Part 40: The Calm Before
Informal thread challenge: Try to find something worthwhile and relevant to say about this map. I'm not sure it can be done, but we'll get a new page six posts from now and tomorrow's update will be a big one. It's probably best that we get a new page for it. So you can post about other stuff too, I guess! Now's a good time for questions and comments.Chapter 33: The Calm Before
(Or, "Why Is This Even Here?")
This is probably the shortest update in the LP. It's also the only one so far with no portraits or transcription. None at all!
Forgot to do any selling, apparently. Oops.
This is a
I do a lot of skill stuff that becomes irrelevant for reasons you'll soon hear.
Errands aren't available, as you see. My strategy here is pretty simple: Camp Margus and Igraine by the entrance, have Alhambra run out to the scouting point, and have Igraine murder the hell out of anything that gets in the way on our way out.
You can't go into the lower area, the enemies can't follow you up there, and the archers seem unable to shoot you.
There are no conversations this map.
Alhambra doesn't actually need the Black Ring, since 11 move is all that's required to reach this point in two turns. Alhambra, Owl, and Rukia can all do this, but you need one movement Ring for Owl and two for Rukia.
If enemies appear, they're going to appear from behind the starting point. Igraine's Sedna Prison should make this simple.
Support skills make it fairly easy to see the charging animation even for people that can't attack. I don't really use them, and I don't run mages past enemies, so I hadn't seen Igraine's. And, well, apparently...
Igraine can fly.
What.
Oh, right, I'd forgotten. There's three waypoints.
If I remember correctly, waypoint 3 is too far for even Alhambra to reach from waypoint 1, even if you have her stop at the lower part. Since you need to escape afterward, you're not clearing all three in two turns. Plus, trying to do this with two units runs into another problem.
Waypoint 2 cleared, with the exit as waypoint 3. Now it's time to escape.
While I'm thinking about it, I have Margus face the entrance and have Igraine move up so that Sedna Prison covers every point around her where enemies could spawn. I don't remember exactly what happens, but I'm prepared!
I have this feeling that enemies are going to spawn the moment I cross an invisible line. May as well avoid that if I can.
Oh, hey, that works.
They're down there, but there's an escape waypoint up here now.
The bottom-most Armor has Cure Drop. None of the others have skills, though the High Priests do have Cure Drop and Magic Guard.
I could kill them all, sure. Put Margus in front of the foremost Armor, put Aegil behind him, put Igraine above her. Sedna Prison, attack, Oratoriorae a survivor or two. It's not interesting enough to show off.
Victory!
...really? Only a normal Victory? When you consider that everyone needs to escape, I'm pretty sure this is just about as fast as this can possibly be done. I could shave off one turn, maybe, if I had four +move rings.
The White Ring is the highest level of +MC ring, adding +10 MC. I might actually put it on Naji instead of a Copper Ring -- remember, MC increases both experience and OB gain.
Told you this is short.
That said, I'm curious. I realized that previous waypoints weren't actually the marked area, but instead all spaces past them. So it's possible Alhambra could just run right past the second waypoint, which would shave off another turn.
Oh, hey, it works!
This really is as fast as it can possibly be done -- a Complete Victory must be outright impossible here.
The item rewards are exactly the same.
I did this out of curiosity, not because I screwed up, so I'm not counting it as a reset. (It's not like I opened up reset count bets anyway.)
The time is so low in part because I forgot to redo skill set-up. I'll have to do that again next map.
Total resets so far: 15 (+0)
Next time: Rovencrone