This
four-player map requires you to balance offense and defense. All
armies converge on the main islands, but their home countries may
be defenseless!
Center
islands: Most of the action takes place on four
connected islands in the center of the map. Here is where you'll
find all the cities and factories needed to build up your forces
and take down your friends. As always, everything is balanced perfectly;
I didn't want the territory to become too crowded or two sparse,
a common mistake with many Advance Wars maps.
Also,
note that each player can reach the main islands in the same amount
of time. Where you go from there is up to you. The factories are
harder to reach, becuase they're more valuable.
Naval
vessels: Everyone begins with a Lander, so you can
start sending soldiers on the second turn. The ocean is wide enough,
for the most part, for your ships to evade attack, with bottlenecks
only on the four sides of the map.
Home
islands: Now, here is what makes this level so great:
your home islands are completely unguarded. There are almost no
forests to hide inside, which means you'll have to fight in the
open if you're attacked.
Worse,
notice where your home base is: right next to the beach. Your factories
are far away. What does this mean? It means, dear friends, if you
fail to defend your island and the beach is taken, you're dead.
An
enemy Lander lands at your beach, dropping off an Infantry unit
and an APC. You have nothing to defend with, because you were distracted
by those bigger islands. Now, you'll have to wait halplessly for
the next two turns, while the Infantry captures your HB
and the APC blocks the way.
There's
not a damn thing you can do. Isn't that vicious?
Balance:
As you can guess, you have to carefully balance offense and defense.
You must conquer territory in order to build up your armies, but
you cannot forget your home country. This can be especially challenging
when playing under Fog of War.
The
gameplay is open-ended enough to suit any style. The key to victory
is knowing how to punish opponents who rely on one style. This is
great fun. |
