Langrisser V Mini-guide by alamone v0.1

This guide is a quick rundown of tactics to beat Langrisser V in Hard mode.
It includes a discussion of class changes, general tactics, and a walkthrough
of individual strategies for each scenario. Refer to the supporting documents
on Langrisser Memorial (http://zophar.net/personal/alamone) for more info
on things such as secret tiles and class changes.

Character creation: Make Sigma's 1st priority the air element.
Try to maximize commander's DF and MV. Grab Heal1.

Recommended class change paths:
Sigma: Fighter -> Hawk Lord -> Dragon Knight -> Dragon Lord -> Runestone
       -> Gladiator -> Battle Master -> Sword Master -> Hero
Marie: Warlock -> Cleric -> Mage -> Saint -> Avatar
Alfred: Fighter -> Gladiator -> General -> Ranger -> High Master
Claret: Pegasus Knight -> Cleric -> Paladin -> Saint -> Princess
Brenda: Knight -> Sorcerer -> Summoner -> Archmage -> Hermit
Ranford: Knight -> Silver Knight -> Brave Knight -> Dragon Lord
         -> Dragon Master

Give emphasis to leveling up Marie and Brenda; their High Elves will be
your primary offensive units later in the game, and you'll want to obtain
Teleport from Hermit/Avatar as quickly as possible. Don't worry about Alfred
or Ranford too much-- let Sigma do most of the melee attacking, and give
him the Runestone before LV10 Dragon Lord to maximise his statistics. Use
Claret only to cast Decrease; progressing to Paladin or Saint is sufficient
(just give her a Tiara to offset her low MP).

General tactics---
Fight then heal: If your commander (e.g. Sigma) has Heal1, and you're ready
to engage in combat, cast Heal1, but DON'T use your troops; use the wait
function. Heal1 will be ready to cast in 1JP (most likely, even those with
low intelligence can cast Heal1 quickly). Attack with your troops, then
cast the readied Heal1 on your wounded troops.

Elves & High elves: I use my magic users as primary offensive units (Brenda
& Marie)... give them the misc. item that allows 6 troops, and bring 6 elves
or high elves. Let the enemy approach them; and let loose your archers, but
DON'T do anything with your commander; just use the wait function. That will
bring your next judgment turn as quickly as possible; which means you can
attack again with 6 archers. (I guess you can also use the 1JP magic trick,
but that would defeat the purpose of playing "Hard" mode, wouldn't it?)
It is better to wound 6 troops, wait, then finish them off, instead of
killing 3 troops by attacking troops twice (unless you're almost at the end
of a turn; you don't want the enemy's +3HP healing bonus to waste your
efforts). Since the enemy AI isn't so brilliant, the wounded troops
(wounded = 7 HP or less, it seems) will not attack your archers.

Decrease + spell barrages: This is especially useful once Brenda gets the
Lilith summon, which has Fireball (cost = 3MP, Lilith has 35MP, that's 11
Fireballs!). Let someone else (I use Claret) cast Decrease on a nearby
enemy group. Then let Brenda cast Fireball/Thunder/whatever, and the Lilith
cast Fireball. Wait till both Brenda and the Lilith are ready, then let
loose on the decreased group. You should do around 8-10 damage (at least
for the earlier enemies; later in the game everyone has amulets equipped
and this tactic doesn't work as well). If that's not enough, let Marie cast
Thunderstorm or the like. Remember that if you kill the commander but the
troops have HP>1, you won't get any experience for the troops; BUT if you
kill the commander AND the troops simultaneously, you WILL get all the
experience.

Bind enemy through magic: If any enemy commander's HP is less than 8, and
the commander doesn't have any healing magic, it will *always* use the health
command. You can use this to your advantage to slow down enemies that are too
close to NPCs or yourself. Cast any single-target magic (such as Fire) on
the commander; the spell should do at least 3 damage for this tactic to work.
The enemy will predictably use the Health command; repeat the magic for as
long as you need to.

Walkthrough (done entirely by memory, ??? are scenarios I simply forgot)---
Scenario 1: Retreat to the left side, while killing the two fighters.
Aizer will chase you even after Omega breaks out; and Omega breaks out a
turn later than usual, so be careful. Make sure Sigma reaches the endpoint
first, so you can ask Lambda how she's doing; answer the 1st choice.

