SRW Z2 Superdraft - The SECOND!

[Wen Yang]

Stage 40:
Turns: 3/161
SR Points: 40
Total: 121

Lulu went MAP-Happy, while Kallen WRECKS the Adamons.


Sumo - HP+7, Armor+7, Mobility+3, Accuracy+3, Weapons+3 (FUB Range+1)
Shen Hu - HP+3, Armor+3 (FUB Range+1)
Ougi - Continous Action
Toudou - SP Get
Xingke - E-Save
Kallen - Melee+14
Duo - Melee+22
Lelouch - Ranged+17


Stage 41:
Turns: 5/166
SR Points: 41
Total: 125

3 turns for part 1, while part 2 was a ridiculous massacre thar ended on EP2.

Akatsuki (Asahina) - HP+10, EN+2,Armor+10 (FUB Range+1)
Sumeragi - Continous Action
Quatre - Dash
Chiba - Size Ignore
Crowe - Ranged+8
Kallen - Melee+11
Duo - Melee+6
Lelouch - Ranged+27


Stage 42:
Turns: 3/169
SR Points: 42
Total: 127

Had to sacrifice cash, but hey, 3-turn :D

Wufei - Will Limit Break
Harry - SP Get
Lelouch - Ranged+30


Stage 43:
Turns: 3/172
SR Points: 43
Total: 129

2 turns for part 1, 1 for part 2.

Dominator - HP+8, EN+2,Armor+8, Mobility+8, Accuracy+8, Weapons+8 (FUB Range+1)
Tower - HP+2, EN+8, Accuracy+8, Weapons+6
F.S. - Continous Action, Hit&Away
Crowe - Ranged+16
Kallen - Melee+15
Lelouch - Ranged+24
Duo - Melee+13
C.C. - Cooperative Attack


Stage 44:
Turns: 3/175
SR Points: 44
Total: 131

2 turns for Shin Dragon, 1 more to clean up.

Lelouch - Ranged+30 (Range 400)


Stage 45:
Turns: 2/177
SR Points: 45
Total: 132

Easy 2-turn. Uther only took 3 hits to drop.

Cynthia - SP Get
Harry - Dash
Trowa - Hit&Away
Asahina - Size Ignore
Wufei - Melee+17
Lelouch - Skill+14


Stage 46:
Turns: 1/178
SR Points: 46
Total: 132

Easy 1-turn with enable + soul spam. Esther's back too~

Esther - SP Get, Will Limit Break, Melee+8
Crowe - Ranged+14
Kallen - Melee+14 (Melee 400)
Duo - Melee+11

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 17: 2+3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 60, total SR points 17, Net 43)

I spent all of my money. Kouji's weapons maxed out at 10, Crowe made it to 8, and Watta has 7. I also splurged Akagi's PP on pure stats, 13 Melee and 1 Defense (originally I was going to give him the +10 sortie morale, but then I discovered that he gets event boosted to 150, so...). This is allowed under rule "You may not upgrade undrafted units. Equipping parts and/or using PP is still fine, however." Speaking of parts, Dai-Guard took the E-Carbon Armor, a Land Module, and a Thruster Module.

[spoiler=strategy]

The duel is simple enough, everyone is forced and there's no battleship, so since nobody can retreat so everyone is free (under "You are allowed the use of any and every forced unit who can't retreat into a battleship.") Akagi and Kouji use Accel, and Watta can reach naturally so you get a full set of 8 attacks to finish in two turns. It might or might not be a matter of having Kokubougar not target Akagi on enemy phase, though he might be able to take the hit. If it does something silly like ask for a Photon Beam to the face, though... I honestly don't really remember exactly how it went down, and didn't chronicle it well because it wasn't really tactically difficult or exciting, but I think Watta took the kill, because he has Gain, is behind in kills, and why not, amirite? It took two turns, because Strike+Guard spirit enemies are disgusting. Remind me never to take Open route without Mazinger. Seriously.

The real fun starts here. With mostly forced deployment.

Kokubougar softens for an easy CA, but probably just so he used EN/ammo and could get Supplied for Shuttle XP. Crowe can't be touched yet, sadly, because he needs all his will to CA off an ACP crit.

Watta and Kouji take out another unit (Jeffrey may or may not have helped), triggering the Dai-Guard's appearance. It begins pounding away at the Heterodyne (allowed under rule "When a character is SPECIFICALLY needed to perform a combative action to acquire an SR point, that character is free for that stage ONLY," as the Heterodyne must be KO'd by the Knot Punisher, making Dai-Guard free for me.)

Start of turn 2 looks like this.

Jeffrey transforms and shoots a thing.

Watta kills two large DMs.

While Kouji and Crowe CA themselves into position to abuse Support Attack, Kouji gets aced.

Crowe goes and wounds the other Rhinodamon on his own, Jeffrey gets supplied because in range, and Dai-Guard continues its mano-a-mano.

Turn 3 begins. Both Rhinodamons are easily killable at this point. It's just a matter of allocating the resources.

Crowe technically gets the down, which is unfortunate, because Watta has a ways to go before Ace, but it can't be helped really.

I ran out of things for Crowe to do, so I moved him backward to get Supplied for sweet, sweet XP. If needed though, he would have Eagle Shotted the Heterodyne.

The fruits of the Dai-Guard's continual efforts, but mostly a Kouji crit.

Let's not cut things any closer than that, shall we?

Some celebratory screens.

[spoiler=stats]

[spoiler=subs]

Chapter 18: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 63, total SR points 18, Net 45)

I earned enough last chapter to upgrade both Crowe and Watta's energy to the maximum of 10. They'll need it, either now or in the future. They've been close to running out before. Nobody had enough PP to really get anything worthwhile once I discovered that SP up doesn't seem to apply to sub-pilots.

[spoiler=strategy]

Apologized if these are too zoomed out for you, but this map is huge and has a lot going on. After some at-a-glance bits, we'll try to keep normal zoomed. Anyway, we deploy like so.

Crowe snipes a beastman without moving, while Kouji CA's his way to a magic square in the north, where basically all of the beastmen will commit suicide-by-Mazinger.

Watta positions himself similarly in the South, but will be less effective at it, but don't blame him, he's still in grade school while Kouji is in high school.

Despite the deceptive looks, I actually supplied Crowe, for the larger XP, before he goes and positions himself over here. This was more important in a prior failed run, because one of the enemies would attack him, but apparently now that the Macross Quarter is closer than where it was in the prior run, it declines Crowe and doesn't attack anyone, just moves.

Watta needs to crit one of three things on the enemy phase, so he can clean up the two remaining on player phase. It doesn't take that long to get him to cooperate, honestly. As expected, everything within a wide radius of Kouji is dead.

Thanks to the Macross girls' singing, Jeffrey has enough Will to use his powerful 1-3 postmove to get himself into position for next turn. Kouji kills the other beastman with a crit, though he easily could have used Breastfire, I wanted a little distance for reasons, and Mazinger's Rocket Punches are basically crit machines to begin with. Also worth noting, Crowe could have easily counterkilled that beastman, but he wants it alive to CA off of for the ability to cover additional ground. Kachikouji will resupply him again before that happens, just for extra XP though, after using a Spirit to top Watta off on HP.

Like so, see how much closer he is to Watta now (who also took care of one of his beastmen)?

He's relatively conveniently placed to help out with the Gishin invasion now.

Pre-enemy phase. It was difficult to decide which enemy for Crowe to kill (and how to be positioned) to try to reduce the amount of pain Watta sustains in the EP. Otherwise we'd have a dead grade schooler, and nobody wants that.

As soon as the enemy commander was attacked, the event triggering Ashura and the mechabeasts happens. Thankfully, it's still the enemy phase, so they get to act immediately, and after the scripted nonsense with GurrenLagann, they being to slowly throw themselves at Kouji. It might be hard to tell, but even with 3 Photon Beam crits, it would be impossible to take down the boss.

Which is where Jeffrey comes in.

The old CA into support formation trick shows itself again.

Crowe gives the boss a final love-tap, just to be sure. I don't want to kill it right now, because then the rest of the Gishin enemies will warp out, and they can easily die in one Trider Javelin apiece, and Watta has 43 energy left, so that's four servings.

At about this point, I start trying to figure out how to optimize my Bless + Cheer usage from Ikue-chan, which takes several iterations before I decide that the Bless goes to a mook kill on Kouji and the Cheer goes to a mook kill on Watta. It's not ideal, as a boss would be preferable, but Crowe earns almost no XP from the boss kill, and Luck (spirit) doesn't stack with his Luck (personal skill), and if Kouji doesn't fight the 3 mooks in the north that can reach him, the 9600G we lose from that bare brings us up to the 11400 we would have got from doubling the boss (the difference vanishes when one of the mooks becomes a 6400 and the other two remain 3200 a piece). So, I take the extra kills for the PP at the expense of some XP.

[spoiler=stats]

[spoiler=subs]

Aoi rejoined with enough PP to pick up Continuous Action. Kouji grabs E-Save, Crowe grabs B-save, and Dancougar gets 5 weapons and 9 EN upgrades.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Balcerzak

[wrightofway]

Been a bit busy lately.

Starting Z2.2:

Prologue 1 3/3 Turns

Zero killed Cornelia.

Prologue 2 6/9 Turns

Prologue 3 3/12 Turns

Map 1 4/16 Turns 1 SR

Map 2 4/20 Turns 2 SR

Map 3 4/24 Turns 3 SR

Took Middle East Route

Map 4 4/28 Turns 4 SR

Map 5 4/32 Turns 5 SR

Map 6 4/36 Turns 6 SR

Louise used Sword Cut on Heavyarms beam saber so I had to get a bit lucky on turn 4 EP and crit the boss but it worked out.

Map 7 3/39 Turns 7 SR

Map 8 6/45 Turns 7 SR

Map 9 4/49 Turns 8 SR

Map 10 4/53 Turns 9 SR

Map 11 5/58 Turns 10 SR

The second group of enemies don't spawn until Turn 4 player phase, even if all the enemies are dead. It would be an easy 4 turn if not for that.

Map 12 5/63 Turns 11 SR

Map 13 4/67 Turns 12 SR

Map 14 4/71 Turns 13 SR

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 19: 4 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 67, total SR points 19, Net 48)

[spoiler=strategy]

Ugh, forced Dai-guard, again? I picked evade to minimize the damage, as he'll need to stay alive through a host, and there's only so much SP for Invincible.

Finally, the cavalry arrives. I made sure not to let Dai-guard get any killing blows, that's my team's PP, hands off. Also, Will gains for kills only happen when they're on the field, so that too.

Dai-guard Accels out of range, and the first wave of CA commences.

The priority targets are those gun-things with massive range.

Well, that and the Heterodyne, but Mazinger has that one covered.

Start of final turn.

Down goes the Heterodyne. Mmm, delicious Luck/Gain effects.

Repairing Mazinger is worth a boatload of XP.

Watta takes four on the EP, getting Aced. Aoi takes the rest.

Glorious. 380 free PP to Crowe, Watta, Kouji, Kachikouji. 245 to Aoi, 235 to Sumeragi, 240 to Ougi and Jeffrey. 260 to Kappei, 250 to the Gainer and Xabungle folk. 200 to Athena, 160 to my Zeta gundams, 90 for Char, and 10 for Margueritte. Some odd number for the crews of Dai-Gurren and Moonlight, but I'm honestly still a little fuzzy on their lengths of stay, and some of my numbers may be off above due to events or just misjudgements. Anyway, what this boils down to is, Watta is putting in work, giving out some free upgrades. That's a good boy.

[spoiler=stats]

[spoiler=subs]

Chapter 20: 4 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 71, total SR points 20, Net 51)

This chapter goddamn. I bumped Aoi to 7 weapons, full energy, and tried a bunch of different strategies. Strat 1 failed due to summoning Wufei on EP1 and him promptly getting attacked by Zechs' aide. Strat 2 failed due to Aoi running out of EN and health tanking Graham and co + the Scopedogs. Also Kouji getting paralzyed by the status effect due to my trying to get a 3 turn, which I now soundly feel is impossible without additional units. Probably 2, but maybe one godly one. Fuck this chapter, I spent so many hours.

Also, I don't remember if I mentioned it but you should be able to see it in the screens: Watta bought Dash, Kouji bought E-Save, Crowe bought B-Save.

[spoiler=strat]

Okay, this is where everything spawns when it spawns. The only 100% safe spot for Sumeragi (without killing other units) is the one directly to her left, in the hilighted area. Now, this spot is perhaps larger due to enemy AI aggro patterns but, you're going to want her in that general vicinity regardless. Jeffrey and Talho can easily duo the Code Geass enemies, so all you really need to worry about are: Patrick, the Russian, Zechs, Graham, and the Red Shoulders. That's 5 squads for (in my case) 4 units: Watta, Aoi, Kouji, Crowe. No, Ougi and Kachikouji don't count as units. Not for the purposes of clearing an entire squad. Kachikouji can't even clean up scraps effectively, due to no post-move options. I assign Watta to Patrick, Aoi to the Russians, Kouji to Zechs, and Crowe to the other two.

Well, okay, if you insist, here's how the WLF go down. Prioritize the long range teal enemies on Player Phase, let Ougi bait down the sole survivor as Kouji and Aoi bathe in the blood of their enemies. Probably not literally, but you never know. Also, I purposely had Watta not kill an enemy and get hurt so he could be healed by Sumeragi, I'm so mean. Crowe finished it and CA'd over to the right for extra, probably unneeded distance traveled. Since Watta is already aced and it's a pitiful mook, I don't feel too bad depriving him the kill/PP.

Watta kills 2 of Patricks goons and retreats so Pat will attack him on the EP. Normally I would do a kill one, wound the boss strat, but I think I needed all the kills I could get to trigger the Setsuna/Tieria event on PP and not have to RNG their positions and liability on the EP.

Similarly Kouji kills two of Zechs's goons. This does, I guess, also have the upside of letting me KO Zechs on a Player Phase, where I can control Luck/Gain, rather than not being able to do it on an enemy phase.

Jeffrey supported by Talho attack the Lancelot, then she kills a mook, to set off the event. I suppose I could have not done that, and bashed Lancelot, letting Crowe trigger the event, but hindsight is 20-20 man.

Crowe critkills the leading member of Graham's squadren, the one who accused him of fragging his superior officer in order to get that promotion, IIRC. Joshua or something?

The event already triggered means I don't need kills, so Aoi is free to punch the pink mech in the face.

Crowe kills a Scopedog in range of the rest of the Red Shoulders, while Ougi plunks at one of Patrick's goons that I have a hunch won't be landing close enough to Watta to attack him. IIRC, that hunch was on the money.

The damage on the EP was brutal (for them). Aoi only had 2 sure-kill missiles on the long range grunts, but one of her puny missiles crit, so that was a lucky break. I easily could have killed Noin with Kouji, but I left her alive out of habit, for maybe needing to CA eastward with him, forgetting that Zechs hadn't taken hit 1 of the 2 hit combo. One of the Russian grunts did aggro to Sumeragi, but she has a lot of health so she's still okay, Patrick ate a Trider Bird attack or whatever to the face, losing a huge chunk of HP. One of Graham's goons split off southward toward my battleships, which was unexpected (because my runs with Aoi there I had her closer to them, and further from the scopedogs), but it isn't too big of an inconvenience, what with a forced 4 turn anyway.

Dat cash. Probably should have saved it for the real final boss, but I think he bit it on enemy phase, so it couldn't be helped. ...Actually, maybe if I'd outright killed Noin? But fuck it, it's only a ~3000 loss, as Zechs is still quite a bounty, and I'm already a chapter beyond caring at this point.

Mazinger is only afraid of this asshole if he closes to 3 range, which he usually doesn't. Still, he can't quite 2HKO.

Aoi kills the grunt that got away, then Accel CAs around to the rear to use her sword on Pierce(sp?) in the pink mech.

Crowe kills something, then tenderizes the big bad.

Battleships do things, Ougi gets scraps and healers heal. We're green to go.

Aoi gets Aced.

That wasn't so bad. Graham is the only real threat remaining, and he's been taking a beating from Crowe's counters anyway. The kills go to Aoi, Jeffrey, Watta, Watta, Kouji, Kouji. I think you can figure out which are which.

[spoiler=stats]

[spoiler=subs]

Aoi buys E-save here, which is a mistake (not the skill, but the timing, I forgot she didn't have initial will +10 yet), however, it might have accidentally saved me enough EN in the next chapter to finish in the amount of turns needed. Then again, she could have maybe attacked Zuul with a weaker weapon, or I could have had Crowe counter with two ACPs rather than an ACP and a Bayonet, Kouji easily clears the 10k threshold, so there's room for overflow. Whatever the case, I manage. In other news, both Kouji and Crowe pick up Will Limit Break. Kouji overwrites the +3 will each turn after the first skill, which doesn't matter that much as he gets most of his will elsewhere, by this point.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 21: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 74, total SR points 21, Net 53)

This one took a little doing, to be honest, but I'm satisfied.

[spoiler=strategy]

Carefully place Takeru where he can reach a battleship on turn 2. Don't let him kill any enemies. He needs to dodge 1, shouldn't be too hard.

Deploy

Clear a path through the mob of enemies.

Rocket Punch the battleship.

I think Ougi and or Talho killed something so Dancougar could go full cougar. idk, Trider clearly could have done it, but I guess I wasn't sure where I wanted him yet?

I end up in this position.

Which becomes this position.

