Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp Cadet Guide: Strategic Tips and Tricks

Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising were two historic tactical combat games for the Game Boy Advance because, on the one hand, they showed you their friendly and cute side with their cute pixel-art graphics and, on the other hand, beat you up mercilessly with their combat suite. Meanwhile, you couldn’t help but get addicted to their addictive gameplay systems. Now Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp for Nintendo Switch has debuted as a nicer title for those who don’t want to play the 2000s original but are still looking for the series’ iconic hard challenges.

We recommend anyone experienced with the strategy genre to leave the game on Classic difficulty and for newcomers to start with Casual. This can be changed during the campaign, with the difference that Classic rewards more coins used to purchase items in Hachi’s Shop.

That said, beware, because no matter how much you brag about your strategist skills, you are nothing more than a cadet to this title’s AI systems. One false move and in many missions you’ll end up getting defeated, so we at Gamereactor have written this war guide full of tricks, tips and recommendations you’ll appreciate knowing before you embark on your campaigns, during them if they present themselves as too much of a challenge, or if you’re looking to Rank S. Let’s get started.

I wish I had heard these Advance Wars tricks before I started playing.

A twist reboot, the blessing of this remake

Ah, 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. You used to have to surrender in the options and retry the mission, but now, if you realize you screwed up during your own turn, you can restart the turn in the same options, and this comes in handy when you make the final assessment before declaring “End of Turn” and letting your enemy exploit your ignorance.

This can also be used to test a bit, to see the enemy’s behavior and especially to learn from the map and the position of enemy units when there is fog of war. This trick is a bit dirty, we know, but you have to outsmart your opponent in everything…. And no one can outsmart a machine.

Surrender gives a clue (or several)

In any case, many missions will go wrong or you make a few test turns and end up using the Surrender option. In these cases (in Campaign, not in War Room) note that the OCs and troops comment a bit on the defeat and usually leave some additional advice for coping with 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 meter

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 thus calculate your moves based on what they can do. In Adder’s case, for example, his units get an extra square of movement, so if you left your bomber at the edge of an anti-aircraft gun’s range, the force will reach you.

The same goes for those that change their visibility, their attack or defense, 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 is active, actions that turn will not refill their bar, so when it is your turn, you can attack without fear that it will also be refilled.

Calculate when to use OC’s Power

Similarly, at first it seems logical to use OC Power right at the beginning of the turn as soon as the meter is full, for example Andy’s Mega-Repair or Kanbei’s Moral Force, but in other cases you should save it for the next turn depending on the situation or on the same turn but after moving some units.

For example, Eagle’s OC Superpower, Lightning Attack, again allows you to move non-foot units, an incredible advantage that you should obviously take advantage of once you’ve acted on all those units in a turn. Similarly, Sensei “drops” an infantry or mechanized unit (if it’s a superpower) into every city on his side, so it’s in your best interest not to have 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 (for example, you can skip dialogues by pressing Plus during them) and you will have to go through the enemy special every time. We tested the different animation settings, but they only refer to the conquest and battle animations, as in the original, omitting 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 display only the players’ battle animations.

Combine to earn money

In case you didn’t know, when the combination of two units exceeds the maximum of 10 HP, the rest is added to your money, which can be useful to earn some money and get a stronger unit out of your bases, ports or airfields.

• Tip: As all infantry or mechanized units Sensei generates with his OC powers appear with 9 HP, if cities are nearby, you can combine several in pairs to earn a lot of money in a short time.

By the way, the CPU does not tend to combine a lot … Keep this in mind for your strategy when you see several enemy units depleted.

Listen to him: stop by Hachi’s Shop from time to time.

Hachi is a bit of a pain in the ass and after every mission he keeps insisting that you go to his store to spend your newly earned coins. He’s right, because we spent a few hours with the maximum of 9,999 coins, so we weren’t saving any more. Stop by every few hours, buy OCs and missions for the Battle Room, and save the music and galleries for last.

Hunter takes up space

When you start using air units, remember that they are not on two planes, but occupy the same squares as land or sea units. If there are no anti-aircraft guns, fighters or missiles within range, this can be useful for something as simple as protecting ground units with fighters or bombers. Keep in mind that helicopters can be attacked from below …

The Artillery Trick

The CPU has a somewhat strange behavior with artillery that you can take advantage of. If you block such a unit at a bottleneck (for example, a bridge), you can put infantry in front of it and it will not move. Your unit will be out of range and the CPU will just stand there, not retreating to make way for its other units, even taking damage when you want to do it. If you take too much out of it, it will decide to go back to repair, but in the meantime it can be very useful to pin down the enemy cheaply and without damage.

The AI’s obsession with APC

If the CPU sees an APC (Armoured Transport Carrier), it will definitely go for it. It has an obsession and cannot help itself. It prioritizes these units that carry resources to others and can carry infantry and mechanized units even before more obvious targets. Use this knowledge to your advantage and even consider sometimes placing an APC as cannon fodder: they are tough and will withstand various attacks in cities and forests.

The peculiarities of Infantry AI

Similarly, CPU foot soldiers will choose to capture cities they have on the go … even if your headquarters is very close and unprotected! Don’t be afraid to leave it at that, as they have a habit of entertaining themselves along the way.

How do you unlock the difficulty of the Challenge Campaign?

Hachi sells it to you for 1 coin…. but then tells you he’s joking and gives it to you for free. The Challenge Campaign appears as a new saved game file with its own slot, percentage and play time, so you can’t switch between levels like you did with Classic and Casual.