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Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.


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54 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

That thought popped into my head, but that introduces a new problem. How do you make the chaser's presence on the already-designed maps felt?

And, how do you add the pursuer without making them seem incompetent? Does Leif get captured for 3 seconds five times before someone bails him out? If they truly are a threat, it has to be felt, and constant "Damn it! The pesky kid gets away from me again!" doesn't make for a truly threatening character.

I think a lot of the maps would still function with Galzus style pursuit tacked on. Particulary the escape maps. And I don't think it would make the character seem less threatening if it's mostly done on escape maps like on the approach to Tahra. After all the player is escaping from this unit on the map that has stats you can't deal with. The threat is clear and measured right there in the gameplay. Repeated escapes can lead to desperation. I don't think the T 1000 is less intimidating because the protagonists continually escape it all movie. The very fact that it keeps coming is the intimidating thing.

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I was loking forward to the Thracia playthrough to be honest.

Mainly because it was the hardest title I played in the series.

And because I still have PTSD from those ballistas.

And I'm somewhat biased toward mediocre units like Mareeta and Tanya as end game materials.

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1 minute ago, Flere210 said:

Mareeta being mediocre is a new to me. Her frailness is not hard to fix and while she is swordlocked, 80% of the game is in indoor maps. Her offense is insanely overkill and thus overrated tho.

What is overkill is what I did to her. Her sword had Nihil, but I also managed to get her Luna, Sol and Astra as well. If you need Nihil, either Mareeta is your ticket or Trude - obviously I prefer Mareeta.

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1 hour ago, Garlyle said:

I was loking forward to the Thracia playthrough to be honest.

Mainly because it was the hardest title I played in the series.

And because I still have PTSD from those ballistas.

And I'm somewhat biased toward mediocre units like Mareeta and Tanya as end game materials.

Maretta will cap basically everything before promotion and has a prf. She's like the most reliable player phase killer in the game. You high or something?

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Thracia Day 11: Chapter 8

So, this is the first time we get to see the preparations screen, and the first map where fatigue kicks in. We're going into the area of Dagdar's bandits, and since this game inexplicably has the combat preparation before the pre-map dialogue (or maybe there just isn't any pre-map dialogue this chapter), I don't yet have the context for why they're hostile to us. I think this is around where I get Dagdar back.

...Along with Marty.

...Oh joy.

Interestingly, this is the first game I've seen that doesn't make you take a full roster but which still has a mandatory minimum deployment. I can bring between 6 and 8 units. I'm not really used to deployment slots being this low at this stage of the game. It's kind of weird, and potentially disappointing. I was hoping that the fatigue system would encourage me to have a much larger active roster and let me play around with more units than in a normal Fire Emblem game, but as it currently stands, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Also, this game still doesn't let you control where your units get deployed. Or even tell you where they'll end up.

I'm curious why the fuck the item menu makes you exit with the select button instead of the B button when the B button doesn't do anything on this menu.

It is nice though, that despite having the supply building system, you can still take stuff out of storage between battles even when there's no supply building in sight.

Oh good! Looks like I underestimated the storytelling of this game! Callion and Hannibal know full well who Leif is! Hell, that's why Callion's joining us! Because he's from Leonster too, and wants to help Leonster's heir free Manster! Apparently Hannibal has a mountain villa he uses as a front to house and train Leonster rebels.

And having this conversation between Callion and Leif... I was suddenly reminded of Path of Radiance's storytelling.

...In case you were curious, that is a very, very good thing.

Also, I'm not sure why, but I find myself really liking Callion. His story he's explained is intriguing, and I like his personality, even if it isn't all that flashy.

Also, quick thing I noticed: Dagdar apparently has quite the reputation as a “good bandit”, to the point that Callion, who hasn't been in our army until now, is fully aware of how weird it is that his bandits are attacking a nearby village.

And now the battle starts. I'm a bit disappointed in their music choice. I liked it during the second half of the Manster escape arc, but this map feels like one where “In Search of Victory ~ Base”, the theme of the first few chapters, would fit much better. Things have calmed down at least a little, and now it's broad daylight and we're dealing with bandits. This seems like a time to let the music relax.

Okay, so I just restarted now that I know where Callion spawns and what he starts with, in order to get him some good gear to train him up. He's a cavalier, so he can use lances and swords, and right now I'd like to train him up in swords since he can already use javelins, and he'll need swords indoors.

Also, that was an incredibly shitty move, game. You can check Marty on the pre-battle map, but he'll just appear as a generic bandit. It won't be until you actually start the game that the game says he's Marty. I can't imagine the reason for this, except to play a dirty trick on people who pay too much attention in pre-battle scouting and not enough in the actual game, which is an oddly specific thing to punish.

Plus side, he has all of the gear I left him with. Not that I left him with anything hugely important, but...

At any rate, all I have to do is wait until Dagdar shows up before I approach him. In the meantime, time to have Callion do some training with the Hezul and Ced scrolls!

Oh shit.

