Part 9: Fuck Allied Units

Music: Matrech - Suikoden V, "Military Fortress"



Welcome back. Last time on Exit Fate, we received our first mission as members of the Elysium Army. We're headed to the Highland state, to deal with an insurgency that has taken over a mining city important to the state economy. So let's get to it.



This will be our first major battle... Please let me escort you, sir! We don't know what we can expect if we go to Highland.
I would like to go as well. I may not be as experienced as you when it comes to this sort of thing, but my knowledge of magic could come in useful.
All right. Let's go together.



And suddenly everyone in the party gets kicked out. The game will sometimes do this when we're headed towards a plot event, in order to ensure that the requisite plot-relevant characters come along. However, I don't believe it's ever more than two characters and the game will happily allow you to dump them in the entourage.



Of course, we don't really need to make any choices about party members here yet, since we still have space for everyone.



Each character has a little quip when you add them to your party, but they're all variants on "let's go," so they're not very interesting. I can post them if people want though.






The pass, as Erin told us last update, can be found directly to the west of Matrech. Like most of our destinations on the world map, it doesn't take us very long to get there.



Music: Mountain - Final Fantasy VII, "Tifa's Theme"

As we enter, we find the knight Erin told us about.




I've already sent the main army ahead. They will be waiting for us on the other side of the pass. Allow me to escort you. We'll discuss the situation in Highland once we've joined up with the rest of our forces.
Thank you. I appreciate the help.



We don't get the usual "new party member" noise when this message comes up, so Jasper won't be with us permanently. In fact, he'll be with us for all of ten minutes.



He's required for this segment however, so I give Cid the boot.



Jasper's a fairly decent frontliner. He's the hardest hitter we have right now, but he's also four levels above everyone else--in the long run, Ayara and Mike will be stronger than him. His most notable feature is that he is absurdly accurate, a trait that is only strengthened by his weapon. Unfortunately, as I said, he won't be with us for very long, and when he leaves we won't be seeing him again for quite some time. So he's only going to be out of the entourage for one battle so I can show him off.




Anyway, despite the peaceful music, the mountain pass is actually another dungeon. Similar to the forest, it's fairly short and doesn't really have any notable features or puzzles. We simply have to get to the other side.



Our first battle pits us against--oh come on, SCF! You're using palette swaps already?





Whatever. Jasper gets the first turn, and we get to see his, uh... interesting way of attacking.



The actual fight isn't very interesting, though. The red Hill Orcs are literally no different from the regular green Orcs aside from having a different color and slightly better stats. They don't have any new moves or anything. On the victory screen we get proof that Jasper's a bit overleveled--even a fight against three enemies only netted him 22 experience.




After that, Jasper gets sent to the entourage and we get back to exploring. Right at the entrance we find a treasure chest containing another Shadowcast.





The pass doesn't take all that long to get through. Before we know it we're already at a save point.



In fact, I'd bet that the only reason the pass is a dungeon at all is because it gives a location for the cutscene that pops up about two-thirds of the way through.



Ah, you're right. I can see it too. So, we're almost in Highland, then? I've heard that large parts of Kirgard are mountainous as well, so you two must be used to it. It's all a bit new to me.
I was raised in a town called Levier, on the central plains of Kirgard. I don't feel quite at home here either.



The party has stopped walking at this point because Jasper seems to be waiting for something.

Music: Suspicion - Suikoden V, "Suspicion"




What? Why are you asking me all of a sudden? Haven't you already heard the story? This isn't the time or place to explain it. I'm here because I want to help defend the State Union. Isn't that enough?
I have no authority to ask you this, but...



Straight to the point I see. Is anyone actually willing to give us a shot here?



Do you also think that I can't be trusted just because I'm from Kirgard?
Your presence here is troubling the captain. It'd be in her best interest if you left. We don't need you.
Stop it!

Ayara suddenly rushes forward to defend us.




But at every step, people question and scorn him! No one's willing to give him a chance! All of you just hate him because he's from Kirgard! It's not fair! Just leave him alone!
Who are you? His bodyguard? Are you a Kirgard soldier as well?
Yes, I'm from Kirgard too. I'm just a common soldier, but I still want to protect the colonel!



The captain has enough on her mind dealing with the Helman Island occupation and the threat of a mainland invasion. No matter what your real intentions are, the fact that you're here is causing more harm than good. This entire situation is ridiculous. It's a waste of our resources.



You don't sound like the country is your main concern.



Daniel strikes to the heart of the matter...



... but Jasper deflects the question.

I see. I understand now. So isn't your view the same as Ayara's, then?
What?! He's nothing like me! How am I the same as him!?

