Part 3: Ep 3: Pirates of the Spirit Lake

Chapter 1: Girl of the Spirit Forest Part 2





All right, we're almost halfway through Chapter 1. Marpha is just right next to us, and all that's left is to take down its guarding forces.



We're not really in much danger there, so let's just get ourselves some levels.



HP, Skl, Spd. Alec is coming along pretty nicely. Maybe he'll be a little less useless than in my previous playthrough.



HP, Spd. Definitely not as good, but I guess that's more chances of activating Charge...



HP, Str, Spd, Def. Awesome. Quan will gain access to something pretty nice around Chapter 3 on top of the Gae Bolg, so it's good to see he's not going to have to rely on it to be effective.



Skl, Str, Spd, Lck And Finn just keeps being fantastic.



Now that we've leveled the field, only Gandolf remains. He's got +2 Str, +2 Mgc, +1 Skl, -1 Spd, +3 Lck, -1 Res and 1000 more Gold. The difficult part of fighting him is that he has both Continue and Critical now, making for some Gerrard levels of surprise criticals.



Sigurd should be fine and deal some good opening damage in two rounds there...



Are you kidding me...?



Astra? Critical? Anything?



Well, I guess I'll let these two have a chat while our swordfighters are getting pummelled by Gandolf. The Warp staff uses got reduced from 10 to 8, apparently. Not like there are a whole lot of situations where that would be a problem.



Do something!!



Str, Spd, Lck. Strength? Okay, I guess that will help a bit when she can get her Lightning tome. 7 is still a bit heavy for her.



Fuck it. You've had your chance, Ayra, I'm sending Ethlyn.



And finally, we get him down to low health.



I guess that extra gold he had did come in handy.



Azel always had a bit of trouble hitting things with his low Skill, and he might actually need the money if I sell that Skill Ring next chapter.



So here, have some delicious karmic death.



HP, Res. Azel, if you keep up with this, I might have to pick the promotion choice with the worst caps for you.



Fast forward a few turns and I have done all my love grinding, collected the village money as well as positionned everyone near the entrypoint to the last part of the map. Marpha conquered!



As usual, Deirdre passes by to hide in the forest, not the least bit concerned about all these weird people waiting for her.



Jamke deploys his troops, soon followed by Generic Evil Bishop™'s army. Three of the Hunters were replaced by Fighters, and the one in the middle was changed into... a Berserker? Really? We're only in Chapter 1, for god's sake!



Now, you probably remember this part of the map as being a massive chokepoint slugfest, since there's only one passage of forest to go through. Binary is a bit different, since the previously impassable Deep Forests are now traversable by non-Brigand units... with hefty movement costs, but with amazing evade boosts.



It does allow you to spread your forces around a little, although that part is still very slow regardless. It also allows you to actually skip conquering Marpha is you want to, and get Lex's shiny new axe early on. Or just capture Verdane directly and bypass Jamke's recruitment entirely.

Deirdre's recruitment is also completely skippable, which leads to some pretty... interesting developments if you do so. I'll probably do a bonus update just to show that off. But for now, if you're playing along, let's just say I would advise against it.



Jamke finally shows himself, and attacks our nearest wall. Having a Killer Bow as well as Charge and Continue is a dangerous combination, but Arden was pretty lucky here and didn't take any crit.



One quick recruitment scene involving a lot of yelling later, we have ourselves a new archer.



Jamke is an interesting case, as his class was outright changed from Archer to Hunter, a rather inferior class in all aspects. He lost 6 Skl and 3 Spd in exchange for 1 Res. His class's bow rank is B instead of A, and Pursuit is no longer his class ability. Having Continue, Charge, high strength and a really high attack speed does allow him to shoot a whole lot of arrows per turn at least, even if a decent proportion of them won't reach their target.

On the plus side, he will regain a lot of his stats, as well as Pursuit and his bow rank once he promotes. And I guess it adds a bit of variety to the roster, as well as being much more fitting for his character.



And seriously, with a Killer Bow, having lots of attacks generally means that the enemy is going to die very quickly, anyways.



He's even inspiring his comrades to do the same.



Yep, still a big clusterfuck.



HP, Str, Lck. Hey, at least he's gaining stats. And each level brings him closer and closer to a much-awaited new promotion.



