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COs in Combat: Sami vs. Flak

Difficulty: ***

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

On day 1, move your northeast mech two squares to the east, your artillery two squares north and three squares east, your rocket four squares north and one square east, and your medium tank to the south of the artillery. Move your bottom mech two squares up, your other mech into the APC, your anti-air three squares north and two squares east, and your APC to the east of the medium tank, dropping it eastward. Move your recon all the way to the right, your tank north fo the APC, your battle copters around the city mech/recon, and your anti-air between the two mechs. Flak will then move two units into view.

On day 2, use your battle copter to attack the medium tank in view and have your medium tank damage it further. Move your artillery and rocket to the right so that they are the two units immediately to the left of the medium tank. Move your other units closer to the river but do not have any other unit on a river tile or crossing it.

On day 3 through 6, use your indirect units (rocket and artillery) to fire first, focusing on damaging Flak's anti-airs, artillery, and medium tank from a distance. After you destroy the anti-airs and weaken the artillery and medium tanks, you can start advancing all your units across the river, particularly the battle copters. At that point, advance as far northeast as you can to take out Flak's units and you'll pick up the win.

COs in Combat: Max vs. Flak

Difficulty: ****

General Strategy:

The Challenge Campaign version of this map is much larger than the Classic Campaign version of the map. Build two infantry on the first day, and an infantry and APC on the second turn. On the next few turns, build two infantry on each base but move an infantry via APC as quickly as possible to capture the port. Continue to move every infantry eastward and try to capture any neutral property that's not in the laser cannon range.

Once you capture the port, build a battleship. You'll use that one battleship to damage and destroy the laser cannon, as well as any tanks, recons, and artillery that Flak attacks you with. After you take out that laser cannon, you'll be able to capture the neutral base on the far right. Then you can build a few more APCs to speed up the infantry going eastward. You can also build a lander to move some tanks across the narrow sea to weaken Flak as you round the northeast corner with your infantry to capture those bases. Once you have those, it's all about building tanks (and maybe a medium tank or two) to keep the pressure up on Flak so that you overwhelm his mechs at the northwest base.

COs in Combat: Andy vs. Flak

Difficulty: ***

General Strategy:

Compared to the Classic Campaign version, Flak has two bases to start with that are next to the cannon, and an extra two laser cannons. Also, the middle base is now in the range of the Black Cannon. You can also attacked from the left now due to bridges. Instead of capturing the middle base and base just to the east of the Black Cannon, take a transport copter to the northwest base and build an artillery there to take three shots at the Black Cannon and destroy it, while building battle copters and tanks to get the kills on the eastern side to get the perfect power score. To get the lab map, capture the city just north of the western mini-cannon.

COs in Combat: Sami vs. Flak

Difficulty: ****

General Strategy:

You're Sami here. You should build an infantry and APC on turn 1 so that you can begin moving infantry quickly around the bend. On the next few turns after that, build two infantry units and move one infantry towards capturing the two neutral bases in the northern forest. The other infantry units should be moving north and east. On most turns, you'll want to be building two infantry units from your HQ bases.

As you round the first bend with your infantry, the big problem you'll run into is that Black Cannon with the large range. You can take damage from it each turn as long as they're just normal infantry units and not anything more expensive. The key here will be making sure you build adequate support units up north to advance. This will likely mean a combination of artillery and mechs (and perhaps one medium tank) so that you can attack the units Lash accumulates up north. Meanwhile, in the south, your two infantry units per turn will heavily outnumber Lash's units in the south, allowing you to capture the neutral base and surrounding properties even though the Black Cannon's there.

As you close in on the Black Cannon with your mechs and artillery, you'll have a shot at taking down the Black Cannon. Once you destroy it, you'll be able to conquer even more neutral properties in the south. Ultimately, keep building the combination of units you've been building (infantry in the south, mechs and a few artillery in the north). Sami's CO power will allow you to move those foot soldiers across the map, and you'll want to bring a few APCs into the mix to move some units a bit quicker towards Lash's HQ. Add a few medium tanks and you'll be able to take all potential units on route to victory.

COs in Combat: Andy vs. Hawke

Difficulty: ***

General Strategy:

This is a Challenge Campaign mission, but it's a quick and easy one. Do not build any naval units. Only build aircraft from the airport that's in the middle and closest to Hawke. Prioritize building battle copters from day 1. Only build a fighter if you see Hawke build a fighter, and only build a bomber to destroy any cruiser that Hawke makes. Otherwise, move your units as far (generally north, sometimes east) as they can. Keep your battle copters outside cruiser range, and your planes outside fighter range, to allow Hawke to come to you first.

COs in Combat: Max vs. Adder

Difficulty: ****

General Strategy:

This Challenge Campaign mission is a Fog of War mission. The key to this mission is keeping your units relatively close together. You can't see that far ahead, so you don't want your fastest units to be way ahead of your average speed units. On day 1, move your units as far north as they can, but not too far east where it could get hit by Adder's indriect fire. On day 2, use your battle copters to strike Adder's units first, while leaving the anti-air for your tanks to damage. Otherwise, keep moving your units north.

On day 4, use your tanks to attack the northwest mini-cannon while lining up your indirects to fire on it from a distance and destroy it on day 5. As you round the corner, you can use your medium tank and battle copters to strike the next mini-cannon from the north and south, just out of mini-cannon range. At this point, your units will be a bit more dispersed, but as long as you have your recon close to the front line, you'll be able to spot anti-airs or indirects that could pose a threat.

As you get to the center, you'll want to get your rocket and artillery in range so that you can defend for a moment. Once you push through, you can use your battle copters to hit various Flak units across the river, including sending mechs onto the mountains across the river, to locate Adder's remaining units while your direct units round the bend. Your battle copters and mechs can then largely destroy Adder's units. If you need to regroup first because you've taken too much damage, you can wait for your remaining tanks and indirect units to round the last bend towards the final stretch before this final attack.

COs in Combat: Andy vs. Flak

Difficulty: *****

General Strategy:

On this map, you'll want to move up your units, using the orange city and the square northwest of it as defensive formations. Use recon and mechs/infantry for vision. Snipe the battleship and then the medium tanks, then march towards the lab and destroy the hidden rocket and capture the lab. Ignore the northern two hidden artillery, it'll slow you down and hurt you.

COs in Combat: OS CO vs. Flak

Difficulty: ********

General Strategy:

Choose Max. You won't be able to win the war in the west because Flak's factory builds will overwhelm you. Don't even bother doing that. Instead, your goal will be to move north with your infantry. Capture the neutral base between your HQ and the pipeline seem up north. Build infantry units every turn except when you can afford a tank or anti-air. Move those infantry, tanks, and anti-air northward and attack everything you can. Don't bother going after the neutral airport, but instead focus on capturing the base just south of the pipeline seem. Then build a medium tank at the base next to the pipeline seem to destroy it.

COs in Combat: Olaf vs. Lash

Difficulty: ****

Predeployed Units:

BM: Mech, APC, Tank
BH: Recon, Tank, Medium Tank, Artillery, Rocket

General Strategy:

The Challenge Campaign map is a variation of the Classic Campaign map. Both sides now start with predeployed units, and there are now pipeline seems to break through if you want to access the southeast part of the map. Build one infantry early to break the pipeline seem to capture the cities in the southeast. Build a mix of tanks, artillery, and infantry on your way westward. Be sure to capture the lab city, which is the southwest city on a small one-square island that links to other parts with two bridges, at around the same area as the Classic version.

COs in Combat: Grit vs. Adder

Difficulty: ****

General Strategy:

This plays fairly similarly to the Classic Campaign version, except you'll want to get to the missile silos. You have rockets. Grit is awesome with rockets. They fall in a single turn to medium tanks, though.

The mountains are your friend. The mountains will keep your rockets safe from all but mechs, and your recon will be as well. Starting day 2, let your rockets fly some damage onto the medium tanks that advance. When mechs arrive, take them out first, as they can kill your rockets easier. Use your recons as spotters for your rockets and artillery.

