Chapter 5, Mission 1: The Channelwood

**Map 21** (Chapter 5, Mission 1) is a 9x19 large-sized flooded forest phased-deployment map in TinyGroove. Its S-rank can be achieved if completed in <33 days. The mission involves the player competing with Sedge and his co-commanders, Greenfinger and Nuru for territorial control over the Channelwood, a coastal rain forest.

### **Mission Background**

This Floran urban brawl plays out across 9 phases as the player's objective is to locate Sedge's stronghold among (seemingly) several decoy Strongholds. The player learns (as the map unfolds) that Sedge owns all of the strongholds, and the map objective changes to destroy all Floran Strongholds. Furthermore, it's revealed that the Channelwood is a veritable Floran City, and Sedge uses the Strongholds to exert his influence over the Floran denizens. The Strongholds fall within 7 known neighborhood "Districts", each of which provides its holder specific battlefield advantages. Wresting conservatorship of these Districts from Sedge and using their advantages to aid your victory will accelerate your successful S-Rank attempt. This is simpler than you might think, since the normal game mechanics are suspended for this battle and neither destroying a stronghold nor defeating a commander will end the battle for you or the enemy, as the game explains. Unlike normal, after destroying an enemy stronghold, a flag appears indicating that the site is eligible for construction of a stronghold to exert influence in that neighborhood. Sending any unit to the site will erect a stronghold with the amount of health that unit has remaining. Beware, the same applies to the enemy AI, who may unwittingly snatch up empty build sites in the process of attacking your nearby units that have just completed destroying the prior stronghold, so it helps to claim a build site in the same turn as you destroy them to prevent this already uphill battle from being more difficult than it needs to be! Each district has a central flag of a designated color indicating how many strongholds the player has left to raze and construct for their team to claim that district's resource bonus. Sedge (or the player) will only receive a district's resource bonus if the district is completely owned by them and not contested. Beginning with a phased deployment arriving by barges starting in the southeast, the 9 phases are:

#### Phase 1. Beach Landing

The battle begins as a phased deployment for the first week of battle. Each Day (through Day 7), provides the player with 2 barges, and 1 warship. Begin to siege the beaches with your warships to clear landing zones for your barges to the north. The enemy has a port nearby, but it is blocked on three sides by the dock walkway, so you can mostly neutralize its production capabilities (unless they recruit merfolk/splashers) by parking one of your barges in front of it. Each time one of your barges makes landfall on the highlighted northern beach, a soldier will emerge to help take over the forest. After the first week is over, units from your naval fleet will stop arriving.

#### Phase 2. District 7: Backswale Cove

This phase mostly begins as soon as your first barge makes landfall on one of the beaches to the north of your starting position. Dark Mercia will emerge and order you to bring the rest of the barges ashore while your warships siege the coastline to clear it of Floran so more barges can land. You will have to balance prioritizing the beachhead for landing barges or using it to park warships on for their beach bonus critical hit advantage, since the water can fill up over the first week of battle, potentially denying you reinforcements spawning in the southeastern corner during the first week of battle.

Once Dark Mercia arrives on land, Nuru gives you a brief tour of the neighborhoods or districts of the Channelwood and introduces the complex battle that is about to unfold. She explains that the Channelwood is a large Floran City and that not all Floran sympathize with Sedge. His large Stronghold Trees exert his influence over the many neighborhoods of the Channelwood, and you may destroy him to usurp his power over those areas. Each territory provides you with a form of bonus for subjugating its denizens, sometimes resource bonus, more units, or other things, but only if you possess all of that district's strongholds. You may destroy sedge's strongholds and erect one of your own by ending a unit's turn at locations where Sedge's Strongholds once stood to seize control of a neighborhood. Flags appear when a stronghold site is unoccupied, marking the location of a contested stronghold build site (so you won't forget its location. Each district consists of several strongholds, each of which you must wrest from Sedge's control to emerge victorious in this battle.

Oft relevance to District 7, it is the first one you will encounter and all of its three strongholds may be sieged from the comfort of your warships. You should make quick work of it. If you destroy all of Sedge's strongholds here and erect 3 of your own to capture the district, you will begin construction on three structures: two barracks (and an unusable tower) near the northeast corner of the map that will be usable on the following Day; lose one of the strongholds, and your influence will vanish along with these new structures. If you claim the District 7 before the end of Day 7, and you have beaten Nuru twice before on Map 11 and Map 17, special dialogue will occur wherein Nuru expresses contempt towards Sedge for continually saddling her with the losing team. She hints that if you defeat the next District (6) before Day 10, that Dark Mercia will be unstoppable on her path to victory, and that she'll likely defect to join you (do it and she will).