This is the chapter where if you want the bonus chapter, you need to keep the boss alive by capturing him, which can only be done before an arbitrary fixed amount of time passes and he mounts his wyvern to charge you.

...Yeah, I've gotta do this fast.

And speaking of fast...

...I've decided I need to train Callion up fast if I'm going to make him good. He's level 1 and really can only secure kills with his support with Leif and his PCC of 4. I think this guy is gonna be a good investment of the Paragon manual, given his growth rates and his low level start and how pressed for time I am.

Alright, another restart to facilitate that. I also gave him the other scrolls too.

I'm kind of nervous. I have no idea how Dagdar's supposed to show up, and Marty's pretty early in the map. I may have to just go around him or hope he doesn't aggro.

Also, I don't think I've mentioned this... I think it's kind of tacky how this new translation outright admits that poison only works for the enemy, and that the item will outright transform or play by different rules in the player's hands. Not that it's the translators' fault that that's how this game works, but outright stating it in text somehow makes it feel worse, despite this being good information to know.

Oh thank goodness. Looks like you can recruit Marty with Orsin. I could have sworn you could recruit him with Dagdar, and that he'd shout at Marty for being a cowardly jackass. Orsin kind of does that too, but I have this absolutely vivid memory of Dagdar grilling him, and also of him not showing as much of a conscience as he did here.

Okay, “By Ullur's Ulcers” is a hilarious swear from that random villager.

Well, it was terrifying, especially since he had a vulnerary and I didn't know how many turns I had until he mounted his dragon and then started ridersbaning the shit out of my guys to add injury to insult... but I managed to capture him with a lucky crit from Finn's brave lance.

And funny thing: I don't want to jinx this, but I just have to comment on it now in case it stops being true later: not a single one of my units got hit this entire chapter. Not one. Thanks to all the enemies being armed with woefully inaccurate venin weapons and thanks to me making sure to use supports whenever possible, Callion cleaned house, killing all the enemies he could without slowing down our rush to face off the boss.

Speaking of which, Callion did excellently. Two defense levels on a modified 30% growth over 4 level ups, and strength, speed and skill increased basically every level. He even got a level in con!

Also, while I didn't see this line due to winning, I do appreciate that they make this dracoknight boss sympathetic, giving him a death quote that if I remember properly from the old translation, was something along the lines of “sorry kids... papa's not coming home...”. This is a good thing because it makes the player want to try and keep him alive on repeat playthroughs (or just resets), indirectly guiding the player to how to unlock the gaiden chapter.

Aaaand I jinxed it. Next thing that happens is Callion gets hit. Still gets a decent level up though!

...I find it quite amusing that the only weapons the armory is offering are axes. Guess Dagdar's bandits are usually his only customers up in these mountains? If so, awesome detail. I see this is where he bought his hammer! I buy one too.

The vendor has more interesting stuff though. I buy no fewer than four torches there, because 1: I know the next map is a fog of war map, and 2: even if I didn't, the fact that this shop sells torches is both suspicious and also reminds me I don't have any.

Shiva gets poisoned clearing out the last bandit, and in this game I hear it's permanent until the end of the level or until you get a restore staff. Honestly, that makes poison way more interesting, especially given how little damage it generally does.

So the last house gets me a luck ring from a girl who decided to give it to the next person to visit her house because she got bored of how lucky she is.

Bitch, you are still living in a goddamned hut, sandwiched between the two shittiest governments on the planet. How can you possibly feel you're “too lucky”!?

But yeah, it gives luck+3 when used, so I'll give it to one of my evasive units. Probably Asvel. Luck doesn't have that much use, so I feel very little need to save this or anything.

Anyway, we have a nice conversation with the dracoknight and he tells us that Dagdar and Tanya are inside. Wow, would they really have died if I hadn't captured him? Ouch.

...And of course since this game doesn't show you where your units spawn, none of the fog of war squares are lit up. Which means I'm gonna have to do the next map in complete and utter darkness.

Oh goodie.

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16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, we have a nice conversation with the dracoknight and he tells us that Dagdar and Tanya are inside. Wow, would they really have died if I hadn't captured him? Ouch.

If one of these two was killed before Chapter 4, you won't be able to go to the side chapter, but whichever is alive will join you still.

No explanation for Dagdar if Tanya died. But if Tanya is the only one who is alive, the bad guy who overthrew Dagdar's control of the Violdrake bandits will set her free out of pity for losing her father.

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1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

If one of these two was killed before Chapter 4, you won't be able to go to the side chapter, but whichever is alive will join you still.

No explanation for Dagdar if Tanya died. But if Tanya is the only one who is alive, the bad guy who overthrew Dagdar's control of the Violdrake bandits will set her free out of pity for losing her father.

I can only assume Dagdar had an easier time escaping without an archer to protect.

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8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, this game still doesn't let you control where your units get deployed. Or even tell you where they'll end up.

Oh yes, the excitement of formations in the world of Thracia. Just wait until your team gets deployed at more than a single starting location, combined with fatigue control.

Oh, you already noticed how well it combines with fog of war...