Adder's medium tanks are hindered by mountains and are forced to go all the way around to hit anything of yours that they see, so the only thing that will do big damage is mechs and the few medium tanks that may make it to the end.

Missile silos are your friend, too. The missile silos are on your side, so they will be you that fires them as long as your eastern mechs survive going east. Use them to hone down on enemy medium tanks. They have the impact of Sturm's Meteor Strike, except they only do 3 damage. They don't do much damage but they can be useful on medium tanks that really need to be weakened. Aim carefully, they'll even injure your units. No unit will have lower than 1HP, however.

COs in Combat: Colin vs. Lash

Difficulty: ****

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

In the Challenge Campaign version, Lash now starts with a rocket, recon, tank, artillery, medium tank, and anti-air. The middle of the map now has more bases, missile silos, and a laser cannon as well. Be careful to stay out of range of the laser cannon by not having any units on the road in range of the laser cannon.

On day 1, build three infantry. On day 2, build a tank. On day 3, move one infantry westward (to lure the recon) and two infantry southward towards capturing the southern airport and two cities. On day 4, use your tank to attack their recon and build three infantry. On day 5, build a second tank and complete the capture of the airport. On day 6, get your tanks in position to attack Lash's tank the next turn and use your APC as the lure for the tank.

On days 6 and 7, build an artillery and infantry on each turn and keeping moving units westward, including your infantry, outside of laser cannon range. The two artillery will be used to take out the laser cannon and later the medium tank from a distance. On later turns, build a mix of tanks (mostly), artillery (2 on the field), battle copters and anti-air (to combat Lash's copters), and more infantry when you can't afford anything else. Try to get to and fire off one of the centrally-located three missile silos and use your artillery to kill the laser cannon. But at this point, make sure you know your unit matchups and if you need a refresher, use the Unit Guide.

Once you reach the HQ area, you'll find that the area is surrounded by mountains for defensive protection. It may be useful to break down the units around the HQ with a combination of battle copters and tanks.

COs in Combat: BM CO vs. Flak

Difficulty: *****

General Strategy:

In the Challenge Campaign version, Lash starts with many predeployed units: four battle copters, a Neotank, a medium tank, a rocket, a tank, a mech, and an artillery. In contrast, you only get two tanks. As a result, this plays very differently from the original Classic Campaign version.

Play as Colin for his cheaper units. On day 1, move both tanks to the east and build three infantry. On day two, move the two western infantry north towards the missile silos and your eastern infantry towards the neutral cities. Keep your two tanks out of range of Lash's tank, and build three more infantry.

On day three, use your northernmost infantry to launch two missiles on the group of battle copters, mech, and artillery. Then use your tank to attack the enemy tank. Move all other infantry eastward, build an anti-air from the northern base, and build one more infantry in the eastern base.

On day four, launch another missile at the clump of battle copters, tank, and artillery, and the other one at the Neotank, medium tank, and rocket at the lab. Then move your anti-air up to begin taking out the battle copters, and your full-HP infantry units to start attacking the weakened clumped units. Move your remaining eastern tank up towards the neutral base. Build three more infantry.

On day five, use your tank to destroy the mech trying to capture the neutral base. Finish capturing cities in the southeast and move the easternmost infantry north. Move all other infantry east, even the one near the western airport. Build an APC from the eastern base and two more infantry.

On days six and seven, move the anti-air, APC, and all infantry but one towards the eastern neutral base. Use that last infantry to fire a missile on back-to-back days at the lab units. On day 8, begin taking the neutral base and moving up your tank and anti-air towards the lab, keeping your anti-air out of range of the other anti-air. Build a tank on days 8 and 9 from the eastern base near the HQ.

On day 9, finish capturing the eastern base and the two cities next to it, and attack with your tank, anti-air, and infantry units while staying out of artillery range. Move all other units up towards the HQ for a fight. On day 10, start building tanks each turn from the newly captured eastern base as well. Advance your days 1-5 infantry over to the HQ and then capture it for the win.

With your victory here, the Blue Moon forces will now be able to deploy Neotanks in upcoming missions.

COs in Combat: Olaf and Andy vs. Flak

Difficulty: *****

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

In the Challenge Campaign version, Olaf has the same number of units. But on the northern front, Andy has two more bombers and Flak has an additional Neotank. On the central front, Flak has two more anti-aircraft and two more tanks next to the missile silo, plus two of his medium tanks have been converted to Neotanks. Finally, on the southern front, he has an additional artillery at the pipeline seem, and one of his five battle copters have been converted to being a bomber.

First, you should destroy both pipeline seems in the east so that you can race Andy's air force to the southern front by day 3 to fight off Flak's air force. Second, save your Blue Moon infantry and mechs and leave them relatively unhurt before you start taking the eight cities. Flak has powerful units, but doesn't seem to know how to use them. He will move his big central front army east, but since he only has three rockets even near the silo, he doesn't really have that much of a chance. On the Challenge Campaign version, he'll push a bit further eastward.

On this mission, Andy should leave 1-2 bombers and 1-2 battle copters to wipe out everything on the northern front, to include the Neotank and missile. Then have Andy take out the pipeline seem. Olaf and Andy should break the pipeline seems in the east on both fronts so that Andy can bring his air force for the kill in the southern front. Make sure Andy's APC survives so you can refuel all your air units halfway through the 15 days. Before Andy's air force arrives in the south, you'll want to block those Neotanks and medium tanks from getting through with Andy's fighter or bomber. Before you attack with your air units, watch out for missile ranges every turn.

Meanwhile, Olaf should be trying to minimize damage from rockets while using the unit matchups (see Unit Guide) on the central front. On the southern front, target bombers, then anti-air. Have Olaf build a fighter and then battle copters to take out units on the southern front.

COs in Combat: Colin vs. Lash

Difficulty: ******

General Strategy:

You must survive for 14 days. In the Challenge Campaign version, you start with two tanks and a rocket, but Lash starts with two mechs and two infantry that are already at the mountain range, plus a battleship, two medium tanks, a tank, two recons, and an artillery.

Build two infantry on the early turns to take the three bases and the cities near you. Then guard the chokepoint by taking the neutral cities to the south, without advancing past the two mountains. Avoid indirect range at all possible. Defend with infantry on the front lines, not your tanks. Then build one anti-air and as many artillery as you can. Use the artillery units and your rocket to attack from a distance. Prioritize attacking the expensive units to damage and then destroy them. Use the anti-air against any bomber or battle copter that get close.

Take out all you can on defense, but Lash has too many units and too many bases. She'll capture all the neutral bases and properties near here and keep advancing. Do not worry about pushing her back, just take out everything at the chokepoint (two squares wide). You just have to survive for fourteen days.

COs in Combat: Grit vs. Lash

Difficulty: ******

General Strategy:

In the Challenge Campaign version, you start with two fewer medium tanks, and Lash brings more of a variety of direct and indirect units down. The mission is still a Fog of War mission.

Lash will make use of her three Black Cannons and units that hide on forest tiles. Take note of the three Black Cannons and their range each turn. Black Cannons do a lot of damage.

As long as you keep your units out of sight, Black Cannons can never attack you. Take cover in forests and make sure no enemy unit sees you. The enemies would have to find you first, and that takes two units. Advance slowly up the forest tiles, but keep your forces close enough together.

Move your recons and tanks first on turns for their higher vision range to reveal enemy units on the roads and elsewhere. Your indirects are powerful. Have them first fire first on enemies, and make sure to keep them alive. Focus on using your CO Power when you get it. You'll also want to save some tanks or a recon for the final assault on the units near the HQ. Sneak a tank, recon, or APC to the HQ through the forests and make it to the HQ.

COs in Combat: Grit and Max vs. Lash

Difficulty: *******

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

Lash started with no units in the Classic Campaign version. But in the Challenge Campaign version, Lash starts with three battle copters, a Neotank, two artilleries, two more anti-airs, a tank, and two recons. Blue Moon starts with the same setup. Orange Star starts with two more mechs and a rocket, and a tank has been swapped out for a medium tank. TWO A-AIR SWAP. That's because Lash's factory will also be building stronger units too (e.g. Neotanks).

