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[THA] 11) Copyright and Disclaimer [COP] | _ \ _____ _(_)___(_) ___ _ __ | | | (_)___| |_ ___ _ __ _ _ | |_) / _ \ \ / / / __| |/ _ \| '_ \ | |_| | / __| __/ _ \| '__| | | | | _ < __/\ V /| \__ \ | (_) | | | | | _ | \__ \ || (_) | | | |_| | |_| \_\___| \_/ |_|___/_|\___/|_| |_| |_| |_|_|___/\__\___/|_| \__, | |___/ [REV] Version 1.2 [9/17/05] Added WWN to authorized sites Version 1.1 [1/26/05] Added ctrl + F codes, Olaf- in depth, many contributions and opinions. Did a little revising. Version 1.0 [1/20/05] Wrote the FAQ ___ _ __ _ _ _ _ / _ \| | __ _ / _| | |_| |__ ___ | |__ __ _ ___(_) ___ ___ | | | | |/ _` | |_ _____ | __| '_ \ / _ \ | '_ \ / _` / __| |/ __/ __| | |_| | | (_| | _|_____| | |_| | | | __/ | |_) | (_| \__ \ | (__\__ \ \___/|_|\__,_|_| \__|_| |_|\___| |_.__/ \__,_|___/_|\___|___/ [BAS] Olaf is the leader of Blue Moon. He's a balanced CO, no real strengths or weaknesses to worry about, unit wise. With Olaf, the biggest concern is weather. On a clear day, he's perfectly balanced. However, when the weather changes, so does his power. During rain, he suffers the same problems that most COs suffer in snow. However, to offset this, during snow, he can act as if it was a clear day. Using this to your advantage is the key to using Olaf. The key to victory with Olaf is tactical exploitation of your opponent's weakness and strategic use of your CO Powers. ____ _ _ / ___|| |_ __ _| |_ ___ \___ \| __/ _` | __/ __| ___) | || (_| | |_\__ \ |____/ \__\__,_|\__|___/ [STA] What can Olaf do? First, let me explain the basic stats. The stats will be shown with a ratio, like ###/###. The first number is the offense, the second is the defense. 100 is the standard (100% strength) so units that are 100/100 normal. As I said above, all of Olaf's units are normal strength, meaning that they all have 100/100 stats. Outside of that, Olaf is unaffected by snow, but is held back by rain more than a normal CO. The other main stat that COs have it their CO power. You should know about it, so I won't go in-depth about it, just show you what they are. CO Power Bar: xxxXXXX CO Power (COP): Blizzard Causes snow to fall for a round of turns. All units become 100/110. Super CO Power (SCOP): Winter Fury Causes snow to fall for a round of turns. All units become 100/110. Causes 2 damage to all opponent's units. _ _ _ _ ____ _ _ | | | |_ __ (_) |_ | __ ) _ __ ___ __ _| | ____| | _____ ___ __ | | | | '_ \| | __| | _ \| '__/ _ \/ _` | |/ / _` |/ _ \ \ /\ / / '_ \ | |_| | | | | | |_ | |_) | | | __/ (_| | < (_| | (_) \ V V /| | | | \___/|_| |_|_|\__| |____/|_| \___|\__,_|_|\_\__,_|\___/ \_/\_/ |_| |_| [UNI] This section is designed for beginners who might want help determining how to use specific units. Since all of Olaf's units are 100/100, I'll just go into normal uses. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ ( F | o | o | t ) ( S | o | l | d | i | e | r | s ) \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ Infantry: Infantry are the cheapest units in the game, both in cost and quality. Their main functions are capturing and killing other foot soldiers. Throw them against a vehicle and it'll lose a lot of HP and likely not much damage. Other than the beginning capturing spree, use them if your opponent is doing a Mech Flood. Cost: 1000 Movement: 3 (normal), 1 (mountains) Range: Direct Ammo: Infinite Vision: 2 (normal), 5 (mountains) Mech: Mechs can also capture property, but they fare much better against vehicles. While they do cost three times as much as Infantry, it's well worth the cost. They can't move as far, making infantry better at the very beginning, but get Mechs out soon. By comparing the straight cost of units, Mechs can perform better than vehicles. For example, in most cases, 16000 worth of Mechs (5 Mechs, plus change) can kill a Md Tank with ease. A favorite tactic of Sami or Sensei is the Mech Flood, meaning that they build mostly Mechs and slowly advance. That tactic can be adapted to Olaf, but I'll get into that later. Cost: 3000 Movement: 2 Range: Direct Ammo: 3, Infinite Vision: 2 (normal), 5 (mountains) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ ( V | e | h | i | c | l | e | s ) \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ Recon: The Recon performs exactly as one would think. It's a fast vehicle with a larger than normal vision range. It's good at killing Infantry and decent against Mechs (if it gets first strike). Outside of FOW, the main reason to use a Recon is to do an early rush and hinder you opponent's early capturing. Works well against slower COs like Kanbei or Grit. Cost: 4000 Movement: 8 (3 per non-Road surface) Range: Direct Ammo: Infinite Vision: 5 APC: The APC has no weapons, no way to fight back, yet is one of the most useful units in the game. It has two purposes. It can carry a foot soldier, and since the APC can move at least double the distance of the foot soldiers, that is really helpful to get your troops to cities. The other purpose is that it is a mobile supply depot. It's a good idea to keep an APC or two with your forces to make sure they don't run out of ammo. Cost: 5000 Movement: 6 Range: n/a Ammo: n/a Vision: 1 Artillery: Artillery are the bread and butter indirect unit. It doesn't have the range or power of the Rocket, but it's a lot more cost efficient. By keeping a few artillery in the middle of your forces, you'll be able to whittle a few HP off the tougher units before sending your direct units in, saving you some damage. Cost: 6000 Movement: 5 Range: 2-3 squares Ammo: 9 Vision: 1 Tank: Similar to the Artillery, the Tank will be the bread and butter of your forces. Until you have enough money to consistently create Md Tanks, the tanks will serve you well. They are very diverse in use, good against other vehicles as well as infantry. Just watch out for the Air units when using this guy. Cost: 7000 