So... as of right now, I consider the Coria Dogs fight to be *the worst* experience I have had with the game yet. I just spent 2 hours completing it, and need to take a serious break from the game before I continue.
Slowdown was the biggest factor that contributed to everything, but I've dealt with that just fine up until now. The factors that, combined with slowdown, turned out to be really annoying were:
1) The map size and objective placement - It takes a good 4-5 turns to move everyone from the main bar room to the lever room safely, and everyone has to move together due to the number of high-leveled melee units able to backstab and sidestab you for super-damage. Movement alone in my experience took me close to 20 turns total across the entire fight.
2) The bartender gets his own turn phase. This may only take a few seconds (before slowdown happens), but because he does nothing it's kind of pointless and annoying to have him there.
3) The dastard unit must be fought in a 1-space wide hallway. You're forced to choose one unit to enter that hallway and fight them. If you want to choose a marching order, it has to be done in an almost-equally constrained hallway, because once you go in, there's no going out. In that marching order, there can only be so many ranged characters with you too (once again due to all the backstabbing melee characters present in the fight).
4) The dastard unit hits ridiculously hard. I had to have a healer stationed behind my fighting unit, and pass up all bandages and apples available in the party to that character to keep them alive during this fight.
5) The dastard unit has bandages. So as soon as you've spent 5 turns whittling them down with that one character in front, they restore themselves back to full health.
Solutions?
Maybe put the Dastard unit in the big room with the barrels. Don't give them bandages.
Maybe put the stairs in the lever room itself (so you don't have to double-back after that big fight).
Slowdown was the biggest factor that contributed to everything, but I've dealt with that just fine up until now. The factors that, combined with slowdown, turned out to be really annoying were:
1) The map size and objective placement - It takes a good 4-5 turns to move everyone from the main bar room to the lever room safely, and everyone has to move together due to the number of high-leveled melee units able to backstab and sidestab you for super-damage. Movement alone in my experience took me close to 20 turns total across the entire fight.
2) The bartender gets his own turn phase. This may only take a few seconds (before slowdown happens), but because he does nothing it's kind of pointless and annoying to have him there.
3) The dastard unit must be fought in a 1-space wide hallway. You're forced to choose one unit to enter that hallway and fight them. If you want to choose a marching order, it has to be done in an almost-equally constrained hallway, because once you go in, there's no going out. In that marching order, there can only be so many ranged characters with you too (once again due to all the backstabbing melee characters present in the fight).
4) The dastard unit hits ridiculously hard. I had to have a healer stationed behind my fighting unit, and pass up all bandages and apples available in the party to that character to keep them alive during this fight.
5) The dastard unit has bandages. So as soon as you've spent 5 turns whittling them down with that one character in front, they restore themselves back to full health.
Solutions?
Maybe put the Dastard unit in the big room with the barrels. Don't give them bandages.
Maybe put the stairs in the lever room itself (so you don't have to double-back after that big fight).