fatgamecat

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - To Live Unbound, Love and Logic, The Price of Skill (2/2/3t) https://youtu.be/veP_2_OiQ5s Squad Story - To Live Unbound (2t) Damage taken/Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Our old friend the telescope returns for this squad story. interception fire is useful for a 2t clear. if you have the T4 grenades (I don't in the video), you can kill the 2 crouched shocks and crouched engineers in one grenade. this isn't necessary, but makes 2 turning easier. Squad Story - Love and Logic (2t) Damage taken/Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All I position my Grenadier's facing away to increase the consistency of the 1st enemy turn. Otherwise all sorts of random things can happen with the grenades flying around. after that, it's a standard clear to the main camp. I didn't position Hanna as well as I could have to reduce her risk of friendly fire. Squad Story - The Price of Skill (3t) Damage taken/Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All this mission is just a turkey shoot while praying that the enemies don't dodge your attacks. too many dodges and you'll be pushed to turn 4 or later. I'm voting this for worst squad story in the game.

Chapter 10 (4t) https://youtu.be/Z2RDKFHGzSQ Damage taken/Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Claude clears some stuff out of the way and positions for base defense, Azusa heads into the West tunnels to capture the Northwest camp and kill the ace, Minerva heads to the East high ground, Aladdin repositions the shocks and heads for the nearby high ground, Jascha fires at some stuff, Kai and Mabel snipe things, and Raz takes care of the bosses. I'm pretty sure this is the 1st time I've deployed 2 shocks on this run. they have limited use on a level one run IMO. but two of the things they're good at are base defense and killing high HP bosses. the boss AI on this stage is relatively simple. on t1, they always advance. on t2, if there's an Allied sniper visible by any enemy, they will advance towards a sniper. if no Allied snipers are visible to the enemy, the bosses will do nothing. there may be additional conditions for the bosses to do nothing, including capturing the Northwest camp and killing the ace. you can hide your snipers by standing in corners of the map, using smoke, and killing the sniper on the East high ground. you can also use this to control where and when the bosses will be standing to defeat them more easily. the easiest and most effective way to defeat the bosses is drop smoke on them and then kill them inside the smoke while they can't dodge or intercept. if they're crouched on a sandbag, destroy the sandbag 1st before firing the smoke. you can turn the bosses around by shoving them with the tank, although this isn't as reliable. you can also fire at them while they're reloading so they cannot dodge. the most difficult method is to run a scout through the West tunnels, kill the ace, and capture the Northwest camp. from the camp, you can deploy shocks to attack from behind. this also lets you get a surprise attack on the ace. this method doesn't require smoke, but smoke can still be useful insurance in case your shock doesn't kill 1 of them in a single attack. I used a combination of snipers on the high ground and at the main camp to snipe the incoming targets. some paratrooping enemies are okay to allow to land. they will run forward and die to your base interception fire, assuming you have adequate defense. this saves command points instead of having to fire at them. t1 you can leave the shock and scout alive. t3 you can leave the lancer alive. several existing enemies on the map will also die to interception fire. I spend many excess command points on Azusa. Azusa reaches Cpl. rank after completing this chapter.

Chapter 9 notes for improvement: I probably could have smoked my main camp on turn 2 instead of abandoning it, which would save a command point. not used to thinking about integrating smoke, since I didn't use it at all in the last run. also should have waited until turn 3 to deal with the South sniper. Valkyria Chronicles 4 No Reload C.Run Skirmish 1-6 Normal (1-2t) https://youtu.be/eqJNZr5UNFM Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All this video contains the first 6 normal skirmishes. not very interesting, but included for completions sake.

