily, Kindle will fall prey to something I saw in a war movie once - all her Megatanks will run out of gas (yes, even the one that killed your other platoon that distracted the Megatanks earlier...thanks guys! We'll name a street after you!) while you win by HQ capture! (Before you finish capturing, though, better switch to Hachi for the next mission.) Note: If you finished the previous mission with not quite enough SP for a Tag Power, you've got a couple chances here to fill your meter. First off, there's the Infantry that you have to sacrifice - but if that *still* isn't enough, then wait until all of Kindle's units run out of fuel, and then stand next to one of her Megatanks and End Turn. (Hint: to stay alive, I'd recommend the one that's on plains - and that you stand on a Tower.) That oughta do it. Total Units Purchased & Cost: 2 Infantries- 1340 G ----------- Record: Pretty much the same strategy, except use Hachi to buy one of them thar Infantries with his senior citizens' discount. (Unfortunately, you can't buy both simultaneously with the discount - sending one down a different path will cause some of the Megatanks following it to waste its ammo to blow the pipeseams open, then return to a city to reload and refuel. Yeah, the AI's a bit whacked sometimes, innit?) Total Units Purchased & Cost: 2 Infantries- 1040 G (370 G + 670 G) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IIg: Triple Threat "Set the clock to the thirty-third minute of the third hour..." - Dr. Maximillion Rovias, Eternal Darkness ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grimm's got seventeen units' worth of heavy hitters, and you've got nine Infantries. Would you believe that you only need one more unit to finish the job? Day 1 - Lead off with Hachi and use your Tag Power (it's about time for some payoff, after the absurdly long skirmish with Rachel) and look at your funds. If they're still above 80,000 G or so - then purchase a B Copter. (If not, a Bomber. Yes, much like in life, the poor actually have to pay more than the rich do to get by.) Finish up by moving the Infantry blocking the centre pipeseam two spaces right. Perform your free CO Swap and use whatever absurdly overpowered aircraft is in Colin's hands to can tear through the pipeseam like vorpal through jabberwock. Move each of the middle infantries onto the closest airport, forming an Infantry-shield around your aircraft before you End Turn. Grimm will start to move his units threateningly towards you. Day 2 - Oddly enough, you get a free day here. Go fig. (Though if your aircraft didn't quite tear through the pipeseam last turn, this would be a good time to finish.) Anyhoo, stay with Colin, as it's once again time to build Tag Power. Grimm will now prepare to put the hurt on you. Day 3 - Now move both aircraft and rightmost infantry three spaces left, and End Turn. Grimm will start tearing through your foot soldiers with reckless abandon, and most notably will have Fighters making a beeline for your Bomber. It's time for the most dangerous enemy that you've faced yet - tedium. Days 4 thru 17 - Do nothing except marvel at the fact that one aircraft in midair can't attack another aircaft in midair because there's a platoon of ground troops between them. He won't circle the planes around and get his Stealths to attack your troops, either. After taking out most of your ground troops (and netting you a sizeable chunk of Star Power in the process) Grimm's planes will then guzzle all their fuel and crash. Days 18 thru 35 or so - Time to earn a little Star Power. First off, park your thirsty aircraft over the airport to refuel. Then, go left past the pipes and down, and swap to Hachi before using 4 chopper attacks to bust the lower pipeseam. It is now time to dance the lambada. Your goal here is to smash the Battleships and collect the juicy Star Power inside, but the Cruisers will cancel your Christmas if you try and smash them now. Thus, you need to get the Cruisers to run out of fuel and sink. Luckily, there's an unorthodox tactic that works pretty well - AI exploitation. Move the chopper so that you're level with the pipe (remember, ships can move into harbors and put the hurt on you) and the ships should move away (so that you can't hit them next turn, natch.) Then, move away from the pipe (say, 1 left and 3 up), and they'll move back towards it and you. Be sure to head back to the airport once the whole fuel thing becomes an issue for you. After a while, a curious thing will happen - the Cruisers will move, but the Battleships won't. A few turns after this, the Cruisers will sink due to lack of fuel, and the Battleships will be in prime position to be sunk. (Be sure to yell out 'C-9!' before attacking them for some vermisilitude.) Don't let Hachi bogart the Star Power, either - switch to Colin to get both built up. Days 36 or so and on - Refuel, then fly right until you reach and cut through the pipeseam. Taking care to stay out of range while approaching Grimm's rear guard (the area where the pipeseam was, as well as the areas caddy corner to it are safe), smash one of the Piperunners into next Tuesday. Then head back to the airport and repeat for the other Piperunner. If you still aren't prepared to do a Tag Power by now for some reason, then circle back to the airport, and cut through the upper-left pipeseam. Grimm's ground units should soundly destroy your chopper for the last bit of Star Power you may need. Now, it's time to use your 1 remaining Infantry to capture Grimm's HQ - so keep moving those folks 1 space right and taking NoDoz to stay awake until you finally take Grimm's base as Colin. *Yawn* Victory through HQ cap....*Zzzzzzz* *snork* *Zzzzzzz...what's that Cathy Rogers? Of course I'll marry you...zzzzzzz* Total Units Purchased & Cost: 1 B copter - 3330 G ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IIh: The Gooping "Here's your package, Mr. Horrible Gelatinous Blob!" - Planet Express Commercial, Futurama ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eagle's riding high here with eight loyal blobs of All-Consumium 238, along with a base for reinforcements. Luckily for you, he has two major disadvantages - one is that Oozium can be defeated handily by foot soldiers, and the other is that Oozium is too lazy to benefit from Lightning Strike (and Drive, but I've never seen him use it on this map. Ah well...) Day 1: This one will require a little luck. Start out with Colin here, and 
deploy two Infantries - one from the base right next to your HQ, and the 
other from the rightmost of the two bases on the top of the screen. Switch 
out to Hachi and grab your lucky penny, four-leaf clover, horseshoe, and 
dirty socks, 'cause you'll sure need them. Right, now, hope that you saved at 
the end of the last mission, because you'll be repeating these steps unless 
all of the following do not happen during Eagle's first move:

