SCREENSHOT SRW Compact 3 PMU

[Balcerzak]

[spoiler=the unit selection phase]

please limit yourself to one or two, to give everyone a shot

[spoiler=pick 12 of the following]

Z Gundam

ZZ Gundam

Hyaku Shiki

Super Gundam

Methuss

Mazinger Z

Aphrodite A

Boss Borot

Combattler

Dana O'Shee

Fuou

Zelana

Dunbine

Mechander Max

Great Mazinger

Diana A

Shin Getter

Kochouki

Tekkouki

Wing Zero Custom

Deathscythe Hell Custom

Heavyarms Custom

Sandrock Custom

Altron Custom

Tallgeese III

Taurus SK

Nu Gundam

ReGZ

Sirbine

Botune

Billbine

Acrobunch

Tyran

Kakuseijin

Guran Galan

Z GUNDAM

HYAKU SHIKI

Altron Custom, sure

that and Sandrock Custom if possible

BOSS BOROT

Well, if those are the only ones. I pick Wing Zero Custom.

I already picked some for myself. ;)

Oh you sneaky devil...

Ahh, in that case:

Nu Gundam

Shin Getter

Oh yeah, if a second pick is needed. I choose Acrobunch. Because Indiana Jones Mecha.

I'm actually quite happy with how this has turned out. There's still room for a couple people to chime in if they still want, but this (plus the Escaflowne characters) is a pretty solid core. I'll probably pick the Shin Getter's paired exclusive, just because no reason not to do so at this point.

Tallgeese and Taurus SK

Rules:

1) For the first 5 chapters, any unit may be used in combat, cast spirits, etc. If possible, kills must go to units on the roster.

2) Starting in Chapter 6, unchosen units must be loaded onto a battleship as soon as possible. If no battleship is available, units are considered free until a battleship arrives.

3) Unchosen units may only use defensive spirits during the time they are trying to reach the battleship in order to avoid being attacked (Accel, Focus, Alert, etc.). They may not use support spirits like Trust, Bless, Cheer.

4) Pilots may only be swapped from default mechs if both pilots and mechs are on the roster (e.g. Camille and Quattro could switch since I have both of them, but I couldn't put Boss in the Mazinger or Sayaka in the Boss Borot).

Units:

Ialdabaoth/Folka (Protagonist)

Argama/Bright (Battleship)

Z Gundam/Camille

Hyaku Shiki/Quattro

Methuss/Fa (Repair unit)

Boss Borot/Boss (Resupply unit)

Escaflowne/Van

Scheherazade/Allen

Shin Getter/Ryouma+Hayato+Benkei

Mecha Tekkouki/Tekkouki

Wing Zero Custom/Hiiro

Sandrock Custom/Quatre

Altron Custom/Wufei

Tallgeese III/Zechs

Tauros SK/Noin

Nu Gundam/Amuro

Acrobunch/buncha dudes

Teiring/Naria

Teiring/Eriya

Goraon/??? (Battleship)

Guran Galan/??? (Battleship)

I will be providing only minimal plot summary, because effort.

[spoiler=chapter 1 pt 1]

The UC gundams chat about how things have been going since the events of the last game, and how everyone dispersed to mop up stragglers etc. Then they receive an SOS. They go to check it out.

Our protagonist wakes up, wondering where he is.

Chapter 1 begins at the site of the SOS, some base starting with a J somewhere in South America, I didn't recognize the name.

Some asshole by the name of Arion orders the base to be razed to the ground, but becomes excited when the gundam folk show up. He's positively itching for a fight.

He and his lackies refer to themselves as the Shura army, and nobody's ever heard of them before...

[spoiler=my units stats]

Z Gundam/Waverider

Hyaku Shiki

Argama

Methuss

The map with the initial unit placement. Since my goal here is to funnel kills to units on my roster, my path forward is relatively clear. Weaken the grunts with two units each, so Quattro and Camille can do the honors.

Turn 1:

That was a crit, by the way.

In order to reach with his post-move, I needed my battleship to cast Accel, so I went and did it early (out of order screenshots, I'm sorry.)

Camille needed a crit to kill it turns out, but it doesn't matter since he'll be targeted on the enemy phase.

The EP:

Turn 2:

I realized I forgot to give you screens of the enemy units, so I booted up the chapter and went through to grab them, that's why their HP totals might be out of whack. Anyway, now that we've had a chance to wound both basic Shura grunts, here they are.

[spoiler=Shura grunts stats]

Bofry

Harps

Quattro cleans up the sole survivor.

Fa heals Camille.

I load the other gundams onto the Argama, Accel, and advance towards the base.

Turn 3:

The protagonist makes his appearance, trashtalks the Shura people, and tells the gundams he has no beef with them, so long as they don't get in his way.

