Alright, we're all inventoried and ready to rock!
Rocking will commence shortly! Half of our army has to get on their horses.
While Karin has...Other things to do. Things like learning how to be death on wings, bringing untold suffering unto our enemies.
Sticking close to Nanna while she takes out that Ballista is probably Karin's best bet: Leaf's too slow to offer good protection, but Nanna's got Charisma, meaning she'll be boosting Karin's dodging, and Karin and Fergus have their supports, so that'll help her a bit as well. Supports aren't yet something you build, in case I haven't explained it thoroughly enough; a character that supports another grants a 10% bonus to accuracy, avoid, critical and critical evade when the other character is within a 3-square radius. Here, the effect isn't mutual unless the other character supports back. Karin and Fergus do support mutually, so this is her best chance of getting in range to take out the ballista.
Olwen gets Ambush going as well. Yay, skills!
And, somehow, Olwen is a more attractive bait for the ballista. Or Karin's inside the ballista's range bubble. Whatever.
The only other action this turn is a squad of horse archers. They do about two HP worth of damage to Fergus, and that's about it.
Ballista #1, down.
Lance rank! Yaaay!
Fergus takes out a horse archer for the first level of the map!
+1 Hp, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Luk
Minimal, but full of essential vitamins and nutrients.
The generic allies will be giving all of their supplies to their commander. Lenster and the Liberation Army thanks you, boys.
They stand there in bafflement, wondering why their commander -- or, perhaps, their god -- would be so cruel as to order them to be left weaponless in the face of such a great foe. Perhaps they already know: with weapons or without, they wouldn't have stood a chance.
...Dang, that's bleak. I'm sorry.
You know what cheers me up? Murder!
Taking out the rest of the archers is pretty easy. I leave one alive, I think more because half the squad is promoted and I like EXP than out of mercy or pragmatism.
The Lenster meatshields stand ready to face their certain fates.
Ow. But, eh, it's not Karin. She just has to deal with the surviving archers!
Neither of whom hit her.
Ballista #2 taken out. How did these guys get up here, anyway?
Asvel gets a healing level!
+1 Mag, +1 Luk, +1 Def
Oh, excellent! Good work, my boy!
Carion and Leaf handle the remaining horse archers, hopefully once and for all...
Fergus gets a movement star, which means he can charge ahead to try and capture a guy!
Aand done.
The Lenster guys do a decent job of lasting, if only because their opponents do not hit. Except this guy.
Karin finishes off this reinforcement...
And Fergus clears a bridge.
The Lenster army sadly begins to fall quickly. You were brave and noble soldiers...Who were completely irrelevant to everything.
Fergus takes some hits.
As does, actually, Karin. That arrow did less damage than I thought it would.
Karin weakens this guy as part of, you know, general foreward progres...
And Olwen clears the path for our boys.
Here's the status of our castle. Poor, poor Lenster knights.
There will be archers coming out of there presumably forever. Or at least until we're over the bridge.
Man, he is hanging in there like a trooper!
We're starting to get to the zone of enemies...
So Fergus is going to sit down at the edge of the boss's range and bait him out. He's got some scrolls, so he's protected from killing weapons. Let's do this.
Also, another Ballista bites the dust.
Selfina visits a village.
"Here, take this Hammer. I'm sure you could always use more weapons."
Hammers are always nice! The game assumes you hate enemy armors as much as the game hates your armors. Your one armor.
Carion takes out one of the two guards for that former ballista.
The trooper finally leaves this world. Goodnight, soldier.
And the final generic soldier falls.
Pushing Glade and Fergus into the fray.
Fergus is basically swarmed by ranged attackers, which does produce some very strange things...
Like this mage getting killed because he has no choice but to close-range attack Fergus.
Leaf's been taking on some of the endless reinforcements and actually helps take one out. Good for you!
The boss tromps up to Fergus, forced to come in close range...
Something I am sure he will deeply, deeply regret.
All the regret.
And on the turn following, after a little healing...
We say goodbye to our boss for this map.
