Part 19: Chapter 10A: The Resistance Forces (feat. Cake Attack)

Chapter 10A: The Resistance Forces (feat. Cake Attack)





All of them were rich with natural resources, and mining was a successful industry. In the north of Fibernia stood Mt Ebrakhm, home to the largest mining operation on the Western Isles. Roy led his forces towards Ebrakhm, hoping to gather some information on the bandits.

The path to Mt Ebrakhm was watched over by a small castle in the valley. Roy sent a messenger to Nord, the castle owner, to be granted permission to pass through his land. Since the Lycia Alliance Army was there on an official mission from Etruria, they didn't think that getting Nord's support would be as difficult as it was...





Do you mean that dancer called Lalum or something? We threw her in the dungeon, sir.

Well, is she talking?

No, she just keeps repeating that it is some kind of mistake, that she has nothing to do with the rebels.

Hmph, she thinks we'll let her go with that, does she? I should go talk to her myself...

My lord!

What is it?



Ah, the army was sent here to clear out the bandits...

It seems that they are requesting passage to Mt Ebrakhm.

...Lord Arcard did say to get rid of the Lycia Alliance Army while they were here... Hahaha... What a splendid chance to gain favor with Lord Arcard and earn a share of his riches! Dispatch our troops! Kill off the Lycia Alliance Army!

Yes, my lord. And the messenger?

Kill him. Also, don't forget to take advantage the ballistas. Those are powerful weapons that can attack from afar, so use them to confuse the enemy! Just make sure that the enemy doesn't get a hold of them!



What? Is there a bandit hideout around here?

No, they seem to be after us!

...What happened to the messenger?

He hasn't returned yet...which means...

...What's going on? Why is Nord attacking us?

The enemy is advancing... Master Roy, what should we do?

...I guess we'll have to fight. Either way, we need to get to the castle. Then we might learn something...

Yes. I suppose so.

All right, everyone, we're storming the castle! But don't kill more than you have to.

Don't kill more than we need to? That's just silly talk, Roy. Why would I want to waste experience like that?

For the love of - they killed your messenger. Annihilate them.



Since you guys voted for infantry over cavaliers, the going will be a little slower, but we'll end up down at the castle regardless. Thany starts heading straight for the village, while Bors, Fir, and Oujay each take a bridge, and we'll just slowly march forward.

Hmm? I only see one ballista. Designated Evil Guy #6 clearly mentioned “ballistas”...

Also, I notice that even IntSys seem to be confused as to what the plural of “ballista” is. Of late they seem to be favouring “ballistae”. Personally I prefer that, but maybe I’m just a sucker for the ae sound.



Oh, are you fucking kidding me? This is really how you want to start things, Fir?



What an amazingly well-timed point of defense.



Something nice is that ballistae actually have animations in this game. Which are oddly dropped for 7 and 8, considering they reused basically every other animation in the game.

_{See? Artix also agrees.}

There seem to be a lot of non-combat cutaway animations that have been cut as the series goes on. As of FE9, staves and siege tomes don’t have animations either.



Out of the way Fir, this is a how a real myrmidon does things.







I love that the arrow hasn't even landed yet, but it already knows the effort was futile.



What is it with this longbow and pulling crits out of your ass?

Longbows have a decent crit chance as I recall. It's a good start, but they should really either make longbows better of much more abundant. Give archers some much needed utility.

Another change as of later Fire Emblems (well, 10, anyway, not sure if it’s stuck) is adding new, better, kinds of Longbow... and then making them completely redundant by having a class that can attack at 3 range with any bow. Seriously.

Longbows definitely don’t have any innate crit - Shin has 3 crit here with his 10 or so skill (so base 5 crit).



Putting Fir out here was a mistake.



And this is why you always check weapons beforehand.

True Hit says that was a 90.54% chance of losing Fir.

Nah, she was at full health. The merc landed but didn’t crit.



For our sake, she brought us weapons from all over the place. Even when we begged her to hide, she still continued to help us. Here's an axe she brought us. [Blah blah tutorial shit] But instead of this, I'd rather see her dance again... [Got Swordreaver]



Here's the main mess of the chapter. The berserker only has a Steel Axe, but he's still a berserker. Fortunately the bridge immediately in front of our own army is positioned so that he (and a hand axe idiot) is the only unit that can hit us, which we'll use to draw him out.



There's a pirate fortress off to the west, so Fir is going to head over and pick up some easy experience.



Yeah. My friends were killed by the lord of that castle. I gotta avenge them.

Those boys that were always with you...

Yeah... They were taken to the mines, told that they would be given work. They got work, all right... ...They were worked like slaves until they died. Maybe they weren't so smart, but they were good guys... And Nord just killed them off...just like that...!

You're going to avenge them all on your own?

Is there something wrong with that?

No... But you're not going to be a sea merchant again?

