Hellraider AWBW CO Tier List (06/22/2012)

This Tier List will, or at least should, serve as template for all future events on AWBW. This Tier List is copied directly from the AWBW tier list that Hellraider devised as of Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:37 pm.  


While any sort of CO ranking can't be entirely accurate due to trend changes, metagame-development and mapdependency, this list should serve as a very good starting point. It depicts the relative CO strength on an average map, meaning 15k-25k income, 2-4 bases per side, average terrain, available airports and non-relevant naval battle. Any kind of changes of CO strength depending on certain map features will be noted. I'll be using 6 tiers to classify the COs, namely Broken Tier, Luck Tier and Tier 1-5. The Brokens and the luck COs generally won't be used in competitions, the former due to their extreme strength and the latter due to their reliability on luck. For that reason, they will be simply listed and no clarification on their exact abilities will be given.

To account for the map dependency of the COs, I added a few paragraphs to each CO explaining on what sort of maps they shine on.

The tier list applies to 2-player maps outside of FoW, with 1000 income per property and banned Black Bombs. The "average" map that this tier list is generally based on has 17k-22k income, 3 bases and at least one airport per side, 2-3 at least partly connected fronts and no contested key properties.

Hellrader wrote:Broken Tier
Kanbei, Colin, Sensei, Grit, Hachi, Javier2T+


Luck Tier
Nell, Flak, Jugger


Tier 1 (Top Tier)
Sturm, Von Bolt, Javier1T, Sasha, Hawke


Tier 2 (High Tier)
Eagle, Olaf, Max


Tier 3 (Mid Tier)
Andy, Drake, Kindle, Lash, Sami


Tier 4 (Low Tier)
Rachel, Grimm, Adder


Tier 5 (Bottom Tier)
Jake, Jess, Sonja, Javier0T, Koal

Note, this tier list is only a guideline and strongly reflects what sort of maps are being played on currently. Nearly no competition will have banlists that are an exact copy of what stands above, as every map has unique features that serve to make certain COs stronger or weaker. In this section, I want to elaborate on these features as well as give the general reasons for why the COs are placed as they are.

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Tier 1 (Top Tier)

Sturm

Sturm is a CO that will often be banned even in this tier, as his perfect movement has the potential to break the game if the terrain is heavy enough. He also benefits from terrain defence because it works well together with his day to day. Likewise, he almost need towers as desperately as Javier as it gives him a bigger relative boost to his attack. The maps where Sturm will be played on are few, as they need to have enough heavy terrain to make him useful, but not enough to make him look overpowered and therefore banned.

Von Bolt

110/110 Stats and an overpriced SCOP lead to VB's usefulness being indirectly proportional to the size of the map. Small maps without towers, without airports, with open fronts and only 2 bases are his ideal feeding ground, as they promote the tank/infantry battles where he has a good chance to run over his opponent with his superior stats. Anything that reduces the impact of his enhanced defence, for instance copters, indirects, heavy tanks etc. will make him weaker. Not being able to turn his stats into a capture phase advantage is also a good sign that you might not want to pick him on the map in question.

Javier1T

While Javier's d2d is decent, the relevant only kicks in after capturing the tower, meaning that he is weak in the capture phase. His strength lies in his COP that allows him to attack without taking much damage in the following turn, which also means that you don't miss out on too much charge during your COP, a problem that haunts many powers. Javier is useable on a wide variety of maps, bar the smallest and the largest ones, as the former may have him dead before his d2d or his COP kicks in, while the latter make it hard for him to do enough damage before stronger powers are charged.

Sasha

Similar to Javier, Sasha can be used on many maps. The ones where she is best can be tricky to spot, as they are the ones where her early vehicle advantage allows her to take a positional advantage big enough to gain a property advantage. Her COP gives her fairly regular minor boosts while delaying the opponents powers, making her a good counter to COs such as Eagle and Hawke. Her SCOP, which I haven't seen used once yet, might have it's uses especially against COs with bad powers, but suffers from the fact that you are spending 6 stars for an advantage that does not have an immediate effect on the battle.
She might not enjoy maps where infantry brawls decide over contested cities, as she might find herself without her standard income advantage soon. Therefore, she is rarely picked on smaller maps.

