The battle in chapter 7 is titled "Desert Duel with Maximilian", who is the enemy commander bringing the war over Gallia. Welkin met him the Valkyrian temple and thought the opportunity for a decapitating blow to good to miss, but the showdown takes place just outside the temple.

The challenge here is to take out Maximilian's giant tank "Batomys", which is quite deadly and indestructible by normal anti-tank weapons until certain prerequisites have been met, before it can waltz down all three Gallian base-camps or annihilate Welkin's Edelweiss tank.

As an added difficulty at some point during the battle Selvaria, one of the Empire's Triumviri (Latin: "viri" means actually "men", but whatever), will appear in her full indestructible Valkyrur form and mow down anyone in her path to the Batomys with her gatling-laser lance.

Finally destroying the mammoth tank will make her withdraw, as her priority is saving her Emperor.

This guide is by definition a "spoiler", but it is written as far as possible in such a way that you can scroll down as far as you like get hints as you need them, when you need them.

The cannons will not fire on little troopers, in spite of what the intro says. So once those 6 MGs are gone, your foot-troopers can swarm around the Bathomys much like they want.

Staying away from the front cannon with your Edelweiss tank is a no-brainer. As it only takes one hit to destroy a 4,500 hp wall segment, it's easy to see there is no way surviving that.

The main worry (the front cannon is more or less only there to further the story) will be its rear cannon which with an ambitious caliber of 122mm is survivable for the Edelweiss, unless it hits the back radiator. As opposed to what the intro says, it has a firing arc of some 180 degrees and more range than the little sketch suggests, so keeping some fixed obstacle in the way to the Edelweiss is advisable.


The foot soldiers will have to take care of the tank's anti-personnel weaponry of 6 machine-guns, two on each side and one front and aft. These apparently cost command points to activate and will not shoot when the tank is just driving by.

An attack or two from those is quite survivable for Lancers, especially when crouched, their ceaseless interception fire is the main worry. Just don't run into them.

When you are really close and near the Batomys the MGs can't fire on you, quite like you will have noticed when attacking with your own tank. Move your Lancers fast out of their firing arcs and approach laterally along the Batomys sides. Get really close so you will hit with some 85+% probability (Lvl. 9 Lancers), but not so close the metal plates under the MGs get in the way.

The rear MG is positioned to the right, as seen when facing the Batomys's aft, best shot when standing right to it and a little behind. You can walk past underneath unharmed, if you hug the tank.

You will need 3 hits by a lance each for 1.200 hp at 400 armour each, unless you use Orders or get lucky with Potentials. Or 1 hit from Edelweiss and 1 lance.


Keep track of your Lancers' 3 shots of ammo, it resplenishes itself each turn by 1. The "Extra Shot" potential (Jann and others) is quite useful here. An Engineer is so fast at 600 AP he can basically zip around the whole tank and refill all 4 Lancers' ammo in a single turn by just bumping into them and use a double strength first aid on one of them on top.

Lancers are tough, Engineers are not. Devise some tactic to take out an MG that would otherwise kill your Engineer running past before setting that Engineer in motion. Prioritise that MG. You will spend the first 3 rounds taking out the MGs, if it's one more or one MG survives, it does not matter. Just the 2 starboard ones should really be gone.


Those Orders are available when your Lancers have reached levels 7 and 8, respectively. Demolition Boost appears not to be worth it here, at a steep cost of 3 CP rather than 2, as you still need 2 hits for an MG. Maybe for the Batomys itself in turn 9.

If you used a "Demolition/Damage Boost" Order on a Lancer he can fire up to 6 times in a single turn, provided an Engineer refills his ammo in between. Could make for up to 3 MGs (at 2 shots each) or 3/4 of the Bathomys HP.


Do not move the mouse when steering your tank, it will cost a lot of AP for turning uselessly. As opposed to troopers, who can look around freely, your tank is actually turning every time you move the mouse. It's from porting a console game to the PC.

Use the NUM-pad 4+6 to select a direction to face (or to look around), then use the cursor UP to move, DOWN for backwards. You can turn the tank manually with the right and left cursor keys, but always line up your sight into the direction you want to go, or things will go wrong.

