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Hey folks, some HOT TAKES for you. I also wanted to do a little bit of a chat about the future, but I'll do that at the end. First things first, my favourite COs! Hell yeah. Get hosed, Koal. You suck. And of course, a unit tier list. This is based on my own heavily biased opinions.  Bombers rule, cruisers drool, it's just fact. So. I've been doing AW for four years now (isn't that wild?), and I'm in a very different position than I was back then. I was just a uni student who wanted to do something fun on his Fridays, and I never expected that I'd actually go through and do the three main games. I do have plans to do AW: Dark Conflict/Days of Ruin but at the same time, I also want to take a break. I need to focus on my job, my life, all the stuff that's come up over the last four years. I'd love to still have my Fridays free to do AW, but I just don't think that's going to continue. It gets harder with each update to make that time. I even debated doing a Patreon or something, but with so much content here for free, from creators just like me, I figured it wasn't fair to ask for money. As such, I'm just gonna leave DoR for now. I'd like to come back to it at some point, but I can't imagine that'll be anytime soon. As such, I just want to thank you all for reading. It means a whole lot that so many people were invested in this, and I'm very grateful to have you all. Credits and final things should be up tomorrow - I'll see you then. Now debate my hot takes - if you dare. - Post
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Dec 8, 2022 23:17
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| # ? May 3, 2024 21:53 |
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Bro copters only A tier? Fight me 
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Dec 8, 2022 23:56
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At the very least knowing the intended narrative frame for DoR (Yes, readers, he came up with a way to make DoR canon to LPAW and the idea is brilliant. I'm not gonna say anything though, knowing CP there will be at least one hint in the endcards, just like in 2's for DS), you wouldn't have to stress deathless. ...Which means that, with some irony given DoR, it'd be a far more relaxing project than the first three games were if/when you come back from this hiatus. ...Also mindblown Sasha wasn't Top S for you with how much you were gushing over her on discord to me.
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Dec 9, 2022 09:16
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Part 81 (Intermission) - Their Finest Hour: Results + Credits Alright, folks, it's time to wrap this up. First things first, we have the results from the second Their Finest Hour vote, so let's see how all our characters placed! First up, the CO division. In fifth place, we have:    Max, Sami and Sensei! A pretty good group of COs, I like all these guys. Sensei especially though. In fourth place, we have:    It's kind of amusing that Colin and Lash got the same amount of votes. I'm surprised Rachel's not higher, though, I enjoyed her in this game. In third place, we have:  Sonja! We love Sonja in this house. Her new skill makes her absolutely loving insane, so yeah, I'm fine with this placement. In second place, we have:     Sasha, Javier, Grit and Eagle! drat, seems like there were a lot of people vying for first. They're some good COs, though, I'd have placed Sasha and Javier this high too. Who won, then? Jugger, my beloved? In first place, we have:  Hawke ran away with it! I think that's fair - he's a very interesting character. Plus I got to do some interesting interactions between him, my dude and Rose. Next we have the ACO division. I think we already know how this is going to go. In fifth place, we have:  Petra! Our favourite Green Earth gal, I'm not surprised Petra's up here. In fourth place, we have:  Dimitri! I'm surprised he's not higher, I absolutely love Dimitri. But hey, I guess that's the way the votes went. And to be fair, the ACOs are a well-liked group generally. This was a competitive vote. In third place, we have:  That's right, it's Vanessa! I must admit, I love her too - she's grown on me a lot throughout the last two LPs. In second place, we have:  The man himself, Commander my dude! I'll admit, when I first started this vote, I wasn't sure who was going to win out of my dude and the winner. You already know who that is. In first place, we have:  Rose Kuroda, the world's greatest strategist! Was there any doubt? She won in a landslide, too - everyone that voted on the ACOs gave a vote to Rose. And why shouldn't they? She's probably one of my favourite characters, and it seems like the thread agrees. Good taste, goons. Good taste. Next we have the Orange Star division. In fifth place, we have:  Alfonse! He's been a very good boy throughout the three LPs, so I'm glad he