General Strategy
Drake’s the one and only CO in Advance Wars to focus in the navy, which is both a curse and a blessing. The blessing is that Drake’s simply unrivaled in Naval combat; the curse is that in Advance Wars, the aerial units seriously outpeform the naval units.
But this doesn’t make Drake a bad CO, by all means, just stay away from aerial units and Drake will perform quite nicely. His strengths are exactly what’s needed to command naval forces, and that has mostly to do with the way naval gameplay is conceived.
Sea units have a very easy to exploit triangle. Subs can dive, and therefore defeat Battleships; Battleships are inmune to Cruiser fire, and therefore defeat them; and finally, Cruisers take little to no damage from Subs, and can actually fire at them while they’re diving, for heavy damage. In other words, the triangle goes like this: Subs > Battleships > Cruisers > Subs.
Now, if you were to consider such a gameplay, then the most important thing would be first strike, and Drake has that covered with his extra movement. And just in case he doesn’t manage to get first strike, he also gets extra defense to help him counter such an occasion! That’s as good as it gets as far as the vay is concerned.
And Drake’s land ability is nothing to sneer at either. He’s completely average, yes, but he also has a complimentary skill; his irain skill! Both in naval warfare and land warfare, units can be severely hampered by rain, but Drake not only is inmune to it, but he also makes it appear more often! Do not hesitate to play land-based maps with Drake, as he can quite certainly hold his own. And of course, he absolutely rules over the seas. |
CO Power Strategy
Tsunami might not look like a really awesome CO Power, but it most certainly is worth it’s cost. While it may not really be shiny or powerful like some other CO Powers in Advance Wars, Tsunami pulls a subtle, yet quite effective punch.
Now, it takes some time to sink in, but dealing 1 damage to all enemy units means effectively wiping out 10% of the opposing army. In more practical terms, if the enemy has 10 tanks, he basically has 9 tanks now. Doesn’t seem like much, right? I mean, with CO Powers like Max Force or Lightning Strike you would have probably killed more than just 1 tank, aye?
Ah, but most people fail to realize that after using Tsunami, you still get to play your turn with the standard 10% boost. And assuming you had been playing correctly until then, you would be able to have 10 tanks, just like your opponent. However, you’ve got 10 tanks with full power; 100% attack and defense. Your opponent, however, has 10 tanks with 90% attack and defense.
And that’s the beauty of Tsunami: When you use it, you’re giving ALL enemy units a permanent 10% decrease in both attack and defense. Most CO Powers have temporary effects, lasting only for that one turn. Tsunami, however, deals damage that won’t vanish after a day, it’s gonna stay there until the unit dies or gets repaired. It’s subtle, yes, 9 HP units can still perform quite normally… But the point is still there. If a 9HP tank attacks a tank, rather than getting the usual 8-5 outcome, it becomes a 7-6. If a full tank attacks a 9 HP tank, it’ a 9-4. Again, the effects are quite subtle, but the difference is quite noticeable when put this way, isn’t it?
And besides all of that, Tsunami even has a bunch of side-effects you can work to your favor. Newly built enemy units will get automatically repaired at the beginning of their turns, which means a deep hit on your opponent’s pocket. The Power deals damage to every single enemy unit, which also means you’re weakening his reinforcements already! Plus, there’s a little cheating you can do with Tsunami; the animation of the Power will hit all enemy units, so when in Fog of War, you can see where enemy units are hiding!
It’s truly the Power for the smart player. |
Green Earth 
+1
