Battle Mastery: All enemies except Graterkin and Gelgau defeated within 5 turns
Colonel Van Vat Tran's Rhinoceros is the first ship on the scene, arriving on the southeast side of Langley. He has some cannon fodder Lion Vs with him, and Archibald sends Yuuki's Rathgrith and Carla's Randgrith as reinforcements. The base is defended by two Inspectors, Mekibos and Vigagi, and a handful of Barrelions, Gespensts, and R-Eins. Thankfully, these R-Eins have perfectly normal HP counts.
For the first three turns, there's not much I can do except move Yuuki and Carla to good terrain and letting the Barrelions eat the friendly Lions. Their Phalanx Missile Map attacks and other weapons can do decent damage to Barrelions.
My main force turns up on the northeast side of Langley turn 3, with a lot of automatic deployments and characters who can't get shot down. Most of the enemy are in the north, but some distance to the west. That means it's another turn of charging blindly forward hoping to do enough damage on counter attacks or something. I really wish these games would reward a more cautious playstyle just a little more. Anyway, Colonel Van Vat Tran talks to Lune, saying he's surprised she'd be on the ship that killed her father, and some other stuff.
I end turn 4 with one badly damaged Barrelion in the middle of my troops; I think I'll save it for one of the back line to kill. R-Eins and Gespensts are close enough to shoot on my next turn and I hope they approach instead of sitting back and trying to snipe Ratsel and Lamia, who're out front.
On turn 5, the last four mechs in the northwest haven't budged, so it looks like I have to go after them... damn. I might have to burn a lot of Valor if I want this BM. Ratsel snipes the most distant Gespenst with Valor + Strike, Lamia smacks an R-Eins with Phantom Phoenix, leaving just a few enemies very close to my troops.
Once the BM is mine, Archibald appears and stabs Colonel Van Vat Tran right in the back. Mekibos throws a MAP attack that his 'everyone, the fucking cheater. The Shirogane warps in and tries to shoot down the Hagane. A squad of Ashsabers, commanded by Lemon, Echidna, Axel, and Wodan Ymir launches from the Shirogane. Lemon tries to talk Excellen to come with her, but gets turned won.
Ok... the next turn or so is gonna suck. Kyosuke managed to dodge Axel's attack, but there's a lot of resetting here when the grunts get a lucky hit. Fuck it.... starting over because of the fucking bullshit MAP attack leaving everyone too damn close to dying. Whoever thought this was a great idea for a map needs a hammer to the head. It's just a pain in the ass fighting enemies that can't be hit without Strike AND can't be dodged without Focus.
This time around, a few guys who can't make it to the front just hang out on some good terrain at the back. After my troops survive a round of attacks, the Hagane crew wakes up. Captain Daitetsu is badly wounded, but orders Tetsuya to retreat, using the same tactic they used to breach the White Star last year. So... I guess I have to either hold out another turn or two or the game will wait for a suitable dramatic moment like forcing a commander to retreat. Either way, I have to scrape up 20 XP for Kai first.
Echidna's Rathgrith has the least HP of any boss, so I go for her. The grunts all have Support Defense level 3 and are crammed right in on top of each other, so it'd be very hard to take out more than a handful of them. Just before my units manage to pull out, Axel trashes the Alteisen, taking an arm and a leg as trophies. Then a pile of Einst warp in to stop in from finishing Kyosuke (erm... thanks, Alfimi?), or possibly just as part of their plan to take over the world, since sightings are coming in from everywhere. Vigagi panics, but Mekibos points out that they'll be safe (-ish) once they're in orbit. Mekibos wants to blow up one of the friendly carriers, so Colonel Van Vat Tran tries to ram him. Shame Vigagi got in the way.
Once the Hagane is away from Langley, the crew finds that Captain Daitetsu is dead. Kyosuke's alive, barely, and there's a chance he won't come out of surgery (well, as far as the characters know). “Stay alive, fight your way out,” were Captain Daitetsu's last words, and they'll be hard to carry out. The Hagane's dead in the water, so to speak, and an enemy attack right now would finish them off. The dialogue is written assuming the quite likely outcome of this chapter: half your units shot down.
Mekibos contacts the Shirogane, saying that the Inspectors have accepted the Shadow Mirror's offer and that they can enter the White Star. The Einst are multiplying everywhere and both the Neo DC and the EFA have their hands full. Even Vindel doesn't want complete chaos like the Einst seem to bring; he wants to rule over the world as some sort of two-bit god. He leaves the Earth Cradle to Egret Feff and sends Wodan Ymir and a few other units.
In the Cradle, Egret orders the mass production of Bergelmirs and Machinery Children, and accelerated work on the Machine Cells. Dr. Setme just wants to continue her own research, which means hunting down the Hagane and Hiryu to gather new samples. Two Machinery Children will accompany the expedition.
Ok... nothing to do this intermission. I leave Yuuki and Carla as they are and don't bother upgrading their mechs. They're decent long-range units, but I already have the R-2 Powered, the Ashsaber, the R-Gun Powered, etc. They don't really fill any role that isn't already taken by something better.