A: All of the Oozium move at least 2 squares away from Eagle's single base,
2: None of the Oozium blocks the upper Infantry moving six squares to attack 
the Infantry that Eagle invariably puts out, and
Zed: None of the Oozium blocks the lower Infantry moving six squares to 
capture the base that Eagle's Infantry is currently on.

"Wait," I hear you saying, "an Infantry moving six squares? Pull the other 
one, it's got bells on!" Welp, either that or you've already guessed what's 
gonna happen in Act 2:

Act...erm...Day 2: Well, first things first - if all three of those things 
didn't happen in Day 1 that I told you about, you've still got a second 
chance. Move your bottom Infantry two squares right and your top Infantry a 
varying distance - specifically, so that it's closer to the base, but not in 
range of the other Infantry or Oozium. Now, End Turn and hope that A thru Zed 
happen on this turn in addition to:

Omega: You know that Infantry that Eagle deployed on the first turn? If you 
use a Tag Power, can you take it out by deploying an Infantry on the first 
half, and attacking it on the second half without said Infantry getting 
consumed horribly by Oozium? If not, then curse, build a bunch of Megatanks 
if you don't have those medals yet, and Exit Map.

If so:

Day 2 (or Day 3 if that last paragraph happened to work): It's Tag Power 
Time! Start out with Hachi, and move both deployed Infantries halfway to 
their goals of beating down Eagle's troops and capturing the base that 
they're protecting. Then, deploy two more Infantries from bases of your 
choice - (if Eagle's got two Infantries on there, make sure that one of them 
you deploy is withing striking distance of Eagle's other Infantry, though.)

Swap out to Colin and prepare to move some more. First off, smack down any 
Infantry that Eagle may have on this map (and unless you've got 50,000 G or 
less, they're pretty much going down with one hit. Thanks, Power of Money!) 
Secondly, move one Infantry to capture Eagle's lone base. Third, send any 
leftover troops to capture Com Towers. Go ahead and End Turn - Eagle will 
respond by madly moving Oozium around.

Day 3 (or 4 if...you know.): Finish capturing Eagle's base, thus preventing 
him from putting out any other troops this map! (Note: Yes, the heroic unit 
that captured Eagle's base will be devoured horribly by Oozium. Hey, omlette, 
eggs, killing people, remember?) Have the rest of your troops spread out and 
snag Com Towers. Eagle will jiggle his jellies.

Day 4 thru 12 or so: Capture all the Com Towers with your Infantries - don't 
let a one of these guys get eaten, though. It should be easy, as your folks 
move three times faster than those blob things. About the only thing is to 
not get surrounded - which can be pretty easily solved if you spread out your 
troops. Oozium generally goes after the closest hostile (picking one at 
random if hostiles are an equal distance away) so use that to your advantage 
to create three small clumps as opposed to one giant Oozium mass.

