Part 32: (Part Three, Chapter 4) In which our choice of General finally bites us in the ass
Emboldened by their success, they move east with amazing speed and capture the northern stronghold, Castle Seliora.
Begnion has now lost a valuable defensive line in the Ribahn River, and the Central Army has been forced to retreat east, taking refuge in Castle Gaddos.
...while the Begnion nobles smolder with resentment at their defeat.
The Laguz Alliance is inching closer after successfully crossing the river. It would be unwise to attack them head-on at this time.
At this time? That is for me to decide! You are a fool, Zelgius! The senate wants all sub-humans roaming our lands to be exterminated at once! I forbid you to retreat from now on! Am I understood, Zelgius?
I understand, my lord. I will do my best to end this fighting as soon as possible.
But, General Zelgius!---
Don't make me repeat myself. We soldiers are in no position to question the orders of our superiors. But I thought... No, I was certain that you would steer the military in the right direction.
Poor Levail.
---
Ah, here comes the great strategist! Don't be so shy. Come sit next to me.
Not if you begged me, Skrimir.
You still don't trust me? Then I will take the first step. I admit that we won the last battle thanks to your cleverness. I underestimated the wisdom of the beorc. As a general of Gallia, you have my thanks. ...You're welcome. What do we do next? We hit Begnion hard in the last battle. Surely we will use this opportunity to wipe out the enemy entirely?
...Soren?
What?! You'd give up our best opportunity to crush Begnion for some peace treaty?! For once, please try to think for a moment, Skrimir. Yes, we crossed the river, but we haven't so much as touched the Central Army. Not one scratch. Consequently, Begnion still has the advantage. It would be foolish to press the attack.Oh.
I must ask you to think harder! A peace treaty? Now? My soldiers will never accept this! We need another way!
What do you think, Ranulf? Do you feel the same way?
Well... It's not so much how I feel, but how we laguz are as a species. Once the fighting begins, laguz can't see anything except the enemy in front of them. In a long fight like this, it's even harder to keep ourselves in check.
If we were to stop fighting now, I'd have to go around knocking every one of my men unconscious.He'd do it, too.
But rushing headlong into the enemy and getting killed is not an option. Soren, can you think of something? ...Maybe it's too much to ask. No, I can do it... ...Just let me think.
Alright! A plan! What do we do, Soren?
...
...Soren?
...
FUCK YOU, SOREN.
Well, let's view the one conversation here.
Aimee has a new victim.
Hey, I'm a busy guy. But I'm glad to hear it, I guess.
Don't be so cold! You could do this for me anytime, if you want. You know I'll pay good money...................
No thanks. It's more trouble than it's worth. I'll make it worth your time. How about it, baby? You could leave your mercenary lifestyle behind, and...
Ike arrives just in time.
Hmph. I'm outta here. Hey, wait! What about what I owe you?
Shinon, what the fuck did you d-
And don't tell him anything that he doesn't need to know! ...And now he's gone. What a selfish man. Care to tell me what's going on? Ike, no! Are you feeling jealous? Don't you worry, darling. There's only room for you in my heart. Really! You're scaring me, Aimee. Oh, come on. It's just a joke! Business only, I promise. First, this is for you. A blue gem? You heard what the man said. I'm supposed to pay you instead. You're paying us? I'm very confused. I'd assumed that Shinon owed you money, or something. No, no. Nothing like that. This is what I owe him for-- Oops, he told me not to say. Aimee? I'm getting scared again. All right, fine. It's a payment for a bow. A bow? I paid a lot for a bow he made me. I'm going to offer it as a one-of-a-kind item at the shop. Right... Is that why Rolf is making bows now? He mentioned something about bows being good income in emergencies. Probably. Rolf is learning from a good teacher, but he's still no match for the master himself. Rolf is Shinon's student? Oh, dang. You think that was a secret, too?Damnit Aimee, that information was supposed to be exclusive to people who got all of Rolf and Shinon's Path of Radiance support conversations!
