Bethany Plays: AWDoR Chapter 16: Will to Prevail

Our next mission promises to be... well, if nothing else, the sort of thing we need after a bombshell like that.

Here's hoping.

With Brenner down, the role of commander defaults to Lin. One assumes that this isn't a particularly significant change in operations.

With that said, morale is currently at minimum and the weakest links in our chain are already buckling under the pressure.

Lin is not Brenner. Her first instinct at the sight of a rusted chain is to cut away the bad links to leave the remainder stronger. In these dire times, that might be the "better" option, but try telling that to the weak links.

In the absence of Brenner to veto any suggestions of abandonment, we have Dr. Morris. Lin may trust Brenner, but she does not share the same opinion of Morris.

Abandoning them is better for the morale of the survivors by dint of them not being dead. The fact it's at a low value either way is a problem for future, alive us.

Lin basically tells him that, if he has a better idea, he's free to go off and try it himself.

Morris realises that there'll be no convincing Lin to do things his way.

Lin elaborates by mentioning all the reasons they're not fighting their way out of this. Greyfield's numerical advantages are a footnote here.

We can overcome that one. We can't overcome our own army's weakness.

Morris suggests that Lin take a leaf from Brenner's book on the subject.

Lin reminds him that perhaps "right after he died" is not the best time to go talking about how he would've done this thing "better".

Knowing you, Lin, I don't think those are related thoughts.

Right, so how are the civilians that were capable of keeping pace handling matters?

Frankly, not much better. The fact that Lin is still the best of the two bad options here is not what one might call good for morale.

Morris, for his part, is doing his best brave face, and it's actually managed to fool Lin.

Reassurances... well, they're the best we've got right now.

I don't think that's going to stop them. The truth is more than enough to induce panic.

Lin has been sent to explain the situation. Whether she did a good job is left to our imagination.

Because what we do hear is that the civilians are correctly appraised of how dire the situation is.

Morris tries his best to remind the civilians that "listening to Lin" is the best chance they have of survival, in spite of her manner.

And Lin immediately follows that up by going straight to treating them as she does soldiers. Well, she is a strategist.

That didn't exactly endear her to them.

...You know, he's not wrong. Brenner's judgement in getting anywhere near Greyfield was pretty compromised, although whether that was the fault of his ego is another question. Brenner would probably argue that his reasons for taking the job were to make the world safer for the civilians under his care, although whether he meant "stopping the Lazurians from starting trouble" or "giving the civilians access to Greyfield's supplies" is another matter. Either way, it's pretty clear in hindsight that this was not a worthwhile trade.

...All because Brenner took in the Lazurians when he had the chance, the people Greyfield has no reason to antagonise are getting thrown to the wolves.

Make no mistake, guys, Greyfield would've found a reason eventually.

Lin goes right back to the direct tack.

In most circumstances, that would probably be textbook extortion. And it probably is here, too. But quite frankly, trying to pretend there are alternatives is not helping anyone.

Lin demands perfection because perfection is the only option.

You asked for them to know the reality of the situation. Lin declared it.

"Why did the chicken cross the road? To get away from Greyfield."

Lin recognises the wisdom in trying to give a speech offering better morale, and decides to hear what Morris thinks will help.

Morris tells her it's not going to happen from her mouth.

Isabella notices that we're running low on named characters who can be helpful right now, and decides it's her turn to pitch in.

Hopefully Isabella phrasing it differently proves to be a more encouraging message.

Morris rallies around Isabella's words.

By the skin of your teeth.

Let's hope this doesn't happen again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, where were you when all this was going down?

Apparently, so busy moping that he's barely been contributing.

Kindly knock yourself out of it and focus, soldier.

Hiding's the only option. Greyfield's too superior a force to outrun or outgun.

Yeah, I like that response to that news. You mean we're not up to our cheeks in emergencies?

...Oh. Well then...

Lin prepares to cut her losses and run again.

...From the sounds of things, we don't even have anything left if we cut our losses.

Easier said than done.

Despite Lin ostensibly being in command, we are rocking No CO right now. This song does a good job underscoring the stakes- a difficult feat when you're Advance Wars and one song has to carry a CO's entire story presence.