[spoiler=his stats]

He casts Accel and parks himself to the south of the suspicious northern base.

Fa heals Bright and levels up.

Bright Accels and chips.

Chip gundams chip, and I forgot to take the screenshots of Camille finishing off its pathetic leftover health.

We end the turn looking like this.

Enemy Phase starts in the next post, because image limit is a dumb.

Continued in next post.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Balcerzak

[Balcerzak]

[spoiler=ch1 pt 2]

EP:

Fernando and some goons appear up north, and it's clear protag has history with these jokers.

Arion whiffs and gets whacked. His cut-in and stats are here:

[spoiler=boss 1 stats]

Agares

Fernando has a little more luck, being on roughly equal footing with protag. Again, cut-in and stats in the spoiler box:

[spoiler=boss 2 stats]

Valefor

I disable support defend and let Camille get hit, to give Fa something to do next turn.

The other mook wants a piece of chip gundam 1.

We then head back up north where the Harps barely scratch protag's paint, while he uses his weakest attack (to save EN) for ~half their health. Unfortunately one of them misses him, so his Will gains aren't optimal, but everything works out in the end.

Turn 4:

Fa heals Camille for some XP.

Quattro cleans up scrap.

Argama chips for Zeta to finish.

I load my battleship with the chips.

Protag is one will shy of his strongest attack, so I position him in range to use it on the counter, and weaken the Harps that was out of range.

EP:

Arion has the right idea, shoot the medic. She lives, though.

As planned, we unload our finisher on the Fernando for juicy damage.

Protag literally cannot miss or otherwise fail to kill the remaining grunts, unless I have him take evasive or defensive action (which would be dumb).

Turn 5:

I accidentally crit Fernando, was going to be content with an EP finish, but looks like that wasn't in the cards. The one time I tried dragging Fa up here to get him with a Luck kill it refused to double his cash, so it must be a fixed amount or I fucked up somehow. A shame, as that would be a juicy windfall this early in the game.

That gives me an excuse to use Quattro's Mercy spirit on Arion, though.

Fa doubles his not-as-substantial-but-better-than-mook money.

With the bad guys fleeing with their tails between their legs, the Argama folk invite protag aboard. He reluctantly agrees, and they swap stories. The Shura live for war and fighting, but he's had enough of that. He's planning to fight them solo, but is convinced that since they know this world, they'll be better guides than if he were alone. Plus they'd want to stop any rampant destruction that threatens the stability of their hard won peace. With a new threat, they figure it's best to gather some more allies, and the talk turns toward super robot research facilities...

Meanwhile, Arion and Fernando work out a tentative deal of their own. Arion gets the Argama folk, allowing Fernando to focus on protag.

We assign bonus PP, look at our stats, and equip some parts.

[spoiler=administrative stuff]

Edited April 2, 2016 by Balcerzak

[Soledai]

Oh I forgot Compact was the one with the Shura in it.

Folka was godlike in OG Gaiden on PS2, I'm curious now if he is just as good here too.

[Balcerzak]

Turn 5:

I accidentally crit Fernando, was going to be content with an EP finish, but looks like that wasn't in the cards. The one time I tried dragging Fa up here to get him with a Luck kill it refused to double his cash, so it must be a fixed amount or I fucked up somehow. A shame, as that would be a juicy windfall this early in the game.

I figured out my mistake here earlier, actually. Protag has the 強運 skill, which works differently in this game than I'm used to. Instead of just being a percentage increase in cash earned, it actually casts Luck at the start of turns when his will is 130 or above, so the 12k from Fernando was already a doubled value, meaning Fa was definitely properly using her Luck on Arion.

Anyway, I think I've tinkered together a run that works out decently well and fits my criteria for Chapter 2A. I'll put together the images tomorrow probably.

[Balcerzak]

It's possible Chapter 2 could be completed in 4 turns, if I had one of the Mazinger team work on the Flying Fortress Ghoul, but that was not really plausible considering I also had to soften up the M9s. If this were a draft, I might have tried harder before giving up, but I'm honestly comfortable with my current clear.

[spoiler=chapter 2]

We have a route choice available to us, and we confirm that we want to head to the Photon Energy Labs.

There's a swarm of Kikaijuu for some reason, and Sayaka and Boss are on the run, lamenting that Kouji is late. He does show up though, and then they rally to try to stamp out the remnants of Dr Hell's evildoings.

The map is not too bad, but oddly all the action is at the top, even our reinforcements. Perhaps it's reused later, and the bottom might actually come into play? Or maybe it's from Compact 1, or 2?

[spoiler=Boss Borot stats]

Boss has a crippling 1 range lock, but he's a resupplier, so there's something. Sadly, I don't think there's a pilot skill to make it postmove in this installment. Ouch!

