Part 44: (Chapter 12, Continued)

First thing's first...



The generics are so not going to help us in this mission. We're perfectly capable of holding the line by ourselves, and the enemies are going to be mostly killing themselves on us. At best, the generics will only be stealing valuable experience from units that could really use some valuable experience right now. We might need to call on them once or twice, but that's it.



As usual on these maps, the first turn is spent setting up. Fiona, Nolan and Aran (accompanied by supports) have set up their little wall, and the rest are heading west. The generic archers will at least block the enemy from coming up before we're ready for them.

You might have noticed the boulders on our little perch up here. These can be dropped by any of our units (including the generics) and will roll straight down, inflicting 10 HP damage to all units in its path. They're... not exactly a decisive factor in this battle, but they might help out a bit. Of course, we won't be using them much since the AI is set to Halt.



What is happening?!

We're under attack. We will engage them now. Please stay inside the carriage, Your Majesty.

Someone, go tell General Ike!



A pegasus knight actually flies out of the battle here. I thought it was a nice touch.

Anyway, enemy phase.



Before...



...and after. Lots of guys killed themselves on Nolan and a few on Aran and Fiona.

Also...



...disappointment.



There are a few pegasus knights amongst the ground units down below. These are priority targets, because our massive terrain advantage is of absolutely no help against them, and they will fly directly for Micaiah (or Laura) if given half a chance. Micaiah is able to get the drop on this one.



That's just great.



Our defenders on the eastern slope take care of the guys near them, and gear up for the next wave. End of turn 2.



Aran's support doesn't give him excessive avoid like Fiona's and Nolan's do, but it does give him extra defence on top of his already ample supply. And it means he's never far from a healer.



We've managed to position Micaiah on the ledge by having Tauroneo rescue the archer that was standing there. So now she can counterkill the guys there.



Those two pegasus knights start maiming our generics. This is bad - one of them's in range of Laura.



Only one thing to do; generics are GO!



Sothe and Edward take care of one of them, the generics will hopefully get the other.



Nolan gets a welcome chance to use the Hammer.







Well, that was a great battle.



Anyway, end of turn 3. 26 kills to go.



The problem with sending in the Generics, of course, is that they'll charge ahead, fuck everything up, and then be in your way.



Of course, the flip side of this is that they kill that annoying pegasus knight for us. Thanks, generics! Now get the fuck out of my way.



They also start rolling the boulders. This one hits three guys.



A generic archer gets quite lucky.



One nice thing about the generics is that they do distract the enemy quite well, as shown here. The enemy spends most of its turn going after the generics and splitting up their ranks. This will sit very nicely with our defenders.



Conversely, this annoying guy has charged down the ledge and is right in the way.



And, of course, the one enemy on the ledge is being covered by a priest with Physic. Funfact: This guy is going to be alive for pretty much the entire mission.



When our turn rolls around again, Micaiah makes a note of telling the generics to get the fuck out of our way.



She also starts chipping away at this guy with Thani.



The defenders to the right continue defending. Zihark joins Nolan and Fiona on the front lines while Aran gets healed.

End of turn 4, 20 kills to go.



Good generics.



Eh.



Volug starts baiting archers to speed up his transform time. We're going to need a bit of help from him later to clear up a few stragglers.



Pictured: this mission's Asshole Reinforcements™. These two pegasus knights need to be kept away from Micaiah and we're going to need to come up with some creative unit shuffling to get it done.



There we go. Micaiah's out of danger.



Note that this poor guy has been healed and is now being hurt again.



Fiona completely embarrasses herself by missing twice in a row with an 81% hit chance.



So we send in Volug to clean up her mess.



End of turn 5, 15 kills to go.



If that really were a priest holding that Physic staff, he'd stop and think about things like mercy, and letting people die instead of prolonging their pain. Or maybe he's a fundamentalist. That'd explain this.



This generic dracoknight fails at retreating and pays the price.



So does this archer.



The Asshole pegasus knights go for Tauroneo, who's still just about able to hold them off.



Now that's more like it. That this level came from finally getting a Hammer kill is a sweet, sweet bonus.



Edward deals with the first pegasus knight, to his profit...



Sothe gets his first, actual, violence derived, level in the whole game.



Jill takes care of the second. I'm not pleased with how much action Jill hasn't gotten this mission. Perhaps I should have sent her right instead of Aran...



Micaiah continues tormenting that one poor guy.



End of turn 6, 10 kills to go.



This guy must really hate the universe right now.







These three guys pass the same damn vulnerary around to heal themselves.



That priest is surely going to hell.



Pictured: Micaiah having a laugh. She really needs speed, though.



It's taken seven turns to get this level (with Paragon, I might add), but it's a good level.



Pictured: the start of something beautiful.







Adept-Crit-Cancel, ladies and gents. OK, so the Cancel is redundant, but that's to be expected.



....fffffffFFFFFUUUUUUUUU-



End of turn 7, 6 kills to go. We're all done on the right; we're going to have to charge to get the last few kills.



What has he done to deserve this?

Well, the enemy phase is completely uneventful, because everyone on the left can't do anything other than shuffle around below the ledge.



With this, the eastern front is clear.





So we start moving up. End of turn 8, 5 kills to go.



There are actually two Physic priests down here. Jills been pestering this second guy with a Short Axe. This ledge is actually really annoying, because there's no way to flank it, and we're lacking in ranged attackers to attack from above.



