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C07 ~ Chapter 7-4a: Desert Duel with Maximillian
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...This battle's guide is very, very long. You have been warned.

Turns for Max Bonus: 9

WARNING: Many players consider this mission to be of extremely high difficulty.
Fatalities are quite possible here regardless of your efforts to avoid them.
Regardless of your confidence in your combat skills this mission is like
nothing you've seen yet. Be prepared for several re-attempts and up to an hour
for the battle itself if you think things through and play very strategically.
For this mission specifically I have detailed things more on a turn-by-turn
basis just to give you a general idea of what your progress should be.

IMPORTANT: Hopefully you've been going to the War Cemetery and have the Order
"Retreat" by now. It can save a lot of lives here. Just remember that you can
only use it once per turn. It's a great way to evacuate a unit that is under
heavy fire that you simply had to kill the turn of mid-action.


Setup notes:
--For reasons you'll see in a minute, Snipers can be very useful in the west
section of the south camp.
--The south side of the south deployment area is a trench with good natural.
Time to let your Lancers shine!
--The north starting positions are safe for turn 1, although it becomes very
difficult to withdraw those units after this.
--Not deploying 1 or 2 units (leaving the spaces blank) will free up CP for
your other members the first few turns, allowing you to more quickly redeploy
at your other camps.
--This is one of a few missions where it's not necessary to deploy an Engineer
to escort the Edelweiss if you can remember to keep moving it forward.
--Whatever you do to set up, make sure all your Leaders are in. You can
retreat them and immediately re-deploy elsewhere so you can still utilize
their CP, but you'll need every last point.
--If you start and realize after turn 1 that you do not like your deployment,
just start over. It's not worth fighting out a battle you're struggling with
from the start. If your turn 1 does not go well you're at an extreme
disadvantage.


Potential Strategy--

There is no way I can understate the importance of your turn 1. Every one of
those 10 CP has to be used perfectly. You have 2 things that must be done,
regardless of your other progress: Kill as many enemy footsoldiers as possible,
and retreat units in your north camp. The first can very much set the tone.
There are 4 troops up on the ledge... you need to make it a goal to have at
least 2 dead on the first turn. The Scout should be your first target. If you
fail to down 2, your attention needs to move to your base camp. The enemy
Scout can reach your base camp at the end of turn 2 so you'll have to deploy
something there ASAP during turn 1 or it won't be there in time. Even with 2-3
killed you will still need to defend your base camp and deploy there by the
end of turn 2, which is one reason I suggested you leave one of your starting
deployment spots empty. Better still, if you left 2 slots open you can deploy
a scout at the middle camp, which will help you in a few turns. Lastly, you
should save 2 CP to start moving the Edelweiss. It's vital that it stay on the
west wall of the map and ahead of the Batomys.

Regarding your north camp, if it's not cleared at the end of turn 1, any unit
you start an action on in turn 2 inside it will come under constant cannon
fire. This forces you to retreat the unit immediately, effectively wasting a
CP. The unit is 100% a fatality if it is inside the base at the end of turn 2.
Once the enemy behemoth gets moving, it gives you a great opportunity on turn
2 to fire away at some of its cannons. Feel free to blow your ammo on any
Lancers you have deployed and make it a goal to destroy at least one turret.
The two on both sides will all need to be taken out eventually, an in tandem
with an Engineer you may have placed there it could be worth using every CP on
turn 2 to fire, reload, and fire to destroy the 2 left side cannons. This is
one reason turn 1 is so important-- if you've been smart with CP then you have
a bit of a free turn for your other units. Refill your roster at your base
camp, including AT LEAST 1 SCOUT. Very important!

Ok, 2 turns in. Time to take a deep breath and start the second major part of
the mission.

After you come up with the ruin wall plan, the one closest to the boss will
need to be hit on turn 3 or it will have no effect, however you MUST move the
Edelweiss past it first. There are 4 total, meaning 4 extra chances for
victory you've bought yourself in the end. A rocket or an Edelweiss shell will
knock one down. They have preset places to fall, so don't worry about attack
angle. Above all, keep the Edelweiss moving or you won't be able to destroy
the walls along the Batomy's path.
As the boss turns to the south, you'll see that this gives the Edelweiss a
chance to try to knock out the turrets on the right side. Your Lancers on its
left, you now have a pincer for clearing the guns off the massive heap of
metal. Though this should be the focus of your CP, be sure to clear out any
remaining enemy footsoldiers around your base camp you didn't get on turn 1.
That done, you can start to re-sort your units for a defensive posture at your
base camp--You'll want probably 2 scouts. In all of this mess, .

At the end of turn 3, Isara manages to come up with a very suicidal-sounding
plan for you. Believe it or not, this is what you'll have to do. More on this
a bit later on. In case you were unable to the last turn, you absolutely need
to have a scout deployed at your base camp or it will be lost.

As the Batomys continues your advantageous pincer will quickly fall apart. The
Edelweiss will essentially be retreating counter-clockwise around the map
toward your base camp, destroying walls behind it. Your Lancers you originally
put in the trench at start can now safely be moved around the back after they
take care of the two guns on their side. It's very unlikely the Edelweiss will
have been able to clear the two on this side on turns 2 and 3, so use the
Lancers on these now. Despite what the briefing told you, you can destroy the
turret on the back... though it's up to you whether you'd rather run it out
and save a rocket. "Trench A1" is safe on turn 3 if you use 2 CP on a Lancer
to move around out of gun range. Note: If you deployed a lancer in this trench
to start the mission, they're now in perfect position.

