Advance Wars 2 Hard Campaign - Blue Moon
Reclamation
COs: Colin V Lash
Terms: Defeat all enemy units OR capture HQ!
Difficulty Rating: 
Author's Rating:
This is a nice easy level to start off Blue Moon. It's easier than it looks because Lash does not move her more powerful pre-deployed units and the laser damages everyone's units. Two infantry should be moved down to the neutral airport and two cities on your side of the mountains and capture them. The first obstacles are the early tank and recon Lash attacks with; position your units so Lash's recon (and tank when it arrives) is in the lasers attack range, whereas yours are one space above or below it. This allows you to easily overcome the weakened units. The base to the right of the silos next to the mountains should now be your priority. An APC and infantry get the job done quickly and a tank can also be built quickly to help protect them. Obviously as Colin you can buy everything cheap, if you are not familiar with his prices check them, as controlling your funds so you can afford the certain unit you want next turn is important. It is also vital that you fire the three missile silos and not Lash, if you use an infantry it barely matters if the laser repeatedly hits it as long as you fire the silos.
Whilst the laser has been useful, it is best in the end to destroy it, a job that an artillery can do. Secure the base to the left of the Silo's too as this then lets you move mechs across those mountains easily to attack the airport which Lash probably owns by now. Once you feel in a comfortable situation making sure you have an AA to hand is useful as otherwise you can find yourself caught out by a Lash air unit. Battle Copters from your airport in the southeast work well being quite cheap and powerful. You should use Colin's COP as being a short and small level you will get to use it several times. Lash struggles to capture cities at the bottom due to the Laser and as soon as you have higher income than her this is easy, just swarm units as only Colin can, tanks, M.tanks, artillery, battle copters are all you need in bulk and routing Lash is easy.
T Minus 15
COs: Olaf and Andy V Flak
Terms: Capture the cities around the
giant missile silo within 15 days.
Difficulty Rating:
Author's Rating:
This mission is split into three by pipelines; the top third will be S1, middle S2 and bottom S3 from now on. Olaf moves first and has units spread across S1, S2 and S3. His units in S1 should aim to break the pipe seam and then help his units in S2 destroy Flak's. Using the M.tank and rockets allows you to break through in a single turn. Olaf has two infantry and two mechs in S1, these are vitally important because without them you cannot win. Do not let any of them take any damage at all. There is little need to capture the neutral cities in S1 so it is best to put the mechs in APC's due to their lower movement. But if you are comfortable that they will receive no damage and be ready in place when you need them, then capturing the cities will add funds and allow you to build more from the airport in S3. The only threat is the recon, so make sure that you kill it quick and keep units it could damage out of its range by shielding them with stronger units.
Olaf's units in S3 are almost pointless, their use is to increase technique and power scores. Capture the airport, use the AA's to their best until they die and build your own aircraft to fight back, a fighter will churn through all air units and a bomber all land units. Don't break the pipe seam until you have full control of S2 as its not worth risking Flak's units getting in the way. Once you do have control though use this section to destroy units and build your own.
Olaf in S2 is most important, the missiles are useless so try and move them next to the lower pipe and fire over into S3, and you can lure stuff into their range. Using your M.tanks as shields move forward keeping your weaker units out of range of his tanks and everything out of rocket range. You should save up for Olaf's SCOP as the snow will negatively effect Andy also and the 2 damage is very useful. Olaf in S2 is the toughest part, advance so that you can attack both rockets simultaneously, it is easy to just sit there and not attack for fear of all the units. It is best to be more aggressive than you would think and as long as you position your units with some care to ensure they do not take unnecessary damage you should find that with your combined S1 and S2 units and with Andy attacking from behind you can win easier than you think.
Andy begins in S1 and has the easy job, destroy the units nearby, and watch out for the missiles, you can destroy the ones in S1 but just dodge those in S2. Andy should just aim to break the pipe seam and attack Flak from the opposite side to Olaf trapping Flak in the middle. Flak does tend to have AA hanging towards the back of his troops but if carefully positioned bombers can sort them out. As your fighter has little use unless you waste time breaking into S3 use it to block enemy units, or to take damage instead of a more important unit. Try and keep the APC alive, as refuelling is useful. Use Andy's powers whenever they seem most useful.
As soon as they can without taking damage start to capture the cities, you have 4 units that can capture, one for each corner of the silo (so 2 cities each). The mechs can do the far corners due to the APC's movement and the infantry the nearer corners. By the time Olaf mentions what day it is you can have started capturing, if not do not panic, as long as you can start capturing within the next 3 or so days you will be fine. Otherwise it may be a tight deadline. If you timed it the same as me you will have 5 days left on completing it, you could of course use these days to try and improve your score. You should be able to get an S rank without too much trouble.