Day 12 (about) and on: Sure, it's fairly easy to just capture the HQ at this 
point, but where's the fun in that? Wait...actually, it is kinda fun. But! 
Remember that Star Power is important too, and those Ooziums are just loaded 
with it! (You don't even have to worry about Eagle taking revenge with his 
normally-deadly Lightning Strike - Ooziums just won't bother to move twice in 
one turn!) Thus, you're gonna do the unthinkable - take out eight Ooziums 
with three Infantries.

A day-to-day walkthrough of this would be the writing equivalent of one of 
the lower circles of Dante's Inferno, so here are the basic tactics for 
taking on Oozium. First off, to get all the Star Power you need for a Tag, 
you'll have to destroy 4 as Hachi *and* 4 as Colin. Yeah, a little luck will 
be involved for those last four.

Second, in order to destroy an Oozium without being digested by it, you'll 
have to hit it on three sides at once. Here are a few diagrams to help you 
see what are safe angles to attack with:

_Oozium (o)
|
| ----Your Guys(x)
| |                                          o         o
| -> x      x        ox       x      x     o  o ooooo o  o
---> ox    oox        ox    o ox    oxo    x  x xxxxx x  x
     x      x         x       x      x            x
                                                  x
    OK!    OK!        NO!     OK!    NO!    Flood the zone on 3 - BREAK!
    
Obviously getting Oozium out of clumps is a bit tricky, so try and keep your 
troops seperated to break up clumps and get one glob of Oozium by itself. 

Finally, it's impossible to beat this guys without a little luck. Hachi has 
about a 99% success rate, but Colin averages about 60% or so. Thus, whenever 
you begin a turn with the opportunity to shoot up a wad o' Jello with all 
three guys and not get devored, be sure to save at the beginning of said 
turn. Hey, after the rigamarole of luck required to get this far, you'll 
thank me the first time one's left with a smidgen of HP left and you reset 
the game faster than you can say, "We done been et! Over." Well, that or you 
can lure the Oozium to the small bit of shoal on the top left part of the 
island, but luring one Oozium out of the group is bad enough, let along 
luring one along into this tiny 2x2 space.

Anyway, after all that, you'll finally win this match by rout, and with a 
full Tag Power Meter! Class act all around.

Total Units Purchased & Cost:
    2 Infantries-   740 G (Hachi, CO Power, 2nd Day)
    2 Infantries-  1340 G (Colin, 1st Day)
    --------------------
    Total       -  2080 G

-----------

Record: Back to that whole luck thing I mentioned earlier. This time, head 
into this mission with Hachi and Sami, with a Tag Power ready to roll. (OK, 
Sami's Super Power and Hachi's regular CO Power - but saying Tag Power is 
easier. Well, except when I have to use that qualifier.)

Day 1: Use Hachi's CO Power to deploy one Infantry. I'd suggest the top left 
or bottom base. Now swap out to Sami. Eagle will move his jellies around and 
deploy some troops. (Why not wait and use a Tag Power next turn, you may ask? 
Well, because Eagle has this annoying habit of not moving his base-blocking 
Jello around until you build something - thus, you need to get the ball 
rolling here.)

Day 2: Move your Infantry towards HQ - out of the range of any Ooziums, but 
Eagle's Infantry's fine. Now, End Turn, then hope against hope that Eagle 
will leave you a straight shot to his HQ - restart if it's not the case.

Day 3: Maybe, just maybe, you'll have a clean shot at HQ that requires you to 
walk five paces or less - if so, activate Sami's Super CO Power and commence 
whoo-hoo-ing!

Total Units Purchased & Cost:

    1 Infantry    -    370 G

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part IIi: Single File Isle
    "You want to get to him, you gotta go through me!" 
    [All the other passengers take up his claim and surround Spider-Man] 
    "Very well..."
    [Dr. Octopus easily shoves everyone aside]
        - Random Train Passenger and Dr. Octopus, Spider Man 2 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grit and Olaf are packing Tanks, Anti-Air, Artillery, and you've got Jack. 
Apparently they've got Jack too - Jack Daniel's, that is. You can use their 
listlessness due to inebreation to your advantage and drop a train on 'em!

Day 1: First off, get Hachi in there (go ahead and waste a day - like many AI 
opponents, they'll do nothing unless some unit invades their personal space.) 
Activate your CO Power and use your 63% discount to snag two Infantries and a 
B Copter. Grit and Olaf will...do nothing. For a while. Like several AI units 
in the campaign, these suckers only move when they can either attack or be 
attacked by one of your people.