A light breeze can finish off the Gishin battleship at this point, btw.

People CA into position for Zuul. Also, I tried to prioritize the starfish faced mechs near Kouji's new position, because of their tendency to target him on enemy phase, whereas the other ones are more susceptible to going for Crowe/Aoi.'

Since Zuul gains 2 Will per downed ally, I try to kill as many of them as I can before summoning him, using all my spare units.

I Daunt Zuul's Will repeatedly. Funny story, I still had one more cast I could have done, but in that case, I'd drop him below the 10k retreat threshold.

My units' Wills on the other hand are sky-high.

First attack.

Second attack. At this point, Crowe could ACP crit and finish the stage, but that wastes a lot of G and PP from the remaining enemies.

So instead he kills the last starfish. The unit to Kouji's right attacks Aoi, the one below him attacks Jeffrey, the one right next to Crowe attacks Crowe, while the one right next to Jeffrey also attacks Jeffrey. This leaves Kouji untouched on EP, save for Zuul, so he's free to bask in a Bless + Cheer.

Glorious.

[spoiler=stats]

[spoiler=subs]

Chapter 22: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 76, total SR points 22, Net 54)

WLF chapters are barely chapters if there aren't any reinforcement events. Watta grabbed E-Save last time, but everyone else is still saving, I think.

[spoiler=strat]

I'm marking out my planned kill zones. I thought I remembered somebody's log mentioning this might be 1 turnable, but I disagree, especially since 5 of the enemies don't move, and only will attack if you're in their 1-5 range, which while admittedly is pretty large, they're far from the coast, meaning you can't be both in range of them and the water-locked enemies. Add in the consideration of those 2-9 range enemies in the middle area, and the extreme distance from end to end, and I think it's definitely 2 turn all the way out, even with a much fuller squad. 6 CA users could maybe get it done, maybe. They'd all have to be pretty powerful though, and I think the resources are just not enough.

Anyway, I distribute my combat units as planned, and dick around with my battleships and support units as well.

After the enemy phase, there's not much left. Crowe getting wounded was important, so Ougi can heal him for XP, and it's not a guaranteed thing, tbh. Watta getting wounded for Sumeragi, though, is a matter of course, obviously.

End of Player Phase 2, everything is guaranteed to die.

[spoiler=stats]

[spoiler=subs]

Aoi gets her initial Will +10 now, and Ougi grabs Dash, for extra flexibility.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 23: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 79, total SR points 23, Net 56)

I sacrificed enormous amounts of cash and PP because I couldn't get the Dinodamon to kill itself on an enemy phase. RIP my upgrades.

[spoiler=strat]

I don't bother moving too far turn 1, but I rather huddle prepositioned for all my support attacks. The boss comes to us, double-quick even.

He attacked Jeffery, who could counter for miniscule damage. Oh, I may have forgot to mention, but I did 4x Daunt on the boss, to decimate his starting will.

After everyone attacks, I'm 6618 away from the magic number, if my math doesn't fail me. That's either one attack on Mazinger, or two attacks on people who can counter and do decent damage. Ougi is hiding inside the Moonlight because I didn't know what to do with him.

The boss acquires the SR point for me and retreats itself on turn 2 enemy phase, and the remaining beasties attack. The Dinodamon hit Mazinger, because that seemed like a good idea (hint: it wasn't).

Jeffrey barely survived the enemy phase, btw. Tanking support defends like a champ, and then when injured, attracts the rest of the attention naturally. Well, Mazinger also flat out kills a couple first, I think, but whatever. It was close.

Aoi CAs an easy kill, then Dan Kuu Hou's the Rhinodamon that attacked her earlier. Support from Crowe makes it super easy pickings.

Kouji and Crowe make the Dinodamon super easy pickings too. If it didn't regenerate something retarded like 7200 health when it starts its phase, I probably could have got more cash but alas.

See, the plan was Trider mops up the southern Damons, Kouji takes care of most of the east, the Dino attack and suicides on Crowe who would be Cheer Blessed, and life would be happy. It seemed like a good plan, if not for the fact of a) regenerating health, and b) the Dino attacks everyone but Crowe. Usually Ougi, who I pop out to heal Dancougar, but sometime Moonlight, or occasionally it would charge downward and maybe try to attack the Ptolemaois, depending on where I'd put it.

What actually happens is I just kill as much as I can on player phase, Heal/Supply Kouji for XP.

Then I have Watta finish the Dinodamon and level to 31, which is conveniently where he learns Spirit. This actually proves vital for my plan next chapter, coincidentally enough.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Chapter 24: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 82, total SR points 24, Net 58)

This probably can't be done without Kappei, tbh. Well, maybe, if you reset long enough to get both a 7% and a 5% crit. Instead, I used Analyze on the 5% meaning no crit needed (because it was just short by 10 hp, aisfoashdaoihdfhoa). The first crit only needs to cover 100hp as well, if you blow all of his SP on Spirit for Will (which I do.) That is the height of frustration, my friends. The very pinnacle of fine-tuning thumbing its nose at us.

[spoiler=strat]

Kappei blew his wad on Spirit, Keiko on Analyze, as mentioned above. I would have loved to have gotten 2 Gain in, but what can you do.

You finish off the last enemy, triggering your cavalry to arrive.

As well as a bunch more beastmen. I set my units up like so. Crowe needs a movement part, or equivalent. Watta blows all his SP on Spirit, bringing him to above 130, which is important both for Dash, and for access to his finisher, which is the consistent way to one-shot these mooks. Alternately, I could have spent more money upgrading his weapons, but I'm trying to ration it so my newcomers can get at least WL5 or so.

Watta CAs his way to this position.

Crowe goes here.

The positions of my other units may seem strange, but there is method to my madness.

I think you need to kill 6 of the 9 beastment to trigger the event. Kouji then becomes surrounded, immediately pumped to max Will, and proceeds to slaughter everything that looks at him funny. He also needed a movement part to reach this location, IIRC. He might be able to make due with a different position and a Propellent tank on top of the Ygg Drive. That would probably be the wiser choice, actually, as even in range of the Rhinodamon's 1-3 weapon alternative, that one still uses the 2-7 range En draining status one.

Which is why Moonlight draws one enemy away from the herd, because otherwise I think Kouji was something agonizing like 2 EN shy of being able to do his job. on turn 3 EP.

Moonlight softens and Shuttle support attacks to feed Kappei another kill here, while the rest of the obvious kills go to their obvious killers. Note: certain DBs are wired to move to certain targets. Kill them on Player Phase or position yourself perfectly to be in their way.

[spoiler=stats]

[spoiler=subs]

I bump Kappei to WL7, and I spend all of Watta, Kouji, and Crowe's PP on Melee stat. I kept a save and may revert this if I second guess myself. I'm tempted to put Support Attack on Kouji replacing his Will Up when Damaged, but that is a pretty nice way for him to power will, so I'm conflicted. Also, I might be investing too much in Kappei right off the bat, when the Gainer and other folks are right on my doorstep. I need to stop, rest, and regroup I think.

[Fei Mao]

[spoiler=Z2.2 Prologue-17]
Default Crowe () means total turns on map with SR Point

Prologue 1
Turns: 3
SR Points: 0
Total Turns: 3

Prologue 2
Turns: 6
SR Points: 0
Total Turns: 9

Part 1 ends on turn 4, part 2 ends on 2.

Prologue 3
Turns: 2
SR Points: 0
Total Turns: 11

You need to kill six enemies to trigger Shin Dragon spawn, it's possible to finish in two turns. Use spirit, change into Hayato, accel and go south. If can kill six on turn 1 of EP you can finish on turn 2.

Chapter 1
Turns: (3)
SR Points: 1
Total Turns: 14

Ester +5 Weapons

Chapter 2
Turns:(3)
SR Points: 2
Total Turns: 17


Chapter 3
Turns:(3)
SR Points: 3
Total Turns: 20

Esta +3 Mobility and Accuracy, +2 Weapons


Chapter 4 (Space)
Turns:(3)
SR Points: 4
Total Turns: 23

This route is probably faster than earth, the red Vajras go for Luca, it's important to kill them all on turn 2 of EP. The undrafted Macross people makes good use of morale.

Esther +4 Weapons and Accuracy, +5 Mobility
Apollo +6 Weapons, +3 Accuracy, +4 Armor and EN
Silvia SP UP +2

Chapter 5 (Space)
Turns:(2)
SR Points: 5
Total Turns: 25

Reinforcements arrive on turn 2, finished on turn 3 of EP.

Silvia SP UP +1
Jeffrey Hit and Away

Chapter 6 (Space)
Turns:(3)
SR Points: 6
Total Turns: 28

SR Point required this a 4 turn.

Takeru +8 Weapons, +3 Accuracy and Armor, +5 EN
Kenji +8 Weapons, +3 Accuracy, +5 Mobility

Chapter 7 (Space)
Turns:(3)
SR Points: 7
Total Turns: 31

Because of SR Point and enemy positioning, 4 turns might be the fastest.

Chapter 8
Turns(3)
SR Points: 8
Total Turns: 34

Best to trigger the event on turn 2 of PF (8 Kills), send one killer west and the rest north west. Because of Broken's position and the lack of CA users, 4 turns was the best I can do.

Akagi Resupply Skill

Chapter 9
Turns:(3)
SR Points: 9
Total Turns: 37

Pretty standard map, it's still free period undrafted units helped clean up and weaken stuff.

Takeru CA
Esther CA, FUB +1 Range, +1 Weapons (Maxed)
Apollo CA
Sirius CA
Silvia SP UP +1


Chapter 10
Turns:(2)
SR Points: 10
Total Turns: 39

First two turns with forced units, getting the SR point spawns your other units, killing the rest spawns the final set of enemies to the west. Good thing the free period extends to here otherwise Aoi would be giving penalties.

Apollo +2 Weapons


Chapter 11
Turns:(2)
SR Points: 11
Total Turns: 41

Ughhh, two turn clear requires too much RNG manipulation on my part, (Takeru and Margurtte surviving) other than that an easy map

Chapter 12
Turns:(3)
SR Points: 12
Total Turns: 44

I can probably 3 turn this if I had more units to help clean up trash, another simple map where killing the initial enemies spawn more enemies south. Esther gets her ace bonus.

Takeru Morale, +1 Support Attack,
Esther Morale

Kenji CA
Shotaro +7 Weapon, +4 Accuracy, Armor, and EN
Apollo Morale


Chapter 13
Turns:(2)
SR Points: 13
Total Turns: 46

You can trigger all the events if you kill 16 on turn 1 of EP, this map involves a lot of trial and error depending on your units. It's best to send your best units north west and north east, while weakening Wein as much as you can. Takeru gets his ace bonus.

Takeru +1 Weapons, +2 EN and Accuracy, +3 Armor
Kenji +1 Weapons
Apollo +1 Weapons, EN, and Armor


Chapter 14
Turns:(2)
SR Points: 14
Total Turns: 48

Straightfoward map, best to trigger events on turn 2 of PF.

Chapter 15
Turns:(4)
SR Points: 15
Total Turns: 52

Crowe spawns when you attack Marylin, it's worth it to get the secret item with Esther by moving her northwest of where the Quarter spawns. Gerard spawns at turn 4, the only thing to worry about is him double attacking your people.

Takeru +5 HP, +1 Armor and Weapons (Maxed)
Apollo +1 Weapons(Maxed)
Kenji +1 Weapons(Maxed), Morale
Shotaro CA
Crowe CA, FUB (+1 Range)


Chapter 16
Turns:(3)
SR Points: 16
Total Turns: 54

Not much to say about this map, after doing the SR Point four more enemies spawn and Kenji gets his ace bonus.

Takeru +3 Armor (Maxed)
Esther B Save
Apollo E Save, +3 Armor(Maxed)
Sirius Morale, +22 Melee
Silvia SP UP +3
Zero Hit and Away, +4 Weapons and Accuracy, +3 Armor and EN


Chapter 17
Turns:(2)
SR Points: 17
Total Turns: 56

Another simple map, probably fastest is three turns and it was worth getting the parts from the three bosses up north.

Edited January 17, 2015 by Generic Operator

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 25: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 85, total SR points 25, Net 60)

Big chapter for me, receive the bulk of my new forces. Let's take a look and hope I'm not disappointed.

[spoiler=strategy]

Cynthia softens something up for Gain, while Gainer charges straight into the fray. Jiron does similar offscreen.

Turn 2 start. Having the one beastman come up to attack Gain is better than if it attacks Gainer.

I get in some last bit of usage with the forced units before I attack Viral with Gainer to trigger the cavalry's arrival. Honestly, only the Elche Luck kill mattered, as the unit Cynthia weakens is easily one-shot by one of my CA people anyway, but it felt good to do it.

Deploy setup. Marginally important choices here on location. Zambot goes for that one mook that closed on Gain, the rest just drive south as fast and far as possible.

After most everyone's had a go at things for the first time.

Some decent hurt is put on Enkidu here. Also, I'd tried moving around Dyakka and Kitan to change the location of that event where Gainer charges to save one of Kitan's sisters, but it didn't seem to have any effect. But that's getting ahead of things here a bit.

End turn 2.

Shortly after the begin of turn 3. Gainer already did his action, then was event triggered to go sit off in a pointless section of map.

Make sure Enkidu is properly Daunted, so his Guard ability at Will 130 isn't active, that helps.

Chill's Luck is the reason the Walker Gallier gets priority on a lot of bosses/big mooks. I mean, I have Ikue's Bless from the safety of the Shuttle, but optimizing means spreading the wealth around. Anyway, Ashura brought some new friends for us to play with.

Damage is done to the boss.

Final positioning. Trider had to be resupplied so it will have the energy to one-shot the Gishin forces with large health, but that's OK, that's why I have Shuttle. Mazinger is Blessed, because the mooks go for Crowe (I left him wounded at around 2K health for this reason, rather than Trusting him). I only miss out on that one mook on the right that's just out of range. Gain gets two of the ones on the left, IIRC.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

No really important PP purchases. Kouji saves his, at least until I have a spare bank of 100 set aside in case I do need another Support Attack option, the new guys can't afford theirs yet, etc. As for $ purchases, level 7 weapons and full energy for everyone.

Chapter 26: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 88, total SR points 26, Net 62)

This chapter was a pain and annoying to 3 turn. I needed to equip the Halo and a movement part on Kouji so that he could have 12 movement (accelled) so that he could cover the 23 spaces he needs to get in range of the furthest Invader. Another movement part needed to go on Crowe, so he could make it to the top left. Watta, left without his customary resources, suffers a fair bit here, but still manages to work decently.

[spoiler=strategy]

Just trying to maximize my coverage for enemy phase.

And positions for the second enemy phase. It could clear all enemies if Harry gets a crit, but that would lead to huge penalties as undrafteds get attacked, so we activate the reinforcement event at start of turn 3.

I gave the final kill to a dude that would level off it, I honestly couldn't care less who it was.

The Invader's weapon's reach is 4 on a post-move. We're golden.

Gain had an adrenaline part so the Emperanza could really function well with it's 3-8 range weapon opening up after 5 global kills, providing support for Jiron, and enabling him to pick up his own kill as well. Disregard that, while he could have crit killed, a reduced move Watta needed that one CA off of, I guess.

After doing so, Watta takes care of the only other Invader that might threaten the undrafteds.

There could have been a problem if one of the two by Crowe went for Gainer and he couldn't kill it (don't know the odds on that anymore), but in the end everything is fine at the end of PP3. My Lucks were kind of anticlimactic on just the more expensive of the Invader mooks, but hey, it's still bonus money. Anyway, I highlighted this other Invader's range, showing that he can also get to Mazinger. So, Kouji get's 8, Crowe gets 2, and Watta gets one. The new guys starve on EPs, at least for now.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Kappei gets Continuous Action, Kakikouji gets Dash

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 27: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 91, total SR points 27, Net 64)

I'm getting my first glance of Marguerite and I'm kind of torn. OTOH, she's got nice style, and an amazing theme. OTOH, her mech design really doesn't do it for me. Still, it's not like I've had the best of luck with the aesthetics of my team members as a whole, so no point obsessing over hers alone. We get to play around with Asakim and his kind of OP mech for this chapter, which is cool, ngl. My Orguss unit can't really contribute, but that's normal for a fresh recruit on their join map, I guess.

[spoiler=strategy]

Turn 1. No real thinking needed here. I make sure not to kill the one Asakim wounded on the EP, so it goes to someone who matters.

Here's my deploy arrangement.

Mazinger actually needed Crowe's support attack to finish off a non-boss unit. I can probably count the number of times this happened on one hand. Also note, the killed units are the ones furthest out of reach, so that everyone can get a slice of the pie.

Gain, Gainer, and Jiron get some kills, Jiron needed help from Crowe, Gain and Gainer's were wounded from Asakim's EP.

Watta kills his way over to this position, cleaning up the final wounded EP unit (so that it doesn't die to...)

a bitching Map attack, boo-yah.

Kappei lacked in damage on the range he needed to one-shot a full health dude, but after that map attack, he's free to do as he needs to CA himself into position to attack the Rhinodamon.

FSR that top Rhinodamon likes to just blitz straight to the left without attacking. With proper positioning (or maybe it was Crowe getting unlucky and getting hit, or both), he can be coaxed otherwise, though. Also note Moondoggie's Accel bringing Moonlight into position above Emperanza. I think I actually had the Shuttle attack after an Assault, because I thought it might get more XP than Resupplying the Moonlight. I got 1 XP, I think. Which, given how underlevelled Talho is, might be about the same as if I'd supplied her, lol.