There's not much to see here, other than there's a lot of production that we haven't seized yet. And all our infantry are currently the surrounded units. Yeah, things are going to get worse before they get better.

Greyfield's bio, now that they are visible. Something about this screen makes his puffed-out chest seem more puffed-out.

Anyway, over in tactics, we've got Tasha taking a turn on the hotseat. They were kinda running out of characters to appear in this given the story situation we're in.

Openly declares herself a flat character. Not that she's given herself time to have anything else.

Flat as she sounds, she knows that these Rubinelle forces are not the kinds of people she should be knocking the heads around of and is not doing so.

"Let's not think about that. I don't like breaking promises."

She makes it sound so easy. Those Md. Tanks and War Tanks say otherwise.

Fog is going to be a friend to us. We know exactly where Greyfield is. He's not hiding from us.

We basically have a funding advantage, but no properties to leverage with it. We win as soon as we figure out a way to change that.

I think Tasha's awakening Lin's ruthless bone. Hopefully Lin awakens a resourcefulness bone in Tasha, too.

Fortunately for us, one of our infantry is in range of this base. We have at least one foothold.

Every other infantry can enter one forest, and mercifully, the game has decided not to pull a Chapter 4 and surround them with Greyfield units ready to pounce. We do get to keep them for at least a turn.

The infantry is destined to capture that airport, and the T-Copter moves to the best position to ferry it there.

This artillery is basically going to stay here and shoot the entire mission.

The B. Copter is going to make sure Greyfield doesn't get too interested in that base over there.

What else is the opposing theme but Madman's Reign? This was a theme and a title destined to belong to a character on the opposite side.

Oh, I'm sure none of us will ever meet you down there.

Greyfield does a mix of retreating and pushing forward, finding my infantry and being unable to proceed.

This Mech does not get the same grace. There wasn't much saving that.

Will urges us to press on, from wherever it is he's moping from.

Hopefully this Mech gets to make it past the mountains unscathed. He looks like he's not inside the torch's range.

The chopper will cover his retreat. I probably could've got it in front of the Mech, but not from where I moved it.

If we want this forest to be kept safe, there needs to be constant pressure on whatever's on this tile. The arty can handle that.

The infantry gets out of dodge.

And we get our first production tile.

There's something that has to happen soon that prevents the War Tank from holding the line. The small one will do.

Greyfield's turn consists of more hiding.

On Day 3, Will's moping gets directly addressed.

It's about time someone got you back on your feet.

All he really needed was a kick up the rear. And possibly the realisation that Isabella is the one looking after him now.

Will had defined himself in one role- Brenner's sidekick. And he did that role well, uplifting the hero.

What does a sidekick do with no hero?

Isabella is in much the same boat, just without the "knowing what she's doing". She knows she's been here to give Will pride as a soldier, and if he's not got any of that, well then, that just feels kind of pointless, in the end.

Isabella isn't normal. Her amnesia and her possible lack of proper social development pre-amnesia means that she's relying on other people's cues to tell her what the correct response is. And she doesn't want that response to be misery. Not when it's not called for.

Will realises that his job is to be the responsible one, and what's the responsible thing to do here?

To take charge.

As a side note, this mission is, in fact, a Will mission, and the game has chosen this exact moment to cue We Will Prevail. There's a part of me that feels like the game should have considered never having Will be playable in any of the earlier missions purely to make the triumphantness of We Will Prevail hit harder in this moment. Honestly, I'm not sure why Will deployed in other missions. Well, OK, there's one mission where they had a clear goal with making Will the commander- the one where Will fights Tasha and Greyfield notices his talent. Still, it's worth thinking about.

Will decides that, rather than support Brenner, his purpose is to be Brenner. Embody what Brenner believed, and make sure that, even if he dies, his beliefs and codes do not.

You know what that means?

It's time for us to be formally introduced to the CO mechanic. Remember last mission, how Brenner was on board that Md Tank, but we only got half the benefits? Will is going to be able to demonstrate the other half.

Isabella tutorialises the mechanic as if this was our first time seeing it. The main thing we are learning here is that if the map is missing a CO unit, the way to put one on is to stand on either the HQ or a factory/airport/port and spend half the value of the chosen unit to board it.

