[SRW] SRW draft the THIRD! Now with more OG2!

[Mousefire]

Right, then. Let's begin, shall we?

Scenario 1: Easy as hell. I had Lamia go north. She defeated all of the enemies in the northwest with Phantom Phoenix, and my reinforcements took out the other enemies. 3/3

Scenario 2: For the Sleigh part, I sent her up and had her kill all of the units in 2 turns. I had the reinforcements kill Archie's squad in another 2 turns. 4/7

Scenario 3: An incredibly simple scenario. I just had My units rush through. I had them all chip Archie, and had Kyosuke force him to retreat. 3/10

Scenario 4: I had Kai rush out into the water and do some damage to the opposing side until reinforcements arrived. I rushed them to the cluster of enemies. In the end, Lee actually did something useful and made Carla and Yuuki retreat on the 4th turn's enemy phase with a strike'd impact cannon. 4/14

[Acacia Sgt]

Aren't you forgetting to draft your last unit?

Episode 13 - Neo DC (Turns: 8 Overall Total: 68)

Great, defend the base, and more EFA friendlies. Since the R-1 and Guarlion Custom can't get into the Shirogane, I left them where they are and moved the rest sands Giganscudo Duro since it can't move south to fight the enemy. Ugh, they made it close to the base, and now Lion reinforcements appear in two groups. And my forces are already scarce as it is. Dammit, if only I could move the Giganscudo Duro. No! 2 Lions will breach the base! Agh! Barrelions coming from the north! Isn't there anything I can do!? Wait, I can counter them even after stepping on the base and destroy them without problem and friendly reinforcements are coming next turn and can move the Giganscudo Duro now? BIG RELIEF!! Even better, the Barrelions don't make moving towards the base their top priority. Man, that was a very close one, even for the Battle Mastery, as 2 of the friendlies would've died if I hadn't lowered the attack of that Barrelion. Sigh, why must they be so suicidal, but I least got it.

[Mousefire]

Aren't you forgetting to draft your last unit?

Yep, though it really doesn't matter at this point. Eenie meenie miney Gunner R.

[Acacia Sgt]

Episode 14 - Princess in Exile (Turns: 4 Overall Total: 72)

Oh joy, a controllable EFA redshirt. What an honor. Anyway, can't really do anything but get the heck away from the Sorpresa dudes. Enemy and allied reinforcements, moved Latooni and Rai into the Hagane and I moved the rest to fight and the Lion F still away and towards the Hagane. Got the Mastery just in time for the Lion F and the Hagane to meet.

Episode 15 - From the Stars (Turns: 7 Overall Total: 79)

Oh boy, this stage. Well, sent Viletta and Gilliam into the Hiryu and Lune and Lefina to fight the incoming enemies. And here it comes... the Quirky Miniboss Squad... I mean, the Inspectors. Man, their introduction is so funny, fighting over how's the leader, just like in SRW 3. And more goodness, they brought Armageddon along. I actually like it better as a Boss BGM like in the Classicverse games. As a Map BGM is still cool though. Anyway, since trying to defeat them is out of the question since I can only use Lune and Lefina and it would be a turn-waste... scramble to the east everybody!!!

Episode 16 - The Third Raptor (Turns: 11 Overall Total: 90)

Huh, the Graviton Cannon is an exchangeable weapon? (Yes, I did got it despite thinking it would be locked to the MkII-R, the mooks back in Stage 6 went after Viletta anyway as Yuuki and co. did after Irm and Ryusei) Well, anyway, huh, it's this BGM again. Is it playing every 3 stages then? Heh, I just noticed this now as well. There is so many things of the OG games that I have forgotten at this point. Okay, NOW, it's Radha against AI mooks. Easy but, I want that Boost Hammer. So once Arado arrives time to kill stuff! Alright, now an escort section. Time to get everyone south. Oh man, every time Ryoto got attacked kept me on edge until I saw the 'Miss' pop up. And then I notice he has Focus activated. Anyway, got the Battle Mastery. Now to finish of the rest and wear down the Graterkin until Ryoto deploys in the MkIII-L.

Episode 17 - Escape from TLI (Turns: 5 Overall Total: 95)

I just realized that I didn't checked if Bullet made it to Level 18. Now I can't check and I forgot what level he was. Oops, I think I may have walled myself from getting the Shishio Blade. So much for those precautions. Anyway, sent Sleigh and Kusuha towards the enemies, and got the Battle Mastery. Oh yeah, Trombe BGM!! Thankfully for him the Fire Bomber and Bundle aren't around to override him! Oh man, more escorting, and unlike Ryoto the EFA pilots have worse stats and don't use their own Seishin (which would be very helpful since they can heal themselves that way ). Anyway, now to stall the enemies, Vigagi thankfully going after Ratsel. And yep, didn't got it. Oh well, the Shishio Blade is good, but one can't win them all.

