Jokas' Adder Guide (pt 1) English

Guide written by Jokas, reposted to gain attention
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Adder Guide

Here I am going to expose a guide allowing to play and to better understand how to play Adder in standard part (std) and also in High Fund (HF). I do not allow myself the FoG because like any chess player, I like that nothing is hidden.
Passive: Adder has no d2d. He therefore has no strength but also and above all no weakness! I'm sure you've heard this sentence a lot while playing Advance war, but do you really know what it says? If you really understand this sentence, then you won't be shocked if I tell you that sometimes, we can say that Adder has a d2d (except what will follow with the COP)! Indeed, if you play against a CO which has strengths and weaknesses, this makes of course unique but it also gives the possibility to a CO not to have to counter it. If you play against Sami, favor tanks and helicopters. If you are playing against Jess, be aggressive during the capture phase and challenge as many cities as possible by forcing infantry / infantry battles. In fact, the fact of not having weakness allows Adder to force disadvantageous exchanges for his opponent, if he has any. For example tank / tank against Sami, inf / inf against Jess. I will not dwell on it anymore because I will come back to it later. It should also be noted that most COs have no weaknesses, which is why it is more difficult for Adder to counter them. You see that it is important, finally!

COP:
There we are getting to the heart of the matter. The famous Adder power: "+1 movement for all units". I'm sure that by reading this, at the beginning, you said to yourself "It sucks!". There are however several clues which allow us to decipher the power of this COP. The first is that it only costs 2 stars, which is very rare outside Broken CO. The second is that it combines wonderfully with its d2d: it boosts all units, without any distinction, which amplifies the concept of "counter unit". Indeed building a helicopter will be answered by a construction of an AA on the other side. If in addition this AA can have more movement than your helicopter it becomes even less profitable to build it. And the psychological pressure begins to settle, doubt comes to germinate in the mind of the player. Should he build a helicopter knowing that Adder will respond with an AA that can move faster? So here we are at the third and last clue: psychological pressure. This is Adder's fatal weapon. The fact of having more movement allows Adder to turn his opponent into a nutshell, or to put it more simply, to zone him. This means that each time your opponent plays, he must be twice as vigilant as with another CO. Because he must watch if the +1 movement is not likely to be a problem. Excluding this pressure will force him to play differently from what he wanted to do at the base. So it's a gene. And once his turn is played he says to himself "here, I'm ready to receive your power, Adder". Except that ... Except that Adder continues to play without using his COP, taking the small advantages that his opponent have left him because of the psychological pressure. He closes the formation and presses the pendulum. He then says to himself "you thought I was going to use my joker, but I didn't do it, now it's still up to you to play". And the next round is the same dilemma for the player who only succeeds in creating weaknesses and giving micro advantages to his opponent! I will stop there for the presentation of the COP because I will come back to this at length and in detail later. It should be noted that Adder is played for its COP, so it is the central element of its strategy.

SCOP: "+2 movements for all units".
It is a kind of extension of the COP but for 3 more stars! What should be noted is the "3 more stars". Indeed, having a 5-star SCOP is perfect. I mean, really perfect! You do not see ? No ? Not 3 nor 4, 5! 5 stars means that Adder can store its powerful COP to unload it as it pleases several times in a row! If his SCOP cost 3 stars or 4, he could do it much less. And for 6, it would be too expensive in addition to being useless. Indeed imagine that you have 5 stars loaded with Adder. You don't need to have 6 to do it 3 times in a row, you just need a little skill! (I laugh, we will see that later). Its SCOP in itself is almost uninteresting. What to remember is the number 5.
So much for the presentation and quick reading of the skills, let's move on to basic strategies and operation.

General strategic concept:
It should first be noted that on AWBW any use of COP / SCOP grants its user a + 10 / + 10 bonus to all of its units. This is a great boost for Adder since one of its strategies will be to spam its precious COP and therefore to have stats for 110/110 for ALL its units for several rounds. The second strategy, which can be added to the first, consists in finding a flaw in your opponent's configuration and using his movement and therefore attack and defense bonus by making a fatal breach in his army, from which he will not recover.

Now before continuing, let's move on to Adder's strengths and weaknesses to better understand how to play it.

- The helicopters are very powerful with Adder. Indeed one of the key concepts of Advance War is the "first strike" ie the fact of attacking before the other. To make up for this advantage of the oppressor, the creators of the game (geniuses) invented the concept of "star terrain". This therefore allows you to gain resistance depending on what terrain you are on, which means that it is sometimes unnecessary to attack first because the response will be as strong for the attacker as for the attacked. Except that ... Except that this principle of "star terrain" does not apply for air units! And yes ! This means that the one who attacks first in a copter / copter situation is the one who will take over (usually). So having "only" +1 movement "ultimately" makes a BIG difference.

