Ch 5 Combat 1"The Long Haul"

Mission. Chapter. Mission. Chapter. Oh lord we need some standardization all up in here. Minor nitpicking aside this is an endurance conflict that'll pit you against several waves on enemies and also has a pretty interesting branch based off what you've done for chapter 2...

Deployment
Friendly Forces
- Tessaract
--- Natalie
- Verein Zero
--- Anderson
- 2 x Verein First Types
--- John
--- Yohko
- 4 x Units of your choice
If relationship with Jean is very good then in addition.
- AG-01
--- Jean

Unit 1 will be placed to the left of the Tessaract.
Unit 2 will be placed to the left of the upper V-One.
Unit 4 will be placed below the Tessaract.

Bring Rane along for Fetter. Seriously.

Enemy Forces
- 12 x Leoships
--- Level 9 Space Vikings
- 8 x Snakefish
--- Level 10 Space Vikings
- 4 x Amardens
--- Level 12 Pirate Captains

We've caught the pirates with their pants down on this one. They deployed the majority of their forces hoping to get some easy takings by ambushing another poor defenceless leisure cruiser only for it to deploy a plethora of mecha right in front of them.

If Jean was touching Anderson on the launch she'll remark that our loveable commander has the craziest of plans but he's also the coolest employer she's had.

At the same time as long as you've paid some attention to her Jean's morale will instantly hit 120 if she's deployed in the combat zone as well which is awesome as everyone else will be at 80 due to not being able to talk to one another in the fight.

Win Condition
This one's another straight forward game of tag with a stationary target. We've got no time limit at all and the objective won't be triggered at all by clearing the stage of all enemies so take your time to destroy the deployed pirates to earn back some much needed morale.

Engaging
Oh those poor Leos. They're just the same as the ones from Chapter 3 just with slightly higher leveled Space Vikings who are still space inept so there won't be much trouble from them. Again just focus fire on the poor bastards to avoid getting Kamikazied.

The Snakefishes are more than just simple pallet swaped Leoships. They have marginal statistic improvements all round to all numerical stats short of a bigger energy pool but are still being piloted by slack jawed Vikings meaning they're still trying to fight you with a D rank in space.

Their weapons however have recieved an upgrade. Their 3-Way Gattling Beam is a mild improvement over the 4-Way Machine Cannon but if your units are plated in anything but ThermoKevlar then take note that this attack is considered a beam attack with a post-movement range of 1-4 and comes with a good accuracy boost.

They also come loaded with a deadly Fang Rush attack which has a post-movement range of 1-2 which is incredibly accurate and with a very solid critical chance. Fortunatley it doesn't count as a beam attack so it shouldn't strike any weaknesses.

The Snakefishes need to be your priority targets to make it through with little damage. After they're all gone you can engage the Leoships however you want. Even with the morale reduction they can be taken out in two shots or in a single shot from Jean.

The Armardens will often hold their positions on the map until you approach them after which any one of the capital ships that are nearby will start to pursue. This gives us the option of either sitting at the deployment area to mop up all the fighters at our own pace or heading out to punch a hole through them and the ships.

The Armardens should be taken with a little more seriousness. Their captains aren't as retarded as the Vikings and are capable of pulling off an S rank in space but their capital ships are slow and cumbersome compared to our "small" sized units.

Their primary attack is an anti-ship Laser Cannon with a post movement range of 2-6 which is horribly inaccurate. Any well trained unit leeching off of Anderson's leadership ability will be able to dodge this attack no problem but any hits taken can severly cripple a unit as again this attack counts as a beam.

Their secondary weapons are post-movement range 1-2 anti-suit Turret Machine Cannons. Even though they don't have a crazy accuracy penalty a good, highly mobile suit leeching off Leadership can still reguarly dodge this attack and even if it doesn't it won't hurt as much as getting a full on LASER TO THE FACE.

Take the Armardens on after gaining all the morale you can from the small fry.

The Tessaract is on hand to repair any damaged units that board it. It will also reload any ammunition on carried weapons in hardpoints but it doesn't want to reload Anderson's frame. It will also refuel units as well.

Aer Frame Shenanigans
If you missed the early Sidus frame send everyone north at Anderson's unfleeted movement.

End turn.

Next turn Fleeting and Attention Anderson and move him just under or a little to the right and under the square with no stars just a blank square. Move everyone else closeish but just far enough to not be a target. The AI LOVES to shoot at Natalie or Yohko so make sure these two are a little further.

End turn.

Don't counter attack except against any ship that moves to point blank range in which case give it a burst of the Leo Machinegun.

Next turn Attention Anderson find your favoritest Macross soundtrack or Dragonar opening 1 and hit Missile Spread.
Mop up the Snakefishes with ranged attacks from everyone else and watch smugly as the damaged Leoships and untouched Amardens continue to shoot at Anderson.

You can probably adjust a square to the right to hit the Armardens as well. Easy money and experience not halfed by being a map attack kill.

Optional Event 1
If the relationship between Anderson and Jean has been going well you've got the chance to earn the two some quick morale.

