Advance Wars: We don't talk about Battalion Wars

[firefossil]

This thread is for talking about Advance Wars. Regrettably, that is about all we can do, seeing as there hasn't been a new game since 2008, not counting re-releases and a cameo in Super Smash. Which is totally fair given that FE didn't catch on in the West till Smash, while AW is pretty much only popular in the West. Except it isn't. Andy for SSB5 goddammit. Which is sad. While Advance Wars dates back to 2001, the Wars series dates back to 1988...

So, various thoughts on what I'd like to see in a sequel.

Difficulty
Bring back hard mode. Dual Strike made hard mode interchangeable with new game plus, while Days of Ruin didn't have it at all. Even AW2 wasn't nearly as impressive on Hard as AW1 was. I want it to be hard. On that note, it'd be nice to have an AI that is actually competent, rather than having more units and cheating at fog of war, held up only by a crippling addiction to APCs.

COs
I did not like the CO power creep, as it was drowning out actual tactics beyond the WMD that was CO/Super CO/Tag Powers, as well as the customization stuff in DS, but recognize that Days of Ruin may have been too far in the other direction. While I liked the DoR loadable CO mechanic and how it balanced itself while limiting CO powers, there is something to be said for the universal effects from COs present in the earlier games.

Logistics, Weather, Fog of War
AW has long waffled on these. While relevant to specific units or scenarios, as a whole they're generally irrelevant and not especially integrated into the game as a whole.
*If logistics were to be made a consistently big deal, you could supply lines, wherein you need to not just capture cities, but guard the roads. Maybe have fuel and ammo depot tiles, while have bases use stored fuel/ammo to field units, or even just turn fuel and ammo into their own unit-cost resources proper.
*Weather would be less dreaded by the No-Fun crowd if you could project it a limited number of turns in advance, with some degree of inaccuracy. That way it can be planned for in advance to some extent.
*Units with high vision tend to be underpowered outside of Fog of War, most notably Recons and Flares. Perhaps make vision provide utility outside of FoW, like providing better sighting for ranged units? Having more stealth units that can 'submerge' like a Sub and get spotted by high vision units would be interesting as well.
Granted I'm fairly ambivalent, and wouldn't mind if they just did away with them instead.

Infantry
Infantry are utterly essential to AW, which makes it all the stranger that they feel like an afterthought. Most games only have two types. They're far too cheap for what they do, held back mostly by the inefficency of producing them and their relatively low firepower per occupied square. Oh and Mech units are kinda broken. I'd like to see more infantry types, or maybe even just have different COs get distinct variants on infantry. Snipers, flamethrowers, HMGs, mortars, elites, partisans, engineers, scouts, there is a lot of room for expansion. Maybe even have an infantry specific production building. If infantry are going to be centric to gameplay, then make them more interesting.

Suppression, Reactive Attacks
The ability to hamstring units or whole areas is not really featured in AW. It could be an interesting one to try. Speaking of, what time period is AW supposed to be technologically? Besides the supertech, it could be anywhere from WWII to modern day. The copters kind of point towards the latter, but other units less so.

Fire Emblem
AW's more successful relative, poaching mechanics from it might be a good idea. As commented in another thread:

That honestly may be the best way for IS to revive the series. Or at least taking some mechanics from FE and putting them into AW. I mean you already have the whole powered down CO unit thing in Days of Ruins. Take it a bit further and make it so you can have multiple CO on the field at one time, CO's have one life per map (or something) and give them unique character models and make it so they carry over veteran levels or something. Don't think it would be a good thing as that would take away from the whole advance war nature and ruin multi-player, but it may be the only way to give the series a chance in Japan.

Multiple CO's on one level using DOR's system actually sounds pretty neat now that I think about it though. Tone down their power a bit more or raise the cost to outfit a unit (or make it a percentage of the base unit cost so it's super cheap to CO a mech but expensive to CO a megatank) and you could create situations that have real neat synergies between multiple CO's. And multiple CO's on a level would mean more characters and character interactions, which is one of IS's strength.

Click to shrink...

Being able to field an old AW-style CO but also a roster of sub-commanders who function like DoR COs minus the power would be an interesting approach. Some could focus on boosting fellow troops, others are just badass spec-ops types, others handle support roles and you want to keep them away from the frontline. In the campaign they'd level up, but in non-custom multiplayer games, there'd be a fixed roster of options.

