Part 38: It's Pronounced Like "Chainy" (Battle)

Chapter 16: It’s Pronounced Like “Chainy” (Battle)

Pretty sure this is the longest update so far. I did warn you.



: Countless days have passed since Dolhr took my kingdom from me- days I would never have lived had it not been for my sister Elice’s sacrifice, and the sacrifices of so many others…

: What became of your sister? And the rest of your family, what of them as well?

Slightly less traumatic than what happened to yours.

: My father, as you know, died in Gra. I last saw my mother and sister the day the castle fell. I do not know if they still live…but I hope that they do. And if the enemy has them, I will rescue them. You can be sure of that.

: Sire, our preparations are complete. We are ready to march.

: Thank you.

Marth’s gonna give a speech now. He does that a lot in this map for some reason. Perhaps a last gasp at giving him some character for the sequel.




: Help me set Altea free, and ensure today is the last battle my people must endure!

I mean, it’s kind of a speech.




Not much particular strategy for the start of this map. I could divide my troops here and send one group through the prison to divide the incoming enemies, but that sounds like something someone good at this game would do, and this is not the LP for that.




I did leave Ogma here on purpose, though. The Dracoknights can be eliminated real quick if you lure them in.




This was not on purpose.




Honestly the Dracoknights on this map aren’t a huge deal, despite how good the fliers in Shadow Dragon are. You can pretty much just take advantage of the AI to pull them away from their allies into your whole team.




Also, the levels on this map are pretty...feast or famine.





Case in point.




While the rest of the team heads west, Barst is on a secret aquatic mission.




As voted on in the thread, we’re picking up the recruit in the east village on this run.




It’s this...memorable character!


: Once, I was a swordfighter of some renown…but that was then, and this is now. I’m happy enough with my life here in the village, but if you need another man, I will fight. Unfortunately, there has always been bad blood between our village and the next one over. They’ll have closed the gates to you the moment they saw you come here. Guess that means the paladin Arran won’t be fightin’ with you. Them’s the breaks.

This is a binary choice, picking up Samson or Arran denies you the other. Apparently this was one of the inspirations for the route split in Fates.




Samson is our highest level unit so far, and he’s...awful. Not only are his bases roughly average for units around the level most of our team is at now, before promotion, his growths are absolutely horrid. Except for Luck, for whatever reason. But hey, free Silver Axe.




The enemy mounted units start kinda splintering here because I think having Barst sneak in that way is messing with their “charge as a group” AI.




And now we’re down one Fortify priest. Good work as always, Barst.




Abel and Wolf are the best defenders we have not named “Barst”, so they’re guarding the bridges from these inevitable reinforcements.




Barst’s appearance has driven them mad.




Thanks!




Oh, shit, there was a thief. I almost forgot. He’s gone now.




This is the only unit they had who stayed on target. Bless you, Grust “Eagle-Eyes” Cavalier.




Everyone else is just tossing shit in the ocean.





It doesn’t really work out.





The ol’ Caeda/Marth power couple takes Eagle-Eyes down.




Wow. Near perfect. There’s Marth’s first point of Resistance, by the way.




You can sort of see the start of a defensive line forming here. I’ve got some extra time bought by Barst.




Only three of that original bunch of mounted units are left now. They overlap to try and hide their numbers.




The defenses are set now. Notably, they can’t both hit Catria, who’s the only one at risk of being two-shot killed.






Instead, they rammed Marth and Caesar for little effect, and now our Pegasi can clean up.




Might as well keep this rolling. This General started moving at the start of the map too, but he’s not too quick.



The information I found online for this map said the reinforcements were meant to spawn on Enemy Phase 10, but they didn’t.




So...cautious advance.



This is still cautious.




Aha! There we go. Turn 11 did it, two Horsemen and two Cavaliers from the northwest forts, and a Knight and Cavalier from the island with the boss. The latter are no big deal, but four units in such a confined space can be deadly, especially if you had a Pegasus Knight up there.




I imagine the reason these spawn so late is so they can catch you in a pincer attack. Joke’s on them, though, I play this game at a snail’s pace tactically.




Abel.

What the fuck, Abel.




Sadly, these two don’t have enough damage to outright kill the reinforcements, but with a little creative maneuvering and assistance from the other allies I left back here…





It all ends up okay.

(except abel’s levels seriously what the fuck)




This is not better.




When all’s said and done, Marth and the pegasus knights are really the only people extending this far out. I’m trying to turtle up and exhaust the reinforcements.




Oh, also Barst came out of the water. I think he’s lost.




With this setup, it’s not too much work to tank the hits from these reinforcements and burn them down, even with their extra attack from Hard mode.




Marth takes up a sneaky defensive position against that reinforcement Cavalier.




The trap works like a charm.




At least these are levels I can’t be disappointed in.




Turn 14 brings the same crop of reinforcements as last time. I won’t screenshot them all again, because you get the gist.




