Part 11: (Part One, Chapter 6) Nothing but fighting, Daein, day out

This mission is split into two parts, each technically a separate battle, but we're going to cover both of them in one two-part update because I don't like this mission very much and I just want it to be over.



Daein was defeated, however, and the dreams of its ruler, Mad King Ashnard, died with him.

Ashnard's son, Pelleas, possesses a gentle sincerity that is a bright counterpoint to his late father's violence and duplicity. Ill-suited though he seems for these troubled times, his presence is a welcome sight of Micaiah's eyes.



At his side is the only person he believes can lead his Liberation Army...the Silver-Haired Maiden.



Funfact™: There are two meanings of Standard, one being the banners used to identify houses and armies in the middle ages, and one being a baseline of quality. We won't deny that the Dawn Brigade could use some quality soldiers, but something tells me the "allies" we're going to meet later in this mission are using the first definition rather than the second.





Assembling? We were just talking around the well...



The Asshole Brigade is in full force.

---

Can I really have just seen that?



Marado's army has been ordered to deploy with us.

Understood, General. We will prepare immediately. But I need to address your soldiers' conduct--

A new war is afoot. You never answered Ashnard's call to arms in the last one. You have a reputation for ruling wisely. Don't endanger your people by hurling ugly accusations at my soldiers. I trust I needn't worry that you'll fail to answer the empire's call.

I will not lie to you. My people are proud citizens of Daein, and some agree with these so-called liberators. However, I will not lead my people into danger over ridiculous rumors of some unknown orphan prince.

I'm glad to hear it.

---

I need a volunteer. Follow that woman's every move. I trust her no farther than I can throw her.

---





"Late King Ashnard's orphan surfaces!" "Silver-Haired Maiden at Prince Pelleas's side!" Now that we have the people's attention... we snag their hearts! We'll just extol the savior, fan the rebellion, go to battle... and conquer the enemy in a blaze of glory!

Do we have sufficient forces to arouse said rebellion and achieve victory?

You let me worry about that. This highly sophisticated strategizing is beyond your young minds! Worry not, my prince. After painstaking investigation, I have determined the exact locations to target! Gather 'round, all of you! Hear my plan for our next strike.



Masterful as always, Izuka. It's good to know I can count on you.

First, we'll target Talrega. It borders the frontier, Begnion's hold is shaky...and resentment runs high.

No. Talrega is no good.

Wha-what was that!? On what grounds are my decisions being questioned by this...this child?!

The timing is wrong. Because of the rains, we won't be able to advance well, let alone fight.

It's true. I'm from Talrega, and I remember well the landslides and floods that come every spring. The mountain road leading to that particular work camp is notoriously dangerous.

"Yeah, I remember that path from that time when-"

"Shut up, Sothe!"

Wha-what?! Impossible! My... my strategy is flawless, perfect even. Hmph, I never...

Micaiah, where do you think we should attack?

...Terin... We'll have better luck in Terin.



Micaiah, you're amazing! I count my blessings to have you as vice-general. You give me hope.

Lady Micaiah, few outsiders know of the landslides in Talrega. Have you been there before?

Micaiah is a powerful seer. We in the Dawn Brigade owe our lives and our freedom to her abilities.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhggghhhk!

Goodness, Izuka, what is it?

She can foresee battle outcomes!? Magnificent! Why didn't anybody tell me of this? This only makes the maiden that much more appealing. And let us just be honest here, my foresight in decreeing her vice-general was wondrous--nay, genius!

...

Excellent. Well then, yes. All bow to the maiden's vision. Let's leave the camp and make for Terin!

…

…why are we keeping Izuka around again? He's batshit insane and his only use is strategy… a field in which he has just been made completely redundant.



Well, here we are in the base again. Note that the background changes to correspond with your location. It's just one of those neat things.

As per usual, we have some conversations to witness. First up, there's a commotion outside…

Yes, that's what I heard! What with that light...and that silver...



Hm?

Oh, it is! It is you!



You're fighting with King Ashnard's son to free Daein, aren't you? Oh, we've heard so much about you!

Oh...what a blessing! What a blessing!

We're all waiting! We're waiting for the day you free us from those filthy Begnion pigs!

Please...take...this.

It's not much, but people from all over the village pitched in.

Oh, no, I couldn't possibly...

Thank you. We appreciate your kindness.

