Part 59: Chapter 4, Part 15: Rigel Falls

Strong and numerous armies await.



The enemy is divided into four groups, which we can use to our advantage. Our scrubs are isolated in the upper right, but we should be able to keep them out of the way.


Turn 1



Zeke's going to hold the bridge, with support from Claire. They're both at low XP so will hold out while everyone else gains levels on the other side.



Meanwhile Matilda rushes to the top of the stairs with the Angel Ring to fight off the other enemy group.



Oh and the scrubs retreat and hope no one notices them.



The enemy group holding the river retreats. A single bow knight wanders east but he won't actually be a problem.



Gold knight on gold knight action at the top of the stairs.



That's how cavalry fights each other, right? Take turns backing up a few steps and charging while the opponent remains stationary?



At least she got something out of it.



More of the same from the other gold knight.



The wizard somehow lands an incredibly lucky hit against Matilda's 65 magic evasion (with her Luck set to 40 by the Angel Ring and her Speed now at 25). Seriously, look at that low hit rate - it's at 5% right there.



The bow knight isn't so lucky.



More gold knights on the bridge, but I secretly gave Zeke the Knight Killer. Unfortunately he missed one of his counterattacks.



Zeke also fights off three arrows from the bow knights, dodging one and taking 2 damage from each of the others.



All the wizards keep casting this spell every turn, so any enemy that we don't kill outright with a counterattack will be fully healed by the start of the next turn.


Turn 2



Matilda retreats to be patched up by Silk, as pictured. Then Zeke and Claire team up to take out the lead gold knight on the bridge.



I overreact a bit and send Dyute up to wipe out the wizard. Force is holding the chokepoint with the Angel Ring this time.



And the scrubs keep retreating. That's the last you'll see of them this battle.



The bow knight parks on a tree, where he'll stay for the rest of the map.



Force holds the line. He's not really there for his offense, anyway.



Not for lack of trying, though!



The gold knight goes after Claire, and actually gets in two attacks against her, but only one connects.



The three bow knights also go after Claire, and she doesn't manage to dodge any of them. Seriously, what kind of pegasus/falcon knight are you?



Zeke takes a shot from the death laser. At least this hit was just losing a coin flip.


Turn 3



Python can't do much damage to the gold knight, but he did just pick up the Angel Ring from Force and he only needs 1 XP for a level so why not.



It pays off with a great level, more damage and more accuracy. Just needs some more Speed.



Dyute wipes out the gold knight knight and will hold off and likely counter-kill the other gold knight on the enemy phase.



Down on the bridge, Zeke uses the Knight Killer to take out his fellow gold knight.



That frees up a space for Matilda to run in and attack the death wizard, with Claire finishing it off. No lucky hit for the wizard this time, either.



We've got a line forming on the stairs. Still holding back to try and control the XP gain though.



Apparently the boss witch can summon more witches. Fantastic. That shaman can also summon gargoyles, though I haven't seen any yet.



That boss witch looks pretty nasty, and Aura can really hurt us if we let it. Fortunately she doesn't have much Speed or Defense.



Now on the enemy phase, a gold knight moves from the river to suicide on Dyute.



The bow knight tries to do the same, but Dyute misses with her second fireball.



Back down on the bridge, the three bow knights all shoot at Claire again, and all hit again. She got healed up by Teeta though so she's fine.


Turn 4



I forgot to show off the other boss earlier, so here's a peek at Magnam, power-baron. The usual magical assault will take care of him.



It's Alm's turn for some XP now. He gets 90 XP from finishing off the bow knight.



It's a good day for levels. I think Alm's new class should've been ninja.



Dyute and Python join Alm on the upper plateau, with the others following close behind.



Meanwhile, the lower battle continues with Zeke and Claire taking out a bow knight.



Matilda's got the Quick Ring right now, but it's not helping her damage at all.



Claire is so high maintenance.



Oh good, more witches. At least it's only two each time so far.



Four gargoyles join the party, too.



If you're wondering, we can actually get this spell for ourselves. Teeta just needs a couple of levels. I should probably prioritize that.



One of the witches teleports out to attack Alm. Now, Alm gained a bow upon promotion. However his counterattack rules are a little strange. Alm can only counterattack with the last weapon he used - in this case, he attacked the bow knight with the sword at the start of the turn, so he can't use the bow to counterattack the witch here. Not sure if that's intentional or an NES programming limitation, but it hurts us here either way.



The two remaining bow knights by the bridge shoot at Claire again. She actually dodges one this time.


Turn 5



Zeke is close to gaining a level, so he stays put to block the bridge and gives the Knight Killer to Matilda so she can get in some extra damage. The move immediately pays off, with Matilda finishing up with a kill on her second attack.



Claire moves over to the bridge since she's more of a magnet than a finisher at this point. Her presence will keep the last bow knight close so that it can attack her again on the enemy phase.



Alm wipes out the witch with a completely unnecessary critical.



And another great level for him. He's almost at the HP cap now.



The holy bow burns the evil wizard but can't quite get the kill.



We're all up the stairs, time to fight over the river. There's no bridge on this one, though.



A bow knight moves out of the fort to shoot at Alm, but misses. On the other end of the map, the Claire-magnet is effective.



A single gargoyle is summoned. The witches decide to walk out of the fort rather than teleport. The other gargoyles do their usual flying thing.


Turn 6



Time for Alm to go on a murder spree. He switches to the bow this time and murders a wizard. Now he can counter-attack all he wants on the enemy phase.



Python finishes off the wizard from last turn. Even the Fortify spell can only heal so much, after all.



The others hang back just out of gargoyle/bow knight range.



Matilda and Claire finally finish off the last of the bridge group. Zeke's got the Quick Ring and hustles back to rejoin the main army.



