History GameBreaker / NintendoWars

* Unofficial online version ''[[http://awbw.amarriner.com/ Advance Wars By Web]]'' has a tier list that groups all [=COs=] into one of four community-decided tiers, generally only permitting use of [=COs=] from the same tier in the same match to keep things even. The site's 'tier 0' is a ban-list in all but name and contains the 'big seven' of standard play: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Kanbei, Nell, Sensei, and Sturm ([=AW1=] version), all of whom have their own entries on this page (and for a reason). Colin, Hachi and Kanbei are permanent members of tier 0 no matter the condition and are always banned, while Grit and Sturm are permitted (though considered high tier) in Fog of War and High Income, Sensei is permitted in High Income, and Nell is permitted in team play/FFA. The only other character who enters tier 0 is Sasha in Dual Strike tags mode, and that's because of her absolutely broken combo with Colin. Note that the client does not even have [=AW2=] Sturm on the books, as he would be considered too overpowered even for tier 0 and require a tier all of his own.

* Unofficial online version ''[[http://awbw.amarriner.com/ Advance Wars By Web]]'' has a tier list that groups all [=COs=] into one of four community-decided tiers, generally only permitting use of [=COs=] from the same tier in the same match to keep things even. The site's 'tier 0' is a ban-list in all but name and contains the 'big seven' of standard play: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Kanbei, Nell, Sensei, and Sturm (AW1 version), all of whom have their own entries on this page (and for a reason). Colin, Hachi and Kanbei are permanent members of tier 0 no matter the condition and are always banned, while Grit and Sturm are permitted (though considered high tier) in Fog of War and High Income, Sensei is permitted in High Income, and Nell is permitted in team play/FFA. The only other character who enters tier 0 is Sasha in Dual Strike tags mode, and that's because of her absolutely broken combo with Colin. The client does not even have AW2 Sturm on the books, as he would be considered too overpowered even for tier 0 and require a tier all of his own.

* Unofficial online version ''[[http://awbw.amarriner.com/ Advance Wars By Web]]'' has a Banned CO feature during game set up, the most common bans being Colin, Hachi, Grit, Sensei, and Kanbei, together with any [=COs=] with a clear situation advantage on a map (such as Javier on a map with more than one Comm Tower per side in play).

** While the pre-''Days of Ruin'' games do not have a 'true' online mode, there are a number of fan-made clients that allow online classic ''Advance Wars'' via net. The online client Advance Wars By Web uses everything up to ''Advance Wars: Dual Strike'' in its engine, and groups all [=COs=] into one of four community-decided tiers, generally only permitting use of [=COs=] from the same tier in a match. The site also has a 'tier 0', which is a ban-list in all but name and contains the 'big seven' of standard play: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Kanbei, Nell, Sensei, and Sturm (AW1 version), all of whom have their own entries on this page (and for a reason). Colin, Hachi and Kanbei are permanent members of tier 0 no matter the condition and are always banned, while Grit and Sturm are permitted (though considered high tier) in Fog of War and High Income, Sensei is permitted in High Income, and Nell is permitted in team play/FFA. The only other character who enters tier 0 is Sasha in Dual Strike tags mode, and that's because of her absolutely broken combo with Colin. The client does not even have AW2 Sturm on the books, as he would be considered too overpowered even for tier 0 and require a tier all of his own.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games (but at least in Dual Strike's custom maps, the oversight seems to have been patched[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within its three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain and healing advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. The only way for frozen units to break out of this condition is for an unfrozen unit on different terrain to kill the freezing infantry. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the enemy units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry, and tricky adjacent terrain like mountains and rivers will accordingly reduce the "freeze range" of properties with the movement range of the infantry. But the tactic can be combined with separate observations (regardless of the presence of properties) of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** Kanbei, while expensive at 120% price, now upgrades his units from 120/120 to 130/130. This is literally a day-to-day CO power on its own. Additionally, his Super CO Power, Samurai Spirit, further boosts his units attack and defense, and turns them into nearly [[NighInvulnerability nigh-invulnerable]] even without terrain stars, and those units with full HP and at least 3 terrain stars (any property including HQs, and mountains), simply [[NoSell completely unkillable]] from ''all attacks from any unit'', '''at all'''.