-The possibilities of creating mech. In many maps, especially small ones, creating a mech effectively challenges an area. In general this area is the center. TheDeadlyShadow regularly uses this technique of creating a mech at the start to replace artillery and defend the capture of a city without expanding too much. But then why with Adder and no other character? For what makes its main strength: movement. It's quite subtle because having 3 movements is not transcendent in itself. The reason that makes everything work and that Adder can eliminate the natural predator of mech: infantry. If you imagine that the battlefield is like an ecosystem, then you know that the main reason for not being invaded by an insect is the existence of spiders. What happens then if we consider the hypothesis of this non-existence or rather, of the annihilation of this natural protection? I stop there for the metaphors because I will come back to the mech in more detail afterwards. I would add that it is for this reason that mechs against Sami is useless, but very few people will play Adder against Sami anyway ...

-The superiority of the infantry. Related to the previous section, Adder is the low cost infantry killer. Indeed, it is very easy to get the upper hand over infantry when you have Adder. If you can use your COP, try to target the infantry first and then reinforce your position with well-placed mech. Your opponent will then have to use a heavier unit like tanks to kill the infantry barrier since an infantry with 5 or 4 hp cannot kill another infantry with 8 hp and +10 defense! Just at this stage, this simple possibility will put considerable pressure on your opponent. Because he will not be able to defend certain areas as he wishes and will therefore have to leave you ground, which you will hasten to cover and reinforce as solidly as the Chinese wall. You just have to repeat the process if your opponent remains passive and does nothing.

-The possibility of zoning by placing yourself at "max range". As before, this strategy is linked to the previous one. This is the beauty of Adder's playing style: all the units play together. Versatility, timing and adaptability is the best weapon. To put considerable pressure on your opponent, leave all units doing 55 damage in a trade at maximum non-aggression range. For example inf vs inf or tank vs tank. Thus the bonus defense of the terrain will be compensated by the communication tower and therefore the +10 attack. It is important to look in the damage table for units that are 55 or more. I insist. For example, it is not necessary to leave 7 spaces between your AA and another AA. You can for example place it on a city or a forest or simply, and it is best, ignore the AA and bring yours closer to the opposing helicopter. With damage at 55, the damage will generally be half even with the addition of defense of the field, because you also have +10 attack. This will reduce the unit / unit trade case to the previous case of inf / inf. This concept of "zoning" is the keystone of Adder's strategy and its power. I advise for example zoning of type inf / inf, inf / mech, tank / tank (except against Kindle ect see "advanced techniques") tank / AA, AA / copter, copter / copter and copter / tank. not to make your way to snipe the helicopters with yours and AA with your tanks and in general your opponent will give up if you manage to do this because he will then have nothing to manage your air supremacy. (see "advanced techniques")
On maps without a communications tower, pay extra attention to all of this. See "advanced technique" for more details. This is one of Adder's first weaknesses. If there is no communication tower, Adder is more difficult to play and is also weaker.
The main weakness of Adder is therefore the lack of power of its units. This is why, even if it is rare, a map with two communication towers makes it even more dangerous. Indeed having damage is useless if your opponent cannot touch you with his units as he wishes! What you can do perfectly by applying the previous zoning strategy.
The second weakness of Adder is the absence of a strong SCOP (or even of a SCOP just so rare its use). So, to win with Adder you must be precise, thorough and on the verge of perfect. You will rarely have a huge advantage with Adder. But you can have micro benefits almost all the time. All the art of this character is then to transform his micro advantages into victory. I therefore specify that I think that it is one of the most difficult characters to play in the game. Because playing it very well is not enough to win and the slightest error will cost you dearly. BUT if you play it more than very well, you will have superiority almost all the time at the start of the game (against T3 and T4, and maybe even sometimes T2 but the question does not arise against T1).
I even think that a good Adder can beat an Olaf or an Eagle. In the sense that having a strong SCOP absolutely does not counter Adder's strategy on a small map for example. The only thing that does it is a strong d2d, which the T1 characters have.

General tactical concept:
Here I will give some tactical concept ideas. The problem with tactics is that it is not general. That is to say that we can find cases where the rule that we said does not apply. This is why what follows are more "loose" ideas of possibilities than theorems.
-In general, find the route in the capture phase which allows you to get to the airport very quickly. But not too soon either. The moment you have the airport, you can put the pressure on by threatening the construction of a helicopter. I did say "threaten". If for example your opponent builds an AA in anticipation of this then punish him by building a tank and zoning his AA! (See part 3 of the advanced technique for an example)
-Do not hesitate to wait and make eco turns until your opponent does not build his first vehicle in order to counter it effectively. With Adder, think counter unit. It is the key to success. Because counter unit + mvt bonus = maximum pressure for your opponent. And by dint of sweating he will have to have a drink or make a mistake! For example building a lot of infantry at the start is absolutely not a problem against any character with no better inf than you. For example Andy, Sonja, Jess, ect. And every time your opponent takes a trade, he is in danger of losing the inf / inf trades. Which means that he will necessarily build a vehicle before you. In addition, building only infantry at the start then allows you to build a helicopter + tank in the same turn, which your opponent does not want because he will not have an effective response. Indeed a helicopter will be zoned by yours and an AA will be zoned by your tank!

