HC16: Factory Blues

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Hard Campaign Guide

Mission 16: Factory Blues


Difficulty:

Recommended Player COs: Colin, Kanbei
Enemy CO: Lash
Perfect speed limit: 21 days

The recommended COs on this mission are Colin and Kanbei. Kanbei (as well as
the other Yellow Comet COs) can be unlocked by beating the Yellow Comet
campaign first. The factory mission of that campaign (The Hunt’s End) is
easiest with Max as assisting CO anyway, so it’s really recommended that you
finish that mission before doing this one. Kanbei’s forces will be pretty much
only pre-deployed in this map, so his strength helps a ton.

Colin I prefer over Grit to use here, as the map is very open and Colin’s
cheap units makes you able to produce expensive units quickly. However, Grit
is still a decent choice on this map if you mass produce Artillery and have
Kanbei act as a shield for them. Olaf is immediately out as a viable option,
as his snow will hamper Kanbei’s forces more than Lash’s.

Kanbei will deal with most of the combat. With him, capture the two cities
near his starting location and later on take the western airport. From there
he can build some B-Copters and take control of the entire western side.
Another important job for him is to block the factory doors by placing his
units in front of them. Once that is accomplished, any difficulty that might
have existed on this map will be gone.

There are three missiles on this map. Two of them are located at around the
middle. Lash will pretty soon head for these missiles. If she manages to fire
any, they are almost certain to hit the bulk of Kanbei’s army, significantly
reducing his fighting strength. You do not want to let this happen. So first
have his units move towards the center, so they can deal with keeping Lash
away from the properties there, as well as the missiles. Also, this allows
Kanbei to instantly deal with anything that’s produced from the factory. The
A-Air should move north first, though, as three B-Copters will close in to
attack early on. The A-Air should have no problem with them whatsoever. Once
the copters are down, one of the A-Air can finish off the Artillery protecting
the western airport and have one of your Mechs capture it. By then, you will
probably have reached the factory doors, removing Lash’s largest threat.

Whoever you chose as your BM CO, his role will be to support Kanbei in
advancing and capturing the eastern airport. First focus on capturing every
property close to you, then head for the airport. The Artillery guarding it is
stationary, so you might be able to slip an Infantry past it and capture it.
From there, produce Bombers and have them head for the pipe seam. As
supporting units, Grit will rely mainly on Artillery, while Colin will use his
Gold Rush whenever he can in order to mass produce stuff like MD Tanks or
Neotanks if you have those. Of course, once you have the airport, both should
switch to Bombers (Grit needs at least one to take out the seam). Don’t forget
that the Blue Moon army needs to get the power score, which probably means
that you’ll have to destroy at least 5 or 6 units in one day. With Kanbei
wrecking everything in sight this might be a problem. So keep in mind to keep
a couple of units alive and move your units into position to have BM destroy
enough in a single day. Grit won’t have much trouble with this when he uses
his powers, and Colin should have enough strong units deployed by then to pull
it off without too much trouble as well. Once you have it, destroy the pipe
seam with a Bomber or a Neotank, maybe in combination with a Kanbei B-Copter
coming in from the west.

Strategy by HPD. Map image by Tsuruya.