Music: None



Fine. I don't want to waste any more words on this. I already stepped out of line by speaking out in the first place. But don't you dare betray the captain. If you do, I will personally ensure that you pay for it.
My goals are still the same. I'll follow Captain Erin's orders and help restore peace to Zelmony. But first, we have a mission to accomplish. Ayara, let's go.
Yes, sir...



Music: Mountain - Final Fantasy VII, "Tifa's Theme"

And after that lovely incident, we're free to continue on.





There are a few treasure chests in the last part of the pass, but neither contain anything notable.



And not too much later, we're at the end.



We'll move out to Grunthall immediately, lieutenant. Highland is depending on us. Relay the orders to all our men.
Yes, sir!



We've left our cavalry at the capital, since the mountainous terrain will make it hard for them to move around. We will support you with infantry and archers. Also... we have some battle mages at our disposal, but no experienced commanders were available. I was told to give command of this unit to Ljusalf.
Me?



I'll take care of the tactical side of battle. Your task will be to carry out my orders and keep everyone together. Do you think you can manage that, Ljusalf?
Certainly. I'll help in any way I can.
Even if we outnumber the rebels, this is not a training mission. Don't take it lightly. You will get only one chance to decide on your army formation, so think it through well. Each of your commanders has different strengths and weaknesses, and they can all take up to three sub-commanders with them. Any more questions?
No questions.
Good.




So, it case it wasn't obvious, we're about to get into another war battle. Like before, we're given the option to save before the battle starts. There's also a new "Unit Setup" option, though. Let's see what's in there, shall we?



As Jasper mentioned, we need to decide on our army formation, and we only get one chance before the battle to do it. There are two things we can edit here: unit members, and unit types.



If we select "Change Unit Members," this is what appears. There's a lot of stuff on this screen, so let's go through it piece by piece.

On the far left side of the screen, we have our list of commanders. Certain characters are designated as war commanders, and in every war battle we will receive one unit for each of them. Who is and is not a commander is fixed--Daniel and Ljusalf will always be commanders, while the rest of our current party never will be. If we had managed to grind up the cash to recruit Outsider last update, we would have received a third unit for this battle, as he is a commander.

To the right of that, we can see the selected unit's members and stats. Daniel's unit type is not fixed--we'll talk about that in a moment--but his initial stats are. By himself, as an infantry, Daniel will always have 550 men and 6/6 attack and defense. However, as Jasper said, each unit can also take up to three subcommanders. These slots are empty at the moment.

On the right, we have our list of potential subcommanders. This includes everyone we currently have recruited, regardless of whether or not they're in our current party. When we select a subcommander slot in a unit, we can then pick a character from this list to fill it. No matter who it is, adding a subcommander to a unit will increase that unit's men. However, certain characters may also grant bonuses to attack and defense, or give the unit a special ability.



For example, if we were to add Ayara to Daniel's unit, it would receive 30 more men, a +1/+1 bonus to attack and defense, and the Shield skill. There is no upper limit on stats or the number of skills a unit can have--we're only limited by the fact that each unit can only have three subcommanders.

There are several different skills that units can have, and I've listed them below.

• Analyze: The unit can see the expected damage of an attack before the attack is made
  
• Berserker: +2 ATK when attacking, -2 DEF when being counterattacked
  
• Blockade: +2 DEF when facing cavalry units
  
• Counter: +2 ATK when counterattacking
  
• Evasion: The unit has a 25% chance to evade any enemy's attack
  
• Forcefield: +2 DEF when facing sorcery units
  
• Forester: +1 movement in forests
  
• Light Feet: +2 DEF when facing infantry units
  
• Mountaineer: +1 movement in mountains
  
• Regenerate: The unit recovers some lost men after each battle
  
• Scatter: +2 DEF when facing scout units
  
• Shield: +2 DEF when being counterattacked

For this battle, we're going to want to make Daniel as strong as possible, and also ensure that he has Mountaineer. So I give him Ayara, Cid and Stromgaard.



Ljusalf has much lower base stats than Daniel does, but since he's going to be a sorcery unit, he's going to be sniping from long range and won't need to worry as much about direct combat.



I give him the rest of my characters to bump up his men somewhat.



The other major option on the unit setup menu (since "Clear Unit Members" should be pretty self-explanatory) is "Change Unit Types". Here, we can choose what type of unit each of our commanders will lead. We can make each of our commanders into any unit type we want, but each commander is better at leading some unit types than others. Each commander has a rating for each unit type, from one to three stars. Three-star types are the types that the commander prefers.



While a commander can lead two-star or one-star types, he receives penalties to attack and defense if he does. Two-star types will put him at a -1/-1 penalty, and one-star types will increase that penalty to -2/-2. Three-star types provide no bonus or penalty.



In addition, certain unit types have innate modifiers to attack and defense. If you'll recall, I mentioned in our first war battle that infantry units were the strongest unit type, while sorcery units had the weakest attack of all units. This is because infantry units receive +1/+1 to attack and defense just for being infantry, in addition to any other modifiers. Sorcery units, on the other hand, have an innate -1 penalty to attack. Cavalry and scout units have no innate modifiers.