Movement: 6 Range: Direct Ammo: 9, Infinite Vision: 3 Anti Air: The Anti Air, in addition to devastating air units, is very effective against foot soldiers. It can do decent damage against vehicles, but it also tends to take as much as it gives. Tanks work better on the vehicle vs vehicle fight, but Anti Airs help with the Mech Flood or Air raids. Cost: 8000 Movement: 6 Range: Direct Ammo: 9 Vision: 2 Missile: Missiles can do only one thing, but they do it with an ease that many units lack. Missiles simply just shoot down air units. They can OHKO (One Hit KO) all air units, meaning that a group of them can easily take down an air assault. Obviously don't use them if there's no airports, or if your opponent isn't using air significantly. Cost: 12000 Movement: 4 (on roads), 3 (off roads) Range: 3-5 squares Ammo: 6 Vision: 5 Rocket: Rockets are overpowered artillery. They can shoot farther, hit harder, and turn the tide of a game if used right. It comes with two major setbacks. For the cost of a Rocket, you can buy 2.5 Artillery. So it's not a light investment. Also, the movement is not as good, so it your only bases are a good distance from the battlefront, consider a few artillery instead. Cost: 15000 Movement: 5 (on roads), 3 (off roads) Range: 3-5 squares Ammo: 6 Vision: 1 Md Tank: Md Tanks are exactly as they sound. Powered up tanks. They have great defense, so most weaker vehicles have trouble killing it. As I said under the Mech, Mechs can cost effectively kill it, assuming you have the ability to mass produce them. The Md Tank is powerful and very good at holding chokepoints. If you have the money, it's likely worth it to get a Md Tank. Cost: 16000 Movement: 5 Range: Direct Ammo: 8, Infinite Vision: 1 Neo Tank: Neo Tanks are even more powerful than Md Tanks, but the cost is also significantly higher. It can be help in some situations, but normally the extra cost is just too much for effective use. Cost: 22000 Movement: 6 Range: Direct Ammo: 9, Infinite Vision: 1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ ( A | i | r ) ( U | n | i | t | s ) \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ T Copter: The T Copter is a unique unit. It can carry a foot soldier like an APC, but can't refuel. However, it is an Air unit, and as such can fly over any terrain, making it needed in mountain or sea heavy maps. Cost: 5000 Movement: 6 Range: n/a Ammo: n/a Vision: 2 B Copter: The B Copter is arguably the most versatile units in the game. It can fire on most units, and can cripple many of those. It only really runs into trouble against A Air, Missiles, and, to a lesser extent, Cruisers. Very handy to have around, great at breaking a line and hitting indirects. Cost: 9000 Movement: 6 Range: Direct Ammo: 6, Infinite Vision: 3 Fighter: Fighters are similar to missiles in that they exist for only one purpose, to kill Air units. It works well at that since the only Air unit that can counter attack it is another Fighter. It's a little more costly than other counters, but if you're having trouble with Air units, it's not a bad investment. Cost: 20000 Movement: 9 Range: Direct Vision: 2 Ammo: 9 Bomber: The Bomber is almost the exact opposite of the Fighter. It can annihilate any ground unit. It's a little costly and can get taken down by Fighters or Missiles, but it's a great way of killing the more hardy ground units. Cost: 22000 Movement: 7 Range: Direct Vision: 2 Ammo: 9 _ _ _ _ _ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ ( S | h | i | p | s ) \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ Lander: The lander is a transport unit like the APC and T Copter. Obviously, it's a ship, meaning that it's limited to the water. However, it can do two things that the other transports can't. First, it can carry two troops at once. Second, it can carry vehicles in addition to foot soldiers. It's needed in island maps, and useful in sea heavy maps. Cost: 12000 Movement: 7 Range: n/a Ammo: n/a Vision: 1 Submarine: The sea units are often considered a game of rock-paper-scissors. Submarines will destroy a Battleship, but in turn is destroyed by Cruisers. It has the ability to dive under the water, allowing it to hide from most unit's fire. The Cruiser and other Submarines are the only units that can fire on it while dived. The Submarine is also good at killing Landers. It's long vision range and the ability to dive make it a great sea scout. Cost: 20000 Movement: 6 Range: Direct Ammo: 6 Vision: 5 Cruiser: The Cruiser is an interesting combination. It can only fire on Submarines, Copters, and Plane, making it somewhat specialized. It's not even all that good at killing B Copter. However, it can carry 2 Copters. It's the only transport unit that can fire on other units. It's really only useful in certain situations. Cost: 18000 Movement: 7 Range: Direct Ammo: 9, Infinite Vision: 3 Battleship: The Battleship is the most powerful indirect unit in the game. It has a huge range and can fire on ground units as well as sea units. It will destroy Cruisers, Landers, and undived Submarines. In maps with Ports, but not much ocean, it is the only really useful sea unit. Cost: 28000 Movement: 6 Range: 2-6 Ammo: 9 Vision: 2 ___ _ __ _ _ _ _ / _ \| | __ _ / _| (_)_ __ __| | ___ _ __ | |_| |__ | | | | |/ _` | |_ _____ | | '_ \ / _` |/ _ \ '_ \| __| '_ \ | |_| | | (_| | _|_____| | | | | | | (_| | __/ |_) | |_| | | | \___/|_|\__,_|_| |_|_| |_| \__,_|\___| .