Cairn

Cairn

Affiliation Brown Desert Blue Moon (formerly) Region Waystone

Bio A wilderness survival expert who excels at using natural terrain to her advantage. Hits Hiking Misses Crowds

Skills

Specialty Forest, Mountain, and River Terrain (Wilderness)

CO Unit Ranger CO Zone 4 CO Power Call of the Wild Super CO Power Force of Nature

Power Meter

Cairn is a Brown Desert CO that is an expert in wilderness survival. Her pleasant demeanor hides a preference for spending time alone in the vastness of nature, enjoying the simple tranquility of wonderfully unexplored lands, surviving on her wits and skills. Originally a Blue Moon CO, the numerous wars the country entered led her home region of Waystone to choose a different path and part from their long-standing union with Blue Moon. She briefly leads her home's army in defense of preserving Waystone's historic claims before the region agrees to join Brown Desert.

Personality

Cairn has a warm and cheerful outlook on most situations, choosing to enjoy the positive elements life has to offer. Despite her optimism, Cairn does recognize that hardships do exist, so will oftentimes try her best to consider the many paths to a desired goal, choosing a peaceful resolution over a decisive victory when possible. Her preference for wilderness combat is a means of drawing enemies away from damaging population centers to the wilderness where Cairn can take advantage of the terrain to boost the outcome in her favor.

History

Advance Wars

Cairn’s promotion from officer to commanding officer happened when Olaf calls upon Grit to deal with Andy in Gunfighter! Grit leaves Cairn in charge of a small pass to defend in case anyone tries to sneak into Blue Moon. Campaign elements are still being planned as part of Commander Wars: Cairn’s Path Mod.

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

Campaign elements are still being planned as part of Commander Wars: Cairn’s Path Mod.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Campaign elements are still being planned as part of Commander Wars: Cairn’s Path Mod.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

Campaign elements are still being planned as part of Commander Wars: Cairn’s Path Mod.

Commander Wars: Dark Horizons

Cairn first appears in the Brown Desert mission A New Path* as an independent army facing off against Blue Moon’s forces. The mission starts once either Alex or Zandra arrives to investigate the large Blue Moon army amassed along Brown Desert’s borders.

Commander Wars: Cairn’s Path

This planned mod for Commander Wars will explore Cairn’s journey through a campaign that covers all the games in the Advance Wars series and how she went from a Blue Moon cadet to a Brown Desert CO.

CO Abilities

CO Description: "Wilderness grants her units additional terrain stars. On-property firepower of her units is reduced."

Day to Day: NONE

CO Unit: Ranger.

CO Zone: 4 Range

Units on Wilderness terrain gain +2 terrain stars. 10% less firepower in buildings. (100/110 units on buildings) Wilderness is Forests, Mountains, and Rivers.

CO Power: Call of the Wild.

Movecost of Wilderness terrain lowers to 1. Indirect units on gain +1 Vision and Range. CO Zone Effect becomes global.

Super CO Power: Force of Nature.

Units heal 1 HP per every wilderness tile they cross. Increases firepower by 10% terrain star and decreases enemies' defense star. CO Zone Effect becomes global.

Tactics

Cairn’s ability ties directly into the placement of forests, mountains, and rivers, so her strength is not just dependent upon the map but also the current position of her units on that map. However, her forces have reduced firepower on properties which can result in a poor capture game. Unit composition is very dependent on the map, as the terrain type of the wilderness will determine if infantry, direct combat, or indirect combat units are best utilized. The location of the wilderness will also factor into the play style as isolated clusters will favor tactics that can cross the gap while wilderness along the edges benefits indirect units to support interior locations. Each map will require a unique strategy to best take advantage of Cairn’s skill set.

Cairn has access to the Ranger CO unit that can further extend combat range and importantly can allow indirects not on wilderness to take advantage of the wilderness buff during powers through the Ranger. Additionally, her Super CO Power provides healing for any unit that crosses the wilderness, including air, which has high enough movement to create significant healing. Cairn’s low power cost and large CO zone mean that she can use her powers often to get the advantage needed for maps with lesser wilderness. At two stars, she can activate her CO power twice for a punishing assault on enemy lines over two days.

Quotes

Power

"The flow of battle favors this moment."

Victory

"Nature empowers the wise."

"Walk where others fail to tread."

"Follow the path that naturally leads to victory."

"Tranquility restored."

"All is well."

Defeat

"A humbling journey to reflect on."

Trivia

• Cairn’s name comes from a pile of stones used to mark locations, such as a path.
• Cairn was originally a part of Blue Moon but leaves alongside the Waystone region during the events of Commander Wars: Dark Horizons.
• An early version of Cairn’s lower outfit had similar designs to Colin’s and Sasha’s uniform, notably the cuff markings. She still has the same style of boots as Olaf.
• Several accessories Cairn wears represent the types of terrain that are considered wilderness for her mechanic. The mug equates to rivers, the hatchet for forests and the bedroll on her back represents earth for mountains.
• Cairn’s feather in her hairpin is a reference to her power’s ability to affect air units.
• Call of the Wild is a reference to both the common expression and to kulning, a herding call to draw cattle down from the mountains, the music of which was being listened to during Cairn’s initial design.

Gallery

• 

  Cairn's default sprite.

Comments

• "Im sorry Cairn... and Cairn." - Firewito, “All is well.” - Cairn