Episode 18 - Rip through the Night (Turns: 7 Overall Total: 102)

Alright, time to waste turns fighting Sleigh. If only Ibis had even Concentrate/Focus, but no. Anyway, now to fight the enemy reinforcements. Oh yeah, Masaki! Cybuster's here, time to clean house! Got the Battle Mastery. More scenes and finally everyone regroups.

Edited January 27, 2012 by Acacia Sgt

[Mousefire]

Scenario 5: Incredibly easy. I put Bullet in the Alty to get some kills. I gleefully let Lee get wrecked to get the chapter to end. 3/17

Scenario 6: I traded 2 turns for the graviton cannon. Not sure if it was worth it, but whatever. 5/22

[Excellen Browning]

I am hereby reviving this thread because I'm playing this draft again.

Currently up to mission 10. chose the moon route because I like dealing with alfimi better than dealing with echidna and ouka.

[Excellen Browning]

Right

Up to mission 13 now - 83 turns - 8 battle masteries

My earlygame was pretty simple; spend all of my money upgrading the alteisen, weissritter and angelg. Focused on HP/armor on the Alt, Hp/EN/armor on the Angelg and mob/EN on the Weiss. After mission 10 I took the moon path. Got the Guarlion and kept Leona in it, who got her bonus in mission 12. All in all it was pretty uneventful till mission 13, which is IMO one of the hardest and most wankest missions in the game if you don't prepare for it and even then it's still hard and annoying.

For those who don't know you start with the shirogane, over which you have no control, as it's being hunted by those fucking nullpresa/sorpresa fighter plane things and only has 7000hp. It's fairly easy to deal with the first wave, as you can kill most of them on enemy phase of turn 1 with the right positioning and the right weapons and upgrades. The problem is that killing most of them triggers a second wave of the things, and again those prioritize the ship over fucking everything(and ~7 hits from them kills it). So as your unit(s) is busy dealing with the first wave, the ship gets hit 3 times on EP by the reinforcements and then the next turn 3 more times, plus 3 more times for the other part of the reinforcements that can't immediately reach the Shirogane. Unless you have the giganscudo and maybe can MAP attack those reinforcements I see no way of not losing.

So in light of this I decided to break the rules, as the only strategy that I could come up with that worked was killing most of the first wave with Guarlion/Weiss and then using all the other units as a wall to keep the reinforcements from the shirogane. I didn't try to optimize for lowest amount of units because the chapter is fucking annoying and I just want it over with, but I think allowing 3 non drafted units to deal with the first reinforcement wave would be fair. However they have to be retreated as soon as the Hagane shows up.

Also funny story; Ouka, Echidna and their friends popped up right above the Shirogane and it was quite a puzzle to make it survive in that situation.

[Excellen Browning]

This is a message from Lord Nergal:

I have just beaten the game.

I didn't care to do mission-by-missions for this run so I didn't.

Endgame things:

Discussion of mechs and stuff:

Alteisen

I actually never let anyone but Kyosuke pilot the Alt. There was no particular reason for this, except for Kyosuke being a suitable pilot for it IMO. In any case, the Alt starts out decent-ish but in need of long range weapons and good hitrates. It got the first as soon as they were available, however hitrates were a constant issue because only weak +hitrate parts were available and I couldn't spam Focus because no SP regen yet and usually fairly long maps. In terms of upgrades and items I sought to upgrade the HP and armor for earlygame, and also equipped it with armor parts and a booster. This served reasonably well, as it had a decent dodge rate and could tank maybe 4 to 5 hits.

Come midgame things started to change however. Enemies became more powerful and the tanking wasn't holding up anymore. I didn't want to spend money on mobility upgrades and Kyosuke got SP regen fairly early so focus spam became viable and this kept it decent till... maybe the mid 20 scenarios. After that the enemies just became too powerful for it and I saw myself forced to give it a FUB to make it stand a fighting chance, which is what I did. I also started upgrading the Revolving Stake around here. Overall, maybe the 5 chapters? before the upgrade were the period where the Alteisen is definitely mediocre at best.

After the upgrade to the Riese it receives a major power increase, however. Stats get a solid increase all over the board, weapons get upgrades to their attacking power and some to their range and accuracy. Also +1 move is always appreciated. And this is really the part of the game where the Alt shines, especially if you equipped it with a +20 mobility and %30 hitrate part like I did. Not to mention the Neo Chakram Shooter. With a fully upgraded Rampage Ghost Kyosuke did like 35K damage and that made it the most powerful combo attack I had this game. Kyosuke had SP regen, Attacker and Focus as skills and I believe some points into his melee stat.