 

[sapphirenebula]

This thread is for talking about Advance Wars. Regrettably, that is about all we can do, seeing as there hasn't been a new game since 2008, not counting re-releases and a cameo in Super Smash. Which is totally fair given that FE didn't catch on in the West till Smash, while AW is pretty much only popular in the West. Except it isn't. Andy for SSB5 goddammit. Which is sad. While Advance Wars dates back to 2001, the Wars series dates back to 1988...

So, various thoughts on what I'd like to see in a sequel.

Difficulty
Bring back hard mode. Dual Strike made hard mode interchangeable with new game plus, while Days of Ruin didn't have it at all. Even AW2 wasn't nearly as impressive on Hard as AW1 was. I want it to be hard. On that note, it'd be nice to have an AI that is actually competent, rather than having more units and cheating at fog of war, held up only by a crippling addiction to APCs.

COs
I did not like the CO power creep, as it was drowning out actual tactics beyond the WMD that was CO/Super CO/Tag Powers, as well as the customization stuff in DS, but recognize that Days of Ruin may have been too far in the other direction. While I liked the DoR loadable CO mechanic and how it balanced itself while limiting CO powers, there is something to be said for the universal effects from COs present in the earlier games.

Logistics, Weather, Fog of War
AW has long waffled on these. While relevant to specific units or scenarios, as a whole they're generally irrelevant and not especially integrated into the game as a whole.
*If logistics were to be made a consistently big deal, you could supply lines, wherein you need to not just capture cities, but guard the roads. Maybe have fuel and ammo depot tiles, while have bases use stored fuel/ammo to field units, or even just turn fuel and ammo into their own unit-cost resources proper.
*Weather would be less dreaded by the No-Fun crowd if you could project it a limited number of turns in advance, with some degree of inaccuracy. That way it can be planned for in advance to some extent.
*Units with high vision tend to be underpowered outside of Fog of War, most notably Recons and Flares. Perhaps make vision provide utility outside of FoW, like providing better sighting for ranged units? Having more stealth units that can 'submerge' like a Sub and get spotted by high vision units would be interesting as well.
Granted I'm fairly ambivalent, and wouldn't mind if they just did away with them instead.

Infantry
Infantry are utterly essential to AW, which makes it all the stranger that they feel like an afterthought. Most games only have two types. They're far too cheap for what they do, held back mostly by the inefficency of producing them and their relatively low firepower per occupied square. Oh and Mech units are kinda broken. I'd like to see more infantry types, or maybe even just have different COs get distinct variants on infantry. Snipers, flamethrowers, HMGs, mortars, elites, partisans, engineers, scouts, there is a lot of room for expansion. Maybe even have an infantry specific production building. If infantry are going to be centric to gameplay, then make them more interesting.

Suppression, Reactive Attacks
The ability to hamstring units or whole areas is not really featured in AW. It could be an interesting one to try. Speaking of, what time period is AW supposed to be technologically? Besides the supertech, it could be anywhere from WWII to modern day. The copters kind of point towards the latter, but other units less so.

Fire Emblem
AW's more successful relative, poaching mechanics from it might be a good idea. As commented in another thread:

Being able to field an old AW-style CO but also a roster of sub-commanders who function like DoR COs minus the power would be an interesting approach. Some could focus on boosting fellow troops, others are just badass spec-ops types, others handle support roles and you want to keep them away from the frontline. In the campaign they'd level up, but in non-custom multiplayer games, there'd be a fixed roster of options.

Click to shrink...

Could a Fire Emblem X Advance Wars crossover work?

Storywise and with mechanics.

Fire Emblem does have their Outrealm Gate now as a plot device, that can go through both time and alternate dimensions.

 

[13th Bee]

Have totally been on an Advance Wars kick recently. Days of Ruin is my favorite for gameplay reasons.

The fact that ships can go under bridges, finally, is what puts it ahead the most. Resetting the power creep was great. It even filled slots for units that were needed, like Dusters and Gunboats.

Also, it made Battleships a force of nature. Who doesn't love big-gun battleships?

 

[sapphirenebula]

Quoting from the other thread I just found.

That honestly may be the best way for IS to revive the series. Or at least taking some mechanics from FE and putting them into AW. I mean you already have the whole powered down CO unit thing in Days of Ruins. Take it a bit further and make it so you can have multiple CO on the field at one time, CO's have one life per map (or something) and give them unique character models and make it so they carry over veteran levels or something. Don't think it would be a good thing as that would take away from the whole advance war nature and ruin multi-player, but it may be the only way to give the series a chance in Japan.