Days 2 thru 6: Use your Infantries to snag all the Com Towers. (Watch your 
step with the one on the right, though - if you're not careful and End Turn 
while on the same row as them, Grit's Artillery will rock their world.) Leave 
your chopper where it is so as not to waste fuel.

Days 7 thru 20 or so: Now that you've got all five Com Towers, pay a visit to 
Grit's units, most of which will run away once you get in range of them. (To 
avoid the wrath of Olaf's Anti-Airs, though, be sure to keep your B Copter 
below the rightmost forest at all times. Also, not touching the land bridge 
to the left of said forest, either.)

Grit's Artilleries will fold with a single hit unless he uses his CO Power 
(which reminds me - move your Infantries down and to the left so that he 
can't get a lucky shot off at them.) His Tanks are a little trickier. They 
take two hits, and attempt to repair themselves ASAP when damaged. Thus, 
concentrate on taking out one Tank at a time with two well placed shots.

There are two caveats, though. First off, if the Tank drivers get a brain and 
make their way left across the land bridge so that Olaf can cover them with 
Anti-Air, run...erm...fly away! Flying away will, oddly enough, make Grit's 
forces retreat to their original positions (unless they can attack your 
Infantries - remember to keep them back!)

Secondly, remember to reload and refuel after every 5 shots! See, even though 
the defending Tanks will scratch the paint on your chopper, as long as you 
don't lose a full HP, it's a free repair from the airport. But, if you 
foolishly use all six shots and are in range of a Tank or two, they'll attack 
you instead of running away - this *will* cause them to knock off a whole HP, 
which costs valuable G to repair!

Bearing these things in mind, knock out all of Grit's units one by one, 
keeping your B Copter at 10 HP.

Days 20 or so and on: Once Grit's taken care of, turn your attention to my 
favorite Lost Viking, Olaf. First off, bring your B Copter back to the 
airport to reload and refuel. Next, position one Infantry on the Silo next to 
the Airport and another on the Silo 6 spaces above your rightmost base. 
Finally, Save at this point, as you're gonna need a little luck in the damage 
calculation. Man, I wish I had Save Points in real life. I'd keep a whole 
memory card of saves from college...

Oh, right, guide. Right. Anyhoo, once all those folks are in position, take 
two turns to manuver your chopper to two spaces below Olaf's unit line and 
two spaces left of the land bridge (so that you're juuuuuuuusssstttt out of 
reach from those ruddy Anti-Airs.)

Olaf kind of mixes up what he does here. Sometimes he'll move his two 
leftmost Anti-Airs to the HQ area, sometimes he moves his rightmost Anti-Air 
one space right into the forest, and sometimes he does nothing. Let's assume 
that he's gonna move the rightmost AA one space right into the forest (and 
you should be able to restart from a previous save or dance the lambada by 
shifting your chopper's position slightly until he does.)

Once he does, Save again if you're no fan of randomness, then have both 
Infantries launch them thar missiles from them thar silos. Aim them both so 
that each one hits the leftmost three AAs (and Tanks between them), and 
you'll end up with 3 4HP AAs. OMG WTF BBQ!

Now here comes the luck part - Attack the leftmost AA with your B Copter. 
Note that you'll do 37% damage to a unit at 40% health. You're gonna need a 
little Luck to destroy it in one shot. (If you don't, even the smallest AA 
counter-attack will knock you down to 9 HP, and that means that you'll have 
to spend money on repairs once you reload your chopper's Missiles! Snaps!)

Olaf will then bring his rightmost AA back to its original position (see, the 
one full power AA isn't in range to attack you), and move as well as merge 
his damaged tanks and AAs onto cities.

Bring your chopper back down one square (i.e. - just out of range of AA flak) 
and take three days to move your Infantries onto more nukes. (Move the 
Airport one to the leftmost one, and move the other one 3 left then 3 up. Or 
just 2 up if that other ruddy AA goes into the forest for some reason, as he 
is wont to do.

Once Olaf finishes repairing stuff, he'll move his units back into their 
original position. That's your cue to drop two more missiles on Olaf's 
remaining AAs. Don't attack one this time, however - if there's only one, it 
will hunt you with reckless abandon (and damage you, and cost you cash for 
repairs!)

Olaf will merge his last two AAs, move them to the city for repairs, then 
bring them back to their original positions. While he's doing that, get your 
Infantries on two more nukes, so that you can eliminate these AA PIAs once 
and for all! When he brings his AA back onto the land bridge, drop the bomb 
on him twice and then mop up the last bit with the B Copter. From here on, 
just take out the tanks with the B Copter (feel free to use that last nuke to 
help you out, too!) Victory by double rout!

