Bethany Plays: AWDoR Chapter 5: Building Blocks

Our first time changing direction! Not that it matters, but it's a difference. We can also see that there are some new mechanics to be introduced this map from the preview alone! We'll discuss what's going on there once we get on the map, because that's one of the biggest features in the game.

We sure could use some of those, after what happened last map.

I'm sorry, where are we? This feels like the name Freehaven should've had, and vice versa- the Mayor's the one with history with Brenner, and these guys are strangers.

Another reason to not call this place "New". I'm not sure that is an accurate word.

Brenner asks to see what's going on here, and would like to make an effort not to have Freehaven happen again. It probably depends more on the survivors than on us, but let's not give them a reason.

We get a cutaway, and find ourselves one of those civilians. This one has a name- a promising sign. Although it is very funny he's almost got the same pose as Brenner here.

Now then, is he actually more co-operative than the Mayor?

Not only is he willing to give us the time of day, but he actually knows us! Sounds like the kind of guy it'd be excellent to know.

A man of science, or at least a man with enough of an education to earn some kind of doctorate.

As an answer to the question "Are you the one I talk to when talking to your community as a group", that's a yes, although the question might be more complicated when talking about "are you the one that directs the community".

He's at least smart enough to know that his education was not in leadership, but apparently his people thought it was close enough.

...

I read this and realise that this man must have been an absolute hell to localise. This exact pun strikes me as one that comes about as part of a workaround for a Japanese pun that didn't quite stick the landing when translated literally.

For what it's worth, we are not intended to laugh at it either way.

Brenner certainly isn't.

Rather than trying to dump Will and Isabella on the New Wolfington citizens, he instead just asks for short-term supply help. I wonder if this is supposed to be a different request thanks to Will's request.

From the sounds of things, Brenner isn't in luck. For now, though, we are going to be distracted from this subject of conversation.

Don't be silly, Dr. Morris. Brenner knows better than to shoot at things that aren't enemies.

For both supply reasons and the "don't make stupid casualties" reasons.

Brenner is happy to fight off raiders regardless of whether the people have asked him to.

...Wow, this map is very green. The game has a few aesthetics for maps, but ironically, there's one it doesn't actually use in story missions at all. I kinda feel like they shouldn't have used grassy maps this early.

Stupid is more likely to kill you. At least more likely to kill someone, at any rate. No guarantees you kill the person you want to die.

Now then, this map is our introduction to an Advance Wars staple, production. Maps that don't have some means of production are rarer than the alternative, but Advance Wars likes holding off introducing production until it's confident you know enough about the basic units to know what to build.

Speaking of, how exactly, narratively, does production work in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where resources are scarce?

The game's answer is to speak really fast on the subject and hope you don't ask too many questions.

Since Morris is explaining to Brenner and not Will, the game does have a cursory explanation as to why Brenner is being exposited to. And as explanations go, "I never used the controls myself" is as good as any. Odds were he was given units and told to get to work before the meteors.

Key note: Only red factories may produce units for us. How do we capture factories and turn them red? Well, that's another part of how production works we'll discuss back on the map.

Honestly, the game implying that at least some of these units have real people in them makes things worse than the vague implication the units are entirely mechanical that comes from the earlier explanation.

While Dr. Morris is happy to operate the factory and the narrative issues with production, actually deciding which units to produce and how to direct them will remain in Brenner's hands. And Brenner will be far better at the job.

Brenner asking a genuine question on this one. Probably a bit of cynicism you pick up from talking to the Mayor.

Dr. Morris has no specific reason for helping us- he just knows Brenner is a man who helps all the survivors he can, and has a pretty good idea that making him as able as possible to continue doing this sort of thing is really nice for humanity in general and the humans Brenner happens to be standing next to in specific.

We're back under Brenner's command this time, so back to Hope Never Dies. Now then, time to learn about the mechanics involved in production.

In specific, the units that can perform a Capture are the Infantry, Mech, and Bike. In the Advance Wars trilogy, Bikes didn't exist, so using "footsoldier" to describe Capture-capable units as a collective was a valid term. Since Bikes don't move around on their feet, it's less useful here, but you'll probably catch me using the term out of habit.

We'll have to perform a Capture before we start doing production, which will take a few days. For now, let's see what we're up against.

We and They. Just look at that numerical disadvantage. Sure, one bike, one recon, one arty, and two tanks doesn't sound like much, but without a half-decent chokepoint, there's no real way to leverage our better tactical mind.

We can also see one of the three new tiles underneath one of those tanks, the HQ building. The HQ is the building that most COs command their forces from in all Advance Wars games, and thus Capturing it is universally considered a valid win condition.

