I wish the windmill stage had tougher enemies on it – it’s gorgeous to look at.

Hopefully it’s not a permanent thing.

So I tried again. This time I took up a defensive position and slaughtered the first group of knights. Due to my own idiocy is not noticing how badly he was hurt, Jean fell early, which was a blow. But with five units remaining and the knights, the enemy healer and the enemy archer all dead, I moved on. The ensuing battle was tough and I lost three more units before the target finally fell, with two turns to spare.

But with that level completed, chapter two was over. I’m not my way to Riems with the Dauphin in tow… or will be once I’ve levelled up a bit in the new Free Stage I’ve just unlocked.

I get off to a bad start. I misread the layout of the level and end up stuck and surrounded just out of reach of the target… to all but my archer, Marcel, who sends a poison arrow into him. As my target loses health from the poison I fight on and eventually, with a couple of turns to go, the rest of my merry band can attack. But the poison’s worn off.

It’s the final turn, only Roger, Liane and Marcel are left alive. Liane’s magic is depleted and her sword skills aren’t up to much. There’s only one square I can attack the target from, so she waits on the sidelines. Marcel looses off an arro from afar… but it misses. It’s all up to Roger. The target had started with over three hundred hit points, he’s down to 37 now. Roger attacks him from behind… hits! But only does 29 points of damage.

I lose. If only I’d used Marcel’s Sniper Shot skill. It does very little damage, but it always hits. I should have used that, but I just didn’t think. I assumed the normal attack would hit. I shouldn’t have.

That arrow’s going to haunt me.

This may sound obvious, but the trick was just to go for the objective, which was to kill a specific enemy unit. So instead of clearing out all the units before him, I just got to him as quickly as I could and threw everything I had at him. On the way I just kept healing, rather than attacking the other units, so managed to keep everybody alive and healthy.

Pretty obvious stuff, really, like I said. I missed out on all the lovely EXP and bonus items I’d have got from killing everyone on the field, but that’s a small price to pay for victory.

However, now I’ve got another battle straight after that one, with no way to return to the World Map and level up or buy supplies before the fight. Gulp.

I have to storm a dark fortress, lit by purple magical lights. It’s very intimidating. I also only have eighteen turns to do it. And it’s Game Over if I lose any of my units. I’ve taken a couple of turns so far and I really don’t see that I’ve got any chance of winning. The big doors will slow me down terribly, the enemy units are tough and there’s a boss at the end.

I may need to level up some more before trying this one again. (Yes, I’m assuming that I’ll lose.)

So I’ve just spent a very pleasant half of a lunch time once again attempting to defend the Bastille of the Augustins. And this time, I won. I tried a new placement for my troops, which initially seemed to be very unsuccessful. Marcel fell early, because I forgot that enemies could climb ladders. (I know, I know, I’m rubbish.) Roger didn’t last much longer, but he got some good hits in before he died.

Things were looking bad, but I stayed further down the stairs than I have before and that let me open up some gaps in the flood of enemies trying to attack me. Enough of a gap for Jeanne to be able to transform and hack her way out.

(Gaming mechanic explanation time. Jeanne can tansform into a more powerful version of herself once she’s built up enough skill points in a battle. Her best extra skill after transformation is Godspeed, which lets her move and attack again if she defeats an enemy, rather than her turn ending as it normally would. So if you’ve weakened some enemies down to the point where they’re killable in one hit, you can send her all around the map slicing and dicing in a single turn. The transformation only lasts a couple of turns, but if you can create the right opening, the effects can be devasting.)

She killed, I think, four enemies in that one turn, two weakened enemy soldiers, a full-strength mage and a full-strength priestess. The magic users tend to hang back, but by using the soldiers as stepping stones I managed to get Jeanne out to them.

On the next turn, Liane was killed because she’d selflessly been healing Jean rather than herself, but that wasn’t enough to stop me. Turn nine came around, the final enemy fell and Jean and Jeanne stood proud on the battlefield. Hoorah!

It’s amazing how powerful Jeanne’s transformation can be if the conditions are right. Getting those conditions, though, is the hard part. You can certainly improve those odds – like leaving two routes down the stairs by defending lower down – but I think luck’s always going to play a part, except for those really anal types who pour over moves for half an hour at a time and can remember how much different attacks do against different enemies.

I was doing well, with a slightly modified version of my previous tactics, when I forgot that Jeanne had to survive this battle and sent her off into the middle of a scrum of enemies, without even noticing she only had half a health bar. A stupid, stupid death and a richly deserved Game Over screen.

All was well until all that was left was the enemy’s priestess, a healing character with little or no offensive capability. Unfortunately, she decided to run away. Unfortunately, all levels in this game have a turn limit. I chased her, but she had a big head start and I only had Jeanne, Marcel and Liane left. Jeanne moves quite quickly, but Marcel and Liane are slow. For the last three turns I wasn’t able to damage the priestess enough to kill her and on her turn she’d run further away and heal herself. At the end of my last turn I got her down to nine hit points. That’s not a lot, but she was still alive and my time ran out and the Game Over screen appeared.

Never before, I don’t think, have I been as exhilarated at failure. I’m itching to get home from work tonight and try again. This time: take out the healer early with whatever I’ve got. Maybe I should buy some more of those items that do magical damage when you throw them, if they’re available in the shops. More ranged attacks are always good.

Whether the enemies auto-level or whether there’s suddenly been a scripted difficulty hike I don’t know, but the difficulty feels just about perfect right now. The enemies have a bit more health than my characters and there are more of them, so I’m having to think. And, you know, I nearly won.

I think next time I try I should bring in Jean instead of one of the other characters I used. On the stairs his two-square hit zone – not to mention his special Impale move – should make things quicker and easier… if I can keep him alive.