After the dust clears, there's no life north of Mazinger. MD charged out to meet Crowe, all according to keikaku. Everything else is more or less lined up pretty decently as well.

With snipes on Moonlight and Emperanza, I can attack + support attack the MD, bringing it to a respectable health level.

After Gainer killed a thing offscreen, Jiron has the Will necessary to take out MD, though he does need the Crowe support. Dat Luck on Chill, though, mmm.

Athena cleans up a scrap. Also, now you see where Gainer went. A two for one picture, this. Three for one, if you count Watta cleaning up the Rhinodamon.

Our deadly duo CA into position to work on Marguerite.

She's Daunted and critted for almost all of her health.

Watta and Emperanza take care of the two remaining westward enemies (rhinodamon and damon).

Kappei takes care of the two remaining southern damons.

I'm out of useful units, so Asakim is killing the last unit for the $, but I figured, why not Map Attack so I don't have to worry whether or not I need to crit Marguerite with Crowe, amirite?

If I hadn't blown all my SP on Daunts and the previous EP, I wouldn't have this chancy hit rate, but it's not completely bogus. Finishing on Player Phase means I don't have to worry about giving Bless to the right unit.

[spoiler=subs]

At this point, I don't care to increase Ougi's usefulness, so he's better off scoring me a little bit of extra bank. I doubt this will come back to haunt me. Everyone of my off-team getting PP wants it more than him, and he'll never get enough kills to get aced anyway.

[spoiler=stats]too many superfluous units to shot them all anymore.

Jiron, Gainer, Gain, and Jeffrey all get Continuous Action. Fa gets Dash. (What else do support pilots get besides Dash and SP up? If she was a supplier instead of a repairer, there'd be a choice, but... somehow I got more repair than I'll ever need, and not enough supply. I guess maybe Will+ Enemy destroyed, so the Dash 130 might possibly kick in, hmm...) Also, now, having gotten used to CA spam, I'm having trouble figuring out if I'll really be able to effectively leverage my Rouse bots in the end or not.

Chapter 28: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 93, total SR points 28, Net 65)

My initial impression of this chapter was "fuck, I can only deploy 5 units?" But then I checked the event units, and saw that I had 4 of them, and I'd just slapped CA on 2 of them, while Kappei had got it just one chapter prior, and things suddenly seemed a lot less bad. Again, I had to jump through quite a few hoops as far as movement parts go, but I hit upon something that worked, and things fell into place. (I think it was Halo on Kappei, ISC part on Kamille and Gainer, 2 vernier parts on Jiron). I gave Kamille 7 weapons and full energy.

[spoiler=strategy]

4 units, 4 kills, 3 units still active. This is a glorious day.

2 more kills sees the cavalry arriving, and Final Dancougar leaving without having done anything but show up and say "Hi, I'm a cursed wanderer, just like you".

Crowe and Kouji CA into position, while Jeffrey relies on Bobby's Accel to get him into range of those pesky gundams so they can get loaded on board. There aren't any units left that my other CA people can reach, so Aoi and Watta just chill, while Shuttle does Shuttle things, and Sumeragi was wishing someone was in need of healing. Kappei uses his last move as well.

Player Phase 2 starts now, the field looks a lot less crowded. I should maybe have tried to kill one or two fewer units with Crowe/Kouji? I do end up with Gainer and Jiron only using one of their two actions apiece. I might go back and try this actually.

Aoi needs to Dancougar and have her friend activate Snipe so she can actually CA here, while Kamille needs jet form to reach an enemy.

Kappei kills something, then he and Aoi go beat the shit out of Ashura's latest and greatest, with Jiron support for each of them.

Jiron and Gainer do their things and there's only one enemy left standing.

I heal and supply up before giving the honors to...

Jeffrey. What can I say, I respect the beard.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Kamille gets Continuous Action, I give Athena weapons 7, no energy, I don't think she really needs it. I finally get around to bumping Crowe's weapons another notch, to 9. I give Jeffrey as much energy as I can buy, which is 4 ticks atm.

[ShinKuma]

Stage 1: 3 - 1 turns

Stage 2: 3 - 1 turns

Stage 3: 3 - 1 turns

Stage 4: 3 - 1 turns

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 29: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 96, total SR points 29, Net 67)

My first attempt I'd tried using Zechs, but that kept the RhinoDamons from moving, leaving them out of range of my main damage. Simply having him run away with Suzaku is for the best, IMHO.

[spoiler=strategy]

Setup.

Sadly, only Crowe and Kouji have the range to really reach enemies on turn 1.

Everyone else just sort of clusters in anticipation.

Crowe gets shot down by plot and Mazinger absolutely wrecks the NE corner. Other than that, not a lot to say about the enemy phase.

Athena picks off a beast left alive (mysteriously, or maybe on purpose, I can't remember) by Kouji, while Fa heals Nova Eagle for the XP, considering transforming to Dancougar is a full heal anyway. Jiron kills something to CA in a prime position for support attacks.

The Gainer crew and Kamille also pick off stragglers before I consider going about tackling the boss types.

Watta and Aoi do similar.

Kouji kills the far NE Rhino, then CA rocket-punches Shuval in the face (Gain helps).

After Gainer and Gain dish out the pain, Shuval is definitely in killable range.

Kappei has Gain, so only needs a Bless, and thus gets the nod for the task.

Gain kills a thing, then hits and aways to take its place, then Kamille starts softening up Marguerite (with Jiron's help). Watta also did some serious work on her as you can see him greyed out near the bottom.

Zambot + Walker finishes the second boss in a single turn. Kappei putting in some serious work.

Assorted support/backlines do assorted support/backline things.

Jiron and Aoi start laying hurt onto the Dinodamon.

Turn 3 starts with the following positions.

Beck chips for Athena, as Shuttle can't penetrate the D field's damage reduction.

I believe Talho weakened something for Jeffrey here.

Mazinger badly needed energy and health, so I gave it some.

Gain and Gainer bring the Dinodamon down to where a supported attack can probably take it.

Kouji + Watta take out one of the Rhinodamon's, then Watta weakens Dinodamon so Jiron can cash-in with Chill's Luck. I probably had to be careful not to overdo the damage to leave it for him with like, 1000 HP or something.

It's just cleaning up at this point, with Jiron's support attacks making the last Rhino easy pickings. I take a few potshots at the fortress itself for the XP, make sure I'm finished repairing for XP, etc. and then finish on the last Damon.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

IIRC Athena picked up CA and Crowe increased weapons to 10.

Chapter 30: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 99, total SR points 30, Net 69)

I didn't realize Crowed needed to be in the Brasta for the secret item, so I equipped him with the Halo to get him there on turn 2. It was all for naught though it appears, unless it was that set of movements that ended up creating the right chain of positions for my team to CA off of and take down the boss for the SR point. Kamille used the Methuss here, because there simply weren't enough kills in range for him to take any part of the action, so free XP is free XP, and Fa gets more PP from suborders than she does from Watta, and honestly can't get too much higher in levels atm, based on how repair formulas work, IIRC.

[spoiler=strategy]

Start turn 2.

End turn 2.

Start turn 3.

Crowe CA kills one of the buffer Damon types at range with ACP, because he can. Also, increasing will for the team, IIRC.

Initial foray into the enemies.

With only one action, he used it well.

More advances. Watta doesn't really need kills/PP, so he can weaken. Athena's far behind and may not be savable, so she can weaken.

It may have been about this time I realized that Analyze was a permanent debuff that applied to everyone's assaults against the target, and not just a buff on the person who cast it. This changes everything, tbqph. Anyway, Analyze + Daunting enemy will into oblivion is incredibly powerful, and should not be underestimated.

Gain weakens this so Gainer can join the party.

After Kappei.

After Gainer. This is cutting close to the retreat limit.

But Kouji is up to the task. Of course that meant Chill's Luck was used on just a random scraps, but what can you do.

Regret all the missed XP/PP from the DMs that won't be killed. Kappei gets one, and Jiron gets one, but the rest do stupid things like not killing themselves on the team.

MD had no such inclination against suicide, however.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

I increase Gain's weapons to 9, and Jiron's to 8. Jiron also gets inital Will +10, to save some SP on less Spirit spam needed.

[spoiler=bonus ;-

A face that has seen true horror.

駄目なお姉ちゃんじゃない。立派なです。まさに。

Edited January 30, 2015 by Balcerzak

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 31: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 102, total SR points 31, Net 71)

A bit of a pain logistically here, I believe I had to rearrange a lot of movement parts, yet again, and there's the familiar case of there not being enough initial enemies in range for everyone to CA off of. Still, on the whole, a pretty fun chapter. Completing some of these can give satisfaction similar to solving a puzzle, and when it proves impossible (as in chapter 20, damn it all to hell) equivalent frustration, like you've failed somehow. Enough rambling though.

[spoiler=strat]

Godmars has to kill 4 things (IIRC?), I don't think he can do it all on the EP without invoking penalties, but I can't rightly recall. Anyway, when he does, you get your reinforcements. Baldios is actually kind of a dick, what with punching Marg 2 squares further away, btw.

The initial push (including a second action from Crowe. I don't really remember why Gain had to sacrifice his action, but it was probably a lack of enemies in range, tbqph.

I think I may have needed to Spirit to over 130 for the additional +1 move from dash, and I needed the +1 move from flight-form, but then I could barely reach (and crit) one of the Gishin fighter jets, allowing a CA proc.

Jiron, Watta, and Aoi press on.

After clearing anything that can conceivably target Takeru on EP, begin pounding away at Ghostfire.

Backline does as backline does.

Start of turn 3. I have no idea why Ghostfire retreats, but it's annoying, though manageable. I make sure not to kill any of the mechabeast mooks on purpose, same with the Gishin fighters.

Team "kill Ghostfire" assembles on the left.

And promptly go to work.

Athena needed to weaken a Gishin starfish-faced warship for Gainer. They're worth the most money, so Blesses past the two bosses go towards them, IIRC.

I think I'd given Jeffrey a Radar part, so he punched something from 4 squares away.

Team "kill Marg" move into position.

After a Breastfire.

A Sniped DanKuuKen.

Trider Bird Attack.

Crowe wounds this because he doesn't need kills, and if he gets hurt, he can be repaired. Gainer will take it.

Now it's EP, and quicksaving for a Kouji crit. It's not as hard as it sounds, honestly, he's good at that. I had Watta Trust healed, and Marg apparently prefers targets at one range, so he went for Mazinger every time.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Gain and Gainer could both afford Initial Will, and I continued to funnel Weapons upgrades to my support attackers. I can't remember if I already mentioned, but Aoi now has Will Limit Break, which is the final skill I plan on purchasing, and seems way better than Predict. Everything else is going to Melee. Though, she's comparatively starved for resources, given the splits, and thus will probably continue to underperform (compared to Kouji) all game. Such is life, though.

Chapter 32: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 104, total SR points 32, Net 72)

This one took quite a bit of work, and had a couple of surprises to it. I felt that the impact of stealing the battleship Ganmen was quite diluted because of the fact that the team already had 3 battleships, and Kamina's death felt forced and worse off because of it. It wasn't near as revolutionary as in the source material. But I guess it couldn't really be helped.

[spoiler=strategy]

Deployed as shown.

Sent out the first wave of CAers until I triggered the Invaders to show up. Ougi did some chip, yay for contributions.

Athena and Kamille do work on the southern front.

Gainer and Keppei can use the new Invaders to actually reach places they couldn't before.

Dancougar and Emperanza did some things, and Methuss healed. Crowe and Jiron also advance.

Jeffrey now has enough Will to do his thing and wreck some beastmen. Gainer and Kappei also take their second moves.

Kouji punches Daiganzan in the face.

Support units do support things.

I hope Kouji is getting overtime for all the work he just put in on those bosses.

Here's an overview of everything else that went down on enemy phase.

Some CA-ing into position.

You know you're a badass when you CA off of a boss, prepping to give devastating support against another boss.

I was basically testing to see what would happen if I sprung the end condition early. I was surprised by a second form, although I really shouldn't have been.

Watta wasn't quite enough to take out Viral.

Gives Kouji the excuse to get in range of the new form and blast it though (with Sniped? support from Gain).

I forgot Dancougar doesn't tank so well with my having neglected upgrading its defenses, but hey, that's good healing XP for the team.

I don't even need an enemy phase. Crowe goes in to weaken, and then...

Eat shit and die, and give me all your stuff.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Emperanza and Walker hit 10 weapons at this point, so I bump my route split folks up a notch each to 8, for Trider, Zambot, and King Gainer. Kappei grabbed E-save, though I'm not sure he's necessarily burning through it fast enough to warrant, it's better safe than sorry. Jeffrey takes Initial Will +10.

[spoiler=bonus]

The question every man dreads.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 33: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 106, total SR points 33, Net 73)

It felt like there was so much plot packed into a single chapter. Just, damn.

[spoiler=strategy]

Setup. Movement parts prioritized to Kouji and Crowe, Halo included. RIP other Halo users.

They blast full speed ahead. Jiron also heads north, Aoi west. I think I had to equip her with the flight module so she could kill the beastman bomber over there. Thanks S rank bonus.

Don't mind me, I just checked and restarted the map after triggering events the first time, so I'd know what to do. Moving the Moonlight means Renton gets dropped in a different spot, meaning Macross Quarter swoops over to pick him up.

After enough things were killed, the R-Daigun shows up.

Kappei killed another something (not pictured) presumably so Jeff had enough Will to punch the Dai-gun, with some Gain support (who had gotten there by a Fury'd attack on an enemy he could have killed with a regular attack, but then couldn't have helped out with other things, IIRC).

Dancougar vs Daigun, who will win?

Trick question, Gainer still needs kills for his Ace (and his CA), sorry Aoi!

Here's the final positions after an (excruciatingly) long player phase. Thanks for that novel in the middle there, Holland. Anyway, I hadn't really expected the Image reinforcements initially, but things turn out alright.

Things thin out quite a bit over the enemy phase, after all, even with all those non-P move types floating around.

I may have forgotten to mention, but Kamille is in the Methuss again. Heal XP OP, he can even counter-kill that squid thing, which is more than I'd expected from the initial map layout. (Okay, let's face it, a sneeze could kill that squid thing at this point.)

I'll save you a lot of boring, easy cleanup, where the only difficult decisions are who to funnel kills into, and skip straight to the pre-enemy phase lineup. Aoi makes it surprisingly far with that innate Zeal trigger, thanks to Ace bonus on top of a CA. I can see that being super useful in maps to come.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Zambot, Trider, and Gainer get another weapon level each, to 9, and Daigurren gets full EN upgrade. Kamille grabs Initial Will +10.

[spoiler=second subs]

With the resources Dyakka got from the route-split subs, he can get CA. I probably messed up not giving him more PP in subs earlier, but I wasn't fully thinking, I guess.

[spoiler=bonus]

Esther actually kind of looks like a girl when she's happy. Also, Crowe definitely picked up on what she let slip there. Do I ship it yet? We'll see...

Chapter 34: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 108, total SR points 34, Net 74)

This was a bit of a headscratcher at times, but I finally hit upon something that worked. It was quite pleasant, actually.

[spoiler=strategy]

Here's the setup.

Gain can actually one-shot these tough DMs with a finisher crit (I have him wearing Kamina's sunglasses for the free Overskill activate, granting Accel, plus acess to his finisher). Kappei needs Dai-Gurren to punch his, while Trider tosses a missile at the far south one in preparation for Gainer's eventual go at it.

Kokubougar + an Analyze is enough to let Kouji Breastfire the DM on the building (damn terrain bonuses, making me Analyze a mook). Walker Gallier kills with Gain support and triggers the Heterodyne appearance, hence the Dai-Guard's arrival next to Daigurren.

Crowe has the Halo, and can one-shot DMs with 1-5 range ACP. Thanks Melee Crowe! I think I had Kouji punch the DM on the road, but it doesn't matter that much, it's mostly important that he is in range of the Heterodyne for EP.

Crowe support is a wonderful thing. Also, Gainer had enough Will to Spirit into Overkill and his 135 required attack (most importantly for the 2-4 range, pretty sure he could have killed it with less damage, because Watta) at this point, I believe (he's wearing Psychic Reactor, IIRC).

Yup, definitely punched the one on the road, otherwise I don't think Kappei could have finished it. Also, that Spigot damage to a Daunted, Analyzed Marguerite. Nice stuff!

Start of turn 2.

Watta CA's his way over to inflict serious pain (via support from Crowe) to Marguerite.

If I didn't Valor this, I couldn't kill it before its revive trigger kicked in. It was probably at something like 17500, and a Kouji crit could only ("only") do like, 16900.

This triggers more bogus Dai-Guard appearances. I love you guys, but your mech sucks, go back to the Daigurren and wait it out. Also, looks like Gainer killed a Rhino, if I'm not mistaken. It was wounded anyway.

Daigurren and Zambot join the party, killing standard DMs.

This should take out one of my recruitment pre-reqs, IIRC.

Also putting him in range for some serious support hurt on the full health Heterodyne (only 1 support remains, but 1 Spigot is no laughing matter). The damage you actually see was Kouji's second effort, after killing it once already. (I don't think he could afford the SP for another Valor, having needed a lot on Accels and Strike).

