Part 42: (Chapter 11, Continued)
The true apostle would never join forces with those filthy creatures!
The enemy has sent a messenger once again. Commander, this is the third time they've asked to negotiate. Ignore the messengers! We must protect this bridge. That is the order from the Maiden of Dawn!
With little to no regard for his own survival, Oscar blindly charges ahead and starts lancing people.
Everyone else just follows along behind.
All the enemies seem to suddenly spot Marcia and decide to attack her.
We don't mind.
Oh shit guys, it's the Bl-
-oh, no, wait, it's just a guy with a Rescue staff. False alarm, false alarm. Rescue will teleport a unit from any location up to [magic stat] squares away from the user to a square next to the user. It also buffs the wielder's speed and defence, which is handy, I guess, but... the wielders generally aren't exactly combat people. In any case, this guy will gleefully waste his staff in three turns to bring mid-HP units back to the middle of the bridge so they can be healed by the guy next to him, who has a Mend staff.
There's also a guy with a Physic staff with him, so the guys up front get heals anyway.
Another day, another useless Mist level.
Rolf is bored, so he's taking Longbow potshots.
Alright, just once, here's Ragnell.
Like Alondite, it can attack at range. So that's handy.
And it is, of course, the most powerful weapon you have access to at the moment. Besides its own absurd power, it also - like Alondite - increases the wielder's defence by 5. Because, y'know, it's not high enough as it is.
STOP PRESS: Astrid Gets Defence, Other Stats Too
Fair few paladins in this mission. That means we get to bust out the Horseslayer again.
And to think, I began this mission with Marcia a ways behind in all the right hand side stats. Well, she still is - especially in speed - but only by less than one according to averages in everything else.
Staves give weapon ranks faster than any other weapon. And Soren has Discipline. So, of course, he's gaining weapon EXP like mad.
When one of your allies crosses a certain point...
No problem, Tibarn. What kind of thing? Oh, and hey, where's Reyson?
He was exhausted, but he insisted on coming with me. I had to tie him down to a bed to keep him there. Really? Nah, I'm just kidding. He passed out earlier. So I have a different anchor slowing me down this time.
("Tibarn! You're horrible! I am not an anchor!")
Leanne?
I...um, I will...fight. Yes? She's Reyson's sister, for sure. The girl is as stubborn as he is! Listen up, young lady. You herons are supposed to be more like Rafiel. Quiet and graceful and all that. Don't mind Tibarn, Leanne. We're honored to have you here.Wonderful.
Leanne is handed over to our control, but is dumped literally right in the middle of a group of enemies. Fucking hell, Tibarn.
Fortunately, I was able to move Sigrun over to the edge of her movement range, then have Leanne give her another turn to use Rescue and fly the hell away. Then Ranulf steps in for the Take/Drop routine.
Oh, and a useless level.
End of turn 2.
Tibarn, unlike Leanne, is not under our control. This is bad. We don't want him flying around out here.
Of course, it's not like the man is in any danger, for the most part. Tibarn is the latest of the units we've met who's destined to be an endgame crutch character, and he is appropriately absurdly powerful.
He comes with an assortment of absurd skills, too. There's Formshift, of course, allowing him to stay transformed indefinitely, and there's Tear, the bird tribes' shared mastery skill, which triples strength and halves enemy speed (assuming they survive, which they won't). He also has innate Pavise, a new skill which grants a [skill]% chance to negate all incoming damage from each attack. Because, y'know, Tibarn totally needs that.
No, the problem with Tibarn is twofold. First, he's going to steal all the damn experience. None of our guys can keep up with him, and he's out of our control. Second, the boss has a fair chance of one hit killing him, because Tibarn is a bird and the boss has a crossbow. Of course, Tibarn will likely dodge, but the chances are not at all guaranteed. And, naturally, it's an instant game over if he dies. We haven't had a chance to issue him with any Directions yet, but fortunately...
...he and his two generic hawk buddies fly over to rendezvous with Ike before taking on any more guys.
The enemy moves forward and some Shine Barriers go up.
A swordmaster goes for Oscar but gets hurt, so Rescue-man has to bail him out.
Our turn.
Alright, this is a pain to do, but I know you guys are never gonna let me hear the end of it if I don't show this off at least once.
Tanith goes here...
Sigrun goes here...
Marcia goes here...
What's the worst that can happen?
Did we just get a crit with a zero percent crit chance?