Mazinger can rocket punch from 5 range, the enemy can move 5 tiles, but only can shoot 4 tiles away. This ensures it will move, and Boss's worse durability ensures he'll be targetted.

Sayaka has nothing better to do right now than to soften.

At this point we've weakened two of the kikaijuu types, so we can see their stats.

[spoiler=stats]

Garada K7

Toros D7

EP:

True to plan, they charge me to get in range, and target Boss like I manipulated them to do.

Turn 2:

Sayaka heals Boss, who resupplies her. This is as decent a position to be in as any, given that Mazinger can still weaken for another K7 to suicide, and Boss can't KO the wounded D7 yet.

EP:

The K7 suicides first. I make sure Sayaka doesn't Support Defend, because Boss needs the Will he gets from taking damage.

The D7 suicides next, and again Sayaka doesn't Support Defend. Boss levels up off the kill, but more importantly, has earned enough Will to use his next level punch.

Turn 3:

Super Borot punch can OHKO these scrubs, which is kind of amazing, ngl.

Mazinger continues the weakening strategy, though they need to reposition to the RHS because enemy reinforcements will appear that need to take damage.

Boss is quite frankly damn squishy, and needs healing badly.

EP:

The last K7 suicide, still not letting Sayaka defend. Boss defends an attack out of his range to counter (not letting Sayaka help here either).

Jenoba M9 have arrived, but we planned for this.

Turn 4:

The cavalry arrives. There's some small talk, and the full introductions are postponed till later, but protag is quite confused by the concept of unmanned fighters. What purpose could that possibly serve, he wonders.

Chip attacks.

I think that was actually a crit, but Quattro would need to crit on both this, and the EP counter (using more advanced weaponry) to take it out in one round, one of the reasons I doubt a 4 turn strat would succeed.

Oh right, we haven't shown the stats for these new kikaijuu yet, have we...

[spoiler=stats]

Rhine X1

Jenoba M9

Boss cleans up the last Toros.

I load an unneeded gundam into the battleship, accel, and chip with it instead.

Protag accels so he can reach a 1 range position, allowing him to use an EN consuming attack. This is important for next turn.

Camille shoots at the flying fortress, I forgot to screencap, they both get damaged, it's whatever.

Sayaka heals Boss, earning 119XP.

EP:

Quattro kills two out of three, not bad.

Camille might have been able to kill this using Waverider's better weapon, but leaving it alive is better for XP gains since I'm doing a turn 5 anyway.

He kills the other, though, and takes a chunk out of the boss.

Turn 5:

The battleship unloads its main arsenal, bringing the flying fortress to critical health.

Camille and Quattro finish their respective scraps. Camille needed the extra fight XP to level, otherwise he was 1 off.

Since protag's machine doesn't fly, I needed to have it have used EN fighting, so Boss can resupply it.

Sayaka heals Camille, because why not, maybe she'll hit level 10 by chapter 5?

You should expect to see a lot of Fa bosskills, fair warning.

Oh right, the boss stats, huh... Oops! Here you go.

[spoiler=stats]

Mazinger team are relieved the Argama crew arrived when they did, and the postponed introductions resume.

When told about the Shura and asked to join up to help combating evil, Kouji and co. readily agree. A transmission from the Battler team, however, puts a stop to things, as they decide to make haste to reinforce them.

[spoiler=Postmission stats screens]

I might need to rearrange these equips for next stage, but initial scouting tells me I'll probably need to do a battleship ferry to get my crew into position, hence the booster there.

[Excellen Browning]

Tallgeese and Taurus SK

[Balcerzak]

Tallgeese and Taurus SK

Sounds good. I think I'll close out the list here though. I'll probably have to bench a few of the people on the list here and there, when deployment slots get tight. I'll play that by ear when I get there, though, and I'm sure it'll depend on whose spirits I want more on any given map.

I've got a pretty good run finished on Chapter 3A, but posting it will have to wait until whenever I'm done with work tomorrow. Combattler V is a surprisingly competent unit. I'll miss it when it's no longer free.

[Balcerzak]

It's hard to speculate on if the chapter could have gone faster if I allowed Combattler to get kills. I still doubt it could go toe-to-toe with both bosses and somehow shave a turn, but stranger things have happened. At any rate, I'm still saving my money for now, I'll probably do my first wave up upgrades as soon as the free period is over. I did however nab Support Attack on Folka, and I'm pouring the bonus PP onto Camille to get it on him as well. It's honestly probably going to be my first buy for most combat units with any decent movement stat/Accel, which sadly excludes Quattro. Anyway, enough rambling, get on with the update.

[spoiler=chapter 3, pt 1]

The game apparently keeps you informed that you're still on part of a route split, I guess that's helpful.

