Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp offers a chess-like war strategy experience that’s complex and deeply engaging, yet digestible enough to appeal to newcomers. It’s a wonderful balance, really. But even so, the game can get exceedingly tricky at points, leaving both dedicated and casual fans alike feeling completely stuck in the middle of their campaign warpath.
Finding the perfect strategy required to overcome the opposing CO and claim victory in Advance Wars requires players to acquire an intimate knowledge of the available units, and get a decent idea of their values. Once a player knows which units are truly the best and why, they’ll no doubt be far more successful in their efforts on the battlefield.
10 Infantry
Infantry may not have many advantages in battle, but they are the most inexpensive unit in the game and easily one of the most important. These units and mechs are the only ones with the ability to capture buildings, and while mechs are more powerful, they also have lower movement, and they’re three times as expensive.
Capturing buildings can mean more money every turn, it can mean more places for units to recharge, or it can mean victory. Simply put, infantry units are totally indispensable, and thinking otherwise is a common beginner mistake.
9 Tanks
For a great balance of power, defense, affordability, and mobility, there is nothing quite like a tank. These units only do direct combat, so they’ll often be leading the charge, but some artillery and rocket units placed carefully behind them can create a potent combination that is hard to beat.
Tank units are an essential part of any ground heavy attack strategy, and although there are similar units with considerably more firepower and defense, the overall versatility of this one makes it just about as important as any in the game.
8 Rockets
Protecting a broad stretch of territory as your ground battalion advances on the enemy is never easier or more effective than with rockets. The range on these units is tremendous, as is the firepower, which can make them absolutely essential on certain maps.
Of course, the big issue with rockets is how weak they are defensively, so it’s always crucial to keep them well out of range of any enemy fire. That gets way trickier in Fog of War maps, though, which is why it can be best to also employ artillery for long range attacks depending on the terrain.
7 Battle Copters
As versatile as the standard tank may be on the ground, the battle copter is all of that and more in the sky. These units can attack just about anything and do a fair amount of damage to them while also having incredibly high movement and being affordable to create.
There are maps where the bomber plane can be devastating to the opponent, or where the insane mobility of fighters can prove invaluable, but a battle copter (or three) is useful on any map in which they are available. Knowing this will help you beat the campaign much faster.
6 Anti-Air
In situations where fending off aircraft is a significant element of the mission, the anti-air unit is absolutely essential. They have good movement, they’re incredibly cheap, and they are super effective against anything that flies, generally downing or severely compromising airborne units with a single attack.
But what makes the anti-air unit truly special is its ability to successfully take on a fair number of ground units, as well. Infantry, mechs, recons, and in the right situations sometimes even a tank can take significant damage from one of these units in a pinch.
5 Artillery
Getting a feel for the artillery unit can be a little awkward at first, but once a player has a decent sense of the strategy behind it, this little indirect combat vehicle can quickly become a non-negotiable part of their strategy.
Artillery are cheap to build, and they pack a punch to any unit that doesn’t fly, but they don’t have great defense which means that players must be very strategic about placing them. Provided they’re lined up just behind some tougher units, or around terrain that makes direct contact with them difficult or impossible, they can be a force to be reckoned with.
4 APC
APC units are like the tactical war game version of an RPG’s healers, which means they may not have incredible appeal to every player. However, when employed properly they can serve more than one vital purpose in dominating the battlefield.
There are times when it’s absolutely essential to transport infantry or mechs with an APC, but that’s not all they’re good for. If there are any friendly units out there in enemy territory running low on fuel or ammo, this unit can give them a quick restock by simply spending an opponent’s turn planted on any square beside theirs.
3 Medium Tanks
Some players prefer the Brute Strength method of wartime strategy in which cranking out as many medium tanks as possible is the only real tactic. While this may sound both overly simple and clearly flawed, there are more than a few times when it can actually (kind of) work, and that’s because the medium tank is an absolute beast.
The high cost, low vision, and low-ish movement of these units take a bit away from them, but in reality if those drawbacks didn’t exist the game would likely be broken. Medium tanks are probably the only Advance Wars unit that can win pretty much all by themselves.
2 Transport Copters
There are many maps where it’s absolutely essential to get infantry and mech units to certain parts of the map so they can start capturing buildings and turning the tide of a battle. When that’s the case, there is no better unit than the transport copter.
Sometimes APCs can be useful for a particular map, other times landers are needed, but no matter what, the transport copter is better at its job than any other. They may not be able to hold two units or restore ammo and fuel, but they can tackle any terrain and their movement is massive.
1 Battleships
With the highest range and some of the hardest hitting attacks in the entire game, it’s hard not to count the battleship among the best units in all of Advance Wars. They can attack anything but air units, and when they do, they are almost always devastating to the opponent.
One of the best ways to employ the battleship is to use its incredible range to help land units advance forward. With proper positioning, they’ll be essentially untouchable by the enemy units they threaten and yet super powerful against just about any one of them.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is now available on Nintendo Switch.