You cannot move over terrain features, trenches, or narrow ramps. If you hit those, move backwards a few inches, then turn manually with a little extra margin to move past them, always lining up the direction with the NUM-pad before. (see Gurgeh's excellent Tank Moving Guide)


The 3 radiators you have to take out are quite tough, taking 4 lances for 2.100 HP each. Orders are useless for them! (tank-related Potentials seem to work)

Alternatively (and quite surprisingly) they can also be gibbed by a single grenade by one of your Engineers (Lancers don't have them). Far easier.

Take out the radiator on the left first, otherwise it will more or less be guarded by that Valkyrur chick with her deadly gatling-laser. The rear one goes second, if possible.

If you can manage in the general turmoil and possibly still taking out MGs, do weaken at least the starboard radiator you are not destroying this turn with 3 shots by your Lancers without finishing it.

That way you are more flexible with the others, should that Engineers be no more. For the 2nd (aft) radiator there should be nothing around to hurt your Engineers.


Largo works great here, apparently the Batomys counts as two tanks on his own, giving him a really great attack boost when this lvl. 4 Potential activates. And as you should include him anyway for his extra CP, all the better.


Selvaria is DEADLY. And she cannot be harmed, it bears repetition, so do not waste any action on her. While you can survive a short burst of interception fire, being attacked by her is the end for anyone (unless Largo activates his Big-Hearted Potential). And she can shoot across half the map, like from the first camp up in front of the temple.

She will, however, not go hunting but stand guard at the Batomys left side, once she made her way down the ramp. All your troopers, unless holed up in the last camp, should be behind some wall segments south-east or south-south east at that point in time.

You will first take care of the 5 foot soldiers on the plateau.

The first 3 turns will be filled with your lancers swarming the Batomys to take out the machine-guns and getting the Edelweiss out of the way.

At the end of the 2nd turn, a pop-up will advise you to shoot a the bluish wall segments dotting the landscape to make them fall over and slow the Batomys.

This takes either a shot from a Lancer or your tank's cannon (not the mortar, as advised).

There are three wall segments to topple, do not shoot them before the Edelweiss has passed them on its way up the plateau. You have plenty of time for shooting them, so doing so is free as you have to move your tank anyway. There is also one segment automatically in the way.

The actual effect of toppling the walls over is to force the Batomys to use its main cannon to shoot them to pieces. This will make its 3 radiators go up, which can then be destroyed (see the pop-up). You can only destroy one radiator for each shot the Batomys has to take, as the others will be retracted when one is blown up.

After the second radiator has been taken out (probably turn 7), Selvaria will appear on the plateau north of the temple in the east where the 4 troopers where at the start. She cannot be hurt by whatever means and will make a bee-line for the Batomys and stand beside it wherever it goes (if it's going anywhere after she arrived there).

She will mow down any troops in her path or view (like up to 3 per turn, plus interception fire) with her gatling-laser lance, even when crouching, so keep them behind walls.

Just take care of the 4 troopers she brings with her (one is an Ace and has a special weapon to collect, comes in handy in Ch. 9), the Edelweiss will be positioned expeditiously for this. Selvaria cannot hurt your tank, even the radiator.

When the Batomys's third radiator is gone, it will be vulnerable and can be destroyed by normal anti-tank means. This can happen by turn 9 at the earliest, which will relate to an "A" rank for this battle. (12, 15 and 20 turns for Ranks "B", "C", and "D", respectively)

A total of 9 troops (including the Edelweiss) will be deployed in 2 spots around the first base in the west, 3 to the north, 5 to the south and in the camp

A tank battle obviously takes Lancers, and a lot of them, and Engineers to refill their ammo.

So put Largo and Jann for good vegetable-boosted synergy in the two right-hand spots in the north, and an Engineer behind them.

The three slots in the lower half of the lower deployment ground go -from right to left- to Rosie, Alicia and another Lancer, followed by a 4th Lancer in the lower part of the camp, and another Engineer.