Chapter 9 (3t) https://youtu.be/_nWQGouD6gM Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Deployment is arranged so that the Northeast sniper and Vulcan have no targets to fire on during any turn. t1 Claude goes into hiding while positioning to intercept incoming enemies, and Minerva takes Brittany and Raz Southwest. the most reliable way of dealing with the recall order is to not kill anything on turn 1. instead, position to kill incoming enemies with interception fire, and start moving towards the West base. enemies killed on enemy turn won't be revived because the order is used before units are moved. since this mission isn't about covering vast distances, you're not losing out by mostly staying put. on t2, Riley moves West and shoots some stuff, Kai and others get to safety, and Minerva and Brittany capture the West base. an additional sniper is deployed from the West base. as I quickly found out, the Vulcans movement is altered if you reload from a save. if you don't reload, instead of heading southwest like in the 1st run, he heads southeast. I've tested this using the same deployment and actions with the only difference being a reload. when the Vulcan heads southeast, it has full firing range at anyone on the main camp. this means the main camp has to be abandoned. also since the Vulcan is relatively further away, Lancers have to move quite a bit to fire on it reliably. the Lancers strategy costs 6 to 7 command points including deploying and moving the lancers. the antiarmor mortar is less reliable per attack, but overall destroys the Vulcan in 4 to 5 command points including deployment and movement. typically, the Vulcan paces back and forth in front of the main base. in order to lure it closer, a few conditions have to be met. 1. the Valkyria has to be active. 2. none of your units can be in the upper half of the map, whether they're visible to an enemy or not. 3. Claude can be the only vehicle on the map. this probably isn't 100% accurate but it was good enough for the strategy shown in the video. the Vulcan isn't destroyed on turn one for reliability reasons. destroying the Vulcan isn't necessary to get 5 royal weapons. at its t3 position in the video, you can ignore it if you're running low on command points. t3 Claude takes a shot at the Vulcan on his way northwest, the Vulcan is destroyed by Aoife and Jascha, Claude continues northwest to do stuff, various enemies in the way are dealt with, and Azusa makes her way towards the main base while killing things. you can replace Azusa with an engineer to increase reliability against the Vulcan, but I wanted to start unlocking her squad story. the mission can end with up to 5 command points to spare. Aoife reaches Cpl. rank after completing this chapter.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 No Reload C.Run Chapter 8a & 8b (1t/2t) https://youtu.be/i-9YW9vtnWU Chapter 8a (1t) Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All I think one turn clears are pretty boring. enemy phase gives the AI a chance to capitalize on the players mistakes and positioning, and go on the offensive. removing that takes away half of what the game mechanics are about. for whatever reason the developers added no antitank mortars or cannons on this map, or even place something like Gatlings or heavy tanks which could damage or body block the APC. so almost everyone drives through and clears the map on one turn, since there are no royal weapons involved. maybe facing the player off against the Navy personnel similar to chapter 5 would have been better. Chapter 8b (2t) Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All, including both bosses Minerva kills the grenadier and then takes Raz and Keigel Northeast, Aladdin moves east into the grass to do some sniping, Jascha destroys the heavy antitank, and Claude starts driving towards the goal. lancers are killed along the way, Raz gets in position for the bosses, and Keigel destroys the heavy tank. it typically takes Riley 2 command points to clear out the southwest camp, although she can do it in 1. on turn 2 there are plenty of command points to spare. Raz gets a reliable kill on Nikola. it isn't necessary to smoke grenade Chiara, but it's the most effective and reliable way to defeat her. you can also kill her with Grenadier surprise attacks, and/or try timing Claude's Gatling fire while she's reloading so she cannot dodge. the royal rewards you get at the end of this mission can alter the next several missions. particularly the tier 3 Royal Lance, which does significantly more damage (1400) than the standard lance at that point. the tier 3 rifles and sniper rifles that fire 7 and 3 shots each are also very nice. in the interest of fairness, I've shown the royal weapons I got at the end of the video. it's not a "no reload run" if someone rigs which royal weapons they get by playing through a different save-allowed version of the chapter than the video they uploaded. Aladdin reaches Cpl. rank after completing this chapter.

