Part 20: Chapter Three II, Part Three: Now where were we?

Part 19: Now where were we?

Thanks for patience everyone. My exams are still not finished, in fact I have one tomorrow, so this is going to be another short update. I don't plan on abandoning this, but the update schedule may be erratic.

In the last update, we finished off General Dozer and gained a new paladin, Matilda. This time, we're doing one battle and another shrine.



There is only one overworld battle in this update, so let's get to it.



Despite being filler, this is actually a fairly challenging battle. With no cover and divided forces, it is hard to concentrate attack on one of the enemy groups, especially when they're faster than you.

Turn 1



In the west,
I've attempted to create a defensive line, so that Robin is covered by more durable units.



In the east, I have Claire acting as bait for the enemies, since she's fast enough to retreat if she's in trouble. I thought about using Silk to warp some of my units to better position, but decided against it.


Turn 2



Nothing much had happened in the east, the enemies are still out of range. In the west, there was only one cavalier close enough to attack us, but Cliff suffered negligible damage and the attacker is half dead.



It seems like a good time for counter-offensive. It turns out that the enemies are so weak they can barely scratch my units.
Three enemies down, seven remaining, including a paladin.



In the east, I'm moving Alm to assist Claire, since he should be tough enough to survive a few attacks, especially with his new Royal Sword.

Turn 3



The enemy attack was pretty unsuccessful, since they suffered much more damage than I did, even though they tried to concentrate their attacks on Luka and Matilda.



I decided to retreat, hoping that the enemy would weaken themselves some more. Matilda is the most exposed part of the group, even though she is the most wounded one, but she's the most expendable unit I have.



On the east flank, both Claire and Alm had scored a kill, but it turns out that Claire's defence sucks.



I retreat in hopes of achieving the same results as in west.

Turn 4



Luka is badly hurt from the paladin's attack and it seems that I was mistaken in thinking that the cavaliers were all level 1. The ones supporting the paladin are level 5. Luckily, the three wounded cavaliers had decided to retreat, so I'm still in a decent position.



Robin and Cliff have managed to kill the paladin, while Matilda and Cleive have weakened one of the cavalier so much that he should begin to retreat.



The situation in the east is much worse. I can expect to be swarmed in the next turn, so the best I can do is to weaken the enemy as much as possible.




And thanks to Alm scoring a critical hit on Loso, it works much better than expected.

Turn 5

I apparently misjudged the situation in the west.



The cavalier, I thought would retreat, had instead attacked Luka in a suicide charge. When the second cavalier helped as well, Luka had no chance. But it doesn't matter, since the resurrection shrine should be just around the corner.

Anyway, there is only a single enemy left alive in the west, so we're finished there.



As you can see, the enemy suffered heavy casualties in the east. They tried to attack Silk, but since she is level 20, it did not go too well. You can also see Cleive and Matilda in pursuit of the retreating enemies.

Again, this is just a clean-up, so I'm ending the battle here.

Now that we've won, it's time to take a look at the Forest Temple. Which borders more sea than forest, but whatever, we've already got a Sea Shrine.



It is a standard dungeon, like any other with random encounters. This one can be pretty nasty, as the gargoyles are pretty fast, but it is still nothing more than a speedbump.



Remember there was a woman in the last village, that told us her child was kidnapped by the gargoyles from the shrine? Well, subquest completed.



Oh, shit. Well, Luka will have to stay dead for some more time. Anyway, Claire's got two HP increases and Alm's got one. The other head offers a free level up, but since we can grind, there's no point in getting that.



And now that we've rescued the child, we can get our reward for doing so.



This is not bad at all. The Holy Lance is weaker than the steel one, but it is effective against monsters, increases accuracy and critical chance and it heals 5 HP/turn. Claire gets it since she needs the healing. Meanwhile, Cleive gets Claire's Steel Lance, since he could use the attack power.

Well, that's all. Thank you for patience and see you in about two weeks.

Next time: Finale of chapter 3 and the only character that's almost as annoying to recruit as Douglas in FE6.