Part 11: Ep 11; Pilfering Luck

Chapter 4: Dance in the Skies Part 2




When we last left off, everyone was sent back to the castle. I got a few lovers conversations while doing so, as well as a not-so-bad level for Sylvia from dancing.



One neat trick you can do with Briggid in Binary is use her ability to trade money with Dew and get experience from it. That's actually pretty abusable if you want to level them up to level 30 right from Chapter 3.



Alternatively, it is also a good way to fill up EXP gauges hovering around the 80s. Dew gained some pretty good stats from it, at least.



Lewyn also bought the best siege tome ever from the pawn shop. That one should really come in handy.



And here we go. Thove is conquered and our troops are pressing in front of the border guard.



Just like all border guards, she is pretty badass.



On the next phases, the big predictable battle begins. Let's check out their stats and start taking bets:



Mahnya's forces aren't really anything special. Just Steel Lances.



Pamela's regular troops are identical to Mahnya's, if not for their Javelins. And her two promoted officers carry a Killer Lance and Master Lance, which should make all the difference.



Mahnya herself is pretty damn great, with good stats, leadership and personal skills. She's also cheating on her weapon ranks, just like Deet'var.



Pamela is slightly worse than her in all areas, but has a Silver Lance to fight Pegasi more effectively. And, you guessed it, she's cheating on her weapon levels too.

She also drops a "Critical Guard", the love child of an Iron Rune and a Full Guard, protecting its wearer from criticals and effective damage. This'll do most nicely on Ferry.



Sigurd returns himself to his castle and well... we wait.



Good thing the bow cavalry arrives pretty early. This time, they're all promoted, so hopefully the fight will be over fast.



The sooner the better, really. The Mahnya troops seem to be doing a bit too good so far, and I don't want Pamela to go back to Zaxon and get reinforcements.



Thankfully, Andorey's troops are ridiculously dangerous with Brave equipment and killer skills, so once they reach the Pegasi, it should be over in a flash.



All of Mahnya's squad divebombs into their Brave Swords and perishes. Only their leader remains...



Well...



She certainly doesn't want to die quietly, that's for sure. And she's killing way too many of Pamela's troops.



One funny thing I noticed during gameplay: the Bow Knights have a glitchy map animation when using a sword. Who'd have thought horses were so good at controlling swords with their minds?



Good lord, it took half pegasus battalion and 5 Bow Knights to take her out...



: Our available space must be optimized at all costs! Holyn, Jamke! Hurry up and get on those cliffs.



Well, crap. Because of Mahnya's ferocious tenacity, I've got the worst possible AI setup for Pamela's troops. Her remaining mooks are going after the border guard and will be in range of the upcming civilians, while she's going to get reinforcements in Zaxon, then head for the unguarded Thove.



Well, at least the knights' poor positioning gives me one more turn to lure the Pegasi closer to us.



Come on, little border guard. Time to show them that no matter what, the border will stand tall.



She gets a bit unlucky with the Master Lances though, and perishes sooner than expected. She managed to kill one of Pamela's officers, at least.

Farewell, Silesian border guard. We won't forget your noble sacrifice.



Oh yeah, sure. That's certainly going to work really well for you.



Waste of a Yewfelle use.



At last we can move on with this chapter. I do like how the knights split and take different routes for that little event.



Lamia's troops are also deployed soon after that. Only female units, and even a few new map sprites. Are those lance users in the back...?



And now, to take care of those civilians.



Just like in the original game, we have two Blizzard mages appearing out of nowhere. It's possible to take them both down in one turn with Ferry and/or siege tomes, but first, we'll need to move those Pegasi out of the way.



Tailto and Midayle are on the job. I really like the Master Lance's sprite. Especially when it appears in duplicate because the "reload" animation for a ranged spear comes up too fast.



With her mighty Killer Lance in hand, Ferry just flies past the first evildoer and reaps decent gains from it



Then Lewyn fails to impress with his first Blizzard shot.



But with a bit of luck, Azel and Ferry can finish the guy up fairly easily.



That's one danger averted. Now, we need to remove the axefighters on the civilians' tail.



With two siege tome criticals, they go down even faster than I was expecting.



While everyone is still sloooowly crossing the mountains, nuking axe users from afar, Sigurd has a very belated chat with Claud. I probably should have done that at the very beginning of the chapter...



Pamela also emerges with her flock of brand new Pegasus/Falcon Knights, and starts heading toward Thove. I'll need to warp a few people there before we lose that castle.



After that, most of the other Axefighters suicide on our toughest units. Only one of them remains, and he won't last very long.



Everyone is pretty nice on levels, so most of these civilians are going to go to Dew, so he can promote and hopefully start sucking a bit less.



