Part 66: Battle: Going Hardin The Paint (Part 1)

Update 37: Going Hardin The Paint (Battle 1 of 2)

Now we’re inside Archanea Palace, and we’re still in for a rough chapter. It’s not quite as obnoxious as Chapter 19, but this one is still pretty long, and there are a few spots where you can get pretty screwed if you don’t control reinforcements well. Almost everyone on this map hits really hard, so I kinda wish I had gone with General Catria again. Eh, win some, lose some.

Time for How’s Everyone to start us off, because some things never change.







holy shit what a good portrait











I have no idea who that is.





Here’s the crew for this one. Sirius out, Julian in. Otherwise normal. I hopped into the Drill Grounds to spend some cash we got in the Arena last time around.






Pretty solid stuff. Let’s start the map.




Oh hey it’s that other character from the last game. I think I’ve said some variation of this in every update so far?

: Surely you jest!! Can't you see you're destroying Archanea? You've gone mad! What have you done with Lady Nyna?! Return our queen at once!!

: Nyna? That woman betrayed me. All I wanted to do was destroy Grust. That woman had the audacity to give the emblem to that boy... And so I punished her. I will kill all who oppose me. That includes you, Midia!!

please note that somehow wolf heard this guy talk and said “yeah there’s nothing wrong with Hardin”. What I mean to say is that Wolf is fucking stupid and I hate him and his dumb guard.

: Do with my life as you will. But, Hardin... How many people do you think you've killed out of petty jealousy? Enough. Open your eyes!



“Oh shit never mind close them again.”

: Petty jealousy, you say...? Heh heh... Say what you will.




The Darksphere has turned him into a true JRPG villain.

: What worth is left in it? Perhaps it would be better if it were all destroyed. Well, Midia, watch carefully. The boy who pretends to be a prince... Watch as I snuff out his life!!

So, Midia spawns in on this map between those two Generals we saw next to Hardin in the last update. She can’t get out and she’s unarmed, so she’s pretty much fu-






Oh never mind.




Dammit Malicia.




So here’s Midia. Once you cross a certain point in this map Hardin’s goons will become hostile to her, like Est in Chapter 15. Unlike with Est, I don’t think you can save her without the Rescue staff.

Midia is...bad. She’s not Wolfguard bad, but she’s another prepromote Paladin the game just kinda tosses at you. She gets at least one chapter of forced use though, and she doesn’t get doubled by the generics, so she’s better than Vyland.

(yes the rest of the lp will be me being really salty about the Wolfguard)




Pretty much no reason to not just storm this entrance hall immediately.




I loaded Midia up with stuff, since she was next to Marth, so she might as well get some use.



Ogma here is going to demonstrate the Pure Sword for us.




This Thief runs away immediately. I like that he’s an Archanean unit, so canonically, this is one of Hardin’s men, who has been positioned just to run around in this entrance hall while those two burly dudes watch him. Truly he is the darkest of emperors.




Sorry, thief. It’s better this way.




With that level, hell yeah it is.







So before going any further, I marked the ranges of the two Swarm Bishops here. I should note that these Heroes don’t move, they’re pretty dedicated to that hallway.




Just kinda sidling along the range here…




Barst’s low Resistance makes him a desirable Swarm target.




Sheema’s starting to hit for respectable numbers with Parthia. One of these days, she will be worth it. Eventually.




Oh hey the Swordslayer gets some screentime.






Fuck Snipers.




I took two screenshots so you can appreciate how much I hate snipers. This was in no way me getting delirious from the sheer amount of FE12 I have injected over the past year.




Finally, B Rank. Steve can use Silvers now.




Mercurius dunks this man very quickly.




Julian has to awkwardly dawdle back there because I am terrified of Swarm.




See?



I have my reasons!




This guy hits hard for a General.







Casual dodge.










Barst has capped pretty much everything he’s likely to, I know, but this still makes me a little sad.







This though, this I’m fine with.







Now that all those guys are disposed of, I should probably keep Minerva from horrible bug-death.




Luke harasses this man with Javelins through a wall.




