Line #55 GameBreaker/NintendoWars


1	{{Game Breaker}}s in the ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'' series. Dual Strike in particular is so full of them that the only problem is figuring out which one is by far ''the worst''.
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3	[[foldercontrol]]
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5	[[folder:Units]]
6	* There is the [[ZergRush Infantry Spam]] strategy that has become fairly universal in high-level play. They are the best in capturing (better than mechs), cannon fodder for your main engagement setups, traps for Stealths so that they can run out of fuel and crash, block paths, and so forth. When the game relies on unit numbers a lot, never skip out on a factory not producing a unit (infantry) unless you hit the cap.
7	** Add in the indirects and you have a force that will never be cost-effectively killed. And it's hard to believe that this is still happening in the Advance Wars games. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GT75RCXPEU This]] shows that in Super Famicom Wars (and Famicom Wars and Game Boy Wars 1/2/Turbo by extension) it gets worse.
8	** The infantry rush is harder to do in Days of Ruin due to the game's changes. Infantries are expensive at 1500. Mechs being cheaper at 2500. The addition of bikes make it harder for infantry to compete. Allowing Infantries to be cannon fodder means that opponent's units can level up, with veteran status making opponent's units 120/120 units. Nevertheless, the infantry spam tactic can still be useful, but requires more caution.
9	** In terms of a unit which can exploit the AI's idiosyncrasies, you need look no further than the humble infantry. At least in [=AW2=] [[note]]testing TBC for the other games (but at least in Dual Strike's custom maps, the oversight seems to have been patched[[/note]] enemy units are programmed to guard an HQ or a city (not other properties such as airports, ports and bases, though) against capture at all costs. Which is to say, a unit parked on one of those two properties ''will not'' move off it if an infantry is within its three space movement range (and thus nominally, if not actually because an infantry has so inconsequential a risk of actually damaging so many other units especially those with the terrain and healing advantages of a property, in danger of capturing said property); it will be frozen on the property. Even ''indirect'' units will not target the infantry, despite an indirect fire not being a movement action. Transports are free to move, however. The only way for frozen units to break out of this condition is for an unfrozen unit on different terrain to kill the freezing infantry. This has amazing consequences like forcing units parked on neighbouring cities to stay put and not come to the defence of the imminently-captured HQ, or allowing safe passage of a convoy of units through an enemy city-rich area (you only need attack/defend against the enemy units which aren't resting on the "vulnerable" cities). For some reason, it doesn't work if mechs are used instead of infantry, and tricky adjacent terrain like mountains and rivers will accordingly reduce the "freeze range" of properties with the movement range of the infantry. But the tactic can be combined with separate observations (regardless of the presence of properties) of which enemy units are programmed to be "sentinels" rather than "hunters" (so, those which stay put until one of your units gets within it's range, rather than those actively hunting your forces) to keep a tight leash on many of the opposing forces. Forget "Infantry Spam", a single well-deployed infantry can outright checkmate an AI in the right circumstances. This trick can be essential to leveling the playing field on some of the harder levels both in the main game and its ROM hacks.
10	* Mech Flooding in ''Game Boy Wars 3'' and ''Days of Ruin''. When you can't spam the cheapest unit as efficiently, just spam the ''next'' cheapest unit, especially if there's no cost-effective counter against a group of the buggers. They were formidable before Infantry spam was discovered to beat this with cost effectiveness, and in those two games, that's not going to happen. In the former, Mechs have working defense for the fact that they can javelin-fire on armored units, which themselves are overly expensive, not to mention the difficulty in first striking units in this game - they can move and fire ''at the same time'', something that cannot be done with indirect units (aside from Battleships in ''Days of Ruin''). In the latter, them being 2500 instead of 3000 makes them a lot more efficient in the long run and there simply aren't many things that OneHitKill them even off of terrain and they'll cost-effectively wreck anything except a few things that are dealt with by easily built contingency units.