Scenario 2: You're up against Aizer and two fighters. Selena and Wiler will
show up a little bit later than usual; so be careful. You probably can't
beat Aizer, unless Selena happens to reduce his HP down to 2. Lambda can
cast Fire and finish him off. If Sigma reaches the upper-left corner of
the map, choose the 1st choice to ask Lambda how she's doing.

Scenario 3: Alfred will be running away from Goldry. Situate Sigma on the
top opal; Lambda on the right opal. Move Sigma to the secret tile (hole
surrounded by forest) and answer for whichever bonus you want (Megingyors
or heroine points). Move Lambda towards Alfred; once Lambda is close enough
to Alfred, he will join you. Use his pikes against Goldry; and remember that
pikes can cross the fencing while horses cannot (use the fencing as a
barrier). Be careful that Sigma doesn't get too close to Goldry or he will
turn his attention to you and you won't be any match for him being of
negative affinity.

Scenario 4: Put Lambda on the left, Sigma on the middle, Alfred on the right.
Let Alfred's pikes take care of Goldry, Lambda's soldiers take care of the
fighter, and Sigma go north to take care of Commodore Wiler. If you did your
character creation with lots of A+ D+ bonuses, you might be able to take
care of the weak knight even with only your soldiers. (If not, try to go
around him and wait for Alfred to take care of him.) Let Alfred go to the
barrel in the middle of the town to receive Attack1 magic.

Scenario 5: Put Alfred on the upper-right, Sigma on the upper-left, and
Lambda on the bottom. Alfred should situate himself at the choke point
between the buildings; take out the horse troops one by one and don't let
Alfred go out into the open (if you do, Goldry will take the offensive and
munch all your pikes). Sigma and Lambda can take care of the pikes. Once
Aizer attacks (or by a certain turn), Brenda will come with a knight to
help (eh, they're more of a nuisance than a help in this situation). Sigma's
sword blaze should be enough to take care of Aizer's troops and Aizer
himself. Let Lambda cast Attack1 on Sigma if you want. Don't forget to get
MP+ fruit that's on the tree (upper-right area of map); I'd give it to Sigma
(he'll need to cast Heal1 on Brenda in the next scenario...)

Scenario 6: It starts to get a bit rough on this scenario; Alfred is situated
next to soldiers, which munch his pikes pretty quickly; so move Brenda as
quickly as possible so that Alfred can get out of there. Alfred might have
two or three pikes left, depending on your luck; but that's enough to take
care of that knight group lagging in the forest; hang out in the mountain
area so the knight can't manuever well against you. Brenda's lancers will
have to be enough to take out Alvince, who is already a battle master. Use
Attack1 and Heal1 (Sigma should have grabbed it at character creation)
liberally. I wouldn't bother getting the secret tile since your max troop
count will be reset on class change anyway.

Scenario 7: This is one of the hardest scenarios you will face. First off,
there's the smoke that does HP-1 to you. Then there's those two warlocks
guarding the entrance, who don't hesitate to target your commander, and
most first-grade classes have bad MDF (if Sigma is a Hawk Lord by now, the
warlocks will cast Wind Cutter twice on you, -5HP, -5HP, boom; game over).
Finally there's Aizer who has pretty high stats as well. Here's what I did:
Move Lambda (the only one with enough MDF) close to the entrance (by entrance
I mean the opening out of the smoky area) and let one of her troops suicide-
attack an enemy out of her command range. Once you have engaged the enemy,
they will start chasing you into the smoky area. Retreat back into the smoke.
Take out the enemy groups one by one as they come into the smoke. The -1HP
penalty applies to the enemy too; so be sure no enemy has 1HP before a turn
ends, or you won't get experience for that kill. You should be able to take
out everyone except Aizer and the two warlocks without too much problem.
Taking out the Warlocks with their elves is somewhat hard; but if Alfred can
get there fast enough, his pikes can take 'em out (but some of his pikes
will get munched by the elves pretty quickly). One strange thing; once you
get close enough to the warlock, the warlock won't bother casting offensive
magic against you (such as Fire, Wind cutter); instead it will just sit there
and wait (but the archers will still annoy you). If you don't care about the
little extra experience through killing those two warlocks, just kill Aizer
with Brenda's lancers. Don't forget the secret tile on the left staircase;
2nd option gives you +500P.