today's video contains 2 squad stories. Valkyria Chronicles 4 No Reload C.Run Squad Story - All the Single Ladies, Unfortunate Souls (2/3t) https://youtu.be/eLiIgRCK_m4 Squad Story - All the Single Ladies (2t) Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All "Commander, we've got a shitsuation." - Rita. It's simpler to repair and climb down the ladder then deal with the Gatling's down the ramp. Brittany really gets inside the head of an unfortunate imperial scout. Riley and Kai show up and basically kill everything. The end. Squad Story - Unfortunate Souls (3t) Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All If Jimmy misses his shot on the Grenadier tower, he's going to get fired on. if you want to be extra cautious, you could target swap so the grenadier doesn't look at him if he fires and misses. I didn't bother though. a standard hand grenade can destroy the sniper tower, or just kill the sniper. Other than that, just some Jukes here and there. If you destroy the sandbags at the end you can run past the tank and scout much more easily. Being able to make Odin a leader really helps.

Chapter 7b (3t) https://youtu.be/AozFKsR_nOU Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Odin heads east to divert the 1st train car, Claude and the APC make their way north to the middle train. the APC brings along Rita, Curtis, and Keigel. Riley uses direct command to bring Kai and Aoife along. Claude and Keigel dismantle the train car, Riley picks off infantry, Rita is on resupply duty, the APC and Curtis heads east and up the hill to capture the main base, Aoife fires at armored targets, and Kai just sits there because I'm still afraid of her empty stomach. turn 3 is a Grenadier spam fest to clear the way for Curtis. there are command points to spare for missed shots. I didn't put much effort into turn 3, but I could afford to. if you're concerned about pushing into turn 4, send Rita to the Northwest switch to divert the North train car, and capture the southeast camp with Curtis. this will stop all reinforcements, assuming the middle train car is destroyed. this mission can be longer and more difficult if you don't use the tank, APC, and Grenadier's. on the other hand, there's something cool about clearing it in 3 turns given the run conditions. anyway, I already did that with my 1st run including killing all enemies. some parts of it are unreliable, especially dealing with the middle train car without the tank. Odin reaches Cpl. rank after completing this chapter.

Chapter 7a (4t) https://youtu.be/iUjnVHjFDaQ Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All this is the longest mission yet, but with the help of the APC and Grenadier's, it's not too tough. the APC heads up West with Connor, Keigel, and Aoife. Riley heads up East with Rita and Odin. Claude stays behind to deal with the reinforcements. on turn 3 at the middle of the map the APC continues on with Riley, Rita and Aoife. Connor stays behind to surprise attack the ace. it's possible for Claude to deal with the South reinforcements in a single command point. if you position the tank correctly, he can hold off the 2nd wave of reinforcements without them being able to attack anyone. however, the positioning is finicky and since I had plenty of command points to spare, I mortared them. I should probably work on mortaring them while they're reloading. you can save 3 command points on turn 4 by destroying the heavy A-T cannons while at the same time knocking over the Grenadiers so they can no longer interception fire. the mission can end with up to 6 command points to spare.

Chapter 6 (2t) https://youtu.be/4ahkhoSJSxI Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Claude and the APC move up West, Riley carries lancers northeast towards the Vulcans spawn point. Eileen and Odin run around killing things. The APC gets a friendly fire kill, and a plain old fire kill. Once again the boss is killed reliably using Claude and Lancers. The mission can end with up to 3 command points to spare. Brittany reaches Cpl. rank after completing this chapter.

