Part 15: Chapter Three I, Bonus Update: Sonia

Bonus Update: Sonia

Yesterday, we've seen the battle against Dean and his mercenaries, so today; let's take a quick look at what would happen, if we were to fight Sonia and her witches.

South Desert
Sonia, 10 Units, 348 Power
vs.
Celica, 11 Units, 445 Power

Dean's army had 393 power, but since Sonia's army is composed of magic users, it is actually stronger than Dean's.



The map is basically reverse of Dean's map. The enemies are all witches with the Fire spell, except for Sonia.



She's got the Excalibur spell and is equipped with a Steel shield. I haven't talked about the Excalibur spell yet, since nobody in our group has it, but this is as good place as any else. It's got 5 power, 100% hit chance, and a 20% critical chance at the price of 3 HP. It is the spell of choice, when the caster is in cover or if there's a healer present.

So let's get this started.

Turn 1



I'm making a careful advance here. In hindsight, I should have let Jenny summon some Illusions, but since I'm doing this battle to show off one of Gaiden's bullshit moments, it's better that I didn't.
Turn 2


you're going to die!

Sonia does not waste any time. I like her attitude much better than Dean's and that's because she's not bluffing at all.






And this, ladies and gentleman, is why witches are bullshit. Unlimited movement range plus magic attack means that someone's going to die. Luckily, the AI is too stupid to use witches effectively. In fact, I had to reload a savestate several times, before Valbo died.



I could have killed Sonia, if I had sent Catria to attack her. But since I'm trying to play badly, I sent Catria south to attack the other witches.

Turn 3





The witches are pretty dangerous. Since they have high magic defence, Celica's spellcasters who are her main offensive force are almost useless and the physical fighters, who can overcome their bad defence, are weak against magic. You can't win against mages. Either both side do low damage or both sides do high damage; you can't be good both at attack and defence without having really good stats.

Not pictured: All other witches attacking Catria and failing miserably, since she's got the Angel Ring, which gives her 40 in Luck and therefore insane magical evade.



Palla and Catria had both scored a kill. The witch that got attacked by everyone is a good example of what I was talking about at the last screenshot. All the magic users that attacked her did only 1 point of damage or missed. Had I used the Fire spell instead of Lightning, I would have done more damage, since the witch would hurt herself in the counterattack, but better safe than sorry.

Turn 4



The enemy movement here really showcases the AI stupidity. They can teleport and it does not cost them any HP, so why do they walk to the recovery spot?



If you're asking what are Saber, Palla and Catria doing, then my answer is that I've stopped pretending that I'm playing competently.

Turn 5



I didn't mention witches can move after they teleport, did I? They can and they're stupid about it, as you can see.





I have to play badly to show what the witches can do, since the AI is using them so badly. Had they been controlled by a human player, there would be at least two casualties in the first turn alone.

Turn 6



Now I'm just stalling and trying to kill Jenny.



Poor Leo. I'm actually abusing savestates to make him miss every time he attacks. It had only came up once so far, but it's still unfair to him.

Turn 7



Okay, let's stop this farce. DEATH QUOTE MONTAGE!

Celica, I'm sorry

Jenny died


Jesse died



Abel is reference to a character in FE1,3 and 11. Canonical pairing of minor characters in Fire Emblem? Yes, it's possible.





You know, I may say that Boey sucks, but he's go a great death quote.







GAME OVER


you must do.

Try again?

Saying yes kicks us back to the beginning of chapter 2. It might actually move us to the last save, but since I use savestates, I don't really know. Saying no kicks us back to the main menu.

Well
, that's it for this bonus update which turned out to be much longer than I had expected. To put things into perspective, if I had played competently, I would have lost one or two characters, probably Valbo, since he's slow and has low magic defence and one of the mercenaries. Had the witches played competently, then, discounting the possibility of killing Celica on the first turn, I would have at least lost all my physical attackers except for Catria. That means Valbo, Saber, Kamui, Jesse, Leo and Palla.

So I guess the AI is just intentionally stupid, because if it weren't, the witches would be the most dangerous enemy in the entire game.