Yes, yes we did.
The Triangle Attack is a neat trick you can do with particular trios of units; either using any three out of Marcia, Sigrun, Tanith and Elincia, or using Oscar, Boyd and Rolf. If you use two units to surround an enemy on two sides and attack with a third from the third side, with all three units having the same manner of weapon equipped, the attacking unit gets a free crit, no questions asked. This free crit takes priority over anything that would otherwise prevent a crit - so you can crit with bronze weapons, or against enemies using the Fortune skill. Problem is, though, that setting it up requires you to use two units turns doing nothing, so...
Triangle Attacks can be quite effective if you're specifically planning your strategy and team makeup around using them. We're not planning like that, so this is just a neat little gimmick as far as this LP is concerned.
Haar picks up Tibarn and stops him from rushing into battle.
The other great thing about archsages using staves is that it allows them to gain EXP at a consistent rate regardless of level, which is nice at times when you're higher level than everyone.
Now we'll just step over h-
Fuuuuck.
Well, so much for that.
Rolf (via longbow) and Oscar take the kill instead.
Oscar will heroically hold off enemies from here. His location prevents the nearby general from getting near Sigrun.
End of turn 3. We'll be speeding up coverage from here on out.
Nothing much happens in the enemy turn anyway. You'll note that the mage to the right of this screenshot hasn't moved to attack Oscar even though he should, and in this mission, that means exactly what you think it means; there's a pitfall in the gap between the sandbags.
Marcia is holding off a horde of enemies on her own now.
Ranulf is going to take Tibarn off Haar's hands so Haar can concentrate on being Haar. Note that Ranulf will remain in "possession" of Tibarn even when he de-transforms and his Con drops back below Tibarn's weight. This is a funfact™ of how Rescue works.
We murder our way forward, and here's the aftermath of turn 4.
One of the generic hawks is still with us, faithfully taking out low defence targets like priests. The other has landed in an AI hole. His AI is set to attack the nearest target but otherwise hold position, and the battle managed to move a whole way away from him in one turn, so now he's just chilling at the starting zone. Fortunately, this mission does not have Asshole Reinforcements™, just regular reinforcements from the boss end, so we're good.
Ow. We've entered catapult range. This brilliantly placed shot injures the generic hawk for 1HP and a Daein soldier for 1HP. Great job there.
Our turn, and Marcia gets to magestomping for great profit. She's now completely caught up in all her problem areas except speed, but she's only one away from capping speed, and she has a 65% growth rate therein and four levels before promotion. I think she's gonna be alright, folks.
Here's a devious trick. We know there's a pitfall here because we inferred it earlier. A technicality of how pitfalls work means that a unit incapacitated in a pit must remain on the square in which the pit is located (because, well, duh). However, flying units do not trigger pitfalls, for what I hope are obvious reasons. Stopping a unit from walking across a pitfall while a flier is positioned there would thus mean allowing two units to occupy the same spot. This is a problem for the game.
Therefore, if a flyer is hovering above a pitfall, the game will allow ground units to safely walk across it, to avoid imploding reality or dividing by zero or some shit. Hax! 'Splotz!
One other thing; if you do get a unit stuck in a pit, you can, if you wish, "cure" them with a Restore staff and use Vigor on them, allowing them to move again.
Soren advances us to new levels of overkill by activating both Adept and Flare redundantly.
Flare is completely ridiculous.
Before you view the next screenshot, I would like you to recall that mages in the Fire Emblem universe cast spells by reading from tomes written in an ancient language while in a state of meditative concentration.
Have you recalled it yet?
...
...
...
Good.
...
Anyway, a few less batshit murders later, here we are, post-turn 5.
The generic hawk has finally met his match. Maybe if he'd been worth BEXP on survival I might have bothered to save him
More catapult ows. Most of our guys are hardy enough to only take one damage from it, but it hurts Astrid a bit more. Maybe if she had some FUCKING DEFENCE it'd be better.
Oscar took a bit of a beating, but his handy Imbue skill invalidates most of the damage when our turn rolls around. Imbue is a pretty great skill, really.
The enemy has done something completely assholish, as usual. They've placed a Shine Barrier on literally the only gap in a solid wall of sandbags and pitfalls. Well, if they're going to cheese us, we are sure as hell going to cheese them. To wit, here's Sigrun and Tanith being as useful as they're going to be in the whole game.
