Can Kanbei Defeat His Sensei? 

At a Snap of Sensei's fingers, retirement homes across yellow comet empty at a rapid rate, the silver horde advancing upon the battlefield grumbling about "how things were harder back in the day" or "these young'uns don't know how to hold a rifle right" meanwhile in the skies above, the buzzing of rotors above drones menacingly weapons primed.

Sensei: "Back in MY day, my cities actually deployed helicopters" Andy: "See? See? They DO deploy on cities!" Sami: "..."

at mang's snap of his infinity gauntlet, he DOUBLES the population of infantry. "perfectly balanced as all things should be"

Sensei's truly unique power is charging future powers with the power he just used.

Colin: My money is our resource Sensei: your life is my resource

Sensei Day 1: Hmm I suppose I’d better head out. Sensei Day 10: *TENNO HEIKA BANZAIII*

I think the most unfair thing about Copter Command is that the infantry that you spawn with it also contribute to it recharging as they're destroyed. It seems like by the second time you use it you've basically set up an infinite loop.

This dude is single handedly boosting the series and the fanbase so much not gonna lie Edit: Wow this blew up I was half asleep during a 44°C heat wave in the bus when I wrote this lol

"A" rank matches are always chaotic and fun, looking foward to seeing kanbei take 0 damage while Sensei spams mechs

Oh no, it's me 11:22 It's not only one point of mov, I should have put the inf that just capped in the APC the next turn and the "free" one to cap the next property >early tank Yeah, I didn't realize how bad that was..... >APC use I kneel mango-sama, I will change my mov wasting ways Honestly, thank you, I'm pretty bad at realizing my mistakes and as a kanbei main~ I thought I might have some particular mistakes based on that, but no, it was mostly beginner's mistakes

When you load an infantry into an APC, you are using the infantry's action, not the APC's. This is why you can load up an infantry, move the APC, and unload the infantry on the same turn...provided the APC hasn't already moved. The problem you are noticing at 40:00 is actually that the infantry is loading up *after* the APC's turn, and yet the APC still has it's action available.

This does make Sensei look exceptionally powerful, but to really belong in S rank then we need to see him standing against Sturm or Hachi... That would be a fun match to see. Sensei might be one of the better picks against Sturm actually because Sensei's powers can give him so many units to help mitigate Meteor Strike when it happens

As Colin it's easy to win vs Sensei: you just need to build about 13 rockets and shoot at anything that dares to move, the rest of your money is to be used on anti-air

According to my calculations, if you spend all your money every turn, and if cities make up at least 56% of your properties, Copter Command outperforms Gold Rush in raw gold. At 70%, it even makes up for Colin's discount on that turn. And that gold is immediately invested in Sensei infantry, ready to move, some already on the front lines. Oh, and your battle copters get a boost. It's official: Copter Command is the best two-star power in the game.

All I got to say about Sensei is what are you going to do when like 15 9hp infantry march towards you at once as soon as they get two stars And then if you somehow do kill them all that generates enough power for another 15 infantry to spawn Honestly this guy is like the definition of Soviet Union memes where every time you kill their infantry they just get replaced by more

Sensei has the battle doctrine of having more bodies than the enemy has bullets.

Kimeru is 'to choose' in Japanese. El Perro is 'the dog' in Spanish. He's 'choose the dog'.

It just occurred to me that Sensei's power is even more broken because if the enemy manages to wipe out your first wave of troops, that just gives you free meter to send out another one. With enough properties it's literally impossible to fight against cause killing the units just refunds the meter that Sensei spent to spawn them

“If you can choose between an airport and a property, why not go for the property first.” Never change, Mangs.

The scary thing about Kanbei is thay his infantry are probably stronger than Sensei's. Truly Yamamoto disciple.

Winning with a -23 kill to death ratio, just some Sensei things.

What a lot of people don't get is that Sensei isn't just limited to infantry and copters. His tanks and artillery, in spite of being nerfed, are incredibly scary because of his insane ability to build up infantry support. His b-copters absolutely wreck enemy b-copters, meaning sensei doesn't have to invest much into anti-air. Meanwhile his tanks will absolutely shred enemy anti-air.

