Editing Advance Wars (section)

===Advance Wars Mainline CO list===
====Orange Star====
* '''Andy''': The middle-roader of the middle-road. No real strengths and weaknesses, with a power that repairs his dudes. Has a personality that fits his playstyle, plain and unremarkable, but reliable and without real annoyances. He does need to be reminded what airports are though. Generally unused in multiplayer beyond one's first few matches, because any CO with a particularly good day-to-day ability or CO power will have an advantage over him.
* '''Max''': Every crew of heroes needs a big beefy guy. Crappy with artillery, but great in a straight up fight, with big damage buffs to all direct combat. Has exactly the personality one would expect from a big, beefy guy. Might or might not be dating Nell. In the first game he was the most broken CO in the entire list, having 150/100 attack/defense stats (including his range-challenged indirects) along with movement bonuses from his CO powers. Having the range on his indirects' range isn't a big deal since he doesn't need them. Nerfed to hell in AW2 (though that in practice just makes him a good high-tier CO) with 120/100 stats.
* '''Sami''': Infantry specialist and standard issue [[Hot Chicks|Hot Chick]]. The most finesse-oriented Orange Star CO, relying on skirmish tactics and a bonus to capturing cities to gain a property advantage in the early game, followed by a wall of rapidly-replenishing mechanized infantry and tanks in the late. Also, that CO power that lets her one-shot-capture any property in the game in one go is cheating good if she can land it on the enemy base; her tagteam with Eagle in DS can potentially end games in one turn. Likes: Drinks, guns, camo, WW II fighter-pilot jackets. Dislikes: Straight fights, shenanigans. 
* '''Nell''': Commander-in-chief of the army, and the sexy voice constantly bitching in your ear throughout the first game. Super-lucky, all of her units have a higher chance to deal extra damage; her CO powers boost this to the point where infantry can trade evenly with anti-air tanks. In practice, this makes her a strong generalist with no weakness, since her units will invariably be dealing more damage in all situations over the long-term. She's also Rachel's big sister. 
* '''Hachi''' (AW 2): Is the map merchant in the first game. When playable he's one of the strongest COs in the game, focusing on decreasing the cost of units without making them any weaker. Also, his super CO power lets him shit out units from ANY CITY. Which means you can suddenly plant some ungodly powerful unit like a Medium Tank or Neotank down next to the enemy's base in those maps with cities along them. He is absolutely hated, and is one of those COs that you basically have already lost to.
* '''Jake''' (DS): The Japanese version is just kinda bland, while the American version speaks entirely in hip-hopisms which get so annoying that the main villain himself flat out says he's had it up to HERE with his "hipster slang". Your choice which is worse. He gets an attack bonus when fighting in the open on the Plains. In practice, this isn't too reliable, though his CO powers are alright: both grant him a boost to indirect attack range while his super boosts mobility. Friendzoned by Rachel. First co-protagonist of the DS game.
* '''Rachel''' (DS): Nell's little sister, and the serious one. ''Dual Strike'''s "Andy" character, with few real strengths or weaknesses. She has a mix of different powers: her day-to-day allows her to repair units more quickly than usual, her regular CO power is a downgraded version of Nell's power, and her CO power carpet bombs the enemy. Particularly strong on smaller maps. Second co-protagonist of the DS game.

====Blue Moon====
* '''Olaf''': Grumpy Orange Star defector, who started out as a cowardly starter villain before succumbing to the ravages of time and transforming into Santa Claus as the games progress. Specializes in winter combat and fighting in the snow, with a CO power that summons a blizzard (inflicting damage in later games) and units that gain bonuses and ignore penalties for ice. Rain, unfortunately, fucks up his shit even worse than usual. He is mostly regarded as a midtier CO; having the same "nothing-special" problem as Andy, though his CO power works better for fucking up mobility-oriented COs. Basically has no downside if you are smart enough to disable random weather while your buddy is in the bathroom.
* '''Grit''': Indirect combat specialist, and another Orange Star defector. Max's opposite, a long-range specialist whose artillery shoots further and hits harder, but whose tanks crumble more easily under direct assault. Lazy gunfighting badass, who may or may not still be schtupping Nell behind their countries' backs. One of the more broken COs due to his utterly murderous indirects, which only get longer-ranged and more powerful with his CO powers.
* '''Colin''' (AW 2): Sickly, insecure rich kid conscripted in the face of the alien invasion in the sequel. His units kind of suck, having 90/100 stats, but their cheap price lets him crank them out fast enough to do [[communism]] proud. One of the best COs in both games he appears in, because he can simply drown the enemy in troops, and you will be surprised how many infantrymen you can squeeze out from your budget having just built 2 Neotanks previously. His CO power multiplies his money by 1.5 (allowing him to asspull even more units), but his Super CO Power is widely regarded as immensely broken: you just need to save up and build no units for a few turns, pop the SCOP, and all of a sudden you will see mechs one-shotting Megatanks from full health. Jesus Christ. 
* '''Sasha''' (DS): Colin's sexy, confident older sister. Her units don't gain any advantage or disadvantage from her leadership, but she gets extra money from all her properties, and her powers drain enemy CO gauges and give her more money whenever her dudes shoot stuff. One of the nastiest one-two punches in the game when she teams up with her little brother, as she covers his weaknesses (sub-par attack power, susceptibility to some CO powers) while enhancing his strengths (giving him ''even more money'' than usual). Has a thing for Jake.

