Lash is a Black Hole CO who becomes stronger offensively from terrain as well as stronger defensively.
Strategy[]
Lash is a land-combat expert and tactician who relies on terrain effects for her boosts. As long as a unit of hers can get defense from terrain, they get an offensive boost equal to their terrain defense; pick Lash on a map with heavy terrain, and she gets strong enough to give even high-tier COs a run for their money. Outside of land-unit battles, she gets no bonuses whatsoever; she also fares poorly on maps with generally light terrain. Her powers only serve to accentuate her advantages on heavy terrain, so much of Lash's strategy simply revolves around picking a good map for her to toy with.
Lash performs very well on maps with:
- Heavy terrain, with lots of Forest, properties and especially Mountains.
- Reduced emphasis on air and naval units, or at least maps where air units cannot easily switch fronts.
- No Comm Towers.
- Terrain features that will get Sturm banned, such as Mountains or Rivers blocking paths to neutral bases, or anything that lets him harass with Recons effectively.
Take note that Lash will do well with any form or temperament of ground combat and will only require well-placed terrain near contested areas to succeed.
Once she gets on the right map, it's on to tactics:
- When on properties, Lash is almost as strong as Kindle is, getting an offensive boost just 10% short of Kindle's. Placing tanks on cities will usually scare other tanks away, allowing time to expand or space to breathe. Beware of the actual Kindle, though; not only is she better on cities, she also has the tools to take control of them away from her.
- Trying to occupy and attack from better terrain is always a good habit, but doing it as Lash makes it way better; attacking from a forest gives her comparable stats to Von Bolt, who incidentally has one of the best day-to-day abilities outside of the broken COs.
- Infantry and Mechs are especially powerful on Mountains; move them across such terrain whenever sensible. Lash Mechs on Mountains in particular are notoriously difficult to deal with; consider defending or holding lines with them.
- Terrain Tactics does share the movement cost reduction, and thus the movement boost, with Prime Tactics; it can be used to get surprise attacks through seemingly treacherous terrain. Nevertheless, it is usually overcosted for its effect and saving up for Prime Tactics is usually a better use of power charge; on the right terrain, her units become nigh-invincible, denying enemy assaults and granting her almost a free turn.
- Indirect units usually hate to wade through lots of forests, but it's usually worth it to place them on those. Indirect units get the bonus offense too, not to mention that forests are quite hard to reach. You can place them on cities too, if you're not using the cities to park direct units.
- Lash's powers negate weather; consider using them to negate random weather or a weather-changing power from Drake or Olaf.
How to Counter[]
Lash is very strong if and only if she's on the ground; air units will help a lot. Her air units do not get defenses from terrain, nor are they impeded by it; COs with a beneficial day-to-day for air units can dominate there.
Dislodging her units from heavy terrain is hard to do with direct units, if only because of the stronger counterattacks. Indirect units are safe from this, and with proper shielding, will easily get rid of Lash's units. Air units can be used for the same effect, but beware of Anti-Airs.
Lash's powers aren't really that strong; they do not affect all units equally, and are almost useless on plains and lower terrain. COs with stronger powers, like maybe Andy or Eagle, may find it wise to play safe and wait for powers to charge. Lash would remain strong day-to-day however, caution is advised.
| COs of Advance Wars By Web | ||||
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 Orange Star
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 Blue Moon
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 Green Earth
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 Yellow Comet
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 Black Hole
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