A EX Stage - "The Fallen Fortress"
Alright people, time to advance to the B Rank stages, but before we do, EX stages have their own rules:
1. You really only need to beat the first phase to "pass", but beating them all unlocks some really, really good secret units at times.
2. These stages are part of the overarching plot.
3. Aphrodia herself joins as a guest fighter who will NOT turn on you during Over Impact.
4. They unlock only after beating all other prior stages with at least a gold haro rank.
Anyway, the EX stage is going to be original Gundam meets Gundam 00, with some Crossbone meets Gundam SEED Destiny, and some more Gundam 00 meets Gundam X. The secrets include some OG and Zeta Gundam stuff.
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Preparation:
My teams and their units for this stage:
Carrier: Zenon Tiegel - Carry Base (default crew with Marina Ismail as XO)
Master Unit: Judau Ashta - Strike Freedom (Meteor)
Team 1
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Mark Guilder - Akatsuki (Oowashi Pack)
Ellis Claude - GN-X IV
Loni Garvey - G-Falcon Double X
@NIGGO KILLA - Cheridum Gundam
Team 2
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@Kiwi Jeff
Guy Fieri - Alvaaron
Yuria - V2 Assault Buster
Haken Browning - Freedom Gundam
Yurin L'Ciel - Gundam Leopard Destroy
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One final Note: At 35% complete, got Reese Arno. She's lame in all areas save Charm, but can be pretty good after some leveling up.
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We start this level at the ACTUAL Abao A Qu, not it's AGE ripoff version like the last level, and both Char Aznable and Lalah Sune from the original series realize shit has gone wrong:
Lalah senses a strong hatred from whoever intends to colony drop A Baoa Qu, and that's when some Gagas and the 0 Gundam (Combat Color) show up, piloted by Ribbons Almark.
Char initially mistakes him for Amuro anyway, as he and Amuro has the same VA in Japan and the 0 Gundam was deliberate OG Gundam shoutout, a joke SRW Z2.2 had fun milking for as much fun as possible when Ribbons and Amuro met.
Anyway, Ribbons corrects him, tells Char "hey, you're a Newtype. Interesting, but honestly, fuck you, you're not needed in my new world"
Char: "the fuck does that mean?"
Ribbons: "means you can get bent. After I purge Earth, I'll lead humanity to a new future, plz die like a bitch kthnxbai"
Char: "Even I'm not crazy enough to leave humanity's fate in your hands."
Lalah: "He's consumed by hatred, he must be stopped!"
The EFSF fleet tries to stop Ribbons, but as they try to blow up the rock heading for Earth, he brings out his new friend:
Char: "the %#@! IS THAT?!"
By way of answer, it fries the EFSF armada in one shot.
The World Signal goes off, and like Batman to his signal, Aprhodia herself heeds the call, and says they need to take Ribbons' ass down because the Balbadoro (aka, the shit that broke the Generations System) will hose over Earth if they don't, and we obviously don't want that.
Ribbons: Piss off bitch, Earth is mine to dick over.
And that's when you can deploy above or below Aphrodia's position, either is fine.
The first two phases of this map are easy so long as you can keep moving steadily forward, and while you can play it safe this phase, it makes the next one somewhat more difficult, hence why my team is loaded for bear.
Aphrodia and her Halphas Bose are quite powerful, with boss level stats, and you'll want her to get the kill on Ribbons.
The Balbadoro's death will end the level at any time, but keep it alive until the end for a better score, more secrets, and more fun.
Do note the Balabdoro is very, very powerful and has no shame it blasting the shit out of weak units ASAP, so don't assume it's an easy kill, it's stats are high as hell and you'll want to bukkake it with support fire.
As for Ribbons' goons, aside from the Gagas from his own series, which will try to kamikaze your team once they get close enough and thus need to die ASAP, he's got a good leavening of all sorts of OG Gundam goons, and they will all advance in waves to try and kill you all.
The Gelgoog Jaegers have a nasty unblockable MAP attack where they can hit any unit they please for an unblockable 4000 damage, and they will hit crippled units first, so make a point to kill them ASAP as well.
The rest are slow artillery, laughable Zakus, some meaty yet slow OG Gundam mobile armors that are sitting ducks for powerful multi-hit attacks, and Ribbons himself, who is rather easy by comparison.
If you can punch a bloody hole in his ranks early and keep a bloody hole between you and your carrier, you're good, and Lalah and Char can join Aphrodia in support fire if you wish, they can definitely help support kill any Gaga who might suicide for several thousand damage if they get too close.
If you can get as far to the right as possible before murdering the hell out of Ribbons, you'll be fairly well off for Phase 2.
Once you take down Ribbons, the Balbadoro freaks out and falls back, and that's when several Meteor Breakers show up with SEED Destiny Dearka Elsman and Yzak Joule, who plan to use them to destroy A Baoa Qu like they attempted with Junius VII's remnants in their own canon, as even they don't want a replay of that.
But that's when most of the Meteor Breakers get blow the hell up, and Batara squads from the Jupiter Empire show up, led by the Death Gale team from Crossbone, who are impressed Ribbons knocked A Baoa Qu out of orbit for them, so their bosses can do the drop for their own ends.
The Balbadoro shows up to back up the Death Gale team, and Phase 2 begins:
If you get the secret, a Gyan Kai flanked by two regular Gyan join the fight, they aren't too hard, kill the control unit to capture other two.
Also, this phase is not too bad so long as you keep at least one Meteor Breaker alive, you can't defend them all, so cover one like white on rice and shoot anyone who gets close until the Death Gale team heads your way, then let Aphrodia kill one before anyone else does for the challenge mission and Phase 3.
Yzak and Dearka can help as support as always.
Once you do this, the remaining Meteor Breakers explode, and the Frost Brothers show up to make sure Earth gets colony dropped and the Balbadoro is willing to help.
In response, Graham Aker shows up piloting that GN Flag he used at the end of Season 1 of Gundam 00, bent on killing any Gundams that want to dick over Earth.
Shagia and Olba are all "lol, who this hothead?".
Phase 3 is really easy, just kill everyone left on the map, and let Aphrodia kill Shagia or Olba for Over Impact. None of their goons are too scary, and if you got the secret, you can fight a Gaplant Kai and capture two regular Gaplants.
OI will turn Char, Lalah, Yzak, Dearka, and Graham against you, so have them all in striking distance before OI activates to make taking them down easier, then mass blast the Balbadoro to death.
It will escape, Aphrodia will be all "dammit, that thing is just gonna keep fucking shit up if we don't stop it next time", then the level ends.
Your reward for clearing this stage is unlocking the B Rank stages, getting another Master pilot and another battle group with a carrier and two teams to play with so long as you got the bodies and units to outfit it.