Part 54: Bonus 4 - Chapter 17A: The Path Through the Sea
Bonus 4 - Chapter 17A: The Path Through the Sea
...forcing out the Revolutionaries. Driven away from the palace, Roartz and Arcard fled to Ilia, which was still under Bern's control.
With little arable land, the nation's main source of income was to send out mercenary knights to fight for pay.
Etruria joined force with the Lycia Alliance Army to form a joint force under the name of the Etrurian Army, with Roy as its commander. Their first mission was to enter Ilia and finish off the remaining Revolutionaries. Once that was done, they would proceed to launch direct attacks on Bern. With the powerful backing of the Elimine Church, Roy had the populace on his side.
However, Roy had to face the freezing cold of Ilia, as well as Bern's elite troops under General Murdock, the leader of the Three Dragon Lords. In addition, many of the powerful Ilian mercenary knights had submitted to Bern's side.
As a start, Roy headed for Castle Raemy, located on the Ilian border.
What a perfect followup to what must be this translation’s most spectacular grammatical trainwreck yet.
Seriously, go and reread those first few paragraphs. Missing articles. Singular/Collective noun mashups. Tense confusion. Joining forces to create a joint force. More tense confusion. This is an editing emergency. Fan translations, man.
Yes. Lord Murdock, did we really not have to aid him?Oh for fuck’s-
Those were the king's orders. Besides, the Bern army has no use for a man who cannot clean up his own messes.
Lord Arcard, I will entrust this land of Raemy to you. Lord Roartz, I will have you take the land of Edessa. You must make preparations to retaliate.
What!? Raemy is right on the border! The enemy will arrive in no time! True. But this position also allows us to easily launch attacks on Etruria. Make sure this castle does not fall.
Edessa... It is deep in the wastelands of Ilia... That would give you plenty of time to prepare your forces, would it not? Could you not...take back Etruria for us? We could. However, when we do, Etruria will go under Bern's rule. No! That won't do. Then I suggest that you find a way to deal with the situation yourselves. Excuse us. ...
Don't worry. Bern's code says that every individual must be able to deal with the consequences of his own actions. ...The enemy leader, was his name Roy? Yes. I must admit, he has done a superb job of rebuilding the Alliance Army after we crushed it so... If I have the chance, I would like to have the honor of fighting him one on one.Hah.
*Scene switches to Roy, blah blah thanks for liberating Etruria*
This land of Raemy... At a certain time of the day, the sea level drops, exposing a sand bar that can be crossed.
A sand bar? Yes. It will take long to traverse all the way around the bay to attack the castle. However, should you be able to cross the sand bar, you may be able to save some time. I see. Still, please be careful. Rushing is not always the best tactic to win a battle. Yes. Thank you for your advice. Of course. Then, may Saint Elimine bless the Etrurian Army!Yodel, you're so silly. Rushing is a perfectly fine strategy for this battle and we'd have to deal with everyone if we waited anyway.
That advice might have been more pertinent were this not Fire Emblem 6: Every Map Is Seize.
Ilia is, on the whole, much easier (or at least a lot less bullshit) than Sacae. This map, for instance, is exactly as straightforward as it looks. We already know the sandbar will be appearing (and it's incredibly obvious where), and none of the reinforcements are anything to write home about. A few troublesome enemies, but we'll get to them in a bit. For now, Lance, Lugh, and basically all our unpromoted units are heading north to the village, with Rutger, Bartre, and Dieck leading the charge east. Thany will be moving around to eliminate our friendly neighborhood ballisticians.
I fail to see how the sandbar is more of a roundabout route than the land route. OK, you have to wait around for it, I guess, but why not just have Roy wait until evening before beginning the assault? Are we under that much time pressure here?
First, we clear out the village area. There are no reinforcements from this side, and we want to make use of the arena after we clear everything out.
Lugh gets my first Guiding Ring.
Thany's strength really leaves a lot to be desired, but good luck hitting her.
Elphin is in range of that last cavalier, but he has a Steel Lance, which isn't all that threatening.
This little clump features most of the dangerous enemies on the map. The bishop has Purge and Physic (the bishop by the castle does have a Sleep staff though) and the mage has something special.
Fimbulvetr, the A-rank Anima tome. Semi-notable in that it almost has a reasonable weight for its power (8 Wt is enough that only Hugh can wield it without penalties), it has one less Mt than Forblaze, and has only 5 less Hit than Aircalibur and Thunder. It's also unobtainable in the main game, but that doesn't make it any less painful for us to get hit with.
