The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars W

by Brunom1

Part 121: Post-mission 34 Intermission (Includes Unit Analysis #13 - "MAP Spamming" Edition) and Mission 35 - Prologue

Ah...at long last, our groups meet back are we’re starting to have a decente roster of units again!
Before anything, your top aces:



I’m actually surprised to see Volfogg there (I would’ve guessed Duo had more kills than him). Gai is closing in on Kazuma but there’s still an 11 kill gap.

Also, I’ve decided to keep the Earth Route since it gave over twice more cash than the space route and I managed to nab a whole lot more goodies from the bosses.


BP Upgrades:


Kouryuu and Anryuu have joined and, like their brothers, they are melee-oriented with some ranged attacks thrown in there. As such, they get 20 points in Melee, 10 points in Shooting and Defense.



Aki’s points have been building up since the start of the game (wouldn’t have mattered to upgrade her melee when she was stuck in that useless Blue Earth), so let’s cash in: 17 points in Melee, 3 points in Shooting, 2 in Evasion and 5 in Accuracy.



Duo returned to us with a nice stack of points, too. He spends 12 points in Melee and the last 10 points are split evenly across his Evasion and Accuracy (future points will probably only be spent on Melee).



Trowa has less to spend but it’s still a good batch. His Shooting is already decently boosted, so I give 5 more points to the stat, 3 points in Evasion, 2 in Accuracy and the remaining 8 points go into his Defense.



Finally, Gai Daigouji spends his 5 points – 2 in Melee/Shooting and 1 in Evasion.


Skill Parts:




Yumi’s all about that Reactor Voltekka, so she takes 1 of the available Gunfights+1 (I’ll keep the other on standby for a bit) and 1 Support Attack+1.




Gai already has a Support Request L1, so I toss him another one and also give him a Support Defend+1 to make better use of his invincibility.



Shihomi takes the remaining Support Attack+1.


Unit Upgrades:


Duo’s Deathscythe is in need of some love, so we take care of that: 2 points in EN, Mobility and 1 point in Weapons.



David catches up to Natasha, taking a point in EN and Weapons.



While Yumi gets 1 point in everything she needs.



Hrrrm…I reckon I could spend this remaining cash making Trowa slightly better. 1 point in HP, Armor and Weapons.


Unit Parts:




Since no one is using them, I toss a Cobham Armor (+500 HP, +100 Armor) and Sniper Scope (+10% Accuracy) on the Heavyarms.


Both Kouryuu and Anryuu take a Booster, too.


Now, since we just finished our route split, let’s start to take stock of all our new additions to the team. Today, we’ll go over Tekkamen Vesna, Hiver and Sommer (we’ll take a look at Aki, Tenryuujin and Lowe’s swanky Red Frame in the next intermission as this’ll be a big one):



Starting off we’ve our three Earth Tekkamen: Yumi/Hiver, David/Sommer and Natasha/Vesna. I’ll only go over Yumi since, apart from their Voltekkas, they’re pretty much the same.



The Earth Tekkamen are good, reliable units all around. As Blade, they can work both up-close or from afar (provided they’ve the morale) and they’re VERY dodgy which only gets better when you take their friendship bonuses into consideration.
Of course, their evasiveness takes a hit from the broken size modifiers but it should’ve make much of a difference due to the absurd amount of Mobility they have.
One thing to note, however, is that they suffer from rather poor base stats – having average ratings in Shooting (Natasha and David) to even below average (Yumi), so it’s important to make up for that with BP.



Being Earth-Made Tekkamen, Yumi and the others don’t have the necessary systems for Crash Intrude attacks which hurts their range when low on morale (the only one that gets help in this department is David, who can use his Tek-Lancer as a boomerang). Still, they’re all quite quick on their feet and can easily close-in on sniping mooks (Anita and Hayato both know Accelerate, though Goliath doesn’t – this makes Natasha the less flexible of the three).

Their Voltekkas are all quite powerful (and I’ve already talked quite a bit on how abusive Yumi’s MAP-version can be) but, as always, they’ll eat through the EN Tank if you don’t use it sparingly.
It should also be noted that, while they make great mook destroyers, they can also work quite well against bosses due to their combined attacks: Natasha and David can do Double Voltekka or you can add Yumi into the mix for a Triple Voltekka (this one being, I believe, having the 5th highest raw attack power in the game).







