A list of the many characters found in the Advance Wars/Nintendo Wars games.
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Super Famicom Wars
Yuan Delta
“The road to becoming a great strategist is to win this game.”
The main CO of Red Star. Originally appeared on the back of the box for Famicom Wars, stating that he created the game as a training program for a successor. In Super Famicom Wars, he has a balanced AI.- Big Good: He not only founded Red Star, but also created the original Famicom Wars as a training program.
- Jack of All Stats: His AI is the most balanced of the CO, tending to focus on invading enemy regions or protecting important bases depending on which action is more important.
- The Rival: He's the arch rival of Rogenski.
- Ur-Example: He was the very first CO in the franchise.
Rogenski
- The Ditz: Rogenski tends to make a lot of mistakes in battle.
- The Rival: He's the arch rival of Yuan Delta.
- Too Dumb to Live: It's entirely possible for him to send a low-health unit to attack another, stronger unit with more health.
Von Russo
"Attack, Attack, Attack continuously!"
The main CO of Green Earth. Is known for focusing almost entirely on offensive tactics. His AI is designed to charge and rush the enemy, but neglect reinforcing his defence.- Attack! Attack! Attack!: His whole motto in war is to never let up with the offense.
- Glass Cannon: Not his army itself, but since he focuses so much on attacking, he has few units guarding vital cities or bases.
Hetler
- Adolf Hitlarious: What did you expect from this franchise's equivalent of Adolf Hitler?
- Big Bad: Is probably the closest the franchise got to one before Sturm came along, for obvious reasons.
- Dirty Coward: His memo refers to him as a coward. His motto also implies he would be willing to sacrifice civilians to save himself.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In later games, his faction would become an analogue to Japan, while his main foe’s faction would take inspiration from Germany instead.
- Gratuitous German: His motto, "Das Volk, mein Schild!", which literally translates to "The people, my shield!"
- Stone Wall: Prioritizes defend his properties over attacking the opponent.
Caroline
- Born Lucky: Like her descendant Nell, she has a higher luck variant than other COs. Unlike Nell, her luck variant includes defense, so sometimes, her units take less damage from her opponent's units.
- Generation Xerox: She bears a striking resemblance to her eldest daughter, Nell.
- Lady of War: She's one of the Super COs, which means she can put up one hell of a fight.
- Purposely Overpowered: Her luck ability puts her well above any of the four regular COs.
Billy Gates
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Looks about as young as Andy and Colin, but is quite a formidable CO to fight.
- Blood Knight: His memo mentiones that he loves playing war games.
- Purposely Overpowered: His extra funds give him the ability to stand well-above any of the regular four COs, and depending on the map, he can even give Mr. Yamamoto a hard time through sheer numbers.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Is even more extreme than Colin in this regard since he starts a day with 10,000 funds every turn regardless of how much property he owns, allowing for him to quickly flood the continent with a mountain's worth of troops.
- Shout-Out: He's named after Bill Gates.
Mr. Yamamoto
- Ambiguously Related: Sensei's Japanese name is similar to his, and his reputation in his prime is described in similar terms to Yamamoto, implying they might be the same person.
- Four-Star Badass: He's mentioned to be a legendary general, and given how all his units star off as rank 2, there's some merit to it.
- The Juggernaut: Since Units in Super Famicom Wars gain an additional 20% firepower and defense with each rank up to a maximum of rank 5, his army can become Lightning Bruisers if untreated properly.
- Purposely Overpowered: His units starting with two level ups makes his army stronger than any other by far, fitting his status as a legendary general.
Wars World
Orange Star/Red Star
In General
- A Commander Is You: Mostly Generalist/Brute since the majority of them relying on straightforward firepower bonuses and fielding direct fire units like infantry and tanks. Rachel and Jake buck this trend somewhat with their Super CO Powers giving them global damage and better indirect fire respectively, but even they have strong shades of Orange Star's beginner friendly and "honest" playstyle in the rest of their kit.
- Eagleland: Orange Star's army unit designs take distinct cues from the American armed forces. As the hero of the Wars World stories, they fit straight into The Beautiful.
- The Hero: The playable faction in Advance Wars, the protagonists of the first campaign chapter in Black Hole Rising, and the spearheads of the Allied Nations in Dual Strike.
- Jack of All Stats: Most of their COs don't have any particular stat boots to any of their units. Only Max and Sami deviate from this archetype.
- Red Is Heroic: Their armies are painted red and they're the hero nation of the series. They were originally called "Red Star" until this was changed to avoid being associated with communism (being modeled in an Eagleland-style fashion and being rivals with the Russia-centric Blue Moon).
Andy/Ryou
"Time to roll up my sleeves!"
Voiced by: Veronica Taylor
A prodigious mechanic and the main hero of Advance Wars and Black Hole Rising. Often considered the mascot character of the series by fans, he is well known among the fanbase for his naivety and frequent lapses in intelligence. His units are well rounded, while his CO Powers, Hyper Repair and Hyper Upgrade, revolve around healing his units.
- Bash Brothers: When he gets partnered with Max the two form a very effective duo.
- Berserk Button: Anyone disrespecting him (especially when it comes to name calling/pet names) or not taking him seriously as a CO gets him quite angry.Grit: (after losing to Andy for the first time) Hey there, Junior! Nice shootin'.Andy: Don't call me Junior! I have a name! It's Andy!Sturm: (reacting to Andy's earlier outburst) This... This worm...Andy: I am not a WORM! I'm Andy! I'm a CO in the Orange Star Army!
- Boring, but Practical: Absolutely no day-to-day bonus, yet his powers are among the most cost-effective and versatile in the game.
- Characterization Marches On: While Andy is no way a genius, he was an Idiot Hero at an extreme in Advance Wars. "What's an airport?", anyone? Presumably, more experience under his belt made him less inclined to general stupidity, and he's also quite a bit less childish in the sequel.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Andy is still a kid (The Japanese manual gives his age as 12) and yet he's one of Orange Star's COs.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's an Idiot Hero and a Jack of All Stats, but his Super CO Power is very good and very cost effective.
- Demoted to Extra: He does not appear at all in the Dual Strike campaign. His clone, however, does.
- Friendly Enemy: To Hawke. You would think that after hanging out with Lash for so long, he would be... reluctant to ally himself with the energetic and excitable Andy. On the other hand, Hawke is a very practical man, and presumably realizes how well Andy's powers complement his own.
- Genius Ditz: He's an all-around talented commanding officer and a Gadgeteer Genius... who once had to be reminded of the existence of continents.
- The Hero: He's the main hero of the first two games.
- Idiot Ball: "What's an airport?" indeed. Despite having been promoted to CO, Andy has to be taught the absolute basics of warfare, to the point he doesn't even know that airports produce air units. That said, in his route of "Max Strikes", he knows that "air bases" produce air units, so maybe it's him not recognizing that airports are the same thing or that he only recognizes what an airport is if it's worded a certain way.
- Idiot Hero: He always has to be reminded about the fundamentals of tactical warfare.
- Jack of All Stats: Aside from his unit-healing powers. He can be fielded in any map because of his versatility, though his units may lose head-to-head skirmishes with specialist COs.
- Keet: His enthusiasm annoys the hell out of his fellow COs at first, but it grows on them in time.
- Mr. Fixit: His Powers repair everything, from Recons to Aircraft Carriers. (It even somehow repairs infantry.) Hyper Repair consistently gives 2HP to all units, while Hyper Upgrade gives 5HP to all units.
- Nice Guy: Andy is generally a friendly and good natured kid, which makes the healing abilities of his CO and Super CO Powers all the more fitting.
- Not a Morning Person: His profile states that he dislikes waking up early.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Time to roll up my sleeves!"
- Red Is Heroic: He is the default protagonist of Advance Wars and his outfit is full red.
- Spanner in the Works: Pun aside, he unravels the Black Hole plot by unveiling the False Flag Operation that led to the countries of Cosmo Land fighting with each other.
- Video Game Caring Potential: It's beneficial to keep heavily damaged units around instead of using them as cannon fodder since Hyper Upgrade will bring them back to fighting effectiveness again for no charge.
- White Magician Girl: A rare male example, due to his healing powers and general innocence.
Max
"Check out these cannons!"
Voiced by: Arin Hanson
Orange Star's bruiser, notable for his brash spirit and ridiculous muscle growth throughout the games. He specializes in smashing things with his super powered tanks, and as a result, slept though Indirect Units 101. His CO Powers, Max Force and Max Blast, further ramp up the firepower on his direct units.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In Re-Boot Camp he's much less tolerant of Andy's Idiot Hero antics and is stated to regularly hold things Andy wants over his head to mess with him. That said, Andy is even dumber in the reboot and Max is still rather protective of Andy, making Max overall come off as a pushy but ultimately loving older brother figure.
- Balance Buff: To offset the constant nerfing Max has been subjected to, Dual Strike gave his indirect units a power boost, so they hit just as hard as more average COs. Their range still stinks, though.
- Bash Brothers: After he joins up with Andy in the first game, the two alternate in beating back the enemy forces.
- The Big Guy: He's the heavy of the Orange Star officers.
- Book Dumb: Even in the present day, Nell is reminding him of basic things, just like at the academy.
- Close-Range Combatant: His direct combat units are some of the toughest around, but his indirect units are damn near useless.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Not so bad in Advance Wars 1, when his direct units had 150/100 stats daily, but as his powers have gotten nerfed, his horrible indirects (-1 range to all of them, with reduced firepower) make him tougher and tougher to use. (His indirects actually have normal firepower in Dual Strike. Their reduced range still sucks, though, especially in a sandstormnote .)
- Difficult, but Awesome: For such a simple approach to combat, Max's crucial weakness to standoffs between indirects means that he has to plan out his attacks very carefully, even if they typically amount to blitzkrieg assaults. Above all else, using Max means understanding the worth of every unit and recognizing the necessity of frequently trading units with the enemy efficiently to gain and maintain the advantage, since most assaults by Max will require him to take losses if he wants to push through indirect standoffs and make it to the other side. Inevitably, many of Max's battles are won or lost depending on whether or not he can make it through and destroy his foe's firing line with enough forces intact to maintain the ground he'll gain.
- Dumb Muscle: Justified and downplayed. Max hates deception and underhanded tactics, preferring instead to engage his opponents in a good old fashioned brawl. He's not dumb, and quite capable of using tactics when the situation calls for itnote but his habit of rushing into things often comes back to bite him. He gets a bit better by Dual Strike, as he at least knows how stupid it is to walk into battle without planning first.
- Heroic Build: He has a strong, muscular and inspiring build. Complete with a Lantern Jaw of Justice.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: His CO Powers are named Max Force and Max Blast.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: He's always had one, but his Re-Boot Camp redesign emphasises it to the point where it takes up most of his face.
- Lightning Bruiser: At least until Dual Strike, where he lost his movement boost during his CO powers.
- Love Triangle: Implied to have been in one with Grit and Nell. Grit, not wanting to have it ruin his friendship with Max, left Orange Star for Blue Moon.
- Meaningful Name: At least in the original, his direct units had maximum firepower day-to-day.
- Mighty Glacier: In Dual Strike, Max's powers were nerfed to not longer provide extra movement, but still do increase his firepower. Max himself still has 20% extra firepower and average defense, making him almost as strong as resident Glass Cannon Grimm, but not as vulnerable. His indirects deal normal damage too, but still have decreased range, which makes them less useless but slower to deploy compared to other CO's indirects, as he needs to put them closer to targets and key points in the map to properly use.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: In each AW game, his character design has gotten more and more muscular, while his units and CO Powers have gotten worse and worse. A popular fanon joke blames steroid use.
- Nerf: Took an enormous one in the second game to his direct firepower (120% from 150%). He received another one for the third, losing the movement bonus his Powers used to give.
- Odd Couple: Max used to be best friends with indirect specialist, and polar opposite, Grit, before the latter defected for Blue Moon. One of their Tag Victory quotes in Dual Strike lampshades this.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Check out these cannons!"
- Top-Heavy Guy: Especially in Black Hole Rising and Re-Boot Camp, where his biceps are humongous.
- Zerg Rush: Typically how Max is played competitively, and strongly incentivized by the maps he features in in the games proper. Max is frequently put into situations where he has a strong predeployed force that can overwhelm the competition but is likely to have a few units shot down along the way simply because of his inability to conventionally contest indirect units. Max is at his best when he's constantly pounding his opponents and maintaining an overwhelming assault that assures that even when (because it's not a question of 'if') indirects begin shooting his units down, he'll still have enough units strong enough to push through an enemy's defensive core, overcome the indirects, and secure the advantage. Played well, Max will seem like an unstoppable force quickly moving towards victory.
Sami/Domino
"A commando never gives up!"
Voiced by: Jeannie Tirado
The head of Orange Star's Special Forces, Sami is an infantry specialist. Day-to-day, her Infantry and Mechs are tougher to kill and hit harder, at the expense of everything else all other direct-combat units. Her Victory March has earned her the nickname "Lady of War" amongst the fans. Personality-wise, she's the most sensible and dependable of the three. Strangely, although she's described as liking long hair, she wears an ear-length clean-cut hairstyle. Frequently Ship Teases with Eagle of Green Earth.
- Action Girl: In addition to being a very capable CO, she's a fully-trained commando.
- Badass Bandolier: Wears a belt of ammunition on her pants.
- Book Dumb: Unrivaled in knowledge of skirmish tactics and capturing properties, not so great at military academy homework, to Sonja's annoyance.
- Boring, but Practical: Her transport and capture rate boosts sound lame compared to others' day-to-day bonuses, but it means that it's much more difficult to stop her from gaining a property advantage (wounding Infantry mid-capture doesn't work, it'll finish regardless), which means she can start rolling out Medium Tanks when her opponents are still limited to light Tanks.
- Boyish Short Hair: Sports a very messy, chin-length bob with a green headband.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Heavily implied in "To The Rescue" in the second game, where her "outspoken" response to a demand cannot be repeated aloud and has to be written down for Eagle to read.Sami: Surrender?! Right, here's my reply, and I want you to take this down word for word...
- Difficult, but Awesome: At the same time as Boring, but Practical, no less. Her infantry boosts aren't as easy to exploit as others' once the match reaches its mid-to-end phase (for one, steamrolling with tanks isn't an option) note , and she has to constantly keep up the map pressure if she doesn't to lose her early economy lead. Capturing the enemy HQ in one shot with her SCOP is pretty damn difficult against a good opponent, but if she pulls it off, however...
- Dub Name Change: She's called Tami in the German translation.
- Fragile Speedster: Because she's weak in direct combat, she relies on using her superior infantry to gain control of the map as quickly as possible. Half of mainstream Sami tactics involve blitzing the map as early as possible with her insane infantry and transports to seize mid-way bases as quickly as possible and controlling the map before her opponent gets the chance to.
- Instant-Win Condition: Sami's superior property-capturing skill make players of her particularly fond of this. Her Super CO Power gives +2 movement for infantry and mechs, and allows them to capture any property that turn, regardless of health. An infantry on 1 HP can walk 5 spaces and capture a 20 HP HQ in one turn!
- A Mother to Her Men: Is noted as sharing a strong bond with her foot soldiers, which in turn inspires them to fight much harder.
- Only Sane Woman: Unlike Andy and Max (and many other COs), Sami is a career soldier who takes her work very seriously and she's the most consistently intelligent. (Andy has a bad tendency of being cripplingly naive and thick-headed when the story needs him to be, and Max's hot-headed nature often gets him in trouble).
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Move out, grunts!"
- The Strategist: In some stages when she's not the playable CO, she's the one providing intelligence (presumably from the ground) and sensible advice.
- The Rival: Was this to Sonja when they were in the academy. Nowadays, they are good friends.
- Ship Tease: Has a lot of romantic subtext with Eagle. It's more on Eagle's end, but there are a few hints she may reciprocate.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: In the first game, she toted around a freaking M60 via the carry handle. Black Hole Rising dialed it down to an MP5A5, with Dual Strike and 1+2 Re-Boot Camp giving her an M4A1.
- Super-Soldier: Infantry are her specialty, boasting improved firepower and defenses, as well as increased capture rate. Her CO Power further brings out their potential, giving them extra movement unhindered by terrain, but her Super CO Power is her magnum opus. Not only do they have even more movement and power, they can capture cities instantly, even if they sustained damage. One lone infantry plus an open path equals one HQ is hers.
- Super-Speed: Her Advance Wars 1 CO Power boosts the movement and firepower of Infantry and Mechs and gave the former unhindered movment across mountains, letting them sprint 4 spaces across tough terrain. As the fastest charging CO Power of the first installment, her foot soldiers will be sprinting practically every other turn. The free mountain movment was removed in future installments but her SCOP boosts her foot soldier movement by 2 instead.
- Tank-Top Tomboy: She wears a tank-top that exposes her midriff and she's the most tomboyish CO of Orange Star, if not the entire franchise.
- Tempting Fate: Defied.Eagle: "I want you to promise me something, Sami. Promise that if we both return from this battle alive..."
Sami: "Oh no you don't! Stop it right there! If two people make a promise like that, one of them is going to end up dead! You may as well tell me that you're two days away from retirement! Save the promises for later, OK? We'll talk when we get back in one piece." - Tomboy: Keeps her hair short-ish and definitely acts like a special forces leader in her aggressiveness sometimes.
Nell/Catherine
"This will bring me luck!"
Voiced by: Cristina Valenzuela
The incumbent Commander-in-Chief of Orange Star. She got the top job after Olaf left for Blue Moon, and has the day-to-day ability to randomly do extra damage with any attack. In all three games of the Wars World continuity, she is a secret unlockable CO who only becomes available after completing the campaigns.
Re-Boot Camp implies that Nell and her sister Rachel are the daughters of Caroline, a CO in Super Famicom Wars.
- Bowdlerize: Her Japanese look
◊ in the original Advance Wars featured her in a sleeveless top and a short skirt. The International version changed this to a more occupation appropriate full-sleeve jacket and a longer skirt, a look which has applied in all versions of future games. - Big Good: She's the Commander-in-Chief for Orange Star and fills it for their campaigns in the first two games.
- Born Lucky: Her special abilities involve boosting her Critical Hit power. In the comedy sketches, she's known for never losing a coin toss.
- Bragging Rights Reward: She would make a good Crutch Character, except you obviously don't need one by the time you can unlock her.
- Decoy Protagonist: She's the playable CO in the first game's tutorials (with the last one being mandatory) but after that Andy becomes the protagonist.
- Demoted to Extra: In Dual Strike, her sister Rachel is the leader of the Allied Nations. She has to stay back in Macro Land and clean up the mess Black Hole made in the last war. She does talk to Rachel briefly in the beginning and at the end of the campaign.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: For Dual Strike, where her younger sister Rachel is the one acting as the Big Good.
- Iron Lady: Somewhat downplayed since she's a perfectly friendly person to be around, but she's still a tough leader who doesn't hold back in battle.
- Lady Luck: Referenced. Nell has an ability called "Lady Luck" that boosts the damage of friendly units.
- Lady of War: Despite her looks, she's a very scary opponent to face.
- Love Triangle: With Max and Grit while the three were at military school together.
- Jack of All Stats: Beside the improved luck, Nell's units are all average
- Mission Control: She speaks a lot in the first two games but is never present to the battle. She gives advice to the COs in the tutorial of those games.
- One-Hit Kill: If you get her Super CO Power off, you'll be seeing a lot of these, because the luck boost increases her damage output (not indivisual stat increase but damage) by exactly 100%. Yes, it is possible for a full health infantry to one-shot a full health megatank.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: One of her quotes before beginning a battle is "It's payback time!"
- Voice with an Internet Connection: She plays this role in the first two games, although her face is visible in the dialogue boxes even when she's talking over a radio.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: Her CO power boosts the chances her units have of dealing higher amounts of damage.
Hachi/Bee
"I'm open for business!"
Voiced by: Sean Chiplock
A retired Orange Star Commander-in-Chief and former student of Sensei. After leaving the military, he went into business and now runs the Battle Maps shop, which sells COs and maps for use in other game modes. In the latter two Wars World games, he became a secret unlockable CO. In battle, he can purchase units at a discount without any decrease in their effectiveness, and his power allows him to produce ground units in any city under his control in addition to factories.
- Bilingual Bonus: His name is Japanese for "bee". This carries over into the Japanese version, where his name is pronounced "Bee" in English.
- Bragging Rights Reward: You can unlock him after purchasing everything else in the store, though at that point, you probably don't need an over-powered CO.
- Cool Old Guy: He's one of the oldest COs, but fully capable of keeping up with the youngsters. He was a former head of Orange Star.
- Dirty Old Man: A downplayed example, but he does mention wanting to spend time with various younger, female COs.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: His idle chatter all but states that he's aware that he's running a store in a tactics war game, what with his helpful advice, musings on your performance thus far, and Lampshade Hanging himself being overpowered. Of course, he quickly dismisses it all as old man ramblings.
- Hypocritical Humour: One of his win quotes is "Rematches are free!" and yet another of his win quotes is "Battles cost too much!" Maybe he's senile.
- Lethal Joke Character: Playing as the old shopkeeper, whose theme is just the shop music unaltered and who, in Re-Boot Camp, has one of the sillier Power animations. And his units have no innate firepower bonuses and don't get any stronger during his Powers. None of that screams overpowered, and yet he's the most Purposely Overpowered character in the game next to Sturm.
- Jack of All Stats: Unlike Collin, Hachi doesn't recieve any penalty for his discounted units, which are all average. The reason why they are scary isn't because any of them are exceptional, it's because there is A LOT of them.
- Purposely Overpowered: Hachi was practically a Bragging Rights Reward in the original Advance Wars 2 (requiring the player to clear the Hard Campaign) and has the insanely powerful CO Powers to match. This is Lampshaded in one of his shop dialogues in Re-Boot Camp, where he complains about people not inviting him to their Versus and Online matches because he's "unfair".
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "To heck with this!"
- Promoted to Playable: In the original Advance Wars, he was just a shopkeeper. But in 2, he's a playable CO and usually the last CO you unlock.
- Reduced Resource Cost: He makes everything cheaper and allows you to deploy from anywhere that you control.
- Retired Badass: He's rumored to be the former commander-in-chief of Orange Star and was a former rival to Sensei. It's really hard to deny it though when he's in battle.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Ignoring the fact he's able to deploy units for a cheaper price (not as cheap as Colin's, but then again Hachi's units aren't weaker either), his Super CO Power allows him to deploy units directly from cities rather than just factories, something no other CO is capable of (not counting the "Soul of Hachi" skill in Dual Strike that lets any CO do this during their Super CO Power).
- We Sell Everything: COs! Maps! Palettes! Menu items! Blobs of goo!
- Zerg Rush: Hachi's units aren't anything special (though not weak like Colin's), they just keep coming with his cheap CO Powers slashing the prices in half every other turn, and directly on the frontlines for his SCOP.
Rachel
"Don't pick a fight with me!"
Leader of the OS forces in Omega Land, she's Nell's little sister and leads the Allied Nations in Dual Strike. Day to day, she can heal units by 3HP instead of 2. Her powers allow her to summon three missiles against her opponents and to become her sister for the day.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Her standard CO skill gives one more HP for units to heal, but it still costs money.
- Big Good: She is the head of the Allied Nations in Dual Strike.
- Born Lucky: Just like her sister, Nell, though this only occurs on her standard CO Power.
- The Hero: Shared with Jake, as they're both pretty important to Dual Strike's plot.
- Jack of All Stats: Rachel's units are all average
- Like Brother and Sister: In the final mission, if you choose Rachel and Jake, both start to talk about the war and how important they are for each other. Jake tries to confess his love to Rachel, only for Rachel to say he is like a brother for her.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Her SCO power launches missiles at groups of enemy units. If all three missiles land on the same group of enemies, this does a bit more damage than Sturm's CO Power.
