Part 3: Chapter 3 (Battle) - The Man With No Goddamn Medium Tanks

Update 3 (Battle) - The Man With No Goddamn Medium Tanks

Jugger’s screwed up. He knows he’s screwed up, which is why he’s not looking forward to reporting back to the other Black Hole COs. Currently, he’s stood outside the dark and imposing office of the Director, his ACO. Despite the disparity in their rank, there’s something fearsome about the Director.



Perhaps it’s her outfit.

Madam Director.

Were you successful in conquering Orange Star?

Negative.

Hmph. Why am I not surprised? Should’ve taken more tanks.

They received reinforcements from Macro Land. Resistance: greater than expected.

...Macro Land? That could only have been Commander my dude and his merry band.

File not found. Commander my dude?

Are you kidding me? He’s the ACO responsible for defeating Sturm in the past two campaigns.

Do you ONLY have files on COs? ACOs are just as important, you know.

Query: Do you believe this because you are an ACO?

...Hmph. Yeah, you outrank me, but what are you gonna do about it?

Jugger isn’t listening. Information: We need to prepare for a counterattack.

Don’t bother; Lash is on the case. She’ll keep them running whilst we recuperate. Now make yourself useful and computerise a strategy to target their HQ. We can't let them take advantage of this setback.

...Affirmative, Madam Director.

Sometimes I wonder which one of us is really the CO and ACO here.

Welcome back, folks - it's time to move on to the next mission. And would you look who it is!



...

...

Uhhh... 'Sup? Who are you?

What?! You can't be serious! Don't tell me Nell's little sis didn't tell you about me! I'm Orange Star's powerhouse, Max! I'm sure you've heard of me.

We're kinda out in the sticks, so news is hard to come by.

My dude's been here for a few days, right? And he didn't mention me either?

Hee hoo I didn't mention you on purpose

...Of course. All right, I'll let you off easy this time. So where's Rachel?

She's back at HQ for a war council. She'll be back in a couple of days.

Ain't that something? And after I came all this way to help, too.

Don't complain. I'm rather enjoying her being away.

But here I am, so let's get out there and take back all that land you lost!

I love the way Max says "land you lost" as if it was Jake, personally, who lost it all.

What's your name, kid?

I'm Jake. I got transferred to the Omega Land front a few days ago.

HAH! Nice to meet you, Jake. Man, you've got a lot of nothing out here! If the Black Hole attacks with any force, there's nothing to stop 'em.

THE Black Hole? There's only one. Just call them Black Hole.

Don't I know it. So what's your style, Max?

MEDIUM TANK BOIS!!

MEDIUM TANK BOIS!!

Uh, I mean--I like to hit the enemy hard and fast! No sneaking around for me. I like to pop 'em in the nose in direct combat! POW!

Yeah, you've got some serious guns.

Jake is, of course, referring to Max's muscles here. Dude's jacked.

Any strategy you don't like?

Yeah, I guess. Why don't you check out my CO profile for the details?

All right, cool...

Commander Jake! Bad news. We've spotted Black Hole troops!

What?! Rachel's not here... Guess I have to step up!

Whoa there, rookie! Running around without a plan is like painting a big, fat target on your chest. Why don't you take a seat and let me show you how it's done!

Oh, HELL yes, I want to see this.

Word. That'll probably cut down on casualties and stuff.

You're already prioritising cutting down casualties? Guessing that was my dude's influence.

Hey, nothing wrong with ensuring everybody gets to go home!

You're a smart kid. I like that. We'll be fighting side by side in no time. I'm gonna go kick some Black Hole! Watch and learn, Jake!

Go get 'em, Max!

Oh, and my dude?

Mm?

I kinda left in a hurry, so I'm a little short on funds. No Md tanks today.

WHAAAAAAT?! Hey, get back here! Whaddya mean we're not gonna see Selena?!