So long, turn 6. It was a fun turn. We killed lots of stuff.
Biiiig mistake, buddy.
You've activated my trap card, fool!
Surprise promotion!
Suddenly, additional horse bling! Also, some of it may function as armour.
Also, this. This suits us just fine. The extra speed pushes Oscar from "doubles some things" to "doubles everything", the massive boost to resistance helps his mage-killing, and the +4 to HP and magic will really add value to his Imbue skill. Oscar has one of the most dramatic shifts in quality as an immediate result of promotion of all the units in the game.
Oh, and there's this, too. Sol gives you a [skill/2]% chance to deal mega-damage and leech health from the enemy. That's pretty great! Combined with Imbue, Oscar can be a completely self sufficient chokepoint-holding machine if he wants to be - providing the skill activates every now and then, of course. Or if he just gets lucky with damage.
Related: being promoted also fully recovers your HP! So in your feeble attempt to hurt Oscar, mister silly paladin, you not only made him even stronger but also fully healed him. Capital work there.
Heather and Leanne are, of course, the ones most at risk of catapult-related injuries. Keep an eye on them, because the enemy certainly is. In fact, the enemy actually targeted Heather here, and thank god, because that would've been twenty damage right there had that thing hit Leanne.
A thing I forgot;
Haar is still Haar.
End of turn 7. Oscar is in full enemy-baiting mode.
Oww.
Less oww.
Two enemy dracoknights show up from the northeast. Incidentally, the dracoknight in the centre of the picture here has a Horseslayer.
Well, that's speed capped, but Marcia is now completely average rather than being ahead in some things. I'm happy with this, personally.
Nothing ruins the feel of a good level like it going to Mist.
More defence! More!
Heather has nothing else to do.
Shown is the attack range of the guy with the Horseslayer. Obviously we don't want Oscar anywhere near there.
End of turn 8.
A whole load of stuff comes flying at Haar, to no real effect, because Haar.
Among them, as per my genius plan, is Horseslayer-man.
Yoink!
On our next turn, Oscar immediately trades it off Haar and uses it to murder a paladin.
Soren gets a sudden burst of bravado and rushes into a crowd of enemies.
Damnit, Marcia, this is not funny. That said, she's still on par in all areas (and ahead in skill).
End of turn 9.
Man, why did I leave Soren out there on half health?
*phew*
Leanne gets hit by two catapults in a row. Oooow.
Rolf swoops in to save Soren.
Now with... additional... cape... like... thing? I dunno, really. And I guess his shorts changed colour, too. Not exactly the most dramatic model-change in the series, at any rate.
But the stats are no less welcome. Funfact; Rolf stats are pretty much on par with Ike's (but with like ten more resistance). Just thought I'd mention that.
Oh, and there's this. Of all the mastery skill "bonus" effects (i.e. stun, half speed, etc), Deadeye's is the most spectacularly unsuited as an attachment to an attack that will likely kill the enemy. Besides the fact that enemies, on the whole, won't survive a Deadeye hit, it's still a ridiculous idea. Yes, I'm going to shoot this arrow through you with so much force that you... fall into a peaceful slumber. Yep. Oh, but there's more... in good time. Oh, and there's more more which we can do right now; note the Critical +15 skill there, a nice little boost, almost on par with the trueblade.
This is a pretty great level right here. More strength for Soren!
End of turn 10. Most significant accomplishment; the murder of both catapult operators.
This guy is a crit-threat, so make sure to send someone with some defence to deal with him.
Soren has gone from E-Rank to C-Rank in one mission. Discipline is great for staff training.
GOD FUCKING DAMNIT MARCIA
YOU ARE NOT LIVING UP TO YOUR REPUTATION
Turn 11 is spent largely preparing for turn 12. Note the three reinforcements that appeared to the north.
Two of them deal a fair amount of damage to Oscar, the one pictured taking him below half health.
Nevermind, then.
We do some very careful things with Heather, Marcia and Leanne...
And, yoink! These are annoyingly difficult to find, and you can never have too many.
While Marcia carries Heather the hell outta dodge, Sigrun and Tanith grab Leanne and set her down in safety.
OK, so Deadeye isn't quite as absurd as Flare, but... well. Watch.
OK, flashy, but still normal...
If I saw someone do that, I might die in one hit too.
I think Oscar has finally gotten over his bad levels from earlier. Thank god.
End of turn 12. Just a few more...
...?
...is something... not quite right with this screenshot?