Nature Walk
COs: Grit V Lash
Terms: Move any unit onto your HQ
OR defeat all enemy units.
Difficulty Rating:
Author's Rating:
Click to show entire map
Not nearly as difficult as is made out by the missions rating for the Blue Moon COs. First some general tips to help you. The cannons are not that big a deal, it is a waste of time to attack or destroy them, just ignore them. It is FoW, so save very often, always keep everything in forests (even more important due to cannons) and don't rush your advance. Saving often is important as if your key unit trying to get to the HQ is unlucky and gets caught in a trap! then you can be slightly annoyed. The way to win is by sneaking a single unit onto your HQ, not trying to blast through all of Lash's units.
Right, start by moving recons forward so you can see as much as possible, you should spot a neotank. Attack the tank and recon with artillery and destroy the neotank with your rockets. Finish off the crippled tank and recon by attacking them from the forest either side of them using tanks. Move all your units forward, trying to give indirect units priority. This is the only time not all your units have to be in trees because there is a part of the map that no cannon's range can reach. From here it is more random and so no specific instructions anymore. I recommend that you use a tank, or APC with infantry as the unit that will reach your HQ. This unit should always move as far as it can whilst staying in woods and should advance up the left hand side, as it is much clearer. You should aim to move it up through the gap in the mountain range and upwards to the HQ. Lash nearly always has a rocket in the forest that is two spaces below the HQ so do not try to hide the unit in there. Instead hide in the forests two down and three left of the HQ and reach the HQ in a single turn from there. So this level can be completed with only 1 unit and if you move the unit correctly this mission is completed in about 7 days.
However the rest of your army should do something! They should take the attention away from your sneaking unit and try and destroy as many of Lash's units as possible to boost your score. You are Grit; this means that your direct units are only 80/100 strength, whereas Lash's will be 120/100 if she is in a forest. Clearly this shows that you must use your indirects to do most of the damage. So just advance slowish, using your indirects whenever they can fire on an enemy unit with recons etc as spotters. You are warned about the potential danger of her infantry capturing your HQ; this can be ignored, as quite frankly it's not going to happen. Your CO powers can be used how you want, it is probably recommend that you use your COP, but obviously if there's nothing in range and you end up with your SCOP its hardly a bad thing. This is a 300pt S rank mission easily and compared with Liberation and the upcoming Factory Blues, you will agree it's not worth 8 stars.
Tanks!!!
COs: Grit V Adder
Terms: Defeat all enemy units.
Difficulty Rating:
Author's Rating:
Click to show entire map
An easy level, but not one I ever really look forward to. Move all your rockets so that they are all in a row next to each other between the HQ and left most city that you own. Position a recon and artillery in the woods on each side. Move your front mechs back enough so that they are out of the attack range of Adder's units. The back mechs use is I guess a matter of preference, either they can run for the silos, or stay on the front line and help, I prefer them to fight at the front with your other mechs though. Your other two recons can just be used wherever they are needed in order to maintain sight in the FoW. Always fire all your rockets every turn, unless of course you're out of range. It's best just to use your COP as it will enable you to get the most uses out of it and is probably more cost effective than Grit's SCOP anyway generally. Use your mechs to fight his, they will have a firepower disadvantage so make sure you are the one on the mountains and you will be fine.
Killing Adder's mechs is more important than maybe you might first think as without them he has no way to damage your rockets without going all the way around the entire map and walking right into another choke point. Of course you should destroy him before he gets that far, but if he does then just block the way with your spare recons or mechs and continue to fire over with rockets. If he places a unit so that it discovers one of your artillery in the forest, try and make it a priority to destroy it because in that way your artillery will take no damage too. If it becomes obvious that nearly all his units are going round one way and not the other then move the artillery and recon of the side he has left free towards the middle to help with the fight there so they can also help if he does come all the way around. Another S rank!
Toy Box
COs: Olaf V Lash
Terms: Defeat all enemy units OR capture
the enemy HQ!
Difficulty Rating:
Author's Rating:
Click to show lab map location
Olaf is angry now! This mission is at points a little annoying or tricky. Grit's advice is spot on, the whole mission hinges on the two bases in the centre. You should therefore aim to capture the base nearer to you as soon as possible; luckily you start with an APC and mech so use them! I recommend building an artillery and using it to break through the pipe seam at the bottom to allow your infantry to capture a lot of neutral cities. Grit is also spot on when he mentions indirect units, from that base in the middle you are going to be doing most of your fighting and once you manage to capture the second base you have pretty much won. So building indirect units, especially rockets is necessary. Mechs from here are also useful as they can hop straight over the mountain into combat instead of going around the annoyingly positioned mountain instead.
