Another navy map, this one to introduce us to a few more units. No properties of any kind, so we'll have to win this map on the high seas.
And this title isn't exactly inspiring confidene for what the narrative is going to be pulling on us.
Anyway, when last we left of, Davis was voluntelling us to go have a chinwag with his boss Greyfield. We're wasting no time this time and, well...
Some designs are just a bit on the nose. For what it's worth, this design makes Greyfield look like the CO of the Yellow Comet army in Super Famicom Wars... not that this helps.
I'm not entirely sure that's the comment I'd want to be issuing in response to that line.
Greyfield wastes absolutely no time establishing himself as the biggest asshole around. Or, well, trying to. The Mayor and Waylon make stiff competition, and while I do think Greyfield takes the bottom of the barrel, it's closer than you'd expect.
I think the thing that helps this line is that Brenner's every action up to this point in the story has properly reinforced this attitude. Brenner is a man that won't leave any man behind, even people that annoyed him. And his enemies did far less.
Gods, one meteor shower and you're already eating the corpses of your predecessors. How you kept your job this long is a mystery to me.
Davis tries to act like the differences between us and Greyfield are in any way reconcilable. The poor kid needs someone to give him a spine.
Oh yeah, Waylon's signed up for the New Rubinelle army. He was using the insignia back before that, for some reason- probably the lack of a true neutral insignia.
I was tempted to make this joke, but Brenner's made it for me.
This is also true because he's the one treating a war like a party. Him and only him.
I know Lin, at least, is regretting her decision to tell her soldiers not to use him as target practice.
There are some people who have no idea about the consequences of their actions.
Waylon is the kind of person who is entirely aware of the consequences of his actions and ploughs ahead anyway. We can only aspire not to be the former- we're far too gone if we're the latter.
Greyfield and Waylon get along like a house on fire. Complete with screaming people trapped inside.
Possibly us.
Davis tries to give us the score, as someone who isn't a jingoistic nutjob.
And his complete and total cowardice makes it hard for him to deliver this message with any degree of persuasiveness.
A line like this almost feels like the game is intentionally drawing on America's brand of imperialism and framing it as shady as hell. I'm not sure if this exact rhetoric was quite as popular back in 2008 as it has since become, but I can't imagine the rhetoric of the time was a million miles away.
Particularly when this is a pretty apt comparison to the War on Terror from a rhetorical perspective. Complete with the spineless kid swallowing it completely uncritically.
...Well, let's see. Your argument is pathetic, your boss is absolutely horrifying, and your second in command is horrifying for a completely distinct set of reasons.
...And that is why we don't let Brenner make decisions without Lin in the room. He's taken the Rubinelle forces at their word that the Lazurians need to be put down in some capacity, and decided an ounce of cure is worth a pound of prevention.
We can only hope we don't regret this.
Greyfield tries to polish his ego and imply we're moderately superfluous to his plans. Honestly, I prefer the idea that this is accurate, even if I can tell it's not.
I'm sorry, Brenner doesn't come equipped with that setting.
Brenner with the world record on regretting his decisions.
"Moral flexibility", is that what we're going with? I feel like a complete and utter lack of interest in sorting things out through peace implies a lack of moral flexibility?
And that is one thing I don't want in Rubinelle's hands right now.
So many boats. And some air units, too. And also some more interesting water terrain, while we're at it.
We just showed up and already there's an attempt to throw us away like garbage. Are we sure we want to be part of this army?
Anyway, enough about that, let's try and have a more optimistic topic.
...Really stretching the relativity of the word "more" there, aren't we?
...Brenner's answer here does kinda suggest he fully believes Rubinelle is in the wrong here. It's easy to see where one might've got that belief from, but also, having just joined them isn't exactly the time to start regretting it.
Yeah, Will, same.
So, uh... do you have any real explanation for yourself?
...While that's not helping current frictions, I'd still like to know how this started. Why is fighting still worth it?
Ah, obtuse commanders. We meed to yell at Greyfield some more, I getcha.
