Part 40: Paralogue 15: Hidden Bravery

Ugh okay FINE I'll do Seigbert's dumb paralogue now and get Peri's dumb skill so I can do the dumb Kitsune chapter.



Unlike Ryoma's son, Shiro, Seigbert actually gets to talk to his father. Xander manages to be a better parent by passing the extremely low bar of actually telling his son that he's the future ruler of Nohr... and that Nohr is a place that exists. Although he loses some points for naming his son after his sword and only changing a few of the letters.



This map sucks. It might be fair to call it the hardest map in Conquest, at least if you do it at the wrong time with the wrong units trained. It's a big foresty map filled with pools of water that will spawn reinforcements every single turn... infinitely. Because this is Conquest, these reinforcements will give absolutely no form of experience except for the support points your units build by entering combat with them.

Stopping these reinforcements requires activating dragon veins to evaporate each pool of water. There's multiple scattered around the map, with the boss sat on one of them. His spawns Knights/Generals with Wary Fighter and ranged weaponry.



This one spawns Cavaliers/Great Knights with Beast Killers...



This one spawns Ninjas/Master Ninjas all with Poison Strike...



This one spawns Archers/Snipers...



This one spawns Spear Fighters/Spear Masters...



This one spawns Diviners/Onmyoji...



...and this one spawns Dark Mages/Sorcerers!

If you think "wow, this sounds really annoying" then you are correct. This is extremely annoying. This chapter sucks and just like the Kitsune chapter that's next in the story, I will make no effort to defend it. It is Bad. But not "easily cheesable" bad like the Kitsune one. It's just frustrating as all hell.



At least we don't have to worry about recruiting Seigbert on top of all this hell. Seigbert is... okay? His stats are high all around and quite balanced, which means it's easy to make him good with the right mother, and a bad mother can't completely ruin him. Problem is he's yet another Cavalier in a game that gives you plenty so he's hard to care about. He's not outclassed by Xander since doesn't really fill the same role, but he is still worse than him. At least Peri gives him good growths...

Children who join after a certain point come with an Offspring Seal, a special item only they can use that will both promote them and raise their level up to a certain point depending on how far in the story you did their chapter. Their weapon ranks will also be raised and their stats will be calculated directly from their averages. So unlike Awakening you won't get situations like Gerome's paralogue where you suffer through hell right near the end of the game to get a level 10 unpromoted unit the exact same level as every other kid.



I had to attempt to cook this twice before Elise decided she was hungry. Turns out Nyx cooks really good meals - she doubles the effect of whatever she cooks and grants an extra point of defense to all adults. "Adults" means the first generation of units, so Elise gets the boost even though she's like 15 in Japan.



Back to 12 deployment slots for this chapter. Arthur gets a rare adventure away from the bench - I need a support partner for Elise that increases speed. He won't boost her speed the most but he will give her a bunch of other bonuses thanks to their S support.



But even with all this she still needs Azura's help to double the one enemy I want her to. If only I had Rally Speed...



Let's just get this over with. Leo and Felicia can't make it but otherwise the gang's all here... Oh and Niles isn't here too I guess.



Fliers are vital for crossing the forests quickly and eliminating problem enemies. Royal units are also good for activating dragon veins... What I mean is "use Camilla".



Having to put Azura near Elise means she's stuck somewhat far away from the rest of my army. It's worth it though, I need to hurry Elise along to eliminate certain enemies.



This guy mainly. Spear Fighters have huge stats and this guy has Seal Speed so I want him dead.



The enemies around him a lot more deadly, but Elise can tank them and that's all she needs to do. Her accuracy will be even worse on their turn thanks to Duelist's Blow.



If she had gotten that level earlier she'd have been able to double them without the tonic... Calamity Gate boosts speed by one point which I had forgotten to take into account.



Savage Blow activates the instant you unlock it. Splat!



Meanwhile, Corrin takes the right side of the map and will be handling the mages. Burning forests will extend the range of enemy units by reducing the amount of terrain they need to pass through, so you have to be careful.



Seigbert starts off in a little trouble so he needs to run back to regroup with my army. Thankfully he's tanky enough to take a few hits...



He's already got Defender from Xander, and Peri's influence will have hurt his defense a little, so Great Knight is the obvious choice. Had I done this one chapter later he'd have had his axe rank autoleveled to D, but oh well. Really I just want him to be able to survive this chapter, I have no plans for him in the long term.