#### Phase 3. District 6: Living Shoreline

This small shoreline district has two strongholds and like the previous district, may be sieged from your Warships with ease. claim its strongholds to gain a bonus of 1,000 gold per turn, and gain access to Elodie! This is useful, since she is a second commander on that can fight alongside Dark Mercia on a map where commanders can't die (they simply re-spawn)! Since your Rebirth artefact and enhancement enchantment are doing so for you and the enemy, this changes the 3 (Sedge, Greenfinger, & Nuru) vs. 1 (Dark Mercia) battle into a 3 vs. 2 match, which edges the player closer to evening the odds of success. This benefit also gives you infinite re-spawns for your commanders at the purple flag by the beachhead where you made your initial landing (previously, upon defeat Dark Mercia would just disappear from the map, now she and Elodie will re-spawn)! Since there are very few villages on this map, this makes earning funds to recruit more units much easier. Also, as previously noted, if claimed by the end of Day 10, and you previously claimed District 7 before the end of Day 7 along with satisfying the prerequisites necessary to recruit Nuru, she will defect from the Floran to join your party in the Campaign and she and her splashers from District 5 will immediately defect, change colors to black to side with the Outlaws to instantly claim District 5 to help Dark Mercia claim the rest of the Channelwood to speed up the battle (and presumably minimize casualties).

#### Phase 4. District 5: Deciduous Landing

This small 2-stronghold southern District can still be hit by some of your warships, but can be tough to claim without the help of several land units pushing the front southward. Alternatively, if you recruit Nuru, this phase is a reward of her defection and is instantly captured along with its bonus, two Floran splashers/merfolk to fight for you each turn. If you recruit Nuru, she will also re-spawn from south end of the Forest in this district if you also own District 6 (to bestow its commander re-spawning benefits).

#### Phase 5. District 4: Knotting Branch

This tri-stronghold District borders the northern edge of the map. Claiming it is difficult and will require the player to apply constant pressure against the enemy's main drive down the boardwalk on the northern edge to keep them from quickly reclaiming strongholds in this district as you topple them! Claiming this district marks the half-way point in the battle and does 3 things:

1. Begins construction on villages and more barracks (actually capable of building trebuchets and ballistae) near the north center of the map. Construction of these buildings will complete at the start of the following day, ready for use; lose one of the District's strongholds, and your influence will vanish along with these new structures.
2. A clue hidden in one of the Distict's Strongholds reveals there is a hidden Artefact in the Channelwood, some fireproof Channel-Wood Planks, Artefact 'W'. You can find more on this side-quest under Helpful Hints.
3. If you also control Districts 5, 6, and 7 along with this new District 4, Sedge gets aggressive and attempts to flank you by revealing District 8, Ghost Forest, in the southeast corner of the map, this will spawn 3 new strongholds and splashers each turn Sedge controls the District.

#### Phase 6. District 8: Ghost Forest

If you also control Districts 5, 6, and 7 along with this new District 4, Sedge flanks you by revealing District 8, Ghost Forest, in the southeast corner of the map. There are 3 new strongholds that appear near 2 floating patches of wooden planks, and over the water village, while turtles initially spawn over the reefs, followed by Splashers each turn thereafter for whomever controls this District. Since you mostly surround this district, it should be easy to take over, but take care to not lose your forward momentum as you bring it down (which is the whole point in flanking an enemy).

#### Phase 7. District 3: Trunkly Center

District 3 consists of three tightly-clustered Strongholds on the south-central edge of the Channelwood. Greenfinger has also set a trap for any of your unwitting commanders that may traipse through this area, spawning dozens of vines. It is virtually unavoidable unless you keep your commanders away and let your units take over this district. Victory over this district provides a valuable boon: an end to the tug of war over new territories. Once you own all strongholds in an area, you now can no longer lose their resource bonus or control over the district if Sedge's units destroy one of your strongholds in a District you've previously captured. This also makes it easier to see since there are many highlighted areas and districts on this map, and having this benefit from District 3's control eliminates highlighted prior conquered districts! Only 2 to go!

#### Phase 8. District 2: Treeroot Hollow

The southwestern corner of the map is home to 3 strongholds. Greenfinger and Sedge spawn along the border of this Western border of this District, and its control stops the enemy commanders from re-spawning (although the game doesn't really tell you this). By now, you should be steam rolling the enemy, but destroy the two barracks in this district if you want to expedite your win, or keep one of them active if you are going for this map's Achievement 27 to ensure the enemy still has units or structures remaining while you capture every stronghold site so you don't accidentally satisfy the map's rout victory conditions when you mop up District 1!