This is a wide open map. For Blue Moon, Olaf is always a terrible choice for co-op maps where you control more than one army because Olaf's CO powers also hurt allied COs. Colin and Grit are both decent options if you can put up an infantry wall for Grit to build artillery units. For Orange Star, the choices are less clear cut, but I'd recommend Max because of the benefit that direct units have on open maps. You'll want to give Max at least the neutral base and cities on the left. You'll also want to build a defensive wall so that units can't just sneak around your defensive positions.

On day 1, have Grit build three infantry units. Have Max move towards capturing the nearby neutral base and the two neutral cities, and move all other units northeast.

On day 2, have Grit build an artillery and an infantry. Have both Grit and Max continue capturing nearby properties. Keep moving Max's units slightly northeast. While doing so, keep everything but your anti-airs out of battle copter range, and everything but your medium tank outside of tank range.

On day 3, keep capturing properties with both COs. With Grit, build three infantry to surround his artillery. With Max, continue to keep your most expensive units out of range the same way as in day 2, and let Lash attack Max's mechs on the front line instead. Defensive walling, luring, and waiting for the enemy to attack your less expensive units (mechs and infantry) before using your stronger, more expensive units that have been shielded is key on this mission for both Max and Grit.

From now on, Grit should keep capturing cities as the map turns from a predeployed mission to a base deployment mission. Grit should prioritize building artillery and infantry (anti-air if there's a bomber), and keeping infantry within artillery range near the HQ so that anything that attacks Grit's infantry gets artillery fire the next turn. Grit should also get infantry to fire off the two nearby missiles. Move your artillery up gradually, but make sure there's an infantry unit between the enemy and the artillery units. Use your artillery units to prioritze destroying indirect units, then damaging Neotanks and medium tanks. Use Snipe Attack when you have it.

Meanwhile, follow the unit guide matchups with Max to take out the remaining advancing tanks and copters. Max should build infantry until he can capture the airport and build a bomber, then build anti-air, tanks, or battle copters after that.

From day 9 or so onward, Grit will become the primary attacking CO due to his higher amount in funds. In the meantime, have Max advance anti-airs and all other remaining units towards the northwest airport to destroy the units around it and then capture it. Use Grit's advancing infantry and artillery to destroy everything in front of the factory, then block all three openings. Remember to build an anti-air or two so that you can counter any units Lash builds from the factory.

At the end, focus on attacking the left side of the factory with Max and Grit. At this point, you can have Max blow up the seem with a bomber to guarantee speed points and risk losing power points, or have Grit deliver the final blow to the seem to get the higher power points but risk potential speed points.

COs in Combat: Kanbei vs. Flak

Difficulty: ****

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

In the Challenge Campaign version, the northeast and southwest islands are now connected with additional bridges which each have a base and two missiles, and the base on the central island is now gone. Black Hole also now starts with six predeployed units: two battle copters, two rockets, and a submarine on each lake. Meanwhile, you just have an APC and mech.

On day 1, move the mech into the APC and drop it southward so that the mech can get to the missile silo by day 3 to fire it at the battle copters, rocket, and sub. Then use that mech on the next two turns to capture the neutral base. Use the APC on later turns to assist with moving infantry westward.

Build mostly infantry the next several turns and move them to the south and west to capture neutral properties. The exception is Day 4, where you should build an anti-air as one of your units to take out the battle copters coming your way. From Day 7 onward, start building at least one tank per turn to challenge Flak's tanks, roughly evenly among the three fronts, along with your usual infantry deployments. Fire off any missile silos when you can to deny Flak the ability to do the same, and on the most expensive clumps of units that you see.

Once you've largely cleared resistance around the south-central base, build an APC from the southeast base so you can transport an infantry towards the HQ for a HQ capture.

COs in Combat: Sonja vs. Adder

Difficulty: *******

General Strategy:

Adder has more land, air, and sea units, but this otherwise plays mostly the same as the Classic Campaign version. For the first several turns, you'll want to build as many infantry as possible, backed by a few anti-airs (2-3), a few artillery (2-3), tanks (1-2), and a recon to defend against Adder's initial assault. You'll use those infantry to form a wall on the west side to absorb attacks from bombers, battle copters, the medium tank, and artillery in the initial assault. Use tanks for anything that you can't reach, artillery to kill every land unit, two A-Airs to wipe out any sort of air, and infantry for a defensive boundary. Keep building a lot of infantry and artillery units throughout the mission, and make sure to have a few anti-air on standby for any bombers or battle copters.

By day 2, two recons will arrive. On days 4 and 5, Adder will bring two more recons, a tank, and an anti-air. On day 6 comes the bomber and another recon. On day 7 comes two battle copters and medium tank. Adder will also begin trying to capture the northern base to deploy units. Make sure to attack the mech that tries to do that so Adder doesn't do that. On day 8, another mech and artillery, but that's the end of the initial attack. By day 12 or so, you should clear the initial assault force.

As you advance on the eight mini-cannons, be aware of where Adder has units. He's got a Neotank, tank, and medium tank on the south side that you'll have to clear. In both seas, he will have a submarine and a battleship. You can clear those with artillery units from a distance, or build a submarine after capturing the two ports. You'll want to capture the northern port regardless so that Adder doesn't keep deploying units from that port. To the northwest of the mini-cannons, Adder will camp with two battle copters and a rocket. You'll want to clear those before wrapping up the mission. Finally, take the southwest city, which is the lab city, to unlock the secret Mission 20.

COs in Combat: Sensei vs. Adder

Difficulty: *****

General Strategy:

This is basically an enlarged version of the Classic Campaign map. There's an extra airport, and more room to maneuver with. However, there are two cruisers lurking around. You can build enough battle copters to outnumber the cruisers to beat them with pure numbers. As they are also your offensive force, you should land infantry in the eastern peninsula and inch up with battle copter help. Watch out for missiles in the northeast.

First build a transport copter, which you'll use to bring infantry across the narrow sea to capture the neutral base and two neutral airports above. Build a recon as your first non-infantry unit to spot the cruisers, then build two battle copters after that to attack and weaken the cruisers after you spot them first. In the north, you'll want to keep transporting and building infantry to keep capturing properties and move northward and beware of the hidden rocket that is on the forest tile across the sea north of one of the neutral cities.

In the south, don't immediately advance more than one square beyond the neutral base that you capture, as you'll be overextended in the forest. Build two tanks from that base to weaken their advancing anti-air and tank, and use your two battle copters to finish it off. As you advance on the southern front, build about an equivalent number of tanks (to challenge the anti-aircraft units) and battle copters (to attack the other units and the mini-cannons). As you close in on the HQ in the north, beware of Adder's missile on his HQ.

COs in Combat: Sami and Kanbei, Sonja, or Sensei vs. Adder

Difficulty: *******

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

Gold Comet now starts with a mech, tank, APC, battleship, sub, and cruiser. Sami still has her four naval units. However, Adder starts with four more Neotanks, two more tanks, an anti-air. In the back, Adder switched out a battle copter for a bomber, and added one more bomber.

Choose Sensei. Mostly build infantry/mechs (front line base) to wall and to capture properties until day 9 or so. But your first air unit should be a fighter, on day 3 or 4, and build an anti-air with it. With your battleships, prioritize destroying rockets, the cruiser, and the missile. Otherwise, have them damage the most expensive and strongest units you can (e.g. Neotanks), as you don't need to kill anything till Adder's Neotanks come.

The biggest early factor to consider is Adder's ability to add 1-2 movement on his bombers and cruiser through his CO powers on days 2 (Sideslip CO Power) and 3 (Sidewinder Super CO Power). You need to keep 3 of your 4 battleships alive through it. Keep a close eye on bomber and cruiser range each turn in relation to Sensei's units and factor in that 1-2 movement. Retreating Sami's units southward isn't a good option, because it only costs time and delays Adder's use of the power. Instead, let Adder use the Super CO Power with a bomber to attack one of your battleships. Just make sure your other naval units are out of distance of the other two bombers after factoring in the +2 movement, particularly your Gold Comet units.