got some recognition. In fourth place, we have:  Dave! I'm actually surprised he's not ranked higher, but that's fair enough. The issue with Dave in this LP specifically was that he'd kind of finished his character development. I love the guy, but there were definitely more dynamic characters in LPAWDS. In third place, we have:   Rin and Lena! Shame that Rin didn't pull off the win this time, but it's wonderful to see Lena ranked so highly. I was honestly really nervous about how people would react to the whole Director subplot, and whether that was tampering with the story too much, but it seems like she was fairly well-received, so I'm grateful. In second place, we have:   Von Panzer and Selena! Wow, Von Panzer did well this time, didn't he? Good! I love that guy. He just never loving dies, and it's great. Selena, of course, is excellent too, and I'm glad I was able to develop her so much throughout this LP after hinting towards things like her feelings towards my dude and her relationship with her family. In first place, we have:  Lucy Ophelia Maxwell! Everyone loves the Queen of the Skies, and I can't help but agree. She's grown up so much over the last three campaigns. Proud of ya, Lucy! So, now we have the Blue Moon division. In fifth place, we have:     Eva, Klara, Inessa and Elena! The girls all did decently well, I'm impressed this many characters got the same amount of votes. My favourite here is probably Inessa, personally, but they're all good fun. The Blue Moon gals are great. In fourth place, we have:  Diana! She's changed a lot throughout the last two campaigns, so it's good to see that being recognised here. Her design is great too, props to my artist for that one. In third place, we have:  Harlow! I'm glad people liked them - they're one of the more mysterious characters, but I enjoyed writing their developing friendship with Rin. Good on you, Harlow. In second place, we have:  Ludmilla, of course! Everyone loves Ludmilla, for two very obvious reasons: her snarky attitude and her caring side. Naturally. In first place, we have:  Zlata! She can thank her lucky stars that Dimitri wasn't included in the Blue Moon division, otherwise he'd have run away with it. But she is a great character, so I'm glad to see her place so highly. Next we have the Yellow Comet division. This is another one that's going to be shaken up by Rose and Vanessa not being eligible for the vote. Let's see who else placed highly! In fifth place, we have:    Minerva, Sofia and Khepri! A good group of girls - and hey, Minerva made the list even after her passing. That's always nice to see - I feel like the same thing happened in the last LP. In fourth place, we have:  Lysander! Silver-tongued and charming - or so he wishes. This dork's good fun, too, he had a lot of fun interactions throughout this LP. In third place, we have:  Arqa! This is one of the placements that surprised me most. Apparently people really enjoyed the new-and-improved hardworking Arqa? I mean, sure! She was fun! In second place, we have:  Peregrine! Truly, one of my favourite bomber pilots (after Lucy). She's plenty of fun to write, and I particularly enjoyed her bet against Lucy, and the subsequent race. That might have been one of my favourite intermissions to write. In first place, we have:  Andromeda! And she god! drat! Deserves it! Andromeda's the best, and I'm glad everyone else recognised it as well. Now we'll do the Green Earth division. The top 3 for this one is not going to surprise you even slightly. In fifth place, we have:    Conrad, Sebastian, and Wallace! These guys are good, so it's nice to see them up here. Conrad had some good parts this time around, his relationship with Petra was interesting to explore. In fourth place, we have:   Ah, Quincy and Adelaide. Yeah, these two are... certainly interesting. Quincy's probably the weirdest character I've ever written (excluding, like, Raynald) but I do enjoy the scenes that she appears in. She's a very chaotic influence. Right, ready for the most predictable top 3 ever? In third place, we have:  Of course it's Cassandra. Beautiful, brave and talented - what's not to love? In second place, we have:  Howard! Yeah, this should be no surprise. People love Howard, but especially his relationship with... In first place, we have:  Mulligan! You can't keep down Mulligan - he got nearly twice as many votes as Howard. It's insane how much people like this guy. I didn't expect it at all - I presume Mull, Howard and Cass would all place relatively evenly, but nope. Mulligan's a clear winner. So, those of you that partook in the vote may also recall that there was a choice for overall favourite character. Those votes were surprisingly varied (whoever voted for Raynald, I respect you immensely), but there was a winner amongst the votes. The overall favourite character in Let's Play Advance Wars: Dual Strike was... Rose Kuroda! (Again.) I'm really not surprised by this. She loving beat my dude in this LP, verbally smacked down Kindle, won both of the final battles with a bit of help... she did a whole lot in this LP, and she's still so young. Congratulations to Rose! So, let's move on... the end of the game, as always, comes with an overview of the campaign.  