Part 14: Chapter 8 Hard Mode
Chapter Eight: Are we There Yet?
No map this time around: unlike last chapter, this map is identical to normal mode in terms of unit composition. Such as this archer standing two feet from Lilina
The archer's stats.
And Lilina's stats. Take note that the archer is capable of doubling her stupid ass, and dropping her in a round. So yeah.
Leygance is tankier, faster, stronger, better. He also has +6 HP. Joy.
Clarine starts abusing barrier because hey, free experience.
The archer also has ADD and saw a penny across the hallway, because he lost all interest in killing Lilina and just wandered off
We run in circles for a bit, when our new friends show up.
Just thought I'd post this again. Let it sink in. Yeah Wendy is even more of a joke in hard mode, because enemies are stronger and she's... yeah.
Related: Wendy is an armor, yet she's 2HKO'd by archers.
Lance also known by his friends as "Fast Hooves", continues to impress me. That strength is starting to look pretty pathetic, though.
Oujay isn't a bad unit in a vacuume, but Dieck's existence just kinda makes him useless.
He'll be here all week, folks.
We finally finish off the northern area.
Next up: more meat grinding.
Cath also pokes her head out.
Luckily she and her other thief friend decide to head towards us, which saves me a major headache. I had to scrap my first attempt because both thieves went the opposite way and fled before I could stop them.
Yes, more magic for the healers! MORE I SAY
Some of these mages can get pretty nasty, but then again Rutger.
Roy spots Cath and runs in for a little chat-
...And she proceeds to run the fuck away. Can't say I blame her, really.
Alan and Lance however are the best wingmen Roy could ask for. Alan murders Cath's boyfriend, and Lance takes up position to block her path, forcing her back towards Roy's direction. I don't know if it's been said yet, but Cath will never actually enter combat of her own will. If stuck between four people, she'll just sit there until somebody moves.
Oh, and this Knight here has a killer lance. FE6 loves to throw little surprises at you, especially in later chapters. Always check enemy weapon composition.
Aircalibur? Pssh, that shit is small time
Clarine barriered him beforehand.
We finally talk Cath down, and finish up our looting of the northern treasure room, denying her yet again of booty. Oh, and this time I DO steal her lockpick.
Did somebody say asshole reinforcements? Of course! This is FE6 hard mode baby, reinforce hard or go home.
Lilina grabs herself a spare thunder tome and proceeds to do jack all for the rest of the chapter, because she's an overrated unit and I'm not using her. Yeah you heard me.
Alan and Lance take advantage of their A support to advance on killer lance guy. With Lance's avoid, he'll most likely be able to avoid the hit.
Oh, and in case you thought we were done, a ton of reinforcements pour out of the throne room to have a word with us.
Alan dodges the killer lance, but he does get hit by a random bow reinforcement.
Also this. Get used to seeing me go from having almost total map control, to being swarmed by 20+ reinforcements from multiple directions the very next turn.
GET OUTTA MAH MAP
Zealot's just kinda chilling out to block the third space. Dieck and Rutger hold the line.
The reason Rutger is hiding both himself and his stats screen is out of shame: he finally got a dud level up of nothing but HP.
Dieck picks up his slack though. God that terrible strength...
The south is mostly just generic soldiers running towards the grinder.
The north is a little stronger, but we have Rutger up there.
Four MORE guys come running up to us. It never ends, I swear.
For some reason Cath, despite being unblocked for like five turns, just chilled on a single square and refused to move.
Chad trades Lou a fancy Elfire tome we found in one of the chests.
He goes to work with his new toy immediately.
Astol and Chad head up to loot what's left, while we focus on getting Rutger back down to the throne room.
Meanwhile Lance plays around with the hilarious avoid his high speed and A-support give him, poking at the boss for no good reason.
Saul? Who the hell is Saul?
One Rutger crit with the armorslayer = two triangle attacks.
A god?
I swear if you actually max out strength
And that's a wrap.
Astol: My usual go-to thief in hard mode, since none of them are going to be seeing any combat, while Astol actually has the ability to not get turned into sludge with a single blow. Also I like the idea of having a grumpy middle-aged man as my rouge instead of an eight year-old.
Barth: Blah blah movement, blah blah speed, blah blah that fucking resistance growth. Blah blah not worth it.
Oujay: As I've mentioned in a previous post, I've used Oujay before to great results. He can turn out excellent, will probably be beating Dieck statistically in most areas, and so on. However he comes in much later and a rather low level, he has a lot less con then Dieck (which matters a lot for axes post promotion), and his supports are far weaker (though still not bad.) If Dieck turns out like shit, maybe we'll use him. We won't be.
Lilina: