Part 8: Triangle (1 of 3)

Part 8: Triangle (1 of 3)



Sorry for the delay. This run did not go well.



The challenge I set for myself was Limited Supply, only building one of each unit type, replacing it only when it was destroyed. I thought I was being real clever doing this challenge on a map that gives us some new unit types to use, but there were two major problems with the challenge on this map in particular. In fact, let's get a look at the whole thing:



It's an even map this time. If you noticed the new property types with the glaring "AP" on the tile and didn't immediately figure out what they were, your name might be Andy.



I meant to do this last time, but I'm switching to the "B" tracks here to change up the music a bit.

Turn 1

Music: Mission BGM Type B



Problem number one for this challenge on this map - we can only build one infantry and one mech for capturing. That limitation is going to put us severely behind in the early stages of the map.



Oh, right, that other unit. So the "AP" stands for airport, and with it we can build things that fly. Here we have a copter. It is in almost every way a flying APC. It costs just 4000 G to produce but is incredibly bad at fighting anything but infantry, mech, supply, and other copters. However it only takes significant damage from other flying units and a couple of specialty units we've yet to see. Like the APC, it can also transport a unit, which is our only way of crossing the river bisecting the map. Since it can fly, it crosses over any terrain at equal cost, but it also doesn't get any defensive bonuses from forests, mountains, cities, etc.

Music: Enemy Turn Type B



Our mortal enemy builds three infantry and a copter, which is much closer to what I would have rather had built this turn.


Turn 2



Our infantry starts capturing, our mech can't reach a city yet, and our copter starts wandering around. At this point I didn't really know what a copter could do yet, but I had a vague idea of harassing the enemy infantry.



Here is the first of our new ground units, the AA Tank, more colloquially known as the Anti-Air in later games. Technically we could have built these in the earlier maps, but there was no reason to do so. They can only attack flying units. In later games they were also excellent anti-footsoldier units, but here they can't even attack anything that's not in the sky. It's a little cheaper than a tank at 5500 G, and an excellent cheap defense against flying units.



Blue also starts capturing, then builds another infantry and two more copters. We're already falling behind.


Turn 3



We finish capturing one city and start on another. Our AA tank moves up to vaguely warn off the enemy copters, while our own copter stays just outside their range.



Meanwhile we've got enough cash on hand now for the other new ground unit - the AA Missile. It has the same targeting limitations as the AA tank, but is an indirect fire unit with the same range as a rocket. It's also a little cheaper than its counterpart, costing 11000 G, but it notably has just two ammo. Better park it defending a city or pair it up with a supply unit.



Our opponent finishes capturing two cities and starts capturing two more. You can see where we start to lose ground here. They also put out a mech and a tank, and continue to keep their copters back away from us.


Turn 4



Our mech finishes its capture, while our infantry starts a new capture. Everyone else just kind of moves around near the river.



I build a tank for some reason. Strategically this unit is the second-least-useful on this map, though it'll be awhile before I figure out why.



Blue captures another two cities, and starts on a different pair. Who cares about that, though, let's see the mech jump in the copter!



The same "Transport" theme plays here as when loading into an APC.



Terrified of our one copter, Blue builds an AA tank of its own. One of the newly-captured cities is also another secret base, and produces an APC.


Turn 5



The infantry finishes its capture, and since we're limited to a mech for the second capturing unit, it can't reach another city this turn. Blech.



We build an APC, a much better choice for this map. Some of you may have already figured out why, but I won't spoil it just yet.



More capturing on the other side, I've lost track on how far behind we are now. But the AI is confident enough to send its copters forward now.



The enemy mech is dropped off by the upper-left city, an actual smart use of the copter's transport ability.



The AI builds an AA missile, giving its units cover from our lonely copter.


Turn 6



I don't really have any idea how well copters do in a fight at this point, and I'll have plenty of cash to buy another one, so why not throw this one out here?

Music: Air Unit Battle



The battle screen for air units is a little different. The terrain is on the bottom - the whale on the water tile is a cute touch - while the battle takes place over a sky backdrop in the middle. There is also a unique track for air battles. We're unlucky with the result, getting the worse of an even exchange.



Our mech starts capturing, while the infantry heads down to the two cities on the lower-right. The APC joins it to carry it back up to the rest of the map later.



We have enough funds now for a heavier air unit. Meet the Scout - look at that movement and fuel! Scouts are the counter to copters, though they also do somewhat well against infantry and mechs (as most units do). This unit would later be called a "Duster" in its only Advance Wars appearance (the fourth AW game, Days of Ruin / Dark Conflict, depending on your region). With all the enemy copters flying around, a scout will be useful here, even though it set us back 15000 G.



Two more cities captured by the enemy, with the mech starting another capture here. The enemy copter also strikes back against us.



We got even more unlucky in that fight. Might as well suicide next turn and build another one.



Yeah that's an enemy rocket that just showed up.


Turn 7



If you look at our copter's status compared to a few images ago, you should notice one unusual difference. It has two less fuel now. Each air unit consumes some fuel at the start of each turn - for copters, that's two fuel. I'm also pretty sure they explode violently if they run out, though I didn't manage to keep any alive long enough for that to matter in this run.



Our AA missile can go after the enemy copter, so let's see how this attack plays out:



Success! The air battle theme plays in mixed combat like this one.



I thought I was being clever here trying to keep the mech from completing the capture this turn, but....







Screw you I can build a new copter now. Our other units are just staring across the water at the enemy.



One enemy copter boldly moves into missile range, but the enemy rocket also moves up to threaten our AA missile. The other enemy copter flies south to harass our capturing infantry. Juggling our limited anti-air options across defending our triangle is a problem but not one of the big ones I mentioned.


Turn 8



Our scout was at 92 fuel at the end of last turn, so it looks like they consume five fuel at the start of each turn. Makes sense that they'd use more, I guess, but I didn't even notice until capturing the screenshot just now.



The enemy copter has an infantry loaded inside to try and steal our stuff. Let's see how the scout fares against it.



Pretty good result, particularly with not taking any damage in return.



Our ground units move away from the enemy rocket. The infantry finishes its capture while the mech moves up to start on the upper group of cities, but has to stay clear of the enemy copter.



We've got the king of the skies on our side now. Meet the Fighter - like the scout, but stronger, and particularly good against all air units. It costs 22000 G, by far the most expensive unit we've seen so far. They also consume an extra five fuel per turn, like the scouts.



Here's an interesting glitch. I left our APC in range of the rocket. It's not visible on the map but you can see the cursor where the rocket is targeting it through the interface.



Approaching the enemy triangle is going to be impossible right now. There are two AA tanks and an AA missle guarding the center, and we have a new fighter to contend with as well. We're at a significant funding disadvantage already.


Turn 9



Our scout is toast on the enemy phase, but I for some reason thought sacrificing a 15000 G unit to cripple a 4000 G unit was a good trade here. I think I was trying to show that the copter didn't get a defensive bonus from flying above the forest.



Fighters can also attack ground units, they just aren't very good at it. Like everything else, they can still do some damage to infantry and mechs, it's just not really a worthwhile trade.



I'm not sure why I'm targeting this infantry so hard. It had already finished capturing the city it's on.



I'm saving up for the last new unit, so we don't buy anything here.



I totally missed that the enemy fighter could reach us down here.



Fighters really take it to other air units.



Here is Blue capturing the last city on its triangle. We still have more than half our cities still to go. Way behind.



Our opponent didn't even build anything. Probably knew it didn't have to.


Turn 10



Time for some fighter-on-fighter action.



It's kind of silly to think of fighter jets just hovering around shooting at each other like that.



Right, don't send scouts against fighters, got it.



Two more cities captured, just four more to go. We're going to mostly hunker down until we get back to even.



In addition to another copter, we also build the last new unit for the map. The bomber here has a bit less range than the fighter or scout, and can't attack other air units. In exchange it does great damage against all enemy ground units, though it'd be an even fight against an AA tank. The bomber also consumes five fuel at the start of each turn.



Enemy fighters are hard to track with how much movement they get. I had no idea this one could get all the way to our new bomber.



That's a lot of damage from a fighter that was at only half strength, too. Fighters do as much damage to bombers as APCs do to mechs, if you're keeping score. The only upside here is the bomber will heal up on the airport, while the enemy fighter is in range of our AA missile.



The AI also queues up a bomber for us.


Turn 11



So as I said, we're still four cities behind, and our opponet has a much larger army already, too. I'm going to gloss over some of the details because we're really just playing defense until we can catch up here.



But first let's watch our AA missle shoot down this pesky fighter.



Well that's one threat removed.



The infantry hitches a ride with the APC, the mech starts capturing another city, and a few other support units move up to help. Our fighter and scout retreat for repairs.



On the enemy phase, two copters off-load into our territory, the enemy bomber moves up to threaten most of our island, and the rockets move up to force our AA missile to choose between attacking a copter and getting out of the way. At the end the AI builds a new fighter, too.


Turn 12



Our freshly-repaired bomber takes out the enemy infantry, who had been weakened when we attacked this copter several turns earlier.



Our AA tank moves up to deal 7 damage to the other copter.



Our regular tank weakens the mech a bit, while our copter finishes off the enemy copter. It's in the enemy fighter's range now, though. At least our mech was able to finish capturing the city - just three more to go.



The AA missle retreats to safety, the scout and fighter continue to get repairs, and we throw out a rocket to help defend the island.



Surprisingly, our copter is able to just barely survive the fighter's attack here.



However our tank is completely destroyed by the bomber. Somehow I managed to pull the AA missile too far back, so it can't reach either enemy plane on the next turn.



Annoyingly, the enemy copter is able to get in some chip damage on the infantry, which will make it slower to capture the city. I should've just left the AA missile exposed to the rocket and shot down the copter instead.



Another bomber and copter on the enemy airports.


Turn 13



The AA gun and the bomber are evenly matched, but we start out with one less life so take the worst of the fight here.



The enemy mech tried to capture this neutral city but we wipe him out with our APC.



I decide to leave our scout and fighter on the airports to continue getting repairs, so I can't do anything to the enemy fighter or copter. There's only so much damage they can do, right? I do throw an artillery out there.



Yeah that extended fighter range got me again. Our scout is toast. I should've had it attack the copter on our phase instead.



We've got another bomber on approach, and yet another fighter.


Turn 14



The enemy copter tried to retreat but is still in range of our AA missile so we shoot it down.



Our fighter is fully repaired so weakens the enemy fighter.



The APC wasn't doing anything useful so knocks another point of life off of the fighter. We also built a new scout.



A fresh fighter flies in too close to the AA missile to get shot at next turn. It can't do a lot of damage to this mech, but it can do enough to keep it from completing the capture next turn.



A bomber comes in and damages our artillery, not that it was doing anything useful anyway.



The other fighter retreats down at the bottom of the map, and Blue builds a new bomber.


Turn 15



The bomber is in range of our AA missile, and takes six damage. Our new scout then moves up to finish it off.



I once again send a less-than-full-strength fighter up to attack another fighter, and it works out even more poorly than last time as we take five damage while only dealing out three damage.



We replace the lost tank and copter. I think the only thing we're missing now is a medium tank, which wouldn't be very helpful right now anyway.



The fighter goes after our capturing mech again, but only does three damage so we'll still be able to complete the capture next turn. You can see the new bomber is nearby now, too.



Luckily those aren't new air units, just damaged ones that headed back for repairs.


Turn 16



The new bomber takes six damage from our AA missile, then our mech completes the capture. Just one neutral city left!



Our AA tank isn't back up to full strength yet, but it is able to dish out another four damage to this fighter. Our own damaged fighter took a bit more life off of the bomber.



Our scout finishes off the bomber, and pins in the damaged fighter.



Blue pulled its repairing fighter off of the airport to do some damage to our scout, but nothing serious.



And a damaged bomber can't resist going after our tank again.



The copter brings down a fresh infantry while I only have a bomber in the way. There's an enemy AA missile protecting the infantry right now, too. The AI also builds yet another bomber, and a new copter.