...

We're all counting on you! Please, free us!

...

Looks like Izuka's propaganda is working fast.

Mm.

You didn't want me to take the money, did you?

It's not that. It's just... Oh, never mind.

Oh, come on. What did I do this time? You're not going to say? Great. In that case, let's get out of here and go find the others.

[Got 1000 gold!]

It's a nice gesture, but… well, we'll take what we can get. Can't help but feel slightly bad for the villagers though.

Now that you mention it, though, wasn't that the same Grandmother from Nevassa?

…nah, probably just imagining it. Finally, let's talk to Kurth.



I appreciate your concern. However, I--

You can't leave Prince Pelleas's side. Is that not so?

That's right.

Then take this, at least.

A sending stone?

Do you remember how to use one?

Of course I remember how to use one. But it's such a precious gift... Are you sure about this? Thank you, Kurth.

Kurth! Where are you?

I must go now.

Please, remain safe.

You as well.



…something is going on here.

Kurth?

Micaiah. How nice to see you.

Kurth, I'm leaving for Terin. I know this is sudden. To tell the truth, I'm surprised too.

I see. You are off to perform your first duties as a general of this "Liberation Army".

Yes.

I abhor violence. I do not think you should fight.

Kurth, I'm not fighting because I enj--

I know. I know you wish there were another way. And I understand that you feel this is what you must do to save your country.

...

Here, take this.

What is it?

May it serve to protect you. Micaiah, I must leave you now. I am going home to my own country.

What? So suddenly?

I'm sorry, Micaiah. Being so close to battle frightens me, to tell the truth. Thank you for rescuing me. And thank you for the short time we spent together. I enjoyed it immensely.

"Frightens? Have you seen your stats?"

Will I ever see you again?

Who knows? Why don't we... Yes. Let us leave it up to the goddess.

I suppose we must.

[Got a Renewal!]

Renewal is a somewhat handy skill that restores 10% of a unit's total health at the start of each turn. It's not *that* great because 10% is not *that* much, and also because it costs 15 skill points to equip, which very few of our units even have right now.



Our Records so far. The original Dawn Brigadiers have a monopoly on MVP positions - MVP is solely determined by who got the most kills during a chapter.

Let's meet our new characters.





Zihark has the potential to go far. He's a prepromoted myrmidon - now a swordmaster - but he's not that far beyond the rest of our team and despite being best treated as a prepromote while everyone catches up, once the gloves come off he will pull his weight effortlessly. Zihark's stat growths are more traditionally swordmaster-like than Edward's, having higher skill/speed growth but less strength and defense.



He also has Adept as his free skill, and oh boy, will we ever be seeing that in action soon. As a swordmaster, he also gets free Critical +10.





Tauroneo is god for the time being. He's prepromoted AND Lv 14. He won't be so invincible once the enemies start catching up, but that's not for a while. You might observe that we've pinched his Silver Lance - Silver being a yet higher tier of weaponry with more damage, more weight and less durability than Steel - because it's wasted on him, even if no one else can equip it right now.



Tauroneo has free Resolve, which we'll be taking for use on someone else. Resolve will increase a unit's speed and skill by 50% when below 50% HP, making them more accurate, crittier and dodgier.





Of the three new recruits, Jill is the one we're supposed to be using the most right now, being unpromoted and of reasonable level. She's our first mounted unit and our first flyer too, and we'll be very glad to have her around, let me tell you. I never liked Jill much - she got thoroughly RNG-screwed in my first playthrough - but we will be giving her as much of a chance as we can for the time being and there'll always be voting later. We'll see how she grows. In theory, she will turn out reasonably strong, and reasonably durable, but she tends to have serious problems with speed and resistance.



As a mounted unit, Jill forgoes the Shove skill in favour of the Canto skill, which takes up EVEN MORE skill points than Shove did. Canto allows mounted units to use any remaining Move points after performing an action such as attacking - in stark contrast to pre-Radiance Fire Emblems, in which they had a similar ability but could only use it for non-attacking actions. This makes mounted units ideal for hit-and-run attacks; darting out, attacking, then retreating behind a defensive line. Of course, we're the goddamn Dawn Brigade and we don't have a defensive line, though I guess there's Tauroneo now.

