Our next mission is south, but we can see our first example of a Trial Map off to our east there. There are 38 Trial Maps scattered around the map, and they are plot-less challenge missions with COs that have little basis in narrative (where they have any to begin with). I won't be covering them, especially not during the story.
Right, so what kind of home are we going to be talking about here?
When last we left our heroes, we just had the hope of a food-producing factory torn from us at the last moment. This problem still needs solving, and we have no real direction to move on to.
We've only known him for two chapters and he's already floundering. Not exactly what one would call a promising omen.
I can't imagine they exactly grew on trees. They're the one growing the trees, after all.
Ah, yes, our tagalong girl with a special interest in military workings will know where to look!
...She's serious.
Of course she's serious, we're in the HQ now!
I can't believe it either. You have standards? I've seen the places you've made jokes.
The real problem will be trying to figure out how to place it on a map, honestly. Will the landmarks she knows still exist-
...Well, those are certainly very resilient reference markers. You could put a push-pin on a point like that.
For what it's worth, if you were to look for 25.345N, 131.035W on a map of our globe, you would find yourself in the middle of the ocean somewhere between Mexico and Hawai'i.
On this planet, there are mountains there. Shoutouts to Lin for being able to translate lat'n'long into a place on the map.
By "nuclear", I think they mean "in the event of nuclear activity outside the shelter", not "nuclear-powered".
...Although it probably is nuclear-powered.
I mean... you're a civilian doctor and a low-rank soldier, respectively.
This is a golden parachute for the rich.
Assuming they are using American clearances as a baseline, Grade IV is the highest level.
Even for someone who actually has such clearances, an encyclopedic knowledge like that is one that raises an eyebrow or two. Mostly because most young girls with such clearances probably won't even think about them until they're directly relevant.
At this point in the conversation, her brain starts to short-circuit. It does, however, suggest exactly where she got her information from.
Well, we've clearly tapped that well of information.
Hopefully this is just a temporary block and not a debilitating one.
Not lying, for sure. If there's a malicious agent involved here, it's not Isabella.
I am curious about what is waiting for us there, at the very least.
...Well, that's certainly got our attention.
...I think I only have more questions here. Who is this punk-ass dude rocking a pompadour and shades like he's trying to be cool to the 50s?
...And also who are the Lazurians, I suppose...
From the sounds of things, Rubinelle and Lazuria were two nations at war when the meteors struck, and these particular Lazurians are still shooting at Waylon.
I reserve the right to say this is not necessarily related to the war.
Anyway, we're your backup, punk.
So then, who exactly are you and what reason would Lazuria have for shooting at you? Other than personality?
Waylon decides to object to the idea of rigor because he hates being tied down. I mean, you do you, but also who the hell are you?
He's right about us not following the orders of the big brass. Either they're not around or our radio network isn't, but either way...
No more Rubinelle. We serve the people directly.
Waylon's fine with things the way they are. As positive as this sounds, this might be a bit of a red flag.
Oh hey, Waylon actually winds up announcing his name and rank after all. Seems Waylon is roughly equal in rank to Brenner.
Saying that you won the lottery by surviving the meteors is... well, not wrong, but that's not exactly the tone I'd be using to describe it. You're... enjoying this, aren't you?
At any rate, Waylon is currently being beset upon by a new opponent, and we're taking his side. I assume because he's outnumbered.
Back in Brenner's command today.
Something I find kinda weird in the moment is that both Fire Emblem and Advance Wars typically use green as the Player 3 colour. Only Fire Emblem uses the heuristic "green units are neutral", Advance Wars struggles to portray civilians on a map as "green units". Even Waylon here is represented by a unit that can defend himself if shot at.
Days of Ruin doesn't have a green faction at all this time. Which is honestly even stranger.
Lin: "...Change of plans, shoot to kill."
We can observe Waylon's presence as a third party unit on the top screen. He will be AI-controlled, but his plane will not be an available target for our units. The turn order is, intuitively, Brenner > Waylon > Lazurian.
Here is our map. That is a lot of new units to be introduced to. Let's see if the War Room is any help first, though.
