Part 36: Chapter 16a: The Norden Line - Part 1

Now that we've seen the B route, I say it's time we go back and see what happens if we listened to Dorias back in Chapter 15. For reasons I'll explain shortly, I've already decided this route will be non-canon, and we'll be continuing the game from the route B save after I show route A.







The Freege's elite forces were stationed there, prepared to defend against the Liberation Army...

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Nicarf isn't even a palette swap of Largo (the boss of chapter 10). It's literally the same sprite. It's also one of the most used sprites in the game, we've seen it at least three times now.

They call themselves a Liberation Army, but their strength is but that of simple brigands. I shall take them down with my legion with ease.
With ease, you say? Don't give me that nonsense, boy! Who was it who shamefully abandoned his troops and fled from Dandrum Fortress? That was you, Kempf! Now listen to me. We are up against Lenster's Lansritter forces. With Prince Leaf leading them and their homeland in front of them, their morale is as high as the midday sun. You will die if you take them lightly!

And yet we only have two leadership stars. Also, Nicarf is pretty cool.

Yes... I'm sorry...
You will stay here and defend the bridge. The ballistas will cover you from the rear lines. Do not fight outside their range. This is an order!
Yes...
We will start our offense when the reinforcements from Alster arrive. We will charge the enemy from front and rear and crush them in one quick stroke.
Reinforcements from Alster?
Yes. Count Conomore will bring about 100 of his knights. The enemy will suffer a surprise attack from behind by the strongest army in Northern Thracia.
I see... ...But then the credit won't be mine... I need to defeat them on my own...

Oh Kempf. So narcissistic. So stupid.

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This bridge is the only way across the river. However, an army of heavy infantry is guarding it, and we will also be in the attack range of the ballistas.
Then we'll have to lure the heavy infantry outside the ballistas' attack range.
It will be difficult to get them to move away from their defense point.
But it's worth a try. There must be some way...



Please, Lord Leaf. I want to be of some use to you!

Oh Olwen. That was a bad idea.

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And here we are. This is a fairly straight forward map. Difficult, but straight forward. We need to save some houses, kill some guys, deal with some bullshit, seize a throne. The usual.



Here's Eyrios. Eyrios has already gone by another name in the LP - PFR. He's the replacement we get if Olwen is dead, and so, I've decided to make the A route non-canon so that we can kill Olwen and show off Eyrios for two chapters. Even though it's non-canon, I'll still be playing as if it were, so I'll still be keeping everyone alive and getting all the special items I can.

He's got decent stats, a shitload of good weapons, and some decent skills. Honestly, I kind of prefer Eyrios to Olwen, but neither is objectively better. Also, the leadership stars go away when we recruit him. Obviously.



Next is Kempf. Honestly, Kempf isn't that much better than when we first saw him, and is less of a threat than Eyrios, albeit better positioned.



Brook is a palette swap of a sprite we already saw being reused this chapter, which is pretty sad. It's also a pretty bad swap. He's armed to the teeth with a lot of good weapons, with any luck we can bait him into using his Master Bow instead of his Master Lance to attack us at a range, letting us capture him fairly easily up close. He also brings the enemy leadership star total up to 8 (+24 acc/avd), although recruiting Eyrios bumps that down to a much more manageable 5.

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We have 15 vacant slots. Olwen and Karin are coming, so choose 13 characters from: Makua, Dean, Homer, Karin, Tina, Nanna, Seram, Marita, Carion, Fergus, Marty, Lara, Asvel, Othin, Havan, Safy, Fin, Ronan, Shiva, Pahn, Glade, Linoan, and Ralph, under the condition that one of them being capable of stealing (So Lara, Pahn or Tina. Yes, Lara can still steal.)

Fatigue Counter:

Olwen: 5/26
Makua: 21/35
Dean: 9/37
Homer: 31/32
Karin: 6/35
Nanna: 15/31
Seram: 17/29
Marita: 13/38
Tina: 7/14
Carion: 8/45
Fergus: 5/38

Musings: You can probably be a little lenient about fatigue, because it only matters for the next chapter.