No, silly me, there's nothing wrong at all! What, did you forget that Marksmen have arbitrarily increased range with bows? That's right, all the range of a longbow with none of the accuracy trouble. In fact, because certain bows (like the Silencer and forges) are so accurate, even with the arbitrary long range penalty there's still very little drawback to attacking at long range! I love Marksmen. The only real shame is that the boost only applies to regular bows - no, you can't attack at 4 squares range using a longbow. Aww.
This is actually, no bullshit, about the most useful level a heron can get. The extra magic helps their Blessing skill be less useless (especially when transformed - although it still doesn't work that well because herons' whole thing is moving next to people and having those people immediately move away, but still). The extra speed will be very nice to have if you fuck up and get them attacked - it combines with herons' exceptional luck to produce a fairly useful avoid rate.
End of turn 13.
Well, it's a shame we can't kill him this t-
Nevermind.
This is what happens to people stupid enough to bring Marcia anywhere near the boss. Needless to say, the combat forecast in this screenshot does not come to fruition.
Heather gets one last round of pinching.
End of turn 14. Astrid and Oscar just kinda picked away at the boss there. Next turn we finish him.
Heather gets hurt, but she'll live.
It figures that the one time Rolf can really make a difference by getting a crit, he doesn't.
Instead, here's Astrid with what I do believe is her third consecutive boss kill (of missions she's been present for).
Astrid, you are forgiven for everything.
But please get some speed soon, please
My death means nothing... The Maiden of Dawn...will bring victory...to Daein.The boss has battle quotes like everyone else, but this right here is basically the only point he ever really makes. All the other quotes are just this again, only with him not about to die.
Hell yeah. Well, we still won't really have much use for this - there are pretty much only two points in the game where crossbows can seriously wreck shit, and this won't help the first, and by the second, we'll have better crossbows. I think I might sell this. Or just use it for magekilling.
Guess who's done with this map? Did you guess "me"?
The Daein army is much stronger than it was three years ago.
Yes, by far. Even after the situation turned against them, every soldier fought with valor. Quite impressive.
They kept muttering about the power of their general, this "Maiden of Dawn." The soldiers seem obsessed with her. This might sound strange, but think of it like this: they believe in her as much as you Holy Knights believe in the apostle. Hmph, I understand. They are formidable and deluded, then. I shall use caution.---
All right, then.. Order a retreat.
Inspector... With all due respect, Daein soldiers will also die if we destroy the bridge now.
Those are called acceptable losses, my dear, and any losses suffered by your men are acceptable if it means stopping that army! As a representative of the senate, I will not allow you to retreat! Fight to the last man! Inspector. While I respect your opinion... The final decision is up to me, as commander in chief of this army. Sothe, order the retreat. Get those men out of there before they're routed. Insolent little brat! How dare you disobey my orders!
We could always leave you here while the rest of us retreat, Inspector. How's that sound? Y-you... I will report this incident to both your king and the senate! Start thinking of an excuse now, whelps!
Well, I'll go order the retreat.
Chirp!
Don't move. I'll be right back! Chirp!
I was doing so well...for a while... I feel like... fog is clouding my mind... Am I...losing my powers? Chirp! Funny... I always wished that I didn't have this farsight... It often feels like such a burden... But this clouded vision seems so strange. Now, I miss the clarity... Ironic, isn't it, Yune?Not that Ike and co will mind Micaiah losing her farsight, but... what's going on here?
And is it me, or did Ike just essentially invade Daein with backing from Crimea, Gallia, Phoenecis, Serenes and half of Begnion? It seems like the only nation not at war is Goldoa...
---
...Hm?
I sensed something...strange. It just came out of the blue. It was some sort of voice...
I did not. You heard it too, Reyson?
What's going on here? What was that voice? I don't know, but it's calling for us. The voice was coming from the northeast... From the direction of Daein.
I have a bad feeling about this. Let us head for Daein. Please prepare to leave immediately. I will speak with King Caineghis and get permission to leave. I hope nothing has happened to your sister. As do I... All I know is that I must go there. That much is certain....oh, this can't possibly go wrong.
Pretty good. The full turn bonus is 3500, and ten turns the limit for the maximum, although it seems like there's a rather generous cutoff - another ten turns - before the bonus runs out completely. So that's something.
Next time: The Apostle's Army charges the Daein ranks, hoping to force them to exceed their kill quota!