How should I know? Shinon wouldn't tell me that he smelled smoke if I was on fire. Well... I don't think Shinon likes people. Especially you, for some reason. I wonder why he came back to you after he left the Greil Mercenaries during the war? Shinon likes our little group. I know that much. This is probably his way of trying to help us be less broke. You think so? Why wouldn't he just come out and say so? He's so strange like that. I'll keep this conversation a secret. I don't want to risk losing Shinon by putting him on the defensive about all this. Right. It's a secret between you and me, Ike![Received a Blue Gem!]
Nice. But that's not the only benefit to watching this conversation...
That Blue Gem, plus the White Gem we pilfered from the Senator last mission makes a nice tidy profit for Ike. More importantly...
Look at this goddamn bow. Just look at it. The first time I played through this game I didn't do anything clever like loading down Ilyana with stuff, or stealing from the Senators, and I bought a load of stuff from the shops when I got the Silver Card, and when this came up I had no damn money and I was like
. Not this time, though. This is going to turn Rolf into... well, a slightly more effective killing machine.Otherwise, the Bargains aren't really much worth bothering with; you can buy a second Florete if you've somehow managed to involve Mist in so much combat that she needs a spare. I guess it's a pretty good weapon (it does, after all, have ludicrous Mt) but Mist is just too weak to be seeing combat and she's been completely strength-screwed to boot. So no dice. Beyond that, there are two helpings of Olivi Grass... but, spoiler alert, we're going to get one for free anyway.
Know what'll help Rolf with his relatively low defence? Being attacked less.
Nephenee gets her regular injection of BEXP.
Heather is on the brink of levelling up, so for the sake of her training to meet her destiny, we put Blossom on her. We really want her to grow in strength, and Blossom will pump her strength growth from 20% to 36% - that's almost reasonable! It'll do wonders for her other stats too, no doubt.
Supports are strengthened...
Created...
And reassigned.
...y'know, in Fire Emblem 7, a Wind Pair would eventually give bonuses of Atk +3, Hit +15, Crit +15 (!), and Dodge +15. Here, it will only lead to Hit +15 and Avoid +15.
If ever there were any doubts about who's carrying this team, let them be hereby put to rest.
Well, that's it for the Base. Let's move out.
Good. Our unit will hit them from the north, Ike from the south, and Skrimir from the west. I'm impressed. If everything goes according to plan, Soren will have delivered another easy victory.Gah! Have you learned nothing? Don't say stuff like th-
Ranulf!
What?! I told him to keep his men under control at all costs!
Apparently, an enemy commander challenged General Skrimir to a duel. He accepted, of course.It always was a question of when that moron would finally fuck us all over.
Oh, fuck.
That must be Zelgius. No, no, no! Skrimir can't win. He'll get slaughtered! Send a message to Tibarn and Ike. Tell them I'm going to save Skrimir. We can't let him do this!
General Zelgius seems to be in command. Uh oh. That's not good. If Skrimir's force collapses, we'll get penned in by Begnion. We must change our strategy. Ike, let's help with the rescue. You can't take everyone, though. Assemble a strike force to accompany you. Got it. Titania, let Tibarn know what's going on.
We have to get up there. The two of us might be able to save him from Zelgius. Kysha, can you carve us a path to the top? Certainly, Captain. I'd be happy to. We'll neutralize anyone in your way. You can count on me, sir.(Funfact™: No we can't.)
All right. Let's clear this pass. Time is a factor here, everyone, so let's make this quick!
So this is Kysha. He's at least a bit better than Lyre, what with the whole "being a tiger" thing. He has pretty-okay-for-a-laguz-really growths but is, as ever, held back by their characteristic slow EXP gain and high chance of being RNG-screwed. And, no, being "better than Lyre" doesn't really count for much.
He does bring us the Quickclaw skill, however. This is another one of those laguz "counter" skills - it has a [speed stat]% of dealing [strength stat] damage to any enemy that attacks the bearer indirectly. When you consider that it's a flat amount of damage, this skill actually starts to sound quite useful, but it's difficult to plan around. Could be nice to have though.
