Part 59: Campaign Mission 21AMS: The Final Battle! as Andy, Max and Sami - Part 2
Mission 21AMS: The Final Battle! as Andy, Max and Sami (or "Operation Orange Star") - Part 2Last time on Advance Wars...
... Max began chewing his way through Sturm's army, while Sami stoically took meteor after meteor.
Day 9 - Andy
And this time, we're looking to finish the job off.
All right, first up let's clear our 3HP medium tank away from the front line, and send in a B copter instead.
We can join the 3HP middie up with this 5HP one.
Just about managed to avoid blundering into missile range, there.
Having forced Sturm off of the properties on this side of the river, it's time to secure them by capturing.
Taking out one of Sturm's infantry as it sits in the river.
And getting that fighter back out of the way of Sturm's fighter.
I sure do like infantry.
Day 9 - Max
Let's see what Max can do here.
Tank attacks AA, with a B copter landing the humilating killer blow.
And on the other side, Sturm's 1HP rocket launcher falls to another Max tank.
There's plenty of backup coming in.
And this seems like a good time to deploy a bomber.
Oh sure, you were all sniffy about it when I wanted one!You aren't Max, Olaf.
Day 9 - Sami
Once again, Sami finds herself recovering from a meteor.
Mass joining of mechs ensues. Mech floods seem to pretty good at this, as not only are mechs cheap, but having a lot of the same unit makes joining them up a lot easier.
Speaking of mechs floods... well, it's more of a mech trickle. But it should have some impact at least.
Anyway, let's try and get some of this stuff fixed up in time for... err... the next meteor.
Oh come on now!... sorry, Sami
.Day 9 - Sturm
At least Max gets to suffer a bit this turn, as Sturm's next wave of air units arrives.
As well as his next medium tank.
Day 10 - Andy
Hoo boy. There's some tough stuff to break down here.
But break it down we will. B copter flies around the back of the 7HP medium tank, whittling off a couple of HP in the process. Andy's 8HP medium tank finishes the job.
Still got that big full-health middie to deal with, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
The 6HP AA goes on a bit of a suicide mission against the bomber, getting knocked down to 2HP in the counterattack. Speaking of suicide missions, I finally do something with Andy's fighter, getting it to attack Sturm's one.
We've put a bit of a dent in Sturm's air force, but AAs and missiles lurk.
Oh well, let's see if Andy can help Max finish off that bomber by softening up the units between it and his AA.
There we go.
Nice cup of tea and another medium tank.
Day 10 - Max
So Max, did Andy do good with his softening up?
The kid did good, but it's not like I needed it.
Clearing a path (though really I should have used an infantry unit to clear out the 3HP mech, to free up the B copter for more exciting duties. But oh well).
And down goes the bomber.
A bit of an arrowy mess, but hopefully you can follow it.
Now then, here are some medium tanks that are really low on fuel. And I can't afford to let them go to waste, because they're Max medium tanks for goodness' sake. This presents a problem.
First let's make sure Max's bomber is safe...
... and then I go a bit nuts and build two APCs. It's a race to see who can refuel those middies first!
Day 10 - Sami
Sami... er...
... continues with the mech trickle. And rearranges things back at base.
Day 10 - Sturm
I feel like starting the RSPBC.
That's the Royal Society for the Protection of Battle Copters (also Andy's fighter).
Day 11 - Andy
And wouldn't you know it, Sturm has another bomber.
But this is looking like a decent moment for a Hyper Repair.
B copter engages B copter.
While the medium tank and another B copter amuse themselves by taking on some mechs.
Let's just ignore that medium tank and bomber for now.
Instead I can finish off the second mech with my damaged AA.
Andy has plenty of middies in reserve, certainly.
Day 11 - Max
Max's turn, and this is looking like a good moment for Max Force.
AA rolls through Sturm's lines to cream a random mech. That's some good damage.
And I win the battle of the 1HP B copters, too.
More heavy hitting as a medium tank splatters an AA.
And here comes THE BOMBER...
