Xanari Crew

Thumbnail featuring the first batch of custom COs.

Xanari Crew - AW2 Rules (mods/xanari_aw2) is a mod for Commander Wars made by XnKradst, adding a cast of custom COs, along with some War Room maps. It is a remake of Xanari Crew (mods/the_xanari_crew), an older mod of the same name. Unlike its predecessor, which was made with Commander Wars' default Days of Ruin-like rules in mind; this mod was instead designed around Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising's rules, as its name suggests. Therefore, it is bundled with a separate mod that enforces this rule set. It also takes a more minimalist approach to design, currently featuring a smaller, but overall more polished roster compared to the original.

The first release was posted on October 30th, 2022, with a minor update four days later on November 3rd.

The latest version can be downloaded here. (Warning: There may be slight compatibility issues with the current versions of Commander Wars. A major update is being worked on and will be available eventually.)

Differences from the original

Unlike the original mod, which featured more than custom COs (buildings, units, weather and a perk); the new mod currently features only 12 COs, nearly all of whom have their designs simplified in order to make them more intuitive. They also have new sprites that are more in line with the Advance Wars art style. CO zones and custom "signature units" have been removed, and most CO powers are specifically coded to grant a 10% defense boost by default.

CO zones and unique CO-specific units may be re-implemented at a later date.

Both mods feature their own set of War Room-style maps. The new mod's War Room makes use of the world map feature, making it closer to a custom campaign without story.

Roster

As the mod is supposed to be its own separate thing, none of the factions follow the Advance Wars naming convention of a color and a celestial object. There are only 2 major factions (Xanari and Epinger) that are divided into smaller factions, similar to how Commander Wars separates the Bolt Guard from Black Hole.

List of COs and Factions

Blaze's Team/Mercenaries (BT)	Xanari Intelligence (XI)	Epinger Squad (ES)	Core Xanari Crew (XC)
Blaze	Sonny	Embrie	Nana
Jill	Cyphir	Grigori	Rick
Rocky			Drac
			Xander*
			Xanderbot*

* Locked by default.

COs

Blaze

Day-to-Day: Indirect units have no minimal range, allowing them to fire at point-blank range. They can also counter-attack direct units, but all of Blaze's units suffer more damage from counter-attacks (-20% defense).

CO Power (3 Stars): "Distant Shooting" - All direct units can fire one space ahead even after moving, but when firing this way, they inflict only half the damage they would normally deal.

Super CO Power (7 Stars): "Direct Sniping" - All direct units can fire two spaces ahead even after moving, but when firing this way, they inflict slightly less damage than they normally do (losing a third of the overall damage) than they normally do.

Jill

Day-to-Day: All units gain 10% firepower for every space between their starting position and the target. However, direct vehicles start with a -20% firepower penalty.

CO Power (3 Stars): "Goose Chase" - Direct units can move one space farther. Indirect units can fire one space farther.

Super CO Power (8 Stars): "War Hunt" - All units can move one space farther. Indirect units can move and fire on the same turn, but doing so deducts 30% from their overall firepower.

Rocky

Day-to-Day: All units have 20% more defense, but this bonus is always halved for foot soldiers. Anything with more than 4 movement points by default has -1 movement.

CO Power (3 Stars): "Turtle Power" - Defense rises by 20% (10% for foot soldiers).

Super CO Power (7 Stars): "Stone Wall" - Defense rises by 20% (10% for foot soldiers). All units receive a terrain star, and an additional star if on a property (regardless of who owns it).

Sonny

Day-to-Day: When attacking, the friendly unit behind the attacker is healed for 1 HP. This also applies when counter-attacking.

CO Power (4 Stars): "Pierce Shot" - All direct attacks deal 1 HP of splash damage to enemies behind the target, up to 5 spaces in a straight line. Friendly units in the opposite direction heal 1 HP (also up to 5 spaces).

Super CO Power (8 Stars): "Pierce Blast" - All direct attacks deal 1 HP of splash damage to enemies behind the target in a straight line across the entire map. Friendly units in the opposite direction heal 1 HP.

Cyphir

Day-to-Day: All units have the ability to capture, but non-foot soldiers are half as efficient (5 capture points per turn at max health) and loses 50% defense when doing so.

CO Power (3 Stars): "Shady Seizure" - Firepower rises by 10%. Captures deduct an additional 5 points off a property, regardless of health.

Super CO Power (8 Stars): "Sudden Takeover" - All units can move one space farther. Captures deduct an additional 5 points off a property, regardless of health. If capturing drops a (non-HQ) property's capture points below 11, that property turns neutral.

Embrie

Day-to-Day: Each consecutive attack against the same enemy unit on the same turn has 40% more firepower than the last.

CO Power (2 Stars): "Head in the Game" - All units gain 20% firepower and defense, but as soon as her turn ends, they instead lose 20% firepower and defense until her next turn. All land units can move one space farther.

Super CO Power (6 Stars): "Maximum Concentration" - All units gain 40% firepower and defense until she ends her turn. All land units can two spaces farther.

Grigori

Day-to-Day: Units have 20% more firepower if they start outside the enemy's vision range. Units on terrain with less than two terrain stars lose 10% defense.