11	* In ''Game Boy Wars 3'', you can generally focus on building up your air force in Campaign. There's the Interceptor to snipe off the enemy air units, the promoted Gunship to tear apart anything on land ''including [[AntiAir Anti-Air]] Tanks'', and the Bomber to ''bomb the enemy HQ into an easy capture''. It's not wise to have too many air units, but when the enemy gets forced to build too many Anti Air units, they'll leave themselves open to the land force. Of course, Interceptors at least are pretty much a necessity. Bombers, however, aren't, and since you deploy units for free in Campaign, you can just ignore the high cost that Bombers have that would stop them from causing HQ captures.
12	* Submarines in ''Game Boy Wars 3'', both in Campaign and on the Standard map Raddish Island. The only other unit that can hit them is a ''freaking helicopter''. In Campaign, the helicopter will arrive too late and willI most likely be in for a CurbStompBattle courtesy of either the air force or the game's generally AA-heavy navy. In Raddish Island, ''there are no Airports to send out those helicopters''. Even Game Boy Wars 1/2/Turbo had a navy unit able to hit submarines, why not Game Boy Wars 3?
13	* The first ''VideoGame/BattalionWars'' has Anti-Air Vets, which for being multi-hit along with causing knockback to any land unit except the [[MightyGlacier Battlestation]] causes high damage with ''each hit''. Want to know how bad this gets? A lone one can ''solo the two Battlestations in the final mission''. That isn't even anything close to within their job description and they manage it anyway, along with cutting down all of the infantry along the way including the [[DeathOfAThousandCuts Acid Gas Vets]] -- in fact, Flame/Acid Gas Vets are supposed to do this job. Assault Vets in the first game, as well as Bazooka Vets in the sequel, can't even compare to this.
14	** However, let's not let either off the hook, partly because both, like the Anti-Air Vets, are infantry who can pull evasive maneuvers against enemy units, which isn't a bad thing considering the games generally center around infantry, but also because both get overboard with their power:
15	*** [[FragileSpeedster Assault Vets]] in the first game deal Heavy Tank armor piercing damage with each shot. Of course, this also means that a manually controlled Assault Vet can turn destroying heavy units (except the Battlestation, which is mercifully immune to the bullets) into a game of balance-the-meter to keep shooting rapidly without suffering the overheat. Something is wrong when a lone unit can kill the local DemonicSpiders effortlessly. This sums it up:
16	---->'''Xylvania infantry:''' ''(sits in position ready for enemy attack)''\
17	''(two seconds later, the Xylvania infantry are all dead, with a lone Frontier Assault Vet standing in the middle of the dead bodies and the medpacks)\
18	'''Frontier Vet:''' Never knew what hit 'em!
19	*** [[GlassCannon Bazooka Vets]] in the sequel have been toned up from the shoddy damage that a lone one deals to ''Light Tanks''. However, problems arise in single player because against infantry, they are {{Mighty Glacier}}s, with good potential for ''{{One Hit Kill}}s''. In addition, a lone manually controlled Bazooka Vet can solo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-9r1WL-qpk&fmt=18 an already nicely guarded Battlestation]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4j70KwM5kk&fmt=18 2 Battleships]]. A lone Mortar vet can solo a Battlestation more easily, but they just run into trouble with evasive infantry. The Lone Bazooka doesn't.
20	* Battlestations. Those things can easily be used to one hit kill anything except Medium / Heavy tanks and... surprise, other battlestations. However, you can just snipe the bastards that will cause you trouble. If you're good at aiming with a Wii remote, you can take out almost anything before it can get close enough to shoot you. Yes, this includes other battlestations. In the hands of a skilled player, a battlestation can turn an {{unwinnable}} situation around.
21	* Black Bombs, regardless of health, do 5 damage to every unit within 3 spaces of where it explodes. Shooting them down is wildly impractical, as it doesn't only require an anti-air unit, but has a staggering '''9''' movement--tied with a fighter for the highest, which doesn't have an area attack. Hitting indirects and expensive units outweigh how expensive it is to produce. Grit gets knocked down tiers due to this unit alone. Kanbei getting hit by one of these is already devastating enough. Colin and Hachi are the biggest abusers of these units.
