ATXM3: Kill or be Killed

On route to Langley, an EFA Tausendfussler transport ship is assaulted by Aerogater mechs, leaving the on-board pilot Brooklyn Luckfield to defend the Fussler's cargo. In order to secure the Fussler's escape, Brooklyn has to deploy alone and fight off the AGX-01 "Bug" Megillots.

Win Condition: All enemies shot down.
Loss Condition: Allied mech shot down.
SR Point: Win condition met before
Tausendfussler reaches the west end
of the map.

This is another map heavily slanted heavily towards the enemy in terms of numbers, but we're in a superior machine and after three Megillots have been shot down, we'll receive three reinforcements to even the odds. So in the grand scheme of things our little army has doubled once again from the preceding stage. There's no strict turn limit on this SR Point, but if the Tausendfussler gets to the end of the map then you've lost the point--effectively that's three turns to destroy all of the enemies in. You shouldn't need to use Bullet's Alert Spirit Command here, because the Megillots have pretty poor accuracy and their attacks are weak enough that his type-TT can take it, but do take the time to cast Accel for Kyosuke and be sure to take advantage of Excellen's Hit & Away. There are a couple hang ups about this map, however.

First, the Tausendfussler. The Tausendfussler is a low-mobility, low-armor air transport. It falls even behind the FM in armor, is size LL--the largest class of machine--and has only A & A in Air and Space despite being a dedicated transport craft. It has only a point-blank postmovement weapon, weak 6-tile Homing Missiles and low accuracy bonuses from the weapons. The AA Autocannon does have +40 crit but it's too underpowered to make use of it. The Fussler's only saving grace is its huge HP and EN--even though it has no onboard weapons to use that EN. It's a battleship with none of the qualities that make a battleship good. Its huge size prevents it from hitting anything while getting hit by everything, it has no armor to back that HP with and its weapons demand a Hit & Away skill that Tausendfussler pilots just aren't trained with. In other words, a giant kingpiece.

Nobody asked you!

Second is Bullet. Bullet is not a bad pilot by any means, and is actually well balanced right now in terms of melee vs range. His accuracy and evasion are on par with Excellen, while he's got Kyosuke's defense. A nice middle road, with accuracy/evasion Spirits that draw from the series staples. Alert makes him unhittable for one battle, while Strike ensures that for the next player and enemy phase all of his attacks will hit. Alert is great for going into the enemy phase with, and since it costs just 10 SP for most pilots, SP Regen makes it free to cast early in a map where you're just setting units up. Telekinesis further boosts Bullet's acc/eva for each level he takes in it, making him a dodge master, while Infight reveals my real problem with this map and many to come, that Bullet's real role is as the melee pilot he was back in Alpha. His terrain rankings are the same as the majority of ATX members, A in all but water. This is perfect for a Gespenst, but Bullet's Gespenst is special and especially customized for him so that it will specifically be worse than a normal Gespy. What he needs is a melee mech, and if you confine Bullet to the mechs the story hands him for the OG games, then Luckfield will be severely lacking for the next 59 or so maps.

The TT is not all bad news. She has slightly higher HP and EN due to her customized nature, and otherwise is only different from a standard Gespenst in terms of onboard weapons. Functionally the Plasma Cutter is a weakened Jet Magnum that works regardless of Will and fails underwater. The MegaBeam Rifle is 105 Will-restricted with just 6 ammo, but has a good accuracy bonus and is almost on par with the Jet Magnum in terms of damage. The trouble is that while all of these are great postmovement additions, they only work with 2/3+ distance in tiles from the mech and target, and Bullet is a melee pilot.

This is all part of a bigger issue. The Gespenst Mark II Type-TT is the first mech we get specifically designed to work with Telekinesis. The T-Link Ripper is literally unusable without at least Telekinesis L1, but Bullet may as well not have it--due to how his stats develop and being an Infight pilot, Luckfield's damage with the Ripper will usually be identical to his damage with the MegaBeam Rifle. This is the problem with Bullet; he gets constantly assigned to mechs that in no way complement his stats and usually mislead the player as to what he's supposed to be doing. The TT would be more usable in the hands of a ranged pilot, but even then she's held down by her plethora of beam weapons. I went into this a little in previous maps, but water in this game is not so much a terrain type as a debilitating status effect that stops all beam weapons from working as intended. So Plasma Cutter is Bullet's best weapon but only works on dry land and in space. I would recommend the TT to Excellen since she has a weakened Magnum anyway, but the Ripper is Telekinesis restricted and she'll be getting her own custom mech soon enough.

