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Have you ever played Advance Wars before?
It’s not my first time. In fact, I’ve played through every Advance Wars title.
Oh, I see. In Advance Wars, I give gameplay and strategy advice in Field Training — including explanations of all the game rules. If you really don’t want to go through it, I can teach you a way to pass through quickly, but…
If you insist… I guess so. I do plan on clearing all Field Training missions anyway.
I think that’s for the best!
You can get to Field Training from the Mode Select Menu. Also on the menu is Vs. Mode — a multiplayer mode for a single Game Boy Advance — and Link Mode, for multiple systems. Please enter and complete the missions in order from top to bottom.
The first lesson is on Troop Orders. Good luck!
Nell will explain all three modes regardless of which option you pick. You will need to finish Field Training Mission 13 to unlock the rest of the game modes, so there’s no skipping ahead. There are quite a few training missions, and they cover a bit of story too — so let’s get started.
THE BRIEFING
We’re in this large nation here — Orange Star. The country to the east is Blue Moon. The two countries have been bitter rivals for years.
Border skirmishes had died down recently… until that madman Olaf… Oh, excuse me. I mean, the Blue Moon CO, Olaf, suddenly ordered an invasion of Orange Star.
The Alara region is now held by Blue Moon forces. You have been given a mission: drive Olaf from Alara and secure it for Orange Star. I will be your support. Let’s move out!
TURN 1
That’s why Olaf hasn’t deployed many troops to the area. You yourself have two infantry units under your command.
Wait — I thought they were red. Am I colorblind? Anyway, here’s some intel on the infantry.
Defeat the enemy forces to complete this mission successfully.
Sounds good. Looks simple enough… let’s issue some orders—
The cursor is used to give commands. The + Control Pad moves the cursor. Would you place the cursor on the infantry unit, please?
Damn it, Nell… I know what to do. I’m a veteran, remember?
Place the cursor here and press the A Button.
Okay fine. I’ll move the unit you want.
When you select a unit, the area around it will become highlighted — this is the unit’s movement range. First, let’s approach the enemy. Move the cursor here and press A.
I’d like to approach this slowly. Let’s move two tiles instead.
Try moving the unit again, please.
Oh, come on. Why don’t you command the army yourself?
Select Wait, then press A to confirm.
Wait is literally the only command, and it’s already selected!
This indicates that the unit can’t receive any more orders this turn. Don’t worry — you’ll be able to use it again next turn.
As you can see, this mission is heavily scripted with no room for error. You are guaranteed to win on the day the game wants you to win, and I won’t be fighting Nell’s commands for now.
When you’ve finished giving orders to your units, you must End your turn. Press A on an empty space to open the Map Menu.
The Map Menu also has Save, Options, and Unit — the last one gives an overview of all your units, their HP, ammo, and fuel. Not something I use often, but it’s a neat touch for players who like reports. Anyway, let’s end turn.
ENEMY TURN 1
Hah! They won’t last long. My troops there will make short work of them!
Normally, enemy units just move — you won’t see the AI cursor and menu. This is the tutorial, so it shows them to reinforce the mechanic. Olaf also moved the other infantry up. In future entries I won’t show every unit movement; I’ll summarise enemy turns unless there’s dialogue or a notable event.
TURN 2
His infantry units are heading this way. Stay calm. If we proceed with caution, we’ll be fine.
To be fair, I was the cautious one. You were the one insisting we rush our infantry toward the enemy.
Please select this unit. Move your unit here. Select this command. There is only one unit you can engage — press A to Fire.
Before I fire, let me explain the intel on screen and a few mechanics the game doesn’t fully cover:
Every unit has 100 HP. A damage value of 49% means roughly 49 damage. There’s a small random element — the actual damage can be slightly higher or lower. Some COs manipulate this (Nell included), but I’ll leave that for later.
You can also see the terrain a unit stands on. Plain has a defense of 1. I’ll cover terrain in detail next chapter.
