Part 39: Can't Catch A Break

Welcome back. Last time on Exit Fate, we caught up with Erin and the remaining Zelmony leadership and convinced them to join us, finally bringing Zelmony to an end and merging the survivors of it and Kirgard into one nation. Now that we've done that, it's finally time to head back to Kirgard and start taking it back from Almenga control. Let's get to it.

Music: Elysium - Chrono Trigger, "Frog's Theme (Orchestral Version)"



We begin this update some time later in Elysium.



Good, good.
So, we'll be putting our sights on Kirgard now?



And that'll be the main thrust of this update. But before we leave Zelmony, there's a few things we can do now that Matrech and Oischin are reopened to us.

Music: Matrech - Suikoden V, "Military Fortress"




The first thing we can do is head to Matrech, where we find this door at the northern end of the State Hall. This is presumably where Ryan's office is, but if we were to come here before now, the door would always be locked. Now that Ryan's in our party though...





... we can get in, where we find a treasure chest in the back room.



It contains Battle Plan #7, the plan for the battle at Matrech State Capital, which we just fought.




Next up, we head back to Elysium and throw Nomad and Teej into our entourage...

Music: Faraday - Xenogears, "Singing of the Gentle Wind"



... and teleport to Faraday.




There are a few familiar faces we can visit in the university. First up is Tiffany, who's hanging out in a room to the northeast.



Of course it is, you dumbass! What do you think I'm doing? I'm trying to learn a real profession so I don't end up in the gutter like you.
Dude, I'm getting better, seriously. I'm in this army now, right? It's totally rad. I work for my food and I still practice every day. I even found a few people who liked my music!
You joined an -army-?
So... what were you studying here anyway?
Oh, uh... never mind that! It was kind of boring anyway! I don't get how people can enjoy this learning stuff!









Despite her aversion to learning, Tiffany is actually a decently capable mage. In fact, if we were to raise her to our current level, she'd basically be Beau all over again, with decent MAG and SPD. She's not amazing, but she's usable.





Tiffany fights with her fans, though her damage is less than impressive.



Next up, it's time to visit the headmistress Marian again.




Wh-What are you doing here!?
Is that how you greet me after all these years?



Fade to black...



Hmmm... We'll have to do further research to be sure, but my first impression...
It's the real thing, isn't it?



That means I won the bet. I was the first to find the lost city of Avalon.
Unlike you, I didn't have the time to fully dedicate myself to the pursuit of one single artifact.



... Sis?
*sigh*



Irresponsible, but successful! She used to say there's no way I'd be able to find Avalon using my so-called "primitive" and "crude" methods.
You may get lucky now and then, but you can't achieve consistent and reliable results without a solid methodological approach.
I don't care. I found Avalon, so you were wrong about what you said.
You are such a kid... Regardless, now that the grail has been found, we'll have to carefully analyze its contents, and...




Nu-uh. I'm the one who found it, so I decide what happens with it.
What are you planning on doing with it!? Something with great historical value like this belongs to the scientific community!
I lent it to General Vinyard for the time being, since he helped me get it in the first place. Why don't you come help out as well? You're all on the same side now, aren't you? If you do, I'll let you study the grail when the war's over.
That's ridiculous. Are you blackmailing me?
We went through a lot of effort to obtain this grail. It wouldn't be fair if you didn't have to do anything for it, now would it? Come on, you need a break from your work. You think this place will collapse if you're not here all the time?









Marian is a fantastic mage, with MAG similar to Reod's and an MDF to die for, along with great MP+ and decent SPD. Really the only problem with her is that she's arguably the fourth- or fifth-best mage in the game, which means that she's likely to get left behind while you use the people slightly better than her. But she's certainly capable of filling a mage slot, and for whatever reason, she's also our fourteenth and final commander.





Like Ryan, Marian attacks by bopping enemies with her staff. But you know the drill by now: mage, terrible damage, etc.



She also comes with a free Opal Amulet, which I steal immediately.



Now then, we're done with Oischin for now. (If you're curious about that Tong Wu person Shadfork alluded to in his interview, he hasn't shown up at the temple yet.) Of course, the last time we were in Oischin we discovered that there weren't any port cities for easy travel.