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Well shit. Wish I knew that before now, but oh well.

He can obtain a Paragon Sword in a future chapter, but the nice thing about that weapon is that it's not Prf for him - so you can use it to train someone else on your own pleasure.

@Jotari

22 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Maretta will cap basically everything before promotion and has a prf. She's like the most reliable player phase killer in the game. You high or something?

After some YouTube videos like Mekkah's tier list I was under the impression that she was considered a good unit, but not an outstanding one - which means mediocre in Fire Emblem community. 

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1 minute ago, Garlyle said:

Oh yes, the excitement of formations in the world of Thracia. Just wait until your team gets deployed at more than a single starting location, combined with fatigue control.

Oh, you already noticed how well it combines with fog of war...

He can obtain a Paragon Sword in a future chapter, but the nice thing about that weapon is that it's not Prf for him - so you can use it to train someone else on your own pleasure.

@Jotari

After some YouTube videos like Mekkah's tier list I was under the impression that she was considered a good unit, but not an outstanding one - which means mediocre in Fire Emblem community. 

Almost every unit in Thracia is considered a good, but not outstanding unit. Maretta in my mind is one of the clear "better than most" units. She doesn't have a stave though, which is the biggest assets in Thracia.

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3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Well shit. Wish I knew that before now, but oh well.

To be more accurate is a non prf weapon whit the paragon effect, so it's not the end of the world.

3 hours ago, Garlyle said:

After some YouTube videos like Mekkah's tier list I was under the impression that she was considered a good unit, but not an outstanding one - which means mediocre in Fire Emblem community. 

Mediocre has a negative connotation. If by outstanding we mean things like Asvel and Orsin then she is not, but she is still very good. I suppose people in the past overrated her in comparisson to Shiva or whatever he is called now or went in hyper fanboy mode because she can do 300 damage in a single combat(wich is kinda unimportant when the thougest enemies have 80 hp), but she most certainly is not in a situation like "pwnage incarnate"(even if i feel he and similar units are undervalued now).

Edit: Sorry did not realized it was a doublepost.

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2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Plus side, he has all of the gear I left him with. Not that I left him with anything hugely important, but...

Time for a fun fact about this map, and some fascinating AI behavior. If you empty Marty's inventory before he leaves, he will head towards the armory on this map. If the enemy that sits on the armory is killed he will enter the armory and get a free weapon from the armory to use. When an enemies has no equipment on a map that sells weapons they can us they will buy fresh equipment, and this is the easiest map to notice this AI quirk, as pulling it off in other maps usually requires an unusually high con thief, or a character dying while holding a captive.

 

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1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Time for a fun fact about this map, and some fascinating AI behavior. If you empty Marty's inventory before he leaves, he will head towards the armory on this map. If the enemy that sits on the armory is killed he will enter the armory and get a free weapon from the armory to use. When an enemies has no equipment on a map that sells weapons they can us they will buy fresh equipment, and this is the easiest map to notice this AI quirk, as pulling it off in other maps usually requires an unusually high con thief, or a character dying while holding a captive.

 

Ah yes, I remember hearing about that a while back. That is pretty amusing!

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Thracia Day 12: Chapter 8x

I actually like this conversation between Gomez and Dagdar. Gomez actually makes some interesting points, if what he's saying has even the slightest grain of truth to it. Apparently Dagdar had an opportunity to get his hands on some North Thracian land, but let Eyvel get her hands on it instead, and Gomez is convinced he was doing it in the hopes that she'd sleep with him. That last part about his motivations is almost certainly untrue, but Dagdar doesn't deny the first bit. South Thracian land is almost supernaturally horrible for growing, and Gomez effectively said that they had an opportunity to not have to steal to just barely survive, and Dagdar didn't take it for whatever reason. I really wish we knew more about the context of this, because I have no idea what land he's talking about, and it's an interesting concept. Honestly it makes Gomez pretty sympathetic. From his standpoint, Dagdar put his entire bandit group at risk of starvation to help out some stranger. Even ignoring the idea that he fucked them over just to get laid, that actually makes it pretty believable that Gomez managed to inspire a revolt, without having to make Dagdar a bad person.

That said...

...The fuck is wrong with you, game!?

Last chapter, when we're in a field fighting bandits, you play the big scary “run for your life from the empire” music, but now that we're in a dark mansion where two of our allies are fighting for their lives, you play the upbeat starting music? That's completely ass-backwards!

This is a pretty obnoxious initial setup if you haven't prepared. Which I haven't. I really should have left these two with some vulneraries, because I'm really just relying on Tanya dodgetanking in order to survive the onslaught of bandits coming down the hall.

But after that initial excitement, there really isn't much to say about this map. It was kind of uneventful, sending two teams down two hallways. Got a bunch more fantastic levels for Callion, as well I should given the number of scrolls I'm letting him use, but honestly getting to the final room was pretty boring. I can see how it might be dangerous (though not in a fun way) if you didn't have torches, but I did, so...