HP, Skl, Lck. Same for Noish, actually. Both of them can somewhat hold their own in the arena, so it's really just a race to level 20.



Let's actually recruit Deirdre for this playthrough, and not ruin the plot.



And she is... not shitty. Whow. +3 Mgc, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Res, +4000G, and A rank in staves. With her good Speed and the ability to double without Pursuit, she actually is somewhat threatening. Her Circlet still gives Prayer and Life, and her class gives her access to dark magic now. Though it is completely pointless for her, as we can't get any dark tomes in Gen 1.



Her Aura tome is much more flexible to use now, with -2 Mgt, but +10 Hit, +10 Crit and -11 Wgt. She's still a bit of a glass cannon, but now she's actually able to evade attacks, and attack more than once. So yeah... Binary Deirdre is pretty great



And Ayra is...

What is it with female myrmidons and axes?



Oh, and of course she missed on the killing blow.



Skl, Spd.



Vantaaaage!



HP, Spd. I have no idea how Arden is getting so much Speed.



Skl, Str, Spd, Def. Nor why Ethlyn is so intent on becoming a powerhouse.



HP, Str, Spd. And this is probably going to be Jamke's typical level.



A few turns later, we're done with this part. Everyone will head northwest while Lex gets to...



... his Brave Aaaaaxe~!





What in the actual fuck?!







So, this is a part of the script that was actually changed. I'm not exactly sure about what that means, but hey, as long as I get my Brave Axe, I won't complain about these... creative liberties.



Wait, 13 uses? That's lame. It doesn't even look like a Brave Axe at all! What is that thing?



Oh, you fucker!



This is Binary's attempt at balancing Lex, since he can easily double on his own, now. His Brave Axe will only become available to us in Chapter 3 instead.



There are actually a few uses for the Devil Axe here and there, thanks to the turn saves we have available. 25 Mgt is as powerful as a legendary weapon, after all, and Lex's Luck isn't all that bad.



Uh-oh, incoming berserker at two o'clock, and he's got a Hand Axe.



Yeowch. That stung a little.



Binary Douchebaggery 101, rule #5: Send early promoted units with a +20 crit bonus and Wrath as early as Chapter 1.



Maybe I overreacted a bit by sending Sigurd straight at him, but I'm not taking any chances with a 20% battle crit.



HP, Skl. Yep, you're definitely not going to the high-caps promotion.



HP, Str, Mgc. Magic? Uhm, sure, why not.



Prepare the tactical nuke!



And now all that's left is to mute Sandima, and send the heavy damage-dealers at him.



HP, Spd, Mag. Her most important stats. Sweet.



A bit of clean-up healing duty grants Adean some HP, Str, Lck. Woohoo, now she'll take one less weight penalty from Lightning. Only 12 more Str to go!



Quan and Sigurd whack the silent man around a bit for Deirdre to violently destroy him. She reaps great rewards from it with HP, Skl, Mgc, Res and a Magic Ring.



Say hi to our new Anti Boss Cannon. That is, until she leaves in Chapter 3.



We're not in a hurry to finish this chapter, so I'm going to send the newcomers and those who only reached rank 7 in the Arena back to Marpha, so they can give it another try.



: Arena Completed, Gained 1 level, +1 HP, Str, Spd

: Arena Completed, No levels

: Arena Completed, Gained 1 level, +1 HP, Spd

What the heck?

: Arena Completed, Gained 3 levels, +1 Spd, Def, +2 HP, +3 Skl, Str

Ah, she's finally starting to wake up.

: Arena Completed, Gained 3 levels, +1 Def, Res, +2 HP, Spd, +3 Str

Those are really nice, but get some Skill, please.

: Arena up to rank 3, Gained 1 level, +1 Spd, Lck, Res

: Arena Completed, Gained 2 levels, +1 HP, Def, +2 Skl, Mag, Res

Not only were those great levels, I would like to point out that she one-shotted every single enemy in the arena. The ones she couldn't kill in one blow, she critted them.

To my greatest dismay, Midayle and Ethlyn were not able to win their last fight. I guess there's always next time. Now all we have left to do is to capture Verdane and end this chapter.



Sigurd, would you stop fooling around...?



Next time on Let's Play Fire Emblem 4 Binary, we play "Find the not-evil one out." in Agustria, discover some exclusive classes, and exploit new anti-bullshit maneuvers. See you then.