__/ \__|_| |_| |_| [IND] Olaf is a giant of power hidden under a cloak of being 'merely average'. Olaf is balanced, his troops all have 100/100 stats. But power is about so much more than stats in this game. The best COs in the game don't just have power, but the ability to change the rules and work outside normal bounds. Olaf is one of the COs that can do that, through his unique abilities and his CO powers. To start off, the biggest strength Olaf has is snow. Snow is the bane of all other COs. It drastically reduces movement of all units. Olaf is unaffected by snow, meaning that in an icy situation, Olaf will always grab the first strike. And ask any experienced player, first strike is more important than a power boost. COs like Jess and Adder make that painfully obvious when you fall to their CO powers, and Olaf is no different. However, while there are several COs that give a movement boost, Olaf is the only CO that can drastically reduce his opponent's movement on all units (Drake can do it to a point, but it doesn't affect all units and only comes with his Super CO Power). As I said, that will give Olaf first strike, but it will also disrupt your opponent's supply lines. Foot Soldiers making a run through mountains will be completely stuck, unable to move at all. Vehicles in forests will be unable to move more than a space or two. Even on roads, they can only go a few extra spaces. There's no easier way to halt an opponent's attack drive than to take away their ability to drive. Speaking of driving, the snow presents another hidden ability, though not as obvious nor game affecting as others. As we all know, Sea and Air units live on borrowed time. Having one of them sit and do nothing will eventually kill it. By using the snow, you prevent that unit from moving much and therefore waste one turn of its time. Even though it may not kill that unit, it'll make your opponent think twice about sending a unit beyond the reach of an APC. This will greatly limit the tactics he can employ while using these. Another danger Olaf presents is HQ Capture. While Sami is the queen of sneaking a troop in and capturing the HQ, Olaf can perform this task with a surprising ability. Use a COP/ SCOP, then send the troop in and capture. Hopefully move a few more units of the same type in to block and potentially join if the capturing unit gets damaged. Your snow will prevent units heading towards the front line from pulling a U-turn and attacking your troops. If you manage to go undamaged, then you win next turn. Otherwise, it'll be mostly captured and you can join units to finish the job (again, you'll hopefully have a few more units around to protect since the snow will be gone next turn). As you can see, the snow presents quite an advantage when used right. To offset the power of snow, Olaf's only real weakness is rain. During rain, he gets held back a bit more than other COs. But it really isn't all that much of a weakness. In a permentantly clear game, Olaf is perfectly fine. In Random weather, rain will come every once in a while, however there's an equal chance at snow. And if Olaf causes snow, it'll put off the next weather change for longer. The only time he'll really run into problems is in an all Rain situation or when facing Drake. Since most players play only in Clear or Random, that first is not very likely. The other aspect of Olaf's power is the main reason I first used him, before I discovered the snow factor. When using his Super CO Power, he inflicts 2 damage on all enemy units. No matter what the situation it, an 8 HP troop will perform siginificantly worse than one with full health. So your opponent has three options, all advantageous to you. He can repair his units, join his units, or just work with damaged units. Even more than the snow, attempting to repair all their units can stall an enemy's plan. That can be a costly proposal, especially for Kanbei, and very time consuming. On maps where cities are few and far between, it may even cause a retreat to an area where there are more cities. Joining units is an alternative to repairing, but it obviously gets them less units. This is probably the most favorable option of the three, since you'll have less units to deal with and you can likely drive deeper into their territory than you would have otherwise. However, you should be wary of heavy reinforcements. Joining two 8 HP tanks will give your opponent back an extra 4200 gold. Two Neo tanks will net 13200, almost enough for a brand new Md Tank. Make sure you can handle the extra reinforcements when they make it up to the front lines. Now to look at the last option, just dealing with damaged troops. That has the obvious advantages of easier kills. A rocket can do 80% or more to all units sitting on a road except Md Tanks, Neotanks, B Ships, and Landers. Many other units could easily OHKO (One Hit KO) an 8 HP unit instead of crippling a 10 HP unit. Now aside from making your opponent choose from these options, you can actually force him to choose one. Use Winter Fury on a turn after he's built an expensive unit, say a Battleship. He won't have a choice about repairing it, and automatically lose an extra 5600 that turn. Now, say he happens to have a few other units sitting on cities coming to the front. We'll go with a tank and an A Air. That's another 3000 down the drain. If you can coordinate it well enough, you can make him start a turn with almost no money. He won't be able to build new units to replace his now damaged ones, unless he joins. And, as stated above, joining is very favorable. An extra little bonus for his SCOP comes in Fog of War. When he inflicts the damage on the enemy units, it's reveal the location of that unit. Now, unless you have photographic memory, it can be hard to remember where they all are, but it can help you detect ambushes lying in wait and avoid them. Or it can help you call a bluff (aka the opponent sitting a few tanks outside a forested region, acting like bait for an ambush, then attacking while you'r undefended). While this may not seem like much, it's one more thing that adds to the greatness of Olaf. Olaf's last big strength is his lack of a weakness. Of course he's 'weak' to rain, but rain is only a turn long and it affects your opponent as well (except Drake). Other than that, Olaf has all 100/100 units, so many strategies are available to him that