Part 3: Bats, it just had to be bats
Part 2: Bats, it just had to be batsSo we enter that village and talk to the guy at the back of it.
That was quick.
He's standing right there, you know. Then again, you don't have a name or a portrait, so have fun being a throwaway NPC.
I accidentally took this screenshot in the second turn, so don't go thinking the fight starts with the party slightly split up. Everything on the map is either a giant rat or an ooze, except for that red dot at the bottom. That thing is...
On the one hand, flying enemies are annoying because they have a flat 25% chance to dodge an attack, which can be really unpleasant to deal with. On the plus side, fliers ignore terrain effect and therefore are generally vulnerable no matter where they are. While the giant bat does have a higher defense than the giant rat, it's still easier to kill because it gets no terrain effect.
See, my attack hasn't gone up that much, but I'm still doing over a third of that thing's life in one hit. That's the difference terrain effect makes. More often than not, flying enemies are glass cannons, so it's best to kill them as quickly as possible.
Forcing enemies into low terrain effect is difficult in this area, just because of how little of it there is. Luckily, at level 3 the rats and oozes don't hit too hard anymore and they're very nicely spaced out. Taken two at a time, this fight is much easier than the previous one.
Yeah I don't really fear anything anymore. Ten turns of slow advance later:
When you let the enemy beat up your healer for free, that's when you know the fight is easy. This is the last we'll see of oozes and rats, though. Enemies are getting an upgrade in short order.
Battle Report!
Level 5 2 HP/2 ATT/1 DEF/1 AGI
Level 4 1 HP/1 MP/1 ATT/1 DEF/1 AGI
Level 5 3 HP/2 ATT/3 DEF/2 AGI
Level 4 2 HP/1 ATT/2 DEF/1 AGI
The old guy dies and we learn nothing new at all, but we do get that elf guy to join our party. Also when we leave:
If I lose this fight, I don't actually get the standard penalties. Instead, the guy with the silly lemon-shaped head captures me and the plot moves along as normal. But fuck losing, because that's experience and gold I'd lose out on.
Huge bats will be making a return, but everything else is new. Let's review and compare:
Dudes hit quite a bit harder, but Jaha is so buff that I don't care. Annoyingly enough, the Galam archer is strictly stronger than the Galam soldier, rather than being some kind of glass cannon. This is probably to compensate for the fact that the AI has zero tactical planning, but it would be nice to reward the player for being able to single out the fragile enemies.
With all the heavy terrain in this area, I don't need to be too scared of the enemies.
You know, I was going to give everyone a breakdown of Kazin, but then this happened. One thing enemies do is randomly drop status effects on hit, and the giant bat can put people to sleep. Luckily, Kazin only lost one turn this time but it happened again directly afterwards.
Galam soldiers have 22 HP. Archers have the same defense but with 30 HP. Early fights really are a drawn-out slugfest.
Three turns later, I'm at a crossroads. Sarah could heal Kazin, who is ripe to get killed while he's sleeping should he get hit again. On the other hand, the giant bat has 1 HP left, and killing it would render Kazin safe. As easy at killing the bat sounds, it's worth noting that flying enemies have a flat 25% chance to dodge attacks, and dodging an attack would put Kazin in serious danger.
Screw it, I'd bet on 75%.
By the way, if you're ever broke, challenge me to a money match in Battle for Wesnoth. Easy money.
It's not even the god damn bat that kills Kazin. I have zero planning skills. Given that Kazin is a mage who casts spells that ignore defense values, this fight just got a lot harder.
The result is that I have to withdraw and take a much more defensive position. If Kazin were around, I might be able to take on more than two enemies at a time, but you just gotta roll with the punches.
I don't remember how I got myself into this situation, but it's not so bad since the soldier on the left is almost dead and Jaha only takes three damage a hit. Because the fucking bat put Sarah to sleep, I have to send Chester over to burn a medical herb.
As an aside, only healers get full experience from using a healing item. Anyone else who uses a healing item only gets 1 point from it, which is kind of a rip but also prevents you from being able to buy levels by buying up a ton of medical herbs and using them to level up. It still feels grimy stealing experience from Sarah, though.
Roughly six turns later, I clean out those two soldiers and the archer, and Jaha hits level six.
Not really afraid of this fight anymore. The situation:
That's a soldier in the middle, a bat at the bottom, and an archer with a bat to the right. Bats die in one turn if they don't dodge, soldiers do no damage provided they leash onto Jaha. Smoothing sailing right now.
This is why I don't play Battle for Wesnoth very often.
After the soldier and the bat get (patiently) wiped out, we're left with this. Luckily, the bat doesn't proc its sleep effect on me, so I'm golden to kill it in one turn and have fun.
Unlike knights wielding spears, archers cannot hit anything adjacent to them. Squirm, you asswipe.
Squirm
This goes on for ten turns because I have only Sarah hitting the archer to milk it for experience. She gains a level as a result.
This is probably the last time I will have this luxury.
Battle Report!
Level 6 1 HP/1 MP/1 ATT/2 DEF/1 AGI Level 6 2 HP/3 MP/2 ATT/2 DEF/2 AGI Level 6 2 HP/1 ATT/1 DEF/1 AGI Level 6 2 HP/2 ATT/3 DEF/2 AGI
Dead 
With Kazin lagging two levels behind everyone else, I'm going to have to feed him a lot of kills in the next fight or I'm going to be dragging a lot of dead weight in the near future.
Sir Lemon proceeds to praise us by suplexing Bowie so hard he blacks out.
NEXT TIME: Jailbreak!