Part 14: Shooters
Welcome to Chapter 13, one of the five filler chapters that were removed when this game was remade as part of FE3 and then added back in when it was remade as FE11 for the DS. It combines the best of both gimmicky and boring, as we'll see here:
Shooters everywhere! Also a couple of Thieves to half-heartedly threaten the village, a Cleric to heal up the boss, and a Hero that seems really out of place. All those Shooters would actually be threatening if they had the range of ballistae in later games. Here they're just Armor Knights armed with catapults that for some reason can't shoot any farther than a bow.
The Hero is Astria, whom Midia was pining about last chapter. We'll be bringing her along to recruit him. Astria also comes with a Silver Sword.
The filler chapter comes with a filler boss. He's got the same high Defense as every other Shooter (and really every other boss, too) but his main threat is his weapon. The Elephant Catapult has 18 Might and a 90% Hit Rate, so he'll be hitting for 25 Attack. Of course, he's a Shooter that can only hit exactly two tiles away, and he's a boss so he doesn't move from the castle, so assuming I don't screw up, he won't ever get a shot off on us.
The rest of the Shooters have a variety of weapons, including the Fire Catapult here, which we haven't seen before. It's the strongest Catapult next to the Elephant, doing as much damage as the Quick Catapult but with 100% Accuracy, and no effective damage against anyone.
...path. The so-called "Wooden Horse Division", Grunian soldiers which use machines to fight. While creating noises, metal boxes start to move. Can Marth win?
Uh, not the best translation there. Or maybe it's just a really bad name, calling all the metal boxes the Wooden Horse Division?
So last chapter didn't really leave it clear where we were going next - we'd just liberated Akaneia and gotten one of the three Divine Weapons, the Partia. Princess Nina babbled at us about how the other two - the Gladius and the Miracle - were lost to the enemy. And that was it. But apparently we're headed over to Aritia, which you may recall is Marth's homeland. I guess it's finally their turn to be liberated?
Anyway we have a bunch of Shooters standing in our way to let's get this over with.
Turn 1:
We actually start off split up into three groups, one for each path to the castle, sorted out semi-randomly by position on the roster. Hardin, Linda, Navarre, Wolf, and Rena form the top group, going up against all of two Shooters. That's a bit overkill so we'll send some down the middle path instead.
The middle group has a solid makeup, with Barts, Gordon, Julian, Marth, Sheeda, and our chosen sacrifice, Mishelan. They'll be going up against five Shooters and Astria, the Hero.
The lower group has just Jake, Roger, and Midia, who will be headed into the middle to recruit Astria. They have three Shooters to take care of, and Roger currently is unarmed, so they'll probably need a little help. At least they both have high Defense, which is going to be all but required for this chapter.
Barts hands off the Boots to Roger.
Mishelan goes to the Storage to pick up some weapons for Roger, who makes use of the Boots to get as much Movement as Hardin and Wolf.
Julian makes similar use of the Manual. He can now use Armor Killers, Dragon Killers, and Kill Swords.
It can be pretty tricky to recruit Astria safely with all those Shooters around. One of the easiest ways to do so is to sit back and let him lead the charge, since he has 7 Movement while the Shooters each have only 4. (Forget that, the back row never even moves, so splitting the middle group up is trivial.)
Navarre and Rena move down to help out the middle group.
Some of the Shooters advance, though most of the middle group hangs back.
Turn 2:
Shooters are a lot like Armor Knights and Generals, except they can't hit back from melee range. That makes magic (and Thunder Swords) really the easiest way to deal with them. Unfortunately it makes bow-users even more useless than normal on this map.
Of course Navarre throws conventional strategy out the window and murders the nearest Shooter with just an Iron Sword.
Sheeda gets a timely critical to take out the other Shooter.
No Armors on this map, so Julian just pulls out a Kill Sword for himself. He also takes out the Partia, ie: the one thing in the game that can make a bow user good, at least temporarily.
Linda calls up a volcano under the feet of one Shooter and gets a pretty good first level out of it.
Hardin breaks out a Kill Sword to take out the other Shooter for a meh level. Four Shooters down, twelve to go.
Roger and Jake, meanwhile, prepare to use their high Defenses to act as bait on the lower path.
Roger dodges and counters with the Thunder Sword for 14 damage. Jake and the other Shooter trade blows for 3 damage each.
Turn 3:
I actually accidentally left Sheeda in range of Astria and his Silver Sword, but I guess he's not interested in attacking anyone (fortunately). The closest Shooter has a Thunder Catapult which isn't much of a threat to anyone but Jake, so the army just leaves him be. Navarre takes out another Shooter, and Sheeda attacks one but doesn't critical so he stays alive. Meanwhile Midia finally reaches Astria:
Midia! So you were safe. I wanted to see you.
