=============================================================================
SaGa Frontier 2: Battle of South Moundtop guide
By Sac
E-mail: epicgames@crosswinds.net
Web site: http://www.sachw.cjb.net
Version 1.2
=============================================================================
History
-------
11/10/2000 v1.0 - First started my guide, unreleased.
12/10/2000 v1.1 - Went through the whole document searching for spelling
errors and grammatical mistakes. Added the contents.
20/10/2000 v1.2 - Fixed a bunch of spelling errors I missed during my last
update, (Noticed by my parents, whom I've added to the
credits section.) I've also revised the sections for
turns 2, 3 and 4, as well as the rumour section.
14/05.2001 v1.2 - No changes this time, besides a few spelling error
corrections. The main point of this update is to update my
infomortaion, as I've changed e-maila ddresses and web
sites. SO, if you've sent me an e-mail regarding this FAQ,
and I haven't responded, that's why.
----------
Disclaimer
----------
Feel free to download this FAQ onto your hardrive, but you may not post this
on your web site(Unless you ask me first), or sell it. Also, this FAQ may not
be used in any form of magazine walkthru (And that includes fanzines and
online gaming mags!)
This document is copyright (C)2000 by Sac
SaGa Frontier 2 and its characters are Copyright 2000 Squaresoft.
-------
Conents
-------
1. Intro
2. Story
3. Victory Conditions
4. Defeat Conditions
5. Beating South Moundtop
5a- Turn 1
5b- Turn 2
5c- Turn 3
5d- Turn 4
5e- Turns 5-8
6. Battle notes and tips
7. Rumours
8. Chronical Entry
9. Credits
--------
1: Intro
--------
The battle of South Moundtop is considered by most to be the hardest part of
SaGa Frontier 2. And it is. But this isn't because the scenario is hard, but
because the programmers at Square cheated. The enemy troops will almost
always attack first, they have spells that can attack more than one of your
troops at a time and Gustave and his two steel troopers are basically
invincible.
When you first play this scenario, it's easy to be discouraged, because your
troops are just destroyed so easily, then Gustave and his steel troops start
heading towards your headquarters, and no matter how many times you attack
them you just can't see do do anything to stop them.
But all is not lost, because if you follow my guide, you should
find that beating this annoying scenario isn't as hard as it first seems.
--------
2: Story
--------
Troops begin to gather under Gustave after his defeat of Count Charles of
Jade. Meanwhile, the various lord sign a provisional treaty, and form an
allied army, with the new Count of Jade, David, as the central figure. They
approach Hahn Nova from the north, south, and west. Gustave's army confronts
the western army, the primary force, while the troops under Bolse's command
intercept the relatively weaker northern army. Bolse's army skilfully
destroys the northen army. Gustave's strategy goes as planned up to this
point. However, Bolse's army risks pursuit, despite order. Their return to
Hahn Nova is delayed. Upon Bolse's return, Gustave makes a plan to use his
entire army to strike at the center of the alliance, the western army under
the command of David. But Bolse's army does not return from the pursuit, and
the southern army draws close to Hahn Nova first. At this point Gustave
decides to commit his current forces. In summer 1305, the most renowned
historical event, the battle of South Moundtop, begins.
---------------------
3: Victory Conditions
---------------------
*Defeat Gustave
*Survive until the Duke of Laubholz's army arrives (end of turn 8)
--------------------
4: Defeat Conditions
--------------------
*David is dead
*Headquarters is infiltrated.
-------------------------
5. Beating South Moundtop
-------------------------
5a: Turn 1
~~~~~~~~~~
Before you begin, notice the flashing red building on your map? That's YOUR
headquarters. If an enemy unit moves into that flashing area, you've lost,
so be careful. Now, you'll notice that you have eight armies (five regular
infantry, David's army(This is just a regular army, but it uses David's
sprite on the map. This is too show that he is commanding this particular unit)
and two archers.)
Also, don't let Sargon and Gustave intimidate you too much, as they are not
personally taking part in the battle, but are commanding the troops of their
unit.
Now it's time to arrange your troops. First, we're going to spilt your army
into two, with 3 infantry and an archer on each side of the screen. The
infantry should move no further than one space forward, with the archer
standing directly behind the center infantry unit. (NOTE: David will have to
stand beside the archer on this turn, because he can't reach the other two
infantry units. Your troops should be lined up like this:
I= Infantry
A= Archer
D= David
I I I I I
A D A
Now end your turn. You'll notice that Sargon moves down to stand in front
of you're the left most infantry unit, while the enemies only archer(A MUCH
weaker unit than the rest you face) will move down to stand next to your
right most infantry unit.
5b: Turn 2
~~~~~~~~~~
Now we're going to use what I like to call the "Archer decoy mauver". The
archers are useless when it comes to combat, but their real strength is in
their ability to shoot arrows at the enemies attacking your infantry (As
long as the archer is within one space of your infantry, they will fire a
volley of arrows at the troops attacking your infantry, causing them all
30 damage) But the really good thing about this ability is that it still
works even if your archer unit consist of only one troop.