The amount of EXP they give in Binary has been reduced from 100 to 50. Not that it changes anything for Dew, since he has the Paragon Ring on him.



And he keeps getting great levels, this chapter. I guess that's where all my good levels are going.



A bunch of fliers should be no match for our beefy Sniper. Off to Thove she goes!



Midayle finishes the last Axefighter and gets a pretty great level as well. They're really popping up on the most unexpected units, these days.



No, seriously, this is downright ridiculous.



Surprisingly enough, these guards weren't changed all that much. They just traded their Steel Axe/Bow for a Silver Axe / Steel Bow.



They shall be smitten for that lack of originality. Those Handaxe criticals just never get old.



On the next turn, we also Warp Ferry to Thove, so she can help a bit with her Wind Sword, and grab the Critical Guard from Pamela.



Wait, he hadn't even capped Speed yet?



Now, we just have to take these guys down in style, and only the boss will remain.



In style, and terrible levels, of course.



Oh, do not think you can escape. The Dew shall consume all.



The Dew was satisfied by your tasty soul. The Dew is now ready to promote.



Anyways, we have Donovan to take care of. He's gained 4 levels, +8 Str, +7 Def, and +4 in most other stats, as well as one leadership star and the Wrath skill. He's also replaced his Steel weaponry with Killer equivalents.

He's pretty much all about criticals, so the best solution is to either try siege tomes, send dodgy units, or use ones that can withstand his crits.



Siege tomes prove ineffective, and an alternate-reality Aira just died from an untimely crit, so I guess we'll have to go with the third option.



I really hope Dew is going to pull his weight, now that he's stolen all those levels from everyone else.



Lex goes in with the Master Axe and gets an instant crit for it. That's a good start.



Although he takes one other crit in return. Now, let's see, who else in my team can take a Killer Bow crit...?



And this .gif is why I really like Jamke in this game. Not only is he very resilient, he's got enough AS and the appropriate skills to overcome his low skill stat. Because he's shooting all the time.

His whole stick is basically:
: I don't care how many arrows it takes, so I'll just keep shooting until you die.



However, I'm not going to seize Silesse Castle just yet. Were I to do so, Pamela's troops would just turn back and charge at our army, simultaneously with Lamia's squad, and I really don't want that to happen. Queen Rahna can wait a little longer while we destroy her brother-in-law's army.



Somewhere during the alternate timeline shenanigans (when Aira died), a little bit of recording was lost. We missed an amazing level from Sylvia. She got +1 Skl, it was so great.



We're now just in range of Lamia's squad. These gals are pretty tough, so Raquesis is once again tasked of luring them in with her Earth Sword.



That causes the healer of the group to panic, run in the back and use her Fortify. Oookay.



Lamia's squad was pretty powerful and well-equipped in vanilla FE4. Needless to say they're even worse in Binary.



The two Archeress have slightly better stats and the Pursuit skill. They're still holding onto Killer Bows, but nothing too scary so far.



The two Brave Sword Myrmidons are now sporting Killer Edges instead, as well as the Pursuit skill. Matching, but still not too threatening.



The two "Mages" (once again, dismounted Mage Knights) are now packing a Sleep Sword on top of that Elthunder, as well as Pursuit and Critical. This is already getting a little bit annoying.



Two of the myrms were changed into the Lancer class, which is what a Pegasus/Dragon/Lance Knight turns into upon dismounting. Once again, they have Pursuit, but also a Killer Lance and Master Lance... damn.



Now, the High Priest accompanying them is a little pest. Not only is she going to spam that Fortify, but she's also got Nosferatu equipped, and that super Miracle skill, making her really annoying to take out without using siege tomes.



As for Lamia... oh dear.

She's only one level higher, but with +3 Skl, +4 Spd, +14 Lck, +3 Def and +5 Res. She comes with a whole array of terrifying skills, and the Brave Sword to make good use of them. She's also holding a Luna Manual that she drops, which means she's the first character we see to have access to two different sword skills. And certainly not the last.



Charging at her with our most broken characters will do no good, unless you want the alternate-timeline Aira corpses to start piling up.



What you do is stay at a distance and try to hit her hard. With a critical, for instance, like what Midayle just did. Forseti would also be pretty fantastic for this.



Only then do you send the broken characters to finish her off. If possible with Leadership/Charisma support.



She really wants me to keep using her as a guinea pig, doesn't she?



Now that the evil lady is gone, time to wreck her squad with long-range criticals.



I can't wait to be done with this accursed chapter.



D-Did Alec seriously miss two 87%?



Goddammit. Noish, show your buddy how it's done.