On the right side of the screen: unit type, HP, ammo, and fuel.
- HP shown in-game is the unit’s actual HP divided by 10 and rounded. A unit at 30 HP shows 3 hearts; 79 HP shows 8 hearts. Unless I specify otherwise, when I say HP I mean this visible value.
- Ammo is the number of times a unit can fire before resupply. Some units have two ammo types; only the primary is shown here since secondary is usually infinite.
- Fuel — when a unit runs out, it can’t move until resupplied. Especially critical for air units, which crash and die when fuel hits zero.
Anyway… let’s start the combat!
The game has a cute combat animation. I like the expression COs make when things go well or badly for them. They do get repetitive, though, and they eat up a lot of time — most veterans turn them off. I’ll showcase the animation for each unit type at least once.
Do you see the HP numbers on the units? All units begin at 10 HP. As they take damage, their HP decreases. When a unit reaches zero, it vanishes. Notice your unit has more HP than the enemy — this is because the attacker generally has the advantage. Waiting to be attacked is not a good strategy. You should pick your battles and always Fire first. If you Fire on this unit again, you should defeat it. Order your remaining infantry to engage.
To expand on attacker advantage: the amount of damage a unit deals is directly tied to its current HP. The attacker inflicts damage before the defender can retaliate, so the defender fires back at reduced health — meaning reduced firepower. In general, the attacker wins. However, this isn’t always true: if you attack someone, they’ll retaliate on your turn and attack again on theirs — effectively a double attack. Sometimes the defender comes out ahead, especially on high-defense terrain. We’ll worry about that later.
Now let’s follow Nell’s advice — advance the other infantry and finish off Olaf’s unit.
Did that infantry just… explode?
This also demonstrates concentration of fire. Despite both sides starting with equal units, we achieved a numerical advantage on that infantry. Getting two units onto one target is sometimes more decisive than attacker advantage alone. Now it’s nearly impossible for Olaf to stage a comeback.
There is only one enemy unit left. If you stick to your battle plan, you can finish it off too. Select End from the menu and continue next turn.
ENEMY TURN 2
If I were in the field, they wouldn’t be suffering such humiliation! Cursed Orange Star Army! I will defeat it! I will!
If I were him, I’d have stayed put or moved one tile north onto the mountain for better defense. The position he moved to gives me attacker advantage. Bad call — though in fairness, he’s not even on the battlefield.
TURN 3
You have a two-to-one advantage. This battle is yours! But wait — units lose firepower when damaged. It’s better to Fire with an undamaged unit first. Go ahead.
Generally true, but there are exceptions. If a high-priority target needs to be eliminated, a low-HP unit can suicide into it to deal as much damage as possible before dying — clearing the tile for a fresh unit to finish the job. Unlikely to matter here, but it’s a technique worth knowing.
If you make a mistake and want to change orders, use the B Button. Remember that. Now — this infantry can finish it. Move in and Fire!
Your mission is a success! Keep up the good work!
Let’s be honest — you refused to let me do anything else. I feel like you’re mocking me.
What?! Inconceivable! That land was mine! How did they lose it so easily? Grrr… Next time, victory will be mine!
RESULTS
Speed is based on how quickly you won. Power is based on how well you concentrated your attacks. Technique is based on how many of your own troops were lost. You’ll earn a rank for each map you clear — good luck on your next mission!
To be more specific:
- Speed — number of turns used to finish the mission.
- Power — units killed in a single turn. Killing more than 10% of total enemy forces in one turn earns maximum score.
- Technique — total units lost vs. total units deployed. 20% or fewer lost earns maximum score. In missions where you can keep training new units, spamming production boosts this score.
You can only earn A-rank in training missions, but that’s the maximum — so I’m good. This tutorial took longer than I intended, but there was a lot of new content to cover. I’ll aim to keep future entries shorter.
LOADING TRANSMISSIONS…