#### Phase 9. District 1: Backmarsh Springs

This final district includes 5 Strongholds in the northwestern corner of the Channelwood. Controlling the district provides the same benefit as District 2, which ends the re-spawning cycle of enemy commanders. As the largest district, it is likely to be the final district that you will defeat. These strongholds in this sector are easier to defeat if you first claim the barracks and continually bombard the area with trebuchets and melee strike with mages and giants.

#### Helpful Hints

The Channelwood is home to much intrigue, and the Artefact 'X' Side Quest is a scavenger hunt that is one of those things. The first riddle you receive basically hints that you should set the forest on fire with a dragon by finding the intersection where there aren't any strongholds on the map and bringing a dragon to that place to begin the search! There's only one row and one column's intersection where there are zero strongholds, so bring a dragon there to set the forest on fire and suss out the fire-proof Channel-Wood Planks!

The map doesn't really provide the player with a viable way to recruit a dragon. Seizing control of District 7 gives the player a tower, but it's unusable, as it is sandwiched in the northeast corner between two strongholds. Even if the player allows the enemy to destroy one of the adjacent strongholds, you still can't build any units from it. This is because the player can't select it to build units in the first place; the Tower's turn ends at the start of the player's turn. Thus, the only way to recruit a dragon is to first recruit Nuru and then use her 'Teleport Beam' Groove. She can't recruit any units you don't have access to on the map (the unusable Tower), but as long as you have a tower, you can recruit flying units, including, yes, a dragon, for 2,500 gold. Bring it to the intersection highlighted on the map to "set the Channelwood on fire".
So... at this point, Dark Mercia can sense that the Floran City hides an Artefact, but that it would be like a needle in a haystack to find, but since the artefact isn't likely to be destroyed by fire, she uses the dragon to burn this mother down. Starting at the intersection where you park your dragon, a fire starts, and subsequently grows each turn. Since the rainforest's understory is thick, this makes the job of the dragons easier, and allows them to move unhindered in a space that aerial units couldn't otherwise fly. Thus, as the highlighted fire region grows, the dragons can continually attack any units inside the blaze, but both your units and the enemy's will sustain damage inside the blaze. The Channel-Wood Planks are hidden beneath the south central enemy barracks, which will be destroyed once the fire touches it if you own it, or once its health reaches zero if the Floran control it. Sending any unit to explore the wreckage will automatically put out the blaze and give you Artefact 'W'. So... don't do that if you haven't claimed Achievement A26 yet. At this point in the campaign, you inevitably realize that Dark Mercia's Outlaws, at times, flirt with maybe being anti-heroes, while at other times, are just simply "the bad guys."
Eventually after 15 days of fire, the blaze rages on across all of the land space in the Channelwood. At which point, if you still haven't claimed Artefact 'W', Achievement A26 will be yours for incinerating the entire Floran City... To find an enchanted artefact comprised of petrified wood (probably from the last time someone burned the forest down looking for them). Use mages to heal your units to survive the blaze, and play to your dragons' strength since they will be unharmed and can attack without ending their turn anywhere inside of the highlighted area.

Moving forward after this mission, the campaign becomes somewhat non-linear. The player must complete the three side missions in Chapter 5 to move forward and unlock Chapter 6. You may have unlocked some of those missions already if you have completed Achievement A23. If not, get it on Map 18, and then use Ragna's decoded message (it's not hard to decode, she says it in ALL CAPS over 4 turns) on three different maps to unlock 3 separate flashback side missions in this Chapter: Visit Map 1 to unlock Chapter 5, Side Mission 2. Visit Map 11 to unlock Chapter 5, Side Mission 2. Finally, visit Map 13 to unlock Chapter 5, Side Mission 3. Beat these three flashback missions, assemble the fragments of Artefact 'X' hidden in each mission to decode the Floran language back at the Achievement Castle, and then your invasion of West Florania in Chapter 6 may begin!

### **Achievements**

#### A26: Only You Can Prevent... Asbestos Warriors

**Conditions: Crack the Channelwood's Secret to set it ablaze**. Then, let the forest fire rage for at least 15 days before acquiring Artefact 'W' to quell the blaze. The game will let you know when this happens and award this achievement. You need to recruit Nuru in this mission to get this achievement (even if you have recruited her before on a previous play-through of the map), so make sure you have defeated her twice before on Map 11 and Map 17 to satisfy the prerequisites to recruit her.

#### A27: All Your Base R Belong 2 Us

**Conditions: Capture all of the Channelwood's 25 Strongholds across all 7 districts and win**. Don't be overzealous in your late-phase advance. You need to have other Floran units remaining on the map when you topple the last Floran Stronghold to get this achievement, as the final victory conditions in the Channelwood are to defeat all enemies. Make sure the Floran aren't only left with one Stronghold remaining (and no units left), or else the map will end before you can erect one of your own in its place to get this achievement!

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