ATXM2: A New Beginning

Kyosuke's been moved into Langley after the Wildraubtier accident, so for this stage we're handling a training exercise under Major Sanger's direction. Kyosuke's also been paired off with Excellen for the exercise, to demonstrate their piloting ability and how well they handle the Gespensts--it's a welcome improvement over the FM.

Win Condition: All enemies shot down.
Loss Condition: Kyosuke shot down.
SR Point: Win condition met within 4 turns.

This map almost doubles the enemy count from the previous one, but we have double the number of player units to compensate. Like in the previous map, you'll want to cast Kyosuke's Accel right away to line him up with the tanks as quickly as possible, but on the following turn you'll want to try to set him and Excellen up so that they're immediately next to one another.

This is so you can make use of Excellen's support skill, which lets her get in an additional attack at half power when she's next to an attacking ally (if they are on the same elevation; allies in the air cannot be supported unless Excellen herself is in the air.) As in the preceding map, never attack the same enemy twice on your own turn. This will be the first time that Will comes into play in a major way--Will is a stat that resets to 100 in each battle and mainly serves to restrict what weapons you can use, in this case the Jet Magnum, which can only be used at 110 Will or higher. Each pilot has different ways of gaining Will, but in general downing enemies will cause their Will to increase, as will successful actions and certain Spirit Commands. With his melee stats and focus to give him 85+% accuracy on the F-28s, Kyosuke should be able to one-shot full HP planes using the Jet Magnum.

(Note that Excellen's Jet Magnum is 200 points weaker than Kyosuke's. This should give you a good indication of what type of pilot she's going to be.)

Map 2 gives us the use of the Gespenst Mark II-M, the first of many variations on a 16-year-old PT design. The mass production model is sturdier than the FM but not as specialized. While the FM had S-ranks in Air and Space, the Gespenst has an A in everything but Water, which suits Kyosuke just fine as he has the exact same rankings. The Gespenst is less mobile and not as fast, but has massive weapon space that the FM never did. It's also a medium unit like the FM, dealing average damage with reliable accuracy. The Mark II has several powerful postmovement weapons, two of them being range 1 and one of those being the Jet Magnum with its aforementioned 110 Will restriction.

The M95 Machine Gun is its bread and butter, with a range of 3 on a reasonably agile mech and a boost to accuracy (+40 instead of FM's Beam Cannon's +30 and a +45 Crit instead of +10.) Because the Gun is a ballistic weapon, it's effective even underwater while the Raubtier's Beam Cannon peters out under those conditions. The M95 is also ammo-based instead of EN-based, so it fires a flat 15 times instead of being restricted by enemy-drainable energy. It's immune to AB fields and similar tech, making it well-rounded and dependable. Split Missiles give the Mark II a range of 5, so while it can't snipe it's certainly not wanting for range. While energy weapons dominate high-scale maps where EN can be restored by way of floor tile, the Mark II does have its Jet Magnum reserved just for that. The Magnum is melee and only effective at range 1, so it's ideal for Kyosuke, while ranged pilots like Excellen should stick to the M95. Overall the Mark II is an impressive PT that can suit just about any pilot.

Second Lieutenant Excellen Browning is our new character for this map. She's a ranged pilot with great accuracy and through-the-roof evasion, Kyosuke's opposite in piloting technique. Don't let her flirting fool you--while Kyosuke slams the frontlines with Jet Magnum, Excellen belongs at the back casting Snipe (not shown) for range 5 with the M95 or range 7 with the Split Missiles, picking off enemies before moving in with Hit & Away to park herself next to a defensive wall. Not that she'll need it--Excellen's evasion makes her nigh-untouchable. Her innate Support skill is also perfect for lining her up with offensive units, to double-attack and make further use of Snipe with. While Prevail is great for Kyosuke's defensive stats, Excellen can make full use of Expert to cut own on energy spent sniping with her later mechs. Her high cost spirits like Love can also benefit from Mental, which reduces SP costs down to 80% of their maximum, in one casing saving her a full 12 SP that turns into 22 after a turn with SP Regen. Gunfight is another good skill for her, as it's the ranged version of the Infight that I talked about getting Kyosuke last map.

Exie's Support skill operates like Kyosuke's Counter, getting one more support attack per turn per level of Support. So at Support L4 she make four support attacks per phase, or defends for an adjacent ally on the enemy phase while taking half damage. I mentioned Hit & Away briefly, but it's a skill that lets her move after attacking to freely reposition your units and make room for someone else, or set up support attacks for next turn by moving her in next to Kyosuke et al. Taking into account her two innate skills plus SP Regen, you ultimately have three slots to fill out for her.

Following this stage we can upgrade our pilots and mechs for the first time, but we don't have enough PP to nab SP Regen yet (it should be your first priority with all pilots) and the upgrades on these Gespensts won't carry over to later mechs. Because of that, I'd recommend conserving funds and PP for now, and instead proceeding into the next map: Kill or be Killed.