Rather more successful than the one in that video, though (I can hardly boast, though, I was only marginally less incompetent in that battle than Fredrik...)
Spreading out the medium tanks, hoping not to get hit by the incoming Meteor Strike... although there's still a nice juicy bomber and two medium tanks in meteor range of each other there. Hmm...
Still, the ballad of the APCs continues. I've left that bomber in range of a missile launcher, but hopefully the missiles will be distracted by Andy's B copter...
Day 11 - Sami
Sami's got a problem here: Max and Andy have some very tempting units deployed on the battlefield.
Will a ball of mechs be able to distract Sturm's meteor?
That is the question...
Day 11 - Sturm
... and the answer is that yes, yes it is. Great work again, Sami.
And to add to the fun, Sturm's missiles do indeed target Andy's B copter rather than Max's bomber. I'll take that any day of the week.
Even if Sturm's own air force is scoring points all over the rest of the battlefield.
Not to mention his anti-air force.
Day 12 - Andy
Max is in a great position to crack Sturm open here, so we're mostly down to a question of "what can Andy do here without getting in the way?"
Well, he can attack with a B copter...
... and that's about it for now. He does have some medium tanks prepped, though. They should be able to help Max out.
Day 12 - Max
Now then... let's see what Max can do here.
Quite a bit, it seems.
Medium tank trashes AA, allowing Max's own AA to roll through and take down Sturm's latest bomber.
Another AA finally takes down Sturm's pesky 3HP fighter, one of the APCs gets a turn away from refuelling all of Max's stalled middies, and I start doing some irritating capturing with an infantry unit.
The continuing adventures of THE BOMBER.
Although surely it's going down this turn. Yes, it's inside the missile launcher's range shadow, but Sturm has so much AA... oh well. I send up a 1HP light tank, to see if it can distract Sturm from the bomber a bit.
Setting up the medium tanks so that the APC can refuel them all in one go.
And the usual movin' and buildin' shenanigans.
Day 12 - Sami
Sami's taken 4 out of 4 meteors so far this mission. That's a phenomenal effort.
More green arrows than a group of DC Comics cosplayers at the National Railway Museum.
And the mechs keep on trucking. One's made it over the mountains now.
Day 12 - Sturm
Sturm's AAs get busy... but guess what they haven't targeted?
Day 13 - Andy
Yup. That bomber's still standing. How, when Sturm has enough AA to take down Cloudbase, I really don't know. But I'm not going to question it.
Instead I'm going to leave this mech with one irritating HP left.
So yeah, that's going to gum up the works for Max. Still, can't get too mad at Andy, he's trying his best.
And he's still producing a good deal of stuff.
Day 13 - Max
First up with Max, we get these medium tanks refuelled. Sturm is going to be getting a nasty surprise package shortly.
Let's start out with a crazy amount of overkill on this 6HP mech.
Slightly less overkill on this AA, though.
This might not have been the smartest move: I might have been better off using the bomber to take out an AA rather than the mostly useless missile unit. But oh well.
And now for some serious, serious overkill as I wipe out a 1HP mech with a 184% damage shot.
Yeah, that bomber definitely isn't surviving this time. But it's done its job. I've now got six medium tanks on Sturm's side of the bridge, and four of them belong to Max. And Sturm has mostly fielded AA. This is gonna be goooood.
Dropping off more annoying infantry.
And churning out yet more units.
Day 13 - Sami
Mechs, mechs, mechs, mechs...
... mechs, mechs, mechs...
... wonderful mechs! Wonderful mechs.
Day 13 - Sturm
Down goes the bomber. It had a good run.
This T copter suffers from a bit of
, but hey, it's leaving my infantry unscathed.
And this AA takes a hit.
Day 14 - Andy
My word, we have a lot of medium tanks. And Sturm has a lot of AA, too.
Let's see what we can do about that. First of all, one of Andy's middies lands a nice clean 100% hit.
Another middie rolls up and chips a mech down to 2HP.
So far, so good. I even build a second fighter for Andy, because why not. But that was just for starters.
Day 14 - Max
All right then. Let's limber up by activating Max Force again.
