Part 38: Black and White

Before I start the next chapter, everybody wish Xander a happy birthday! Happy birthday Xander.




Time to go to neutral territory. I'll bet we have a nice peaceful time there!



It's Izana! He's actually a recruit in both Birthright and Conquest, but he's a weird one that only joins if you build a fairly useless building in your castle and upgrade it twice. He might be the inheritor of a divine bloodline but he's not a particularly good unit... I'll probably grab him right before endgame just to show off his stats and then never use him. He is at least more useful in Conquest where he can provide rallies no Nohrian class can.



Time for killing our allies round 2. This feels both less and more stupid than last time - Zola did impersonate the ruler of neutral territory to capture the Hoshidan royals which is a lot worse than "took a hostage", but surely having the entire Hoshidan royal family as prisoners would put us in a great position to end the war with no more bloodshed? Zola's planning on killing them but surely Xander would be able to pull rank on him and convince him just to keep them as prisoners instead. Garon would most likely want them all killed before he sits on the throne, but that would be an issue regardless of how the war was won...

That's all the plot musing I'm allowing myself. I think after this chapter the dumbest of it is over, just in time for the gameplay to become brutally oppressive instead.



I think 14 slots will be the standard for deployment now, thank god. Poor Odin keeps getting into my screenshots as the one guy who doesn't get to come. They call him Odin Dark because his little unit icon never gets selected...

...when proofreading my commentary for this chapter I discovered I had used an absolutely absurd amount of ellipsis. I don't feel like editing them out... So you'll just have to read this chapter's commentary in a voice you would use for the dialogue of a mysterious magical girl character in a JRPG... Oh well...



The objective here is to defeat 3 different bosses to save the Hoshidan royal family. They're not in any direct danger - you fail the chapter after 20 turns have passed but none of the enemies will try to attack them. Which is good, because I think you'd fail in 1 or 2 turns if the Bow Knights could take potshots at Sakura or Hinoka.



Zola's right at the top of the map with two treasure chests in the rooms either side of him. His stats aren't impressive, but he has both Vengeance and Nosferatu. Thankfully he can't activate the former while wielding the latter so he has to choose between high damage or the ability to drain HP.



The other two bosses are two generic Generals paired up with one another. One has a 1-2 range lance, the other has an axe. Both have Wary Fighter and Warding Blow, a skill that grants 20(!!!) extra resistance when initiating combat. They don't move and aren't particularly dangerous, but they will take a while to kill unless you've got armour slaying weapons.



Otherwise this chapter is a mess of Nohrian units, all in promoted classes. There's these two jerks with Freeze...



And these two Maids with Enfeeble. There is a very small window where Freeze and Enfeeble overlap which you'll want to watch out for, but otherwise they don't move and are fairly easy to avoid until you're ready to deal with them.



The left side of the map will have to deal with mostly Generals and Heroes. Corrin starts over here and this side definitely has an easier time approaching the rest of the map from both paths you can take.



This side on the other hand must deal with Sorcerers and various mounted units. They'll definitely have a harder time - generally I don't push forward from the right until the left side cleans up a little.



It's very important to check weapons here because there's a lot of effective weaponry. There's a Hammer and a Beast Killer amongst these Generals.



Even with effective weaponry, Wary Fighter makes them a pain to deal with. Rather than aggressively pushing forward, I'll bait them over. This map does have a 20 turn limit but it's not particularly harsh.



Peri will enter the Enfeeble room and bait the heroes while standing just out of range of the Sorcerers on the other side. You can either send a very strong unit in to deal with the Maids or you can slowly bust through the various units inside that will come to you if you wait outside. The latter way is easier.



This side will advance much more slowly. The one spot where Nina is standing is the only point of the map that's in range of Sorcerers and nothing else - one more step further and she'll be harassed by Heroes and Paladins that'll hit her much harder.



Peri is immediately hit with two different status effects. I didn't realise she was in range of Freeze her, but it's fine...



It's very cool that Camilla is dodging all these hits, it's making things much easier for me. Despite her high bulk, her low HP makes her somewhat fragile...



Hey, he got res! Shame it doesn't matter anymore.



My original plan for Peri was to go straight from Paladin to Wyvern Lord after grabbing Defender, but I really think she needs to dip into Dark Knight to get Heartseeker. Her accuracy is... not good, even if she has been debuffed.



