Part 34: Paralogue 22: Abrupt Clash
Time for one more child chapter before I go back to actually invading Hoshido like I'm supposed to. I guess coming up with chapter names must get very tedious after a while, but "Abrupt Clash" seems a bit dull. At least it's better than "Clash!" from PoR.
We're here to save this guy's manor from thieves for... some reason. After you beat the chapter it turns out he's evil, although if you look at the face he's making now you could probably work that out for yourself beforehand. No good person has their face shadowed like that!
Nina's in the right here, but we don't know that yet. Hopefully this is one of those chapters where the people we kill don't actually die.
This map is a Rout with a fail condition. Nina will rush to the exit on the left of the map, taking one treasure chest along the way. If she escapes then you instantly lose. She can't be recruited during the chapter, so you have to defeat her and then she'll join at the end.
Once you hit turn 10, every single enemy on the map will turn tail and head for the exit. I could have sworn they'd do that the instant you defeated Nina too, but apparently they don't? Otherwise they'll stay where they are until aggro'd. There's 4 treasure chests to grab, all at risk of being stolen by enemy Outlaws. If you don't care about getting any of them then you can beat this chapter with 0 effort by hitting Nina with an Entrap staff, knocking her out, and then waiting for all the enemies to leave.
Getting to the treasure (and the enemies) requires navigating a bunch of long snaky corridors. The enemies will retreat from one of two exits on either side of the map. The left side is full of physical attacking Fighters and Knights, the right has a bunch of Outlaws and Dark Mages with Pass.
Nina's usually a faster and more magical but also more frail version of Niles, although having Mozu as a mum means she's got better growths than him in every stat so long as she's got Aptitude. I'm a little confused by her stats here - she's as strong as Niles but quite a bit slower despite her being an Outlaw and him being an Archer. She could become better when her growths kick in though.
Anyway, taking out Nina isn't an issue at all. The issue is actually reaching her.
There's a big locked door and a smashable side entrance to the big room in the middle, and a second locked door allowing quick access to the corridor on the left. The bottom path allows you to cut off Nina while facing less enemies, but the top path gets you to the action quicker.
Only the Outlaws with Locktouch will attempt to steal treasure. It's a little hard to keep track of them amongst all the other Outlaws...
One huge advantage to doing this chapter early is that all the enemies will have less move, and therefore reach the treasure slower. All my units are promoted so I'll outpace the thieves a lot more easily than normal.
The biggest advantage to not fighting promoted enemies however is this Lunatic-exclusive dumbass who thinks he's in 3 Houses. Everybody point at laugh at this guy who doesn't realise he's not a General and can't use axes!
Normally I just go straight for Nina and only grab an item or two if I can afford it, but with an army of promoted units against nonpromoted enemies I think I can go for 100% completion. Time to rob this guy's manor before the enemy can!
Niles opens the back door to let Ophelia in to nostank the enemies at the bottom. Most of my army's going the direct route, but this seems like a nice oppurtunity to feed her some free EXP. Leo is there because she needs a partner to give her dual guards and he drew the short straw.
Kaze pops open the front door with help from Camilla to get him there. Normally whoever opened this would be in immediate danger...
But Peri is here to plug the gap. That scary red danger area marks the range of some annoying Wary Fighter Knights - if I attempted this chapter later, they'd be promoted Generals who could reach her from here with an extra point of movement.
Everybody's pushed as far forward as they can go. I have no plans from this turn onward, I'm just going to wing it and see how that goes. Hopefully it goes fine!
Ophelia both deals and takes a lot more damage than her father would. As long as she doesn't miss twice in a row she'll be fine...
Peri meanwhile chokes this point with impunity thanks to all the defensive buffs the nearby Jakob is giving her.
Hmm, usually I remember Nina going to the left, not the right... I hope doing this chapter early hasn't somehow changed her AI.
Niles isn't getting much work done down here but he may as well help out Ophelia a little. His actual daughter has disowned him so maybe he can do a better job parenting his coworker's daughter instead.
Elise is not massively useful in a chapter full of Archers but I brought her along to get tome EXP. Plus she's also a handy support partner for Corrin, since Silas is off trying to befriend Kaze.
These would be Berserkers with Counter if I attempted this map later. I've got a lot of ranged attackers so I don't have to worry too much about them, but it's still a nasty surprise on an enemy with high HP.
Thankfully OHKOs are the answer to annoying skills like Counter and Wary Fighter. I should get more of these, I keep having to trade it between my units. Maybe I did buy an extra and it's still in my convoy?
Now that's what a Silas level should look like. Please keep getting these!