You weren't informed? The Aritian army liberated Pales. Every hostage survived. Right now, I fight for them, so you don't have to work with the enemy. That's good. Now I can fight against Durhua. Yes, we'll stay together. I won't leave you ever again.You'll stay together on the bench, am I right?
Midia....You've become so.... Huh? What? Haha...You've become....so womanly.Right then. Anyway, we now have another Hero on the team:
Astria has comparable growths to Navarre, but suffers from the same problem as most pre-promotes - his base stats are just much lower than a unit grown from scratch. Navarre puts him to shame, really. Astria's biggest benefit is the weapons he comes with - a Silver Sword and a Dragon Killer.
Meanwhile, Marth also visits the village:
I escaped from the fighting and hid here. I'm willing to fight for you. With this Thunder Catapult, I'll fight!Right, so we recruit another Shooter:
Beck has higher Power and Skill than Jake, but lower growths in everything but Speed. Since Catapults are so heavy, Beck will never really be able to take advantage of higher Speed, so there's really no point in using him. He does come with a Thunder Catapult, which would be handy against all these Shooters if we could get it to Jake at some point.
Mishelan heads back to the Storage to resupply Hardin and Marth with fun toys. He's not good enough to actually use any of them himself, of course.
Down south, Barts finishes off one injured shooter...
and Roger gets another. That frees up Jake...
to take a pot-shot at the Thief.
Meanwhile the northern group approaches the castle. Astria's hiding on the cliff in case the leftover Shooter goes after him.
Needn't have worried, since he tried for Navarre instead and missed.
The one we skipped over goes after Marth for 5 damage, and takes 14 in return from the Thunder Sword.
The Thief to the south suicides on Barts and gives up a Knight Killer. He couldn't even do 1 damage to any of the three units down there, so I'm surprised he didn't just run away.
Barts also got our most common level from the exchange.
The last Shooter to the south is at least able to do some damage, but that's about it.
Turn 4:
Gordon has just enough Power to finish off this Shooter in one hit with the Silver Bow.
Of course he misses and has to eat a counterattack, but he does finish the job on the second attack and gets a level:
One of those good-bad levels, really. Any time Gordon can get Power or Speed it's a good level for him, really.
Navarre easily finishes off the last Shooter on the middle path.
And continues his great streak of levels, capping Power 11 levels early compared to his average. He's gained 15 Power in 19 levels at a 50% growth rate.
Barts softens up the last Shooter to the south and Jake takes the kill.
Roger moves up at a swift rate, carried along by those Boots. Marth and Sheeda shuffle some inventory around, with the eventual goal being Marth getting the Silver Sword from Julian and Sheeda carrying the Thunder Catapult down to Jake.
Wolf is baiting out one of the Shooters below, ready to counter with a Silver Bow (and the extra Power he got from the Power Ring), while Astria is trying to reach Hardin to give him his swords.
It works out great since the Shooter misses and then Wolf counter-kills him.
The level is not so great - say hello to our 2nd-most-common level.
Turn 5:
Pretty quiet turn. Hardin gets re-supplied, Wolf moves up another space to bait out another couple Shooters, everyone else kind of moves up or just messes around 'cause I don't exactly need the full army here to deal with these jokers.
Sheeda does get the Thunder Catapult down to Jake, but I doubt he'll make it to the front lines in time to make use of it.
One Shooter goes after Navarre instead since I accidentally left him in range.
The other one correctly targets Wolf and does 10 damage but, again, is killed on the counter-attack.
Turn 6:
Hardin, freshly armed now with a Silver Sword, takes out this Shooter in one turn.
Navarre does the same with an Iron Sword and pulls out another critical.
Linda whips out Aura to one-shot the last non-boss Shooter with another unnecessary-but-fun critical.
Julian uses his new Kill Sword to get in on the action, too, taking out the enemy Thief and receiving another Knight Killer.
Roger moves up from halfway across the map to put the hurt on the Cleric, though he's too slow to get in a second attack. He does get his first level, though:
Pretty good start for him.
Wolf finishes off the Cleric, and we're ready to do the boss-rush next turn. But first, Roger will have to survive a hit from the Elephant Catapult:
Hey, the filler boss has a line! And he calls out his weapon name like this is Final Fantasy Tactics or something. Anyway the Elephant Catapult looks something like a cannon going off, and Roger takes 12 damage but survives just fine. (I tried to record it, but it seems to be one of those things that corrupts video exports.)
