Nintendo Wars is a fun series, but these levels will test your abilities to see if you know what you're doing.
Game Boy Wars 3
- Bissum Desert (Campaign 36), although potentially managing healthy difficulty, may give players grief even if they do manage to get past the Do Well, But Not Perfect issues of the Campaign Mode in general. The gist is that the game's overly Glass Cannon mechanics generally work in White Moon's favor on this map. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, even though the mechanics generally favor the player in plenty of maps in Campaign. However, the later part of the map does have its annoyance factor.
- To elaborate on the difficulty of the map, it starts with White Moon having a bunch of planes deployed, among them 2 Interceptors, which can snipe your air units and can be very hard to get at safely on Day 2. The simple solution would be to not send out your air units right away, but navy is unavailable and since White Moon also has a bunch of tough land units predeployed to the east, you will need air units to help handle those buggers. This isn't so bad on its own, you just need to use any Interceptor units you have to hammer the enemy's, and set up an anti-air perimeter to keep your units safe from flanking. However, as soon as you try storming White Moon's HQ, things get truly irksome as you have to deal with crossing a most likely Artillery-covered area with a lot of Desert terrain—yes, you read right, not the terrain template you would know in Dual Strike or Days of Ruin, but terrain tiles that are similar to the Desert terrain in Fire Emblem. And unlike the Plains and Forests and stuff like that (which in this game actually have some Movement Costs at 1.5), the Desert gives off painfully high Movement Costs to the point where your land units being able to move more than one space at a time is the only reason why it's not a surprise that they're likely to get slaughtered.
- Gun Fighter! is only the second mission of the original campaign (5th in the remake due to some Field Training levels being incorporated), but it's a huge Wake-Up Call Boss for new players. For one, you're facing someone who isn't Olaf, and Grit's abilities are a big step up: boosted range on indirects and a CO Power that effectively turns his Rockets into an 8-tile "Instant Death" Radius. He starts with two entrenched in his base, a Medium Tank to guard them and his HQ, several tanks to harass you, a couple of Artillery to discourage early pushing, and Infantry and Mechs that will eventually cross the river and threaten your base if you don't defend it. And this is on Normal Mode. What makes this mission especially tough for new players is it's also the introduction of bases and deploying new units, and since your starting force is far too small to threaten Grit, you're forced to learn build orders on the fly.
- Blizzard Battle! is perhaps the one time Olaf puts up an actual fight. The map is a race to capture 12 properties, but Olaf is nearly guaranteed to claim everything close to his base within the first few turns, which put him one city away from winning. This means you can't let him capture a single city in your half of the map, and one of these starts guarded by a Medium Tank and regular Tank. You'd think pushing for that one quickly would be the way to go, but if you don't also commit units to the lower bridge Olaf will eventually send tanks over it, and you'll need to capture his city there for a shot at winning. Said city is surrounded by mountains and likely many of Olaf's troops, making capturing it all the more difficult. And for once, Olaf's Blizzard power is dangerous, as it slows down your march to the cities. This is also the first map where the Power score is an actual threat, given that Olaf starts with two bases you can't practically threaten and has a higher income than you. The perfect speed requirement is very tight, too. Adding insult to injury is that Sami, who would otherwise be perfect for this map, isn't available yet.
- Sami's Debut! is your first warning sign that the Advanced Campaign is going to suck eggs. The mission isn't too bad in the standard campaign as long as you know how to anticipate and deal with Eagle's air force. The Advanced Campaign, on the other hand, not only cripples your ability to counter Eagle's air force by robbing you of an anti-air and a battle copter, but also beefs up Eagle's forces considerably, to the tune of double the bombers (including one that starts off practically sitting on top of your troops, meaning it will get a free kill right out of the gate if you don't know it's there and take cover accordingly), an extra battle copter, his defensive tanks being upgraded to medium tanks, and a third medium tank plopped right onto his HQ for good measure. This turns flying/marching to Eagle's HQ, which is the go-to victory strategy in the normal campaign, into a suicide mission, as Eagle's massive meat grinder will be waiting for you, ready to rip anything that so much as glances at Eagle's HQ to shreds, and you simply don't have enough troops of your own to go toe-to-toe with them all. So how exactly are you supposed to win this nightmare of a mission? Well, it's telling that the go-to solution is to fend off Eagle's initial air strike, and then sit and do nothing until Day 34, at which point Eagle's planes will run out of fuel and crash, giving your ground troops an opening to make a mad dash towards the HQ while hopefully being able to deal with the slew of medium tanks that will still stand in your way, this being the point in which you realize that, if at any point you let Eagle take out your sole remaining battle copter, you've already lost, since nothing else in your arsenal will be able to hold off the medium tanks effectively enough for you to get in enough potshots with your indirects. Fun!