Here's Ranulf. Ranulf is pretty good! He, too, has quite acceptable growths, and his bases aren't very far off his caps either, so he has a good chance of reaching some of them. He's actually a tad overpowered for the time being, and, actually, if the RNG isn't kind to him, he can get left behind in later levels. But, on the whole, he tends to turn out quite usable, and he's quite survivable for a cat. Ranulf has no innate skills. He does, however, come with a Satori Sign in his inventory. What's a Satori Sign? ...tell you later.
Haha, no.
Our team will be the same as for the last chapter, plus Ranulf.
Here's the top half of the battlefield. Most of the enemies are concentrated up here, and it's a literal uphill struggle against numbers, ledges and ballistae to get to the boss.
Of course, we still have to get past all the enemies near us first.
We are provided with five Gallian generics for this mission (and they are, of course, entirely outside our command, despite us having Ranulf taking orders directly from Ike) - three tigers, two cats. They will mostly be charging blindly towards the enemy and we will probably not be able to stop them all from dying. This is a shame, since they're worth Bonus EXP.
The boss here is quite dangerous. He's rather well armoured, has a Killing Edge, and can also attack at range to boot. The trick with him is to attack at range, of course - and then rush him when he switches to his Storm Sword. Assuming he survives that long.
Our objective is to have Ike and Ranulf arrive at the two squares currently occupied by the boss and his favourite minion. The mission ends once both Ike and Ranulf are standing on one of these squares.
Let's fight!
As ever, the battle begins with Rolf. He gets to play with his new toy. Heather finishes off the weakened enemy.
That Blossom skill immediately pays off. Heather gains a valuable point of strength - enough that having her fulfil her destiny will require much less material expenditure. She also gets a bunch of other stat-ups. The thing with Blossom is that it's a pain to use it to grind levels - it's best employed when there's a unit on the verge of levelling up while you're in the base to whom you'd be happy giving one really good level each chapter. It's a good way to slowly but reliably train for endgame. A common and effective trick is to give Blossom to someone and use BEXP to bring them to 99 EXP before each fight.
Ranulf starts with a maxed transform gauge, which is pretty useful.
He goes to town on an enemy weakened by Mia.
Haar is even more invaluable in this fight than he is in most. All these ledges are trivial to him. They'd be nearly impossible to attack up with ground units, and the only way to get up there is through the enemies - who won't move. So instead we just have Haar fly up and clear them out.
The combined efforts of Nephenee and Oscar deal with the lone enemy on the ground level.
This is how we end the first turn. What we want is for the enemies on the eastern ledge to either attack Haar or to jump down and attack Nephenee or Oscar. We can't prevent the Gallians from charging into combat but they're not completely helpless - they should survive for a while.
Of course, the enemy isn't going to make it easy for them. Straight away they are targeted by Ballistae.
Our plan is working.
Haar doesn't kill this guy, but there's a tiger right behind him, and failing that, Haar can just kill him on our turn.
The Gallians on the hill come under fire but they hold out.
On their own turn, the Gallians
Some of them are smart and run away to heal.
Our turn. Ranulf bounds up the hill to help his fellow beasts. The surviving guy will either run away or die no matter who he attacks. The point is, we prevent that cat there from being about to die. Never let it be said we don't look out for our friends.
Soren gets a thoroughly mediocre level out of this turn, though at least he got a point in magic.
Normally, we'd be hesitant to send Haar over here because of that thunder mage. The Immunity skill is truly a godsend.
Everyone moves up and we end turn 2.
Survival instincts this guy has not. He dies.
Begnion keeps up the offensive on this one cat over here.
A ballista nearly does for the cat Ranulf so heroically defended last turn.
And the enemy generally wakes up and starts moving towards us.
Now it's Gallia's turn.
He can keep this up all day if he has to.
Over on the ledge, an enemy archer is helpfully weakened for us.
We let Mist poke at him.
Even her combat animations make her look like she's doing more frolicking than fighting.
And her levels continue to be schizophrenic as fuck.
This is the problem, really, with Mist. She's pitched as being able to be either a fighter or a healer, but her growths in both strength and magic are too low to guarantee that she'll be much good at either. In this playthrough, she's at least gotten some magic levels but I don't believe she's had a single point in strength so far. Her growths overall are more suggestive of a pegasus knight (though without the mobility or the range). She is, as a result, quite frustrating to use - though she does at least have more speed than Rhys did.