Ok, we're 4 turns in, having isolated the damaged the Batomys a little and
solidified your hold on your base camp. So far so good.

If you've played things well and moved your Lancers intelligently, hopefully
you have at least the left side guns cleared on turn 4. It's worth noting that
the right side becomes pretty much impossible to strike after turn 5 until its
final turn to the left. Just in case you've left anyone behind, anyone left in
your intermediate camp is a 100% fatality after turn 6. No matter the timing
on things, it is your goal to have the 4 side cannons and rear turret on the
Batomys destroyed by the end of turn 6. If you need a little more offense on 6
to get it done, the "Retreat" Order can save a unit that would otherwise be
running toward certain death next to the Batomys while firing one more rocket.

After 5 turns you now have a plan for victory, and all units have (hopefully)
either been retreated or are moving around the map to return to your base camp.
Main cannon is fired! Now things get downright ludicrous.
Remember that Scout I was so insistent on you deploying at your base camp on
turn 2 or 3? Now they have the ridiculous-sounding task of running straight up
to the Batomys, climbing a ladder, and destroying a radiator. This is done via
throwing a grenade straight down into the hole at the top. Aim carefully! My
advice would be to clear the rear-most radiator on this run. It is only
possible to destroy one per main cannon firing--the others will go back into
the body of the tank if one is destroyed. You should have spare CP on this
turn to get the Edelweiss to your base camp as well as knock down the other 3
wall segments.

Naturally, now that things have turned in your favor, there's bad news of
reinforcements coming. Make sure you've set up a defense at your base camp,
though you'll likely want at least 3 Scouts and 2 Lancers in your party for
reasons unfolding. Simply put, the extra scout is a backup in case your first
runner missed with his or her grenade on a radiator. Time is your enemy
starting now so you need to be entirely prepared to complete your characters'
plan as soon as possible.

You can now see that knocking down the ruin walls was not to buy you time so
much as it was to force the main cannon to fire. Your goal for turns 7 should
be to get a scout hidden in the southwest corner or the map. There is a brick
wall corner at the west end of "Trench B3" which provides 100% cover from the
Batomys. Another scout should be waiting in "Trench A4"--likely the one that
took out the rear radiator.

Note: If you miss the first opportunity to destroy a radiator, you can push
back the timetable on everything else by 2 turns. The Batomys will move right
up to your face in your base camp, but you can still pull it off.

The Batomys fires again at the end of turn 7. Time for Scouts to jump into
action! I'd suggest you take out the left-side radiator this time (the side
facing north now), as you'll want to have all units cleared of that half of
the map in a bit. Run forward out of A4, up the ladder and toss your grenade.
If you miss RUN BACK FIRST, then use that 3rd Scout I suggest you have active
to run from base camp to here and take care of it. Selvaria will appear when
the second radiator is destroyed, as warned ahead of time. Use "Retreat" on
this scout, or they'll almost certainly be killed by either the tank or
Selvaria once they're left in the open. This is also why you ran the scout
that missed back toward camp before the radiator was destroyed, otherwise they
would not have made it either. With her appearance, now's the time to make
sure you have a nice huddled defense at your base camp. Hopefully the only
unit not there is the Scout waiting in the southeast corner.

Lucky for you, Selvaria is more concerned with Maximillian's safety than
attacking you directly, and will run due west. Any units left anywhere on the
north or west sides of the map are now essentially 100% fatalities. You now
have the misfortune of sitting around for 2 turns with little to do but look
in horror at the mess of foes circling around to attack you. You can move
around counterclockwise and attack the rear of Selvaria's vanguard, but this
can be risky since you certainly don't want to get her attention. Lobbing a
few mortars into the A4 area is pretty safe and can score you a bonus Ace kill.
Selvaria might look intimidating, but so long as you've kept to the south side
of the map clear as I've suggested, she shouldn't be able to harm anyone.

Get the Edelweiss and your phalanx of Lancers into position looking straight
ahead at the Batomys. Conserve as many CP as possible on these turns so you
have some spares ready. Almost time for the final phase! Besides the 1 or 2
scouts out for demolition and an engineer for the Edelweiss and reloading,
feel free to entirely fill your deployed troops with Lancers if you have them
available. The Batomys fires at the end of turn 9 and 11.

Now put that scout that's been hiding to use and destroy the last radiator.
Because of where you've been hiding, you're not at risk from the front turret,
and you have the tank as a large block between you and Selvaria's massive pain.
That done, Retreat or run the Scout back and get on demolition duty. With 18-
20 CP (hopefully!) available, 2-5 Lancers with full ammunition and an Engineer
to reload them, and an Edelweiss itching for action... The Batomys will fall
to you easily on this turn, not allowing Selvaria to interfere. Operation
Complete!



The absolute minimum number of turns to complete this mission is 9. This
assumes you can take out one radiator every time the main cannon is fired from
the start. This is virtually impossible your first time playing through with
units of a normal level, so I wouldn't advise even trying it unless you're
entirely on top of things.