For this battle, I'm going to leave Daniel and Ljusalf in their preferred roles: Daniel as infantry and Ljusalf as sorcery.



Right then, let's get this show on the road.



Music: War Battle - Final Fantasy IX, "Consecutive Battles"



The camera pans south from the green units to show two Zelmony infantry.



What!? They asked the State Army for help? Do they really think the Highland army can't even take care of a bunch of rebels? Bah! We don't need help from Matrech! Continue the attack!





It's... It's the Matrech Guard!
What!?



The camera now pans southeast to show the five Zelmony units that were conveniently out of view in the earlier shot.



Jasper apparently has no trouble yelling all the way across the battlefield to the rebels.



We'll never yield to the tyranny of the State Union! We'll fight for our freedom to the very end!

WAR BATTLE #2



This battle fucking sucks.



This isn't because it's hard to win. Winning this battle is not much of a challenge. The shitty part is trying to get a decent rank on it.



The reason for this is pretty simple. See those two units on the far right? That's us: Daniel and Ljusalf. They are the only units in this battle that we have control over. The other yellow units? They're controlled by the computer, and they're dumb as bricks. If that weren't enough, they move before us (they've already moved this turn in the above screenshot), so we can't even set up kills for them or anything. They're going to rush ahead and we're going to have to clean up their mess.



Jasper has his own unit on this map, and it's pretty much the only allied unit that stands a chance at killing anything. The rest of the allied units are generic "Highland Army" (the guys up front) or "Matrech Guard" (the guys near Jasper) units. They all have stats around 3/3 or 4/4.



Also, for some reason, Ljusalf has 5/2 stats in this battle, even though the unit setup showed him as 3/2. I have absolutely no idea why this is.



On the enemy side, Rock is far and away the biggest threat on this map. He can effortlessly swat aside any of our allied units that aren't Jasper, but fortunately he's going to stay in the back for most of the battle. He's our first example of an enemy commander, and killing him will get us the victory.



Paris also has his own unit. His stats aren't that impressive, but his high men makes him a threat to our allied units. He's an example of a "miniboss" unit, which we'll usually see at least one of in war battles. While he's more dangeous than the generics, we don't have to kill him to win.



It's also worth noting that in addition to Rock, the enemy infantry and sorcery units all have Mountaineer, which means they're going to outrange our allied units if they get into the mountains. Not surprisingly, these guys are going to make a beeline for the mountains in the center of the map, and most of the fighting in this battle is going to take place there.



Anyway, for the first few turns there isn't going to be much happening aside from the two armies slowly approaching each other. I want to get Daniel into the mountains as quickly as possible, since his Mountaineer skill will give him extra movement there and allow him to join the battle more quickly. Ljusalf needs to stay back, so I'm going to have him plod along with Jasper's units.




The enemy army starts moving forward.



This is the way things stand after our allied units have moved on turn 2. If it wasn't obvious already, the two generic Highland Army allies are completely fucking suicidal, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. We can only hope they'll do a decent bit of damage to the enemy before they go down.



I send Daniel further towards the moutains, and Ljusalf continues to follow Jasper's group.




The enemy units group closer together. Interestingly the forward infantry has decided not to move this turn.



The allied units take their third turn, and it's time to let the begin. Our two infantry have put themselves in range of the enemy infantry and both of the generic scouts, all but ensuring that they're going to be crippled before they can do anything of use. Motherfuckers!



Daniel has made it to the mountains and is now getting three movement points per turn instead of two, but he can't run fast enough to save the Retard Army over there.



Meanwhile, Ljusalf continues to plod along.





The two scouts rush forward and snipe both of the allied infantry units.




The enemy infantry follows up, wounding our forward infantry to the point of irrelevance.



This is the way things stand at the end of turn 3.




On our turn, our weakened infantry goes for a hit on one of the scouts, but gets counterattacked hard.



Our other infantry is a little more successful in dealing damage, but it's not nearly enough to get the kill.



Jasper's group continues to advance.



And once again, we have no option aside from relentlessly advancing. Daniel is getting close now though...




The enemy snipes our stronger infantry with both of its scouts, then sends in an infantry to finish the job.




Paris takes out the other one. Goodbye, Highland Army units. You died as you lived: being fucking idiots.



The rest of the enemy units move up a bit.




On turn 5, Japser's units get in formation.



Since it's clear we're about to have a head-on collision, I set Ljusalf up behind Jasper's line.



Daniel, however, hangs back for now. While he could annihilate that southeast infantry, Paris and the scouts would turn him into a pincushion, and Rock would then kick our ass.

