Advance Wars: Days of Ruin/Gameplay

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and all other Advance Wars games are Turn-based strategy (TBS) where players take it in turns to deploy, move and attack each other.

Normally there are two ways of winning:
 * 1) HQ Capture Victories - By capturing your enemy's HQ.
 * 2) Annihilation Victories - By destroying all units your enemy controls.

Exceptions to the above happen in story mode where the winning terms may differ depending on the mission you are completing.

Understanding Your Units
Your units, and how you use your units, will determine what your tactics are and how easily you can win. First, let’s go though a bit about your units so you’ll understand them a little better.

Just 10 HP?
All units have a max HP of 10. If a unit has 10HP, it has 100% of its normal strength. If a unit has 1HP left, it has just 10% of its normal strength. Units in Advance Wars all have a full health of 10HP. This means a tank still only has 10HP like an infantry – which may sound stupid at first.

The difference is that certain units are strong against others whist weak and open to other units. So, whist a tank has just 10 HP it is effective against infantry units so it's attack strength is about 120%. If the infantry attacked the tank, it will only have an attack strength of about 15% dispiting having 10HP. But say if the tank only had 1HP left, it only has 10% of the normal firepower. An infantry unit with 10HP can destroy the tank as it still has 100% of its normal firepower.

Gas, Ammo & Materials
Gas, not surprisingly, is needed to move any unit on the battlefield. Ground units only burn gas when they are moved whist naval and air units will burn gas even if they do not make a move that turn. Submerged submarines burn the most gas then any other unit. If ground units run out of gas, they are unable to move till they are resupplied. If naval or air units run out of gas, they crash or sink so it’s important you keep an eye out.

Ammo is needed to use the primary weapon of a unit. Every time your unit fires its primary weapon (in an attack & counter attack), it uses 1 lot of ammo. If all the ammo is used up, then that unit will be forced to use its secondary weapon if it has one, otherwise it simply can not attack or counter-attack. It can’t use its primary weapon again until it has been resupplied. Secondary weapons do not need ammo.

Materials are needed to make temporary port / airports and ship planes. Unlike gas or ammo, materials used by mobile workshops and carriers can not be resupplied (expect by CO power of Greyfield / Sigismundo). It is wise to bear this in mind when building t temporary port / airports and ship planes.

Attacking
In Advance Wars, there are two type of attack units; direct attacks and indirect attacks.


 * Direct attacks
 * Attacks from units (e.g infantry, tanks) that must move next to the enemy unit to attack it. Unless you destroy that unit in that attack, it will counter-attack you in the same turn if they too are direct units.


 * Indirect attacks
 * Attacks from units (e.g rockets, battleship) that are capable of launching missiles or firing long range cannons from a distance at a target. With the exception of anti-tank units, they are unable to counter-attack when attacked by either enemy direct or indirect attacks.