I wanted to talk a bit about a phenomenon I've noticed a few times in the game. sometimes I'll get surprise attacks when I clearly shouldn't be able to. this seems to happen when entering aiming mode while moving. I believe there may be a bug with the games code where if you enter aiming mode at a certain time (related to sightlines), you'll be able to get a surprise attack even facing enemies from the front. I've even seen it happen when driving the hafen and getting a "surprise attack" on an enemy tank. of course, it's impossible to surprise attack a tank, but the indicator was there anyway. after exiting and reentering aiming mode, the surprise attack indicator went away. or it could be that the surprise attack indicator that's being shown isn't real, and the enemy does have a chance to Dodge. one thing is for sure, this game is a lot buggier than the original. note that this isn't the same bug as the one where surprise attack gets stuck on the screen because your unit died from a Grenadier interception shot while aiming at an enemy from behind. one more thing I learned recently, on "treading new ground" no less - engineers are completely immune to damage while disarming mines, and probably while repairing sandbags and repairing vehicles. I did not test the last 2. I've got the chapter 6 strategy down already, just have to record it. in the meantime, time for some tanks. Squad Story - Treading New Ground (3t) https://youtu.be/8fHS-7YHY-I Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All The tread damage cut scene happens whether or not anything takes damage. You can trigger it by advancing Claude to the west, which also teleports Aulard. If it doesn't trigger, you'll still see the cut scene after ending 1pt, but Aulard doesn't get teleported. Aulard after being teleported seems to have some weird sightline issues before being selected. My advice is to not teleport him because it puts him out in the open. Which means at minimum you'll have to spend command points to hide him again. Anyway, don't turn your nose up at the federate tank. It's very useful, just like in 4a. if the federate tank misses the shot on the heavy tank on turn 2, Riley can kill the grenadier, and then Aulard can advance and disarm the mines so it can get a closer shot. Claude can sneak past the heavy tank on turn 3 without taking damage by continually entering aiming mode and resetting the heavy tanks turret, but you usually have enough command points to destroy it from the front. Also, the invincible lampposts on this stage are apparently the strongest in Europa.

Chapter 5 (2t) https://youtu.be/uDQ7LoH0h1M Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All, including Minerva and Christel Basically a light version of my 1st run strategy. Aladdin, Curtis w/ Telescope, and Odin deal with the left side of the map, while Mabel, Claude, and Eileen deal with the right side. Raz uses the ace machine gun to kill the crouched leader in one attack. I use the tank to destroy the enemy tank instead of deploying a Lancer from the Northwest base. 3 command points are reserved for Claude to destroy the glory. Enemy shock leader Dodge rates are up to 2%. I start taking extra precautions for surprise attacks. it's hard to surprise attack Christel, and she has 25% Dodge rate. if she's left alive she can see Odin even though the game reports that she has a blue sight line, which means there's a chance that the glory will attack him. sight lines in this game are pretty unreliable, unlike the original game. there's probably a more reliable place to hide him without having to defeat her. This mission can end with up to 2 command points to spare. I unlocked the squad story Treading New Ground after clearing chapter 5. I've never used Aulard and don't use the APC often, so I'm guessing using Claude in the tank counts towards it.

Today's video contains 3 squad stories. Valkyria Chronicles 4 Gambler's Ruin, Honor, Pride and Regret, A Prayer For the Broken (3/2/2t) https://youtu.be/6-eirOf7pK0 Squad Story - Gambler's Ruin (3t) Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Teresa is equipped with the telescope. Many grenade trick shots are thrown. The scout in front of the Ace is harder to kill than the ace itself. Did I mention grenades? Squad Story - Honor, Pride and Regret (2t) Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All "Try not to get shot, ladies." - Rebecca. Challenge accepted. Telescope on Rebecca. Squad Story - A Prayer For the Broken (2t) Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Telescope on Rosetta.