- The Medic: Can heal her units 1 HP extra on bases.
- Military Maverick: Inverted. She's arguably more serious than Sami.
- Power Up Letdown: Her day-to-day bonus can be completely detrimental to her funding, as repairing still cost you money so you are paying 30% of the unit's value to heal 3 HP. In addition, her CO Power is both inferior to her sister's CO Powers and her own Super CO Power.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Finally, some real competition!"
Jake/John
"Get out the plates, 'cause you just got served!"
A recent CO graduate, Jake excels on the plains. He fights better on them, but this means the player has to choose between the attack bonus from this open terrain or the defense from places like cities and forests. He uses 'hip' lingo and is always listening to music through his headphones. Between him and Rachel, he's (arguably) the main hero of Dual Strike.
- Chick Magnet: Both Sasha and Jess have feelings for him, and it's implied that he returns it for at least Sasha. He himself has fallen for Rachel, but she accidentally friend-zones him.
- The Comically Serious: In the NA version he spouts totally rad lingo with a totally deadpan expression.
- Cruel Mercy: If you choose to have him shoot Von Bolt. He shoots Von Bolt's chair — that is, his life-support system — instead.
- Geo Effects: Jake's day-to-day power increases his units' firepower when fighting in plains, which increases even further when he uses his CO Power.
- The Generic Guy: He speaks and acts like this in the Japanese version.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: He averts this, as he is one of the most outgoing and sociable of all the Allied Nations.
- The Hero: In Dual Strike along with Rachel, as they're both pretty important to Dual Strike's plot.
- Hipster: In the NA version; you know it's bad when the villain calls you as such.
- Hopeless Suitor: Implied in the final mission when Rachel says he is like a brother to her if they are the COs selected for the battle.
- Jack of All Trades: Gets a firepower bonus on the most common terrain type (plains) and has a mini-Grit indirect range bonus, making him a little bit useful nearly everywhere.
- Naïve Newcomer: Has a little bit of this early in the game.
- Nice Guy: In the Japanese version, this is his only stand out trait, as evidenced by him being the only person who tries to include Hawke to the Allied Nation festivities. Internationally, it's hidden a bit deeper underneath his Jive Turkey characterization.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: His default one is "Prepare to get served!" He gets a really good one to Von Bolt for the final mission:Jake: Prepare yourself for a subpoena of pain! Yeah... that's lawyer style!
- Ship Tease: With Sasha, Jess, and Rachel, though the latter gets sunk in the final mission if they are the COs selected.
- Take a Third Option: Initially the choice is presented as either shooting Von Bolt or letting him live by not killing him. If you choose the yes option, Jake decides to destroy Von Bolt's chair which was the key piece driving the energy draining machine. Instead of directly killing him Jake will instead to let Von Bolt live out the end of his life naturally, instead of being unnaturally extended by the machine.
- Totally Radical: In the NA translation, he uses dated slang and generally sounds like he's trying to emulate a 90's DJ.
- The Watson: Serves as the audience surrogate for the early missions of Dual Strike so that Rachel can explain game mechanics to new players.
Blue Moon
In General
- A Commander Is You: Spammer/Economist with a strong emphasis on attrition based warfare, whether it be through Colin and Sasha's money powers or Olaf's use of weather. Grit is more of a Ranger with his emphasis on indirect fire, but still relies on attrition to win.
- Blue Means Cold: Especially true when under the leadership of Olaf, who has the power to summon a snowstorm.
- Glorious Mother Russia: A version of Russia with blue paint. Many of their units borrow designs from the USSR's Second World War and Cold War armies.
- Irony: For an Expy of Russia, they have a lot of contrasting elements from the real-world version, with their blue coloring and two of their COs having Capitalism-themed advantages.
- Punny Name: Blue Moon, not just for the color of their troops, but named after the real-life phenomenon of a blue moon, an additional appearance of a full moon in a given season.
Olaf/Whip
"For Blue Moon... for the motherland!"
Voiced by: Patrick Seitz
Commander-in-Chief of Blue Moon, having left the top position at Orange Star to take the job. However, he's stated in AW2 to be a Blue Moon native, born and raised in their territory in Macro Land. In the first game, he appeared to be the villain due to leading an invasion of Orange Star, yet his occasional cowardice and frequent, costly blunders called his competence into question. Subsequent games redeemed him as a Papa Wolf to his men who took his duties as head of Blue Moon's military seriously. Olaf's units are strong in snow, which he can summon with his power, but weak in rain.
- Achilles' Heel: Olaf's weakness is rain. As a result, his units are slowed down by the weather as though they are affected by snow. Though, this weakness is removed in Dual Strike.
- Armchair Military: In the first game. His portrait even had a big chair for him to slouch in.
- Character Development: One of the more prominent examples. Olaf gets fleshed out into a responsible leader who cares for his men (despite being grouchy) from the cowardly blowhard that was concerned only with more power and land that he was in the first game.
- Characterization Marches On: His personality in Advance Wars is jarring and inconsistent when compared to the sequel. He was a complete idiot in the first and also stated to be a traitor to Orange Star by defecting to Blue Moon. 2 showed him to be competent, albeit prideful, and is a proud patriot to Blue Moonnote .
- Cool Old Guy: At his best. Grumpy as he could be, he really appreciates his fellow CO's under his command and openly praises them after the factory mission. The introduction of Toy Box also show him rather jovial and is happy Colin ask him about where are they going and then just explaining with cheer they're arriving to his hometown. Also, by real life military standards, Olaf is actually extremely patient to Grit's antics all things considered.
- Demoted to Extra: Not present in the Dual Strike campaign. The game handwaves it by saying he is busy rebuilding his hometown which got destroyed in the previous game. However, a clone of him fights the Allied Nations later on.
- Doomed Hometown: The Blue Moon mission "Toy Box" takes place in Olaf's hometown, which was destroyed by Lash. The reason he's absent in Dual Strike is because he's part of the reconstruction effort.
- Fat Bastard: In the first game, where he uses perceived attacks from Orange Star as Pretext for War to invade their territories. He keeps his rotundness in the following games, but mellows out considerably in them.
- General Failure: In the first game, he is prone to grandiose plans, thinking a rousing speech is a suitable response to serious tactical disadvantages, and forcing his soldiers forward for glory, completely disregarding the strength and skill of his opponents. Fortunately, he greatly improves by the second game (When you get to play as him in the main campaign) where he's gruff and a bit arrogant, but not nearly as self-desctructive.
- Geo Effects: His units are unaffected by snow and, in Dual Strike, gain a firepower bonus when fighting while it is snowing.
- Grumpy Old Man: At his worst he can be quite irritable.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: In the first game, he's such a bumbling General Failure that it would likely lead one to wonder why he's in charge of Blue Moon.
- An Ice Person: Olaf's units are unaffected by snow, which gives him a great advantage when he taps his snow-causing CO powers. Especially in Dual Strike, where his CO power makes it last two turns, and it gives all his units a 20% firepower boost (though this is offset by snow being nowhere near as much of a hindrance as it was in the prior gamesnote ). But in the former two, rain devastates his movement range worse than anyone else, pretty much making him the reverse of Drake. While most other CO Powers could be explained by the CO's actions on their troops, one wonders how Olaf manages to make snowstorms appear at will wherever he goes.
- Idiot Ball: A major case. Considering how he's a competent (if stubborn) CO from the second game on, this is the only way to explain his blatant stupidity in the first game's tutorial maps. To wit: forgetting to fuel air units, moving units right past convenient cover in Fog of War, leaving his HQ unguarded and focusing entirely on offense, and so on. He's less of a doofus in first game's campaign itself, but he still ignores Grit's advice and deploys Battleships without Cruiser support, and then deploys a large navy on a map where it can't help his ground forces.
- Informed Ability: In the first game, he was reputed as a strong CO that Blue Moon persuaded him to switch sides and betray Orange Star. In both the Field Training and Campaign, the former being the one to reveal his betrayal, he is depicted as a bumbling idiot who has no foresight when it comes to glaring problems in his strategy.
- It's Personal: The story reason why Olaf commands in Toy Box, even though Colin or Grit would be better choices (the latter even tries pointing this out). Even after whupping Lash's ass, Olaf does not forgive or forget this incident. In Dual Strike, pairing him with Lash reduces their combat effectiveness.
- Jack of All Stats: Weather aside, all of his units are average.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even if he's gruff, he really does care about his fellow COs.
- Jerkass: In the first game. While he did have to reason to believe Orange Star was acting aggressively towards him (thanks to Black Hole's trickery), instead of trying to figure out what really happened he just uses it as justification to invade and conquer Orange Star territories that didn't even originally belong to Blue Moon in the first place.
- Kill It with Ice: Both of his powers summon a blizzard, and his SCO Power smacks all enemy units for 2 HP of damage.
- Kill It with Water: When it comes to rain, though, he's the one getting killed; his units take the same penalties during rain that everyone else's take during snow.
- Leave Him to Me!: Insists on being the one to defeat Lash for wrecking his hometown, even ignoring Grit's (correct) suggestion that he or Colin would be better suited to take on that mission.
- The Load: Olaf's immunity to snow effects does not apply to his Tag partner or his ally in co-op matches, meaning that his CO Powers will definitely hinder his allies. Olaf's just not a great team player, both in and out of universe.
- Patriotic Fervor: Really, REALLY loves Blue Moon.
- Pet the Dog: Re-Boot Camp makes him more of a bumbling but likeable CO by having him mistake captured plans for a (Black Hole weapons) Lab for being a captured Labrador, which prompts immediate concern and plans to rescue the dog.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Your weapons are powerless before the might of nature!"
- Protection from the Elements: Zigzaged with his immunity to snow and weakness to rain.
- Redemption Promotion: He was a pretty sucky CO in the first game, where he's the Starter Villain. Then in Black Hole Rising, his mass damage SCO Power made him a lot more useful, and his powers improved again in Dual Strike, even overcoming his weakness in rain. He's also an example in story terms: he was a bumbling villain in the first game, but became a lot more competent in the sequels.
- Retcon: In the original Advance Wars, he was originally an Orange Star CO and Nell's superior who betrayed them for Blue Moon. This is completely removed in later games, as the sequel states that he was born and raised in Blue Moon, even though the original game implied he was born and raised in Orange Star. Re-Boot Camp stuck with the sequel's backstory, with Nell's exposition from the Field Training being absent in the remake.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When he finds out that Lash leveled his hometown, then rearranged it because she found it funny.
- Shout-Out: Modeled on Real Life General Winter.
- Slouch of Villainy: In AW1, where he's always seen slouching in his chair. This is dropped in later games, where he stops being antagonistic and he doesn't have the chair.
- Small Name, Big Ego: In the first game, he's hardly a nuisance compared to the Yellow Comet or Green Earth COs (or even his own subordinate Grit). Later on, his ego is still there, but as the leader of a major nation's military that doesn't screw everything up, he can get away with it.
- Starter Villain: He's the first antagonist in the first game, and the easiest.
Grit/Billy
"Let's do some target practice!"
Voiced by: Kyle McCarley
A long-range specialist. A former Orange Star CO who followed in Olaf's footsteps and defected to Blue Moon in gratitude for that country helping him out of an unspecified jam. He was Max's best friend, despite there being a love triangle between the two of them and Nell. He's very laid-back and takes no particular joy in fighting, though he's very good at it. His indirect units can hit harder and further than other COs, but all of his other units aside from infantry are less effective.
- Achilles' Heel: Depending on the map, a well-timed Recon rush snuck through his lines can really disrupt his early Artillery placements and delay his early game. He's also countered hard by the Black Bomb in Dual Strike.
- Apologetic Attacker: In the first game. It's pretty obvious that he doesn't have any ill will toward the three protagonists, Olaf is just making him fight them.
- Arch-Enemy: Comes to see Adder as his nemesis during Black Hole Rising after he invades Blue Moon and makes several attempts to get Grit to join him.
- Berserk Button: He doesn't care which territory belongs to which country, but when he hears that Adder has been destroying cities and abusing civilians... hoo boy. Still Tranquil Fury when he carries out his threats, though.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's a swell guy and doesn't care much for this war business. Brag about abusing civilians in front of him, however, and you best hope you stay out of his crosshairs.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The only reason Olaf hasn't disciplined him for his attitude already is because he's just too good at indirect warfare to demote.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He could've been a top student at academy or top-ranking leader if he really tried, but he's just content to work on his marksmanship and leave it at that.
- Captain Ersatz: Of Daisuke Jigen.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Not initially; despite struggling with all forms of direct combat, his indirects are so devastating that he could wreck house regardless. However, the increased speed of later installments, as well as the addition of units such as Black Bombs make him less capable of leveraging this advantage, and even before this, he's at a nearly insurmountable disadvantage on maps with too much open space.
- Cold Sniper: Subverted - he seems cold and detached at first, but he's actually more of a Friendly Sniper who just isn't very emotive.
- Dissonant Serenity: He has a very calm demeanor, even during times of war and chaos (which is seemingly all the time, given the game's title). Even his theme reflects this, being a laid-back guitar piece.
- Dub Name Change: He's called Kid in the German translation.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's a drifter not loyal to any cause, but he refuses to join Black Hole when they target civilians.
- Finger Gun: His CO Power Animation in Re-Boot Camp has him doing a finger gun pose.
- Friendly Sniper: He's laid-back and dislikes fighting. He's also friendly with other COs, including Max and Colin.
- The Gunslinger: He's always holding a revolver in Advance Wars 1 and 2. Notably, he's one of the few characters to be depicted holding an actual weapon.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A platonic version; he wants his best friend to be happy.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: According to his profile, Grit loves cats.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: As most of his power quotes imply (as well as his power's incredible effect in the first game), you should duck for cover (literally) when he starts taking things seriously.
- Long-Range Fighter: Indirect units like Artilleries, Rockets, and Battleships are his specialty. Not only do they hit harder, they can hit from further away — especially under his CO Powers.
- Love Triangle: With Nell and Max. Not wanting to ruin his friendship with Max, Grit left Orange Star.
- Magikarp Power: In the first game, Grit's day-to-day abilities are fairly weak (only +1 range on indirects with no increase to firepower, and he takes a hefty -20% firepower penalty to his direct units, including foot soldiers), but his Snipe Attack suddenly ups his indirects to +65% firepower and +3 range. Grit may have to tough it out for a while, but once he has his power ready, he's terrifying. Later games downplay this, as Grit's indirects became strong by default and he loses his Infantry weakness, but his CO Powers don't increase the range of his indirects as drastically.
- Military Maverick: He's really lax about the whole "chain-of-command" thing, shows absolutely no respect to his superior Olaf, and slacks any time he thinks he can get away with it. But he's very good at what he does, so Olaf keeps him around.
- Mighty Glacier: Grit's only real weakness is that he can't win things quickly: the fact that long-range units can't move and fire on the same turn means that he's slow to advance. This can be exploited if you play as a CO that can mobilize rapidly, such as Colin, Sami, or Sensei, as they have a chance to control the center of the map before he can and gain an economic advantage.
- Nerf: The increased speed of the game in Dual Strike hit him really hard, so much that he went from one of the Top 5 COs in the previous installments into the single worst non-joke CO in the game. In particular, his usual strategy of "build a bunch of indirects and nuke the enemy to bits at long range" was destroyed by the addition of the Black Bomb, which looks at Grit's cluster of stationary artillery and rockets and proceeds to fly through his target range and wipe out half his value in a single blast.
- Never Bareheaded: He's always seen wearing some sort of hat - the original western releases depict him with a Russian military cap, while the Japanese releases and Re-Boot Camp give him a long-brimmed hat to better fit his gunslinger aesthetic.
- Nice Guy: Behind his lazy, snarky demeanor, he's a very considerate guy.
- Noble Top Enforcer: In the first game, compared to Olaf (who took advantage of perceived aggression from Orange Star to invade their territories), Grit objects to Blue Moon occupying Orange Star land that didn't originally belong to them.
- Not a Morning Person: He grumbles more about being awoken in the middle of the night than the fact that Blue Moon's under attack.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Played with. Unlike Olaf, Grit lacks any loyalty to Blue Moon whatsoever. He grumbles incessantly against his orders when he's deployed against you in AW1, and openly admits to not caring about what side he's on to Adder in AW2. However, he does care a great deal about protecting innocent civilians, and the one thing that keeps his foot up Black Hole's ass is that they destroy everything they touch.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Let's do us some target practice!"
- The Rival: To Max in the first game, being his old academy friend who defected to Blue Moon. They patch things up later on though.
- Squishy Wizard: Has absolutely devastating indirects, to the point that his Missiles are guaranteed to One-Hit Kill any air unit at full health. Naturally, attacking them is a huge priority for his opponents, necessitating care in protecting them.
Colin/Ewan
"Let me do the buying!"
Voiced by: Erika Harlacher
A new, inexperienced officer in the Blue Moon army, and the younger brother of Sasha. He's unsure of himself, but he comes from a wealthy family and seems to have good business acumen. He buys units cheaper, but they're not as good as standard units. The cheapness of units means you can roll out the advanced ones quicker and more frequently, though.
- Artificial Stupidity: It doesn't appear they were paying attention when coding his AI in Dual Strike, because unless his team has their Tag Power ready, he's content to spam Gold Rush until the cows come home."YOUR MONEY IS MAXED OUT!"
- Awesome, but Impractical: His Super CO Power, Power of Money. On one hand, watching his units overkilling the enemy units is hilarious, on the other hand, Colin requires a lot of money to achieve said overkill damage, which could have been used to flood the map with units through his normal Power alone.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Colin is still a young boy and yet he's one of Blue Moon's COs. Despite his youth and inexperience, he's considered one of the strongest COs in the games.
- Cowardly Lion: Always insecure of his own ability and nervous most of the time, but he pulls through when it counts.
- Foil: Colin's strength is unit quantity while Kanbei's strength is unit quality.
- Fragile Speedster: Much like Sami, the focus of Colin's strategy is to crank out high-tier units faster than the enemy can (though for Colin this is due to lower unit cost rather than property/income advantage). Having Neotanks out and rolling when the enemy's barely started making Md. Tanks is still a huge advantage, even with the reduced attack strength.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation Puts himself down in spite of his competence.
- Fiction 500: ...Just how much money does he have, anyway?
- Money Multiplier: His CO Power multiplies his War Funds by 1.5.
- Naïve Newcomer: When Black Hole invaded Blue Moon, he got the position for CO, and Olaf and Grit clearly have much to tell of being a CO.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "I'll give it everything I've got!"
- Reduced Resource Cost: 20% off unit cost in exchange for 10% less firepower.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The more money Colin has in reserve, the more powerful his units get when he uses his Super CO power. If you're feeling particularly miserly, this can lead to Colin one-shotting a Megatank... with a Mech unit.
- Or an Infantry. WATCH!
- His standard CO power is to add 50% to his monetary reserves. This can either set his sister Sasha up nicely for draining the opponent's entire meter, or turn a bad fight around with his SCOP a few turns later.
- Or an Infantry. WATCH!
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Very doubtful of his abilities, in contrast to his more confident and fiercer sister.
- Tagalong Kid: At first, it's hard to imagine why Olaf and Grit drag him around. He proves his worth later.
- The Unfought: Colin and Sasha lack the friendly skirmish that the Yellow Comet and Green Earth COs have in Dual Strike's campaign as they simply join Orange Star in the war against Black Hole immediately.
- Zerg Rush: Weaker units? Check. Faster production rate for numbers? Check. Rushing to control the map before anyone else? Double check.
Sasha
"You've made me very, very... upset."
Older and more confident sister of Colin, with similarly money-related abilities. Day to day, she withdraws cash from her trust fund to fuel her army, to the tune of an extra 100G for every city under her control. Her basic power drains the power meters of opposing COs based on how much money she has saved up, and her super power allows her to earn money by damaging enemy units. Sasha may not be as innately powerful as her brother, but together they make an incredibly powerful tag team.
- Does Not Like Spam: She dislikes pork rinds.
- Fiction500: It's not really clear where all of the extra money is coming from, but she's got it.
- Informed Flaw: She claims to not do well in Fog of War, but she performs no worse under such conditions than any other CO.
- Lady of War: A bit younger and less experienced than other examples, but still elegant, classy, and very lethal.
- Loot-Making Attack: Her Super CO Power converts 50% of damage her units deal into War Funds.
- Mana Burn: Her first tier CO power drains her opponent's CO Gauge. Can come in very handy, especially as a hard counter to Power-reliant COs like Olaf.
- Money Multiplier: Her passive ability allows her to gain an additional 100G for every property under her control.
- Money Spider: Her Super CO Power turns her opponent's entire army into this; while it's active, she gains money proportional to the damage she deals. (Which helps to fuel her brother's Super CO Power...)
- Mutual Disadvantage: She might not have a "real" CO Power (that benefits her units directlynote ), though using it liberally means that her opponent(s) will rarely get to use theirs either.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "You've made me very, very... upset."
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: To an even greater extent than Colin; no one else can drain the enemy's CO Power meter, yet she gets it done with money.
- Seers: She gets gut feelings that let her know trouble's afoot.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Towards Colin.
- Silk Hiding Steel: As noted on her profile, Sasha is "normally ladylike, but gets daring when angry."
- Situational Sword: She shuts down CO's that depend heavily on their CO Powers and SCO Powers, which makes her very handy in the campaign. Otherwise, she's a fairly average CO that basically exists to complement Colin as a Tag Partner.
- Tough Love: She is very strict with Colin.
- Trademark Favorite Food: She apparently loves truffles, and also mentions caviar at one point.
- The Unfought: Colin and Sasha lack the friendly skirmish that the Yellow Comet and Green Earth COs have in Dual Strike's campaign as they simply join Orange Star in the war against Black Hole immediately.
Gold Comet/Yellow Comet
In General
- Adaptation Name Change: Went from Yellow Comet to Gold Comet in Re-Boot Camp.
- A Commander Is You: Multiple flavors of Brute, providing overwhelming firepower in very specialized areas as noted in Crippling Overspecialization. Kanbei is an Elitist, Sensei is a Spammer, and Grimm is a Berserker, but they all have overwhelming firepower at a steep price. The sole exception is Sonja who is much more of a Guerrilla commander with her Fog of War specialty.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Each CO in Yellow/Gold Comet ends up being super-effective at something, with significant drawbacks. Kanbei's army is superior in every way, but costs more than their contemporaries. Sensei has more powerful infantry and helicopter squadrons, but doesn't do well with his navy. Grimm is a straightforward Glass Cannon, making his decisive strikes all the more important. Even Sonja, who doesn't have an advantage in a statistical manner, relies on taking advantage of the Fog of War at the cost of her troops occasionally messing up their attacks.
- Wutai: A modern version, with its army being an analogue to Imperial Japan.
Kanbei/Kikuchiyo
"Observe the heart of a true Samurai!"
Voiced by: Kaiji Tang
Commander-in-Chief and Emperor of Yellow/Gold Comet. In the first game, he was a slightly slimy and unlikable generic monarch (mostly due to his quick judgements and third-person speeches), but in subsequent games, he became a strong and honorable Father to His Men. He insists on the best equipment for his army; his units consequently hit harder and take more punishment, but this drives costs up.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: His doting on Sonja can be like this. If paired up with her in Dual Strike, he can start loudly gushing about how much he loves her after a battle. Sonja gets flustered and tells him to cut it out.
- Awesome, but Impractical: His most expensive units are truly a sight to behold, but with a prohibitive price tag and the fact that his Medium Tanks will do the same job as another CO's Neotanks (minus a bit of movement), why bother?