other COs wouldn't be able to pull off. While some COs might be able to perform better with certain strategies, Olaf offers the ability to flit from tactic to tactic and surprise the opponent. Let's look at Grit's favorite tactic, bombardment from behind a shield. Olaf can pull this off fairly well, his indirects only suffer a space of range from Grit and the attack bonus. However, what Olaf's strengths can add to the strategy in ways that Grit can't. Snow will make targets sitting ducks, while an extra two damage will allow indirects to OHKO more units. And Olaf's direct units are more powerful than Grit's giving him a more hardy 'mop up crew' and shield. So Olaf can hold out under an attack until while he's building up his shield. Then, when he's ready, he can switch suddenly and use his directs to go on a rampage, advancing his indirects quickly into the now open gap and preparing to defend against the counterattack. Grit, however, doesn't have that option as open to him, he'd have to slowly creep forward and take his land bit by bit. Olaf has the element of surprise with his, where Grit's creep is predictable and can be countered with planning. Now not to pick on Grit specifically, but all specialized COs can have their strategies adapted to Olaf (except for strategies based around COP/SCOP). Olaf can do a frontal assault like Max or Flak, he can do an air assault like Sensei or Eagle. He can master the sea like Drake or capture quickly like Sami. Many people dismiss COs like Olaf because they can be trumped by a specialized COs. As I've shown above, Olaf can use his snow to specialize while at the same time being generalized. So, how does Olaf compare to the other 'all arounders'? Andy, Nell, Sonja, Flak, Adder, and Lash all have 100/100 stats, so what makes Olaf so special? Let's take them in order. Andy's only strength is his COP/SCOP. He can heal his units without having to retreat to a city, making him a good counter for Olaf, Drake, and Hawke's damaging powers. But aside from that, he doesn't have anything to give him advantages over specialized COs like Olaf does. Nell and Flak both fall under the same category, Luck. They has average units, but a chance of doing more damage than normal. In Flak's case, he has a chance of doing less than normal too. For either CO, there's nothing remarkable about them that can give them an advantage over the specialized COs. Now we get to the other three balanced COs that have an upper hand against specialized COs. Sonja is an interesting CO to use. She suffers bad luck similar to the worse half of Flak. So occasionally she'll do less damage. That is her weakness, but her strengths shine well above it, but mostly in FoW. Through her COP/SCOP, she can see through trees and reefs and know exactly what lays in wait, and even attack it. Her counter attacks are stronger, so even when she can't get first strike she can do more damage. And then there's the hidden HP. Sonja is a balanced CO that specializes in FoW. So outside of it, she's weaker than most, though her powers can still be potent in the right hands. Adder is truly a bland CO. No strength, no weakness. He has a short COP Bar and in fierce fighting can use a COP/SCOp every few turns. But what does his COP/SCOP give him? He gets an extra square of movement to all units (2 for SCOP). While this can be used to an advantage, it's hard to use this to break a specialized CO. Lash is a unique CO. All her units are 100/100 (duh), however she gets an attack boost based on the terrain. She is powerful because of this, but like the others can fall to specialized COs. She gets absolutely no bonus to Air units, making her near useless in an air map, and her sea unit fare only slightly better. She's incredible at ground combat, but will still fall to specialized COs. To conclude this section, Olaf is one of the best, if not the best, rounded CO in the game, since his one main strength can be used to break specialized COs. Olaf is an all arounder with a specialized strength that can be applied well to most situation. A rare combination. When used right, Olaf is unstoppable. ____ _ / ___| ___ _ __ ___ _ __ __ _| | | | _ / _ \ '_ \ / _ \ '__/ _` | | | |_| | __/ | | | __/ | | (_| | | \____|\___|_| |_|\___|_| \__,_|_| ____ _ _ _ / ___|| |_ _ __ __ _| |_ ___ __ _(_) ___ ___ \___ \| __| '__/ _` | __/ _ \/ _` | |/ _ \/ __| ___) | |_| | | (_| | || __/ (_| | | __/\__ \ |____/ \__|_| \__,_|\__\___|\__, |_|\___||___/ |___/ [GEN] Olaf's biggest strength is a lack of weakness. All his units are 100/100, making a host of different strategies viable. I won't get into a lot of general strategies, but I'll go into the strengths of his COP/ SCOP. Basically, this section has a few tips, but is mostly for people who don't want to read through my Olaf- in depth section and pick out the strategies. I'd recommend reading both sections, since I could have missed some information that was included in the other section. One of the deciding factors for Olaf is often the most overlooked, his snow. With snow, all units will have their movement drastically reduced. Olaf, of course, isn't affected by it. That means that while your opponent will have to delay his plans for a turn or two, you can keep on going. If you time it right, you can break through a line and your opponent won't be able to reinforce for a turn, allowing your units to survive and drive deeper. The only difference between Olaf's COP and SCOP is damage. With his SCOP, Olaf will do two damage to all enemy units. That can often be the deciding factor between severe damage and a OHKO. Many units can do crippling damage to certain units, but can't quite kill them. However, they can kill an 8 HP unit. To borrow from the above strategy, if you use Winter Fury to break a line, you can pierce a line very well and prevent reinforcements for killing your troops. From Eric43: "Olaf's movement is not affected