Chapter 04c (3t) https://youtu.be/gDoylnR9ISU Damage taken: No (NPC Raz excepted) Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Aside from the CPU controlled Raz, no damage is taken. The combination of vb pl 2(e) from jester/teresa/connor's squad story and upgraded tank cannon can destroy the boss in 3 command points without hitting the radiator. Rarely it will take 4 command points. Either way, it's much more reliable than praying for an antitank mortar to land 3 times in a row. Scouts are positioned to attack the shock that runs east near the main base on 1et. Riley is equipped with the t1 royal grenadier weapon for 2 reasons. 1st, it ensures consistency with the position of the enemy tanks on the 1st enemy turn, since their movement won't randomly be stopped. 2nd, it allows her to safely target the grenadier facing the main camp. This is an annoying grenadier because it's significantly uphill, and the developers didn't see it fit to grant a safe vantage point. Grenadier range is reduced when firing uphill due to the angle of the slope. Usually it takes riley 2 command points to kill it, although she can do it in 1. The tank is sent west to clear out the assault tanks and head southwest to kill the shock leader. The apc is sent west to assist nico with taking the northwest base and killing the ace. Nico continues along the north path, while curtis and rebecca continue along the south path. Rebecca is given the telescope to make long-range tosses on the enemies below. At this point in the game, t-2 grenades are more powerful and reliable against infantry than grenadiers. The tank maneuver on t2 requires avoiding the interception fire of 2 different shocks and grenading the shock leader, and also not ending the turn too close to the crouched shock or else it will throw a grenade on enemy turn. Practice makes perfect. Riley kills the scout leader in this video, but if she doesn't kill it, it will run west and die to nico's interception fire. Similar to how the shock leader dies to the tank. Even on a good run, there's 1-2 command points leeway for a 3 turn clear. Both rebecca and nico reach cpl. Rank after this mission. Now that rebecca is a cpl., I'll start using eileen who's overall the better engineer. Rebecca's squad story not only rewards mabel's reliable damage potential, but gives the vb gw 3(e) grenadier weapon, which is very powerful if you get it early on.

Chapter 04b (3t) https://youtu.be/KdWq9l5QLDg Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All By using the APC, SP, Riley, and skipping some nonessential enemies, I lowered the turncount by 1 compared to the first run. The most effective route is taking the 1st ladder and heading east and down the ramp. This bypasses the north camp and still gives you the high ground and access to the enemy ace. The APC remains parked near the 1st ladder, since it isn't efficient to clear the antitank stuff. Command points are spent on Riley to carry Brittany and Rebecca eastward. Once Riley has the high ground, it's open season on imperials. on 2et there's some randomness in which enemies act. Sometimes the shock leader will move from the base, sometimes the Southwest sniper will move, and sometimes the scout reinforcement on the north base will move. Riley and Rebecca can handle any combination of enemy activity. Nico's movement should be reserved until the path is almost entirely clear. The mission can be cleared with up to 3 command points to spare, or rarely more if Riley manages to one shot some of her targets.

I'm pretty happy with how today's video turned out. Chapter 04a (3t) https://youtu.be/gY3e80TzYs8 Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All The main camp is set up to deal with the incoming shocks while minimizing the chance of Claude's negative antitank potential. The 1st variable in this mission is the shock just south of the middle camp. It's a stop and shoot AI, meaning once it takes interception fire damage, it stops (or retreats a bit) and shoots at anything it can. It's more annoying than the typical suicidal AI. It will try running south, and depending on where it stops and which direction it faces, the APC may need to kill it before the tank can move. You could try to kill it on turn one with the APC, but that introduces additional complications. I try to minimize any infantry exposure to Gatling chaff by deploying and staying near the APC and cover such as horizontal walls and sandbags. I take advantage of the fact that infantry can board the APC over solid obstacles such as walls if it's done on the map and not in action mode. If you look at the Gatling's in the distance, you can tell when they're firing chaff onto the map and putting your units in danger. This is easier by pressing the button to turn off sightlines. When it's safe, the Gatling's will only appear to be firing upwards, and when it's not safe the Gatling's will appear to be firing both upwards and downwards. On 2et, there's a chance the Northeast tank won't move South. If that happens, it will require one additional command point to reach and destroy. Additionally, the layout of the tanks is sometimes different, but I haven't seen an impossible layout. The generic tanks will appear at your main camp, unless you've captured the middle camp, in which case they'll appear there. The generic tanks are very useful, so make it a priority to capture the middle camp. The right side isn't even worth considering unless you're trying to kill every enemy on the map. Near the end of turn 3 the Hafen makes an unlikely shot at a tank, but it's fine if this shot misses. I should have veered more to the left so that I had a better angle on that radiator. There's still enough ammo and AP to finish off the remaining tanks. The mission can end with up to 3 spare command points, so there's some leeway for misses. As far as the enemy Grenadier's damaging the tanks, I positioned a tank with its radiator exposed to a grenadier on this stage for an hour and it didn't take any damage. I've raised the music volume on this run to 4. You can hear it if you turn your volume up. Portions of idle time were sped up to 20X speed instead of cutting them out of the video. Playlist for this run: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc2WVt24CiwWd9FR3wLKt-pjYIpHnii0X