One thing I do love about is the nice variety of spirits and skills that they offer along with their subpilots. Take a look:

Hiver’s Spirits:
Hayato’s Spirits:
Hiver’s Skills:
Sommer’s Spirits:
Anita’s Spirits (one of the best Support Pilots available):
Sommer’s Skills:
Vesna’s Spirits:
Goliath’s Spirits:
Vesna’s Skills:
Conclusion: These guys are like the Nadesico team pre-Prince of Darkness but even better. They work well on their own and even better together and, when upgraded, have no trouble playing among the big leagues.
Granted, they suffer from a lack of low-cost, long-range weapons but they are fast enough to make up for it and their Voltekkas (combined or not) give them the necessary power to stand up to bosses.

If you need to pick only one, Yumi is clearly the best one of the pack having both powerful attacks by herself and nice spirits; David can work nicely as a mook destroyer but, unless you’re fielding Natasha, he’ll be only average (really, by himself, Anita is his main draw since her spirit list is very nice: Accel, Bless and Cheer in one unit? Yes, please!).
Natasha is a good attacker but has no bigger draws aside from mook-destruction, since she suffers from Goliath’s rather poor spirit selection. If you’re already fielding David and/or Yumi, you might as well field her to make use of the combined attacks.

Whew…with all that done, let’s get moving to the next Prologue:



Mission 35 - The Wind That Blows in the Desert Sands









Waltfeld (brown-haired fella) orders Dacosta (red-haired fella) to retreat with the ship, as there’s no chance of victory left.
The survivors are to regroup at Gibraltar.



Aisha for one won't pull out, who’d rather die than leave her man.
When Kira realizes that Waltfeld's forces intend to keep fighting, he tries to get them to surrender as the outcome of the battle is clear; Still Waltfeld is determined to prove to Kira what he told him earlier: in war, there are no clear-cut endings or even rules.
In short, as long as Natural and Coordinator remain enemies, the only choice is for the war to continue until one or the other is utterly destroyed.
Kira struggles mightily with this notion…





Everyone starts at 140 morale, which has the positive effect of activating Kira’s new SEED skill (unlike the show, it does not make him “better than anyone ever”; SEED works just like the Zero System, increasing all stats by 10).


Secret Alert!
Next step of one of the Gundam Seed secrets: Kira must shoot down Waltfeld before turn 3.



Before anything, take note of the Skygraspers: these are the units Mu and Cagalli (blondie up there) will be using when in the atmosphere (the Gunbarrel Mobius has poor terrain ratings outside of Space).
It’s not all very impressive, being a weak and generic support unit – it can dodge somewhat ok but it’s got such low HP that it won’t survive a clean hit.



Waltfeld’s troops are way up top, so we need to start closing in.



Enemy Phase!



The Zaft soldiers also start closing in.



This BuCue is the only one that can attack but it’s nothing Mu can’t dodge.



Player Phase!



Here’s a quick look at Waltfeld’s LaGOWE – it’s basically a better BuCue with the main danger being on Waltfeld’s skill as a pilot (he is a Coordinator, after all).
Still, the battle has taken its toll and 9000 HP can be easily dealt with.



Before we end this, let’s try to grab some easy cash and kill as many BuCues as possible.














There’s one.



There’s two.



I could’ve killed quite a few more using Archangel’s Lohengrin MAP but I goof’d and left Mu in its path (and there’s no way he would’ve survived with his Alert gone).










Ok, three kills isn’t bad.

Now, let’s take out Waltfeld.



: Desert Tiger! Time to end this!
: It’s that girl from before. You…looked lovely on that dress.
: And I enjoyed our talk about Kebabs.
: You bastards! Many lost their lives here and you’re cracking jokes?!
: You’re right. Still, it’s a shame that we met like this.







: Tell me one last thing, desert prince. Why are you supporting the Federation?
: I’m doing no such thing. I’m just fighting to stop Zaft from hurting the people that live here!
: For a Gundam Pilot you’re very short-sighted. Even if you set Africa free, do you think the fighting will just stop?
: I’m prepared to keep fighting! And I’ll find out who’s the enemy that we really should defeat!



















: Boy! I really liked talking to you!
: Please stop, Waltfeld! I don’t want to fight you…!
: Still, it must be done! This is the conclusion of our battle!
: If this is the way it ends, then I…I…!










Certainly a much easier version of Waltfeld compared to the annoying prick that he was in Alpha 3.



Kira takes a level, an A-Adaptor and a Prevail+1.







As his mech explodes, Kira screams that he never wanted to kill him...