by snow. You already knew that, but he has mad skills which can really stop opponents dead in their tracks. First of all, Blizzard makes it snow, which slows enemy movement. This is how it works. For treaded and tire vehicles, when it snows, all plains are replaced with forests. This means that Olaf gets 1/2 movement over snowy plains while other COs get 2/3 over snowy plains. This is important. Stick to getting your opponent on the plains and you will win. Retreat to the plains, use Blizzard, and just make it so your opponent can't get you, but you can get him. However, forests still give Olaf and other COs two movement costs, so those are bad.... (for some reason, snow forests in AW1 have 3 movement cost for treads, but AW2 Olaf has Winter Fury to make up for it) It seems like some maps, Olaf is no good, because there's very few plains. For instance, on 3p map Keyhole Cove, there's a road with some plains around. However, you can still use Blizzard on these maps anyway. The objective is to "block" the roads so that the opponent has to go on the plains to get to you. For instance, go ahead and put an infantry or a recon or anything on the road. Then put some artilleries/tanks/whatever behind them. Now your opponent cannot get to your main attack force. They will have to retreat. You will win for sure. Now, it seems like "why don't I just put a bunch of infantry meatshields instead?" How many maps have you played where you have only two bases to produce units from, so you are unable to mass infantry? Also, how can you move all those infantry to the front lines so quickly anyway? You can't do that always. Olaf's Blizzard creates a shield for your units when you can't get it by means of cheap units. Olaf's Blizzard kicks ass on land, but in the air or sea, he WINS. Why? Because air/sea units don't have any "roads" to adhere to, so they get two movement cost EVERYWHERE. Fighters can only move 4 places. Bombers, copters, landers, and cruisers can only move 3. Battleships and subs can only move 2. This is bad. Your opponent will hesisate to build a massive air force in fear that Olaf will use Blizzard, move his fighters in, and you have no where to run. Then you can get your opponent to stick to the land units, where you don't have to worry about building anti-airs, and you can focus more on tanks so you can surely destroy his land force. Oh yeah, you can still use your nice b-copters/bombers/b-ships without having to worry about pesky fighters/subs since you can pick them off pretty fast. Winter Fury is great. For four stars more, you can make it snow and deal two damage to all enemy units. Just the damage alone is enough to annoy anyone. Only three COs in the game have this sort of power, Drake, Hawke, and Olaf. No one really likes Hawke's powers though, since they take too long to charge. However, some would prefer Drake since he has the fuel-halving powers and the rain instead of snow. Oh really? Winter Fury may be just as good as Typhoon, Drake's almighty power. Olaf can use air units. Drake can't. Anyway, this isn't a debate so I'm not trying to bash Drake here. I'm getting off track. Use Winter Fury when you didn't have any good time previously to use Blizzard. Use it, move in and kill him with a multitude of air and ground units, and now your opponent has no chance of coming back. Also, Winter Fury is good to use in 4-player free-for-all, no doubt." Not really a strategy, but a slight advantage that most other COs don't have. When you use Winter Fury in Fog of War, it will actually show you where all your opponent's units are. While you can't know what they are nor attack them without seeing them, it can help you detect ambushes and call bluffs. The only other COs that can do this are Drake and Hawke. From Eric43:"This is another strat; when your opponent does what I like to call "set up a pick," this is the situation: Olaf's Tank (plains) Enemy Tank (plains) Another Enemy Tank behind that one Ok, one may be inclined to attack the enemy tank, but wait; the enemy has a pick set up, the 2nd tank will attack yours if you go within its range and you will lose your tank. Not this time. Use Blizzard and then attack the 1st tank; the 2nd tank can't get to you in time, so you can get the first hit twice, amazing, huh? This obviously works best when you have multiple units, not just one measly tank vs another tank." One aspect of the game that is often not talked about in FAQs is multiplayer. A common form of multiplayer is 2 vs 2 battles. Basically, two teams battle, either with one person controlling 2 COs or 4 players total. Olaf is one of the few COs that, when used with himself on a team, gains an even more significant advantage. Since he's not affected by snow, one Olaf using a power won't affect the other like it would affect any other CO. A game breaking combination is to use Winter Fury with one Olaf, wait a turn for the snow to wear off, and then use your other Winter Fury. That will do a total of 4 damage to all enemy units (it affects both enemies, making it even better) and delays your opponent's plans by two turns. That can allow you to destroy you opponent's line with little fear of retaliation. ____ _ _ ___ _ __ / ___|___ _ _ _ __ | |_ ___ _ __(_)_ __ __ _ / _ \| | __ _ / _| | | / _ \| | | | '_ \| __/ _ \ '__| | '_ \ / _` | | | | | |/ _` | |_ | |__| (_) | |_| | | | | || __/ | | | | | | (_| | | |_| | | (_| | _| \____\___/ \__,_|_| |_|\__\___|_| |_|_| |_|\__, | \___/|_|\__,_|_| |___/ [COU] Olaf is actually fairly difficult to counter simply because he has no weakness that most COs can use. Yeah, Drake's rain can slow him down, but he's the only CO that can cause rain, and even then it's not predictable unless he uses his SCOP. The best way to beat him is to emphasis your strengths and limit your weaknesses. Grit, for instance should find and hold a chokepoint and spam Artillery until he's ready to