Total Units Purchased & Cost:

    2 Infantries-   740 G
    1 B Copter  -  3330 G
    ---------------------
    Total       -  4070 G

-----------

Record: Not really too sure how I'm gonna top that.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part IIj: The Swarm
    "We are surrounded by a force that outnumbers us 29 to 1. They are on 
    both flanks and our backsides. They aren't getting away from us now!" 
        - Unknown
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Surprisingly, that quote's fairly accurate. Sensei's got 16 Mechs and 12 
Infantries for a total of 28 boots on the ground, and all you've got is a 
Piperunner. Well, that and two bases and an airport to crank out the meat for 
this Hamburger Hill...

Day 1: Start out with Hachi here, as well as a Tag Power all charged up. Go 
ahead and let loose with it and enjoy the cash register sound. Then use your 
Piperunner to take out one of the pesky Mechs to the lower left. As well, use 
your Senior Citizen's Discount to deploy an Infantry from each base as well 
as a B Copter from your Airport. Swap out to Colin for an imminent smackdown. 
With your new turn, use your Piperunner to do a ludicrous amount of damage to 
another lower-left-type Mech, and move your Infantries 2 spaces up and 1 
space left or right, depending on which direction will give you the power to 
so totally slay a pesky nearby Infantry unit. Park your B Copter on the lower 
left base, caddy-corner to the Piperunner, and then summon two Infantries and 
a B Copter from your various buildings.

Shortly after you End Turn, Sensei will crowd every unit he can around you. 
Attacks will be minimal, however - that Power of Money is an effective 
deterrent. (Except, of course, for his Infantries attacking your Piperunner. 
This is actually a good thing, as their constant barrage keeps the Mechs from 
attacking said Piperunner, which is really darn expensive to repair. (How 
expensive? Try 2 and 1/2 Infantries' worth for 1 lousy HP!) So, there are two 
caveats to keep in mind. First, luck needs to be with you. If Sensei's two 
troops knock off 1 HP damage (and you're on a repairing property), then 
restart the map. Luckily, all damage is repaired for free at the end of each 
turn if you're at full health. Secondly, don't attack the guys attacking your 
Piperunner! If you do, then they'll leave to merge with another Infantry, and 
a nearby Mech will fill in that spot, really putting the hurt on you.)

It kinda varies what he'll do here, but the gist of it is that Infantries 
will try to capture the 3 neutral bases with nothing on them and everyone 
else will close in and cause claustrophobics to quake in fear.

Day 2: It's time to get out your four-leaf clovers, because a little luck'll 
do you good. First things first - the top priority is to keep Sensei from 
capturing anything. If he does so, he'll have a chance to reinforce his 
troops, making it really hard to finish this mission the el cheapo way. Thus, 
move your B Copter 1 space right and riddle the capturing Infantry below with 
bullets. This'll drop him to 5 HP. Next, move your left Infantry to attack 
the left currently-being-captured base as best you can - odds are it will end 
up 7-6 somehow. Next, use your off-base Infantries to attack the bases below 
them, so that they'll end up 9-2 and hope that your luck is with you - you 
need to end up dropping the capturing Infantry down to 6 HP. (This here is a 
Save & Reload 'till you get it right moment.) With your final Infantry, move 
it down one space to the Airport and attack the Infantry below - this will 
end up 8-5/6, and also keep Sensei from taking your Airport and making your 
life hell with Copters.

More luck is required with your remaining B Copter and Piperunner. Thus, save 
before trying any of this stuff - your goal is to reduce the HP of the two 
Mechs below and left of the bottom-left base as much as possible (thus saving 
your Piperunner from costly repairs once the Infantries attacking it combine 
with others.) Your B Copter should reduce one Mech to either 3 or 2 HP (2 is 
vastly preferred, natch), and your Piperunner should reduce the other to 2 or 
1 HP (again, 1 = good.) Deploy two more Infantries from your bases, and 
Switch to Hachi for some much needed firepower.

The randomness at this point prevents me from continuing this mission's guide 
with specific stuff - needless to say, you'll need all the luck you can 
muster. Save and Exit Map will soon become your most used menu commands. 
Unfortunately, this strategy isn't quite foolproof - often, you'll have to 
deploy an extra Infantry in order to keep Sensei from capturing something. 
Still, a heck of a lot less money spent than you were expecting, right?

