Part 12: BF11 – White Rose Domain

The Royal Army quickly destroyed the house of the Black Rose, avoiding a disastrous battle between the two fearsome magic powers.

However, they soon found themselves dealing with another situation: an Imperial coup d'etat withing the White Rose Domain.

Rosary, the head of the house of the White Rose, fled her manor and narrowly escaped from the Empire, which continued to persue her.

To save her from this predicament, the Royal Army hurried to the White Rose Domain.







...I apologize, but I must ask the White Rose Army to disarm.



You're...!?

If you don't raise a struggle, I won't have to kill you. But you must come with me.

You... You ticked me!?

Sorry... Those are my orders. We'll make sure you're comfortable while in custody. Take her away!

Yes, Sir!

Tch...!



*pant* *pant*

There she goes! After her!





We're only allowed to bring in one additional unit for support. There's lots of water, and we'll need someone with high Luk, so Nietzsche will likely be the better choice.

Lady Rosary's pursuer is the Astral Fencer Russell...!

So, that's what he was doing there!

Saving Rosary is our first priority. After that, we'll launch our counterattack!



The mission starts off with this new character's turn. Look at that card – 2400 power. We don't want to lose to that.



She flies in from the North and heads straight to White Rose Manor.

Ahh, Emelia. You mean this? I got it from Zilva.

I just need to deliver it, right? Leave it to me!

Emelia, be very careful with that... If you drop it, it could be very dangerous. Go straight home, okay?

D-Don't worry! I'll keep it safe!





Rosary's turn is next, but she's content to chill out.



Here's Emelia, and she belongs to a new class – Griffon Rider. Obviously, her class is a Knight killer with both the weapon advantage, and > Knight ability. She's weak against Hunters, but that doesn't matter right now. Ice damage is a huge problem for her, and Blizzard will cause Fatal Damage. Nietzsche's Aggressive attack also works quite well against Griffons, despite the weapon disadvantage. Her flight movement allows her to pass through any obstacle, and she negates all terrain and Geo effects. Her stats are well balanced and her card is exceptional – it causes Tec+1 – Gen Dark damage, and curses the unit if Tec >= Gen. Curse gives you Slow movement – 1 tile per turn – and also makes you incredibly weak in combat.



We've seen Russell already, but god damn he's back in this mission with a vengeance. He matches our attack stats, and beats out most Tec and Luk stats as well. His Shin Zantetsu also has an excellent ability, which we'll have the misfortune to see in action.



The lone hunter has 2,1,3,2 stats. His low attack should make him easy prey. The other Fencers are a bit stronger at 2,2,2,1, and the Necromancers are 1,2,3,3 – the strongest non-elite soldiers we face.



Rosary starts off fairly well. True to her class, she has high Tec and Luk. Her Gen and Atk leave room for improvement though. Her biggest combat benefit is her Staff advantage vs all basic melee units.



Both Nietzsche and Rosary have the Luk required to plunder Russell's equipment, so we can safely use Steal to get in position. Since Russell's Fencers can use Item Break, and both ladies have equipment, Yggdra joins the union in the second attack. This is the time where enemies will generally hit Max, so we should be able to make them waste Item Break on Yggdra.

Steal also leaves us with the 2 movement required to recruit Rosary this turn, which is essential in saving turns to get Quick Clear.



Yeah, ok.





Yggdra and the Fencer fight on evenly, but Yggdra has the Atk advantage. As we'd hope, the Fencer harmlessly throws Item Break at Yggdra. The Fencer survives the encounter with 523 morale.



Don't let anyone tell you Luk is a bad stat.

Anyways, with both Fencers out of the way, Yggdra runs to Rosary.





That was a close one.

Lasy Rosary, what happened?

Right after you beat the Black Rose, they betrayed me... They turned right around and started attacking us.

That was most likely their intention from the start.

How dare they... Excuse me, I'm going to go put this right! I'm worried about the land... About my people.

Don't worry. We shall accompany you.

Let's hurry and send the Imperial Army packing!



There he is! The Astral Fencer...

We shall recover this domain from the Empire! Charge!

We immediately get a second turn, so let's put it to good use.



With Shield Barrier, Yggdra charges right in, targeting Emelia. Emelia's + Union is the perfect opportunity to pull a lot of units into the battle. None of the males are in very good position to get a large fight. It means we'll be up against Gravity Chaos' 2400 Pow, but Shield Barrier won't fail us.





Yggdra starts with a great charge, and wins easily with her Sword advantage.



The enemy Fencer tries to use Gravity Chaos against Nietzsche, but we were prepared with Shield Barrier. Nietzsche clears the Fencer from the map.





Rosary has no issue against the Astral Fencer, but he's still in this fight.





Yggdra has a difficult battle against the Necromancer, but again Shield Barrier brings her out on top. The Necromancer still has 650 morale because of his Fort Geo bonus.