You may be able to lure one or two bombers by having infantry units capturing the island properties, or having an APC there. Use your cruiser, anti-air, and fighter to challenge the bombers after they strike, and start building as many battle copters as you can the rest of the way. As you continue to fire on enemies with your three remaining battleships, use your naval and air units to finish off Adder's remaining naval units following the unit guide matchups.

Once you've wiped out virtually all the naval and land units up to the HQ island, have at least five battle copters lined up just outside of missile range south of the HQ island. Once they're lined up, have them attack with an eye on taking out their missile and two anti-airs, and attacking the units around them to get to those units. You'll have two heavily damaged battle copters as a result, but Sensei's battle copters can still mostly match up with the anti-airs when attacking first. Keep building and using battle copters to attack the remaining northern units unless you've defeated them all and you've won.

COs in Combat: Kanbei vs. Adder

Difficulty: ******

General Strategy:

On Challenge Campaign, you get an additional medium tank and two anti-air. West of the river, Adder gets an additional anti-air, two medium tanks, recon, and mech. Just east of the river, Adder's medium tank has been replaced by a rocket, and Adder has two additional artillery. In the southeast, Adder has one fewer mech and one fewer infantry, but two additional Neotanks.

This mission is a bit more challenging, but the tactics are the same. Speed isn't on your side. The trick is to take out the laser cannons (which attack on every even turn) with a rocket from range, and use mechs to finish them off. Avoid getting hit by the laser cannons before you take them out. Move the tanks eastward as far as you can without having most indirects get the first strike on them. Adder's infantry and mechs will start capturing your cities on Day 5, and finish taking them on Day 12 if you're not careful. Utilize those indirect units and the bridge to your advantage. Stay out of BH indirect range, and use your tanks and Super Power to mow through them when the time comes and you shouldn't really even lose many units.

Remember to join units if the tanks get weakened. They are your major offensive weapon. Decimate those forces at the bridge, and then, after you've had the city situation under control, pull back some tanks to take care of that final Black Hole hold in the south-central portion of the map while also crushing those rockets with rapid-moving tanks. So, take out laser cannons in days 4 and 8, smash their forces from the back then march through and stop BH from taking your final city on Day 12. Advance to the south to take out the remaining units.

COs in Combat: Sonja vs. Lash

Difficulty: *****

General Strategy:

In the Challenge Campaign version, your central front tanks are now medium tanks. On the eastern front, you lose your artillery. On the western front, your mech gets moved a bit forward. However, these slight changes pale in comparison to the additional units that Lash now has to push towards your HQ.

Move your non-mech units as close to the mountain ranges as possible. Always have a medium tank on the HQ. Hide your HQ rocket on a forest tile and keep your four HQ units at the HQ. With your indirects, prioritize weakening and destroying rockets and artillery first, then weakening the strongest direct units like Neotanks and medium tanks second so they can't do significant damage to your central front medium tanks. The others you can match with your tanks. You'll want to have your indirects firing as much as you can, so move them whenever they can't hit anything.

Don't advance mechs or your central front tanks to the middle till Lash only has a few units left or looks like she has no chance of taking your HQ, which should be somewhere around day 7.

COs in Combat: Sensei vs. Adder

Difficulty: *******

General Strategy:

In the Challenge Campaign version, Adder's got way, way more units. In the northwest, Adder has one fewer anti-air and two fewer rockets, but has two more Neotanks, another medium tank, three more tanks, two more artillery, and two more infantry. In the southwest, Adder has an extra medium tank, artillery, tank, and anti-air. In the east, he's got several additional units as well.

Sensei must destroy the three minicannons to win. From the southwest, take out the seams to bring reinforcements from the south to the north. Also you don't have allied cities in the northeast corner for no reason. You will get soldiers from there when you use the CO Power or the Super Power and that'll allow you to access the missiles to fire on Adder's forces.

Don't get fooled by the two-front war. There is really only one. You want your air force to reach your home base ASAP to save it, which means your entire air force except for a bomber should be blowing through the seems. However, since you can't send everything at the seems once, you can use your remaining bombers and battle copters to destroy Adder's land units in the south while you wait.

From that northern base, build only medium tanks for defense, as nothing else stands a chance of surviving. You'll get run over up north, but after your bombers and battle copters arrive, it'll become much easier to fight back. The first CO Power that you should use is a Super CO Power so that you can use those mechs to take out the tanks, rocket, and missile in the northeast and have access to the northeast missiles to fire on the large northwestern force. At the end, build an APC to refuel those bombers, then use them to take out the minicannons after those units are cleared.

COs in Combat: Sensei and Max vs. Adder

Difficulty: ********

General Strategy: Choose Sensei/Kanbei and Max. There's three minicannons on one island. A minicannon guards the pipeline seem. Adder has 3 bases and close to 4. He also has a pesky factory.

In the Challenge Campaign version, Gold Comet starts with an infantry, APC, anti-air, tank, and recon. Orange Star starts with two infantry. However, Adder has nineteen more units that make it more difficult for Orange Star and Gold Comet to claim properties and attack the pipeline seem. Adder has a northern sub, a tank, recon, and rocket on the center-left island, a rocket and missile which protect the pipeline seem, and a mech near the factory to oppose Max. In the south, Adder adds a southern sub and cruiser, a Neotank, a medium tank, two tanks, a missile, a rocket, two artillery, a mech, and an APC. Most of those units arrive at your Gold Comet units by the end of Day 4.

Your objective is to take out the pipeline seem. For Sensei or Kanbei, you'll want a combined force of just about everything. Make sure to keep your tank out of range on turn 1 so you can get the first strike on the tank the next turn. You'll ultimately be making use of the unit matchups after that. First, build three artillery in addition to a few infantry to take land. Use a mixture of mechs and artillery to hold ground for the first several turns. Afterwards, use a mixture of mechs (with APCs), artillery, and anti-aircraft to continue to advance. Don't bother with trying to win the naval war until you have a decent hold of the southwest corner, as Adder just builds too many naval units from the factory. In the later game, add some tanks and naval units to advance. You can use a battleship to take out the mini-cannons on route towards the pipeline seem.

With Max, you'll want to have another infantry built, to take the three properties on your island. Your first naval unit should be a submarine so that you can fight the enemy submarine and the enemy battleship. Then grab the airport and the two cities near it ASAP. With it, use it to build a bomber when you have the money, then a fighter to protect that bomber, and then a few bombers and as many battle copters as you can make. Use these to destroy the four cannons in the middle, as well as all naval units like cruisers and any anti-airs and missiles that are in the way.

For a high point total, watch out on power points and make sure to kill a lot of units in one go. This concludes the Gold Comet Campaign, but the hardest has yet to come.

COs in Combat: Eagle vs. Hawke

Difficulty: ******

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

In the Challenge Campaign version, the mission has been flipped from horizontal to vertical. Both sides have more units. Eagle has an additional two bombers, two battle copters, two battleships, and two cruisers on the sides. Meanwhile, Hawke has two fewer fighters, but six more battle copters, two more cruisers, two more subs, six more Neotanks, two more artillery, and two more anti-airs. Hawke has also moved two of his cannons up to the front lines. Focus on protecting your bombers so that they can destroy the eight cannons.

You'll need to destroy all 8 cannons. On Day 1, move everything as far up as you can north. On the same day Hawke will run into your trap. On Day 2, use fighters against fighters, cruisers, and battle copters on battle copters (to weaken battle copters and kill two of them) on Day 2. Hawke then uses his Super CO Power. Keep advancing all other units north but make sure to keep the bombers out of cruiser range.

Prepare a formation outside submarine, cruiser, and cannon range on Day 3 for the assault on Day 4. Have bombers in front on day 3, followed by battle copters and then fighters. On day 4, launch the assault and attack the front line Neotanks, artillery, anti-air, and cannons. After going through your turn, use your Super CO Power and complete the destruction of the four front mini-cannons. During the two Day 4 turns, use fighters against battle copters, bombers against cruisers, anti-air, and cannons, cruisers against subs. Beware of back line cruisers and missiles on the island - you'll save those for the next assault. Move your battleships up as well so they don't get destroyed by Hawke's subs, who will eventually run out of fuel.