I'd rather not solve conflicts by making the aggrieved side put down their weapons first, if it's all the same to you, but...
Well, I guess we've got no choice. And despite Brenner being the one throwing in his arms, we're having Will take command. They're going somewhere with this, but it does feel a little cold to throw Will at this fight.
Here's what we've been supplied with. We even get a few yellow soldiers! They'll be slightly useful this time, too. I also notice that Tasha is entirely running navy and air, with no ground units. To be fair, we're not far off, but we've got APCs. Let's meet the new units.
Submarines are the tanks of the sea. They hit other sea units very hard, except for Cruisers (which are their one weakness). They are better than tanks for one major reason- they can Dive. While Dived, they are invisible (unless there's an adjacent unit to them) and invincible to all attacks other than Cruisers and Subs. Subs are probably the best unit to have around in a naval war, but that's mostly because of-
The Battleship. The most expensive unit in AW2, and beaten only by ridiculous units in later games, the Battleship is a powerful indirect unit, and the main reason to even have a navy. Even with its high value, it still kinda sucked in the Wars World games, so they decided to buff it by letting it shoot after moving in this one. It took a range cut and possibly a damage cut, but oh man the tactical benefits.
This map also introduces us to the main special terrain tiles for navies. Starting off with the only one to exist in the Wars World games, Reefs are the Forests of the sea- mainly used for that hiding place thing than the defence. They usually introduce navies first so that the tutorial Fog of War map can hide a Lander in a reef for the sole purpose of being funny (there isn't even enough water for a navy to matter), but DoR apparently decided to skip over that.
DoR also introduces these two terrain tiles, which seem to be to diversify the tactical benefits of navies while allowing these tiles to be added in bulk. Not sure they save navies, but they do at least make it somewhat more interesting.
Anyway, Lin's getting along with Isabella again, and they're going to team up for this tactics session.
...Or, well, if they remember too.
Isabella told Lin she was going to show her gun maintenance as a trojan horse for cooking. And she hit the nail on the head. However Isabella learned about Rubinelle's military strength, it seems her special interest in military intelligence extends to learning how to push Lin's buttons.
One thing Isabella did not account for, though, is that Lin's lack of interest in cooking implies a matching lack of skill.
Not that this stops her enthusiasm.
...All ears.
So far so good... I think? I'm not actually a culinary expert either...
But I do feel pretty confident that we have now gotten way off-track. What's this about eating rats?
With what meat on its bones?
Never ask Lin to cook again, got it.
...I wonder who we've got with us that can cook.
Can we throw the other rat in there while we're at it?
The three biggest naval units, battleships, subs, and cruisers, form a sort of unit triangle. Battleships deal with cruisers, cruisers eliminate subs, and subs eliminate battleships. Because Battleships are the main unit affecting the ground war, in practice you want mostly them, with the other units in the triangle depending on what your enemy is doing.
Cruisers also have an effective anti-air gun, and should be treated as AA units when placing air units. Un-Dived Subs and Battleships are helpless against Bombers, though, so we'll need those cruisers.
You set it to 1200 degrees, didn't you?
...
...Your first attempt?
Yeah, a wise choice on that one.
Really trying her hardest not to offend Lin's sensibilities. I wonder who gave her the idea that Lin would be of any help.
She is a one trick pony. Or perhaps more accurately, a zero trick pony.
Now, Isabella reckons it's the time to eject from that conversation.
Yeah, neither.
The Diving tutorial for Subs. The drawback of the trick is that a sub will consume extra fuel for idling while Dived, giving the unit a limited number of actions before it has to return for repairs or sink completely.
Oh yeah, it's worth reminding you that air and naval units will be destroyed when their fuel is fully consumed.
What a showing for the Duster. Can't shoot at any of the boats in range of it. This thing is solely for Tasha's air.
The cruiser's not much better, but that's a lack of available targets. Not that I'd really want it shooting at anything I've got.
This Battleship is in prime position to show off its new attacking prowess.