The battle for the second base is tough due to the fact that it is so close to the rest of Lash's base, her reinforcements have to travel barely any distance, her indirect units being particularly annoying, whilst yours have a fair journey. Just because you have the more forward base it doesn't mean you should not build from your starting bases, units such as tanks should be built from there as they can travel fairly fast. Building from here allows you to arrive at the fight with more units and stops you being overwhelmed. So once you have the covering fire of two rockets use mechs and tanks to push for the second base, of course using the mechs themselves to go for the capture.
There is a lab map on this mission too; it is in the city four spaces left of the docks by the bottom. So if you want to complete every mission or want to be able to use Neotanks as Blue Moon COs then this is a must capture city. A Blue Moon soldier with an oddly shaped head should confirm you found the map after capturing the city. After the second base is yours then concentrate on the base Lash has in the top left hand corner, it is not necessary to capture it, just park a unit on top of it. Then you can focus everything on Lash's HQ area and overwhelm her easily. An S rank should be yours.
Neotanks?!
COs: Any Blue Moon CO V Lash
Terms: Capture enemy lab or defeat
all enemy forces within 15 days!
Difficulty Rating:
Author's Rating:
First things first, CO choice. You can choose whoever you want here I suppose, Olaf can use snow to prevent Lash's reinforcements reaching the lab, Grit has a couple of chokepoints he can use but struggles to be aggressive enough for the 15 days and Colin is fast and flexible meaning you can beat the time limit easier. I recommend Colin and for the rest of this missions guide, will presume you are using Colin.
Obviously we will be going for the lab capture and are not trying to defeat all enemy forces, as that is very tough. All of Lash's starting units will rush you except for the rocket, M.tank and neotank. Build infantry for silos and cities to the right. Your starting tank is useful, but you will need to build AA's in order to fight the oncoming Battle Copters. Make sure you have enough funds to do so by checking Colin's prices and your income. You also need to build infantry for the silos to the north and west. It is very important to prevent Lash from capturing the base by the bridge, delay her by using a silo that can often also hit other units at the same time. Use tanks to secure the area and try and begin capturing it immediately, every move you make should be thought out so you can complete the mission in time, instead of then panicking with only 4 days left.
You will only need to build two AA's max to deal with the copters. The other silos you have should be used to weaken her three strong units by the lab. This way you can destroy them with cheap units instead of being delayed whilst waiting for your own M.tank etc. It often causes her to retreat a unit to a city and so meaning you don't even need to destroy it.
A tricky aspect of this mission is the gap in the mountains on the left hand side of the map. Lash often attacks down her is varying force, don't let her use any of the silos and use the area as a choke point. The AI often doesn't withdraw injured units and just doesn't attack with them, whether it does so or not block up this area and fire over with an artillery, it doesn't matter too much if you find yourself losing here, the mission is won and lost by the lab. You can often have a situation on this mission where you can save, try and complete the level and fail, then restart and try again with different moves and complete it, so you do not always have to start from the beginning if you fail.
You need to plan your moves so that you can get an infantry/mech with full health ready to start capturing with 2 days left. This means you cannot have any Lash unit that can do damage to your infantry/mech within range. Leaving them in an APC for protection can work well, especially as the APC can shield the infantry immediately after dropping it off. Sometimes you will even get lucky and a unit that can attack your infantry won't, or you could have 2 infantry to ensure 1 is on full health. After this it is just a case of surrounding your infantry with units and protecting it. This missions time limit is what makes the level tough, if you can't make it look at ways you could have gone faster, did you overspend and so have to wait a day later for an AA, was the infantry too far away from the lab when you were ready to start capturing? Just keep trying to slowly cut down on time. If you complete it you should get an S rank.
Two-Week Test
COs: Colin V Lash
Terms: Survive for 14 days.
Difficulty Rating:
Author's Rating:
This probably deserves 6 stars, compared to Reclamation, which is 5 stars anyway. Right, there isn't too much you can say on this mission apart from general advice. As you've completed it on normal campaign you know what to expect, an onslaught from Lash whilst you have to maintain your choke point in order to survive. Start with all infantry to capture the other bases and cities nearby, then add in indirect units. Artillery are nice and cheap and effective, but you will need the odd rocket to give your block a bit more space as they can fire further and they give you a bit more power for those tougher units. Generally you should use lots of infantry as your shield, you have plenty of bases to build from and they are very cheap. If you can place them on cities then the increased defence will help them survive too.