Russell's Hunter leads his team's charge. We won't a have to worry about Item Break this time, and all our battles look favourable. We get three victories out of the deal. Shield Barrier is awesome in situations like this where you can't predict what the counterattack will be.

The Hunter survives, as does Emelia, but the Necromancer is finished.

Did I mention Emelia is one of the five Dragon Generals? Well, she is. So she gets this awesome music on the offensive.



Ah, excellent timing. Emelia's got the goods now.

… Then, your task is complete.

Right, all that's left is to finish up here... What a dirty job... I guess it's mine, though.



Emelia's turn, and she flees with the package. I believe she has morale protect status, so we wouldn't be able to finish her off to get her card if we wanted to. Her item is steal-able, though, but I'm not sure if it's worth it to bring Milanor into Fencer central.



Zilva sends her special forces out. Elena leads the way, with the two Valkyries following.





The Assassins have no surprises for us. Zilva is the stronger of the pair, but Elena has a high Luk. Zilva's Murderous Mask makes it so OUR skill gauge constantly decreases, unless we go passive or aggressive. In either case, it behaves normally.

The Valk's are 1,2,3,2. Not much to worry about. Our turn starts at Night, so we're going to leave them alone for now. Even without the ability to counter, Assassins are assholes with their advantage, and they'd be able to use Bloody Claw now.



Instead, Rosary will lead an attack against Russell. We're using the almost unused Flame right now, to test out the Instant Charge ability Rosary has from her Frilly Lace. Yggdra takes second in the union again, to eat Item Break.





Rosary begins by dominating Russell with her charge. We go passive a bit, and then as soon as we hit X to charge Flame, it's ready to go. We should be able to do at least 3 damage with our Tec/Gen difference, but Russell doesn't have that many units. Oh well, let's do it anyways.







We get a nice 10% Status-Damage bonus for our trouble, so it's worth it.





Yggdra stays passive as long as possible, and doesn't use Flame or any aggression. Russell had just barely used Item Break, so even though his gauge looks full, it isn't. There's a couple seconds of animation for the gauge draining – that's how close this was. I didn't expect that massive charge out of Yggdra so early.



Nietzsche wraps up the turn, and Russell is probably one or two good clashes away from defeat.



This doesn't look too good for us. Bow users have a massive advantage against Staff users, especially on the offensive. At least we can use Flame to bring the numbers down.





Two Flames, actually. We lose, but it's not as bad as a straight-up fight would have been.







It was a close one. Yggdra's low Tec didn't give her enough aggressive time to counter Russell's increasing Rage. Combined with a few extra Flash Attacks from his 4 Luk, and Yggdra goes down. 0-1, though. Not bad.



64% Surviving Units bonus? Hmm... That's what Russell's Damage Max ability does. We can see when a weapon has an effect if it shows up in the Bonuses category.



And Nietzsche kills the Hunter.



During Zilva's round, the entire force marches towards Milanor. Elena will never initiate an aggressive action against the Royal army, so it's good when she leads.





We won't be so generous against Elena, though. Rosary comes into a supporting position for Milanor. With Steal, we can start by getting Elena's item. Rosary will have no trouble against her Valkyrie foe, so will stay passive. With a full bar, Milanor should be able to brute force the second Valkyrie. It would be safer to pull Yggdra or Nietzsche in to help too, but there's no way to fit anyone into the union with Milanor leading, which we need for Steal. Looking at that commanding stat lead and adding a full bar for aggressive mode, I'm perfectly confident that Milanor will walk out victorious.





Milanor has time to Steal, and win a one-sided battle against Elena.

Rosary also destroys her opponent, and stays Passive for a good portion of the fight.





Milanor kept a slight lead the entire time against the Valkyrie. We had enough skill to keep it Green Dash vs. Red Star for the majority of the fight, combined with our higher Atk, and more Flash Attacks from our higher Luk.



That's a rare stone. It's full of magical power...





Nietzsche trades out the Obsidian we picked up, and moves closer to Zilva to try to lure her. She's still on the water, so she should have a good chance.



Russell takes some fire damage, and loses 10% of his morale.





His Necromancer attacks Yggdra, and it doesn't go well. He did 5 damage on his charge, compared to 1 for our counter attack. Unlucky. With that 3 vs 2 Atk advantage, Yggdra should be quite capable of defeating Necromancers. If you have enough Skill to go aggressive for a while, her Holy damage will drill through them, and counteract the weapon advantage.



As hoped, Nietzsche draws fire. The Valkyrie is defeated effortlessly. I set Nietzsche passive, so she has more Aggression time against the biggest threat – Zilva.





We don't do bad, but can't fight that four unit lead. Nietzsche takes 322 damage; I'm not very concerned.







Elena is a different story. She starts with the same lead, but without the Rage bonus, and a lower Atk, Nietzsche wins.







….........

Zilva ends her turn by approaching Nietzsche.



If I do, it's only part of my mission.



Bloody Claw brings Yggdra and Milanor into the Union. Milanor is sent in last, to do the finishing blow.