This position is also taking advantage of a quirk in the enemy AI. While the southeast enemy infantry has Mountaineer, and is therefore in attacking range of both Daniel and Jasper, he won't dare attack them, because they're just too powerful. At 7/8 with 625 men, Daniel towers over everyone on the field, and Jasper is no slouch either. Attacking us with the southeast infantry is only going to end up with that infantry getting crippled, and the enemy AI will not be so dumb as to do something like that. (Unlike the allied AI )




It will, however, be dumb enough to put that infantry in range of just about every unit we have. The enemy makes no attacks on its turn.





Our allied scout shoots him without even having to move, and the generic infantry finishes him off.



Jasper, oddly, decides to move backwards.



But it's a good thing, because we're in an optimal position here. The enemy is going to have to come to us, which means putting themselves in range of our long-range units.





On the enemy turn, the generic enemy infantry moves forward and attacks our allied infantry.




Then Rock finally decides to get personal and makes the best possible move I could have hoped for: he attacks Daniel. Daniel can take the hit, but more importantly, Rock has positioned himself in such a way that only Daniel and Ljusalf can attack him next turn. That means our allies are going to have no choice but to go after the other units, which hopefully will mean a better power rating for us at the end of the battle.



End of turn 6.




The generic scout and infantry take out the enemy infantry without having to move from their spot. Jasper follows their cue and decides not to move as well.




Then Ljusalf calls down the thunder on Rock. It's hard to see due to the commander banners, but sorcery units attack by hitting the enemy with a lightning bolt.



Now, here's the thing: Daniel could potentially end the battle right now by attacking Rock, but I don't want to end things just yet. It would be a victory, but I'd also end up with a shitty power rating, and Rock is hurt enough that he can't do much damage to us. So I have Daniel wait, which will give me some time to go after the scout units to the west.




The enemy sorcery unit makes the first move and hits the allied scout. But he also opens himself up to most of our units.



Then the weakened scout takes a potshot at our infantry...



... and Rock moves in to do a little more damage.



This is great. I have a shitton of enemy units in range and Paris is the only one that poses a real threat. We're doing great on speed, and amazing on efficiency (we can only lose one unit aside from the two suicidal ones at the start to get 100%, and we haven't lost any yet). Now it's time to push up the power rating.




Our scout takes out the enemy scout...



... our weakened infantry attacks the enemy sorcery unit (remember sorcery units can't counterattack, so our infantry is safe)...





... and then Jasper decides to be a FUCKHEAD and ends the battle.



Tell that traitor of a captain that she'll never break the Free Highland State! Your oppression will only strengthen our numbers!



There's a sound of running feet, and all of the enemy units vanish.

Music: War Battle Won - Suikoden V, "Cry Victory!"




Fuck you Jasper.



So yeah, we get a B rank. This was my third try at this battle (the other two ended in Cs) and I'm getting tired of screenshotting the allied units fucking up. So this is what we're settling with.

Our reward for the B rank is a Steel Bracer, an accessory that grants +2 PDF.

Music: Mountain - Final Fantasy VII, "Tifa's Theme"



Our part ends here. They can take care of the rest themselves.
Hmm. They were badly organized, but they fought with conviction. If they grow stronger, I think they'd pose a serious threat to Highland. Tell me... Who exactly are these rebels?
They're separatists. They want Highland to break away from the State Union. They normally use sabotage and terrorism to achieve their goals, but their influence is spreading.
I understand that much, but what are their reasons for wanting independence?



They think they'll be better off on their own. They don't realize how much the State Union has done for them. The states of Zelmony used to be independent before the State Union was formed, and the resulting chaos nearly destroyed us all. A strong, united nation is essential for our survival.



Understood.



Some time later...

Music: Suspicion 2 - Suikoden V, "Standing Firm"





What about their leader? Did you catch him?
He was no longer in the city when we entered. We questioned some of the people, but no one told us anything.
That's the worst of it. More and more townspeople are protecting them. They honestly believe things would be different if those rebels were in power. What a bunch of fools.



Be careful with your words. What does that say about Chancellor Ryan?
Ah-h no, the chancellor is an exception of course. These people are nothing like him. Anyway, a stable Highland government is what's best for us as well as the State Union, right? No one would profit from an independent Highland State.



A reward? I wasn't looking for that. I only came here to make my report, nothing more.
Ah, come on. You don't have to be so modest. You've done me a great favor. The Grunthall iron industry is very profitable. By ridding me of those rebels quickly, you've saved us a lot of lost income. You deserve to share in some of the wealth.



Hmph, so you're one of -those- people, huh? Don't think everyone in your ranks is as straight-laced as you. They'll be expecting some reward. Well, there'll always be youths like you, but you're only meaninglessly depriving yourself of the pleasures of life.



I've finished my report. I will return to Matrech now. That is all.

Next time: We run into an old friend.