Valkyria Chronicles 4 No Reload C.Run Chapter 3a & 3b (2t/3t) https://youtu.be/8XYKBPH7dp4 Chapter 03a: 2 turns Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All This chapter features my favorite accessory in the game, the telescope. This accessory is amazing when avoiding damage is a concern. I feel like the telescope and grenades in general are a little unappreciated. Not surprising when tank mortars, Grenadier's, and flamethrowers are typically more powerful and easier to use. The telescope is equipped on Jester. It's used against the enemy engineer crouching in the grass on turn 1, and again against a shock standing near the goal. Godwin and Curtis also throw important grenades to clear the way for Claude and Raz. 2 command points are reserved for killing the enemy scout leader. if Jester doesn't kill it on his attempt, Curtis will advance and finish it off with Jester in a team attack. In the video Jester kills it on his 1st shot. Curtis reaches Cpl. rank after completing this chapter. His squad story grants access to the ZM Kar 2(e) which is very powerful for interception fire early in the game. Chapter 03b: 3 turns Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All The ZM Kar 2(e) and Raz makes it easy for the rescued party to avoid any damage. All scouts and Raz can safely reorient themselves without any shots fired. This almost guarantees the reliability of the strategy, but takes timing and command points. In order to ensure near 100% reliability, I reorient 3 different units. Without reorienting any units, the chance of success is about 50%. Claude can sneak away from the 2nd wave of reinforcements without being fired on. Many more grenades are tossed in this mission. Rebecca has the telescope which allows her to grenade the shock troopers across the river if need be. Jester reaches Cpl. rank after completing this chapter. Additionally I try to get Rebecca and Nico more points. Even though Eileen is overall a better engineer, I'd like to get Rebecca to Cpl. to unlock Mabel's damage potential, which is more important IMO. Messed up a little bit at the end, could have got Nico one more command point.

2 new videos today. I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. Interlude 1 (2t) https://youtu.be/eZasqR0TlCo Damage taken: No (NPC Raz excepted) Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Aside from the CPU controlled Raz, no damage is taken. The most common strategy for getting to the final base is to have Raz destroy the Gatling turrets, which takes 2 to 3 command points. Alternately, if you destroy the 2 sets of barricades, you can sneak past the Gatling turrets entirely by hugging the south wall. This takes 2 command points and you don't need to worry about double killing the Gatling turrets. Squad Story - Like Old Times (3t) https://youtu.be/Rb6GUoDK3lE Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: missed 2 tanks Positioning units to manipulate the AI is important in taking no damage here. Incoming enemies are killed with interception fire before they can do anything, and enemy tanks never open fire. The AI partially cheats in regards to the position of your units. It can tell when a path is blocked off even when your units that are doing the blocking aren't visible. On turn 2, Curtis and Eileen form a blockade in the southwest portion of the map, which causes the AI to divert its shock troopers northward instead of getting in the way. You can also try to let the AI through and kill anything incoming with interception fire, including the ace, but I found this a bit unreliable with my current equipment. Laurent can make multiple long-distance shots at the tank radiators, it's mostly a matter of luck how many tanks I end up destroying. I could have taken one more Lancer shot on turn one but I didn't want to potentially change how the mission plays out. The ace is killed with a surprise attack for reliability. Veer to the right on the West Hill to avoid aggroing it.