Well... Once I avenge my friends and the war resides, I'll think about it.

...We won't forget you. You guys always risked your own lives to sell food and supplies to us. If you need anything, just come to us.

Yeah, if I'm alive. ...Thanks.



If you remember Geitz from FE7, he said that he was sick of his father's business and wanted nothing to do with it. Geese is his brother, and has apparently been using it to aid the resistance faction here on the Western Isles. He also comes with a goddamn Brave Axe which is A-okay in my book. We can recruit him by talking with Roy.

Geese is the best, if only because he looks like he should be on the front of a Harlequin romance novel rather than in a Fire Emblem game. Also Geese is a silly name.



No, I was just wondering why you were fighting the castle's troops all on your own.

Who're you?

I'm Roy, leader of the Lycia Alliance Army. We're here on a mission from Etruria...

You're with Etruria!? Then you're not on my side. Die!

Wait! We're also fighting the castle's troops.

What? What do you mean?

I don't know, either. We were sent here by Etruria to rid the islands of the bandits, but...

...You said that you're fighting the castle's troops, right? Then you wanna hire me?

What?

I'm a pirate, so I'm pretty familiar with the geography around here. You look like you've never been here before, so you could use a guide, couldn't you?

That would help, but why?

I want to help you with your mission. Well, I'm a pirate, so I'm probably one of those bandits that you're talking about, but I only go after the rich, who have more than they need anyway.

All right, then I'll ask you to help us. We don't know this area very well, so we're having trouble.

Great. Leave it to me!

*Roy leaves*

...This is it, guys. I'll avenge you with all of my strength! After that, I guess I can tag along with that Roy guy...

Easy enough. He grabs Lot's Iron Axe and goes to help out Fir with the pirates.



There's no level quite like the ones obtained by having a ballista bolt shot into your chest.



Lilina.png



I'm using Oujay to block the bridge instead of Rutger because even with his support bonuses, Rutger only has 4 more avoid, but he has 10 less luck than Oujay. When we're dealing with berserkers, I'll take as much reduction in crit as I can get.





What.

There's a village to the north, at the foot of the mountain. Do you understand?

Understand.

That might be a hidden base for the rebel forces. I want you to go there and destroy it, village and all.

Village and all...

Right. Now go! A stupid hulk like you only comes in use at times like this. Get moving!

I...I...

Is there a problem?

N-No... *leaves*

Hmph, he looks like hell, but he's cursed to have such a kind heart. He must learn that crushing a tiny little village is nothing!





Man, that Berserker is such bullshit. Sure, it's easy to make him pretty damn unlikely to hit, but pretty much forcing you not to get unlucky is peak Intsys. You could try and rush the whole enemy grouping and attack him at a range, but that's probably way more likely to end with everyone on your side dead.



With the berserker out of the way, we're pretty much free to go charge through now.



Gonzales will make his way up to us since the village is already saved and all, so we just need to talk to him with Lilina.



What the fuck is your problem, Fir?



Bah.



Guess who's gonna be benched after next chapter. It's Thany.

Fir?

No, silly. Fir is getting benched after this chapter.



Saul gets a pretty shit level for healing Fir's sorry ass up.

Good lord it's contagious.



Yes, yes, you're hilarious Bors.

He looks so full of himself in his portrait too



For whatever reason, the archer won't get out of his empty ballista unless we actually get in range of him, so Shin, Lilina, and Thany clean up the center area and Rutger heads over for the archer.



Roy gets there first.



W-Who are you! I'm an enemy!

I'm sorry... But you had such a sad look in your eyes.

...There is village near mountain. You know?

Yes, I know.

You tell people, escape. I take order. I destroy village. So...

What? Don't! The villagers are innocent...

No. I can't disobey order...

Can't you leave the people who give you orders like that?

Leave?

I know! You should fight alongside us! We're protecting the villagers.

...No... I monster... I can't be with other people... People throw stones...say 'go away'... I'm a monster...not human...

No! Of course you're a human! You're also a kind-hearted human. I can tell. Come with us. Don't be afraid.

Me afraid? I not afraid! Everyone afraid of me. I not afraid!

No. You are afraid. You're scared that people will throw stones at you, that they'll tell you to go away again.

...

It's okay. The people in our army are all nice. They won't be mean to you. Come on...be brave. Take that first step to live without fear...

And that gets us Gonzales. He doesn't get to do anything this chapter because I don't have any spare axes for him and I'm not using his Devil Axe.

Coward

Trial! Trial! Trial!

There were no enemies on the map he could survive a hit from and a backfire from the Devil Axe, so I said fuck it. He’ll get his chance next chapter.



Patching up Rutger, shitty Clarine level.



That's it, I'm fucking done. How do you get hit by three sub-25% hit chances in one chapter and get one point of speed over six levels as a myrmidon?

