In Depth: Verein First Type

Verein First Type
Mass Production M.I.V.S Mecha...

First Deployed: Chapter 5
Fixed Weapons:
- Energy Saber
Hardpoints:
-1 x Melee Weapon (Empty)
-2 x Ranged Weapons (Empty, Empty)
-1 x Special Weapons (Empty, Empty)
Adjustable Features:
-1 x Armor Slot (Empty)
-1 x Parts Slot (Empty)
-1 x Engine Slot (Empty)
-1 x Computer Slot (Empty)
-1 x Booster Slot (Empty)
-1 x Misc Slot (Empty)
-1 x Consumable Slot (Empty)
-1 x Food Slot (Empty)
Terrain Features: No flight system. No inherrent hover capabilities.
Piloting Restrictions: None so far.
Notes: An upgrade that will fall flat on it's face when you're introduced it, potentially skewing your perception of it for forever thanks to the combination of it's introductory level being set in space, it's starting pilots being cringeworthy space pilots suited for ground operations and horrible terrain modifiers worse than an original Verein Unit.

The First Type gets a fractional numerical increase on it's mobility and armor but with the wrong pilot at the controls this is completly moot as a dropped rank in terrain mastery will have a much more significant negative effect. For the next chapter you'll want to swap the current pilots, John and Yohko who are both C rank in space, to someone with at least an A rank so that the unit will cruise along with a total B thus bringing it in line with the rest of the Vereins. You've got four options here, Ikarane, Keeru, Bruno or Hotariko can draw out the best potential for the First Type in space.

Other than having to sort out those stupid terrain modifications, the first can be a pretty sassy combat unit with an extended inventory off offensive options in the form of an extra ranged slot and an inbuilt melee weapon the Energy Saber.

The Energy Saber is a point blank post-movement melee attack which requires the pilot be at 110 morale. It'll drain off 15 energy per swing and is your atypical beam melee weapons capable of slashing away projectiles and melee attacks, steal on critical hits and put out some good solid damage with a base attack of 200. It's got some accuracy bonuses and a critical chace on the same level as a beam saber which means a beam axe can still reguarly outpace it for the same energy costs, the Energy Saber does however have a dramatic kill effect. Nice.

We do lose a consumable slot as well but the ability to have two sets of ranged weapons means ammunition shouldn't be too much of a problem so instead the slot can be soley dedicated to a booster or a repair crate.

Other then having to fix the terrain modifier problems by jigging around the pilot assignments the First type can be a powerful replacement for standard V-Unit pilots as long as you use it correctly. Also DRAGONAR.

In Depth: ERX-75 Lechiffon

ERX-75 Lechiffon
Transforming Space Fighter of Sheer AWESOME...

Obtained Where: Complete Chapter 5
Fixed Weapons:
Fighter Mode
- Ripple Arc Laser
- Homing Missile
- Arrow Flash[Charge]
Robot Mode
- Penetration Laser
- Wide Scope Laser
- Arrow Flash[Beam]
Hardpoints:
- None!
Adjustable Features:
-1 x Powerup (Empty)
-1 x Armor Slot (Quick Silver Layer)
-1 x Shielding Slot(Empty)
-1 x Engine Slot (Quantum Driver)
-1 x Computer Slot (S.E.A.S)
-1 x Booster Slot (Ion Thruster)
-2 x Misc Slot (Brooch of the Hunter, Empty)
-1 x Consumable Slot (Empty)
-3 x Food Slot (Empty, Empty, Empty)
Terrain Features: Full flight in Fighter mode. Flight Pack in Robot mode.
Additional Features:
- Transformation. Unit can freely transform between fighter mode and robot mode.
- Flash Barrier. Nulifies any damage lower than 100.
Piloting Restrictions: Stana only.
Notes: Our first real transforming unit that's really useful (Sorry Anderson). The ERX-75 Lechiffon is based of the old shoot em up Arrow Flash on the sega Genesis, just given a little more 'original' treatment to help shore up it's plotline a little.

It's fragile in both forms with it's low hit point pool meaning armor should be it's top prioritory but it forutnatly comes with Quick Silver Layer plating that provides it a TON of abilities, 300 extra hitpoints, a 5 armor bonus, a single square of movement, +15 to mobility AND +50 to energy. Some may be tempted to remove this of the Lechiffon and place it onto another unit in which case replace it with one of the armors you can pick up from Chapter 5's Battle Mastery.

The Engine slot is wasted by the Quantum Driver considering how much of an energy hog the Lechiffon is. Swap it around with a reactor that will provide a bigger energy pool and percentile recharge rate so that you can really milk the Arrow Flash attacks. Save the Quantum Driver and it's ability to ignore enemy units during movement for a new unit we'll get a chance to outfit in Chapter 6.

