You know, although I was sorta against the idea of a mobile AW when I first heard of it, I'm definitely starting to see how it could work in a big way. To add on to your statement about reintroducing audiences, Japan could finally get a larger dedicated fandom for AW. Mobile gaming is huge there right now, entire franchises are getting their start with a mobile title. That means even if the AW mobile game does decently well in Japan then it's practically at the finish line in terms of getting a new console game. The name would be somewhat known by the general gaming public over there plus it would earn a few committed fan-artists at least.
I do gotta wonder though, what will it be like? I can see the setting taking place in an original world with its own storyline but (Assuming the gameplay itself isn't butchered to be completely p2w God help us if that happens) you would also be able to recruit COs from the different games via gacha with a handful of original COs here and there. It'd be cool seeing events/scenarios where the DoR and GBA cast interact with eachother. Speaking of characters from different universes interacting, what would you guys like to see in terms of crossover events if there are any?
Dude you just took the words out of my mouth. These are very good points.
For a lot of people, said Mobile game is going to be their first entry in to the franchise given how many new people never played Advance Wars before. Think about all the new people who didn't play video games until post-2008 that are being introduced to this franchise through that. Of course; Advance Wars has it's legacy in the West (Famicom Wars as well in Japan) but for a lot of people, it might as well be any other new IP like Dragalia Lost. So in that regard, millions of people are going to be introduced to the IP which is the intended goal according to Nintendo's president.
I would think positive word of mouth said Mobile game would get from those familar with the franchise would be enough for your average gamer to take notice (given how beloved this franchise is in the gaming public). And like you said, lots of committed fanartists and people making fan-made content for the franchise would skyrocket. The Wars series would not only have a solid foothold in the West (it kinda still does but time has gone against it pretty hard) but it would finally gain the following in Japan it's been missing since the GBA days (thanks to a series of unfortunate events and Dual Strike's commercial performance). And really, the Wars series needs to have that dedicated following in Nintendo's home country if the series is going to have a future. Something a mobile game would do in spades.
As for the nature of said Mobile game, I would think it would be something similar to FEH's design but with a little less focus on the characters (given AW doesn't have nearly as many characters compared to it's sister series). That being said, I still expect CO's to be front and center when it comes to marketing for this game. Given what IntSys said back in 2017, I would expect lots of interaction between CO's as well as diving really deep in their skills/abillities, personality, etc. Expect to see plenty of interaction between Wars World CO's and DoR CO's, new CO's created for this game, as well as reintroducing some of the older CO's from Super Famicom Wars days (maybe not Hetler tho lmao). Creating/sharing maps would be a huge component of this game and battling locally or maybe even online would be another huge selling point. The player would likely spend money on different types of units, costumes, and skills. I'm only scratching the surface here because there's so many possibillites here. If there's one thing I hope really makes a comeback however, it would be the AW1 animations that were ditched after the first GBA game. Those animations as well as the character facial expressions gave the game so much life and charm to it. I hope that comes back, maybe even in the artsyle of AW1 again. I would even be down if they hired the artists involved with the Ace Attorney franchise given how similar the aesthics are.
Potential crossovers? Well, Fire Emblem is a given, but didn't Samus appear in one of the Famicom games? Maybe they could reference that.
FE is the most obvious and it really should happen given the link the two series have. They could go even further with the crossover by having AW characters in FE-costumes and FE ones wearing AW outfits. Imagine Andy as an FE Lord and like Hector wielding a big ass mech lmao.
Of course, i'd also like guest apperances to happen as well. Samus is obvious given she appeared in the first ever Wars game but that's just scratching the surface. Personally, i'd like to see Snake in because i've been dying to see a Metal Gear/Advance Wars crossover of sorts and there's no gurantee it'll happen in Smash (as much as i'm hoping haha).