I beat A Great Escape in one turn. This is the hardest one-turn completion I've done so far in this game. Initially, I came up with a strategy involving a few Last Stands, and the level didn't seem so tough; I even planned on finishing without going to the enemy phase. But as I did some testing, I noticed that I wasn't getting any Last Stands. I tried raising a unit's morale to the max and then letting him get killed, which typically guarantees a Last Stand, but that didn't work either. Apparently, it's impossible to get a Last Stand in this level. I also noticed that when a unit dies, the usual little speech doesn't play, so perhaps the absence of the speech is an indicator that Last Stands don't work in a particular battle. I tested another Squad Story battle and got the same results, so I suspect that you can't get a Last Stand in any Squad Story battle, but I would have to do more testing to see. (Update: It seems that units other than the subjects of the story can get Last Stands. For example, in Scrap Metal Jacket, the units deployed to the upper area can get Last Stands).
Without Last Stand, my original strategy was impossible, so I had to go back to the drawing board. To complete the battle, you must kill all 14 enemies with 6 CP (assuming one unit is a leader) and 3 enemy CP. Clearly, killing one enemy per CP is not good enough. There are a couple pairs of nearby enemies who can be easily killed with a single grenade or flamethrow, but there are also quite a few peskily placed enemies who are tough to kill in any way except one at a time. In addition, some of the enemies don't cooperate during the enemy phase, so I have to kill them during my own phase, which limits my options. However, after much experimentation, I found a working strategy.
I gave Azusa the Fortified Armor to help her survive. I gave Scott the Small Tank Shard; despite its description, it boosts anti-personnel attack power, not anti-armor attack power. Below are some move-by-move comments.
1. (Scott) I flamethrow the two crouching troopers.
2. (Azusa) With a well-aimed shot, I kill two scouts. I move as far west as I can while trying to remain within range of a team-up with Scott. I actually moved slightly outside team-up range, but it was fine.
3. (Azusa) I use a Direct Command, then take Scott to the western grenadier. The technique I use next is quite tricky. I got the idea from dainegai's video of Barious Desert Expert in the first Valkyria Chronicles. I stand near both Scott and the grenadier, then aim in such a way that the game thinks I'm aiming at the grenadier. This causes Scott to aim at the grenadier during a team attack. However, I actually intend to hit the sniper behind the grenadier; I'm relying on my shots landing away from the center of the target circle. If all goes well (as it does in the video), Scott kills the grenadier and Azusa kills the sniper. I leave Scott behind and continue toward the remaining grenadier.
4. (Scott) I make another double kill with a carefully aligned shot, then place Scott in a position to kill two enemies during the enemy phase.
5. (Azusa) After getting the attention of one of the engineers, I stand next to the eastern grenadier and use friendly fire to kill him. I can't stand completely behind the grenadier or the engineer won't shoot, but if I stand too far to the side, the grenadier won't take enough damage and I'll die before he does. I managed to find just the right place to stand. After the grenadier dies, my plan was to use a grenade to kill the two engineers. However, in this run, one of them survived with a sliver of HP. I wasn't sure if it would be possible to finish in one turn after that, and you can see me looking around as I try to come up with a plan. Luckily, I was able to improvise and avoid repeating the friendly fire kill.
6. (Azusa) The eastern engineers were supposed to be dead at this point; in this move, I intended to kill the southernmost scout. Instead, I finished off the remaining engineer and stood next to the scout in the hope of killing him during the enemy phase.
Enemy Phase: Scott kills the two enemies near him. I wasn't sure if the scout near Azusa would move, but fortunately he did, which allowed Azusa to kill him.
21 окт 2024