22	* Also from ''Dual Strike'', Stealths during Fog of War matches and at the right time or larger maps. What makes these units so deadly is the fact that not only do they can do decent damage to all units but can only be hit by other stealths and fighters. Once you build stealths, your opponent has no choice but to build a fighter. Your objective is to take out units at 6 or lower health to do the finishing blow while cloaked, forcing your opponent to be proximate to the assumed space of the stealth to ensure their fighter hits it. If your anti-airs are well protected, they have no other options but pray they can deplete the fuel of the stealths because an anti-air hitting a fighter is devastating and won't defeat a stealth at that point.
23	* In ''Days Of Ruin'', a properly-shielded Anti-Tank can become this. The thing has the same range as an artillery, absolutely ''rips ground vehicles apart'', can attack copters, and, unlike any other indirect unit, can counterattack. Its primary weakness[[note]]except for horrible movement[[/note]] is, surprisingly, infantry, but if you have other units poised to take them out before they get too close and have an anti-air or two at the ready to shoot down any bombers or dusters that try to move in, you basically have an unstoppable ground-unit-and-copter killing machine.
24	[[/folder]]
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26	[[folder:[=CO=]s]]
27	* Lest we forget what spawned all this madness, ''Super Famicom Wars'' was the first game in the series to feature different [=COs=] to choose from. Four of them are completely bog-standard mainly as AI fodder. For seemingly no reason, the remaining three have day-to-day benefits that tend to surpass even some of the more notoriously broken Advance Wars [=COs=]. God only knows the insanity that would have ensued had CO Powers been introduced in this game.
28	** Caroline is basically a beefed-up predecessor to Nell, having not only a random chance of dealing additional damage with her attacks, but also a random chance of ''reducing'' the damage caused by ''enemy'' attacks.
29	** [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Billy Gates]] is essentially [[MoneyMultiplier Colin]] [[SerialEscalation on cocaine]]. He gets an absurd 10000 additional funds each turn, regardless of number of buildings owned. Laugh as you outproduce your foe by ridiculous margins. No CO in ''Advance Wars'' is capable of the feats he can pull off because of this, not even the infamously busted Colin or Hachi.
30	** Due to how leveling up units work, Mr. Yamamoto immediately gains a 40% attack boost for his army with ''absolutely no weaknesses for any of them''. A starting 140/100 to all his units is an absurd bonus that defeats any CO in a day-to-day basis, with his troops basically being able to [[OneHitKO one-shot]] anything weaker than themselves without significant terrain defense. Thankfully, the fact that both units in an engagement attack simultaneously (rather than the aggressor attacking first as with the ''Advance Wars'' series) helps to mitigate this at least a tiny bit in direct engagements. Against his indirects, however? You're just flat-out ''screwed.''
31	* Unofficial online version ''[[http://awbw.amarriner.com/ Advance Wars By Web]]'' [[https://awbw.amarriner.com/co_tiers.php has a tier list]] that groups all [=COs=] into one of four community-decided tiers, generally only permitting use of [=COs=] from the same tier in the same match to keep things even. The site's 'tier 0' is a ban-list in all but name and contains the 'big seven' of standard play: Colin, Grit, Hachi, Kanbei, Nell, Sensei, and Sturm ([=AW1=] version), all of whom have their own entries on this page (and for a reason). Colin, Hachi and Kanbei are permanent members of tier 0 no matter the condition and are always banned, while Grit and Sturm are permitted (though considered high tier) in Fog of War and High Income, Sensei is permitted in High Income, and Nell is permitted in team play/FFA. The only other character who enters tier 0 is Sasha in Dual Strike tags mode, and that's because of her absolutely broken combo with Colin. Note that the client does not even have [=AW2=] Sturm on the books, as he would be considered too overpowered even for tier 0 and require a tier all of his own.
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33	* Advance Wars 1:
34	** Max gets a 50% firepower boost for his direct-fire units, in return for the -1 range and 20% firepower penalty to his indirect-fire units. What's wrong with this? Simple: none of his units have to be indirects, so he can easily eliminate a weakness and end up with plenty of OneHitKill potential. This practically turns him into an absolute must-have for the final two campaign missions, since his insanely powerful direct attacks can absolutely ''shred'' through Sturm's weakened defenses as long as he gets the first strike. This also applies to the AW1 style Max in Reboot Camp.