If Jean hasn't revealed she can still communicate through touch then moving her next to Anderson and using the talk option will earn the two a quick 5 morale burst.

If Jean did reveal she could communicate then instead of a 5 morale burst we get a 10 morale burst to the two and Anderson will tell her that after this whole buisness is over he'd still want to be friends with her after the employment contract is fufilled. Daw.

Event 1
Again I have to recommend sweeping the entire area of badguys before tagging the objective. Heck board everyone on the Tessaract and let it taxi everyone over to the pirate base.

Dump everyone on the base without tagging the objective and wait until your next turn. There's no terrain bonuses for doing this but it just makes things seem a little cooler and set's things up nicely for what's about to come.
Tagging the target square will set into motion the next set of events. The communication lines will be cleared of interference and the pirates on the base launch an emergency sortee with everthing they have left.

They're abandoning their fabricated base and trying to get their ill gotten gains out of here but we're getting our own form of reinforcements.

Event 1 Reinforcements
Friendly Forces
- ERX-75 Lechiffon
--- Stana

Stana will arrive just west of the base.

Enemy Forces
- Blood Duke
--- Level 12 Rakoj
- Amarden with 2000 additonal HP
--- Level 15 Pirate Captain
- 6 x Snakefish
--- Level 10 Space Vikings
- 5 x Leoships
--- Level 9 Space Vikings

The pirate reinforcements will be spread all over the base, or all around you if you put your group on it. Oddly the mission objectives won't change so you'll have to trust me on the following parts.

Your objectives now are to destroy everything. The Battle Mastery also makes itself known, we need to knock down Rakoj's hitpoints below 50% before taking out the fleeing Amarden.

Optional Event 2
An optional event that can be done as soon as the hp boosted Armarden makes an appearance. I think this used to be a flag event but in the recent Chapter 6 update it might have been removed, but I'm not too sure.

Eitherway attacking the Armarden with Anderson will spark up an interesting flow of dialogue with Mifska, a character who reminds me too much of Cinque from Nanoha, which is a good thing. Oh god dat eye patch.

Battle Mastery
The Battle Mastery for this stage also doubles up as a Flag event as well so it's pretty important that you get this one. It's usually best to clear up all the little ships in the area first before tackling Rakoj.

You'll want to have Ikarane Fetter the Armarden at every chance she can until you get Rakoj off the field as the Armarden will attempt to flee west out of the combat zone.

Rakoj as a pilot is really solid. He starts with Evasive Perception which boosts his evasion naturally. Also he has one helping of Counter to let him strike first with a single counter-attack and has two ranks of helper letting him take hits for any of his minions or to provide support fire, hence the reason to clear up all his little ones.

The Blood Duke is also disgustingly well equipped with a ton of beam based weaponry that can really put on the hurt if you're not equipped with Thermo Kevlar. He'll prioritize using his Pulse Cannon Gun. The Pulse Cannon gun runs on an ammunition reserve of 12 rounds but it's solidly accurate with a mild chance of critical hits. Support attacks are everything here to avoid loosing units.

Anderson, Emma, Ray, Stana and Yohko all have something to say to Rakoj when they open up on him. Ray's is the most interesting, perhaps hinting on a future development for the poor guy. Emma, Ray, Stana and Yohko will also have an additional cinematic attack thrown into the mix all of which mostly ineffectual apart from Yohko's which will cancel her original attack entirely.
Also don't use any sort of "On Next Attack" SP Command effect for Emma, Ray or Yohko for their first attack on Rakoj as it will waste SP, instead throw it into Concentrate or nothing at all.

Whilst you're pounding on Rakoj it might be a good idea to get a few hits in on the Armarden. Stana is in a great position to do this but try not to bring it below 50% health until you do so to Rakoj first.

Event 2
Getting Rakoj down to 50% hitpoints will force him off the field setting us up the good old battle mastery, net us one of the flags for the map and also set into motion the next event. Seeing that Rakoj has retreated Mifska will be a little annoyed at her fleeing rearguard.

The Armarden's shields will be raised as high as they can in the form of a 30 morale boost to the ship and it will continue trying to retreat to the west. Now you can really pile on the hurt.

Event 3
Dropping the Armarden below 50% hitpoints will force Mifska to order the ship's cargo holds be dumped to allow the ship to make a hasty retreat from the area. If Rakoj is still around he'll retreat from the area as well but if he's not then we're able to get back some of Venesia's stolen goods.

Failure to stop the Armarden will result in it getting the hell out of here and we get nothing.

Preparing For Part 2
With just the Armarden close to it's 50% hit point threshold on the map it's probably a very good time to prepare for the next part of this stage.

Dock anyone in need of repairs or a recharge onboard the Tessaract and deploy what units you can right in the center of the map. Leave a unit or two to hound the fleeing Armarden for when you're ready for the next part.

If you worked for the Federation in Chapter 2-B then if you want as a precaution send the Tessaract south-east after redeploying your units. If you're Zeon scum keep it sitting pretty amongst your units as the Tessaract will have no effect.