...Alas, looks like I forgot my own mental note from earlier:

NEVER CHOKE A POINT WITH SOMEBODY WHO HAS ACCOST.

Dagdar is literally at 1 HP, just barely surviving an enemy phase where he equipped a bow while blocking the entrance to the... manor's... throne room. Do... do manors usually have thrones?

...Irrelevant. He was promptly nigh-obliterated by a brigand with steel axe after his own speed and HP worked against him. Another attack promptly took him from 3 HP to 1, and then I watched in horror as enemies kept attacking him at 2-range after the one 1-range spot was blocked off. There were way more enemies back there than I thought there were, and Dagdar could very, very easily have died were it not for the dodge support I gave him.

Moving on, Callion's snowballed like mad thanks to those scrolls. He's practically capped his speed and skill, his strength is pretty awesome at 12, on foot, and his worst stat aside from magic is his defense of 7, which is still pretty good honestly, and should be easy to fix with some later scrolls. Especially since he wouldn't need any others. He's also level 14, and is probably so close to promoting that I should give him a master seal post haste so he can use it the moment he caps.

Okay, honestly, this boss is ridiculously strong. I'm really wishing I brought Asbel for this honestly, but I'm thinking Callion might be able to do it if he's good with his crits. Especially since he's now just barely fast enough to double the fucker when not weighed down, and has enough con to handle most swords without penalty.

...Yep, Gomez is down. And even to his dying breath, he stands by what he was saying, proving it wasn't an excuse to act out of greed. He and Dagdar's men really seem to have been in a desperate situation that Dagdar wasn't helping with.

Honestly, he's probably the most sympathetic member of the “ugly bandit” archetype aside from, like, Gonzales.

There don't seem to be any more reinforcements, so all that remains to do is have Lithis slowly take care of the treasures while Safiya practices her healing on the two guys who got poisoned, Halvan and Callion.

And we have Neir's scroll, which in addition to boosting strength, HP and defense (at the cost of skill) by 10%... oh shit. For a second I thought this was the movement one, but alas, it is not. It's the con one. A 10% boost to con. Regardless, this is going on Callion immediately. He doesn't need any help with his speed or skill anymore, and I really wanna focus on getting his strength and defense up. I'm gonna be putting the Odo scroll on whichever of the two axe fighters I happen to be fielding at the time. Their hit rate is really shoddy, especially with hand axes, and hopefully this will help a lot.

No, wait, what am I thinking!? That Neir scroll is going on Lithis so he can get better at stealing shit! The con boost is gonna be a huge deal. I hope I can find a good opportunity to train him.

It's kind of annoying checking the HP of anyone who's poisoned. The game insists on flashing this “POISON” text in place of their HP text box for one to two seconds every time you move your cursor over them, as if the big purple dot on their map sprite isn't enough.

And we get a wrath manual! Awesome! Wrath is an incredible skill, so I need to think carefully about who I give this to.

And the last one is a devil axe, which... okay I don't think I'll ever be using this monstrosity. It's freakishly strong, but also freakishly heavy and freakishly inaccurate, and also there's that whole chance of self-not-alive...

But hey, I can probably sell it for enough to buy something at the shop!

...And I almost left before remembering there was another chest in the room right off the throne room! Good catch on my part! Let's see what my memory earned me:

A LEG RING! Awesome! +2 movement to however I want! That's probably going to Leif, honestly, though he's already pretty damned fast at 7 move.

Wow. Wooooooow. Dick move, North Thracia. Apparently they did a trade embargo to keep their excess food away from South Thracia out of spite, and have been doing so for almost a century. Which is why their food shortage is such a massive problem. That is... wow, I can almost feel Leif's visible discomfort at having to live with that information. Yeah, that cements it. This is the kind of thing the conflict between Hoshido and Nohr should have had. And as I've said before, the fact that the franchise has done it right before makes it unfathomable that they somehow failed to even do the basics with Nohr's situation. Nohr's problems are due to a lack of resources, and the people of Hoshido just... didn't know? And if they had, even in the context of being at war with them, they would have just send them food aid without a second thought?

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THAT SITUATION ACTUALLY TOOK PLACE, FATES!?

But yeah, one last thing. I find it odd that Augustus just throws shade at Quan out of nowhere and the conversation ends there, without Leif getting a chance to respond to his dead father being insulted to his face. Paraphrased:

Augustus: North Thracia has been plagued by selfish, short-sighted rulers, Leif. You need to learn from their mistakes. At the very least, you need to learn not to repeat your father's terrible mistakes.

End chapter. No response from Leif. Hell, I don't even know what mistakes he's referring to, since Quan wasn't in charge of Leonster at any point and couldn't have been responsible for perpetuating the food embargo shit. And it can't be a “wait... what's he talking about?” cliffhanger, because that was a gaiden chapter, and I doubt having completed it will unlock more dialogue later where he gets to explain what he was ominously referring to. All in all, it's a bizarre way to end the cutscene, almost on the level of the shit that happens in FE1.

But that's the end of today's map. Not especially exciting, but I'm looking forward to getting to try out my new toys!