I actually don't need Zambot for the boss, so Kappei gets to kill a random DM. Jiron positions himself to help with both the remaining DM and the boss as needed. Maybe even bazooka the Rhino?

This is still more than enough firepower for the Heterodyne. Even before an enemy phase.

[spoiler=subs]

Split route subs always make me feel poor. Probably because I don't properly focus on levelling the non-drafted people sharing my route, because the other routes' peoples come in at higher levels due to route split mechanics. Also, it's just disappointing having open slots for some reason.

[spoiler=stats]

I should probably have been taking caps of Nia's level as well, considering unlike most other subs, she starts well below the level of her main, but I didn't notice at the time.

Jiron gets Will Limit Break, because why not. Zambot, Trider, and King Gainer hit Weapons 10.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 35: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 110, total SR points 35, Net 75)

Oooh, more time with the Mazinger NPCs. Goddamn, but if seeing Tsubasa's amazing expressions doesn't get me hard... *cough* I mean, uhm, let's just carry on shall we.

[spoiler=strategy]

As much as I would have gotten more XP for Sayaka by healing, and as much as I actually had to equip her with armor in order to attack, and as much as she didn't do anything in the way of damage... If I want to do this the right way, Kouji is going to trigger the event immediately and there will be a battleship, so she's gotta move first. Kouji Valor'd for good measure, and because it's going to be a short map. Eat Photon Power, Ashura. NB: Gainer always ends up in point position there, no matter where you actually deploy him.

The initial push outward.

Daigurren actually putting in work. Levelling up Nia is a decent-ish priority for me, to be truthful.

After everyone killed their CA, they take turns beating on the assorted bosses. Pre-enemy phase looks like so.

Turn 2 start is as so.

Boss health values for reference. I think I had to defend instead of counter on one to avoid a death, but I can't recall.

Kouji CAs into another devastating Valor'd beam against Ashura.

Gain kills it and Hit&Aways backwards so Daigurren can use him to finish mopping up mooks while the big boys deal with bosses.

Not even close.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

I give Kappei, Gain, and Gainer, Will Limit Break, because why not? I guess technically it's kind of dumb, considering it costs the same as 15 stat increases, and will only provide more damage output if the Will level exceeds 165, but if you've got extra Will to play with, you don't have to worry about losing attacks by frequent resupplies, etc., which may come into play later. I guess on characters with more mixed stat attacks there's also the fact that Will is universal, but I don't really see that applying for anyone mentioned here (maybe Gainer a little). That said, I don't really plan on getting Gain or Gainer E save, as I don't think they'd make the best use of it, and I think it's still better than B save for their load-outs, though it could arguably go either way for Gain. I guess what it boils down to, is I just didn't do the math, and assumed the skill would be a better investment of points, and it turns out that circumstances depending, that isn't always true (though in ideal cases it will be). It's not like there are other skills they're aching to pick up, though, so I'm not too concerned. I can always just overwrite Will + (Hit), Blocking, or Hit and Away (if I FUB) if I change my mind. Better to spend your PP that sit on it at any rate too, so there's that.

Chapter 36: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 112, total SR points 36, Net 76)

This took a couple of tries as I kept getting boondoggled by new event after new event.

[spoiler=strategy]

Deploy.

Roll out.

Feed Daigurren.

Count squares to ensure a proper killbox for Mazinger.

Prepare for Getter spawns.

Turn 2 starts. Oops, Shuttle being targeted means I have to kill one extra dude on Player Phase, nbd.

Nia attempts diplomacy, then kills a mook.

Mazinger can take you from Yoko Event to 0, with just Valor and Analyze. What a shitty boss.

Keikaku-doori.

Not nearly as bad as feared.

Huzzah for Hit and Away.

Also because Gain gets Aced. I definitely appreciate more Range.

They're barely fighting back.

Jiron gets Aced, I don't see it coming into play often, but the initial will on deploy never hurts.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

I bump Athena to Weapons 9, and Kamille to Weapons 8 (at the map deploy screen when Alto's given me a tiny bit more cash during forced pre-battleship phase). Athena and Dyakka also grab Initial Will +10. I guess at this point I still hadn't settled on plopping PP into pure stats for my non-initial dudes, but I really should be. I don't think I need any more support attackers, I have a huge complement already, so no need to give Gainer levels in it, really. Jiron's Will increase on rounds 2 onward is a bit of a wasted skill, but it was innate anyway and Walker Gallier is a bit of an odd bird as far as E/B Save goes. (Somewhat on Melee/Range stat usage too, actually.) I guess he could get Cooperative Attack, but that's really expensive for what it offers, imo. Anyway, Kamille ranked up his Newtype skill while he was away, which means Z Gundam's finisher is now available for use. Glorious. I'll be looking forward to it. With Ptolemaios getting weapons soon, I'm now starting to have to think about actually spending Sumeragi's accumulated points, but not sure the best path there. I'm tempted to the the same old, same old, CA routine, but it doesn't look like she has any post-move options, plus, she'll always be getting better XP from repairs.

Nia actually now has both the SP to use her spirits, and spirits worth using. (Well, Daunt is always worth it if needed, but I have like, 5 casts of that already if needed, and... well, I guess now 5 casts of Bless too? Wait, no, four I think.) I'm just glad she isn't tied at a 1-1 levelling with Dyakka/Leeron as feared, and actually does get boosted XP for being lower levelled.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 37: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 115, total SR points 37, Net 78)

This was tricky, very tricky. From my research, it appears that Alto needs a 168 in his Shooting stat (or alternately Will Limit Break) in order to one-shot those beastmen on crits. I'm not 100% it's required, but it is infinitely more reasonable to be able to have him escape to freedom if he has Continuous Action. I was just slightly short of having given him the PP necessary, but I found a position where he would get enough XP from countering and killing the one enemy he could wound Player Phase 1 to reach the benchmark. After that, the chapter was easy (after getting hit once he was in prevail range and his dodge became much better, and his crit was skyhigh with the addition of the crit part, I had to actually worry about not critkilling all 3 other required enemies on the enemy phase because that would have triggered reinforcements while he was still under fire), once I was aware of the various events involved.

Also, for the record, Sheryl's song is so much better than Ranka's. Just sayin'. (Much like the idols themselves. OOOoooooooh! Shots fired.)

[spoiler=strategy]

This was the location that I got to work for me, and I prepare-attacked the one to Alto's upper west.

He does get surrounded at one-range, which appears like it might be problematic because his weapon is 2-4... unless you change forms. Also, unless you're careful with allocating your ISC weapon uses you probably want a cartridge here, just to be sure you can escape.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the initial deploy, but you could probably extrapolate backwards. Z Gundam needed some serious movement parts to get in position. I want him counterkilling as many as possible, to reduce the amount I need to kill player phase to spawn the next event. The more Player Phase kills I can devote to Invaders, the better, imo. Just to be safe, you know.

He does a pretty reasonable job. Kouji might have gotten one?

Here's the situation when the Invaders pop in. My men are stationed almost like they knew in advance where they'd need to be...

Emperanza and Trider thin a couple as they activate their CA. I think Dai Gurren (+ Nickick) killed the one that triggered the mystery arrivals from Dancougar plot(?) down south. Crow, Jiron, and Aoi are happy they'll have things to do. I'm not sure if Final Dancougar and R Dai-gun's positioning is static, or dependent on say, Ptolemaois position??? Your mileage might vary, I guess.

Battleships plus Athena put in some work up north cleaning up trash and self-improving.

Kouji punches an Invader to death, allowing him to Photon Beam a newcomer to death.

Jiron takes out the event-wounded one in position to provide supporting fire to the others.

My A team killers really make some short work of these guys with proper planning.

Final combat troop positions. I was mildly worried about concentrated assault of Invaders energy-draining a dude into lack of resistance, but that wasn't a problem.

Kappei even obtained his ace on the final enemy phase.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Zeta Gundam and Nickick are taken to 10 Weapons here.

Chapter 38: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 118, total SR points 38, Net 80)

Ugh, Eureka7 enemies again. They tend to make things take one turn longer than I'd like.

[spoiler=strategy]

Typical bumrush with forced unit, wait for reinforcements, retreat. Don't kill anything, your army comes regardless.

First clump of CA

There's just too much distance for everyone to CA. Also yay, my final unit. I hope Char is awesome. Err, I mean, totally not Char.

Make it a point to stay out of Dinobeast range. Force them to come to you. Also, I think I stupidly had Ougi heal Holland for like, almost no XP. I don't care enough to redo it, because it's Ougi, lol.

Start turn 3.

Hoorah for battleships.

Continued assault. It's kind of a chore to choose targets here. Some of the DMs are very high health and threatening targets, but on the other hand, some of the Eureka7s seemed to ignore my craft and were headed straight for the structure. It ends up not really mattering too much my focus in the end.

Keep plugging away.

After quite some time, Gainer finally gets his Ace.

Okay, we'll just kill everything.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

IIRC I can get Hyaku Shiki's weapons to 8? I finally spring for investing in stats for Jiron (Melee), Gainer (Melee), Gain (Shooting). Quattro gets Continuous Action.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 39: 1+2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 121, total SR points 39, Net 82)

Kiriko's chapter, M rank units and smaller. Unfortunately, no Shuttle means most of my favorite support spirits are no-go. Still, my squad is plenty beef, even without the giant supers. How is Mazinger an M? Wow. Also I get all my Zeuth guys (bar Kappei), and I had a pretty good crop there. I really only lose 4 units, and granted no Dancougar is unfortunate, and lack of President skill on this map is a bummer, but it's really just an unorthodox route split for me, and not a big handicap.

[spoiler=strategy]

The flash-back can be one turned consistently.

My deploy zone.

Pushing forward.

Using some of my double actions to increase Will for either weaponry or CA thresholds.

Next bunch of moves. Still have Zeta and Gainer and second Mazinger and second Crowe. This map is laid out amazingly though, I think everybody gets a chance to CA, which is rare.

It it weren't for bosses and events, this could have been a one turn, it's so gorgeous.

See what I mean? Okay, so I don't remember the story on that solitary remaining mook, but I'm sure if I'd wanted too, I could have made him dead too.

I move up the scopedogs because the event has a unit charging at one or the other of them, and I forgot which. I want that unit to be veritably surrounded. Also, Kouji terminates a boss with extreme prejudice.

Welcome to the party, Ypsilon.

Leaving so soon?

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

My future Hope-spammers finally get around to taking SP UP. Only level +3 so far, hopefully I can shove that higher later. Hyaku Shiki completes its upgrades to Weapons 10, EN 10. Quattro picks up Initial Will +10, other damage dealers work on their stats.

Chapter 40: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 123, total SR points 40, Net 83)

Another Getter map. The only thing I dislike about Getter maps is Invader EN drain. Getter himself is usually pretty cooperative about staying out of trouble. A lot of PP, $, and XP was sacrificed to the low turn gods this day. I had equipped Kouji with a pigmole steak, in case I needed it, but it turned out not to be the case, as Kakikouji did learn Hope in time. Other than despairing over lost resources, I'm really pleased with how things went down.

[spoiler=strategy]

Deploy zone.

I highlighted some positions that I needed my people to occupy to help my memory. I've grown to love this feature so much. Emperanza needed Land Adapter for S ranking his finisher, otherwise his already S ranked Black Southern Cross (or whatever) was like 400 short of the KO. Crowe needed to go second, for ambient Will increase. Jiron just beasted.

Athena needed to Fury to overcome size penalty, and she needed an Analyze, for that 1.1 multiplier, and she needed a crit. BUT it's very important she CA's so she can support Quattro, who also has trouble killing things.

My ever popular Battlship chaining at work again, helping me squeeze as much cash as I can out of the beastmen before I scare them off for good.

I've now killed enough things for a boss to appear, apparently. OK, challenge accepted. (NB: Crowe has a radar part, so that's in ACP range.)

First though, I make sure to get Gainer and Kamille into the general area. Gainer apparently didn't actually need the Athena support like I thought he might. Oops, guess I over-prepared, and should have rearranged Athena and Quattro for a more optimal use of movement, but whatever.

I also do a bit more housework on the beastmen first.

Aoi's most useless subpilot funnel all his SP into Spirit (she chips in for one dose herself, putting them at 160, IIRC), Johnny Analyzes. Ace Zeal activation allows her to still be active after not killing. Also, it was Daunted so that Guard wouldn't activate (that 130 Will trigger).

Crowe Spigots it.

Aoi finishes and CAs. Thanks for playing, crazy clone dudes.

I kill some more fake getters for the $. Trider will go get a beastman on the far right for good measure.

Kouji was just maybe a couple thousand shy of a OHKO (with Analzye) after a Valor'd Assault Photon Beam, so, I didn't waste the SP on Analyze, and just had Kappei give the boss a little lovetap first. (He couldn't do a big enough lovetap to not need the Valor, though.)

Hyaku Shiki killed the close Invader, Getter and GurrenLagann scoot their asses to safety, and Ptolemaios/Shuttle move into position.

Turn 2 start. Trider has like 5 EN and maybe that much HP left after tanking all the upper right Invaders. Dancougar is also out of EN (that's more from the Godbeast spam on the Bosstype, though a few DanKuuHous didn't help matters). Everybody else is more or less okay.

Shin Dragon took reasonable quantity of damage. Not OMG tier by anymeans, thanks to his ridiculous HP sponge base. Also, I Daunt the piss out of it.

After getting my spirits cast on the people who will benefit, and resupplying Aoi, she, Crowe (support only so far), and Kouji put in some work. This is one of the few occasions where I really feel I could have appreciated Ranged Brasta. It's "Oh well", though.

After a Spigot and Mega-Bazooka-something-or-other it's easily in range for Gainer.

Let's just clean up the rest of those Invaders first though. Shin Dragon's Will made it all the way back up to 93. Damn, just imagine if I hadn't daunted, lol.

Die monster, you don't belong in this world.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

I'll probably wait until after the next split to figure out what I want to do with Kamille's PP. Same with my Battleships.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 41: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 125, total SR points 41, Net 84)

I sacrifice more mooks to the turncount gods. Maybe if I'd positioned with a better split of my forces on turn one, I could have gotten more of the beastmen, or if I gambled on an Enemy Phase clear. I didn't want to risk it though, and I don't know how much extra cash/PP/XP is really going to help/hurt at this point anyway. My army is already a pretty well-oiled machine.

[spoiler=strategy]

I think I missed the initial deploy screen, but you can figure it out readily enough.

It's important to clear out the people who could get in the way of Takeru's Persuade.

I think Kamille needed a screw module. It's not like I don't have enough.

Just another snapshot of progress.

Crowe positions for support attacking Marg.

I do have a few units head north. Mazinger and King Gainer off the bat. Emperanza hit and awayed, and Brasta just has a decent range. Hyaku Shiki actually just sniped things from shore to begin with. You can see Gaia waiting just outside of Marg's range. He needs a full complement of plus move parts, otherwise he'd get attacked.

Marg's ship is also prepped for the next step already.

After finishing up in the lower right, Trider also heads north. We're ready for an enemy phase.

Start of turn 2.

After the Convince and the shoot-down.

Attacking Rose triggers Godmars' return, and also moves her a little. If you're not prepared for it, it could ruin your line-up.

Almost all Gishins taken care of down here.

Kouji visits home. An Assault lets him CA. Zambot and Trider also destroyed one of the Unknowns from the moon.

I think Watta just learned Courage or something. Needless to say, I was impressed.

I kill as much as I can, of the most expensive I can. Then it's just the final blows on the bosses.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

[spoiler=route split subs]

[spoiler=bonus]

Katy is at a loss for word at Patrick's shamelessness.

Now you've done it Crowe, you called her cute... rip.

Chapter 42: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 127, total SR points 42, Net 85)

I thought I wouldn't be able to pull this off when Shuval showed up out of nowhere, but somehow I managed. I FUB Crowe (+Movement) and give Dai Gurren 10 Weapons before the chapter starts.

[spoiler=strategy]

Deploy

Advance.

Prepare for enemy phase.

Kappei wasn't ideally placed, and couldn't counter kill because I forgot 5 range means he has a weak weapon. I don't know what Jiron's excuse was. Still, that went pretty well, all told.

Margueritte is prepped.

Another requirement for the checklist.

Where we stand after that.

Watta went on a Courage (vs dinodamon) + Courage (vs Shuval) spree here, thanks to Hope. Poor guy's all tuckered out now.

Crowe adds another Arcsaber to his collection.

This shit's unhurt because Watta had to defend or die.

Black Dai-Guard still has lots of HP too. :(

Well, that's better. I might have been able to cleanly do it on Player Phase if I remembered to use all my Daunts, but oh well.

holy crap that's a lot of hp regen. Thankfully Kouji can cope.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Athena adds Ignore Size Penalty, and is now going to start to feel like a real combat unit. It's taken her quite awhile, but we've still got chapters left, and she can still put in some serious work. Not bad for a second-to-last pick at least.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 43: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 129, total SR points 43, Net 86)

I nearly crapped myself when the second forms came out. Turn 2 EP was a minefield, ngl I think I just got lucky.

[spoiler=strategy]

It starts looking deceptively simple.

While I could already kill the first form, his will resets, so let's kill more mooks first.

Okay, that looks better.

We still got the goods to take him out.

Oh dear, that spawned a tri-pronged pincer.

Turn 2 begins.

Boss' health values (I'd attacked Gwarm previously)

Kappei had learned Valor, and Watta had been saving all his SP for Courage.

With 1 Hope, he can get off 3, 2 this turn, one last turn. Putting in work.