There’s a safe spot I can tuck Steve away in here.





Seems the healing turned out a little unnecessary.




I still appreciate it though, because fuck these bugs.




Get used to Fortify, because this map is about 50% Fortify.




Magic, still one of Barst’s few credible enemies.




This Sniper tried to go for Malicia. It was a poor decision.




No more magic in this mage corner!




ESPECIALLY NOT BUG MAGIC.




Are there mages in here?




Out of my way!




Finally, the Swarm Bishops are down. Two of them.




The Casual Lean makes you immune to lightning as well, little known fact.




The Wizard Slaughter is going nicely. This is a Fortify guy, but I’ve never seen him cast it. The other one always does. This is good, because:




Free fresh Fortify staff. Malicia is gonna enjoy this.




Need to patch Steve up a bit.




Oh hey, as soon as you step out of that room? Reinforcements. Meet the Paladin Patrol. Get used to them.




The sole remaining Sage futilely attempts to defy Barst.



The Sniper fares a little better against Sheema.




mo’ like fartify



And they start moving. I’m sure that’s not a surprise.




Deploy the emergency chokepoint!




Parthia might be overkill here. But my stance on Snipers has been made clear, so this was definitely not a mistake.




I can appreciate all those green numbers.




Everyone else kinda meanders around this room for the next few turns.




Except Barst, of course. He will never meander when he could be crittin’ fools. A turn after the reinforcements trigger, Hardin decides to scream across the map.




: Altea's so-called Prince of Light has certainly fallen to the gutters.




: Please, you have to snap out of it!

: Heh heh heh... Marth, sweet and naive as ever.

Get ready for a villain rant, which I have captured all in screenshots for your viewing pleasure.










(I had missed Smug Marth.)




For what it’s worth, “IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ORB!” is a pretty great line.

: Hardin... Is that really how it was...? I had no idea that... that you hated me so...

: Hmph... That's why you're still just a boy. Marth!





And Hardin opens the gates to the southwest section of the map. He’d also have his guys kill Midia here, but welp.

In Shadow Dragon this area had a miniboss in it. What’s here this time?




oh good these guys.




More Paladins. Two of them seem to have entered the map backwards. Thousands of Archanean Tax Dollars were spent on this stunt.




Also a diverse group of reinforcements, a Hero, Sniper, Warrior, and Sage, show up.




They, along with the General, also rush us.




And yes, of course one of them is a Swarm Bishop. We will never be done with Swarm.




Okay, maybe we shouldn’t be hanging out here.




FULL RETREAT.




Meanwhile, Julian has finally reached the loot.




A third pack of powerful paladins. It’s the last one. (there are no P words that mean final.)










The Paladins are starting to get pretty damn close now. Ogma’s gotta back off. It’s worth noting that, in every pack of Paladins, two have Silver Lances, two have Spears, so they can get you from a range.




Barst is indifferent about that, for now. Not even he can take too much of this.




Well, at least we’re close to the HP cap.




Steve’s also got to back up. It’s about now that I realize that I’m not going to be able to play passively against all 12 Paladins.




Time for FULL AGGRO.




Eh. Not the worst.




Swapping a Javelin out to Catria.




I can respect that.




A blank shot to show just how thoroughly owned this poor man is.




Endgame Level Ups!




FULL AGGRO is not without its costs in HP. Malicia prepares for the worst.




Alright, here we go.




A second group of the four reinforcements to the south pops in.




This guy takes advantage of me giving away Luke’s Javelin.




This guy suicides into Barst, I’ll call that a freebie.




This guy knows enough to keep his distance, though.




Alright, cutting it a little close here.




Thankfully the spearman is out of range of Barst, so Catria gets a crit in and finishes him before he can be a problem.







With some Lifesphere healing, Barst is up and ready to crit again.



...Getting there…




It’s a bit hard to see in this shot, but this was a crit.




One more down, and we’re almost finished with Paladin Power Hour. This is going to be a good place to break, because we’re about halfway done, and I want to keep this update at a decent size.

Next time, the “exciting” “conclusion”.