We can also see this reflected in our Terms option. We can also see that having our own HQ Captured will be a loss condition, so it'll be important to remember not to let that happen. Our HQ is the building next to the Mech.

Speaking of our menu, let's see if the War Room has any advice about production.

Will shares my confidence that Brenner will be able to comment on the tactical implications of making certain choices.

Brenner quickly disabuses us of the notion that he has his ducks in a row. To be fair, that's why I'm here.

As inspiring of a yearbook quote that is, I am hoping for a short term plan or something.

Will even gets a moment to go "um, what" and wonder if it's too late to find another team.

That much I had gathered. Producing at least one unit seems pretty damn important.

That's a pretty good idea in general, and one we'll be making a lot of use of, but I do wonder what terrain Brenner has in mind here.

You make it sound so simple.

Indeed they can. Repairs are an interesting mechanic, because a unit only repairs 2HP every day, and does so in exchange for Funds. As a result, most players typically prefer Joining for HP restoration. I think repairs got a new life in DoR because of the new Technique scoring, but it's still very costly on many resources and you should consider a unit doing repairs useless for a good few days longer than the repairs themselves take.

Artillery are really good. Avoid being caught in their range at all costs.

Even if you're not confident, do try and not show it in front of the new kid.

Or maybe it's best he learn it now than later.

Talking and speeches? Lin is the better tactician, yes, but I'm fairly sure talking is not her strong suit.

She's very enjoyable to listen to, but she's not the kind of commander that gets the troops' morale high.

One thing's for sure, though- good at speeches or no, never let Lin go. You two need her.

Time for us to play this map. Brenner adds the tutorial about Capturing.

A very minor change from the Advance Wars trilogy is that the mildly iconic and certainly charming animation of a unit jumping up and down on a building has gone. Either due to tone or "they couldn't figure out how to get a bike unit to do it". It will be missed, but this charge bar does give nice visual feedback on how close you are to a completed Capture.

To be specific on the mechanics of Capturing, a unit that has been ordered to Capture will bump up the bar by a number equal to their current visible HP (for a full health unit, this is 10). All properties, regardless of purpose, must reach 20 points in order to change allegiance.

Also worth mentioning, but if you move a Capturing unit off a property for any reason, your next attempt will start from zero, regardless of whether or not you replace it with the same unit. Joining will allow you to maintain an ongoing Capture attempt while reinforcing the unit, if you need to, but it's typically safe to assume that, if you are being shot at during a capture, you probably need some more hardware than a Join to secure it.

Our other footsoldiers demonstrate their ability to Capture by doing so on these neutral cities here. A city will generate 1000 Funds a day while it is under your control, and you want every bit of that you can get. It's not super important on this map, but do try to keep up.

This recon is the furthest The Beast can move. Fortunately, it's nowhere near my Capturing units.

Lets us get started on some setup.

He says, without any factories on his side of the map.

With that said, The Beast does take the time to start capturing properties. He will also gain income from this, which he may spend on repairs, but it's not particularly likely he'd run out.

As an overall strategy, however, The Beast has opted to shift his units every which way and file his tired units onto the roads. The Beast's peculiar opening gambits are part of, if not the whole, reason that this map works- we need only a limited number of units arriving before we actually have production starting.

Anyway, it's now our second turn, let's start seizing some property.

To be clear, by "limited", he means "you can only build a small sample of the types of units DoR has to offer". The only limit on quantity is how much Funds we get.

This isn't hardcoded into the factory. What he means is that you can only build a unit on an unoccupied factory, and on this particular Day, the factory is currently being occupied by the Mech who just captured it. You cannot Delete units that have already moved, so there is no way to get the capturing Mech off our factory today and still have it be our turn.

And while we're at it, let's get the cities, too.

Sometimes, the words they use to explain mechanics strike me as particularly confusing. The only thing capturing a city is good for is increasing your Funds. You do not need to capture a certain number of cities to produce specific units or anything.

Dr. Morris begins to attempt an explanation on how exactly Funds work, but Will tells him to knock it off. It is way above his pay grade, for one thing, and also I'm not sure how much sense the explanation would've made in the first place.

Ah, yes, that makes perfect sense, thank you!

Speaking of properties, here are their stats as terrain. Their high defence and low movement cost would make them terrific places to stand even without their Funds-related mechanics. I do notice they nerfed cities, though- back in the Advance Wars trilogy, they had three stars, same as the factories. I guess the devs thought cities were just a bit too good. This does also help you land a good disruption of an enemy capture- as well as the same in return.

This tank remains out of range, but at the very edge of it. Going to the "not touching you" school of positioning, very annoying.

This bike seems a bit more annoyingly placed. Not much I can do about this, so may as well hope it goes for the city.

Now then, let's see what The Beast does.

He sure is advancing his goal of seizing production. Sans production.