Back in the Base menu, we shuffle some skills around; we take Tauroneo's Resolve and put it on Zihark; we move Edward's Cancel onto Nolan and replace it with Ilyana's Shade. We also go shopping; we get a Steel Sword so that Zihark can stop wasting his Killing Edge, and sell a few spare things.



Aimee's Bargains. Nothing particularly new or exciting today; we buy a Mend staff so that Laura can keep healing and level faster. Maybe.

Well, that's all the Base we have time for today. Let's move out!





Have the first platoon assume their battle positions!



Kind of you to offer, Lady Fiona. But the first platoon will suffice here. This is really none of Marado's business.

I see. In that case, we'll use this opportunity to observe the empire's army at work.



We're still not required to bench anyone, though that's not going to stop us. Truth be told, if we hadn't been shunning Leonardo he would've come in kinda handy in this mission but there you go.



If there was a good reason for me forgetting to take a shot of the battlefield before starting the mission, it's probably because this mission doesn't look that interesting when it's just getting going.



Continuing my trend of forgetting small-but-important equipment issues, this time I forgot that Jill isn't strong enough to wield a Steel Axe without taking a speed penalty and isn't fast enough for this to not be a problem. So she takes a loan of Democracy, and Nolan takes her Steel Axe.



Here's why fliers are handy; they can get to these areas surrounded by cliffs over which other people can't walk. Somewhat stupidly, though, they can't hover over cliffs, even though they can fly over them.



Ah, here we go. As you can see, everyone's moved in the general direction of the enemy. Tauroneo, with his god-stats, is perfectly suited to be a giant, armoured, distraction for enemies to waste themselves on while everyone else cleans up. Sothe will help. We end the turn.

On the enemy turn, the enemy surprises no-one by going after Tauroneo. The one guy in the northeast goes after Sothe. The 1 EXP Sothe gains from being attacked causes him to level up...



…in everything except the stuff thieves are known for. Well, we won't complain.



On the second turn, the real fun begins. Several reinforcements enter through the northwest gate though they won't be going anywhere anytime soon. More importantly, two pegasus knights enter from the north and south. Pegasus knights, like dracoknights, are fliers. Their job is to fly around our defenses and make a beeline straight for Laura. Obviously we're not inclined to let this happen. Some knights and some more soldiers also enter from the northeast.

Edward backflips at the soldier who attacked Sothe, bringing him to not-much HP, and Nolan breaks his 1-use Steel Axe over what's left of the guy.



The enemies to the north have a few droppable weapons among them; one has a Hammer, the other a Steel Sword.

Micaiah weakens one of the guys near Tauroneo, and Jill moves in to finish the job.



Dracoknights look appropriately badass.



There's something else you should know about Dracoknights. It used to be the case that Pegasus Knights and Dracoknights alike shared a common, crippling weakness to bows, bows being always "effective" (ie, deadly) against them. This has been changed; though Pegasus Knights are still weak against bows, Dracoknights have had their weakness changed - to thunder magic, such as the thunder magic being carted around by all of the mages on this map. Combined with Dracoknights' terrible resistance, this makes thunder mages high priority targets if you've got a dracoknight in attendance.

So let's deal with this guy. Zihark will suffice.



I can't help but get a slight Sephiroth vibe from Zihark.



It's unlikely that we'll be seeing a non-redundant Adept during this mission, since Zihark is usually able to effortlessly dispatch guys anyway. Though on occasion we'll see him kill guys before they get a chance to miss him, which is something.



So, yeah, this guy's pretty dead.

Sothe moves back to let Edward and Nolan deal with the northern intruders, and to be healed. Everyone else stays put and we end turn.

During the enemy turn, Nolan is hit with a bow for 12 damage, Aran with a Hand Axe for 7, and Tauroneo with a lance for nothing. Oh, Tauroneo.



Oh, and another two Pegasus Knights enter from the west. Lovely.



Jill is quite well suited to taking out pegasus knights, for a few reasons. First, as a flyer, she's able to chase them anywhere they can go, so they can't run from her. Second, Jill is an axe user and pegasus knights are always lance users, so she'll get the Weapon Triangle advantage. Finally, pegasus knights tend to be relatively weak but with high speed and skill - which is being completely offset by the fact that lances are heavy and none of the pegasus knights on this map are strong enough to properly wield them - and Jill is comparatively strong and slightly slower, but still able to double them because she's not being slowed by heavy weapons.