Gracing the computer slot is S.E.A.S our first Artificial Support Pilot. S.E.A.S provides no real obvious bonus as a computer slot item but during battle S.E.A.S has it's own SP pool and SP Commands to choose from, seperate from the unit's original pilot. S.E.A.S will have the same level as it's pilot and will unlock new abilities at level 10 and 20, giving it a little more than just a somewhat useless analyze ability. You can freely switch S.E.A.S around to whoever you think might need an +3 movement boost as an additional SP Command but it's easy for her to stay onboard the Lechiffon so you can constantly milk the Ion Thruster's impressive mobility bonus without sacrificing movement squares.

Two Misc slots also means Two Brooches of the Overlord. That's a total of +10 to Evasion and +10 to reflexes to further boost evasion sky high along with all the extra statistics to squeeze out a little more damage.

The fighter mode's Ripple Arc Laser is an energy hog, draining 30 energy from the unit to fire off. It has a post-movement range of 1-4 and is a healthy combination of beam and sound thrown into the mix which might give us a few offensive options later on in the game. At only 150 base attack power it's easy to miss why this attack has been given a stupidly high energy cost, the Ripple Arc Laser also reduces the accuracy and evasion ratio of anything it hits by half for 2 turns that's why it costs so much. A potential life saving ability in chapter 6.

The Lechiffon's Homing Missiles are a world better than the Aer frame with a base damage of 230 with a range of 2-6. It's only got a B rank in space but it can still outpace the damage alot better. It's highly accurate and considered a homing attack so it's unaffected by distance in the hit chance calculation. Like the Aer frame however it's plagued by a low ammunition capacity with just 6 rounds and it can also be intercepted or slashed away by skilled opponents.

Arrow Flash[Charge] is Stana's only melee option that requires her to be at 120 morale. It has a post movement range of 1-3, is very accurate and has an incredible critical chance. If the enemy attempts to throw up a shield to reduce damage taken from the attack it will be pierced. It will also knock back the target a square on a successful hit. With a base damage of 435 this will be your most powerful attack available to you at this stage. It'll drain 40 energy and take a full turn to recharge after letting this one off.

The Penetration Laser is a ranged post-movement 1-3 beam based attack with the ability to penetrate enemy targets thus ignoring a small amount of their armor during damage calculation. It's relativley cheap to fire off a shot at just 5 energy and it's pretty powerful as well with a base attack power of 170. Although it's got a slight accuraccy penalty the Penetration Laser is recommended as your bread and butter attack. Because of it's penetration capabilities it's ideal for dealing with high armor units and can help some with the upcoming chapter 6.

Wide Scope Laser is your weapon of choice when it comes to counter attacks from ranges 3-6 as you won't be able to fire it off whilst on the move. It's got a good solid accuracy bonus, terrain modifiers and it doesn't drain too much energy with just a light cost of 10. Very solid for a beam weapon.

The robot mode variation of Arrow Flash is a post movement beam based map attack with a rather unique looking map attack block. It will sweep forwards from the Lechiffon five squares and will also hit a big 3x3 block right in the middle of the blast. The beam will also spread out when firing, meaning anything at close range will take maximum damage but anything a few squares away will take noticiably less damage but have a greater chance of being hit. Arrow Flash[Beam] requires Stana to be at 120 morale and drains 40 energy from the unit but it's base attack power of 355 can really put on the hurt. The beam will also require a turn after firing to recharge.

In both modes the Lechiffon will have a Flash Barrier which will completley ignore any attack that fails to break a magical threshold of 100 damage. In the fighter mode this costs nothing to the unit but in robot mode any attack successfully absorbed will cost 5 energy.

Overall the Lechiffon is an incredible unit that can initially be glossed over as a little useless if you don't pay attention to energy management. A few rounds in the simulator, getting an idea how the "Lechi" works can really help. It can play both the highly aggressive sweeper role and for a change can be an evasion decoy together with Stana's concentration abilities, and we need both roles to pull of Chapter 6 successfully.

In Depth: Zaku I Early Type

Zaku I Early Type
Mass Production General Purpose Mobile Suit...

