Bethany Plays: AWDoR Chapter 9: Easy as Pi

Hm. Interesting. No factories, but there's one property of the type we haven't seen yet. Also a giant river in the way- looks like there's going to be more fun with air units.

No points for guessing who the opposing CO is.

But it looks like we'll be starting with our side again. No rambles from The Beast's movements.

...Not that this prevents us from needing to talk to the team asshole, though.

Right away, this sounds like a big helping of none of your business, mayor.

...Wait, really? Those kids that were pretending to be snipers last time we saw him were not under 20? He has no under 20s with him? News to me.

You have to actively try to be that much of an asshole. Projection and selfishness all in half a sentence.

Brenner tries his best not to express the level of offence he is feeling. On his face, he's failing miserably.

But given the Mayor reacts to Brenner's words and not his expression, he presumably pulled it off. If Brenner had failed at suppressing his anger, the Mayor would be babbling about soldiers attacking civilians.

Brenner more or less reminds him that it is only Brenner's kindness that permits the Mayor in his group, and if the choice is to be made between Isabella and the Mayor, Brenner will pick Isabella.

So kindly make the choice for him.

And nobody will listen to you, if they're smart.

Now then, onto the subject of characters who are both more pleasant and more realistic about Isabella's incoming fate.

There are times when you want to give false hope for morale purposes.

It only works if the person you're trying to reassure is actually going to get hope.

Of course, Will still has his single-minded determination to do the right thing by Isabella, even if that is not the right thing by his own body. Perhaps one day he'll listen to reason. I'll believe it when I see it.

Honestly, the assumption that Isabella is going to be OK with these medical facilities is a pretty ambitious one in and of itself. How would they know how to deal with Creeping Derangea?

Will's really hung up on this part of his issues. Someone really needs to tell him that's a him problem.

Or at the very least, let an adult character ask Isabella how she feels and relay her answer to Will.

There we go, Dr. Morris finally takes the time to sit him down and tell him that it's his job to worry about patients.

...OK, doctor-patient confidentiality is a valid reason for this to have not come up until now, but I'm fairly sure that's on the subject of the actual medical issues. And, uh, come to think of it, Dr. Morris has actually been remarkably liberal with the subject of Isabella's physical well-being.

I do think I'd understand why Isabella would be hesitant to let this information fall on Will's ears, but that's not doctor-patient confidentiality, that's just regular confidentiality.

...Come to think of it, though, I have to wonder if she's aware of the fact she's been expositing otherwise top-secret information, given that her personality while she's not doing that is completely different. It would colour her view of herself if she didn't even realise she had valuable information about Rubinelle's inner workings.

One thing that does tend to come up is that the writers keep their discussions about the actual symptoms of Creeping Derangea before the actual killing to a minimum. Now, granted, Lin gave us pretty good reason back when it was first introduced, but later depictions will imply that the infection is actually pretty painless until the flowers start showing up.

...Honestly, I'd find the idea that Isabella values Will's mental health over both of her own to be highly concerning. We should probably talk with her about that. Well, after she gets over Creeping Derangea.

Well, OK, it sounds a lot better when you put it like that, but I'm still worried nonetheless.

As quaint as it is for a male protagonist to have his connection to his love interest expressed in the terms of maternal bonding, is that really what we're going with?

Dr. Morris really goes up and down the spectrum of "wow, that's a good point" to "wow, what are you talking about" in the course of this conversation. This one's firmly in the former end. If, for nothing else, the fact that only one of these two is able to act on these platitudes, and that should be the person who believes in them most. All that Isabella can do about it is be vindicated or be let down.

Fortunately, that seems to have gotten through to him.

"You're a teenage boy, you're supposed to be stupid."

...OK, Will has been angsting about this for how long and it took you until now to think of that? To be fair, I don't know what door Isabella is quarantined behind while on the move.

At some point, we've got to take down the wall and continue moving.

Yes, we're really moving right into the action from that note.

And they have brought all of the units. Rockets, War Tanks, Anti-tanks, oh my.

Brenner takes command once again, but we'll have plenty to see before we see what he does.

Starting with our introduction to that new property, an airport. What's an airport, again? Good question.

An airport is a property on which air units may be constructed. As previously alluded to, you can only build air units at airports and land units on factories, no mix-and-matching. Something that I don't think we've touched on yet is the fact that air units can also only be resupplied and repaired on airports- they can't even use cities, like land units can.

Despite this, however, air units cannot benefit from those three stars of terrain defence- only land units can do that.

Here's our look at the map. We start with a lot of planes, and even a new unit, but that is a significant unit deficit. Let's see what Lin can tell us about surviving it.