At some point you will also need to deal with air units, normally a couple of Battle Copters and a couple of bombers. So as you see one of these units getting within attacking distance you should invest in some missiles as they are most effective if used right. They mean you don't have to move other units out of the way like you would with AA's and won't take any damage back. But don't build 1 until you have to, otherwise it's wasteful. Lash also does have a Battleship, this can be a right pain. However the AI does have some flaws and so sometimes you will find that the Battleship just moves backwards and forwards until it runs out of fuel, lucky for you if it does. Otherwise tempt it into rocket range with an infantry to cripple it, otherwise it can fire on you turn after turn. You should use Colin's COP because Power Of Money is pretty worthless on this map, in fact gold rush allows you the opportunity to build those rockets or missiles without having to save up.
Just keep pumping out enough infantry and artillery and you can deal enough damage and have enough units in the way to survive. Another trick that takes advantage of the AI is to damage a unit, eg take a tank down to 3hp, then just leave it there next to the front of your shield. Lash often doesn't bother to retreat it, or fire with it, allowing your shield to remain perfectly safe whilst you fire over her tank to the units behind. Lash's SCOP can be a pain (she never uses her COP) so if you see it coming perhaps try to damage those really powerful units, or occupy the city which would make her near invincible next turn. You should be happy with an A rank, I tend to have perfect speed (as you always do on these timed missions), very high technique but a poor power rating.
Factory Blues
COs: Any Blue Moon CO and Any Orange Star CO V Lash
Terms: Destroy the pipe seam!
Difficulty Rating:
Author's Rating:
Ok, choosing your COs. Blue moon will be doing the most general fighting and once again I recommend Colin. Olaf's snow hinders your partner and whilst Grit is viable he is a slow starter and you come under immediate pressure, though I know lots of people love Grit so feel free to try him. Orange Star will be doing the actual destroying of the pipe seam, and so just as in Liberation I think you should be Max.
So a quick overview of what you should be doing before I go into more detail. Max should capture the airport on the left, use it to deploy a bomber, sneak around the top and destroy the seam. Colin should spam units and fight Lash, try to prevent her using the silos and can eventually use the airport on the right to help Max if necessary.
As Colin, start off with infantry to start capturing the bases and nearby cities. You will soon have to build units for defence as Lash's units arrive quickly, you can afford a tank on day 2. Just continue to try and capture neutral cities/bases nearby whilst using units such as mechs and tanks to fight off Lash's initial rush. You will do well to get on top of Lash before you complete the mission due to the fact that neotanks etc can just pop out of her factory. If Lash gets to use the silos then it can be a pain, so try to use them yourself, keep an eye on where Lash's infantry are so you can tell how long you've got to manage this. Should you realise there is no way you can stop Lash firing one, spread your units out so not so many will be hit and if you have an important unit then make sure the silo doesn't fire at it. Colin should as normal use Gold Rush as being only two stars you will get multiple uses. You do not need to try and charge forward and kill everything, so hanging back a bit with plenty of indirects and shielding units works well so long as the silos have been taken care of.
Max should capture the 2 cities above him with mechs, put the third mech into the APC. Move all his units up towards the airport. As you move up try to position your units in a way that your tank will be able to attack the artillery, your AAs are ready to deal with Battle Copters and your APC can drop off the mech in a place where he can reach the airport. Your other two mechs once they are finished capturing the original cities can move up over the mountains to capture the two neutral cities by the airport. As this is possibly the most important part of the mission make sure that the mech on the airport is not damaged and that at no point (at least until after you've built a bomber) does one of Lash's units park on top of it. Create a bit of a choke point here. Your indirect units, being Max, are not great, but try to use them just the same. They can help protect one of the silos or deal some damage to Lash's very tough neo/M.tanks to soften them up for your own M.tank.
By about day 10, give or take a day, you should be ready to build a bomber. You will also have your SCOP fully charged up, or close to it. Move your bomber carefully, keeping it out of range of Lash's AA, which is normally around, take into account if she uses her SCOP that forests count for nothing. There are mountains which allow you complete safety and the ones just above the airport can often allow you to jump ahead of the AA by flying over them. With your SCOP you easily destroy the seam in one attack, if there is a unit blocking you don't worry, as long as there are no AA's nearby you can afford to destroy it and then move onto the seam. As long as your bombers in good health it doesn't matter about Max's other units, which are likely to get mostly killed. This will most likely be an A rank.