Part 16: Unhappy Reunion

It's time for the most infamous chapter in all of Conquest. Either it's the best chapter in the entire game and possibly the best defend chapter in the entire series, or it's a horrible nightmarish slog that can get you stuck for hours. Or maybe it's both of those things.



Some prep work must be done for this chapter. Green is the best colour in the weapon triangle for this chapter (I really hope they keep colour coding it, it's very nice and makes it more intuitive if you know that grass (green) beats water (blue), and so on).

The Steel Bow is for Niles so he can do more damage, the Iron Axe is a mystery tool that will help us later. I do already have one but Elise is using it.



Silas is a firm believer in Wyvern Rider Elise, although she's a way off of being one woman stampede yet. Seeing a port with a cracked wall makes me nostalgic for Paper Mario 2. When does Bobbery join our party, I want the treasure behind it.



Takumi is here and he is upset. Understandably so, considering the circumstances in which we left Hoshido.



Okay! Time for this absolute doozy of a chapter. There's a lot going on here, but it's hard to properly understand what needs doing until you've played it through once before.

The objective is to stop any enemy from seizing the four green tiles at the top of the map. The best way to do this is not to pile all your best units at the top and make a big wall like some defend chapters want you to do, but rather to go on the offensive early to wipe out as many enemies as you can and keep the front line as far away from the objective as possible. Trying to play this map any other way will get you overwhelmed in the last few turns when all the enemies begin to aggro and the reinforcements start pouring in in huge numbers.

Alternatively if you're a pro you can just rout the map with a load of carefully built units. It is possible to do this but I have never managed it!


There's also 4 houses that aren't in any danger, besides the danger of the map ending before we can reach them. Two of them are basically free, the other two require some aggression on your part. The hardest one to visit is also the least vital, but it's still in your best interests to grab them all.



Takumi is here too. He won't move, and you can't end the map early or stop reinforcements by defeating him, but he will activate a dragon vein on turn 6 or so which will make things harder for you. You can either ignore him the entire map or you can play super aggressively to take him out before he activates his thing. He drops an Elixir if you beat him but honestly it's not worth defeating him for that alone.

He's equipped with the enemy (or paid DLC) only skill Point Blank, allowing him to attack at 1 range so he's not a complete sitting duck. He's also got Wary Fighter to prevent you from doubling him (and the other way around but he's too slow for that anyway), as well as his own personal weapon Fujin Yumi, which hurts and gives him a not-insignificant crit rate. Unless you know what you're doing I would leave him be.



His retainers are also here, and they serve as minibosses for the map. Hinata guards the left side, Oboro guards the right (and also a village). Nither one will move until either Takumi activates his dragon vein or you enter their range, but they will move to assist enemies in dual strikes and then retreat after that if nobody else is in their range.

Hinata gets + 6 speed and + 10 def when attacking, and Oboro gets both Seal Def and Strength. They also get move + 1 thanks to Lunatic. Keep away from them unless you've got a plan to defeat them.



This little square where we start comes with 3 different siege weapons, 2 bow ones and a magic one. They can't kill units and they don't give EXP to the user, but they can weaken them and they deal damage in an area of effect around where you aimed. It might seem strange that the game gives you one Fire Orb and two Ballistae when you've got two Dark Mages and only one Outlaw, but there's a few reclasses you could have done up to this point that would let you shoot both Ballistae at once.



A good Effie could one-shot these Ninjas, as well as Silas if he's got a good weapon or pair-up. Unfortunately mine cannot do that even with a tonic, and I don't have any partners to spare for him. Considering how blessed mine was in strength I think he'd need to be able to wield a Steel Lance to do it.



All that said and done, the best way to play this chapter is to just wing it, fail horribly, and then patch up your mistakes on the second attempt. I gave Odin a defense tonic, Niles a defense and HP tonic, and Elise a skill and strength tonic. A little expensive, but they should come in handy!



Oh and this is most important of all. Trust me!



Before I begin: a lesson on overextending, and the deceitful nature of the 83% hit. Seriously never trust 83 or 87 in this game those two numbers are evil. This happened when I made an incredibly aggresive play that relied on Corrin hitting a good but not perfect hit. Moves like this aren't so bad early in the chapter, but the more painful a reset would be the less of a great idea they become! Good thing this wasn't an ironman.



First of all, Niles visits the village on the right. This is nice, but I won't be promoting anyone just yet.



Silas drops Corrin into range of these Onis. Sometimes a Corrin can double and kill these enemies with the Yato, but mine is a bit too slow for that so she has to rely on the Dragonstone and dual strikes instead.



Elise flies over the wall to defeat some Spear Fighters on enemy phase. She could do so with an Iron Axe, but taking a tonic allows her to do it with a Bronze one while still having passable accuracy.



Passable as in "82%", which when she needs to hit twice to kill is not perfect.



Here come the Sky Knights. Some of these are aggressive and will target your units, some will ignore them and head straight for the objective, although I think those ones will still attack your units if they can do so while also expending all of their movement in the direction of the objective? I think this first wave will always try to attack you if they can.