35	** Drake and Eagle are skilled respectively in water units and air units, and have weaknesses that are vice versa. This would be all well and good ''if they ever had to even use those units''. In the entire campaign and most of the war room battles, you never once see that happen. So they effectively have ''no weakness'' whatsoever, not even a slightly-preference-impairing one like Max.
36	** Sturm is PurposelyOverpowered when you have all valid Movement Costs reduced to 1. Sure, he has a 80/120 stat[[note]]This only applies when you are playing him. In Campaign mode, Sturm stats are 130/80[[/note]] , but that high defense is far enough to make your opponent struggle to deal significant damage unless they themselves have overpowered offense. Sturm can easily build recons early to harass the enemy without punishment, thus shutting down their capture game almost instantly. That says nothing about his rockets, which can get into position with unrivaled speed.
37	** Sami is often overlooked in Advance Wars 1 because most players only see her Advance Wars 2 and Dual Strike stats, while ignoring this one. What most people forget is that her soldiers not only sport a 120 attack, but also sport a 110 defense, making her soldiers have nearly the same soldier stats as Kanbei with a cheaper price. She also has +1 on transports, ensuring that her soldiers reach their destinations quicker. Additionally, she has the lowest power meter charge for her CO Power, thus being able to use it a lot. Her Double Time CO Power at that time also increases her defenses by 20% instead of just increased attack at the whopping 154%. Since Infantry are very vital to the game, Sami with these stats can run over most [=CO=]s when left underestimated.
38	* Advance Wars 2:
39	** Sturm is still PurposelyOverpowered, but ''Black Hole Rising'' takes it to ludicrous extremes to the point where he hard veers into SNKBoss territory. In the first game, Sturm at least had some weakness, be it his reduced defense in Campaign or his reduced firepower in Versus. Not so in the sequel; he gets buffs to both firepower ''and'' defense in both Campaign ''and'' Versus, and all while retaining his broken mobility and ludicrously strong [[ColonyDrop CO Power]]. The only CO whose troops come even close to matching Sturm's in terms of raw power is Kanbei, and he's still got standard mobility and increased deployment costs to deal with.
40	** Kanbei, while expensive at 120% price, now upgrades his units from 120/120 to 130/130. This is literally a day-to-day CO power on its own. Additionally, his Super CO Power, Samurai Spirit, further boosts his units attack and defense, and turns them into nearly [[NighInvulnerability nigh-invulnerable]] walls, even without terrain stars. And those units with full HP and at least 3 terrain stars (any property including HQs, and mountains), simply [[NoSell completely unkillable]] from ''all attacks from any unit'', '''at all'''. And let's not forget that during his Super CO Power, '''Kanbei deals an added 150% Damage to enemy units on Counterattack. '''
41	** Sensei. Let's start by saying his soldiers sport a massive 140 attack by default and copters at 150. In addition, having +1 on transportation means he will be capturing buildings faster than the opponent. His capture game is the best in the game, even exceeding Sami. Sure, his other units have a decreased firepower, but all you really need is infantry, copters, and sometimes mechs; you may also build tanks and anti-airs with ease in case Anti-Airs and other Air units become troublesome. This got so bad that AW:DS nerfed his infantry and mechs to compensate. See below on the COP and SCOP.
42	** Hachi. He may not have Sensei's numbers, but he techs up like no one's business. On day 8 most [=COs=] might have a swarm of Infantry, some Recons, maybe even a Tank; Hachi has a Megatank on the front lines and a Black Bomb with your name on it. When most [=COs=] are strapped for funds they tech down to Infantry and Mechs; Hachi techs down to a Md Tank swarm. In an absolute worst-case scenario, Hachi can summon more Tanks in one turn than most will build in a whole game session. Simply put, you do not fuck with this man. Additionally, his SCOP, Merchant Union, lets him ''deploy ground units from any city under his control'', even in maps that have no bases/seaports/airports at 50% of their original price tag. To make it even more broken, Hachi only needs ''5 stars'' of charging before he can use his SCOP. To make matters worse, he is one of the 2 characters that can produce black bombs (see below) the fastest or en masse. You can even pull an infantry spam with the SCOP, while building a powerful unit on the frontlines..
