Chapter 2, Side Castle 2: Floran Camoflaged Castle

**Map 11** (Chapter 2, Side Castle 2) is a 8x11 medium-sized "Castle Map" in TinyGroove. Its S-rank can be achieved if completed in <25 days, although if you ignore Nuru's Mobile Bases entirely, it can actually be completed in less than 10 days, but you'll miss out on the mission's 2 achievements.

### **Mission Background**

This mission introduces Nuru and some very complex game mechanics to TinyGroove, and as a castle map, it is intended to be a very difficult map requiring some outside-of-the-box thinking to beat. That being said, this castle is among the easiest of the 4 in the game. In this map, the player serves as a test subject for Nuru as she evaluates the effectiveness of new Floran Mobile Bases she is creating. She ultimately sends 3 of them at you, increasing their destructive and protective capabilities each time you destroy them.

The wagon in the middle of the field is the first mobile base, which unpacks into 2 barracks and 2 villages the moment the wagon is first sighted by the player, so delaying this conflict is possible for at least 1 turn if units don't enter the open area of the field, potentially allowing the player to somewhat mount additional forces before the fun begins. Throughout the TinyGroove Campaign, Nuru uses these terrestrial mobile bases, later introducing naval mobile bases in Map 17, and even allows you to use both types on Map 25 after getting her to join you in Map 21.

#### Helpful Tips

Initially, Nuru has an early advantage, but spearmen spam and soldiers near Dark Mercia can help cut down the first mobile base within a few turns. Capturing the top left treasure village provides a small amount of gold and reveals a clue regarding commandeering the mobile bases on this map.

#### *Phase 1 (Mark I)*

Standing in the vacant center (where the wagon once was prior to deployment) will cause the base to repack into a mobile wagon base for the player, as a form of interception of technology. You'll need to wrest a barracks or village in the mobile base from Nuru's control to be able to stand in the center of the four structures, and defeat any units that may be standing there (if she has any that refuse to move). The base can then be moved wherever the player wishes to deploy at the end of their turn. It is best to move the base out of the center of the map and not near the right side of the map (that's where the next base will appear), as absconding with the first mobile base triggers Nuru's release of the 2nd upgraded mobile base on her following turn.

#### *Phase 2 (Mark II)*

The second mobile base (Mark II) is tougher to beat, as Nuru has closed up the central vulnerability by spawning a crystal barrier in the center. The crystal loses 20% life per turn, and your only indirect combat units are archers, so shoot it down (crystals have low defense) or wait it out over 5 turns, then stand in the center to commandeer her second mobile base and once again park it wherever you want, but preferably near her north east Stronghold; now you have 2! You should have defeated Nuru by now and she retorts with some pithy remarks before unleashing the third mobile base, she calls Mark III.

#### *Phase 3 (Mark III)*

This is the endgame now, and after the player unpacks Mark II somewhere, Nuru drops another wagon guarded by 4 spearmen in the middle of the map. If you know this in advance, you can actually stock up on units and defeat the final mobile base wagon before it unpacks, preventing a lot of headaches and making the S-rank much easier to obtain, but you won't be able to score either of this map's 2 achievements. The third base is insane, and basically drops 4 barracks and 8 villages in the center of the map (thankfully the deployment field is broadcast when the wagon appears, so it's up to you to decide to go for broke and attack the spearmen and wagon) or retreat to a safe distance outside of the deployment field. Also, Nuru "warp's in" up to 4 Giants and continues to do so if there are less than 3 until the middle crystal is gone, as she vaguely references some Starbound stuff and some non-WarGroove-canon stuff about meeting the Protoss from Starcraft, which comes up again when she uses her groove to "warp in" buildings in Map 17. Always adapting, Nuru's buildings in later maps self-destruct so that you can no longer commandeer her tech.

It's raining now, and the larger Mark III base means that the crystal can't be reached by your archers since their range is now adversely affected by the weather (as opposed to the boost the wind provided before). The game hints that if you haven't captured the bottom right treasure village... that you should. Doing so yields more gold and a side quest hint that the windy field has a single spot where the effects of the wind aren't felt. sending your commander to this space (it's near the bottom right, just search for a space on the field with no wind animations blowing the grass) to find a switch that unmasks the village in the bottom right as a barracks capable of building mobile base wagons! You can now build them from your new "initial prototype" barracks and drive these through the (fake) woods assembled of potted tree decorations onto the field to unpack next to the enemy units and structures. Doing this a few times can erase enough of the units, giants, and buildings to reach the center crystal. Unlike the previous bases, a stronghold appears in the Mark III base once destroyed, and now adds a second stronghold to defeat before you can claim victory. However, once you have a barracks on the map either by capture or by unpacking your wagon bases, you can build another wagon in the center of the map (you just won't be able to move it, unlike those from the bottom barracks). It feels like an exploit, but you can actually use this strange tactic to "erase" the enemy's central stronghold and many of their units and structures, and in fact, it is required to obtain Achievement 14, thus indicating that it is a strategy that is intended for the player to be able to employ. This is one of the few missions in TinyGroove with no artefact to collect, but is critical to eventually recruiting Nuru.

All of this information was gleaned from the in-game spoilers unlocked in the Achievement Castle by completing at least 40% of the game and destroying the red gates comprising the 'Campaign Completion Counter'.

### **Achievements**

#### **A14: Erase the Base, Scout's Honor!**

Conditions: Remove all structures from the Mark III mobile base's deployment zone so that you leave the grounds as clean as (or cleaner than) when you found them.

To accomplish this, you'll need to complete the side quest to allow you to build mobile base wagons of your own to unpack on top of the buildings and then strategically maneuver and erase all of the structures out of the highlighted deployment zone for this to be awarded. This one's a tough one; hopefully you were decent at those peg-jumping table games or Qbert or Reversi, cause it's kinda like that. It is even possible to erase all of the buildings down to one (the new base your wagon unpacks).

#### **A15: Transient Base Ace**

Conditions: Defeat all three of Nuru's mobile bases and her northeast stronghold to win!

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