Obtained Where: Unit Survives Chapter 5
Fixed Weapons: None
Hardpoints:
-1 x Melee Weapon (Empty)
-2 x Ranged Weapon (Empty, Empty)
Adjustable Features:
-1 x Armor Slot (Empty)
-1 x Parts Slot(Empty)
-1 x Engine Slot (Empty)
-1 x Computer Slot (Empty)
-1 x Booster Slot (Empty)
-1 x Misc Slot (Empty)
-1 x Consumable Slot (Empty)
-1 x Food Slot (Empty)
Terrain Features: No flight system. No inherrent hover capabilities.
Piloting Restrictions: None so far.
Notes: It's the Zaku I but horrible. It's missing a movement square, it's got Zaku II terrain modifiers, horrible speed and horrible armor. That energy pool as well is tiny limiting the use of beam weapons.

Normally it'd be easy to look over the Zaku I ET but with the upcoming Chapter 6 and it's BALLS TO THE WALL requirement for damage output to secure all of the optional objectives means this unit is a viable option if you're finding Chapter 6 difficult.

Since the Covenant are going to be pretty much hitting us anyway unless you expend SP like crazy the ET can help cut losses by bringing more Medium sized Hand Cannons and close combat weapons to the field for taking out those pesky Battlecruisers.

Again no Beam weakness, so that's worth taking into account should we run into any beam based weaponry later on.

In Depth: Zaku Flipper

Zaku Flipper
Mass Production Reconnaissance Mobile Suit...

Obtained Where: Unit Survives Chapter 5
Fixed Weapons: None
Hardpoints:
-1 x Melee Weapon (Empty)
-2 x Ranged Weapon (Empty, Empty)
-1 x Special Weapon (Empty)
Adjustable Features:
-1 x Armor Slot (Empty)
-1 x Parts Slot(Empty)
-1 x Engine Slot (Empty)
-1 x Computer Slot (Empty)
-1 x Booster Slot (Empty)
-1 x Misc Slot (Empty)
-2 x Consumable Slot (Empty, Empty)
-1 x Food Slot (Empty)
Terrain Features: No flight system. No inherrent hover capabilities.
Piloting Restrictions: None so far.
Notes: I love this thing, I really do. In my opinion this is a good solid upgrade to the Zaku I if you're using it reguarly and perhaps even a pretty good upgrade for a Zaku II. On it's own it's also a good medium classification unit capable of bringing a little more to the battle than what looks to be a pretty standard stat line.

The Flipper sees a reduction in it's mobilty compared to the Zaku II or Zaku I but mounts an armor rating in the middle of the two. It also manages to push out a full 4 square movement letting it keep up with the rest of our Verein units without lagging behind and comes with the full McCoy of customization options.

An additional consumable slot along with the impressive hardpoint selection of a melee weapon two ranged weapons AND a Special Weapon gives the Flipper a ton of ranged options especially for Beam Shooter snipers like Emma or Bruno.

It also lacks the inherrent beam weakness often found on Gundam 0079 suits, a minor slip up or intentional? Either way that means it'll last longer should we run aground of beam weapons.

I find that mounting Stana's Quick Silver Layer on the Flipper to be absolutely awesome, especially if you plan on using the Beam Shooter on this unit, otherwise mounting any of the armor you picked up from Chapter 5's battle mastery and outfitting the Flipper with Cerberus Hand Cannons and a Boomerang will really help for Chapter 6.

Ch 5 Combat 2 "The Not So Long Haul"

Although things in the second part of Chapter 5's combat scenario ultimately play out and result in the same basic events, depending on what you did for Chapter 2 can modify some of these events and possibly make things a little more difficult if you didn't prepare yourself for this second part.

With the area secured and any remaining pirates in a full blown retreat it looks like the Task Force have completed the contract with flying colors. Looks like the SDA was man made by this big floating metal hulk the pirates called their base. It's got nothing on the Tessaract, or engines, or any real charm since we blasted it's ECM thingy so maybe there might be something on board worth taking.

If you picked up the two flags associtacted with Mifska then Anderson will request that Tenea find out more about Mifska, thinking she might be more closely associated to the pirates or even one of their four generals.

Jean will also follow up with this request if your relationship is high enough with her own playful jealousy that gets the Albino Maid all worked up but ends up hurting herself a little. Oh Anderson, will you ever get the hint you blockhead?

With the readings all clear the Tessaract picks up a new signal approaching the former SDA site. A Principality of Zeon Musai arrives on the scene and it's pretty snappy in deploying it's mobile suits on arrival in the South East.

Two Zaku I Early Types (poor bastards), a Zaku Flipper (YES!), a Zaku II (Yay), a Zaku II High Mobility Test Type (HELL YES!) and a Zudah (I came) make up the Musai's full mobile suit complement (Must be a refitted one to carry that extra suit). Judging from the age of the mobile suits, especially with those Zaku Early Types flying about the unit deployed here might not be your standard up to scratch Zeon team but with everything we've been through so far they might be a challenge.