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3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

End chapter. No response from Leif. Hell, I don't even know what mistakes he's referring to, since Quan wasn't in charge of Leonster at any point and couldn't have been responsible for perpetuating the food embargo shit. And it can't be a “wait... what's he talking about?” cliffhanger, because that was a gaiden chapter, and I doubt having completed it will unlock more dialogue later where he gets to explain what he was ominously referring to. All in all, it's a bizarre way to end the cutscene, almost on the level of the shit that happens in FE1.

True, Quan was only the Prince of Leonster when he died, though depending on how old King Kalf was, it's possible that before he went on his western Jugdral escapade with Sigurd, that he did share some responsibilities with his father. Quan was an adult, certainly capable of independent or co-rule.

This line could've easily been tweaked to read "your fathers". Meaning the entire Leonsterian monarchal line.

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1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

True, Quan was only the Prince of Leonster when he died, though depending on how old King Kalf was, it's possible that before he went on his western Jugdral escapade with Sigurd, that he did share some responsibilities with his father. Quan was an adult, certainly capable of independent or co-rule.

This line could've easily been tweaked to read "your fathers". Meaning the entire Leonsterian monarchal line.

The way I remember the line, he basically did say that, but then went on to also talk about Quan specifically for some reason.

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5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

No, wait, what am I thinking!? That Neir scroll is going on Lithis so he can get better at stealing shit! The con boost is gonna be a huge deal. I hope I can find a good opportunity to train him.

There is a cheesy and tedious way to train up a thief in Thracia 766. You can use the steal command to give an enemy an item and next turn steal it back. If you trap an otherwise harmless enemy you can grind up thief experience by repeatedly stealing an item onto and off of them. The ability to steal an item onto an enemy is a remarkably niche ability, but one of its better (and counter intuitive) uses is to give an enemy you NEED to capture a crusader scroll at strategic moments, so you don't accidentally crit kill them while simply trying to chip them, or during enemy phase. For example if you were trying to ironman this run you might have used this technique to make the boss capture that unlocks this gaiden less rng reliant.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, honestly, this boss is ridiculously strong. I'm really wishing I brought Asbel for this honestly, but I'm thinking Callion might be able to do it if he's good with his crits. Especially since he's now just barely fast enough to double the fucker when not weighed down, and has enough con to handle most swords without penalty.

Well done, Gomez is rather infamous for how difficult he is to defeat without Asvel.

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On 12/23/2019 at 6:04 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Bitch, you are still living in a goddamned hut, sandwiched between the two shittiest governments on the planet. How can you possibly feel you're “too lucky”!?

Hey man, it's all about perspective. May we all be as calm and  optimistic as random luck ring girl.

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Thracia Day 13: Chapter 9

Turns out the shop isn't that keen on devil axes either. I only got 600 gold for it. But I did manage to get enough money to buy a new iron sword. Yeah, we're running low on swords unfortunately, as has been a recurring trend. There just aren't that many sword-wielding enemies, but a ton of sword-wielding allies.

At any rate, this map is... intimidating. Basically, we're on our way to Hannibal's manor while the South Thracian army is getting ready to weed out the “bandits” (that's us, FYI) infesting the area. This is an “escape” map and a defense map, where the escape tile and the defend tile are the exact same spot: Hannibal's villa, guarded by four new cavalry units, consisting of two lance knights named Kain and Alba, and two bow knights named Robert and Selphina (Seliphina is the leader of the group). And that thing about the defense and escape tile being the exact same tile? That causes serious problems if you try to have anyone actually defend the damned space and fight off enemies while sitting on it. Because, you see, the “escape” option has absolute menu priority, above any others, including attack. The game basically perpetually tries to trick you into making the guy you have defending the manor spontaneously vanish. I have some seriously bad memories of this map, where my first attempt to handle it was to turtle it while having Selphina block off the manor with the insane defense the gate granted her. This repeatedly resulted in runs that were sabotaged by that damned “escape” button, and I can't remember what I did next. Hell, this may be the chapter before I learned the translation wasn't complete and decided to give up before I got too invested to stop. I can only vaguely remember one map after this.

There's a huge number of enemies charging the manor. It starts with a relatively tame army of soldiers with defense and HP so poor that even my four new units can one-round some of them, but there's also an army of armor knights headed their way, and more scarily: a bunch of dracoriders armed with killer lances. No problem for my main soldiers, who have scrolls, but a huge deal for my new recruits. What's worse, none of my new recruits have any vulneraries; the only thing they can heal themselves with is the gate they're guarding, and that has to be enough for all four of them.

Alright, before we begin, I want to comment on this dialogue between Altena and Travant. It's interesting, but bizarre in light of how we've seen them behave in the past. This seems like a much healthier relationship than the one we saw in chapters 8 and 9 of Genealogy. I dunno, maybe we'll see Travant break down as things get worse for him? Who knows? But it is quite curious to note.