This map sure existed. It's a drat sight harder in Hard Campaign, though, as I discovered during my casual HC playthrough...  They may as well have renamed this map to Artilleries Are Broken.  Ah, here we saw the Black Bomb for the first time and discovered just how underwhelming it was.  2 days? Man, I forgot how quickly the tutorial maps went by.  Ah yes, the update where the enemy had medium tanks and I didn't. Hmph. We also met the Director for the first time here!  I... genuinely do not remember what happened in this map. I think this was where we met up with the Blue Moon COs and the Snowbound Free Company?  Ah, our first gently caress of War map, and our second encounter with the Director. Tearing this map apart was satisfying.  The first Tag Battle was definitely a hell of a map - but we got to deploy Selena and several bombers, so it wasn't that bad really.  Gah! The map where they introduced the fuckin AI-controlled fronts. Hate you. Our third encounter with the Director was here, too.  And then we acquired black botes, and proceeded to never use them in the rest of the campaign.  I'm not surprised this was an A-rank - if I recall, my victory was a very scuffed run-away-and-don't-fight kinda deal. Fog of War does this to me.  Our fight with Lightning Grimm! He's fun, and Sensei was cool too. This is where I did the fight with Rose, also, using the Hard Campaign version of this map. What a brutal defeat that ended up being...  And this was the map where my dude was unavailable. It was quite intentional that Minerva's death was during the one map where my dude wasn't present - highlighting how much the soldiers need him to keep them safe. Also this map sucked and I didn't want to reload after Minerva died.  Black bombs! They're fine when they're predeployed, funny even. But I'm not paying over 20k for one.  Dave killed a megatank. I don't think I need to expand on this.  Our next encounter with the Director, and our first encounter with Hawke. This was a fun map, actually - there was a lot going on, and doing it all smoothly was very satisfying.  gently caress spiral garden  This map was really fun, both doing it the normal way and the my-dude-explains-how-we-could-have-done-it-another-way way. That part was my favourite to write in the whole LP, my dude doing impressions of the other characters was too funny an idea to pass up.  Oozium! Oozium. This was a good map to introduce oozium on, especially in Fog of War. It made them far more threatening, but not super unfair, since you generally have at least 1 vision.  This is the map that I did all that grinding. I beat this goddamn map 24 times, and not a single one was particularly interesting. Thanks for all the exp, though, oozium!  Ah, the final battle with Madam Director. Yeah, this was a fun map - I beat it deathless on my first attempt, too! That's what they get for giving me a loving predeployed megatank.  This map was probably one of the hardest in the run. It was good, though, not unfairly difficult, in my opinion, especially if you're not doing deathless like me.  Clone Olaf sure happened, huh? This map was fine. Very weirdly laid out though.  gently caress this map. This was so god drat hard - this might beat Crystal Calamity as the hardest to do deathless. gently caress of War and tons of enemy rockets... blergh. Drake's CO Power is annoying as hell too.  This map was fun, but not nearly as hard as, like, any of the other lategame maps. It feels like it should have been earlier. I guess all the units were predeployed Kanbei units, though, which can be threatening.  This was a good one, I enjoyed beating it as stylishly as possible. Get hosed, Clone Andy.  This final map felt much more climactic than the ACTUAL final map, hence why I did the clone my dude thing on this map instead. It wasn't insanely hard, but it rewarded intelligent play. I liked this one.  Yeah this sure happened. It was fine, I guess. Very weird choice for a final map. Why the AI-controlled front, Intelligent Systems? Who hurt you?  And now we've approached the actual credits. But you know how this works by now - we don't want the actual credits, we want the LPAWDS credits!                                               Thus, our campaign comes to a close. Thank you all for being a part of it, and I hope you have all enjoyed it! This has been such a fun journey for me, and I'm gonna miss it, for sure. I may be back in future for Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict, but for now, this will be it, and I'm very satisfied with how these three LPs turned out. See you all again - thanks for reading!
