Part 31: Mission 11 - Prelude to Battle - Part 2

Destroy everything, don’t lose a ship, Shinji or Kouichi; not too difficult, though Sachiel’s a pretty tough costumer. Don’t try to engage him right now as your guys haven’t the morale for it – instead, send everyone northward. Shinji, meanwhile, should just hold the line and defend.



Evangelion Unit #01 (Shinji Ikari)
Pilot Skills:
Sync Rate – increases accuracy, evasion and A.T. Field strength the higher it gets.
Sword Cut
Shoot Down
Prevail L2
Support Attack L1
Support Defense L2
Attack Combo L1
Spirit Commands:
Alert
Strike
Mech Features:
Sword
Gun
A.T. Field – blocks all damage under 3000, increased by sync rate
Umbilical Cable – If connected to a ship or a special type of building, recovers all EN at the start of a turn, but can only move up to 10 squares away from where it’s connected. If unconnected, the unit will lose 1/3 of its total EN per turn, with it being treated as shot down if EN reaches 0.
Berserk
Squad Bonus: Mobility +5, Accuracy +5, Land terrain rating = A

The EVA-01’s pretty dang good, as you might expect. Not so much right now, but it’ll get there as the game goes on. The Umbilical Cable might seem limiting, but it’s still a full EN recharge, we’ve pretty bulky ships around and 10 squares is plenty of distance; the A.T. Field itself always makes the EVA a nightmare for mooks, though you can only reach its traditional 4000 damage block if your sync rate is over 96% (baseline is 3000 at 50%, 3100 at 51-55%, increasing by 100 every extra 5%).
Do note, however, that all weapons used by an EVA or Angels will outright bypass A.T. Fields, so don’t rely on it when facing the guys. Finally, while this isn’t important now, remember that the EVA-01 has a B rank in space, so you’ll absolutely want to pair him up with someone that fixes that.
As for that Berserk skill… suffice to say that you really don’t want the EVA-01 getting shot down.

Small tangent: the Sync Rate itself works kind of like the Factor skill, in that it starts at a set value on deployment and changes as the battle goes on. The deployment value’s calculated by the formula % = pilot baseline + (lvl/10). Shinji’s baseline is 50.
You get +1% for every shot that hits an enemy or every attack you dodge/block with A.T. Field, +2% for shooting an enemy down, -1% for taking damage and -2% for missing.
Finally, the Sync Rate’s effect on your accuracy and evasion works on the formula % = (sync rate – 20)/4. That is to say, if your rate dips under 20%, your numbers will actually go down, so watch it.



Sachiel, the Fourth Angel
”Mech” Features:
A.T. Field (Strong) – blocks any damage below 4000
30% HP and EN regen

No surprises, really; just a hard-hitting, big blob of HP with a barrier that all but requires your folks to have decent morale to pop it. Its range goes up to 1-6, so you’ll want to keep your distance a bit to draw it over to you.
Shinji absolutely can’t take this thing on by himself, and with it being capable of bypassing his A.T. Field, you’ll want to keep a very close eye on him. At the very least Sachiel follows the standard AI guidelines and will focus on the beefiest unit nearby, so Shinji’ll stop being a priority once we get close.



So let’s poke the bear a bit while the rest of our crew moves upwards.



: Take a look, Shinji! I’m a real CHAMPION OF JUSTICE now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD3FzBDzxAY

: No damage! Something like a physical wall blocked the attack!
: Anything we can do, Kyo?!
: I believe the barrier has a fixed limit to what it can block. If we can generate a greater force than that, we should be able to pierce it.
: The EVA’s also capable of neutralizing the A.T. Field too.
: Misato!
: Shush, the situation’s too bad for you to rant about keeping secrets. That might be important, sure, but letting the Third Impact happen would be a lot worse.
: Psyche yourselves up, people! Break through the Angel’s barrier and drop him straight into the afterlife!
: You got it, Goh!