As you take the next few turns attacking the remaining units on and around the island, don't bother with attacking the four front-line anti-airs. Instead, on day 5, pull back and combine your weakened units so that they're closer to full health, and focus on attacking up the sides. Be sure to keep checking missile ranges so you're only attacking one missile/anti-air at a time. Bombers should lead the assault starting on day 6 on anti-air, cruiser, and missile units. After you destroy those, utilize the Day 8 Super CO Power to sweep the remaining cannons for the win.

COs in Combat: Drake vs. Hawke

Difficulty: *******

General Strategy:

In the Challenge Campaign version, you get an extra battleship, but no longer have an APC on the island next to your navy. Hawke also now has a lot more artillery and rocket units parked around the lake.

With Drake, you want to dive your subs and move your battleships south on reefs. Watch out for the range of the Black Cannons, which extend to just south of the island next to Drake's naval units. Also watch out for rockets around the southern part of the lake in particular. You can use your subs to spot them, and 1-2 battleships south to take the rockets and Black Cannons. You'll also need to damage a lot of Drake's units with the remaining 2-3 battleships so that you can get the full power rating. With Kanbei, your goal is to stem the tide of Hawke's tank, artillery, recon, and infantry forces, with a recon for vision, infantry as front line troops, and artillery for defense.

On day 1, have Drake build infantry and use your northeast battleship to fire on the rocket. Move your other battleships onto reefs to the west, south, and northeast and dive submarines for vision. Keep your cruisers in the middle - they aren't very useful on this map and only serve as bait. You'll want to refuel your subs every single turn for the first several turns at Drake's one port. Have Drake build an infantry every turn, and Kanbei build two infantry this turn.

On day 2, have your battleships focus on attacking rockets. If in range of rockets, move the battleship out of range or onto a reef. Focus primarily on rockets to your southwest, which can pose a problem later when you attack the Black Cannons. Have Kanbei start capturing cities, and build one infantry and one recon. Keep doing the same on day 3, except build two infantry with Kanbei and use your recon to attack the recon.

On day 4, start moving your battleships and sub southward. Have Kanbei continue weaken the recon and build one infantry and that first artillery unit. On day 5, really focus on taking out the southwest rockets on route to the Black Cannons. You can begin moving the most fueled subs down towards the HQ where you'll use your APC to refuel one to two subs each turn. With Kanbei, you'll begin to really capture cities and move up your infantry towards the northeast base.

From this point onward, move your subs down for vision and your battleships down to attack any rockets, then any Black Cannons. Move your lander down once you've cleared the path. There will likely be a rocket just two squares east of the eastern Black Cannon you'll want to reveal. Take that out and then use battleships to destroy the eastern cannon. As you continue to advance, make your way through the reefs because there will likely be a second rocket that's two squares south and one square west of the destroyed eastern cannon.

In the meantime, have Kanbei keep advancing northward and taking cities, using infantry to guard artillery units that can fire on the tanks that advance on you. In the late game, after you have Kanbei capture the northeast base, start building tanks to keep advancing up the coast.

As you advance on the western cannon, you'll meet more resistance. Take that lander down so you can transport some infantry units over to south of the cannons for vision purposes, to reveal any rocket, tank, or anti-air that's in the way. Remember to continue to fuel your diving subs, as they take up fuel like no other. Keep your battleships on reefs or out of range as you take out their rocket and then the Western Cannon.

COs in Combat: Jess vs. Lash

Difficulty: ********

General Strategy:

Now in command of a shiny new navy and Neotanks in the Challenge Campaign version, Lash has made the 17-day limit much more challenging. The Challenge Campaign version replaces one of Jess's infantry with a mech and adds two tanks and a medium tank. However, Lash now has two rockets and an artillery around the docked battleships. Additionally, Lash has an additional two anti-airs, two Neotanks, and artillery on the mainland, a mech on the northeast island, and two subs in the water.

In the first few turns, you need to keep attacking and moving northeast about as quickly as you can. Your tanks, recon, and medium tanks can serve as the first line as defense, backed up by artillery, rockets, and medium tanks. But at the same time, use and wall off your most important units, which includes both anti-air, both artillery, the rocket, and at least two foot soldiers. You must keep them all alive in the first several turns in order to complete the mission in time. You can afford to lose a few foot soldiers and/or direct units in the process, as long as it's not all of them.

Meanwhile, after you capture the neutral port, start by building lander to lure the two subs down. Then build two cruisers, and then a lander to move a foot soldier to the northwest island to capture the lab city (southern of the two cities). You'll use the other foot soldiers to capture the central-east and southeast base so you can build anti-air and artillery units. As you advance up the western path, make sure your units are within anti-air distance so your anti-air can take out any attackers. As you do so, clear out both rockets with your remaining direct land units to clear room for your artillery and take out the bomber and battle copters that come attack you. Keep building artillery units and a battleship or two to damage Lash's battleships, as indirects will do more damage than your directs and you should come out with the victory.

COs in Combat: Jess, Eagle, or Drake vs. Hawke

Difficulty: *********

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

You must take enemy lab in a 10-day limit, which means that you must win on day 9. On the Classic Campaign version, you started with a battleship, cruiser, a medium tank, anti-air, and two recons. Instead, on the Challenge Campaign version, you start with two battle copters, a cruiser, a rocket, and a mech. It's beneficial to play as Eagle due to the mobility of battle copters, and because Hawke only has one anti-aircraft on the field.

This is a Fog of War map. Black Hole has three battle copters coming from the north, a tank, a recon, and a hidden rocket. Don't build from the right base until you can bring units from the west. On day 1, build a recon from the central base, then use your rocket to attack the Neotank. Move up your battle copters and move your cruiser to an eastern reef, and build an anti-air from the western base. Do not build units from the eastern base for the first six turns so that Hawke's units keep moving westward.

On day 2, move your recon up two squares to reveal the rocket, artillery, and medium tank. Use your rocket to attack the enemy rocket, and build an infantry in the central base, which you will then use to capture the airport. In the meantime, line up your western battle copters just outside of the enemy battle copter ranges. On day 2, build a battle copter and an infantry from both the western and central bases. You'll want your rocket to target indirects, the enemy anti-air, and the Neotanks/medium tanks.

On day 3, use your cruiser and battle copters to attack and largely destroy the enemy battle copters, and build a bomber from your western airport, which you'll use in later turns to blow up the pipeline seem towards the HQ. Hawke will arrive with the rocket, two artillery units, several tanks of various types, and an anti-air. At this point, build an artillery unit in the central base to blow up the seem, but otherwise build battle copters from the airports the rest of the way.

On day 4, capture the central base airport and destroy remaining units on the left side. On day 5 onward, use your artillery to attack from a distance and advance your battle copters and other units towards the middle, with your bomber damaging the pipeline seem towards the HQ. Damage and destroy the pipeline seem as quickly as you can towards the lab. Your units should be at the lab by day 7 if not earlier. You will want to hurry your bomber through to take out an anti-air or infantry at the lab in the northeast in particular. As you advance, beware of the remaining rocket and medium tank. Your battle copters will serve you well here.

COs in Combat: Eagle vs. Adder

Difficulty: ********

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

In the Challenge Campaign version, Adder has an extra medium tank and bomber in the south, four centrally-based infantry surrounding Sami in all directions, and an extra medium tank up north. In the east, Adder has an extra fighter, bomber, Neotank, missile, recon, tank, aircraft, AND anti-air. (two fewer NW bcopters).

Unlike in the Classic Campaign version, you'll want to race through the enemy lines to save Sami quickly, while avoiding the laser cannons which fire every day as well as the anti-airs (check cannon fire range every turn). Remember to save your bombers to attack mini-cannons and to keep spending your money building planes. You might actually want to them to suicide-kill the three farther ones with them.