Even if her other stats are good, it doesn't matter if she can't hit!



These jerks are clogging up the hallways, but Camilla dodged every attack so she and everyone else can go on the aggressive to clean them up...



All my complaining about his defense has made me forget just how blessed his strength and skill are.



The Enfeeble users won't go for Peri again since she's just been hit, so I need to leave other units in range of them to make them waste their uses. Camilla and Silas are both busy right now but Corrin can afford to eat a debuff.



Okay good it turns out this guy just had Duelist's Blow so his avoid was boosted when he attacked. Still though, Heartseeker would make this a 100% chance to hit...



Untangling this formation can be very tricky. Rushing to kill the Freeze user will get you piled on by a Bow Knight and his friends, waiting just on the edge of his range will have both groups aggro on the frozen unit. Two of the Paladins next to the Bow Knight both have effective weaponry which makes them especially scary. I think I might wait until Xander's free before I try to beat them...



Nice, the two Enfeeble Maids went for Jakob and Niles, two units who really don't care about debuffs right now. Seems odd to debuff the healer...



I really need to kill this Paladin before the right group can begin their assault. He should be lureable with my left army once all the Generals are gone...



Spears are really odd in this game. They still can't double, but they can activate crits and offensive skills... And most importantly, they can't attack at 1 range. So they're basically expensive bows. I've never considered them to be worth buying, but maybe they can be useful in certain situations...



Time to get rid of this guy. This'll bait that troublesome Paladin over to Silas too... Keaton would have been a really useful unit to have in this chapter thanks to his innate beast killing ability. Oh well.



Unfortunately everyone piling on Jakob with staves means he can't move to heal Camilla. At least the Freeze guy is dead now.



Bulk is nice, but her bad str is actually bothering me now. Not that it matters, but get strength!!!

Oh and she learned a skill that's incredibly useful when passed down to one of her kids but is otherwise very hard to make use of as a dancer. At least it makes her harder to kill?



Bloodthirst counterattacks the effects of Enfeeble when it activates, allowing Peri to double if she gets a kill. She's slowly killing her way through all these Heroes...



Sometimes the numbers don't add up and you don't get the kills you want. Silas is spending more time with Camilla than his wife...



Level 10 and Camilla's EXP gain shows no sign of slowing down. She really is very OP, I don't know who decided she should level up this fast but I am very grateful to them.



He was too distracted with dual attacks to fall for Silas's bait last turn but now this jerk can die. The Beast Killer was a really helpful investment, and in the chapter coming up it will see even more use...



I will still be luring this formation from the left rather than the right, just so I don't have to deal with the second Freeze. I wish Xander could be in two places at once, he's somewhat wasted as a support partner for Peri.



Leo makes his debut in the Enfeeble room. Even with Elise and the Horse Spirit to help him he's not doing so well...



Some much needed accuracy from Peri. If I didn't need to give them all to Elise I'd give her a Secret Book or two.



This Maid's already ran out of staff uses but she's gotta die anyway. According to Peri's supports her whole childhood was spent killing her own maids for fun, so she's had a lot of practice!



I'm stuck with Brave Sir Robin tactics to get through all the Sorcs because nobody wants to deal with them all at once. Thankfully they'll retreat back into their room rather than chasing my units down...



Felicia heals and gets... a level? I guess if she ever has to throw a knife for whatever reason...



It's been too long since we've last seen the power couple combo. There's no Wyrmslayers here so Corrin makes good reliable bait.



Hang on, the wiki lied to me! It said these reinforcements only appear if you engage the General bosses in combat... It specifies the Bow Knight's Paladin squad as only triggering them on normal mode. This is not normal mode. I swear I am not trusting the wiki again on anything. Azura's in a bit of a tight spot...



Thankfully Xander's here to save the day. He's still not where I want him, but Azura needs help now.



The other reinforcements I can pile on with my weaker units for EXP.



...Niles this stopped being cute when your levels stopped being good.



At least Nina knows how to gain stats. I completely forgot about the Underdog skill... It gives extra hit and avoid if your opponent outlevels you, so Nina might have a decent chance of activating it?



There, now this half of the map looks much easier to deal with. I just need Xander to come over here and plug that chokepoint...