Even if I do 100% damage each time, Zilva will take 3 clashes to be defeated. It's unlikely that Yggdra will be able to finish her off, so Milanor can safely collect her item through Luk.







Now that we're on the offensive, Zilva isn't a problem.





Rosary uses the last of the movement to head closer to Russell. She'll likely draw the attention of that Necromancer, and free up the North path so we can attack Russell.



Russell takes a little more Fire damage, and drops to 821. It is dispelled immediately after. In general, I think status effects are healed after 6 – Luk turns. With Russell's 4 Luk, he was affected twice.

The Necromancer does attack, but Rosary defends easily. The Necromancer still has about 50% morale left, and will prevent Rosary from attacking Russell.



Last turn to get the Quick Clear. Nietzsche comes in with Revolution, and should easily be able to deal the finishing blow. Since she has 4 Luk, Russell will also drop his item. With him defeated, the Necromancer will flee, and Rosary will have enough movement to reclaim her manor.





Just what I though.









The Imperial Army is in retreat! Shall we give chase?

No... Our first priority is the people of the White Rose.

So what exactly was the Empire trying to do here?

Just generally causing havoc isn't their style.

...I was a fool. They were after our Ankhs, of course.

What!?

So that's why they approached both houses as allies...

So what are you saying... The Black Rose's Ankh is...?

My men have already checked. It's gone...

Fantastic... Now the Empire has two freakin' Ankhs!

Look, I need a favor from you... Take me with you. I... I want to get the Ankhs back from those jackals. I know how much trouble I caused everyone... So I promise to use them for good... and never against for war.

Rosary...

I need to do my best... for Roswell's sake. I'm no novice when it comes to magic either, of course. I'm sure you'll find some use for me, right?

...Of course. We'd be honored for you to fight alongside us.

Thank you!





We'll make a great team!

You must obey the Princess' orders, though. Understand?

I'll behave, honest! Just watch me!

… Now I'm wondering if this is such a good idea...





Loot:


Black Brand: The Gen and Atk losses kinda suck, since Magicians aren't known for having either. The Tec up is nice, and the Dark Up is pretty great. Lasts for 2 maps.


Murderous Mask: Atk and Tec increases both play to an Assassin's strength, so you should be able to play that over the Gen -6. Lowers Gauge is shit, though, even for 1 map. It only effects the player's gauge, not the enemy's rage bar.


Lightning Bow: Only Golems are weak against Lightning, but if you planned on using Thunderbolt, the Lightning Up would be good. Overall some small stat-ups, too. 2 maps.


Shin Zantetsu: Fuck yes. 3 stats up, and Damage Max. This is a wrecking ball of an item, and it lasts for 3 maps.


O great Marionette of destruction... Awaken to my call – Pupper Master Exthiel
Doll Craft: Rosary's trademark card. It will deal 2 damage in battle, and summon a Golem. The Golem can make a good meat shield if you need one, since the AI likes targeting them. Need to watch out for where the Golem is summoned, though, so you don't destroy a crucial town or bridge. It has 11 Move, bringing it up second to Steal.


O angry goliath, sentencing the earth... Shake Gaia with thy hammer of destruction – Doekes, Lord of Rage
Earthquake: Only Golems can use it, and only Golems can Ace it. More likely to mess you up than do anything worthwhile.


Rosary - We finally have a Staff user, woo. She grows to high Tec and Luk, and middle Gen. Her Atk doesn't naturally raise higher than 3, so she'll definitely need work if we plan on using her long-term. Void Fire is one of the better immunities, since we fight a lot of other Witches, and another unit that will use Fire. On the other hand, we need to be careful about when we use Rosary's Aggression, which also deals fire damage.
Her Frilly Lace is currently increasing both her Tec and Luk, so when that expires she will be 2,2,3,3.

Closing

This is a pretty relaxing map, compared to last mission. You're not being blasted by Ankhs, and only a few units on the map can pose a threat. You start to see a good variety of classes in one area, though, so some counterattacks may break through your defense.

Emelia is a pretty easy fight, for good Exp. Gravity Chaos will fuck your shit, though, and you need to watch out for it if you plan on attacking her. Regardless of what you do, she'll flee with the Ankh after a turn.

Zilva and Elena: Both are easy, as long as you don't get attacked at night. If you're on Elena's side, she'll generally take the lead, and she'll block anyone from attacking you. It will allow you to get in position to take them out on your terms. The entire squad is on the grass, unlike Russell's group, so without Geo modifiers they should fall very quickly.

Russell is a badass. He can defeat Rosary and her low Atk in a straight fight, but Nietzsche and Durant shouldn't have much trouble. His high Luk will likely bring critical hits, so try to lure other units to lead the charge by giving them a more favourable target.
Also take care to avoid getting any items broken. It might not be a huge deal if it will expire this map, unless you need the extra Luk to get his sword – such as Nietzsche's Gungnir.