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Dec 9, 2022 09:55
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I love these LPs and all the amazing characters you've written along the way. Selena and Lucy being such favourites has always been a genuine pleasure because I got to name them way back when so it always feels a little more personal. I'm looking forward to when you can manage DoR but for now congrats on going all the way through uni and finding a job at the end. Enjoy the break and I'll be waiting with eager anticipation for the next one.
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Dec 9, 2022 13:59
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My favorite thing about the final mission is that if you aren't frantically sending forces to the top to prevent a death you can just rush von bolts factories with plainswalker recons. It doesn't matter how many cities he caps down south if he can't build anything with them. It's every bit the wet fart of an end map you found it to be and should be mocked whenever possible.
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Dec 9, 2022 15:07
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Thanks so much for the excellent LP of one of my favourite games ever. Take your time on future projects. It doesn't even have to be AW, it can be something totally different! For me, this is where the series ends anyway. I've got a lot of childhood resentment towards Days of Ruin for a 'rocks fall everyone dies' style reboot!
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Dec 9, 2022 17:17
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That's a nice hook for the next game and a good way to incorporate it into the narrative. Fun fact: Days of Ruin was actually my first Advance Wars game. I had no idea it was supposed to be anything different and really enjoyed it. Your unit roster is more expansive and eclectic than I realized but that sure looked like a Fire Emblem finale!
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Dec 10, 2022 01:27
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Well done once again! It's been another fun ride.
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Dec 10, 2022 04:51
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Natural 20 posted:I love these LPs and all the amazing characters you've written along the way. Thank you so much for your kind words - and thanks for giving us two of the best LPAW characters! I'm definitely excited to do DoR, but yeah, I've got a lot on my plate currently, running some DnD campaigns for my friends and working on other projects in my spare time. But as per, I'll notify this thread whenever I do start another LP. FoolyCharged posted:My favorite thing about the final mission is that if you aren't frantically sending forces to the top to prevent a death you can just rush von bolts factories with plainswalker recons. It doesn't matter how many cities he caps down south if he can't build anything with them. Yeah, it's the least cool final map so far. Final Battle was hell, yes, but goddamn if it wasn't satisfyingly hard. I imagine it's probably not as bad when you're not playing in my rather ridiculous way, too; an acceptable level of difficulty. SoundwaveAU posted:Thanks so much for the excellent LP of one of my favourite games ever. Take your time on future projects. It doesn't even have to be AW, it can be something totally different! For me, this is where the series ends anyway. I've got a lot of childhood resentment towards Days of Ruin for a 'rocks fall everyone dies' style reboot! Honestly, I have debated having some other my dudes show up and doing LPs of other games sometime. I've wanted to play Dragon Quest Monsters on the GameBoy Colour, since I've only played the Joker games in that series, and there's plenty of other interesting things I might play. I'll definitely have a think - but again, whatever the game, it'll be a little while. DKII posted:That's a nice hook for the next game and a good way to incorporate it into the narrative. Fun fact: Days of Ruin was actually my first Advance Wars game. I had no idea it was supposed to be anything different and really enjoyed it. Thank you! I agonised for a while about what to do with DoR, but I figured this was the most fun idea - each DoR character can then have a LPAW stand-in. Plus it means I don't have to do it deathless, so it'll probably be a much more casual playthrough, which I could really do with... It is an eclectic bunch, isn't it? I love them all, though. My artist, @miss_akat on Instagram, has done such fantastic work throughout the LPs, drawing almost a hundred characters, sometimes in very short spans of time. Please give her a follow! Remalle posted:Well done once again! It's been another fun ride. Thanks kindly! It's been a pleasure seeing your comments, often first after a new part is uploaded. All the regulars have been such wonderful support, honestly - if it's been a fun ride, it's been because you guys were here. Thank you for that. * Seeing as we are at the end of the thread, may as well use this space for other things. I don't know if you will, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask and I shall do my best to answer. Additionally, would anybody be interested if I made a LPAW Discord server? I was thinking that might be a good place to notify people of new LPs, as well as arrange Advance Wars By Web battles - I believe some readers wanted to play that with me.