If you worked for Zeon
The pilot of the Zudah wastes no time and opens fire on Anderson only to be halted by one of the pilots under her command. The Zeon team recognises your forces as the C.A.G mobile force that assisted the legendary Red Comet in the attack on Side 7.

Any friend of Char is a friend of Zeon and the new arrivals are quick to open up a communication channel with the Task Force.

After an apology from the Zudah pilot the Zeon unit reveal that they too were dispatched to clear the SDA from the area by high command, just a shame they arrived a little too late to help us sweep the pirates away. Judging from the levels of the unit, other than the Zudah it seems the rest of the team are wet behind the ears greenhorns. Maybe Zeon didn't dwell too much on the SDA but at least the pilots have their hearts set in the right place, for the good of the local colonies!

If you gave Char the Gundam parts in any form instead of using them to upgrade to the Verein Geves or keep the Learning Computer and alloys then one of the pilots will mention Char went and built himself a new mobile suit thanks to us. That's right. Char's got a Gundam. Giving him the parts really screws the Federation.

Things are interupted by the arrival of a new force. A formation of one capital ship class enemy and eight fighters drop in on the little get together right smack dab in the middle of the map. The Zeon forces have no idea who they are and only Natalie can shed some light on the situation, they ain't local and they've got far superior technology compared to us.

The capital ship will open up on the Musai and destroy it in a single shot. We're terribly outclassed here but the combined efforts of an exhausted mercenary unit and fresh faced Zaku and Zudah pilots might be able to handle this new enemy.

Destroying one of the enemy units will result in the next set of events.

If you worked for the Federation
The Zekes aren't too happy to see us around here in the SDA. Any attempts to communicate to them are instally brushed aside. They want to play and they want to play rough with the forces that halted their attack on Side 7.

Before we can get the party started the unknown fleet jumps into the middle of the combat just as if we were friends with the Zekes and destroy the Musai in a single shot and open fire on the Tessaract as well.

We're caught up in a three way brawl with Zakus shooting fighters and us and the unknown fleet shooting at us and the Zekes. It's recommended you ignore the Zeon forces completly and work on destroying the unknowns to trigger the next event.


Engaging
If the Zakus hate you ignore them completly. They'll be going on the Neutral phase so it'll take a while to get to them. If you deployed the Tessaract ontop of their deployment zone then they'll be too busy shooting at Natalie should it come to their phase or the real enemy on map will engage the Tessaract instead of the rookie Zeon pilots.

We've got two primary threats in the area and one set of Fodder.

The Seraph fighters are medium sized units that are probably the first set of fighters introduced in CF that are actually pretty deadly for our forces. Fortunately those piloted by Grunts are much more manageable compared to those with a Blue Elite at the controls and can be considered fodder.

Seraphs combine both insane mobility with their equipped thrusters, most skimming the 100 mark as well as being covered in a nice thick 40 armor rating and move 5. That 300 hit points of theirs can last for a surpising while especially with a whole size rank higher than a majority of our units.

They're loaded with three types of weapons, a range 1-5 post movement pulse laser with great accuracy and a mild critical boost which'll be it's weakest attack. Thanks to it's Medium size the Seraph can still hit pretty hard with this attack.

It's Heavy Plasma Cannon is usually it's optimum choice for counter attacks with a stat line that almost matches that of the Pulse Laser in it's accuracy and critical ratio bonus but it hits much harder with a range of only 1-3.

It also comes loaded with a map attack as it's best weapon but fortune smiles on us today as it can only be used on ground based targets and we're all in space.

Ideally it's best to engage at 4 squares or to beam snipe the Seraphs at maximum range to avoid taking on a great deal of damage.

Priority should be given to whitling down the Blue Elites as they're pretty good at chewing up Zakus and Vereins alike whilst the Grunts aren't as maor a threat.

Also in the area is a CCC class Battlecruiser and this thing has a good set of equipment and stats to backup it's oneshot of a Musai. The Battlecruiser has a Gold Elite and it's control staff at the helm of the ship making it INSANELY accurate with pretty much all it's weapons, and despite having a low armor rating it's Large classification and massive hitpoint pool can keep it in the fight despite the gravest of hits.

The Battlecruiser's primary anti-suit armanaent conists of a smaller ranged post-movement 1-2 Pulse Laser as found on the Seraph but it gains an additional +40 to it's base damage and with the Large classifcation it's going to be shearing off armor plates quite rapidly.