Silas finally hits level 5 and gets Defender! That's +1 to all stats when paired up. Now I need to reclass him to Hero so he can get Sol...



Taking advantage of dual attacks like this is really useful, I wish I was better at setting it up on purpose. You get to use a single effective weapon multiple times per turn if you do things right.



One of these Generals had Seal Def which unfortunately is going to leave Xander slightly fragile for a few turns. It didn't matter in earlier chapters, but it does now the enemies hit a little harder...



...Camilla and Silas are pretty much going to have to rout the right side of the map by themselves at this rate. Maybe I should have deployed Xander on the right too...



Leo doesn't get speed, Corrin doesn't get speed. Yay.



She does however get the incredibly cool Draconic Hex, a -4 debuff to all stats of enemies she enters combat with. Now she has this I can start reclassing her into other classes for skills...



Camilla is now free to slowly Hammer the bosses to death. It'll take a few turns...



10 turns passed and the map is mostly routed? I think I'm on fairly good time, although I should start work on getting those chests at the top.



Silas helps out and makes the boss kill go by much faster. Wary Fighter and dual guard can make killing them take more than a few turns if you don't gang up on them, especially if you need to retreat to heal between hits...



The Hoshidans are free! Now to KILL THEM WHILE THEY'RE UNARMED



slow down jakob you're too fast



I've been threatening to do this all chapter, now I can actually do it. If Keaton were in my army I could have sent him to do it instead... He'll be frozen here for a while but he doesn't mind.



Well at least he understands his role in this army. As soon as he's married Peri I should start pairing him up with Laslow so I can make him a Hero.



This jerk is partly why I was so cautious on this side of the map. Mjonir is weak but it's a killer weapon so any crits it makes will deal 4 times the damage instead of 3. The only way to weaken him safely was to have Leo stand next to Elise to increase his bulk...



Here's the worst part of the chapter. Boss is on his throne, he's got two very powerful pairs of units, each with seal def/res to make the other pair stronger. Entering in combat against either one will trigger 4 reinforcements from the stairs which are quite hard to block safely. Beating Zola before they can move to end the chapter instantly is a viable strategy...



I'll clean up the stragglers before I deal with him. Both Nina and Ophelia are on the cusp of greatness, they just need more EXP...



Gotta get these chests too. Each one has some jerk guarding it, but they're not that tough.



Your daughter is so going to replace you.



No idea who I should give this to. Or who even got my last one...



The ol' reliable VoF Supportive combo seems like the best approach here. Silas can take out one half of the Sorc pair in one hit, and he can survive a round against the other pair easily.


Jakob can rally him to make it a bit safer...



Nobody else wants to be anywhere near the enemies so I'll have to leave the stairs unguarded. It might be a rush to end the chapter next turn...



He lives! Luckily the Hero pair attacked first, letting him build gauge to block the second attack against his sealed resistance. He would have survived regardless but this way means he takes less damage.



...yeah. I was prepared for this, but this can really be a kaizo trap if you weren't. It wouldn't be a bad idea to Freeze the two pairs or slap Zola with an Enfeeble to make things go faster, but I shouldn't need to...



Time to clean up this mess. It will take my entire army to do it, but I should have enough units...



That's all Paladins with Defender now. It occurs to me I'm eventually going to reclass every single one of them...



My magic users are all too inaccurate for my liking... At least all of these hit.



Threat contained with 3 turns to spare. Now I can grab the trasure and feed the Zola kill to whoever I want...



The risk of Zola activating Vengeance when he's got Ragnarok equipped is too high so it's better to pile on him while he's still wielding Nosferatu. Thankfully he's not very scary despite his throne or healing power.



Because the devs wanted this conflict to happen in both routes. Also we suddenly decided that kidnapping is too evil to tolerate even though Peri's murdering is perfectly fine.



splat



And that's it! For once I'm perfectly happy with how a chapter went. Got all the stuff, distributed EXP well, didn't accidentally screw up and almost get everyone killed...



Now we get to have a nice meal with the real Izana! I think each table has a Nohrian and a Hoshidan dining on either side... Apparently this is a conflict of blonds vs redheads.



I think we should have killed them when we had the chance.


Next time: Invasion... 2!