Amon B Defeated:

Finally, the last Orb Boss has been conquered.  That was the last challenge I hadn't overcome.  Using the more powerful boosters and chips from the main story chapter 4 part 2, I finally gained the strength necessary to beat this monster.

It still wasn't easy, though.  I had to retry the fight endlessly, for maybe 10 hours, learning bit by bit how to improve my tactics and my equipment/equipped skills.  I only had 1 high level SS Memoria with lightning (Sumomo), the boss' vulnerability, so I had to figure out a way to give her enough buffs and support that she could basically do all the damage to the boss.  She became the point of my spear.  Tama did a great job healing and Tsukasa buffing, with the others contributing what they could.  The key to victory was retrying over and over until all my Electro-Triangular Slashes critted.  You would think this would be easy given I was using a skill to raise her crit rate before each attack, but even with that skill it was about 50/50 whether it critted or not.  So three attacks, each with a 50% chance to crit, means I had to try at least 8 times for the law of averages to be on my side.

I love challenging fights like these because they really teach me how to be better at the game.  I discovered a lot of uses for skills I thought weren't any good until now.  Suddenly they were the crux of my entire strategy, when before I hadn't bothered equipping them.

I tried the clocktower on hell mode again to see if my newfound power could work there, but nope.  I got curbstomped by the very first mob.  That clocktower is insane.  I have no idea how strong I would need to be to get anything done there.

For now the game is a race against time.  Can I get 4,000 more quartz in 10 days, and buy myself a SS Memoria guaranteed recruitment ticket, or will I fall just short?  The only way I can get more quartz is by using life points, and I only get new life points every four hours, so. . .::fingers crossed::

My pro-Assad stance in Syria has been vindicated by the rebranded ISIS terrorists massacring men, women and children by the thousands for the crime of being a different religion than ISIS.  My pro-Russia stance is also vindicated by this development, as Russia supported the good person, Assad, while America supported ISIS and brought this ISIS revolution to fruition.  Now Syria will reap our foreign policy's bitter fruits for decades to come.

My pro-Russia stance was also vindicated today by battlefield developments in the Kursk region.  Special forces infiltrated the Ukrainian rear via crawling through a narrow gas pipeline for ~12 km.  This led to the Ukrainians caught surprised from behind to a panicked rout, giving up over 100 square km in a single day.  The rest of Kursk region should be rolled up shortly.  A dramatic and sudden victory after far too long an impasse.  However, Russia taking back its own soil is hardly a dramatic success.  It should never have been allowed to happen in the first place.  All this does is restore things to how they were before Russia invaded.  If Russia's goal was to own its own territory all it had to do was not invade in the first place.

To win the war it isn't Kursk region that Russia needs to conquer, it's Toretsk, Chasiv Yar, Kupiansk, Pokrovsk and Siversk.  And they still haven't managed to take a single one of those cities.  I cheer every little Russian success, but temper that cheering with the realization that all the victories really are 'little.'  If things continue on like this I wouldn't be surprised to see another Korea-like ceasefire ending the war with no clear victor.  If Russia wants more it should do more to achieve that desire.