So that means it's time to take the Portal Key out for a spin.





Handy. Let's head for the meeting hall.

Music: Mission - Xenogears, "Leftovers from the Dreams of the Strong"



The whole of Kirgard is still under enemy control, so even with all our allies comined, we still control less territory than they do. It's of vital importance that we focus on driving the enemy out of our land.
Scout reports indicate that there's very little Almenga presence in southern Kirgard. They've left everything in Pereious's hands. We'll have to deal with him first.
Is this Pereious really that much of a threat? Sure he's seized part of Kirgard, but that was no great accomplishment under those circumstances. He shouldn't stand a chance against our combined forces.
Don't underestimate him. Even if he's not backed by Almenga, the mountain tribes are a force to be reckoned with.



They didn't bother us much because local warlords were too busy fighting each other.
But everything changed after Pereious took charge. He was clearly of a different breed than the rest of them. Not only is he a skilled strategist, he's also a strong enough ruler to keep all the individual tribes together.
And he's ambitious too. Before him, a serious attack on Kirgard territory was unthinkable, but he tried, and he came dangerously close to St. Reinard before we pushed him back.
They're still small compared to the Elysium army, aren't they? If we push forwards with our total strength, they'll be easily overwhelmed.
Yeah, but their location might be a problem.



Starving them by isolating the citadel is not an option. Time is not on our side and we don't know what the Almenga imperial army will do. If we want to drive them out of Kirgard, we have no choice but to attack the citadel directly.
We can probably take them with our current numbers. I bet they weren't expecting us to bounce back so quickly after the fall of the mainland.
I agree. Pereious is a tough fighter, but his numbers are no match for ours.
I don't know as much about these people as you do, so I'll trust Keyser on this one.



General Vinyard, we will await your orders.
It's decided, then. I'll make sure everything's ready.

Fade to black...



Welp, looks like we've got another war battle on our hands. And that means we've got more army setup to do.




Erin and Marian round out our list of commanders; we now have all the units we're ever going to get. Erin has some pretty high stats but is limited by her low men, while Marian is great to have around as she's one of the few commanders suited to leading a sorcery unit.



We get them set up. Erin naturally takes Jasper as a subcommander (45 men, +1/+1), along with Col (25 men) and Meiko (25 men).



Marian doesn't have any stat changes or special abilities to work with, so we just load her up with a bunch of mages, since it seems the most appropriate. Beau (20 men), Naja (25 men), and Tiffany (20 men) join her. Remember that due to the sorcery unit bug Marian will actually have 6 attack, so this is pretty great for a sorcery unit.




Let's do it.

Fade to black...

Music: Pereious - Final Fantasy Tactics, "Run Past Through The Plains"




We've finally got ourselves some new war battle music. And it looks like we won't have to worry about a two-front battle this time around.



However, Perious has us matched in unit count, at least.

Is that his full army?
They may be strong, but we have superior numbers! March forward and show them our conviction!





As Eander mentioned, we have a rare and sizable advantage in manpower for this battle. But that doesn't mean it's going to be easy.



For reference, he's the distance between the two armies, since it's not clear from the previous screenshots.



Pereious is the enemy commander this time around and he is a monster. With those stats he will easily one-shot any unit in our army, and since he's a cavalry, we may have to let him do just that because it's virtually impossible to outrange him. Fittingly, he also has Mountaineer, but it's not much of a use to him since there aren't any mountains on this map that will actually get traveled over.



However, while Pereious is quite a threat, the real issue in this battle comes from the generic units. Unlike the 3/3 and 4/2 generics we usually saw in previous war battles, Pereious's generic units have mostly 5s and 6s among their stats, which means they match a number of our own units in strength. We're going to have to play this one carefully.



As usual, there's not a damn thing to do on turn 1, so everyone just moves forward.




I don't know if it's because he's a cavalry or because he's specifically programmed that way, but Pereious has a strong tendency to charge out ahead of the rest of his army. This is both good and bad, because we want him neutered as soon as possible, but we also have to make sure he doesn't get himself killed before we can build up our power rating.