Original Generation 1 is so inundated with water maps that having beam weapons as a main loadout with no kinetic alternative is an immediate mark on that mech's record, and the TT is definitely not doing herself any favors by having her alternative be ranged. Right now everything's fine since we're on land and the AGX-01s are weak, but these problems are only going to snowball if we let them, so getting Bullet a more appropriate mecha is one of those things that players have to constantly manage in the background up until the middle of Original Generation 2. (It doesn't help that he's force-deployed a couple times in the TT and another ranged mech later on.)

The Megillots are low-mobility, low-armor like the Fussler. They only have a B in ground and A/A in Air/Space despite being AirGround mechs. They're small and accurate with good HP, but lack weapon space and only have 80 EN to use their Ring Laser main weapon. Charging is their only postmovement, it's only range 1, and everything they have to fight with is weak. I would put it below the Messer but better than the Waldung. Their charge puts them in the direct line of fire for Bullet's Plasma Cutter in this stage, so we've really nothing to worry about.

After three Megillots get shot down, Kyosuke and Excellen will join the fight in their Gespenst Mark IIs, along with one new allied unit...

The Grungust Type 0 is our first real glimpse of what an endgame mech looks like, with armor, HP and EN straight out of Mazinger and Gunbuster from past games. Type 0 takes hits perfectly, reducing most damage to SRW's baseline 10. Its best terrain ranking is an S in Space, with As in Air and Ground and a B in Water; this is the best of the ATX mechs we've seen so far, and its dedicated pilot has an S in Space to complement it. He actually has an S-Ground and A-Water, so eventually equipping the Dustproof part to modify Type 0's Ground rank so that it matches Sanger's may be a good idea. (You can do the same for his Water rank with a Water Jet, but the circumstances of Sanger's deployment across the game are such that you'll almost never have the Type 0 in water.)

Type 0 comes with the Break Block skill, preventing armor-reducing missiles from taking effect--the ultimate wall. The Type 0 is also almost nothing but postmove weapons, limited only by their close range. The Boost Knuckle is a paradoxically ranged melee weapon effective at 2-4 tiles with a strong accuracy bonus and power just behind the Jet Magnum. The Hyper Blaster is range 1 melee, and supreme so it's not affected by water. The Colossal Blade is a 5350 (!!) power 140-Will restricted melee weapon and this mech's best attack, with a whopping 55 critical bonus. All of these weapons are high accuracy, and while they do drain a ton of EN, upgrades can fix this. (The Boost Knuckle is limitless though.)

The Type 0's pilot even learns Spirits to push him to 140 Will from turn 1, making it basically unstoppable if upgraded accordingly. The final onboard weapon, the Armor Breaker, does not damage but reduces the enemy's armor to almost nothing, leaving them wide open to followup attacks. Overall the Grungust Type 0 is the best mech we've been given in these past three stages, and is leagues above the Mark IIs.

Major Sanger Zonvolt is a pure melee pilot, befitting for the Type 0. His 144 defense is great for its ability to take hits, and he even learns Guard for tough boss fights. His Hit/Evade are up there with our snipers too, so that Sense Spirit is going to remain decorative for a few stages. His one fault is his lack of customization; Sanger only has one skill slot left at introduction, best saved for SP Regen. Command boosts nearby allies' hit/evade, Infight helps him with his Colossal Blade and other attacks, Counter lets him get the jump on bosses, Prevail lets him keep on tanking the damage he takes, and Hit & Away is just icing on the cake to swap him out for another point-blank pilot like Kyosuke.

After you clear out the Megillots, reinforcements arrive and Sanger will pull back to let you handle the rest. This is not a difficult stage by any means and you'll already have the SR point by this time, so feel free to rush in with Excellen's Support and Kyosuke's Fortune, and try not to let anybody fall behind in levels. You'll now have enough cash to begin upgrading your mechs, but I'm going to say to hold off on that until we've gotten some more permanent forces. Next map: Iron Wolf.