- Kanbei's Error?. The normal Campaign version of it is quite easy, with the biggest challenge being if you're trying to unlock an optional series of missions that requires you to finish this mission and the two previous in a certain number of turns (and even that's not too hard). The Advance Campaign version, though, cranks the difficulty way, way up by giving Kanbei an assload of air units close to your starting position, which means he's likely to take out most of your units on Day 1 (especially given his boosted firepower). One might think you could just wait out the airstrike and take out his air force one by one... but this is also a capture-based mission, and because of the way Kanbei's infantry is deployed, you automatically lose on Day 6 if you can't damage one of his infantry before then. Naturally, his infantry units are halfway across the map, and the aforementioned airforce makes rushing his infantry impossible. And because it just wasn't difficult enough even at this point, you've also got Fog of War to contend with as well. All of this makes this mission borderline impossible without a day-by-day guide, exploiting the enemy AInote , or lots of trial and error. Reboot Camp tones the difficulty down: on top of the fairer Fog of War mechanics, Orange Star starts with an additional Anti-Air and Bomber to help stave off Kanbei's initial onslaught and stop his capturing infantry in their tracks.
- Sonja's set of missions shows what happens when Yellow/Gold Comet gets serious in their tactics. Facing Sonja as an enemy in of itself is a source of Paranoia Fuel, with her units' HP counts being obfuscated and her CO Power negating any means of hiding. The first mission with Max is a mere warmup to how brutal Sonja can make your day, with many an indirect unit hiding in the woods. The following mission with Sami is where things get hair-raising, with the objective of capturing properties becoming an immediate loss if Sami doesn't act fast. And while Andy's mission is more straightforward, Sonja doesn't relent with the units she starts with. It's a common strategy to intentionally take it slow in Kanbei's Error simply to skip these encounters in the original game, provided the player plans to do the Green Earth missions a certain way for the final mission ahead in lieu of not having Kanbei available. Playing the remake, on the other hand? You're totally SOL, as the Sonja missions are now mandatory. While you can take comfort in knowing that Sonja no longer cheats like she and the other AI opponents used to, if you still can't get to grips with how Sonja's abilities affect your Fog of War tactics, you are thoroughly screwed.
- Unless you have a grasp on the Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors, any naval-based Drake mission can be really frustrating. And even some of the land ones; in Captain Drake, Andy has to capture X amount of cities before Drake does. Except Drake has more units than you to start with. Oh, and he already has infantry on the center island. And you have to make infantry from factories. And both you and Drake have only one lander and no way to make more. And Drake has a submarine with his battleship. And... You know what? Let's just say Drake is one tough son of a bitch to beat. It's even worse if you choose Sami as she starts with no factories under her control and she has to contend with Fog of War, which the AI cheats in regards to seeing your units unless they are in forests or reefs.
- Andy's version of Naval Clash is a deceptively difficult mission to get a good score on, on Normal/Classic mode. You need to protect a single Missile unit for 10 days, which isn't too difficult if you load it in a Lander and hop it between reefs (in the original, you could simply leave it in one reef, as the AI was to stupid to actively hunt for it). The problem is keeping the rest of your army alive. With only 11 units and no way to make more, the threshold for 100 Technique is incredibly tight at only 2 losses being acceptable, made worse once you realize what you're up against: At sea Drake has 4 Battleships, 3 Subs and 2 Cruisers, and all you have are 2 Subs and a Battleship. Your complete lack of Cruisers is a serious problem, as it forces you to rely on your Subs to deal with his own, which isn't favorable due to Drake's bonus terrain stars and Andy's lack of firepower. So you're faced with a Sadistic Choice: either you sacrifice your Subs to weaken the Battleships, or retreat all your naval units... which gives your land units a much tougher time surviving. Your initial area is too small to mount a proper defense, forcing you to go on the offensive and break through for a better chance at surviving. It takes near perfect co-ordination at both land and sea to avoid losing too many units, and the 10 turn limit means you risk losing Subs to fuel if you keep them submerged too long. On Advance/Challenge Mode? No issue, as getting perfect Speed gives an automatic 100 in the other two categories and Hold the Line missions guarantee perfect Speed.
- The Final Battle. Given that it's the (normally) final battle, it's expected to be difficult. Sturm's starting army doesn't waste any time in engaging Andy's, and it's a slog to break through the Black Hole's defensive line. But there are factors that can make it more difficult than it ought to be:
- Andy is always front and center in charge of the central army. Lacking Super CO Powers in this game/campaign there isn't much opportunity to use Hyper Repair when Sturm's stats are focused on the offensive, leaving nothing to repair at all when he strikes the hardest.