Scenario 8: The initial enemies that are on the map are not too tough; the
main concern is Emily. The only way I found I could defeat Emily was to
target her with Brenda's lancers; nothing else has AT high enough to punch
through Emily's DF. Attack1 is a must. Brenda's lancers should be able to
decrease Emily to 2HP, then let Lambda cast Fire on her; she's gone. If you
want to go to the secret scenario, leave at least one commander alive; keep
the HP low by casting Fire every now and then. I strongly suggest going to
the secret scenario because you get some nice stuff from the shop there.

Scenario ?1: Sigma by now should be a Hawk Lord. His AT and DF should be
enough to kill the Anikis that are chasing you. Don't worry too much about
the civilian troops that come against you; their attack pattern doesn't
allow them to utilize their very high AT (they just cower and fling their
sword at the air). I'd give Sigma the Critical skill, Alfred the Again magic,
and you can buy the Maid troop and Apron dress if you have spare P.

Scenario 9: By now everyone should be at or almost at their 2nd class.
Sigma: Hawk Lord, Lambda: Cleric, Brenda: Sorcerer, Alfred: Gladiator.
Put Lambda on the right side, and bind the monster horse commander using
Fire magic. Use Lambda's monks to take care of the gel. Alfred can take
care of the enemies on the ship; let Sigma move over to the barrel in the
alley to get the devil axe, killing the monster horse group on the way.
While the devil axe isn't very useful, at least you can sell it for some P.

Scenario 10: This scenario is rather annoying; Claret might have class
changed to Cleric in the last scenario (which is what I would recommend; her
A+ D+ bonuses are horrible, which makes her a bad offensive unit as a flying
unit). I directed both Jessica and Claret through the middle path. You'd
better move Sigma as fast as you can to defend Claret; if she gets munched
it's game over. Don't forget that raised floorboard can give you either Cure
Poison or a special attack skill. Guido will come later to annoy you; use
Alfred or Sigma to take care of him.

Scenario 11: Thankfully, in this scenario it doesn't matter too much if the
NPCs die; and die they will. Give Claret some kills if you can; she probably
hasn't learned any magic yet, so she will need to still use melee combat.
Remember that an enemy hawk knight will show up on the upper-left area of
the map, and Guido will show up on the lower-right area. There's two secret
tiles on this map; they're pretty obvious, but the one in the middle is only
accessible through a flier. If you plan to take out the warlocks with Sigma
as a Hawk Lord, make sure you're out of range of the other warlock's magic;
if both warlocks cast Wind cutter on you, you're dead; but if only one
warlock is able to cast it, you can compensate with Lambda/Claret casting
Heal1.

Scenario 12: This is somewhat of a "breather" scenario; a raid on the cargo.
Sigma can also pick up two secret tiles (both require a flier); I'd recommend
getting the Regenerate skill instead of Teleport. (You'll have to reload the
game until you get it, if you keep getting Teleport.) The snow dragon will
hatch in a later scenario if you choose the 3rd choice at the nest. However,
the Snow dragon troop isn't so great; Archangels are far superior to them,
and cost less. Quickly move Sigma to the right side of the map, and use his
troops to blockade the cargo's exit. Then let your other commanders come in
from the back, and whoever needs experience can wipe the easily killed cargo
units.

Scenario 13: Once you get too close to the keep, the troops will try to
retreat; the biggest threat is the knight, which will move to the east.
(If any troop escapes, it's game over). Sigma is probably the only one with
enough MV to intercept it; so place Sigma on the right-most opal, and let him
block the right exit. After he wipes the knight group, stick around that area
since Guido will come there later. On the left side a hawk lord group will
come, and on the bottom a healer and a gladiator. The prisoners will be set
loose. Tell them to keep put. Block the left and right exits so that nobody
can harm the prisoners. Don't forget the secret tile in the upper-left water
area- combined with the item you got from scenario 11, you can summon
Seraphim (provided you have 35 MP). Wait till Lambda is a mage; then she
might have enough MP to summon it.

