Part 58: Bonus 6 - Chapter 19A: The Bitter Cold

Bonus 6 - Chapter 19A: The Bitter Cold


...The Etrurian Army faced the blizzards common of Ilia's winters.

Ilia's harsh climate was a natural defense against invaders. Sigune, flightleader of the Pegasus Knights that had turned to Bern, was preparing to attack Roy, coupled with Ilia's greatest natural weapon.

Today in this translation’s total lack of editing: fucking binary predicates - how do they work?





The enemy has arrived. They are on the other side of the mountain.

So, they've arrived. ...The battle will start soon.

Captain, are you sure?

About what?

The Etrurian Army is saying that will liberate us from Bern. In that case, we could gain independence...

That they will?

Do you really believe what they say? What idiot would fight a war for the sake of others? Once they defeat Bern, they'll just establish themselves as the next dictator.

Well...

Then it's better to be with Bern. They're better at warfare.

...

Come now, we have more immediate problems. We've got to get rid of the enemy that's right in front of us first. Are the ballistas ready?

Ballistae.

Yes. The archers are all at their stations.

Good! Shoot at them from a distance... They'll be floundering around in the dark in this powerful blizzard. Observe nature's wrath...



_{Weather layer, fucking up my screenshots!}

Wind and hail.

Ilia's winters are always like this. This is expected if you're fighting a battle at this time of the year.

We must attack now so that Bern doesn't have the time to recover.

That's true. It would be a disaster if the Dark Dragon really was brought back into this world.

*blah blah Dragons can take human form*



It's fog of war time again, kids! Isn't that exciting? So a bit of explanation for all these colors: We start in the southwest corner, and have to work our way to the castle in the blizzard. As far as hazards, red denotes a ballista and green is a staff Druid (the closer one is Sleep, the far one Silence). The orange groups are your standard Paladin/Cavalier groups, and the yellow ones are Falcoknight/Peg Knight groups. The pegasi are the bigger problem here, because the pass is pretty narrow and they can more or less pick any target they choose as you spread out to move forward. Roy, Niime, and your thief (if you brought one) are especially going to want to stick to the forests, or be surrounded when possible.

And of course: the only thing more annoying than AI units who cheat at Fog of War is flying AI units who cheat at Fog of War.



While the bulk of the force moves forward and Thany flies around dismanting ballistae, Geese is heading across the mountains to pick up the first village.



Thany and Clarine eat the bulk of the first pegasi squad.



Geese finds strength in pacifism as he sidesteps a ballista bolt for a level.



Fine, I didn't want that village yet anyway.

No, wait; stave assholes who cheat at Fog of War. They’re far more annoying.



Why would you even put a ballista this far in the mountains anyway? When you have to use pegasi just to man the damn thing, you might have chosen a poor location.

Well... the mountains will be where all the pesky flying units will try to sneak through. So...



More magic!



Oh, wonderful. Not who I want frontlining against some paladins and whatever else is out there.



You're not helping, Rutger!



And neither are you!



Peg knights: round two.



You could have attacked Dieck from range, but no. Your funeral, buddy.

Guess the potential damage output was just too good to pass up.



The whole "pegasi swooping in from the darkness" strategy works a lot better when the enemy doesn't have one of their own scouting around.



What are you even doing out here, troubadour? You didn't even heal anyone or anything.

Just because the enemy cheats doesn’t mean it cheats competently.



Hitting things harder is the order of the day, it would seem.







Clarine picks up a level from curing Lugh's Silence and moves a step closer to evasion singularity.



Fa, meanwhile, continues to be Fa.

Every time I see her stats it takes me like two seconds to remember about the Dragonstone bonuses.



Thany continues her systematic extermination of Ilia's pegasus knight population, but is poorly rewarded. But she can use Killing Edges now.







This and the ballista closest to the village are Long Ballistae. If nothing else, Ilia's anti-air division is well prepared.

I was about to say, the question you should’ve been asking was this: Why has the country with pretty much a monopoly on flyers invested so heavily in anti-air defences? But then, I remembered Wyverns. So, yeah. Still, though.



Oh, look who finally woke up. Get to it son, that village isn't going to save itself.



I'm curious if the AI just doesn't acknowledge that Thany has the Delphi Shield, because this ballistician more or less has his choice of anyone in the army (including Roy, Elphin, Chad, and Niime) but goes after Thany instead.



Clarine why are you not getting crits you need to get crits to be useful

Not a phrase mages really want to hear.



Like lambs to the slaughter. When you're getting doubled by Bartre, you know you're a failure of a peg knight.



Jerks.



Got a bit of a mess here, so let's start cleaning up.





Situational awareness?



Dieck continues to basically be the best tank in the army.



All the +1's for the best dragon.



Wow, there's a not-insignficant chance that Elphin won't max speed. That's...kind of sad.

Admittedly it’s more of a principle thing, what with bards never ever being meant to see combat, but, yeah.


The prophecies were correct... The world is covered in darkness... A single blade of wind will slice through the darkness and the light will shine again. [Got Aircalibur]

Well that was helpful and totally not a waste of lots of Geese's turns.

Also, he’s full of shit. Wind doesn’t slice through Dark. Dark beats Wind! I thought villagers in this game were supposed to be the guys who couldn’t shut up about the Weapon Triangle and other weapon related mechanics? Who let this guy take on the item-dispensing duties?



Of all the fights the AI could have picked, it went with this one. The murderchicken knows no mercy, even for the pretty flying ponies.

Not sure on this, but I think the AI doesn’t factor in the Dragonstone bonuses.



Fa smites the Silence druid for her last kill of the chapter. One can never have too much in their day, but the RNG clearly disagrees.



Surprise, surprise, boss is sitting on the castle.



Sigune gets brownie points for being a Falcoknight boss, which is rare enough in the series, but that's about all she's getting. Her offensive stats are nothing to write home about, her defenses aren't that great, and she's weighed down by that spear. On top of that, she has no way to heal herself, and no Delphi Shield. If you're not steamrolling her, you're doing something incredibly wrong.

Perhaps a commentary on Pegasus Knights in FE6? Ah well.

Fun fact: There is no way for you to get a Spear of your own in the main game, and the Short Spear doesn't show up until FE7. Lance users are stuck with the Javelin as their only source of ranged damage.

This, on the other hand, is just dumb.


But I've made up my mind now. Take this ring, it brings out your inner powers. ...Please grant this land peace. [Got Energy Ring]



If you're ridiculously slow, these bandits will pop up to threaten the village, but there's really no reason they should be any kind of threat. By the time they show up, both villages should have easily been saved.



Right, let's just call this one a day. I was really hoping Lilina would be able to just one-shot her, but alas, t'was not to be.



Congratulations. But it's over. You will die...right here, right now.

Yeah, let's not even pretend you have a chance here.

The irony is that it’s going to be wind that kills her. I guess for full karmic payback the ideal would’ve been Fimbulvetr, but, hey. Small victories for insignificant opponents.



...to die... But maybe...I had already died...a long time...ago...

Yeah, yeah, that's nice. Next time: Shut the fuck up Zealot, you couldn't have defended shit.

-----

Thany vs. Sigune

You... You're Yuno's youngest sister. You would fight me?

...

By the honor of an Ilian knight... I won't go easy on you. All right?

Yes...

Tate vs. Sigune

Tate? What are you doing here? Oh...you've joined the Etrurian side.

Captain Sigune...

You know the Ilian knightly code. I won't go easy on you.