====Green Earth====
* '''Eagle''': Badass fighter pilot and angry German who keeps getting fooled by clones. Air units benefit from potent buffs, and his CO power lets all non-infantry reactivate and move again at the cost of reduced damage, something that has proven more and more difficult to balance as the games go on. Doesn't like water so his naval units are weaker. Starts dating Sami after they almost kill each other, and mellows out a little by the second game. Basically the go-to Green Earth CO for any map that doesn't overly rely on naval units, as his vehicles and infantrymen are just fine. Pro-tip: Use his CO power to park your aircraft right above enemy factories/shipyards/airports and watch as they can't produce jack shit.
* '''Drake''': Badass fatass admiral. His navy is powerful, which is good when you have one and useless when you don't, his units all ignore rain penalties, and his CO power, on top of direct damaging the entire enemy army, halves their fuel, immensely fucking over them on Fog of War-enabled maps, and flipping the bird to any and all naval units, especially submarines. Done right it can single-handedly reverse the enemy's momentum. Fun, if situational. Personality-wise, a fun, good-natured guy who loves food and relaxing more than combat. Also apparently used to be a pirate or something.
* '''Jess''' (AW 2): Grumpy German tank commander (inspired by Rommel) with a suit and a fuckhueg tank shell she carries everywhere. Good with, you guessed it, tanks and other mechanized units, and her CO power resupplies all of them and buffs up their firepower and speed. Cools down a little in ''Dual Strike'', apparently dealing with Eagle just puts her on the rag. Surprisingly regarded as a low-tier CO; her infantrymen are nerfed (along with most non-vehicle units), and that means she will severely struggle at getting an economic advantage, which in turn means she will struggle to build her more powerful vehicles. Though she is good at trolling Sami hard. Her infantry were buffed in Dual Strike making her mid-tier.
* '''Javier''' (DS): A flamboyant Don Quixote clone who is the sole generalist among his more-specialized comrades, Javier is either laughably mediocre or utterly broken. On top of the usual offence bonuses from communications towers, he also gets defence bonuses; just having two will give him a solid advantage over most COs, while three essentially means that the game is all but won, nevermind his CO powers which ''double'' or ''triple'' his bonuses. However, on maps where there are no communications towers (and there are a lot of them), he is probably the weakest CO, with only his defence against indirect attacks to fall back on.

====Yellow Comet====
* '''Kanbei''': Angry [[Legend of the Five Rings|Lion Clan-style]] raw raw Bushido stereotype. His powers mirror Colin's: better units at a higher price, especially in AW2 where they get buffed more than normal. Like Colin, really powerful, especially once he gets a good enough economy to put out tanks that can go toe-to-toe with other COs' medium tanks, and has a very straightforward CO power that just ''buffs the hell out of his entire army''. The buff wasn't that big in the original, the sequels changed that, with AW2 giving him the biggest passive attack and defensive buff of any CO in the series until Days of Ruin, while not making his units anymore expensive than in the original. On top of this he also gained a Super CO power that gives an even bigger buff. Generally a very high-quality CO built for countering enemies that rely on sheer numbers. Has no drawback in maps that don't give you the option to build units and force you to fight with only predeployed ones. Even the cost of his units isn't much of a weakness because when you station units on terrain with good defense bonuses, combined his innate buffs, means the enemy attacking will typically lose engagements they would have won against anybody else so if the enemy knows what is good for them they won't even attack him. His Super CO power makes his army all but invincible, a humble infantry can get blasted by attacks that would kill it outright and not take any damage.
* '''Sonja''': Kanbei's much more cool-headed daughter. Master strategist, passable tactician. Her units have a grab-bag of unusual abilities, including increased vision in fog-of-war and hidden unit HP (allowing you to troll the enemy with careful Medium Tank shuffling on Fog of War maps), and the ability to circumvent some terrain bonuses. Her CO powers let her units shrug off enemy attacks and return fire with full effectiveness. 'Very'' situational, but has some good counter-picks and makes a good partner in ''Dual Strike''. She is utterly useless against AI, because they ignore her health-hiding abilities.
* '''Sensei''' (AW 2): An increasingly-senile PC from the old series turned into an old man who won't take off his lucky parachute. Buffed infantry and helicopters, with transports that move farther on a regular day to day basis; his only drawback is his weaker naval play. Hard to master, but generally reckoned to be broken in high-level plays. His CO power doesn't really take that long to charge, and shits free 9 HP infantry into every unoccupied city he owns. His super CO power does the same, but with mechs. Taught Kanbei and Grimm everything he knows.
* '''Grimm''' (DS): Fat pro-wrestler-turned-[[neckbeard]]. His units abuse steroids for a beefy attack boost, but suffer defense penalties from the side effects. Flat, but fun, if you like watching your tanks mulch mediums one turn and get wrecked the next. 

