I need help. As you may have known, I’m trying to get an S rank with Flak on every war room map in aw2. Overall, I’ve made some great progress, even overcoming some of the most difficult ones. I feel proud of myself for making it this far.

However, there are still a few War Room Maps (only three)that are proving to be incredibly difficult challenges. Before providing advice, please keep in mind that I am trying to S rank these War Room maps with Flak specifically, so certain strategies that are CO dependent may not be effective.

Ridge Island:

Absolute torture to break through. No matter how I play, I either advance too slowly and get a horrid Speed rank, or get too reckless and lose a bunch of units. It feels like there is no in between. Honestly this map is difficult for any CO, so being Flak definitely doesn't help matters.

At least the Power rank usually isn't a problem, but I can't seem to find the balance between going fast and not losing too many units to hurt my Technique rank.

Terra Maw:

For everything that is advanced and warred, what kind of person approved such a terrible design for a War Room map!?!? I know I said Ridge Island was torture, but that map is amateur hour compared to the sheer misery that Terra Maw has rained upon me.

First of all, the advantage that Sonja has over you at the start is just ridiculous. Not only does she have a crap ton of properties, but she also has several airports while you start with none. In fact, the closest airport to you is in the center island.

BUT, AND I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY DESIGNED IT LIKE THIS, SONJA HAS A BASE STARTING OUT ON THE CENTER ISLAND!!!!!!

This means that she'll take all the properties there, including the only reachable airport before you can. Trust me, I have tried everything. Even if I skip all bases and properties, rushing an APC out as fast I can, it is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to reach the neutral airport before Sonja conquers it.

I cannot go for the airport since it often takes too long and results in too many casualties for a good Technique rank. Thus, I am effectively unable to use air units and must rely on sneaking a Lander to Sonja's main island and capturing her HQ there.

(Warning: strong language used ahead)

However, Sonja makes this incredibly difficult by playing like an absolute controlling bitch. She always builds a Bomber and Battleship early on which she always hovers around the center of the map. They are always out of range of your attacking units but still threaten anything that tries to exit outland. And as I established earlier, I can't build air units of my own to counter them. Missiles and other indirects also can only do so much against Sonja. Often I can only eliminate the Bomber and Battleship by baiting them in with weaker units, sacrificing them. Not only does this hurt my Technique ranking, but of course also costs funds.

Even after all that, this doesn't even account for the litany of Medium Tanks, Neotanks, and even Submarines that Sonja will build. Because of that, you'll have to spend even more money on a Cruiser to deal with the Subs and the whole naval battle is just a shitshow which is not helped by her Super Power. And by the way, as if the game itself mocks me, I cannot stand Sonja anymore when she uses her powers. "Number of enemy troops, got it! This is SO EASY!"

Bitch, please shut the fuck up! You definitely can't win for shit without your broken ass starting advantage you self entitled fuck!

EVEN IF ALL OF THE ABOVE GOES WELL, there's always a chance that Sonja builds Landers in the Ports near her HQ, preventing you from unloading your Landers there. There's no Shoals nearby her HQ either, making her Ports the only places to drop off troops. I cannot believe that this is the one time where the AI's dumbass habit of building Landers and never moving them bites me in the ass. What a fucking bullshit piece of bullcrap War Room map. Whoever designed this piece of shit deserves a serious time out.

Risky Vale:

This War Room map is just plain brutal, although it feels brutal in a less unfair way compared to Terra Maw. Now normally you would just pick a better CO than Flak to make things easier for yourself on this map, but hey look who you're talking to.

Similar to Ridge Island, I can't seem to find a good balance between getting out of my starting situation fast and not losing too many units. It feels even more difficult considering Kanbei's ridiculously high unit stats. I can't find a consistent strategy to even make it past the first few days without incurring high losses. If I don't push outside my starting zone though, Max and Kanbei just get more funds and crush me in numbers.

How do I handle this map?

Conclusion:

The S ranks of these maps are the only thing standing between me and completing an S Rank Flakathlon. I would be very thankful for any advice for these maps which can be reasonably applied to Flak. Thanks for reading.