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That One Level/Video Games/Turn-Based Strategy: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Radiant Dawn'' has a level near the end of the game {{spoiler|where you have to fight dozens of dragons to make your way to the very powerful king of Goldoa. Their brute force and numbers makes up for their terrible strategy and poor luck, and they feature both physical and magic attacks. Unless you use the battle save (unavailable in Hard and less than fully honorable at any difficulty), one mistake can cost hours of work.}}
** The key to this is to use Kurthanaga, the dragon prince. Despite his low starting stats and speed, none of the other dragons aside from the boss will attack him in return. Meaning not only can you protect most of your units, but with the right planning he can gain at least 20 or so levels. The main bonus of this is how useful he will be against the later final bosses.
** There's also one earlier in the game (Chapter 3-13) where you have to play as under-leveled characters fighting against a nearly endless wave of laguz. Especially egregious because {{spoiler|Ike, the best unit in the game to which everything falls in two hits, is the enemy boss.}} You have to rely upon mostly brain-dead ally units to do the dirty work for you, and only one of them, (the one referred to by fans as the "3-13 Archer") actually puts up a fight. There were several joke topics on [[
*** I wouldn't say that. This troper found that the AI is fairly competent if you leave them on Roam.
*** Don't forget that {{spoiler|Soren might have a Blizzard tome by now, which not only allows him to attack from half the map away and probably kill anyone who isn't being rescued, but waste a really good tome on units that you don't want to kill.}}
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* ''Thracia 776'' is renowned for being [[Nintendo Hard]], and there are many different levels in this game that would easily qualify as [[That One Level]] in normal ''Fire Emblem'' games, but the one level that takes the cake is Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[Guide Dang It|if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword, or if you ran out of Warp Staves... godspeed, soldier.
** Chapter 17 on the east path (17A) will make you feel like you had gone with [[Honor Before Reason]] and wish you had been sneaky. The particular character in question is also in this chapter, and there's a bunch of Shooters and Meteo mages around the castle to keep you from getting in quickly enough. What's that? You'll take your time and avoid the distance bastards until you wipe out everything else? No you will not, you will get torn up by [[Magic Knight|Mage Knights]] and Poison spell Dark Mages up the wazoo. Poison itself is a nasty status effect here, averting [[Useless Useful Spell]]; it actually deals passable damage on each turn....or rather it would be JUST that if it ''didn't last indefinitely and the means for getting rid of it wasn't overly limited''. Worse, the bastards with the poison spell can teleport themselves with Rewarp Wands, and thanks to the hyper accuracy, they ''will'' hit and poison you even if you strike first, and no you will not [[One-Hit Kill]] them unless you have a seriously overleveled character, and the hyper avoid makes it quite possible that a second character will have to attack and risk being counterattacked and poisoned. It's so bad that [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfu9PnzlUlM&fmt=18 MageKnight404 got upset having to deal with it and was relieved when the character finally left], and he has experienced Chapter 22.
** And those chapters actually pale in comparison to Chapter 24x. The whole chapter consists of a never ending swarm of berserkers with ridiculous [[Critical Hit|crit rates]] and the mentioned Dark Mages with the stupid Poison-inflicting tomes.
*** If that weren't bad enough, the map is full of invisible trap tiles that warp any unit unlucky enough to cross it to an ''inescapable room full of said enemies'' and the only way to get them out is to use a Rescue Staff to bring them to the staff's user... The problem is that particular staff only has three charges and there only 2-3 of them in the entire game, and you've likely used them up at this point and/or are saving them for the final chapter. And to make things worse, this is an escape chapter meaning your troops has to make it to the exit and leave before your Lord can, otherwise any units left behind will automatically be captured. And since 24x is AFTER the chapter you are able to break your captured units out of prison (Chpt 21x), anyone abandoned/captured here will be considered [[Final Death|DEAD]] at this point.
** Even getting access to the chapter is a pain, due to the sheer amount of luck involved. In the previous chapter, you have to rescue children being pursued by those Dark Mages and carry the right child to a door who will unlock it, revealing a room with a chest that has the item required to unlock Chapter 24x, the problem with this task is that carrying another unit(even a child) cuts the unit's stats in half making attacking enemies very risky, the child who can unlock that door is totally random, this chapter is ''full'' of chapter-lasting [[Standard Status Effects]], and the children are far away from that room and you have to fight those Dark Mages for them. If one of them captures/kills the child you need, you are ''screwed''.
*** And going thru all this trouble gets you a few useless (at this point) items and the now crappy [[Jeigan Character|Jeigan you lost earlier]]. Which means the only reason to even go there is if the player is doing a [[Self-Imposed Challenge|AAA or SSS Ranked Game]].