This time we hang back somewhat. Jovian is the only unit now in range of an enemy, specifically the cavalry to the southeast. Hopefully we can bait some units over before we have to turn the center of the map into a meatgrinder, but even if we can, we won't be able to do it for long.





The southeast cavalry takes the bait, but Jovian is man enough to take the hit and remain viable.



The rest of the enemies just kind of shuffle around.



Thanks to the proliferation of enemy cavalry, there's not much we can do at this point but get in a few quick hits and then just let both sides start wailing on each other. So let's take the shots that we can.




Merrick steps up first and downs the forward cavalry.




Paris also takes a shot at one of the other cavalry.



Unfortunately, that's really all we can do this turn without overextending our army. So we form up into a wall and await the rush of enemy cavalry.





Paris gets hit fairly hard, but survives.




Next up is Nashal, who has taken Jovian's place at the front. Thankfully both she and Paris are still in decent shape.



Then one of the enemy infantry attacks Daniel and...




... Bast and Keyser call a retreat. I think this occurs as soon as either Daniel or Pereious gets into a fight.

Pull back!? Where to? The whole area is under their control!
The Saron river! If we can cross it and reach the town of Trarcia, we'll be out of their reach! Relay the orders! We're moving out!





Now, I suppose you all must be wondering what the hell happened there, since it's entirely possible we could have won that battle. It makes sense from a story perspective, at least. While we could have likely killed Pereious and claimed a "victory," there's no way in hell we could have done it without losing a good deal of our men and likely several units, and at this point in the story we want to conserve as many men as possible. The other thing to keep in mind is that while we have all fourteen commanders, the average player is likely missing a few at this point, which means they'd have anywhere from 500 to 2500 fewer men than we do. And that would make this battle a whole hell of a lot more daunting. So it's at least somewhat understandable.

Music: Trarcia - Chrono Cross, "Arni Village (Another World)"



In any case, we find our heroes some time later, in a house in the town of Trarcia.



You weren't kidding about that citadel. If we really want to drive out that warlord without suffering major losses, we have a big problem on our hands.



Errr, wait, what? Who are you?

Who are you!? We are having an important meeting here! You can't just enter this room!
I apologize, sir, but I thought I could be of some help to you. I witnessed the attack on the citadel, and I could see clearly that there was room for improvement, which I could provide.
Wait a minute, you saw that attack?
I certainly did. You arrived not long after I escaped from the citadel, so I stayed to observe.
You... escaped from the citadel?
Yes, quite easily in fact. Oh, allow me to introduce myself.





In any case, let's move on to more pressing matters, shall we? Clearly we're having a problem here, and that problem's called Pereious.
If you have a plan, then tell us. We built that citadel to be nearly impregnable, and it's even worse with a man like him in command.
Quite true, although his primary strength lies in his men. As you've experienced yourselves, they are extremely ferocious. You can't compare 100 of his men to 100 of our own. Their numbers belie their true strength.
But even if it were just an issue of brute force, we'd have more than enough manpower to make up for it.
But you can't afford a costly strategy like that, correct? The mountain tribes are not even our main enemy, after all. So instead, I propose an alternate strategy. I was involved in the war against Pereious four years ago, as well as other minor skirmishes. I know him, and I know his tactics.




Quite obviously, there's an inherent flaw to this method, isn't there?
Uh...



He simply does not know, or rather, believe, that technological advances could revolutionize warfare as we know it!
Technological advances?
War causes innovation, General! When the war began it gave an impulse to the research I was involved in on developing a new kind of weapon.
And you think this weapon will revolutionize warfare? What is it?




A-ha! Thick stone walls, like the citadel's.
Exactly! Now don't misunderstand me, I don't mean to say that we can just destroy the citadel. That's far beyond our capabilities. But with the right materials, I can create an explosive strong enough to open up a passage in the citadel's outer walls.
I see! Then we could enter through that hole and catch them by surprise!
Not so fast. We're not talking about a massive hole, are we? We can't send everyone through some tiny passage.



