Part 5: Ep 5: Disturbance in the Averages

Chapter 2: Disturbance in Agustria Part 1



In the last update, Macbeth was the only unit standing between our army and Anphony. I then took a little break to farm love points until turn 50.



Adean fell in love with Midayle, just as planned. Pursuit and Charge will really help Chester near the end of Gen 2, and Pursuit alone should be enough to keep Lana excellent as a mage. There's also going to be a pretty nice bow as a reward for pairing these two, in chapter 4.



Around Nodion, Raquesis stayed close to Lex for their own pairing. With Free Knights being able to wield axes, that means Delmud will be able to forsake swords for awhile and become our Lex 2.0 in gen 2, and Nanna will really enjoy the physical boosts as well as Paragon.

Raquesis's options are a bit more open in Binary, with Sword skills being usable by knights. Beowolf is still the basic go-to, but Dew and Holyn become rather respectable choices, although some of the classic pairings become very risky. Finn isn't very recommended, since he'll have a very hard time surviving Chapter 7 without good weapons. Azel is out of the picture too, as he imperatively needs to have a magic user as a child... more on that later.



Along the line, I took down Macbeth as well, in case the Nodion Paladins would suddenly decide to go after him. Just like most bosses until now, he's lost a bit of HP, but gained 3~4 in Str and Def. He's also got 1 more Leadership star, for all that's worth now that he's alone.

Vantage doesn't really change much other than forcing you to heal your mages before attacking him. He's traded his Steel Lance and Javelin for a more threatening Steel Bow and Halberd. He now drops the latter on defeat, instead of the Shield ring he used to have.



With a bit of help from Deirdre, he's still a piece of cake.



It was a bit of a risky dodge, but Beowolf goes in to grab the Halberd so he can save some uses from his personal sword. He also gets a pretty basic Str, Def level while doing so.



Along the way, Adean grabbed two great levels: HP, Skl, Mgc, Lck, Def and HP, Str, Mgc.



Deirdre got HP, Mgc, Def, Res, apparently trying to drop the "glass" in her "glass cannon".



And Sylvia triggered a few of her really low growths, with Skl, Mgc, Lck, Def. Neat, more survivability.



As for the villages, the westernmost one now gives a +7 HP boost to anyone visiting it. I didn't really have anyone else in mind who really needed it, and seeing Dew with less HP than Deirdre was starting to tick me off.



The southernmost village is now home to the Shield Ring that Macbeth didn't drop. It will look most admirable on Raquesis.



I love doing that, just to see these annoying Paladins run all the way around.



Raquesis grabbed most of these villages here, including the one with the woman gossiping about her bother and her. . With that, she reached 40k Gold to buy her Paragon Ring.

Sylvia collected the rest so she could afford the Knight Ring on the next chapter. She also now has a Silver Card from what I kept calling the "Bargain Ring village". It's really the same item, just looking different.



Now it's time for some heal grinding!



Pro-tip: You can make Dew buy the Thief Sword and repeatedly fail in the arena to level-up Raquesis by healing him. He's got Bargain and that weapon is absolutely dirt cheap (20G/use without Bargain) so he'll barely lose any money, in exchange for some juicy EXP for our Princess.



In 4 levels, she got +3 HP, +3 Str, +1 Mgc, +2 Spd, +3 Lck. Needless to say, she's completely blasting her averages right now. And she's only level 9!

I also got Beowolf and Lewyn through the Arena while I was at it.

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

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

Really, Lewyn always destroys the Arena no matter what, and Beowolf can rely on his sword's Wrath if he loses any match.



Now, on to Mackily. The main force is positioned in line to face the ground forces, and the guys I sent through the forest are what I like to call my Anti-Bullshit Brigade. Sylvia also got a weird HP, Str, Res level somewhere in there.



Now we can conquer Anphony and see more of Lord Fiat, who clearly has nothing better to do than run around the continent and inform Sigurd of court gossip. But hey, he plays Conversation 1 while talking, which instantly makes him a great guy.



Raquesis and Beowolf have their little training session, which grants her Str+2, Skl+2 and Def+1.



Well, aren't you a scary girl, now?



At the end of our turn, Agusty and Mackily start deploying their troops. Funnily enough, all of the units that Clement deploys are now female. I wonder what that says about him?



Shagall wasn't that creative, sticking to his usual squads and Ferry's guest appearance.



And the assault begins, where Alec even gets a lucky critical. Nobody is in Sleep range, and I'll make sure those ballistae do not survive the next turn.



It's always refreshing to see a bit of gender diversity in the generic enemy troops. I mean, the sprites are there, so might as well use them for something more than the very rare "girl squad" which appear in two chapters or so.



I supposed that's what I get for having a majorly blessed Raquesis.



Now that it's our turn, Dierdre does what she does best, and mutes Clement for some HP and Lck. That's about half of the long-range threats neutralized.