Start your attack by sending your archer to attack the unit you want weaken
(Or even wipe out, if your lucky). Tell your archers to defend. After the
combat is over, your archers will retreat (Unfortunetley, out of support
range), or the enemy will. (NOTE: When attacking or defending, if all of
your units survive, the enemy will have to retreat, not you.) Either way,
you probably won't have archer support for your troops this round. Now send
your infantry into attack. This causes the enemy to suffer a "consecutive
battle". This wipes out some of the enemy troops HPs (I'm not sure of the
EXACT amount). This means that even if your troops attack does less than
100 damage, they'll still kill the enemy they're attacking. Order your
troops to attack using Flame Spear. Back up your first attack with your
second infantry unit. (And your third for the right die. On the left side
of the screen, David probably won't be in range to attack. Be careful with
his troops though. Lose them, and it's game over)
By the end of your turn, you might be able to wipe out 1 or 2 of the enemy's
units. I say might becuase alot of the combat in this scenario relies on luck.
Sometimes you'll luck out and only 1 or 2(or even none if your really lucky)
of your troops will be wiped out by the enemies attacks. Other times, your
unit can be wiped out in one attack by two well placed spells.
(That actually happened to me once. First attack of turn 2, and Sargon's
troops wiped out mine with just two Flame Nagas. Very annoying)
5c: Turn 3
~~~~~~~~~~
Using the above strategy, you should be able to deal with the rest of the
enemy troops (But remember, this scenario relies on alot of chance.
Sometimes things just won't go your way, forcing you to reset.), while
moving your own troops forward.
Now it's time to deal with Gustave and his three steel army units. The
problem, is their much too strong to attack, and your troops don't have a
hope of wiping them out. What you have to do is delay Gustave getting to
your HQ long enough so that you can survive until the end of turn 8
(Gustave's turn 8, not yours) What you want to be aiming for is having at
least one troop able to stand in front of Gustave and his two steel troops
at the start of turn 4. (That is, position them during turn three, them move
the in front of Gustave and his steel troops during turn 4). By now, you
should be able to destroy the second enemy units on the left hand side of the
screen, while having only one enemy on the right.
Leave at least two space between your troops Gustave's steel troops. If you
get any closer, he'll attack earlier attack right away, and this is bad.
5d: Turn 4
~~~~~~~~~~
Now move the units you positioned last turn to stand directly in front of
Gustave and his two steel troops. Do -NOT- attack them, however. Once this is
done, you've basically won. Move all remaining units up to make sure any
remaining normal enemy units don't kill or force the troops blocking Gustave
and his steel troops to retreat. When Gustave and his steel troops attack
your troops, just defend.
5e: Turns 5-8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now all you have to do is move your units back up to block Gustave and his
steel troops after they have retreated, or just leave them alone if you got
lucky and Gustave or one of his steel troops retreated instead.
After the enemies turn 8 has finished, you'll hear a roar and the Duke of
Laubholz's army will arrive. The Battle of South Moundtop is far from over,
but your part in the battle is done. Congratulations, you've done it!! Now
go power up Ginny and her buddies and smash that evil egg!
------------------------
6: Battle notes and tips
------------------------
These are just a few things that I've observed during the actual battles in
this scenario.
- If the enemy ever uses a combo, delivers an attack that fails to kill your
troops or misses, Rejoice for your foes have wasted their attack. Any time
the enemy fails to kill one of your troops is bad news for them because their
speed advantage is only an advantage when they kill one of your men with one
blow.
- There is nothing you can do to avoid spells, so don't even worry about them.
I've seen the enemy use Flame Naga and Bushfire so far. While Flame Naga is
usually deadly, and can take out up to two troops (Depedning on how their
positioned), Bushfire will only do around 30-40 damage, and can affect all
your characters if properly aimed.
- When the enemy uses Lawnmower, it becomes an instant death like attack,
because of it's ability to stun. If one of your troops gets stunned, he may
as well be dead, because he won't attack.
---------
7: Rumours
---------
There's only one rumour about concerning the Battle of South Moundtop, and it
involves Gustaf. If you play the Knights scenario, then you'll come across a
battle of South Moundtop scenario that is a cinema scene. In it, The
characters of Ginny's party stand on a cliff overlooking the battle of South
Moundtop and discuss the battle. Gustaf states that's going to help David.
Ventarbre then gives Gustaf "Gustave's Sword" (The real Gustave's sword).
Gustaf comments on how good the blade will be for trashing steel troops,
then departs.
This scene lead many people to believe that it was possible to get Gustaf as
a special unit, if you watched this scene first, then played David's battle
of South Moundtop.
I've tested this, and it doesn not work. But there are still a few things
that I have not tired, such as co,pleted the "final battle" scanerio that a
game clear save data opens open, then playing South Moundtop. Or finsihing
the knights scenario before the Eugene(i.e. Gustave's) scenario.
If anybody has managed to get Gustaf to appear as a playable unit during
this scenario (or if you've heard of rumour concerning this scenario) then
e-mail me at: Sac@sacinc.net
------------------
8: Chronical Entry
------------------
David, Count of Jade, commands the united armies of the feudal lords and
defeats fake Gustave.
----------
9: Credits
----------
To myself, for writing this up.
To the people on the GameFAQS SaGa Frontier 2 messageboard, for asking this
question allot (Well...they used to).
To Square, for making this brilliant game.
To my parents, for pointing out some spelling errors I missed.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I hope this guide helped you. If you have any questions regarding SaGa
Frontier 2, Or have your own strategies for this scenario, then either e-mail
me(epicgames@crosswinds.net), or make a post on the GameFAQs SaGa Frontier 2 message
board.
