Glossary

In the many years since Advance Wars first released in 2001 and indeed AWBW in 2004, a number of terms, acronyms and turns of phrases have become commonplace in the community for various different topics and concepts.

If you want a term defined or you're unsure on how to define a term that you think is useful for other AWBW players, please leave a comment and a more experienced member will add it for you.

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2HKO

Two-Hit KO, killing a unit in two hits (usually with the same type of unit twice)

#HKO

#-Hit KO, killing a unit in a certain number of hits

A

AA

Anti-Air

AAA

Aaron Marriner, the founder of AWBW

AB

Amber Blaze

AET

Auto End Turn: Automatic ending of a player's turn when that player's Max Turn Time expires

AR

Acid Rain

Art / Arty

Artillery

B

BB

Black Boat / Black Bomb

BBoat

Black Boat

BD

Brown Desert

BH

Black Hole

Black Tiles

See Teleport Tiles.

Blandie

COs with no Day-To-Day ability. Ex. Andy

Blob

The strategy of combining all or the majority of a player's army into one massive force to overwhelm a flank with numbers

Blocking

Restricting your opponent's options by using your own unit as an obstruction. Ex. Blocking a base to prevent production

Boosting

Using the ability of transport units to unload without using a turn to give units moving past a 1 tile boost

Boot

When the global timer hits 0, or if AET occurs without any moves being made, the player is booted and loses the game automatically

Broken

Too strong for standard play between two or more similarly skilled players

Broken 5

The 5 main banned COs in standard play: Kanbei, Sensei, Grit, Colin, and Hachi

BM

Blue Moon

C

Capture chain

Capturing a series of properties one immediately after the other to increase capture efficiency

CI

Cobalt Ice

CO

Commanding Officer

COP

Commanding Officer Power

D

Day-to-Day / D2D

The abilities of a CO when not under the effect of CO Powers

Deathball

The strategy of combining all or the majority of a player's army into one massive force to overwhelm a flank with numbers

F

Flood

Producing nothing but one type of unit

Footsoldiers

Infantry and Mechs

FoW

Fog of War

FTA

First Turn Advantage, the advantage given to player 1 by being first to play. Ex. Being able to produce the first tank or reaching a certain amount of income first.

FTA Counter

The advantage given to player 2 to balance out FTA, typically an extra pre-owned city or Infantry

G

GE

Green Earth

GL

Global League

Ghost Units

A unit from a non-participating country that disappears upon the start of a game and will change the function of the tile it stands on

Ghosted

A tile that has a ghost unit (see above) placed on it, disabling production functions

GS

Grey Sky

H

HF

High Funds

Hide-and-Seek

An unofficial Fog of War game-mode where one player is designated to find and destroy all other players before they can achieve an objective

HQ

Headquarters

I

Immigration

An unofficial game-mode where multiple players begin on a large, open map and must fan out to claim properties and territory before hostilities begin

Increment

The amount of time added to a player's global timer when their turn begins

Inf

Infantry

Infantry Hop

The use of infantry and sometimes APC/T-copters to increase your capture phase efficiency Ex. moving infantry #1 that has already captured last turn to a further neutral city and having infantry #2 who is next in line capture the city infantry #1 was on.

J

Join-capping

Reinforcing the capture of a property by joining two footsoldiers together to increase its health and capture speed next turn.

Joke Map

A map designed for non-competitive reasons

JS

Jade Sun

L

Leapfrogging

Using an APC or T-Copter to effectively transport 2 footsoldiers at the same time

LF

Low Funds

Live / Live Play

A match played with shortened time controls intended to be played in a single session

M

Max Turn Timer

The maximum amount of time a player may take before their turn is ended automatically (See: AET)

MC

Map Committee, a team of experienced map makers responsible for categorisation and Global League map rotations

Meatshield

A unit placed at a particular position to protect your more important units Ex. Infantry protecting Artillery

Mech Flood

When a player produces a disproportionate amount of Mechs turn after turn

Mega

Mega Tank

N

Neo

Neotank

O

OHKO

One-Hit KO, killing a unit in one hit

OS

Orange Star

P

PC

Pink Cosmos

PL

Purple Lightning

Playtest

Playing a game on a map to check for balance issues

S

SCOP

Super Commanding Officer Power

Spam

Producing nothing but one type of unit

STA

Second Turn Advantage, advantage for moving second on a map

Stalemate

A game state where neither side can make meaningful progress towards victory, usually ending in a draw

Stall

A game state where neither side can make meaningful progress towards victory, usually ending in a draw. Can also mean a state where one player is playing defensively to buy time, usually to delay for a strong CO Power turn

T

T1

Tier 1. Also applies for Tiers 2, 3, 4, and 0, with 0 being the Broken Tier. Most often seen with Z Games

Teleport Tiles

A formerly glitch tile with a movement cost of 0.

TG

Teal Galaxy

Total Time

The total amount of time a player has for a game. If this hits 0, the player loses automatically (See: Boot)

V

Vacation Mode

You can go into vacation mode for a maximum of 2 weeks. In Vacation Mode, the Max Turn Timer is paused (but not the Total Time). Vacation mode will end if the player actively unsets the vacation mode, the time runs out or if any game relevant action is taken (e.g. moving a unit, building a unit, firing). (Note that choosing a CO is not counted as such a vacation ending action). At the end of the vacation mode the Max Turn Time for all games will be set to 7 days which should allow you to continue playing your games.

VB

Von Bolt

W

WN

White Nova

Wall / Walling

Physically blocking access to a more important unit with cheaper, expendable units (primarily Infantry)

Wallbreaking

Destroying part of a wall to gain access to the units previously protected behind them, usually with powerful attackers such as Md. Tanks and Bombers

Y

YC

Yellow Comet

Z

Z Games

A game automatically created on a 2-player map that anyone can join