** As one user on GameFAQs puts it: [http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/577344-fire-emblem-thracia-776/58428050/658107494 "People skip Ch 24x not just because it's not worth it; they skip it mostly for the] ''[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/577344-fire-emblem-thracia-776/58428050/658107494 sake of their own sanity."]''
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*** And after those three, there's "Father and Son", which does hard the old-fashioned way: by being gigantic and filled with enemy reinforcements as well as chests that must be opened. And we're not counting the two Druids with really, really effective Berserk staves, that are almost guaranteed to make units with low Resistence go [[Ax Crazy]] and attack whoever's on their reach-- even those on your own side.
** The game throws an early [[That One Level]] very early on at the Adlas Plains when Eirika is still the default main character. Before the level starts, the level boss decides to taunt Eirika by teleporting three random, defenseless civilians into the map, and putting them right near a den of [[Demonic Spider|giant spiders]], which turns it into a [[Timed Mission]] as letting all of the civilians die leads to a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]. Between the NPCs and the spiders is a fairly strong force of Grado soldiers(which can inflict some very painful damage on your still-squishy units). And the whole thing is covered by [[Fog of War]]. It's basically a combination of almost every single [[Scrappy Mechanic]] in the series.
*** Not helping ''at all'' is the enemy outnumbering you a lot more than in the previous levels and being spread out all over; if anyone but Seth goes out on their own (like your pegasus knight trying to get the civilians out of spider range...) they WILL get ganged up on and most likely die. This level is one of the best arguments the "It's OK to use Seth" camp has in its arsenal early on.
* And then there's Scorched Sand. Half of the level is made up of desert tiles, which make any non-flying mounted unit essentially useless and any armored unit even MORE so. And as for all other units, they get slowed down substantially, making the level just drag on for hours on end. Good thing this map offers obscenely good items to break up the monotony. Want to get them? [[Guide Dang It|Better check the strategy guide!]] And at the end of it all, you face [[That One Boss]], who is way too likely to kill off even your best units. And there's actually two bosses. Which of them was meant when they were referred to as [[That One Boss]]? Why, '''[[It Got Worse|both of them]]'''.
* Prologue 8 and Chapter 6X of FE12. Prologue 8 has {{spoiler|Katrina}} as the boss, and due to the way resistance works in this game, her attacks will do tremendous amounts of damage to you, if they don't just outright kill you. She, unlike many early-game bosses, can and ''will'' move to attack people in range. Chapter 6X is a small map filled to the brim with Fighters, and on top of that there's Caesar and Radd, who you actually have to keep alive so that they'll join you later. However, they won't hesitate to [[Too Dumb to Live|attack your best units and die trying.]] At least Radd is fast enough to avoid being hit twice.
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*** The best part: if you go into the Tactics Room, instead of Lin, ''Forsythe himself'' tells you how to go about the mission. He's an [[Anti-Villain]], yes, but still... '''''the enemy CO takes pity on you!'''''
** Before that, "Greyfield Strikes"... ''you''. Greyfield, in order to show who's in charge, randomly shuts down one of your units every third day. There's a fairly reliable day-by-day guide out there... but if Greyfield decides to call out any but one of ''three'' units, it falls apart.
** Some people consider "A Hero's Farewell" more of a [[Best Level Ever]], but just about ''EVERYONE'' hates "Lin's Gambit", a [[Fog of War]] [[Timed Mission]] where Greyfield's units make advancing quickly extremely frustrating. To top it off, if you're not good with naval combat, you're not going to do well in this mission. At all.
* Any map with Sturm in ''Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising'' is a qualifier, because you're shoehorned into battle against a [[Game Breaker]]. All of his units get a 20% bonus to offense AND defense and are unimpaired by all terrain, and his Super CO Power (Meteor Strike) will severely damage a patch of your best units and throw another substantial boost.
** Also on that note, "Sinking Feeling" (sink 9 battleships in 17 days) and "The Great Sea Battle" (final battle in Green Earth, against a well-armed opponent with a nasty CO Power) give people fits.
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** There's also "Siege of the Vladstad", which is a perfectly acceptable level right up until the end. And that's even ''if'' you realize {{spoiler|the Vladstag has a side entrance}}.
** "Road to Xylvania" tops all of them. First of you have a Battlestation which unlike the sequel cannot turn to aim and thus you have to position yourself perfectly to beat the Pillboxes that will kill everything else in a heartbeat.On top of that the path is so curvy giving Heavy Tanks an advantage against the Battlestation. That's a just ridculuosly in itself,but then you have Gunships constantly after you mercilessly attacking anything in sight,and you only have 6 Missile Vets.You can spam the Y button all you want,they'll still get ya' down. Not to mention acid pits that are too easy to step into. At least Vladstag has assistance.