Multiple CO's on one level using DOR's system actually sounds pretty neat now that I think about it though. Tone down their power a bit more or raise the cost to outfit a unit (or make it a percentage of the base unit cost so it's super cheap to CO a mech but expensive to CO a megatank) and you could create situations that have real neat synergies between multiple CO's. And multiple CO's on a level would mean more characters and character interactions, which is one of IS's strength.

Click to shrink...

I'm imagining with the last known matched graphic visuals, a Fire Emblem character's turn involved them attacking a platoon of riflemen, and killing half of them with a sword.
Then on the Advance Wars turn, the platoon of a few dozen riflemen left open fire, and make the Fire Emblem character stagger a little and take away one percent of HP, bleeding as if suffering from a paper cut.

DAMN HERO UNITS!

<Shakes Fist At Sky>

Have totally been on an Advance Wars kick recently. Days of Ruin is my favorite for gameplay reasons.

The fact that ships can go under bridges, finally, is what puts it ahead the most. Resetting the power creep was great. It even filled slots for units that were needed, like Dusters and Gunboats.

Also, it made Battleships a force of nature. Who doesn't love big-gun battleships?

Click to shrink...

My submarines absolutely love big-gun battleships, that's for sure.



While Advance Wars was never a game devoted to story, it had it's own colorful cast.
But I'd have a hard time imagining how the cast from Advance Wars 2 and Days of Ruin would interact

 

[firefossil]

Could a Fire Emblem X Advance Wars crossover work?

Storywise and with mechanics.

Fire Emblem does have their Outrealm Gate now as a plot device, that can go through both time and alternate dimensions.

Click to shrink...

AW tend to favor generic faceless expendable units of mechanized warfare, with the faces being the COs. As I noted earlier, it might be best off having the usual AW-style overhead CO, but then have lower ranking COs and NCOs who function more like the Days of Ruin COs minus the power. Some make more sense that way. You'd have Sergeants and Captains that provide a buff to surrounding units, Lieutenants and Logistics Officers that do various support effects, Spec-Ops dudes who make singular units elite.

Have totally been on an Advance Wars kick recently. Days of Ruin is my favorite for gameplay reasons.

The fact that ships can go under bridges, finally, is what puts it ahead the most. Resetting the power creep was great. It even filled slots for units that were needed, like Dusters and Gunboats.

Also, it made Battleships a force of nature. Who doesn't love big-gun battleships?

Click to shrink...

This, though Gunboats felt kind of strange what with their high powered single shot approach. But as a whole, I liked virtually everything they did with units, from making Battleships boss, to making the tanks into a proper trade-off between mobility and strength, to giving Carriers an actual role.

 

[eraserman]

Being able to field an old AW-style CO but also a roster of sub-commanders who function like DoR COs minus the power would be an interesting approach. Some could focus on boosting fellow troops, others are just badass spec-ops types, others handle support roles and you want to keep them away from the frontline. In the campaign they'd level up, but in non-custom multiplayer games, there'd be a fixed roster of options.

Click to shrink...

Yeah this sound like a really good way to evolve AW while also keeping AW AW and not just a modern FE. I would be careful with badass spec-ops types and focus more on boosting fellow troops, as getting too many bad-asses kinda ruins a bit of the AW atmosphere.

 

[firefossil]

Yeah this sound like a really good way to evolve AW while also keeping AW AW and not just a modern FE. I would be careful with badass spec-ops types and focus more on boosting fellow troops, as getting too many bad-asses kinda ruins a bit of the AW atmosphere.

Click to shrink...

I'd imagine a baseline for the three types as something like this, with COs giving +25% Atk/Def to the unit they're on no matter what:
Andy= +10% Atk/Def to all units within 5 range. Repair costs halved.
Max= +25% Atk/Def to all direct damage units within 3 range. +10% to other units.
Sami= +75% Atk/Def, +1 Movement, and +100% capture speed to all Infantry and Transport units within 0 range.
You want Andy on your backline, Max is someone you want on your frontline, and Sami behind enemy lines.

As far as stacking goes, I'd probably rule that for Atk/Def, only the strongest relevant buff applies, but auxiliary effects paired with lesser buffs still apply, though they can't stack with themselves either if you happened to have two Andy COs.