43	** Colin. He spends 20% less for his units that get power penalties.......but only a meager 10% firepower penalty. And [[SarcasmMode it gets better]]: Colin's Gold Rush can be spammed and ''multiplies his current Gold amount by a whopping 50%''. And if he gets out Power of Money, a COP with the potential to give obscene power and indeed likely to do so, with a good amount of money and units on hand, you're ''dead''.
44	* Advance Wars Dual Strike:
45	** Javier, with 2 or more Comm Towers. Just 1 tower already makes him very dangerous. Having 2 means he can sweep the match. Any more than that, and he becomes so invincible that even a Javier mirror match can easily turn into a stalemate.
46	*** To put this in perspective, Javier's ability to gain a 10% defense bonus from Comm Towers in addition to the usual 10% attack bonus means that, once you've captured just two of them, he literally becomes Kanbei without the drawback of having to pay more for his troops, and the mechanics behind his CO Powers mean they basically mirror Kanbei's as well. Given how Kanbei himself is considered a game breaker even ''with'' said drawback, you can do the math as to just how ludicrously broken this is. It effectively makes it so that any map with at least 2 Comm Towers quickly becomes [[CharacterSelectForcing "choose Javier or lose"]].
47	*** To make matters even ''worse'', even ''without'' Comm Towers, Javier still has a 20% defense bonus against indirect attacks, and all this with ''absolutely no downside''. If you ever find yourself going up against Grit, choosing Javier is basically a guaranteed victory as long as you have the slightest clue what you're doing, since Grit's indirect attack bonus will be effectively cancelled out by Javier's defense bonus ''and'' he'll still have his weakness with direct units to deal with.
48	** Sasha in mid-size to giant maps is not fun to play against since Market Crash can effectively shut down any other power. Even worse, there is nothing stopping her from activating it at the day's end after her units have attacked and increased her opponent's CO Power gauge. The only way to combat her effectively is to have a mirror match between Sashas or use [=COs=] with short bars and impacting effects like Hachi and Colin.
49	*** This is especially viable and helpful in Campaign Mode due to ArtificialStupidity. The AI in almost every case will go for the Tag Break. Going against Von Bolt will ensure he never uses his COP ever. The only CO to use her regular COP is Kindle but only in non-Tag matches.
50	** Kindle/Candy in a city-heavy map. She is very much slept on in Dual-Strike, when she is arguably one of the most broken [=COs=] in the game. She gets especially ridiculous when it comes to her Firepower buffs while she's in Cities. She gets a passive +40 Firepower boost while she's on a Property and since Properties are commonly fought over in Advance Wars, she will surprisingly get this firepower boost very often. It gets even more ridiculous with her Powers, since she effectively gets a +80 firepower boost with her Regular Power, and a ''+120'' Firepower boost when she activates her Superpower, and that only '''Increases''' depending on how many Properties she owns. If she has a Rocket or Artillery placed on a City while her Super CO power activates, you can wave Goodbye to your Megatanks since they effectively become NUKES for a turn. Oh, and did we also mention that with her Regular Power, she can sap funds from players using repairs, and interrupt any property capture around the map?
51	* Days of Ruin:
52	** Caulder/Stolos. There is a reason why he is banned from online wi-fi play. He is PurposelyOverpowered (160/160 to 180/180 with +3 CO Zone and +5 Healing per turn) just for fun.
53	*** To put it in perspective, he is so absurdly powerful that he would destroy any CO in any Wars game with ease, even Mr. Yamamoto, Advance Wars 1 Max, Advance Wars 2 Sturm, Colin, Sensei, Hachi or any of the DS Tag CO pairs. Meteor Strike would be the only saving grace to defeating Caulder, but that is only if you actually defeat Caulder's 2 HP main unit that same turn. It's telling that the most effective strategy in the final Campaign mission is simply to ignore Caulder's troops for the most part and just throw everything you possibly can at the laser cannons in order to wrap things up as quickly as possible before he can gain a firm foothold with his CO Unit and effortlessly bulldoze your army with his absurdly boosted troops.