Thank you for your contribution to the team.

Wider view of some repositionings from the rest of the group.

I think I am out of Bless/Luck at this point.

At least Kouji and Crowe can give a boss the old one-two from base health.

Gain (Valor) + Crowe (hit and awayed).

Kouji solo then Crowe CA.

Spigot.

Since Viral likes to charge Gurren Lagan without attacking, I have to finish him now. Position as best I can to try to counter-kill every mook. Quicksave reload until it works.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Dyakka replaced Prevail with Dash.

Chapter 44: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 131, total SR points 44, Net 87)

I actually have been running low on HP, so I decide to deploy Ougi this chapter (I'll be getting high level people to sub for money when we regroup anyway, he doesn't need to this time). Turns out this chapter was a joke compared to last chapter and I didn't need him. Oh well.

[spoiler=strategy]

Deploy

Wave 1

Assault + Valor + Photon Beam too good. Guarded and Striked too, just in case he needs it on EP (he does.) Sure that pretty much bankrupts him of SP, but that's what Kakikouji is for.

Crowe puts some hurt on from his ACP crit. (Gain cleans up)

End turn 1. Make sure to Analyze Lord Genome for the damage reduction. Also the damage buff. Just Analyze him, he moves twice, you'll thank me.

Start turn 2. Apparently the bombers didn't move at all. We can deal with that, I guess.

EP damage on the boss was decent, thanks Kouji!

He's even still got more where that came from.

After some Courage.

Cleaned up the grunts I'm not CAing off of. I think Gainer showed one of the DMs some Soul, I don't remember who took the other.

Used Chill for Valor instead of Luck, I get the feeling this will become more common as maps progress.

Since I discovered I don't even need Kouji, I move him down to get resupplied, for more XP/PP/SP for Kakikouji and crew.

You won't need any more XP for awhile, lol...

[spoiler=subs]

Lock-on aced himself over the split so he takes a break. Setsuna needs two more kills after this sub ran, I think I can get him in there.

[spoiler=stats]

I forgot to take a picture when Athena got Aced, whoops. Kakikouji grabs another SP+ level, it might let him cast another spirit and still Hope twice. Kamille picks up Dash, since he doesn't have Accel it seemed like a good idea. Jeffrey also picks up Dash, since he loses a lot of move transformed. I can probably stop listing Nia separately now that she's caught up on levels. I upgrade both the Macross Quarter and Ptolemaios weapons to 10. I don't have enough cash left to FUB someone all the way, so I sit on it for now. I'm not sure if I do Hyaku Shiki for a Map weapon, Trider or Walker Gallier for additional damage on their finishers, King Gainer for an additional +1 Move while Overskilled as well as better Hyperjammer activation, or Emperanza for post-move options on every weapon, letting him save SP for Valor.

I'm sort of leaning Trider, because he needs more armor and always takes a beating, followed by Emperanza, followed by Walker Gallier, followed by King Gainer atm, as the Mega Bazooka Map is just straight line without Friend or Foe identification, if I'm reading it right, so I'm not sure how useful I'll find that. I mean, I haven't used the Macross Cannon yet really, and that's even a better one. I may change my mind, but I doubt it. Low priority is Shuttle for no will loss (and apparently you don't need to up weapons for a FUB??) Mazinger doesn't need upgrades yet, the FUB bonus on Dancougar is lackluster, as is Zeta's and Zambot's. I don't know that Athena is worth the $ either, though +300 on all weapons isn't bad. Maybe I'll save money to treat Marguerite right when she shows up? I've got 5 chapters left, I can probably get 3 more FUBs on top of the Brasta, but hoping for anything more is really stretching it, imo, unless money starts growing on trees.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Balcerzak

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 45: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 134, total SR points 45, Net 89)

I am pretty sure I could have two-turned this if I could have both triggered the event when Alto gets within 6 spaces, and then moved him onto the square after defeating the Knight-class Vajra in the same turn. Unfortunately, without him being drafted and able to CA, this seems to be impossible.

Having to sit around with no enemies on-screen was heart-rending.

Also, I'd loaded a save before I spent my PP and upgraded Ptolemie. I figured I might want Dash on Zambot and DanNova, and Ignore Size on Walker Gallier, etc. so was wiffle-waffling around. I also wasn't sure if upgrading Ptolemie's weapons would actually save a turn or not, and whether that money could be better used elsewhere.

[spoiler=strategy]

Those orange dots indicate my special plans. I think the Mazinger dot is slightly misplaced, I reposition it by one at some point.

Some initial movements.

Gain support OP.

Combination attack FTW.

2nd wave push, sort of. Gain helping out those battleships, such a nice guy.

Athena and Kamille set out on their own eastward. I may have had to Analzye for her. It is a common theme in the playthrough, she seems to need Analyze + Crit + Weapons 10 to one-shot mooks until her Will gets high enough, which won't often happen in a reasonable fashion turn 10, with the way I like to distribute my strengthening parts.

Hyaku Shiki also feels kind of weak, it needed help from Dai Gurren. Also, healers gonna heal.

Mazinger is placed to counter 2 Knight-Class, Brasta to beat the shit out of whatever spawns on the X (another Knight-class IIRC).

Courage + Dancougar Nova take our the upperleft Knight. Johnny also cast Disturbance, because I initially forgot about paralzye status effect on some of the weapons, and halving accuracy made it possible for my supers to actually dodge it and still dish out damage. It also makes my reals practically untouchable.

Anyway, this is the layout at the end of turn 1. Gainer waiting for everybody else's kills so he could hit the 135 benchmark he needed for Overskill + his ultimate. I also needed him to have a Radar part (range+1) to hit the thing he needed to CA off of. The orange dots that haven't had one of my units sitting on them denote the far range of the Knight-class. Only Dancougar Nova and Mazinger are in range of any of them, and they're each in range of 2 (only in range of one of the 6 range status attacks each as well), keikakudoori.

Start of turn 2 and an idea of the damage the enemy Knight-classes take. The far upperright one is unhurt, as it had to move forward.

Alto leaves the comfort of the Dai-Gurren and triggers the event. Fuck this event, even if I moved him right into the square it still went off, simply displacing him to the right. Fuck this so much. Yes, I mad bro.

Trider takes out one of the wounded Knights (from the Dancougar counter) with Courage, then softens the other for Dancougar to CA off of so she can kill that one and also cleanly kill one of the Mazinger weakened ones. 3 Knights down in a pair of units. Not bad work.

Kamille and Quattro clean up a few of the middling Vajra.

I think this was when Kamille gotted aced too. Increasing counter-attack damage is not as useful as it sounds. The crit bonus helps, though.

Quattro had to give the unwounded Vajra a lovetap so Mazinger could cleanly Valor it to CA. I blame the asteroids providing cover. Also, it looks like Jiron showed the one guarding the entrance his Soul (with Crowe's help, of course). He'll then go clean up the last Knight, on account of Chill's Luck.

There one small Vajra left, and any number of units to deal with it.

That let's me freely reposition for the start of turn 3. I probably placed Jeffrey slightly poorly, but since the Bishop-class doesn't have support defend it doesn't matter as long as I clean out the Knight first.

Jiron can't quite do it.

Or maybe I was saving it for Bobby's Luck? I can't remember.

Jeffrey and crew soften the other Knight.

I Daunt the piss out of the Bishop.

Mazinger and Zeta.

DanNova.

I gave the kill to Kappei so he could powerlevel and his sub-pilot would learn the Renew spirit. I think she only used it effectively once, but how was I to know in advance, right?

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Trider is FUBed. I choose (perhaps predictably) Weapon Range+1. Quattro picks up Will Limit Break.

Chapter 46: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 136, total SR points 46, Net 90)

Zuul is kind of a fucker, but I show him what-for.

[spoiler=strategy]

Setup.

Some of the Gishin ships got WTF health-buffed, from like previously 8k levels to like, 20k levels. It was a surprise, but Gain made it work. I probably didn't need to use Trider's alt form but you never know when an extra square of distance can be the difference, and not having to wait for 130 Will and the Dash buff so I can feed ambient Will to other pilots seemed appropriate.

More units advance. Maybe I had Trider there so I could combination attack with Zambot, that might have been the reason, I forget.

More first wave pushing. A bunch of the squares are range markers for the ships at the bottom, one of them is where Quattro will need to sit to kill the piddly scout fighters on EP.

One battlship down.

And another.

One of the Ganymede things too. Also, I think I started marking Zuul spawns at this point, just to help get things prepped.

The other Ganymede and the squidface things are done too. Only Waal and some relatively small fry (~8K healthers and scout fighters at ~5k).

Quattro gets aced on the EP. He effectively uses it about once, but that once was pretty clutch.

Mazinger had Assault Valored Waal to set him up to counterkill himself of the EP, and Zuul transports us all to some bizarre pocket-dimension. I didn't actually damage either Zuul clone, but a bunch of the minibosses took some hits. Mazinger scraped by with 32 health.

Jeffry CAs off something and blasts a Zuul clone.

Gainer and Gain chip in on another. I actually forgot to Analzye either, because I was just testing things out, but it all worked in the end, so I didn't go back and fix it.

Jiron + Gain finish West side.

More work on the east side.

Kamille CAs off the second clone and spawns the real Zuul.

After Analyzing and Daunting him into oblivion, I have him begin the chip.

Trider continues it.

My other guys cleanup/CA minibosses.

Mazinger puts in work.

As does Crowe.

The situation at this point looks more or less like this.

I can't get all the mini-bosses, but I do a fair number of them, and try to optimize my support unit XP gains.

I feed Quattro the boss-kill to powerlevel him for Zeal.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Walker Gallier gets FUBed, movement+1. Athena and Kamille grab Will Limit Break, replacing Counter in each case. Fa increases her SP Up level by one.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 47: 1 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 137, total SR points 47, Net 90)

This chapter is a complete joke. 3 minutes Gaiou? I finished in 30 seconds. Sumeragi having Enable was key, I believe I pumped her full of SP+ when I realized this. I'm not even going to bother with the blow by blows.

Aoi (Ace) and Crowe (Enable) each move 3 times, taking out the top six. Watta takes out two in the middle with Courage spam.

Dai Gurren weakens something south for Kamille to clean up, and then he weakens something for Gainer, who then Souls a third down south.

Mazinger is Enabled and Hoped to allow him to take out 3 as well. Chapter over.

[spoiler=subs]

Chapter 48: 1+4+1 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 143, total SR points 48, Net 95)

Setsuna with Ace and one crit can manage his duel in a single turn (I blew all his PP on Melee, not sure if needed). Proper use of Enables allows the initial to be done in 1 turn. I fucked up drafting by not taking any of the 00 Gundam Meisters, which cost me probably two turns, maybe even 3, as I had to wait until reinforcements arrived instead of killing (Prince) Ali (glorious he) Sanchez and triggering them manually. If I'd know about this, I definitely would have picked Tielia over Kamille. But then again, I might not have picked him in time as that shit is hard to judge. Anyway, I wasted the money upgrading Ptolemi's weapons, because I thought maybe I could cut it to 3 turns with range extensions and consecutive crits, but support defend bullshit put an end to that idea, unfortunately. Sigh. I now know Excellen's pain for having to sit through the Akagi + Watta + Kouji duel with none of them drafted.

[spoiler=strategy]

Deploy and start heading out.

Gain support is essential like always. Athena does what she can as well.

Nova goes Up as well, Crowe one-shots Suzuku (presumable Souled) and gets Enabled, Gallier dispatches on some mooks from Chinese/Russian alliance or whatever.

Char, Gainer, and Kouji join the party in the lower left.

Zechs is prepped, and Mazinger is Enabled.

He takes out Patrick and sits there waiting to destroy the squad on EP.

Nova takes out Jeremiah with some support, can still move thanks to Ace.

She goes and one-shots Sergei, prompting plot on Pierce. (It was the same result if she killed Pierce, but I liked the ISC part Sergei dropped more.)

Gainer Souls Noin because otherwise she retreats when Zechs goes down.

Watta Courageously kills that Flags guy whose name I forgot. Then I think he dispelled Pierce's Invincible, as nobody else seems dead in the picture. I had attempted getting around it with a support attack, but that doesn't work, both are reduced to 10 damage. Sigh.

Kappei moves and gets Enabled. Nothing was in range, and he still has CA to activate, so this is better than enabling one of the folk already up in there as it's 2 for 1.

Now that Cathy's used her Hope on Sumeragi (for more Enables) I'm free to have the Quarter join the fray.

I think Crowe ended up taking out Pierce, unless I Sniped with Kappei? It's kind of a blur for me, and the screenshots are only so illuminating. Everyone suicides on EP, surprisingly some of them went after Gainer/Jeffrey instead of being content with Kouji.

Even with no upgrades on En or Armor or HP, parts, spirits, and self-repair keep the Ptolemy afloat. Self-repair also massively inflates her level advantage.

Deploy the reinforcements for the love of world peace, justice for all, and no more debts.

Starting to CA. The support defends can be mildly annoying, but manipulated. Unlike previous entries, apparently they'll still actively support defend in many occasions even if they'll die, whereas in OG that would only happen if you got a crit, or some other factor the damage calculator didn't take into account.

More advancing, and Mazinger kicks the shit out of Alejandro.

Courage+Gain support was too much for Ali, his mook didn't even try to protect him this time.

More damage to Alejandro. I must have Enabled too.

More cleaning house on the RHS.

Methuss got a shitton of XP healing Sumeragi. I had spare Enables, so I Enable Supply Kakikouji down to grind XP off Methuss and Ptolemy as well.

Still left with more than enough units for the job.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

King Gainer FUBed +1 move. Emperanza FUBed +1 move (he has enough range already, okay). Dancougar Nova FUBed +1 move. Watta replaces his Prevail with Will Limit Break. He shouldn't mind with the extra Armor/HP from the FUB he got previously. Kakikouji gets to SP+5, won't get enough PP in the future for anything else. As you can see, Sumeragi is at SP+6 putting her at 158 SP, which is enough to two Hopes, or 1 Enable and 1 Hope.

Chapter 49: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 145, total SR points 49, Net 96)

eeeeh, more Eureka 7? OTOH, Margueritte! Again, I have more enables than I need at the end, and Shuttle gets extra grind XP. Ends up 1 SP short of 180 and three Hopes, though.

[spoiler=strategy]

Deploy and roll out.

Keep pushing

Killing enough triggers Graham and Holland to show up. Holland looks like he's gone off the deep end, tbqh.

While it ends up being unnecessary, I'd planned out enough move so that Dai Gurren could shuttle Renton within range of the marked location by the end of turn 2. Wasted planning, lol.

Taking out Holland spawns the Arcsabers and DMs.

Ougi gives Graham a lovetap so everything works out. I think Char had to Zeal just to move into position, but I can't remember. That's what happens when enemy density/positioning doesn't match up with deploy zones no matter how hard you try.

So long Graham, you seemed like a sane and sympathetic antagonist, unless my Japanese is worse than I think it is.

Hyaku Shiki + Trider (who gets Enabled), bring Shuval into range.

I highlight units that are liable to threaten Ougi/Holland, they'll be priorities. Also, left side continues wiping out E7 mooks.

Jeffrey and Crowe take care most of the suspected troublemakers.

Taking out Shuval triggers Margueritte's recruitment and Shuval's DMification. Also "I'm Liard"s arrival. Also, don't worry, I've got Distortion cast, for the juicy half accuracy enemies, and Quattro will dodge-tank the upper-right like a pro with no evasion penalties.

Without upgrades Margueritte is pretty weak, she retreats to relative safety, killing a mook. We're prepped for EP.

It goes off about how you'd expect. Well, the boss moved twice attacking Margueritte and Crowe and they couldn't retaliate, due to range/health, so that could have been better, and the guys attacking Ougi/Ptolemy/Shuttle could maybe have been handled better, but...

Mazinger moved up, took out a E7 big mook, and weaked Dino-Shuval. Athena Loves in for the kill, other units start CAs.

Dai Gurren starts the softening.

Post-CA Jiron continues it.

Some clean-up on the RHS. I was going to map attack with Jeffrey, but wasn't watching my EN close enough, so have to scrap that idea.

Kamille is kind of weak when he isn't Souling, so he needs some help from Crowe. Or maybe it's just Char who didn't soften enough on EP, due to low Ammo/EN.

I'd been putting off finishing the boss because he casts Disturbance, halving my accuracy, but I finally do so with Athena weakening for Margueritte.

...who needs the kill for level 49 and Enable vengeance.

kekaikudoori

Only the one DM left, so I work on grinding my support units as much as I can. I was going to have Margueritte take the kill but she was too far away/too weak so Gainer got it.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Mazinger gets FUBed +1 move. Zambot gets FUBed +1 range. Zeta gets HP to tickmark 6. I spend all my PP on skills and stats.

For convenience sake, here's the list of total purchases accumulated over the game per character:

Zambot/Kappei: FUB, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, E Save, Will Limit Break, Melee +55. Aced.

Trider/Watta: FUB, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Will Limit Break, E Save, Dash, Melee +75. Aced.

Shuttle/Kakikouji: Resupply Skill, Dash, SP Up+5.

Walker Gallier/Jiron: FUB, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Will Limit Break, Melee +73. Aced.

Nickick/Athena: Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Ignore Size Penalty, Will Limit Break, Shooting +8. Aced.

Zeta/Kamille: EN 10, HP 6, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Dash, Will Limit Break, Melee +15. Aced.