Consequently, we don't really have any choice but to bring in our attackers from the east and have them flank the enemy that way. We need five more kills, after all.



Alternatively...



We can pull our guys back and allow the enemy to attack up the ledge, so our melee guys can get in on some action. This will also split the enemy.

End of turn 9. Still 5 kills to go.



Some enemies take the bait.



Some other enemies take the other bait too. Our lone generic up here does an admirable job of drawing enemy fire.



Our last turn rolls around. Tauroneo and Jill get a kill between them.



Crap. Well, at the very least she's gaining stats in her strong suits. Jill, as we might have discussed a long time ago, is, on paper, a better unit than Haar in terms of what she's capable of at the limits of her ability (and all her stat caps). The practicality of the matter is, however, that Haar is more immediately useful, more survivable, and still fast enough (despite his lower speed cap) to double most things short of literally the fastest opponents in the game.

Here's the other thing, though; Jill has some serious opportunity for training, particularly in the next mission. She's basically the only person worth giving Paragon to; everyone else either has no need of it or has better need of other skills. There's plenty of scope for murder indeed, and if she can just do some damage and get some doubles the levels will seriously start flowing. And she has, if you'll observe, managed to muddle up to 24 speed, a generally useful amount for this point in the game. So we'll see how she goes. We might make something of her yet.



Nolan and Zihark cut down some guys down below.



It's the end of our turn and we have two kills left. They'll have to come during the enemy phase. Any idiot who attacks Nolan or Zihark is surely gonna get it.



And sure enough...



The first two actions of the enemy turn are low level soldiers coming after Zihark. A pity we couldn't have gotten some people with higher EXP yields.

That's the problem with this mission - it's the worst one for training, and the Dawn Brigade really needs training. There are a bunch of low level unpromoted units mixed in with the promoted ones, and they'll just charge at you, die, and increase the body count while yielding maybe one or two EXP.



Nevertheless, we're done here.

---



All right. Thank you.

There is no turning back now, Micaiah. You have to give the order.

Yes, I know.

The order to do what? Continue killing them?

Why is this even a death-count mission anyway? The last one made sense; we were killing Gallians until they got the point and retreated (or at least, that was the plan), but this? This is just... OK, so we killed half the enemy so now we're going to fall back and let the other half through so we can spring some manner of trap on them.

Oh, whatever.



I fucking told you not to send a non-main-character to impede Ike.

General Ike and the Laguz Alliance are heading this way to rescue the apostle!

...Prepare to move to the next phase. Archers, get ready! There's no more time for doubt.





No! It's... It's oil! They're going to set us aflame! Apostle, onto my pegasus! We'll take to the sky!

We will protect the apostle from the archers by becoming her shield! Holy Guards, form up!



Look closely and you'll see that Tanith actually has a unique model for when she's carrying Sanaki.

Commander, we're ready!







Hey, wha-





Tibarn! Urk!

Sothe! No, please! All units, cease fire! Now!



Well, fuck.



Tell him to let Sothe go!

Not a chance. I'm offering you a choice. Surrender now and go home to Daein, or fight us and die.

We can't. We won't retreat or negotiate. Regardless of what you believe, the only choice we have is to fight.

Micaiah, are you insane? Look around! Every single person in your army will die! Do you care that little about them?

Enough! Everyone stand down!



I've seen enough bloodshed for one day! That's enough! Please, no more...



We'll retreat for now. You'd better do the same, and I mean now. I'm not sure how long I can hold my men back.

But we can't!



No, wait, Micai--!









Take this as a lesson, little beorc. Next time, there won't be anyone to catch you.



...We won't pursue you this time. However, we cannot avoid this war. That is all I will say for now. And Ike...I'm sorry for this.

What is going on with you people...

---





It's awful. The Begnion Central Army and the Crimean Royal Knights have almost been completely obliterated. On top of that, the oil that Daein used has injured the Holy Guards' pegasi and all but grounded them.

Yeah, I think awful fits. Thoughts, everyone?



I see someone's made a full recovery then.

We can't. If we fought Daein now, we couldn't possibly take on the senate's armies. We have to get Daein to listen to us.

Confusion is exactly what Lekain wants. Daein is merely a pawn in his scheme. But there is one thing I do not understand. Why use such horrible tactics? Oil and fire? What is that girl Micaiah thinking?

Micaiah? The Imperial Army has Micaiah on their side?



Just now, with Reyson and Queen Nailah.



Is it all right for the three of you to be here? What about the medallion?

The medallion is right here.



If this war goes on much longer, the dark god will surely awaken.

Well then, it's a good thing there's still one neutral country left on this damn continent.

---







Please save my son. Come save my Pelleas, I beg of you...

---



Thank the goddess... I will be able to save my people after all.

---



Yes, the totally inconspicuous "Pilgrim" we bust out of jail way back when was, in fact, the crown fucking prince of Goldoa.



Wait... he and Almedha... and does this mean he's about to...

...

...oh, shit.

---



H-how did you get in?! How did you find us?! Help, he's here!

Aaaargh!

My apologies for the long wait.

Is the apostle safe?

She fled to Crimea, then exposed the senate's plots to the world. Currently, she leads the apostle's army through Daein and is preparing to storm the empire.

I see. Very well... It's time for us to make our move.



...

...

...



Can't complain here, really.

Next time: Turns out that there are people who know how to siege!