I know fuckall about the plot to Combattler. The dude is apparently angry because he's a robot and didn't know it, and there's some sort of tragic backstory? Anyway, Combattler arrives on scene, and the nerd subpilot tells us this is the enemy stronghold, and then a living statue shows up? I'm lost.

There's no enemy variety, but the map layout is kinda neat, I guess. This stage isn't super friendly to ground-locked units, though. IIRC Boss was physically incapable of attacking anything, lmao. Oops, spoilers.

Combattler cast Guard, Accel, and ran north. Depending on which weapon he counters with he does approximately that amount of damage. I don't bother showing him hit all the dudes he tanks. Guard is super broken in this game, apparently it boosts your armor by a large amount, or something similar, instead of reducing final damage to 1/4, so every attack did 10s to him.

[spoiler=magma beast demon stats]

Another Accel later... This EP I have to defend a couple attacks because countering would kill the enemies.

Then the cavalry arrives. Protag asks if it's normal for statues to be moving around like this, but everyone assures him it's just that one that's special.

Almost everyone loads onto the Argama.

Bright killsteals the everliving fuck out of this enemy (after Acceling to reach).

Quattro and Folka also both clean up their dudes, no fuss.

Camille needs a little help from his girl for his.

Combattler double Vigors, to full heal. I only waste about 280 health on the second one, so no biggie.

They proceed to charge the boss.

EP:

The boss fights back. I blow its single ammo, high damage 1-6 range attack that isn't Will-gated. It also does good damage to the surrounding guards, and lives due to a clutch sword cut activation.

Methuss is favored target to the other two dudes.

Turn 4:

We soften for Bright to Accel in, and provide a convenient unloading platform for (almost) everyone else.

Folka and Quattro kill those two that fired on Methuss last phase, continuing to advance toward the boss as they do.

Camille takes down another of the guard dog trio, leaving just one and the boss.

Sayaka pops out and heals Combattler. Apparently in this game you can't use spirits from inside the battleship, nor target units with spirits if they're in the ship. Good to know in advance.

[spoiler=boss stats]

Chip gundam does a little damage to the dog, she would barely scratch the paint on the boss.

Mazinger with Combattler support though, do some nice work.

The other chip gundam also wastes time with the dog.

Boss unloads, just because it'll let him resupply.

EP:

The potentially killing block is support defended by Argama. I think Mazinger support defends the dogs attack too, but I didn't cap that one.

[Balcerzak]

[spoiler=Chapter 3, pt 2]Turn 5:

Bright continues his killstealing streak.

At some point the Methuss was actually hit by something, I don't remember when, but she needs more health to survive the boss's counter and let Combattler support finish the job. Sayaka wasn't using her SP for anything else this chapter anyway...

Luck+Cheer.

When defeated, the boss calls out to Garuda, who turns on its "mother" and destroys it. Tragic backstory at work here, I guess.

Garuda then properly appears on the map, with three magma beasts accompanying him, and three roughly symmetrically opposite him, and throws down the gauntlet to Combattler.

Quattro gets a nice bazooka crit on one of the two that can reach Fa. Less dodging she'll need to do.

Chip gundams, gonna chip.

Kouji uses his full heal, gets into boss range, then chips at a magma dog.

Chip gundams, gonna chip.

Camille and Folka clean up those chips.

Combattler gets healed, resupplied, and parks itself next to Mazinger's support defense, ready to give Garuda some pain on the EP.

EP:

Combattler tries to convince Garuda to join up, fight with them, not against them, seeing as how he just destroyed the boss. He ain't having that though, and Folka remarks that pride is important for a warrior.

Combattler was healthy enough to survive and counter the magma beast.

Fa was mobile enough to dodge hers.

Quattro is a crit machine, and finishes the last one on the RHS from full health.

Turn 6:

[spoiler=garuda's stats]

Super chipping for great kill steal.

Combattler Blesses Folka.

Camille weakens Garuda.

I had Combattler support waiting in the wings, but apparently Folka was beast enough to not need it. The Combattler team try to convince Garuda to eject, but he decides to go down with his mech. Folka notes that, while important, pride alone won't solve anything.

Combattler runs over to get healed by Fa, since this is a rout map, and isn't over yet.

This positions Fa to get resupplied and healed herself.

Chip gundam allows Quattro to close into range and finish it with his not-as-powerful-as-the-bazooka post-move attack.

Combattler wish they'd met Garuda under different circumstances, and Folka admires them as an excellent warrior.

The crew then fills them in on the situation with the Shura, and when people are wondering why they've been silent for a couple of stages, Folka mentions that they're probably gathering their forces. While they live to fight, they don't just fight for the hell of it, when they fight they aim to fight to win.

On that note, the rest of the team agrees that they need to do the same and increase their fighting allies, and quickly. Combattler signs on to defend the world, and then the next order of business seems to be going to gather the Great Mazinger next.

