Part 15: (Now And Then) There's A Gun Such As I - Combat

Update 13 (Combat): (Now and Then There's) A Gun Such as I
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Music - Briefing





Welcome to the mid-game, folks. Or, at least a view of it- we've got a month or two before we can say we're out of the early game.

All characters with events trigger the ability to take special missions once you see their third event- these are all scaled to level 15 units and usually contain a few promotions as well as some potentially deadly stuff. Some of these can be quite challenging to do until later, some not so much. Marion's is part of the latter.


These missions force deploy the involved units, in this case Marion and Avan, and sometimes only those units. There's at least a few Avan + Related Unit only missions from what I remember. This map makes it easy on us though, because it deploys our two troopers where I'd want them at anyways- the caverns.

Let's get at it, I'll explain along the way.

Player Turn Music: Liberation Battle
Enemy Turn Music: Return Battle




All units have voiced intro lines for their special missions. There will be another way to get them to speak on map opening, but that won't be until later.


I immediately send in Avan. I put Mischlitt at the home base to guard it, so I'm good to invest all I want into taking enemy bases.

I also have 2 more CP than usual due to this being a higher level mission.


The enemy waypoint base is in the usual position down here. On the way there, I spot an enemy leader too far away to actually care about.



At the base, there's a shocktrooper crouching. He gets the usual treatment.



These enemies are a lot beefier in defense than what we're used to. It's still not enough to save this guy from two Mags SMGs trained on him.



...So, yeah, the home base is a mess. That new symbol at the flag is a Gatling Turret, stationary buildings that shoot high powered machine guns at your units from a distance. They hurt like hell, but they also suffer from relatively low armor damage defense. They have an upgraded cousin, the Bunker, which hurts even more and is very defensive. It hs an even worse cousin we'll see much, much later, thankfully.

The other one is a Mortarer, which is the side-upgrade to Lancer that replaces the rockets with high powered, long range grenades. Our tank can fire mortars too, but I usually don't bother.


Marion's been used twice this round, so her AP is drained beyond any hope of mobility. I send in Helmut to scout the situation instead.


Check out that minimap. If there was any map that punished you for taking the direct path, this map definitely does it.


I send Helmut to take out the Veteran Scout on the flag first. Point blanking people like this was a preferred tactic of mine in VC1, and it still works in this game provided you don't get entirely chewed up getting in their face.


As expected.


With Helmut in position, I send a few other units to farm up credits.


Doesn't really go well for Team Anime's stalker. Melissa does trick an enemy into damaging fine masonry.



Noel gets some credit, though. The damage boost from being behind an enemy really kicks in here.


Lotte helps Melissa take out that shocktrooper, leaving me with only one CP.


Welp, here goes nothing.



Perfect shot! Bowled him right between the sandbags.


I just love how the enemy gives up when they lose their base camp. It makes everything so much easier for me.


Oh yeah, these missions also reward tons of money and experience for this point in the game. I won't have to worry about paying for upgrades as long as I do one of these every once in a while.



I'll take it. This mission is a good source of Attk credits, if you're looking to farm them early on.

Now that we've done that, the game will immediately cut into Marion's 4th and final event.

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Warning: Awkward Conversation Ahead- Reading at work NOT recommended!










Link to the scene's full voice acting (for the full experience)

Music: Theme of Class G




*Marion zips onto the screen*


: Ngah?! Wh-whoa, Marion! HOLD ON!


: They've made significant changes to the barrel, and to the magazine...
: This is new... No. This is revolutionary! I'm trembling!
: This form... This tone! This buttery luster!


: Uhh... Marion?
: Nh? Who, what?!



: I collect them as a hobby. And clean them. And touch them all over...
: Err, it's... not really my thing, but it sounds like you're into it.


: So when I saw you in the R&D building, you were...
: Yes. I'd heard the tech team had just developed a new line of weapons.
: I was flustered when you caught me... I owe Ms. Lane an apology.


: My parents have long expressly forbid me from mentioning it to anyone.
: They say it's unladylike. That it's shameful, and best kept a secret.


: Heh, I guess Joachim might be little bit surprised.
: ...This was my only reason for decieving you so. I hope you'll forgive me.*


: Forget about appearances and your family name. You like what you like!
: It's part of what makes you...you, Marion.
: Nobody's gonna like you any less for it.


: I should expend my effort reaching out to people, not hiding from them.





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Awkward Warning is now no longer in effect.

_{* The original line uses "that" instead of "this". It was a bit confusing, so I made that slight change.}

...So...yeah. That was an interesting event. Unlike what we usually see, Avan's actually being a good person and an understanding leader for once. Marion's quirk is...something, especially so with the voice acting. It's a unique quirk I suppose, I've never seen it before, but it's probably been done somewhere else.

The voice acting still makes me incredibly , which just goes to show how much good voice acting can add.

...That's about all I've got, this event has rendered me speechless each time I've seen it. Don't get me wrong, I still like Marion, she's just strange.

We'll close out with the last of her information.


I'll show this in a second. This also isn't the only potential that she can gain from story reasons, but I'll leave that to your imagination for now.


Theimer was the guy who worked on the Edelweiss, Squad 7's legendary tank.


Appropriately, I make Marion the Mags-S-1, the design we got from that bonus mission. I figure she'll want that.


I use the experience and money for many upgrades...


And lastly, Marion's new potential. It's good, though I forget precisely when it triggers. It may be special weapons, or it might just be weapons in general.




With that we end this episode of The Secret Life of Marion Siegbahn, but I have a short announcement to make!

Polling is now open again!

I'm doing this now because there's no more character events lined up and the next update will finish of this month. My schedule just opened up, so I want to be able to build an update buffer for real this time. That, and well, this was a short update. We'll have a larger than normal update coming soon.

Units

Like before, you get 6 votes that can be put positive or negatively towards a unit, I'll focus on the top 6 as always. Marion can still be voted for, but other troopers with unseen stories will take priority.

We also have a new shocktrooper coming up, Pete Stang. He's Avan's friend and hates Zeri's guts.


Also of note:


This is from the very first update. If you look right underneath Avan's text, you'll see Pete standing there.

For the full list, check this updated list of all of the characters we've seen: Current List of Characters


Tank Name

It's also time to change our tank's name. 6 characters max, as usual. We'll get the first component for Lavinia to become incredibly powerful next month, and the other on the month after that.

Squad Name

It's also time for Team Anime to retire (it can be voted for again), so the same rules for name applies as before: nothing rude, 6 character max. Find the list of titles in the list mentioned above.

Other Minor Votes:
- Should we use the Gallian-X-1? It's only real application is for teaming up with assist attacks, but I can put it to use.
- Noel will be able to promote into Lancer Veteran soon, should we do that or wait to have her become a Mortarer?



Extras:
Quoted straight from the wiki:
"Marion was created with the phrase "gap moe" in mind, referring to the notion of an individual who is "secretly in love with something or other." Ozawa commented that they managed to come up with a character that would be most unlikely to have any interest in things such as weapons. He stated that her current bosom was not necessarily intended and kind of grew into place during development."

...Yeah, I didn't need to know the last part. Thanks wiki.