I remember when I was just a young lad that really liked advance wars… I… was the unironic Sturm main of my friend group. Yes, I seriously thought the lack of a normal power made up for him just being broken. Don’t worry, my friends and I later moved on to Smash Bros Brawl, where I proceeded to main Meta Knight. How the fuck did I even have friends to play these games with 🤔

We call that transport boost where you unload after a wait the "transport glitch". It's been around forever, and started as a true oversight by the devs many, many years ago. For whatever reason they didn't patch it when they found out about it, and now it's been ingrained into our culture so deeply that seasoned players will defend it. Transport glitch makes transports more viable in openings, since you can unload and boost other units by 1 square in the same turn. It's a really fun tech once you start looking for how to use it.

Sensei is literally just reverse Thanos, instead of wiping out 50% of all life, he doubles all life and then proceeds to beat you to death with their helmets while they're still wearing them.

Im just staring at how tiny Sensei's power bar is and screaming "why!?" Lol wtf is the reason for his power being so cheap, especially when it completely refills after one turn of your opponent trying to kill them

tbf, if he had solely built Anti-Air instead of his Tanks and long range units, this could've turned out differently. You would've needed to build more mechs to counter it, and as Sensei you can do that more easily than other COs, but he would've at least been able to last longer.

Kanbei: *breathes* Mangs: This is a mistake, he shoulda built an anti-air

For some reason that I don't know, I just love your opponent's name. "Kimeru The Dog"

Yes, Sensei is disgusting but Kanbei could've given him a run for his money if he built the right units: recon, tons of infantry, and tons of anti-air. Instead, he built tanks (like what?) and useless rockets. That's a lot of money wasted. If your field is full of anti-air, Sensei will have a much harder time trying to defeat you since his Mechs are slow and his main mobility of transport copters are weak to anti-air.

SONJA MY DAUGHTER! SENSEI HAS GONE SENILE AND IS SWARMING ME WITH A SEA OF INFANTRY I THINK THIS IS THE END FOR ME

Turn 1 going for that City leads into that unit alone having a chain of caps letting other units push to the center if you can to force some fights for contested caps. Least that's my view on it.

Genuinely looking forward to that sensei vs hachi match.

Thanos: I use Super CO power, halve the population Sensei with his own SCOP ready: lol

@ 19:27 another glorious mangsmath moment. Great video!

I started playing Advance Wars by Web because of these videos alone. And I won against a Sturm with a Rachel without COP or SCOP by either of us and it felt AWESOME.

I once defeated Sensie as Sami with a victory march and a mega tank. The unit cap came to my aid.

Panzergraf noted that Mangs is really good at using his transport to ferry infantries and mechs around in their games. Guess this game shows that.

If any1 say Colin is the Fodder units machine, show them Sensei.

Sensei's gameplan here reminds me of playing Ryota in Wargroove, but the payoff is strategically different of course! When playing Ryota your plan is to suddenly change the the map into a glorified checker board and hop as many guys as possible hahaha!

Imagine trying to play Sensei with a 30 second turn limit. Actually, that might be fun to see!

When facing Sensei and he wants an higher unit cap, let him. Screw winning! Lets see what number of units he'll reach.

I have always found Sensei to be very strong, however this map is also very good for him. A lot of cities and an early airport is basically perfect for him. On maps like these, I would say he is S tier for sure

I absolutely LOVE these AWBW replay matches with your commentary. Very entertaining and educational.

At 6:20 I think the rationale behind that infantry move was probably more that he didn't really need the airport right away. Like Mangs said, Kanbei definitely can't afford to be pumping out a bunch of aircraft by turn 4. But moving the infantry the way he did let him get the property in the back, then the next turn jump straight into capping the airport so it's constantly doing something. Meanwhile, if he'd taken the airport first, he'd have to send an infantry back to that city after, then have it just walking for 2 turns before it could reach another city. It was a smart little bit of optimization... that turned out to be kinda pointless if he was going to build an APC on turn 4 anyway.

These videos are awesome! After playing this game pretty much by myself for 15 years it's finally nice to see what the meta looks like in a multiplayer match!

