================================================================================================= SaGa Frontier 2: Battle of South Moundtop guide By Sac E-mail: Sac@sachw.cjb.net Web site: http://www.sachw.cjb.net Version 1.4 ================================================================================================= You can always get the latest version of this FAQ from- ~~~~~~~~~~~~ GameFAQs http://www.gamesfaqs.com Other FAQs by me- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness 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-mail addresses and web sites. SO, if you've sent me an e-mail regarding this FAQ, and I haven't responded, that's why. 18/06/2001 v1.3 - I fixed up the FAQs format, becuase I use an 800x600 resoultion now. I also fixed up a few more mistakes. 01/09/2002 v1.4 - Corrected a few more errors I hadn't noticed before. I also added a link to a geocities page that contains an alternate thery for beating South Moundtop. If the website's authjor sees this (I do know he posted on the SaGa Frontier 2 board at GameFAQs at some stage) please contact me so I can give you the proper credit. ---------- 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)2001 by Trent "Sac" Saraci 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. Related Links 10. 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 Fake Gustave and his steel troops start heading towards your headquarters, and no matter how many times you attack them, you just can't seem to 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 skillfully 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, like David. 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 your 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 manuver". 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 consists of only one troop. Start your attack by sending your archer to attack the unit you want weaken (Or even wipe out, if you're lucky). Tell your archers to defend. After the combat is over, your archers will retreat (Unfortunetly, 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 troop's 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 Infrantry to attack using Flame Spear. Back up your first attack with your second infantry unit. (And your third for the right side. 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 attacks 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 spaces between your troops and Gustave's steel troops. If you get any closer, he'll 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 and delivers an attack that fails to kill your troops or misses, Rejoice for your foes have wasted their attack. Any time that 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 they're 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 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 Wil/Ginny's party stand on a cliff overlooking David's South Moundtop Battle and discuss it. 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. The others talk about how worried they are. Gustaf later returns, saying he was too late to help and that reinforcements arrived just as he did, though he was able to help mopping up the remaining steel troops. 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 does not work. While there are still a few things that I have not tried, such as completing the "final battle" scenario 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, I can safely say that no matter what you tried, Gustaf was never EVER meant to be playable during this scenario. Why? Becuase Gustaf himself says so. As I said above, Gustaf says he arrived at the battle sust as reinforment arrived. In others words he arrived AFTER TURN EIGHT, by which time your alreayd looking at the ending for Gustave's scenarios. (or the whole game if you've already killed the Egg) ------------------ 8: Chronical Entry ------------------ David, Count of Jade, commands the united armies of the feudal lords and defeats fake Gustave. ----------------- 9: Related Links: ----------------- http://www.geocities.com/xo_pitseleh/moundtop.html The above site has shows (With PICTURES!) another way to beat South Moundtop. I didn't create this site however, and I can't rememebr the name of the guy who did! AIIEE >.< ---------- 10: Credits ---------- To myself, for writing this up. To the people on the GameFAQs SaGa Frontier 2 messageboard, for asking this question alot (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(Sac@sachw.cjb.net), or make a post on the GameFAQs SaGa Frontier 2 message board.