When two flyers meet in combat, they're shown flying high above the battlefield. That's kinda neat.



At considerable risk to her own person, Ilyana weakens one of the northern soldiers. Her risk pays off and she escapes unharmed.

Micaiah again weakens one of the guys distracted by Tauroneo, and Aran finishes him off, gaining…



An Aran Level Up™.



Edward deals with the northerner Ilyana weakened.



Sothe gives Edward a gentle shove. Zihark kills an archer.



Nolan heals himself and stands next to Edward. Edward is in a good spot to tank the intruding northerners; he has the Weapon Triangle advantage on most of them, is standing in a thicket, has support from Nolan, and has high natural evasion anyway. And some of them might not even attack him due to Shade.

Tauroneo moves east and prepares to resume Operation Distraction.



End turn.



This matchup goes exactly as you might expect it to. Edward also defends against the second knight, and takes a hit from the an archer.

Meanwhile, to the east, Jill dodges a Javelin, and then I remember to my moderate horror…



…that I left Laura undefended.



This would be an Instant Reset if that were anyone other than a pegasus knight holding a lance that slows them down so much that they can't double.



PHWAHAHAHAH… oh, it's precious that they even try to counterattack with staves…

The pegasus knights to the east advance towards us, some myrmidon deals 7 damage to Jill and barely survives, and-



Oh for fuck's sake, more?

Our turn.



By virtue of having a Mend staff equipped, Laura is instantly healed to full health. So that's one less thing to worry about.

Jill summarily deals with the nearest pegasus knight.

There's still four of them left, though, and I'm starting to worry for Micaiah's safety (Laura's too, but I'd rather keep her healing). So, I'm going to direct Micaiah to the safest place on the whole map...









…Tauroneo's shoulders!

Rescuing is (I think) the last of the long-time Fire Emblem mechanics we've yet to cover. Any unit can "Rescue" any other non-mounted unit whose Wt is lower than their own Cn. While being carried, the rescued unit is protected from all damage. Rescuing a unit ends the rescuer's turn (though units with Canto can still move again), and putting them down takes another turn (and you will still have to wait for the next turn before the dropped unit can move again).

There's more, though; carrying a unit will halve your speed and skill. That means you'll find it harder to hit and dodge, and you're likely to get doubled a lot.

…or, at least, you would if you're anyone other than Tauroneo, whose stats are so high that he could still solo this entire map with Micaiah on his shoulder.

In any case, rescuing a unit isn't something you should do lightly, and is also something you should only do defensively unless you really need to transport a very slow unit over a very long distance in a slightly short time (contrast with Advance Wars, where an infantry could load itself into an APC, be moved and get dropped off all in a single turn).

Tauroneo is also standing on a Healhedge, so he's even more invincible than usual.



Ilyana comes to help out with the northerners, severely crippling the far knight. Edward and Aran move in to take out the near one, Zihark takes out the archer with, yes, a redundant Adept hit, and Nolan moves in to attack the knight Ilyana weakened.

Sothe stands just to the north of Volug, and…



…creates a not-dying zone in which Laura can survive another turn. Jill heals. We end turn.



This is the Hammer in action. It's technically an axe, which is why this guy tried to attack Aran with it. It's effective against armoured units (so useless to the enemy here) and balanced by being really, really, heavy. If you wield this and you aren't at least a Part 3 enemy, you're going to get doubled by everyone. Like Aran here.

The usual futile wave of violence against Tauroneo continues, and the two eastern pegasus knights attack Ilyana and Edward respectively, both missing and taking damage in return.



Edward also gains a pretty damn good level.

On our turn, Ilyana goes knight-weakening again, and Aran weakens one of the pegasus knights.



I decide that we can finish the rest of this level without Nolan and Zihark, so Nolan carries Zihark to help grind support points.

Edward finishes off the remaining knight and takes his Hammer, while Jill kills one of the pegasus knights.



There's healing and rearrangement, and we end turn.

Both pegasus riders from the west and the one in the east attack Sothe, none really doing much of note. It's nice when enemies accomplish nothing.

When our turn comes around, Jill immediately gets to murder and levels up.



…and suddenly all my memories come flooding back. Jill's base stats are OK enough for her to not be useless in the early game, but she needs good levels in order to remain useful, and to have a chance of ever comparing t- well, we're getting ahead of ourselves a little, but Jill really needs good levels, is the point here.