22:57 I've used APCs to bodyblock before, and while it is effective in the short-term, in the long term you REALLY feel that lack of presence from having no guys with guns on the frontline. Suddenly they have all these tanks, and they might find the APCs annoying, but they'll whittle them down eventually, and once they do, you can't be that aggro with your APCs because they're gonna die. One of the biggest advantages APCs have is that they don't get oneshot by anything below a Medium Tank and can repair and refuel in cities, whereas T-copters have better movement, but they don't benefit from terrain, can't hide in forests, have picky repair and refueling requirements, and get obliterated by B-copters and AA in a single hit. APCs are better if you're expecting to drop really close to the fighting, but APCs should almost never be used to bodyblock unless your infantry are already at the frontline and you __reeeeeally__ need something to not get shot or capped, i.e. you're capping the HQ, or Sami is about to get her Super. Day to day, it's better to run home and get more guys to the front so they can cap and bodyblock, rather than block and be useless for a turn or two while the opponent goes and gets a tank or a copter cuz you left em no choice.

I was playing advance wars by web recently and this is good fun. You feel so big brain when you win the matches and i hope that the remake has good online as well. Good match between two top tier COs. Also watching all those mechs and infantry is giving me ptsd to my match against hachi.

I physically cheered when i saw another online game from you! I love these man keep it up!

I scroll through youtube waiting for another of your awbw replays. Keep it up mangs!

You know what the most broken thing about Sensei's power is? Killing the infantry it spawns charges his meter back up.

I guess the only way to deal with Sensei is setting up units and transports, heading for HQ cap while defending your HQ. Since its imposible for routing (the more damage you deal to Sensei, the more stars he get). Maybe Hachi can achieve Routing win if he can buy enough units to counter push, capture property along the way. In fact, clear as few infantry as possible as Sensei reached his cap, so that he cant build unit to counter your HQ cap-unit escorts

Hey mangs, really good video as always, I hope I can get to play like that someday. I'm enjoying these commentary videos a lot, and in fact it's what made me try out the game for myself. And in fact, again, I just beat the map where Olaf goes back to his hometown and I'm feeling devastated

I remember the sturm IA in AW2 was afraid to attack Kanbei's medium tanks when they where on bases XD

Hey Mangs, really liking those videos! I have noticed something over the past few games, namely that there would have been the possibility of some early HQ rushes. I know that early HQ rushes are not the most exciting kind of content, but maybe a compilation of HQ rushes with non HQ-Rush CO's (Sami, Sensei etc.) just to show how dangerous it can be when you get hit unprepared?

6:17 he went for the city to capture in order and save moves for other units, since he is Kanbey, he need to make his move as efficient as he can (even if he spend the money in useless things later on)

amazing! thank you so much for this. it was so fun to see sensei in action! I actually like thos CO's with a special gimmik and playstyle.. even though they are op ^^ please give us a grit game at some point where you play him, or at least against a good one :)

I want to add on point, and then let this be. Around the time you were close to getting your first power, you arguably should have built more T coppers, and positioned them near the center. Several of those units are not going to be fast enough to join the two front lines, and you could have opened up a third front by having two or three Ts dropping units over the sea and onto their doorstep. Even if infantry gets lost, that's likely stuffed any push forward to hold the front line. Biggest thing with Sensei is appearing where you absolutely shouldn't be as another CO.

Mangs im addicted to your AW videos keep up the good good content

36:56 Not the Zergling rush reference. I ABSOLUTELY felt this after you popped the second Copter Command. XD

The Gold Comet Zerg Rush! Glad to see a fellow Starcraft player

Introducing Sensei's copter. That's 65% more copter per copter.

I love these PVP games. It feels like it has potential to become a long term pillar of the channel, with Mangs excellent post game commentary of course : D

Hell yeah, more match recaps.

That APC tips is really good! i didn't think of it :D

Such a delightfull spectacle! Very interesting matchup.

You know what's S-tier? These Advance Wars commentary by Mangs!! Like Sensei's troops, keep um coming!

Ah, never forget, as simple as some of these videos are, they do wonders for someone, somewhere, goin' through somethin'. Don't forget this. Thank you, Mangs.

Kanbei: Nooo Sensei! Not the belt! Sensei: I would teach you some manners boi. *Grabs holds of Kenbai and hits him with the belt of discipline.*

Love this series. More! More commentaries please.

Definitely against Sensei the Anti-Air is the gold standard unit. They crush infantry and copters, just have to try and protect them from being attacked by mechs.

Probably one of the less mentioned strengths of Sensei (and Colin too really) is that his power literally fuels itself, as killing the extra units he gets through his power will very likely go back into building his power bar up, which will in turn give him EVEN MORE free units.