Turn 17



Our AA missile shoots down a fighter, while our scout is just barely unable to kill this copter.



Our rocket has been firing at an enemy AA tank the last couple turns, and finishes it off here. It's blocking the neutral city, but the enemy rocket is covering that at the moment anyway.



We've got some extra cash now, so I put out our last unit, the medium tank. According to the challenge rules, our army can't get any bigger than what we have right now.



Nothing much happened on the enemy phase, just another new bomber.


Turn 18



We're close to parity now in both cities and units.



While our infantry starts capturing the last neutral city, I'm able to get an APC and a tank down to team up with the bomber to take out the enemy infantry.



Here's where I discover the second problem with this challenge on this map. With the capture of the last city underway and no enemy units in our territory, I figured now would be a good time to start carrying units over to the lower tip of the Blue triangle. For some reason I thought that copters could carry vehicles, but they can't. They can only carry infantry and mechs. Which is why that's all that Blue kept sending over to us. I'll play out the next few turns anyway, but I'm starting to wonder how possible it is to attack enemy territory with just one mech, one infantry, and one of each air unit. Also the fact that only infantry and mechs can invade our island makes tanks and medium tanks pretty useless; APCs are much more efficient for defending against those unit types.



Meanwhile I try to have a scout go after a copter and discover that it ran out of ammo and can't attack. An interesting strategy against air units is to swarm them with cheaper units to drain their ammo so they can't hurt your more valuable units on the enemy phase. Air units can only resupply at an airport (a supply unit won't help them, either), so running out of ammo will take an air unit out of the fight for a few turns.



On the enemy phase, our artillery got hit by a rocket and a bomber came in and finished off our tank again.



I thought distracting the enemy rocket might let the infantry complete its capture next turn, but another copter came in and dealt three damage to it.


Turn 19



Our AA missile damaged the copter enough for our medium tank to get some action and finish it off.



With no enemy fighters at the moment, our bomber takes up position in the center of the map, just out of range of the enemy anti-air units.



The enemy rocket attacked our medium tank, and the bomber here went after our rocket. That leaves our infantry free to complete the capture next turn.



A new fighter appears.


Turn 20



The AA missile and AA tank team up to take out the bomber.



And the last neutral city is finally captured!



The new fighter chases after our bomber. I don't have a lot nearby that can hurt it, but I also don't have a lot nearby that the fighter can do much against, either.



Yeah, another new bomber.


Turn 21



Well, we've basically reached parity, at least once I build a new medium tank to replace the one that the rocket got off-screen last turn. We actually have more funds than we can spend at this point, thanks to the challenge limitations.



I figure I need to be more aggressive and once again send out a damaged fighter to take on a full-life fighter.



It really never works out well.



Our scout moves all the way to the top of the map to let the bomber back to our rear airport to get away from the fighter. Please note that the bomber is not actually out of range of the fighter.



So I throw some units to block off the fighter and get a new medium tank out there.



We're at something of a stalemate here. I can (barely) keep fending off the enemy air units and occassional infantry infiltration, but I am not sure I can muster up enough offense to really make any headway. That's two more bombers coming down (one new, one repaired), plus our fighter is down to one life, and another infantry just got dropped off.



Oh and another new bomber, too.


Turn 47



I made an honest attempt for the next 2.5 hours / 25 turns to make any kind of headway on taking the enemy triangle, but I just couldn't do it.



So, we officially give up.

Music: Surrender Theme



Yeah, there's unique music for this screen, too.



We're asked to save, for some reason.



Ah, the map turns blue this time to indicate our loss. Guess we'll have to remedy that. Couple of options there. I can start from the beginning with a different challenge - either of the proposed Fair Play or Cash Match options might work - or resume from Turn 22 with a modified version of the original challenge. Narratively, taking full control over our triangle would expand our supply ability, so that the Limited Supply challenge eases up to allow two instances of each unique unit, instead of just one. I think either of those would be workable. No official vote, but let me know your thoughts; I'm going to need another break anyway.

Edit: We'll go with the expanded version of the Limited Supply challenge, starting where we left off at Turn 22. See you there!