If anything it just makes it insulting. Plus its unobtainability starts making you dwell on the ridiculousness of the Fire Emblem multiverse’s magic system and that path never leads anywhere pleasant.
Geeeeesssseeeee why are you so awful
Passable.
And that is the only non-combat item of interest on the map.
Thany gets to work on our first friend. The fighter will just suicide into her, so he can be safely ignored.
This here is as close as Fire Emblem can get to a genuine Battleship-in-a-lake moment. I suppose those units were all carried there off camera or something.
Attaboy, Roy.
For some reason, the mages will run forward, but none of the supporting cavaliers will. This makes it all the easier to deal with them, as Dieck acquaints this minister with the business end of his hand axe.
All that AI, and someone just forgot to set it properly.
As I said. Shit kinda hurts. Fortunately, Bartre's bow is enough to off him on the counter.
And Thany knocks out ballista number two.
At the start of turn 6, our path appears.
What!?
Well... According to the locals, the tide pulls at this time of day... What!? You didn't know about this!? But, sir, we are not from these parts! We are not familiar with the geography of this land! Damn! Charge! Prevent the enemy from crossing that path!
Did the path in the sea appear?
Yes. Bishop Yodel was right. Did the enemy know about this? Actually, they seem to be a panicked state. All right, then let's not miss this chance! Charge!We'll...sort of do that. The north group of cavaliers will start heading down the path, but Lance, Lugh, and Geese are waiting for them.
Bartre smashes a cavalier's head in for a garbage level.
Thaaannnyyyy
More like “true miss” lol amirite
I'm still treading a little carefully here since one of those remaining cavs has a Killer Lance. Dieck can wipe the floor with him, though.
Literally Percival. Not something I'm going to complain about.
Our first reinforcements pop up in the fortresses near the castle. Two cavs and an archer are nothing to write home about when the entirety of their army is visible right now.
Swing and a miss, champ.
Thany finally gets around to using an Energy Ring Roy has been carting around for her. If the RNG won't fix her strength, then I'll do it myself.
Sweet sweet non-canon runs.
One of the really nice things about Dieck is that because of his ridiculous skill, he can safely use axes when most units would be fucked. Even with a weapon triangle disadvantage and a Steel Axe (which has 50 base hit, lest you forget) he's putting up a 71% hit chance.
Lugh smites the last of the north cavaliers for a mostly useless level.
The next few sets of reinforcements include the north fortresses and these peg knights to the south. Bartre and Thany come back to clean up these guys.
Arcard hasn't changed statistically, but he's switched out his Silver Lance for a Silver Axe. Still not an issue.
The damage technically isn't great, but we can realistically expect Rutger to knock off 24-32 of Arcard's 48 HP in a single round of combat.
I can't say I was expecting him to respond with this next turn, though. Why is everything I know about the Fire Emblem AI going wrong?
Actually, this is consistent. The AI tends to prioritize Weapon Triangle Advantage over damage potential when all else is equal and no ORKOs are possible. It’s quite exploitable.
I was always under the impression they went for the most damaging option, regardless of accuracy (or lack thereof). I guess that only qualifies when there are multiple targets to choose from.
And after another turn of combat, Cecilia gets the kill. Hey Cecilia, you see that over there? That's a bench. And it has your name written all over it. Now, why would that be?
Anyway, with the chapter proper done, we do our thing at the arena.
Geese is first up, and gets 4 points of Str/Speed, 5 Luck, and not a single point of Skill, Def, or Res.
His promotion is pretty similar to Gonzales, but he gets a little shafted on the speed, considering Gonzales has a higher speed growth and gets an extra point in his promotion bonuses. Still, he's a berserker now, and that in and of itself is worth a lot.
Not much to say about anyone else, really. I'm probably not actually going to promote Tate (and if I do, it won't be until 20A anyway), I just wanted her leveled up so she's not a liability when I need her later. Chad turned out pretty nice as well, even if I would have liked a little more luck instead of all that Str/Skill. At any rate that gives us two very competent thieves if necessary.
The post-battle conversations are all the same, so that's a wrap for this chapter. Next time: Ilia proper!
You should never have a singular proper noun (Ilia) tied to a collective one (the Frozen Highlands), unless they’re both part of a single referential name (eg, “The Frozen Highlands of Ilia”), in which case the operative noun is still plural. Basically, what I’m saying here is, “Ilia, known as the Frozen Highlands, is...” is about as badly as nouns can really be treated while still appearing to make sense.
...
...
...I’m finished now.