54	** Isabella/Catleia. It's little wonder that she's considered the best CO in the game. Her day-to-day bonuses may be somewhat meager at a mere 120/110, but unlike most other [=COs=], her boosts apply to all of her units, not just a specific type. Her Power, though, is where her true status as a Game Breaker rears its ugly head. Not only does her day-to-day boost spread across the entire map, but she also effectively gains the Powers of ''three other [=COs=]''; Will's (extra movement to ground vehicles), Tasha's (extra movement to air units) and Gage's (added indirect range), while also getting boosted naval movement, which ''no other CO has''. She's soft-banned in the competitive scene, if only to give other [=COs=] a chance and not have every single match devolve into "Choose Isabella or lose".
55	** Tabitha/Larissa in certain maps. Her CO-boarded unit is an instantly absurd 180/180, able to OHKO any units with ease. Her flaws are having only 0 CO Zone (very slow speed to increase CO bar) and a [[GoodBadBugs programming flaw]] results in her CO gauge not charging during her opponent's turn. If she even gets half her CO Bar up, she has a high chance of securing a victory. Once she gets to full CO Bar, she has won the match as her COP is not only the effective return of the infamous Meteor Strike (which, as any ''AW'' veteran can attest, is bad enough on its own), but also grants all units the same 160/160 - 180/180 power. In ground-only maps, she can easily build a Tabi-Tank and steamroll her opponent with ease. In ground and naval units only, a Tabi-Battleship can end games very quickly, 1HKO'ing various units with nary a second thought. If air units are even remotely into play, a Tabi-Duster can go ham on her opponent, using their troops for glorified target practice. In certain maps with Fog of War, a Tabi-Rocket can just plop down in some woods and rain nukes down upon anything careless enough to enter its range without having to fear a proper counterattack thanks to her absurd innate defenses coupled with the bonus defense that forests provide.
56	*** The reasons why she isn't fully banned is because of using all 3 (ground/air/naval) as a standard that gives proper counters. B-Copters can disrupt a Tabi-Tank. Tanks can disrupt a Tabi-AA. AAs can disrupt a Tabi-Copter. CO-Boarding an expensive unit with Tabitha requires heavy care. Additionally, defensive-minded [=COs=] like Brenner and Waylon can easily shut down Tabitha's one-shot potential.
57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Force and Force/CO combinations (Dual Strike)]]
60	* Sensei's first COP (Copter Command at 2 stars) and SCOP (Airborne Assault at 6 stars). The first COP will isntantly flood cities with infantry at 9 HP. When used in the early game, he can easily fill the 50 unit quota quickly and ends up with self-feeding powers with any decent number of properties or make extra money by joining them. You can also spam mechs as well at 6 stars late game to pressure vehicular units on the field. During Tag combinations especially with Sami, the capture game is literally difficult if not impossible to stop.
61	* ''God Kanbei''. That is, with most defense boosts and a tag partner with Bodyguard, Kanbei will have a 50% defense boost. This, combined with how defense works in ''Dual Strike'', makes Kanbei's defense so absurdly powerful that he can just spam infantry and throw in a few indirects and call it a day.
62	* Sami with the Force that adds 2 to Capture. This value is set, but this works in Sami's favor, as it's unconditionally 4 extra points on the first two turns of capture (and 2 extra on any subsequent turns, but that's unlikely to happen). What does this mean? This means that if Sami has a full health Infantry start capturing, it just needs to survive to finish capture. (15 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 20) Of course, considering how much you need to spend to conceivably OneHitKill her infantry on Cities, you'll never be able to stop her from spamming infantry to easily capture Cities and get out your own support. This is without mentioning that Sami can also equip defensive forces to make things worse.
63	** Ignore the fact that if you're not paying attention, she can capture your HQ in effectively one turn even without her SCOP, Victory March!
64	* Pathfinder reduces the Movement Cost on Forests to 1. Because, you know, Forests should provide defense boosts and no movement issues whatsoever. This force majorly helps to destroy Tactical Decoy on Time Survival.
65	* Star Power, which charges your [=CO=] meter more quickly. [[BoringButPractical It might not sound like much]] at first, but what makes it broken is just how easily-spammable it is. Any of the characters listed below with broken powers? Well, now they can use them even more often. It's especially useful for getting the below-mentioned Eagle/Sami tag more quickly, too, or for characters with longer meters in general.
