Touhou Chemblem - Low Turn Run: Chapter 13
3One of the three maps in the game that aren't cleared by seizing. The other two being the Prologue (which is the only rout map in the game) and Chapter 6 (iirc, the one where Aya and Hatate join), which is over when Chen talks to Sanae.
This map is completed as soon as Patchouli talks to Alice, ending it peacefully. We could also kill Alice and seize, but this is a 100% recruitment playthrough (in addition to being a low turn run) so that's not an option.
Alice is two squares away from talking to Alice on turn 2, assuming we make maximum use of positioning characters and dancing with Reimu/Satori, meaning the chapter can only be completed in 3 turns, and we might find that there's not much to do on turn 3, because fliers are really good in this forest-filled chapter and really get to places.
The third turn being lax is pretty neat, as it gives us enough time to get the distant chests in the southwestern corner of the map, containing Bullions (which can be sold for 25K gold), and then visit Rinnosuke's secret shop, which sells different Touhou's ultimate weapons and Master Seals.
I found that there's way too much money in this game that you have little need for, so I went ahead and bought a Gungnir for Remilia (which is like a forged Silver Lance with extra crit and 1~2 range), and a 19 atk bow for Eirin (huge waste of money as I haven't deployed Eirin ever after this chapter), just because those were two characters I had been using that have their special Prf weapons in this game. There's also a really badass sword for Youmu, but since she's a swordlocked foot unit with unimpressive growths, I benched her a long while ago. I didn't buy any Master Seals because I had enough to promote the rest of my unpromoted units (Remilia, Medicine and Hatate), the ones deserving of promotion anyway. I could've easily got one of my Clerics, like Kaguya or Luna Child, to lv. 10 needed for promotion if I had been spamming Physic but I was stingy for no apparent reason. Another Bishop isn't necessary, seeing how we'll have three of those at the end of the game anyway.
The start of the chapter is kinda rough, as the Steel Bow Archers have good evasion in the forest, and if they survive on turn 1, our fliers will be taking arrows in the face on enemy phase, facing pretty serious chances of death if more than one archer is alive.
Reisen is surprisingly competent in this chapter, in spite of the forests' impact on Paladin movement. She completely trivialises the struggle against the enemies near the seize point by barely taking any damage. 45% defence growth ftw. I didn't deploy Medicine because she wouldn't contribute much.
Meanwhile, Yuyuko travels to the distant chests with her Master Key. Her item slots are filled, so the gold she gets can be dropped into the convoy, which Chen can access on turn 3, so that we can immediately sell these Bullions and buy our ultimate weapons.
I was a little messy with trading the Member Card and the Bullions, didn't really need three characters to do it. But that's fine.
Remilia promotes at her earliest convenience. Her bases are okay, but what will make her pretty good is Gungnir access for accurate, powerful 1~2 range and Dracoknight promotion bonuses. I tried to give her more experience by fighting the sages to the west (which is too easy after a Barrier boost to resistance), but they all ganged up on Yuyuko, simply because she lost some resistance during Peg Knight - Draco promotion, and therefore had the lower resistance of the two.
I also deploy Lily White and spam Barrier so that she can get to C staves and be available as another user of Warp later on.
As for the new characters, Alice and Marisa... They kinda suck. Alice has an unusually high physical defence for a mage and comes with her own Thoron tome (which rapes face), but is otherwise pretty average, but what else can you ask from a mage. Marisa had horrible bases, but can open chests and loot precious as a thief. Her growths are ridiculously high as a Mage, and she can wield the Master Spark tome at any weapon level, which is a hint that we should train her to face Rumia and get Chen's Meowchion blade. However, her bases make her completely unusable.
Alice and Marisa can be killed in battle to allow the recruitment of Shinki and Mima, respectively. These two are Bishops with excellent staff ranks, and Mima can wield Master Spark at base, but their stats as pre-promotes make them bad characters for combat. We'll have time to get Alice and Marisa killed in one of the chapters to come soon enough.