On day 1, move all of Eagle's units westward, but make sure to avoid the ranges of the two eastern laser cannons and the anti-air. Build two infantry. With Sami, move the mechs and APCs towards the cities, where they can heal and be better defended. Adder's eastern air force will move west towards the

On day 2, send Eagle's forces west to destroy most of Adder's southern forces. Do not advance on the laser cannons yet. Instead, following the unit matchups, use your three fighters and against Adder's three bombers, use your anti-airs and battle copters against the battle copters, and use your bombers against the medium tank and anti-air. Make sure your units avoid the range of the eastern cannons, missile, and rocket. With Sami, attack any infantry in range and keep in mind that Adder may use his Sidewinder Super CO Power to get +2 movement range. Make sure you have at least an anti-air or missile surviving into day 3.

On day 3, send Eagle's direct units north to destroy the missile, rocket, and tank. Advance your fighters and bombers as far as north as they can and do enough damage to trigger the meter for the Super CO Power. Build a battle copter, destroy the southeastern cannon with one of the bombers, and then use your Super CO Power. Have your fighters focus on attacking Adder's bombers and fighters above Sami's units, and your bombers to destroy the two eastern anti-aircraft units. Move all units north or northwest, and keep building battle copters whenever you have money to build them that you move towards the central battleground. Then use Sami's anti-air/missile, whatever you have left, to attack any fighters or bombers, and Sami's mechs the rest of the way to attack any units that get in range of your mechs on the cities.

On day 4, watch out again for Adder's Sidewinder Super CO Power. Keep using fighters vs. fighters and battle copters, bombers against rockets and Neotanks in the east, and have your battle copters advance to Sami's stronghold to take out Adder's battle copters and land units. From this point onward, use one turn to get two bombers within range of the northeast missile and cannon, then attack both on the same turn. Then focus on using Eagle's bombers and battle copters to attack the northern defenses (by around day 6) consisting of the missile, anti-air, and rockets. This will allow Eagle to damage the northwest cannon unharmed, and you can sneak some battle copters over to damage the southwest cannon. Remember to also bring your APC northwest to refuel all your air units before your final assault on the western cannons around day 11 or 12.

COs in Combat: Drake vs. Hawke

Difficulty: *******

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

The Challenge Campaign version is completely different from its Classic Campaign counterpart. You start with two anti-airs, three cruisers, and an infantry, but Hawke will start with six battle copters and two bombers.

On day 1, move your anti-air and cruisers eastward as far as you can towards the bombers and battle copters. Move your infantry towards the southwest neutral base, and your lander to the port. Build an infantry.

On day 2, have one infantry move towards the southwest neutral base and begin capturing it. Move your other infantry into the lander and have it sail east towards the north-central island. Move your anti-airs and cruisers a bit east, but out of range of the bombers and battle cruisers, which will arrive at the end of day 2. Have your cruisers close to the anti-airs in the middle so they can attack any adjacent airplanes that arrive.

On day 3, begin your attack with your anti-airs and cruisers on the bombers and battle copters. Focus on targeting the bombers first, then attack the battle copters. Complete capturing the southwest base and build an anti-air from the northern base. Drop off your infantry on the north-central island with your lander. Move all other units as far east as you can.

On day 4, you'll have lost two cruisers. Use your Super CO Power. With the northern infantry you dropped off, use it to launch a missile at Hawke's air units, with a focus on any airplanes over the sea that you can't target with anti-airs. With the anti-airs and cruisers you do have, destroy or damage the bombers and battle copters over the center of the map. Return your lander westward. Build an anti-air and infantry unit from your two western bases on every turn after this, moving the anti-airs as far east as you can towards Hawke's units and moving your infantry towards capturing neutral properties, particularly the southwest neutral port.

On day 5, use your remaining anti-airs to damage any remaining air units that you can target. The remaining damaged units will now retreat to heal at the airports. In the meantime, move your western lander back to the northern port. Continue to build and move units as previously mentioned.

On day 6, build a southern lander from your newly captured port, which you'll use to transport infantry to the southern islands to capture those properties. Use your northern lander to transport infantry towards the central base where your anti-airs are closing in on, and keep moving all your other units east.

On future turns, continue to advance. Keep building infantry and anti-air from the western two bases. It will seem like you're building a lot of the same units, but Hawke has many airports to deploy air units from and he'll deploy many battle copters and some bombers. The endless line of anti-air units will help you outnumber the bombers. Use those infantry you build to keep capturing properties. Continue to move units eastward. Keep your anti-airs and missiles out of immediate artillery and aircraft range and wait for those units to get closer before attacking them. Target artillery and bombers first. With any remaining neutral missiles, use them to primarily target bombers and tanks. Do not allow Hawke to capture the central base or the airport just to the east of it.

As you get several more turns in, around day 12, you can let the land units advance past the easternmost bridge. That'll allow your anti-airs to attack more than one unit at a time. You can point your missile at the southern airport so that the missile gets the first shot at any bomber or battle copter that gets built there.

Once you have good control over the island just west of Hawke's HQ island, send landers with an anti-air and an infantry unit towards both the northeast and southeast islands. That'll allow you to neutralize any aircraft they build from there or attack there, and you can use infantry units to capture those airports. Once you capture the central neutral base, keep building primarily anti-airs. You can build a tank, an APC, and/or a missile to fight off tanks or aircraft, or to refuel your units.

Once you get several anti-air units on the HQ island, now's the time you can build air units safely. You can build bombers, battle copters, and medium tanks at this point to sweep Hawke's remaining forces without getting beaten in the air given Drake's weaker air units. Keep building as many units at the end as well if you don't want to lose technique points.

COs in Combat: Jess vs. Hawke

Difficulty: ********

General Strategy:

In the Challenge Campaign version, Jess starts with two tanks, an anti-air, an APC, and two infantry. However, Hawke now starts with eight mechs around the volcano, plus two medium tanks, two tanks, two recons, and a rocket. If you want to go for a quicker HQ capture, focus your attack on the north. If you want to go for a total KO, you'll want to attack on both fronts. Don't attack the mechs until they leave the mountains, and watch for the volcano patterns. Remember that you can manipulate the volcano pattern by luring units into the lava.

Grab the northern bases ASAP. The mechs will congregate west and north of the volcano. Build infantry from every base on every single turn unless you can afford an APC, tank, or artillery. Build that APC on turn two, mostly build tanks, but otherwise make sure you have at least one artillery on each front to take on any medium tanks.

Your infantry can be a wall to defend your artillery, and even tanks before they're ready to strike. Use artillery and tanks against just about everything, and infantry against infantry, mechs, and indirect units. Join units if they get injured badly, and keep capturing cities one by one until you take the money advantage. It's very possible to win in 26 days or less and get the full speed score if you stick to building just infantry, tanks, and artillery, and the more expensive medium tanks only at the very end.

COs in Combat: Eagle, Max, & Kanbei vs. Hawke

Difficulty: *********

General Strategy:

In the Challenge Campaign version, Hawke starts with a lot of extra predeployed units. In the north, Hawke has an extra two recons, tank, two artillery, an anti-Air, rocket, tank, and medium tank. On the south side, Hawke has two extra battleships, two subs, three cruisers, a missile, and a mech. Only the southern mech is a threat because of its base capturing abilities - the main threats are to the north. You can avoid fighting in the sea entirely and just focus on winning on the northern land front with Max and Eagle, and on taking the central-east island with Kanbei.

With all three COs, build infantries over the first several days. On days that you can afford to purchase more units, have Eagle build battle copters (w/ one transport copter) and Max build tanks (and later anti-airs when Eagle's battle copters and bombers arrive). Have Max capture the six cities directly to the south and the two cities to the east of Max's base. With Eagle, capture all cities on Eagle's home island and the neutral properties to the north. With Kanbei, capture all four neutral cities. Meanwhile, have Kanbei sneak the lander past sub range and get two infantry to the southeast island. Hawke's southeast sub won't move or attack your lander as long as you're out of the sub's range.

A few days in, as you advance your infantry to capture those cities, Hawke's predeployed land units will put up some resistance, and also fire some missiles at your units. Delay the use of your missiles to target only the most expensive land and expensive air units (e.g. Neotanks, medium tanks, rockets, and bombers).

