Touhou Chemblem - Low Turn Run: Chapter 12
6Completed in 3 turns. Yeah, I know, it looks like a huge map, yet a 3-turn completion is not the hardest thing ever, compared to other low turn clears we'd done in earlier maps.
To remind you, Satori the chameleon joined in the previous chapter, with her one-of-a-kind ability to transform into anyone so that you can have a clone of one really useful unit for the duration of 5 turns.
What's more is that in this game, and in this game alone (don't try this with FE12's Chameleon and Dancer), Satori can transform into Reimu, giving us two Dancers. Not only can they dance two units each turn, they can also dance each other until the end of the world, moving to any corner of the map together in just one turn - crossing lakes and mountains if they want (they won't, though) - I'm not kidding.
Some pretty dirty tricks are possible with Satori and Reimu's potentially infinite dance loop. They could level all the way up to lv. 30 (level cap for characters w/o a promotion in this game, which also includes Chen, the two thief fairies, Nitori and Flandre), hopefully getting good stats with their growths, and then when they've capped their stats, dance all the way to the next General boss, stabbing a Rapier in her eye (much like FE12's Feena, Reimu for some reason is able to wield a Rapier) and then waiting for Chen to seize (or just warping her there for a 1-turn clear). However, getting them to lv. 30 takes stupidly long and is too cheap, so we won't be doing that. It's a little too early to start warping, too.
It's highly important, for nearly every chapter ahead (including ones we'll have to warpskip), to make good use of Satori and Reimu as a duo.
The enemies in this map are pretty meek. There are plenty of Paladins ready to attack on the first turn, all with really horrible stats in spite of being prepromotes, even a Swordmaster who doesn't double anything (not even Chen).
Since Eirin promoted last chapter and now enjoys Sniper's superior movement, I position her as far as possible because her lack of enemy phase counter abilities, coupled with surprisingly good bulk, allows her to redirect some of the attacks that would otherwise very possibly kill Chen. I really should've given the first Dracoshield to Chen instead of Reisen (who has to rely on dodging attacks to survive later on anyway), but oh well, there'll be one more ahead. Chen gets a Seraph Robe for an HP boost she desperately needs on turn 1.
The hardest part of the chapter is managing to keep Momiji alive. Momiji is your typical Est character, low level pretty far into the game with horrid bases (and growths that are still kinda mediocre tbh). What makes her special is that she's a Peg Knight who can wield swords, and her C rank at base allows her to wield some nifty stuff like Killing Edge and Armor/Swordslayer. She's the only character in the game who can wield all of axes, lances and swords after promotion (who wants E axes to work with anyway?), but no way is she getting there. She can also wield the Wing Spear at base, for what's it worth, like the other two Tengu.
Having Suwako (Minerva archetype, a Dracoknight prepromote with mediocre stats and B axes) take out one of the soldiers with a Silver Axe and positioning Momiji adjacent to Suwako, right above her, ensures Momiji's survival on turn 1 (after which she should just gtfo), and Aya also needs to kill a swordfighter so that Momiji can only be attacked by two weak soldiers (she's not 2HKO'd by those, luckily).
Momiji starts in a pretty awful position, surrounded by soldiers, swordfighters, generals with bows, and there's also Shikieki to the east, who can be recruited. We have to talk to her with Komachi, which is no fun when she's a Knight with 5 movement. However, dancing Komachi and baiting Shikieki with Aya (man, does her spell hurt) allows her to be recruited on turn 2. She is also close enough to try hand at damaging the boss, after which either Reisen or Aya can finish the boss off.
The fairy boss is a Warrior with a Poleaxe, so Reisen should be at full health if she's attacking her (she loses like 29 HP otherwise). I kill the boss with Aya and get Reisen to kill a General, levelling up, and promote her with some Reimu/Satori help on the same turn. The next map is full of forests and Paladin movement really helps her to proceed to the place where enemies are being killed.
MVP is probably Aya, but really, Reimu/Satori make the game beginning with this map and are indispensable to most, if not all, low turn clears. Reimu actually counters on enemy phase (or is it Satori? you can't quite tell) - she's not terribly bulky so we want her out of trouble most of the time.