Xander will push forward and help his son. I'm not quite doing this chapter at an ideal time - had I done it later I could have wyvern Peri flying Xander over all the forests. But then the enemies would also be stronger so maybe this is the best time.



Corrin's just about strong enough to go a few rounds with all these mages. Again I was hoping that when I did this chapter I'd have Master Ninja Silas, but there's no use complaining.



Meanwhile Elise is having accuracy troubles. With slightly higher mag she'd be able to one shot, but then she also would build less guard gauge per round of combat.



The Dual Club's weapon triangle doubling effect is... not always ideal. At least Camilla's tanky enough to survive getting hit.



LOL just kidding this is Camilla's Quest and she does what she wants, eat 13% crit with 18% hit chance. The "weapon triangle" is for Hoshidans and does not apply to her.



End of turn 1 and two sets of reinforcements have already spawned. I really don't want to deal with- wait they're unpromoted???

I guess I found the one point in the story where all the regular enemies get promoted but the reinforcements don't get to be? This makes things a whole lot easier! Suddenly I am feeling very optimistic.



The Diviners might not threaten Elise, but the Masters of Arms still do. It'll be a while before Elise can actually activate this dragon vein, there's too many units who need killing first.



This is alright, Xander needs speed.



Ophelia's just here to crit things and get EXP. Seigbert appears to be trying to jump his big armoured horse over her.



Hmm, maybe the Recover staff might have been useful here, I really want her HP topped up to full... Oh well.



I want Nina to be getting EXP too but she's stuck ferrying Azura over to the rest of my army.



Pretty good! I know he's not gotten defense but I may as well just appreciate his high strength instead. Good Fortune has a luck% chance of healing 10% of your HP back at the start of your turn and is probably one of the worst skills in the game, although it's still better than nothing unlike Gamble which is actively worse than nothing.



Thanks to Void Curse, the skill Conquest gives all infinitely spawning reinforcements, these guys aren't even useful for EXP. They can help build supports but Elise is already S ranked with Arthur.



Xander's quite good at clearing out mages. He takes a lot of damage in return but he can counter and one shot them from anywhere.



These jerks will approach from the top left corner after a few turns. The Falcon Knights are mostly there to chase down units like Azura and can't threaten your good combat units, but there is also one Kinshi Knight who exists just to shoot down your flies.



The map might not look too bad right now, but the more veins I take out the more crowded enemy spawns will start getting, since they'll all start coming from the same places. Popping dragon veins won't actually reduce the rate at which enemies spawn after a certain point, a minimum of one group will always spawn per turn so if there's only one vein left then they'll all come from the same place.



I know Ophelia's growths are pretty good but I still think she's blessed in magic and speed. She's not far off of being able to consistently double and ORKO... Vengeance is a cool skill with a skill*1.5% chance of adding half the damage you've taken to the damage you deal. It unfortunately cannot activate with Nosferatu.



May as well start making use of my Physic staves. Healing from a distance means it's easier to keep everyone topped up and Jakob out of danger.



That's okay. She does need resistance. Elbow Room is cool but a bit hard to use here.



Xander is unfortunately too bulky for the Snipers to target, but he's good bait to thin out the various magic users.



Elise can activate this vein while being in range to bait most of the fliers but none of the bow users. Handy!



Seigbert's quite a handy partner for Ophelia... Unfortunately I don't think the two of them can marry. Unlike first gen units, not every kid can marry every other one. (EDIT: nope, second gen units work like first gen ones. ophelia can marry any other second gen guy in conquest)



Wow, Elise is having a lot more success than I thought she would here. I don't think she'd be doubling without that tonic, so I guess it's good I gave it to her after all!



Interesting, it seems like the reinforcements don't have Conquest's usual AI. I guess to make it easier to clean them out?



If only the Snipers were as dumb, I really need them gone but they won't attack Xander.



This Kinshi is troublesome too - Elise can one round her, but she can also miss and get shot in retaliation.



At least Corrin's having some success. This'll stop more Archers from appearing...



Elise instead lures the Kinshi over on enemy phase with her guaranteed Dual Guard, taking it out in retaliation.



These jerks are running away to the forts to heal themselves. I'd really rather kill them now, but they keep running further into enemy territory...