- Bumbling Dad: He's not exactly a bad CO, and he's extremely skilled and competent when it comes to actual combat, but his grasp of tactics and gathering intelligence is laughable compared to Sonja's.
- Character Development: In AW2, he's not as stupid or honor-bound as he was in the first game, as he at least recognizes that he's doing something risky and going through with it anyways in most cases. It helps that he reserves his wrath for actual enemies instead of lashing out at anything that dares step foot in his country, as well.
- Characterization Marches On: Much like Olaf, he got fleshed out more in the second installment. He goes from being a complete buffoon and an overly gung-ho Samurai to a responsible and competent leader who agonizes over doing both the smart thing and the honorable thing.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Not in terms of units — his are awesome all around. In general, he's an excellent warrior but lacks a sense of tactics or common sense in many other things like sock drawer basics...
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In AW2 at least, he acts with honor and is more than able to defend his country. He's also considered one of the strongest COs on the roster. Not bad for a guy who has trouble finding his socks.
- Demoted to Extra: Does not appear in the Dual Strike campaign. Perhaps he was looking for his sock. His clone, however, does.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: His design in the Japanese version of AW1 has him dressed like a feudal Japan samurai◊, complete with armor. The localization makes him a World War 2-era Japanese general and removes his ponytail. The other games retained this outfit, but adds back the ponytail.
- Elite Mooks: His army is this. He's one of the few COs to have stronger-than-normal defenses, which is a very powerful quality to have.
- The Emperor: Referred to as Yellow/Gold Comet's emperor. It's unknown if Yellow/Gold Comet has enough polities in it for him to qualify as one though.
- Foil: Kanbei's strength is unit quality while Colin's strength is unit quantity.
- General Failure: In the first game, he's brash and prone to rash decisions, blustering forward hopped up on his own confidence. One mission is even named 'Kanbei's Error?' where he barely listens to his much more intelligent daughter's advice on capturing bases to produce units, and ends up starting with a completely useless base stuck on an island with no ports or beaches. Thankfully, he becomes much more competent by the second game when you play as him. While one mission still involves him charging forward into an ambush to stop the enemy from capturing some cities of little strategic value, he admits he knows it's an ambush, but that he cannot abandon his people, no matter how efficient it may be to ignore them.
- Hero Antagonist: He goes to war with Orange Star's forces in the first game, not out of malice but because he feared an invasion from them and didn't bother to listen to the intel on what their intentions for crossing over Yellow/Gold Comet were.
- Helicopter Parents: Once he got panicked over Sonja getting a paper cut. Another time, he panicked because she tripped and scraped her knee. And when Sturm kidnapped her... It did NOT end well.
- Honor Before Reason: He actually sort of admitted to this in one of the battles in Black Hole Rising where he fought for a cluster of cities that held little strategic value (this has happened a lot in real life wars). Unlike most examples, this example is placed in a positive light: just because something isn't militarily valuable doesn't mean it's not worth fighting to protect (assuming that the player didn't get annihilated by the Lasers). Also happens before "Foul Play", where he insists on meeting with Adder, even though Sonja points out that it might be a trap. He exemplifies this the first game, where he goes to extreme lengths to defend his country... including trying to beat the crap out of the heroes that really meant it no harm.
- Instant-Win Condition: If Kanbei has a full-health infantry unit within capture range of your HQ and he has Samurai Spirit ready, you've already lost because the defense bonuses granted by Samurai Spirit combined with the high defense bonuses of an HQ tile make that unit flat-out invincible. See for yourself.
- Large Ham: Much more so in the first game. He tones it down a little bit later on, but he's still pretty over the top.
- Leeroy Jenkins: In Advance Wars, he jumps at the opportunity to attack anyone near his borders without much planning or organization, to his daughter's exasperation. He gets better about this, though Black Hole tries to exploit this trait by laying several traps, since they know that Kanbei will rush in.
- Lord Error-Prone: In Advance Wars, certainly. One mission is even named "Kanbei's Error?" This is the one where he decides bases close to the enemy are valuable, and so he captures a base right next to you!...which is on a completely isolated island and thus useless, since he doesn't have any ports or airports to get the units it can make off the island.
- Mighty Glacier: In a sense: his units have superior offense and defense, but they're more expensive to deploy, so he takes longer to build up his forces. The general result is that he ends up gradually amassing his forces because while he produces 20% fewer of them, they just don't die.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: His units get a touch of this during Morale Boost (140% offense and defense) and are very this during Samurai Spirit (170% offense and defense, plus double counterattack damage). note .Don't bother engaging him during his CO Powers, just regroup and hope he doesn't inflict too much damage in that one day.
- Papa Wolf: Do NOT endanger or threaten his daughter. Seriously, if you thought (apparently) threatening his country made him go berserk... look, if you value your life, for the love of God, don't mess with Sonja. Sturm had to learn this the hard way.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "I hope you thoroughly enjoy the taste of my sword!"
- Power at a Price: Literally, in this case. His units have superior attack and defense, but cost more to make. The inverse of Colin, although both are effective COs.
- Reduced Resource Cost: Inverted. He's Colin's polar opposite, and when the two are fighting each other, it creates interesting situations like Kanbei having Tanks around the same time Colin has Medium Tanks, but the two are roughly equal in power.
- Samurai: Embraces this to its fullest.
- Technologically Blind Elders: Downplayed, as he's more "middle-aged" at most, but he's apparently bad with computers.
- Third-Person Person: In the first game. Seems to come to his senses later, but still cannot find his socks.
- We Work Well Together: Not only does he make a powerful duo with his daughter in-story (being the brawn to her brains), but as a Tag Team, Sonja can help bypass his high costs by purchasing the heavier units during her turn, then switching to him. In Fog of War, it's great to start Tag Breaks with her to scout out enemy locations and position her father to blow everything up and end the turn with massive defenses.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gives one to his daughter of all people. When Sonja recommends giving up several cities of no strategic value, Kanbei reprimands her and reminds her that it's their duty as COs to defend the people.
- Zero-Effort Boss: "Kanbei’s Error" is intentionally the easiest mission in the game due to him accidentally giving himself a massive disadvantage that essentially makes it impossible to lose if you take out his only two Air Units. Subverted in Hard Mode where not only does he have even more Air Units thus removing the disadvantage but Fog of War is also added giving you a massive disadvantage.
Sonja/Asuka
"Get me some fresh intel, stat!"
Voiced by: Cassandra Lee Morris
Daughter of Kanbei and head of his intelligence service. Her powers let her see further in Fog of War, making her dominate these maps. She also has the secondary ability to hide her units' HP from enemies. By Dual Strike, she additionally reduces the defense bonuses her opponents get from terrain.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In Re-Boot Camp’s version of her missions, she simply lures the Orange Star trio around with words, rather than drugging them.
- Born Unlucky: Sonja is one of three COs who has negative luck, giving her units the chance to deal less damage than expected. Made worse in that Flak and Jugger (the other two) still have a positive luck percentage by default but Sonja doesn't.
- Bullying a Dragon: It probably wasn't her brightest idea to go by herself to confront Sturm while bragging about her plans to expose him, especially with leaving Grit behind. Fortunately she seemed to learn this lesson by the second game, with Nell backing her up that she's not alone this time during the final mission.
- Composite Character: Her Re-Boot Camp appearance uses the green uniform of her International design but also introduces the red glasses of her Japanese one.
- Counter-Attack: Her SCO power, which gives her the first attack even when the enemy attacks her. She also has better counterattacks as a day-to-day power in Black Hole Rising.
- Damsel in Distress: At the end of the first Advance Wars, Sturm kidnaps her in a last-ditch effort to keep her from exposing his plans. (This backfires spectacularly.)
- Defog of War: Sonja's main strength is that she has an increased vision range in the fog.
- Difficult, but Awesome: An unusual tactic as Sonja is to deliberately confuse enemies with her hidden HP by switching units around so that enemies think that they're engaging a low-health Medium Tank unit and annihilated by a full-health one instead. Risky, but satisfying to pull off.
- Geo Effects: In Dual Strike, Sonja reduces enemy terrain by 1 star. This makes her a perfect counter to Lash, and also a surprisingly good tag team partner.
- Girlish Pigtails: She seems to be trying to defy this trope in Dual Strike, pulling them back to make her look more professional, although she's still wearing them.
- Good Counterpart: To Lash. Both are intelligent strategists focused on terrain, but Lash is decidedly callous about war and soldiers' lives, and Sonja is determined to make her moves as wisely as possible.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Kanbei.
- Lady of War: A bit younger than most examples, but still qualifies as the Emperor's daughter.
- Missing Mom: Implied. Though seldom mentioned, Sonja and Kanbei speak of Sonja's mother in the past tense, and there are implications that part of Kanbei's overprotectiveness of Sonja stems from him not wanting to lose a family member, suggesting he already knows the pain of losing one.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Says "Just like I planned..." right as she's about to go full force on her enemies.
- Situational Sword: Very powerful on fog of war maps against human opponents. Very underwhelming otherwise, except against Lash in Dual Strike.
- Stone Wall: During her SCO power. Watch as your attacking full HP mech is decimated by her defending Recon.
- The Smart Girl: The smartest of all the COs in the series, the second being Lash. In addition to being a gifted intelligence gatherer and tactician, she was also the only one who realizes that something was wrong in the first Advance Wars.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: In the Japanese version, she wears rounded glasses to signify her intelligence. They are also present in her alternate outfit in the third game in all versions. Re-Boot Camp, which otherwise uses her International design, brings over her glasses at long last.
- The Strategist: She is the intelligence officer of Yellow/Gold Comet, and her powers show as her units get better vision in Fog of War and can reduce the enemy's terrain bonuses.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: In Re-Boot Camp, she distracts Andy during her arc by leaving him talking to a recording of her, which does believably respond to his words.
- Teen Genius: She's a strategic genius on par with Nell, and she's only about as old as Sami.
- Took a Level in Badass: Sonja got consistently better across the three games. In addition to her SCOP, she gained a 50% damage bonus while counterattacking in Black Hole Rising, and in Dual Strike she reduced terrain stars by 1 (2 with her COP and 3 with her SCOP).
- We Work Well Together:
- To Sonja's bewilderment, with Lash. Even more bewildering in Dual Strike, where the former's day-to-day actually servers to hinder the latter's (when fighting against her, at least).
- In-story she makes a great team with her father (being the brains to his brawn), but as a Tag Team, Sonja can help bypass his high costs by purchasing the heavier units during her turn, then switching to him. In Fog of War, it's great to start Tag Breaks with her to scout out enemy locations and position Kanbei to blow everything up and end the turn with massive defenses.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: According to her profile, Sonja hates bugs. Though given her character, it could be computer bugs that she hates rather than insects.
Sensei/Yamamoto
"Looks like I still got it! Take that, whippersnapper!"
Voiced by: Joe Zieja
Kanbei's increasingly senile mentor. In Sensei's younger days, he had a reputation as an unbeatable CO who struck fear in the hearts of his country's enemies. He's a veteran paratrooper who specializes in copters and infantry, but his units tend to have poorer than usual eyesight in fog of war.
Implied to be the ultimate badass from Super Famicom Wars, Mr. Yamamoto.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Old, and calm, if a bit eccentric. You do not want to make him angry, though, as Adder found out the hard way.
- Big Damn Heroes: One of his Black Hole Rising missions, Foul Play, requires him to somehow get through several layers of pipes and pipe seams to bail out his own HQ.
- Boring, but Practical: There are so many uses for a sudden wave of 9-HP footsoldiers. From plain old more fire power, threatening to capture nearby properties, granting vision during Fog of War battles, to blocking enemy movement with cheap fodder, or an unorthodox source of cash (you gain funds for merging units if the total health of the merged unit exceeds 10), Sensei's CO power has all sorts of utility.
- Cool Old Guy: Wise, competent, and just a bit eccentric to keep him interesting. He's just an old soldier looking for some peace.
- Difficult, but Awesome: True of him generally, but especially with B-Copters. It's tricky specialism in a unit that can be so easily countered, but with enough of them, you will just take everything apart.
- Eccentric Mentor: He's a bit of an oddball, particularly in Dual Strike where he's gotten a little more senile. But he's still Kanbei's revered teacher.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Presumably "Sensei" is a title, though everyone (including the emperor) calls him by it and not his name.
- Glass Cannon: His ability boosts a unit that is basically from this category, especially in Black Hole Rising, where his B. Copters can shred even Eagle's and his infantry hit shockingly hard. Slightly less in Dual Strike.
- It's Raining Men: Copter Command paradrops 9-HP infantry units on all the cities Sensei owns. Airborne Assault drops 9HP mechs.
- Lethal Joke Character: In Black Hole Rising, all of his vehicles and ships take a 10% attack penalty and his strongest units, his battle copters, can still be taken down in one hit by any anti-air vehicle. But a combination of his Infantry Zerg Rush and the fact that his copters are truly deadly once he's on a roll can make him almost as bad as Grit.
- Money Multiplier: Since his CO Powers paradrops 9-HP units at each cities, those extra troopers can join to give Sensei additional funds, especially if they are Mechs.
- Nerf: Copped a huge one in Dual Strike. His vehicles got stronger, but his infantry lost 30% of their attack power. On the other hand, the faster CO power charge make him capable of spamming his absurdly useful CO power, making him a far more annoying CO to play against. There's a good reason he's considered broken.
- Older and Wiser: Sensei is implied to have been the CO Mr. Yamamoto from Super Famicom Wars. Further implied by his Japanese name outright being "Yamamoto".
- Old Master: Why do you think he's called Sensei? He even starts to go a little senile in Dual Strike.
- Old Soldier: Exactly how old is not clear, but way too old to be jumping out of helicopters. Yet Black Hole's intel includes rumors of a certain unstoppable paratrooper commander in his past years. Adder promptly books it once he realizes who he's dealing with.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Ha ha! I didn't get old for nothing!"
- Scissors Cuts Rock: Normally the Cruiser is an effective anti-air unit that can reliably take down the likes of a Battle Copter. Not so much with Sensei, whose Battle Copters' attack stat is so high that his Battle Copters can end up on top against a Cruiser, provided they attack first.
- Senior Sleep-Cycle: One of his animations in Reboot Camp 1+2 when he's coming out on-top in a battle has him dozing off, complete with his head bobbing and a Snot Bubble.
- Talk to the Hand: Adder has a bad habit of laughing Sensei off from a seemingly rosy position of strength and paying for it.
- Those Two Guys: Grimm is the CO he tends to play off the most.
- Underestimating Badassery: Not him; Black Hole has a bad habit of thinking that he's just a washed-out geezer.
- You Won't Like Me When I'm Angry: All but says this at the end of 'Foul Play'. Needless to say, Adder books it out of there.Sensei:Now listen here, Adder. You should really try hard to avoid making me angry.
Adder: What? What did you do?
Sensei: I'm an old man. I'm not looking for a fight. I want nothing more than to relax and bake my bones in the sun. So I'm warning you, stop now, while you still can. If not, I don't think I'll be able to restrain myself... - Zerg Rush: His best units, Mechs and B. Copters, are torn apart by anti-air fire. The solution? Quantity on top of quality.
Grimm/Kouzou
"Things are looking Grimm for you! Haaaaar!"
A former wrestler who loves eating and brawling. His units hit harder, but are also more reckless, which translates into reduced defensive strength.
- Big Eater: Loves to eat. "Believe it or not, I ain't hungry!"
- Big Fun: He's a portly guy who Sasha describes as "the life of the party."
- Boisterous Bruiser: If not this trope, then Grimm's a close relative.
- Catchphrase: "Oooh yeah!"
- Cool Shades: He's sports a pretty nice pair of rounded sunglasses, and is an extremely tough brawler.
- Glass Cannon: His boosted offense is offset by a loss to defense. His CO abilities further emphasize his "hit them fast and hard before they hit you" approach to war, altering each of those stats accordingly.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: "Things are looking Grimm for you!"
- Ironic Name: You see that big grin there? Does this man look "grim" to you?
- Large Ham: He's not quite at Javier's level, but Grimm tends to overuse exclamation marks in his dialogue, implying that he shouts a lot.
- Min Maxers Delight: He's probably the best CO for taking down Oozium note .
- Stout Strength: He's all muscle underneath that thick outer layer. Gameplay wise, this translates into him having increased offenses despite his build.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Gameplay-wise, he comparable to Sturm in the campaign version of Advance War 1, without the terrain movement bypass.
- Those Two Guys: Has a close relationship with Sensei as his former pupil, and plays off of him quite a bit.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Donuts are listed as his main like.
- Wrestler in All of Us: He used to be one and references this sometimes.
- "X" Marks the Hero: He has an X-shaped scar on top of his head.
Green Earth
In General
- Animal Theme Naming: Eagle and Drake are named after birds.
- A Commander Is You: Unit Specialists with each commander favoring land, sea, or air units. Javier mixes things up by specializing in a specific structure (Comm Towers) instead of specific units.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The first three COs focus on different fronts at the cost of others. Eagle's air force hit much harder yet his navy is terrible. Drake's navy has better defenses but his air force falters. Jess' armored units have a better edge but both her air force and navy are weaker (but not as much as Drake's and Eagle's, respectively). Javier is the outlier in that none of his units are better or worse than that of most COs...without controlling communication towers that is.
- Kaiserreich: Green Earth's armies take design inspirations from WWII-era Germany.
- Land, Sea, Sky: The specialties of Jess, Drake, and Eagle, respectively.
Eagle
"Death from above!"
Voiced by: SungWon Cho
Arrogant but virtuous aerial combat expert who leads Green Earth. His hot-headedness has to be reined in by Drake, and he often quarrels with Jess over the differences in their command styles. He's an Ace Pilot who gets boosts to his air force.
Eagle joined Green Earth's military to follow in the footsteps of his legendary father, implied to be Von Russo from Super Famicom Wars.
- Ace Pilot: He's the leader of Green Earth's air force for a reason.
- Animal Theme Naming: An eagle.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Lightning Strike in every game has such a long SCOP meter that every opponent can activate their own at least once beforehand, and severely hurt Eagle's air forces preemptively if they're smart. But hey, when you pull off a massive bombing blitz with it, it's fun!
- Exaggerated when he and Sami use their Tag Break Earth and Sky: 3 turns in a row, with insta-capturing and 4-5 movement infantry on the last can destroy the entire enemy force and cap their HQ in one day potentially... but Dual Strike's much faster pace means that Eagle's in even more danger of being overrun by an enemy Tag Break or two before they can try to pull this off.
- The Chains of Commanding: Briefly frets to himself whether or not to continue an air attack on a Black Hole Fortress littered with anti-air units, seeing it as a choice between massive losses and losing face with his men. His pilots' encouragement to bomb the thing to hell gives him all the confidence he needs.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's initially set up to be the main antagonist of the first game, until Sturm's machinations were uncovered and Eagle was revealed to not be evil at all.
- The Dulcinea Effect: It's unclear how much of his rescue of Sami's forces was this and how much it was just him aiding an allied CO bringing his country supplies. Adder seems to count on him walking into his trap one way or another.
- Extra Turn: His CO Power Lightning Strike (and Lightning Drive in Dual Strike) allows his non-infantry units to move again. Lightning Drive reduces his firepower on the second move, but Lightning Strike doesn't. The result is that in Dual Strike, if the match isn't over by then, he and his Tag Break partner get three turns in total.
- Fragile Speedster: In Advance Wars, Lightning Strike lets Eagle move his units twice in one turn, but the second time around, they have nerfed attack and defense. Dual Strike removes the defense penalty for its rough equivalent, Lightning Drive (but keeps the attack dropoff).
- Goggles Do Nothing: Justified since they're pilot's goggles, though hopefully he uses them when he's actually in the air.
- Hot-Blooded: The main reason he clashes with Jess, who'd rather think things through first.
- Insufferable Genius: Very much so in the first game, where he's haughty and arrogant. He gets somewhat better about this, though he doesn't let anyone forget whose the best fighter pilot around.
- Jack of All Stats: On maps without air or naval units, as his ground troops are average. Ground vehicles do, however, benefit from his CO Powers.
- Jerkass: In the first game, he comes out of nowhere and attacks Andy several times, blaming him for things he wasn't even responsible for. Black Hole had started a war with Green Earth using a clone of Andy for their CO, essentially impersonating Orange Star. Eagle was justifiably pissed and had no reason to trust the real deal when they encountered one another, given that this was Black Hole's first use of clones.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Eventually, he becomes this, though he retains that massive vendetta against Andy. Later on, he's brash but perfectly willing to work with others.
- Land, Sea, Sky: As an airforce specialist, Eagle is the Sky to Drake's Sea and Jess' Land.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Not quite, but compared to Drake (who takes things slow) and Jess (who plans carefully), his general strategy of "strike fast before they do" is this.
- Lightning Bruiser: Lightning Strike in Black Hole Rising and Dual Strike allow Eagle to take two consecutive turns with all of his units (barring infantry/mechs) with absolutely no penalty (in contrast to Dual Strike's Lightning Drive and AW1's Lightning Strike, which put him more into Fragile Speedster territory).
- Retcon: His CO Power in Re-Boot Camp in Advance Wars mode is named "Lightning Drive", despite it being "Lightning Strike" in the original game and retaining its effects. As Eagle's standard CO Power became his Super CO Power in the second game unlike with the other returning COs (barring Sturm who doesn't have a standard CO Power in Advance Wars 2 to begin with), it's likely serendipity on the developers' part.
- The Rival: The first game positions Eagle as one to Andy, with Eagle showing up several times to antagonize him. The bonus mission where Andy takes on Eagle in a friendly battle is even named “Rivals”.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Like a real flying ace. He loses it in Dual Strike, however.
- Ship Tease: Lots and lots with Sami, whom he harbors romantic feelings towards.
- Shock and Awe: In Re-Boot camp, Eagle's CO Powers summon lightning bolts that invigorate his units.
- Super Boss: In the original game, where he can be fought on an optional map that's set after Sturm's defeat. Said map is extremely stacked in his favour, and gives him a massive starting advantage.
- The Theme Park Version: Green Earth COs tend to be one for various Western European nations, and Eagle is one for World War II Germany - he focuses on speedy assaults that utilize aircraft, not to mention the uniform.
- Unique Enemy: Eagle happens to control some Oozium units in one of the survival maps of Dual Strike, meaning that he commands the only Oozium units not under control of Black Hole. He handwaves this by calling them "Allconsumium".
Drake/Mop
"The sea is my home."
Voiced by: E. Jason Liebrecht
A nice, laid-back guy who often mediates between Eagle and Jess. He's a naval buff, meaning his abilities in that area are boosted. He's also immune to the effects of rain, which he can instigate with his power.
- Animal Motif: Contrasting Eagle's more obvious bird theme, a drake is the name for a male duck.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Tag team Drake with Olaf. The ensuing dual strike will put all enemy units down 4 HP, halve their fuel, and double their fuel usage for the next three turns while you get a +20% attack boost. Practical? Heck no. Fun? Heck yes.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Drake's energy-draining CO powers contrast with a relaxed, gentle nature.
- Boring, but Practical: Halving fuel as an ability should definitely not be underestimated in large air and/or sea battles. Likewise, his ability to do 2hp flat damage to every enemy unit is simpler and less flashy than most other SCOPs, but is one of the more powerful abilities in the game - especially when followed up with a big attack - and makes him a powerhouse even on maps without water.
- Demoted to Extra: Does not appear in the Dual Strike Campaign. His clone, however, does, in an utterly hellish stage.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: His design in the Japanese version of AW1 has him dressed like a classic pirate◊. The localization makes him a look like a modern naval captain, which was retained in all versions of the other games.