Enemy Phase!



Lot of damage on a defending ship, but it beats the thing tearing Shinji a new one.



Player Phase!



: AHA! I’ve found you, Jeeg!
: The Jama Kingdom! You starting up trouble outside of Kyushu again…?!
: You may have beaten Ikima and Mimashi, but your fun ends here! Now that I, Amaso, have taken to the field, you…
: Err… What in blazes are you fighting?
: An Angel, and we’re real busy with it, so we ain’t got time to play with you!
: Silence! Her Majesty would be livid if I returned empty-handed!
: (Especially since I went out without her permission…)
: Urgh, if you care that much, then get over here! I’ll make this quick!

And here’s our delivery of morale! Now we just ignore Sachiel, clear things out, and then converge back on it.



Even with little upgrades, the Valkyries are still VERY hard to hit – especially inside Ozma’s command aura.








Daiya and Kenichi take these. Hyouma and Shizuna wrap up the nearby Ozma’s targets.



Right nearby, after Reiji starts it off, Iczer-1’s team takes a pair.















The annoying thing is that the Boya Kaengus have juuust enough HP to avoid being oneshotted by our weaker attacks.
Kenji and Kouichi take these.



Enemy Phase!



You cheeky sumbitch – she was almost outside your range!



While Hyouma and Shizuna each take, respectively, two and one kills, Reiji gets harassed by Amaso and random goons.












At least the one goes down. Nearby, Kouichi takes a Boya Kaengu, while Tetsuya and Canaria tear up two whole squads.



Player Phase!



Alright, she’s outside of Sachiel’s range. Remind me prioritize giving Lulu some levels because she’s a great supporter – come level 24, she’ll learn Bless and that’ll be REALLY nice (I’m not using Sayaka, so only Quatre has it right now).








Dead.



You’d think Shizuru being the main pilot would result in the Godannar get locked out some of its attacks, but you’d be wrong. The thing still has all of its attacks!



: Our overall force can’t be dragged down because of me… I’ve to do this right, not just for myself, but for Goh! I’m the official pilot right now!






And it still hurts a lot.



The Boya Kaengus are thinning out, so Ozma and co lead the offensive against the Haniwas next. They all go down in two decent hits, so it doesn’t take long at all to clear this out – only watch out for Sachiel’s big hits and Amaso’s Dai Kaengu sapping away your SP.
With that in mind, let’s speed things up a little.













: Jeez! You brought out a ton of Haniwa Phantoms with you, huh?
: Victory will be mine, whatever the cost! And then I’ll be richly rewarded!
: The hell do I care about your reward? We’re not going down for bunk like that!




























If you wanna have Shinji go long, you’re gonna have to unplug the EVA. Just make sure you’ve a ship nearby to plug him back in before the third turn (move him adjacent to it, and select the Connect command).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwvOc3Y2a9U

With pretty much everything dead, we move our sights to Amaso.



: Their leader must be very confident in himself to stand at the brow of his own warship…!
: That might be a trick. Keep an eye out, Kenichi!













: Curses, this isn’t good… Then I’ll at least use all this chaos to sink the Daiku Maryu! Go, Boya Kaengus!





: Captain, the Jama Kingdom’s engaging us at close range!
: No, it’s a kamikaze attack! Evade and counterattack, Rongo!
: U-Ur…gh…!







: AAH!!
: What happened, Rongo?! You evaded far too slowly!
: Hmm, it’s sturdier than I expected. But what if we went straight for your damaged bits now?!



: The Daiku Maryu’s at risk! Airborne teams engage and destroy the enemy attack pods!
: While our bigger units focus on immobilizing the Angel!
: Daiku Maryu, full speed retreat!
: A-Aye, aye…
: Rongo…?

*Door opens.*

: Rongo! ... Listen, he’s hurt too badly to do this!
: What?!
: Rongo’s…?!
: B-Boy…!
: Was it after our arrival at the surface…? Let me see it!