Well, time for a Max mission. Should be nice to get back in the shoes of the heavy-hitting direct-combat man himself.



of course there's more talking first though

In the meantime, the deployments for this mission:

Today’s Deployments
Dave, Mech
Carter, Mech
Ingo, Artillery
Alfonse, Battle Copter
Fred, Battle Copter
Von Panzer, Battle Copter
Paul, Battle Copter
Julian, Battle Copter
Michael, APC
Fleur, Transport Copter

Carter
Age: 20
Personality: Confident, gaining more experience.
Proficiencies: Mech, Missiles, Artillery, Rockets

Fred
Age: 27
Personality: Lives for battle thrills.
Proficiencies: Rockets, Battle Copter, Medium Tank, Neotank

Mathis Von Panzer
Age: 40
Personality: Unbreakable wall of Orange Star.
Proficiencies: Tank, Battle Copter, Recon, [unknown]

Paul
Age: ??
Personality: Skilled strategist and advisor.
Proficiencies: Rockets, APC, Battle Copter, Artillery

Julian
Age: 28
Personality: Self-confident and assured.
Proficiencies: Tank, Transport Copter, Fighter, [unknown]

I know that laugh...

You've heard it before?

Yeah, I know who it is.

Tee hee hee! What a pathetic bunch! I'm sooooo bored! Tee hee hee...

Oh, yeah! Ruin told me about her - Lash, right?

Huh? She's just a young girl?

Don't let her fool you. She roughed us up last time we fought. Hey, Lash! I thought we knocked some sense into you last time around!

Oh, look, it's Orange Star's great big monkeyboy, Max. Let me guess... They shipped you out here 'cuz you stink at indirect combat, right?

Shut your trap! What're you scum doing out here, anyway?

I'll never tell! But I do know that while you guys are all beat up, Black Hole just keeps getting stronger...and stronger...and stronger!

...I don't like that.

She's right about that, but shouldn't both of us be exhausted? What's going on? How did you recover so quickly? Where did you get your supplies and funding?

All fantastic questions. After Sturm was defeated, the army was in tatters... there's no way they could have... I don't get it.

Duh! Like I'd even tell you that! But don't worry--you'll find out soon enough. You lucky guys get to help me field-test my latest invention, the black bomb!

The what.

You can only beat us when you know what you're up against, my dude. That's how you beat Sturm! But now here's something you've never seen before--how're you going to strategise your way around THAT?

...Shit.

It's gonna BLOW your minds! You'll get a BANG out of it! Tee hee hee!

Black bomb? It's nothing more than a big missile. Our copters will take it out.

Nuh-uh! Copters can't attack it! I'd back off now if I were you.

Bah! You're wasting your breath. Let's just get to the blasting!

My dude, Max, check it out! The enemy has two Md tanks!

And we don't fucking get any?!

Relax, will you? Take a look at what units we've got deployed.



Now listen up. There are two basic ways to defeat an enemy army. One way is to wipe out every one of its units. The other is to capture its HQ.

Mm. What are you leaning towards, Max?

On this map, capturing the HQ seems to be the best option. I think...

I'd agree. Just so long as we can get that black bomb out of the way, and hold off the tanks at the bridge, we can get a T copter over there, no problem.

Let's just move out and see what happens.



Right, well, let's get to it. First off, we need to figure out what the fuck the deal with the black bomb is.



It explodes? Like, the actual unit blows itself up, or...? I guess it's an unmanned missile, so blowing up does make sense. Wonder if we can do anything to prevent that.



Huh? Lash was telling the truth? Maybe the only way to hit it is with a fighter or ground units with anti-air capabilities. Ignore it. I'm sure it can't do much harm.

You were in the last campaign, right? This is the same bitch who built the laser towers, Black Cannons, and, just in case you forgot, the GODDAMN DEATHRAY.

Relax! It's just one bomb.

Yes, sir.

Oh my god, everyone I know is going to die.

OK, Jake--this is a battle copter. It's a direct-combat air unit. It can deal destruction to tank and Md tank units.

See that bridge to the left of the HQ? Stop the enemy tanks there if you can. Then, send your infantry to the enemy HQ with a T copter. That'd be a solid plan.

I KNOW it'd be a solid plan, because I told you the same one about five minutes ago!