Chapter 02 : 3 turns https://youtu.be/J32a-hUUj_I Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All Continuing to use certain scouts to unlock the squad stories. The strategy here is similar to my 1st run, except there's some tank and Grenadier usage.

Hello everyone. I've read the many posts and comments on vc4 forums that reloading ruins the game, or something to that effect. With that in mind, I've begun a 2nd and final no reload challenge run of this game. The conditions are not as strict as the 1st run, but not being able to reload makes up for that IMO. As usual comments and questions are welcome. Thanks for reading and watching. Playlist for this run: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc2WVt24CiwWd9FR3wLKt-pjYIpHnii0X Run conditions: 1. New Game, normal difficulty. 2. No reloading from mid-mission saves. Missions are restarted by selecting give up and retry in the menu. 3. No orders or ship orders. 4. No class leveling. 5. Mission strategies will involve low turn counts/command point efficiency, minimal damage taken, most or all leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed, and reliable strategies. These goals are conflicting, especially on later more difficult/longer missions, and I'll try to balance them as best I can. 6. Restricted use of last stand. If a unit goes into last stand, I'll select stand up, and then immediately end their turn without any further action. If the unit goes into last stand on enemy turn, I'll select counter as that likely has less impact than inspire. If for some reason I'm forced to use inspire, I'll consider the extra command point not usable. 7. All missions are played with appropriate equipment and recruits. 8. DLC missions will be reserved until after the on disc content is completed. Selvaria and Crymaria aren't allowed to be used outside of their own missions. 9. No repeating missions to grind dct/ranks, with one exception. Once I clear the main game (18b), if I've missed any main game squad stories, I'll unlock them in the post game by playing skirmish 1 normal. This is mainly for squad stories like Mischief Makers that don't offer any particular reward, but I'd still like to unlock and play them for completion's sake. DCT/renown earned from repeating any mission won't be spent, to prevent any grinding. 10. Videos are recorded in a single take with no cutting. If there's a large amount of idle time in a video, I'll selectively speed up idle times so there aren't large gaps with nothing happening. Instead of cutting the idle time out of the video. Chapter 01 : 3 turns https://youtu.be/gPOc_jckDpg Damage taken: No Allies downed: No Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: All With that said, let's get started with the 1st chapter. Unlike the 1st run, I immediately make use of tanks and Grenadier's, and finish in 3t instead of 5. I attempt to kill all tanks and leaders, and attempt to minimize damage. The new indicator below lets you know what the results are. As missions get more difficult and longer, I may end up skipping some tanks and leaders, or taking some damage. We'll see how it goes. Skirmish 01 Normal: 1 turn Damage taken: Curtis only Allies downed: Curtis was deliberately downed in order to recruit Eileen. Let's hope this is the only time an ally is downed on this run. Leaders (non-boss)/tanks/aces killed: n/a I mostly used this skirmish as an excuse to use Curtis and Jester whose squad stories I'm trying to unlock. My analysis of early game squad story unlocks (some data taken from PSNprofiles vc4 guide): I have placed stars next to the recruits that are probably the easiest to use to unlock the story without resorting to grinding skirmishes. SS1 That Which Never Changes Curtis*, Laurent, Eileen ZM Kar 2(e) E+ 180 40 52 5 this weapon is useful on ch 3a/b SS15 The Debtor's Calamity Jester*, Teresa, Connor* VB PL 2(e) D 400 130 1200 this weapon is useful on ch 4a SS2 Soothing Those in Grief Godwin*, Rosetta, Nico* ZM MP 2(e) D 100 36 50 20 this weapon is useful on ch 5 SS6 Pride, Faith, and Mistakes Fleuret, Rebecca*, Mabel* - Mabel damage potential SS8 Girls Talk Millennia, Brittany*, Rita* - Brittany damage potential