- Gratuitous Japanese: His CO Power is called Tsunami, despite him not being from Yellow Comet, the stand-in for Japan. Re-Boot Camp renames it to Squall.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Doesn't give himself nearly as much credit as he deserves.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: In the Advance Wars 1 campaign, he plays a similar role to Eagle that Sonja plays to Kanbei or Grit to Olaf: a seemingly less gung-ho assistant to the commander who is far more aware of the situation and far more adept at navigating it, taking steps to alleviate the problem behind the scenes while their superior officer is recklessly going on the attack.
- Jack of All Stats: On maps without naval or air units, as his ground troops are average. That said, his CO Powers are still quite devastating under these circumstances.
- Land, Sea, Sky: As a navy specialist, Drake is the Sea to Eagle's Sky and Jess' Land.
- Making a Splash: Drake's CO Power causes a tsunami to hit all enemy units on the map for 1 HP of damage (and halving their fuel). His Super CO Power summons a typhoon instead, which deals 2 HP of damage to all enemy units and makes it start raining.
- Meaningful Name: Named after Sir Francis Drake, the most well known sailor of the Elizabethan era.
- Nerf: Received an indirect one in Dual Strike with the introduction of the Black Boat, making it easy for an opposing CO to just refuel and repair mid-battle (as opposed to rushing back to a friendly Airport/Port or APC).
- Nice Guy: Drake is the most friendly, laid back, and reasonable of Green Earth’s COs.
- Protection from the Elements: He has an immunity from the negative effects of rain.
- Retcon: His regular CO Power changed names in Re-Boot Camp, from "Tsunami" to "Squall".
- Situational Sword: His day to day power doesn't particularly do much in navy-less maps, though his CO powers tend to make up for it.
- Talk Like a Pirate: In the first game, though it becomes more like "talk like a sailor".
- The Heart: Drake is essentially the reason why Eagle and Jess haven't killed each other yet.
- The Theme Park Version: One for Britain, given his heavy focus on naval warfare and him being named after a British national hero (who was himself a former pirate).
- Understatement: Green Earth is liberated from Black Hole tyranny towards the end of Black Hole Rising. Drake's response? "Whew... that's nice."
- Younger Than They Look: The Japanese manual has Drake's age listed as 15, despite looking far older.
Jess/Hannah
"Weakness has no place on the battlefield..."
Voiced by: Rebeka Thomas
The ground specialist for Green Earth. Normally calm and collected, Eagle has been known to agitate her due to their clashing personalities. All of Jess' ground vehicles pack more firepower. Her power not only boosts her vehicles' strength, defense, and movement, but the fuel and ammo of all of her units is fully replenished.- Bifauxnen: Has shortened hair and wears a uniform that doesn't give any emphasis to her feminine features. When first revealed, some fans assumed she was male. The reboot emphasizes her bust a bit more with a tighter military jacket, making her gender a touch more obvious, though her facial portraits are still rather gender-ambiguous given her softer features but striking eyes and hair.
- Boring, but Practical: In a protracted ground war, Jess benefits heavily from her simplistic day-to-day beefy stat bonuses that, unlike with Hawke, Kanbei, and Max, come with little in the way of drawbacks. Even in a map with airfields, her access to cheap counters to expensive aerial units with her deceptively powerful AA units means she can typically overpower her opponents through superior economics; Jess doesn't need to fear a weak air force if she has plenty of terrestrial counters to compensate. Her CO Power and Super CO Power are likewise fairly rote but no less effective for it; tanks are already incredibly fast, so making them faster and stronger means Jess can press her advantage fairly easily, and can cause havoc in the enemy backline indefinitely given her fuel reserves will never run out. Naval maps, on the other hand, are a massive struggle.
- Boyish Short Hair: She could be mistaken for a male by her AW2 headshot alone if it wasn't for her thin face.
- Closer to Earth: She's probably one of the more level-headed and realistic commanders in the game. Which, given the tone of the original Advance Wars, isn't really saying that much. Also, the fact that she specializes in ground units...
- Crippling Overspecialization: Even on ground-only maps, Jess was an underwhelming pick in Black Hole Rising since her weaker infantry made it hard to contest captures and 110% vehicle day-to-day couldn't contend with the faster or more powerful CO's. She was buffed to 120% day-to-day firepower and normal infantry in Dual Strike, which helped significantly.
- Easy Logistics: Easier than the other characters, anyway, as her CO Powers resupply all units with fuel and ammo. This ironically makes her pretty useful in air and naval battles, even though her planes, copters, and ships take an attack penalty.
- Fiery Redhead: Usually averted, as she is quite level-headed. But she can be very passionate at times.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: Applied in her "That Sinking Feeling" mission in Black Hole Rising. Once she has accomplished what she came for (ie. destroy the battlecruisers), she immediately calls for a tactical withdrawal. Lash is absolutely livid that she can't retaliate.
- Improbable Weapon User: Her portrait in Black Hole Rising shows her hoisting a tank shell over her shoulder. Cue fan jokes about Jess and her comically oversized crayon.
- Irony:
- Jess is visually based on one of the most famous and broadcasted singers of the 20th century, so of course she's an armor specialist. Javier wears armor at all times, and is themed after outdated knights, but his specialty is high-tech comm towers. It's like someone switched the two.
- Jess' CO and Super CO powers restore her units' fuel and ammo supply in addition to giving her armored units more movement speed. The former gives her a logistical edge in regards to air and naval units, despite their diminished stats.
- Jess is visually based on one of the most famous and broadcasted singers of the 20th century, so of course she's an armor
- Lady of War: She's well in the running for the top CO in Green Earth, and the only lady among them.
- Land, Sea, Sky: As a military vehicle specialist, Jess is the Land to Eagle's Sky and Drake's Sea.
- Lightning Bruiser: All her units refuel/refill their ammo, then her vehicles gain a good firepower and movement speed bonus when she uses her CO Powers.
- A Mother to Her Men: She's liked by her soldiers given her obvious care for them, and has the most banter of any CO, whether via results screens or during combat itself, dedicated to caring about her units. Her main focus if victorious during Final Front is that she can finally send the soldiers she's proud of home.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Looks an awful lot like David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. They even worked the (literally) iconic lightning bolt into her hair.
- Odd Friendship: She is pretty much the complete opposite of Javier, but they work well together.
- Has this with Jake in the NA version as well. His Jive Turkey mannerisms contrast heavily with her Only Sane Woman status, but they both strike up an immediate friendship over their mutual love of tanks. In the Japanese version, their friendship is much less contrasting due to Jake being The Generic Guy.
- The Smart Girl: The most analytical and sensible of the Green Earth commanders, and the one most interested in looking at the data to improve her tank battles.
- Tank Goodness: Her specialty is tanks, and all of her land-based vehicles also have superior firepower. Once her CO Powers are factored in, she is quite possibly the best at swarming heavy tanks in the game, being able to supply and keep otherwise logistically-hindered Medium Tanks, Neotanks, and Megatanks on the move indefinitely.
- The Theme Park Version: Though it's not as obvious as Eagle and Drake, she's one for France, being seemingly based on an old Napoleon quote — "an army marches on its stomach."
- Try and Follow: Hawke marches his forces by an active volcano to prevent Drake or Eagle from reaching him and thinking that Jess will know better than to try to pursue. She does and succeeds anyway.
- Tsundere: Primarily aloof, especially around Eagle. She's a real sweetheart with Javier and Drake, though.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Their clashing personalities mean Jess and Eagle frequently bicker (though, given Jess' professionalism, she rarely levels actual insults at the man) and clash on the best route forward. However, their shared devotion to Green Earth means they just as frequently agree on quick action to protect their home. They may grumble at each other, but Jess will always refer to Eagle as 'commander' and respect his authority as the leader of Green Earth, while Eagle will stand by Jess on her operations, willing to place his belief in her skills as a direct subordinate just as trusted as Drake.
- Weapon Twirling: Her CO Power animation in Re-Boot Camp has her spinning a tank shell in the air before catching it.
Javier/Wittmann
"My armor is like an Iron Dragon clad in a steel girdle!"
An eccentric CO who wears the armor of a Knight. He cares a great deal about honor and justice, and uses antiquated turns of phrase. Javier's units have superior defense against attacks from indirect units, and his power increases the unit stat buffs bestowed by communication towers under his control.
- 24-Hour Armor: He's always wearing a knight's breastplate, which he absolutely does not need to be wearing.
- Antiquated Linguistics: "Allow me to slap the foe with extreme prejudice!"
- Coat Cape: His artwork depicts him wearing a cape over his armor.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's basically Lord Error-Prone, but competent.
- Crippling Overspecialization: In a game without comm towers, he's just a Jack of All Stats with added defense against indirect attacks and ridiculously situational CO powers. However, in a game WITH comm towers, he quickly turns into an unstoppable juggernaut if allowed anywhere near them.
- Irony: The guy wearing armor and themed after outdated knights...has a bonus for Comm Towers, which are cutting-edge technology in-universe. The actual Green Earth armor specialist is Jess, who's themed after one of the most famous and broadcasted singers of the 20th century. It's like someone switched the two.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Not one, but certainly has the look and theme. He boasts about righteousness and chivalry often enough too. And then there's his breastplate.
- Large Ham: "Look at these rockets! Like shining lances of justice!"
- Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication: Javier uses both.
- The Runt at the End: Unlike his Green Earth fellows, Javier doesn't really specialize in a particular field of combat. He merely gets a situational defense boost and greater benefits when controlling comm towers.
- Shout-Out: Javier is a walking Shout-Out to Don Quixote, being a Lord Error-Prone who wears full knight armor and with an association with windmills (or comm towers).
- Situational Sword: And how. He depends heavily on Comm towers to excel, other than that his indirect defenses are only noticeable in games versus a Grit or heavy turtling games. Of course, partnering him up with Jess means that their Tag Breaks let her smash through the enemy frontline then end with Javier mopping up so that enemy retaliatory fire will be soaked up better than normal. This is a large part of why the level "Verdant Hills" is so difficult — you're fighting the two of them, he starts with two towers and you won't be able to stop him from capturing a third one.
- Stone Wall: Defense is already a specialty of his, but after capturing only a few control towers, any of his units are Nigh-Invulnerable. His Super CO power compounds this intensely.
- The Theme Park Version: To Spain, being that he's a reference to the Man of La Mancha himself.
- Verbal Ticked: "Ho, Sir Clone of Sir Kanbei! I challenge your honor on the... er... field of honor!"
Black Hole
In General
The main antagonist faction of the first three games. Black Hole appears to be an invasion force of extraterrestrials bent on world conquest that recruited some disaffected and sociopathic humans from Wars World to serve as commanding officers.
- Aliens Are Bastards: The primary antagonist of the Wars World games, Black Hole's army doesn't take any inspiration from real-life military designs, instead focusing on designs taken straight out of science fiction territory. Their footsoldiers are grunts who wear space suits who may not necessarily be human (the few moments their visors aren't opaque show a being who isn't human).
- Ambiguously Human: Black Hole footsoldiers are dressed in space suits with opaque visors. In Black Hole Rising, their dialogue portrait displays someone behind the visor who is clearly not human.
- Animal Motif: Each of the Black Hole Rising COs under Sturm follow this in their design. Their Japanese names follow a more blatant Animal Theme Naming convention as well (only half of them do in the Western localization).
- A Commander Is You: Each Black Hole commander has a fairly unique focus ranging from Lash's emphasis on terrain, to Adder's reliance on having weak but spammable Powers. Leaders like Sturm and Von Bolt are Purposely Overpowered with overall strong units and a Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke up their sleeves, while Starter Villains like Flak and Jugger share the gimmick of randomly doing either big hits or nothing at all.
- Evil Wears Black: All of them are villains who generally sport at least some black.
- Hover Tank: All of Black Hole's vehicular ground units hover, though this is just a visual gimmick with no effect on gameplay.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Many of them qualify for Evil Wears Black and generally have at least a bit of red.
- Take Over the World: Black Hole's driving purpose in the first two games, when the army is under Sturm's command.
- Villain Respect: Downplayed, in that most of the villains are card-carrying villains high on their own sense of importance and ability, but two notable cases stand out within the Black Hole faction;
- Among the original crew, pretty much everyone treats Lash with some degree of cordiality. Even when Adder comes to chew her out for allowing Blue Moon to reach her factory, he's notably less biting than he is with other people. Hawke has a soft spot for Lash and is concerned for her health in Dual Strike, delaying his own escape from Kindle and Von Bolt to get Lash to follow along. Even Sturm is slow to outright insult her. This is largely because all the tech Black Hole uses was made by Lash, meaning that even when Lash doesn't see success as a commander, she's still the Black Hole CO doing the most overall successful work for Sturm.
- Unlike the original group, the Bolt Guard and their leader, Von Bolt, are nothing but respectful and friendly towards each other. Outside of Tabitha's relationship with Caulder in Days of Ruin, Kindle and Von Bolt have the healthiest, friendliest rapport of any villains in the series, and unlike with Tabitha and Caulder, Von Bolt's care for Kindle is implied to be unconditional.note The rest of the Bolt Guard spend more time mocking Hawke and Lash than they ever do giving each other grief.
Sturm/Herr Böse
"You will tremble before my power!"
Voiced by: Craig Lee Thomas
Black Hole Commander-in-Chief. Big Bad. Evil. Looks like Darth Vader and came from outer space to invade Wars World. An extremely powerful opponent. Can improve all of his units' movement, power, and defense, with no drawbacks. His only weakness is that he has no regular CO Power and his Super CO Power has the longest wait in the game before he gets enough charge to use it.
- Actually a Doombot: He pulls this twice in the original Advance Wars. The "Sturm" fought at the end of Mission 19 is revealed to merely be a decoy and the remake reveals that the one fought in the game's final mission was a mere hologram.
- A.I. Breaker: The final mission against him in the original Advance Wars is actually made easier by allowing him to take Andy's airport. Since he's guaranteed to churn out an expensive aircraft from that airport every round, you can use some missile batteries to camp out and shoot them down as they spawn to cripple his income.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Sturm is described as a "mysterious invader from another world" and his goal is global domination.
- All-Encompassing Mantle: His cape covers up his entire body. Just from his still sprite, you can't even tell if he has arms.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: He is fought only in the final levels of the first two games, and thus you get to hear a lot of electric guitar solos to mark the occasion.
- Badass Boast: Sturm is prone to throwing these out. He's even more confident about his boasts in Advance Wars 2, because he has a direct route to victory if he can just hold out for thirty days and wait for Lash to finish Black Hole's ultimate weapon for the final level.Sturm: I am warfare incarnate. The best you can do is choose a maneuver that might briefly postpone your defeat.
- Badass Cape: A big heavy one that hangs over his shoulders.
- Big Bad: He's source of the conflict in the first two Advance Wars games, inciting wars in the name of taking over the Wars World.
- Bragging Rights Reward: He is very overpowered, but by the time you can unlock him, you've proven you don't even need him.
- The Chessmaster: Launched a series of False Flag Operations in the first game with the purpose of framing Orange Star in order to Divide and Conquer and in Black Hole Rising, during the final mission, he boasts about having countermeasures ready for the allies' countermeasures to his plans.
- Cold Ham: His dialogue always gave off this vibe in the original, and Re-Boot Camp makes it more apparent in his voice acting. Sturm only raises his voice during his CO Power, but every word out of his mouth is a grandiose speech about conquest and the inevitability of his enemies' doom.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: He serves as one for Hetler. Hetler is a human CO who is a Adolf Hitlarious Expy of the real world Führer. Sturm, on the other hand, is an alien Knight of Cerebus and his army uses alien infantry and Sci-Fi machinery.
- Despotism Justifies the Means: His apparent motivation doesn't appear to be much more than conquering the Wars World.
- Evil Sounds Deep: The Re-Boot Camp remake gives him a very deep voice.
- Expy: Of the Darth Vader-homage variety, a being in power armor plus a military cap and cape.
- The Faceless: He is never seen without his mask.
- Final Boss: He's the final foe of the first two games.
- Friendly Fireproof: Averted. His Meteor Strike will inflict 8 HP of damage to any unit it hits, no matter whether said unit belongs to Sturm or not. However, the value of his units is subtracted when the game determines where Meteor Strike will inflict maximum damage, which means that unless Sturm's units completely surround all of his enemys' units on the map, his Meteor will probably never hit his own troops.
- Glass Cannon: In AW1's Campaign, where he has 120/80 stats and no movement penalties.
- Green and Mean: He's green-eyednote , sports a hat with some green, and is totally evil.
- The Heavy: He's the one instigates the conflict in the first two games, by tricking Blue Moon and Green Earth into invading Orange Star in the first and sending his four COs to invade each of the four nations in the second.
- It's All About Me: It's clear that Sturm only cares about himself. For instance, when things aren't going his way in Black Hole Rising, he tries to cause an Apocalypse How with giant missiles.
- Killed Off for Real: He's finished off by Hawke at the end of AW2. He is completely absent in Dual Strike in all modes, with Von Bolt replacing him as main villain and even mirroring some of his abilities.
- Lightning Bruiser: In AW2, where he has 120/120 stats and no movement penalties or increase in cost.
- Manipulative Bastard: In AW1, he manages to pit every other nation against each other.
- Master of All: In AW2. Increased Offense, increased Defense, no movement penalties, no weaknesses and a highly coveted damaging CO Power, fitting for the final boss.
- Meaningful Name: "Sturm," the German word for "storm," fitting in with his treatment as a destructive force of nature and fitting in with his general Nazi undertones. His Japanese name is Herr Böse, which happens to be German for "Mr. Evil".
- Meteor-Summoning Attack: Downplayed with his Meteor Strike, which drops one meteor onto the battlefield for 8 HP damage.
- No Body Left Behind: In Reboot Camp, when Hawke kills Sturm with Black Storm, his body disintegrates with the only thing that remains of him being his cap left on the ground.
- Obviously Evil: If the creepy, elaborate gas mask and dictator-like outfit don't clue you in.
- Out-Gambitted: He appears to have done this to the allied nations at the end of Black Hole Rising with a Taking You with Me tactic in the end, however Hawke catches him off-guard and he ends up being the one whose plans go up in smoke.
- Psycho Pink: He dons a pinkish facemask in his debut and is one of the franchise's most rotten characters.
- Purposely Overpowered: In AW2, where he makes for a very tough final fight.
- Putting on the Reich: Beyond his dark gray peaked cap and cake, the second game gives him a Palette Swap that makes him look like an SS officer.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the Re-Boot Camp remake, his eyes turn red when he activates his power. He's also a dangerous CO who also wants to conquer the Wars World.
- Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke: Meteor Strike has no other effects on the map besides damaging units.
- SNK Boss: He is blatantly broken in both games where you fight him, on top of having a massive map advantage.
- Stone Wall: In AW1 VS, where he has 80/120 stats. The offense loss is likely to prevent him from dealing heavy damage with his lack of movement penalties.
- Take Over the World: He seeks to conquer the Wars World.
- Taking You with Me: He attempted to kill everyone when his plan is ultimately thwarted. However, he was killed by Hawke in the last minute.
- Tin Tyrant: A cruel tyrant clad in bronze armor, or at least a bronze helmet. His graphics for Re-Boot Camp imply the rest of his body is armored as well.
Clone Andy (Advance Wars 1)
"Maelstrom, come ... all who oppose me ... Destroy!"
Voiced by: Veronica Taylor
A doppelgänger of Andy made by Sturm. He's sent out to attack the other nations of Cosmo Land as part of a False Flag Operation to embroil Cosmo Land in war.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Clone Andy's soldiers all have tealish skin in the remake, making him the only Black Hole general with a slightly different army. All of his own alternate colours in War Room also share this trait.
- Ambiguously Human: He's described as being a clone created from Andy's DNA, but he also speaks in a robotic monotone and his dialogue sounds more like a computer processing commands than normal speech. There's also the matter of all of his alternate skins in War Room and his Clone Army having the clones' blue skin introduced in Dual Strike, raising the question of if his caucasian one is even real.
- Ax-Crazy: In Re-Boot Camp, this Andy shows clearly malicious joy when he successfully kills a unit.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: His name is just the literal translation of the word clone in the respective languages.
- Clone Army: Instead of his troops being the regular Black Hole alien forces, his army is the same as Orange Star's except colored gray and having blue skin, indicating they're clones as established in Dual Strike.
- Creepy Blue Eyes: Has unsettling glowing blue eyes, which Eagle even described as glowing with sheer evil.
- Creepy Child: He's physically still a child, but he's also responsible for numerous hostile invasions across multiple countires and clearly takes pleasure in killing his enemies.
- Creepy Monotone: Talks like this in Re-Boot Camp to go with his robotic dialogue.
- Dark Reprise: His theme in Reboot Camp is a dark sounding remix of Andy's theme.
- Divergent Character Evolution: In the first Advance Wars, he was literally just Andy in terms of appearance. In Reboot Camp, his appearance is unique and his army is Orange Star's army with teal skin (as opposed to the other Black Hole commanders with an alien-like army)
- The Dragon: In the first game, he's the one that Sturm uses to carry out his plan.
- Dub Name Change: An odd case not with him, but with his theme. While most languages translated the title of "Clone's Theme" literally, the German translation renamed it to "Klon-Kakophonie".note Said character theme is also the only one with this distinction.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He has slightly paler skin and blue hair than his original, and he is a sadistic and cruel fiend who takes pleasure in causing destruction to innocent nations.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Despite being a clone of specifically Andy, he's just listed as "Clone" for his character name.
- Evil Brunette Twin: Unlike his original self who has brown hair, he has dark blue hair.
- Evil Knockoff: A clone made by Andy's DNA with the intent of fooling the other nations into attacking Orange Star.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Reboot Camp added glowing eyes into him, which will glow whenever he uses his power.
- Glowing Mechanical Eyes: The remake emphasis his robotic appearance by giving him a pair of glowing eyes.
- Good Powers, Bad People: He has the same CO Power in Hyper Repair which heals 2 HP of every single of his units. He's also responsible of attacking innocent nations by Sturm's orders.
- Jack of All Stats: Just like the real Andy, his units have no strengths or weaknesses.
- Moveset Clone: He behaves exactly like Andy (except without Hyper Upgrade). The first game just used his sprite/theme while Reboot Camp has a unique theme and everything for him.
- No Ontological Inertia: In the original game, Sami says that she’s certain defeating Sturm will make Clone Andy vanish, and considering he doesn’t appear in the second game, it seems that this is the case. Re-Boot Camp changes the dialogue to add uncertainty to this, and while he still doesn’t appear in the Black Hole Rising campaign, he is playable in Style 2, implying he did survive.
- Promoted to Playable: He was a foe unique to the first campaign and literally used the same sprite as him. Reboot Camp has him as a unique unlockable character after fighting him in the campaign.
- Shout-Out: One of his alternate skins is the Andy Clone fought in Dual Strike.
- Tsurime Eyes: He combines having these eyes along with having Creepy Shadowed Undereyes; fitting, given his sadism and cruelty to any that stands in his way.
- Unique Enemy: He's only fought once in the first game's campaign.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: He behaves exactly like Andy ... in the first Advance Wars. Play him in War Room/Versus/Online and turn on the Advance Wars 2 mode, and he only has Andy's Hyper Repair CO Power (alongside an attack bonus).
- Walking Spoiler: His existence reveals that there's a reason why everyone has been attacking Orange Star.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: His dossier in Reboot Camp states he dislikes ladybugs because “they’re scary”.
Flak/Kong
"Graaa! Blaarrgggg! Smaaarrgggghhh!!"
