Part 27: Chapter 3, Part 3: Sofia Woods

Oh, a tie. I let this poll sit for awhile hoping the tie would resolve itself, but no dice. Guess it's only fair to go back to Alm this time.



So time for a bit of a gimmick battle against several wizards.



No chokepoints, but plenty of cover. Unfortunately all of the trees only help the enemy, as they don't do anything for magic evasion.



One wizard is level 3 and will spend the entire battle hiding. The rest are all level 1. All of them only have Recover and Dora, so no surprises there.



Much like Celica's wizard battle last chapter, this battle will be of no threat to our healer. Since the wizards have high Magic Defense, Claire is really the best option. Cliff is a good option as well, but his Bolt Sword actually counts as magic damage so isn't as effective here. Cleive can dish out a lot of damage but can only take a few hits.



So of course the first time through I got too aggressive and left Cleive exposed. Anyway, here's the second attempt:


Turn 1



Claire takes the lead, as she's not hindered by the terrain, has the best defense against magic, and one of the best Power scores as well. Robin takes the Steel Lance from Cleive this time, since he has a few points more Magic Defense so is better off doing the fighting.



The lead wizard reaches Cleive, but that's the only enemy attack this turn.


Turn 2



Claire starts off with 18 damage on the lead wizard, and as a bonus dodges the counterattack.



Python finishes it off from a safe distance.



The high-Magic Defense units form a defensive line. Although I'd already forgotten that even though Gray is a mage, his Magic Defense isn't actually very good. It doesn't matter, because the three wizards in range all go after Alm for a total of 21 damage.


Turn 3



Now there's four wizards to handle, though fortunately only one (the lower right one) is actually in a forest tile.



Python starts off with another safe attack, but only lands one hit for 8 damage.



That's just awful.



Claire finishes off another wizard, leaving just three to worry about this turn.



Haven't seen many high-Power, low-Speed pegasus knights before, but I'm not going to complain about this one.



Silk got in a double-heal on Alm, so rather than over-expose myself again, I refrain from any further attacks. I set up another line that is actually somewhat useful this time - only two of the wizards got to Alm, and one of those missed.



The other one for some reason decided to attack Force from melee range. Force happily dodged the spell and dished out 12 damage in return.


Turn 4



The left-most and lower-right wizards are both in forests. Guess which ones I spend the most time targeting this turn?



Robin misses twice, Alm misses once. Total of only 8 damage done here, so I gave up and moved on to easier targets.



Claire goes after the center wizard for another 20 damage, and Gray comes through to finish it off. About the only thing that went right this turn.



The left wizard here only has 14 HP left after Force's counterattacks and its own spell fueling last turn. Only need to land a couple of attacks to finish it off.



Python misses twice, but Cliff connects twice despite a 50% hit rate to get the kill.



Force is the last unit left who has at least some Magic Defense, so he ends the turn with a couple of easy shots on this wizard.



Luka and Cleive can take two hits, if necessary, so they can finally stop hiding now that only two wizards are left in the immediate area.



Both enemy wizards move onto forests to take their shots at Alm and Robin.


Turn 5



More fun attacking wizards in the woods. Luka misses twice, Force misses once. I get an image of trying to play whack-a-mole with the wizard popping out from behind different trees each time.



I hold off on finishing that wizard until I figure out what's needed on the other one. Alm misses once but Robin is able to finally connect on his second hit (fourth attempt total) and the wizard goes down.



Claire's been reliable and effective so I give her the kill on the last of the aggressive wizards. Just the coward hiding to the northwest, now.



Shouldn't take too long to wrap this up.


Turn 6



I haven't used it much, but the Steel Bow actually gives Python up to 5 range, so he can start weakening the last wizard already. Somehow he even hits twice despite a terrible hit rate.



On the enemy phase, the wizard hops forest-to-forest but makes the mistake of attacking Cliff, who can bite back. He dodges and then lands both of his attacks, too.


Turn 7



The wizards are worth a lot of XP, and this last wizard is weak enough that Silk had a non-zero chance of finishing it off so I took the chance and it paid off.



Not too difficult a battle, as long as you're paying attention, which I wasn't the first time around.


Next time:



Alm faces a few strong Paladins guarding Grove Town, or Celica braves the unknown dangers of the Mountain Graveyard: You decide. Vote here: VOTE

As usual, up-to-date rosters are in the second post.