[spoiler=administrative screenshots]

Kouji is musing that it's been quite awhile since he's seen Tetsuya, but it seems the reunion will have to wait a little longer, as Noin radios in about an unusual incident. Some troops went berserk and started killing each other with friendly fire. They're not sure if it was mass hypnosis, some kind of virus, or the result of some new kind of weapon or just what happened. The area's under quarantine while researchers try to find results, and she agrees to keep the team updated on any developments.

That's not the end of the bad news though, as reports of enemies assaulting Tokyo come in. Time to change course and battle this new threat.

[spoiler=more administrations]

[Balcerzak]

A 3 turn finish is conceivable if I had everybody load into the battleship so it could Accel to be sitting ready for the dragon to appear and then nuke it ASAP, but I wouldn't have killed any of the southwest, and probably not most of the eastern forces. I'm thinking the Mega Booster and Minovsky Craft will pay off later.

[spoiler=Ch 4 part 1]

We load into Chapter 4.

Hitomi's over by the school and currently having some visions, she's not sure what's going on and wonders if she's dreaming or something.

Meanwhile, the mechs that are rampaging across Tokyo are of a like nobody has seen before.

That doesn't stop us from transforming and rolling out.

[spoiler=here's the full map]

We have our chippers gum one of the enemies close enough to death for the Argama to finish.

Combattler and Z soften for protag. He learns Valor (already!)

On the other front, only Mazinger can chip, due to lack of movement/range. That's okay, on the EP they come to us.

EP:

We had to rig a 15% hit on Quattro so he keeps being the target, rather then them changing course for Sayaka or Boss or whoever.

During the course of EP chip work, he levels up.

Only one of the eastern enemies attacks, but we'd already killed over there, so that's not a surprise.

Turn 2:

[spoiler=oh right, enemy stats]

Hedrobot

Small UFO

Boss circles around and takes out this guy from the West, which will be important later.

I load some chippers onto the battleship.

It then takes out an enemy from above.

Combattler needs to Focus for 90% hitrate on the saucers.

Camille cleaning up, and protag doing some damage in prep for the future.

Sayaka heals Quattro, gets enough XP to learn Bless. Very nice. He's still low enough to be the designated target too.

Quattro casts Focus to step up his dodge game, chips an enemy and we prepare to end.

EP:

Some Z enemies show up to make nuisances of themselves. Protag is not impressed with their petty motivations for fighting.

Quattro kills a couple, and is pretty safe for dodging here, even against the new foes.

More dead chumps.

The eastern front is mostly looking exchanges like this.

Mazinger tanks this hit, this was planned in advance.

Turn 3:

Van suddenly appears up by Hitomi's school; to her it feels like her dream is coming to life or something.

Protag thinks the sudden appearance is similar to how he himself arrived in this world.

After some back and forth, Van introduces himself, then suddenly tells Hitomi to run, the earth dragon is coming. When it arrives, Protag is even more sure that just like with himself, these two have come from another world.

Van succeeds in drawing the dragon's attention to himself, and then we are back in control of the action.

[spoiler=first, some enemy stats]

Hambrabi

Baund Doc

Hambrabi MA

Hambrabi MA (boss)

Earth Dragon

[spoiler=Van's stats]

[Balcerzak]

[spoiler=ch4 pt2]

Quattro Focuses, stands next to Boss, and chips away at the boss.

Mazinger helps out by punching the gundam enemy that Quattro didn't have enough EN to bazooka.

Heals and resupplies.

Continuing to plug away at the right side as well.

Combattler chips something that will end up attacking Fa on EP, it wasn't really possible to both heal, and have her not a target, so it's whatever. Protag keeps putting in work as well.

Argama Accels their way toward where Van will need help.

Speaking of, he casts Gain, and positions himself so the Dragon has less defense bonus when it runs up to attack him, and is still going to be in range of the reinforcements.

EP:

Again, Mazinger is tanking.

Van crits here, but it's not needed, I have enough damage loaded in the Argama.

Quattro would have been three for three if he had more EN.

Combattler only has 1 ammo for the range it's being attacked at, so I have to save it for the boss.

Fa was attacked like we knew would happen.

Turn 4:

I'm making use of protag's Support Attack already. The hardest part about this was resetting to avoid a critkill.

Fa does the standard Luck finish, and picks up the boss's loot. Of course, he runs away to fight another day.

Protag cleans up the last scrap from the eastern group.

We soften up the dragon to ridiculous levels.

Buff city.

Quattro takes care of his boss.

Boss cleans up the scrap.

Well, might as well earn some XP with Sayaka, it encourages good habits.

Van does the honors on the dragon.

