Part 16: Noel Canyon - Part 2

Last time, we found ourselves crossing the Noel Canyon, on our way to liberate Tahra. Blocking our way is a force led by General Largo. Accompanying Largo are two empire soldiers, Olwen, the sister of the famous general Rinehardt, and her deputy Fred. The pair reveal some tension in the empire's ranks, centered around General Kempf's jealousy for Rinehardt. Meanwhile, Dorias is the worst advisory ever and refuses to tell us how to win the upcoming battle. Every reset in this chapter is on you Dorias !

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_{Yeah these are the wrong characters, my bad. Look at the next photo for our actual party.}

This chapter is pretty much as hard as you make it. I mean, it's still fairly tough regardless, but there are a couple of optional objective to complete that make it tougher. First, there are the two villages. The northern village is the hardest to get to, the thief will destroy it in around 3 turns, we need to get there as fast as possible. This would be easier if it weren't for the armor shown in the second screenshot above. He's sitting on a fort, which gives 10 defense and 20 avoid. Killing him wouldn't be that tough, but he has a fire sword, so we want to capture him instead. Capturing someone on a fort is tough. He's sporting 22 defense, and since a character's strength is halved when capturing, even damaging him while capturing will be tough. Secondly, the two thieves who destroy the villages have stamina drinks. If possible, we'd like to capture them, which is hard because the second you make it to a village they'll turn around and head safely into the backlines.

Getting the southern village is easy, the northern village is the hard part. We need to capture the armor first turn for it to even be possible. Of course, since we need to move so fast to get to the village, we'll be opening ourselves up to ballista fire from all corners. Ballistas are quite powerful, they have 15mt each, plus around 4-7 strength from their wielders. There's also a bishop with bolting who's positioned to hit anyone who steps on the village. Say, did I ever mention you can't change unit position? As it stands, Fergus and maybe Fin are the only characters we have who can even make it to the village, due to where they start. Carion and his 18 defense (with the Elite Sword) would be ideal to shrug off ballista, but due to where he deploys, he simply can't make it to the village.

This isn't all, but I'll save some of the other stuff for later. Suffice to say coming up with a strategy to make it out with as many rewards as possible isn't easy. It took me around 7 retries to come up with a strategy that got me both villages, the fire sword, and one of the stamina drinks (and to execute it without issues.)





Asvel's going to weaken the armor. Magic gets around the fort's defense boost, although we have to hope he doesn't crit.



That'll do.



And here's part 2. Note the mediocre accuracy, the enemies have got 3 leadership stars on their side, giving them +9 Avd/Acc. On the flipside, we've got 3 leadership stars too, 1 from Fin, and 2 from "Leaf". Leaf doesn't actually get any leadership stars by himself, because, c'mon, he sucks. However, he does get leadership from Dorias and August being around, meaning he's got 2 now.



Anyways, Fergus manages to capture the armor, and Fin moves to swap and drop him.







Both thieves go to do their thief stuff.



Well, that would have been unfortunate. Luckily the ballista misses. Since effective damage triples a weapons Mt, ballistas do around 50 damage before defense, which is easily enough to put Karin out of her misery in one shot.

A second ballista attacks Asvel, but misses.



I had a reason for bringing Karin y'know. And it's not stupidity. Karin rescues Shiva...



And carries him across the river. This time, she isn't in range of a ballista.



Fergus is almost at the village.



Fin and Carion are going to take care of one of the ballistas, and cut off the thief's path of retreat.



Everyone else is just going to bait out some of the northern ballistas. Ballistas only have 10 bolts, and so become completely useless once they run out. Unlike 6 and beyond, ballistas are their own units, and not a feature of the terrain usable by archers.



End of the second enemy phase and the thief has almost made it to the village.



Fergus dodges two bolts, and Fin dodges a third.



All good things come to an end though.



Fergus can do two things, heal and protect the village.



Between Fin and Carion one of the ballistas go down. They can do two things too, they're also stopping the the thief from escaping.

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Uh...

to go to Dandrum and make a report.

Phew, that's better. (This part is glitchy, the third line of text starts covering the first.)

I would like to stay here and fight with you..
No, your mission is to observe the situation and report back. I appreciate your offer, but you must return to Dandrum.
Then if only for a few moments...
...Very well, if you insist so. But only until it's time to go back. Understood?
Yes, thank you. Let's go, Fred!
Yes, my lady.

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]
And with that, Olwen and Fred join the fray. Neither is incredibly strong, but it doesn't matter much because like the text suggests, they won't be staying for long.



Now, what's Karin up to?





...What? I mean, I realize we cut off your escape path, but is running into our side of the map really the best idea. _{Turns out it is, damn thieves are clever.}



God damn look at the size of those bolts. Neither Fergus nor Fin take a hit here, which is fairly lucky.