One I'd rather Tasha not have too much fun with.
Lin also explains Diving subs, but I think it's more important if I get rid of this battleship rather than the extra defensive value later. We'll have plenty of time to Dive it.
Rigs can be destroyed. Temporary ports cannot. They'll only really be good for fuel, though, there's no income here.
Eliminating this gunboat for the sake of it, making sure to position my own next to the APC for the free resupply.
Diving this one, since that's a Cruiser and it has nothing to shoot. Dived Subs have a little marker to help remind you.
There is some general moving around. That lander is purely here for bait, given there's nowhere to move our APCs to.
I decide not to shoot at the other Gunboat. Yellow will move first and deal with it for me.
Making sure to keep it out of cruiser range.
And I wound up building a second Temp Port here. Nowhere better to do it, really.
The yellow army is commanded by Waylon. There isn't really a better choice, but I kinda feel like the gimmick they were going for with his battle theme is better suited to his next appearance. He won't be doing much anyway, so we can ignore it for now.
This is probably the most action he's going to get all game.
Tasha, for her part, is also not acting alone this mission. Well, she'll be alone on the map, but she's got some amount of oversight to call on.
Say hello to the Lazurian counterpart of Greyfield, Forsythe. Looking sharp even with just the headshot.
Caulder's here, too. Seems his ambitions are greater than whispering in the ear of a wild The Beast.
Although his suggestions seem to be taking on the same form.
...Someone's been a busy bee. An actual freeze ray? In this modern military setting?
...OK, from the sounds of things, this is more of a chemical weapon with some kind of mutant liquid nitrogen.
Forsythe recognises it for what it is and turns it down flat.
You should probably hit up Greyfield. He's the kind of man who's picking up what you're putting down.
Forsythe's only aim in this war is to be the bigger man. And it's mildly concerning that it looks like he's capable of such.
Oh, don't you start with that. The troops are the ones that have to pull the trigger, after all.
The implication is that Caulder has provided Lazuria with the actual units they are using- which is why Lazuria's units use the same designs as Penny's from Chapter 6, and The Beast's, too. The fact everybody's using that design kinda makes it feel less intentional and more a cost-saving measure.
But Caulder really wanted to do some sciencing!
Tasha takes Caulder's "that will be unpopular with your troops" and shuts it down, proving herself eager to do the same thing Forsythe wants- to beat Rubinelle on her own merits.
Amongst her limited movements is the Diving of this Sub. Write down where it is, because we're going to have to find it again next turn.
Look at all these units I need to get rid of, but no way to do so.
Well, time to Dive this one.
You know what's a good place to hide from a cruiser? Land.
Lander is ready to do its duty as bait.
And I'm sacrificing this Gunboat to chip the paint on that battleship. Little secret about this mission, it took me more than a few tries.
I'd really like for them to come to me, but...
Well, Waylon's sure as hell not doing his job.
This is nice, at least. Little more than that.
Cruiser getting the gunboat...
Battleship hitting my Cruiser...
And Sub taking the lander. I think I'm happy with this arrangement.
Also a cruiser going and deleting Waylon's Duster.
And some more shuffling. The B. Copters have a short life up there.
...Well, this is slightly irritating.
Oof. That's actually... a little more alarming than I'd like.
At the start of the turn, Will decides to try some diplomacy.
He didn't like the answer he got to this question from Greyfield and Brenner, and decided to see if the Lazurians will at least explain their grievances at all.
Tasha proceeds to completely mistake him for another man entirely.
Yeah, I think that's an appropriate reaction.
Well, I think that helps explain the gist of what's going on.
Tasha and Will exchange identification. I notice Will doesn't even really consider himself a Rubinelle soldier all that strongly- he's a Wolf first and foremost.
Will promptly realises that introducing himself as a Rubinelle officer is a one way ticket to shutting this conversation down and tries to backpedal.
Doesn't seem to have helped any, but it was worth a try?