With a crit, no less. He certainly never misses a chances to show off.







Just... whatever, let's finish this quick. Our Mountain levels up, and will soon be able to promote to the Peak class.







I am genuinely running out of smileys to express how dead I feel inside.



A little bit of a look at the Lancer attack animations... They're not really anything impressive, and rather slow and awkward. But since their animations are based on the Armor attack animations, you can't really expect much nimbleness from them.



Well, that only leaves that lady over there and the Iron Mages. As usual, they were Generals in the vanilla game.



And this time, they're the ones packing Blizzard tomes instead of Daccar.



What have these girls been doing anyway? Did they get lost in the mountains, or something?



In any case, Holyn whacks the pink High Priest really hard and we get to these Iron Mages.



As usual, I open up with more long-range criticals as they fade into darkness.



Yeah, they really aren't going to last long.



Not you too, Lex!



And that's a wrap. Now we wait for the girls in the north to take down Pamela and her goons.



In the meantime, here's Daccar. He's got the usual +3~4 in all stats except in Magic (+13) and Resistance (+10), one more leadership star, and the Adept/Critical personal skills. He's also received minor Forseti blood to fit this game's genealogy.

That's one thing Binary is most meticulous about. Did you notice he shares his personal skills with Maios, and Lewyn? That's because they're his uncles and it would make sense they both have the same skills as his father.



Daccar is also holding a semi-legendary weapon called Excalibur. It is a sort of beefed up "Killer Tome", which grants +5 Speed and is effective against fliers unlike other Wind magic in this game. The conditions for using that tome are to either possess Forseti blood, or to have a personal (ie. not counting class bases) MAG+SKL+SPD of 34 or higher. _{Daccar fulfills both conditions, if you were curious.}



But before getting to him, let's take care of Pamela's squad. Half of them suicide on Ferry, and Pamela flew way too close to the castle for her own good.



She's pretty dodgy and doesn't take effective damage, but against Holy Weapons, she's still taking a beating.



Time to finish her up, with some karmic retribution!



Oh, Killer Lance, how I do love thee... Even when thy criticals are disabled.



That gives Ferry the Critical Guard and a decent level. Looks like she managed to stay away from all that bad luck.



Now, a tough choice for the remaining survivors. Do they go for the unit on a castle with a sword that will destroy them? Or do they try to attack the defenseless archeress that they won't be able to hit?



Good. That will make things a bit faster for me.



I had to open my big mouth...



Oh wow, she even managed to break her Wind Sword from whacking them so hard. It broke on the very last enemy, no less. She cut it a bit close on HP (she was at 12 before the castle healed her), but that way she's almost maxed on levels.



Now, Daccar, you may be speedier than your buddy and not-silenced, but I do believe it is time to clash semi-legendary weapons.



This might sting a little.



Getting some serious déjà vu here.



Did we forget anything important?



Oh right, maybe we should go and liberate Queen Rahna or something...



HP, Mgc again...? You have other stats, Lewyn.



We seize, and Lewyn has a pretty heartfelt reunion with his mom. But feelings aren't all that important compared to getting...



The green nuke! Forseti is a little less powerful than before (like all other Holy weapons), and also a lot heavier than a measly 5. But since Str now compensates weight, the end result isn't all that different.



I think we're done, now, aren't we?



Or maybe I forgot Dew. He still needs to promote after all, and will need to retry the Arena.



Dew's only promotion choice is to become a Thief Fighter. He gets solid boosts in every single stats, one more Mov and Pursuit. But the real kicker is the A in Swords, meaning he isn't limited to Iron anymore!

Now, with all the swords we have at our disposal, which one would best fit his needs...?

ddinkins112 posted:

You don't need no stinkin' holy blood to murderize everything!* Just a nice, cozy weapon with lots of crit!

* _{But it does help.}

Killing Edge it is!



Let's see how this Arena batch fares against Dew 2.0.



That's gotta hurt.



Oh dear.



More crits, and more dodge. That works.



Well, haven't you become a jumpy little monster.



Why do you even have so much defense?!



And since he won't need money any longer (he already has the Paragon Ring), he can give it all to Briggid for another level.



That +4 Defense blessing is still holding. Otherwise, he's around his averages everywhere. And he is now officially competent!



With some of Dew's money, I also bought the Luna Manual for Briggid. There might be better candidates for it, but Faval will need it to stand out in gen 2.



And I do believe we're done with this chapter. For real this time.



Next time on FE4 Binary, its a Boss Rush! Kinda. We're getting near the end of gen 1, and the game will throw everything at us to make that the transition to gen 2 as painful as possible. See you then.


Blaggi Crusade Death Toll: 2