Voiced by: SungWon Cho
The lowest-ranked among Black Hole's officers in AW2, and leader of the force invading Orange Star's territory in Macro Land. Imagine Max without his few restraints or glimpses of intelligence. You get Flak, but instead of a permanent power boost, his units are randomly stronger or weaker than usual, with his powers exacerbating this tendency and its effect.
- Achievements in Ignorance: In the Hard Campaign version of "Test of Time", he has somehow managed to cram a Battleship into a two-tile lake despite naval units not being able to go underneath bridges.
- Adaptational Intelligence: In Re-Boot Camp his intelligence is a bit better. While still very much Dumb Muscle, at the very least he is no longer at rampant animal level.
- Angrish: Prone to descending into gibberish when mad.
- Animal Motif: Gorilla. Somewhat Lost in Translation, although he's equated with one in dialogue a few times.
- Arc Villain: He is the main antagonist of the Orange Star missions in Black Hole Rising.
- The Brute: Of Black Hole in the second game. His CO Powers are even named "Brute Force" and "Barbaric Blow."
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He is completely absent from the campaign of Dual Strike, only appearing in the War Room and Skirmish. At least the other COs are excused with rebuilding Macro Land and cloned by Black Hole to fight against the Allied Nations in Omega Land; he doesn't get one mention.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Curiously, yes; the AI seems to be able to predict the results of Flak's "luck spread" to some degree, which frequently leads to it abruptly retreating units away from fights that seem fairly even or winnable, or making sudden charges that then crit.
- Confusion Fu: This is apparently the justification behind his abilities; he just randomly mashes troops in the direction of the enemy and then gets in lucky hits by accident.
- Does Not Like Spam: According to his bio, he doesn't like veggies.
- Dub Name Change: He's called Helmut in the French, German, Italian and European Spanish translations. He's called Flak in English and Dutch.
- Dumb Muscle: He prefers "smashin stuff" over any strategy.
- Evil Counterpart: He's the evil brute to Max's heroic muscle.
- General Failure: He's the kind of guy that really makes you wonder why they put him in command of an army, being dumb as a sack of bricks. He tends to loudly shout out his plans and strategies towards the enemy, and most of those strategies really boil down to Zerg Rushing the enemy.
- Goggles Do Nothing: It may be that Flak is concerned with protecting his head, as he always wears a helmet and goggles, even though it isn't necessary.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: The European release renames him as "Helmut". Welp, he wears a helmet.
- Joke Character: When picked in multiplayer, he's basically this; every battle becomes a Luck-Based Mission and your only real hope is Confusion Fu and the blessings of the Random Number God. This is not helped by the fact that Nell is basically just him but better. note Hachi refers to him as "Flakluster" in one of his Re-Boot Camp dialogues and states that he wouldn't bother with Flak in the War Room unless it's a self-imposed restriction. On the other hand, he is the comedy moron of the game, so you'll at least get some great lines out of it. He's also a bit more reliable than Jugger in Dual Strike.
- Meaningful Name: Especially in Japanese, where his name is "Kong".
- Before the advent of missiles, there were only two types of ammunitions available for shooting down aircraft: impact-fused small caliber bullets used in machine guns and autocannons and timed-fused large caliber explosive shells used in heavy (Flak) cannons. A single aircraft required an average of around 2000 rounds to be shot down as most of those rounds ended up missing or causing inconsequential damage. Likewise a timed-fused high explosive shell would either miss the aircraft completely (often), explode close enough to hit it with a few fragments (sometimes), or explode close enough to cause catastrophic damage (rarely).
- Mook Promotion: According to his bio, he was originally a regular soldier until he was promoted by Hawke.
- Primal Chest-Pound: His CO Power animation in Re-Boot Camp has him beating his chest like a gorilla.
- Real Men Eat Meat: According to his bio, he loves meat but hates veggies.
- Starter Villain: The first Black Hole CO fought in Black Hole Rising, and he's clearly the least competent. In fact, after clearing Orange Star, he's only fought a total of two times (once in Blue Moon and Yellow Comet).
- The Unfought: In the Green Earth act of Black Hole Rising; Hawke takes his position and is the main antagonist of that campaign, while Lash and Adder at least have their single mission to balance things out.
- Unskilled, but Strong: The intended meaning of his abilities. He just kind of randomly mashes units in a given direction, but when he does get in a hit, he hits where it hurts.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Too bad he looks like a failed sketch of Butthead...
Adder/Snake
"The look of terror on your face... is absolutely delicious!"
Voiced by: Griffin Burns
The second-highest ranking member of Black Hole's human officers in AW2, and leader of the force invading Yellow Comet's territory in Macro Land. He's quite the Smug Snake, and revels in his paper-thin evilness. His units are average, but he has very fast charging CO Powers which boost his movement.
- Ambiguously Gay: The way he fawns over Hawke gives off this vibe. The eyeliner and high heels certainly don't help.
- Animal Motif: Snakes. Sometimes, he even hisses like a snake. And his idle animation in Reboot Camp even evokes the stereotypical sway of a snake that is raised up.
- Arc Villain: He is the main antagonist of the Yellow Comet missions in Black Hole Rising.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Has a really bad habit of baiting his foes into making Sadistic Choices even though it's obvious that they will just Take a Third Option.
- Boring, but Practical: A fast-charging Power that gives movement boosts is far more versatile and useful than you might think.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Like Flak, he is completely absent in the campaign of Dual Strike.
- Dub Name Change: Not only is his name different in the European version, so is the name of his Super CO Power, being called Snakebite instead of Sidewinder (which references a species of snake).
- Evil Counterpart: To Grit, the difference being Grit has empathy where Adder lacks any. Both COs also have powers that specialise in improving the range of their units: Adder's improves the movement range of all his units, Grit's the attack range of his indirects.
- Evil Laugh: In Re-Boot Camp, he lets out a villainous cackle as his CO Power or Super CO Power activates.
- Flat Joy: Most COs have an expression of mirthful laughter or a smug grin whenever they eliminate a unit in Re-Boot Camp. Adder, on the other hand, responds with a bored yawn.
- Fragile Speedster: Adder's CO Powers give him movement boosts. The "fragile" part comes from the fact that while his units are average, average tends to lose out to specialized in Advance Wars. In contrast with Koal, Adder's regular CO Power costs less than Koal's, so he can use it sooner and he can use it twice in a row rather than use his Super CO Power (something that Koal can't do). In other words, Adder is weaker than Koal, but also faster.
- I Fight for the Strongest Side!: After Hawke eliminates Strum, Adder falls in-line with Hawke's plans to rebuild Black Hole, claiming this. Whether he actually follows this or just doesn't dare to challenge Hawke is up to interpretation.
- I Surrender, Suckers: In one Black Hole Rising mission, he claims to offer peace terms to Yellow Comet in order to lure them to a decoy holding a bomb. The mission is even called "Foul Play".
- It's All About Me: Fighting against him will have him brag about how "statues of him will be made everywhere" if he's in an advantage.
- Jack of All Stats: Like Andy, his units are completely average day to day.
- Lean and Mean: Has a slender build and is one of the slimiest COs in the game.
- Meaningful Name: An adder is a type of snake.
- Narcissist: He is described as "a self-absorbed CO who believes his skills are matchless". His Hit is also "his own face".
- Never My Fault: Naturally, being a narcissist with a big ego, every time he loses, he will say this.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: His alternate skin makes him a dead ringer for an anime-ized Marilyn Manson.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: The extra animations in Reboot Camp have him yawn contemptuously whenever he is successful. As if he weren't smug enough.
- Mugging the Monster: The first time Adder faces Sensei, he belittles him as nothing more than an old fart. Once he gets trounced, he realizes he just picked on a legendary CO with quite the reputation from his past.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a villain who's made ageist comments towards Sensei.
- Sadistic Choice: Really seems to like giving these. In no less than 2 separate instances in Black Hole Rising he forces them to choose between walking into a Death Laser trap or watch a group of civilians or allies get crushed.
- Simple, yet Awesome: His CO Power takes very little to charge, and it adds 1 and 2 square movement boosts. Hey, don't laugh, that little movement boost can mean the difference between getting stuck in the no mans' land or getting the first strike in.
- Sissy Villain: It really says something when he's prissier than all of the female COs.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He believes his skills are matchless.
- Smug Snake: His opinion of his abilities is a vast overestimation of how skilled he actually is. His name is Adder, for crying out loud (Snake in the Japanese original).
- Snakes Are Sinister: His name, CO Powers, and personality invoke this. He also has a tendency to Hiss Before Fleeing when his army is on the receiving end of a thrashing.
- Sore Loser: Doesn't take losing very well. He goes as far as to blame the weather for his defeat in the Yellow Comet's factory mission in Black Hole. In a constantly sunny mission (barring the player choosing Olaf as his second CO).
- This Cannot Be!: In Reboot Camp, putting him on the ropes (whether if it's Campaign or War Room) will have him rage on how his situation is a "mix-up" and how it wouldn't be like this otherwise.
- Weak, but Skilled: He's got no day-to-day bonuses and his units all have average defense and firepower. However, he can still be dangerous due to his normal power being very cheap and it boosting his unit's movement.
- We Can Rule Together: Delivers one to Grit in Black Hole Rising, observing that Grit (who originally defected from Orange Star to Blue Moon) never really cared much about loyalty to a cause, and invites him to join Black Hole. Grit notes that he has a point, but the deal-breaker is Black Hole's barbaric treatment of civilians.
- Villainous Cheekbones: He has these, which fit his elongated, gaunt, appearance.
Lash/Kat
"That's why the bad guys always advance science... Because they're fearless!"
Voiced by: Sarah Anne Williams
The second-lowest ranking member of Black Hole's human officers in AW2, and leader of the force invading Blue Moon's territory in Macro Land. Lash is an evil genius who thinks nothing of maiming, murdering, experimenting, and building new death toys. Her powers are terrain-based; her units' attack is boosted based on the defense rating of the terrain they are standing on.
- Achilles' Heel:
- Lash's terrain bonus is strong on offense, especially if Prime Tactics is active, but her defense can be offset depending on her troops' HP* As a result, map-damaging Powers, like Drake's Typhoon, Hawke's Black Storm, and Rachel's Covering Fire, will drastically cut her unit's defense, even if she has Prime Tactics active.
- Maps with airports (and several mountains but no other distinct terrain to speak of that would preclude effective use of Anti-Air and Missile units) that have even a slight focus on aerial supremacy are Lash's bane. Since it's impossible to benefit from defensive terrain in planes and copters, Lash is bog standard up in the sky, which typically puts her at a disadvantage against the commanders one would expect to be fielded in such maps, like Sensei or Eagle.
- Actually a Doombot: In the remake, she replaces herself with a robot at the end of "Lash Out", though said robot prefers being called an "Artificial Malevolence".
- Animal Motif: Cats. In Dual Strike, Kindle refers to her as kitten in several missions. Although given Kindle, it is a demeaning nickname to Lash, and she quickly grows to hate it.
- Arch-Enemy: To Olaf. She turned his hometown into her personal playground, and the two have a really bad tag in the third game as a result.
- Arc Villainess: She is the main antagonist of the Blue Moon missions in Black Hole Rising.
- Because I'm Good At It: She builds all manner of terrible weapons because she needs some outlet for her genius and because she can.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Lash is a character who demands a high level of skill to use. Used recklessly, she's effectively Hawke with weaker CO powers, since plains will routinely give her a small offensive buff but aren't very notable for her otherwise. Utilizing choke points, forests, and properties effectively to steadily control the map requires a lot more preplanning given the need to predict future enemy movement to keep up Lash's terrain-based momentum, but in the hands of a skilled player, Lash can easily reach Jess or even Kanbei's level of power without having Jess' weakened naval and air force or Kanbei's higher unit fees. Lash can even excel in a naval map provided she has enough reefs to work with.
- Dub Name Change: She's called Kat in French, German, Italian, Japanese, and European Spanish. She's called Lash in Dutch and English.
- Evil Counterpart: Seems to be one for Sonja; both are intelligent, youthful, and based on terrain and defensive warfare in a manner that makes them map-dependent, but Sonja is mature and reserved while Lash is a cackling goofball. In Dual Strike, many of Sonja's abilities even seem designed to counter Lash's.
- Evil Genius: She's a mad inventor and responsible for much of the technology Black Hole uses.
- For the Evulz: Doesn't care about the agenda of Black Hole as long as they are causing fun destruction.
- Geo Effects: Lash's day-to-day bonus gives her units additional firepower based on the terrain's defense bonus. This allows Lash to deal a lot of damage to her enemies when her units are stationed in cities or forests. Her Super CO Power, Prime Tactics, doubles her terrain bonuses for one turn, which escalates her offensive and defensive capabilities.
- Giggling Villain: Becomes recognizable enough for poor Max to start cringing the moment he hears it.
- Heel–Face Turn: It happens strictly out of necessity, and she is somewhat reluctant to help out the good guys at first, but by the end, she has turned all the way. One picture shows her standing up eating popcorn in the back of Jess' car!
- Insufferable Genius: "I AM a genius, you know."
- Jabba Table Manners: As shown in a scene after "Crystal Calamity" in Dual Strike, Lash is a pretty messy eater. She apparently gets food all over her face, and Jess tries to teach her how to use a fork and knife properly.
- Karma Houdini: Aside from being on the losing side of the war in AW2, Lash never faces any sort of punishment for her actions towards Olaf's hometown. In Dual Strike, she even joins the heroes! It probably helps that Olaf doesn't appear in that game aside from a clone.
- She does get a tag penalty with Olaf, implying he still hates her for what she did, but the player has to be in the War Room or Hard Mode to see it.
- Lost in Translation: Kindle using "kitten" as a demeaning nickname for her doesn't make as much sense in the English version, since her name was changed from "Kat" to "Lash."
- Meaningful Name: Kat. Which makes her referring to herself as a "kitty" in Advance Wars Dual Strike make quite a bit more sense.
- Messy Hair: Possibly to evoke the stereotypical Einstein Hair. Her alternate Dual Strike skin puts her hair into two puffs, and gives her a surprisingly cute casual outfit.
- Military Maverick: Subverted. She's a technological genius and doesn't care much for military code but she never wins any battles until she joins the good guys.
- Mythology Gag: In Re-Boot Camp, Hachi exclaims "Cat's out of the bag!" when she becomes available for purchase, referencing her being called Kat in seveal other languages.
- Nerf: Her attack bonus from terrain was halved from the second to third game, terrain was made slightly less powerful overall, and she got a Kryptonite Factor in Sonja.
- "Not So Different" Remark: After the "A Mirror Darkly" mission in Black Hole Rising, Lash claims she had fun despite her loss. Sonja is shocked, calling her out of her blatant disrespect of life and telling her that war is not a school playground. Lash is non-plussed, and retorts with a teasing tone that Sonja and she are the same, and that Sonja is also enjoying herself on the battlefield. Sonja is taken aback and weakly denies Lash's claim. Lash the pushes on, pointing out that they have the same analytical mind, always looking for the victory move, and comparing war to a game of chess. Sonja is unable to find a good comeback, and is seen deeply troubled after this exchange, promising herself to never become like Lash.
- Perky Goth: Black clothes, black hair, pale skin, and constantly grinning.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Game over, freak!"
- Psychopathic Manchild: She treats the entire proceedings as being more like a goofy game of checkers.
- Shout-Out: One of her CO power quotes is "Whatever! I do what I want!"
- Situational Sword: Lash is in her element in small, claustrophobic maps choked with woods, mountains, and properties, since not only is her offensive power boosted from such terrain, her CO powers allow her to plow through it unimpeded (as long as they can pass through it normally — her vehicles still can't cross mountains, for instance). In large, open maps, or maps dominated by air and/or naval combat, Lash becomes a bog-standard CO with powers that are borderline useless.
- Stone Wall: Attacking her troops when Lash has unleashed her Super CO Power is meaningless, since it doubles terrain defense bonusesnote when her troops are in it.
- Token Evil Teammate: Joins the Allied Nations in Dual Strike, but she hasn't reformed from her evil ways so much as been forced to ally with them.
- We Have Reserves: She clearly doesn't care about her troops' lives.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Von Bolt doesn't hesitate to have her murdered when Hawke discovers him. Luckily for her, the heroes just happen to find her and thwart the execution.
Hawke/Hawk
"To be defeated is to lose everything. Are you prepared for that outcome?"
Voiced by: Adin Rudd
The highest ranking member of Black Hole's human officers in AW2, and leader of the force invading Green Earth's territory in Macro Land. A man of few words, Hawke leads his men very competently and comes the closest of any of Black Hole's officers to achieving his objective. All of his units are naturally more powerful than everyone else's at no additional cost (though not as much as Sturm's). His power allows him to inflict a small amount of raw damage to all units opposing him and repairs his own units, but it takes quite a while to charge this up.
- Ambiguously Brown: Figuring out his ethnicity is pretty tricky. He's slightly darker than the Yellow Comet characters, most of whom have a noticeably different skin tone from the rest of the cast.
- Animal Motifs: Hawks.
- Arch-Enemy: To Eagle. The two have one of the worst tags in Dual Strike due to Hawke humiliating him in the second game.
- Arc Villain: He is the main antagonist of the Green Earth missions in Black Hole Rising.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: He takes care off Sturm after he's defeated at the end of Black Hole Rising. In Dual Strike, he can again be the one to deal with the Big Bad if you choose him instead of Jake to shoot Von Bolt.
- Badass Longcoat: Wears a bulky and long coat and is a serious, no-nonsense CO.
- Bastard Understudy: Serves both Sturm and Von Bolt, only to turn against them the moment they go against his interests.
- The Comically Serious: He becomes this when forced to work with Lash.
- Demoted to Dragon: The end of Black Hole Rising has him become Black Hole's new Commander-In-Chief after offing Sturm. By the beginning of Dual Strike however, Von Bolt is Black Hole's Commander-In-Chief and Hawke has been bumped right back down to just being another CO without explanation. In fact, he's seemingly in a lower position than he was before since he's outranked by every member of the Bolt Guard.
- The Dragon: He's Sturm's second-in-command in Black Hole Rising and the one in charge of the three other new COs introduced in that game, as well as the final opponent before Sturm. In the third game, he's bumped down to more of an auxiliary role on team evil, until they try to kill him.
- Dragon with an Agenda: He's betrayed his boss in some manner at least twice, claiming that his loyalty is simply to Black Hole as a nation, not to the leader.
- Dub Name Change: He's called Maverik in French, German, Italian, and European Spanish.
- Enigmatic Minion: In the third game especially, where nobody is entirely sure why he's thrown in his lot with the Bolt Guard.
- Evil Counterpart: Noticing a trend? In Hawke's case, there are several heroes he shows parallels to:
- Based on his name, general appearance, no-nonsense attitude and code of honor, he's one to Eagle.
- In terms of gameplay, he's also one to Andy, being an all-around talented and very active CO with abilities based on healing (but where Andy simply heals, Hawke drains, and his units are all-around better instead of all-around good). Several times, he refers to Andy as a Worthy Opponent and Andy seems to remind him of himself.
- Lastly, his CO Powers are reminiscent of Drake's both in the amount of damage each one does and even their names (Drake's powers are Tsunami and Typhoon; Hawke's are Black Wave and Black Storm).
- Heel–Face Turn: Defects to the Allied Nations in Dual Strike after being betrayed by Von Bolt. It seems to have stuck by the end, where he uses Von Bolt's chair to restore life to Omega Land.
- Jack of All Stats: Has 110% universal attack in return for a CO Power priced one star higher than it should be balance-wise, making him usable on most maps and situations (although he is stronger in larger battles than smaller ones).
- Knight of Cerebus: Is much more effective as a villain than the COs fought before him and lacks any of their comedic quirks. In "Drake's Dilemna", once he hears that Yellow Comet has arrived to bail out Drake's encircled navy, he doesn't screw around like the previous COs and basically says "Oh, they have no units deployed? Excellent. Attack immediately." It's telling that he alone leads the majority of offensives in Green Earth territory, whereas it takes the combined efforts of Adder, Lash, and Flak to stage a single mission there, to attack token Orange Star forces in the region, no less.
- Life Drain: His CO Powers steal a portion of the enemy unit's HP and add it to his units. His Power, Black Wave, steals 1 HP from enemy units and restores 1 HP to his units, while his Super CO Power, Black Storm, steals 2 HP from enemy units and restores 2 HP to his units.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Stands out as the one member of Black Hole to object to fighting when there's nothing clear to gain and show respect for his allies and foes.
- Meaningful Name:
- The Evil Counterpart of 'Eagle'.
- Him being called Maverik in various European languages should give one a good idea about his sense of loyalty to his superiors.
- Morality Pet: Lash is the only person he openly expresses any care towards. His first priority when Kindle betrays them is to save her, even though the delay gets them surrounded by Oozium.
- Noble Demon: He wants to Take Over the World, and he's willing to sacrifice friend and foe alike in order to do so. However, he is not willing to sacrifice allies or enemies out of revenge, nor is he willing to take over the world if doing so means destroying it in the process. He even offers to shoot Von Bolt in the end of Dual Strike, not for payback, but so that Jake (a late teen) won't have to do it.
- No Place for Me There: Downplayed in Dual Strike. Despite defecting to the Allied Nations, he refuses to join in on their celebration party because he feels everyone still sees him as evil and his presence would create tension. Jake convinces Hawke to join the party after having a heart to heart talk with him.
- Not So Stoic: While usually he has a serious disposition, in Dual Strike, when Kindle attempts to dispose him (and Lash) because He Knows Too Much about Von Bolt's actual intentions, by sending Oozium after them, he does not take it well. At all.
- Real Men Take It Black: His hit is "black coffee." As Sturm's most dangerous and competent CO, he'd probably prefer coffee at its natural.
- The Starscream: At the end of Black Hole Rising he offs Sturm and becomes Commander-In-Chief of Black Hole. It's not made clear if he was always planning to usurp Sturm or only did so because Sturm was planning on blowing them all up. Or maybe both.
- The Stoic: He almost never even jokes, and his design in Dual Strike is perpetually frowning. His expressions in Reboot Camp are also extremely muted, maxing out at a slight smile when things are going well and closing his eyes when they are not.
- Token Evil Teammate: To the Allied Nations in Dual Strike. He becomes a little less evil due to Jake befriending him (notably showing the same Cruel Mercy to Von Bolt that Jake would if Jake can't go through with it), but then he fakes his death in an apparent Stupid Sacrifice to claim Von Bolt's chair for himself, and due to an unresolved Sequel Hook, it's not clear what happens after that.
- Unique Enemy: As opposed to being the Arc Villain of a whole chapter in Black Hole Rising, he's only fought in a single mission in Dual Strike before his Heel–Face Turn.
- Villainous Rescue: Kills Sturm before he could blow everyone.
- Villainous Respect: In a contrast with all the rest of the Black Hole CO's, Hawke's quotes are the only ones that actually demonstrate some respect for his opponents. Even at his most self-indulgent, he's not above recognizing the strength of others:
"I give you credit for pushing me this far."
"Impressive... I will remember your skill!"
"You're not weak—I'm just way too good!
- Worthy Opponent: To Andy, who even gets a Tag with him in the third game. Most of the heroes treat him as one in the third game's story as well.
Von Bolt/Hell-Bolt
"Well...hhh...let me have a taste...hhh...of your soul."
An extremely elderly former military officer who was originally confined to a nursing home and remains alive solely due to his advanced life support chair. Prior to the start of Dual Strike, he seized control of the remnants of the Black Hole army with his Bolt Guard. Known for his brutality and selfishness, he sees Black Hole as a purely expendable force to carry out his personal agenda. Like Sturm, Von Bolt's units are much stronger than others.
- Big Bad: He's the one leading Black Hole in Dual Strike.