There's a meteor user blocking the path down the mountain, and I can't afford to wait until he runs out of uses. So I'm going to just rush in, kill as many as possible with Asbel and hope he dodges, then kidnap the meteor tome user with Karin now that I know equipping the thing is a capture death warrant.

...EXCEPT APPARENTLY IT ISN'T.

Okay, so, apparently as long as you have another weapon with you, any weapon, even if you don't have it equipped, then equipping a siege tome doesn't count as being defenseless. Even though they don't actually switch to it to defend themselves when you try to capture them. And of course I didn't figure that out until I went in for the grab with Karin, because the game doesn't tell you the difference between a free capture and a capture you have to fight for until it's too late!

...Okay, I really want to know if there's some masterclass method to beating this chapter the “proper” way without sheer dumb luck, because holy shit. That dumb, cheap turtling strategy seems about as viable now as it did then. I managed to kill all of the dracoriders except for one, but that last one keeps taking potshots at my four guardians and hiding behind the mountains where none of them can touch him even if they dismount. I survived for a long time, but only due to sheer luck. And eventually, just when I was about to enact my fallback plan of having everyone but Selphina retreat, the one remaining dracorider scores a lucky crit and kills her.

The sheer amount of luck at work here to keep these people alive is absolutely ludicrous. So I'm going to return to my old fallback from last time: send Karin over the cliffs to send supplies to Selphina, particularly at least one crusader scroll and a vulnerary. Then she'll sit on the gate and fight for her life, taking potshots at the enemies surrounding her and her gate-induced 16 defense, and I will NOT PRESS THAT FUCKING ESCAPE BUTTON NO MATTER WHAT I DO.

Restarting.

Infuriatingly, the preparation map lies to you about how many dracoriders there are. The boss of them doesn't appear on the map until after you deploy, which is... holy shit. I hate it when Fire Emblem games do this. This is supposed to be the screen where I prepare for a fight and make my informed decisions about who to bring and what to bring. Deliberately lying to me about the initial map conditions, not even just throwing me a curveball later, but actively lying to me about what will be on the map when the battle starts, is something I find positively infuriating.

Things that demand a restart through no fault of the player annoy me in general, and in some games it can get pretty bad. Obviously a great many genres revolve around learning from your mistakes and retrying with new information. But with strategy games where it can sometimes take hours to complete a single map and where the objective is to find a solution to a puzzle using the information you're given, I consider it vitally important map design to make sure you supply the player with enough information the first time around that a skilled player won't have to restart to complete it. Making it completely unrealistic for a skilled player to beat a map without spending half an hour to an hour of their life on a doomed attempt before telling them “great! Now do it again, asshole” is outrageously poor form.

This isn't as bad, since it happens so early on, but it's still really, really annoying. The game's basically going “oh, by the way, here's some more shit you have to deal with,” right after you press start to begin the map, which is just... why? What the fuck was the point of depriving the player of that information on the preparation menu just to annoy them once and waste a few seconds of their time restarting to account for the new info? Was it to throw a curveball to ironman players? Because if not I can't think of any other conceivable point to this idiocy.

Anyway, I'm putting my new plan into action now: Karin flies over the mountains to arm Selphina with a vulnerary, two new bows, and two crusader scrolls, Ced and Neir. Once she and her buddies take out as many of the dracoriders hounding them as they can, Karin will make it there before things get out of hand, and everyone but Selphina will retreat. Selphina will grab Karin's special delivery before she flies away to safety, and then train up as much as she can taking potshots at the enemies that will pool around the castle, and my army will bail her out in due time.

This attempt went much better. With the exception of one of them who inexplicably insisted on flying west when everyone else flew north, I managed to intercept all of the dracoriders with Leif's army, leaving only one left to harass Selphina. The same one I couldn't get last time due to their distance away from the gate constantly allowing them to end every turn on a space nobody can reach. But now that she's safely on the gate, immune to criticals, and I don't have to worry about keeping the rest of the new units alive through the onslaught, things should be good. I might be able to use this as a training exercise for Fergus!

I visited the house along the north side of the mountain range, and it had the Fjalar scroll! Nothing particularly special, just a general +5 to strength and magic and then +10 to speed and skill, but they, that's still +30 in growth rates and another anti-crit item. No complaints here!

And the other village has a stamina drink, and a warning: this is the only shop that sells the things until we reach Tahra, and then apparently never again.

...Yeah, no thanks. The fuckers cost five thousand gold.

...But I am going to try out the arena, just once, with Asbel. I feel I kind of should, to see what it's like so I can comment on it.

The entrance uses the exact same “crowd” sound effect as FE4 (the one where it sounds like someone's saying “John Lennon” every few seconds) before yet again having a band start playing an old Fire Emblem theme to eager applause. This time it's the first map theme from FE3 book 2, but I don't like this rendition of that song nearly as well as the one of FE1's player phase theme in Genealogy. It's not just that I like the song they're covering better in Genealogy, I just don't like the instruments being used. It feels feeble and hollow and I can barely hear any instrument other than the one playing the main melody.