Hawke

While he probably won't see much play, his d2d is at least decent enough to let him hang on (and most importantly, do damage) in this tier. His SCOP is often game-winning, meaning that Hawke will do better on larger maps with more unit buildup and less heated brawling. On smaller maps he might drop a tier, although his d2d makes him good even then.

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Tier 2 (High Tier)

Eagle

Eagle has the hardest I-Win-Button in the game, but he suffers from a d2d that is limited to air units, sometimes making it hard for him to survive long enough to use it. Big maps are his friends, and maps with prominent copters might make him more useful than his alternative, Olaf.

Olaf

Very similar to Eagle, Olaf often wins the game with his SCOP. The obvious differences are that it is 2 stars cheaper, but also overall weaker in effect. The more subtle difference lies in the fact that Olaf's SCOP can sometimes be better at evening a game up. If there are only few vehicles around, its advantage is that the snow will prevent many units from attacking (especially infantry), thereby conserving units and limiting charge.

Max

It is more than obvious if I say that Max likes maps that favor direct units. Open fronts that allow tanks to move between them and copters that can outmaneuvre Anti-Air units are perfect for him. While he is placed here because many maps allow that sort of effectiveness currently, Max can easily drop one or two tiers if the map is too big, has too many chokes or has completely divided fronts. A tower allows Max to OHKO road/shoal infantry with an uncertainty, which can be useful but is slightly overrated.

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Tier 3 (Mid Tier)

Andy

Andy's one and only strength is his SCOP. The threat of being able to repair up units makes it possible for him to launch attacks or take positions that would be impossible for any other CO. He is not overly mapdependent and will stay similar in strength, but prefers not too small maps, optimally without tower.

Drake

Drake is mostly a weaker Olaf, suffering from the fact that having only 80/100 copters can really hurt (lack of copter + tank 2HKOs especially) and that rain is inferior to snow. Still, mass damage is always a force to be reckoned with. Maps with prominent airports can hurt him, as Drake wants to avoid countering copters with his own copters, but it is more important that the map is big enough to allow enough units and therefore charge.

Kindle

Her d2d is mainly useful when fighting for contested properties with infantry, usually being rather irrelevant apart from that. As her COP is one that does not gain efficiency with more units around, Kindle does well on smaller maps with high property density, optimally including contested ones. She is also playable on bigger maps if the fronts have enough properties that are hard to avoid, as she then has decent d2d, COP and SCOP.

Lash

As her d2d is directly linked to terrain defence, Lash's strength depends heavily on the map and she can go up or down a tier depending on that. Apart from overall heavy terrain, she likes having no airports, relevant 2HKOs onto key cities, contested properties and prefers smaller maps due to her rather underwhelming powers.

Sami

Sami is a rather special case, as she is a CO where the player has to shift away from the common tank-heavy playstyle to use her to full effect. She is decent in this tier simply with enough infantry around, and might go up if there are heavily contested properties, relevant areas where vehicles can't reach and/or bases that are close enough to the front to allow mechs. On any map that either is tank(copter)-friendly (such as 2-base maps) and/or are big enough to allow vehicle buildup before infantry can start fighting Sami will drop down one, in extreme cases even two tiers.

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Tier 4 (Low Tier)

Rachel

On medium to bigger maps, Rachel basically has inferior mass damage assuming that the opponent knows how to split against the missiles (and the situation allows it). Rachel thrives on maps that are small enough to make her SCOP hit well, but also big enough to allow enough charge to be gained before the game is decided and for the missiles to be relevant. Under the correct circumstances, she can go up a tier.

