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/Ball
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/Coral
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.

Map 6: ハゴロモジマ/Puzzle
Depending on how you look at it, the Blue Moon army may or may not have a slight advantage on this map. Initially, it starts out with more cities under its control, which means more revenue. On the other hand, there are more cities on the center island that are closer to the Red Star's headquarters, so the advantage can shift quickly if you capture those cities swiftly. Both sides have two airports and two seaports at their disposal, but it will take capturing a good number of cities to raise your revenue high enough to take advantage of all of them.

In the beginning, your focus should be to reach the center island as quickly as possible, and start occupying as many cities as you can. To do this, load Copters up with Mechs and fly them over. You'll want to spend the extra money for Mechs since there will be plenty of clashes on the center island, and it better to have the edge that Mechs provide over Infantry. Remember that the airports and seaports on the center island are only for repairs, they can't be used to build new units for you.

Keep a steady stream of Copters flying over to the island and flooding it with Mechs as you push your way from one side of the island to the other. Eventually, when you cross over the mountain range that splits the island in two, you'll start clashing with the opposite army. At this point, it's not a bad idea to load Landers up with heavy machinery and float them over to the island, using the shallow water as your entry point. When you have a big enough supply of money coming in, substitute one of the Copters that you generate every turn with a Bomber. Mix in a Fighter every now and then to maintain your dominance over the skies.

The hard part will be finally overtaking your opponent's home island. The computer loads the island up with defense, especially once you start arriving on it. By this time, you should be able to afford Battleships, which can help eliminate units from a safe distance. Prioritize removing the opponent's Battleships to clear the way for your own. Between this and the steady flow of Bombers, you should be able to eliminate most of the enemy's defenses, and slowly wipe out any remaining enemy units.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 24 days. An incredible player can win in 20 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 17 days is possible.

Map 7: キメンハントウ/Mist
At first, the odds may seem so stacked against the Red Star army that it's almost un-winnable. However, the terrain actually provides the Red Star army with a distinct defensive advantage that can turn the tables on the Blue Moon army. Starting out, there is no Neutral city. Every single city on the map is aligned with the Blue Moon army, which gives them a huge daily revenue to play with. Red Star must do everything to chip away at that as quickly as possible. Since you only generate 4000 per day at the start, all you can really do is create four Infantry until you start making more money. Send the Infantry out to begin capturing cities, but switch to Mechs as soon as you can afford to.

By this time, assuming the computer is controlling the Blue Moon army, it will have amassed a small little force on its corner of the map, and may be starting to move to the only two openings within the mountain range that its land units can drive through. It is very important that you begin to station units in front of these openings, even if its only to sacrifice them in order to keep the Blue Moon army contained. Once the Blue Moon army manages to breach those barriers, it will be much harder to defend against their attacks, and you might need to start over.

After the first several days, you should have many of the cities converted, and the two gaps in the mountains guarded. Start moving all of the Infantry and Mechs that are no longer preoccupied with capturing cities to line up along the mountain range, where they will form a perimeter around the Blue Moon army and will benefit from the added defense that the mountain terrain provides. Now you can switch to a more offensive role and start generating Tanks to drive through the openings. You may need to shuffle some of your units around to give the tanks better access to the interior of Blue Moon's territory.

Start with a steady stream of tanks that keep rolling in day after day. Most will get destroyed, but you should be able to do enough damage to continuously pick off units and make a bigger dent in their defense. If you can ever afford to generate a Medium Tank, do so, but don't stop putting on pressure with regular Tanks. Every now and then, generate a Rockets unit and station it on a city near one of the gaps in case the computer appears to be successful at breaking out of your perimeter. Continue to move in and squeeze the enemy until they are thoroughly wiped out.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 30 days. An incredible player can win in 24 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 18 days is possible.

Map 8: ペケジマ/Deer
Make no mistake, this battle will take a long time to complete. The map is quite large, and the two army headquarters are placed a very long distance from one another. What this means is that when you're nearing the end of battle, and you're trying to assault the enemy's home territory, it will take several days for your units to traverse the distance and reach their destination, so a steady flow of units is required.

That shouldn't be a problem, considering how many neutral cities are available for capturing. You can build up a sizable revenue and not have to worry about how expensive units are to produce. But it will take quite a bit of work to accomplish as you'll have to send Infantry off in APCs, Copters, and Landers to spread them around far enough to capture the cities. The Red Army should focus on capturing all of the cities east and south of the headquarters, as well as starting in the upper right corner of the map and descending south towards the Blue Moon army. After the first several days, you should also begin thinking about the landmass along the south of the map. There are several more cities there for you to capture, and the Blue Moon army will make a play for them as well. You might eventually scuffle over these cities, so be sure to back your Infantry or Mechs up with Bombers.