66	* Gold Rush, Fire Sale, and Sale Price get you +100 Gold per city per turn (the former) or slightly reduce the cost of buying units (the latter two). Look below and see how spammable Colin, Hachi, and Sasha's powers are? Well, now everyone else in the army can do that, too. And, oh, yeah, those three [=COs=] can equip these skills, too, and they ''stack with their natural abilities''. So these three skills are incredibly useful as-is, and outright broken in the hands of those characters.
67	* Tabitha's Firestorm. Dear god, if the opponent lets her get that COP active, the game is literally over. In addition, because Days of Ruin gives every unit the same boosts as the CO Zone, all of her units are a lethal 160/160 to 180/180. This makes her CO Power a combination of 2 of the most powerful Super CO Powers: Sturm's Meteor Strike and Kanbei's Samurai Spirit. If the missile hits the opponent's CO Zone, don't expect those units to live and it will be very difficult to recover from it.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:CO combinations (Dual Strike)]]
71	* ''Dual Strike'' brought things to a new level with obscene Tag Team combos. Eagle/Sami get 3 turns with their Tag Power, and on the third Sami can capture any building instantly (and gets a movement boost for infantry to boot). And the game pretty much suggests this with a 3-star rating for that pairing (which means a 1.5 HP luck damage boost on top of all that). Oh, and they have in-game synergy, so their power gets boosted to 120% (in addition to the infantry offense boost that Sami gets with Victory March). Meep.[[note]]However, due to the fact that they have ''seventeen stars'' worth of charging before they can pull it off, you'll see this tag power maybe once in a blue moon. [[DifficultButAwesome If you can, though, have fun!]][[/note]]
72	** Tag Breaks can be game-breaking in general. But if you want a worse combo involving Eagle, try Sonja as the second CO. Eagle/anybody gets 3 turns in a row with their Tag Power anyway, and Sonja not only has a shorter meter, but her [=SCOP=] effect of counterattacking before being attacked ensures that they effectively have ''four'' turns.
73	* One Tag Break that can get particularly obscene is Drake/Olaf/Hawke + Drake/Olaf/Hawke (no doubles for a given player, granted). 2 turns is bad enough, but when you consider that the opposition loses 40% of their terrain bonus, health, and attack power, you can see that the only way the counteracting weakness can be suitable is in a very, very crippling manner -- unfortunately not the case. In a team match, if the opponents both use that combo (and yes, multiple players may use the same [=COs=] (Commanding Officers)), Heaven help you if they get Tag Breaks back-to-back.
74	** Drake + Olaf has the best synergy: Tsunami halves current fuel, and snow doubles remaining fuel usage. Most of your enemy's navy and air forces will be in deep trouble as a result. Sadly, unlike most other great tag examples, the tag isn't very powerful day-to-day beyond the hilarious tag break effect. Has the FanNickname "[[{{Portmanteau}} Drolaf]]".
75	* Oh deary me, [[RichPeople Colin and Sasha]] are an obscenely powerful pairing. Sasha earns 10% more funds while Colin spends 20% less of them, meaning you'll rarely find yourself at a loss for cash if you swap them out right. Better yet, starting a Tag Break with Sasha means that her Super Power (which earns her money based on the damage she dishes out) basically fuels Colin's (which [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney uses his funds to boost his attack strength]]). In addition to the 40% power boost and 15% luck boost you get from their tag anyway, this basically translates to "destroy everything foolish enough to get in your way".
76	** You don't even need the Tag Break. Gold Rush and Market Crash are both spammable as hell, given they're both two-star CO Powers. And Market Crash can be used to shut down a number of other powerful Tag Breaks like Earth and Sky or "Drolaf".
77	* Although God Kanbei (see above folder) is bad enough, pairing him with Hachi or Colin (both Game Breakers on their own) or his daughter Sonja (for a 130% tag and 15% luck boost) are all excellent ways to lose friends. Because defense is more valuable than offense, some (overly) simple math suggests that Kanbei's 120% x 120% units are worth about 150% of a normal unit's value at 120% of the cost. Cutting that cost to 50% normal price with Hachi's Super CO Power and then cutting it again with the two cost reducing skills gives Kanbei units worth about '''400%''' of what he paid for them. Only certain other tags, like the above-mentioned Colin/Sasha tag, can compete with it.