Oh? We have a special guest?
Ah, right.
...You know military tactics, Morris?
Ah, yeah, of course, he's being used for his skills as a Greek chorus.
Or lack thereof, as the case may be.
Lin is already regretting all of her decisions.
Air units require a specific type of unit to counter. We have some anti-air units on hand today, but only one air unit of our own.
Anti-air units are traditionally either weaker or helpless against ground units. It's often useful to think of ground > anti-air > air > ground as Advance War's equivalent of the weapon triangle. Unlike Fire Emblem, though, ground, air, and anti-air units are so distinct that their position in the triangle is only part of why you would choose to use that weapon type.
Just progress in general. Cities aren't super important this map. And honestly, capturing cities on the way is kinda counter-productive, particularly if Speed is your goal.
Rockets are the queen of indirect attackers. With that said, on this map, approaching it is not as bad as Lin makes it out to be. On future maps, though, it's worth keeping in mind.
...Now I'm curious what the hell is going on in this joke at all. It's not going to be a good joke, but it could be worth an autopsy.
Lin comes up with the darnedest sentences sometimes.
Closer to camp than yours is, that's for sure.
"Fortunately, it took a hit for my sarcasm."
We all know we're here for you. Now then, a tactical low-down on the actual units we've got.
The anti-air battery is a melee unit for dealing with air units. It is also capable of shooting at other ground units, and is actually one of the best units for dealing with enemy infantry- its Vulcan Cannon deals massive damage to them, and it won't use machine guns instead on account on not having them. This is also the main weakness of the unit- it's helpless once its fired its six shots until you refuel it.
The missile truck is the indirect brother of the anti-air. It will delete air units, but the traditional weaknesses of indirect units are particularly glaring when dealing with air units. Air units have high move and are not slowed by terrain, so an air unit can handily kite a missile truck. Still, a missile truck can create a zone of air denial if you don't want an air unit poking around your formation. Just don't expect the missile to be the one shooting down the plane.
The basic building block of an airforce, the Battle Copter is a bit like a tank, except it ignores terrain and is only shot back with machine guns rather than shells from ground tanks. They're pretty cheap compared to other air units, but they're not particularly special and can get worn down pretty easily. I always preferred planes myself.
This is the unit Waylon is using. Fighters are dogfighters that are dedicated to dealing with enemy aircraft- exceptional at it, since other aircraft can't shoot back, but limited to this specific situation. That nine move is something it's worth remembering as I play this map, though.
Under Lazurian command is this new-to-DoR unit, the crop duster. It's an odd hybrid of a battle copter and a fighter- shooting at both air and ground units, but only able to be fired on by anti-air. I haven't got much experience with these, and I've heard conflicting comments on whether they're good at their job, but they are certainly good at being a pain to bring a unit to deal with.
And then we get to this unit. The bomber is the unit you deploy an airforce for the chance to deploy- this thing can wipe out lightly armoured ground units on its own, and does serious damage to heavy armour like the medium and war tanks consequence-free. If you have one of these units around, it is the unit to respect.
And then we have this goofy fellow. This is the bigger brother of the artillery, able to shoot from a greater distance at the cost of its tired movement making it harder to position. They also do greater damage, too. It's a little weird they're just dropped in our lap now, but it is true that usually, approaching it with air units is the way to deal with it.
All of our new units are around here. Anti-airs and missiles are in red, Fighter in yellow, Duster and Bomber in blue, and the rocket parked behind these mountains in a very good position.
Our first order of business is to demonstrate the power of a missile truck. See this plane?
No you don't. Keep planes outside the attack range of a missile truck or lose it. No ifs, ands, or buts.
Anti-airs aren't quite as decisive, which is somewhat unfortunate, but it's probably better for the game balance. It does mean we'll have to find another unit to finish off this duster.
My infantry get started on capturing properties. Also we can see that the duster hasn't dented the anti-air for its trouble. Not a promising sign.
I send a bike north to begin the capturing, and build a new one. I'm not sure which one will be aiming for the HQ yet, but sending one both ways is a good way to make sure one gets there.