advance. Sami, on the other hand, should flood Mechs with a few supporting units to cost effectively kill him. Really, beating Olaf is just about the skills in using your advantage. ___ _ __ ___ _ _ ____ ___ / _ \| | __ _ / _| __ _____ / _ \| |_| |__ ___ _ __ / ___/ _ \ ___ | | | | |/ _` | |_ \ \ / / __| | | | | __| '_ \ / _ \ '__| | | | | | / __| | |_| | | (_| | _| \ V /\__ \ | |_| | |_| | | | __/ | | |__| |_| \__ \ \___/|_|\__,_|_| \_/ |___/ \___/ \__|_| |_|\___|_| \____\___/|___/ [OTH] How well does Olaf fare in a battle against other COs? Not taking the other player's strategic ability into account, I'll give a brief summary of how to play against each CO. Andy- Andy can be one of the most annoying COs for Olaf to face, simply because your damage abilities won't affect him as much. If you use your SCOP, all he has to do is use his COP and he's back to where he started. So what you really want to take advantage of is the snow. Watch him carefully and use your COP to trap him and ambush him. Max- Max is a very one dimensional CO, but he's good at what he does. All of his direct units are deadly, but his indirects are weak and have a limited range. The best way to counter Max is to use indirects to your advantage. A few Artillery can turn the tide of a battle. Look for chokepoints and hold them until you are ready. Sami- Sami excels with foot soldiers, so be prepared for a Mech Flood. Counter with B Copters (if there are Airports) since Mechs can cost effectively kill any ground units. Also, indirects can work well due to Mech's low movement. In a high mountain area where she's sending troops through them for an ambush, snow will literally stop them in their tracks. Also, with a Mech flood, Olaf's SCOP will do more damage, since it does 2 HP to each unit. Nell- Nell is all about luck. Her troops are all normal strength, so there's no special strategies that should be used against her. Hachi- Hachi can spam normal strength units at you, due to the reduced costs. He doesn't have a weakness to exploit, so you really have to use counters effectively and hope your opponents make a lot of mistakes. Olaf- Facing yourself in battle is kinda creepy if you think about it, but it's allowed in the AW universe. So, how does Olaf vs Olaf go? Well, Olaf's only strength, snow, is no longer really a strength. The same goes with weakness. So, like most COs vs themselves, Olaf vs Olaf would just come down to the skill of the players. On a side note, using his COP would be absolutely useless you really want that 10% defensive bonus (and that really isn't all that helpful as a COP). It'd be better to save it and use your SCOP for the damage. Grit- Grit is an interesting battle for Olaf. Being an indirect master, he won't need to move around as much, making the snow not affect him as much. However, SCOPs will affect him, especially since many chokepoints have few cities near them. He'll have to retreat his units to repair, join units, or deal with weaker units. Any of those are favorable in a chokepoint situation. And, if he decides to just deal with damaged units, next SCOP their down to 6 HP. Use counters to mount an assault and break through the line, and Grit won't be too much of a problem. Colin- Colin's biggest strength is also his biggest weakness, he has cheap units. They cost him less, but are weaker than normal. Really, there's not much strategy for beating him other than use counters. If you’re playing against a human and you haven't banned it, watch for a Double Gold Rush. If Colin fills his COP Bar all the way, he can use Gold Rush twice in a row, drastically increasing his money. The best way to beat Colin is to drag the game out until you can build powerful units almost every turn, and then kill his slightly-less-powerful units with yours. The damage in you SCOP will affect Colin more, since more units means more damage. Kanbei- Kanbei is the opposite of Colin, his units are more expensive, but more powerful. Again, there's no weakness but the cost, so you want to hit him hard in the early game. Don't let him get a lot of cities or else you'll find yourself overwhelmed with units you can't kill. A good advantage Olaf does have vs Kanbei is the SCOP. With it, you can do 2 damage to all his units without fear of counter attack. To look at the three options again, repairing a unit is very costly for Kanbei, so that advantage is obvious. And Kanbei will almost always have fewer units than you, so joining will help too. Just be wary, since his units are more expensive, he'll get more funds from joining units. The last option is probably the best, though. Kanbei's units are strong, so getting them to 8 HP will help your game so much, especially if he leaves them at 8 HP. Sonja- Sonja can be quite tricky to defeat in Fog of War, but outside of it she loses her greatest advantage. She is, for all intents and purposes, a balanced CO, but she suffers in the way of her CO powers. Her COP is useless outside of FOW, but her SCOP is deadly when used right. It basically makes it so that if you attack her in the next turn, it acts as if she attacked first. The best way to counter this is through indirects and your SCOP to do damage without fear of counter attacking. Then, when your directs attack, you'll take less damage. In FOW, use the SCOP to identify ambushes and bluffs and avoid them. Sensei- Sensei is awesome in the early game, so you really want to hold out for the later game. Using A Airs to counter his Copters and Foot Soldiers is just common sense, but don't ignore other units. While a bit weaker, he can thrown in a tank or two to assist and you can kiss your A Airs goodbye. Throw a few tanks of your own in the mix, they still do really good against infantry. Also, Sensei's main tactics all involve swarming, so the generalized damage of his SCOP will be cruel to Sensei. Eagle- Eagle can be a tricky person to beat. He is an expert in the