- The two armies protecting Andy's flank are determined by various outcomes. The CO of the blue army is determined by which CO is selected for the mission "Max Strikes!" and if the secret mission "Olaf's Sea Strike" is unlocked if Andy was selected. The terrain surrounding the blue army's base isn't ideal; it's covered by mountains which railoads any ground units to take the long path around, which isn't helpful when it comes to protecting Andy's red army. This becomes a serious obstacle if the CO is Max, whose only compensation is the airfield to the north, which takes time to take control of. Grit, ironically, doesn't fare much better, as he can't really take full advantage of said airfield, and even with his increased indirect range, can't always be counted on to shoot down Sturm's forces from his position. He also lacks the base firepower boost to his indirects as he does in Advance Wars 2, meaning that extended indirect range is the only perk he's got here. Olaf, taking the more balanced approach, can't really do much with his Blizzard CO Power, as this will slow down his allies as well as Sturm.
- The army to the east takes a far more important role, and takes a far more volatile approach to who becomes its CO. There's a road that leads to Andy's base far more quickly than the eastern army can, and there's an airfield that's a bit closer too. Fail to meet any of the conditions listed below, and you're stuck with Sami, whose direct units are inferior and whose capturing talents don't make much of a difference in a map with sparse properties for green to take control of, basically relegating her army to being nothing more than meteor bait throughout the mission. Unlock the secret Yellow Comet missions starring Sonja, and Kanbei takes control, who starts off with some heavy-hitting tanks that will be enough to protect Andy. The issue here is that in the Advanced difficulty Kanbei's Error, as stated above, is a bitch and a half to complete (and Sonja's missions aren't much better). Complete all the Green Earth missions as Sami, and Eagle controls this army. This sounds like the ideal strategy, as there are no naval units in this mission, and Eagle has a complete advantage with the airfield nearby. Of course, this all leads into the Brutal Bonus Level Rivals, listed below. Ironically, the "safest" option would be to complete the Green Earth missions as Andy, which leads to Drake being the CO here, which sounds like an awful option given the parameters above, but is still better than Sami as at least his tanks are average and he starts with enough to help out adequately (without having any middle-finger caveats like with Eagle).
- While "Re-Boot Camp" allows for a manual selection of Andy's allies in this mission, including the option to pair up Kanbei with a Green Earth CO, this comes with its own Sadistic Choice: With Sturm's CO power all but annihilating a clump of units and constantly being charged on account of being attacked by three armies at once, one must continue to sacrifice units to take the heat off the front line, which may be Andy's units caught in the thick of it, Kanbei's expensive reinforcements, or Green Earth's relief force. Blue Moon's troops at least acted as obvious fodder for this strategy, but it's quite tragic to see actually useful units be subject to Sturm's Meteor Strikes.
- On top of that, Sturm starts with a massive economic advantage, having 28 properties under his control, including four bases surrounding his HQ and two airports, as well as an expensive predeployed army. While Sturm's bombers can be shot down by the player on Turn 2, this will give Sturm more than enough charge to use Meteor Strike on his second turn.
- However, the level that stands head and shoulders above all is Rivals. Merely accessing the level requires a Guide Dang It! by defeating all 4 Green Earth Missions as Sami, one level of which, Wings of Victory, is That One Level unto itself. Proceed to defeat Sturm in the final mission, after which Eagle will challenge Andy to a "friendly" showdown. The map is wide, traversed by narrow bridges and islands, and you are given three foot soldiers, a small base, and are a long way off from the nearest neutral bases, which will not be neutral by the time you reach them seeing how Eagle starts with footsoldiers within capturing distance of them all. You are forced to play as Andy, one of the game's worst COs due to his lack of any noteworthy strengths and his completely lackluster power. The normal campaign version is harder than the majority of the Advanced Campaign missions because Eagle owns more cities with which to build an army at the start. The Advanced Campaign version? Eagle has all that, plus a massive starting army, including a sizeable air force that will be overrunning your base in only a few short turns. You've also got Fog of War to deal with now, which in this map is nothing more than a blatant handicap to your army since there are absolutely zero forests to hide in, removing your only recourse against an AI that flat-out ignores the fog. In both instances - but much more pronounced here - Eagle is using Lightning Strike, the best CO Power in the game. And with all those expensive air units you need to destroy, he will have very liberal use of that power. It gets to the point that the only way to defeat him is days (as in literal 24-hour days) of trial and error. Even then, you will still find yourself repeatedly picking your teeth up off the floor as Eagle's unstoppable mass of bombers, fighters, medium tanks, battle copters, and rockets steamroll their way over you again... and again... and again....