Incidentally, under these mechanics, it's possible that, if we had a HQ or a factory, we could've deployed another Brenner last map after he finished playing distraction. That's probably why we didn't have a HQ or a factory.

Well, if we've got some big cash to spend, we need properties to gain all that cash.

The Mech managed to escape unscathed. Pity about the spacing to reach that Factory, though...

I move the War Tank onto my factory, forsaking production in order to deploy Will. Probably not optimal, but in this chokepoint, there's not much advancing I could've done anyway.

Greyfield finds some infantry to send to those properties. Looks like I'm going to need to contest them.

Unfortunately, much like Producing a Seaplane from a Carrier, deploying a CO must be done to a stationary unit. This isn't much of an issue when we deploy COs onto freshly built units, but it does make this particular use case annoyingly precise.

All right, so why did I go out of my way to deploy Will onto a War Tank, besides the obvious benefits of "this unit won't be going down as easily as Brenner's Middie did?"

The answer is because Will is all about tanks. Will has a smaller CO Zone than Brenner, focuses his bonuses on one unit type, and trades defence for attack. Will is a CO you deploy to make a push. And that's what we're going to have to try and get ready in this situation.

The infographic on what units Will buffs is going to come in handier than it did with Brenner. Will buffs any unit that moves along the ground, can move and fire on the same turn, and can only attack at one range. This distinguishes him from a nearly identical CO in the Wars World games named Max- Max buffed direct attacking units that weren't grounded (Copters, all Planes, Cruisers, and Submarines), but did not buff Infantry. This honestly kinda feels Will got the worse deal, but you never know when that footsoldier buff could come in handy.

Something to think about in terms of what Will and Max do and don't buff is their competition. In Wars World, Max was almost always used in comparison to the CO Sami, a CO who only buffed footsoldiers. Not giving Max a footsoldier buff was probably in part to not make Sami feel redundant. Will, meanwhile, probably gave up his air unit buff to not make the COs in this game who buff air units feel superfluous- Eagle, the air unit CO in Wars World, had ways of being distinct from Max, but those options aren't available in DoR's mechanics, so they probably felt a little more restricted in that way. I can understand it, but I'm not gonna like it when the ramifications kick in.

It's also a comfort to the awkwardness of last turn that a CO can be deployed and immediately moved. Although I sure wish I could get Will into that forest.

Next turn, the production begins, and we can do a proper comeback.

Will's got the vibes down, he just needs to work on his tactics.

Look, I know we just got access to a reason to build more tanks, but this is a situation that demands Rockets.

I'd like to have that factory, yeah, but the income seems pretty nice for getting air units up and running. I think the factory might've been the better call, though.

Greyfield continues to be absolutely terrible at pushing any kind of offensive. Fog of War does that to ya.

Right, we won't be having any of that funny business, mate.

I use a T. Copter to send reinforcements to try and get this factory up quicker. It's probably faster for me to do this anyway.

That tank doesn't retreat, but rather gets started on forming a chokepoint here.

The rockets will give those tanks second thoughts.

Will moves into the chokepoint, and I do a Will thing and make another War Tank.

Now Greyfield seems to be getting some kind of attack force ready. I'd like a few more units before I respond, admittedly.

Oh, would you look at that? Air support is on the way!

...Wish I was playing Max...

On the other hand, Max could never have done this.

More Power score, and more importantly, working on Will's power gauge. I think I'm going to want that expanded CO Zone.

Tank did a withdrawal to help support these guys with their capturing.

I want the Copter on chokepoint duty.

Greyfield rammed an infantry face-first into mine. Idiot.

That was probably even dumber.

Right, need to make sure these guys don't get any funny ideas...

And I probably will need one of these to make my push.

Tank reckons it's not needed. Probably should've at least finished the infantry off for a level, though.

OI!

...Uh, sure, whatever you say.

The infantry over here blows itself up on my Mech. And not, you know, the unit actively capturing.

Anyway, Bombers are going to be the key to victory today.

And keeping my airport clear of obstructions is my way to do that.

Bike's my HQ capture strategy. Not sure how it's getting there, but...

T Copter prepares to take an infantry from here as backup.

...That's an indirect shooting at my B. Copter. No idea what.

