Famicom Wars/Map strategies

Map 1: ソラマメジマ/Bean
Shaped a little like a bean, the first map pits the Red Star army against the Blue Moon army on a small island. Each army starts out on their respective sides, with most of the neighboring cities already aligned to the army of the nearest headquarters. Each side has five potential Build locations; the headquarters, the three factories surrounding the headquarters, and the city closest to them.

As always, one single strategy won't carry you to victory, but the most important aspect of this map is the stretch of neutral cities along the top. You'll have a much easier time succeeding if your army can capture the cities before your opponent does, and hold on to them. Once you capture the neutral cities, you can focus on trying to take your opponent's cities as well. In the beginning focus on generating Infantry to do the capturing. Create some APCs to help move them farther faster. Use the city to create Infantry as well since they can cross the mountains in one turn and be that much closer to capturing.

After a few days, you'll build up a sizable revenue stream, which in turn means producing more powerful units. Eventually you can alternate between pumping out a Medium Tank and a Rocket unit and continuously advance them toward you opponents headquarters. Alternatively, you can flood the island with APC and Mech units, and continuously push them into the enemy's side of the island, while capturing every city that you pass along the way. Even if you don't bring in an Infantry unit to capture the headquarters, you can starve their production by parking your units on their factories. Keep your eyes open for any Infantry or Mechs that try to invade the top row of cities by crossing the mountains to the north.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 20 days. An incredible player can win in 13 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 8 days is possible.

Map 2: ドーナッツジマ/Crater
The Japanese name for this map is Donut Island, while the translation patch suggests that the pool in the middle is a crater. Either way, this map presents a war on two fronts. Of the two paths between each army's headquarters, one is paved and the other is forested. This means that your heavy machinery will be forced to take the west route while you may be sending Infantry and Mechs through the woods along the east to capture neutral cities.

As usual, your initial focus should be to capture every neighboring neutral city. Assuming you're playing as the Red Star army, more important than capturing the two neutral cities on the north west side of the island is establishing a perimeter that the enemy can't cross in an effort to capture some of your cities. The enemy will send quite a few teams up through the forest in an attempt to steal your cities away. Don't let them.

It's just as important to send troops down the west side of the island and capture the neutral cities along the road. You'll need this to build up your revenue stream so that you can start pumping out Medium Tanks and Rocket units. Send a steady stream of them down the road and pressure the enemy into holding their position close to the headquarters. Use the Rockets to shell powerful units from a distance, and use the tanks to poke holes in their front line. All the while, you must keep your eye on whatever the computer decides to do along the east.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 16 days. An incredible player can win in between 10 and 12 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 7 days is possible.

Map 3: オニギリジマ/Triangle
This stage introduces aerial combat. In addition to the two factories that surround the headquarters, each army also has two airports. Every city on either island is neutral at the start of the game. You should do anything and everything you can for the first few rounds to capture the cites and build up your revenue stream. You'll need it since, besides helicopters, most air units are rather expensive.

That being said, you don't need to purchase a lot of expensive units to win this maps. On the contrary, you'll want to generate a flood of Copters and Mechs in order to dominate your opponent. Expensive land units a nearly pointless on this map, with the exception of the two Anti-aircraft units, which you'll want to create a handful of, in order to set up a strong defense for the cities you've captured.

While you are busy capturing all of the cities on your island, start creating Copters and Mechs, and fly them in a steady continuous stream to your opponent's island. Assuming you're the Red Army, fly them to the southern tip of the Blue Moon island, as that is the hardest point of the island to defend. Start loading up the island with your troops, and push north towards the headquarters, capturing cities as you go. Eventually, when your revenue stream is really high, you may want to throw in Fighters and Bombers into the mix. But no matter what you do, don't stop creating at least one Copter and Mech pair, and flying them over to the island to replace the units that you lose as you continue your push north.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 19 days. An incredible player can win in 11 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 8 days is possible.

Map 4: タマタマジマ/Coral
At the first, the biggest difference between these maps and the three previous maps appear to be its size, the inclusion of two Seaports, and the fact that you start out with the maximum allotment of money: 99,999. However, what really sets this map apart is the duration of the battle that you must endure to win. Even a seasoned player may find it difficult to win in under 20 days.