- There is a guide. It shows you exactly how to defeat the mission, by exactly, tile-by-tile, day-by-day, telling you how to fend off his attack in such a way, that allows you to escape with a few transport copters and infantry, while he overruns your base so thoroughly that you are actually depending on him saturating your properties, hoping that his own units block his infantry from taking your HQ. You then must execute a perfect suicide run for his HQ. If everything goes well, you'll triumphantly stand upon a shattered Green Earth HQ, a half-damaged infantry your sole remaining unit on the map, and 30-some game-days of anguish behind. However, Even this exhaustive strategy guide doesn't work 100% of the time. Sometimes, Eagle will move his Battle Copter in a way that makes the entire strategy futile. Many, if not most, of the games have a randomized AI routine that is set when you first enter the Advance Campaign 22 levels earlier. This determines whether Eagle in Rivals sports a minuscule Achilles' Heel, or if he is quite simply unbeatable.
- The only other way to have any hope of surviving this ordeal involves exploiting the AI, specifically attacking a specific unit at a specific place with a mech and hoping it does exactly 7 damage (less and it'll try to attack again, more and it'll retreat) so that it just stays where it is forever, completely negating one of the two land fronts. You'll still have to deal with Eagle's aerial onslaught and a land assault from the southern front, but all in all it takes the mission from "flat-out impossible" to "extremely difficult, but doable". However, if the Random Number God hates your guts, you're screwed.
- The War Room maps can also be quite challenging (so much so that many were actually made easier in the sequel), but perhaps the most infamous of all is Twin Isle. You're put on an island with you starting in the northwest and your opponent in the southeast, and the layout is quite simple. The problem here is that you start with only three properties (your HQ and two bases), while your opponent starts with fourteen. To make matters worse, your opponent is Kanbei, who is one of the most terrifying COs to face when he has an extreme property advantage, as it helps him compensate for his weakness of his units costing more to deploy. If you don't know what you're doing, you will get overrun in short order. Your best bet is to use Grit and pump out loads of infantry and artillery, and use the terrain to your advantage, or select Sturm to take advantage of his units' extra defense and movement uninhibited by terrain, but even then, the early game will be a precarious balancing act that you have to get right to win.
- "Factory Blues", as the Climax Boss finale of the Blue Moon arc, is what happens when Black Hole gets serious about using factory-made units. Unlike the Normal Campaign version of "Liberation" (the Hard Campaign version is also That One Level), there's no means of cutting the level short by rushing a bomber to the pipe seam; said pipe seam is now tucked far in the northern edge of the map, directly behind Lash's factory, which wastes no time in producing various tanks. The factory gate is also a lot closer to the Blue Moon base, making whatever offenses Lash makes that much faster. A common tactic is to get units to block the factory directly, but this will often result in casualties thanks to the factory not getting completely blocked or said units going under fire by traditionally-produced Black Hole units.
- "Show Stopper" stands out in the Yellow/Gold Comet chapter as being one of the more difficult missions in the act, aside from its finale. Sonja only starts with a couple units and factories, with little in the way of funding. Adder starts with a large army (though no production structures) and immediately sends them Sonja's way. With additional properties being just out of reach, Sonja doesn't have much in the way of using her fog of war-centric strengths against Adder in the immediate offensive, and the fortress itself is heavily fortified with mini cannons.
- "The Hunt's End" is the expected Climax Boss finale of the Yellow/Gold Comet arc. Yellow/Gold Comet is meant to bear the larger burden against Adder's forces while their ally must sneak around his flank to destroy the factory pipe. Adder is very smart in terms of using his factory unlike Flak and Lash from before, as he deploys a Battleship on Day One and doesn't let up. While there is a glitch where he doesn't send said Battleship your way in the original game, this has been swiftly rectified in "Re-Boot Camp". Immediate action is needed on Yellow/Gold Comet's part to counter these threats, and it's nigh-impossible to send troops to manually block the factory's way (one tactic involves Yellow/Gold Comet building a Battleship of their own and keeping it parked at their Seaport to prevent Adder from securing the nearby base and simply taking whatever damage it takes from any potential submarine attacks). Adder also sends forces against the other army, meaning that they'll also face heavy resistance in destroying the pipe.
- "Sea Fortress": This is a highly tactical mission with limited resources and an emphasis on unit placement and management. Your opponent is Hawke, who has a bunch of units with Anti-Air capability pre-deployed AND his Super CO power drains 2 health from all your units and heals all his by 2. That enemy you thought was almost dead? Nope, it's good to go. This forces you to be extremely cautious with your units and use what would normally be considered overkill, since they'll have to be able to sponge Hawke's attacks even after he uses either of his CO powers.
- "Sinking Feeling": On normal difficulty with the right strategy it's not too difficult to get your units in position to sink the battleships, and Lash can't create units that take advantage of her terrain-based talents (only eventually getting access to an airfield). On higher difficulties the time limit gets quite a bit more problematic, with Lash having access to a lot more immediate threats.