 

[Hassam]

I feel hero units are anathema to a game like AW.

 

[CCGames]

Oh hey, an Advance Wars thread! Definitely relevant to my interests.

Out of all the AW games that I've played (everything in English except Battalion Wars 1 and 2), I'd have to say Days of Ruin was overall the best. I loved how CO's were treated in DoR, as well as how they completely re-balanced the game from earlier entries. It just felt like the "purest" AW experience, so I'm really sad they haven't made another game in that world.

I also loved the aesthetics, Advance Wars may have been one of the only series that actually benefited from having a darker and edgier reboot, and this is coming from someone who lists Kirby as one of his favorite series.

Longshot, but has anyone here tried any of the games that weren't released overseas? Such as the Gameboy Wars sub-series or Super Famicom wars? From what I've heard the Gameboy Wars games went off in a completely different direction from the rest of the series, and Super Famicom wars had a unique train tracks environment tile with a special unit that could use them, it'd be interesting to see that make a comeback...

 

[13th Bee]

*snip*


My submarines absolutely love big-gun battleships, that's for sure.


*znip*

Click to shrink...

That's why I also spam Cruisers. I try to maintain at least 2 CGs for every BB and CV until the seas are no longer contested. I rarely bother with SSKs, maintaining maybe 1 per game.

 

[Wootius]

If you want an Advance Wars fix. Trying to find the AW2 balance hack.

A AW2 War Room Custom Map pack. With a map by me.

Click to shrink...

 

[Havock]

Ah, Advance Wars, how I spent a fuckton of time with you back in 2001/2002.

While initially more attracted to fancy schmancy stuff and expensive toys, Sami won me over soon enough.
Girly!Stalin.

 

[Aaron Fox]

The thing is, Advanced Wars is interesting but oddly enough it needs to poach things from other games to revitalize as it were. I've been a player of the series since AW2 and played the original Battalion Wars (which... is good, not awesome but good)...

• Keep the 'CO to unit' mechanic in Days of Ruin, but as already stated leave it to NCOs/low level commissioned officers
• Have the CO power system ala 2 but tweek it, perhaps poach Duel Strike's stuff to augment it
  
• Duel Strike's skills system is an interesting way to help alleviate the weaknesses of various COs... for example a good leveled emperor of yellow comet guy (forgot his name) can take the two price reducing skills (if he's leveled enough) to alleviate his extremely costly units (so you are not facing MD tanks -or god forbid Neos- with simple tanks!) while leaving up to two other slots for augmenting his defense or offense or even making his vehicles hoofing into forests or plains far less painful... or supercharge the abilities of said COs like Colin or Hatchi getting even cheaper units.
  
• Don't be afraid to have a game similar to a series of games that simulate modern combat (when it was produced) using hex tiles... I have it but I can't remember it right now.
• Have more weather modifiers other than snow, rain, sandstorm, or clear. Have fallout that poisons infantry and aircraft or other bits of weather.
• Don't be afraid of a large unit roster, just make it a balanced unit roster.

 

[Coiler]

I got all the Advance Wars games from the first to DoR. And while it desperately needed to be rebooted and mellowed after Dual Strike's hyperactive flanderization, the way that game actually did it was-disappointing.

I honestly think the best bet for Days of Ruin would have been to just go entirely over to the FE route and be a modern-looking version of that. (individual tanks/technicals for knights and cavalry, helicopters or planes for pegasi, some sci-fi mystical power for mages, etc...). The setting is ideal for that kind of individual-character permadeath, and it would have given IS a way to reboot the series and do so in a way that they're familiar with.

The actual game wasn't bad, but:
-DoR has one of the biggest disconnects between story and mechanics I've seen in any game. Only game I've seen where the tutorial levels are the most immersive and fitting with the setting. Once you can make new units, it's back to "huh", and instead of just walling it off, they try a clunky explanation of automated units that only work close to where they're built that raises more questions than it answers.
-While secondary, the story itself is a misfire. Goes surface grimdark and kills off a few characters, but never presents an honest dilemma or grey character. Worse, by the end, it's back to supervillains and goofy weapons, like the writers didn't have the heart to keep going.
-I'm not a technical player, so much of the changes were lost on me.

 

[Wootius]

I would not buy a FE reskin of AW. I'd want a strategy game, not a RPG.