* Mech Flooding in ''Game Boy Wars 3'' and ''Days of Ruin''. When you can't spam the cheapest unit as efficiently, just spam the ''next'' cheapest unit, especially if there's no cost-effective counter against a group of the buggers. They were formidable before Infantry spam was discovered to beat this with cost effectiveness, and in those two games, that's not going to happen. In the former, Mechs have working defense for the fact that they can javelin-fire on armored units, which themselves are overly expensive, not to mention the difficulty in first striking units in this game. In the latter, them being 2500 instead of 3000 makes them a lot more efficient in the long run and there simply aren't many things that OneHitKill them even off of terrain and they'll cost-effectively wreck anything except a few things that are dealt with by easily built contingency units.

* Battlestations. Those things can easily be used to one hit kill anything except Medium / Heavy tanks and... surprise, other battlestations. However, you can just snipe the bastards that will cause you trouble. If you're good at aiming with a wii remote, you can take out almost anything before it can get close enough to shoot you. Yes, this includes other battlestations. In the hands of a skilled player, a battlestation can turn an {{unwinnable}} situation around.
* In Dual Strike, Black Boats can heal your units anywhere while transporting infantry. They are also cheap on costs as well.

* Stealths during Fog of War matches and at the right time or larger maps. What makes these units so deadly is the fact that not only do they can do decent damage to all units but can only be hit by other stealths and fighters. Once you build stealths, your opponent has no choice but to build a fighter. Your objective is to take out units at 6 or lower health to do the finishing blow while cloaked, forcing your opponent to be proximate to the assumed space of the stealth to ensure their fighter hits it. If your anti-airs are well protected, they have no other options but pray they can deplete the fuel of the stealths because an anti-air hitting a fighter is devastating and won't defeat a stealth at that point.

** Max gets a 50% firepower boost for his direct-fire units, in return for the -1 range and 20% firepower penalty to his indirect-fire units. What's wrong with this? Simple: none of his units have to be indirects, so he can easily eliminate a weakness and end up with plenty of OneHitKill potential. This practically turns him into an absolute must-have for the final two campaign missions, since his insanely powerful direct attacks can absolutely ''shred'' through Sturm's weakened defenses as long as he gets the first strike.

** Kanbei, while expensive at 120% price, now upgrades his units from 120/120 to 130/130. This is literally a day-to-day CO power on its own.

*** Exaggerated in Campaign Mode due to ArtificialStupidity. The AI in almost every case will go for the Tag Break. Going against Von Bolt will ensure he never uses his COP ever. The only CO to use her regular COP is Kindle but only in non-Tag matches.

** Ignore the fact that if you're not paying attention, she can capture your HQ in one turn!

** [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Billy Gates]] is essentially [[MoneyMultiplier Colin]] [[UpToEleven on cocaine]]. He gets an absurd 10000 additional funds each turn, regardless of number of buildings owned. Laugh as you outproduce your foe by ridiculous margins. No CO in ''Advance Wars'' is capable of the feats he can pull off because of this, not even the infamously busted Colin or Hachi.

** [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Billy Gates]] gets an absurd 10000 additional funds each turn, regardless of number of buildings owned. Laugh as you outproduce your foe by ridiculous margins. No CO in ''Advance Wars'' is capable of the feats he can pull off because of this, not even the infamously busted Colin or Hachi.