CO Power (3 Stars): "Dead-Eye" - Enemy vision is reduced by one point. All indirect units can fire twice.

Super CO Power (7 Stars): "Shots in the Dark" - Enemy vision is reduced TO one point. All indirect units can fire thrice.

Nana

Day-to-Day: All vehicles have 5% less defense. Non-foot soldier direct units stun enemy vehicles if killed by counter-attack. When attacking a stunned unit, firepower rises significantly and she takes no counter-attack damage.

CO Power (5 Stars): "Freeze Ray" - Her HQ, and all production facilities each fire 4 beams of laser, stunning the first unit hit by each beam. Firepower rises by 20%.

Super CO Power (9 Stars): "Numbing Laser" - Her HQ, all production facilities AND cities each fire 4 beams of laser, stunning the first unit hit by each beam. Firepower rises by 40%.

Rick

Day-to-Day: All units have 5% less defense, but they recover 1 HP at the start of every turn.

CO Power (4 Stars): "Healthy March" - All foot soldiers fully recover.

Super CO Power (7 Stars): "Universal Cure" - All foot soldiers fully recover, while everything else recovers 4 HP.

Drac

Day-to-Day: All units gain 5% firepower for each round of ammo and every 5 points of fuel missing from the target.

CO Power (3 Stars): "Vengeful Spirit" - All enemy units lose 20% of fuel and 2 rounds of ammo. Enemy APCs are stunned.

Super CO Power (8 Stars): "Infernal Judgment" - All enemy units lose 60% of fuel and 3 rounds of ammo. Enemy APCs are stunned.

Xander

Day-to-Day: All units have 50% more firepower, but 50% less defense. Units cost 10% more to build, but they can act immediately, allowing a single factory to deploy as many units as he can afford.

CO Power (5 Stars): "Mass Production" - All units cost 20% less than their normal price, and firepower rises by 150%.

Super CO Power (10 Stars): "Superior Strength" - All units cost 40% less than their normal price, and firepower rises by 150%. Damaged units will instantly kill anything they can hit.

Xanderbot

Day-to-Day: At the start of each turn, Xanderbot randomly picks one of the other COs (from this mod), and uses their day-to-day abilities.

CO Power (1 Star) - Activates the CO Power of the currently chosen CO.

Super CO Power (2 Stars) - Activates the Super CO Power of the currently chosen CO.

War Room/Campaign

Bundled with the mod is a collection of War Room-style maps. It is technically a campaign, as it has a world map, game progression, and it is accessed via the "New Campaign" option in Commander Wars (unless the files were not properly extracted). However, unlike campaigns, there is no story aside from short cutscenes introducing the COs, and the player can pick any CO they like, including those from other mods. The only exceptions are the COs from this mod itself, they can be played only after they have been defeated once. The mod uses the achievements feature to keep track of this.

Like the COs, the maps were built and balanced around Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising's rule set, although they can be played under any rules. There are a total of 12 maps, split into 4 stages. Completing all maps in one stage unlocks the next (unless progress was not saved). The first and second stages consist of 5 maps each, and the last two stages each contain a boss map.

Stage 1

Map 1 Turtle Lake	Map 2 Floral Road	Map 3 Arch River	Map 4 Wind-Up Range	Map 5 Chain Streets
Enemy CO: Rocky	Enemy CO: Jill	Enemy CO: Blaze	Enemy CO: Sonny	Enemy CO: Cyphir
Size: 18 × 18	Size: 19 × 24	Size: 17 × 14	Size: 25 × 14	Size: 21 × 17
Fog of War: No	Fog of War: No	Fog of War: No	Fog of War: No	Fog of War: No
Speed Time Limit: 22 days	Speed Time Limit: 20 days	Speed Time Limit: 22 days	Speed Time Limit: 22 days	Speed Time Limit: 21 days

Stage 2

Map 6 Blind Valleys	Map 7 Staff Expressway	Map 8 Vampire Cape	Map 9 Space Age Peninsula	Map 10 North Island
Enemy CO: Grigori	Enemy CO: Embrie	Enemy CO: Drac	Enemy CO: Rick	Enemy CO: Nana
Size: 18 × 15	Size: 18 × 14	Size: 26 × 22	Size: 15 × 18	Size: 27 × 27
Fog of War: Yes	Fog of War: No	Fog of War: No	Fog of War: No	Fog of War: No
Speed Time Limit: 20 days	Speed Time Limit: 20 days	Speed Time Limit: 19 days	Speed Time Limit: 22 days	Speed Time Limit: 24 days

Stage 3 and Stage 4

Map 11 Utopian Isles	Map 12 The Scrapyard
Enemy CO: Xander	Enemy CO: Xanderbot
Size: 27 × 24	Size: 27 × 21
Fog of War: No	Fog of War: No
Speed Time Limit: 26 days	Speed Time Limit: 21 days

Known bugs in the latest public release

- Strange indirect unit interactions with Sonny's day-to-day healing.

- Sonny's abilities do not work in a mirror match. This includes Xanderbot using his abilities.

- The War Room's world map image is misaligned. This is only a visual glitch, as the clickable flags themselves appear to be functional.

- Custom HQ sprite miscoloration.