Remember the bishop I talked about? If the two ballistas had hit, along with bolting, he probably would have died. Not so likely, but when it comes to gambling Fire Emblem isn't my game. _{I've been called a go-fish shark though.}



[Fergus: Lv. 18, Hp: 34, Str: 15, Skl: 12, Spd: 12, Luk: 13, Def: 7, Bld: 10]



Oh hey, who's that?



Tobolza can be a hassle, stat-wise he's not that intimidating, but he's sporting a Silver Lance, as well as continue. Right now he's heading for Fergus. Tobolza is the last, previously unmentioned obstacle to visiting the northern village. He also annoys me on principle, because he's not explained. He's just some random mid-boss hanging out in the mountains who likes annoying you.



This is why the southern village isn't much of a hassle, you can just ferry a unit over with Karin, then ferry them back, all the while staying out of range of any ballistas.

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We get a rescue staff. Rescue lets you warp a unit from anywhere on the map to a space adjacent to its caster. Only three uses though.

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Fergus is again doing two things here, he's blocking off the thief from escaping north, and staying out of Tobolza's range (god I hate that name, I never can remember how it's spelled). He also heals. Fin, Carion, Bryton, and Asvel are going to attack the thief from the south, and move into position to help Fergus with Tobolza.



That's bad.



That's good.

[Fin: Lv. 14, Hp: 33, Str: 11, Mgc: 2, Skl: 8, Spd: 15, Luk: 9, Def: 9, Bld: 9]

That's bad.



That's also bad. Fred and Olwen are almost upon us, and we still need to take care of the guy on the dragon who I am now calling Tim because his real name is terrible.



I really should have given him more vulnerarys, he's run out and we're hardly in the clear yet. I also really should have taken out the northern ballista here. I've kept it around for a reason, but in truth it didn't need to be this ballista specifically (in fact, a different ballista would have been better).



Karin ferries Shiva back to safety. Why yes, I did forget to visit the village, thanks for asking.







Take two! Note that Fred and Olwen are almost upon us.



This isn't good. I can't heal Fergus anymore, and I can't get him to safety without getting rid of this thief. The thief is impossible to double, he's got an attack speed of 8, and it's impossible to get past 10 while capturing. Fergus and his Brave sword is probably the only unit who can take him down. More importantly, he has to take him down, or Tim and the ballistas are probably going to kill him.



It's hard to build suspense when you know that I couldn't have died or else I wouldn't be making the update.



[Asvel: Lv. 3, Hp: 27, Str:0, Mgc: 14, Skl: 13, Spd: 20, Luk: 8, Def: 7, Bld: 6]



You can never have enough S drinks.



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And they're gone.

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Way to go Shiva.



Tim changes position.

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From here we get a magic up staff. Magic up has the same effect as a holy water on it's target. It's got 5 uses.

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Karin rescues Shiva, while Fin moves onto a fort to fight Tim.





Makua grabs every scroll and kills Tim. Rest in peace Tim, you were a dick.



Nanna levels from healing ballista wounds.

[Nanna: Lv. 11, Hp: 23, Str: 6, Mgc: 6, Skl: 10, Spd: 12, Luk: 16, Def: 4, Bld: 6] Really?



Makua takes down two soldiers up north. I was hoping she'd level from this, but no dice.



Anyways, the northern ballista (the one near the soldiers Makua killed), is out of ammo, but there are still 4 ballistas in this general area, and so I'm going to have some of our lower-leveled characters waste their ammo while holding every scroll for some good levels.



[Makua: Lv. 15, Hp: 31, Str: 8, Mgc: 3, Skl: 20, Spd: 20, Luk: 11, Def: 7, Bld: 7] Or some bad levels I guess.



[Havan: Lv. 13, Hp: 36, Str: 12, Skl: 10, Spd: 11, Luk: 4, Def: 9, Bld: 15] That's a little bit more in line with what I'm looking for.



[Othin: Lv. 14, Hp: 39, Str: 8, Mgc: 1, Skl: 9, Spd: 14, Luk: 11, Def: 6, Bld: 17] That's not what I'm looking for. Othin's strength is somewhat unfortunate. It's below what I'd like it to be (and what averages say it should be), but between wrath, axes and his great build (so he can use strong weapons without penalty) he's still very offensively capable.



[Bryton: Lv. 13, Hp: 31, Str: 9, Mgc: 1, Skl: 7, Spd: 10, Luk: 2 Def: 8, Bld: 14] That's pretty good, especially for Bryton.

This last level also just so happens to perfect coincide with all the ballistas running out of ammo.



Before we press on, Karin has one more task ahead of her.







All he has is weapon wise is a siege tome, which means we can capture him without having to fight him.



With that done, we can finally keep on beat the map. The group of armors here don't move, and have 4 long swords and 2 long bows between them, which means they're ideal for capturing. The first armor is on a fort, but Bryton and his hammer should get around that.



[Nanna: Lv. 12, Hp: 24, Str: 7, Mgc: 6, Skl: 11, Spd: 12, Luk: 16, Def: 4, Bld: 7] Decent.