...A part of me has to wonder if Will really wanted to be at the military academy when it burned down. He seemed broken up about losing all the people around him, but the school itself?
...Is wanting to be the guy who stops swinging the hatchet really a hypocritical action? I mean, has Will ever fought Lazuria at all yet?
...Tasha, I'm starting to think you don't know what hypocrisy is.
I'm on board with this criticism of Will's character, but this isn't hypocrisy you're calling him on, it's naivete.
Now, if you were addressing this criticism at Brenner, who disagrees with this war and yet decided to join anyway, your point might match your choice of wording.
I'm not sure how in-depth they go on the subject of John as a person, but the fact she briefly thought she was talking to him when she heard Will says plenty. John was probably Will's age when he died- and that tells you all you need to know about what sort of feelings are driving Tasha.
Yeah, you want a more reasoned argument, you might need a different Lazurian.
Tasha's not ready to unpack the cognitive dissonance of perhaps creating a Rubinelle Tasha on the other side.
Now granted, Will doesn't have an older sister, and the two women in his life aren't exactly attached to him in the way that creates this kind of person, but still, Tasha doesn't know that.
With the Lander down, we have a bigger problem- no vision on the Submarine, no shooting at it.
Well, my main concern is getting this unit out of my way. Battleship probably has better things to be doing, honestly, but I'm not sure it can even shoot at that opposing battleship from here.
Poor Sub can't make it through the rough seas.
Now, which of my units is completely useless for any purpose other than finding hidden submarines...
(Yes, Dusters can crash into Submarines. No, I don't get it either.)
Damaged cruiser and submarine team up to get rid of this one.
And with it out of the way, the undamaged cruiser is capable of eliminating the bomber with ease. Weren't we supposed to have Fighters for it...?
My other Sub finishes the battleship.
One more Battleship and a pair of cruisers to reckon with.
Oh yeah, and the Fighter that is Waylon's problem.
He's doing his best to make it mine.
Oh come on, I can't attack you from up there!
Hehehe... I didn't need that anyway.
WAIT WAIT NO-
Keep wasting your time, Fighter.
Anyway, time to start getting rid of these cruisers. With... one Battleship and units that I would hardly describe as Cruiser-killers.
Look at what I'm doing here.
I join up my Cruisers, because I am going to need one when the air units become my problem.
B Copter readies itself for that time.
And this Sub runs and hides.
I think Waylon wants to dent that Battleship for me.
Too little.
Too late.
Let me pause and play this tiny violin for a few minutes.
Anyway, time to panic, Waylon kinda screwed me over there.
First thing's first, I need to get rid of this battleship.
Next, I need another shot on the gunboat.
Hm... I don't really like what I have left.
And I'd rather it not be dented.
Or destroyed, but I wasn't sure what that Copter was doing anyway.
The Battleship retreats and shoots. This is the only unit it can fire on anyway.
Same with the gunboat, come to think of it. Two air units with just a Cruiser, and a damaged one at that...
I join my Subs, more for the extra cash than for any other reason.
I need this thing repaired.
Because right now, we're looking stalematey.
One HP. That's going to get us far.
Well, we can shoot down this Copter OK...
(In two turns, that is. A damaged cruiser needs two turns to take out a Copter, which says a lot about navies.)
And here comes the stage of the mission that, honestly, embarrasses me. Worst part is, I'm not entirely sure how much better I could've done it.
But I kinda feel like a moral loser when I'm doing this.
This is, I think, possibly a way to get Tasha's Fighter in range of the Cruiser next turn? There's plenty of land for it to escape to, I think...
So yeah, remember when I mentioned that air and naval units self-destruct when they run out of fuel?
That's how Tasha lost her last Fighter.
I don't know about you, but I'm on Tasha's side here. I did not deserve to get away with that.
...You know, I'm surprised I got over 100 on Power. This map kinda just makes me feel like DoR's buffs to navies didn't really save them. And the techniques a player is meant to use to deal with a larger opposing force just aren't really facilitated by an open water map with no properties and where the enemy has more indirects than you.