There's one other thing you need to remember with air units. Any guesses?

Fuel, right?

That's right, rookie! Air units burn fuel even when they're not moving. If an air unit runs out of fuel, it'll crash and burn. Air units can resupply and regain HP at aurports, but there aren't any around.

hur dur what's an airport again

Air units can get fuel and ammo from APCs, so stick close to ours.



I move Julian and Von Panzer over to the missile to block it off a little - this should prevent it from reaching my ground units over the way.

"So curious to be fighting alongside an ex-mercenary of Black Hole." Julian remarks as he flies in near the bomb. "I'm Julian - primarily, I'm good with intel, but I suppose I can fight if need be, and now looks like one of those times."

"Hmph! We must battle to save our land from being destroyed!" Von Panzer replies.

Back on the ground, Fleur puts the transceiver down and turns to Ingo, a quizzical look on her face. "That young Julian... he only just arrived. How did he know Von Panzer's previous allégeance?"

"Now that you mention it, that's odd. Von Panzer's been a citizen of Orange Star since the end of the last campaign. Only people who've been with him since the beginning should know that..." murmurs Ingo.



The rest of the copter squad - Alfonse, Fred and Paul - gather over here, with APC support from Michael. Like Max said, the best strategy is to wall the tanks at the bridge, and we've got more than enough copters to do that with.



It's not built for combat--it's for moving infantry around. The difference between this and an APC is T copters can fly over water.

We could get behind 'em and scam their HQ, right?

That's one way to do it. Not one of my strong points, but it might work. One more thing: T copters can't drop soldiers off on land while the copters are hovering over water. It's too risky--the grunts could end up in the drink.

Would people stop calling them grunts, please, my god.



We load Carter into Fleur's transport copter - she'll be taking him over to the enemy HQ once the black bomb's done with. Speaking of, I wanna see what that thing can do...



Well, the boys over the water should be keeping it at bay, everyone else is out of range.



Like she said, I stink at it. I don't like shooting things from distances. Every CO has strengths and weaknesses. Knowing your own keeps you alive.

So you'll run up against stuff in every battle that you're good at and bad at. Asking allies to handle the stuff you're bad at makes your army stronger, right?

Local Man Discovers Teamwork.

Yeah, that's the idea! If you need more intel on a CO's strengths, open the map window and select CO. You'll find everything that you need.



OK, we're all about done with the tutorials, I think. Let's see what Lash has in store for us. Von Panzer and Julian might take some damage, but... eh.



It'll be fine. It's a tutorial mission, after all; I don't know why I'm overthinking this so much.



Yeah, do your worst, Lash. Only two of my units are even in range-



...D-did the black bomb intel mention something about 3-space-big explosions?

I may have miscalculated.



"Gah!" yells Dave, diving back as the explosion makes his ears ring. "We took heavy damage along the front! Status, everyone!"

"Most damage avoided back here." replies Alfonse.

"Yeah, it was me and Paul that took the brunt of the hit. And honestly, it's just making me feel even more fired up to kill 'em all!" Fred shouts from his copter.

Dave nods. "Understood. Let's make them regret throwing that oversized toy missile at us, then, gents."



The rest of Lash's forces advance slowly. We've got more than enough to arrange the defensive position before they arrive, though. And the black bomb helpfully removed itself from play, so it's no longer a factor! Easy map.



Once the tanks reach us, they'll be too far away from their HQ to reasonably defend it.



And it did a ton of damage, too! Stupid black bomb. I underestimated it!

No shit!

We've gotta repair those copters!

I know, but there aren't any airports in the area, so we can't repair them. When a battle copter loses HP, its attack power also drops...

I like how Max says this as if it only happens to battle copters. Unfortunately this is the case for every unit.

There's only one way to get our copters more HP.

Yeah? How's that?

Actually, we're not giving them HP, we're just joining two identical units together. Unfortunately, we'll only have one unit instead of two, so it's a tough call.

To merge units, move one of the units on top of the other one. You'll see the Join command when you do this. Select it, and you're good to go! You gotta remember that the new unit's HP can't be more than 10, though. Got it?