- "Drake's Dilemma" is a generally unpleasant mission. There's fog of war, requiring the need to scout ahead for targets and threats. Drake's navy is located in a lake whose southern half is monitored by the large black cannons that need to be destroyed, encouraging reef-hopping for his Battleships. While Kanbei is here to help, he doesn't start out with many properties, prohibiting his army financially. Hawke wastes no time in sending all his available troops your way. Sending a Battleship to destroy the cannons posthaste is essentially a necessity lest his and Kanbei's base get overwhelmed by Hawke's offensive. Hawke's black cannons aren't completely defenseless either, as he may have a few Rocket Launchers hidden away in the nearby forests, some of them out of reach of the water, rendering them essentially invincible.
- "To the Rescue" might serve as a break from fighting against Hawke's forces, but you now you're fighting Adder as you race against his forces to save Sami's small army from getting destroyed by his massive army. You might have Eagle with a decent sized squadron of Battle Copters, Fighters, and Bombers, but you also have to worry about destroying four laser cannons that fire from all directions. The mission comes down to precise timing, as one wrong move can have your Bombers either crippled (either by the laser cannons or the numerous Anti-Air units) or destroyed, which would take a lot longer for the cannons to get destroyed. Eagle doesn't start out with many properties and can't reliably capture any of the nearby ones without attracting Adder's forces nearby, meaning that what Eagle starts with is essentially all he's got. Sami's position is absolutely worthless as well, as she only has one Anti-Air (which is slightly weak already) and Adder's AI will make sure that Sami's Missile Launcher won't hit any of his air forces getting in the way. It say something that her best strategy is to have her Mechs run like hell though the mountains to Eagle's base.
- "Rain Of Fire" is not as bad as the other aforementioned levels until you remember that you're fighting HAWKE next to an active Volcano. Memorizing the Volcano's fall pattern and exploiting that to your tastes against the AI is usually the difference between victory and waiting your ass out for a couple of In-game days. Hawke also starts with one more base than Jess, and wastes no time in attempting to secure one more to the southeast, resulting in the region becoming a bloodbath.
- "Danger x9", the Neotank mission of Green Earth. As the title says, you have a nine-turn limit to either defeat Black Hole's troops or capture the lab and this is a very tall order if you try to do the latter. Not only do you have to face Hawke and his powerful CO powers in Fog of War conditions, his troops will usually shut down the easternmost base unless you are very strategic about things. It's even worse in Re-Boot Camp's Challenge Campaign. Hawke is dangerously smart and recognizes that he can lose this map if he sends out all his troops. So he doesn't. He keeps a single infantry unit back near the lab, on a mountain. The time it takes to get to that lab makes capturing more or less unfeasible - even if you could get a unit all the way to the lab, the infantry on the mountain will attack them. This single infantry unit will cause countless defeats, given just how much you have to rush to get enough attacking units to that mountain in the time allotted while fighting every other unit in the way.
- "Great Sea Battle", the last mission in the Green Earth campaign, will leave experienced players picking their teeth out of the gutter. Hawke (seeing a pattern yet?) has access to a factory, i.e. 3 free units per turn, while you're stuck with 3 meager bases. While you're still capturing cities and churning out your first Tank or Bomber, Hawke will be sending a few dozen units towards you, all while he gets covering fire from Cannons. Since you're managing 3 armies in this mission, you also have to move fast with your Green Earth troops to keep Orange Star from being overrun.
- While the mission allows for the selection of any CO, the only viable options here would be Eagle for Green Earth due to the open terrain, and either Andy or Max to hold the line, as Sami's infantry and capturing abilities wouldn't be of much use here.
- Yellow Comet is basically dead weight in this mission: They start with a tiny base, take forever to capture the nearby Airport since it's protected by a Minicannon, and are far away from the rest of the fighting. It doesn't help that none of their COs are a good fit: Sonja doesn't help when there's no Fog of War, Sensei isn't much use since Infantry won't encounter much resistance and airfields in this area being monitored by the various black cannons and Hawke's troops, and Kanbei's just impractical due to the low number of cities available. Ironically, Blue Moon, the one army that sits out of this mission, would have been a far more useful candidate in this position, with Grit's indirect power being useful for ending the mission decisively, Colin's discounts being incredibly helpful for the lack of resources, and even Olaf could have contributed with Winter Fury should it have become available. The only way to get some use out of the Yellow Comet army, cutting along the side of the map and destroying the pipe seam with Rockets, will complete the mission but result in a very low score. Paradoxically, this is also a good way to a high score, but you need to tightly coordinate Orange Star as a wall (since their losses don't hurt Technique), Green Earth to get one turn with multiple kills (for power), and Yellow Comet to end the map quickly for a Speed score, which requires far more forethought and choreography than even the most drawn out slug-fest. It gets worse in Re-Boot Camp due to its new scoring mechanic for multi-army missions; Yellow Comet's completely out of a job as using their army to break the pipe will guarantee a terrible Power score.