This army over here continues to get weirdly placed.

Oneshot that guy, though.

Shot my Flare. Time has come to move out of this chokepoint.

I destroy this infantry, and see that the indirect that shot earlier was an anti-tank. That should be my biggest concern.

Well, that and this Anti-air preventing Bombers from smashing.

Will moves in closer to the enemy forces, setting up his CO Zone in a place where it's useful.

And look! I'm already at my first expansion!

T. Copter moving into position. There's a lot of enemy to get out of the way first, though.

General assemblance. Although in retrospect...

Why did I put that War Tank in range of the anti-tank, anyway?

Will has also been discovered, even if he's not been shot at.

And there goes the Anti-Air. Not that I have any idea why I had it anyway.

Right, this is a situation to extricate myself from.

Starting with this guy seems wise. Wow, is that the damaged War tank doing all that?

Look, it's the only unit in range.

I can't afford to leave this guy alive. He's putting vision on Will.

Will blows up this guy, and as he does so, he reveals a new mechanic. Well, "new" is a generous term...

Will has fully charged his CO Power Rally Cry. Unlike in the Wars World games, using a CO Power is considered an action of the CO Unit rather than something that can be done at any time, so we have no choice but to wait until another day to fire it, but the option now exists.

When your CO Power is fully charged, your CO Zone gets another boost- in Will's case, to a four square radius. Right now, I think I want that more than Rally Cry.

That Anti-Tank is putting in work for Greyfield.

There goes the artillery. Not that it had a long life.

And the Flare takes some knocks. Not that it had much in the way of purpose.

Just need to get ready for a push of some kind. Although that Bike is now no longer capturing.

More cleaning out of our back line.

And Will uses his turn to Join with the other War Tank. CO Units are allowed to do this, and it makes them pretty maintainable given the right unit type boarding it.

This tank deserves a promotion.

The Bomber flies in for that artillery, and Greyfield is running out of units that scare me.

This Mech is currently our key to victory.

And, since I see a lot of footsoldiers, AA is the way to go to counter them.

This Copter is sent for repairs, one way or another.

Bye bye, Flare. Your job is done.

Peeking this purchase. A Bike? Yeah, I'm going swimmingly.

Oof, low roll. Tank did get dented, though...

This turn has the vibe of "pick a target and neutralise it."

Yeah, not sure what's going on over there, but Greyfield is welcome to it.

I move Will closer to Greyfield's base, preparing a push.

The Copters follow along.

And I think I'm good enough for units that I'm stopping building.

Well that's irritating. Should've blocked that last side...

That's another day I'm going to have to take.

Mostly because of this Mech.

Need to factory block better than I have been.

This really is a winning strategy.

Finally doing something about that anti-tank.

Even if it's probably not quite as quick as I'd like.

Still, there's a lot of damage done in one turn.

And I think it's time the anti-tank learned what it's like to be shot at.

Greyfield continues to choose the oddest hills to die on.

Anyway, I think I am obligated to at least fire this during this mission. It's even going to matter, too!

Much like the Wars World games, but unlike Reboot Camp, using a CO Power changes the music for the rest of your turn to Power Up. There's also a relatively cool shot going on on the top screen, but I missed the first part of it because I was expecting it to be on the bottom screen like the action is.

As an aside, there's something worth mentioning about CO Power music that might have actually influenced the developer's decision on when to introduce the mechanic in the campaign. In the Wars World games, there were two versions of all CO Power themes- a heroic one for the Allied Nations characters and a villainous one for Black Hole. The choice of which theme played depended on CO, not on player control. Days of Ruin has the same mechanic (Stormy Times is the villain version), but Tasha and Gage are keyed to use Power Up while Waylon and Greyfield use Stormy Times. As villainous as Flight of the Coward and Madman's Reign sound, they probably felt that they should try and leave the gameplay clues that we're switching sympathies from the NRA to Lazuria to a minimum.

(While Forsythe is considered a CO and can be deployed as a CO Unit, he has no CO Power and would never play either version of the song. Which raises an argument to have Forsythe deploy in his mission, but they probably wanted the player to have the mechanic first. Which is why Greyfield doesn't seem to have loaded himself in anything this one.)