- Bowdlerize: His Japanese name is 'Hell Volt'.
- Child Hater: An implied case; Von Bolt is stated to hate young people.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: Von Bolt is a decrepit old man in a super-wheelchair who wants to gain immortality.
- Evil Old Folks: He's an elderly man looking to drain a continent to extend his own life.
- Expy: Just as Sturm resembles Darth Vader with a hat, Von Bolt resembles Emperor Palpatine with additional headgear. In terms of his gameplay, he's also generally seen as a somewhat balanced version of Sturm.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Because of his attempt to kill Hawke and Lash after the former sticks his nose where it didn't belong, his tag team power with those COs are diminished as they would be with non-Black Hole characters. However, this doesn't happen with Flak and Adder despite them also being non-Bolt Guard Black Hole COs, as they don't appear in the campaign and thus the two groups never betray each other.
- Immortality Immorality: If everyone else on the planet must die so that he can live on, so be it.
- It's All About Me: This guy starts an entire war and nearly wipes out Omega Land just so he can gain eternal life. Once the energy runs out, he'll likely die, but he doesn't care as long as he lives now.
- Living Forever Is Awesome: He certainly thinks so and his plan is to extend his own life as much as possible.
- Mighty Glacier: Unlike Sturm's units, Von Bolt's units has 10 more firepower and defense, and lacks Sturm's flat movement cost.
- Obviously Evil: Pretty much the spitting image of a Dark Lord on Life Support.
- Meaningful Name: His Super CO power, "Ex Machina", zaps a group of enemies with a bolt of lightning.
- Static Stun Gun: His Super CO power hits a group of enemies with lightning, doing 3 HP of damage to them and leaving them immobile for a turn.
- Teen Hater: Implied, given that he's stated to hate "young 'uns".
- The Von Trope Family: The English version gives him the prefix "Von".
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Von Bolt doesn't hesitate to attempt to dispose of Hawke and Lash once Hawke finds him.
Jugger/Zipo
"Memory: upgraded. Shell: shined. Ready to uhh... roll."
The lowest ranking member of the Bolt Guard. Either a robot, or a weirdo who likes to dress like one; the truth is left ambiguous. He's basically Flak, only with an even more erratic luck spread and much cooler dialogue.
- Ambiguous Robots: Whether or not he's an actual robot or just someone dressing up as one isn't made clear.
- Bald of Evil: Possibly. "Jugger has no need of hair."
- The Brute: In Dual Strike, he's the muscle of Black Hole and the Bolt Guard.
- Expospeak Gag: "Smack-laying in a downward direction."
- Joke Character: He's pretty much Flak but with minor differences that makes him slightly worse.
- Robo Speak: He mentions having to reboot in his switch quotes and even needing to "Control-Alt-Delete" at one point, along with his generally stilted speech patterns.
- Starter Villain: The first one fought in the campaign and is also one with one of the weaker stats and abilities much like Flak. This is subverted in the campaign proper as he's fought with equal frequency as the rest of his peers from start to finish.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Gameplay-wise, he is nearly identical to Flak just with the range of damage increased by 5% in each direction and a Super CO Power that needs seven stars instead of six. However, his personality is more analytical as befitting a robot which runs calculations to govern its speech.
- Sycophantic Servant: He appears to be programmed to give compliments to Kindle, which fits because she's a narcissist. But sometimes the programming bugs out into giving honest descriptions of her character.
- Third-Person Person: Does this a lot when talking about his greatness.
- Tron Lines: His robot body is covered in red lines.
Koal/Chakka
"I am a warrior and a scholar. My victory is all but certain."
Called Zak in the EU version. The second-lowest ranking member of the Bolt Guard. A short, arrogant man painted like a kabuki actor and using very flowery language, his special power grants him attack bonuses on roads and makes him a mixture of Adder and Jake. Also has the notably lowest Tag Break in the game: A whopping 35% attack penalty to team-ups with Rachel due to having called her ugly.
- Badass Bookworm: He refers to himself as a "warrior and a scholar." Given that he's designed to evoke Sun Tzu or Zhuge Liang, this trope is probably in play.
- Deadpan Snarker: On occasion, mainly when dealing with people like Rachel:"I'd say that I care, but I'd be lying. And that would be wrong."
- Does Not Like Spam: Apparently, he dislikes fondue.
- The Evil Genius: He supposedly plays this role to the Bolt Guard, but he's got more ego than strategic acumen.
- Glass Cannon: Not inherently — his units are average — but the fact that he gets an attack bonus when fighting on roads — which have a defense bonus of 0 — means that he has to leave himself wide open in order to fight at peak potential.
- Master of None: His lack of a day-to-day bonus except on roads and his garden variety CO powers stick out in a game where specialists are dominant. One thing he does have going for him is that he's the only CO for whom fighting on roads is even a slight advantage, but you'll have to do some serious strategizing to turn that into a plus.
- The Napoleon: He's one of the smallest characters in the game, about half the size of Kindle, but every bit as arrogant as her.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Adder. Gets a bonus on roads, but his CO meter is redistributed to make his standard CO power more expensive (preventing back-to-back CO power use).
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Regarding his low tag power with Rachel. Yes, he called her ugly... and sucked the life out of her beloved homeland, dictated exactly how, and openly said he doesn't give a rat's ass about the moral ramificationsnote .
- Trademark Favorite Food: According to his profile, he likes ramen.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The second time you fight him in turn survival takes a lot of turns, until you realize various ways to beat him in just one to two turns.
- Warrior Poet: According to him. He's clearly modeled after the Confucian ideal, however.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Comes across as this next to the other terrain specialists; not only is his terrain less common, but it's useless for defense. Anyone familiar with The Gulf War could probably tell you how effective "road warfare" is.
Kindle/Candle
"Even the prettiest rose has thorns!"
Candy in the EU, she's an upper class socialite, the head of the Bolt Guard, and Von Bolt's lieutenant. Her powers revolve around controlling urban territory to gain boosts and inflict nasty wounds.
- Beehive Hairdo: She's got a beehive-like hairstyle.
- The Dragon: She's Von Bolt's second-in-command.
- Evil Laugh: "Ahaha!" Rachel even lampshades it.
- Evil Redhead: A redhead and a villainous example of Rich Bitch.
- Flat Character: Other than being a Rich Bitch stereotype, there's... really very little of note to Kindle.
- Foil: Her powers are also "opposite" to Lash's in some ways. They both utilize terrain bonuses in some way, but Lash focuses on defense and all rougher terrain, while Kindle specifically uses cities for offensive boosts.
- Graceful Loser: When defeated by the Allied Nations, she congratulates them and says she'll raise a glass to their victory.
- Rich Bitch: She's wealthy and her ego is the size of the Wars World.
- Smug Snake: Has the condescension of a stereotypical rich elite.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Downplayed. Not in personality, but in terms of gameplay. Like mentioned above, her CO power is a combination of Lash and Hawke's. Relative to her other peers, Jugger and Koal, this is averted harder than them as at least her CO power is far more unique.
- Undying Loyalty: If there's one positive that could be said of her, she's obviously very loyal to Von Bolt and the Bolt Guard. Despite having Hawke's role as the second in command of an evil leader, she never once considers subverting him, and frequently joins him on his evil tirades. Fittingly, she's part of the final boss fight, acting as Von Bolt's partner.
- Urban Warfare: Kindle excels at utilizing urban tiles for offense and defense.
- Villainous Virtues: Loyalty. She is endlessly loyal and considerate to both Von Bolt and the Bolt Guard he has her manage, and cares greatly for Von Bolt's health. Though also spurred on by the idea Von Bolt can keep her youthful forever, it's telling she considers still causing trouble after Von Bolt kicks the bucket and stands by her subordinates to the end.
- Violation of Common Sense: Normally, parking units on allied properties has many benefits. You do not want to do this against Kindle, since she will happily use her CO Power, Urban Blight, to knock 3 HP off anything on an "urban" tile, meaning they'll take at least one extra turn to heal up unless you either have Rachel as your CO or your CO has specific forces set. The repairs induced by her power can also cripple one's War Funds, effectively preventing her opponent to build expensive units when they would need it, and infantry trying to capture properties will also be impacted badly, delaying or outright denying capture.
- Worthy Opponent: Finally considers the Allied Nations to be such in the end.
Commander Clones (Advance Wars Dual Strike)
The clones fought during the last stretch of the campaign. They compose of Olaf, Drake, Kanbei, and Andy while those four are conveniently fixing their countries back home.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: All of the clones have teal skin.
- Elite Four: All four of them are fought back-to-back in the last stretch of the campaign (paired with Bolt Guard members as well) before fighting Von Bolt himself.
- Fading Away: They don't have long lifespans, considering they fade once their purpose is fulfilled.
- Go Out with a Smile: The Andy here wonders what kind of person his actual self was like, and once Orange Star tells him, he's happy to realize and fades away.
- Palette Swap: The clones are palette swaps of their original counterparts. They're even unlockable skins as well (alongside all of the other commanders too).
- Time-Limit Boss: The Kanbei (paired with Koal) and Andy (paired with Kindle) clones have an 18 day limit and a 24 day limit respectively.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Their teal skin is never commented on, and the Olaf clone initially does fool some of the Allied Nations COs in spite of this.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As shown with the Andy clone, he's left to die after his defeat.
Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict (American name/European name)
Brenner's Wolves (12th Battalion) /12th Independent Legion
Will/Ed
"Never give up!"
A former Rubinelle military cadet who joined the 12th Battalion after being rescued by Captain Brenner/O'Brian — whom he idolizes.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Despite of living up to Brenner's example of a brave and kind person, he leaves Caulder to be bathed in flames during the Nest's destruction, even when the Mad Scientist is begging him to save him.
- Far earlier during his final battle with The Beast at the Shelter, he furiously responds that he will kill him when he thinks that The Beast killed Isabella and Dr. Morris and gloats about it.
Will: I...I want to kill you.The Beast: You threatening me, boy?Will: You were right. I had no idea what war was really about. But I get it now. It's about anger and fear. It's about hate! My friends weren't looking to fight. They were innocent... You want to live like a beast? Fine! You can die like one too! - Book Dumb: He's earnest, but from his sessions with Lin, it's clear he didn't get top marks at his academy.
- Butt-Monkey: Basically all of the Tactics sessions before missions have someone abusing Will for laughs.
- Clones Are People, Too: He reassures Isabella that even if she is a clone of Caulder, she is still her own person in spite of her past.
- Conveniently an Orphan: While he is sure to be parentless post end of the world, they take until the final chapter to reveal he lost them earlier to the war. He also mentioned this to Greyfield at the end of chapter 12.
- Determinator: "Never give up!"
- The Hero: Though the first half focuses more on Brenner, Will is the main character of the game and eventually takes Brenner's place as The Leader of the 12th Battalion.
- Heroic BSoD: After Brenner's death. Temporary, though.
- Heroic Willpower: It's in his name, even.
- Lightning Bruiser: +2 movement to all land units during his CO Power (on top of the attack boosts from his CO Zone); this is very, very good at breaking a stalemate and usually leaves quite a mark.
- Meaningful Name: His US name, compounded by his leitmotif, "We Will Prevail". Annoyingly subverted by the EU version.
- Nice Guy: Very kind and considerate, even after learning that Isabella is a clone of Caulder, he still accepts her as her own person.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Brenner drilled this into him quite convincingly.
- School Uniforms are the New Black: Justified, since it's a cadet jacket from a military academy and he likely doesn't have another uniform.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: His CO abilities and power work best on the plains, similar to Jake. Hell, his theme, while not the same song, does sound rather similar to Jake's. Also, being able to advance two spaces with his CO power are also reminiscent of Max's, before Dual Strike.
- Übermensch: He starts the story Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life after losing all he had to the apocalypse. He is inspired by Brenner's heroism to join the 12th Battalion so as to help people where he feels he can. He spends the first half of the game as The Lancer to Brenner, and the latter's death knocks Will right back down to how he started. After some time spent inoperational, Will receives some encouraging words from Isabella, the first person he saved. This leads him to realise that the cause is bigger than any one person. Finally, hearing Waylon's accusation that Will and him both just do whatever they want in the lawless world, Will agrees. Will states that saving the lives of others is the purest expression of his personal morality, emerging as the one true Übermensch in the story.]]
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Despite living in the post apocalypse he refuses to give up hope and strives to follow Brenner's example of helping people.
Brenner/O'Brian
"The survivors need our help."
Captain of the 12th Battalion. He has an unshakable faith in humanity's goodness, and will aid any in need.
- Animal Motifs: His brigade has a wolf as their nickname and on their insignia, plus his European leitmotif is called "Indomitable Wolf".
- Big Good: The main force of good and leader of Brenner's Wolves.
- Catchphrase: "Where there's life, there's hope."
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: "The survivors need our help."
- Decoy Protagonist: Will is the first character introduced, but Brenner receives considerably more face time up until his death. Will then properly fills the void.
- Doomed Moral Victor: Waylon foreshadows it to his face twice; Brenner doesn't care, and goes down with a clean conscience.
- Father to His Men
- The Good Captain: Captain of the 12th Battalion and easily the most compassionate person in the game.
- The Hero Dies: He dies halfway through Act 2, forcing Will into the role of The Hero. Might come as quite a surprise to those used to the previous games, too.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Dies holding off Greyfield's men in an immobile Medium Tank unit so that Brenner's Wolves and the Lazurian POW's can escape.
- The Last Dance: Chooses to go down fighting if it means doing the right thing.
- The Last DJ: After Forsythe's death, he's one of the last few honorable commanders left to keep things sane. After refusing to take part in executing POW's, he and his troops abandon Greyfield and he goes down fighting.
- The Leader: Commander of the 12th Battalion.
- No One Gets Left Behind: As his quote is any indication.
- Not So Above It All: Some of the tactics session show that he's got a lot more in common with Will than you might think.
- Rousseau Was Right: Firmly believes in most people having the goodwill to keep society in check, which will carry themselves through the apocalyptic wasteland. His analysis is mostly correct under his battalion and with the forces of Lazuria.
- Shoot the Dog: How he views his batallion's cooperation with the NRA in its fight with Lazuria: the faster the conflict ends, the more lives can be saved. Once it comes to time to actually execute the POW's, though, he refuses.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When he breaks away from Greyfield and defies his orders, he basically tells the dictator where he can shove it.
- Stone Wall: Favors this style, with his large Zone giving only defense boosts and his Power restoring HP.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Gameplay-wise, of Andy, due to being able to repair units with his CO power.
- Video Game Caring Potential: It's beneficial to keep wounded units around instead of sacrificing them as meatshields, since his CO Power can reinforce their HP. Sound like a certain captain to you?
- You Killed My Father: Subverted. He shows no hatred towards Forsythe for being the one responsible for his father's defeat, and therefore his death. It helps that Forsythe thought very highly of his father and clearly did not relish his death, showing more respect for him than his own government had.
Lin
"Keep a cool head."
The 12th Battalion's unflappable second in command. She has tremendous respect for Captain Brenner, although they disagree often.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Dark-haired, and very cynical pragmatic, contrasting the other heroic members of the 12th Battalion.
- Chessmaster Sidekick: Is this for Brenner. Brenner is a charismatic leader and good at rallying the troops of the 12th Battalion, but it's Lin who devises most of the 12th Battalion's battle plans. When Brenner bites it, she takes on the role as The Leader. Once Will shows his charismatic side, Lin has Will take on the position as the leader, though only as a figurehead; to the rest of the forces, Lin still appears to be this trope after Will pretends to take command.
- Cold Equation: She has no choice but to leave behind the severely wounded and sick during the frantic retreat from the NRA, as well as any civilians who can't or won't keep up. Everyone is appalled by this, but acknowledge that it's that or all die.
- Cool Big Sis: Becomes one of sorts to Will and Isabella. Especially Isabella.
- Deadpan Snarker: When she does a crack a joke, it's with the same cynical attitude she says most other things in.Dr. Morris: Honestly! Where is your sense of humor?
Lin: It was shot off in the war. Very sad. - Defog of War: Her CO Power, though the vision range increase is small.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Lin apparently hates flying, according to her dialogue aboard The Great Owl, which makes sense for a ground unit specialist.
- Good Is Not Nice: Compared to the other idealist heroes, Lin is a lot more cynically pragmatic.
- Hobbes Was Right: As opposed to Will and Brenner, who believe in the altruism and empathy of society that will keep it together in a post-apocalyptic world, Lin cites the negative traits in humanity and believes that mankind will only obey the rules for the sake of their own interest and needs, saying that nobody will feel safe in a world where they can be murdered, hence they will not murder. Her philosophy is exemplified in people like The Beast, Greyfield, and Caulder, who have no social restrictions and must be confronted.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: She's actually the one who comes up with the army's tactics, not Brenner. Played with in the tactics session for Fear Experiment.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Her heart's ultimately in the right place and she's on the hero's side, but Lin is also quite cynical at times.
- The Lancer: To Brenner and Will once he inherits the mantle.
- The Leader: Once Brenner dies, she takes up this mantle. She maintains it behind closed doors when she sets up Will as a figurehead, though as a result she appears subservient to Will when they're out in public.
- Lethal Chef: Her idea of cooking is throwing anything she can find into a pot and calling it stew. Rats, snakes, frogs, roaches... boots...
- Not So Above It All: During the last Tactics session, after a bit of It Has Been an Honor, she admits it was fun making fun of Will constantly and it got her through her day. "After all, I can't always be the reality-check girl, can I?"
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Had she done it to almost anyone else, Lin's Vigilante Execution of the unarmed Greyfield would have been morally questionable at the very best. However, as it couldn't have happened to a worse guy...
- Shoot the Dog: Knew full well Greyfield wouldn't stop unless he died. Also knew Will couldn't do the job himself.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Greyfield says that Lin can't kill him because she's one of the good guys. Wrong!
- Situational Sword: Not to the extent that Sonja was, since her CO Power gives her Zone attack boosts to all her units, but on the whole she's still outclassed by the other COs without fog present. Thankfully, you don't have to use her CO power, and in this game there's actually an advantage to not using it, that being keeping a large CO zone.
- The Smart Girl: Lin is the source of the 12th Battalion's strategies.
- Smart People Play Chess: As befitting the Wolves' strategist, she's overheard playing chess in her head while tutoring Will. Her shining moment in the campaign is titled "Lin's Gambit" to reference her daring ploy to get through Greyfield's navy.
- The Spock: She is the tactician of the Brenner's Wolves, but she thinks more highly of tactical decisions, rather than emotional and ideal decisions (which Brenner or Will usually make).
- The Stoic: It's rare to see her lose control of her emotions. Her motto is even given as "Keep a cool head."
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A darker, more cynical twist on Sonja, being The Smart Girl with similar CO powers.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Dark-haired, intelligent, and very sarcastic.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tough-as-nails tomboy to Isabella's ladylike girly girl.
- Unscrupulous Hero: Is willing to Shoot the Dog and play devil's advocate, but is still firmly on the side of wanting to help everyone.
Isabella/Catleia
"I can't remember anything..."
She has no memory of her past. Rescued by Will, she has joined the 12th Battalion, where she dreams of living in peace.
- Awful Truth: Learning she's a clone of the resident Mad Scientist was certainly not something she wanted to hear.
- Damsel in Distress: Repeatedly. Will/Ed saves her no less than three times across the campaign, four times if you include 'giving her a reason to live'.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: She's kept in the back lines by the 12th Batallion as intelligence support and is thus not playable in the Campaign, story-wise because she's still physically weak and recovering her memory, and gameplay-wise because she would finish any story mission much faster than her comrades.
- Easy Amnesia: Looks like this at first, as she has barely any memories to her name, though it's explained later.
- Escort Mission: Her CO Unit is much more vulnerable to be targetted in multiplayer than any other CO, not only because of its relatively lower defenses (+20% default plus +10% for her CO zone) but because letting it live allows her to build up her CO Power meter.
- Heroic BSoD: After surrendering herself to Caulder to protect Will, and being subjected to the Awful Truth of her origins, she's practically catatonic until Will charges to the rescue.
- Human Hard Drive: Her original purpose was essentially as a living database of military knowledge, which helps out the heroes on several occasions.
- Jack of All Stats: As far as her CO Zone abilities go, they're all balanced.
- Lightning Bruiser: Her CO power, which gives all units +2 movement and +2 range for all indirects. This gets almost ridiculous for battleships, which can both move and fire at once, which gives it a range of up to 14. This is the main reason she is considered overpowered.
- Magikarp Power: A starting CO Unit zone of 2 spaces providing +10% to all units' attack and defense is pitiful compared to other CO's, but if she manages to protect her CO Unit and gradually build her CO Power meter to completion, it's practically game over. Moreso than other CO's, destroying her CO Unit is paramount for her opponents whenever it shows up.
- Meaningful Name: In both the PAL and US versions, she names herself after the (plastic, imitation) flower Will gives her early in the game, the Cattleya Isabella, and calls herself Catleia. In the US version, however, Will suggests she goes with the second part of the flower's name, most likely because it's an actual name.
- Morally Superior Copy: She's a clone of a significantly more evil character, essentially starting out as a blank state, and making the choice to become good (or possibly neutral, but with her actions having primarily good consequences). Oddly, though, the details vary somewhat from translation to translation – in the PAL version it's clear that there were plenty of spare clones available and this particular one was being used as an experiment as to what would happen if one was added to the "good side" of the storyline, due to the villain considering the individual clones to be mostly worthless.
- Ms. Exposition: Fills this role in the campaign, as she is never a playable CO outside the Trial Maps. Her status in multiplayer as an uber CO really places this in perspective, though...
- Mysterious Waif: When she first appears, she is very mysterious and was found by Will. Then she spoke and revealed rather large amount of information, meaning that she is very important in the story and has a connection with Caulder.
- Neutral Female: In the campaign, where she is a CO in exactly none of the maps. Which is a pity, since she'd rock any maps you'd deploy her in.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: She's a quite, soft-spoken mysterious girl with light bluish hair. Especially noticeable in the JP/EU version, where her language is a lot like Rei's.
- Rescue Romance: Falls in love with Will after he rescues her.
- Satellite Love Interest: To Will, whom she supports emotionally, and with her broad array of military intelligence on the various forces they encounter, including the IDS. Lin sarcastically lampshades it at one point.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The very feminine and soft-spoken girly girl to Lin's tomboy.
- Too Awesome to Use: The tricky part about using her CO Unit is that you must use her modest boosts to build its range and fill up her CO Power meter, but since the Power itself is so impactful, that the number one priority of any sane enemy is to destroy it as soon as possible. This creates an unusual situation where an Isabella player both needs her CO Unit to be at risk to attain her CO Power and cannot risk doing so for that exact reason.
Lazuria/Zephyria
Forsythe/Carter
"I am a soldier, not a killer."
The Lazurian Army commander. He was called out of retirement to defend his nation.
- Anti-Villain: Regardless of whether it was Lazuria or Rubinelle who started the conflict, Forsythe is an honorable soldier who's only doing what he feels is necessary to protect his people. In fact, while he serves as the Arc Villain for the second arc, he was never an evil person to begin with.
- Arc Villain: He serves as the main antagonist of the second arc of the game once the Beast bites it.
- Boring, but Practical: Forsythe lacks a CO Power, but his large CO Zone allows him to buff his unit's offense and defense without putting himself at risk of focus fire. In addition, while most COs are hurt most from losing their CO Zone and potential CO Power when they have full CO Gauge, Forstyhe isn't hurt all that much.
- Cool Old Guy: Old enough to have initially been retired, but he cares about his troops and is even polite to his enemies.