Towards the later stages of this map, you should have enough money to consistently generate a Battleship, a Bomber, a Copter, and a Mech. Keep the Battleships and Bombers moving in a southeast direction towards the Blue Moon's headquarters. Load the Mech onto the Copter and fly them over to replenish any Mech units that fall in the front line. Use the Bombers and Battleships to clear away any of the more dangerous land units while the Mechs move in to occupy the factories and ports. Even if they can't successfully capture those structures, simply sitting on them prevents the enemy from making as many units as it theoretically could.

The key to victory here is never letting up on your supply of Bombers and Mechs transported in Copters. The problem is that you're very likely to run up against the 48 unit limit if you're doing well. Some of your smaller units that were used to capture cities in the outlying areas may become a nuisance, so be sure to send Copters their way to pick them up and take them where they will be of more use. Merge the units if necessary, just to free up space for more powerful units to take their place.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 32 days. An incredible player can win in 23 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 19 days is possible.

Map 9: アララサンミャク/Alara
This map presents an interesting challenge to both armies. The terrain is very mountainous, and therefore difficult to traverse for heavier land units. The ridges between the mountains create roadways that are easier to travel, although they aren't the most direct path to your opponent. However, both armies have two airports, capable of producing aerial units which can easily fly over the mountains. Similar to the previous map, there's quite a distance between the headquarters so the flights across will be quite long.

In the very beginning, you'll need to spread Infantry men out in order to capture neutral cities and increase your revenue. This can be by foot, by APC, or by Copter. If you're daring, you may wish to make an early rush for the two airports along the souther border, in an effort to grab them before the Blue Moon army does. Of particular interest is a trio of cities close to the Blue Moon headquarters that are surrounded by mountains. The computer will make an effort to collect them, but they are fairly easy to steal away once they've been captured, since heavy land units cannot easily defend them.

As usual, once you are ready to make a stronger assault on the opponent, your should rely on a steady stream of Mechs riding in Copters for your initial strategy. Dump the Mechs off in the alleys to the west and north of the Blue Moon headquarters and advance them toward the factories. All the while, continue to pump out Infantry to capture more cities that are vulnerable. When you can afford it, swap one of your Copters for a Bomber. If you get to the point where you can afford two Bombers per turn, do it. The computer will produce a lot of Anti-Air units in response, but you should be able to overwhelm them. If the computer produces Scout or Fighter jets, produce a Fighter of your own in response.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 24 days. An incredible player can win in 19 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 15 days is possible.

Map 10: チリヂリガワ/Lost
This map is sort of a contradiction to the previous map. It's the same size, but rather than being full of mountains, it contains a number of shallow rivers. Shallow rivers have an interesting property: in addition to Infantry and Mechs being able to cross them, so can APCs. However, it takes a keen eye and a thorough examination of this map to come to one conclusion: the land masses of each army headquarter are not connected. No heavy land units can get from one headquarter to the other. Two conclusions can be drawn from this: In addition to all this, you are further limited by the presence of only one airport. Because the area around the Blue Moon headquarters is so open, flying in Mechs by Copter won't be too useful. You'll want to get enough revenue to generate one Bomber every turn and fly it over (with the occasional Fighter when necessary.)
 * 1) Your offense is going to have to be primarily aerial units.
 * 2) Do not invest heavily in many powerful land units aside from Anti-Air units and indirect fire units.  Tanks won't help you much unless the opponent invades across the water.

The first couple of days should be spent capturing the neutral cities north and south of your headquarters. After that, you should focus most of your efforts on the neutral cities along the north, but take some time to get the others in the middle of the map before the opponent has a chance to grab them. Continue your push along the top until you eventually skirmish in the middle by the airport. Flood the north with Mechs, and keep pushing the enemy back until you can block access to the bridge between the row of cities and the Blue Moon headquarters. All the while, continue to fly in your Bombers until the opponent is overwhelmed and is wiped out.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 30 days. An incredible player can win in 20 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 14 days is possible.

Map 11: ノアカザントウ/Volcano
This is the last small island map in the game. Similar to the second map, it features a large rocky mountain region in the middle. Unlike the second map, you can actually traverse straight across the center if you choose to, but it's only really practical for aerial units. Like the previous map, you're limited to only one airport, so you'll have to make the most of it.