** Bonus Mission 3 may be a [[Bonus Level of Hell]], but it has earned its place here. At the start, you're immediately bombarded by 2 Artillery, each guarded by 3 Rocket (Bazooka) infantry to deter your Heavy Tanks. You must destroy this Artillery ASAP or they'll destroy the fortress that the game [[Guide Dang It|doesn't suggest is destructible]] and give you an automatic mission failure. You would want to work on tasks other than the Artillery because once the Artillery is destroyed, a respawning Bomber appears to make your life miserable, and you don't even get any anti-air units unless you're willing to count {{spoiler|Assaults, which still do [[Your Mileage May Vary|likely]] too little damage to be worth considering}}. And to top it all off, your only units for destroying all of the enemy vehicles are Heavy Tanks, which are slow and big, which means thanks to similar reasons as to why Pit in [[Super Smash Bros.]] is a [[Skill Gate Character]], are given grief by the Anti-Air Vehicles' attack spams causing them to repeatedly bounce along with all the damage they take. Oh, and guess what is ready to hammer your infantry and further mess up your Technique score? ''Two more Artillery!'' And if you finally get past ''all'' of this, say hello to a Bomber and Gunship spam to give your Fighters (which arrive, '''about time''') misery in killing them all quickly, which you need to do because of the fact that your Heavy Tanks are still [[Escort Mission|mission critical]], even if you wiped out every enemy vehicle. And if you're looking for a good score, you have so many units that basically amount to being little more than target practice for the Bombers that your Technique will be based on [[Luck-Based Mission|whether your units feel like surviving all the abuse]].
*** It turns out that thanks to {{spoiler|a [[Artificial Stupidity|Bomber AI exploit]] that [[Leap of Faith|violates common sense beyond belief]]}}, doing the mission with [[No Casualties Run|no casualties]] and a Perfect S-Rank is possible, as shown [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLD4eH9UfkQ here] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZryqxsj2bY here]. Unfortunately, it's still a [[Luck-Based Mission]] thanks to {{spoiler|[[AI Roulette]]}}. If not for these [[Fake Difficulty]] issues, the linked run would be a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
** The Reckoning in the sequel borders on being [[That One Level]], but doesn't quite manage it because it's the last mission. However, if you want that perfect S-Rank, have lots of hair ready to be torn out. Technique, although having a ridiculously high minimum (a whopping 70% with just the Battlestation, the mission critical unit, alive), doesn't hit 100% easily, so you have to keep plenty of units alive, which means you'd want to get through the first half of the stage without anything lost, because the second part is full of {{spoiler|[[Demonic Spiders|Fighters and Strato Destroyers]]}}, which are bound to tear apart your units like paper, and {{spoiler|your Anti-Air Vets have laughable lock-on range for their job if you thought you could [[Glass Cannon|switch to one to erase the air units faster]]}}. But things get really bad if you want 100% in both Power and Speed. Not only does the game place 2 Heavy Tanks and some Grunts behind the {{spoiler|Mining Spider}} but Speed is absurdly strict for the fact that you'd have to deliver the [[Mighty Glacier|painfully slow Battlestation]] from one end of the map to the other in order to do anything to the {{spoiler|Mining Spider}}. [[Master Knight|This troper]] has done ''every'' other mission in the game on a [[No Casualties Run]] with a Perfect S-Rank (including Their Finest Hour, actually except Under Siege but he's convinced that one is possible with a competent teammate) and finds that a [[No Casualties Run]] ''at all'' is harder on The Reckoning than on any other mission between both games except ''maybe'' Bonus Mission 3 in the first game, if it's even possible to do, never mind trying to do it in the time limit.
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** {{spoiler|Merely accessing the level requires a [[Guide Dang It]] by defeating all 4 Green Earth Missions as Sami, one level of which, Wings of Victory, is a [[That One Level]] unto itself. Proceed to defeat Sturm in the final mission, after which Eagle will challenge Andy to a "friendly" showdown.}} The map is wide, traversed by narrow bridges and islands, and you are given no units, a small base, and are a long way off from the nearest nuetral bases, which will not be nuetral by the time you reach them. You are forced to play as {{spoiler|Andy}}. Your foe starts with forward units and a very strong base. The normal campaign version is harder than the majority of the advance campaign missions. The advanced mode of this mission? Your foe starts by owning the nuetral bases. And forward infantry. And an air force. In Fog of War. And both times, but much more pronounced here, he is using {{spoiler|Lightning Strike}}, the best CO Power in the game. And with all those expensive air units you need to destroy, he will have very liberal use of that Power.
** It gets to the point that the only way to defeat him is days (literal, 24-hour segment DAYS) of trial and error. And then you will still be crying as the mass of unstoppable Bombers, Fighters, Med Tank, Battle Copters, and Rockets roll over your base. Again. And again. And again.