- A Day in the Limelight: Makes a brief dialogue appearance in chapter 12, followed in chapter 14 by the one and only time you engage him directly. Killed Off for Real quickly afterwards.
- Doomed Moral Victor: Unfortunately gets killed off quickly, despite his high morals, similarly to Brenner.
- A Father to His Men: Despises the idea of sacrificing his own troops.
- Friendly Enemy: Had a very high regard for both Brenner and his father, who he fought and defeated years ago when he was still on active duty. He speaks so highly of him, in fact, that Brenner, somewhat bitterly, notes that, since his own country's higher-ups blamed him for the defeat, apparently "only his enemies saw him for the good man he was."
- If you enter the tactics screen for Chapter 14, he gives you advice on beating him.
- Graceful Loser: Surrenders himself and his men peacefully when the time comes. Brenner's superiors, however, are not swayed by this gesture in the slightest.
- Hero Antagonist: It's implied that Rubinelle/Laurenthia actually started the war, so he's only defending his people. He would have been on the protagonists' side if they didn't decide to work with Greyfield (a decision they learn was a mistake).
- Honor Before Reason: Such that when he faced Brenner's father in a notoriously bloody battle in the past, the both of them agreed to a 1-day armistice to bury each side's dead. He also refused to use any of Caulder's weapons.
- Jack of All Stats: No CO Power or specialties, just the biggest damn CO Zone in the game. This in itself is his weakness, as the boosts aren't very strong, but lacking any CO Meter allows him to take risks with his CO unit and bounce back with minimal losses.
- Officer and a Gentleman: Extremely honorable and gentlemanly, acting polite and respectful even to his enemies on the battlefield.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: His American incarnation. The European/Japanese one is just generically honourable.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Good chowder, man!"
- Worthy Opponent: Forsythe refuses to use Caulder's weapons or dishonorable tactics, including those that involve sacrificing his own soldiers, to prevail, and treats his enemies civilly.
Greyfield and Waylon have no such reservations.
Gage/Trak
"They don't pay me to think."
A Lazurian soldier. He is a man of few words, but a consummate professional.
- Cold Equation:
- He's much more receptive initially to Brenner's offer to help him and the other Lazurians escape than Tasha, because possible death from a hated and (seemingly) untrustworthy ally of convenience is logically better than certain death from a hated enemy.
- Initially is on the side of complying with Caulder's demand to hand over Isabella over to him, citing The Needs of the Many. He changes his mind when taking into account that Caulder will probably kill them all anyways.
- The Comically Serious: His quietness and awkwardness is played for laughs whenever he's dragged into a Tactics session. His one word responses to Brenner manage to be low-key hilarious during the otherwise most serious and bleak Tactics session that has no shenanigans otherwise.
- Cold Sniper: Even lampshaded in the PAL version, where his leitmotif is called "Ice Warrior".
- Deadpan Snarker: He can be quite snarky, a good example being the quoted conversation with Will below.
- Distaff Counterpart: As a dark-haired and coldly pragmatic soldier, he's basically Lin's equivalent on Lazuria's side.
- Hates Small Talk: He brushes of any conversation that isn't directly related to the task at hand, even from his allies.
- Hero Antagonist: In the Lazuria arc. By the time Brenner and co. realize that the Lazurians were fighting in self-defense, it's too late.
- Just Following Orders: He doesn't particularly care about the how's and why's of the Rubinelle-Lazuria conflict, he has his orders and that's it.Gage: Soldiers follow orders, not their hearts. If soldiers acted as they pleased, armies would collapse. We're tools of the government. They tell us what to do, and we—
Will: But there IS no government now! I mean, not a real one!
Gage: Not my problem. - The Lancer: To Forsythe and Tasha. Later ends up joining Lin on the 'pragmatic' side of team good.
- Mr. Fanservice: As a Bishōnen who always keeps his jacket open, yes.
- No Social Skills : He's a skilled sniper but not really a conversationalist.
- Shoot the Dog: Leads the defense against the attacking Worm cultists, since he knows his idealistic comrades might hesitate when it comes to shooting armed "civilians."
- The Stoic: The conversation the above is a snippet from, incidentally, is about as talkative as he is for the whole game.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Plays like a mixture of Grit and Drake with focus on artillery and naval units, and has a relationship with Tasha much like Drake/Eagle and Grit/Olaf in AW2.
- Terse Talker: He only answers in one-word responses to Brenner during their shared Tactics session, probably due to not trusting Brenner completely, being heavily pressed for time, and, well, it's Gage.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: He never does close that jacket.
Tasha/Zadia
"I will have my revenge!"
A Lazurian soldier who burns with the desire to avenge her late brother.
- Ace Pilot: Where Waylon enhances plane defense, she enhances offense.
- Distaff Counterpart: Plays and acts much like Eagle, but with more rage and less arrogance. She's even introduced the same way: flying out of nowhere determined to crush your Player Character for unspecified revenge, before eventually realizing that her real target is someone else.
- Cassandra Truth: Her burning hatred for Greyfield turns out to be perfectly justified, she was just wrong about all of Rubinelle being the same.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Ends up being a less flexible air specialist than Waylon due to her smaller CO zone and defense being much more powerful on air units than extra damage since they're already Glass Cannons. It's always generally a bad idea to keep air units clustered together instead of spread out to zone opponents out.
- Face Death with Dignity: Faces her (assumed) execution with defiant pride.
- Fiery Redhead: Redheaded and extremely aggressive.
- Hero Antagonist: Of the Lazuria arc. By the time Brenner and co. realize that the Lazurians were fighting in self-defense, it's too late.
- It's Personal: She despises New Rubinelle for killing her brother. She has a brief breakdown when she first sees Will, who apparently looks like him.
- Lightning Bruiser: The airborne equivalent of Will, with even higher attack boosts.
- One-Hit Kill: Any aircraft she's in has a high potential to do this, as it gains a 70% attack boost.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the fiery red to Gage's cold and emotionless blue. She and Gage are even color-coded.
- Revenge Before Reason: Willing to take her revenge against Brenner's Wolves, who had absolutely nothing to do with the NRA-Lazuria conflict. She grows out of this.
New Rubinelle Army/New Laurentian Army
Admiral Greyfield/Sigismundo
"I'll see you hanged for this!"
Ambitious and power hungry, he wants to destroy the Lazurian Army and rule the world as its new king.
- Arc Villain: He's the main antagonist of the middle chunk of the game, once the Lazurians were defeated.
- Asshole Victim: Once he's defeated for the last time, he's cornered by Lin. Greyfield attempts to surrender to her. Given that he executed Forsythe when the latter was at his mercy, it was fitting for Lin to shoot him in cold blood in the same manner.
- Bad Boss: He has zero regard for the lives of his men, being willing to do things like wipe out several of his own soldiers when deploying his superweapon.
- The Caligula: He is... not exactly the best leader, and is in it mostly for the power.
- Catchphrase: "I'll see you hanged for this!" in the American version.
- Also has a penchant for calling his enemies dogs in the European version.
- Corrupted Character Copy:
- The New Rubinelle Army is the game's equivalent of Yellow Comet, with Greyfield being this to Kanbei. Both Kanbei and Greyfield are eccentric and pompous authority figures, but while Kanbei was still an honorable man who cared for his people, Greyfield replaces those qualities with an extra heaping dose of egomania and self-centeredness.
- Greyfield could be seen as a dead-serious version of Hetler, as a tyrannical leader of a yellow army. Whereas Hetler was Adolf Hitlarious, Greyfield is a Knight of Cerebus whose actions get multiple characters Killed Off for Real and isn't above mass-destruction for his personal gain.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Most of his boosts are only useful for naval units or aircraft, rendering him one of the less effective COs. He is, however, so powerful on naval maps that most players will house rule a ban on selecting him to prevent such maps from turning into "everyone picks Greyfield" affairs.
- Devil in Plain Sight: It becomes obvious very fast that he's a bad guy, but in-universe everyone picks up on it too late.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's built up as the main foe of Brenner's Wolves, but after he's defeated the heroes still have Caulder to deal with.
- Faux Affably Evil: He tries to play the part of a charming and respectable leader, but his egomania and bloodlust make it impossible to see him as anything other than a monster.
- General Ripper: You do not want to get on this guy's bad side. Given that he is more than willing to use his new superweapon when it will kill his own men, staying off his good side might also be recommended. Seriously, if you even come in contact with him, you're screwed.
- The Generalissimo: He's a cruel dictator who fancies himself king of the world.
- Good Running Evil: He becomes the superior of the 12th Battalion for a few missions after they agree to help him defeat Lazuria and put an end to the war. Of course, they very quickly turn against him once they realize his true colors.
- Hate Sink: Pretty much every portion of the game where you have to work for him is him being a Bad Boss to you personally and actively interfering in your command; he has almost no sympathetic qualities and by the time you turn on him, you'll wonder how it took this long.
- Hypocrite: He's a Social Darwinist commander claiming to be the strongest man in the world. In C21, Lin implies that Greyfield actually was a mediocre commander at best and faked the results. And let's not forget himself having the Creeper virus while executing soldiers for having it, something Caulder has fun with by asking if Greyfield will order his own men to execute him as well.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Attempts to use this to defend himself from a pissed-off Lin gunning for him. It doesn't work.
- Insane Admiral: A literal example. Greyfield is a narcissistic egomaniac severely caught up in his own hype, to the point where he's willing to deploy a nuke just to kill one man who defied him.
- Jerkass: Even when you're on his side, he's got no problem being a crazy tyrant. During Greyfield Strikes, as he fights alongside Brenner against the Lazurian army, he randomly disables a type of unit for a day for seemingly no reason at all.
- Meaningful Name: The Japanese/European version is named after an almost equally megalomaniac Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire who once famously described himself as "King of the Romans and above grammar" when criticized for speaking poor Latin.
- The Neidermeyer: The guy executes his troops for losing battles.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He shares traits with several historical tyrants.
- He looks quite a bit like Joseph Stalin, and given his war crimes and excessive cruelty towards his subordinates, this is no doubt intentional.
- He also bears a resemblance to Hermann Goering, and given his massive ego, this was also probably intentional.
- Slasher Smile: When he grins, bad things are usually happening. The first instance where he smiles in the story is after Forsythe is shot by Waylon on Greyfield's orders.
- Social Darwinist: Believes that the meteors were a test for humanity's strength, and takes advantage of it to prove his power.
- Stone Wall: Provides big defense boosts for naval units and copters, and his CO Power restores all his units to max fuel and ammo. It even restores materials to rigs and aircraft carriers, which is otherwise not possible.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: His CO Power is similar to Jess's in replenishing fuel and ammo (plus materials for Rigs and Aircraft Carriers), his day to day CO stats are reminiscent of Drake's naval boosts, and character-wise, he's a far crueler Olaf.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He used a frakkin' NUKE to take out ONE MAN!!!
- Villain Takes an Interest: He's quite pleased at Brenner's Wolves when they're fighting the Lazurians, though he's quick to order their deaths when they turn against him.
- We Have Reserves: Nukes a good part of his own army just to finish off Brenner.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Believes that the good guys would never kill a surrendering foe. He's right in the case of Will and Brenner... but not Lin.
Waylon/Finn
"It's time for Waylon to do some whalin'"
A member of the Rubinelle Army who seeks only to fulfill his own pleasures and desires.
- Ace Pilot: As part of being a foil to Tasha. He focuses more on defense.
- At Least I Admit It: A complete selfish bastard who doesn't pretend to be otherwise. Brenner and Will aren't at all impressed by his candor.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He at first comes across as a dimwit, but when he shows his true colors, he reveals himself as a formidable opponent. This is even evident in his Leitmotif: when you first meet the guy during the mission to escort him, his turns are very short (because he'll literally do nothing even when in range of a weakened enemy), so you only hear the rather silly-sounding first few notes. When he actually starts fighting you and his turn time goes long enough for you to hear the whole song, it becomes a proper boss theme.
- Dirty Coward: His theme song is titled "Flight of the Coward". It shows in his stats, with his heavy emphasis on sheer defense instead of attacking like most air specialist CO's.
- The Dragon: He's Greyfield's triggerman.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Is repeatedly confused by Brenner and Will's desire to help people. He accuses Will that he only helps people because he wants to feel good about himself and get off on feeling better than other people, which backfires.
- Hot-Blooded: "Now hit me! Whooooo!"
- His thrill-seeking antics are so over-the-top that the men in his unit are happy to ditch him in favor of going with Brenner.
- Irony: The blatant coward comes with a defensive boost and a larger CO zone than the braver air specialist CO. Perhaps he cares a bit more about his troops than the story gives him credit for. Or maybe he doesn't want to face the wrath of his peers.
- Then again, considering you are meant to surround Waylon's unit with other air units who just happen to get extra protection, thus building a shield around Waylon, perhaps not as out of character as one might initially think.
- Jerkass: He is very unpleasant and think little of others, only himself. Will is disgusted that he is a soldier like Brenner or the 12th Battalion.
- Jive Turkey: "Why are these Lazurians up in my business?"
- Try to imagine all of Waylon's dialogue in a Good Ol' Boy southerner accent and he becomes even more hilarious. Slightly less so after Forsythe's death. This only applies to the American version.
- Laughably Evil: He's initially a Jive Turkey who hams it up in every scene he's in, who doesn't really contribute much to the story. Then this trope is absolutely destroyed once he kills Forsythe in Greyfield's name.
- Mighty Glacier: Tasha's opposite. He boosts the defense of aircraft, which are usually Glass Cannon units. This is more powerful than it sounds, since typically air units are balanced by being very vulnerable to their counters, letting them inflict more damage than they ought to before they go down.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: His CO Power boosts air units' defenses by 270%, making them difficult shoot down and the air unit he's in more or less impossible to destroy temporarily without a heavily boosted CO unit.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Makes this argument to Will, saying that both of them only do things because they want to. Will admits he's right; Waylon acts like a jerk because he wants to, and Will saves lives because he wants to. This wasn't the reaction Waylon desired.
- Only in It for the Money: He wants no part of what he calls Brenner's "charity work", but he's all for living in (relative) luxury as a mercenary for Greyfield.
- Rich Bastard: "One more mission and I can retire to my burned-out mansion!" (This could possibly be a case of Retirony; see What Happened to the Mouse? below.)
- Sinister Shades: Never seen without his darkened pair of sunglasses.
- Smug Snake: A total asshole who ducks out whenever his own life is threatened.
- Stone Wall: A rare example of a defensive air-focused CO, his CO zone has a stronger defense boost than offense boost for his air units (20%/30%). His CO Power, on the other hand, takes it to ludicrous extremes by granting his entire air force a whopping 270% defense bonus (no, that is not a typo), effectively granting them a turn's worth of Nigh-Invulnerability. When a missile unit can barely even scratch one of Waylon's power-boosted planes, you know you're up against ridiculous defenses.
- Token Evil Teammate: For the chapters where he's allied with heroes, though in his first appearance he just sits there and lets Brenner do the dirty work.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After C20, his fate is never revealed. Considering what happens to Greyfield one chapter later, though, the implications are obvious. Or he might have retired after the battle like he said he would and is now eating nacho cheese in his burned-out mansion.
Intelligent Defense Systems
Caulder/Stolos
"Fascinating..."
The head of the private military contractor IDS. He seeks a world where he is free to carry out his terrible experiments.
- Abusive Dad: Despite calling them his "children", he painfully experimented on Penny and tried to bodyjack Cyrus. Also drops this gem when Tabitha is defeated:Caulder: Failures... FAILURES! All of my children... abject, useless, FAILURES!
- Arms Dealer: Supplies the Beast with his armaments. Also tries to sell some to Forsythe, but gets turned down due to the sheer brutality they'd inflict.
- Batman Gambit: His understanding of human psychology through years of study means he knows the actions people will take, and plans for it accordingly. Several Examples Ironically, it's one gambit blowing up in his face that sees him ultimately defeated; while he knew Lin would assault the Great Owl with Will on board and do enough damage to send the ship into freefall, he was counting on Penny to be so brainwashed by the conditioning he applied to her that she would willingly allow the Great Owl to crash with everyone on board without enabling an emergency landing. Isabella getting through to Penny and Penny deciding not to do this goes against his predictions, loses Caulder his ace in the hole against Brenner's Wolves, and delivers Will to his doorstep.
- Because I'm Good At It: Effectively his reason for everything he does; he's a legitimately unmatched scientific genius, and he wants to see how far he can take his research.
- Big Bad: Of Days of Ruin, supplying and enabling the other villains when not personally confronting the heroes.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: A deconstruction of the trope. As he himself notes, greed, wrath, envy, and other classical villainous vices hold no actual appeal to him; all he really wants is the opportunity to do his research freely. The issue with that is that he has no filter or limit to what he researches and how he applies his research. He'll start conflicts simply on the basis of setting up ethical dilemmas for people because he wants to see how people respond when their backs are up against the wall, he'll hand out weapons of mass destruction simply to see how powerful they are, and most egregiously, he'll try to perfect the most deadly virus around because he can. Add to this the fact he sees human life as completely rote and just something else to experiment with and his focus on immortality through cloning and you get a man who isn't evil in the traditional sense but is still a monster that needs to be put down for the sake of world peace.
- Breaking Speech: About his reasons being "pure", as he wasn't driven by money. He delivers a special one that's almost an Easter Egg if you lose chapter 23:Will: Aaargh... I refuse to...
Caulder: Yes, yes. You refuse to abandon anyone. I know this story well. You suffer from a regrettable human affliction... the concern for others. You think this is an admirable trait, but you are mistaken. Excessive empathy is an illness. And I am afraid that both you and Captain Brenner were terminal cases. - Broken Ace: He is the most powerful CO the series has ever seen, is an incredibly intelligent man, and has a insightful knowledge on how the world works. He is also a sociopathic monster in human skin that doesn't give a shred of consideration to his own children.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: His responsibility in killing Brenner was something normal for him.
- Catchphrase: "Fascinating..." in the American version, and to a lesser degree "I am merely curious" in his European incarnation.
- The Chessmaster: His Leitmotif (in both versions) is called "Puppet Master", just in case it wasn't clear. Although it may also be a reference to his heavy use of clones.
- Clone Degeneration: His "children"; also, he himself is a clone of the original... that might explain a few things.
- Combat Medic: Caulder's CO-Zone grants every single unit 60% more attack and defence on top of healing 5 HP at the start of his turn. He is the only CO who has a CO-Zone that can heal units without needing a CO Power.
- Competitive Balance: For all of his Purposefully Overpowered abilities, Caulder does have one exploitable weakness - unlike Andy, Hawke, or Brenner, his ability to heal his units comes out of his wallet. If he ever gets low on funds, he'll have a hard time keeping his units stable. Even with this in mind, Caulder is outright banned in most completive play scenarios, because despite this weakness, the fact he has a massive defense buff means it's difficult to get his units low enough in health to exploit his potential disadvantage in funds.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: He wasn't responsible for the meteors destroying civilization, but he is very happy to see humanity reduced to savagery. He also destroys food production, supplies warmongers, and unleashes the Creeper, which he upgrades to kill even more horrifyingly to make things worse. All For Science!.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Well, he does on some level, but he clearly doesn't regard morality as being important. He also doesn't seem to get why the 12th Battalion are so put off by his callous view towards warfare.
- Evil Genius: He's a psychopathic scientist who makes a living building war machines and selling them to despots.
- Exact Words: He promises the Mayor that he will not die of the Floral Virus and hands him the antidote. The Mayor injects himself with it... and it turns out to be a lethal dose of poison that kills him on the spot.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Probably his most dangerous personal quality. He is not afraid to put himself in front of people who can have him shot and killed because he has an easy time figuring out what people want and promising it to them. He uses this to cause dissension in the ranks of the heroes by setting up an ethical dilemma, threatening to smash Brenner's Wolves if they don't return Isabella to him since he knows Will would never hand Isabella over and Lin would follow Will to the meeting point; he has Tabitha ready to stop attempts on his life and set up the dilemma under false pretenses, since he was going to carpet bomb the heroes whether or not they gave Isabella back anyway. He just wants to record their choices and actions For Science! There are several instances where his ability to read people leads to others readying themselves to kill him only to be left slavishly devoted to his every word.
- Expendable Clone: "Do you know what it is like to watch yourself die? ...It is FASCINATING!"
- Expy: Caulder resembles Orochimaru a lot. Both are albino mad scientists who enjoy using humans for testing their new experiments and are pursuing eternal life using science (Caulder with cloning and Orochimaru with body switching).
- Final Boss: The last CO to fight in the campaign and one of the hardest COs — he's possibly even more broken than AW2!Sturm.
- For Science!: "Your curiosity comes at the cost of people's lives!" Really, he isn't so much motivated by science as he is desiring to come up with ways to cause as much death and suffering as he can, so his motive is For the Evulz.
- Game Play And Story Integration: He's a genius scientist whose main field was medicine. He may be feared for his weapons of war now, but his most personally beloved achievement (which drives half the plot and puts Lin's life on a timer when she contracts it) is a viral bioweapon. Fittingly, his powers revolve around having the best weapons available and healing units around him.
- Good Powers, Bad People: Caulder's CO-Zone heals every unit on it for 5 HP and is extremely useful... but it's wielder is a maniacal and sociopathic monster who wants to create chaos to see how people break when under such horrid times.
- Grand Theft Me: His plan for Cyrus was essentially to use him as a backup body.
- The Heavy: He isn't the reason the meteorites fell, but almost every villain can trace their successes or origins back to Caulder and his experiments. Even Greyfield, who would have still been a threat and an overarching villain in his own right were he never to meet Caulder, gets some aid from Caulder in the form of Caulder's WMDs.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Original Caulder was killed by his own clone.
- Hypocrite: Right before the Final Battle starts he dismisses life as being worthless and unremarkable, but when he's defeated and about to be crushed inside his lair he openly admits to being afraid of dying.
- I Lied: Doesn't even bother hiding it after he screws over the Mayor.The Mayor: "Ho there! Where do you think you're going?"
Caulder: "I'm sorry. I have an experiment that's about to begin. It involves those remaining soldiers from your battalion."
The Mayor: "Wait a second! What do you mean by that!? You said that if we handed over the girl, you would give us what we needed!"
Caulder: "Hmm? Oh yes, that. I'm afraid I was lying."
The Mayor: B-but...you promised! We gave you the girl! You have to help us! Help me at least! This will not... Not... UUUURRRGGGGHHHH!
Caulder: Oh, and that medicine you took was not the antidote. Hello? Can you hear me? Mr. Mayor?" *smirk* ...Fascinating.- It's rare for Caulder not to spout this line whenever he interacts with anyone. He truly enjoys dangling what someone wants most in front of them only to reveal he is either lying about it outright after the other party does something terrible to get what he's selling or that he is very judiciously applying Exact Words. For example, he lies about wanting Isabella back so he can use her as a pretext for shelling Lin's troops, purely to see how all the people in charge and the refugees react to a supposed moral dilemma. When Isabella turns herself in, he says the trope verbatim, as he had plenty of Isabella clones and never valued her life in particular, and was even surprised Isabella took the bait.
- Immortality Seeker: Wants to live forever by cloning himself. His plan eventually backfires on him.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: A white labcoat with a stylized silk collar worn over black form-fitting combat armor.
- Jerkass: DOESN'T EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HIM! For starters, he let loose the Creeper just for kicks, spits on the idea on empathy, and has the gall to call all of his children abject failures!
- Kick the Dog: He created the Creeper and let it run loose to see its effects.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Him killing the Mayor. It was a double-cross, and the fact that the Mayor didn't see it coming made him all the more deserving of it.
- Knight of Cerebus: Despite his comedic traits, the game does get much more serious the more involved he becomes. Notably, he's the only character who doesn't appear in the (hint-providing) War Room. Even The Beast shows up there, but not Caulder.