With such a huge starting flow of cash, you're going to want to spend it, and it will go quickly. In the Seaports, you should create a Battleship, and a Lander. In the Airports, you should create two Copters to shuttle Mechs over the waters and onto the islands in the middle of the map. On land, you'll want to create Mechs to ride in the Copters, an APC, and Infantry to go around capturing cities with one riding in the APC.

You'll notice the two extra Airports on the islands, and the Seaport on the east side of your island. Though these locations are of strategic importance, don't get too excited: you can't use them to build units. You may only build from the structures surrounding your headquarters. Nevertheless, you should capture these extra ports, not only for the extra revenue they will bring in each turn, but for the ability to use them to resupply your water and air vessels. Plus you'll want them out of the hands of your enemy.

As for your Battleship and Lander, start moving the Battleship out to the water between the two islands in order to create a defense against any potential attempts by the opponent to snag some of the cities. It may be some time before you can afford to make another Battleship, but when you do, have them join the first to create an armada that will advance upon the enemy's island. The Lander should be loaded up with a Mech unit and one other unit, preferably a tank, that you can bring over towards the enemy island. When you're far enough along, and have the west bank of the enemy island secure, you can drop them off to join the battle.

For a long time, you'll want to repeat a similar strategy from the previous map: Fly over a constant and steady stream of Copters and Mechs, unloading them on the enemy island after all of the neutral cities and ports from the small central islands have been secured. Over time, you should capture so many cities that your revenue stream will be huge, enough to make more Battleships, as well as Fighters and Bombers. Continue your stream of Copters and Mechs until you can actually afford to produce two Bombers at a time, and then constantly fly them over to the enemy island to take out their land units while the Mechs you dropped off start capturing cities. You should be aware that there is a limit to the number of simultaneous units you can have on the map at once, 48, and if you're constantly creating Copters and Mechs and flying them across, it's surprisingly easy to hit that number. Merge units or sacrifice them if you run into the limit since it's important to keep that flow of troops coming in from the west.

The computer is likely to do a fairly good job defending itself since the layout of the terrain makes the defense of the headquarters easy. It will rely heavily on indirect units like Anti-Air Missiles and Rocket units, and it will employ its Battleship as much as possible. You can't hope to avoid the bombardment that the computer will produce, you can only hope to overwhelm the computer with so many units that eventually, a few will break through the front-line and push the enemy back. Eventually, you should be able to start taking some of the enemy cities and starve the computer of resources.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 32 days. An incredible player can win in 20 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 16 days is possible.

Map 5: マガタマジマ/Puzzle
This map is like a tougher version of the first map. And compared to the fortune of money you started with on the last map, you'll only begin this map with a meager 4000, which is only enough for four Infantry. That's exactly what you should create on the first two or three days, because you'll need them as you make a mad dash for the neutral cities at the top of the screen. The Blue Moon army starts this map off with a distinct advantage, thanks to the number of neutral cities which are closer to its headquarters than the closest cities to Red Star's headquarters.

By day four, you'll have to decide if you want to continue your flow of Infantry around the island, or if you want to try and save up some money for the following day and create more powerful units. Both options have their pros and cons. You can overwhelm your opponent with a flood of Infantry, and capture more cities, but they won't hold up well once the enemy starts producing Tanks and Artillery. On the other hand, saving up to produce small numbers of stronger units may make you vulnerable to the size of the team that the enemy can produce in less time.

Once you've gotten a few cities captured, and you can reliably start to produce tanks, start cranking out one per day and driving them around the island to join your front line. Include an Infantry every now and then and have them cross over the mountains to the north of the closest city to Red Star's headquarters. Continue to push the enemy back and capture more cities. Eventually, you will cripple the enemy's ability to produce expensive units, and your steady flow of tanks will start driving the enemy back. Once you can afford to, add Medium Tanks to the mix. Indirect fire units won't be quite as useful here, although it is possible to create a Rockets unit, park it in the forest to the right of your headquarters, and pick off a few freshly produced units.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 25 days. An incredible player can win in 21 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 17 days is possible.