Odin finds that one good house that gives money instead of chocolate. He and Nyx will be handling the left side by themselves.



Niles softens up the approaching Archers so he can finish them off when they attack him. The enemy archers will use your Ballistae against you if they can so it's important to make sure they don't get that far.



Sometimes numbers work out in your favour by sheer coincidence. What a lovely clean kill.



Silas and Corrin really have been making a great team. If Corrin missed then Elise could fly over to mop up, but she didn't.



Careful positioning lets Azura be safe from the approaching Sky Knights. They can't double her and don't deal enough damage to kill, but I'd still prefer they attacked my stronger units who could hit them harder in retaliation.



Silas's position allows him to take out a second Ninja on enemy phase, but at the cost of eating a direct shurriken hit and a debuff. Steel Shurrikens lower strength so this does inconvenience me quite a bit,



I don't think it would be impossible for an Elise with C rank axes to one-shot these Sky Knights, so long as she had a strength boosting meal in addition to the pair-up and tonics she has now. She would probably miss them though.


...what I probably should have gone for was making her fast enough to double instead. Too late for that now!



Some reinforcements of your own will show up around turn 3. Don't listen to Beruka, she's an assassin so her moral judgements are questionable at best.



Some reinforcements and also the best unit in the entire game. They did make me cry, Camilla... They ruined my first attempt by killing Silas : (



Big sister is here to save the day! Some prepromoted units come with "flaws", for "balance". Camilla is unfamiliar with the concept. There is a lot to say about Camilla but right now what you need to know is that she flies, she one-rounds nearly every single enemy on the map, and she barely takes any damage in return. She will also earn about 1 EXP per kill but don't let that make you reluctant to use her, this map is absolutely balanced around the introduction of Camilla and you are going to have a horrible time if you don't use her.

Watch out for Archers though. They still two-shot her.



Beruka joins at the exact same time as Camilla, doing her no favours as far as first impressions go. Once she gets going she's a very distinct unit with her own niche, but right now she's effectively a Camilla with less range and much worse stats. She won't be one-rounding anything but her great mobility and flight still make her a good option for dealing with Sky Knights. Let Camilla lead the charge while Beruka mops up stray enemies and defends the point.

Selena is here too, although she's definitely the least useful of the three. Just like Beruka she can assist in mopping up stragglers, or she can be paired up with someone else who might need the extra speed. If you want then you can have her visit the rightmost house right next to her joining location to have her pick up the Master Seal, promote her with it, and then have her shoot things with a ballista or a Bronze Bow if you've got one going spare. Doing so will ruin her longterm viability but if you know she's going to end up benched or as a pair-up partner it's not a bad option.



The three of them are a bit far from the action. At least they're in position to wipe out that Sky Knight!



Camilla shows up to grab the Iron Axe and Azura dancers her to send her off on her merry way. Knowing that Camilla and her gang will show up lets you plan around her, which is part of why this map can be so much trickier on a blind playthrough.



Camilla can double Sky Knights with Iron, or one-shot them with Steel. I'm not actually sure how the maths works out here, but I always assumed the Iron option was safer. With a 1 RN system that probably wouldn't be the case, but with Conquest's 1.5 RN one then maybe...?



It sure is taking a long time for these Onis to break down this wall. Odin shall give them a slurp of encouragement.



Waiting on the ballista will make sure the Archers can't take it for themselves. It also lets Niles shoot everyone who's coming to approach him. The Archers he can counterattack, not not the Spear Fighters...



Selena makes herself useful and cleans up the targets Elise failed to hit. High accuracy trumps weapon triangle advantage in this case.



Beruka will help Niles take down the Spear Fighters once the Archers are gone.



Jakob would never miss a target with his 20 skill. It's a shame he stopped getting strength...



Silas hides behind a wall to attack so he doesn't get himself killed in the same way he did last time. Of course this time Corrin hits a 3% crit instead of missing like she did before.



oh you will, will you

Camilla gets a clean kill on Oboro when equipped with an Iron Axe. Otherwise she'd need extra support to make the double, and a unit who does not kill Oboro will find themselves saddled with -6 strength and defense. Taking out Oboro like this early in the chapter is extremely helpful, and it also means every other enemy in her posse will throw themselves against Camilla and die too. A Camilla who whiffs either of her 88% hits however is going to get saddled with -6 attack and defense, so be warned!



Tonics let Niles tank these Archers without dying. Normally I'd give him a strength tonic too, but with the Steel Bow or prior ballista damage he can still make the kill.



It is in fact possible for Camilla to be worn down by mere mortals, and some of these Onis have a 1% crit chance against her. You'd have to be unlucky for it to happen, but it can.



Now this is the true power of Odin. Takes a hit, counterattacks and restores all the damage back. Odin can tank this single tile chokepoint with ease.



This map is starting to get crowded. Can't we just do a Robin and set their boats on fire?



Beruka can take these fighters out with dual strike assistance. Niles takes the oppurunity to heal with a Vulnerary.