- Any map with Sturm is a qualifier, because you're shoehorned into battle against a Purposely Overpowered Game-Breaker. All of his units get a 20% bonus to offense AND defense and are unimpaired by all terrain, and his Super CO Power (Meteor Strike) will severely damage a patch of your best units and throw another substantial boost.
- Bonus points go to "Final Front" for the Hard Campaign version of the map somehow managing to be several orders of magnitude easier than the Normal Campaign version by virtue of Sturm starting with fewer bases, the side teams starting at the top of the map instead of the bottom (allowing them to coordinate a nice pincer strike with the center team instead of just ramming into Sturm's iron wall of troops and cannons in the NC version) and the Black Cannons facing up instead of down (the gimmick being that three pipe seams block the way to the cannons' weak point in HC... a gimmick that Grit completely negates with even a basic Artillery). The HC version of the map is actually quite fun, encouraging unique tactics and thinking outside of the box when coordinating your three armies. The NC version, in stark contrast, is nothing but a long, drawn-out slog with Sturm lording every advantage he could possibly have over you. The difficulty gap is so vast and counterintuitive that it honestly makes one wonder if the two maps were accidentally swapped from what they were intended to be.
- The Hard Campaign version of "Orange Dawn" is notorious not for being overly difficult, but for how long and tedious it is. You play as Max on a map which can basically be described as one long winding choke point, along with a laser cannon positioned in a way that covers the only base at the halfway point. Destroying said laser cannon requires Max to either buy up a Battleship or have his troops risk the danger and capture the base to build Rocket Launchers (Max's reduced indirect range prevent him from using Artillery units), something that would otherwise constitute a Violation of Common Sense (one more would be to intentionally have his Infantry units take damage from the laser cannon in order to capture the base within three days instead of several days). All the while, Flak lacks Max's indirect penalties and is perfectly capable of using his own Artillery and Rocket Launcher units to gain the upper hand against Max. It's telling that the limit for a perfect speed score is a staggering 27 days.
- "Liberation" becomes this on the Hard Campaign. Even though it's only mission 8, even though you're facing Flak. Having a factory with Hard Campaign production orders on such a small map with only one army and a few bases at your disposal is brutal on its own. He also now has a base plonked down right in front of the pipe seam, which means that unless you've got enough of an overwhelming force to destroy the units he produces from it and block the base from making more (while also fending off the units swarming you from the factory), you're not getting anywhere near that seam, ever. Even if you can reach the seam, it's likely that, by that point, your HQ will be getting overrun. Hard Campaign doesn't get anywhere near this difficult again until Green Earth, close to the endgame, so that on its own should give you a good idea of just what kind of nonsense you're up against.
- Verdant Hills is the first of many teeth gnashing missions. The AI just loves to Tag Break ending on Javier's turn. Since Javier ensures control of at least one tower, he will have so much defense that he pretty much prevents you from retaliating against your reduced control over the choke-point. The only "easy" way to win: ignore the top half of the map, which Javier and Jess will swarm over, and sneak a Mech to take the HQ once all of their units have left. Of course, this will destroy your Technique score. Getting an S Rank on this level will cause baldness, especially on Hard Campaign where there's MULTIPLE MEGATANKS.
- Crystal Calamity. Your first objective in the level is to fire off all nine Silos in the level whilst operating under a real time timer in an otherwise turn based game. The Timed Mission is one thing, but if the enemy secures even ONE Silo, you lose. What's worse than that is that if you spend too much time fighting and do too much damage to the enemy forces you charge their special moves, leading to the very definite possibility of an enemy tag break that grants Black Hole two turns for each unit meaning they'll almost certainly reach at least one silo. Talk about Fake Difficulty. Plus on Normal Campaign, Black Hole could send the Black Bomb toward red team and screw you over that way if you didn't cheap out a Day 1 T-Copter. And it doesn't even end there, as there's a second objective once the first one is done, and if you mess up there, you have to repeat the whole thing again. The level is so bad that Totally Flaked mocked it mercilessly. And if you're going for an S-Rank? Prepare to do this mission over, and over, and over again, praying things go right the next time.
- Dark Ambition is a boring piece of garbage thanks to Olaf's Winter Fury power that makes pushing through the defense of the HQ so annoying. In fact, if it weren't for that Stealth you get, you probably would lose thanks to the Megatank. (Yeah, what were you thinking, Allied Nations? You regarded the reverse engineering possibility and they actually would be causing you to lose if they actually had a Stealth of their own.) Hard Campaign makes it even worse by giving a Black Bomb to the enemy so you can't even use Orange Star's extra units to Hold the Line at the pipe seams in addition to more enemy troops.