It also mounts Plasma Turrets with a range of 1-5 capable of ignoring all barriers and shielding on any target it fires against. The Turrets have a small reduction in accuracy but thanks to the command crew under the Gold Elite this reduction is pretty much negligible. With a base attack power of Large 280 expect a ton of hurt.

Finally it's primary anti-ship armanent is rounded out by a Plasma Torpedo launcher. The launcher comes loaded with just 3 rounds and requires the Gold Elite to be at 115 morale to fire off but has a maximum range of up to 7 squares with a deadzone at point blank. Again just like the Plasma Turret despite having a massive accuracy reduction the Gold Elite and it's command crew are able to score impressive hits with this thing. With a base attack power of Large 400 this used to pretty much one shot some of the Zaku Pilots or come very close until the chapter 6 update rolled around.

If the Battlecruiser is at high enough morale you'll want to drain all three of it's torpedo rounds by sniping with Beam Shooters at maximum range just to protect the Zeon forces or maybe even dodge a round meant for you in the Covenant attack phase.

Protecting the Zeon Forces
There's a small bonus here weather the Zeon forces hate you or love you. If you can keep the Zaku Flipper and/or any of the Zaku I Early Types you recieve them as potential suits. They don't have the greatest statline in the world but they can provide aditional valuble options for later on thanks to their Medium size category and better terrain modifiers.

If the Zeon forces are on your side you have about a two to three turn limit if you can catch the Covenant attention before the Flipper or the Early Types start getting themselves in trouble.

If the Zeon forces hate you and have the Tessaract on their deployment zone then you can squeeze a few more turns out of them for as long as Natallie can hold out by Trusting herself.

The next event is easily triggered but sometimes an early trigger might not help the Zakus at all and instead will hamper their chances for survival. If you're finding it hard to keep these units alive allow your damage to spread throughout the entire enemy fleet for a turn so that the Covenant can pull further away from the Zeon forces.

Event 1
Destroying one of the Covenant units will result in either one or two things happening depending on wether the Zeon forces are allied or not.

Having shot down one of the fighters the Task Force will get a visual of a corpse floating through the wreckage of the destroyed Seraph. If there's any doubts before there aren't any now, these guys have come a very long way away to say 'hi'. The Zeon forces will also have a few things to say if they're fighting along side you.

Another ship jumps into the area but thankfully this one wants to talk. Enter stage left the United Nations Space Command's "Pillar Of Autumn". Maybe the UN sent out a ship to check on us considering we're probably late as hell reaching Earth but as the conversation continues between our loveable commander and their loveable commander it all becomes clear that they're here by mistake as well. Great.

If the Zeon forces were shooting at you before they'll have a turn of heart and realize their own old suits aren't up to scratch for dealing with this and will now join forces with you. They'll be AI controlled but will stop wasting ammunition trying to shoot you down.

Jean will have a few things to say as well if she's hungry for Anderson, like how AWESOME Gaiablade is for a name and things about her mercenary blog up on Global Cortex.

The Pillar will also launch some of the best allied help deployed in game so far in the form of three Longsword Interceptors that can go toe to toe with Seraphs and put some pretty impressive hurt on the Battlecruiser.

We're on the home stretch and the enemy forces are now caught up in a three way pincer.

Event 2
With the Battlecruiser and it's escorts eliminated it looks like we've finally got ourselves a well deserved break...which lasts about 5 seconds. We barely have enough time to brofist the Zeons on a job well done for getting through this massacre when Cortana will pip in with jump signatures all over the place cropping up.

Five more formations of Covenant battlecruisers and their escorts arrive in the area at full alert conditions. Everyone's exhausted at this point and low on ammunition and the possiblity of dragging the nearby colony in this conflict is growing ever imminent.

There's nothing that can be done other than to make a hasty retreat and lead the pursuing Covenant away from Earth. It takes a little convincing to get the Zeon forces to come along with us, though I would have thought having no Capital Ship would have made things impossibly hard trying to get back home.

With no jumpdrive to speak of the Tessaract will piggy back off the Autum, getting dragged along into the jump sphere techno babel thingy and despite the Zudah breaking down at the most crucial moment everyone's able to slip away in time.

Reward
We're not getting the reward from the contract but there's lots of optional rewards you can pick up. Venesia's recovered metals are freakin' awesome.

Battle Mastery Rewards
- Electrically Charged Armor (HP 350 Armor 15. Slash Resist. Beam, Explosion Weaknesses)
- 2 x Reactive Armor (HP 250 Armor 10. Slash Resist. Beam, Explosion Weaknesses)

Unit Survival Rewards
- New Unit Zaku Flipper
- New Unit Zaku I Early Type
- New Unit Zaku I Early Type

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.