All in all the Alt is a pretty decent mech, being okay for most of the game, bad for a little while and then very powerful for the late and endgame. Previous experience has taught me the Alt can be a very powerful mech for most of the game, but this requires a lot of early investment in upgrades and giving it the best parts. However I had a lot of mechs that required attention in terms of upgrades and parts, so this wasn't a real option for me. Bit of a pity really.

Weissritter

Weissritter isn't a very good mech in my opinion. Earlygame is made annoying by not having reliable dodge rates and being made of paper, while also not having a lot of attacking power. I upgraded EN and mobility on this one basically before anything else and stuck a mobility part on it. But the fact remains that after the first routesplit Leona had 80 kills in her Guarlion while Excellen was still at 40-ish.

This state of not-being-great basically lasts till the upgrade, and even then I think the Weiss is sort of subpar. And I think the problem I think is the pilot. Excellen doesn't have particularly good stats and her will gains and skills are just terrible. All of this doesn't make me a very happy panda at all.

Anyway I maxed her Oxtongue rifle D for Rampage Ghost somewhere in the high 20 scenarios, never really bothering with equipping any weapons because the Weiss is fairly balanced for this game(enemies focus on range combat so having range is very good) or with upgrading any stats other than mobility and EN. Excellen did like 2/3rd of the damage Kyosuke put out with Rampage Ghost. And I got Excellen SP regen, Attacker and Focus. Also upgraded her Air and Space Adaptivity to S. Overall a good mech but a bad pilot that you unfortunately want to keep because you can't use the combo attack without it.

Angelg

Angelg is a good mech backed by a good pilot. It's a super capable of inflicting terrible damage to grunts and probably soloing good parts of earlygame, but requires upgrades to HP, EN, Armor, Will and for it to be enemy phase so stuff can be OHKO'd with Phantom Phoenix. Just like most people Angelg and Lamia slow down in midgame, taking high damage from grunts at painful hitrates, but returns with reduced will requirement on Phantom Phoenix at the point in the game where generators are more commonly available.

In terms of parts I always got it armor parts, no weapons were ever added because they weren't ever needed and Lamia got SP regen, attacker and focus for more Zeal fun. All in all the Angelg started out great, then slowed down because of the higher emphasis on combo attacking and support attacking for late and endgame but was still a good mech throughout the game.

Battleships

Didn't use them and didn't upgrade them either. Were useful for their support spells and command auras but nothing else.

SRX

The most powerful mech in this game, if paired with the R-gun. Joins in the mid-20 period and rips the game a new one from then on. It's bosskilling power is phenomenal, being responsible for maybe 3/4th of all the damage I did to every boss from then on, as well as killing plenty of grunts and hitting off 210K HP cleanly off the Neu Regisseur.

SRX needs the HP, EN, Armor, TK Burst Slash upgrades and the R-Gun. The R-Gun is absolutely vital for anyone who drafts the SRX, because it more than nintuples it's bosskilling potential. It's even kind of ironic how the SRX isn't too great or not even available in OG1, which is considered Ryusei's story, while the Alteisen is a very solid mech in that game and then in OG2 the SRX is the biggest, most baddest, most toughest mech there is and the Alt can at times barely hang on.

I set up the SRX with the above, with the addition of a barrier part. A generator also does well on it. Ryusei got SP regen, Attacker and Focus, S air and space and a solid boost in his range stat. Focus was used because it allowed him to Zeal twice. Rai also got SP regen and Focus, to lower spell costs though in hindsight SP up instead of SP regen might have been handier. Aya got SP regen and SP UP levels. This all lead to me being able to fire the H! T! B! CANNON! at the Neu Regisseur 7 times in one turn (of course with the help of enablers and hopers) out of a max I think might be 9 times. Each Valored HTB shot equaled 30K damage on it, so 7x 30 = 210K = most of that boss's HP. Thanks to the SRX I was 1K HP short of one turning the final boss.

Very powerful mech and even though it joins halfway through the game I think it deserves it's place of the list of first picks.

R-Gun

Decent grunt if you don't have the SRX, second half of the most prominent boss killing combo in the game if you do. Put Viletta into it and never let her out again. 130 will HTB is much better to do than 140 will HTB, especially in the final chapter. Maxed the twin launchers for maximum HTB damage, maxed EN and Mobility and put on a generator and solar panel for parts, as well as a movement part. R-gun with Viletta has no decent post-move weapons nor long range weapons outside of the main one, so I equipped those. Viletta was equipped with SP regen and Attacker.