Rosie and Alicia are included for the extra CP they provide, as is Largo, the two only play a part during Round 1. Rosie as a Stormtrooper is mandatory, otherwise the 4 enemies starting on the raised plateau north of the temple in the east of the map will overrun your final base-camp, and there also is an enemy sniper in the middle of the eastern plateau, who would kill your Lancers.

The two will just attack or intercept those 4 troops and the sniper, and then hang out in the 3rd camp, unless some little thing goes wrong later.

Some other guides on the web add a sniper somewhere, but I am failing to see what he would be good for apart from taking a shot or two in the beginning, eating away at the CP, and taking up the place of a second engineer. And those are a bit frail.

The first thing to do is taking care of the enemy Sniper. Have Rosie walk up the ramp behind her and frag him with a grenade (can't be evaded). Manage your AP when walking, she absolutely needs to end the turn in the trench in front of the Sniper, crouching, facing north towards the other 4 troops.

That way she will not be mowed down by them, but rather kill them with her interception fire at no CP cost during the first enemy turn, possibly boosted by her "Undercover Fire" Potential.

Alicia runs up after Rosie, and then towards the other 4 troops, which consist of 2 Stormtroopers, 1 Scout, and 1 Lancer. The aim is to shoot the Lancer, obviously from enough distance to not get killed by the interception fire. Some damage does not matter. Otherwise the Lancer might manage to put a shot into the retreating Edelweiss's radiator from the plateau, meaning a rather sudden end of the battle. Sometimes he might wander aimlessly into Rosie ;-).

Alicia then runs back into the 3rd camp south of the temple and just stays there.


Your tank is positioned with its rear exposed to the front machine-gun of the Batomys, which thus can land critical hits on the radiator, eating away at the health over time, not much though.

As a single shell from your tank will not put the front MG out, activate the nearest Lancer first (Largo) and have him shoot a the front MG once. He would need three hits, but with one extra tank shell that MG will be gone. Move fast past the front corner of the tank after hugging the wall to avoid (most) interception fire from the front and frontal right MGs.

Now select the Edelweiss, enter Target Mode at once and put a shell into the front MG. Move away to the south-west through the camp (hitting fellow soldiers does not hurt them, despite the screams) and through the opening between the bluish wall piece and the dirt heap as far as you can manage. Driving backwards is useful, if you can, in case Alicia did not get that Lancer.


Your two Lancers up north should now manage to take out the front right MG. Retreat them, if possible, to the trench further south, in any case crouch them in a trench. Even if you don't manage, they will survive the two bursts the rear right MG will fire at one of them after the Batomys moves during the enemy's turn.

Last, your Lancer in the camp moves south-east and crouches in the trench besides the last Lancer, behind a piece of wall, as the front left MG might be looking into the gap between the walls. Or just stands on the ledge behind that piece of wall (not imperative).

If you still have a CP to spare, have the in-camp Engineer run after that Lancer, especially if the gig with the front MG did not work.


If all went well, the 2 Shocktroopers and the Scout on the plateau will storm at or past Rosie and be mowed down by her like clockwork, so will the Lancer if he survived and does not take a pod shot at the Edelweiss.

The Batomys will move forward in front of the first camp, right rear MG will shoot twice at Largo, left rear MG will shoot twice at crouching Rosie, not much harm done.

More to come.

But you got the general idea now, a lot of this will be situational and touch-and-go anyway.

You could block the Batomys with your Edelweiss, if you position it somewhat sideways and in front of its treads, just out of the firing arcs of its main and auxiliary front cannons. You can even block it where it is starting, half out of the canyon, which buy you time to just swarm around and disable its MGs. The Edelweiss would take a lot of damage here, which in turn could be seen to by one of your Engineers.

Just there is no point to that, as you can't finish it (and the battle, with a corresponding rank), before it has actively shot its main cannon the third time at one of those wall pieces. Which is not going to happen before turn 9, in which you should finish it for an "A" rank. So just let it come.

Some guides on the web propose putting a sniper somewhere to kill that Lancer on turn one, but what is he going to do for the remainder? And it is going to take ages to get him to a camp to retreat at 400 AP, where a second Engineer can actually do some active good.