Ah, our poor Bike is finding some new friends.

Lin immediately jumping in to explain unit repairs. The supplies will restore all Ammo and Fuel to maximum at zero cost, regardless of the unit's HP value, but the repairs will only go up 2 HP at a time. This is why repairing a unit can be a time investment you can't afford.

On our turn, we can see both a Supply and a Repair. They go so fast that I don't get a screenshot of the "Supply" speech bubble until the end of the mission, but trust me, it's the same as the "Repair" one. 6 HP on the Bike is a bit unfortunate, though.

I wanted it Capturing this property, and it'll be forced to take 4 Days doing it instead of 3. It can't be helped, and it's out of the way anyway.

The Bike shall be avenged. Although I would have really liked that finishing blow.

Infantry lands the finishing blow. This sort of thing is considered bad for Power, but I kinda need units shooting more than I need to work on my Power.

Although that tank does limit my options for disrupting that formation. That's irritating.

After moving our mech off the factory, we receive more dialogue telling us about production. I swear it's not nearly this drawn out in the other Advance Wars games...

Right, time to discuss production proper. Each factory may produce a single unit, which will appear with its turn spent. We are given the option of purchasing any one of the units we have already seen thus far in the game. Here, we can also see our unit prices directly- Funds spent on Repairs or recouped with Joins will be calculated by "1HP = 10% of this listed price".

These prices are also mostly the same as the Advance Wars trilogy, except when it comes to the footsoldiers. Infantry used to cost 1000 and Mechs 3000. The raised price on infantry makes infantry spam techniques require more thought, but I do have to wonder what made them buff Mechs. And with Flares being more expensive than Recons, I can't see myself buying them often.

I build a tank. On maps like this, an armour line is what we need- it's too easy to flank an artillery.

It also helps that the tank I've got is going to be taking a dent. Gotta deal with these units coming in.

My recon does for the bike that isn't capturing.

The one that is isn't going to be attacking me this turn.

Yeah, saw that one coming. Recon's running away to heal, but I'm in no rush to deal with it.

I have bigger problems. Namely, a tank.

...In retrospect, not 100% certain on that decision. Don't think the tank was good for much else, though.

At least we're cranking them out fast. I believe we have the income to break even, or even ahead, making a tank a turn.

Still, now is the time to set up on the properties.

Two days down.

The Beast continues retreating that recon. It'll be back.

The enemies that attacked did some unpleasant numbers to our non-tank units. Fortunately, I didn't care about those numbers anyway.

And the recon even got a little reinforcement.

Since the bike took damage in return fire, I thought this was good odds of a oneshot, and thankfully, it was. Turns out artillery levels can be tricky to raise.

Shame the tank couldn't finish off its opposite number, but at 2 HP, it's not doing much. And yes, I'm out of range of the Mech.

Capture should be easy next turn.

Recon and Mech teamed up for that guy. Can't afford to leave an infantry standing.

I feel much more free to advance, and also decide to build a replacement Bike. Both to join with the one that already exists, and to march on the HQ when we can.

Bike and recon are repairing now. I'm still watching those two tanks.

...That's unpleasant, but mostly because I'll have to send a tank down there to finish it off.

Bike came back for more, but fortunately, didn't destroy the Mech. That's a useless unit, though.

Honestly, this wasn't even that great a capture. I mean, what am I going to do with it, make a profit from tank-a-turn? I guess that does offset repair costs...

Had to shoot a Mech with a tank and took some chip in return. Don't underestimate a Mech that still has its bazooka.

These footsoldiers are going to be retreating, but I haven't entirely decided to where.

Well that's annoying, but I suppose I should've seen it coming.

The tanks really don't have much forward movement, so we're pretty good to stick our bike wherever. Hopefully they start moving forward sooner rather than later, though.

And another tank. Building like units is great for having material to Join close at hand.

This confrontation continued, but now our Bike is healing from its property.

Still, please stop.

Mech doing an exact KO. It doesn't matter that it costs me power score, positioning is just too damn important.

Bike gets started on trying to paint that black city red. Haven't decided yet if I actually want to seize it for healing.

The recon does decide to take repairs. This is around the point I realised I wasn't going to be building units for Joining purposes- wanted too many tanks.

And I still don't have a real defensive line.

At least I got one closer.

A swift end to it. And I only need to bait one more out in preparation.

No matter where the tank comes out too, there will be a response. Although the fact it's down here is a bit annoying.

Decided to make the Capture. I do like me some property capture.

Also the other Bike needs time to wheel in.

I build one more tank. When dealing with those arties, it helps to be able to shoot twice per.

Also The Beast isn't moving much. Staying out of range and annoyingly positioned.

Well, the recon offered itself up as bait, at least.

