NWars:Kanbei

Kanbei is a CO in the Advance Wars games. He is the emperor and commander-in-chief of Yellow Comet, as well as a former student of Sensei.

Statistics
In battle, Kanbei's units have better offense and defense, usually outmatching specialist COs' respective units, but his units are also more expensive to build and maintain. His CO Powers make his units even stronger.

Advance Wars

 * Day-To-Day:
 * 120% ATK and 120% DEF for all units
 * 120% costs for all units (deployment and repair)
 * CO Power: Morale Boost (50,000G - very expensive)
 * Combat boosts for all units modified to 144% ATK and 136% DEF

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

 * Day-To-Day:
 * 130% ATK and 130% DEF for all units
 * 120% costs for all units (deployment and repair)
 * CO Power: Morale Boost (4 Stars - expensive)
 * Combat boosts for all units modified to 150% ATK and 140% DEF
 * Super CO Power: Samurai Spirit (7 Stars - slightly expensive)
 * Combat boosts for all units modified to 150% ATK and 160% DEF

Advance Wars Dual Strike

 * Day-To-Day:
 * 120% ATK and 120% DEF for all units
 * 120% costs for all units (deployment and repair)
 * CO Power: Morale Boost (4 Stars - expensive)
 * Combat boosts for all units modified to 160% ATK and 130% DEF
 * Super CO Power: Samurai Spirit (7 Stars - slightly expensive)
 * Combat boosts for all units modified to 160% ATK and 160% DEF

Balance
Kanbei has always been an issue when it came to balance, despite his costs limiting his ability to be effective early game from having less money to spare on transports for foot soldiers. The increased attack and defense would mean that head-on attacks against Kanbei would backfire, as Kanbei almost effectively gets first strike if he is attacked in a non-advantageous matchup where both units have direct-fire weapons, and if Kanbei manages a decent preemptive attack himself, then he'll inflict a good deal of damage along with taking minimal in return.

Morale Boost isn't considered a problem. This indicates that if anything, it is underpowered. Kanbei already gets power boosts, which makes Morale Boost's increases nearly moot, particularly since they're very direct in contrast with other CO's CO Powers. The Advance Wars Dual Strike's Morale Boost gives an attack boost more than a defense boost, but Kanbei's limited numbers makes him needing a defense boost more than an offense boost.

Samurai Spirit, however, has always been considered by some at least to be overpowered if not broken, though part of that is the fault of the way defense is handled in AW2 and AWDS. A unit under the Samurai Spirit's influence requires more than twice as much power to wipe out when it is just on the open highways. This is probably compensation for the fact that Samurai Spirit costs more than the average Super CO Power (though Kanbei also has faster charge rates in AW1 and AW2 because his units are more expensive). However, terrain is more effective for defense-boosted COs under the defense calculations, so Kanbei's units become even stronger. In fact, any 10 HP units of his that are on any Mountains or Headquarters are completely invincible to damage if there is nobody playing as Olaf, Drake, or Hawke (who all have powers that deal damage, ignoring defense).