...The enemies in the arena are absolutely insane. I just fought a swordsman with SIXTEEN MAGIC. Asbel was relying entirely on crits in order to do more than one damage to him, but thankfully it worked out, because his PCC came in and saved the day.

I am not going back in there again. If I can find 16 magic swordfighters in there, what the hell else can I expect to find?

I'm holding my breath every time I select Selphina. It's so terrifying how easy this game makes it to slip up in the act of defending that location. This one defense-escape hybrid space alone solidifies it, even if it's the last one I ever see in this game: this is the first game in the series that's going to get a worse usability rating than its predecessor. “Press this to instantly lose” should never be the top option on a command list, especially if there isn't any sort of “are you sure?” prompt.

...Holy shit is this mission dumb now that I'm cheesing it. I'm slowly picking off a bunch of morons who are crowded around a gate and refusing to do anything because they can't touch the woman defending it. It really feels like this wasn't the intended way to do the mission, but the way it was intended, having those four knights fight to hold down the fort until Leif arrives, is so outrageously luck-based that I would be amazed if that actually had a remotely reliable strategy to it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Okay, so I did the talk between Callion and Selphina, and it's hilarious hearing him mope about how powerless he is when he's capped speed and skill and is a nigh unstoppable death machine soon to become a nigh unkillable death machine when I get my hands on enough defense boosting scrolls to train that up.

But on the plus side, we get the Paragon sword! An e-rank sword that grants Paragon while equipped, and also grants +5 defense! Pity it only has 40 uses.

At any rate, I sure as hell know who won't be using this thing, and it's the guy it was given to. He's going to have an epiphany and realize he doesn't need his father's sword to live up to his father's legacy, and give it to someone else who needs the thing.

Oh my god! I recognize the melody playing in the talk between Leif and Selphina! I think this Leif's theme or something, and it's a major endgame player phase theme, similar to “Beneath a New Light”, which it greatly reminds me of. I like this a lot, though I think “Beneath A New Light” is better. But this rendition of it is quite nice to hear!

...I find it amusing that Karin's always panting when she makes it to the escape tile, even on maps where she's practically guaranteed to be riding her pegasus.

And that's mission complete! Dorius is waiting inside, and holy shit, they don't outright say it, but I think he's missing an arm! Leif talks some more about all the people who have thrown themselves into danger just to keep him safe, and it's getting a little bit annoying at this point, but he's got a ways to go before he becomes anything like Corrin, so it's well within my tolerance levels. It's just a little bit cringe.

Oh wow, Leif/Finn and Altena were sooooooo close to seeing each other. If only Dorius weren't the one who went outside to scout to see why none of the Thracian soldiers were attacking (Altena was relaying a message from Hannibal that they aren't bandits, but a group stationed to fight bandits in the area).

Anyway, that's it for today! Merry Christmas, everyone!

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22 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Okay, I really want to know if there's some masterclass method to beating this chapter the “proper” way without sheer dumb luck, because holy shit. That dumb, cheap turtling strategy seems about as viable now as it did then. I managed to kill all of the dracoriders except for one, but that last one keeps taking potshots at my four guardians and hiding behind the mountains where none of them can touch him even if they dismount. I survived for a long time, but only due to sheer luck. And eventually, just when I was about to enact my fallback plan of having everyone but Selphina retreat, the one remaining dracorider scores a lucky crit and kills her.

Odd, I don't recall any issues with killing all the wyverns myself, I don't remember any strays.

 

22 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm holding my breath every time I select Selphina. It's so terrifying how easy this game makes it to slip up in the act of defending that location. This one defense-escape hybrid space alone solidifies it, even if it's the last one I ever see in this game: this is the first game in the series that's going to get a worse usability rating than its predecessor. “Press this to instantly lose” should never be the top option on a command list, especially if there isn't any sort of “are you sure?” prompt.

I just gave up on getting Selphina potshot EXP here, there is the rest of the game for her to get levels. And, just as a precaution if her killing something harmless opened the way for something that could harm her.

I'll agree the overall defending here is rather weak, other than the five wyverns, the map is fairly easy.

 

22 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

But on the plus side, we get the Paragon sword! An e-rank sword that grants Paragon while equipped, and also grants +5 defense! Pity it only has 40 uses.

At any rate, I sure as hell know who won't be using this thing, and it's the guy it was given to. He's going to have an epiphany and realize he doesn't need his father's sword to live up to his father's legacy, and give it to someone else who needs the thing.

Nanna can equip the sword and get double Staff EXP, to no decrease of the sword's durability. So if you don't need it on someone else, she makes a good carrier for it.

 

22 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

And that's mission complete! Dorius is waiting inside, and holy shit, they don't outright say it, but I think he's missing an arm!

His official FE5 art:

dorias.jpg

 

22 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, before we begin, I want to comment on this dialogue between Altena and Travant. It's interesting, but bizarre in light of how we've seen them behave in the past. This seems like a much healthier relationship than the one we saw in chapters 8 and 9 of Genealogy. I dunno, maybe we'll see Travant break down as things get worse for him? Who knows? But it is quite curious to note.