Clement is a little bit more annoying to deal with than before. He's two levels higher, with pretty much a +2 on all of his stats, one more Leadership star and 1000 more gold. Pursuit makes him a bit more dangerous to fight without silencing him, and Prayer will make him a major pain in the neck if you don't double-check the damage you deal to him.



And now, to start taking down these ballistae. Holyn and Jamke team up on the first one, and the latter gets his usual HP, Str, Spd level...



Ayra is finally back in the mood, and Astra -> Double-crits the second one for Str, Skl, Spd.



And now, it's time for round 2.



This place looks much safer, now. I've tried putting my AB Brigade on top of the ballista spawning points once, but the siege engines still appeared on top of them.



It also caused the game to express its distaste in my unpleasant actions, when it tried to make them attack.




A little round of trimming down the enemy forces. Midayle gets a really nice HP, Skl, Str, Spd, Arden a basic HP, Def, and Noish stays on the effective stats of HP, Str, Spd.



Might as well give this one a try too, since we have it.



I mean, it's pretty badass looking. Dangerous, but badass looking.



Speaking of badass, check out that Armor knight guarding the border. Dude's got himself a Silver Lance, 2 Leadership stars and a Lance rank superior to that of any regular Armor. Surely he must be a cousin of the Penta-Axe General.



I think I forgot to move Sigurd on the previous turn... Regardless, he uses the Return Ring to become a star and go back to the Lewyn-guarded Evans.



Ahah! Thought you could shoot at Holyn safely from there? That's forgetting his new cliff-fighting skills!



Arden shows that Armor knight colleague who's the most charismatic Armor around these parts...



And we're in the clear. Time to face the first wave of Lance cavs.



HP, Def. It goes about as smoothly as you would expect.



Although Finn was cutting it a little bit close, there.



The ones who ventured too close to our lines pay the highest price. Azel finally gets some Skl, and HP, Spd, and Jamke goes for HP, Str, Def.



That Halberd is really good for Beowolf to get levels in this chapter, when we're fighting all these cavs.



Now, to start tenderizing this Bishop's meat before the main course of cavaliers arrives.



One of them suicides on Alec to give him his favorite HP, Skl level.



Two of the cavs were in range of Deirdre, but she can easily survive their two hits, and counterkill them in return.



At this point, I'm a bit worried about Ferry's squad, and wondering if they could possibly attack us from here... that would be a bit of a mess. But no, they will always go straight to Evens no matter what.



Dew snatches the Paladin's purse for some gold and an essential Skl, Str, Spd level, then Adean finishes him off for some Spd and Mgc.



Deirdre takes down the boss for his Silence staff and a level (HP, Mgc, Lck)



Arden took a few hits, but he's still coming along nicely on his levels:Str and Def. Ethlyn, herself, only gets some HP, a shame.



Still waiting for these Pegasus Knights...



I guess I'll start preparing my next line of defense while waiting for Sigurd. Str, Spd, Mgc. Muscular Adean is going to be a thing, isn't it...?



Sigurd finally seizes Mackily and triggers the next set of story events. A few of the characters in the game use their Thracia 776 portraits and clash rather heavily with all the others. Zyne is one of them, maybe because of all the character development he had in the manga.



The Ferry Squad also reached Lewyn, who promptly starts destroying them for a boring HP, Skl, Spd level.



Speaking of boring, Zyne is now on the map. His equipment hasn't changed, although his increased Skl and Spd make his Knight Killer quite more dangerous, and so do his Pursuit and Critical.



But I think we're well prepared for him.



And more levels for Lewyn gleefuly slaughtering his country's folks. HP, Skl, Str, Spd, Res, way to go!



Only Ferry and a very weakened Pegasus remain. And not for very long, as Lewyn recruits us another green-haired lady.



See? That's good NPC. Leaving the map once their leader is recruited is what all green units should do.



Anyways, Ferry joins our ranks. No changes in skills, but a big difference in her weapon. Instead of a generic Slim Lance, Ferry has a Wind Sword, just like the rest of her decimated squad. The big thing about the Wind Sword, aside from its good stats, is that it's effective against fliers at both 1 and 2 range. (Remember that this is FE4, and Wind tomes aren't effective against flying units like in FE5.)

She's going to be a pretty damn good anti-flying unit with this, and can make good use of weapons that let her attack from a distance. She also received +3 Mgc to use it properly at range.



Spd, Lck and I'm really starting to run out of things to say for these generic levels.



Someone hold me. Arden is able to double something.



And sure, send the Lance Knights against the Halberd guy. I'm sure that'll work. (HP, Lck)



And an HP, Def for Quan thanks to that timely critical. I should probably mention that his armor was changed from gold to white. I have no idea why that is, however, since his artwork shows him wearing black.



And in a single sweep, all of Zyne's forces were eliminated in one turn. As for the rewards:

- Ferry was too far to get the Knight Killer, so I had Beowolf grab it for some easy money.
- Aira get an awfully ironic Lck level.
- Holyn showed her how it's done with 2 HP, Skl, Lck, Def
- Midayle and Arden weren't very original with Str, Def and HP, Lck, Def respectively.
- And Finn is just weird with HP, Mgc.