Even weighed down by Zihark, Nolan is still combat-effective. Aran and Edward take care of the remaining pegasus knight, Aran gaining a level in lances in the process. Everyone moves west, and Tauroneo puts Micaiah down behind him; the one solder there probably won't do her much harm.

On the enemy turn, said soldier harmlessly attacks Tauroneo.



ARE YOU SHITTING ME

We move Micaiah out of range of the two new pegasus knights to start healing people with Sacrifice. A level is gained;



Yep, that is certainly a level up.

We leave Tauroneo to bait the enemies, and end the turn. Sure enough, they take the bait. Once our turn rolls around again, we let them have it.

Jill dispatches one, Micaiah and Edward take the second, and Micaiah is healed by Laura, while Tauroneo stands around wondering if the enemies are really stupid enough to keep attacking him. In the confusion, Sothe finds a Coin just lying around.

As per usual, the enemies waste their turn on Tauroneo.

Know what we haven't seen in a while?



Thani, that's what.

Volug and Jill deal with the other knight, and the rest move on to the west. Laura heals Jill, and…



…gains a non-level. She at least gains a rank in staff use, so it's not a complete waste.

Tauroneo moves the meatshelding operation forward.

We witness yet another entirely uneventful enemy phase in which a thunder mage does no damage to Tauroneo. We'll need to be at least a little careful taking him out.



Sorry, did I say "careful"? I meant "completely reckless", because we're sending Jill in to risk getting almost-killed.



Hehe.

Moving, healing, etc. Home straight now.



End turn, and the enemy moves a little closer to us, breaking up their ranks and making them vulnerable. Good enemies.

Jill again takes out a thunder mage personally, and is taken down to 7 HP in doing so. Don't worry though; she makes use of Canto to retreat and is subsequently fully healed by Micaiah. Edward and Aran take out the archer who was with him. Sothe stumbles across an Arms Scroll.



One more offensive…

Guess what the enemy does during their turn?



We send them a shiny, invincible present to boost their spirits. It works, but…



…they're not done with their dick moves just yet.

Since some of the pegasus knights have Javelins, we have Jill equip her Hand Axe and sit on the Healhedge to draw them to her. They'll either go to her and die, or go to the rest of the group and die.

That myrmidon who moved toward the main group is more dangerous than he looks. Before sending Edward to deal with him, we zap him with some of Ilyana's thunder.



Here's why he's dangerous; he has a Killing Edge! Killing Edges sit just between Iron and Steel swords in terms of general stats, but stand out by way of a massively boosted crit rate. You don't want enemies to be critting in Fire Emblem, and even 3x% is too big a risk to allow this guy to get in a counterattack.

Edward takes care of him, leaving only the knights. We know what happens to Knights, don't we?



In the Enemy Phase, the remaining knight attacks Ilyana with a Wind Edge. He doesn't do any damage but does give her a level;



…and two soldiers attack Tauroneo.

Over to the pegasus knight squad. One gets crippled by Jill, one gets killed by Jill, and one flies off and attacks Edward with a Javelin instead.

Jill gains another level during all this;



Good, but not good enough. Our turn.

Jill deals with the surviving pegasus knight, Micaiah Thanis a knight, and Edward kills the last pegasus knight, gaining a level of his own;



…pretty good!

Aran weakens a soldier, Jill is healed by Laura, and we wait to see how the enemy wastes their next turn.

Surprising no one, they waste it on Tauroneo.

Jill, Nolan and Micaiah go on a murdering spree that leves no survivors except the lone priest just outside the gate. Micaiah is stronger for the experience;



The magic and resistance are nice and to be expected, though skill is kinda wasted on Micaiah since the whole thing with Light Magic is that it's easy to hit with.

Now, it's possible that I maaay have spent a few turns building up support points.



But eventually, Aran gets bored of waiting and kills the poor defenseless priest.



Always end on a laugh, I say.



…or a tear.

We fade out to a save screen, and when we fade back in…



Did you think we were done with this chapter? Of course you didn't. I mean, it's not like I opened with "this mission is split into two parts" or anyt- oh, wait...

Stay tuned for Part 2! (not to be confused with Part 2 of the game… seriously, why the hell didn't they just call them "acts" like everyone else does?)