Anyway, here's a real fighter to take the kill.
Haar continues the fine tradition of crit-cancelling mages he was going to kill in one turn anyway.
Oscar gives Ike a lift to the top of the hill.
Mia attempts to invoke some of her skills against this soldier, but she sadly fails, and takes a hit while doing so.
Ranulf's big drawback, really, is his vulnerability to fire magic. Fortunately, he's quite able to shred this mage to pieces before he gets a chance to do any damage.
We end turn. Note Haar's position; he's going to try and draw some attention away from the beasts near him.
The enemy obliges.
The guy Mia failed to kill is happy to correct her mistake for her.
Very nice, very nice. Mia's well on the way to being the murder-machine she's renowned for being.
Meanwhile, Haar is content to do away with all that finesse rubbish and go for just the bare necessities.
Gatrie is now close enough to provoke the ballista into attacking him. For 1 damage. I love Gatrie.
Another soldier suicides on a tiger. Sure, not complaining.
On their own turn, the Gallians keep up the murder.
Time to pave the way for some progress. Haar effortlessly swats this mage aside...
...and stands in the gap while the rest of Ike's forces mass below the ledge.
Ranulf is out of juice and reverts to human form, but he's got Olivi Grass to speed his return up.
Both enemy ballistae are now attacking this poor cat. I fear he may not survive.
We were unable to get this tiger away from the ledge, and he is summarily hit by magic. He'll survive, though.
For all the fuss I made about them being suicidal, we have to give this cat credit; he dug the fuck in against four turns of ballista harassment and even some enemy attacks. You did your country proud, little cat.
Some people try to threaten Haar. Like this guy. He hits Haar for some damage. Haar responds by hitting him back for half his health. Twice.
Meanwhile, the Gallians are beginning to run out of transform juice. You may notice that this will not stop them from forging ahead.
Case in point - this tiger over here (who has 3 TP left, by the way) could well get himself slaughtered by the general and two fire mages up there if we don't somehow stop him.
Even now, the Gallians are getting in our way.
Rolf, absurd, etc.
With a bit of ranged assistance from Heather, Mia dispatches the pesky ballistaer...
...in the traditional spectacularly overkill fashion we're used to seeing.
The remaining guy on this ledge is dispatched by Ike and his ridiculous crit animation.
Now, will that tiger get himself killed?
Bad start. He takes a Javelin from above, and un-transforms to boot.
Then he takes a ballista bolt to the face.
Fortunetely, he has the good sense to run the hell away on his turn.
Ranulf is back, and gets to softening up enemies for Mia.
Ike needs no such assistance, however.
Ike and Rolf park themselves below the ledge. It's possible that, if someone chooses to attack Rolf (they may not due to shade) that he can use his ridiculously accurate forge bow to retaliate, even up a ledge.
Haar, now healed, rushes forward to see if he can't stop the stupid beasts from charging up this ledge by getting there first.
Between Haar and Oscar, the beasts won't be able to reach the ledge, and thus won't be destroyed by the fire mages up there.
The ballista and the first fire mage immediately round on Haar.
A second also brings Haar to much less HP than he's comfortable with having. Fortunately, that's all for now. The beasts run around doing nothing, which suits me fine.
Two enemy dracoknights appear as reinforcements.
The enemies were fool enough to leave a gap open atop the ledge. So Rolf charges through and begins the slaughter.
Funfact™: Rolf has dodged every attack thrown at him this mission.
Ike, too, makes with the murder.
Mia still has her Wyrmslayer, and it is put to good use against the reinforcements.
We once again put Heather's throwing knives to use so we can soften up this guy for Ranulf.
Haar has had to run away to be healed, so it's possible that we might lose another Gallian if the enemies decide to be clever or if the beasts decide to be suicidal.
Gatrie's Provoke skill remains invaluable.
Ow. Fortunately, there's nothing else other enemies can do besides attack Oscar. So we should be good.
The other dracoknight is distracted too.
Mia is challenged to a Wyrmslayer fight. Such a waste of good weaponry...
She wins.