Anyhoo...for the most part, Sensei will start out by attempting to capture 
stuff - then he'll ride roughsod over your troops. Pretty much every one of 
your Infantries save the one guarding the airport on the map will be 
destroyed. On the plus side, Sensei will need so many units to take out your 
Infantries that he'll be unable to capture either of your two bases this 
turn. Sensei will also merge units like crazy, boosting all his capturing 
units to full HP and merging the bottom two Mechs into a 3 HP deal. He'll 
also make a suicide attack on the Infantry guarding the airport, which will 
make it a 1/6 combo.

Day 3 and on: You'll need two things in order to succeed here - first off, 
you need to be able to attack the upper left base with your lower left B 
Copter. This is something that you may not be able to do due to Sensei's 
random troop movements, sadly. If you can't, then Sensei will manage to 
capture one of the bases he's on, and you'll need to deploy another Infantry 
to take it back. This will give you (the horror!) some added cost. The best 
you can do against the top left base is to knock it down to 4 HP, so luck be 
with ya there. 

Speaking of luck, you'll need it for the other two bases as well. You need to 
knock the bottom right base down to 4 HP, else it'll get captured at the end 
of the day. As well, use the Piperunner on the top right base and bring it 
down to 3 HP or less to prevent a similar fate. End turn and prepare for the 
worst.

No idea what Sensei will do beyond capturing bases, since he'll unleash his 
Super CO Power. Odds are that he'll bolster the capturing Infantries with 
whatever he's got left, try to capture your (red) bases, and shoot at your B 
Copters with whatever's at hand. (It'll do a lot of damage to him, but 
decernible damage to you, and since you're a cheapskate and can't repair 
anything after 1 HP gets knocked off of it, any damage is pretty relevant.

Aside from making your 6 HP Infantry attack the 3 HP Mech at the bottom left, 
there's too much randomness to give much advice. From here on in, just do 
things the best you can. If Sensei manages to capture something, be sure to 
park a unit on it ASAP so that he can't take anything else. If all goes 
right, you should be able to head off all future capturing attempts with the 
three units you have left. (This is greatly aided by the fact that half of 
his units will be out of rations at this point. Only Infantries can get at 
your centre bases, and since we've taken out a lot of them via Joining and 
firepower, they shouldn't be much of a problem.) Only attack units that have 
the rations to move to some threatening area or are in the middle of 
capturing something. When that's done (much easier said than done), you 
should have lots of immoble units that need to be taken out. Swap out to 
Colin and build some CO Power here - first off, take out everyone out of 
Piperunner range with the Copters to confirm your eventual win. Then, just 
move your Copters next to units with high health, and watch them all slowly 
but surely shoot down your Copters and build up Star Power. After they're 
both shot down, take out the survivors with your Piperunner, and you should 
have a Tag Power all charged up for the next mission. Victory by rout! 
(Finally!)


Total Units Purchased & Cost:
    6 Infantries-  3420 G (2x370 + 4x670 G)
    2 B Copters -  9060 G (3330 + 6030 G)
    --------------------
    Total       - 12480 G


-----------

Record: Though this mission will normally cost you the second-greatest amount 
of cash in Money Survival, there's a way to complete it without spending a 
single dime! Or G. Monetary Unit. Something. Yeah.

It's cheap!

Anyhoo, since all of Sensei's troops have abyssmal amounts of rations left, 
the secret to success here is to cripple his army's movement before he 
reaches your bases. And who better to do that than our nature-based COs, 
Drake and Olaf?

Day 1 - Start out with Drake, with a fully-charged Tag Power ready to roll. 
(Also, give Olaf Synergy to make things a bit easier for this first move. Um, 
and whatever other CO Skills you need to get to this point.) Pick a target on 
the lower-right corner and let fly with your Piperunner. Hopefully you'll 
score a one hit knockout (or OHKO, in AW geek vernacular.) Now let loose with 
the Tag! After a short interlude of obese weather-changers, all of the 
troops' rations will be reduced to 2 (yep, even the Infantry, who all started 
out with 5) and their HP will drop into OHKO-land. Not that you'll be able to 
see any of this, as Fog of War will kick in. (See why we attacked *before* 
using the CO Power?)

Switch out to Olaf, whose power will add injury to insult - reducing all the 
troops down to 6 HP, and, thankfully, clearing up the rain's Fog of War with 
snow. Use this opportunity to bang on another platoon to the lower right and 
End Turn.

Sensei will then attempt to move his troops towards your bases, but due to 
rain and snow, will manage to move most of them only one space. Now, some 
will stay rooted in their current spots since the way they want to go is 
blocked for now. 