Scenario 14: Place Claret on the upper-right opal; move her north. Once
she gets close enough to Eric, he will become NPC. Let Sigma's Herb Roc
(anti-flier) troops take care of the hippogrifs and sky archers. You can
get the Cure Poison skill on the secret tile on the very top area of the
airship.

Scenario 15: Initially this scenario isn't too bad; but then those 4
knight groups come back with dragoons, and the flier commander comes from
the north. Fortify yourself in the fort, and don't forget to get the shade
troop; I gave it to Brenda (it helps early on, but ditch it for elves and
high elves). Try to obtain the secret scenario as well.

Scenario ?2: The karoake scenario. Sigma can probably kill the Anikis until
they power up beyond the 40s; then you'd best hurry up and finish the
scenario. You'll collect lots of P for killing the Anikis so many times;
that and the experience Sigma gets are the only practical reasons for going
to ?2.

Scenario 16: You have to protect the NPC in the prison. Once you reach the
top half of the map, the person you instructed to attack from the back will
show up, and the troops will turn their attention to the NPC (in other words,
make sure you're ready to protect the NPC before moving north too much).
The enemy can remove the grating if they get close enough to the NPC, so be
careful. Guido will come to annoy you from the bottom as well. Whoever
obtained the shade troop will have a field day on this scenario; nothing but
normal troops; phalanx and legion troops are mincemeat for shade troops.
If you bothered to step on all 3 secret tiles, you'll get a ranged weapon.
It won't be of much use to you now, since only a 4th level class (Ranger)
can start using it, and everyone is probably still on 2nd or 3rd level.

Scenario 17: Guido and the flying commander are at the top; and lots of
annoying magic users on the side with elves. If you take it slow, this
scenario isn't as bad as it looks. You can get the Healing skill through
saying Yes to all the objects in the water, then going to the leftmost
object. I'd give it to Alfred, since he's primarily a melee unit, and
Sigma's Archangels already have the healing skill.

Scenario 18: ???

Scenario 19: Grove and his undead minions are terrorizing the civilians here.
Be sure not to let any civilian troops die, or else you won't be able to
access ?3. I send Sigma to the north to take care of Grove, and everyone
else to the east to help protect the villagers (move as quickly as you can,
use Lambda's fire magic to slow down the Larvae if necessary). Remember, not
even the civilian troops may die; and their magic defense is *bad* (Freeze
magic will take off 7 HP), so don't dilly dally. Every so often Grove will
summon some more undead to annoy you; but it's extra experience, so kill
everything as fast as you can, because everytime Grove summons new monsters,
it only replaces those that are dead; so the less you kill, the less are
re-summoned (and the less experience you can obtain). Don't let Sigma kill
Grove too quickly; wait till he can't summon anything anymore. Then move
Sigma to the church to the secret tile at the statue to enable ?3. Let
Claret deal the finishing blow to Grove; Brenda can assist softening him up
with elves.

Scenario ?3: This is somewhat of a breather scenario; just deploy whoever is
lagging behind in experience to combat first. The enemy bout order is random.

Scenario 20: This is a save the cargo scenario; pretty straightforward. You
won't have to worry too much about the NPCs dying; you'll only be penalized
if the commander dies, not the cargo troops. Don't forget to get the
Excalibur weapon from the secret tile.

Scenario 21: ???

Scenario 22: ???

Scenario 23: ???

Scenario 24: Let Sigma take out the archangel groups to the sides with Herb
Roc troops, and let everyone else obtain the chests and kill off the middle
enemies. Don't let Omega get Langrisser or it's game over. Only Sigma (as
a melee unit or with the sword wielding skill) and Claret (same condition)
may equip Langrisser.

Scenario 25: Move Sigma north to protect Ranford; surround Goldry so that
Randius or Ranford won't steal experience from you through killing Goldry's
troops. NPC Ranford and Player Ranford are two different entities, so
giving NPC Ranford experience is useless. The enemies on this scenario are
relatively easy.

Scenario 26: The scenario against Alvince; this one is rather annoying.
Position Alfred to the far right; he'll have to go *behind* the chest on the
right to get the secret scenario. (Note: If you don't get a prompt for the
secret scenario, it might be because you opened the chest; you can't get
more than 1 secret tile at a time. Simply move to your same position, and
the question should come up.) Once anyone reaches the halfway point,
the golems will revive, and Alvince will start moving to the exit in the
center. You should let Sigma hang back so that he's ready to take on the
golems when they revive. After taking care of them, let Sigma block the
center exit; Alvince might cast teleport, and if he does it's game over.
Be careful of the flames on the sides; touching them instantly kills.