Rather fortunately, the recon has also positioned itself such that this tank can shoot either one on its next turn, and with that tank out of range, we have our pick of disabling shots.

I move the full HP bike to be in range of the enemy HQ, in case I have designs on Capturing it as a wincon.

OK, no idea what that's going to accomplish. I guess the Bike wanted to feel like it was helping.

My other tank parks itself here, and serves as the perfect bait. That arty is ready and waiting with a shell.

I decide not to build any more units. Recall that Technique is graded by comparing your units to that of the enemy's- building units you do not require to beat the mission is counterproductive. Honestly, that last tank is looking a bit unnecessary.

Tank took the bait hook, line and sinker.

Checkmate.

...Oof. One tile short. Being actually in range would've required being in range of the tank, though, and a matching defensive line. Remember, those tanks behind it were destroying a recon last turn, they couldn't have helped out with that.

Well, let's give these artillery something to think about.

Can't finish them off, but I can stay out of their range while still threatening them.

And that "surplus" tank finishes off the enemy tank while keeping my Power score in good spirits.

As we end the map, let's take a moment to look at our funds. The Beast has been earning money passively from those three-four properties he's got his hands on while I've been blowing seven grand a turn on tanks, and I still have a significant chunk of change on him. Properties are going to be important, especially when we move on to maps where the enemy forces have actual production.

...Oh, right. This arty can shoot at the other tank. That extra tank is going to come in handy once again.

Finally, a shot of the "Supply" speech bubble!

Let's just get started on ending this.

I spend an action with the Bike beginning a HQ Capture. We can end this turn, so we don't have the option of doing it, but sadly, there doesn't seem to be any extra oomph to the dramatic capture.

OK, admittedly, I think showing that off cost me some Power, but, like, half a point at best.

...I hope. I didn't actually math out the formula.

After a point, it's just gotta be an embarrassment to the art of raiding. Wonder why his men haven't deserted.

Dr. Morris throws out one last comment, to justify why we can't recycle the units that we gain from production. It's not like the Advance Wars trilogy ever justified this, honestly. Going out of their way to justify it probably hurt more than it helped.

But production is more than fun enough.

Another nice S, but with little in the way of overkill. Good to know those Power and Technique sacrifices I made in the way of securing victory weren't too penalising.

Good question. I believe we were negotiating with Dr. Morris. But first, let's take another look at our stats screens after the grading.

Now that production is available, a few of the stats on this screen start to make more sense. We can see that properties only count what is owned at the end of the map, and it is now possible to spend Funds- both on Repairs (which is where The Beast's numbers come from) and on production (my own). I'm a little skeptical on my Loss Value, but I suppose I did take a few hits. Kinda surprised there's no Funds Accrued stat, though.

Anyway, back to talking to Dr. Morris.

As synonymous as "research" and "lab rat in a maze" is, the discoveries that lab rat mazes helped us solve were not medical in nature, but related to learning. While lab rat mazes can be done to investigate the effects of brain damage... let's just say Morris doing those kinds of experiments kinda makes him come off looking worse.

Anyone else in there survive, by the way? Techs, other doctors?

I'm, like... fairly sure medical research and medical practice are different careers? I mean, my mum's a paramedic, so I'm fairly clear that doctors and first-responders have different skillsets, so I can only imagine the extra leap a researcher would need to jump to either.

...I maintain my question of whether this man is qualified to be a medical practitioner of any kind.

Look, there's jokes that are unfunny because they are stupid and there's jokes that are unfunny because they raise uncomfortable implications. I think the implication that everyone you've ever helped has been lucky to be saved is pretty uncomfortable.

Even the people who owe him their lives won't back up his jokes. I think that should say plenty.

The parallel between Brenner and Morris is well-founded in actions, at least. There's also the potential one could point at their backgrounds- medical research and military are both fields that attract do-gooders but have a disproportionately high reputation of churning out monsters. I think we can pretty safely say Brenner and Morris are glad to be doing the good parts of their job now that their only overseer is Mother Nature.

Brenner objects to being compared to Morris on the grounds that he is capable of delivering a good joke. I'll believe it when I see it- Lin's got you outstripped in that field.

...You know, I wasn't entirely expecting the game to delve into that aspect with Morris. The whole "conflating medical research and medical practice" thing. No, they're aware that men who find themselves in Morris's line of work only help people in the abstract.

Medical research does have the important benefit of allowing you to test treatments without risking a real patient's life. In times like these, though, there are too many patients and not enough time to do anything but the tried and true cures. I can hardly imagine there are enough living organisms to want to risk some on experiments.

Brenner's line does offer a nice suggestion that perhaps he's had his own issues with his career path not matching his current lifestyle. The game has a bit more to say about that later, though.