Mechs (or Mechanized Infantry) are a Land Unit. They have appeared in every Advance Wars game to date. They are one of the two infantry units in the game with the ability to capture non-allied properties, the other being Infantries.
Mechs are equipped with a Bazooka with 3 ammo which they will use while engaging land vehicles and will use their secondary weapon, the machine gun, against every other unit. During combat, Mechs can usually inflict great damage to vehicular Units both offensive and defensively.
Game Information[]
Famicom Wars[]
- Main article: Mech (Famicom Wars)
Super Famicom Wars[]
- Main article: Mech (Super Famicom Wars)
Game Boy Wars 3[]
- Main article: Mech (Game Boy Wars 3)
Advance Wars[]
- Main article: Mech (Advance Wars 1)
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising[]
- Main article: Mech (Advance Wars 2)
Advance Wars: Dual Strike[]
- Main article: Mech (Dual Strike)
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin[]
- Main article: Mech (Days of Ruin)
- For Mech Gun (Dark Conflict), see Artillery (Days of Ruin).
Capture[]
Mechs have the unique ability to Capture while on a neutral or enemy building. While capturing, the Mech unit will take away 1 point off the building for every 1 HP the unit has. The Orange Star CO Sami can increase the rate in which Mechs capture a building. Combined with the 3-star defense bonus while stationed in a building, it can be hard to ward them off with Infantry or even Tanks.
Strategy[]
Mechanized Infantry units are a far cry from the mobile but weak Infantry. They cost three times as much (3000 G vs 1000 G) but possess a proper primary weapon, the Bazooka. Bazookas work like tank rounds. It can deal heavy damage to land vehicles, and even their secondary machine gun attacks are stronger than those of the Infantry.
Mech units are the slowest in the game, at only 2 spaces moved per turn. They can however, travel across all terrains without a penalty. Their firepower is also nothing to scoff at, being on par with that of a Tank (without its defenses). They are deadly against Light Tanks and even Anti-Airs given that Mechs have the first attack. They can also be stationed on mountains, giving them a 4-star defense bonus and saving spaces for other units. In maps where mountains make up chokepoints, Mechs are a very effective unit to hold strategic locations, both in cost and in space. They are not very effective against Md Tanks or Neotanks, but as with the standard Infantry and Tanks, they may easily swarm these Md and Neo Tanks to death. They can easily take out indirect units within one or two turns, however, their slow movement speed makes them a sitting duck during defense.
Like Infantry, Mech units are very weak in defense. They are vulnerable to any Tank if attacked first, unless they are stationed in woods or mountains. One must also manage their supplies; Mechs have fewer rations than standard Infantry (70 vs 99) and in a very long, protracted battle or defense, can run out of their 3 Bazooka rounds and be forced to resort to the much weaker machine gun.
In conclusion, the Mech units are best used as swarmers and cheap anti-tank units. They are terrible at defending unless one has the appropriate terrain advantages. They are a good replacement for Infantry in the late game if one does not care about mobility.
Tactics[]
One of the most used tactics is called a Mech Rush. It's just a continuous spam of Mechs that are usually used if there's a lot of mountains or forest. However, this tactic starts to lose its luster when a map has a small base to city ratio, as the opponent will be able to pump out better units per turn than you. This tactic is best used by Sami (Mech strength increases, and faster base capture) and best countered with Grit, using his indirect units with longer range to pick off exposed Mech units, or with Max and Jess, where their stronger Recon units can fare well against Mechs cost-effectively. Infantries can also be used to counter mech spamming as a cost effective option, as their machine guns are just slightly weaker than the Mech's but is still strong enough to inflict decent amount of damage against them, while possessing 1 extra space of movement and also costing as little as 1/3 of a Mech's price.
Mechs are useful if your opponent is overwhelming you with vehicles, since Mechs have the same amount of firepower versus vehicles as Tanks do, but they cost less than half the price.
In Days of Ruin, Mechs can use their bazookas to blast tank units to kingdom come, but are vulnerable while advancing. Use other units as decoys (say, a low health recon) to bait the tank, and then swarm it with the mechs. Due to the cheaper cost, the Mech Swarm tactic, while slow, is a bit more effective than in previous installments.
Trivia[]
- Orange Star and Rubinelle Mechs use American M20A1/A1B1 "Super Bazookas" and M16 assault rifles fired from the hip.
- Blue Moon and Lazurian/IDS Mechs use Soviet RPG-7s and PPSh-41 submachine guns.
- Green Earth Mechs use WWII German Panzerfausts and MP 40 submachine guns, though their primary weapons were changed to Panzerschrecks in Re-Boot Camp.
- Black Hole Mechs use futuristic roclet launchers vaguely resembling Panzerfausts and G11 assault rifles, though their primary weapons were changed to what appear to be single-tube variants of the American M202 FLASH in Re-Boot Camp.
- Yellow Comet Mechs use Imperial Japanese Type 4 70mm rocket launchers and Type 100 submachine guns.
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