Day 2 - Pick off more units in the lower right. Why here? Well, these guys 
are the farthest from where you can reach with your Piperunner, so it makes 
sense to take them out first. Specifically, by removing the blocking units in 
front so that the ones in the back have an opportunity to catch Pipe Cannon 
shells with their face. Go ahead and End Turn. Sensei will do nothing now, as 
there's nothing he can do.

Day 3 and on - The snow will let up now - go ahead and pick off every unit 
you can with your Piperunner from its location atop your HQ. On the B-side of 
Day 3, Sensei will make things easier on you by moving formerly blocked units 
closer to your bases.

Once you take care of everyone you can from HQ, move your Piperunner onto the 
bases above it to get the outliers. Hopefully, you can get them all from the 
bases or HQ (though for some reason you can *start* with a Piperunner on HQ, 
but you can't move one there - thus why we took care of everything possible 
from HQ before moving on...) If not, then you'll either have to restart the 
mission, or, ten times worse, purchase an Infantry to take care of the 
stragglers!

Still, win by complete and total rout!

Total Units Purchased & Cost:

    Nuttin' - Nuttin' G

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Part IIk: Grit's Gambit
    "That man says that I can't go to school."
    "Oh yeah? Him and what army?"
    "The U.S. Army."
    "Oh. That's...a pretty big army." 
        - Chris and Peter Griffin, Family Guy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

This final mission is a real bear. Grit's got a whopping 22 units to put the 
hurt on you - with a mix of Mechs, Recons, Tanks, Md Tanks, and last but 
surely never least as far as this non-John-Denver-Country-Boy is concerned, 
Artillery. To top it off, this is the sole Fog of War mission, meaning that a 
large part of his force will lie in the shadows 'til it's too late. Luckily, 
since the computer AI actually obeys Fog of War rules this time around, you 
can turn the hunter into the hunted...

Day 1: Start out with Colin here, with a fully charged Tag Power rarin' to go 
(though we'll refrain from using it at the moment.) Summon 3 Infantries, one 
from each of your lower row of bases. Switch to Hachi to conclude your turn. 
Grit will then move his units, resulting in an omnious wail of machines and 
marching troops that you cannot see.

Day 2: Get your troops to mosey as far downward as they can, then End Turn 
and prepare to fight. Grit will move a Tank to attack your rightmost troops, 
an exchange that usually ends up 10-4 (you can guess which one you are), move 
his Mechs up through the mountains, and move some Artilleries next to his 
aforementioned Tank.

Day 3: Time to send some back. Well, not quite yet. Still, unleash your Tag 
Power, and use Hachi's *cough* secret trade routes to deploy 3 Rockets (one 
from each of the lower bases) and 2 Recons, one from each of your other 
bases. (Note: mentally replace "Recon" there with "Tank" if you've got less 
than 50,000 G or so.) Move your lower Infantries onto mountains, but refrain 
from attacking Grit's Mechs for the moment. 

Now the fun starts. Swap out to Colin - then tear each of the two mountain 
Mechs a new one with two of your Infantries (always straight down.) Next, 
fire a volley with the rightmost Rocket onto Grit's Tank, for some unholy 
amount of damage. Pull your two brand-new Recons down and right so that each 
of them can wipe out an Artillery with one attack. Move your rightmost 
Infantry 2 down so that it can wipe out the Mech directly below it. Now, move 
each of your remaining Rockets 1 Right and 3 Down to prepare for a later 
onslaught. End Turn now that you've reduced Grit's attack force by almost a 
third in one fell swoop. Grit will then take out your 4 HP Infantry with a 
Recon, and move another wave of his units towards ya.

Day 4 and on: Unfortunately, Grit gets a bit random at this point, so I've no 
choice but to give a vague guide. Odds are that he'll move a Recon next to 
your rightmost Infantry, within one of your Rockets' range. Thus, hit it with 
a salvo o' Rockets, hit the Mech on the road that you can see with another 
salvo, and then hit the Mech on the mountaintop with one final salvo, giving 
it the coup de grace with a Recon. This will probably enable Grit to use his 
Super CO Power (which is what you're hoping for, since the bulk of Grit's 
Artilleries is still pretty far away) so pull everyone on the mountains back. 
Swap out to Hachi, and prepare to lose a couple of units.