Now that there's a little more time for introductions, protag asks Van more questions about how he arrived here and the flash of light that accompanied the transition. He's initially confused, but then remembers back when he was fighting the dragon beforehand. He explains he needed to kill the dragon to take its energist, and when everyone else looks confused he asks how everyone else's Guymelefs move if they don't have any. The whole typical "wait, your mechs don't work like our mechs" schtick.

At about this time, the energist flashes and everyone is enveloped in white light.

I'm pumping up Camille to get to that Support Attack as I mentioned before.

We're treated to a little interlude here with some folks we've not yet scene. There's some discussion about the arrival of a new batch of surface dwellers, in robots unlike any they've seen before. There's talk about some Drake fellow, and while they're happy to have gotten to the surface dwellers before he has, they have to wonder if he knows what's going on. It's also a little unsure how they got here with such a big ship, an "Aura Lord" as they called it, without relying on an E Ferario. One of them is a little pissy, and thinks the surface dwellers should just sod off to the surface.

There's an offscreen exchange between two shadowy bad guys, one a big shot, the other obviously a peon. There's was a reference to Fernando, a discussion about ambition, and an inner monologue about needing to get power to heal his wounds.

After making sure everyone is okay, the next step is figuring out where they are. It's obviously not Fanelia, as the Mystic Moon can't be seen in the sky.

The discussion goes to what Van plans to do next and he's like "Me? That wasn't your doing?"

At this point, Maybell comes up and explains this isn't the surface, it's actually a world between the sea and the land, named Byston Well. Apparently there was a big earthquake a few days back, and ever since, a bunch of people from other worlds have been showing up. They explain that they're fighting a man named Drake, and they ask if they'll be willing to join them.

Van's not happy about that idea, as now that he's finally got an energist, he needs to hurry back to Fanelia.

Hitomi speaks up around here, and everyone is surprised she got dragged along as well, with the gundam folks promising to protect her, as she's just a civilian.

There's some discussion about whether it's possible to use the energist to travel worlds, or if they need to seek out an E Ferario, one of which is coincidentally a captive of Drake.

Van refuses to budge, and says if the energist can do it, he'll make it do it. It's the proof of kingship he was seeking, after all. Everyone's surprised to hear he's a king, and he has to admit he hasn't quite been crowned yet, but if it's his fault they've all gotten wrapped up in this, he'll search for a way to return them to their home after he gets back to Fanelia.

With two ways to choose from, we have our route split here, and obviously I'm way more invested in Escaflowne.

The energist flashes again, and there's something going on with Hitomi's pendant. Then the fiesty fairy from the Aura Battlers team exclaims that they've vanished.

When they arrive, it's a big surprise to most of the team, the Earth is hanging in the sky, and Van is referring to it as the Mystic Moon. There's some puzzle and disbelief about that. Could they just fly their spaceship home, why had Van's world, Gaia, never been discovered if that was the case, etc. Turns out it's just a mirage of the Earth, according to the sensors, nothing more than an image. Truly a Mystic Moon. Hitomi wonders just why her pendant acted up earlier, and everyone is a little bristly and in a hurry to get home. Van doesn't know how he made the energist work, but he promises to search for a way, but first, as long as they're here, they should make their way to Fanelia.

I'm testing out these part equips, see if they work or not.

[Balcerzak]

This is one of the weirder chapters I've ever played. It was essentially two unconnected chapters stapled together, lol. Acrobunch can't take down either goblin boss, it's 100% impossible, they have too much health and the 2 turn limit is just lol. The Stealth Mantle effect of the Alseides is terrible. I'm not sure, but it seems to activate more than normal when they're at lower health.

[spoiler=ch5 pt 1]

Looks like we're officially in Scene 2 now, as the previous chapters no longer display on the list.

Acrobunch got sucked into planes-jumping just like a lot of other folk have, and so have some goblin enemies who have beef with them. There's a lot of humorous in-banter between Papa and his kids, then the chapter actually begins.

[spoiler=the map]

[spoiler=acrobunch stats]

[spoiler=enemy stats]

Ceramic

Keradus

Diranos

We cast Valor for some extra Will, and I think we cast Strike to make sure we didn't miss. Also Accel and Gain, to get into position and for better XP.

Example damage based on ranged vs 1 range. One of the enemies can't reach us for softening this turn, which resulted in quite the conundrum. Luckily, it was solvable.

We buff up and move to this location. We do not attack. In this location we are in range to get hit by the lower boss, but not the upper boss. The upper boss would have attacked before a mook and stolen the buffs, but I believe I needed the Acrobunch to get hit for more Will (or maybe it was to level, I'm pretty sure it was something).

We take out two of the mooks, I forgot the kill capture on the second, but it's an excuse to show you the battle window, I suppose.

After tanking the boss's hit, Acrobunch levels up all its pilots. One learns a new spirit.

We kill the wounded guy, and have worked things out so that we can crit that final, unharmed mook, thankfully.

