Game:

Valkyria Chronicles (2008)

Duration: 33:13

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7

In which, for once, we have weapons whose interception fire can outrange the enemy, a fact that is absolutely integral in this strategy. Also in which Susie is MVP and essentially protects the village on her own.
This operation was a complete nightmare for the first dozen or so attempts, until I realized what the main problem was: the reinforcements that came in would always devastate whichever units are still crouched defending the village line. The units called in by reinforcements, if they're hit with interception fire, are scripted to immediately stop and attempt to attack someone within range. After a lot of fumbling around, I noticed that the Gallian S-10 (400 Range) outranges both the Imperial ZM MP (230 Range) and ZM Kar (360 Range) used in this stage. I realized that Susie could be parked north from all reinforcements and stop all reinforcements from breaking the line. (Technically Homer could do the job too, but he's less reliable in Accuracy and is better placed in hiding to restock Jann at a specific moment.) It seems that the enemy Scouts and Shocktrooper Leader near the line are scripted to kamikaze their way to breach the line, so they need to be taken care of during Turn 1 for Susie's interception fire to be effective all on its own. And thankfully, I noticed the very convenient hiding spot where the detachment starts, which makes sure that nobody gets gunned down by the reinforcements. At this point, the stage actually became feasible to clear in any (somewhat) reliable way.
But it still took quite a bit of thought and trial-and-error to figure out how to advance toward the eventual goal:
- The Scout reinforcement near the second Heavy Tank on Turn 4 was quite an unpleasant surprise the first time I saw it
- The order in which pretty much everything had to be done, especially on Turn 1 to prevent your units from retreating due to what would be a hail of interception fire, is kind of ridiculous.
And some small things are far more important than one would think. For example:
- The northern Scout reinforcement cannot be allowed to survive until the enemy phase, as when a second Scout arrives there, the two of them are easily able to take down Susie if she doesn't evade. This immediately ruins the run.
- In a similar vein, if a Scout from the south evades interception fire from Susie long enough to get in range, Susie will likely fall that turn and the run would be ruined.
Thankfully, at least two of the three fired mortars were aimed in the southern location (though the one on Turn 1 seems to be programmed to always aim at the southern location), which relieved some tension as to whether Susie's Humanitarian potential would proc when trying to launch a grenade at them. Due to the lucky mortar and Hard Worker proc'ing a few times, two CP was left over.
I'm glad that the full clear strategy required all of the detachment's units -- it just feels right in a way. Though I'm also glad to be done with this stage; it really was a nightmare to plan.

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