AW1 is a joke of balance, but fun as hell. Leave mah 150% offence Max alone.

AW2's problem were not its CO system, aside from a few obvious standouts(Colin, Grit, others in specialized situations. Not counting bosses.), it was the Infantry unit and the Tank/AA/B-Copter triangle being ignored due to Airports not being standard on most maps(aka poor map making). The Infantry unit was too cheap, with defensive stats being too high(due to terrain bonuses) leading to the classic wall of Infantry and Indirects dominating anything but Sea heavy maps.

AW: DS made this worse when it moved over to Units giving X% of a Star, instead of Stars being a base value of 9000g of damage. They made Infantry give 2/5 of a Star base vs the 1/9 of a Star base that it was in AW2. This made spamming worse Infantry, along with the silliness that was the custom bonuses system.

DoR fixed this. Infantry were upped in price, Mechs lowered a bit, Bikes introduced, terrain defensive bonuses nerfed, and their contribution to the CO bar lowered due to way the bar charges now. This killed Infantry as the go to unit. Custom maps(allowing Air fields to be standard) and changes to the Tank lineup(basically cheaper but weaker defensively) made other unit balance better. With these changes and the new CO system, DoR is a really balanced game. I just like global COs more.

• AW: DS Global CO bounties/powers, with base values that aren't silly. Tag system is fun, but optional. Custom bonus for fun matches.
• CO Unit to limit charging maybe.
• AW: DoR Units and Terrain system
• Veteran units.
• Fix broken COs.
• Online that isn't silly.

 

[Hassam]

While I wouldn't play an AW that was a reskin of FE, I think it would be interesting if AW became more like the old Langrisser series. Asides from AW it is the tactics RPG game that I have played that makes it feel that you control an entire army rather than a dozen dudes on a battlefield.

 

[ForeverShogo]

Yeah. The Langrisser setup was pretty cool.

for those unfamiliar . . .

Each character could have a number of cannon fodder units following them around, depending on their class. While characters still fought as individuals, the cannon fodder following them around usually represented 10 soldiers.

So all your characters played like badass officers that were actually leading a small army into battle.

 

[CCGames]

Found a Youtube video of Super Famicom Wars with that railroad unit I was talking about earlier, jump to 0:23.



I'm disappointed, that's more of a railway gun than the awesome armored train I was expecting, you'd think they would have done more with that having come up with a unique building (Train Depot) and environment square (Railway) for the concept, feels like a waste of potential.

So with that in mind, I'd really like to see that concept brought back and modernized, so here's how I'd do it if there ever was a new Advance Wars game.

Bring back the Train Depot and Railway concept but expand it to it's full potential this time, my idea is that Train Depot's could deploy four different types of units, in ascending order of price they would be, Draisines, Railway Guns, Supply Trains, and Armored Trains.

Draisines would be lightly armored and fast trackbound mini-tanks that could act as scouts and a vanguard for the more expensive railway units. Railway Guns would be essentially what you see in the above video, while supply trains would lack any real form of offense but could transport both vehicles and infantry quickly across large distances.

Armored Trains however would be the real superstars of the railway system, absolute monsters hindered only by their obscene price and the fact they were stuck to predetermined routes and thus predictable. Made of multiple cars they would have not only have the ability to transport both vehicles and infantry like the supply train can, but are also equipped with extremely powerful guns, while their missile cars would allow them to emulate the missile unit and do long distance strikes.

Ha, this was going to be a post like others in this thread about general ideas for the next Advance Wars, but I became a bit too enamored with my own concept.

 

[AlbusRumbledore]

I second the call for more infantry units - Sappers who can lay mines, Snipers for indirect fire and Spec-Ops who get a bonus to capturing would be my picks. This could feasibly make a majority-infantry army viable, which would be cool.

 

[Sushi]

Found a Youtube video of Super Famicom Wars with that railroad unit I was talking about earlier, jump to 0:23.



I'm disappointed, that's more of a railway gun than the awesome armored train I was expecting, you'd think they would have done more with that having come up with a unique building (Train Depot) and environment square (Railway) for the concept, feels like a waste of potential.

So with that in mind, I'd really like to see that concept brought back and modernized, so here's how I'd do it if there ever was a new Advance Wars game.

Bring back the Train Depot and Railway concept but expand it to it's full potential this time, my idea is that Train Depot's could deploy four different types of units, in ascending order of price they would be, Draisines, Railway Guns, Supply Trains, and Armored Trains.

