AWDS Hard Campaign Guide - Mission 22: Crystal Calamity
Difficulty: Moderate - Hard.
Objective: Launch all nine silos at Black Onyx then destroy the Black Obelisk.
Suggested COs for Orange Star: Sasha/Colin.
Suggested COs for Blue Moon: Kanbei/Sonja.
Suggested COs for Green Earth: Either: Jess/Jake or Nell/Rachel.
Suggested skills for Main COs: Fire Sale, Gold Rush, Star Power/Slam Shield, Sale Price.
Suggested skills for Support CO: All three Tag bonuses, anything else.
General Strategy
Whew! Finally after all those easy missions, we actually have a challenging mission. In fact, the rest of the missions now are moderate to hard difficulty to attain perfect 300 points, but not impossible.
The great danger this map poses is that if any enemy foot soldier reaches an unfired silo before you do, you lose instantly. It is imperative that you either keep all the enemy foot soldiers away from them by blocking them off or destroying them or firing them yourself. Green Earth has the highest threat followed by Orange Star then Blue Moon. It will take a laboriously long amount of time before they reach Blue Moon's silos but for good reason. Blue Moon has the difficulty of actually establishing itself on their part of the map.
Orange Star has the difficulty of facing a Megatank. Blue Moon faces a Black Cannon and a Neotank as well as a Cruiser in the ocean peppering away at your Lander. Finally, Green Earth has it the hardest with a Bomber, a Battle Helicopter and a Stealth Fighter. One could use Colin and affix all the money skills onto him to purchase a Heavy Fighter Jet by day 2 to dispatch of all these pesky units but you potentially have an expensive shield in your hands. Otherwise, you will need to resort to blocking up the Stealth Fighter Jet with Infantry and allow it to crash on its own after several days. (Roughly around six days.) Then, you can dispatch the Black Cannon by sending a Rockets over to destroy it in two turns giving Blue Moon some breathing room.
Be wary of the transport vehicles loaded with infantry if Candy/Kindle/Zak/Koal have their Tag charged up. They can move an incredible amount of distance. Also, do not let them capture the Airport on Green Earth's side.
In-Depth Guide
To attain a perfect 300 points is hard but not impossible. I lost nearly one sixth of my total army (nine out of sixty eight units) and completed within the slow time of a fortnight and managed to get 300 points. Remember that the Power rating is determined by how many units you destroy on a daily basis so you should try your best to destroy around three units everyday. It doesn't matter which army finishes off the Black Obelisk as long as you have a consistent killing record. Orange Star has the easiest opportunity to destroy the Black Obelisk in two days with only one Rockets unit.
Blue Moon should concentrate on the matter at hand. I'd say choose Grit because you need a reliance on indirect fire but you need to be able to take a hit from a Neotank to preserve your technique score and to allow your indirect units a chance to return fire for your injured direct unit. Once you've cleared the Neotank, you can send in the Infantry to launch the missiles from the silos. Building a Battleship should also help speed up the process of the battle by being a nuisance to Neotanks. Two Battleships will give you a much easier time to destroy units but it will provoke the computer to deploy a Battle Helicopter or even a Heavy Bomber Jet. In that case, a Cruiser, set of Missiles or even a Carrier should do the trick but hopefully at that point you will have already gotten very close to finishing up the army.
Orange Star's job is to halt the process of the Tag for as long as possible. By using Sasha, I was able to deter them tagging until day 7. They key is not to attack with all three armies if you do not have to. Only attack foot soldiers and high threat units such as the aerial units. As Kanbei in Blue Moon, it is very possible that the computer will not attack your Tank on a city let alone a Md. Tank. With any other CO however, they will not hesitate.
My Score: 15 days, 300 points, Sasha/Colin , Kanbei/Sonja, Jess/Jake.