-->'''Xylvania infantry:''' ''(sits in position ready for enemy attack)''\\

** Max gets a 50% firepower boost for his direct-fire units, in return for the -1 range and 20% firepower penalty to his indirect-fire units. What's wrong with this? Simple: ''[[FakeBalance none of his units have to be indirects]]'', so he can easily eliminate a weakness and end up with plenty of OneHitKill potential. This practically turns him into an absolute must-have for the final two campaign missions, since his insanely powerful direct attacks can absolutely ''shred'' through Sturm's weakened defenses as long as he gets the first strike.
** The FakeBalance is even worse with Drake and Eagle in that game, as they are skilled respectively in water units and air units, and have weaknesses that are vice versa. This would be all well and good ''if they ever had to even use those units''. In the entire campaign and most of the war room battles, you never once see that happen. So they effectively have ''no weakness'' whatsoever, not even a slightly-preference-impairing one like Max.

*** To put it in perspective, he is so absurdly powerful that he would destroy any CO in any Wars game with ease, even Mr. Yamamoto, Advance Wars 1 Max, Advance Wars 2 Sturm, Colin, Sensei, Hachi or any of the DS Tag CO pairs. Meteor Strike would be the only saving grace to defeating Caulder, but that is only if you actually defeat Caulder's 2 HP main unit that same turn.
** Isabella/Catleia. She is considered the best CO in the game that some players in the competitive scene would soft-ban her, unless it is a mirror match. While having only +10 attack and defense and average 2 spaces (120/120), this applies to ALL units. Her COP is what makes her very dangerous, combining Will, Gage, and Tasha all in 1, with the addition of +2 on naval units (no CO has that). She can use that power with a lot of ease and rather quickly. Her soft-ban was only enforced to make other [=COs=] playable.
** Tabitha/Larissa. In certain maps only. Her CO-boarded unit is an instantly absurd 180/180, able to OHKO any units with ease. Her flaws are having only 0 CO Zone (very slow speed to increase CO bar) and counter-attacks will not increase her CO bar. If she even gets half her CO Bar up, she has a high chance of securing a victory. Once she gets to full CO Bar, she has won the match as her COP not only nukes a radius of the most expensive units in the game, but also grants all units the same 160/160 - 180/180 power. In ground-only maps, she can easily build a Tabi-Tank and sweep the entire game very fast. In ground and naval units only, a Tabi-Battleship can end games very quickly, 1HKO'ing various units at ease. In certain maps with Fog of War, Tabitha can cloak on a hiding spot like trees.
*** The reasons why she isn't fully banned is because of using all 3 (ground/air/naval) as a standard that gives proper counters. B-Copters can disrupt a Tabi-Tank. Tanks can disrupt a Tabi-AA. AAs can disrupt a Tabi-Copter. CO-Boarding an expensive unit with Tabitha requires heavy care. Additioanlly, some COs like Brenner shut down Tabitha's 1HKO potential.

* Lest we forget what spawned all this madness, ''Super Famicom Wars'' was the first game in the series to feature different [=COs=] to choose from. Four of them are completely bog-standard mainly as AI fodder. For seemingly no reason, the remaining three have day-to-day benefits that tend to surpass even some of the more notoriously broken Advance Wars [=COs=]:
** Catherine is basically the predecessor to Nell, with a random chance of dealing more damage with each attack, but also a random chance of reducing damage with each enemy attack!
** [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Billy Gates]] gets an absurd 10000 additional funds each turn, regardless of number of buildings owned. Prepare to produce far more units than your opponent each turn. No CO in history can produce this much funds nor produce as much units. Not even Colin and Hachi.
** Due to how leveling up units work, Mr. Yamamoto immediately gains a 40% attack boost for his army with ''absolutely no weaknesses for any of them''. God only knows the insanity that would have ensued had CO Powers been introduced at this point, but even without a CO Power, a starting 140/100 to all his units is absurd that defeats any CO in a day-to-day basis.