Really? That's what you go out on? What a petty little man.
+1 HP, +1 Str, + Skl, +1 Def
Ooh, defense! He doesn't get a lot of that!
Though Fergus may well run into trouble if he doesn't get some healing in him right quick.
Selfina: Attempts to take an action, gets doubled. Never again.
Never. Again.
Karin clears out another ballista.
I plunge Carion into the action...
For a lance rank. Not bad.
Olwen clears out an archer, and all I can do now is bunker down and hope.
Oh, surprise! Reinforcements!
...The enemy flees. This is confusing and distressing.
So I just start randomly breaking into the cluster of fleeing opponents, hoping to gain levels in the process.
Karin finally gets to using that Shield ring someone voted onto her. I went with it because I agreed.
I hate bolting guys. This fella is Karin's next target.
...It sounds like she has a hit list.
She does.
We start working on that hit list.
And miss both times. Dangit.
I really hope he doesn't get the bright idea to try attacking Karin up close, allowing her wrathed-up self to kill him, denying us his stuff. That is probably what will happen.
Meanwhile, I try and send the boys into battle, to hopefully make some sense out of what is going on here.
And Nanna blocks a line of escape.
At this point, I really do not know what is happening. I mean, I get most of it. The regular troops retreat when the boss is killed. But how do I tell the difference? Who will attack me, and who will not? What's going ON?!!
And so on. It's all gone strange.
My concern re: that guy? Totally accurate.
+1 HP
My level? Totally disappointing.
Karin visits the house to make up for it, though.
"Take this Knight's Proof. Make good use of it."
Wooh! Knight's proof!
Leaf finally takes out the final horse archer, who chased him all this way.
And movement stars, so free staff for us!
A problem: Carion's been hurt, but there's people between him and healers. Now, I could embark on an elaborate scheme...
Or I could remember I have a physic staff.
I'm a little dissapointed by lack of scheme.
So dissapointed I forget all about it in the next five seconds and then am forced to use the scheme, but with less resources.
ADHD: Bad for tactical strategy, as it turns out.
+1 Mag, +1 Luk
Ooh, honey! Look at that Heim scroll!
The scheme being to clear a path using Carion, use the mounted's kill and move feature, and then rush Asvel to him.
Success!
Ah, counter-killing. The
American Thracian Dream.
We just sit back and let everything swarm.
+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Spd, +1 Luk
We're getting close, folks!
Also, that's a pleasant, if sparse, level.
By the way, if I haven't said what Glade's been doing, like, ever...
Uh....
This is it. He dodges. He rarely hits, because I had him switch his silver weapon for an iron one to give the boys EXP. That is the whole of his experience.
Selfina visits the last house.
Thanks for the warning, game.
Still working on pretty much the same stuff as before.
+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Luk, +1 Bld
Carion, gaining pretty dang solid levels!
The last escapees escape, making this map much clearer and easier for me.
Karin finally returns to the action!
We send Carion to take that side...
And Fergus to clean up Leaf's failures.
At this point, you probably do not need the play-by-play. It was pretty repetitive. The enemies were the same. My units were the same. It was all the same.
Oh, though it is fun to note that Karin fears nothing from Armor Knights now.
Let's get to the levels.
+1 HP, +1 Skl
As one of his final levels before becoming a paladin, I'm going to say...That's really a bummer, dude. Step it up for the next one. Give us a nice cap.
+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skl, +Spd
Now, see that? That's a cap!
+1 HP, +1 Str
And Karin follows up with a lovely, if very minimal, level of her own.
But this means it's...Promotion time for Fergus!
Double-headed horse!
+2 Str, +1 Mag, +3 Skl, +3 Spd, +2, +1 Con, +1 Bld
MMm.....Maxed strength.
Also, I see the patch goes with "First Knight." Whatever. He is, though, fatigued for next map, so...I may have gone a little overboard here. Heh.
Before we show more levels, we actually have some conversations to go through! Glade's a popular guy!
