Part 31: Chapter 3, Part 7: Dozer's Fort

At the start of the game, Alm set out to defeat General Dozer. Now, it's finally time for that confrontation to occur.



For once, we outnumber the enemy. Also the chokepoint will be much easier to manage with only three enemy archers (none of whom have a special weapon equipped). Before we can really look around, though, Dozer accosts us:



Definitely not a Nintendo-approved translation.



Kill that girl in her cell as a warning!

A warning of what? That you're a crazy asshole who needs to be put down? Duly noted.



The girl in the cell can hold her own for awhile, taking just 2 damage at a time from the archers. She counts as an ally unit so isn't under our direct control.



Dozer is the same as when we last saw him at the end of the first chapter. Fortunately he's somehow lost his Dragon Shield somewhere along the way. Physical attacks are pretty useless against him, but magic will still be effective.



The shaman up in the corner will do nothing but summon zombies every once in awhile. So, no threat whatsoever. The archers and knights in the fort are all level 1.



Hiding in a lookout tower of sorts to the southeast is a nasty wizard. The Fortify spell casts Recover on every unit in your army, with infinite range, at a cost of 12 HP. The Slime spell is an enemy-only attack with 10 Might, at a cost of 70% Hit Rate, 6 Weight, and just 2 HP. Fortunately it only has the standard 1-2 tile range.


Turn 1



Cleive leads the charge into the fort, while Claire is flying off to confront the wizard. On the enemy phase an archer takes a shot at Matilda, and the enemy shaman conjures up four zombies.



The ally phase has Matilda taking out her frustration on an invading zombie.


Turn 2



Claire gets closer to the wizard, while Cleive prepares to take Dozer's best shot.



Dozer fires off a taunt when first entering combat.



Dozer is a baron, a promoted knight (which is itself a promoted soldier). He gets a fancy sprite and hits very hard, but fortunately isn't very fast so can't get in two attacks on our front-liners. Cleive's going to have to retreat next turn but at least he brought Dozer in separate from the rest of the enemies. The rest of the enemy phase is Matilda getting attacked by an archer and a couple zombies, with another archer scratching Cleive.



Matilda polishes off a zombie on the ally phase.


Turn 3



I realize here that Claire can't actually take more than one hit from the wizard's slime, so she's going to draw him off the recovery tile and try to dodge.



Cleive retreats, and Cliff takes a couple free shots with the Bolt Sword. No point in engaging Dozer at melee range, here. 40% of Dozer's HP is now gone.



Cliff stands toe-to-toe with Dozer on the enemy phase, though one of his lightning bolts misses. Cliff actually has enough HP to survive 2 hits from Dozer, though one of the archers would likely finish him off afterwards.



The wizard sends a ball of slime after Claire, which squeezes or suffocates her or something. Either way, it hurts.



Matilda and Ryuto take a couple more arrows from the archers, and a couple zombies also attack Matilda. Really, all of the danger here is concentrated in Dozer and his wizard.



Another zombie falls to Matilda on the ally phase.


Turn 4



Ryuto starts by targeting Dozer.



Oh, Ryuto. He single-handedly makes this battle so much easier. Excalibur on Ryuto has 17 magic attack with a 100% hit rate, easily the most reliable source of damage on Alm's team.

Grr...Mycen! Is he planning to give Sofia to Rudolf's brat?! Damn traitor!

Last words for Dozer. Rudolf hasn't been mentioned much, but he's the King of Rigel, the northern kingdom that's now invading Sofia. Not that Dozer has any ground to stand on for complaining about Mycen, seeing as how he murdered the entire royal family of Sofia and all.



With Dozer defeated, Alm and Cliff are free to take out the exposed archer.



Claire flees from the wizard, unable to take another attack. Alm is going to draw in one of the knights. Outside the fort, Silk heals up Cleive.



Not nearly as dangerous as Dozer, though Alm can't do more than 1 damage in return. Matilda is left alone for a turn, with one archer going after Alm instead and the other unable to reach her.


Turn 5



Claire gets patched up and flies off to see the wizard again.



Cliff electrifies the knight with one hit but misses the other.



Alm retreats, so that the knight will be drawn in to attack Cliff and end up exposed to both him and Ryuto.



The only upside to this action is that the wizard just took off 1/3 of his HP.



The knight, mostly healed up now, decides to undo the healing by attacking Cliff. Except Cliff somehow missed twice more.



Cliff fights off another arrow, and two more zombies are summoned.


Turn 6



Time to take a bit of a chance here, but not much of one. The wizard is no longer receiving the evasion bonus from the recovery tile, and Claire only needs to land one hit to put the wizard into retreat mode thanks to the high HP cost of Fortify.



She lands her first attack, so despite suffering another slime attack and missing her second attack, she'll be fine.



Shitty levels aside, that is.



Back in the main fort, Ryuto makes short work of the lead knight.