Tank goes east, arty goes north. This matches what I expect them to fight, but it is annoying they'll have to hoof it somewhat to get there.
One of my anti-airs is going this way. It always pays to make sure every force you have is prepared to deal with air if necessary.
Unfortunately, missiles are also on wheels, so they don't really have a good way of getting places.
Waylon gets a turn, but he immediately ends it as soon as he receives it. It's so short it's not even worth mentioning his theme.
...It is worth mentioning the fact that he's already got the heraldry for a "New Rubinelle Army", despite no such faction existing in the story yet. Uh... whoops.
Anyway, onto our opponent for the map, Tasha. Clearly a woman with no love lost for the Rubinelle army, she's not straying too far from the general tone of our opponents musically. A song named Goddess of Revenge only promises so much.
Actually moderately surprised that they managed to use a real slur when inventing a fake one. Unsure which Rubinelle forces meet the real world definition of "rube" in addition to the fake definition.
Unlike The Beast, she has respect for her allies. Like The Beast, she's going for the skull and crossbones approach to making use of her opponents. Well, we sure can't have that.
Tasha is going to spend time capturing properties, but she doesn't have any way to build new units. At this point, it's also worth mentioning that air units cannot repair on cities. Funds are only useful to Tasha for her limited collection of ground units.
Her duster attacks my missiles. It fails to dent this, too. This is the sort of thing that gives dusters a bad name.
So you know that secure position that rocket was in? Yeah, it's abandoning it at the first opportunity. I'm blaming the devs on this one- why is that rocket not programmed to hold position?
A fighter offered itself up for deletion. These missiles are getting oversold.
AA instantly getting rid of this duster.
And then a moment to observe that bomber's range. If we leave anything in it, we're going to lose it.
So the tank attacks from the west.
We may have managed to keep it with the defence of the city and immediately countered it with the missile, but that feels a little senseless.
Now begins the general moving up.
Chopper prepares to take on the tank. I probably should've left this task to the recon- I didn't need it for the rest of the map, after all.
Missiles work pretty well in pairs, and it's clear the air units won't be drifting this way often.
I build a second tank for the purposes of dealing with that rocket. This will be the last unit I build.
Recon runs away to heal. I've gotta stop letting them do that.
The bomber approached, the tank ran away, and the duster remained frustratingly idle. Also the rockets moved closer.
Bomber ignored what happened to the last one.
Hilariously, I'm not setting up right on top of the rockets, but that's for the defensive benefits of the city. It does almost look like it, though, right?
Bike moves in, preparing its runup.
And the missile trucks come in behind, choosing positions carefully. It's often said the optimum way to position two missile trucks is four squares apart, but I want some distance. Three should be good enough here.
Still setting up for this tank in annoying ways. Really should've set up the recon the first time.
All I wound up doing was delaying the inevitable.
Thank goodness it didn't go for the Bike. That would've been annoying.
Now, dealing with you real quick while I've got you.
Shooting the duster down. Missile's still got plenty of health for being shot at by a full health duster. Well that was clearly worth the money.
Deleting this infantry, annoyingly with a second hit with the recon. Not that it had better options.
Bike closes in. The fun thing about dealing with enemy rockets is that their larger-than-usual range shadow makes moves like this inherently amusing.
This is what I'm doing with my south forces. I need to get to that rocket and deal with it.
Just two girls, wasting their time capturing when there won't be construction happening.
This is unironically the worst place that rocket could've gone. I can't even shoot it with the bike! Not that I would with that duster right there...
I start capturing this city, though. My plan is to make Tasha want to send units to disrupt it, ignoring my closer bike that isn't capturing, and also in range of my good units.
B-Copter taking pains to not be in range of the Fighter.
And AA not being in range of the rocket. A nice amusing pairing, that.
Recon runs away. Not much it can do here.
Bike gets closer to the HQ, while my missiles set up to shoot down whatever plans drift closer. And that fighter, if it comes by.
Everything else does general advancing. I want those rockets handily dealt with, plus one more problem that has been sitting out of frame.
Also these missiles. They're not catching up.