Skirmish 3 Expert: 6 turns (B rank) The tanks were destroyed using the high antiarmor scout weapons that can substantially damage tank radiators. Skirmish 4 Expert: 9 turns On the 1st few turns I picked off a few key units and hid, similar to skirmish 2 and 5 hard. After that it's a pretty standard clear. It's hard to get surprise attacks on this mission with short range Grenadier weapons, so expect lots of dodging. Skirmish 5 Expert: 5 turns (B rank) I had to burn some command points solely to spot enemies while avoiding the spotlights. Could do 4t with more reloading. Skirmish 6 Expert: 8 turns (B rank) The AI is very passive on this mission if your units stay hidden, and there are enough turns to take things gradually. The left side offers a lot better cover from los. Enemies start parachuting in from turn 3 onward - long-range sniper rifle really helps. That's it for this challenge run. Thanks for reading and watching. I'll be getting started on the no reload challenge run in a bit.

Skirmish 2 Expert: 6 turns https://youtu.be/l8fxMFpg8XE

Skirmish 1 Expert: 5 turns (B rank) https://youtu.be/YwE5WLsskiQ

Valkyria 1: 6 turns https://youtu.be/kDQ6P2Azn0k Beach 1: 3 turns (B rank) Beach 2: 5 turns (B rank) Captainless 1: 5 turns Captainless 2: 4 turns Captainless 3: 6 turns Beach & Captainless missions were played with appropriate weapons recruits and accessories for just clearing chapter 10. The beach DLC caused me to get my first 2 B ranks on this playthrough. Unfortunate, but I got a few B ranks on my original VC run as well. Now working on the expert skirmishes. I can tell you right now more B rank(s) are ahead. After the expert skirmishes, I'll begin planning my no reload run. As an aside, I recently played through chapter 18b hard. here are some of the differences I noticed: Enemies are obviously Paragon the sniper north of the start position is now crouched there is an additional sniper in the Southwest near Riley's goal point the Grenadier on the northeast base now advances south every turn, instead of staying put the boss uses a defensive order, instead of an attack order there are additional mines placed around the boss takes a different route, emerging from different points compared to the normal version. It will emerge in the southeast and attempt to destroy the camp near your start position on 4EP instead of 6EP. I have not seen a full list of differences anywhere, so there you go.

DLC: squad 7 & edy missions were played with appropriate weapons recruits and accessories for just clearing chapter 2. All cleared under the challenge conditions including 100% kills & 0 damage taken. Squad 7 mission 1: 3 turns Squad 7 mission 2: 6 turns Squad 7 mission 3: 3 turns Edy: 3 turns Valkyria 1: 6 turns Valkyria 2: 5 turns the Valkyria missions were annoying because they expect you to dump about half of your available command points into killing the boss, which doesn't leave a lot of left for killing every other enemy on the map. not to mention avoiding damage from the boss themselves. I won't be using the Valkyria recruits for any content on this run. remaining: beach missions, a captainless squad, and expert skirmishes the 1st beach mission has an a rank limit of one turn. it's clearly designed to be played multiple times to kill each ace. regardless I'll see what I can do with it.

Skirmish 3 Challenge: 4 turns https://youtu.be/yLGYyfkKfJA Tanks used: No APC used: Yes Grenadiers used: Yes Direct commands (SP) used: 3 used I used a tier 4 Royal Grenadier weapon for this attempt. This isn't necessary to complete in 4 turns, but it increases reliability by 3cp since the enemy Grenadiers can be outranged and killed in 1 CP instead of 2. That's it for the on disc content.