: It’s pretty bad…!



: Destroy Platoon, cover the Daiku Maryu!





: WAAHAHAHA! Nice try, but you missed one!
: The Boya Kaengu’s Suicide Run! Now that story sounds like a blast!

*The mook starts moving in.*

: LULU!
: …Urk!







: The rudder… it moved! I could move it…!
: Naoto… you…
: Rongo…
: Boy... When you’ve got your hands around that rudder, you’re the Daiku Maryu itself! Take this… And get your Flame burning red hot!
: O-Okay!
: Rongo, are you alright?!
: Yeah… I’m hanging by. It’s not me flying the Daiku Maryu around, though – that’s that Naoto kid!
: Naoto?! You can’t! This is too dangerous for you!
: Sorry, but I’ve already made up my mind. I broke my promise to Rongo, so this is the least I can do…!



: Troops, support the Daiku Maryu and eradicate the remaining enemy!
: (That boy’s about my age and even he’s trying so hard… I… I have to do something…!)



: Jeeg! Today is the day I’ll destroy you and take your Bronze Bell!
: Goddamn, shut up! If I got a coin every time you guys said that, I’d be a millionaire by now!

--

: The Big Shooter! Jeeg’s power’ll be cut in half if you’re gone!
: But you won’t have your way that easy. I’ll be keeping both the Earth and the Bronze Bell from your clutches!













: Listen here, you! If we don’t take out that Angel, all of Earth’ll go down the drain, so quit bugging us!
: Will that mean the annihilation of humans? Then I do not care! Even if you survive through this, we’d simply kill you all!

--

: You ready, girls? Let’s get in there and turn his guts into Swiss cheese!
: Yeah!
: Roger that, Captain!
: Bring in as many of you mosquitos as you’d like, you’re not grounding me! GWAHAHAHA!













: I got a big score to settle over what your buddy did at Misaki. You’re not him, but I’m not picky – come get your due!
: I like your guts, kid. And I’ll like it even more after I’ve squished it to mush!















: How’s your analysis going, Alice?
: This is the same model of ship we fought before, with some minimal discrepancies.
: I see no problems at all with us engaging via the same tactics!
: You think I’m the same as those two? Well, don’t! You’re about to get an eyeful of just how glorious I am!











: This guy, I swear… He couldn’t have picked a worse time to start this!
: I must destroy Jeeg this time or Her Majesty’s going to be so angry with me!
: Oof, poor guy… Guess it’s not easy being a mid-level worker even in good ol’ Evil Corp!
: Hrrrrm! I haven’t sunk so low that I need to be pitied by the enemy!









: Bring us straight to starboard! If the rudder starts pushing, you push it right back the opposite way!
: A-Aye, aye!
: We are in your hands, Naoto!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqSBU9GsJ78
Considering what I said about having to get Lulu up some levels, I’ll be having her take Amaso out. Might as well show off hers and Puria’s combined attack while at it!



Aaay, a bigger command aura! Rosa also learns Spirit.

Other folks did have lines for Amaso, mind:

: I’ve never seen you before. Let’s have a little game, you and me!
: Shinji, you don’t need to fight anything but the Angels.
: I know, but I can’t just ignore them either…!

--

: Too bad, guy – I’m an old hand at getting in ships’ faces. You’re going down!
: Gaah, blast this noisy fly…! I’m going to stomp you into paste!

-

: Mimashi told me about you! Said you were as weak as you’re tiny!
: But not anymore… So long as I’ve Nagisa by my side, I will not be beaten!



Amaso’s pretty mad at himself for this screw-up, though not as much as Himika. Deploying with a bunch of Boya Kaengus and Haniwas without her say-so is a major offense. Himika orders him to return NOW – he’s to be punished with extreme prejudice.
Amaso stammers for a bit, before complying; inwardly, though, he hopes he can get her to kick him some. Regardless, that’s him off our hair.