You know, he could be surprised because it's been several years, and I don't know about you, but a person doesn't have to grow into a teenager for them to be barely recognizable to *me.*
"That's right, Glade. We will return to Lenster. We will save our people from Imperial oppression, and fly the flag of the Gae Bolg from Castle Nova once again!"
"Now that King Calf and King Cuan are deceased, you are our only hope. Please fulfill your father's wishes!"
I'd be more bothered that this conversation was sort of dull, but it was just so enthusiastic. Leaf is a total figurehead, but everyone's so happy and desperate to have one, and I think it is nice to give Dorias some more screen time, I suppose.
Selfina also has a conversation with her husband.
Glade is deeply unimpressed.
See, Dorias? I was right!
"It's already been 10 years since I saw him at Alster...He's already 15 now."
First thing you do when you meet up with your spouse in a war zone: gossip about your boss/children of old friends.
Naturally, they only have this bit of the conversation if Leaf talked to Glade first. It's totally worth a slightly meh conversation to make this one so much cuter.
No, no, it would have been incredibly dumb to bring not one but two toddlers into a war zone, across a desert. Honestly, the fact that she did not bring him with her to her death probably saved his life.
But I'm sure she missed him. Which is not the same thing.
Awww. That's really a very sweet image -- though, from this perspective, it's melencholy at best. Altena doesn't recall Leaf in the slightest, now, or her mother.
In which we learn that Selfina can be distracted from the fragility of her dreams, and the horror of the world around her, by shinies. Or so her husband believes, and he's probably right.
No, Glade. Don't be silly. She will never be using it.
It belongs to important people.
The brave bow works like the other brave weapons: two attacks, four if you double. it's not locked to Selfina, so under no circumstances will she ever use it.
Carion gets a sword rank.
+1 HP, +1 Skl, +1 Def
And his final level as a Cavalier.
Which means....It is time. For a promotion!
Cue the pillar of light.
Summon the double-headed horse.
+2 Str, +1 Mag, +3 Skl, +2 Spd, +2 Def, +1 Con, +1 Mov
He's truly a worthy knight of Lenster. Glade, get out of here.
I basically jettison all non-essential personell: all people not healers, heavy defenders (Carion and Fergus), Leaf, and Carion.
Karin gets her penultimate level as a pegasus rider.
+1 Str
I can't decide if I'm disapointed, or if that's all I really want.
Leaf even gets a level!
+2 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk
A very nice level! Good boy, Leaf!
Karin gets a lance rank.
Asvel levels, showing how much fighting is going on here...
+1 Skill, +1 Luk
Which is dissapointing indeed.
Let's hope for better for Karin's final pre-promotion level...?
+1 HP, +1 Skl, +1 Def
No. But there is defense!
Which leads to our final promotion for this chapter.
+2 Str, +2 Mag, +2 Skl, +2 Spd, +1 Def, +1 Bld, +1 Mov
Not a bad promotion, though Karin'll probably need a stamina drink next chapter. Well, we'll see.
+1 Mag
Aand Nanna gets a Heim-scroll aided level...
+1 HP, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Def, +1 Bld
And one from Leaf that's rather nice to see us out.
Let's get out of this place.
Oh, what about my kindness? I'm the one who brought him here!
"I'm sorry, Linoan. I should have come earlier."
"I was in prison."
"He was not afraid to give up his life to make way for a new world. I am proud of him. His death saddened me... and Imperial oppression was harsh... but I lived though it hoping I would see you again.
But now...I have put thousands of Tahra's people in danger. I...just don't know what to do anymore..."
The options are difficult: submit to the empire, as most other leaders have (those who have survived), and Tahra's people suffer through things like the child hunts, and you've shown that, no matter what they do, you'll fold in the face of that superior force. Don't submit, as Linoan's father always had, and well... Superior. Force. They're an empire. You're a city-state. You're boned.
"It's alright, Linoan. Don't worry."
Alright, Leaf...But that's a mighty tall order.
Re: What Am I Doing To Myself? Let's Try and Play Fire Emblem: Thracia 776!
Originally Posted by Herpestidae
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