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Dec 10, 2022 09:27
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Yeah there's the "How DoR works" - Its DnD as run by my dude. Chill work for CP, and "These goons, only now in a time of peace" for the barracks. Anyone whos been on board with the narrative is gonna be here for it, I'm sure. Most of what I'd say here I said in Discord because direct DMs are way easier lol, but still... Impressive as always seeing Advance Wars so thoroughly turned into Fire Emblem. Especially this one where... y'know.... "When everyone's broken, no one is." Speaking of the discord idea... I'd be down, at least. (One more for the thread though: kinda like Natural 20's "Selena" and "Lucy" becoming what Selena and Lucy became... yeah, that's me with Rin. Thrilled the random lander girl grew into her own in such a huge way... And all because CP and I walked into each other on a mutual's discord server.)
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Dec 10, 2022 09:37
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I'm down with the Discord idea.
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Dec 10, 2022 11:59
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Alright, I've made a Discord server for LPAW readers and the like. Link here. It's not terribly exciting right now, but hey, if you want to keep up with LPAW happenings or do some Advance Wars By Web or whatever else, that's the place to be.
cosmicPostman fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Dec 12, 2022 |
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Dec 12, 2022 09:31
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I ran into this entire massive series recently when reading a TV Tropes article. I was astounded by the lengths Cosmic would go to keep his units alive. That was downright inspiring. The plot could get a little silly at times, but overall, I appreciated the actual effort put in to giving the nameless units names and voices. The little details - like giving Sonja glasses, which I'm pretty sure was a reference to her Japanese art - and the attention to detail among all the soldiers and their backstories was amazing. This was such a labor of love. I'm sad Mina never really got to do anything, because I loved her design and the thought of a naval variant to Petra, but I loved all the major characters so much. I was kinda iffy on the Director subplot to start with, but it felt like a natural evolution of the rest of the LPs so far, so it quickly became easy to get invested in. I don't think Days of Ruin / Dark Conflict needs any help to be a good narrative like the other three games do, so I'd be more than happy if CP stopped here, but I also wouldn't mind to see it all come together again one day. Simply smashing.
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Oct 4, 2023 12:51
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GloriousGoldenSun posted:I ran into this entire massive series recently when reading a TV Tropes article. Missed this, but thank you so much! It's been a while, but I really do miss doing AW every week, despite how busy and difficult it could be at times. I'm glad people are still finding and enjoying it! I've got a few other things in the works, hopefully, including a non-AW LP, and a few ideas for DoR/DC, but that's probably not going to be for a while yet.
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Oct 15, 2023 23:00
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cosmicPostman posted:Missed this, but thank you so much! It's been a while, but I really do miss doing AW every week, despite how busy and difficult it could be at times. I'm glad people are still finding and enjoying it! More like I missed this by a year! Heh. I actually got excited seeing the Discord link, but it was dead. Ah well. This was a lot of fun to read, and I lost a good two weeks binging it in between working on my credential. Totally worth every moment. The effort you put in to making the stories have any weight at all was really cool, and you expanded on War World in ways I'm sad Int Sys never tried. I heard that an inability to put in support conversations was why the series died, since they wanted something akin to Fire Emblem, and that's such a shame. I feel like DoR got everything right it possibly could... but the relative obscurity, the fact the translations added a lot of the best bits of writing, and where Int Sys was at the time meant no one got to experience that gem. This was really good, and I thank you for writing all of this. Good luck on all your future endeavors! At least in one interpretation of this series, two wonderful sisters got their happy ending.
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Oct 16, 2023 12:16
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