-Apart from the previous rule, as soon as your opponent starts building vehicles (this is generally the first key moment in the game), systematically, and I mean systematically, a round which MAXIMIZES your income. Be careful however, when I say maximize, I mean in relation to what is not stupid for you. It is impossible to generalize a concept that is both global and truthful of "income maximization". What I mean is, don't build an AA if your opponent built 2 tanks in the previous round, just to "maximize" your income. On the other hand if you have for example 20,000 of income, you can build Helicopter / tank / mech / inf or tank / tank / arty according to the situation and the units built by your opponent. Remember, think counter unit. For examples of income maximization, see "advanced techniques".

-The fact of being able to build mech is a blessing for the maximization of income. Remember that your opponent cannot build a mech against Adder, or lose 3000 money for nothing! (unless it's Sami or Adder ...)

-Do not build a recon. Better to build mech with Adder. The recons are there to put pressure on the infantry. But your infantry is already putting pressure on the opposing infantry, so it's nonsense to buy something more expensive to do the same!

-Sometimes, despite the previous rule, it is useful to make an eco turn. What is an eco turn? An eco-turn is the act of voluntarily not maximizing one's income in anticipation of an opponent's construction in order to have enough money to be able to build counter units in the next round. It is a very powerful technique, but also not easy to apply. The main example is to always have enough money to buy a fighter to counter a future stealth if your opponent does not maximize his funds and tries to make it upside down! He will then have problems because you will have what to counter his stealth AND in addition you will have more unity and / or strong unity on the ground, which means pressure for your opponent and defeat if he does not react. See "advanced technique" for examples of eco turns.

-In HF, favor the number rather than the power. In particular, overwhelm your opponent with a mass of helicopters. You will see, it will be his pleasure to see all his stuff flying in the sky!

-Do not forget that a helicopter beats an MD tank. Yes, yes I am serious. This reinforces the previous rule since in HF it is easy to build helicopters.

- Fight to occupy the center then slowly repel your opponent by applying the zoning technique. If you have the center you can then, especially by combining your COP, make a devastating push on the right or left flank of your opponent. It's mathematical. If your units are in the middle, they can go either left or right. If they are on the right, they cannot go to the far left of the map! So if on top of that you have a movement bonus ...

-If you really want to snipe a particular unit, then use the SCOP to do so. Be sure of your push, there won't be two.

-To make the link with the above, sometimes leave 4 or 5 squares between an infantry and the opposing HQ. And in the same way as with Sami, threaten a decisive breakthrough on the enemy HQ. If your opponent does not react, he could see an infantry on his HQ surrounded by tanks and helicopters to protect him and he will have to give up.

-You can apply the previous rule to threaten the capture of a "simple" city. It should not be forgotten that this tactic is very strong if and only if you have your COP / SCOP since it forces your opponent to make a decision. If Adder uses his COP then he can capture the city, if he cannot be used when he cannot since the city is 4 or 5 squares away. This technique is therefore added to all these previous ones which encountered colossal pressure from your opponent and will constantly have to make the concession for fear of using COP on a particular place on the map.

-In connection with the previous paragraph, multiply the tactical threats of using COP, such as the fact of threatening several cities at maximum range, that is to say 4 boxes, on the WHOLE map. It is very important to do this on the whole map since your opponent will necessarily be overwhelmed because he cannot have more mobility than Adder!

-If you feel that your opponent wants to break free from your grip in the next round, set a trap for him. Clear a route with an attractive bait like a city, but anticipate the placement of its units and configure yours so as to effectively counter it at MAXIMUM range on the next turn. Threatening a configuration at MAXIMUM range is very important because it makes it harder for your opponent to calculate your response. In addition, you give him the dilemma "If you do that I use my COP, if you don't do it, I don't use it". If your opponent wants to free himself from your grip, he will have to force you to use your COP! See the "advanced techniques" section for more details.

-In particular, the last two paragraphs are Adder's main tactical weapons. Try to do this all the time and I guarantee that for the rest of the game, the psychological pressure will build up in him and he will sweat or make mistakes or both. In particular, if the configuration you have anticipated allows you to snipe the helicopters and AA it is immediately a chess mat!

-Zoning, zoning and more zoning.

Conclusion:
Adder is a fantastic and subtle character. I personally love it when apparent simplicity hides beneficial complexity. And that's what Adder is. Many players thought and will still think that they are only smoky fantasies coming from a good player, certainly, but not having the necessary hindsight and the impartiality necessary. I'll let you make your own opinion here. I still hope that I have lit lanterns and helped some in the general understanding of a character unloved on paper but who surprises once on the battlefield.
For those who would like to continue, there is a continuation to this guide which goes much more in details. Theory is a good thing, but without linking it to practice its very existence is futile.

So I leave you with a quote from Nimzowitsch, in his book "mein system", and thank you for reading me:

"Harmony is hidden in all things, but it is extremely difficult to extract this harmony from the chaos in which it is plunged" (Aaron Nimzowitsch)