* AntiClimaxBoss: Borderline -- whereas his predecessor Sturm was horribly overpowered, Von Bolt from ''Advance Wars: Dual Strike'' is ''barely'' above average at best and up against a roster full of new overpowered [=COs=]. Not to mention that the maps you battle him on are rather... pathetic, to the point where the last mission should have been called ''Mean To The End'' instead. Intelligent Systems learned from this and made doubly sure Caulder/Stolos from ''Days of Ruin'' didn't fall into the same pit trap.
* AwesomeMusic: Has its own page [[AwesomeMusic/{{NintendoWars}} here.]]
* CompleteMonster:
** Caulder/Stolos. He engineers a virus to wipe out the remaining survivors of the meteor shower, raises his cloned children as test subjects, and gleefully indulges in the suffering and bloodshed of others under the pretense of scientific research.
** Greyfield. Especially when he [[spoiler: executes an opposing general, who surrenders to spare his troops' lives, in cold blood and orders his troops to continue the attack! And when Brenner releases said captured troops (which are all marked for execution), Greyfield sics his men on him, then drops a superweapon provided by the aforementioned Caulder on him, despite knowing full well that ''his own men'' would be caught in the blast!]] You will jump for joy when [[spoiler:Lin nonchalantly [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Just Shoots Him]] after your final go-around with the deranged maniac.]]
* ContestedSequel: Days of Ruin completely changed the setting and tone of the previous games, as well as how the CO powers work, causing quite a division. Many people [[{{Sequelphobic}} declared that it would be garbage, despite not knowing anything else about it]].
* DemonicSpiders: Anti-Tanks in ''Days of Ruin''[[hottip:*: Doesn't help that their only real weakness after they're in position is infantry which get picked off by everything else.]], Pillboxes in the first ''Battalion Wars'', Fighters and Strato Destroyers in the ''Battalion Wars 2''.
* FandomBerserkButton: Here's a tip for being taken seriously in the Advance Wars communities: never ever suggest a sniper unit. Something about such a thing being impossible to balance right or something.
* GameBreaker:
** Infantry spam in particular. Though this trope was bound to happen anyway with CripplingOverspecialization.
** PurposefullyOverpowered: The two boss [=COs=] Sturm and Caluder (Von Bolt tries to be this, but isn't quite strong enough). Nell and Hachi probably count, too.
** Kanbei and Grit are often cited as being game breakers from their [=AW2=] incarnations onwards. Although, Grit has been considered lower after DS games.
** Colin also, although he doesn't fare too well against [=COs=] that get defensive boosts.
** Sensei is called broken old man, for a good reason.
** And if we were to toss the various Force Rank upgrades and potential tag team combinations from AWDS, we'd probably double the size of this page.
*** The series now has [[GameBreaker/NintendoWars its own page]]. Go nuts.
* GoddamnedBats:
** The 'Mech Rush' tactic from ''Advance Wars'' is based on this trope. In particular, Sensei's CO Powers - spawning Infantry or Mechs on every city he owns - can quickly drive opponents insane.
** Colin, with his power to increase his funds by half every couple of turns on top of normal income and having cheaper units, can out Mech-Swamp even Sensei, and when partnered with Hachi or Sensei in Dual Strike, this is made even worse.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Eagle and Hawke.
* NightmareFuel:
** [[spoiler:The Creeper]] in Days of Ruin. Lin, being how she is, makes it worse by theorizing whether [[spoiler:the infected feel the roots moving just beneath their skin.]]
** Knowing the [[CompleteMonster guy]] who created it, the answer is most likely yes.
** Speaking of that guy, how about the extreme close up of him that shows up midway through the final mission, with him sporting an ''incredibly'' disturbing SlasherSmile? Worse, the Sound Room randomly cycles through the game's CG artwork, meaning it could show up again there when you least expect it! It's practically a Screamer.
* ReplacementScrappy:
** Von Bolt, who replaced Sturm.
** Jake replacing Andy as the main character. While Andy wasn't exactly the most interesting character in the world, a lot of people would prefer him over Jake's JiveTurkey routine any day.
* ThatOneLevel
** Crystal Calamity in ''Dual Strike'', Their Finest Hour in ''Battalion Wars 2'', and Sunrise from ''Days of Ruin''.
** [[BrutalBonusLevel Bonus Mission 3]] in ''Battalion Wars''. Lots of heavy tanks under your command? Check. A LOT of enemy bombers? Check. Your tanks being [[EscortMission mission-critical]]? Check. [[OhCrap Not a single]] [[AntiAir AA unit]] [[OhCrap to save you?]] '''[[ThisIsGonnaSuck OH SHI--]]'''
** Sea Fortress and Sinking Feeling from ''Black Hole Rising''. Given Sea Fortress is a highly tactical mission with limited resources and an emphasis on unit placement and management, while Sinking Feeling is a highly strategic mission with a time limit and a very freeform (thus hard to {{Walkthrough}}) general strategy, it's easy to see where this comes from.
** Sunrise was the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon last mission]] in ''Days of Ruin'', where you finally face [[FinalBoss Caulder]]. It's supposed to be frustrating and difficult... and the fact that Caulder is arguably more broken than Sturm makes it even more fun.
** Greyfield Strikes from "Days of Ruin" can be very frustrating, depending on which units get sabotaged. Having landers and gunboats unusable in the first few turns will make the mission much harder and longer than it actually is.
** Waylon Flies Again from "Days of Ruin" has caused some players to give up the game entirely.
** Trial 7, known as Tatter River, looks like a modestly challenging trial map - 4 Commanders and plenty of Airports and Factories. But upon closer look, all of the headquarters are next to four Factories and are surrounded by rivers. Rivers can only be traversed by Infantry, Mechs, and Air Units - all of which extremely weak against Anti-Air unit attacks. Guess what the unit will be greeting you in large numbers when you try to capture a base in large numbers?
* TastesLikeDiabetes: Isabella's theme in ''Days of Ruin'', [[SoundtrackDissonance despite the]] DarkerAndEdgier setting. That doesn't mean the song isn't good. As it's a song from Advance Wars, it pretty much has to be [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome really good]].
* UnfortunateImplications - In the Japanese versions, the Orange Star army was originally called the "[[InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou Red Star]]" army. You can see why they changed it for the international versions.
* {{Woolseyism}}:
** Most of the [=CO=] names in the English localizations.
** Particularly ''Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict'': Nearly every name (and themes), many missions, several units (sometimes contradicting the same unit name in earlier games) and the entirety of the script differ due to an independent European localization. The European version is closer to the original Japanese, for the better or worse.
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