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Von Bolt (Japanese: ヘルボルト, Herr Bolt) is a Black Hole CO. He began as an elderly CO from the countryside who somehow managed to escape from the nursing home. After Sturm's defeat in Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising he became the leader of Black Hole. He is the creator and leader of the Bolt Guard, whom he favors over the other Black Hole COs. His first and only appearance to date is in Advance Wars: Dual Strike where he is the main villain. Just like his predecessor Sturm, he is defeated by the Allied Nations. Unlike Sturm however, his goal was immortality. Above all he feared his own death and sought to prevent it at any cost.

His goal was to use his Black Crystals to steal the lifeforce of the earth itself, and use it to keep himself alive. His chair contains technology designed to prolong his life indefinitely, though it requires a power supply. He also created the Oozium 238 as a means of defeating those who opposed him.

He profoundly hates young people (that should cover all of the Allied Nation's COs!), which is apparent after he complains about Jake's "hipster slang".

He was defeated by the Allied Nations who, along with Hawke and Lash, fought a long campaign against him. At the end of it all Hawke shot his chair and used its remaining stored energy to heal the land. Faced with his own mortality and without his chair to sustain him, he presumably died shortly afterwards. However, you can choose to have Jake shoot the chair instead, after which, Von Bolt is forced to pay for his crimes, even if it's just "sweeping the streets", to quote Jake.

CO powers[]

Von Bolt's units receive a constant 10% boost in firepower and 10% boost in defense. He has no normal CO power.

Super CO power[]

Ex Machina - A lightning bolt strike that deals 3 HP damage and immobilizes all units (for one turn) within a 5X5 diamond area of 13 squares (1-3-5-3-1). This will not destroy a unit with 3 or less HP and will place them at 1 HP. The strike is determined by an algorithm that is based on where it would likely cause the most damage in funds, excluding own units.

Levels[]

As Von Bolt[]

  • There are no maps where you play as Von Bolt.

Against Von Bolt (both on Normal and Hard)[]

  • Mission 27: For the Future: This is a 6-on-1 matchup. You are separated in 3 teams, with Von Bolt as the only CO in that map. The center area (Orange) is ground battles and where most of the battles will take place. The left side (Blue) is sea battles. The right side (Green) is air battles. Javier is highly preferred in the center area for the COM Towers alone. Von Bolt starts off the battle with a whopping 140/110 stat due to him owning 3 COM Towers. Capturing the 3 towers quickly will make Javier 130/130 while Von Bolt 110/110, thus Von Bolt has less options to deal damage. Be careful of the crystals as those can heal Von Bolt's powerful units. Also be careful of the cannons as taking extra damage from them will make Von Bolt's powerful units pick up the scrap. For the left side, you already have a numbers advantage as Von Bolt not only has few units to worry about in the seas, but Von Bolt needs a few turns to capture the Seaport, so take advantage of that. Take out the cannons quickly to make the centralized fight easier. Grit would be a good choice due to his battleship and artillery. If Sasha is in this battle as blue, she can use her CO Power to stall Von Bolt's Ex Machina since you'll be destroying a lot of Von Bolt's more expensive units. Von Bolt's Ex Machina will likely hit the central area, stalling your ground battles, so be protective until you are able to push Von Bolt away. On the right side, you also have a higher numbers game than Von Bolt as he still needs to capture his Airport. Like before, take out the cannons quickly. Eagle work best due to his Air Units and extra turn Super CO. Don't forget to hide your Stealth. Eventually, you will be able to sandwich Von Bolt's central units with the other 2 teams, so continue the pressure. Once you get to the other side of Von Bolt, go ahead and block (or capture) the Seaports to prevent any sea units from being produced. Block and capture the other Airport on the right side as well. Eventually, Von Bolt won't have enough funds to produce powerful units, so continue the pressure until victory.
  • Mission 28: Means to an End: This is a 2-on-2 battle, but takes place in 2 different areas. On the main map, you will face Von Bolt. On the other map, you will face Kindle in an automated battle. Having Javier in the automated fight is preferred due to the COM Tower. Having Sasha in the Von Bolt fight will minimize him using Ex Machina. Having Grimm fight Von Bolt can be neficial as the majority of units in this map are Oozium. Oozium will be produced every 6 turns, so be careful. Von Bolt starts off with mostly Oozium, a few Infantry, and a lack of cities captured. Since this is a timed fight, this should already hint you to complete this match as fast as possible. You want to prioritize preventing the opponent from capturing the Airports on the southern corners to prevent Von Bolt from building any air units in the south. Capturing the COM Towers near your area is a must as well so that you don't have to worry too much about Von Bolt's high 110/110 stat. The AI will often capture cities first and may take time to capture the corner airports, but don't take it lightly. Having 1 B-Copter will make things easier. Once you clear out the infantries in the south on the cities, a few of your infantry should be able to capture those cities by themselves. Once you secure the bottom area enough, you can proceed to going north, so build some directs and indirects to approach above. Ignore the Oozium for now and focus on taking out his ground units and factory via blocking it and capturing it. Only approach the rest of the Oozium if you are sure you are able to destroy it that turn, often with 3-4 units. Once you secure both factories, use indirects and your most powerful direct unit; only 1 indirect at a time can attack an Oozium core. Once you destroy all 3, you have won the battle. If you want extra points, go ahead and drag the fight long enough to destroy the additional Ooziums produced.