Scenario ?4: Don't buy any troops for your female characters. Take care of
the fake versions of yourself; then take care of the Aniki troops. If the
fake version of yourself has persuaded your female characters to enemy,
simply move close to the controlled female and answer correctly to her
question. Let Lambda (either as a NPC or a player) move to the shop with the
50P sign; you can buy a special troop there for any character (I'd recommend
buying Claret something; she is probably lagging behind in levels).

Scenario 27: Masterson is somewhat of a pushover; this scenario lends itself
to the decrease+spell barrage tactic (at least for those enemies without
amulets equipped). Otherwise just use elves to kill everything.

Scenario 28: ???

Scenario 29: ???

Scenario 30: *Before* killing the lone gladiator, move Sigma to the center
of the top building; that way once the gladiator is dead, Sigma can quickly
take care of Omega and the crimson knights. Your other commanders will come
in pretty late; I wouldn't bother buying troops for them. I'd bring either
Marie or Brenda as backup in this scenario; let their Elves kill everything.

Scenario 31: This scenario is annoying because of the 15 turn time limit.
But you want to kill Aizer for the extra experience. Pace yourself and make
sure you can kill everything within 15 turns. Don't forget about the secret
tiles; but you can only choose one. The excalibur is saleable for more P than
the Aegis shield; but the Aegis shield is probably more useful to equip at
this point. It's your call.

Scenario 32: ???

Scenario 33: This scenario is easy experience because Grove will summon more
creatures every other turn. In normal mode he summoned them only in the north
area; but in hard mode they're summoned at different places. Brenda or Lambda
should be a Hermit by know; use Teleport to move the civilian troop to the
center device, then teleport him to the bottom edge of the map (once he
finishes activating the device) so you don't have to worry about him getting
killed. Have a field day killing all the troops you can; and remember that
Grove summons what has died; so you can forego killing all the pesky troops
and aim at the center commander if you want more experience.

Scenario 34: This scenario is rather easy; but be careful, Grove will summon
the undead Fureakea and vampires at the south. Let Brenda and Lambda's high
elves decimate the demons. Don't worry about the staircase at the upper left;
you can't scenario select in Hard mode anyway :)

Scenario 35: Pretty straightforward; just blitz to the north. Gaiel will
summon Chaos (err, or at least a reasonable facsimilie thereof); but don't
worry too much about it, Sigma can wipe Chaos off pretty easily with 1 or 2
archangels. Because Gaiel has Alhazard, Robes of Darkness, and Death
Contract, his MDF for Holy will be around 40. You can cast Decrease and
Holy Blaze him if you want Claret to finish him off. If you're really bored,
you can get the Dragon King Rod from the secret tile; not like it's going to
help all that much, since the final scenario is next.

Scenario 36: It's rather easy on this scenario now; give Lambda and Brenda
ballistas instead of high elves this time. They can use teleport and attack
with their ballistas to take care of Omega (the ballista range is farther
than Omega's range) and the other pesky generals. Remember that Omega will
show up after 3 of your commanders are freed from the force fields (simply
by moving someone close to a force field it is disabled and the commander's
troops are released). I expected this scenario to be harder than it was; well
actually the first time I played it was somewhat hard, because I didn't know
you could free your buddies from the force fields (I killed everyone with
Sigma alone- but maybe that's a testament to the difficulty of normal mode).

By the end, all your characters should be at secret class (maybe with the
exception of Alfred and Claret), and Sigma should be at 3rd or 4th class
after using a runestone (My Sigma ended with about AT70 DF50).

Well, you can see the difficulty levels off dramatically after about
scenario 7. You still have to stay on your toes to progress; but for Hard
mode I think every scenario should have been as difficult as scenario 7.
Still, it was enjoyable, and I did get the game over screen quite a few times.

By the way, check the last option in the seiyuu interviews for a hidden
animation credits sequence (unlocked after beating the game in any mode).
The seiyuu option is in the Option menu at the title screen.

-alamone