- Lack of Empathy: "What is life? Merely a protein-based mechanism for energy consumption. It is really nothing special." He also calls life a "waste of energy".
- Large Ham: He's so cartoony in retrospect that for all that he's actually even crueler than Greyfield, he at least is actually amusing to watch. In the PAL version, his hamminess is toned down a lot, making him a much more serious villain.
- Mad Scientist: So much so that the rest of the scientific community cast him out.
- The Man Behind the Man: He's backing nearly all of the foes the 12th Battalion fight, including the Beast and Admiral Greyfield, with varying degrees of secrecy, simply to use their battles as testing grounds for his experiments.
- Master of All: Caulder has the advantages against practically every CO in the game, and even other games in the franchise, with his 60% increase of both firepower and defense, recovering 5 HP per turn, and no flaws with any of his units.
- Meaningful Name: Japanese/Europe only. Stolos is an alternate name of Stolas, a demon from the Ars Goetia said to be a keeper of wisdom. Its appearance? An owl◊.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: His CO-Zone gives the largest buff to offense and defense in the game, plus major healing, making allies in it this.
- Obviously Evil: Just look at his render. He couldn't be more evil if he tried.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: For someone "kicked out of the medical academy", he doesn't exactly limit himself to medicine.
- Purposely Overpowered: In a game where CO powers have been nerfed, he's the one character who's probably stronger than most of the original COs. His only power is his CO-Zone, and that's all he needs. It's 3 by 3 and never changes, and gives any units in it a 60% increase to attack and defense, and heals them by 5 HP (50% max health) every turn. Him lacking a CO power allows him to move his CO unit recklessly, as if it doesn't survive an attack and repair itself, Caulder can just easily replace it.
- They Called Me Mad!: ...and they were right.
- Shoot the Medic First: All units in his (large) CO zone are healed by 5 HP at the beginning of his turn, plus he has Tabitha's monstrous Zone boosts. This, of course, means that destroying the unit he has boarded is a top priority. Considering that it has 180% attack and defense, this is easier said than done.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: "Are you done yet?" (took a bit, though.) Caulder is so proud of his monolouging that at one point he shouts "Do not interrupt!"
- SNK Boss: In addition to his standard CO stats, the one mission he's faced in during the Campaign (and the final mission at that), there are also five deadly laser beams that greatly weaken (but can't kill) anything they aim at, with two cannons that deal the same damage to clusters of troops (that can't be disabled), plus two doors that constantly spit out extra troops. It puts Sturm's last stand in Advance Wars 2 to shame.
- The Stoic: Despite otherwise being a Large Ham in cutscenes, he says absolutely nothing in combat, not even Visible Silence like his "daughter" Penny. The only hint of emotion he shows in battle is a Psychotic Smirk when he destroys an enemy with his CO Unit.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He has no real analogue from a narrative perspective (like Von Bolt, he wants to become functionally immortal, but that's where the similarities end) but plays like a superpowered combination of Andy and Kanbei from the Wars World series. Like Andy, his main power is to restore 5 HP to any and all units that start near him on his turn, and like Kanbei, his units are just blatantly superior to the rest, hosting an overpowering 50% increase to firepower and defense.
- Suspicious Videogame Generosity: In the beginning of the final battle, you start off with a lot of factories, units, and cities. Unfortunately, so does Caulder, and he also has turrets that will damage your troops in a line. You will need those resources.
- Turned Against Their Masters: His backstory that he reveals in the final mission; he's actually one of a unspecified number of clones created by the original Caulder, and he killed his creator and all the others.
- Villainous Breakdown: He only loses his nerves twice; first, when Penny throws a wrench in his plans and ensures the heroes survive the Great Owl crashing, and second, just as he's about to die. The first reduces him to impotently raging at how 'useless' his clones are, and he ends up begging for his life during the second.
- What Is Evil?: Tries it on Will. Given his nature, nobody's fooled.
- White Hair, Black Heart: His hair is an extremely light green that verges on being white, and he's a cold-hearted scientist lacking in any empathy for others.
- White Mage: A horrific example. He's the best healer in the Advance Wars series by a country mile, and that potential to heal others is what makes him so powerful. In terms of story, he also actually has cures for the creeper virus and a means of immortality through cloning, meaning that in a loose sense he's a natural healer.
- Xanatos Gambit: He does a few of these. Justified in that his main motive is curiosity about how humans will behave when thrust into adverse conditions; whatever way they react, he still wins by getting data he can jot down.
- You Have Failed Me: After hearing Tabitha begging him to save her, he furiously calls her a failure alongside his children.Tabitha: Father, do something! This can't be happening!
Caulder: Failures... FAILURES! All of my children... abject, useless, FAILURES!
Penny/Lili
"Tee hee! Let's go, Mr. Bear!"
The youngest child of Dr. Caulder. Numerous experiments have left her mind permanently shattered.
- Break the Cutie: It's implied that Penny's "slightly" psychotic personality is due to Caulder's experiments on her.
- Companion Cube: Mr. Bear, her stuffed bear that she carries around.
- Consulting Mister Puppet: Penny frequently talks to her Mr. Bear stuffed animal.
- Corrupted Character Copy: To Black Hole CO Lash from the original Advance Wars games. Like Lash, Penny are young girls and crazy but extremely effectively geniuses who are often the source of humor. Unlike Lash, Penny has a very dark backstory explaining how she got to be that way.
- Creepy Child: She's a little girl with an extremely warped mind as a result of the experiments she's been subjected to. Her leitmotif in the JP/EU version, "Cold-Hearted Doll", lampshades this.
- Giggling Villain: Prone to cutesy laughter at inappropriate moments, going along with her Creepy Child vibe.
- Heel–Face Turn: Caulder orders her to crash the Great Owl, which would kill Penny as well as the heroes. Isabella (and according to Penny, Mr. Bear) convince her to not do so and she later joins the village the heroes create.
- Hive Mind: In the epilogue, Penny eerily implies this is somewhat the case with all of her "siblings", as they are "one big system". When each member of her family dies, she exclaims "boom"... except Tabitha, for whom she hesitates.
- Lethal Joke Character: Do not be fooled by her large but weak CO Zone. Her day-to-day power (the only CO with one in this game) is complete immunity to weather effects, regardless of if the units are in her Zone or not. Rain severely limits your vision and brings fog of war, sandstorms reduce attack signifigently, and snow reduces movement. Penny gets three turns of having a huge advantage over you, especially if it rains. And that large Zone helps the CO Gauge build up very quickly, especially while she's still benefiting from the previous use.
- Little Miss Badass: She's a cutesy elementary school-age girl, but that doesn't stop her from being an extremely dangerous and unrelenting CO with a very effective skillset.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's left ambiguous as to how she is able to exploit the weather and interface with Caulder's technology. She could be a Psychic Child, or she may be tied to Caulder's networks through Electronic Telepathy, or she could simply be a broken Child Prodigy able to rapidly calculate projections and manipulate technology by sheer brainpower. Whatever combination of these it is, it's probably a big factor in her strangeness.
- Opposite-Sex Clone: She's actually a female clone of Caulder.
- Protection from the Elements: She has an immunity to all weather.
- Spanner in the Works: She's ultimately what does Caulder in. Caulder knew Will would chase after Isabella and find a way into the Great Owl and that Lin would follow with troops, and had Penny set to let the ship crash once Lin's troops did enough damage. What he didn't count on was Penny actually listening to Isabella and being talked out of the suicide charge. Her desire to live spares Lin and Will and costs Caulder his ship with nothing to show for it, forcing him into a retreat that allows Will to assault and destroy his base.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Her CO Power makes her similar to Olaf or Drake, as their power can change the weather. The only difference is that she can summon sandstorms as well and she is immune to all weather.
- Weather Manipulation: Her powers involve making use of weather as part of her strategy.
- Visible Silence: All of her speech bubbles in combat are exclusively this, regardless of whether she wins or loses a skirmish.
Tabitha/Larissa
"Stupid weak people!"
Tabitha belongs to the private military company IDS. A daughter of Dr. Caulder, she is extremely cruel and vindictive.
- Beware the Silly Ones: She may be a teenage girl who wears fancy dresses and goes on about wanting to eat waffles and be pampered in bed, yet she's also a ruthless and merciless CO with a sadistic streak who acts as the top enforcer for a cruel Mad Scientist. Though why Caulder decided to let his right-hand child be an Elegant Gothic Lolita is anyone's guess.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Brenner was even more of a random person to her than he was to Caulder himself.
- Daddy's Little Villain: She's Caulder's eldest daughter and seemingly inherited just about all of her father's most negative qualities. Her abilities are even watered-down versions of her "father's".
- Dark Action Girl: She's a vicious, sadistic CO who has super strength and extremely quick reflexes as a result of Caulder's genetic modifications to her.Caulder: "If you reach for your weapon, she will kill you."
- Death from Above: Her CO Power calls in the Great Owl for an airstrike. In other words, it's Sturm's power. However, with the massive destruction you can already wreak by keeping the gauge full, this attack is more often used as a humiliating Finishing Move.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Her CO Zone is 0, meaning it only applies to the unit she gets into. The fun part? +180% attack and defense to that one unit, making it really damn hard to kill. If you do not smash this unit to bits quickly, and allow Tabitha to build up her gauge (and thus increase the size of her Zone), kiss your tucus goodbye. The only two things keeping Tabitha in check are that her counterattacks do not increase her CO meter and that with a CO Zone of 0 to start, others can still put pressure on her other units and plan accordingly.
- Distaff Counterpart: Very downplayed. While she's one of Caulder's daughters, her CO power which is similar to Sturm's (which makes some fans jokingly suggest that she's Sturm's daughter instead).
- The Dragon: She's the first of Caulder's children and his assistant/enforcer, as well as one of the strongest COs and the final foe before Caulder.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Wears a fancy dress with a lot of frills.
- Foil: To her sister. While Penny has a decently-sized CO zone and is encouraged to use her CO power as quickly as possible (which affects the entire map), Tabitha has the smallest CO zone in the game, which gives her a tough choice between keeping her CO zone to give her big stat boosts to more units, or to activate said CO power, which involves launching a ballistic missile at the spot where the enemy units are clustered around the most (and restart her CO zone back to square one).
- Girlish Pigtails: Has her hair tied into two pigtails, going along with her pampered and girlish personality.
- Karma Houdini: She disappears after her defeat, and some characters speculate she's still around years later, but it's very likely that she is having trouble with being out in the wasteland by herself with none of her "toys" to play with.
- Lack of Empathy: She's even worse at feigning empathy than her father is.
- Opposite-Sex Clone: Like Penny, she's a female clone of Caulder.
- Pre-Final Boss: Fights the protagonists right before they move on to her father.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Her whole game revolves around excessively stomping her foes into the ground.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears after she's defeated in the penultimate mission. Penny claims she can feel what the rest of her family feels, so she's aware that her father and Cyrus died, but even she doesn't know what happened to Tabitha.
Non-playable characters
Cyrus
Dr. Caulder's son. He is shown to be most reluctant of Caulder's children.
- Beta Test Baddie: Inverted. He helps the heroes because of the motivation of this trope.
- Calling the Old Man Out: He calls Caulder out for his cruelty several times.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Caulder catches him helping the heroes, and he is poisoned for his trouble.
- Token Good Teammate: Despite being a clone of Caulder, for whatever reason he didn't turn out evil at all. When Caulder and his children first appear, he tells his father that attacking the 12th Battalion was meaningless. He's the first of Caulder's clones to bite his hand, the second being Penny.
The Beast/Drakov
"We rob! We kill! We're kings!"
A former soldier, now a leader of Raiders who prey upon the survivors of the now-ruined world. He is the first adversary of the 12th Battalion.- Ambiguously Brown: He is darker skinned than the rest of the cast, and fits into the Scary Black Man implications like a bloodstained glove.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: Thanks to the meteors that ruined the world, the Beast is going around slaughtering civilians and soldiers alike as an excuse to kill people before the world inevitably destroys itself.
- Arc Villain: He's the main antagonist of the first arc of the game.
- Asshole Victim: The Beast is a completely insane and savage murderer who takes obscene pleasure in slaughtering people. Therefore, absolutely no tears are shed when Caulder leaves him for death after his failure to defeat Will.
- Ax-Crazy: As an unstable mountain of a man who is only looking to satisfy his sadistic urges. This guy is so batshit loco, he makes Penny look astonishingly tame by comparison!
- Badass Bandolier: Carries several bandoliers and a machine gun, making it clear that the Beast is to be considered a giant threat.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: Wears a striped yellow bandanna, and is a formidable monster of a man who takes a while to take down.
- Barbarian Longhair: Has longer hair than the rest of the male characters, and is a savage murderer who enjoys pillaging from the weak.
- Beard of Evil: His beard is unkempt, signifying his unstable and violent nature.
- The Berserker: His rampages scream this; slaughtering both soldiers and civilians alike, without any amount of regret, remorse or reason.
- Blood Knight: Loves violence and pillaging. Even more so after Caulder gives him a serum that jazzes him up.The Beast: Ungaah... my head... so dizzy... must be the medicine that freak gave me... but it feels good! My blood's on fire. The rage is burning me up! YESSSSS! I am reborn! The Beast will not denied! GRAAAARRR!!! The Beast will hunt! Prepare... to... DIE!
- Boisterous Bruiser: Definitely not a good-natured variety. He is constantly laughing his head off when he slaughters anyone who stands in his way and screaming violent threats against those who stand up to him.
- The Brute: A monster of a man with a preference for frontal assault. His attitude is brutish, savage and violent, taking pleasure in the suffering of other people.The Beast: GYAAARRR! YES! YES! YES! First blood to the Beast! Take them all! Don't let them die easily!
- Butter Face: This Walking Shirtless Scene is utterly spoiled by the very creepy expression on his face, in addition to the red eyes that gives anyone chills to the bone.
- Climax Boss: Pretty tough for only being a Starter Villain and an unplayable CO.
- Disaster Scavengers: He leads a group of bandits who raid the other gatherings of civilians.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": In the US version, as he's called "the Beast". He forgot his real name, anyway.
- Evil Is Hammy: Don't bother trying to imagine him as a quiet person, he enjoys roaring in pleasure as he slaughters people for the sake of it.
- Evil Is Petty: Being a savage mass murderer is one thing, but then there's him mocking Will for Isabella's apparent death. And calling her his girlfriend, then procedes telling Will he doesn't care who he kills, everyone should be slaughtered by his own hand. Also, he dares Will to give in to his hate.
- Evil Laugh: "Gwar har har!"
- For the Evulz:The Beast: Reasons? I don't need reasons! I kill because I can! And now I'm gonna kill the rest so I can hear you cry some more!
- Green and Mean: He's pure evil and he sports green.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set the Beast off into going on slaughtering soldiers and civilians alike. He is also extremely aggressive and confrontational.
- Hated by All: Everybody hates the Beast due to what a sadistic monster he is.
- Hate Sink: Whenever he is on screen, his purpose is to tell the heroes and the audience he is an evil bastard that must be taken down as soon as possible. He also says that he enjoys seeing other people suffer.
- Heroic Build: His upper torso is utterly ripped, but he is anything but heroic, putting it mildly.
- Hot-Blooded: A savage and demented murderer who is constantly full of rage and anger at the world and takes it out by massacring all of the people, and stealing every last resource from communities.
- Insane Equals Violent: To the suprise of absolutely nobody, his sociopathy means that he will be a mass-murderer that takes pleasure in slaughtering everybody who's unlucky to cross his path.
- Jerkass: As if being an ruthless pillager wasn't horrid before, he is an completely terrible person, never caring whether those under him lived or died. He also mocks Will for failing to save Isabella from her apparent death.
- Kick the Dog: He is going on massive killing sprees just to hear people scream in pain and despair, and has absolutely zero qualms in butchering innocent civilians. He makes fun of Will for failing to save his would-be girlfriend.
- Lack of Empathy: Laughs whenever he slaughters both civilians and soldiers alike. He says that he doesn't need to have reasons to justify his rampage.
- Large and in Charge: Is absolutely massive, and is in charge of the Bandit Raiders.
- Leitmotif: Wasteland Scourge.
- Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Being the bloodthirsty lunatic he is, he laughs maniacally everytime he slaughters anyone in his way.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Like a beast, he preys upon those that cannot defend themselves and he doesn't care. The NA name for his theme is "Wasteland Scourge".
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has blood red eyes, is a maniacal mountain of a man who preys on the weak and is despised by all for his cruel actions.
- Sadist: Utterly enjoys suffering that is caused by him, and that makes everyone despise him.
- Scary Black Man: An utterly maniacal dark skinned slaughterer who enjoys mowing down what's left of the world, you better believe he is very scary!
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: The only CO to go fully shirtless, and is an absolute failure of a human being.
- Sociopathic Soldier: Caulder refers to him as "Sergeant" at one point in the American version, and in the European version, he's Sgt. Drakov. One assumes that the only thing keeping him from being a full-on monster before the world ended was the threat of court martial.
- Starter Villain: He's the first foe of the game. Although, he lasts 10 missions before finally being killed off.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Imagine Flak, but even more bloodthirsty, competent and despicable. The Beast is Flak played dead seriously, where his crimes are rightfully treated with disgust and anger.
- Teach Him Anger: A particularly nasty example, he's disgusted with Will for not being violent enough for his tastes, so he deliberately attacks and destroys a civilian caravan (the one Isabella is on, no less) just to outrage him enough to fight "properly". The map is structured such that you cannot possibly save the unit the Beast targets.
- Unwitting Pawn: Ends up being used by Caulder just to test out another one of his experiments.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Played for Fan Disservice thanks to his Nightmare Face. While he may have a heavily built body, his face has blood red eyes stuck in a Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises expression alongside baring his teeth.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Caulder offs him when he’s defeated by Will.Caulder: You served your purpose well, my savage beast. I am quite satisfied. But you are no longer of any use to me. You may continue dying...
Doctor Morris/Doctor Moritz
A doctor and leader of New Wolfington when the 12th Battalion were passing-by. After they defeated the Beast in their raid, he joined the 12th Battalion.
- Good Counterpart: To Dr. Caulder. Both start off as selfish men who sought their curiosity. But where Dr. Caulder continues his selfishness and tries to commit genocide, Dr. Morris took the initiative to help his fellow survivors.
- Hurricane of Puns: Pretty much every time he speaks is this in the American version.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Not many people are amused by his jokes; even his own citizens think his jokes are terrible. He does crack a decent one in the end, or at least to Will.
- Magic Versus Science: Science, all the way. He is baffled that people were gullible enough to believe that they could be cured in Salvation through magic.
- Pungeon Master: The fact that he does it in the worst situations possible doesn't help.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: After a bit (roughly, the post Lin's Gambit increase in difficulty), he really only shows up to make others comment that it isn't the right time to make jokes, or to do something scientific.
- The Smart Guy: Aside from Lin, he provides scientific intelligence to the 12th Battalion. He also has some knowledge of the Creeper and the mysterious Dr. Caulder.
- Technobabble: Sometimes, he will speak in terms that only men of science can understand, such as citing genetic modifications to crops and mentioning telemeres when talking about clones.
Davis/Cole
A CO from the New Rubinelle Army.
- Bootstrapped Leitmotif: The one time he appears as a CO, he's stuck with The Beast's theme.
- Butt-Monkey: Gets stuck with Greyfield, and trying to prevent Greyfield from nuking his own men to kill Brenner could very well have earned him a Senseless Sacrifice. Finally leaves Greyfield's service due to Greyfield executing troops for having the Creeper, only to have been hit by the Creeper himself. The one time he's involved in battle, he doesn't even get neutral music — he gets stuck with the Beast's theme.
- Dirty Coward: He is a coward who "fights for the winning side."
- Madness Mantra: "Idon'twannadieIdon'twannadieIdon'twannadie!", spoken when he sees symptoms of the Creeper virus on himself during Salvation.
- Token Good Teammate: The only non-Mook in the room who is shown to have thought nuking Brenner wasn't a good idea, and is never really involved in any atrocities.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears entirely after "Salvation", but given he had symptoms of the Creeper, he's probably a goner.
Mayor
The mayor of a village who is encountered early in the game.
- Asshole Victim: Caulder poisons him. Given how this comes right after he sells out Isabella, it's not a particularly sad moment.
- Control Freak: The source of his antagonism towards the main characters is the fact that he has no authority over them and subsequently fears they'll remove him from his comfy position.
- Dirty Coward: In a rare non-humorous example.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He is only ever referred to as Mayor.
- Entitled Bastard: Having set himself over the other survivors, he feels it's his right to just feed off the work of others.
- Genre Blindness: He trusts Caulder to keep his word; it goes as well as you'd expect.
- Hate Sink: There's nothing likable about this guy; he's dimwitted, cowardly, prideful, self-centered, whiny, ungrateful, and usually his job is to make the player's life harder.
- Jerkass: So much so that if Caulder weren't so evil, one might thank him for killing him.
- Karmic Death: He attempts to guarantee his own survival at the cost of everyone else's death by hoarding an antidote instead of letting it be mass-produced. It is very nice to see that the antidote was actually a poison.
- Mayor Pain: Check his name, then check all the other listed tropes.
- The Quisling: He forces Isabella to go to Caulder in order to save his own skin.
- Slimeball: Everything he does is for personal gain, notably exploiting his position as Mayor to be well-fed and do nothing.
- Smug Snake: It's very obvious when talking to him that he is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is.
- Straw Civilian: Always blames things on the soldiers helping him, thinking they're responsible for the violence that puts him in danger.
- Too Dumb to Live: He trusts Caulder to give an antidote for the Creeper, displaying both Genre Blindness and a lack of common sense given Caulder's ruthlessness and that he has no reason to keep his word.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Subverted; after meeting Greyfield, he isn't seen for quite a few chapters (players will most likely assume that he stayed at the shelter, given that is pretty much what he wanted), then he pops out of nowhere, apparently having never left.
The Fanatic
A strange man who founded a cult in the town of Salvation to worship "The Worm" that may "cure" the Creeper.
- Filler Villain: He has no other role in the story other than to illustrate the fact that many people are desperate for "salvation."
- Human Sacrifice: He claims that The Worm require sacrifices and order a mob to attack the 12th Battalion.
- Sinister Minister: He's the preacher for an armed cult.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Surprisingly, he is this. The reason why he lied about the Worm was because he wanted to give the infected hope and not let them die in despair. When Will called him out on it, he exclaims that Will is wrong for making them face the reality of the situation.
Unnamed IDS Agent
An interesting IDS agent who appears in Chapter 24.
- Dub Personality Change: While she's little more than a generic mook in the JP and EU versions of the game, in the US versions she's given much more of a personality.
- Mook: Albeit one with a personality in the US version.
- Ms. Exposition: Her role in the chapter is mostly to give exposition as to how low the plane is.
- Oh, Crap!: Gives out an "...Ah, crap" after realizing she accidentally grabbed a sleeping bag while trying to flee.
- Only Sane Woman: "AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO'S CONCERNED ABOUT THIS?!?" Said when Isabella is currently trying to have a heart-to-heart with Penny... in the middle of a rapidly descending giant plane. The IDS agent even points out they're only 6,000 feet from dying, and once she realizes that Penny and Isabella aren't listening to her, she even tries to find a parachute. Of course, Caulder isn't the kind of person to actually put parachutes in the plane anyway. Despite all odds, every named character actually manages to survive the crash, but you can't blame this agent for worrying.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tries this in the US version of the game...but accidentally grabs a sleeping bag instead of a parachute.
- Unusual Euphemism: Sweet corn casserole! They have freakin' ROCKETS!