Hyaku Shiki/Quattro: EN 10, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Will Limit Break, Shooting +22. Aced.

Methuss/Fa: Dash, SP Up+4.

Ptolemaois/Sumeragi: Weapons 10 (sigh). SP Up+6.

Dancougar Nova/Aoi: FUB, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, E Save, Resolve, Will Limit Break, Melee +64. Aced.

Mazinger/Kouji: FUB, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, E Save, Will Limit Break, Support Attack +3, Melee +110. Aced.

King Gainer/Gainer: FUB, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Will Limit Break, Melee +60. Aced.

Emperanza/Gain: FUB, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Will Limit Break, Shooting +55. Aced.

Burai/Ougi: Dash, SP Up+2.

Dai Gurren/Dyakka: EN 10, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Dash, Will Limit Break, Melee +3.

Macross Quarter/Jeffrey: EN 10, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, Dash, Will Limit Break, Shooting +6.

Brasta/Crowe: FUB, Weapons 10. Continuous Action, Resolve, B Save, Will Limit Break, Melee +113. Aced.

Pearl Nail/Margueritte: SP Up+5, Melee +3.

Next post will detail final chapter, and thoughts on characters.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 50: 1 turns, LV99 Gaiou (Total turns 146, total SR points 49, Net 92)

Aside from the mooks needed to CA into position, I killed the bare minimum, focusing my fire on the important targets. I still had Hope/Enables left without even using all the consumable SP restore items I'd stocked up on my support pilots. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed.

[spoiler=strategy]

The set-up.

Kouji and Crowe can beast mode it without support attacks and start feeding a bit of Will into my others.

Gain crit killed I think to CA and let the rest of the crew kill things to CA, maybe he needed Valor. What a generous dude. I thought I needed Dai Gurren over here, but I guess I miscalculated. Oh well.

Athena pretends she's Gain. She's not really fooling anyone, but they act polite and don't say anything.

Gainer uses one of Kouji's support attacks to CA off the Rhino that was between Kouji and Crowe, then lays a Soul smackdown on Shawney.

Kamille needed another of Kouji's support attacks in Jet mode to CA, then he also Soul smacks Shawney.

Jeffrey Assault CAs into position and Assault Valors the lower left Levia-Damon.

Watta shows it his Courage.

Valor + Zeal + Valor from Quattro.

Athena shows it her Love.

Kappei also shows it some Courage.

Gain Valiantly Hit and Aways out of the picture.

Abusing subs to Spirit to 170 and Valor. Thanks to Ace she's still good to go.

Aoi also Loves the Levia-Damon. Is it just me, or is this game sexist in giving males Courage and females Love?

Jiron takes out Shawney and spawns Gaiou. I daunt him as far as I can without touching Crowe's SP, and Analyze and Disturb for good measure.

Kouji starts off with Gallier support (the Ammo attack with Barrier Pierce and Ignore Size, not the finisher that lacks Ignore Size, I didn't test for damage difference/EN usage, it ended up not mattering).

Gainer and Gallier.

Kamille.

Gallier and Kouji support. Gaiou's Prevail is starting to make itself known on the support attacks.

Crowe.

Kouji with Crowe support. Cooperative attack is the only way to crit a Lv99 dude with enormous skill, probably.

Crowe again.

Crowe for a protagonist finish.

All told I needed, what, 7 Enables, and I think 1 Hope on Kouji? Barely touched what I was capable of, to be honest (17 Enable/Hopes, provided I channelled all my Hopes to Margueritte.) I guess I was over-prepared. Oops. I didn't even have to dip into my Renew spirits either, as Yggs on Kouji and Crowe were sufficient.

For the record, my strengthening part assignments were:

Shuttle: Ikue's Snack x2, Pigmole Steak x2.

Walker Gallier: Spinal Reflex Connector, Thruster Module, High Vernier Part.

Nickick: Adrenaline Module, Land Module, ISC Supplement.

Hyaku Shiki: Spinal Reflex Connector, DM Adapter, ISC Supplement.

Methuss: Gundonium Armor, E Carbon Armor, NyanNyan's Famous Tuna.

Ptolemaios: Super Alloy Z, E Carbon Armor, E Carbon Armor.

Burai(Ougi): Super Alloy Z, Steel Soul, Gundoniaum Armor.

Zambot: Haro, DM Radar.

Trider: Haro, S Adaptor.

Zeta: Thruster Module, High Vernier Part.

Dancougar Nova: DM Armor, Sheryl's Disc.

Mazinger: DM Adaptor S, Yggdrasil Drive.

King Gainer: Psychic Reactor, Thruster Module.

Emperanza: Kamina's Sunglasses, ISC Supplement.

Dai Gurren: Hero's Crest, Psychic Reactor.

Macross Quarter: Adrenaline Module, High Power Radar.

Brasta: Thruster Module, Yggdrasil Drive.

Pearl Nail: Sheryl's Disc, Ranka's Disc.

[spoiler=available spirits/SP/random thoughts]

Kappei has some shitty spirits (Guts, Faith), and some decent spirits (Accel, Valor, Spirit, Courage). His Courage is super expensive and is usually better off not being used, tbqh.

Uchuuta has some weird spirits. Mercy and Trust are worthless on him. Snipe is a welcome addition, actually, and feels rare for a super with crap range, so I do appreciate it. Fury feels wasted on an L size mech considering it never seemed to affect DM barriers despite claiming to. Strike and Alert are great staples.

Keiko has some spirits I never used on her (Scan, Analzye, Rouse) as others either did it better/cheaper, and Rouse just has no place in a game with Continuous Action, imo. Her Renew is kind of expensive, but was used on the map 49 to refill their own energy, and was kind of clutch. Gain is always a good subpilot skill.

Watta has some great spirits. He's hurting for movement until Courage do to no Accel options, which is why Dash felt like a necessity. Super cheap Gain, Vigor, and Courage, actually. His expensive Spirit kind of hurts, but I guess it evens out a little?

Kakikouji only really has one spirit worth mentioning. Hope. If you're using Assail, Vigor, Gain, Guard on him, you're using him wrong. Spirit was sometimes used before Hope was available to push him to the 130 range for extra Dash movement. But seriously, anyone who can (nearly) hit the SP to give out 3 Hopes is a great addition to any team.

Testuo likewise has two good spirits, and two crappy ones. Strike and Rouse are pointless. But his cheap Analyze is a godsend, and Trust was kind of useful until that was unlocked. Seriously though lategame 5 Analzyes? Midgame even a solid 3? Not to be underestimated.

Kinoshita is used for Daunt and pretty much only Daunt. Disturbance made a rare appearance lategame. Mercy is a waste of a spirit, and Invincible is pointless on Shuttle. Anyway, three to four Daunts is great for making those scary bosses not so scary.

Ikue is where the magic happens. Cheer, Bless, and Renew are all prime support spirits, and with her SP she can spam them pretty much all day. I tended to prioritize Bless above all else, but lategame was holding back in case I needed the Renews. Scan can be useful for reminding yourself of enemy weapon ranges I guess, and using up odd SP amounts.

Jiron has some great stuff. Accel is always useful, a nice cheap Sense, standard Spirit and Guard, and he gets Soul (albeit kind of late). Guts has situational use, I guess? It was never really an issue, what with all my healing.

Chill is what really makes them shine though. Early on he was Luck spamming for more money. Valor and Fury are great options, especially for an M size with a finisher that doesn't negate the size penalty. Alert is just sort of if you have extra SP kind of thing, same with focus. Jiron's Guard is going to be more reliable EP damage reduction, if that's what you're after, and Jiron's Sense is better for Strike/Alert, imo.

Athena has some troubles, but I guess it can't be blamed on her spirits. She can Fury to ignore size penalties until she learns the skill, focus will make her nigh untouchable. Her Spirit is expensive, though, and until she finally unlocks Valor/Love, you'll be hard pressed to dish out big DPS.

Kamille has a solid array of options. His Spirit is a little more expensive than norm, and I don't know that he really has a use for Fury, but Snipe, Sense, Focus, and Soul are all super nice to have.

Quattro was my only Zeal, and Zeal/Valor combo guzzles SP like nothing doing, but has its place. Other than that, pretty good stuff. His underperformance is probably his mech/join-time.

3 Hopes. I don't need to say anything else. I guess Trust for those hard to reach heals/earlygame.

Super expensive Hope/Enable, but likely your first Enabler, especially in draft. Sayaka definitely has the ability to get it before her, and maybe Rose. I feel like Luka and Zero would be hard-pressed, as combat units without access to repair XP. It would take strategic boss-feeding for them or Kira to get it earlier. Aside from those, her only useful Spirit is Trust.

Scans and Cheers. You'll never be killing things with Ptolemy, so Luck is worthless. If you don't have a cheap Analyze elsewhere, I guess you fall back on her, but she's better for Cheer with my team. Finally can do 3 near endgame.

Perhaps the cutest of the 00 subs. She's only useful for Bless, but Bless is useful, so I'm not complaining. Seriously though, Focus on a battleship? Still won't dodge for shit.

Accel makes healing easier. Expensive Daunt, but lategame you have nothing better to do with him. Same with Distubance.

A complete piece of shit. No worthwhile spirit to be found. I guess his Guts helped in the siege in ch48...

Relatively cheap Spirit, which she starts with off the bat, and Accel. Good from the start. Learns Love way late, and I guess a normalish time for Valor. Kouji's early Valor spoiled me though. Focus is okay when she's in the Eagle, but outside of that it's kind of lol. Assail is situational. Usually I'll Snipe with Kurara for a P-move option instead.

Aside from Mercy, excellent sub spirits here all around.

Additional Valors are always useful. Until then the worst sub.

Guard and Analyze are good to have. I think I used his Disturbance once, on the Vajra map.

Comes too late to really be useful with Bless, and it's hella expensive on her. Spirit spam is all she's good for. Well, I guess Alerts if you're not finishing off the foe.

Kouji is a beast. You couldn't really ask for better spirits. Maybe Spirit instead of Invincible (which feels redundant), but that might be too broken.

Gainer starts with 4 powerful spirits, then takes forever to learn Soul. Courage feels like a worthless afterthought. His spirits are a bit more expensive than average, which is unfotunate, but he can manage.

His spirits suit him amazingly well. Assail becomes worthless after FUB, but until then... Fury is kind of pointless too, as his best weapons essentially do that already and it comes so late.

...uh, well... He learns Faith I guess? He's last pick for a reason.

Nia is the only reason I really bothered raising up the Dai Gurren, though sadly I only get a single Hope out of the effort. Still, some extra Blesses/Cheers along the way when Ptolemy is missing.

Leeron has Accel, but Dai Gurren is so slow I still wanted Dash. He also has Renew, which is kind of useful in a pinch. Extra Analyzes if you run out (hahaha).

Dyakka looks like a decent enough pilot at face value from the spirits (though Spirit and Valor are on the expensive side), but I think his stats are just too shitty.

Fury... on a battleship? Still, that aside (and the high cost of Spirit) Jeffrey knows what he's doing.

Very expensive spirits on Bobby all around, and his SP pool isn't super big to begin with. Bleh.

Catherine provides another Hope/Renew (usually Hope). Gain, Guard, and Analzye are good for the midgame though, and Scan is, well, Scan.

Crowe is beast modiing. I really feel like Fury is just a shitty spirit for everyone except the Orguss folk in this game though, tbqh. Most finisher weapons have it in-built, or are on mechs large enough to not really feel the sting.

50 cost Hope, 50 cost Enable? Where do I sign? This turns every other Hope on the team into an Enable. The importance of that cannot be overstated. She's just shy of being able to afford 3 of either on her own, sadly, not enough time to raise her up.

Team Analysis:

Free Units:

Crowe: Aside from 2 scripted shoot-downs, you couldn't ask for better availability. Default Spirit set works quite well for him, actually. I might have to think long and hard about whether you might see improvements through Aquarius O, Capricorn B, Virgo AB, Leo AB, Gemini O, or Taurus AB. This of course operates on the assumption of melee Crowe. Quite frankly, my conclusion leans heavily in the direction that ranged Crowe just doesn't measure up. Early game he needs the post-move punching power of ACP to secure CAs and provide vital offensive support to the rest of the team for their CAs. Ranged Crowe is going to have a lot more issues doing that, even with Hit and Away and +range parts. You're free to disagree I guess, pointing to Spigot differences, but... By the time you get Spigot, the rest of your team has matured, by which I mean you've probably got your full core team actually recruited with weapons upgraded, so the relative portion of weight Crowe has to carry is significantly less, and the massive advantage Ranged Spigot has over Melee Spigot doesn't overcome the harsh reality of earlygame, in my opinion. Crowe's Ace is great, and Brasta's FUB is amazing. Great protagonist, 10/10 would play as again.

Ptolemaios: Literally left me high and dry every route split. :( While around, definitely a fantastic supplement of Bless and Cheer, I never turn away free XP or $. Late-game monster, allowed for crazy Enable shenanigans until Margueritte showed up and obsoleted her. I never really needed her healing for healing, it was mostly just masturbatory, IIRC.

Moonlight: A stop-gap battleship for my route for whenever Jeff and Sumeragi left me until the Dai Gurren is acquired. I didn't invest any XP in it because I knew it wouldn't stick around, so it sucked. It didn't have much in the way of useful spirits anyway, and a pure combat battleship would have to be an absolute monster for me to want it. I liked Eureka 7 more when the only thing I knew about it was that hentai doujin I read. The plot of it in this game was terrible in comparison, and that's saying something.

Macross Quarter: Jeffrey and co. have found a sweet spot in my heart, even if they maybe don't deserve it. He hit's extremely hard, making him a pretty decent combat monster tbh, and there's enough support skills sprinkled in there that I don't feel bad raising him even when he leaves for like 80% of the splits. If I went full Macross, I'm sure he'd have been top dog.

Dai Gurren: Dyakka is incredibly bad, but an extra unit to CA some grunts for additional early will in stages was always useful, and Nia and Leeron had some worthwhile spirits. Definitely an upgrade from the Moonlight, but still probably the worst of the permanent battleships.

Single Stage Only Characters. Shuroga's MAP attack was a glorious thing, easily my favorite. Beck, Timp, and Kokubougar contributed single chips in their stages, with Kokubougar having 2 to the others' one, giving him a leg up. Zechs was not used, as that proved to be an active detriment to my clear. I think I had the R-Daigun cast Bless, that was, um, I guess something? She ends up on the Nova anyway, so it was really liked I'd drafted her already, right?

Drafted Units (in draft order):

Aoi: Is not first pick material for the routes I ended up taking. Not in Z2.1 anyway. She was a result of me overthinking and trying to make a strategic pick to defend against letting GO lock together a monster team, and really it was a silly thing. That said, even at her worst, with literally no route split availability, she was still a monster, especially post-ch33 when she's actually allowed to use her Ace. I expect her performance to be leap and bounds better in Z2.2 though, as she only misses out on one route split, and can get a lot more resources under her belt. I don't expect her to really prove to be serious competition to Kouji, though... All said and done, definitely worthy of a pick in the first two or three rounds regardless of splits. First or second if you CB/Space all the way, more than likely. It would be a tough call between her and some rivals. Ryouma's Ace is also very strong, but acts counter to one of Getter's major strengths, no Will-locked weaponry. Setsuna definitely has a stronger early game with CA right off the bat, plus you lock down one 00 for sure for chapter 48. I don't quite know how to properly judge Alto, but his forced missions blow if you don't have him and he saves 1 turn guaranteed. Probably early second pick material, the more I think about her.

Kouji: MVP. 1-7 range finisher, the ability to tank for days and not die, and an amazing themesong. I'm not sure how he never passed Crowe up for Top Ace, but I guess I can't really complain. If you're at all thinking about taking Japan/Earth/UN routes, he should be first pick of the first picks, IMO. He does Dai-Guard's forced missions better than Dai-Guard, he does Godmars's force missions better than Godmars, he does Gurren Lagann's force missions better than Gurren Lagan, he does Getter's force missions better than Getter, etc. Photonic Beam too strong. Thankfully when my team got its ZEUTH recruits and kills started getting a little more spread he stopped running out of EN all the time. That could have been fixed by an early FUB, and honestly I contemplated it, but I think that would be a huge misallocation of funds. Everyone needs Weapons 10 first, imo.

Watta: While he never had any plot, the little guy definitely put in work. President helped buff all my other pilots a considerable deal, and he powerleveled like mad with cheap cheap Gain until he started struggling/needing to cast Spirit to keep up with the enemies. Once he hit Courage he was over his slight mid-game hump, and everything was glorious again. FUB on him fixes his worst problem, but you'll still probably glue a Haro to him. Easy second or third pick for his routes. He needs all that early game PP/XP though, so if you're taking other routes, I wouldn't consider him.

Gainer: An impulsive fourth pick, and IPC seemed surprised when I grabbed him that early. I admit that decision was motivated a fair deal on his availability in Z2.2, so full judgement withheld until then. That said, he was part of the crew that was beating on Gaiou at the end, so he had to have been doing something right. For a this-game-only performance though, he'd definitely be below Jiron, and even Gain, imo. His best move has a steep Will requirement, and he basically can't function without Overskill, meaning he was always among the last to act on the team, relying on the others to build up ambient Will for him. Still, a solid real robot, though oddly enough a Melee stat using one.