Tags[]

ALL Allied Nations COs: 90%

Tactics[]

Playing as Von Bolt relies on his day-to-day superior stats at 110/110 and and almost not on his SCOP. That's an overall net +20% boost for direct units and +10 on indirects. Most CO's receive an overall weaker net boost (i.e. Hawke), receive a net 20% boost only in specialized areas (i.e. Eagle/Jess/Drake), have a downside that comes attached to their boosts (Grimm and Kanbei), needs a requirement (Javier), or don't even have a daily boost at all (i.e. Adder, Andy). Von Bolt, in most cases, have an advantage by default due to its versatility. With the added defense, having units near terrain with added defense bonuses help him out a lot on engagements, including mirrored engagements.

Von Bolt lacks a CO Power and his Super CO Power is the priciest at 10 power meter stars for what you get out of it. It is likely that other COs will use 3-5 COPs and 2 SCOPs before you get to use Ex Machina. Additionally, outside the normal stat boost when a COP or SCOP is used, Von Bolt has none. If Sasha is your opponent, you may not be able to use your SCOP at all due to her spamming her COP.

Ex Machina, is nowhere the destructive power as Sturm, doing only 3 HP of damage instead of the massive 8 HP. On the other hand, Ex Machina has the added effect of paralyzing affected units for 1 turn. Its was only designed for straight chokepoint maps where it mattered the most such as when you first fought Von Bolt in Mission 27. If it's used within attacking range of your units, it means that enemy units are vulnerable to being destroyed and cannot escape. But even if it's used far away from your units, it still causes financial damage to the opponent and hurts their mobility. If the opponent has mostly weaker to moderate units that are widely spread apart, it means that your opponent is not unit shielding. If it hits units on a unit-producing building (i.e. factories), then it means 1 less unit produced per paralyzed unit and this can impact on numbers in case they wanted to build a powerful unit that turn. Opponents can try building a very expensive unit on purpose to bait Ex Machina while protecting other units as a defense, but it also means Von Bolt can rush through the opponent, knowing that they didn't spend money on their front lines. Fog on will make using Ex Machina more difficult to be effective, not knowing where it will hit.

Von Bolt favors smaller and mid-sized maps, where not only are units more closer together but his day-to-day being able to put opponents in disadvantage before they are able to whip their COP and SCOP. On larger maps, he has to rely on his day-to-day most of time as Ex Machina in large maps has the least impact of all other COP and SCOP in the game.

Having tag battles would be best picked with other non-Allied Nations COs, as Allied Nations CO would decrease his already good stats to 90%.

In 1-on-1 battles, Von Bolt can roll with other COs fairly well. In tag battles, he is much harder to use due to the amount of time it takes to active a Dual Strike tag.

Quotes[]

Switch

"Hehh hh hhh! I'll chew 'em up...hhh... and spit 'em out!"

"You're useless..."

Power

"The sweet...hhh...scent of destruction. It makes me...hhh...feel young!"

"No matter how powerful...hhh...you are, you're still...hhh...a worm on a hook!"

"Well...hhh...let me have a taste...hhh..of your soul..."

"Heh...hhh...hhh... Stop panicking, it's almost...hhh...over."

"Hehh hh hhh... The darkness rises!"

"Hold still...hhh...I'm going to suck the marrow...hhhhh...from your bones..."

Victory

"Hehh hhh hhh... Pathetic."

"Predator...prey...hhh... I hunt them all..."

"Even death...hhh...fears me..."

Trivia[]

Videos[]

COs of Wars World
Orange Star: AndyMaxSamiNellHachiJakeRachel
Blue Moon: OlafGritColinSasha
Green Earth: EagleDrakeJessJavier
Yellow Comet: KanbeiSonjaSenseiGrimm
Black Hole: Clone AndyFlakLashAdderHawkeSturm
JuggerKoalKindleVon Bolt
Black Hole
COs: Adder | Clone Andy | Flak | Hawke | Jugger | Kindle | Koal | Lash | Sturm | Von Bolt
Bolt Guard: Jugger | Kindle | Koal | Von Bolt
Black Hole Technology: Oozium 238
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