As far as highlights go, Deirdre was saved by her Circlet's Prayer. Remember that the Binary Prayer not only boosts evade for one round if the character hits <10 HP, but also has a 100% chance of halving fatal damage. When the latter happens, that little blue effect appears to indicate it.



And Lex not only doubled with a Steel axe, but also critted with it. This just can't get any better.



What comes after Zyne is a rather tricky part. The three ballistae on top make it risky to approach the place, and the Armors in the way all have various Killer weapons.



Jamke helps to wittle their numbers down with a lucky Charge activation. He gets a miserable HP level for his efforts.



I'll just be sending my tankiest units to rush them down, namely Sigurd, Quan and Lex.



Lex who... dodges the Killer Axe guy and crits twice in return. I guess it could get better, after all.



Chagall still has a Physic, which makes his defensive strategy all the more dangerous.



HP, Str, Mgc, Lck, Def for Lex and HP, Skl, Str, Lck, Def. Yeah, no. Physic or not, he's not going to outlast these blue-haired badasses.



HP, Def. Quan... not so much. But hey, at least Leif will be super-tanky at this rate.



While the others have fun with Chagall, Ferry is going to stay here for a few turns and train in the Arena.

: Arena Completed, 3 levels gained, +2 HP, +1 Str, +1 Mgc, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Lck, +1 Res

Quite a decent spreadout of her stats, I like it.



Only 2 ballistae left to go. Quan took a bit of a beating, so I sent Beowolf and Ethlyn as distracting baits. The AI in this game is quite poor at detecting possible kills. After that, the other two engines are toast, and only the boss remains.



Yeowzah! Chagall isn't kidding at all in Binary. He gained 4 levels, +3~4 in most stats, +6 Lck and Def, 1 Leadership star, and Pursuit.

But the real dangers are his Vantage and his new weapons. He traded his generic Silver Blade for a Brave Sword and a Brave Bow, making it risky to send mages after him to trim his HP down, as he'll have a decent chance of killing them before they even hit him.



Another interesting bit about him is that he's got minor Hezul blood, which he didn't have in the vanilla game for some odd reason. The FE4 canon states that Hezul's youngest daughter inherited his major holy blood, and was married to house Nodion, while his main line of descendants inherited only his minor blood. So it makes sense that Chagall would have that.



Fast-forwarding through a few more turns, I brought our healers to Agusty. Ethlyn gets some HP and Skl. She really hasn't been doing too well for this chapter... and to think I could have had another godly Troubadour.



But hey, I get Lovers criticals. That will really help to trim Chagall down. Him and Quan trade blows for a few more turns, and the latter gets a terrible HP, Skl while doing so.



Granted, that was quite the risky move there, but I just really enjoyed the idea that Adean is finally able to snatch the Physic staff herself.

HP, Spd, Mgc, Lck, Def. And with a level like that, I'm certain now that this was the right choice.



Right before ending the chapter, I start sending Sylvia through the Arena. She actually does much better in Binary than in vanilla FE4, mostly thanks to her improved Prayer.



The thing with Sylvia is that even with an Iron Sword, she's barely ever going to have more attack than her foe's defense. I generally just stick the Thief Sword on her, since it's very light but also dirt cheap to repair. Considering she's going to kill these guys one HP at a time, it adds up pretty quick.



If you're a bit lucky with your Def and HP stats, enemies will generally not be powerful enough to deal enough damage and skip the dreaded <10HP zone. In this case, the Axe Fighter just gave her +80% Avoid. He is now fated to die no matter the RNs, since his hit rate against her fell to 0%, and hers is still 66%.



About 39 rounds later, he's ready to perish. Rince and repeat for a few Arena ranks, and our Dancer is going to gain EXP and money like crazy.



I don't even need to repair the sword between rounds unless it's broken. In FE4, a weapon cannot break until the end of a fight. So even if it has only 1 use left, Sylvia will be able to slash it as much as she wants during the battle, possibly saving a repair of 40 or so uses. Not that it's all that much of an economy, but hey, money is money.

As for the result:

: Arena up to rank 5 (2 more than Dew!), Gained 2 levels, +1 HP, +1 Spd, +1 Def, +2 Res



After a little bit more post-chapter healing, Raquesis tries her luck a second time against Keimos, and completely obliterates him.



I think she's a little broken now. I can't wait to see her promotion.



Nothing else to this chapter but finishing it, now. I think we've all had enough of southern Agustria for quite a while.



Yes, yes. Give me that Knight Ring, and please go die in a blazing fire somewhere, with your two brothers.



Next time on Let's Play FE4 Binary, Sigurd and Eldigan will be dueling to the death. Will our hero manage to emerge victorious despite the still-missing Tyrfing...?

Hahaha, of course not. He would die in an instant. We'll have Raquesis talk to her brother, of course.