* Lest we forget what spawned all this madness, ''Super Famicom Wars'' was the first game in the series to feature different [=COs=] to choose from. Four of them are completely bog-standard mainly as AI fodder. For seemingly no reason, the remaining three have day-to-day benefits that can exceed that beyond the Advance Wars [=COs=]:

** Catherine is basically the predecessor to Nell, with a random chance of dealing more damage with each attack

** Sturm is PurposelyOverpowered when you have all valid Movement Costs reduced to 1. Sure, he has a 80/120 stat, but that high defense is far enough to make your opponent struggle to deal significant damage unless they themselves have overpowered offense. Sturm can easily build recons early to harass the enemy without punishment, thus shutting down their capture game almost instantly. That says nothing about his rockets, which can get into position with unrivaled speed.

** Ignore the fact that if you're not paying attention, she can capture your HQ in [[OhCrap one turn]]!

** Sturm is still PurposelyOverpowered, but ''Black Hole Rising'' takes it to [[UpToEleven ludicrous extremes]] to the point where he hard veers into SNKBoss territory. In the first game, Sturm at least had some weakness, be it his reduced defense in Campaign or his reduced firepower in Versus. Not so in the sequel; he gets buffs to both firepower ''and'' defense in both Campaign ''and'' Versus, and all while retaining his broken mobility and ludicrously strong [[ColonyDrop CO Power]]. The only CO whose troops come even close to matching Sturm's in terms of raw power is Kanbei, and he's still got standard mobility and increased deployment costs to deal with.

*** Taken UpToEleven in Campaign Mode due to ArtificialStupidity. The AI in almost every case will go for the Tag Break. Going against Von Bolt will ensure he never uses his COP ever. The only CO to use her regular COP is Kindle but only in non-Tag matches.

** Sami is often overlooked in Advance Wars 1 because most players only see her Advance Wars 2 and Dual Strike stats, while ignoring this one. What most people forget is that her soldiers not only sport a 120 attack, but also sport a 110 defense, making her soldiers have nearly the same soldier stats as Kanbei with a cheaper price. She also has +1 on transports, ensuring that her soldiers reach their destinations quicker. Additionally, she has the lowest power meter charge for her CO Power, thus being able to use it a lot. Her Double Time CO Power at that time also increases her defenses by 20% instead of just increased attack at the whopping 154%. Since Infantry are very vital to the game, Sami with these stats can run over most COs when left underestimated.

** Sturm is PurposelyOverpowered when you have all valid Movement Costs reduced to 1. Sure, he has a 80/120 stat, but that high defense is far enough to make your opponent struggle to deal significant damage unless they themselves have overpowered offense. Sturm can easily build recons early to harass the enemy without punishment, thus shutting down their capture game almost instantly. That says nothing about his rockets, which can get into position with unrivaled speed

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within its three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain and healing advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. The only way for frozen units to break out of this condition is for an unfrozen unit on different terrain to kill the freezing infantry. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the enemy units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry, and tricky adjacent terrain like mountains and rivers will accordingly reduce the "freeze range" of properties with the movement range of the infantry. But the tactic can be combined with separate observations (regardless of the presence of properties) of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within its three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain and healing advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. The only way for frozen units to break out of this condition is for an unfrozen unit on different terrain to kill the freezing infantry. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the enemy units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry. But the tactic can be combined with separate observations (regardless of the presence of properties) of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within its three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain and healing advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. The only way for frozen units to break out of this condition is for an unfrozen unit on different terrain to kill the freezing infantry. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry. But the tactic can be combined with separate observations (regardless of the presence of properties) of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within its three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain and healing advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry. But the tactic can be combined with separate observations (regardless of the presence of properties) of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within its three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry. But the tactic can be combined with separate observations (regardless of the presence of properties) of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within it's three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry. But the tactic can be combined with separate observations (regardless of the presence of properties) of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within it's three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry. But it can be combined with separate observations of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and labs, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within it's three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry. But it can be combined with separate observations of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.

** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and labs, though) at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within it's three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry. But it can be combined with separate observations of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to winning on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.