The RNG giveth and the RNG taketh. Admittedly, it seems to prefer the taketh when it comes to you.



Now that's what we're talking about.



The fighters start spawning for five or six turns as well, so we might as well milk them for all it's worth.



Well at least he critted the shaman. Anyway, let's start killing some fighters.



You could do far worse than speed and defense on a pirate, and Lilina picking up defense is pretty rare as well.



Nord isn't particularly fast or strong, but we still have to work out a way to kill him in one good set of attacks thanks to his Nosferatu tome.



I shall take your lives...

Lilina easily takes the hit, but she doesn't get the crit I was hoping for. Oh well, we'll leave him be until the fighters are done spawning.



Easy enough. Let's finish up.



Take us home, Rutger.



I feel...my life draining...away...



And of course, we end on a whimper.

There can, of course, be only one God Rutger.



We never did find out why Nord attacked us.

Yeah, but now there's no doubt that someone is after us.

Hm, I think we should contact Etruria about this.

Yes. I'll talk to General Cecilia about it.



We found a girl captured in the dungeon. She wishes to speak with you.

With me? Let her pass.



...out the bandits?

Yes, that's me.



Whoa! *steps back*

Hey! Get off of him!

A-Anyway, let's calm down... Okay, you were saying that your friends were in danger?

My name is Lalum. I'm a member of rebel forces here.

The one that's protecting the Isles' people from the bandits?

Yes. ...No!

No?

Of course, that's part of what we do, but our real enemy is Etruria! They're working with the bandits to rake up more money and resources from the people living here!

What! Is that true?

The lords living here send villagers from their lands to the mines, where they work them and work them until they die. They never let them rest, even if they're sick or injured...

That's horrible...

We're fighting to protest against the cruel Etrurian court! Our next plan was to attack the mine at Mt Ebrakhm and free the people there...!

What's the matter! Calm down...

A villager here leaked the information on our plan! He was probably tortured, but I didn't think he would tell... I have to go the mines before everyone's captured!

All right, we'll help you. We'll rescue the rebels and the people being forced into labor!



Whoa! M-Miss Lalum!

Hey! I said get off of him!

Here, Roy. Use this sword.

What is this?

It belongs to our leader, Echidna. You're helping us, so I don't think she'd mind even if you use it. It's a Wyrmslayer, a sword that's effective against Dragons. But there aren't any Dragons anymore, so maybe it's useful against Wyvern Knights? I'm not really sure, but it'll come in handy some time, right?



I'm not even going to ask where she was keeping this thing since she was captured and thrown in the dungeons. Anyway, next time: We go somewhere that is most definitely not a mine.

-----



Level 5 (10A) / 11 (10B) Brigand
Axes - C (10A) / D (10B), Affinity - Thunder

HP: 36 (90%)
Strength: 12 (60%)
Skill: 5 (15%)
Speed: 9 (50%)
Luck: 5 (35%)
Defense: 6 (25%)
Resistance: 0 (5%)
Con: 15

Gonzales is a very interesting unit in several respects. First and foremost, going down the A or B route can drastically change his outlook. If you plan on using him, there's no reason not to go down the A route - it gives him an extra 6 levels of growing room and a higher level in axes with the same exact base stats. Add in his excellent strength and speed growths with a great Con, and he's an absolute monster given the chance. His biggest issue by far is his accuracy. He only starts with 5 skill, has a 15% growth, and is stuck using axes on top of it all. It's hard to fix it with supports as well, since four of his six are prepromotes (the remaining two are Lilina and Treck) and only half of them give accuracy as a support bonus in the first place. If you can get past that, he'll wreck shit, but the barrier to entry is rather steep.

Gonzales just makes no sense. What disgruntled employee decided giving him 5 extra levels on route B with nothing but a penalty in axe level was a good idea? I just don't get it. Regardless, Gonzales is pretty good. True hit helps with accuracy problems, there isn't really anyone else who wants Secret Books and y'now. +30 crit chance.



Level 10 Pirate
Axes - B, Affinity - Fire

HP: 33 (85%)
Strength: 10 (50%)
Skill: 9 (30%)
Speed: 9 (40%)
Luck: 9 (40%)
Defense: 8 (20%)
Resistance: 0 (10%)
Con: 11

Geese isn't as good as Gonzales when it comes purely to numbers, but his bases and growths are a little better balanced, and he comes in with a B rank in Axes with a free Brave Axe. He has the same support problem as Gonzales, but his Fire affinity is a bit of an easier sell than Gonzales's Thunder to most units, and both he and Gonzales promote to berserkers (mercifully with Hero Crests in this game) so it's a lot like Alan and Lance - pick one (or both!) and just go with it, they'll both turn out pretty good.

Geese is good, but he’s no Gonzales. When it comes to Berserkers, the well-rounded option is no fun. Go big or go home.