Advance Wars: Dual Strike/Sole Harbour

Sole Harbor is a fairly balanced war room map which now introduces docks for naval units. Drake is your enemy CO. This map can be quite a nuisance due to his CO power/SCOP, which damages all your units for 1-2 hp, while cutting fuel in half. Fog of war rolls in on his SCOP as well, severely reducing your vision. The map itself is very linearly, with two options to attack Drake's HQ, either down the forested region, or around the road on the other side. This guide will be utilizing a combination of both.

My CO of choice here is Jess due to her useful ability to resupply all units on her CO power/SCOP, in addition to increasing movement of her vehicular units. My second choice here would be Rachel, as her SCOP works wonders in maps where enemy units are grouped together in close knit formations. Both share similar strategies, so I will note minor differences between the two.

If you are playing with skills, I would recommend the following:


 * Brawler (direct attack +8%)
 * Sniper (indirect attack +8%)
 * Pathfinder (forest movement = 1)
 * High and Dry (attack in rain +20%)

The first two are for effective rushing, while the latter two are "extremely" useful skills for this map, which allow for 1-turn rushes down the forest path, and a nice bonus during Drake's SCOP.

Strategy
The first few turns are fairly typical - build all infantry, then APC + infantry, then a tank/artillery pair. Key point is to quickly capture the factory at the end of the road, while establishing a defensive position at the forest path. After a few turns, you should have most of the cities captured, and have an artillery (or two) overlooking the forest path/mountains.

During the next few turns, slowly capture the cities/dock around the top bend, while building some rockets to overlook the forest path as well. After building 2-3 rockets, keep the last one stationed on that rightmost factory, and let it continually bombard any units Drake has built on the bottom two factories. Meanwhile, station your artillery at the cities along the mountain. Once you have a superior firing squad set up, start building midtanks/neotanks. I would send 1-2 around the top bend, while setting up the others to rush down the forest path (very easy if you have Pathfinder).

Drake probably has had 1 or 2 CO powers by now, as he typically will use them instead of saving for a SCOP. No worries however. Let your rockets/artillery fire away, but just station your tanks at northern cities if needed. Once you have your own SCOP ready, time it with your offensive rush.

If you had Jess here, you probably can obliterate most of Drake's forces within a turn due to the increased attack + movement. If you had used Rachel, most likely all 3 missiles would rain down around Drake's HQ, dropping units to 1-4 hp. Perfect for her rush as well. In either situation, after this, it should be fairly easy to finish Drake off.

Estimated time of completion is around 16-18 days, with or without skills. An S-rank can be easily achieved as long as the following are executed well:


 * 1) early capture of the neutral, right most factory
 * 2) strong defensive position at the forest path/mountain complex
 * 3) steady build up of midtank/neotank forces
 * 4) timing the SCOP with a strong offensive rush