Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp Cheats and Tips
Restarting a turn, the blessing of this remake
Alas, I could have used this twenty years ago…. In Re-Boot Camp, if you ‘screw up’ when moving a unit, this time it has a solution. In the old days you had to Surrender in the Options and retry the mission, but now, if you realise you’ve messed up during your own turn, you can Restart the turn in the same Options, and this comes in handy when you give the final review before declaring “End of turn” and letting your enemy exploit your cluelessness.
This can also be used to test a little, to see the enemy’s behaviour and, above all, to learn from the map and the position of enemy units when there is fog of war. This trick is a bit of a dirty one, we know, but you have to outsmart your opponent in everything… and no one can outsmart a machine.
Surrendering gives a clue (or several)
In any case, many missions will go wrong or you will make a few test turns and end up using the Surrender option. In these cases (in Campaign, not in War Room) notice that the OCs and troops comment a little on the defeat and usually leave some additional advice to face the mission. Sometimes these recommendations are very good (and sometimes very basic). By the way: they are not always the same; if you fail again, don’t run past the dialogue.
Keep an eye on the enemy OC’s Power and Superpower metre
If the enemy’s bar is about to fill up, you can calculate that, except for Maverick, they will normally use it next turn, and so calculate your moves based on what they will be able to do. For example, in the case of Adder, his units will gain an extra square of movement, so if you’ve left your bomber at the edge of range of an anti-aircraft, the power will reach you.
The same goes for those that change their visibility, their attack or defence, or the passive effects they cause on your army, such as snow or damaging rain. Also, enemies tend to be more aggressive when attacking with their OC Power. Finally, keep in mind that when the enemy has just used their Power and it’s active, actions that turn will not refill their bar, so when it’s your turn you can attack without fearing that it will refill as well.
Calculate when to use OC’s Power
Similarly, at first it seems logical to use the OC Power right at the start of the turn once the metre is full, for example Andy’s Mega-Repair or Kanbei’s Moral Force, but in other cases you will have to save it for the next turn depending on the situation or in the same turn, but after moving some units.
For example, Eagle’s OC Superpower, Lightning Attack, allows you to move non-foot units again, an incredible advantage that you should obviously take advantage of once you’ve acted on all those units in a turn. Likewise, Sensei ‘drops’ an infantry or mechanised unit (if it’s a Super Power) into each city on his side, so it’s in your best interest not to have any units on top of those buildings.
How to skip OC Power animations
Pending an update that allows you to skip these anime sequences, there is currently no option to skip them (e.g. you can skip dialogue by pressing Plus during them) and you will have to endure the enemy special every time. We have tested the different animation settings, but they only refer to the conquest and battle animations, as in the original, leaving out the OC Power animations. If you want to try them out, press A in a free box or Plus anywhere and go to Options: Anim. C to show only the players’ battle animations.
Combine to gain funds
In case you didn’t know, when the combination of two units exceeds the maximum of 10 HP, the remainder is added to your funds, which can come in handy to earn you some money and get a stronger unit out of your bases, ports or airfields.
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- Tip: As all infantry or mechanised units that Sensei generates with his OC powers appear with 9 HP, if cities are nearby you can combine several in pairs to make a lot of money in a short time.
By the way, the CPU doesn’t tend to combine much… keep this in mind for your strategy when you see several enemy units depleted.