Turns 7+:
For reasons I'll explain shortly, I spend a couple turns having Hardin whittle down Gigash with everyone else watching like it's some kind of show. Also I forgot about Mishelan, who was left hanging out on the Storage all this time practicing at being a caravan or something, mostly because he's really forgettable. Eventually...
Why am I even here? I can't fight as well as any of the other Armor Knights, so they're just using me to ferry supplies around, and I can't even do that right because all my useless armor weighs me down! Even worse, everyone keeps mistaking me for my identical twin brother Tomth! Well I'll show them! I'm sure they'll miss me when I'm gone! Hey, Gigash, over here!
Did anyone see a flash of light over there just now? Oh well, must've been my imagination...
Image once again by Orange Fluffy Sheep
Right, well. Just remember you all voted for that, you're just as guilty as I am!
In the meantime, Hardin managed to do this:
Boy, that's sure a familiar level. But that means it's time for...
Hardin was above all the Paladin bases so he doesn't get any bonuses on the regular stats, but he does get an extra Movement point, always handy.
Another weird point - a Social Knight has a blue horse and armor in battle scenes, but white on the map. A Paladin has a white horse and armor in battle screens, but blue on the map.
Linda puts a wailing on Gigash, and Gordon steps in to grab the kill.
Some other clean-up stuff:
The northern house gives a tip on how to user the Thunder Catapult that Beck brought with him, though we didn't get to put it to use since we were too busy steamrolling the chapter.
Some more plot background. I'm guessing we'll see General Camus eventually.
The Armory's got the same junk as a couple chapters ago, which is why we stocked up on the good weapons last chapter.
At some point I stop messing around shuffling inventories around, and Marth finally seizes the castle:
Uh, I guess Gigash isn't as dead as most bosses are when we beat them? First one to congratulate us afterwards, anyway.
But remember, Camus's Black Knights will soon face you. Camus is the best of the Black Knights. He will destroy you all.Ok, so more like 'taunt' than 'congratulate', I guess. Anyway we've now passed the halfway point of the game, it's all downhill from here.
New Characters
Beck - ShooterBeck's kind of inferior to Jake in every way but he comes with a Thunder Catapult so he can be helpful in this chapter at least. Another curious note - he can't actually leave the area with the village, since Shooters can't cross over the cliffs surrounding it.
Growth Rates:
- HP: 10%
- Power: 20%
- Skill: 40%
- Weapon Level: 70%
- Speed: 50%
- Luck: 30%
- Defense: 0%
- Total: 220%
Astria - HeroAstria's a useful character in a vaccuum, but once you start comparing him to Heroes grown from Mercenaries (like Navarre) he really pales in comparison due to his relatively low bases.
Growth Rates:
- HP: 90%
- Power: 50%
- Skill: 40%
- Weapon Level: 40%
- Speed: 20%
- Luck: 50%
- Defense: 10%
- Total: 300%
New Weapons:
Fire Catapult - A strong and accurate Catapult, but not very durable.
- Might: 12
- Uses: 23
- Weapon Level: 5
- Hit Rate: 100%
- Crit Rate: 0%
- Weight: 10
- Special: Range of 2 tiles
Elephant Catapult - The best Catapult in the game, but it'll be awhile before we get our hands on one.
- Might: 18
- Uses: 19
- Weapon Level: 1
- Hit Rate: 90%
- Crit Rate: 0%
- Weight: 12
- Special: Range of 2 tiles
Our current roster, with the active units in bold. (Full stats in this post.) If you want to make a change, propose a recall motion and, if seconded, we'll have a recall vote and vote on a replacement. (Only applies if there is a replacement, of course.)
Lord: Marth
Pegasus Knight: Sheeda, Minerva [Dragon Knight]
Social Knight: Hardin [Paladin],
Armor Knight: Roger, Doga, Tomth,
Archer: Gordon, Thomas, George [Sniper]
Cleric: Rena,
Mercenary: Navarre [Hero], Oguma,
Fighter: Barts, Maji,
Hunter: Kashim
Pirate: Daros
Thief: Julian, Ricardo
Magician: Linda, Marich, Wendel [Priest]
Bow Knight: Wolf,
Mamkute: Banutu
Shooter: Jake, Beck
Just the basic two votes this time: 1) Choose a new sacrifice from the non-bolded units above. Mishelan came to a tragic end at the conclusion of this chapter, but next time we need someone new to take his place.
2) We can bring 14 units next map, so choose two classes to bench. Marth, Rena, and Julian will all be required, the rest are up to you.
Next time:
Marth gets a little revenge.