...Well, way to take the wind out of my sails. I will spoil the briefing and mention she's right on the money about this, but given how terrifying the Beast's army looks, I feel like the condescension wasn't warranted.

Any possible offence the audience might be feeling is swiftly alleviated when they reveal the joke the War Room is going with.

Lin is put on the backfoot for a change, and tries to make Brenner feel better about coming for advice on an easy battle. And manages to fail at that task. There's a reason she's not the boss.

Will's job is and always will be to be the butt of the joke. It almost get hilarious, how they manage to balance Lin talking to Will with Lin talking to Brenner.

This is... sort of valuable advice, but there's not that much capturing to do around here.

The biggest threat of any kind will be air units, so making sure we win the air war is of the utmost importance.

This will be the second-most important piece of advice, although I feel like correcting Lin on that last note- you want to make sure Bombers are destroying anti-airs. Missiles are pretty helpless to anything as long as it's not in firing range.

She doesn't really explain why this is an easy mission, but that should become evident given some time.

With you, I don't think it is.

Let's get on with that winning, then.

Our infantry's first and utmost job is to capture properties. The air units I want to build are expensive, and we'll want all the income we can get quickly so we can afford them.

Pictured: The only land units on The Beast's side of the river that are any threat to a Plane. Machine guns can shoot at helicopters, so most (but not all) land units can wear down a B-Copter, but against a plane, you must use dedicated anti-air ordinance. So long as we are careful not to place our planes in range of these units, we may shoot freely.

Anyway, before we forget this guy, let's take a look at what we've been supplied with. The Rig, known as the APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier) in the Advance Wars trilogy, is a staple unit, and would have been introduced in the first maps alongside the artillery and the tank there. Their functions in those games were to carry one infantry or mech unit around, like a T-Copter, and also to use the Supply command on all four adjacent units to instantly refill fuel and ammo. Both functions exist here in DoR, but they have added a new function, and this specific function is so built-in to the unit that they waited until it would be relevant to us to include it.

I'll probably wind up calling these things APCs the whole time, just as a heads up.

The new function of a Rig is to construct a "temporary airport" (or port). A temporary airport is capable of repairing and resupplying air units, but is not capable of generating funds or building new air units. It's a nice little bonus on certain maps, but I'd hardly call it an essential function.

Like an infantry capturing a regular airport, a Rig must spend two turns building a temporary airport. I can only assume the HP clause also applies, but I've never seen the theory put to practice.

This is our first chance operating a bomber, so here's the Lin dialogue. Bombers are an incredibly powerful unit type, and it is incredibly difficult to fight an opponent that has multiple. They've given us two.

Remember when this thing was our ticket to winning a battle we had no business fighting? Bombers are the best.

The Duster is new to DoR, and this is our introduction to using it in our hands.

I've heard mixed things about dusters- both that they are incredibly useful units and that they're not worth the money it costs to build them.

Time to see which is the more accurate assessment.

...

Those units aren't even benefitting from terrain!

The fact that the real unit failed the KO notwithstanding. Dusters strike me as best used to dust up missed KOs like this- not exactly the kind of unit you actively spend money on from an airport.

But hey, if we've got one...

Up here, we get a Fighter and two Dusters. The Beast has a Duster of his own, which will check our planes the same as the anti-airs, and the Fighter's job is to deal with it. The Copters are also going to hassle our infantry, which will make our income pretty dicey.

While Dusters are capable at shooting at planes, this isn't exactly the game making us think using them for this purpose is such a good idea.

Now this is the sort of damage that makes deploying a Duster viable. It's a poor man's Fighter, and I can only imagine that being valuable when the "poor man" part is literal, but given Copters can't shoot back at Dusters, that can be a deciding factor in the right situation.

There was also a Fighter in this batch. This is what a Fighter can do to a B-Copter if you can afford one.

Unit prices on air units. Bombers have actually seen a buff compared to the AW trilogy- they cost 22K there. They did not need it. We can also see the Duster price for the first time and... yeah, I can see where the opinion that Dusters are bad came from. That feels a bit too expensive for a "poor man's budget option" unit. At that point, you may as well wait for the Fighter.

Yup, The Beast is on that side. What is he doing? Even he doesn't seem too clear.

Seeing us is enough motivation for him, however. No talking our way out of a game of Advance Wars.

There is a general reshuffling of units and an attempt at sending B. Copters in the direction of my infantries. The only thing worth observing is where he places his AA and Missiles. And what he hides in their vicinity.

He also gets started on building his own temporary airport with his own Rig. His air units won't last long enough to consider using it.

A nice quick way to reduce the threat to that infantry down in a hurry. And I didn't even need the AA battery they gave me!