With Max, advance with your tanks, plus 1-4 anti-air units (adding more over time) against Hawke's battle copters, bombers, and fighters. Max should build from both bases for every single turn in the game. With Eagle, advance with battle copters and the predeployed tank and mech. Keep in mind the unit matchups, particularly against anti-air and aircraft, and watch out for the northern Black Cannon attacking any of Eagle's non-infantry units in range.

Meanwhile, with Kanbei, build an artillery and drop it off to the southwest of the southeast mini-cannon and within range of the Black Cannon, which you'll use to destroy both the artillery and the southeast mini-cannon. Afterwards, send the lander back to the southeast island and transport two medium tanks over to take out Hawke's forces, particularly the mechs. Then use your lander to bring over infantry units to capture all those eastern properties. Kanbei can build whatever direct land units at this point until advancing to the pipe to tackle Hawke's primarily mech army, with building one anti-air helpful for any air units that arrive.

After Max and Kanbei have control of the bridges west of the northern Black Cannon island, have Eagle save money for one turn. Eagle will use that money to build a bomber from his newly captured neutral airport and destroy the northern Black Cannon so you can move units south of the Black Cannon too, not just north of it (and the north-facing mini-cannon covering part of that island). With Kanbei, use the artillery to back up your medium tank as a second strike as you advance towards Hawke's base to take it.

As you take the northern Black Cannon, and you capture more properties, Hawke will have a lot of bombers, fighters, and battle copters. You should start building more anti-airs for Max and fighters for Eagle to win air supremacy. That will allow you to hold the northern Black Cannon island.

As you prepare to cross the bridges towards Hawke's factory, Hawke will try to capture the central island airports. Instead of those battle copters previously, have Eagle build a mix of mostly fighters and some bombers to maintain your new air supremacy. With Eagle, transport infantry to capture the next neutral airport to the east that's now free to take. Max should continue to build a mix of anti-air, tanks, and medium tanks. On the central-east island, Kanbei should build medium tanks and artillery to maintain supremacy over the island chain as Kanbei advances towards Hawke's remaining base in the northeast, with artillery units chipping away at units to allow your medium tanks to KO Hawke's units across the last bridge.

As Kanbei moves towards taking Hawke's airport and base in the northeast, have Kanbei build a rocket to target the mini cannon from distance. Eagle should take out some of the northern mini-cannons and take fighter supremacy above the island south of the bridges in the advance. Once Max and Eagle are able to advance across the bridges (25+ days in), your focus should be on building fighters & bombers (Eagle), medium tanks/anti-air (Max), and rockets to target the factory builds and damage without destroying the pipeline seem (Kanbei). Have Kanbei build sub/bombers too.

Have Max take the base and airport just across the bridges so he can build the final units needed to destroy the pipeline seem. Destroy the pipeline with Kanbei for the highest speed but lowest power, Eagle for medium speed and medium power, or Max for slowest speed and highest power.

COs in Combat: Kanbei, Andy, & Grit vs. Sturm

Difficulty: **********

General Strategy: Be forewarned that the AI does not always act consistently and will not follow this day to day guide perfectly, but if you generally follow most steps, you can just go off the basic idea of the strategy.

The Challenge Campaign version is different than the Classic Campaign version. It's a different map where you still have to destroy the mini-cannons on the way north, but the pipelines separate out your COs from each other. On each front, you'll need to advance towards the Black Cannons at the top. Choose Kanbei (middle), Andy (left), and Grit (right) in that order. Kanbei has better attack and defense (130%), Andy can take Meteor Strikes (Super CO Power Hyper Upgrade), and Grit has additional indirect range. All should build artillery units as much as possible. Most of Sturm's units are in the middle, and if the middle CO gets destroyed quickly, it's a quick game over.

On day 1, have Kanbei's mechs capture cities, move artillery one east and all the way north, and move your tank and anti-air to just south of mini-cannon fire on the two sides of it. Build three infantry with Kanbei. With Andy, place your mech into the APC, move the APC as far east as it can go, and drop your mech north. Then have Andy move the tank northeast and build an infantry from the eastern base and an artillery from the western base. With Grit, move your mech into the APC and move the APC as far as west it can go, then drop your mech north. Then have Grit move the artillery northwest, and build an artillery and an infantry. Sturm will then begin moving all his units towards you over the next few days.

On day 2, have Kanbei finish capturing cities with the mechs and move Kanbei's other units to just south of the mini-cannons. Build two infantry from the side bases and an artillery in the middle base. With Andy, move your mech towards the neutral airport to capture it later, the APC with infantry towards the cities in the east, and have your other units stay out of a-air range. Move Andy's artillery to the northeast and again build another infantry and artillery. With Grit, move your mech towards the neutral base to capture it, move your artillery units west, and build another artillery and an infantry.

On day 3, use Kanbei's artillery to hit units from afar, and infantry to begin capturing the two neutral bases. Move your southern units north but none into mini-cannon range, and build two artillery and one more infantry. With Andy and Grit, take a defensive position on the southeast/southwest sides at the Orange Star/Green Earth controlled properties, respectively. With Andy, build two artillery units. With Grit, build an artillery and a tank.

On days 4 and 5, the full brunt of Sturm's units begin to arrive. On the next several turns with Kanbei, after moving artillery units behind an infantry wall, have Kanbei's artillery units attack their most expensive units first (whatever they may be), then strike with your other units that are alive. Keep Kanbei's infantry on the front line just south of mini-cannon range to guard your more expensive units. Move any artillery units you have in the row just south of the line of infantry. Build as many artillery (priority) and infantry units from each base that you can afford. Prevent Sturm from capturing any neutral bases or airport.

On days 4 and 5 with both Andy and Grit, begin damaging the anti-air, rocket, and tank - the medium tank comes later. Keep your artillery units generally out of enemy attack range. Keep building as many artillery units as you can with both, and infantry units with any remaining money. Your infantry will form an infantry wall to protect your more expensive artillery units. Avoid attacking naval units (detracts from the middle and charges up Sturm's Super CO Power) and keep your non-foot soldier units out of battleship range if at all possible.

On day 6, be prepared in advance for Sturm's Super CO Power at the end of the day. This means moving artillery units for Kanbei and Grit as far as apart as possible. Make sure no more than three artillery units for Kanbei or Grit would be within a potential Meteor Strike Diamond. Try to have Andy take the Meteor Strike with virtually all of his artillery units in the strike zone, if possible (due to Hyper Upgrade being an option). Do not build anything other than infantry with Kanbei on this turn. Attack with whatever artillery units you don't move, with a focus on damaging each of the medium tanks, rockets, and mechs/infantry (trying to capture neutral bases) to the side.

From days 7 through 9, artillery all focused on the middle to target Sturm's forces in the middle (all 3 COs), damage most remaining side land units, build as many artillery units as possible. Do not use Kanbei's CO Power while Sturm's forces are powered up by Meteor Strike. Do use the CO Powers for Kanbei and Grit rather than wait for them to get Super CO Powers to increase attack and defense (focus on Neotanks then medium tanks). (Can attack naval units if there's nothing else to attack). Try not to let Sturm take neutral bases...have Kanbei focus artillery fire on Neotanks in the middle that can't be reached by Grit or Grit's artillery on the other side of the pipe (target Neotanks then medium tanks).

On day 8 or 9 (8 if you did more damage), try to minimize the chances of second meteor strike doesn't hit Kanbei, if possible. Have it hit Andy or Grit instead, ideally Andy if he wasn't already hit before. Try to have Andy take the Meteor Strike by bunching up his artillery units into a small strike zone, if possible (save Hyper Upgrade until this option). Assuming Andy does take the second Meteor Strike, Kanbei should be in a good spot to win by moving the artillery units back behind the infantry wall, then damaging and destroying the remaining Neotanks and medium tanks. With Andy, you can simply use Hyper Upgrade to bring your artillery units back from 2HP to 7HP quickly, and then build a bomber, which you'll then send towards the western Black Cannon. In the east, send at least three artillery units to corner the cruiser (and battleships) and take all of them down. That'll allow you to build a bomber to go after the eastern Black Cannon.