Another New Vote

Vote J fgts. That is all.

Apologies to Ibis. Your chest is too flat.

Ch 5 Prologue "Those Upgrades...They Look Like Dragonar! AWESOME!"

As a precaution for this chapter completly strip John and Yohko's Vereins completly of all their equipment. Sometimes and just sometimes little bits of their equipment will dissapear for what's about to happen in the prologue for this chapter. On another note the Task Force had an epiphany and decided Hotariko was bestest for the Demitri whilst Bruno suddenly decided he hates Vereins and swapped into the Zaku.

Bruno would benefit more from the dual range weapon hardpoints and would be able to properly manage a Beam Shooter with a post movement Machinegun as back up and Hotariko would be better throwing grenades everywhere as a ranged attack.

I've also found out what it is that the grunt Vereins have been reminding me of for so long.

Anyway back to what's really going on!

If Emma gave us the photo at the end of chapter 4 then the prologue will begin with an additional opening scene. It's a little short but it involves Anderson strengthening his resolve to look out for the rest of the Task Force and to not let SERIKA take over again (I was only helping).

Anderson recieves a maintenence manifest on material expendeture and supplies, someone's got to keep track of the books. Oddly though in the recent few days two units have been using almost three times as much equipment and resources than every other unit.

Char's seemed to have won the hearts and minds of a few of our pilots after our battle with him at Side 7. Time for Anderson to sort this mess out. There's some additional lines here if you got the Verein Geves upgrade as well.

On reaching the bridge and finding the two pilots in question and Natalie everything becomes crystal clear. With all the equipment and materials we've gathered Natalie can finally step up her production plans with two of the Verein prototype units and take them to the next level. Yohko and John are the happy benifcators.

*Fist Pump* Yohko's and John's theme tune need to change over to Yume Iro Chaser. At this time we're also prompted to equip the Verein First Types. After refitting the V-Ones Idris picks up a communication from the G.A.C and we're given a little more detail on what we've been asked to do.

There's a Spacial Disturbance Area around Langrange Point 4 that is really screwing the pooch for the G.A.C and the TTF are their only real option for clearing it up. Yohko voices her concerns that this is all just going towards helping the G.A.C's profiteering and that there's no one directly benefitting from a heavily armed task force coming over the hills like white knights of love and hope. We're supposed to be finding the Imaginary Element guys for the G.A.C not being their errand boys/girls.

Our liason with the G.A.C turns out to be another old friend back from chapter one, the sexy and somewhat flirty Vinesia Brunhilde, an avid helper of those who directly and indirectly have suffered from the BETA invasion.

At this point Natalie will mention a new frame for the Zero. If your relationship with her is pretty good then she'll have been able to get together all the nesicary materials and made some personal sacrifcies to get the new frame operational for the mission to come. She'll also of had the understanding and experience needed to know what Anderson exactly needs, the utterly awesome Sidus frame.

If the relationship hasn't yet proceeded beyond labcoat and labrat then Natalie will only mention the new frame but hasn't got together the equipment or resources needed to get it operational.

With an hour to go until a full breifing of the situation at Langrange 4 there isn't enough time to put the new V-Ones thought a complete test so Yohko and John will be required to give them a few simulator rounds for quick tuning.

It's a few moments before the video meeting and our pilots arrive just on time, though John's a little more smarmy and arrogant about getting used to the new V-Ones better than Yohko. Ass.

If Anderson's relationship with Emma is really good then he'll take this moment to ask Natalie a little more about the trap she and Ikarane placed in his Zero for SERIKA.

When contact is established with Vinesia she admits that the situation out there's going to be pretty harsh on the Task Force. Communications are jammed up pretty badly out there and several tons of shipping have already mysteriously vanished to anyone capitalizing on the SDA to prey on the G.A.C shipping routes. This could be man made.

Anything going out there will have trouble communicating even to the unit next to it which could hamper any sort of plan at all. There's nothing to do but to go face first, kicking and screaming into a trap.

If you've ignored Emma and Jean entirely in the relationship aspect we get an extra scene where Vinesia beings blatantly flirting like mad with Anderson, fortunatly our Albino Maido is on hand to draw her beloved Master's attention back onto her by being a klutz.

Eitherway Jean will yap off without thinking about what she's saying provoking Emma to take her outside the room for a quick talking to. As long as you got the relationship between Anderson and Jean a little off the ground then she'll come barging back in after the meeting apologising and HNGGGGHing Anderson to oblivion. Keeruu will also datass.jpg

With the meeting done and dusted Anderson will have Idris send off a message to Stana wherever that girl is. If pirates are involved in this there's a good chance Stana would want in as well. The Bros of the team will also help point out that if the group's unable to communicate during the battle then combat prowess and morale might not be high for this one.