...'Sup, my dude, why are you making that weird face?

Urk! Sorry. I was imagining 20 HP Md tanks and got excited. Right, right, focussing on the battle again...



We make the defensive formation on the bridge - the top copter is Alfonse, bottom two are Paul and Fred, who have joined up. With artillery support (even Max's shitty artillery support) and Dave, they should have more than enough firepower to take on the tank squad coming up.



With their work done, Von Panzer and Julian head back to help the other copters, passing by Fleur and Carter as they do.



Lash... doesn't really have anything threatening anymore. The medium tanks are slightly concerning, but not against four battle copters, and especially not Max's four battle copters. The odds are overwhelmingly in my favour.



Ooh, you guys stink! I gotta figure out how to produce black bombs at airports!

I kind of love that everyone on this map is just like "god this would be so much easier if this map had any airports".



I think Lash is aware that she's in a bad spot, as her tanks advance once more, but don't attack. And honestly, who can blame her?



May as well press the advantage, then.



Dear fucking god everybody loves to talk today.

Hey, Max, you knocked some heads on the front lines of the last war, right?

I did too! ...Well, alright, I was only there for the final battle, but still...

Yeah, that was a rough one. We only won 'cause we fought together. I got a feeling this is going to be tough, too. You're a bit short on allies.

Do NOT invite Dipshit. We can get through this whole campaign without seeing him, I swear.

Well, you were the first CO to get Omega Land's back, Max. I'm psyched!

I just happened to be the closest one, that's all. Call it fate. I didn't even get permission from HQ--I just rolled over here!

Oh, so THAT'S why I have 17 missed calls from Nell.

Oh, really? Uh oh.

Was that cool? Aren't there supposed to be policy meetings or something?

When an entire continent's in danger, there's no time for meetings!

I still had to go to MY meetings! All of Orange Star's upper management were there. I spilled coffee down myself, too. It was really embarrassing...

I'm sure Nell will take care of all the red tape and paperwork for me.

...I guess I'll call her and find out.

Thanks, my dude. I appreciate that.

She's going to be pissed--you owe me for this.

So the rest of your crew is back in Macro Land?

Yeah, they've got their hands full sweeping up the crumbs of Black Hole's army.

Boring! After Sturm was defeated, all the fight left 'em.

I don't think they'll be over here to help anytime soon.

That's too bad--we could use 'em!

Good fucking riddance to Dipshit, as far as I'm concerned.

Keep your chin up, kid! You got me, and my dude, and I'm not planning on throwing in the towel!

Yeah, you're right. I'll get better, too. We'll protect this continent together.

Now you're talking!

I was reminded after this conversation that I've not actually checked Max's CO notes. I assume they're the same, but hey, might be some new changes, you never know.



...Yeah, that's about what I expected. The Advance Wars characters are quite predictably static.



Still no "existing skills", either. I'm very curious about those.



And some firepower/range differences, though nothing out of the ordinary for Max. His ranged units DO suck.



Lash, what's your deal? Same as usual, I see. Still inventing shit that I am not going to like.



Same CO powers... wait, on the right, there. Lash has a tag with Sonja? ...Interesting.



Anyway, time to deal with these tanks. I'm using Max, after all - it would be churlish not to play aggressively.

First, Julian attacks - and blocks up the river, which the tanks can't pass over, but the infantry can.



Next up is Alfonse, harassing the medium tank who decided to plonk itself right in front of him. It's practically asking to die.



And, well, why stop? Fred/Paul chip away at the other medium tank.



Von Panzer goes for the remaining tank. As he fires on it, he gives a powerful shout.

"Nein! I will no longer accept Black Hole in my land - we shall hold you off with everything we have!"

"Well said, MVP! Let their blood paint these fields!" Fred shouts. "Dave, how're you holding up?"

"Just fucking peachy." Dave sighs, holding his wounded leg. "Urgh, that bomb was somethin' else... I'm gonna rest up at HQ and catch you up in a bit."