- Pincer Strike. So many units, so many indirects, so much forest, so much fog, so much possibility of a Tag Break involving Drake, whose Super CO power does 2 damage to all your units and cuts their fuel in half. Not good for you. You're mostly better off barely bothering to tackle the enemy's naval force, believe it or not. Making it even more annoying is that Drake will occasionally decide to just spam his regular CO power instead of saving up for a Dual Strike, making you slog through the fuel-halving even more often. Unless you brought along Jess to counter Drake's power with her own (though it only helps her army: the other is SOL) and/or Sasha to shut down Drake's power with Market Crash, this fight becomes a literal stall-fest (for your side, anyway) in short order. One big trick against the A.I. is to have Grit on the Blue team to place pressure on Drake's Rockets that are stationed in cities.
- Ring of Fire has difficulty dissonance on its fronts. How does the top front manage to be so very difficult but the bottom one which is the one that matters manage to be so very easy? Part of it has to do with facing Kanbei with a very good pre-deployed team, letting him get his units' boosts without having to worry about shelling out his high costs for them.
- Surrounded, especially the Hard version. It's made even worse that you don't automatically win by routing the enemy force, and only win by capturing the towers with your ever so slow Infantry, so Kindle looks like a big time cutscene abuser.
- Neverending War on Hard Campaign involves having the map flooded with enemy Neotanks while you can't deploy anything better than a normal Tank. Some suggest to get the airport, but that's still a dragged out war. And the 100 Speed limit is how many Days again?
- Victory Or Death! is fairly annoying on normal mode, and gets even worse in the Hard Campaign. It's mostly due to just how many things the game throws at you at once: there's sandstorms to nerf your indirect units; the Black Arc is introduced, and it shells the center base every turn with a 9 HP bomb, making it practically worthless at first (and since it doesn't affect Black Hole units, Koal is free to capture it at his leisure); the Black Crystal provides free healing; and it's the first two-front battle. Hard Mode gives Koal a few extra air units, including a Bomber, and they will gun it for your troops immediately. The second front isn't too hard to win, and you get your second CO back once you do, but the bottom front will be a huge slog until then.
- Snow Hunters is a forgettable map on the normal campaign, but Hard Campaign amps up the difficulty considerably. Black Hole's pre-deployed forces now include a full-fledged navy, an additional Bomber for his air forces, and a Megatank and Rocket Launcher on the ground. Not helping the situation is that one of the neutral cities on the map will unlock the Piperunner laboratory mission once you capture it and you're fighting against Hawke once again, so you're in for a long slog no matter what you do.
- Greyfield Strikes. It's not exactly hard, per se, but the game itself actively sabotaging your efforts by disabling your most critical units every fourth day will quickly grate on your nerves. Got a killer fleet of battleships wrecking the enemy ground forces? Nope, gotta take 'em offline. Mechs in range of an HQ capture? Can't have that; we're shuttin' 'em down. The mission can still be won (and even S-ranked) easily enough with a little coordination, but the unit shutdown gimmick just makes the battle drag on for far longer than it has to.
- A Hero's Farewell. The sea throws a Battleship and an Aircraft Carrier at you and the rough seas and lack of your own predeployed Battleship keeps you from doing much about either one quickly enough to avoid letting your Cruiser get shot, and if you don't kill the Battleship in one turn, your Submarine will inevitably get hit by the enemy Cruiser. The Aircraft Carrier, meanwhile, sends out Seaplanes. As for the land front, you're not going far quickly because of a terrain-covered Rocket Launcher, which allows Forsythe to build up.
- The best part: if you go into the Tactics Room, instead of Lin, Forsythe himself tells you how to go about the mission. He's an Anti-Villain, yes, but still... the enemy CO takes pity on you!
- Waylon Flies Again is considered one of the hardest non-boss missions in the entire series. You start off with NO factories or airfields - which your opponent DOES have - while the enemy has a HUGE air force ready to attack. Your allied army Tasha has an inadequate amount of anti air only to slow them down while your one Anti-Air in the center - and, inevitably, your infantry surrounding the center - get bombed to Hell. And if the Lazurian army loses all of its units, you lose (fortunately Tasha will always keep a missile launcher parked on her HQ). Ground units will be bogged down no matter which flank you decide to go around the mountains; the north is full of wasteland that will slow down any motorized units while the southern one is further away from your factories and is longer in general. This is also the moment where Waylon takes full advantage of his CO ability and zone, one that's larger than Tasha's and increases the defense of his air units, translating into more fliers that are more difficult to kill. The one redeeming factor is Will's Shut Up, Hannibal! to Waylon on the 2nd or 3rd day, his second Momentof Awesome in the game.