On entering the prospective combat area the entire ship is on high alert, waiting for the slightest hint of electroinc equipment failure or communication scrambling.

If the Jean relationship is at it's highest you can get it up until now she'll unleash the most HNNNNGHest exchange of words with Anderson.

The communication lines will start going dead as the Tessaract picks up what looks to be a large man made structure floating through space. If this really is the work of pirates they're one well organized lot.

With the dead lines of communication as the signal the Task Force will launch but if you got the HNNNNGH exchange between Jean and Anderson a few seconds ago then Jean'll reveal she can still communicate via touching between suits.

In Depth: Verein Zero [Sidus]

Verein Zero [Sidus]
Sidus Frame Mounted on Verein Zero

First Deployment: Chapter 5 if relationship with Natalie is good.
Fixed Weapons:
- Nimbelg
- Exa Calibur
- Sidus Zero
Weaknesses: Bullets, Electric, Beam.
Terrain Features: No flight system. No inherrent hover capabilities.
Additional Features:
- Defensive Stance. Useable on solid ground. Verein Zero unable to move but gains defence.
Piloting Restrictions: Anderson only.
Notes: A pure close combat frame that will pop up early in chapter 5 if we decided to keep the U.F.O and not hand in a fake in Sub Mission 1, the Sidus frame will probably turn up in a later chapter.

Where the Aer frame can be considered the Zero's airbourne equivilent and the Molior it's ground set of equipment the Sidus is pure space with very weirdly a ground feature in the form of it's defence stance. Seriously though it's got an S rank in space. An S.

The Sidus comes as well armored as the Molior, with just a fraction less of the hitpoints but is just as mobile and nippy as the Aer frame and it's base reactor falls in the middle of the two. The real strength of the Sidus however is it's offensive endurance.

Even though it's a close combat frame it does however have some range on it's most basic attack the Nimbelg.

The Nimbelg is a post movement range 1-3 melee attack that costs nothing to let rip and it's almost as powerful numbercrunch wise as a freakin' beam axe just much more accurate and with out as much critical strike chance behind it. Still though an at will 180 base attack power with no ammunition costs or energy costs this is a crazy economic attack.

The Exa Calibur clocks in at 1 square shoter than the Nimbelg with a post movement range 1-2 melee attack. For 15 energy the Exa Calibur hits with a base power of 220 (CERBERUS HAND CANNON) that will ignore barriers completly with a good critical chance and still stupidly accurate. As an added bonus it will also strip away any barriers it ignores for a whole turn allowing any allies to score hits unhindered.

Sidus Zero is this frame's final melee 'purging' attack with a post movement point blank range that does exactly what the Exa Calibur does with barriers except it slaps on a chance to shock the enemy just like the Nibel Dirk after hitting with a base attack power of 250 again with a great accuracy boost and a good chance to crit. Like all Frame Zero attacks it will purge the Verein Zero of it's Sidus frame until you put it back on.

The Sidus is probably the best frame in game so far (Yes, even better than Aer's map attack and WRECKING BALL JESUS CHRIST SO MANLY) that just screams "I'm the god damn Batman!" I really wish I could care less about Jean's relationship and pick up this thing at Chapter 5 instead of whenever we'll get it now.

General Updating

Minor update to a few posts.

- Simulator 2-A is now up.
- Chapter 2-A now mentions Type 61 Tank resistances and weaknesses.
- Chapter 2-A now mentions Gundam resistances and weaknesses.
- Chapter 2-B now mentions Zaku resistances and additional weaknesses.

Back to grinding towards the Sidus frame.

Sub Mission 4 "Vidya"

Even in space we as a species have to give into the phenomenon known simply as the "Grind" as this next sub mission will show. If you've been concentrating on the relationship between Emma and Anderson there's a few D'awwww scenes scattered throughout the pretty entertaining moral fag fest. It all starts with another visit to Jean's quarters...

Another diversion from our original course means alot of time to burn and the skirmish in the Varista complex has resulted in the need to better outfit our new Demitris, leaving not alot left over in the Task Force account.

A quick sweep of the global cortex reveals that pickings right now are incredibly slim. We're mercenaries not janitors. A transport mission however pops up which could be quite easy to do only for it to be taken by someone else!

If you helped Zeon in the attack on side 7 then we'll know exactly who took it otherwise it's just a case of "number 7". Other than that there's nothing else we can really do apart from kill time.