Time to clean up the top level.
Rolf. Still untouchable.
Gatrie gets a very general-like level-up from killing the last dracoknight.
The Ranulf-Mia combo strikes again, and Mia comes a bit closer to brokenness. She's now capped Speed and HP, for those keeping score.
Now healed, Haar is able to go back to his favourite pastime of mage-slaughter.
He is ably assisted by Nephenee.
End of the eighth turn. We're making very good time. Both the enemy and the Gallians spend their turn doing nothing.
On the start of the ninth turn, Heather goes scavenging.
She strikes gold. Yes, there just so happens to be a spare one of these "unique" weapons lying in the dirt under a ballista. Right. If you know this is here, you can be a lot more liberal with Ike's use of this weapon in the early chapters. 50 uses is a lot for one weapon, but 100 might as well be infinite, given... well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Is Haar being able to destroy people even news anymore? I wonder sometimes.
Rolf begins the boss party.
He suuuure does.
Ike is up next. He is not at all put off by the concept of being critted by this guy.
You will not gain the peak, nor shall I yield my position. You will wait for the duel to finish. Duel?Oh come on, Ike, it's not like this wasn't all covered in the pre-battle talk. You were listening, right?
Correct. The general does not wish to be disturbed during his duel. I'm certain that it will be over very soon. You may then pass and fetch the carcass of your general.
Mia takes the honours.
In the traditional fashion.
Well, let's not waste any more time.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fucking brilliant.
God fucking dammit, Skrimir. In the end, not even Soren's brilliant plan could compete with your sheer idiocy.
(Wait... what was Soren's plan anyway?)
Stop, Ranulf! Don't get too close!
Your general has fallen to my blade in single combat! My army does not wish to continue this senseless bloodshed. Leave this place immediately! Soldiers of Begnion! I forbid you to attack the fleeing laguz soldiers! This fight is finished!
...why is it that the ones with the crudely drawn facial hair are always the assholes?
If General Skrimir is defeated, we must fight on in his name! We must get revenge! Don't be fooled by that human! Fight on, brothers!
I swear upon my life that I'll take Skrimir back with us! Fall back! A wise choice. Levail. Go back to base camp. I have business to take care of.---
True. That's exactly what the heads of the senate want. But the apostle feels differently. The apostle wishes to resolve this conflict peacefully. Begnion is not united on this idea, however. So, how about this? Arrange a peace proposal from your people. The apostle would accept it.
You missed that chance, and now look at where you are.
Fucking hell, Skrimir.
Think it over. I'll give you three days. Request a peace talk within that time. If that isn't possible, negotiations are over. I sincerely hope that won't be the case.
You mean you didn't finish him off? Why not? It does not matter who the enemy is. If there is a way to avoid taking a life, that is the path I will choose. Leave now. I swear upon my name that my men will not attack as you retreat.---
I'm sorry, Tibarn. Now that Skrimir has been incapacitated... Gallia can't go on any further. Right... That's too bad. I guess the Laguz Alliance has to take a break, then. What about you? Will Phoenicis agree to a peace talk? I haven't decided. Our force lacks numbers and supplies. We can't possibly take them on, but... I imagine that a "peace talk" would be far from pleasant. General Zelgius seems like a trustworthy beorc. I also know from the Mad King's War that even the apostle is not a bad person at heart. But in reality, the senate controls Begnion right now. They were the ones who killed our messenger. I know that General Zelgius can't disobey orders from the senate. But what about the apostle? She's Begnion's supreme leader, right? Can't we just contact her directly?
It's not just the laguz, either. Tanith said that the apostle won't even meet with the Holy Guards these days. Wait, she won't meet with Tanith? But Tanith has been at her side forever! There's something very wrong with all this...
Ain't that just the million gold question right now?
Well, we'll stick around and see what happens. The Laguz Alliance will disband temporarily. The problem is Gallia's retreat. You've got a lot of ground to cover before Begnion attacks in three days.
Friggin' sweet. The clear bonus alone is substantial, and we got the maximum turn bonus, and saved all but one of the Gallians. That's quite a haul.
Next time: A very stupid senator tries to besiege Ike.