- What's that? Look for a day-by-day guide? Thanks to how Waylon's programmed in this stage, there aren't any. Waylon's actions are completely random, making a day-by-day guide impossible to consistently follow; even the best FAQ can only plot his actions up to about Day 4 before they have to give up. Fittingly, Waylon tends to avoid the range of your anti-air units like the plague, which becomes really problematic when you can't move your anti-air tanks or missile launchers into position.
- The thing about this mission is that it doesn't seem so bad at first. Even though you're heavily outnumbered at first, there isn't real time limit (enforced or effective), no map gimmicks like Crystal Calamity, no overpowered enemy CO's like Hot Pursuit or Final Front, no blatant resource cheating like Great Sea Battle, or all of the above like Sunrise. It's just you, Waylon, and a huge stretch of map between the two of you... and the resulting aerial slugfest will just grind your soul down.
- Sunrise: The Nest provides explosive bombs to rip apart your units at the most inconvenient times, infinite free units which can whatever Caulder damn well pleases, and lasers covering rough terrain to keep your forces spread thin and repeatedly suffer the abuse. And it's made worse that Caulder, with daily healing and ridiculous 150/150 combat boosts to anything near enough his unit or just his unit itself, makes Sturm look like a Joke Character. Watch as a Duster with him loaded effortlessly destroys your Fighter. It's amazing how the level has a consistent Day-To-Day guide on YouTube that makes it so easy to beat. Oh, and here's the best part: you have to repeat the level 10 times to get a certain medal.
- Said Day-To-Day guide is pretty much the only way to complete it, and even then only if Caulder feels like following it. For instance, if he uses a Fighter instead of a Duster, you're screwed because he's only able to target your precious bombers instead of being distracted by other units. Also, said guide completes the mission in around 10 days at most. At a certain amount of days, he will generate Seaplanes, which hit your units hard and without restriction. If you don't win by Day 13, Caulder pretty much tells you to give up. Now that's nothing uncommon for video game villains, but unlike most others, he's not bluffing. It's possible to beat it after 13 days, but good luck getting a half-decent rank. This level requires you to beat this level fast and strategically.
- This
completes the mission in six Days.
- Several non-campaign maps are an absolute terror. Comb Map casts you as a small force away from your own base, with powerful enemies bearing down on that base from all sides. It's guaranteed to be one of your longest missions ever.
- Jay Islands is a four-way marine battle of attrition in Fog of War where you're constantly taking one step forward and two steps back. There doesn't appear to be any comprehensive day-to-day guide for Jay Islands online, probably because winning it takes equal parts patience and blind luck. It started life as a Versus map in earlier games, but becoming a Trial map in Days of Ruin meant that it now has a score attached, making it more compelling but also difficult. This latter aspect is only added to by the new units in the game and, particularly, the tricky enemy CO combination of Greyfield, Waylon and Tabitha. You'd better know how best to play to Gage's strengths. And don't count on Waylon or Tabitha gaining much of an advantage over the other by the time you've routed Greyfield; they're more likely to be at a stalemate, forcing you to split your forces between them.
- Tatter River, a massive 4-CO map, the largest map in the whole game. The sheer size alone makes it daunting, but the biggest challenge comes from establishing aerial supremacy on a map where everybody has a few airports and plenty of money. Oh, and all the HQs are surrounded by rivers, which only infantry and air units can cross. When you cross any of those rivers, there will be loads of Anti-Air units (which are also the most effective anti-infantry units) waiting for you on the other side. The turn limit for a 100-point Time score on this map is 50 days, by the way.
- Wedding Ring is a copter-and-infantry focused race to capture as many cities as possible where the AI will punish you severely for the slightest misstep. As in many of the smaller Trial Maps, you're meant to go right for the opponent's HQ rather than actually try to fight them.
- Metro Map. The blue team not only starts with a property advantage, but get to work with a nasty forest clump that is even more bothersome to the player. It desperately needs a Day-To-Day guide, but the sole one available is for the high score that requires too much luck, even with Save Scumming.
- Triangle Lake is another pretty hard Trial map despite being the first one unlocked through the campaign. The enemy outnumbers you two to one and has several indirect units, including an Anti-Tank parked on the HQ. While you do control the only factory on the map, it still requires a lot of strategizing in order to get a good score.
- Time Map. It's a very small map and, similar to "Waylon Flies Again" above, the actions of the three AI players are totally random, and two of them have armies consisting solely of TEN WAR TANKS. The idea is to weaken them with constant barrages from missile silos, but there's no guarantee that the third AI won't attack you with them (because their army, like yours, is seven Mechs). Not only this, but if you want a high score, you can't just sit back and let the armies destroy each other because that causes the Power score to tank. There's also no comprehensive guide to this one, due to its highly random nature.