Okay, maybe we are janitors in a sense. Bruno's doing a bit of spring cleaning and depending on how well the quiz went will give Anderson one of Keeruu's video games for one reason or another. It's a game that shares far too many parralels to "The World", complete with full on visor headsets and controllers but Tenea gets to join as well. Score!

Oh god. He's got the right idea though.

OH GOD! If only this was an erotic adventure. Anderson goes for the moralfag route and picks Paladin as his class which pretty much fits his leaderlike persona. Tenea on the otherhand, a sorcerer, if she turns out to be a pilot she better be a glass cannon.
I knew Anderson would make a pretty good looking female. Tenea's avatar on the other hand looks a little like herself just with less Albino. Less Albino is a bad thing. Anderson will engage extreme megalomania role, which means he nails the snobby lawful good paladin princess role down to a tee, almost too naturaly.

Ice burns are handed out to anyone sorry enough to get in the way of our hal-elf duo they even start killing random folk for being "evil". They eventually obliterate the server in one spell. It's the first case of someone "winning" an mmo.

With that it's time to...eat...already? In the pilot lounge there's a good collection of the students currently present with Rane, Emma and Bruno hanging out. If the relationship between Emma and Anderson is good she'll offer the commander a bite out of her meatbun. He'll politely refuse the offer unless the relationship is REALLY good in which case he'll play along HNNNNGGHHH.

Whatever the commander does Tenea follows and she too takes a bite. DOUBLE HNNNNNGHHH.

Bruno'll ask how the game went and we're told the server can't possibly be down because it ain't maintenence day. They must have really won the game.

Emma will make the suggestion that she might be able to join in on the half-elf antics as long as she wants in on Anderson's pants. If Tenea had a bite out of Emma's spicey meatbuns Emma will start looking up to the Albino Maido as she gets a relationship boost from her as the two look forward to 'playing' with Anderson...together *wink wink nudge nudge*.

Keeruu will come barging in proclaiming that he's been banned from the game. It looks like the spell Tenea used to nuke half the newbie zone was something Keeruu had hacked into the game on his account.

Hacking? Keeruu's not smart enough to hack a calculator let alone an MMO there's only one person who could have done this.

Keeruu's a big fat cheater. If a relationship has sparked up between Keeruu and Yohko then the target of his affections will come waltzing on in wondering what all the fuss is about. With Yohko around Keeruu will enter a sort of Zen like state and becomes pretty 'normal' which freaks everyone out.

If Yohko doesn't interupt then a fuss will kick off between Bruno and Keeruu. Keeruu owes our resident pretty boy some money since he's been cheating in their PvP fights which results in him getting the hell out of here!

Oh well, you'll get a few more lines of dialogue if Emma's resolved to join in on the half-elf shenanigans. Tenea's finally cracking out of her shell of shyness.

Rewards
This submission has little to do with choices and only plays off what you've done previously. The only reward you can get from this mission comes from having the highest relationship you can have with Emma at this point in which case.
-Emma develops a relationship boost with Tenea as the focus.

Simulation 4 "It came from Red Alert"

Getting ourselves through chapter 4 dumps us with probably the least profitable simulator mission ever, only really useful for fast experience gains but little us in reward. Delicious giant ants everywhere in Simulator 4...

Deployment

Friendly Forces
- 5 x Units of your choice

Unit 4 will be deployed right in the middle of unit 3 and 5.

Enemy Forces
Randomly Deployed
- 18 x Giant Bugs
--- Giant Bug Levels 8-10

Engaging
Now that we've got the chance to deploy what units we want to the real danger of the Giant Ants rears it's ugly head. Indeed with 5 offensive units available to us we can push out the damage even more so on the ants than usual the random deployment of the ants can put us into trouble very quickly.

Switch over any beam shooters armed on your units in favor of high ammunition assault M4s or Box Machineguns as this stage is more of an endurance testing level overall and for the upcoming levels we're going to need to push the capabilities of your available suits as hard as possible.

Something we couldn't touch on in stage 4 due to the limitation in deployment is the fact that the ants are specialized in fighting against Small class units. That's pretty much EVERYONE apart from your Zaku from either route.

The simulator is also a chance for getting a good idea on how the AI works and getting a good ranging technique down, getting just far away enough to dodge a stupid amount of attacks to get just a few.

There's no money to made from giant bugs but as long as you're shooting level 10 ones you can easily get up to level 11, maybe even push things to level 12.

Waves
Three waves of five extra giant bugs will pop up, the majority of which around level 10. Due to the difficulty of killing the ants in our small sized units these numbers can build up rapidly.

Rewards
- Nothing!