====Black Hole====
* '''Sturm''' (AW & AW 2): Pretty much just [[Star Wars|Darth Vader]] doing his best [[Commissar]] cosplay. In the original game, the version fought at the end of the game buffed offense but lowered defense, the playable version doing the opposite. In AW2 both offense and defense are a solid 120, and as [[BBEG]], he is the best CO in the game, buffing all his units without increasing cost (in fact Kanbei has his passive raised to keep Sturm's units from being as strong as his), with no real weaknesses and a CO power that summons a meteor to devastate the enemy army, even its long charge time is not enough to balance it. Super-potent, but what do you expect from the final boss? Main enemy in the first two games, killed by Hawke when he tries to nuke the world into uninhabitability at the conclusion of the second. Badass theme and generally extremely broken CO. That doesn't actually even cover WHY he's so broken and not just a superior Kanbei; his units ''ignore terrain movement penalties'', except for snow but that doesn't appear often enough to be a real weakness. What Lash gets as a CO power he has as a passive ability. In other words, unless it's totally impenetrable (say, a tank trying to cross a mountain), his units will just fly through them, meaning that it's utter child's play for him to acquire a total economic advantage.
** The only CO from AW2 who does not appear in DS. Hawke made sure to double-tap.
*** Seeing as how Days of Ruin is set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by meteor strikes, it seems that Sturm got the last laugh after all.
* '''Flak''' (AW 2): Evil version of Max, and the Black Hole army's vicious, expendable muscle. Like Nell, has a chance to deal bonus damage, but unlike her sometimes whiffs completely. His CO and Super CO powers are the shittiest in the game; they increase dispersion, meaning that sometimes your infantry will fuck up a tank, but that also means your Medium Tank might do a single point of damage to the enemy's regular Tank. He DOES have an awesome theme though, and spouts some entertaining lines. Sometimes used as a self-imposed challenge.
* '''Adder''' (AW 2): Juda from [[Fist of the North Star]] in a Nazi uniform with guyliner. An otherwise-average CO with a quick-charging movement buff that catches you upside the head when you least expect it. Extremely annoying and anger-inducing lines and smug personality, making it all the more fun to smash him with a superior CO.
* '''Lash''' (AW 2): Mad, petulant teenage genius and Sonja's evil counterpart. Specializes in terrain use and builds all the evil superweapons. Defects to the good guys in ''Dual Strike'', where she learns to use her dark science for good. Surprisingly good CO: her units gain firepower bonuses that increase according to the defensiveness of their terrain. Both her CO powers eliminate terrain movement penalties, with her super CO doubling her firepower bonuses. Anti-social.
* '''Hawke''' (AW 2): The stoic, competent [[Eliphas]] in an army of cackling supervillains. His units have universal stat-buffs with no cost increase (though not as much as Sturm's) in exchange for a slow-charging CO power that does minor damage to enemies and repairs minor damage to friendlies. Not earth-shattering, but puts out a complete game that makes him hard to counter. Keeps killing off his bosses for being too crazy and evil, and defects to the good guys with Lash partway through ''Dual Strike''. In AW2, he is the one Black Hole CO besides Sturm to be vaguely competent; when he sees his enemies surrounded and preparing to rebuild their army, he just immediately attacks instead of waiting or doing some sort of retarded time-limited superweapon plan.
* '''Jugger''' (DS): Either a defective robot or [[Adeptus Mechanicus|a guy who likes pretending to be one]]. Gameplay-wise, pretty much Flak with even more erratic luck. In practice, this encourages taking risks with  weaker units while avoiding stronger ones. Same as with Flak, he's wholly inferior to Nell in most respects.
* '''Kindle''' (DS): Smug, upper-class bitch who looks like a lit birthday candle. Gets a massive attack boost when fighting on urban terrain. Unusually, her CO power is often more useful than her super, since it damages any enemy units sitting on properties and increase her urban terrain bonus; all her super does is give an even higher bonus, along with a slight firepower bonus according to how many properties she owns.
* '''Koal''' (DS): Frustrated would-be master strategist with a bloated ego and a kabuki actor's face. A bookworm who gets all his tips from Sun Tzu's big book of war. His units get buffs for fighting on roads and he's got Adder's quick-charging speed buff power. In practice, his day-to-day bonus is kind of useless, since lack of defence on roads means that you do not want your ground units to be caught fighting on them.
* '''Von Bolt''' (DS): The new [[BBEG]], filling in Sturm's gigantic shoes as best as he can. [[Emperor|An impossibly old man confined to a techno-throne, draining away other life into himself so that he can never truly die.]] Has Hawke's stat buffs, and his CO power fries a huge area, damaging and paralyzing friend and foe alike. No slouch, but not the monster final enemy his predecessor was.