Marth’s just sorta working as a human shield on this map, inspiring his countrymen. Also Samson made it down.

Unfortunately, this does pull in that whole trio of previously stationary cavaliers, and by my own mistake, the reinforcement as well. Time to pull back a bit.




Well, of all the one stat levels, that’s one of the better ones.




Linde’s just determined to outshine her rival, though.



Now that there’s actually a threat down here, everyone’s retreated a bit. We should be fine.




Here’s the first map in a while where Ogma has seemed mortal. His defense is a little on the low end.




Still hits hard, though.




: And so, Prince Marth completely ignored my fantastic advice of sticking his Rapier out and spinning in a circle, electing to only kill one of our foes in a very dull fashion.




Halfway point for Marth levels! He doesn’t promote, but he can hit up to 30.




A rare screenshot of “Samson Doing Something.” These things go for serious money at auctions now.




This concludes Merc/Hero Hour.





Every hour is Pegasus Hour.




And that’s all of the enemies down here dealt with. Until the reinforcements spawned right after I ended this turn, that is.




This looks worse than it actually is. The mages can just one-round foes, and Barst has finally returned to give a little extra edge.





This chapter, while a little dull, is at least an EXP mine.




Still, we’re making some good progress now that the reinforcements are drained. That’s the hard part dealt with.




Maria’s gonna be unstoppable next time we face a predominantly Magic set of enemies! (there are none left)




Catria’s reached the island with all the buildings, and the Silver Card gives her a pretty great discount of 50% off on all this stuff, including valuable Silver weapons. I stocked up while I was moving the rest of the group down.




Caesar gets back to his natural roots, bloodsports.





The Wing Spear is still pretty damn useful. Here’s another one, along with the always handy 1-2 range weapons.




Now you can see some strategic shopping, as Wendell needs a Staff and I make him buy it himself.




Brilliantly executed. I sold that Thunder tome for like 50 gold.




Oh, yeah, Julian’s here, isn’t he? Unfortunately, that Hero has a Levin Sword.




Also, Caeda didn’t crit.




Thankfully Julian’s fast enough not to eat a double and die here.





Can’t say the same for that guy.




This is going to come in handy soon. I’m probably mass promoting after this chapter, because getting to Level 20/20 doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. We’re actually in the final third or so of the game.




Ogma’s not as spotless as I’d have liked, but I can’t complain with this area cleared out.




Eh.




Thank you for waiting patiently.




It’s pronounced like “Chainy”. I dunno.

: I hail from a land few have heard of an even fewer have seen. I won’t trouble you with the details. Me and my folk have the power to transform into other people. We can shape-shift, you see. When Dolhr caught on, they started threatenin’ me. Told me to join their army or “face my doom.” Hah! Well, I wasn’t about to waste my considerable talent on those evil coots! You, on the other hand…You’ve got character. Say, why don’t we team up? I do owe you for savin’ my hide. And I think you’ll find my talents are…quite considerable.




Xane is weird, and as far as I know, his gimmick’s never been reused in a Fire Emblem game since the Archanea titles. His stats are garbage, true, but he’s got a special command exclusive to him.




When Xane “Imitates” a unit, this happens.




Zounds! It’s a second Marth!




Xane, for five turns, becomes a perfect copy of his target allied unit. There are a few restrictions, after 5 turns he reverts to his normal, easily killed form. He also can’t gain HP while changing, so he starts off a little dented as “Marth” due to his low natural Max HP. You also need to outfit him with his own weapon selection.

Xane’s a really interesting character who I’m awful at using. He can definitely slot into some teams easily, and having two Barst/Caeda/Whatevers is never a bad idea. He does have stats/growths for his normal form, they aren’t great outside of his good base resistance, and they also really don’t matter. His level caps at 30, but again, it really doesn’t matter.




Barst goes to solo the boss.





The boss is solo’d.




I’ll take the Strength. He’s miles ahead of anyone else in it already, though.




That’s a good bonus prize. The map is about done now, but I spent a little extra time grinding in the Arena. I cut it out, except for the levels:




However, I think this map is cursed. This started off great!




But, over time...it deteriorates.




Slowly.




Until this happens for the second time in one chapter.




Alright, last straw, we’re out of here.




and such



: Bravo, Marth. On behalf of House Akaneia, I wish to extend my heartfelt congratulations

: Thank you, Nyna. But it’s still too soon to celebrate. We haven’t freed the castle yet.

: Sire, your soldiers have assembled for the castle raid. Perhaps you could say a few words first…




: The road has been long, but at last we have driven Dolhr from my homeland. There are not words to express my gratitude to you all. You gave Altea back to me. Thank you…Thank you. …An army of foes still haunt my castle. I mean to kick them out. Ready, my friends? Let’s send these varlets scurrying!

: It was okay until he said “varlets”.




Bonus Content



The Hero Of The Saved Country, Marth

There are still more Marth variants.