Draisines would be lightly armored and fast trackbound mini-tanks that could act as scouts and a vanguard for the more expensive railway units. Railway Guns would be essentially what you see in the above video, while supply trains would lack any real form of offense but could transport both vehicles and infantry quickly across large distances.

Armored Trains however would be the real superstars of the railway system, absolute monsters hindered only by their obscene price and the fact they were stuck to predetermined routes and thus predictable. Made of multiple cars they would have not only have the ability to transport both vehicles and infantry like the supply train can, but are also equipped with extremely powerful guns, while their missile cars would allow them to emulate the missile unit and do long distance strikes.

Ha, this was going to be a post like others in this thread about general ideas for the next Advance Wars, but I became a bit too enamored with my own concept.

Click to shrink...

Aren't you essentially describing the pipeline things with their turrets? They served a logistical purpose in the fluff and could take 'pipe runner' units from bases.


I wonder if eliminating flare units and giving them to artillery would make sense. Say you had a third type of infantry unit, mortars, weapon teams or something else indirect.

 

[Wootius]

mortars/snipers don't really work. What are you going to do, give them a range of two? Are they going to obey the indirect firing rule? With only 2 range and having to wait a turn to fire they'll never hit anything. If you give them 3 range, why build Artillery? If they that much weaker than Artillery at 3 range, they won't be used.

 

[Sushi]

mortars/snipers don't really work. What are you going to do, give them a range of two? Are they going to obey the indirect firing rule? With only 2 range and having to wait a turn to fire they'll never hit anything. If you give them 3 range, why build Artillery? If they that much weaker than Artillery at 3 range, they won't be used.

Click to shrink...

Let them move and fire. I think the overlap with artillery would be less than bike infantry and recon, at least.

Perhaps they're a weapon team with two mortars and an LMG. Only the LMG fires when attacking directly, while the mortars can engage in indirect and counter-attack, making them good defensive units.

 

[Wootius]

Bike can capture, they have different roles. Bike is for rushing a far away city/base and Recon is for denying cities.

Counterfire would be pointless, because infantry take huge damage from all indirects.

What you described exists already. Anti-tank.

 

[Sushi]

Bike can capture, they have different roles. Bike is for rushing a far away city/base and Recon is for denying cities.

Counterfire would be pointless, because infantry take huge damage from all indirects.

What you described exists already. Anti-tank.

Click to shrink...

Isn't being air portable a fairly big difference? Between this and anti-tank there's the same difference as is between bike and recon, not being able to capture.

 

[Spartakrod]

Honestly for any future game I'd like to see a return to War World and a return of Sturm and doing away with lame pretenders like Von Bolt. Overly similar COs like Jugger and Flak and Adder and Koal definitely need a hard look at and some method of distinction. While, Adder and Koal are somewhat arguable, there's no excuse for Jugger and Flak to be nearly identical game mechanics wise when Jugger doesn't really give the impression that RNG would be his speciality.

On characterization: Sturm, is admittedly, quite two dimensional (though neither Caulder or Von Bolt were especially more characterful), and his motives are basically summed up as "Invading planets and starting world wars is like, my hobby man", but given that people like Ganon and Ridley have gotten passes on characterization that also just makes them irredeemably evil forces of malevolence, I don't quite see the problem.

Advance Wars is colorful and ridiculous in the same way Mario is, but colorful and ridiculous does not translate into "incapable of telling a solid story." The Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario told great stories despite well...being associated to one of the most plotless franchises in human history that if you explained to an unfamiliar third party; would likely assume you were on crack.

Nobody's going to accuse Dimentio of having complex motivations or character, he's a laughing, cackling jokester who wants to rewrite everything there is to rewrite into his vision of perfection. But he was also incredibly charming and managed to ham it up despite not having one iota of voice acting. Having a Villain who is just purely evil like Sturm can work, as long as you make them interesting.

Sturm's already well liked by the community, so I don't think making him more interesting would be particularly hard. I would also however, state that Advance Wars would do well to avoid the trap of trying to balance the final boss CO like they ended up doing with Von Bolt, who in tandem with Dual Strike's broken mechanics and truly terrible map design, had his low tier ass tyrannosaurus rekt pretty easily and was ultimately just incredibly uninspiring as a big bad. Even his ten star CO power was really more of a nuisance than anything else due to its anemic buffs to his army.