That's some good overkill damage there.
Medium tank takes down light tank, and Max's own light tank takes down the AA hiding behind it.
Arrow-O-Vision, for your convenience.
AA removes a mech.
Random fact, we've got the medium tank here doing precisely as much damage to an AA as one of Max's AAs did to that mech.
i herd u liek mdtankz
AAs Sturm had at the start of Day 14: 5.
AAs Sturm has now: 0
And then Max's 3HP AA weighs in and chips an enemy infantry down to half-health.
We are really close to triggering another Meteor Strike though. And I don't think Sami can save us this time.
Hmm.
Day 14 - Sami
Should I risk attacking this 2HP mech?
Go on. Let's face it, 600G of damage is unlikely to tip the meter over.
Yeah, we're safe. Don't want to launch any more attacks, though.
Instead let's just keep moving, and try to build up another ball of units down south.
Day 14 - Sturm
Sturm uh... Sturm doesn't attack.
Day 15 - Andy
Well, that makes life easier.
Not too easy, though. Andy's AA can't reach a B copter, after all.
It can reach this infantry, though.
And Andy leaves yet another unit at 1HP
The other medium tank heads out west, just in case Max and Sami can't finish the job and Sturm gets the chance for one last Meteor Strike.
But we're pretty much done with Andy now.
Day 15 - Max
Let's see what Max can do.
Max can continue to deliver extreme overkill.
216%! (okay, next mission I have to capture a Max AA attacking a Sturm B copter during Max Force).
216% again!
And a relatively conservative 119% this time.
And that's Max done. I could have blocked up all of Sturm's factories I guess...
Day 15 - Sami
... but there's no need.
Because after taking four meteor strikes out of four and barely flinching, Sami deserves the last laugh.
NOT WOOOOORRRRRDDDDDSSSSS!!!!!
I think that about wraps things up! Thanks, Grit!
Yeah, not a bad day's work, Maxie. For you!
Grit, you're a good CO with an excellent CO Power, but you dream of outputting as much day-to-day damage as AW1 Max. You wanna start somethin'? Should we settle this right here and now? Oooh! Save me! Save me! What with all the scary folk around here, it's time for me to skedaddle.
And then it's this whole dialogue with Andy, Max, Sami and Drake all over again. Boring. Let's mix things up a bit by seeing how a post-battle chat between Sami and Sonja might have gone:
maybe i get a bit more respect now i've liberated you from the clutches of sturm and his WORDS
yeah you did a great job sitting there getting hit by meteors while max and andy did the heavy lifting hey i was doing a very important job! and i landed the killing blow!
yeah ok i guess you did your bit, sorry or whatever now hold on a second i've had enough of you and your superiority complex if it helps i've had enough of you and your inferiority complex also technically the battle where we had a big argument didn't even happen in this timeline so i don't really know what's going on yeah that's a point paul from our point of view we haven't really chatted since co school or somethingEveryone's a critic.
so i guess maybe we won't make a huge deal about this? yeah perhaps i mean it's not like you're eagle or anything and let's face it i mostly forget about him in the next game too
but hey maybe we'll get a tag team bonus out of this some games down the line! yeah maybe i guess we'll see what happens so uh thingsAll right, all right, time to stop this before it gets any sillier. Moving on.
Moving on, we get a 15-day A-Rank, which comprehensively beats the pair of 19-day B-Ranks we got with Operation Nap Patrol and Operation Dunderhead. On the whole, I'd say that went about as well as could be expected: Max was lethal as all hell, and I think in the Golden Ending Run I'll have to let him take a few meteors just so you guys don't get all Maxed out.
In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the ending reel.
Still no S-Rank. But I'm going to guess that 950 points is the cut-off. Which means we're really close here. And if I can do just a bit better on the Operation Golden Ending run...
But that's all in the future. We have some other business to take care of first. And no, I'm not talking about buying Kanbei.
Tune in next time as we head back to AW2 and bring everyone's favourite shopkeeper out of retirement, to see just how broken a CO he can be...