Touhou Chemblem - Low Turn Run: Chapter 3
7A chapter with a lot of enemy Cavaliers, Knights and Pegasi, plus some Mages. Cavalry and Pegasus Knights are classes we should expect to see a lot of in outdoor chapters. These are trickier classes to deal with compared to Archers, Myrmidons and Soldiers we faced until now, and Suika is too immobile to help us with most of it (she probably would be more helpful if I could wait an extra turn for her to catch up with the rest of my more mobile units).
Anyway, the Cavaliers rush you immediately, as do some Knights. We want to eliminate some of them on first turn's enemy phase, and Chen's Rapier certainly does help. Reisen should head for the armoury and buy a Hammer for Lunasa Prismriver. This is the best Prismriver sister (Merlin is probably better for a non-low turn run because she has better speed growths), as she has stellar bases and C rank axes, which allows her to wield a Hammer and at the same time enjoy a +5% accuracy boost, which is very much needed for somebody using this weapon type. Without the Hammer, the Knights are really hard to deal with - though a Steel Lance does put a decent dent into them (and Reisen came with one). We want to have enough money to buy a Master Key in the next chapter so I didn't stock up on any other items (more Javelins is always nice, I guess).
The earliest Chen can make it to the village is turn 3. We do want to visit the village this time, because this recruits Letty. Letty is our first mage and not the worst one to train to say the least. Her magic growth is mediocre, but what she really does shine in is growing speed. However, her base speed is unimpressive, and she's also weighed down by her tome (you need to grow strength to prevent yourself from being weighed down by equipment, like in Shadow Dragon) so she's not doubling anything. However, targeting enemies' resistance is always nice because nobody besides Pegasi and Paladins (plus enemy Mages) has a decent one, ever.
I guess I would raise Letty if she were more durable. But she's a typical Mage and putting her into the frontline would get her killed too easily (the Peg Knights double her easily).
The good thing is that we double a lot of enemies as well. They carry Steel Lances and at this point their strength stats aren't high enough so they lose some of their attack speed. Chen and most of our Cavalry will double with no trouble (hey that rhymed). What we should watch out for is that Cavalier with a Horseslayer. We can't reach him on turn 2 without getting into the range of two Knights and a Myrmidon at once, and that's a horrible idea, so I tank him with Yuyuko (who doesn't fear Horseslayer). Chen then heads for the village. Once recruited, Letty is a good help against those Armor Knights, but we don't want to give her any kills - there are units more useful long-term and they should be given the kills.
Yuyuko can easily head for the north-western area of the map and solo an enemy Pegasus Rider and two Mages with a Javelin. I've been using Javelins a lot with her, perhaps exceedingly so (mostly to hit enemies without being countered), so it's close to breaking.
The archers are to the east, so I send Medicine to take care of them. Medicine is really snowballing her growth right now, getting all sorts of bosskill and misc experience. She will never be as bulky as Reisen in the end, but at this time it's hard to train Reisen while still maintaining hard turn counts. Medicine really gained a lot of strength in the first two chapters which is reason enough to keep using her, as she really does get enemies out of the way.
I tried to damage the boss with Letty so that Medicine could come close and attempt the bosskill with a Steel Lance, but her spell missed... Oh well. So it's Hammer-time then!
Cleared in 6 turns. MVP: Lunasa.