Working on improving that income bracket.

And we now have that temporary airport Lin and Morris spoke so highly of!

Brenner observes the ammunition type needed to balance this mechanic- Material. The Rig is the first of many unit types to have access to Material, and unlike Fuel and Ammo, this can't be resupplied through conventional means. There is a single method to replenish Material in the game, and it's worth pointing out that we'll never get access to it in the main story.

When you see what else Material can build, you'll agree it's better this way, but I do kinda feel like the Rig came off worse in this exchange.

The T-Copter heads to retrieve that other infantry. Not sure what destination I have in mind for him, but he can't reach a new property next turn no matter what I do.

Keeping an eye on that anti-airfield to assess what moves I can make.

...In hindsight, attacking from the left was the obvious call here.

That time it works. Anti-air can breathe more freely.

Well, there's that blocking of the westward advance I was after. With another annoying coinflip, but whatever.

Duster doing what it's capable of.

And, despite appearances, all units are safely outside the range of that anti-air.

The Beast decides to have some dialogue, and Will tries to take advantage in a productive way. It can't go well, but we can at least try?

Yeah, wasn't happening. Dude was off his rocker before Caulder loaded him up on whatever whatsits Caulder injected into him.

I don't think that was ever in question, Will.

And it's hardly becoming of a man to be taken aback at being called a snot-nosed punk. That's, like, the most basic taunt he could've thrown.

The Beast throws a surprisingly robust argument at Will here, albeit one I'm not entirely sure DoR is going to spend much time teaching. Calling The Beast a murderer just because he kills is innaccurate, since soldiers kill all the time.

Since The Beast has made it clear he doesn't care who dies as long as he comes off better in the deal, and Will has been fighting nobody who didn't attack first, it's hard to give this argument the time of day right now.

You teach him by building that airport. I'm sure the air pollution can't get any worse.

The only thing worth noting is the choppers crowding around our personal space in there.

Hm. I think I can get that Anti-Air this turn while hiding in the Missile's range shadow, but I will need to have one of those units in front of the bomber blown up first.

That can be arranged.

There's actually a colour system to the previews, where the game hints "hey, you'll take a bit of a licking if you commit to this action". You'll mostly see this when attacking Anti-Airs with air units, but trying to attack up your armour class should do the same.

This sort of thing is why Missiles kinda stink, and particularly why you want them in pairs. I do have to make sure no planes are inside the red squares, but as soon as I put a plane inside them, the missile kinda stops doing its job.

Protecting the infantry. The Rig will have to get along on its own.

This city looks like a good place from which to do that.

The statistics on the Temporary Airport. Only one Defence star, too? It also appeared you can only set up on Plains, preventing terrain shenanigans, although the fact it doesn't have movement cost for tired units does open the doors.

This feels very AW1 AI brained of me. It's a KO I can score, and frankly, I think the level on the bomber is valuable enough on its own. It's not like any of these units will be hurting me.

Dusting up that last Copter.

And making a bid for that property while the T-Copter is catching up. Should probably have captured that set of three down in the middle there.

Least I got this one.

I'll be deploying a few extras, to speed up the smashing.

Heavens knows these guys ain't helping.

They'll be assisting with the last of the air units down here.

Oh no not my Fighter! How will I destroy that last B Copter without it?

APC took a bit of baiting, in classic AW1 AI style. Only the AW1 AI has the particular hatred for APCs that gave them a new purpose as bait.

Fighters blow up these two units, since they are now absolutely worthless for anything else.

Work never ends for the infantry, though.

APC goes for extra HP and resupplies. No Materials, of course.

I think it's high time we dealt with you.

...Well, I tried. Duster could do with a damage buff.

That poor Mech. What did it do to deserve that?

Duster fails to chip the paint on the AA. Because it's a Duster.

That one got significantly more lucky. Must've been a very close thing.

T-Copter prepares to carry that infantry once it's done with its capturing.

And the Bomber pipeline rolls out.

Duster did the first blow this time, so I could get another level on that Bomber.

These other Dusters do the job of making my air units completely invincible.

...Could've sworn it was on the HQ. I guess not.

Getting started on bombing these units. They'll probably make their way to the south side to be grouped up.

Fighter goes for repairs, but I Join anyway, so that did absolutely nothing.

With the excess funds from Joining two Fighters, I get another Bomber. I love Joining Funds.

The T-Copter will be preparing for a bid to do an HQ capture. That's not gonna happen.

Bomber levels. Although I probably should have considered the fact that one of these bombers is nearing 0 shells.

...Because now this bomber is completely unarmed. Whoops.

This one's also going for repairs, although the resupply is much appreciated.

These Dusters have so little to do down here.