Grimm

While Grimm technically prefers low terrain due to his d2d, its main effect is to change the way the game is played by granting both players 2HKOs everywhere, making it impossible to sit on cities and hard to shield indirects. His innate strength comes from his (S)COP, which allow his units to wreck everything in sight. Unfortunately for him they come without any sort of defensive advantage, meaning that it is very hard for him to find good opportunities to use his powers. They have to be used early enough so that the attack boost actually allows him to cripple enough of the opponents army. Therefore, Grimm rather wants smaller maps as larger maps might make it harder for him to find an opening, and also allow the opponent to charge potentially stronger powers.

Adder

The main strength of Adder's COP, and therefore himself, is that it allows him to slaughter infantry with his own. For that to be possible the map has to be open enough to have enough attack angles. As it is only 2 stars, smaller maps are of advantage as they will allow Adder to gain a quick advantage without charging longer CO bars. Being able to use Mechs to decent effect is an additional perk that comes into effect on maps that allow for it.

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Tier 5 (Bottom Tier)

Jake

Jake can do decently on 1T maps where plains next to cities allow him safe 2HKOs, or on maps with a lot of plains overall. While his COP can be used as a threat, it usually does nothing, leaving him with a SCOP that is only really useful if the map has enough plains. To sum it up, plains are good for Jake.

Jess

90/100 infantry is a absolutely horrible d2d, making her useful only on a select few maps where having infantry with reduced attack doesn't absolutely cripple you. These include 2-base maps as well as maps with higher starting income and maps where vehicles reach the front before infantry do.

Sonja

Sonja is actually a decent CO, but her negative luck makes it nearly impossible to actually play with her. She does best on tower- and airportless maps that favor tankspam, as her absurdly good SCOP will profit from that.

Javier0T

I suppose he is decent if you want to walk into indirect range, but I doubt that being able to do so for one turn makes him worth a pick.

Koal

For the most part, Koal plays as Adder with a 50% more expensive COP. However, he does have a niche in road-heavy maps, where his powers allow him to do a decent amount of damage.

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Last edited by Hellraider on Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:37 pm, edited 5 times in total.

I miss Hellraider

Me too buddy. Me too.

Co tier list is an awesome feature.

I like this CO list better:
http : //   awbw.wikia.com/wiki/Tier_List

Mostly because SAMI being in tier 3 is ridiculous. Stating that she could drop 2 more tiers even more so.

The map feature ratings included in the above link explains the CO shifts much better. On large maps SAMI is weaker than Hawke but I played a small tight map where she was stronger than all Tier 1 COs and Hawke and even Sensei (yes, there were airports, the other broken were banned).

Regular S and A maps for 2 players are all rather small and SAMI shines on most of them

If only after all of these years, we knew who the absolute worst CO was...
Jess with the inferior infantry?
Sonja (No FOW) for the luck penalty?
Javier (No Towers) for being nearly useless without towers?
Or Flak for the unreliable D2D and powers?

Sonja for sure not. Her improved counter attack works differently than described in the doc and the first strike during SCOP can be really nasty. The damage calculation is usually wrong for the Sonja SCOP.

Jess is very bad during the infantry fights. In many games it gets to the point where you open up a gap by using 2HK infantry kills then you can charge in with the tank and get an advantage. In this situation Jess can often just not do the 2HK propery.

This is her main weakness in the low tier and this is why she is perhaps the weakest CO.

On unusual maps this weakness may not matter as much...

I'd probably have to disagree and say that Sonja is the worst. As annoying as Jess' infantry are, Sonja's persistent bad luck makes it impossible to count on any key KOs all game long. Should you attack? Well, damage calculator says you can break through their wall, but who knows, Sonja could randomly screw up and leave you overcommitted. Sure, her +50% counterattack sounds nice, but that's when you're on the defensive side. She has no true offensive benefit except for her SCOP, and frankly, by that time, she's already lost in most cases.

I'm not saying you can't win with her, but I'm pretty sure she counts as the worst CO.