Just want to point out at the start of the video why capturing the building was better than the airport: movement opimization: by capturing the building first, he didn't need to return there (2 turn to capture town + 2 turn to capture airport); in opposite if he captured the airport first, he will need after to go up to capture the town, then lose a turn to return near the airport (2 turn to capture town + 2 turn to capture airport + 1 turn of movement). Same thing even if he use another unit: it will lose 1 turn to reach the airport after capture. It's only useful to capture the airport first if you plan to build a air unit very early.

Sensei was always my go to when I played this as a kid, best music too.

Sensei is like the imperial guard from 40k just drown the enemy in soldiers, clog the tanks with your dead

It's crazy that the most broken thing about Sensei, isn't his powers or his copters, it's his theme. It's just way too powerful!

I giggle in my head every time he says battle copter. This episode was pure bliss.

I once played a 3 player FFA match with 2 of my friends and one of them went with Sensei. The only reason he did not wipe the floor with both of us completely was that it was like his 3rd game. Absolutely insane CO. We banned the broken tier COs in our games after the Sensei incident.

So glad you elaborated on the APC thing. I've been replaying Advance Wars 1, and you're allowed to load and drop units on the same turn. I wasn't aware that they changed that in 2.

15:54 I think after seeing the APC and infantry in range to threaten your Comm Tower, it would've been better to move your nearby infantry to 2 spaces away from your Comm Tower to have vision on it and guard it, rather than going for the capture at 16:04 Not trying to like, call out a mistake, tbh I'm wondering if you'd agree with my read on the situation. Either way you're going to delay the capture of a property in the area in order to deal with the enemy, but this way the one you're delaying is less contested.

I luv these replays

Map absolutely chock full of cities, with Sensei at least in control of half of them = Sensei: "I see you have chosen death."

"Incredible! Your own army overwhelmed Kanbei's Imperial Elite!" "Heh! I see you still take my old style to heart in the importance of experience." "Yes! Just like your army of old, Sensei, Kanbei's army is well trained." "Nowadays, soldiers don't understand the importance of experience and veterancy unless the apocalypse were to happen or something."

@Mangs 11:40 There's a weird interaction in AWBW where you can move the APC, load an Infantry, and immediately unload with an APC onto an adjacent tile. The Kanbei player didn't know this nor utilize this, but it potentially could have said infantry into capturing distance of the city east of the APC and allowed the APC to ferry the Infantry in the city that is one tile above it on the next turn. Yeah, it's an exploit and probably shouldn't be on AWBW. That's probably the only reason I could imagine moving an Infantry into a APC, Transport, Lander, or Black Boat on the turn that said loading unit moved. Edit: 40:15 I just noticed you talked about this. I agree, it needs to be fixed.

This is great, I was actually really hoping to see AW2 Sensei in action. Gotta wonder how he'd fare against the S-Rank COs.

"I have more men than you have bullets." - Sensei

With the efficacy of the meat shield indirects while weak would be super safe with this CO. Would be interesting to test it a little to provide a strong wall in between the first 2 infantry recruitment. Plus strong air support.

This thumbnail is the most cursed shit

The most powerful commanders are the ones who get the most of their troops killed. It's not just war. It's Advanced War. Sensei and Colin are masters of their craft.

That Kanbei in the thumbnail looks both scared and high

Love these replays ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

I think the reason for going for the property over the airport on that first turn for kanbei is the movemont afterwards. Taking that property first means afterwards he can continue advacning forward while capping instead of having to go back for the property and then taking an extra turn to get to the porperty below his airport.

Sensei is basically like Operation Neptune with Hueys blasting Fortunate Son as back up.

Love the AWBW vids mangs.

Advance Wars for web not plans to fix the A Transporter bug. (It works with every unit that can load units) It is a relict of the old interface and pretty much everyone uses it. Player just consider it a tactical feature at this point:) This match was a good example why Sensei is considered even more broken as Kanbei. Kanbei is op but there are ways to counter him if you early on take advantage of the eco debuff. But there is no way to counter Senseis Infantry spam. Because all Sensei needs to beat nearly everythink you can throw at him is bc;)

Watching all this gives me a craving for Advance Wars all of a sudden. I miss playing these games so badly.

Senseis tune alone blows out the competition

Man I am addicted to these videos

Thank you for making this video I wanted to see you play sensei on advance wars by web.

FIrst you draw a circle, then you slice the STL, add a 40mm fan and presto, it's a Fume Extractor Kirby!