78	** Kanbei and Javier make for the single best defensive pairing in the game, one that makes Grit break down and cry full-on baby tears. Buy, buy, buy with Javier, break, break, break with Kanbei, and never have any less than 120% defense against indirect attacks. If you manage to capture two Comm Towers in the process, you can basically let Javier take the wheel from there, only switching back to Kanbei to charge his power meter for when you're ready to unleash their ungodly powerful Tag Break to carve a path of wanton destruction across the battlefield without fear of repercussions, since you'll be ''[[NighInvulnerability too goddamned invincible]]'' for your opponent to do a damn thing to stop you. Oh, and to add icing on the cake, these two also get a 5% luck boost overall and a 10% attack boost during their Tag Break, because apparently this pairing [[SarcasmMode just wasn't powerful enough without it]]. If they pull off their Tag Break against you while they have a couple of Comm Towers under their control, you might as well just forfeit, because simply put, ''[[YouAreAlreadyDead you are about to die]]''.[[labelnote:explanation]]To break this down numerically, during a Javier/Kanbei Tag Break with two friendly Comm Towers, Javier will be coming at you with 180% attack, 170% defense against direct attacks, and a whopping ''230%'' defense against indirect attacks. Kanbei, meanwhile, will be hitting you with 200% attack and 170% defense against everything. And depending on which CO ends the turn, you'll have even further problems to deal with on your own turn; Javier will be ''literally invincible'' against your indirect units due to his stupidly high defense against them, while Kanbei will be smacking you with ''400%-strength counterattacks'' which, when coupled with the aforementioned ludicrous defense, effectively turns any direct engagement against virtually anything that can reasonably counter you into a futile suicide mission. You may start crying whenever you're ready.[[/labelnote]]
79	* Incidentally, Hachi and Sensei have themselves a one-star tag (110% attack, 5% luck boost), which is also horribly powerful because of both participants' status as individual game breakers. Ironically, this tag has the obvious weakness that both players' most effective abilities only work through having empty cities at the start of their turns, meaning you either let Sensei go first and waste the ability to use freshly bought units from Hachi, or you let Hachi go first and reduce the potential number of mechs (and money gained from combining said mechs) for a Hachi-induced buyfest.
80	** If Sensei goes first, all those mechs can get combined on Sensei's turn (they paradrop at 9 HP active on that turn) for more money for a Hachi-induced buyfest on Hachi's turn. Yes, that's as bad as it sounds.
81	* Colin and Hachi deserve a mention for the ''insane'' ZergRush they can produce. Both of their powers are broken on their own, but put them together and you'll be positively ''flooding'' the field with more Neotanks than your opponent has tanks during their tag. They may not get a specific tag bonus together, but they barely need one.
82	* Fortunately a Tag is only as strong as its most powerful component CO, meaning a number of them can be beaten by single [=COs=]. On the other hand, all this means is that the Tags with [=COs=] on the high end of the scale vastly outnumber those on the low end.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Skills (Dual Strike)]]
86	* Pretty much every skill listed breaks the game. You can use up to 4 Skills on a [=CO=].
87	* Invader and Conqueror. Being able to add a +3 on capture ensures that even getting hit by a unit can nearly guarantee a capture in 2 turns. If Sami is the [=CO=], you have already captured 18 (out of 20) at Full health.
88	* Prairie Dog and Pathfinder. Being able to plow through plains and forests will make your ground units a lot more effective. While Sturm may have perished in AW2, these skills being available can have you emulate his soul. Have fun with using Recons with this.
89	* Sale Price, Fire Sale, and Gold Rush. Being able to reduce costs of units (up to 13% if both skills are used) is absurdly good. Mix it with Hachi (23% or 63%) or Colin (33%) and gain an extra 100 Funds makes you golden. If Kanbei is your [=CO=] with all 3 of those abilities, it's actually better than normal spending for 120/120 units.
90	* Mistwalker is the true counter to those who depend heavily on Super [=COs=].
91	* Soul of Hachi is ridiculously powerful for [=CO=] that have a short bar. It can also defeat chokepoints to the point of winning the match.
92
93	[[/folder]]
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Context GameBreaker / NintendoWars