Oh right, the entire reason I'm doing this in the first place is to get Peri EXP. May as well get her some?



Meanwhile the top half of the map is slowly filling up with crap. All the Ninjas and some of the Paladins have 1-2 range, which makes them difficult to bait and kill...



This guy is just winding me up now. He's not doing anything but so long as he's alive I can't have any fliers near him. There's Beast Killer Cavaliers in range of him but sod it, he needs to die and Xander can tank a few effective hits.



No more Dark Mages! This'll help Xander a bit.



Now for the hard part. Once I approach all the enemies are going to aggro, and that means dealing with like 500 Ninjas all at once, along with Beast Killer cavs and Wary Fighter Knights. The latter two aren't so threatening, but they are annoying.



They're even worse when promoted, they take 2 or 3 of your units to kill just one and they keep spawning more of themselves.



The ninjas are on the move... And the Mechanists. I'm used to the ninja cave where they don't use bows, but these ones do use them and will absolutely destroy Elise if I try to have her bait the ninjas herself. I had kind of forgotten about them...



At least Elise can approach from the top left where all she'll face are lance users she can beat with the Calamity Gate.



HP! Strength! Nice.



Okay I did not realise how quickly this would get out of hand. Only one new group of enemies spawns per turn now, but this is... a bit of a situation. There is nowhere I can lure ninjas without also getting shot at with bows. Thanks to Poison Strike, nobody wants to take more than a few hits either...



PROBLEM SOLVED, I BAITED THEM

...not on purpose, but now I've lured them out. I was so focused on trying to get Azura and Jakob to safety I forgot to keep track of where my fliers were. I think this makes things easier for me though...



The Mechanists are now closer to the edges of the group of enemies, so I should be able to isolate them and take them out without being constantly bombarded by other units. They're slower than Ninjas so they should go down easier...



Especially now they've no longer got their shurrikens equipped. That's one down!



slow down jakob



Any chance I have to lure away a unit from the group I'll take. I'm just glad I'm not dealing with MNs...



Aaaaahhh he's off by 2 HP! Being able to kill this guy would have made life much easier. Peri could do it but then she'd get torn apart on enemy phase. Xander's got higher def and his sword to dissuade attackers...



Oh right, reinforcements have a different AI. So they're all going to pile on Xander and wear him down...



...or not, so long as he hits every shot in retaliation. Missing just one or two counterattacks would have resulted in Poison Strike stacking up and possibly killing him.



This looks more manageable. I've had to flee halfway across the map but things are much less dangerous now.



Die die and die again you puppet riding weirdos. This isn't steampunk, get your gears outta here!



Woo, go Elise! You get that speed! Everybody is too slow.



Now let me at that dragon vein so I can stop you guys from spawning. I need to clean up before the next ninja wave arrives.



Just the Knights left now. The Strategist in the middle has a Freeze staff but with most of the spawns neutralised they're hardly an issue anyway.



And that's the last of these jerks gone from the map! I never want to see another shurriken ever again.



Now to remove this jerk from the vein he's parked on. He and his cronies won't move, but the Knights that spawn will.



This hardly matters. She'll still kill the units that come to her.



No more Freeze... I should really stop using Xander for everything, Peri still hasn't leveled up yet.



Oops, this guy had Vantage! Not that it matters, he's dead now.



Was it worth it? Was it really worth it??? The answer is yes if I win.



A present for the happy couple! What a shitty honeymoon this was.



GO AWAY



One last Kaze support point for the road... Kaze and Silas were supposed to be in this shot but there's a big dumb idiot in the way.



BLUUUUUHHHH

All things considered, I'm glad I got peer pressured (by like 2 people...) into doing this early. The reinforcements being unpromoted made a big difference. Was a shame I nearly died thanks to being dumb. What I maybe should have done is lured over the Mechanists earlier rather than letting the ninjas pile up before baiting them, but what can you do?



Oh no way did you do this all by yourself before Seigbert. No way.



Nah he's already traumatised for life, it doesn't really get any harder than this. The next two generations of the Nohrian royal family are going to slowly go mad from nightmares of Ninjas hiding in the shadows and emerging from pools of water. One of them is definitely going to order Mokushu burned to the ground.


Next time: Kitsune chapter for real this time?