** There is a guide. It shows you exactly how to defeat the mission, by exactly, tile-by-tile, day-by-day, telling you how to fend off his attack in such a way, that allows you to escape with a few transport copters and infantry, while he overruns your base so thoroughly that you are actually depending on him saturating your properties, hoping that his own units block his infatry from taking your HQ. You then must execute a perfect suicide run for his HQ. If everything goes well, you triumphantly stand upon a shattered Green Earth HQ, a half-damaged infantry your unit on the map, and 30-some game-days of anguish behind.
** Guess what? {{spoiler|Even this exhaustive strategy guide [[Unwinnable By Mistake|DOES NOT WORK]]. Eagle will move his Battle Copter in a way that makes the entire strategy futile. Alright, not for everyone, but many, if not most, have a randomized AI rotuine that is set when you first enter the Advance Campaign, 22 levels earlier, that determines whether Eagle sports a miniscule achilles tendon, or if he is quite simply unbeatable.}}
== [[Super Robot Wars]] ==
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== Other ==
* Chapter 2-1 of ''[[Vandal Hearts]]'' is an early gimmick battle, and boy is it a doozy. There are a number of immobile, evil statues placed strategically around the map. These statues have possessed the villagers, turning them into insane, bloodthirsty killers. Your objective is to destroy all of the statues while keeping at least one villager alive. Sounds simple enough. The problem? Your party automatically counter-attack every single time without fail, and each of the villagers will go down in one hit, even from your weakest party member. It's a hair-pulling extravaganza.
** The above battle is difficult, but with a strategy based around luring the zombie villagers and using the conveniently placed blocks on the map it is actually rather easy to finish the level without killing any of the villagers (you lose money if you do) and getting all the chests/secret treasures. A better example is 2-6 where you have to kill all the enemies on the map in 3 turns. Not only do you have to travel the length of the entire map to do so, but if any of the enemies manage to leave the screen before these three turns are up, you also lose. Oh, and the enemies are all Monk class so they have no specific weakness to any weapon or magic & can inflict poison just by attacking you. Have fun.
** Although a lot of the fights in Vandal Hearts seem like this if you want to get all the hidden items/not have anybody die, pretty much all of them can be beaten by a properly balanced party and a decent strategy. Though some fights seem to require EXACT strategies.
** The second game is much more difficult due to you and the computer taking simultaneous turns. You may be focusing on defeating one particular enemy and try to guess where he'll be so you can move behind him and take him out, but you've forgotten about that archer on the other side of the map! Now the computer's making him attack a character that has their back exposed! This means that now you've got two characters in compromising conditions and an enemy in a prime location to attack either of them. Have fun guessing which.
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** And if you think that's bad, try the second mission of the Dungeon Campaign with one (handicapped) town against ''six'' and a lot of enemy heroes on higher levels than yours. Better find that Tear of Asha fast. Oh, and the next mission starts with zero to eight, but you start with two decent heroes and enough troops to easily capture two quickly.
* Not so much a level (because it doesn't have levels) as a stage, but the Independence War in ''[[Colonization]]''. You have to pass it to beat the game, but it's so hard and just downright unfair (Where did the 18th-century English navy get teleportation technology!?) that many players just avoid it entirely (which makes the game unbeatable). Since it's a sandbox game, this isn't too bad, but as time goes on the game makes it harder and harder to play without fighting the Independence War, so eventually you have to either attempt it (and the longer you put it off, the harder it gets) or just quit.
** YMMV on the difficulty of the Independence War, but it is definitely boring. The game was designed to simulate developing an economy in a wilderness area; the military simulation is so crude that there is no real strategy or tactics involved in the war.
** Also in the follow-up Civilization IV: Colonization. The problem is that at a fixed point in the game, the King of England will begin amassing an invading army, and the larger and more successful your economy, the larger that inevitable invading force will be. The counterintuitive secret to winning is to deliberately cripple your economy and trick the computer into sending a smaller invading force that you actually have a decent chance of beating. Which is stupid because the whole pre-invasion half of the game is essentially an economic and nation building sim.
* ''Age of Wonders'' features a very difficult campaign in general, but the third dwarf mission, ''The Hall of Heroes'' really takes the cake. You start with a decent-size town and few resources, with your objective being to find the titular location. The briefing conveniently forgets to mention that you will come under attack almost immediately from the north and east by Frostlings, while the Dark Elves attack simultaneously from underground. The teleporter to get to the Hall is hidden underground, past heavy fortifications, and is personally guarded by two Karaghs. Resources are few, the AI will seem to be everywhere, and it will take ''many'' tries before you either get lucky or figure out one of the few strategies that has a decent chance of working.
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