After spending multiple turns trying to hit the armor twice before his regen makes it so he can survive another hit, I say screw it and let Carion go at him with an armorslayer. Unsurprisingly it works.



This is going to be a lot easier without having to deal with the fort.



It's hammer time









That was fun.



[Nanna: Lv. 13, Hp: 25, Str: 7, Mgc: 6, Skl: 12, Spd: 12, Luk: 17, Def: 4, Bld: 7] I'm jealous of Fedule's Mist.



Carion moves onto a forest. I was going to have him capture the armor on the fort, but I hadn't realized the group of cavaliers would move. He kills two.



A group of enemies start heading our way, while the two remaining cavaliers come our way too.



One of them has a horseslayer, so everyone on a horse retreats.





This guy has an armorslayer. These two cavaliers are pretty much designed to screw over anyone who's not checking enemy weapons. They're pretty much one hit kills against either group; a horseslayer has 14mt for example, which means it has 42mt against any knights.



Makua fails to kill him. I wanted to give her the kill, so I don't finish him.



Well shit, that's lucky. This actually happened to me another time, and Bryton dodged that time too.











Bryton weakens the mage, getting a level from it.

[Bryton: Lv. 14, Hp: 32, Str: 10, Mgc: 2, Skl: 8, Spd: 11, Luk: 2, Def: 8, Bld: 14] Not bad, not bad at all, especially for Bryton.









Fergus takes the captured enemy from Bryton, putting him next to the armor (on the fort). Unsurprisingly, it dies.



So does he.

Next, Othin and Makua go around killing ballistas. I was hoping for a level from either of them, but no such luck.

Alright, time to take down Largo.



He's a tough one. Largo has pretty great stats, sky-high defense (27 with terrain bonuses), and incredibly powerful weapons. He's also got 2 movement stars.



Carion equips his Elite sword and waits outside of Largo's range. He'd have to take three hits to die, which would require Largo to proc his movement stars twice and hit all three times. In short, it's not very likely. Having done that, we can now attack Largo from up close without penalty, as long as we don't end our turn in front of him. Since we're outdoors (and so our mounted units can use any of their remaining move after taking an action), this won't be hard to do.



Before we kill him, Lara steals his Knight's Proof. Capturing Largo would be too difficult to be worth the trouble.



Karin rescues her and takes her out of Largo's range.



Makua's going to take him down using our armorslayer. We could also use our hammers, but they're way too inaccurate.





[Makua: Lv. 16, Hp: 32, Str: 9, Mgc: 3, Skl: 20, Spd: 20, Luk: 12, Def: 7, Bld: 8] Now that's what I'm talking about!

With everyone dead, it's the moment you've all been waiting for



Marty gets every scroll, a broken hand-axe, and attacks a ballista on a mountain. 10 Exp down, 1890 to go . Broken weapons are incredibly heavy (20 wt), and have no hit, crit or mt. In short, perfect for never actually killing someone. Do you know what's funny? If a weapon breaks, you don't switch to a working weapon, you keep the broken weapon equipped. Did I say funny? I meant incredibly frustrating.

Anyways, a couple hundred turns later:



Hell yes! He didn't make it 20 because he actually killed the ballista, hitting multiple times for a couple points of damage with a 2% chance. I had to rerecord because of a recording error (I have those squared away now though), and so this is a different Marty than the one I originally posted in the thread. He's worse in every way except he has 4 more points of speed, which actually means he's way better because he'll still cap Strength and Defense.



I prepare to hate myself and put Makua into the arena. She's a couple of exp from a level and I'd like her to have every scroll when it happens. She retreats from her first fight.



But fares better on her second attempt.

[Makua: Lv. 17, Hp: 33, Str: 10, Mgc: 3, Skl: 20, Spd: 20, Luk: 12, Def: 8, Bld: 9] And gets a nearly perfect level from it.



Next, I buy a couple of torches from the shop. Can't go wrong with torches. There's also an armory selling swords, but I don't buy any. Weapons are damn expensive, it's around 3000 gold for a steel sword. Keep in mind I only had around 22000 after getting Shiva 11 levels in the arena. Capturing is really the best way to get weapons in Thracia 776, as you may have noticed, I prefer using money on consumables like torches and S drinks instead.



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Who is she?
Since she was headed towards Dandrum Fortress, she probably returned to inform her superiors of our attack.
That means the enemy will be ready for us.
That's right, Lord Leaf. Dandrum Fortress is said to be impregnable as it is. And now that we've given the enemy time to set up its defenses, taking down the fort will prove to be quite an ordeal.

Understatement of the century right here.

But we have no other route.
Right, in order to go to Tahra, we must pass through Dandrum.
Then we have to get going. If we sit here and wait, we'll only be giving the enemy more time to prepare!

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Current Resets: 10 17 (Pretty much all within the first 5 minutes of starting the chapter, it's a very front-loaded chapter)

Next time on Thracia 776: How is that even fair IntSys?