This map relies on tried-and-true tactics. Start out capturing nearby cities to raise your revenue. Then start flying Mechs over the mountains with Copters. Throw in a Bomber whenever you can afford to. It's important to keep your eye on the north-east and south-west corners to make sure that the opponent isn't trying to sneak around and capture any of your territory.

If the usual method prescribed above doesn't appeal to you, you can try an alternate strategy. After you have captured some cities and built up your revenue, you can amass a small army of Mechs and take them (rather slowly) across the mountains in the center to make a direct attack on the enemy headquarters. You'll need the support of Copters and Bombers to clear the way ahead of your soldiers, but it is possible to do. Bring along at least one Infantry if you plan to try and take the headquarters. Remember that Mechs can't capture them in this version. Also, watch out for the city to the north-east of the Blue Moon headquarters; it can produce units for them, but Red Star gets no such bonus structure. The computer likes to put Rockets units there.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 18 days. An incredible player can win in 10 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 6 days is possible.

Map 12: ツキノワジマ/Turtle
This map is unusual in a couple of ways. It's more vertical than horizontal, and it features only seaports with no airports. Because of the cost of boats, both armies are going to have to spend the first bunch of days capturing all of the neutral cities on their respective islands. if you're ambitious, load up two Landers with Infantry, and sail them over to the two small islands on either side of the center to boost your revenue before your opponent grabs them.

Once this is done and you have a revenue stream, you'll have to decide between a few different tactics. On one extreme, you will create an armada of Battleships, sail them into the enemy's cove, and fire rockets at the enemy land units from a safe distance. After a while, you'll want to swing some Battleships around the outside of the island to get any units that are staying out of range. When a Battleship runs out of ammo, park it in the enemy seaport to block production of an enemy Battleship.

On the other extreme, you will load up Landers with land units and drop them off to attack the enemy head on. And as a third option, you can use a mix of both. In truth, you will need both since Battleships alone won't be enough help you capture some enemy cities and reduce the opponent's revenue stream. And Landers alone are too slow to be effective, especially if you want to load them up with more than one unit at a time. Ultimately, it will take a while to overwhelm the opponent before you can wipe them out.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 36 days. An incredible player can win in between 26 and 24 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 16 days is possible.

Map 13: ハマキジマ/Squash
This map is even wider, and the headquarters are placed further apart, than in the fourth map. It is one contiguous strip of land, and both armies have access to airports and seaports. In order to truly do well on this map, you will need to make strategic use of land, air, and sea units. And make no mistake: it will take a long time to shuttle your units from your side of the map to the other.

The Blue Moon army may start out with more neutral cities positioned closer to it, but it has a particular disadvantage on this map that the Red Star army will want to exploit. The path leading from the Blue Moon's headquarters is bottlenecked through a mountain range. One unit placed at the end of that path, even a plane or a helicopter, and most of the land units will become stuck on the path with no other way to get out. Of course, Infantry and Mechs can move over the mountains, albeit slowly, and this presents no problem to aerial units, but the computer is more likely to generate land units than anything else, so one conveniently place unit can really throw a wrench in the Blue Moon army's strategy.

However, this one strategic point alone isn't enough to take the Blue Moon army out. You'll need a constant flood of units coming from your headquarters. After creating some Infantry to fan out and capture nearby cities on the first day, start loading Mechs on to Copters, and flying them out to the set of cities between the mountains. It won't be long before the Blue Moon army starts sending out heavier land units to stop your progress, but after enough days go by and you flood the area with Copters and Mechs, the computer will have a harder time thinning out your ranks. All the while, the Infantry you set about capturing cities should be increasing your revenue.

Eventually, you will start to afford better units. Before you generate a Bomber, save up for at least one Battleship. In the end, you shouldn't need more then two or three, but don't go beyond that; the computer won't invest in sea units unless you allow the Blue Moon army's revenue to rise very high. Capturing the seaports in the middle of the island will be especially helpful in refueling or revitalizing Battleship units. Remember that Battleships are quite vulnerable to attacks from Bombers, so it may be helpful to keep a Fighter around them in case Bombers approach.

After a while, you should be able to afford to generate a Bomber every turn. Continue sending out Mechs in Copters every turn as well until you can afford to make two Bombers per turn. Be patient and make sure you fly every last unit across the island so that you have a constant supply of units to replace the ones that get destroyed, and you should be able to overwhelm your opponent.

The average player should be able to succeed on this map within 28 days. An incredible player can win in 22 days. With near perfect playing, a victory in 19 days is possible.