"Look after yourself, Dave!" Michael replies.



That's all we can do for now, really. We've got a pretty sturdy defence, so I might try pushing the attack next turn.



I mean, why go for the HQ-capturing option when I could win through violence?



Lash's units get the fuck out of there, which isn't that surprising. They can't run far, though.



My turn. Bro copters? Mind hunting down the stragglers for me?



Carter gets dropped off at the HQ in the meantime.

"I'm in position at the HQ!" he says over the transceiver. Michael nods.

"Gotcha. Go for the capture, we'll keep you updated. The enemy's currently unaware of your position, so take advantage of that."



...Now, I know Max's artillery do less damage, but are you sure about that? I don't remember artilleries outright one-shotting infantry units, but maybe I'm wrong... Either way, Ingo brings this infantry down to 1 HP like it's nothing, and I am not complaining.



Von Panzer hounds down the upper medium tank. The other medium tank's on a city, so it's not as easy a thing to attack.



Still, Julian's gonna go for it. He's still doing solid damage, and I don't want it healing back up to full.



Michael does what he does best (besides sitting in obvious locations to bait enemies out) and supplies the units nearby. On a map as short as this, it was probably unnecessary, but eh, I like to have something for my units to do.



I leave everyone else where they are - I don't want to break that defensive formation until the medium tanks are no longer an issue.



You remember when I said I didn't want the medium tank healing up to full? Yeah, they just joined up. And now they're parked on the city with 3 defence stars. Urgh.



Everything else is manageable enough, though, so I'll just keep attacking.



Ingo finishes off the infantry.

"Perfect shot!" he says to himself. "Alright, guys, the way is open - get those tanks out of the way!"

"On it, on it. Copter squad, let's roll." Alfonse replies.



Of course, the blood knight Fred and master of tactics Paul roll out first, attacking the medium tank. It's the biggest threat on the map, so may as well go for that first. I think four bro copters can take it, even with the defensive bonuses from the city.



Dave, meanwhile, is all healed up and ready to fight, so he charges in and smacks the tank. One less thing to worry about - it can't do much at 4 HP.



Von Panzer's up next, doing a bit more damage to the tank. Not enough, though... goddamn, these things are stupidly bulky.



Julian continues the assault. We're whittling it down, but I'm suddenly concerned that the last copter, Alfonse, would have to break formation to attack the medium tank - and the enemy tanks that remain would be able to attack the weaker stuff, like Dave and Ingo.



I decide to play it safe and attack one of the tanks with Alfonse. If I'd been smarter about this, I'd have gone for the one below him, because then the defensive formation would still be in effect. But oh well.



And some more supplying, just for safety.



To round off the turn, Carter begins capturing. I could actually end the map by capturing or routing now... hm. But which to go for..?



Guess we'll see what Lash does, though I can't imagine it'll be much at this stage.



...The medium tank moved off the city. Genius. And neither of them attacked, which is even weirder.



Well, let's not look a gift tank in the gun, and just keep up the pressure.



Dave finishes off the tank he attacked. That's what it gets for not hitting him when it had the chance!

"Carter!" he barks. "May as well make your way back here."

"Wait, what? I've almost captured their HQ!"

"We've routed them either way." Dave replies, shrugging. "You did good, though, kid. Well done - I'll see you in the barracks later."



Dave's right; it won't take much to finish Lash, so I may as well. Time for violence.



Just one more shot to finish it - thanks, Von Panzer. We're done!



Let's grab that Lash and get her to tell us all about Black Hole's numbers.

I doubt she's still around. She's a tough one to pin down.

Ah... You're right. She bounced! What are they playing at?

I wish I could tell you, kid. I was sure we'd finished off their boss.

He died right in front of us--kinda hard to miss. So did Hawke rise to power after that..?

We're not gonna figure it out here, though. Let's go grab some grub.

I hear that! I want you two to tell me about your time on the front lines, too.

Well, I AM the coolest motherfucker in the Allied Nations. But eh, Max, take it away. Remember how we met?