air, so you'll want a greater mix of Missiles and A Air to counter it. But the biggest thing to watch for it his SCOP. The ability to move twice in one turn is deadly beyond all reason and is very good at breaking through a defense. And it works on all mechanical units, meaning that his ground troops move twice as well. It lets him build and move in the same turn. If you see him preparing for a Lightning Strike, use a Blizzard to slow him down. Also, keep a unit or two far away from the lines so that you won't die by losing all your units. If you can make it viable, Eagle has horrible sea units, so a naval assault may work. But again, make sure it'll work, since the Navy is not the best way to attack with and a failed Naval assault will drain your money very quickly. Drake- Drake can perhaps be one of the hardest COs for Olaf to beat. Olaf's biggest weakness is rain, and with Drake it comes abundantly. Really, the only way to counter it is to use a COP/SCOP and change it to snow, or just deal with it. Drake also has the damaging ability, which can be annoying, but not breaking. Using air units effectively can help you, since Drake's air units are 70/100. Be wary, though, since rain will cut your movement and air units are very fuel intensive. Make sure APCs are abundant. Avoid the Sea if possible, but if you have to, support your navy with plenty of B Copters. Make good use of Cruiser's carrying capability in Fog of War for a surprise ambush. And mostly, don't be afraid to use B Copters to kill Cruisers. Even without first strike, two B Copters can take a Cruiser out for the same cost. Also remember, that Drake suffers from you as much as you suffer from him. Snow will slow him down like rain slows you, and both SCOPs do the same 2 damage. Jess- Jess is a vehicle specialist, meaning that she's going to rely on them for a significant portion of the battle. Vehicles are really affected by snow in any terrain other than road, so sometimes using a COP rather than saving up for the SCOP can be more beneficial. Also, she gets free refueling and extra movement, so don't ignore the low ammo unit. One COP and it'll be attacking you again. Flak- Flak is, like Nell, luck based. Beware the extra damage he can get from his COP/ SCOP, but other than that, just use basic counters. Adder- Adder is one of the most under-rated COs in the game. He has no strengths and no weakness, even more so than Andy, Olaf, or anyone else he might be compared to. But what makes him so good is simply that he can employ any tactic without having to worry about weak units. His COP/SCOP just increase his movement, but to all units. With his SCOP, the Mech can overcome it's greatest weakness and have a movement of 4. When playing against him, watch carefully for his COP and try to predict when he'll want to use it. While you won't have yours every time, a little snow will delay him. As I stated a moment ago, watch out for the Mechs. With other COs, you can disregard a Mech that's 4 squares away and take care of it next turn, but with Adder, that can be a significantly bigger threat. Other than movement, Adder really doesn't stand out, so adapt your strategies to the terrain and to counter what Adder's planning. Lash- Lash is either merely average or super powered depending on the map. She gets her extra strength from the terrain, meaning that in a mostly road map, she's not great, but in a forest or mountain heavy map she's overpowered. The key to beating her is countering units (as always) and trying to keep her off better terrain. If there's an open field, send your troops through there and make her come out and meet you (or march straight at her base). If there's a chokepoint, put infantry throughout the mountain to clog it up and make her move to other terrain. If she does go through mountains, your snow effect will hurt her significantly for a turn. Also, Air units don't gain terrain advantage, so her Air is average. "Lash cannot use powers to reduce movement cost to 1 when it snows. So whenever you anticipate her to use her power, use yours and she won't get first strikes like crazy." Stairwalker adds. Hawke- To some, Hawke is cheap. In a normal battle, he is. All of his troops are 110/100, meaning that in a straight battle, Hawke will beat Olaf every time. However, Hawke's COP Bar is long, so Olaf can gain back some advantage against him. However, Hawke's SCOP will, like Andy, completely negate Olaf's SCOP. But due to the cost, you should be using your SCOP more than he is. Use it to you advantage and use counters to defeat him. And above all, try to kill him before he can get his SCOP as much as you can. Sturm- Sturm is cheap. Simply put, it'll take a lot of strategy and a lot of mistakes on your opponent's side to win. ___ _ _ ___ _ __ / _ \ _ __ (_)_ __ (_) ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ / _ \| | __ _ / _| | | | | '_ \| | '_ \| |/ _ \| '_ \/ __| / _ \| '_ \ | | | | |/ _` | |_ | |_| | |_) | | | | | | (_) | | | \__ \ | (_) | | | | | |_| | | (_| | _| \___/| .