One of the goblins wants to hurry up and take care of acrobunch, but the other senses a reaction from something and they run off to pursue it. After muttering something about how the goblins sure are fleet of foot, the Acrobunch is in hot pursuit themselves.

In the nearby city, the disappearance of the combat readings is noted, and the crew wonders if there's always this much fighting in Fanelia. Van explains that, no, it's usually actually very peaceful. At about this time, he's mobbed by a catgirl who is overly attached to him, and had nearly worried to death in his absence.

Van explains that he brought back the dragon's energist, and Balgas and the knights are very pleased.

At least until some indescribable enemy attack. Balgas tells the guests to let them handle things, and instructs Van to take them to the shrine. In the one in a million chance things go south, he's to waken Escaflowne and make a contract with it.

One of the knights gets lucky and pierces the enemy's cloaking defense, revealing it to be a guymelef. Dilandau is displeased with the failure of his subordinate. Now that they've been seen, everyone has to burn to the ground.

[spoiler=new map]

Turn 3 is nothing but NPC and enemy movement. LAME.

Van is as impatient as we are, and wakens Escaflowne. Hitomi gets the feeling she's seen it before.

As he leaves to join the fight, he's wondering why everyone else is following him. Quattro explains that even though it's another world here, they can't just let a city get destroyed.

We deploy, and there's a bit of discussion, marveling about the stealth technology, wondering if the attack has something to do with their arrival. One of the smart guys pipes up that it's more likely someone was trying to make use of Van's, the king's, absence and strike when there'd be most disorder. Protag comments on the fact that every world seems to have some folks that just lust for fighting. Bright says enough yakking, time to save the city.

[spoiler=escaflowne]

[spoiler=enemies]

[spoiler=finalmap]

The Alseides are dodgy as fuck, even without Stealth Mantle.

After some chipping, Camille gets a kill and levels up and collects a drop.

More chipping and Quattro does the same.

More chipping, and Boss cleans up the last thing we can get to.

End of the phase.

[Balcerzak]

[spoiler=ch5 pt2]

I didn't take many screenshots on turn 5, because booking it all the way south to where the rest of the enemies had mopped up the NPCs was pretty much all I could do.

I get turned on, but not really whooped.

I give at least as good as I get. Thank heavens for Strike on battleships...

Pretty much how the EP ended.

Turn 6:

Fa Luck kill, with a little Support Attack to make it happen.

Boss struggles to hit the target, but enough reloads and it goes down.

Too much SP on Accel, not enough for Strike :( Bless/Cheer though :)

Taking 'em down one by one.

Bless/Gain support helping Van at least get any action this map, lol.

More kills.

EP:

I only had one straggler to deal with, thankfully. That's all but the post mission talkie bits.

Dilandau is frustrated by his troops' inability to deal, and they bluster back about how there were unexpected circumstances.

Balgas tells Van to take the guest and flee, but the young king is loathe to turn his back on an enemy.

The gundam crew attempt to convince him.

Dilandau won't let his prey go so easily though, but Balgas jumps in the way and says he'll need to go through him first.

It doesn't go well for Balgas...

The spoils of bonus PP.

There was apparently another flash of light and transportation, but this time they're still in Gaia, just somewhere else. Van can tell that much from the stars, at least. In the meantime, Bright is taking roll and it is discovered that Hitomi is missing. Oh shi-!

She's currently somewhere nearby, near enough at least for Van to hear her scream as she's set upon by some unruly men. Luckily for her, Allen was nearby and saved her, but she ended up fainting.

Fa, Camille, and Van get to the scene first. Assuming the worst, Van attacks. IIRC, Allen tells him swordplay is not a game, and handily defeats him.

As the rest of the gang arrive, the truth comes to light, he was just saving the young lady, and heck, the actual culprit's cries can be heard as they're running off into the distance. Anyway, Allen invites them all to his estate to recover.

They explain the whole jumping worlds bit, and Allen seems convinced enough.

He and Hitomi get formally introduced as well, preparing for the inevitable love triangle.

Everyone's eager to return to Fanelia, so Allen has to break the bad news. The catgirl is there as a refugee to back up his word, and also be just generally annoyingly clingy to Van.

It's at about this time Hitomi has a premonition, and tells everybody they need to run. There's going to be another attack, just like at Fanelia. She explains she had a vision of that one too, but didn't believe it herself. She'd occasionally get premonitions ever since she was a little girl, but it seems like ever since she came to Gaia though, her premonitions have been getting stronger and stronger. I honestly don't remember why they didn't all just bug out then, tbh, maybe I missed the explanation.

Some time later(?) Merle steals Hitomi's pendant and runs off, Hitomi chases her to find Van and Allen practicing swordfighting. Protag butts in a bit, angering Van who is frustrated about not knowing what to do. There's some small nuggets of advice given.