The last of the wizards thinks it's a good idea to attack Alm. Sorry, that micro-hit rate isn't going to strike twice here.



Even without any special weapons, Alm's Power is impressive. Granted he's only shooting a paper wizard, but still.



Now he gets a bit more strength and more toughness to go with it.



Alm gets in another 30 damage in countering the bow knight, but the enemy has a fat stack of HP.



One of the witches teleports in and also suicides on Alm.



Imagine this happening four times, as Alm takes out all of the gargoyles single-handedly. Well that didn't actually happen - he missed a counterattack on the fourth gargoyle.



Well there was bound to be a dud eventually.


Turn 7



It's finally Ryuto's turn for some action. Alm hands off the Angel Ring, and Ryuto shoves a lightning bolt up the bow knight's posterior.



Well that level's pretty useless.



Meanwhile, Python takes out another gargoyle.



Zeke reached the plateau already. That last gargoyle can only reach either Ryuto or Force - guess which one it'll choose?



The shaman doesn't seem to have much juice this map - again only a single gargoyle is summoned.



Ryuto misses his counterattack but only takes a couple scratches from the gargoyle.



Apparently when Alm doesn't attack, that counts as switching to his sword. The witch singes him a bit and he can't counterattack.


Turn 8



The Angel spell, still effective against monsters.



We now have a healer with 20 Power.



Alm takes out the witch, sticking with the sword this time.



Ryuto and Python together cripple one of the barons, and without any more wizards providing healing, it'll stay crippled for at least another turn.



Oh, hey, it's a single new gargoyle. Again. Welcome to the party.



I'm not really sure what this witch is doing. I think she's confused because she can't walk over the river, and whatever script her teleporting is controlled by hasn't triggered yet.


Turn 9



Now that's what a one-shot kill looks like.



She's actually getting close to the stat cap for that Power of hers.



The holy bow - effective against monsters and super-accurate. Win-win.



Units that can walk on water: Gold knights, mercenaries (and their promotions), and Alm and Dyute. Silk is going to be stuck on warp duty the rest of the map.


Turn 10



The witch headed back our way after Force was warped across the river, since I guess she considered him to be a better target. Really though that just let Claire get in range to wipe her out.



And even more Power. Still oddly low on Speed though.



Alm and Dyute begin their crossing, with Alm shooting down a gargoyle along the way. Zeke actually went back to give the Angel Ring to Claire at the start of the turn. Also Silk sent Python up to join Claire, where they'll work on the bow knight who's been hiding in a tree all battle.



Force lures out the baron-boss, Magnam, for an exchange of ineffectual blows. Magnam missed, partly because Force is extra dodgy with the Quick Ring back in his hands.



Python's main job this turn was to make sure the bow knight left the tree. So, mission accomplished.


Turn 11



Python's got the Angel Ring now, and while he's not strong enough to do much with the bow knight he can pepper the shaman with arrows without worrying too much about the slime attack landing on him.



He's doing his best to work on that strength problem, too.



Afterwards, Claire flies over to take back that Angel Ring, so she can fly it over to someone else later.



Meanwhile, here's how you one-shot a boss:



I think Ragnarok speaks for itself.



Force blocks the exit to the fort but I don't want him getting in range of the crazy boss-witch. Ryuto also gets warped over, leaving just the two healers stuck behind.



Getting to the healing tile is enough of a reason for this witch to launch a lazy fireball at Claire. Also, she misses.



Force also dodges a fireball. The 40 Speed from the Quick Ring actually helps both his physical and magical evasion.



Oh, right, forgot to deal with the bow knight while I was busy getting Python a cheesy level. Well, guess who Dyute's going after next?


Turn 12



Matilda's made it all the way into the fort from back on the wrong side of the lower bridge. She celebrates by disemboweling a witch.



Python ignored the bow knight right next to him and turns another witch into a pincushion. That's also on fire.



Dyute doesn't even need her magic to do away with the bow knight.



Alm punches a hole in the last baron's armor, but it doesn't do much damage by the time it gets through that Defense.



I could send Ryuto in there, but I'm pretty sure the boss witch would Aura him into next week.



Instead I'm going to let Matilda take that hit. Or not take it, as is the case here. She may have taken the Quick Ring from Force when I put her in that spot.


Turn 13



Time for Alm to live up to his Hero class. He's got the Angel Ring so I'm not too worried.



Didn't even need to dodge. That's one way to avoid taking hits.



Alm's biggest weakness is still his Defense, but since it makes him a magnet and prime counter-killer I'm okay with that right now. He's got more than enough HP to tank a few hits, anyway.



After a couple of scratches from Matilda, Ryuto finishes off the baron with a flourish and a blade made out of wind.



I could finish off the shaman right away, or....



Some more XP pinatas. Not that gargoyles are really worth much anymore.



A couple turns later I realize that I'm glad I didn't dawdle along with the rest of the map. Just 20 turns is a pretty tight limit for a map of this size and complexity. I obviously didn't have much time for grinding here, but the results are in:



I'm not sure anyone's been in more need of Defense and actually gotten it.



Ryuto becomes marginally more useful. I wonder if he resents his ultra-powered sister at all.



Zeke gets a somewhat shitty level. Almost everyone has at least gotten HP this map though.



Finally on the 20th turn, Matilda gets the final blow in on the shaman.



And the long slog that was almost two months in the making is finally complete.



Back on the world map, the dragon zombies continue to pop in every turn. But I think we can outrun them to the end of the chapter at least. If you were wondering, there are now 13 of them in the group, so I'm glad I'm not still stuck there.


Next time:



Alm takes Rigel Fort, the last obstacle before King Rudolf himself.