From day 10 onward, keep fighting the way you've been fighting while staying out of Black Cannon range until you're ready to send bombers up on the two sides. With Kanbei, start aiming for Sturm's artillery and destroying them. Use Grit's Snipe Attack CO Power again when you have it to weaken Sturm's central units further. With Kanbei, Andy, and Grit, save money for rockets (Kanbei only) and battle copters (Andy)/bombers instead (Andy & Grit after clearing the cruiser). Around this point, Sturm will drop his third and final Meteor Strike, hopefully on Andy.

By days 11 and 12, you should have largely decimated the forces attacking Kanbei and can start focusing on taking out the four mini-cannons so you can capture the airport. Having rocket range helps, as does moving up your remaining artillery units. Meanwhile, with Andy and Grit, use artillery to destroy naval units (can build t-copter with Grit to lure cruiser) and build bombers. Have the bombers sneak on the left/right side of the wall to get around Black Cannon range and then strike those Black Cannons. Continue to advance towards the final Black Cannon with bombers and you'll win the mission.

COs in Combat: 3 COs vs. Sturm

Difficulty: **********

The Challenge Campaign version of this map plays differently than its Classic Campaign counterpart, even though you still have to win in 30 days. You can't just fly a bomber straight to the Deathray because there are two anti-airs in the way, and there's also a mini-cannon. Each of your armies start with two infantry and an APC. Sturm, on the other hand, starts with two Neotanks, two medium tanks, two tanks, and two anti-airs in the middle. Additionally, Sturm also has two battleships, two submarines, and two cruisers in the western sea.

You have a few missile silos around your bases which may dictate how you want to proceed. You can either fire your missiles at the western sea to allow your army in the west (2nd CO selection) to advance quicker, or you can fire your missiles at the land forces near the Deathray. The safer option is to damage the land forces next to the Deathray. Sturm's forces will primarily focus on pinning down your central CO and your left CO, preventing them from making major advances early.

One good CO selection would be to use Grit (center), Drake (left), and Max (right). Grit has the extra artillery distance to damage and destroy the Black Cannons in two hits even without needing to damage any pipeline seems. Grit can also use artillery early as defense to pin down the bulk of Sturm's land forces. Drake can use his CO Power, Tsunami, early and quickly run Sturm's navy out of fuel.

As Grit damages the Black Cannons, Max can use battle copters, medium tanks, and bombers to advance towards Sturm's base, break through the pipeline seems, and head towards the Deathray. Beware of the Deathray, which fires on days 7, 14, 21, and 28. Also be aware of Sturm's meteor strikes, which will target the most densely populated and most expensive units. Do your best to have Drake take those meteor strikes.

The bulk of your early unit builds with your COs will be artillery (Grit), tanks (Drake), and tanks (Max). You'll want to load your APCs with Drake and Max early so that you reach the missile silos quickly. Build your primary units as described for the first 20 or so turns, plus infantry units from additional bases with any leftover monies. Build anti-airs with Grit (2 when countering any bomber), Drake, and Max as needed to take down any aircraft. On all turns, use those infantry units to try to capture surrounding cities for additional resources.

On day 1, move your infantry/APC with Drake and Max towards the missile launches; do the same with Kanbei's APC and an infantry towards the nearby missile. On days 2 and 3, your missile strikes from your COs should target the largest Neotank/medium tank clumps first before any missiles at the navy. These missiles will keep Sturm from moving units down to attack Grit.

On day 2, start building Grit's artillery units. Build your first artillery unit with Grit from your eastmost base so that you can take down the Black Cannon inhibiting Max first; your second should be from the westmost base. As you approach the eastern and western Black Cannons, keep them out of range and them move them to the tile immediately south of the seems so you can take advantage of Grit's extra 2-4 artillery range. You should be able to start attacking the eastern Black Cannon by day 4.

By day 4, you'll want to start damaging the eastern Black Cannon with Grit and moving your other artillery towards the western Black Cannon. Meanwhile, you should start capturing the nearby neutral bases with Drake and Max. Due to Sturm's western airport, you'll want to have Drake build an anti-air.

On day 5, use Grit's northeast artillery to destroy the eastern Black Cannon, and move your three other northern artillery towards the western Black Cannon and mini-cannons to attack the next turn. Meanwhile, keep Drake's units out of range of the western Black Cannon, but take a bit of damage over the next few days from the battleship and rocket to charge up your Tsunami CO Power. With Max, save money for a medium tank.

On day 6, use Grit's western artillery to damage the western Black Cannon and eastern artillery to destroy the eastern mini-cannon, and move northeastern infantry northeast towards the neutral airport. Don't let Sturm take that airport or Sturm will build air units from there. Move Drake's infantry eastward towards the two Sturm cities to the east. With Max, build a medium tank to combat Sturm's medium tank.

On day 7, check the Deathray's range and make sure Grit's units aren't in the Deathray's range, while destroying the western Black Cannon and the western mini-cannon with your artillery units. On Drake's side, keep chipping away at the rocket, and on Max's side, advance with your medium tank and regular tanks. Once you're at a medium tank and a tank with Max, you can have Max begin saving for more medium tanks rather than normal tanks. Sturm will begin bringing units damaged from missiles down to attack Grit.

On day 8, prepare for Sturm's next Meteor Strike. Start by having Grit destroy Sturm's advancing bomber, and move artillery units mostly northward to advance on Sturm. With Drake, continue advancing with your tanks and any anti-airs, but out of battleship range. With Max, advance on Sturm's remaining units to close in on Sturm's next base.

From day 9 onward, have Grit capture the northwest neutral airport when possible, and prevent Sturm from taking the northeast airport with an artillery unit or two. Keep having Grit build 2+ artillery units per turn. Move Grit's artillery and anti-air units northward. Grit should have enough artillery units to advance even without a wall protecting those units. Eventually, use Grit's Super CO Power to snipe from afar. Meanwhile, use Drake's CO power the first chance that you can, which will force Sturm to retreat air/sea units to refuel, and have Drake advance southeast with tanks. Have Max build medium tanks and infantry, then advance them southward.

Around day 11, prepare for Sturm's second Meteor Strike by separating out Grit's artillery units so that no more than five can get hit on a turn. Keep advancing with your COs as stated above. After Sturm's subs and cruisers sink from lack of fuel, you can build a sub with Drake to take down the remaining battleships, or use artillery units. With Drake, begin building artillery units and continue advancing towards and capturing the southeast base. With Max's infantry, advance on the southeast base while using medium tanks to attack the mini-cannons and then the pipeline seems. Have Max keep building medium tanks, attacking the pipeline seems, and advancing towards that southeast base.

On day 14, check the Deathray's range and make sure there aren't too many Grit's units that are in the Deathray's range. Also be aware of a third Meteor Strike that may hit around day 16, and divide Grit's units up accordingly (no more than 5 artillery/anti-air within a potential meteor). After that point, you can advance Grit's artillery units up towards the Deathray, and even build a Neotank or two to advance with the artillery units. (Drake/Max). With Drake, after you've built a few artillery units and wiped out the battleships, you can start building medium tanks, then use artillery and medium tanks to attack the mini-cannons and pipeline seems. With Max, keep moving medium tanks past the pipeline seems and infantry towards capturing the southeast base and the properties next to it.

From day 19 onward, advance Grit's artillery northward, backed up by any anti-air or Neotanks you may have, but primarily relying on Grit's artillery units. You should now have sufficient forces to get past Sturm's front line forces in the middle. Have Grit's artillery and Max's medium tanks advance towards the Deathray. As you do so, beware of the day 21 Deathray, the mini-cannon range, and the day 21 meteor strike. Try not to have too many units caught up in the ranges of any of those three things. keep advancing with Grit (artillery), Drake (medium tanks), and Max (medium tanks) as described above. You can also have Grit build a few Neotanks to speed things along. Win in thirty days or less to achieve the ultimate victory.