Camilla might be the MVP, but Azura allows her to be Camilla twice in one turn.



Silas's job is now to hide behind a wall and throw things at ninjas. It's not glamorous, but it's helpful.



Selena doesn't need this vulnerary. It was awfully kind of her to bring it with her.



> : (



Oops, there goes the wall! And there goes Silas's job.



The paired-up Sky Knights have arrived. This formation doesn't make them much more effective in combat, but it does force you to defeat two units instead of one to halt their advance.



Camilla once again demonstrates that the enemy cannot seal your stats if they are dead. The first round of Spear Fighters from the left didn't have this skill, but these ones do.



The Dual Club is a normally Hoshido-exclusive axe that reverses the weapon triangle. Useless in this chapter, but very handy otherwise. This villager portrait is cute...



All tribute has been gathered. I don't know who this will go to. + 2 defense is nice but missing this statbooster isn't the end of the world. If I had to choose I'd take the club over it.



Oh no you don't! Sending Niles up to the right means he can't shoot all the Sky Knights, but some are dumb enough to get close.



The worst thing about the sky duos is that they both lower Camilla's accuracy and become too fast to get doubled by the Iron Axe, making her prone to unlikely but still possible chapter ruining misses. Thankfully none of them are close enough to the objective for a miss to be fatal.



Wiping out this Sky Knight in addition to all those Spear Fighters on enemy phase will be worth luring Hinata over. Camilla won't be much good against him, but my other units should be able to take him out...



I don't think these ones are aggressive but Azura gets a protective wall build around her just in case.



Some of these Onis have Lunge to prevent you from cheesing this one-tile chokepoint. Thankfully it's nothing but a nuissance here.



He's not exactly threatening to Camilla but he's also not dead, which means my other units will have to deal with him.







Takumi demonstrates the immense power of dragon veins and drains the entire ocean to stop us... Or maybe he just swaps it from high tide to low tide. Either way, the map is now looking very empty, and what used to be chokepoints is now empty space for the enemies to run through unobstructed.



Dual guard means Niles can tank these Archers without dying. The ability to counterattack and build dual guard gage twice as fast makes units significantly tankier.



Not great, but being bulkier will help Odin a lot right now.



The always helpful Silas turns a gamble into much less of a risk. If I had planned this better I would be using VoF Silas to rout the map instead of just having him chuck Javelins.



It could be over if Corrin just walked those weird dragony hooves a couple of feet forward and stepped on his neck. Go on, do it! You're evil now.



Three 15s in a row. A very appealing stat spread. Oh and also a pretty great level.



Finally hit that 20% strength. Might even see a couple more of those before she promotes...



The last wave of reinforcements is here and it is a big one. This group might look far away, but with no water to block their approach they will quickly become a problem. As was pointed out earlier in the thread, a Camilla with a magic tonic and a thunder tome could one-round all of these Oni Savages even if they attacked from a distance. Unfortunately I forgot to give her one.



The appearence of this Ninja messes with my plans a little. Odin can tank these other guys, but the Ninja complicates things... He retreats just out of range of both the Ninja and an Oni with lunge who could drag him back in range.



Pairing up Beruka with Camilla is a bit of a tradeoff. An unpaired Camilla is at risk of being worn down or crit by Onis, but with the defense boost she also becomes too bulky for some of them to bother attacking. I'd rather play it safe though.



Very nice.



Niles helps weaken the oncoming invaders a little. It is in fact possible to shoot your own allies so don't do that.



Hmm, maybe Odin needed an HP tonic to make this a bit safer. He can still retreat but he is rapidly running out of retreat room.



It doesn't help that half my army is all the way down here. Maybe I overextended a little.



It's fine, this is looking more manageable. An Effie pair-up might have benefitted Odin more than a Nyx one - his bulk is a little flimsy and hitting enemies too hard with Nosferatu means there will be less HP to steal back on the second hit.



3D maps are cool and all but I didn't even notice that guy was there, hiding behind his friend and under the bridge.



Ooooh I don't like this. It kills, but there's that 1% chance of death...



It went fine, but Silas still ate a counterattack I didn't want him to.



I managed to untangle this mess, but that was scary! I think I focused so hard on pushing forward that I forgot to defend the actual objective, it was a mad dash to get my army back in time to back up Odin.



One more turn. I can win this! Don't worry about that Sky Knight, they are absolutely going to die.



If only Elise had reached this earlier! Then she could have missed all those Sky Knights with a Steel Axe instead of a Bronze one.



Last level before the end, and it's a good one. Bulk is rare for Azura and any point she gets might end up being a hit she survives on one HP.



That... was stressful. Always is!

I think I could have done this better. Corrin and Silas were two of my best units and yet they didn't do much beyond the first few turns, and Niles might have been better used in the middle where he could have shot down more Sky Knights. I don't know who would have fought all the Archers in his stead though.



I didn't! But one day I'll pull off the Takumi boss kill flex.


Next time: Hexing Rod