Hah! I do, yeah. I've got enough stories to talk all night. First, there's this boy, Andy...



Another day, another victory. Though, that was also a short map... may as well do another whilst I'm here. It's not going to be long until the maps get too long to fit into one part, I fear...



Christ, he's not kidding. How fucking huge are those muscles? Bigger than my actual head.



Hey, it's Jugger! I was just thinking that I wanted to see more of him.



I can't believe how quickly Omega Land is drying into dust. It's all happened in the last few months. Something's going on, I know it!

And Black Hole's different, too. Even though Sturm's out of the picture, it looks like they have an objective and are following someone's orders.

I was thinking the same thing. Something's up.

Gah! My dude! I thought you were on the front with Jake and Max?

Eh, I get around. I go where the action is.

...Fine, I suppose whilst you're here, you can make yourself useful.

Our army is severely undermanned, but they're growing larger and larger. There must be someone or some group directing their movements and activities.

Why do I get the feeling that someone wanted us to be busy cleaning up the dregs of Black Hole in Macro Land? Distracting our attention from the real threat...

For now, we're in the dark. All we can do is attempt to cut off their supplies.

C-Commander Rachel! This is...terrible! Awful! Horrible! Catastrophic!

A Green Earth soldier? Oh, right, I guess we're the Allied Nations now.

What is it? Take a deep breath and start talking!

There's a gigantic missile headed right for HQ!

What?!

What?!

A missile? How long do we have?

Impact in approximately...thirty minutes!

Gah! We have to launch a counterattack! Don't take your eyes off that missile! Bring it up on the screen, now! I want to watch it as we fight!

Thirty minutes? Guess I ought to pull a retreat-

Whoa, no you don't! You're coming with me, my dude! Nell tells me you work best in a crisis--so prove it now!

God damn it



Reclaim the skies, huh? Quite a dramatic mission name for such an earlygame mission, but hey, let's see what's going on with that. Oh, but first, deployments.

Today’s Deployments
Rin, Infantry
Dave, Tank
Alfonse, Anti-Air
Fliss, Anti-Air
Carl, Anti-Air
Ingo, Rockets
Carter, Missiles
Fleur, Transport Copter

Carl
Age: 22
Personality: Slightly strange, likes blood.
Proficiencies: Anti-Air, Mech, Infantry, Tank



Dream on, freak! You're the CO controlling that missile, right? This is our homeland, and we're going to find a way to defeat you!

Enemy untested: skill levels low. Enemy victory is impossible. Resistance, useless. Approaching missile is your doom. Commencing attack procedure...uh...alpha.

"procedure...uh...alpha"? He just made that up.



I know. You spent several months telling Nell not to marry me.

Quiet, you. I won't stop fighting until there's not a single one of you left standing! Everyone take a look at the screen. It shows a map of the continent, right?

Can't help but notice the enormous fucking missile heading towards us.

As soon as we start fighting, the countdown will start. But if we can defeat these chumps here before the timer reaches zero, we win.

Things may not look good now, but this time, our army has the upper hand! Let's move out and teach these creeps they can't mess with us!



Right, 30 minutes to a big missiley death. Thankfully, this map doesn't look like it'll take more than 5.



Twice as thankfully, the timer doesn't go down whilst people are fucking talking

Yes, they have. But don't worry--we've got plenty of anti-air ordnance deployed.

As it should be. Bombers are not to be lightly fucked with.

First, let's take a look at the enemy units and see what they can do.

Rachel explains fighters (very powerful against air units, can't hit ground units) and bombers (very powerful against ground units, can't hit air units). We already know and fear these things, of course.

Don't be afraid--move out and take the fight to 'em!

Afraid? Me? ...Well, yeah, OK, I'm getting Eagle flashbacks... I hate fighters.



The fighter and battle copter are both within range, so let's attack. But which unit should you attack: the fighter or the copter?

The copt-

I KNOW you know! You're a strategist! I was asking HIM!

The fighter, because it has a larger movement range, right?

Wrong! You're much better off attacking the battle copter. Remember, our anti-air unit can reach and engage the fighter, but we can fire on the copter only with missiles, because it's over the sea.