Good for you, Mech! My units aren't going to get anywhere near that one, nor is she going to get it close.
Bait swallowed hook, line, and sinker.
This was probably not the greatest outcome, and is honestly a huge part of the reason these next few turns don't go quite so swimmingly.
Right away, our big problem is this bomber. It has been sat over this mountain this entire mission, but its attack range exactly overlaps the HQ- we can't capture it unless we have an answer for it. Unironically, I reset the mission twice because of it.
OK, first of all, really should have used the other tank. Basic bit, here.
Copter and anti-air shoot down the rocket. In retrospect, probably should've used the bike, given why that copter was there in the first place.
The missiles move in order to get an AA down here to shoot at this duster. It would have been far better had the missiles gotten to shoot the Fighter.
This feels like a waste of time.
Because of a lack of units to prepare for the Bomber, the Bike does not move in to start capturing the HQ. And another mistake I only notice now- should've parked on the property.
Then I might've stood a chance at saving it from this Fighter.
Played this map a total of three times. Every time, I lost that copter to that exact Fighter. I may need to start playing on zoomed-out mode so I can see the fighters.
Well, it's completely harmless (except to Waylon), but it's the principle of the matter.
Finishing the bait capture, and getting started on the HQ capture.
And doing an incredibly basic strat to make sure I win.
We're losing a tank on a road, and I may have been able to save myself with the Copter or something, but it's a win. There had to be a way to do this cleaner.
I have had just about enough of you, across all three runs.
Let's win by HQ capture for once.
Tasha will be back, of course. We have so many questions. Like "what exactly did Rubinelle do to her" and "what is going on in Lazuria". But clearly we have more important questions- "what exactly did Waylon do to Lazuria" and "who the fuck even is Waylon in the first place?"
So then, game, what's the damage? How badly did my mistakes screw me up?
Exact par time, exact technique, and OHKOing all those planes with my missiles got me a spectacular Power score. That's probably the S Rank I feel worst about, but I clearly knew exactly what goes into my grading requirements and played to optimise them, so it's not like this grade is a surprise to me.
Still feel real bad about that copter, though, I had ample warning.
Waylon was on our team, so he's listed as a winning CO, but man he did not deserve it.
I'm not sure Waylon should be on the scoreboard like a real army.
Now then, let's clean up after ourselves.
"And apologies for making more of them than I ought."
Right then, Waylon. Now that we're seeing him up close, we also get the jacket-over-shoulder and the... very intense emblem on his shirt. The skull face on the red bird with extra talons, over swords? Quite the look he's going for there.
I mean, Waylon did see Brenner give you an order to do something mundane and you jumped to it. But the skepticism is warranted- "cabin boy" is a naval term. Not sure if planes ever had the same thing, though- we developed flight after we started phasing out jobs like cabin boys.
Brenner is happy to label him as a Wolf, in spite of appearances. And Wolves all share the work.
And all that work is for this goal.
This is quite possibly the best exchange at properly summarising Waylon's character in one sentence. The idea of someone being selfless is so foreign to him that it takes him a few seconds to even conceive of the sentence "helping people" as not either meaning something different or being a joke.
I dunno why, something about this line feels extra Fire Emblem-y. In addition to the fact that all COs can use air units, the suggestion to use military planes, and specifically "air support", to help survivors doesn't hit quite the same way as it would if this were a Fire Emblem game and we were hiring a pegasus knight. Pegasi typically have a lower flight ceiling and are easier to land and fly than a plane.
Of course, the actual question is moot, because if there's one thing that confuses Waylon more than selfless people, it's Waylon being selfless.
This is one of those things that you can't convey with text alone, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone who reads this line and doesn't think Waylon is just saying "clap, clap" instead of actually applauding. A pair of golf claps would probably suit the thought just as well, but there's an extra layer of sarcasm when Waylon doesn't even bother to put down his jacket.
Oh, he's one of those types. You know the ones- the ones that think just because they managed something means everyone else can pull it off just as easily.
And I am amazed Brenner has never met that kind of man. Or if he has, he has not recognised them as such.