And that's it until next time!

[Balcerzak]

I actually played this level awhile ago, but forgot to upload it. It was the first chapter with only the chosen units, but it still managed to be wrapped up very quickly and efficiently. I did spend most of my money on upgrades to do so, and rearranged some of my parts for convenience's sake.

[spoiler=ch6, pt1]

[spoiler=upgrades]

Hyaku Shiki

Zeta

Escaflowne

Yaldabaoth

I gave the Hyaku Shiki the Minkovsky part so he could fly and use energy, allowing Boss to resupply him, and I gave my boosters to Escaflowne, so Van could go help Allen.

Welcome to Act 2.

Allen's estate is being attacked by unknown "guymelefs", and he asks the others if these were the same as the ones that invaded Fanelia.

The answer on that one is "no", the crew haven't seen them before either, though Folka does sense a strange power at work here.

The enemy announce that they're part of Drake's army, which is a surprise, as that was the name of the person the Byston Well folk were up against, but there's no time to jabber over the hows or whys right now, they need to be stopped.

[spoiler=map]

After we deploy, we're treated to a brief offscreen monologue from presumably Drake himself, laughing as his plans are coming to fruition, I guess.

Anyway, we have a new unit, the Schezarade, piloted by Allen.

[spoiler=stats]

It will serve us well. The enemy grunts are as follows:

[spoiler=stats]

Enemy reinforcements will spawn, so I spread the troops to cover where they'll arrive.

Meanwhile Allen and Van head north.

Enemy Phase:

Everything piles onto Allen, more or less.

Turn 2:

Van kills one of the mooks that was blocking Allen's path out.

That allows him to make valuable headway.

XP farming and a little further repositioning, for optimal Enemy Phase.

Enemy Phase:

It begins with reinforcements: The unseen giants led by Dilandau.

Allen identifies them as being from Zaibach, the land's greatest empire. Zaibach has a formal treaty with Astoria, Allen's country, so some of his subordinates wonder if there'll be trouble because of this.

Dilandau's not worried for two reasons: Dead men tell know tales, and there's another unknown armed force right there, ready to be blamed for it.

For some reason this makes Drake feel like he's already won, it's just a matter of time.

Dilandau's custom Alseides attacks the Zeta and eats a meaty counterattack.

The Argama had cast Strike in preparation, and does enough damage to two shot, so we're all safe there.

Allen and Van split Drake's goons.

Folka one-shots the three that attacked him.

Quattro does big damage to the ones that can reach him. (Though one of them triggered Double Image.)

[Balcerzak]

[spoiler=ch6 pt2]

Turn 3:

[spoiler=boss stats]

Dilandau

Drake's goon

Folka Accels over to clean-up for Quattro's miss.

Quattro can one-shot the far away one from full health with one of his more powerful, long-range weapons.

Fa and Camille tag team to scratch Dilandau's beautiful face, which is something not soon to be forgotten! Allen has an odd feeling this won't be the last time they meet.

It takes a few loads before Boss finally manages to land the punch, but it's worth it.

If only Argama could afford another round of Strike.

Camille cleans up the penultimate Alseides, there's only the wounded one by Quattro and the few of Drake's troops that remain now.

Speaking of, Allen makes a beeline straight for their commander.

Which allows Van to get off a Gained finish. There are a few words about "this is as far as I can go" from the commander, but Drake tells him to withdraw, he's done enough. He also exits the stage at this point, but the rest of the minions stick around.

A couple of these guys are at full health, but by this point Will is high enough that one-shotting it won't be a problem.

Enemy Phase:

Looks like I missed the screenshot for the last kill...

Victory, somehow our army pulled through. Van apologizes for dragging Allen into things, but the latter points out that the Drake army would have likely attacked regardless.

Bright asks what the next plan is, and Allen suggests heading to Asotria's capital.

There's a bit of an argument here with Van, who thinks that's just running away, but cooler heads prevail as Allen explains that dying a senseless death won't help Van's people or his kingdom any. As long as they have their king, they have a future.

His speech also strikes a chord with Folka, who so far just seems to parrot pithy lines said by the rest of the cast. Hopefully he'll develop actual personality eventually. Anyway, their course set, everybody hops back on board and they're off.

[spoiler=bonus pp assignments]

When they arrive at the capital, they meet Princess Millerna, who seems to have some connection to Allen. He makes introductions all around.

Just as the crew is preparing to take a day off and rest, Meryl points out an uncomfortable fact. Hitomi is missing! Just what has happened?

[spoiler=assorted stats images]

I only have enough money for four bars of upgrades on Shezerade. It's okay though, I can save up for a few chapters before my next wave of mechs arrive, and it looks like I should be able to manage alright for the time being with what I have.