Over half the Outlaws in this chapter have Shining Bows. They're a lot scary when it's promoted Adventurers using them... Mostly all this means is that they'll happily throw themselves against Xander because they can damage them, which is very convenient for me.
Okay good, Nina's just taking a slightly different route to the treasure in back room and isn't going rogue on me. Stopping to steal the treasure in there slows her down a little.
Busting down this wall on the right side of the map is much faster than opening the door above it. A Levin Sword Corrin with Elise's support can take down most enemies here, so as long as she doesn't take too much damage she should be able to handle this side of the map on her own...
This one guy has a Door Key if you somehow don't have thieves to spare. If I had planned around picking this up I might have gotten use of it, but oh well...
Door & Chest keys are weird in this game, they can't be bought and they only exist in the chapters you find them in. If you clear a map without using them they disappear. Which makes sense I suppose, they're only useful for certain locks...
Sometimes Jakob gets to assist in combat. I wonder if he'll ever reach D rank tomes? Probably not.
Nina very kindly steals the Goddess Icon for us. She has to be defeated to win the chapter so there's no way this won't end up in our hands if we win.
Woo, go Elise! And I was worried your bulk wouldn't be very good... I guess her HP is still terrible, but I could fix that with a robe.
This huge clog of bandits is an unfortunate consequence of trying to break through this side with only one unit pair. I'd like Silas to help out, but he really needs to support Kaze who's on the other side...
It's fine, he can go over to the left and Peri can come over to the right. Paladin exchange!
All the treasure has been swiped... But the thieves will have to double back on themselves to escape with it. There's still plenty of time yet.
None of this treasure is quite as vital as the last paralogue's loot, since all of it is buyable in Conquest. But it's still worth chasing if possible.
Good job Ophelia. Her skill & luck growths are actually quite mediocre, but I won't question her consistently hitting them. Thankfully I brought a seal along to promote her!
Time to take out Nina while she's here. Camilla was my first ever mum for Nina (and her support with Niles is like the only place you'll hear about her character-defining backstory), so in my mind she'll always be her parent.
For some reason she gets the slowdown and sad music usually associated with death upon defeat. I wonder how many people restarted the chapter because they thought they'd messed up...
I could have sworn taking her out causes everyone to start retreating, but it seems that's not actually the case. Regardless I want everyone to hurry up! These stupid snaky corridors waste so much time.
Paired up reinforcements will show up to cover the thieves escape at the end of turn 5. The Outlaw and Mage pairups are easily defeated, but the Fighter & Knight pairs are much more annoying...
It's funny how she looks like a grown up Nyx despite being her daughter. I think the hair goes well with her outfit...
Niles shall put the weaponless Knight of his misery. Maybe I should have captured him for a laugh.
Peri's much more equipped for the right side than Silas is thanks to her high res... In theory. In practice her low skill means she whiffed a hit against one of the thieves escaping with treasure >:[
I didn't notice all these enemies had Pass. It's making it a little hard to have Jakob heal in safety... He might have Tomebreaker and WTA against the Outlaws, but his bulk isn't great.
Camilla's Hammer is the only way I'm muscling through all of these jerks, but she needs dual guards or else they'll wear her all down. Thankfully Counter doesn't activate on enemy phase...
This Outlaw might look threatening, but he's more interested in escaping with treasure than hurting anyone. He won't go after Camilla even though she's on his way to the exit.
All very nice stats.
I don't think these two have managed to enter combat together a single time this chapter. I am really bad at building supports on purpose.
Enemies will emerge from these stairs on turn 7, so Silas stands here to keep things a bit more manageable.
Speed! She needs that. I think I will give in and give Corrin my Speedwings when this is over.
Good, he had the chance to attack and didn't take it... I was fairly sure he wouldn't go for it, but only like 90%.
Outlaw defeated. This had better be enough for those two to be friends!
That's almost everyone taken out... Just a couple of stragglers on each side. Hopefully I can feed the kills to someone who needs them.
These two aren't going anywhere. Unless Peri misses again...
And we're done! All treasures gotten, Ophelia leveled up, Elise got some tome EXP.
Enemy barely had any time to start escaping.
Oh no! Turns out the rich guy with the huge amount of money is evil, and we just helped him. Good thing we're keeping all the treasures we took...
Here's Nina's character gimmick: boy crazy with a man-on-man fixation. Ironically the one M/M pairing in this game involves her dad and will cause her never to be born since she'll have no mother.
Most importantly of all: I finally got the Silas/Kaze C support. Now to keep building this up so they can reach A+ before Silas hits level 5 so he can reclass into MN as soon as possible.
Next time: Conquest's gauntlet truly begins