From here on in, concentrate on destroying anyone that can be a spotter for 
Grit's killer Artilleries. Use your Rockets and Infantry to take out all the 
mountain-climbing Mechs for starters. Also, if a Recon is parked on a Road or 
Shoal, you've got about a 2 out of 3 chance of an OHKO with a Rocket barrage 
as Hachi. Needless to say, this is an opportunity you should take. Finally, 
don't forget the approaching Tanks - the normal ones can provide intel for 
Grit's Artillery, and the Md ones will pretty much take out anything in one 
shot.

Fortunately, the spotty AI will come into play again real soon - when Grit's 
Artillery and Md Tanks get down to about 20 fuel or so, they'll head back to 
Grit's HQ to refuel. Use this opportunity to kick some back!

It goes without saying that you'll lose a lot of units blocking your Rockets 
from direct fire. Also, don't forget to reload your Rockets once they get 
down to 1 ammo or less. (If they're untouched, that is. Otherwise, about all 
they're good for is a rather lousy roadblock.) All I can say now is that this 
mission can be done with these units, so don't despair if things don't appear 
to be going as planned. Try, try again if your world gets rocked.

Also if you're an Infinite kinda guy, remember to swap out to Colin once 
you've got everyone on the run so that you'll be ready for Jess's Neotank 
battle next mission. And don't forget to charge up a Tag Power as well. You 
don't need *3* Rockets to take out that last straggler unit, right?

Total Units Purchased & Cost:
    3 Infantries-  2010 G (3x670 G)
    2 Recons    -  2960 G (2x1480 G)
    3 Rockets   - 16650 G (3x5550 G)
    --------------------
    Total       - 21620 G

-----------

Record: I think that's about the best I can do, there. Although since this 
mission, like the previous one, relies heavily on how much fuel everyone has, 
I think some sort of Drake/Olaf combo will help things along. However, since 
this mission can be completed by the cheap bastich squad for less than the 
cost of 2 Rockets, it's gonna be a close call to see which partnership's more 
effective overall.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part III: Miscellany
    "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." 
        - Ralph Waldo Emerson
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

And we reach the end of yet another guide. Hopefully you found it informative 
and witty. On a personal note, this FAQ is dedicated to my wife and her 
family, the majority of whom went through surgeries while I was writing this 
(in between doing chores and fetching food for them, natch.) Get well soon so 
you can cook tasty dinners for me again! =)

Anyway, now you can dazzle your friends (um, that care about such things) 
with a whopping 100+ maps on Money Survival - my personal best with these 
strategies is 117 maps!

For you out there in the peanut gallery that want to keep in touch, drop me a 
line with constructive critism, advice, or just general conversation via 
email. The user is heffenfeffer and the domain is gmail period com if you're 
interested. (Let's see if my advanced anti-spam technology holds water.

As well, please put "Advance Wars DS Money Survival Guide", or something 
similar as the subject line, because if you send a tip with the subject 
"Improve your Home Mortgage!" I'll probably throw it away. Well, perhaps not. 
Is it fixed below 4%? 
And of course, I'd like to thank you all for bearing with me and hope that 
even if this FAQ taught you nothing, it at least put a smile on your face. 
So, thank you. No, not you, you. Yes, you. Thanks. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Legal Information: This guide is (c) Copyright 2007 T.C. Chavez (alias 
Heffenfeffer) 
Advance Wars is (c) Copyright 2005 Nintendo/Intelligent Systems. 
T.C. Chavez has no affiliation with Nintendo or Intelligent Systems. 
Any other copyrighted terms are (c) Copyright their respective owners. 
Guide not meant to be taken internally. 

Void where prohibited. Void where void. Void to the Dallas Cowboys. Void to 
George Latzenby. Void to anyone that called G.I. Joe a doll instead of an 
action figure. Void to the couple that hangs out at the coffee shop in excess 
of 20 hours a week. Void to Branson, Missouri. Void to whoever took the last 
piece of pizza. Void if you do not find glasses sexy. Void to basic cable 
subscribers. Void to anyone that reads this message. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Did you like this FAQ? You may also enjoy: 
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The Paper Mario FAQ: Read a half-finished enemy description guide! 
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The Resident Evil Speed Guide: Complete the REmake in three hours or less! 
The Metroid Prime Table Guide: Play pinball like you're a deaf, dumb, and 
blind kid!
All by me, and all at www.GameFAQs.com!

------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Vital Statistics: This guide has 81,833 characters, 14,354 words, 1,585 
lines, and a whole lotta love. 

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Version History: Version 1.0 - Original Release. 7/3/2k7 

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 Parting Shot: 
"If something should happen to me, all the world's women will greive!" - 
Edgar Rene Figaro, Final Fantasy VI