Der Langrisser (SFC JP) Playthrough --- Stage 9 (Imperial Route)

After Lester and Keith is (obvs) a showdown with Cherie next. Most of her troops aside from that one Serpent Knight in the back and the Highlord with Elves is frontloaded against you, making it easier to get to, but also harder to not get double-teamed. Thankfully Elwin with a Necklace and Gryphons still make a very effective wall for now so Rouga and Leon can pick off their respective troop types. I was surprised Leon with Tier 1 Lancers was doing as well as he did, albeit with Langrisser and a Necklace of his own. Imelda still slogs along with Ballistas and mainly is relegated to picking off fliers. Vargas appears to help you on Turn 6 but his starting class is also pretty weak, like Imelda, but he leaves after this stage ends and gets another power up later. Nonetheless I wasn't about to take chances. I was tempted to use that Secret Tile on Imelda to give her a +1 AT and DF to make up for the upcoming shortfall, but decided in the end to give it to Elwin instead since there's no telling when/if he has an opportunity to use a Runestone at all without finding himself entirely overwhelmed. For that matter, I probably should've Runestoned him this stage. I was surprised that Cherie has Fireball this stage, admittedly, so might as well use her to power level Leon, Rouga and Vargas up so as not to have to worry about them later. Vargas goes into Archmage (in the same vein as Elwin going into Sage back in the Light Route... he's a much better Mage than Imelda and Egbert are for now, even. Holy shit.) so he has access to archers later for Runestoning; Leon goes into Swordmaster instead of General both for one of his Secret Classes and for Ballistas. Rouga becomes a Highmaster for Teleport, like he was when we killed him in the Light Route; At least there's an Arbalest with his name on it, which given the AT debuff on it pairs nicely with the Assault Suit he's wearing this stage, or he can use an Orb to double his MP for zipping Imelda around the stage later. Sadly unlike an actual mage, the rate which Cherie uses Fireball seems to be completely random. She can go 4-5 turns without throwing Fireball only to throw 2-3 of them in a row on the next turn. This contributed to a much higher turn count than it needed to be. Ouch. At least since Leon and Rouga are now at max level (for now), I can now focus solely on levelling Imelda up though, as she will sorely need it. No enemy reinforcements makes for a fairly comfy stage overall provided I avoided losing units and teammates, but the reduced Exp that Army of Light troops give is starting to annoy me and makes me wish we had either some Chaos guys to fight soon, or some item that can boost our Exp gain... Class Changes: Rouga: Highlord ~ Ranger ~ Highmaster Leon: Highlord ~ Swordmaster ~ Hero Vargas: Fighter ~ Lord ~ Highlord ~ Archmage(!?)