Kappei: I picked him for securing the combination attack with Trider... which honestly isn't that great. I only used it before the pair acquired enough Will for their finishers, mostly, or to save on EN when it would suffice for a KO. Still, his presence in the ZEUTH map (along with Jiron and Gainer) enabled me to save a turn. I'm pretty sure you need 3 of those ZEUTHs all with CA to make it work, I think Kamille wasn't strictly necessary for me, but I could be misremembering. Anyway, I was also interested in him because of Keiko's Renew, which I turned out to not really use. All in all, a not-great solid middling pick. Jiron was better and should have taken this spot in the pick order, IMO. Then again, there's Z2.2 availability to consider, so maybe not...?

Jiron: Dude is not to be underestimated. My 3rd best non-Crowe combat unit (after Kouji and Aoi). You could argue Watta, but if he does too much combat his EN drain becomes a major issue, while Jiron has several decent ammo attacks to help keep him balanced. He can also lean on the SP of his sub-pilot, which is a huge boon that Watta lacks. Watta's other utility still secures his early place in the pick order though. I guess Gainer has an easier time getting excess skill for crits, but like I said that huge Will barrier on his weapon holds him back, and it has lower full power that Jiron's does (post-FUB). His support attacking possibilty can't be forgotten though, which firmly puts a nail in the coffin to comparisons with Gainer.

Kakikouji: Probably should have warranted an earlier pick, to be quite perfectly honest. I mainly felt comfortable holding off as GO already drafted his support unit in the Cosmo Crusher early, so I didn't feel super threatened by people from other routes swooping in and picking him up, but then wright unexpectedly grabbed Sayaka and I was forced to retaliate. I'm not sure who got the better end of that, tbh. Sayaka is a way earlier Enable, but she's also another Repair bot, while Shuttle was my only Supply all game (barring spirits), so I think he filled his needed nice. Supers get thirsty after all.

Camille: Surprisingly disappointing, but I blame most of that to no shared routes for easy raising. Like I mentioned in the ch48 write-up, this should have been Tierlia. Barring that, Gain definitely outperforms at a similar availability level. Even sticking him in Methuss a few chapters for some powerlevelling didn't really help him stay on curve. This may have just again been lack of resources because lack of routes. Should probably be a higher pick on space related routes because of Soul alone. He was still my about my fifth best damage against Gaiou (well, I guess maybe give or take a couple hundred with Trider).

Gain: Clutch in so many ways, mostly related to early turn 1 getting the crew up and running off their CAs, until enough Will is generated for their best attacks. This role cannot be overstated. He saved my strategies time and again. Support attacks for boss take-downs is also useful, ngl. I haven't taken a close look at the other dedicated snipers (at least as indicated by story), so maybe Lockon or Michel would be better, but... they have route problems for me, and Gain didn't. That's a huge leg up. Also, Lockon was much more sought after (presumably because fucking c48 and also the Haro secret). Surprisingly Michel too. I don't know how I lucked out and got Gain so late in the draft. Probably availabilty/routing.

Quattro: Originally Cynthia, but I traded. To be honest, it probably worked out better this way for me, as if Cynthia arrived at the same time as the rest of the ZEUTH, I wouldn't have had the cash to really upgrade them all to the levels they needed to be at the same time, whereas Quattro showed up late enough I had some left over by then. The pacing was just better. I didn't really end up abusing his Leadership aura as much as anticipated/desired, and his combat was weak, but I don't regret the trade. If Cynthia had been as attractive as Adette, though... maybe things would be different. Suffers from route split syndrome, and will continue to do so, but honestly, it's fine. Zeal was useful, and barely saves him from being my worst combat unit.

Marguerite: Taken primarily for Enable support. Her availability in Z2.1 is trash, but it looks better on paper at least for Z2.2 (though she learns Enable way later to compensate I guess). She looks like she might be a passable support attacker as well, can't have too many of those. The boob jiggle on the cut-in was perhaps excessive fanservice, but I love her hair, and her character is appealing.

Boss: Broke Kouji out of underwater jail, 10/10. Also got his ass beat in a couple of fist-fights. Does not have a mech in this game.

Lorelei: Who?

Fa: Was initially Go, the Z2.2 Getter dude I guess? Traded him away though, and I think I got the better end of the deal here, as access to Methuss for my other UC pilots seems useful, not to mention she gives fantastic Hopes like Kakikouji. Maybe overkill on support pilots, but you know what they say about overkill (there's no kill like it). Also, I was hard pressedn enough to find mooks to CA off of on turn 1 with my combat pilots as is, so it works out better for me this way. We'll see if I keep my tune in Z2.2 though.

Athena: Easily my worst combat unit, but still, 2 support attacks is nothing to scoff at. She won't exist next game, and I will miss her. Worst combat unit was still good, is basically what it boils down too.

Ougi: He kills a dude in uh, chapter 15, that might have been inconvenient for my other guys to get around to. Also, I guess he had healing spirits and repair. Mostly he was good for extra $ in sub-orders, I guess. Could have been a worst last pick. Could have been... uh... Gino?

Edited February 14, 2015 by Balcerzak

[Balcerzak]

It begins.

Prologue 1: 2 turns Zero point (Total turns 2, total SR points 0, Net 2)

While Cornelia doesn't move turn 1, she will advance on Zero on turn 2 if he is in range. If Toudou's weakened her then... gg

[spoiler=details]

End turn 1. Toudou has a murderous rampage.

End turn 2.

Killing Jeremiah can be difficult, you'll probably need a crit, unless AI/range let's him attack Toudou turn 1. I don't think it does.

Prologue 2: 3+2 turns (Total turns 7, total SR points 0, Net 7)

The first half could have been a 2 turn if not for the 3 fuckers in the lower left. As it is, their existences makes even the 3 turn kind of challenging to orchestrate. The second half is nice and simple.

[spoiler=details]

Start of turn 2.

Start of turn 3.

End of turn 3. If you prioritize the unwounded units so everyone can be counterkilled, this should work.

Start of 2nd half turn 2. EP 1 was a slaughter.

End 2nd half turn 2. IIRC Wing did his MAP attack on the Zechs column and Hit and Awayed to counterkill the left mooks. Everyone else mopped up.

Prologue 3: 2 turns (Total turns 9, total SR points 0, Net 9)

The trick is to get two different forms of Getter to use their ultimate attacks on Shin Dragon. IIRC they're ammo based, and can be relied on to survive the EN drain of the Invaders.

[spoiler=details]

End turn 1.

Start turn 2.

Chapter 1: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 12, total SR points 1, Net 11)

This chapter is all about proper positioning. The RN reliance isn't anywhere near as severe as some previous logs feared.

[spoiler=strategy]

Start turn 2. Esther can easily 2HKO the Damons for a clean one-round, no crits needed, provided she lures it out to the road where it doesn't get terrain bonus.

Start turn 3. Proper positioning was a must, as it allowed her to get counters on the Damons instead of them wasting their time moving at her.

Deathscythe damages the undamaged Damon in the lower left. One ACP crit is all that's required on the upper right Damon, everything else dies cleanly, though the AI seems to prioritized Duo, which is a shame.

[spoiler=stats]

I don't think Wen expected me to take his advice to upgrade Esther's mech before Crowe's arrival so literally. Brasta Es FUBed, +1 Movement. Brasta Es Weapons 10.

Chapter 2: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 15, total SR points 2, Net 13)

This is only made possible by way of two things, the Brasta Es FUB and putting the Hakai Crest on Duo.

[spoiler=strategy]

Start of turn 2. Duo killed the bulk of the initial enemies, all of the ones on the left and the boss on EP, one of the ones on the right on the player phase. Quarte had to crit-kill one of the two remaining right enemies and finish the one he wounded PP on the EP. That triggers Esther and the Fangs of Dawn, or whatever the terrorists called themselves to show up.

Start of turn 3. Two mooks and the boss. The mooks probably went for Quarte or something, he's not really offense material.

Thank you FUB.

[spoiler=stats]

No new drafted units, nothing to spend money on.

Chapter 3: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 18, total SR points 3, Net 15)

Esther gets the crest now, IIRC. Her FUB again made the map possible to 3 turn.

[spoiler=strategy]

Start turn 2. In a rare case, I hold back and don't trigger the reinforcements, so the enemies move up, rather than attacking Duo (who wouldn't counter) at range.

When Ester arrives, she can just reach a unit to kill. I left if for her, to help her grow into a strong young woman.

End turn 2. I probably should have zoomed in, my apologies.

In the first move of turn 3, Duo begins weakening Branch.

Everyone cleans up the trash, leaving Shotarou to further chip the boss...

Thank you FUB.

[spoiler=stats]

I take Japan route, obviously.

[spoiler=bonus]

I have to agree with Luka. I feel sorry for the teacher who has both Watta and Shotarou in their class. That's got to be just something else.

Chapter 4: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 21, total SR points 4, Net 17)

This SR point was hella dumb, I mean, encouraging giving kills to your support units? Pfah. Also, it said I could track the progress in one of the menu screens, but aside from just remembering starting kill counts and checking current kill counts, I couldn't find it. Maybe I'm blind.

[spoiler=strategy]

Lot of ground to cover to get to the enemies. Luckily they come toward you.

End turn 1.

End turn 2.

After Shuttle kills this, end turn 3, end map.

[spoiler=stats]

Finally, new units, in fact, a bulk of my early team! Time to... not spend any money. I mistakenly spent money the first time, and as a result had to redo two chapters, including the annoying as hell, turn losing, Dai-Guard map. Kakikouji picks up Supply skill though, that's super handy to help him power-level himself earlier than normal, thanks to the transfer bonus PP.

[spoiler=bonus]

Oh Esther, watching you gush over Crowe never gets old.

Your blushing face is also adorable, as is seeing you get put into place by an eight year old. Well, that's what you get for telling him it's something kids don't need to know. Of course that means it's pervy stuff.

Chapter 5: 5 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 26, total SR points 5, Net 21)

The images in this chapter, and in chapters 6 and 7 may not reflect exactly what occurred in my final run, I didn't bother to retake them. General idea of the strats are the same, though some slight differences in kill feeding, etc. may occur. The fact that I could redo these chapters also speaks to the relative robustness of the strats, although resetting for some crucial crits was annoying in the Dai-Guard map, not going to lie.

[spoiler=strategy]

Accel is necessary to get Dai Guard to 1 range so it can eventually Drill the Heterodyne. Since we need to be using our most powerful attacks all the time, and it's not P, we don't have any other option. The amount of damage you do turn 1 doesn't matter, it'll all get regenned, so don't bother fishing for a crit. The only damage that sticks is the EP damage.

If you can reduce the Heterodyne to under half HP, your reinforcements will spawn half a phase early, deflecting some DBs southward away from Dai-Guard. This may not be 100% necessary, but I'll bet DG would have survivability issues otherwise, and the main team wouldn't get some kills otherwise.

Gainer and Zambot get a kill apiece, Gainer is well positioned for a counter.

Support attack is a handy thing.

Start turn 4. In the real take Gainer doesn't have the firepower to take out the Damon, but it turns out that crew didn't need their full move to accomplish their role in the later portions anyway.

Esther deliberately left the dude alive so Trider could get some XP and PP. I think she steals his down count though, because Trider Jet missiles blow.

Yes, this looks suicidal, but it's necessary for the SR point, and you have enough Trusts, Guts, and Vigor to keep the Dai-Guard alive... barely. Dai-Guard uses the 1-2 Knot on the guy to his north, which is diverted to the guy to the left, while Esther ACPs the guy on the left which gets taken by the guy on the right.

Turn 5 start.

Esther should have been able to weaken the Heterodyne to near death. It's fine probably as long as it's below ~3k? I dunno.

Both taken out simultaneously through the power of TEAMWORK. Oh yeah, take that SR point, you fucking piece of who the hell designed that. Feeding the Dai-Guard all the XP/PP, grumble grumble. At any rate, couldn't have done it without FUB.

When the Heterodyne is killed, DG gets forcibly relocated, thankfully out of range of the far Bull Damon. Esther kills the near one in range of the far one which is happy to suicide onto her.

[spoiler=stats]

Not including pilot stats, as they're not fully accurate to the real run.

[spoiler=bonus]

When Esther learns that Crowe went out for drinks with Aoiyama, and knowing that he's got a serious case of misogyny, Esther begins to wonder... it can't be, does Crowe bat for the other team?!

She's also surprisingly taken with how cool Kouji is. Truthfully, so am I. Damn but isn't Mazinger useful.

NGL, Sayaka's new face sprite here surprised the hell out of me. I like it more than most of her others, and it's a shame it only seems to have been used this once.

Chapter 6: 4 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 30, total SR points 6, Net 24)

Japan route took me to... Germany. OK, I guess I should have expected that. Anyway, getting Mazinger back is happy days. This map isn't much in the way of a challenge, tbqh, the enemies coming from the north is pretty telegraphed by the design. Still, a good change of pace from the now stale Tokyo map we've seen like, 6 times so far. Nevermind, this map is a copy as well, wow.

[spoiler=strategy]

End turn 1.

Start turn 2.

End turn 2. Make sure the AI does things right and kills itself on your formation the right way, instead of doing something intelligent like attacking Sayaka.

Start turn 3. The real run I have a slightly better formation, exposing Panther to less risk of death.

End turn 3.

Start turn 4.

Taking out the boss required significant expenditure of units to take it out.

Still, I have enough to basically mop up everything else.

[spoiler=stats]

Again, full stats omitted, because not from the final run.

Mazinger gets 10 Weapons, 10 EN. King Gainer, Trider, and Zambot get 2 Weapons, 6 EN.

Edited February 21, 2015 by Balcerzak

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 7: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 33, total SR points 7, Net 26)

This map required me to redo previous maps, due to my lack of foresight. For that I hate it. On the other hand, it's a Mazinger storyline map, and I like Mazinger storyline. Anyway, Mazinger needs 10 Weapons here to avoid losing at least one turn. Maybe 9 + Hakai crest, I didn't consider that, because if I'm going to 9, I might as well go to 10 and have a dedicated bosser along with Esther. This maps Mazinger duel, and the clusterfuck that is the Dai-Guard map are huge reasons for anyone who didn't draft Lorelei/Mazinger to stay the hell away from this route split.

[spoiler=strategy]

End turn 1. Watta and Kappei get a kill each, thanks to some softening from non-drafts. Esther softened something for Kouji. If you try to have Esther and Kouji both soften to kill on EP counters, instead they'll suicide charge Lorelei, so, don't do that.

Turn 2 start.

Turn 2 end. Again, this isn't exactly how it went down in the real copy, as I managed to handle killing the severely weakened units better, giving more to my team and less to the filler, but it gets the point across. Tetsujin, of course, Convinced Lorelei, who he could easily reach due to repeated Accels. There isn't even enemies around to molest him, so even if this wasn't free phase, the secret would be manageable.

I think in the real run I give the boss kill to Watta, as Esther had enough for CA without it. NB: Before killing the boss, take the unsportsmanlike conduct of Analyzing and Daunting Lorelei.

Two Analyzed crits with Weapons 10 allow for a clean finish. A shame you can't Cheer between them, because one-on-one duel, but what can you do.

[spoiler=stats]

Watta, Kappei, and Gainer each get another tick of Weapons. Kappei and Gainer each get 1 more EN as well. Esther is the first to pick up Continuous Action, to nobody's surprise. The route joins with the Space route here, which provides me with... no additional draftees. Shame Kamille wasn't over here instead of with the Gundams... but, he's a Gundam, so... Actually, speaking of Gundams, I forgot to screenshot, but when the Federation forces showed up in Ch 6 hunting reports of a Gundam, I had to love it when Garrod piped up "Would that be me and my DX, sir?" "No, no, a CB Gundam, you fool." Good stuff, though I'm not sure how the Gundam Extermination order could have been expected to be effective in eliminating the fear associated with the name "Gundam" if they left about half of them free to do as they pleased. *shrug*

[spoiler=bonus]

Not the best screenshot, but I loved this, the first in what turns out to be a running gag. Upon finding out Esther's Crowe's kouhai, the first thing out of their mouths is "How much?" followed by "It's terrible you're burdened by such a debt." and "We'll do everything in our power to help." For some reason, I just really like this.

It only gets better when Esther slips up replying to Takeru and says that's not why she was attracted to Crowe, which Klan picks up on and oh boy, I can just imagine the off-screen teasing. Side note, I wish Klan's unit picture pose was the same as her speaking poses, demonstrating her smaller stature better. I always get tripped up when I see her face filling the full frame. Maybe it's just the angle or something that strikes me as weird?

Also, I don't remember when exactly it was, but I found the doko no doitsu pun (with doitsu also referring to Germany) to be particularly inspired. I thought I took a picture, but I must have forgot.

Chapter 8: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 36, total SR points 8, Net 28)

More Mazinger event maps. People without Kouji must get tired of these, I'm sure. Without Kouji drafted, I don't think this can be done in 3.

[spoiler=strategy]

Deploy. I have Apollo/Silvia/Pierre, for Pierre's Luck spirit, and Alto for his Luck spirit (plus super-lucky). The rest of the filler is pointless and I don't think get kills. Marin circles around Dai-Guard for resupply XP, and Tetsujin is similar for Shuttle (though they can actually move).

Start turn 2. Esther didn't have the Will to CA on turn 1, so it was kind of boring. She has it now, though.

I clean up enemies threating the defensive line. When Esther kills the next unit (and CAs from it) the Kouji event will occur.

Teleporting him up north, where he can Accel toward the bosses.

Esther comes to join him.