There is one thing I'm thinking about with this map and the way COs work in this game- Tasha is an air specialist, and one taking after a specific Wars World CO who was also an air specialist. Said CO had a penalty when using naval units. There's a part of me that kinda wonders if this map was designed as if Tasha's naval units were meant to be worse than standard issue, and that was meant to be the balancing factor for her larger quantity.
Until we find someone who can listen to reason. So far, Forsythe seems like the best candidate.
Numbers. I'm surprised by how much higher Tasha's monetary losses are than mine.
Right, back to our guys.
Will appears to have forgotten this was a war, and not an encounter with raiders.
This is weirdly not followed up on.
Instead, Will's going to have some one-on-one time with a man who either doesn't respect him or is making fun of him for kicks.
...OK, same thing.
You know, humility doesn't sound the same from you.
Actually, he's fighting in a war now. But I suppose you'd know, given you watched him enlist.
Will's haunches rise at the insult.
Well, don't tell him your weakness like that!
OK, that lands him on the "just doing it for kicks" side.
...Yeah, I'm as surprised as you. You seem like the last kind of person Greyfield would express an interest in.
...No offence.
Waylon advises Will that hearing him out might be the right call in this situation.
When Greyfield calls on you, "five minutes ago" is the right time to arrive.
Right then. Let's see what Will and Greyfield could possibly have to talk about.
Because Greyfield sure seems to like him.
...
Were we watching the same battle? I think the fact Will won at all is worth praising, but... cool head?
...I'm starting to get an idea where this is going.
Will, through a combination of naivete and "this is OoC for Greyfield", is still caught off-guard.
What, you mean being forced back into the hunter-gatherer societal model, but with guns?
Yeah, I don't think there's any other valid answer.
Greyfield is of another mind.
Well, I don't think those defeatists are among the number of the characters in this game, but given your first reaction was to restart the war going on, yeah, I think "deserving" is a word that can be used.
Will's reaction is pretty spot on.
Oh great. Greyfield thinks he's Ashnard.
And he's recruiting.
I kinda feel like it might've helped Will's point here if he talked about one of his pre-meteor friends. Not a ton, but just enough to let Will make a name drop here to underline his point. Right now, his frame of reference is Isabella, who got two fakeout deaths in one chapter.
If nothing else, maybe Will could've tried to convince Greyfield of John's humanity.
As it is, having your protagonist blather weakly is only making Greyfield feel like he's right, which is not what this conversation even wants to be doing.
Greyfield is standing there, puffing out his chest and insisting that Might Makes Right, making it all but explicit that Rubinelle are the bad guys in this war.
And Will does have the guts to call it out to his face.
Oh, there he is. He decided to bring out the list of people he liked that are no longer with us now. Given that these people don't really matter to the narrative other than to contradict Greyfield's arguments, it's not too awful that they don't get screentime outside of this scene, but also, it would've been nice to have seen this coming. Will so far hasn't really felt like a character who had an old life to miss so far.
Will has experience with only one style of command- Brenner's. And Brenner is almost too open to people criticising his decisions and offering counterarguments.
That sort of thing doesn't fly with Greyfield, who a) genuinely says he's going to rule the world and b) genuinely believes it.
Will sorta realising that this might not have been a decision that was good for his immediate future.
I assure you, the only person doing any brainwashing of Will was Will. I'd argue Brenner was trying not to make Will a mini-Brenner. But being the man he is made adopting his views the easiest thing in the world.
In this society, who's going to stop him?
My bet would be the lack of a convenient tree.
...Um... sure. For whatever reason, possibly the fact that we have just played the last map in which Tasha is the opposing CO, we have now unlocked Tasha as a playable CO in side modes. Honestly, when considering the fact that The Beast didn't have the same unlock after his final mission and death, and the fact this mission doesn't really feel like a final battle with Tasha, this might actually be the biggest red flag around.
Next time: Greyfield plots his revenge.
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