10 EX
Objectives: Survive 6 turns, make sure no enemies are behind the Radar Line, have all Radar Towers under your control
Recommended Echelon(s): MG/SG, RF/HG, SF, HOC, Dummy
Echelon Limit: 4 Griffon Echelons, 6 SF echelons
Remember how Kappa EX was when PR cranked difficulty? Well, they take it to an extreme for this map. The echelon compositions you'll be facing are particularly brutal, and combining that with a fairly large area you need to defend makes for one of the most difficult maps in the game. And you know what? There's not much hand-holding I can do here. In theory, you can clear this map fairly easily (assuming you can handle the enemies) by just pushing to the right side of the map and taking Heliports to limit enemy spawns while giving you repair and resupply points. No, really, it's that simple. Even if fights go poorly, you'll have very close by repair points, so you only ever need to take three fights at max before you'll have a chance to repair. So...do your best!
I think the best way to help with this map is to discuss some echelon compositions. The best choice, flat out, is to use and abuse SF echelons. Manticores+SWAP Ripper can deal with all the enemies on this map sans death stacks. If you can field multiple of these, do so. Next, we consider MG echelons, as well as RF echelons. Both of these I feel are pretty equal in usefulness, particularly if you're running stuff like LTLX or KSVK Mod. Both echelons do have their weaknesses against some enemies here. Coeuses (the tanks) are particularly brutal for RFs to fight. They'll blast your backline, and since RFs don't have particularly high HP, they'll likely lose a link or two whenever a volley hits them. MGs struggle more against Hydras, due to the reload. LTLX can alleviate some of that issue with her knockback, but it can still be a problem. For me, I used one of each to display the effectiveness of each. If I had to choose between RF and MG, I'd probably run an MG echelon over an RF one. I'd experiment with various setups in the combat sim to find something that works for you.
Now for some general tips. You need to be very aware of the death stacks' movement. They are what you need to work around when you're trying to capture Heliports. If there's any enemies with expand movement AI near your Radar Towers, those become your number one priority to deal with. If you need to, make sure to use the EMP towers you have at your disposal. They can buy you a turn as well as weaken enemies affected by it. The middle and the bottom half of the map are where the majority of the action will be. Definitely plan to control Heliports there.
A general framework for how to do this:
On turn one, we want to immediately push for the forward Heliports the enemy controls. The two in particular I'd aim for are the Heliport directly to the right of the topmost Heliport you control, and the one three nodes away from the Heliport in the middle that you control.
On turn two, clean up any enemies that are near the Radar line. In my video, there's only one at the top. Kill it and move down towards the middle. There's a Heliport up one node and to the right of your middle echelon. Move your middle echelon on it, and have the top echelon be beside it so you can actually cap it. Move your bottom echelon out to the right and deploy a dummy echelon you can use to activate the generator/use the EMP if needed.
On turn three, clear any enemies next to the Radar line. Keep yourself away from the death stacks and if possible, stand on any enemy Heliports to limit spawns.
On turn four, you definitely want to send your top echelon back up there, since stuff should be getting close to your Radar line at this point. If any echelons need repair, do so. Keep standing on Heliports, and if you need to retreat and redeploy, go for it.
On turn five and on, more or less the same. Kill any enemies that threaten you, and maintain control over at least one or two Heliports in the backline.
Good luck.
Video of me clearing this map
Author: Kazuki
Tags: Poincare Recurrence