I wish the Bombers were closer to the action.

Problem is also in the fact these guys will prevent the HQ capture to speed things up.

...I don't think this APC is getting anywhere useful on time.

Still, working on it.

The War Tank on an HQ can take an impressive amount of punishment. Not enough to prevent being two-shot, though.

I drop the infantry here, forgetting that the anti-tank can very much shoot at infantry.

Bomber is now able to take advantage of that temporary airport.

...Well, if I'm failing HQ capture, I do need to destroy this at some point.

Bye bye, hopes of winning by HQ Capture.

I express my frustration by returning fire.

Infantry's not doing anything over there any more, best bring it back.

Got this one. One unit off from a 9 Day clear.

I think I need to learn how to do an efficient clear of this sort.

Give it up before you collapse and fall in the path of your own bullets.

Another happy S Rank, and all this Bomber madness is real good for Power and Technique. Absolutely no idea what they expected of me for Speed, though. What, was I being asked for a six day clear?

Brenner giving The Beast all the mind he deserves- absolutely none of it.

The numbers. Just look at all those units that went down to a few Bombers. Never underestimate the power of planes.

Now then, we've finally arrived at our destination. All that's left is to get set up.

Isabella's sure going up in someone's estimations. Not sure whose yet, but we always knew she was accurate.

...Ah, yeah. The doors. Those exist.

Of course the secret bunker for the world's richest men would have a password to prevent people like us from using the supplies for humanitarian purposes.

Fortunately, we have a respected military official with us.

I'm not sure if he's saying that or typing it. Or whether the number is personal or standard issue to all soldiers of his rank.

But right now, we have bigger problems- we need a fellow with a higher rank than Brenner. And Brenner is the best we have.

...So what happens if we fail to enter a valid code? Are we locked out forever, or just for, like, 24 hours or until we submit a password reset or whatever?

I'd like to know why you didn't, but that's a question for a less urgent time.

Hey, we have one chance, that's better than zero!

Besides, Will is clinging to hope like it's the only thing he has to live for.

...

I'm worried it is.

If they're nearby, they're on the other side of the door.

We don't need to find the president's corpse. We just need to go to his old desk and look for the Post-it note with the code he has attached to his monitor.

I imagine this is a question of saving Isabella's life. As a group, we have all the time in the world to find that code- or at least as long as our supplies last. Which isn't long, but at least we have a goal to work towards.

There are, and I am being literal, ten billion possible options. Well, OK, 9,999,999,999, we've already ruled out 0848124390.

We don't have quite that many guesses. And even if we did, I think it would take longer to type them all than it would to search for a lead.

Weren't you the one upbraiding Lin for suggesting looting the president's body?

Well, any number lower than 50/50 is almost zero on some scales.

At least they gave Morris the correct probability. ~~Minus the fact we already have one false code.~~

Fortunately, we have no need to wait for a miracle.

Brenner decides the option he is happy to walk away with is to ask for someone to choose one of those ten billion ten digit numbers and attempt it. Hey, there is a chance of success!

Will finally notices that the thing we are looking for is a ten digit number. Knowing kids his age, he probably didn't count the digits and realise exactly what "big number" we were looking for.

But he has had access to a number that matches the size of the expected input.

Lin is drawing entirely the wrong conclusion about why he is asking and is reassessing her assessment of Will's character.

...You know, I'd probably try to back your idea that this number is worth selecting on the actual evidence you have. Given Lin's prior attitude, I can see why he didn't, but still. This isn't any better.

Brenner is more than willing to go ahead with his aforementioned "attempt any code" and, since Will has volunteered, tells him to take his stab.

...I know this game came out in 2007, but you mean to tell me there is no biometric system that can tell the thing that this kid is not qualified to be using this bunker, regardless of his knowledge of the code?

I do appreciate that they bothered to open the door in the background of the image.

...Hey wait, didn't they say "a" valid code? If everyone with the authorisation to use this bunker had a different code, perhaps our odds were higher than ten billion.

"If I was the president's secret child, would I be attending a military academy?"

"...Actually, probably."

Only after it works does Will reveal why he selected that number, and only to try and make sure it is Isabella receiving the praise. Kid's trying his best to keep people from being mistrustful of her.

We only saw it the one time, but I imagine the repetitions are how Will actually knows the number off by heart. I wouldn't be surprised if Will and Isabella's conversation-through-the-door involved Isabella repeating the number some more.

Brenner responds by once again raising the question of what her source is for all this top-secret valuable intel.

Lin's mistrust of Isabella has not been shaken. She is aware that there are possibilities other than the one Brenner raised, and projected the possible ways this will stab us in the back later for each one.