I knew that. This is why I earn the big bucks.

...You're an ACO. Both me and Nell earn more than you do.

I mean--well, yeah, but...

Oh, yeah... OK, I get the idea.

And try not to move units unnecessarily.

Right on. I'll keep that in mind.



Welp, may as well do what the lady says. Remove that copter, Carter!



I usually skip the actual battle screens for screenshot efficiency, but I just wanted to show that the "Good!" becomes an "Excellent!" if you one-shot the enemy. Pretty satisfying!



Air units fear its firepower, believe me. And it's a beast against infantry units.

"It's a beast" is not a phrase I expected Rachel to use. Sounds more like a Jake-ism.

Tanks and Md tanks are a bit out of its league, though, so be careful.



I'm just gonna have the three anti-airs attack the three air units. Seems logical to me - we can deal with that tank, too, no problem.



It can hit at a much greater range than artillery units, so I think you'll like it! As luck would have it, those enemy tanks are in range. Let's pound them!



Ingo can severely weaken the tank from afar...



And then Dave can just fucking flatten it. Not even a threat.



Right, back to murdering. Alfonse hit the fighter, Fliss hits the bomber. And one left...



Carl slams the other fighter.



I'm loading up Rin into Fleur, because I need to get them both to safety. The bomber could hurt Fliss, and two weakened fighters can still kill Fleur, I'm pretty sure. We move them to the west.



Yeah, about here - Fleur's in range of one fighter, and only one. Plus, if it moves to attack her, it'll move into range of Carter, so it's a win-win for me.





Ready naval unit. Jugger retreat.

But retreating in full view of the enemy is... And what will Madam Director say? She might report it to...

Survival takes priority over victory.

What!? Lord Jugger, wait for us!



The fighters join up, fleeing, and the bomber goes for Ingo. Not a bad turnout - just a bit unexpected.



Right, time to finish them off, I guess.



As you can see, we're using both screens in this skirmish.

Oh, sure, when I break the fourth wall Ruin tells me off, but Rachel can do it just fine. Cool.

So far, the top screen has been used only to display intel, right? Well, you can still see intel by tapping the X Swap icon on the Touch Screen. This icon switches the top screen between missile tracking and intel.

I'm leaving this in because this is actually a new feature. But yeah, the top screen serves multiple purposes now; I'm sure we'll see similar things in other maps.

So the X Swap icon only functions when we have battles with two fronts, right? Oh, and there's something else I wanted to ask you about.

Sigh. Yes, he's my brother-in-law. Don't go spreading that around, though!

Um, no, that wasn't what I wanted to--the R Info icon appears when the cursor is on a unit. What does it do?

The R Info icon allows you to see more detailed information on deployed units. You can check firepower, types of units you can attack, and other intel.

So on and so forth. We know this stuff. Back to the battle at hand!



Yeah, we just kind of slaughter them with Alfonse, Fliss and Carl.



Anti-airs, man. Really underrated units.



And with the final hit on the last fighter, we won. That... that 30 minute timer was way too long, even for a tutorial mission. Though I am concerned that we might have other timed missions in future... I hate timed missions.



Fantastic! Nice work, Commander!

Why, thank you. I've outdone myself.

He was talking to me! Anyway, let's redirect that ballistic missile into the sea. If we can recover it intact, we can reverse engineer it to gain valuable insight into their technology.

Yes, ma'am. It's too bad the enemy CO got away, though.

He survived the last time we fought, too. He's a tough shell to crack. Commander Max should be arriving soon, so I'm heading back to the front line. You're in command here, now. Don't let me down!

Wait, Commander Rachel! Shoot, she's gone. She's such an understanding leader. I'm glad she's with Orange Star.



Another clean S-rank.



And as much as I'm not fond of Rachel, she at least says less obnoxious things on the victory screen than Jake. Score one for Rachel.



And next time, we'll be moving out for another new mission. Looks like a new enemy CO, too... who's this person?

***

Update 4 (Intermission) - Overflowing Confidence