Waylon has decided that a lifetime of service and diligence should be followed by a longer lifetime of adulation and decadence. And he's more than happy to get started now.
Brenner doesn't even have that basic belief to guide him.
A large upheaval demands that society be regathered, allowed to lick its wounds, and agree on a new norm collectively. One where nobody is left behind or forgotten because they didn't get in first.
And Waylon's the kind of guy who was more than happy to be doing the leaving-behind when society was moving business as usual. Why bother changing his spots now?
Changing topics completely, apparently there's a former name among Rubinelle's ranks worth remembering. It's one that Brenner has at least heard of, although what relation they have was clearly not worth commenting on.
...So you complain about the Lazurians reopening hostilities, but take no issue with Rubinelle doing the same? Wow, you really are the selfish type.
Waylon promptly tries to have his cake and eat it, too. I promise you, Waylon, you may think yourself a neutral party, but if you go to your former superiors and re-enlist in the army, they're not thinking of you as anything except business as usual.
Never let it be said that Lin gets all the good one-liners. Although there's a part of me that almost feels like Lin should have been the one to say this, if only to follow up from "the ladies love a man in uniform". Feels extra cool if it's a lady making this joke.
For what it's worth, Brenner's brusque dismissal coming from his own mouth is being used as a vehicle to develop an actual antagonism between these two directly, and I think Lin stoking the fires isn't helping for that particular cause.
Waylon promptly dismisses himself.
...What of Waylon's wounded? His unit never got hit, did it? I think we're meant to read it as Waylon having taken a few licks before we got there, but once again, Advance Wars and casualties make ugly bedfellows.
Being a free agent and looking out for his fellow man are not overlapping beliefs, and much like he abandoned the idea of helping out unknown civilians, he is also quick to abandon the idea of helping out people he knows.
And I think the idea that Waylon is so selfish he can ignore suffering in his face is more damning to a man of Brenner's character. It's one thing to not care about lives you don't necessarily know exist. It's quite another to be able to put a name to the people you're hurting.
And Waylon is more than happy to laugh to his face about it.
In looking up some details about this chapter from the Dark Conflict script, I found quite a few things it did poorly (for one thing, significantly less unlikable Finn), but this line, right here? Dark Conflict had it better.
You're like some kind of dinosaur. And I think you'll be extinct before long...
In DoR, the implication that Brenner is going to die over his respect for his fellow man comes out of nowhere. In Dark Conflict, the accusations instead stem from the pre-established parallels between humanity now and the dinosaurs post-Chixculub. I'm honestly not sure why they didn't go for it in DoR. It's not like Waylon's attitude wasn't likely to call an older man doing things traditionally "dinosaur".
It also makes it more clear that the insult hit home.
Waylon leaves, and Brenner hits the nail on the head on why we're not doing anything to stop him. He's only as helpful as he's willing to be, and no amount of appealing to his better nature will get him to develop one.
Will, who was still in training and was surrounded only by the kinds of people likely to hang around young cadets, was in for the shock of his life. He probably knew a few people like this in the academy, but probably assumed they'd either grow a better attitude or be weeded out. The idea that they'd stay that way never occurred to him.
This one's probably a line Lin should've had. It's been pretty clear Brenner's having his own worldviews challenged by Waylon here.
Says the man who yelled at Waylon to his face.
Lin, meanwhile, has been busy with the minor details of collecting Waylon's men. "Found some airports" is a weird line- "airports" in Advance Wars are factories that produce air units, but DoR has also been pretty clear that production cannot carry on outside the map the units were built. Whatever planes we're giving them can only be temporary.
Waylon's selfish attitude is a known quantity among his men, and it has inspired the sort of loyalty you'd expect- zero.
Wow, Waylon. Anyone want to bet that it wasn't Tasha who got them wounded in the first place?
If any of Waylon's men have the honour to do the right thing, they are welcome. I wouldn't do anything more, given the boss they worked under, but who knows? Maybe they've been eager to use their better judgement.
Anyway, what were we doing?
Next time: Making more progress on that objective first before we worry about Greyfield and Waylon.
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