Pereious is more careful than he looks. Even if we manage to open the gates, he'll still be prepared for battle. We'd still have to take on his army.
But wait, I think you're on to something here. Instead of opening the gates, what if we do the exact opposite, and close them?




That could work, but we'd have to time it right. The infiltration team must be ready when we launch the attack.
I'll volunteer to lead this infiltration. I can give you a sign to attack.
Sounds good to me. What do you think, Daniel?
It's the best plan we have at the moment. Let's do it.



Understood. I can take a few people with me. I'll leave it up to you to decide who will accompany me.
You go prepare the explosive, and I'll work on picking a team for you. Everyone else, get ready for the battle. If the plan works we'll have the upper hand, but that doesn't mean it'll be a walk in the park.
Let me know when you're ready to execute the plan, sir.



And with that, control is returned to us. We can talk to Harvey to get things started, but since we're in a new area, might as well look around first.





The town of Trarcia is pretty small, but there are a few things to see. First is the blacksmith, who is level 11. Even one upgrade from him would wipe out our entire savings, though, so I hold off for now.





There's an item shop as well, which is now selling Green Herbs and Gold Dusts. It's unlikely I'll ever be spending money on these, though.




There's also this guy hanging around, who we can ask to join us...



... but he refuses.




It's also entirely possible to leave the town and head to the world map. Now that we're on the Kirgard continent, we've also got some new world map music:

Music: Kirgard 2 - Xenogears, "Wings"



However, the bridge to the northwest is the only way out of the area that Trarcia is in, and Daniel refuses to cross it. We're not stuck here, since we've got the Portal Key and the castle teleporter to get around, but we can't progress any further at the moment.



And that means we need to go talk to Harvey and get this infiltration mission started. Now, we need to pick a team to accompany Harvey. Most of our current team will suffice for this, but as he mentioned earlier, Daniel is not allowed to come, because apparently that'll make Pereious suspicious or something. So for this dungeon we'll need to pick a replacement for him, which means it's time for another vote! Check the end of this post for details.

Elsewhere...

Music: Brunhild - Final Fantasy VIII, "Find Your Way"



Tarlia will stay with Ash in St. Reinard to administrate Kirgard and suppress any further revolts.
Hopefully Tarlia's presence will balance things out somewhat. Leaving him on his own could be... disastrous.
You don't seem to appreciate him much, Gudrun. He's done exactly what we asked of him, hasn't he?
Maybe, but his methods are questionable.



And what if the methods collide with the goals? From what I heard, Ash caused a bloodbath at the palace in St. Reinard. This may work against us in the future.
It was only a minor sacrifice for the greater good. We don't hesitate to throw away the lives of our soldiers, so why should royalty be any different? It was an important, no, a vital step. The effects will show itself eventually.



He is here at the castle. He arrived in Vanaheim yesterday.
He is? Then bring him in.





Hang on. Is that...?



Oh that motherfucker!

General Leonius, I must thank you for your cooperation. You've made an essential contribution to our victory.
On the contrary, it is I who must thank you for this opportunity.
So he is the one who betrayed his country?
From now on, he will serve as general in the imperial army.






Gudrun! Do you continue to defy me!?
But Siegfr-- My lord... I-I apologize.
If you want to keep your position, Gudrun, you will need to obey my orders. If you have complaints, then voice them in private.
Yes... I understand. I apologize again. I... should return to my work now.







Fade to black...



Now then, we need to pick our infiltration team. As I mentioned earlier, Daniel is not allowed to come for this dungeon, so we're going to have to pick a person to replace him for the time being. Please vote for one character not in our current party to serve as that replacement. Harvey is eligible for voting, but personally I'd prefer another mage, since Daniel has been our primary healer thus far and it'd be good to have someone else who can serve in that role. That said, this is a democratic Let's Play and it's up to you guys. Here's Harvey's stats, by the way:



Harvey doesn't have much going for him aside from high HP and defenses. His strength is middling at best and his magic is awful, and he's also quite slow. But we can stick him in the entourage if so desired, so just because he's the leader of the infiltration team doesn't mean he has to fight.

As this is a minor vote, I'm going to leave voting open for 24 hours.

Next time: Tactical espionage action.