__/|_|_| |_|_|\___/|_| |_|___/ \___/|_| |_| \___/|_|\__,_|_| |_| [OPI] This section is dedicated to various opinions on Olaf, showing multiple views other than mine on this CO. My view on Olaf: Olaf is well rounded with a unique ability. His snow, when used right, can stop your opponent while you keep pumping along. Many people dismiss him due to no apparent strengths. He can counter any tactic with his rounded troops and really only has trouble in rain. But rain lasts a turn at the most and comes rarely (unless you are vs Drake), so his weakness doesn't affect him as much as other COs are. Thalax5: Olaf isn't so much a defensive CO as a STALL CO. He works best in situations where you need to buy time. Learn how to time the use of Blizzard and you can be deadly. It effectively halves movement for enemy air and sea units, and gives you a turn of movement to position everything you need for first strikes, which dominate air and sea combat more so than land. It can also trap units on terrain, making it perfect for taking out a small force before newly built indirects arrive to support. It's also really handy if it's raining or if you need just a little extra defense. Winter Fury, just like any mass damage SCOP, is great vs. swarmers and expensive uber unit types like Sensei and Kanbei. Swarming forces take the most damage from it, and if Kanbei's built up a hefty force, he'll have to pay a fortune to get it back up to 100%, or join his units and have even fewer units to defend with. Also, like any mass damage SCOP, it shows locations of enemy units in FOW. And it makes Olaf a much bigger threat in multiplayer or handicap match maps as it affects ALL enemies. One of my personal fave things to do is set 2 CO's vs. Olaf and set the weather to Snow, then play as Olaf. Poison Ablaze: Olaf is an underrated CO because he is almost exactly like Andy (with the exception of climate bonuses and penalties). Using the normal strategies you can normally use with Andy, Olaf can hold any battle by capitalizing on the enemies weakness and eliminating his strengths. So even without powers he is an ok CO; all COs depend on how well you can adapt to their strategies, for a newbie player might despise Olaf because he does not have the healing powers that Andy does, and yet another might decide Olaf fares just as well in any sort of battle. And Olaf's powers may be another bonus for the latter player. Olaf's CO Power does not grant any perceptible bonus; however, it severely grants the Olaf player more time for one day. An infantry with no protection can steal the HQ quite easily after a Blizzard, for the defenses of the opposing player may be distracted by the decoy frontal assault and leave his base behind him. Like any player, Olaf works well in psychological warfare; the enemy is forced to keep their units closer to Olaf's if his CO Power is full, which sometimes means that you can easily destroy said units with backup artillery. Olaf's CO Power also stacks quite nicely; if you use Blizzard immediately after a day has finished snowing he still retains the "bonuses" while the enemy still retains the penalties. Another example is placing a T-Copter or another endangered unit safely out of normally enemy territory by causing a Blizzard. Olaf's inherent skill in snow is also a bonus; if playing any player other than Drake, Olaf is almost safe from rain and therefore disregards his penalties (climate change is delayed after every initial climate change; if Olaf uses his CO Power to start a Blizzard a change to rain will be likely to not happen soon after his power). Another bonus to his skill is his absence of two penalties. Normal CO's (excluding Drake and Olaf) have penalties to each climate change; Andy, for example, is affected poorly in rain and snow and is normal in clear weather. However, Olaf is affected poorly only in rain and is normal in both snow and clear weather. In this case, Olaf has a slight bonus over all other COs (with the exception of Drake). Olaf's SCO Power is all his power can give and more; however, only two damage points is not enough to deter the most persistent enemies and should only be used when either Olaf is winning, the other player is using large numbers of units to try to swarm Olaf, or Olaf is playing the psychological game and because of the indecision to play Olaf's CO Power it has reached its fullest potential. In a situation like the third, I would usually recommend choosing the SCO Power over the CO Power, but in some cases you need two days to complete a plan (on an interesting note: capturing cities takes two days) and you need to halt enemy units. In this case choose the weaker power over the stronger; you can gain two blizzards in two days. _____ _ _ _ |_ _| |__ __ _ _ __ | | _____ | |_ ___ | | | '_ \ / _` | '_ \| |/ / __| | __/ _ \ | | | | | | (_| | | | | <\__ \ | || (_) | _ _ |_| |_| |_|\__,_|_| |_|_|\_\___/ \__\___(_|_|_) [THA] CjayC and gameFAQs.com- for inspiring me to write FAQs... My fellow SoLdiers, just because... Terragent and Linkman145, for organizing the CO FAQ writers... Xenesis Xenon, for the CO Stats FAQ, a great help... axiomnightmare, for his double Olaf debate, helping me form the Clone Wars section... Eric43, for 'More on Snow' and 'Breaking a Pick'... Stairwalker, for adding to the vs Lash section and pointing out an error in my vs Drake section. Linkman145 for pointing out a few things regarding weather... Thalax5 and Poison Ablaze, for their opinions... ASCII picture generated by http://www.degraeve.com/gif2txt.php ASCII text generated by http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ ____ _ _ _ _ / ___|___ _ __ _ _ _ __(_) __ _| |__ | |_ __ _ _ __ __| | | | / _ \| '_ \| | | | '__| |/ _` | '_ \| __| / _` | '_ \ / _` | | |__| (_) | |_) | |_| | | | | (_| | | | | |_ | (_| | | | | (_| | \____\___/| .__/ \__, |_| |_|\__, |_| |_|\__| \__,_|_| |_|\__,_| |_| |___/ |___/ ____ _ _ _ | _ \(_)___ ___| | __ _(_)_ __ ___ ___ _ __ | | | | / __|/ __| |/ _` | | '_ ` _ \ / _ \ '__| | |_| | \__ \ (__| | (_| | | | | | | | __/ | |____/|_|___/\___|_|\__,_|_|_| |_| |_|\___|_| [COP] This document is (c)2005 Phil Leide. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. If you have suggestions, comments, questions, corrections, or additional strategies that may be useful and that are pertinent to the subject of this document, please e-mail me at the following address: thrawnfett@gmail.com Please, no spam or ads. Whether I use anything sent is entirely my decision. If your contribution is useful, it will be inserted in an future update to the guide and you will be given full credit for it. The only sites authorized to use this guide are listed below. If you want to use this guide, please e-mail me at the above address. gamefaqs.com warsworldnews.com