Thanks to a couple more misses, Cleive and Cliff combined fail to take out this zombie.



However Python finally reaches the battle thanks to his Steel Bow and the 5 range it provides. One hit is enough to get the kill here.



The enemy phase has an archer doing 1 damage to Cliff, and a zombie doing 1 damage to Cleive. Not much threat left, now.



Two more zombies were summoned inside her cell, so Matilda gets in on the action again.


Turn 7



The turn starts with another move that's probably too risky to have attempted. If Claire misses, and the wizard connects, then Claire dies. Fortunately she doesn't miss, and the wizard doesn't have enough HP left with which to counter. She then gets the kill with her second attack.



Python and Cliff hang back and take out the zombie blocking the entrance.



The second archer then falls to Cleive and Ryuto.



Silk heals up Cliff, while everyone else is lined up outside.



Cleive draws in another knight on the enemy phase, dodges the attack, then pulls out a crit for some good counter-damage.



Another crit from Cleive makes this zombie pay for attacking him.



And another zombie falls to Matilda on the ally phase.


Turn 8



There's not much left to do here, but the three remaining knights do need to be handled carefully....



Oh who am I kidding, Cliff and Ryuto are perfect counters for these guys.



Cliff's become a pretty solid unit already.



Ryuto gets patched up by Silk, then blows away the last archer with a crit.



Cleive moves up to protect Ryuto from the knight (which will move before the zombie, fortunately). The rest of Alm's army is starting to pour into the fort, now.



At least we're dodging as much as we're missing, I guess?



Yet another dead zombie, courtesy of Matilda.


Turn 9



Another easy kill for Ryuto.



I don't care, you're still awesome.



Silk only needed 1 XP for a level, and got lucky by landing both hits on the zombie to finish it off entirely.



Odd level for her. Would it kill someone to gain more than one stat at a time, though?



The last zombie out front is sitting on a recovery tile, and dodged two hits from Cliff and one each from Robin and Python.



Cleive moves up to try and finish off the zombie, but gets distracted by the door - apparently this one isn't just scenery.



Against my better judgment, I let an uncontrollable ally unit out of her cell.



Robin does his best Cleive impression, dodging the last knight on the enemy phase.



Matilda charges out of her cell to miss the last zombie twice. Maybe you'd have a better hit rate if you didn't make your horse do impossible jumps before attacking?


Turn 10



First thing first - Ryuto wipes out the final knight.



Excalibur is expensive but so very worth it. No other threats to Ryuto on the map so this healing is just for more spell fuel.



Robin actually lands both hits this time, finishing off the last zombie.



Not really the 2-stat level I was envisioning.



Just the shaman left now.



Well, until it summons another four zombies, that is.



Matilda's gone a bit insane and charges back into her cell to attack a zombie.


Turn 11



Claire finally gets to the main battle, tearing up the shaman.



Gray takes out a zombie with a critical fireball.



Python and Cliff team up to take out another.



Alm gets in 24 damage on another zombie but can't finish it off alone.



Cleive and Robin team up on the fourth zombie, but each miss once. The remaining zombies are too damaged to do anything on the enemy phase, and the shaman doesn't have any room to summon more.


Turn 12



Gray and Cleive take care of the last two zombies.



Claire ends the battle, finishing off the shaman.



Pretty good way to end things here.



Back on the world map, another enemy group assembles. Ryuto was looking for a sister being held by Tatara....



Note how the main sprite for Dozer's fort has changed to a ruin. Guess that battle was more intense than I thought. Anyway, let's check out the remains.



Again, a prisoner and a treasure. Might as well have Alm chat with the prisoner first since we know exactly who it is....



Technically we rescued you during the battle and you for some reason decided to lock yourself back in here. But whatever, come along anyway.



At the end of the first chapter, one of the castle occupants had mentioned that Dozer had stolen Sofia's treaure, the Regal Sword - originally a gift from the kingdom of Rigel to the north. Now, it's ours. The Regal Sword is pretty amazing - it has 7 Might, 100% Hit Rate, +20% Crit Rate, and weighs nothing. It also heals the wielder for 5 HP at the start of each turn. Oh, and Alm's the only one who can use it.

The sword is a royal heirloom of Rigel, only usable by Alm. Dozer as he was dying was complaining about Mycen working with the offspring of Rudolf, the king of Rigel. I'll leave connecting the dots as an exercise for the reader.

Next up for Alm:



Back in the Sofia Woods, Alm takes on a large force from Rigel.


New Characters

Matilda is another pre-promote unit. Her secondary stats are pretty good and she has a great Speed, but her Power and Defense are the same as Cleive's when he joined. Her growth rates should keep her competitive for the rest of the game, at least.

Next time:



Celica has a branch in her path, and you overwhelmingly want to attack Dean's forces so that we can later recruit Sonia. In that light:



The next update will be another desert battle for Celica, taking on Geyse's lieutenant, Dean.