All units on the map are now considered in CO Zone range, so the banner appears. We can also see the bonus to movement that Will bestows on tanks, helpfully displayed as a +2. Note also that Will is greyed out- a CO Power does consume the CO Unit's turn.

Will uses the extra power conferred to his direct-attacking units to finally give this anti-tank what for.

And I finagle up some units to blow up the rest of Greyfield's force.

...You know, if we didn't have precedent to the idea that Davis commanding plays Wasteland Scourge instead of Madman's Reign, I'd wonder if Davis was meant to be the CO for this mission and not Greyfield. It would explain why Greyfield never boarded.

Greyfield looks up from his more important business to lecture Davis about never failing to serve Greyfield's interests. Going full megalomania en route.

Will realises that Greyfield is all bark and no bite and tells him directly that he's a ponce and not worth the respect of any other register.

Well, once we're no longer on the backfoot. Victory or not, that's still the case.

And perhaps aggravating Greyfield wasn't the smartest move...

Still, the game says I win.

A nice round S. Probably could've done better, but also could've done far worse. These types of missions are more me in my element, and you can tell.

Will's more than ready to step into Brenner's shoes and keep up the effort.

Stats. I like how much of a mirror image our spendings and losses are.

Anyway, so what exactly did our win just accomplish?

Mostly, a morale boost for Will. And probably the soldiers underneath him.

For all Lin has been keeping a head on her shoulders, it's not exactly like she's doing any better off emotionally. She just has a poker face of a sad face.

Will catches on.

Not that it distracts Lin from making this about Will's grief. Neither hell nor high water could make Lin talk about her feelings.

Will talks about how, even in death, Will has been defining himself by what Brenner would do.

Lin dismisses any accusations this might be a character flaw by telling him there are worse role models. By which I mean, yeah, but I think that idolisation did cause him some issues here...

At least Will has internalised his teachings.

Will is joining Lin where and when it counts.

Although Will notices who managed to do it without the pressure of urgency.

...You know, I am both surprised Intsys went there and not at all surprised that there is a sizeable enough faction of this group that Will knows what's going on. Of all the people in this army you don't shit-talk about Lin around, Will is up there with Isabella.

Now then... what comes next in this arrangement?

...Clearly it's going to be big.

Very big.

Lin has the best reactions.

...

YOU WHAT?!

As choices go... Will is certainly one of them.

Admittedly, I always thought the list had ten names, and eight of them were Lin's. (Morris was number 7, and the Mayor was number 11.)

Clearly, Will did the same.

This is actually a pretty neat moment for Will, and something that helps build the audience's confidence in what they're about to do.

Ladies and gentlemen, numbers.

And a lot of them. And Will actually knows them.

We have 1813 people- the standard size is around 1000. And as percentages go, I'm kind of surprised at how large the Lazurians are. OK, they did kind of paint the Wolves as being smaller, but it also kinda felt like the Lazurians themselves were remnants.

Right now, what this army needs is a leader who has a handle on its emotions, not a leader who can handle its tactics. Tensions are running high, because none of these groups really like the other ones.

And Lin is decidedly not a leader the civilians are entirely fond of.

Remember Lin throwing the slowest to the non-literal wolves to save the rest? Yeah, uh, civilians don't get why that's the sort of thing a commander might have to do. And given how Lin acts around them, the civilians can't exactly be blamed for making this assumption.

Will rushes to Lin's defence.

Lin tells him not to waste his breath, and tells him the civilians are right about her. For once, the cold character is genuinely cold- she cares about the Wolves, yeah, but that's the Wolves.

She only did what she did to protect them on Brenner's say so. That's what Brenner's job was.

Will's going to take a few moments to assimilate that into his worldview.

Lin then turns that reaction to her advantage. Will wants to step into Brenner's shoes? Then Lin tells him to do Brenner's most important job- keeping Lin in check.

Quite frankly, there is nothing to understand on the subject.

Lin clearly doesn't expect the decision to get much blowback.

Will decides to push the matter out front, in one last bid to see reason.

Lin turns it around and tells him what Will thought was his biggest issue is actually his greatest asset. Nobody is going to hate Will as a person. And not hating the leader is his entire job.