It seems Quatre and his people were instrumental in keeping the Archangel in one piece and defeating Zaft in Africa.
Natarle extends formal military thanks to the desert guerillas, which Cagalli says aren't necessary; Quatre isn't entirely sure helping the Feds out is for the best, but what's done is done.
He bids farewell to Kira, who seems to have settled down after all the drama that befell since the landing.

Here’s the summary of what happened: Flay was aching for revenge against the Coordinators that killed her father and she saw that Kira could be her ticket towards that; so, she started sleeping with the kid in order to get inside his head and make him fight to “protect” her – of course, her current boyfriend, Sai, didn’t take this nicely and went after Kira after the Africa landing (and promptly got his ass kicked because Kira’s Coordinator skill give him boosts to Melee and Evasion).



Cagalli interrupts, requesting to accompany the Archangel for a while on our journey towards Alaska; mind you, the trip also includes a stop by Orb to give the Heliopolis kids a chance to see their parents.
This seems to rattle Cagalli, who Kira figures is from Orb seeing how they met in Heliopolis; she hesitates that it’s not like that but doesn’t answer (though Quatre seems to suspect something).



Seina then shows up with a message for Quatre from Duo, who just arrived on Earth...



Kazuma catches the log up on the doings of the other route, before Duo comes to him with some kind of secret that he figures he can only tell Kazuma.
He hopes Kazuma can tell him why he didn't contact his family for those six months, and Kazuma reluctantly says it was because he didn't want to face up to his past mistakes; Duo supposes that that must be why D-Boy, who Duo says they saw while in Space, hasn't reestablished contact yet either: his sister's death.



Kazuma is shocked to hear that D-Boy is still alive, though he had suspected something from the jumpy reaction of everyone who had been in space.
Kazuma presumes that the best thing to do will be to leave D-Boy alone until he wants to reestablish contact, trusting that someone as strong as D-Boy will do so eventually.
Just then, Mihiro patches in bringing news that a Mithril transport has been shot down some hundred kilometers away.
It's not clear if it's Zaft's doing or what, but we've got to head to the scene pronto.



It seems that Sousuke and Kaname were aboard that transport, and, as Kaname wakes up, she seems temporarily unaware of where she is.
“Where’s that “island of paradise”? Where’s the resort? Where’s The sea?”
Sousuke describes how the Mithril transport base he wanted to take her to IS on an island, across the African desert. Kaname notes that anywhere would be paradise compared to this desert.
She supposes it was her fault for agreeing to go anywhere with him, though Sousuke says it was actually Tessa who wanted to chat with her.
Kaname frowns momentarily, and advises Sousuke not to make things sound like a personal invitation next time; of course, he didn't expect to get shot down, and can do nothing but apologize to her.



What's distressing to Sousuke is that whoever shot them down seemingly didn't want them to die, but rather to have time to get out of the crash alive and he knows what that means.
"Fortunately", they’re a mere thousand klicks from their destination, and Sousuke is used to this kind of heat from the time he spent growing up in the area.
Kaname takes the opportunity to ask about his past in more depth, and he tells her he's been fighting ever since age 8, instructed by someone no more than three years his senior.







He tells her that such things are hardly that rare, but the tale gets interrupted as someone opens fire on them.
Sousuke doesn’t know who they are, as he thought the only armed forces in the area were either Zaft or the local Guerilla; still, once they show up, Sousuke sees that they’re the same group who’ve been following them since Japan.
They've got to flee on foot, and have no effective means of fighting back against mecha.







Fortunately, they don't have to. Quatre, Cagalli and Seina show up, having been sent by Mithril to assist.
Of course, Seina suspects that Sousuke might not be happy to see her; Cagalli asks what that’s about but she’ll have to wait.



Whoever is doing the shooting isn't willing to stop just because Sousuke and Kaname are unarmed, and their leader Zaied starts attacking right as he recognizes both the Gundam Sandrock and the “Princess” of the Desert Dawn guerilla.
Quatre doesn’t really know who they are but asks Cagalli to leave it to him; she won’t, saying that she’s also a member of Desert Dawn.
Seina wonders if she’s hesitating to go with the Archangel to Orb but, as the enemies start advancing, things will have to be discussed later.


Now, as we’ve seen with the Valstork convo, our team will be arriving soon enough and since I don’t think it’d be good to do this after just a wee bit of fighting, I’ll call for Voting time right now!

Since Kazuma still has dibs, that leaves 9 slots for you guys to pick from the following:
Voting will remain open until Tuesday wednesday (I won't be able to tally the results and play tomorrow - office party) afternoon and make sure to bold out your votes to make the tallying easier.

See you all then!