Start of turn 3. Esther will CA off of Birdon, allowing Kouji to make use of her Support Attack.

Ikue in the Shuttle had just learned Bless the turn previously, I shit you not.

She then leaves to go mook hunting with the rest of the team. Everything dies on enemy phase.

[spoiler=stats]

Trider, Zambot, and King Gainer are now all at 4 Weapons, 7 EN.

[spoiler=bonus]

Too cute not to screencap.

There are some things you just don't say to your cute female coworker with a temper (that I hope you end up romancing). "As expected of a father-con" probably damn near tops that list, though.

Chapter 9: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 39, total SR points 9, Net 30)

More Gishins, huh? Anyway, I'm glad free-period was extended, otherwise I couldn't have used this strat, at Gravion et. al. would give penalties. I don't recognize the new enemies' series of origin, but it's clearly one of the ZEUTH squads'.

[spoiler=strategy]

Turn 1, move out.

Okay, I guess the rest of you can come too. Except Baldios and Dai-Guard, they need to pair up so I can pass down Akagi's holy hot blood. *cough* FE4 jokes aside...

Start turn 2.

Alto and Pierre again, useful because of Luck. I gave their kill count to Ester via Support Attack, (but I couldn't transfer the XP/PP...) Sayaka just repaired someone before they moved away, don't mistake that for combat (though Venus A is leagues better than Aphrodite A, it seems. Panther is a pretty decent fighty support too, for the record, at least in this game.)

Esther takes a potshot at the boss. It needs to pass a damage threshold I think to trigger an event on the EP. (The alternate trigger is defeating the Heterodyne, which I can't do yet because SP point...)

Start of turn 3.

Boss's current health, threshold was 50% I believe.

Heterodyne's health too for good measure.

Gainer takes that down with some Esther support.

Kouji grabs the Gishin boss.

Wounding and cleaning. Always bearing in mind enemy weapon ranges, of course. They die to an enemy phase.

[spoiler=stats]

Kappei, Watta, Kouji, and Gainer all join the ranks of the Continuous Action Clan. Weapons boosted to level 5 for my three faithful knights as well.

[spoiler=bonus]

More "you're riding a Brasta, so I assumed you had a debt". This is glorious.

Oh goodness, I didn't think Aoi could get any better, but then they give her this sultry face?

Brera with shades is also just hilarious.

Johnny with glasses going all "yare yare" at Alto's jealousy too, Dancougar team seems to be getting some royal treatment here in Z2.2

Did she do the hand in front of the eyes thing earlier? I don't think so...

Sulking Sakuya... this is almost too much guys, I'm dying here.

More "good luck with your debt".

Chapter 10: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 42, total SR points 10, Net 32)

This map doesn't make me like Alto force deploys, but I guess it's tempered by Aoi, and not a guaranteed turn loss like that Vajra Hive, so I can't hate too much.

[spoiler=strategy]

Start turn 2. The positioning is very careful here, so that Aoi can reach one of the wounded by Brera to the south with an Accel. Also, 7 units need to have died so that killing with my three units brings me to the reinforcement threshold. This requires an early crit by Brera, so his will gets high enough, iirc. I think I had to give Alto the Hakai crest too, to make one-shotting scopedogs plausible, cannot recall.

Deploy and continue acting, lenghtening PP2 considerably, especially with my CAers.

Kappei has innate Resolve, and his Spirit command lets him get started from the word "go". Well, provided a sufficiently softened target, of course. Jeffrey also nabs himself a scopedog.

Kappei's second kill, Esther's first, and Kouji's bright the kill total to 5, meaning that Gainer (Spirit) and Watta (Resolve) are now in play to CA with. Sadly since Kouji had neither, he had to take one for the team here.

They promptly clear the starting area of available targets.

Esther was in position to let them support attack and kill Branch, before she moves down to take a kill away from Alto.

I couldn't take out the rest of the chumps on EP, so no attempt at a 2 turn clear here, I don't think it's really possible, tbh, but I could be proven wrong. I could certainly see it NG+, perhaps, but on fresh single-cycle transfer?

Undrafted scrubs clear out the remainder, I guess, triggering the event.

I do my damndest to let Dancougar get as many XP/PP as possible to help bring it up to speed. It's not quite enough for CA, but it's a healthy start.

[spoiler=stats]

Dancougar brought to Weapons 5, EN 6. Also, now that free period is at an end, I say goodbye to all the extra Cheers I've been enjoying. Alas. Zambot was using them to cover up for losing access to Gain by way of my needing its Analyze more often than not. Kappei badly wants to hit Lv 26 to get Accel access.

[spoiler=bonus]

Esther no longer has the heart to deliver a witty retort to the now common assumption of her (non-existent) crippling debt.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 11: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 44, total SR points 11, Net 33)

Margueritte NPC stole one kill on EP. I don't think I can avoid that.

[spoiler=strategy]

I deploy as follows to optimize my ability to CA.

Since Dancougar Nova still lacks CA, they get an early kill to pass around some Will. I also position them to soak up a lot of easy EP kills to get more PP to catch up. Now that Esther could afford the Initial Will +10 skill (and since she's top Ace) she can CA off the bat, allowing the Psychic Reactor to go to Kouji (who unlike Watta, Gainer, Aoi, Kappei cannot boost his will or start with initial will yet).

2nd moves by these two bring the total kills to 5, putting Watta and Kouji in play. I think Gainer needs to wait for more damage? I can't remember.

IIRC, since the initial enemies don't move, I have to position as best I can to counter everything, while still trying my best to feed PP/kills where I want them.

Start of turn 2.

All the rhinos are down. Gainer still has both his moves and Trider and Brasta Es one move a piece. With only four enemies left, that's GG.

[spoiler=stats]

Aoi picks up Continuous Action, Kouji picks up Initial Will.

Chapter 12: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 46, total SR points 12, Net 34)

Kouji kills so much stuff it allows me to be well prepared for the reinforcements. MVP Mazinger. I think Gainer's wearing the Psychic Reactor now, as getting to 130 is a huge benchmark for him.

[spoiler=strategy]

Getting all my CAs off requires careful positioning on the initial loadout.

3 down.

Gainer and Kappei take out two of the bottom scopedogs, bringing kills to 5, putting everyone else in play. Kurara needs to Snipe on top of Aoi's Accel and Spirit to make this work, bringing they punch attack to a 1-5 range, IIRC.

Watta and Esther don't actually take second kills here, instead preparing for turn 2, which will prove vital. Esther also lets Kakikouji resupply her for phat XP, and leaving Jeffrey with enough Will to activate his strong 1-3 postmove next round. Esther of course will still have enough Will to CA, which is what matters.

With enough crits, this probably could have killed everything, but that's too much RNG, and also would waste the chance to Bless the best money drop unit on the map, so I don't mind that I have to manually trigger the reinforcement event, considering I can still clear on time.

It also allows Mazinger to CA close to the action... although I guess if the enemies had moved, they'd have come to Aoi and he probably still could reach.

Team takes their first moves.

And then their second ones. Due to the ridiculous enemy range on weapons, careful positioning is a must to get the counterkills needed.

[spoiler=stats]

Esther is Aced, which probably won't help for 30 maps yet, but more Initial Will never hurt anyone I guess. I bring everyone to Weapons 6, Aoi to EN 7, the others to EN 8.

Chapter 13: 3 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 49, total SR points 13, Net 36)

I could have 2 turned this, but not without missing out on the SR point. EP kill of the boss is impossible with the 5k retreat limit and his HP regen and skills (Prevail, Guard, 170 Will, etc.). I guess a 3 turn lets me ration the kills better to my units that need them, instead of into a Mazinger and Esther black hole.

[spoiler=strategy]

The setup. I don't think I've mentioned it explicitly, but by my movements it should be pretty obvious the Nova team has been rocking the early Screw Module for that Water Terrain rating. It doesn't fly, and fsr I thought mountains impeded terrain like buildings (which they don't, apparently) so I had her on the right, but I guess she could interchange with Gainer without issue.

Esther, Kappei, Gainer, Kappei, Gainer, is 5, letting the rest of my squad enter play.

They do so.

I actually had Shuttle resupply Trider purely for XP reasons, then get recovered by the Macross so it doesn't get targeted. I'm trying to power level it so Ikue can get two Blesses out sooner, rather than the Bless Cheer she can afford now. Unlocking Analzye for Tetsuo is also a goal, but will apparently soon be rendered obsolete by the arrival of the Ikaruga. Anyway, we've killed enough units to trigger the first event. This lets Kouji pound on the miniboss, and Esther on a rhino.

Start turn 2.

Restores him back up from ~1000 health, definitely needed.

Setsuko promptly retreats and is just in range to get picked up my Jeffrey. Shuttle pops out to resupply Mazinger. Kouji had a propellent tank, so this isn't strictly necessary, but it's good XP, and he was at capped Will already, so...

Watta and Aoi kill the other two Rhinos, Kappei works on mooks. I actually have Esther repair Kappei, because other people probably need kills more than she does, and I can save my Trusts/Vigor for a rainy day.

I finish prepping for E Phase. I'm trying to get Watta more downs so he can get to Ace faster for PP for the team each map, but it's hard, you know? My earlygame team this game has so many more units, he doesn't soak as much of the early resources as in Z2.1. This is both good and bad.

I have units to CA off of (probably because they attacked Shuttle or something) and a decently weakened boss, life is good.

I don't need Ester's support attack to finish, like I thought I might, so I give the kills to my other dudes. She can still get repair XP anyway.

Dedicated bosser, taking a boss kill, nothing to see here. Well, I guess you can see it pushing him into Ace territory.

[spoiler=stats]

Trider and Zambot get Weapons 7, EN 9. Aoi grabs Initial Will. Kouji grabs E Save, since he guzzles like a mo-fo still at this stage. Gainer also nabs Initial Will.

Chapter 14: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 51, total SR points 14, Net 37)

Triggering the events on turn 1 PP is the way to go, imo.

[spoiler=strategy]

The positioning is pretty critical here. Kouji needs to have Hakai Crest for movement + range. In exchange Esther only gets the Vernier Unit part this time.

Dancougar didn't have the strength to KO with her sniped punch attack at 1-5, so Gainer picks up the slack. There aren't enough enemies for both of them to CA from in range anyway, so it was always going to be a one or the other. Mazinger's 1-4 Rocket Punch OTOH, does just fine on its own.

After Esther and Kouji kill enemies three and four, the event happens, and I tuck everybody but Kamille away into their battleships, Gundams into the Ptolemy2 and Elevens into the Ikaruga.

Esther weakens for Kamille while Sumeragi weakens for Zero. Gainer gets a scopedog for free. Unless he needed an Analyze, in which case mostly free, considering the Ikaruga gives out a whopping 6 of them. Holy shit.

Start turn 2. Deliberately leaving enemies alive to CA off of is the name of the game.

I've Analyzed everything that could remotely be considered a boss, and move Kouji to engage the Guyana class carrier.

Go big or go home.

Kamille takes his kill, Watta and Jeffrey advance, and Esther positions for support attacks.

Aoi takes out Graham MR BUSHIDO. (I think I found 00's Char expy, guys.)

After getting resupplied for Kakikouji's XP pool, Kappei probably just Spirits back the lost will and uses the combination attack to take out his enemy. Gainer took out some named mook. I had Esther weaken it physically so he could get credit for the actual down, and get to Ace faster, since I didn't really need the extra actions.

The only guys left alive are Louise and that Lindt asshole who heads the Arrows squadron, and they don't survive the EP. I couldn't get Louise to target Aoi after about a dozen reloads, so Esther gets her.

[spoiler=subs]

wtf, I didn't field Fa, etc. why can't I sub them?

[spoiler=stats]

I'm quite stumped as to how I want to spend my PP and $ right now, so I'm kind of taking a hiatus while I mull it over. I want Zero to have CA, because he needs more than the 2 kills per map available to get to Ace in time for the Zero point. CA would let him set up better map attacks... but only if he also has Hit and Away, which is also super expensive. Fuck battleships with no post-move weapons, seriously. Sumeragi is going to be dead-weight in this game with no repair options for powerlevelling. I'm in despair. At least I have Jeffrey, right? Oh wait, route splits. FML. Kamille badly needs Newtype Level 4 to function, and I'm not sure the best way to powerlevel him, nor what level he gets it at this game. Last game was like, 34 I think?

[spoiler=bonus]

I like Klan, I almost wish I Macross routed just to learn more about her.

The kids think this is the first time they've ever heard Kiriko actually speak (or maybe initiate a conversation, I forget the full context).

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 15: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 53, total SR points 15, Net 38)

Crowe! Oh dear, you're underfed, let's try to get you a PP/XP injection ASAP. Anyway, I think I'd left last update with upgrades undecided, so I'll tell you I roll into this chapter with Zambot, Trider, King Gainer Weapons level 7 (EN level 9), Dancougar level 6 (EN level 7).

[spoiler=Strategy]

The event will trigger if you attack Marilyn or any of the 4 Firebugs she does the formation with (those 2 squares from her initially). You can do this one of two ways: equip all your movement parts, trigger CA.

I chose CA, to minimize $/PP losses. It does require a crit, though, and Esther has abysmal skill, but it's manageable.

Then I arrange my forces like so.

Movement parts, accel, Oversense, etc. allow scant few of my units to barely reach two of the enemies. This would have been easier if Crowe had left the lower-left firebug alive, but plot demanded a sacrifice, lol. At any rate, I chose to weaken the upper left firebug with Esther when I triggered the event, so Zambot has an easy kill there with a weaker longer ranged shot, IIRC. Dancougar has to Snipe to weaken the other for Gainer. The rest of my units position themselves to become useful next turn. You'll notice I've marked some of the reinforcement positions already.

Pound on Marilyn so she kills herself on EP. Kappei and Gainer each take out one more firebug before the rest of them... bug out, when their commander retreats. Unfortunately, that means I don't get to kill like... nine of them... The sacrifices made for LTC.

Trider could have killed the Goblins that attacked him, but he's leaving them for the battleships, who have an even harder time reaching the action/getting kills.

Shawney Lives!?! And she gives perhaps the best consumable item in the game.

Trider kills his way over to the RHS of the screen, this is mostly to eliminate Goblins from potentially attacking Crowe and spoiling a Blessed EP boss-kill, ngl. Also, Watta doesn't have the durability to stand up to the Daim units if they all mob him, nor the raw power to kill them EP anyway. Not at this stage.

Mazinger begins beating down on Gerard.

As does Crowe.

And Gainer.

And Dancougar.

Zero gets kills wherever he can. Considering he can't be sub-ordered, this is super rough. (Slightly out of order shot, but I didn't want to mess up my boss-chip shots.)

Final positions for Enemy Phase. Aoi can crit kill two of her enemies, I'd given Kappei the Propellant Tank so he can kill all of his no problem with his Moon Attack finisher. Mazinger gets 4 of the LHS ones. So I miss out on killing 3, all told, I think? I believe the Goblin that was left alive went for Jeffrey (I think), thankfully ignoring Crowe.

I think Gerard likes to focus whoever is physically closest to him, but don't take this as gospel. At any rate, it's just what Crowe needs to get up and running. Or, at least start the process.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Kamille sat out this round so he could just barely afford CA via sub PP. Crowe just barely killed enough to earn CA this chapter as well. For his FUB bonus, I take +1 Move. Zambot, Trider, Dancougar, and King Gainer all get topped off to 10 EN. Zeta gets Weapons level 6, EN level 8.

[spoiler=bonus]

Surprised Goth Loli is surprised.

Correction: Insane Goth Loli is insane.

*slams keyboard incoherently* Assault Combat Pattern Faze... no, you fucker, you don't get to use that...

Don't say you're worthless. Since I'm only alive because of you, that's like saying I'm worthless too! (paraphrased)

I'd have the same reaction to this incredibly contrived debt you just got shackled with, my friend.

Chapter 16: 2 turns, 1 SR point (Total turns 55, total SR points 16, Net 39)

Taking out all the Adamons in time was rough, ngl.

[spoiler=strategy]

Ready to roll out.

I prioritize Damons that lack P moves.

After 5 ambient will, everything is glorious.

Killing the 10th enemy spawns Marguerrite and Uther.

Plunk at Marguerrite and the guys that can't be OHKO'd, set up positions for EP tanking, and we are a go.

She takes another big licking on the EP.

That actually primes her to go down here.

The SR point isn't bad either, I don't have to even use Photonic Beam, lol.

Zero can have another Map attack here, just make sure to do it after Analzying all the Adamons.

NB: If you have a unit on one of the Adamon squares, your unit is forcibly repositioned, not the Adamon. RIP strategic dickery.

Watta and Kappei and Kamille work on left side.

Aoi joins in and with Esther supports the two left Adamon go down.

Gainer carefully positions and primes one for Crowe. Esther is there in case of relationship bonus, I honestly don't know if it exists.

At any rate, Crowe can barely manage the job.

For some reason the final one won't go down though. As well, EP exists for a reason.

[spoiler=subs]

[spoiler=stats]

Some big big buys go down here. Kappei with SP Get, Watta with Dash, Jeffrey with Continuous Action. Macross Quarter gets 8 EN, while Trider, Zambot, and King Gainer get Weapons 8.

[spoiler=bonus]

Ahh, even in the happy old days of yore, Shuval yelled at Marguerrite the same way. *sniff*

I don't think sisterhood works like that...

There's definitely some history between those two... Heartrending too, it looks like.