Faces some dodgy hitrates all throughout the game however, necessitating focus spam(which isn't a problem)

Guarlion Custom

Rips the game a new one till those scary randgrith and R-eins and high powered gespensts start showing up, then is decent. Pilot was mostly Leona, though some others also piloted it when Leona was in the Wurger. Maxed EN and mobility ASAP, and equipped a decent post-move weapon. Didn't really do anything else to it. Leona got SP regen and gunfight +7. Wasn't useful in lategame but not a liability either. So is basically useful when you most need it to(early to midgame) and then falls into disuse if you don't throw on one of the endgame weapons (boost hammer/ g-impact stake/neo chakram shooter/graviton cannon/etc.)

Fairlions:

Opining both together. G is mostly used as a support and combo bot, as Shine is a support pilot. S is used offensively because Latooni is a combat pilot. They join during the second route split, on the Aviano route. Need immediate upgrades to En and Mobility, as well as yet again a decent post-move and long range weapon, and are then set for the rest of the game. I never bothered giving them parts. Sonic driver was maxed on both for maximum RHB damage.

Latooni got SP regen, Attacker and Focus for 2 Enables, Shine got SP regen and Attacker. Overall mechs that remain fairly powerful throughout the game but definitely need some resources.

Gespenst Mk2 R

Brought to you by Viletta at scenario 15. In my case equipped with the Graviton Cannon. Weapons are pretty balanced though long range stuff is needed, and mobility and EN upgrades are a matter of course. Was piloted on and off by several people including Rio, Ring, Maya and Yuuki. The Graviton Cannon was kept on this one and actually received a full upgrade. Ring used it in the final scenario as a Rouse, Enable and support attack bot with quite a bit of power behind it. Overall the Gespy R falls into that category of useful but not outstanding mechs, but it does join early on which is cool.

Wildwurger

Another case of a good mech being brought down by a terrible pilot who you want to put in there anyway because combo attack. Before I had the Wildfalken, I placed Leona in this thing and she basically ripped the game a new one(again). Like is usual it lacked long range so that was provided and it did pretty well in Leona's capable hands. However Wildfalken came and so did Arado. Arado is placed in a dodgy mech with low solid defenses while he is built as a pilot of the grungust or giganscudo and that always shows. I ended up equipping the Wurger with a big +mobility and +hitrate part and maxing the Beetle Crusher for maximum TBS damage. Combo attacks are very good versus bosses and he had one. All in all the Wurger with the Falken in the team is better than without, because there's plenty of good mechs in this game but only so many combo attacks.

Astelion

Yet another case of good mech made worse by the pilot. And in this case, the pilot is forced. The Astelion is good on paper, powerful attack in the RAMV, good dodge and acceptable everything else. However along comes Ibis to give the Astelion unreliable hitrates and unreliable dodging. This was solved at the end of the game with a custom CPU thing (as you might notice there were more mechs who needed mobility and hitrate parts). She did make a decent support attacker however and as such I maxed the RAMV. All in all though not a good mech.

Wildfalken

the third? mech on this team made worse by the pilot. Seolla comes in, does little damage with bad hitrates and unreliable dodge, then has guard instead of Alert and only Love as alternative. Would do a LOT better with a better pilot but combo attack. Maxed EN and Mobility, then OXtongue D for max combo attack damage. She does have the highest support attack in my team though, for whatever it's worth. Again not a great mech.

Schutzwald:

What the Schutzwals needs depends on the pilot. I had Tasuku in it for most of the game, then switched to Gilliam for support attacking and better dodge. So I got some upgrades in HP and Armor, and then all the best armor parts I had available. Also gave it the Boost Hammer. This carried it for most of the game. then when I put Gilliam in at lategame I switched to mobility and movement parts. Overall never a nuisance, just not great either.

Huckebein R

Mentioning this one because I got it and it's really not so unreasonable to get. In the end I took one penalty for using KoryuOh for one scenario to build levels, then on scenario 32? again to get both pilots to level 31. If I had taken Edo/Izu route however this would not have been necessary. All the other pilots who needed levels for the requirement were put into mechs like the gespenst, schutzwald, wurger or guarlion and I got the levels pretty easy. When it became available I threw Ratsel into it, as well as Mobility and EN upgrades, the latter of which were useless but I suppose also too cheap to care. It got some long range and post move weapons and a movement part and that was basically it. It did good though it wanted upgrades on the graviton rifle.

Went Moon route > Aviano route > earth cradle route. Took 2 penalties in the game that I'm aware of, finished in 320 turns with 30 battle masteries and my kill rankings before the final scenario were:

1. Leona - 121

2. Ratsel - 106

3. Lamia - 99

4. Excellen - 93

5. Kyosuke - 90

6. Viletta - 79

7. Aya - 74

8. Rai - 71

9. Ibis - 67

10. Ryusei - 67

11. Rio - 60

12. Tasuku - 56

13. Gilliam - 50

14. Latooni - 50

[CT075]

i scoff at you and your vanilla game

[Excellen Browning]

Whatever man

I am still the winner of this draft!