Advance Wars (series)

The Advance Wars series, consisting of four games, was spawned from the earlier games in the Wars series, all developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. Famicom Wars, Super Famicom Wars, and Game Boy Wars 1, 2 and 3 all formed the basic style of gameplay (turn based strategy) seen in the Advance Wars series.

Games in Series

Advance Wars, the first game in the series, is still a TBS (Turn Based Strategy) as were the previous games in the Wars Series. Its simple engine and easy-to-pick-up-and-play style gained many fans amongst the handheld gaming community, and it had appeal to young and old with its cartoon-based graphics and intense battles, at air, sea, and on land.

The next game in the successful Advance Wars series was Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. The game expanded on the first Advance Wars, with more playable Commanding Officers, new units, new terrain, and updated graphics. Many consider this game to be the best in the Advance Wars series. This was the last game to be released on the GameBoy Advance.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike was the first game of the Advance Wars series to be released on the Nintendo DS. This game offered new modes of play, along with even more playable COs, new units and terrain, and psuedo-3D graphics. This game was also rated highly amongst critics.

The latest game to be released is Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (Dark Conflict in the EU and Australia). The game includes a complete overhaul of the Advance Wars universe, with a new world, new countries, new COs, new units, new everything, basically, whilst retaining the same addictive gameplay as the first three games in the series.

Battle System

The battle system in Advance Wars is simple. The objective is to defeat the enemy force by either capturing their headquarters, destroying all of the enemy units, or completing a specific objective with your own army of units. Each unit has its own unique advantages

The battlefield is set on a square grid, with each square being a different type of terrain. Certain units can travel over certain terrains, for example, rivers and mountains can be traversed by infantry and mech units, but not other ground units. Air units can travel over nearly anything without being hindered, and sea units can travel at sea. Each piece of terrain grants a defence bonus denoted by stars; the higher, the better.

Units can be deployed in three ways-one, they can be bought at a base(ground), port(sea), or airport(air);two, they are already pre-deployed on the map in question;and three, by the effect of Sensei's CO powers. Units have fuel, ammunition and movement costs over certain terrain- you must manage your units and keep them supplied to succeed.

To buy new units, you must use various amounts of G, or funds. Each army starts out with a set amount of G, but captured properties will produce G each turn.

Every unit has units it can and cannot attack, and how good it is at attacking those units. For example, infantry can effectively attack other foot soldiers, but are weak against vehicles and helicopters, and cannot fight planes and ships. Bombers can attack ground and sea units, but cannot fight against planes and helicopters. Stealth planes and seaplanes can attack nearly any unit, but submerged submarines can only be attacked by cruisers and other submarines. This effectively creates a "rock-paper-scissors" situation-Unit A is strong against Unit B, Unit B is strong against Unit C, Unit C is strong against Unit A. Creating a balanced army is a vital part of a good strategy.

Although many units, such as tanks, fighters, and battle helicopters, can only attack units right next to them, there are some units that can attack from afar, but not from up close, such as rockets, battleships, and missiles. These are called indirect attack units.

After you move one of your units, you assign it a command. All units have the "Wait" command, which orders the unit to do nothing, and any unit armed with weapons that have ammunition will be able to Fire on other units within their range. Other units have commands exclusive to that unit or a small group of units-APCs can Supply other units on the spot, submarines and stealth planes can dive and hide, respectively, and so on.

Commanding Officers (COs) offer certain bonuses to certain types of units, but weaknesses for others. For example, Sami's infantry are very strong compared to others, but her other direct-attack ground units suffer slightly. Each CO has their own CO Power (and, in some cases, Super CO Power) which offers major bonuses that can change the tide of a battle. Powers can only be used once a "power meter" is filled, however, so use them wisely.

In a Fog of War situation, units can only see a certain distance, indicated by their Vision stat. Infantry and mechs in mountains can see further, but certain terrain will make units invisible to all but its allies unless an opponent moves directly next to it, so think wisely.

See also

• Advance Wars, the first game in the series.
• Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, the second game in the series.
• Advance Wars: Dual Strike, the third game in the series.
• Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, the fourth game in the series.