天下制覇

SWARM!!!!

Sorry it cuts off, I’m in a hurry and didn’t realize that ‘stage 1’ would take about 10 minutes and ran out of disk space… also… my first time messing around with it.

This is going to be another one that needs a more in-depth treatment, though it’s far less complex than I had expected. The goal is to prevent the swarms (OH GOD THE SWARMS) from reaching the bookcases. Each book lost is a multiplier lost (IE, if you make it through with 15 books left, you get *15 to your score at the end). You buy units and then you have them forever. If they die, then there’s a timer before one respawns. Cheapos like China spawn quickly. The more expensive ones, like Remilia, respawn much slower.

There are a few different types of units; melee, flying, ranged, area, special, etc. China is melee, Sakuya is ranged, Patchy flies and drops bombs, Flandre turns into (summons?) bats, etc. You can also purchase level ups for your units that upgrade the stats of every unit of that type on the field, but they scale in cost depending on how many units of that type are already spawned. Extra levels also can change the way a unit attacks. They’ll gain more projectiles or a bigger bomb or what-have-you. High level Ayas, for example, have a tornado that scatters everything in front of them. The individual unit AI is also pretty decent, though not perfect. Sakuyas will back away if attacked by melee units, and the melee units swarm right to the front of the battle line. You can focus fire on a single unit, or just move your forces to a general area and they’ll all attack whatever is nearby there as they go. You can also despawn all the units on the field and get (most) of your money back. I think you lose cash for currently ‘dead’ units but I haven’t really had a chance to experiment… or read the manual. The swarms increase in level as you go and occasionally a massive boss or three will spawn. You can also hurry the swarms by hitting "Next" which I imagine gives you more points or cash.

The answer that I found to getting through Arcade on Normal with the Scarlet Mansion group is "SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS SAKUYAS." Oh god, more Sakuyas. They just cluster around the swarms and fill them with knives. Some Chinas are also good to draw fire. Once you get ahead of the swarms and have two big teams to move about, you can just drop one where the next group will spawn to cut them down as they enter while the other group moves to take down the next spawn. I’ve only had a chance to play the Normal mode with the default team (Scarlet Mansion group — China, Sakuya, Patchy, Remi, Flandre). Beating that (flawlessly might I add, other than randomly using a couple spellcards to see what they did) unlocked the Hakurei Shrine team (Cirno, Alice, Marisa, Reimu, Suika). I have to run (beers to drink, women to kiss, you know the routine), but I so have more to play. If only I didn’t have to go driiiink.

Wait, what the hell am I saying? To the new year! Skoal!