To be fair, I wouldn't consider this significant father-daughter interaction. Travant seemed to be mostly reminiscing about the past here, if positive of what Altena could do with Arion in the future.

 

While I could've dropped it sooner, or later, this a good time to mention this five-part all-text narrative not in the game that goes with Thracia 776- "Leonster's Fall".

It details the events that happened in Manster District after Quan and Ethlyn were murdered, up to Leif and Finn's desperate escape. Wordy, not perfect regarding some details, some visuals to accompany this would've been appreciated, and the names used therein are not the modern versions, but it's worth a read.

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2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Nanna can equip the sword and get double Staff EXP, to no decrease of the sword's durability. So if you don't need it on someone else, she makes a good carrier for it.

Oh man, I wish I thought of that! ...I'm sure I would if I were given more time to think about it, but alas, now I'll just have to settle for not knowing for sure.

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

While I could've dropped it sooner, or later, this a good time to mention this five-part narrative not in the game that goes with Thracia 776- "Leonster's Fall".

It details the events that happened in Manster District after Quan and Ethlyn were murdered, up to Leif and Finn's desperate escape. Wordy, not perfect regarding some details, some visuals to accompany this would've been appreciated, and the names used therein are not the modern versions, but it's worth a read.

Interesting. I might give that a read later.

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1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Okay, I really want to know if there's some masterclass method to beating this chapter the “proper” way without sheer dumb luck, because holy shit. That dumb, cheap turtling strategy seems about as viable now as it did then. I managed to kill all of the dracoriders except for one, but that last one keeps taking potshots at my four guardians and hiding behind the mountains where none of them can touch him even if they dismount. I survived for a long time, but only due to sheer luck. And eventually, just when I was about to enact my fallback plan of having everyone but Selphina retreat, the one remaining dracorider scores a lucky crit and kills her.

Drawing a majority of the Dracoriders with a section of the main army heading south fixes most of the issues, the four defenders can usually find a way of ambushing one fairly safely, but you only really have one turn to pull it off or else they will setup the safe canto attack pattern you got trapped by, so you usually want to setup your defensive line as far south as you can reach and still choke it with the 2 melee troops, to give yourself some room to control where that encounter will take place. Some extra pointers on trying it is when someone gets too low on health have them escape, and having Selphina sitting on the throne with the last one or two hiding on the other side side of the castle where only one unit can be target tends to be the end game for that scenario until some of the real army arrives to save them.

I did start doing a bit of a Thracia Ironman run, as the holiday canceled my usual weekend plans. I have been avoiding cheesing too much (for instance I didn't spawn block for 60 turns on chapter 4, but did while the npc were escaping nor spawn block the boss of chapter 7, but I did kill him) and that was the strategy I used for this chapter. I am only a little ahead having beaten 11, but not sure when I'll get back to it. The only deaths so far were due to me not following my own advice about capturing the chapter 8 boss, as I got impatient, so no 8x and thus no Dagdar and Tanya.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...But I am going to try out the arena, just once, with Asbel. I feel I kind of should, to see what it's like so I can comment on it.

The entrance uses the exact same “crowd” sound effect as FE4 (the one where it sounds like someone's saying “John Lennon” every few seconds) before yet again having a band start playing an old Fire Emblem theme to eager applause. This time it's the first map theme from FE3 book 2, but I don't like this rendition of that song nearly as well as the one of FE1's player phase theme in Genealogy. It's not just that I like the song they're covering better in Genealogy, I just don't like the instruments being used. It feels feeble and hollow and I can barely hear any instrument other than the one playing the main melody.

...The enemies in the arena are absolutely insane. I just fought a swordsman with SIXTEEN MAGIC. Asbel was relying entirely on crits in order to do more than one damage to him, but thankfully it worked out, because his PCC came in and saved the day.

I am not going back in there again. If I can find 16 magic swordfighters in there, what the hell else can I expect to find?

The stats on the enemies in the Thracia Arena are incredibly arbitrary, and the cost isn't a good indicator for how dangerous the enemy will be, but supports, charm, and leadership stars can give you a bit of an edge. Hitting the Arena is the only way to make stamina drink levels of money. Also I think the arena lets you grind weapon rank xp, but I have never seen it documented, and not entirely certain.

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Thracia Day 14: Chapter 10

Oooh, 8-14 deployment slots! Now we're talking!

And yeah, this is the chapter I remember giving up on. It's not so much the level itself, as I said, though I do remember finding it annoying, but more that this was when I learned that the translation wasn't finished and that the translator kinda stopped giving a shit and threw in the “In America!” joke and shit like that.

Amusingly, for the fourth straight chapter I still have Callion available, because he's just spent that much of a portion of his battles gaining level ups that boosted his HP. He's at 40 HP now, with a fatigue of 38.

I was hoping to get an opportunity to train Lithis with some scrolls, but the sheer number of ballistae and their placement means I'm gonna have to make this a map for my big guns.

These pre-battle cutscenes really should take place before deployment. Especially when they contain explanations of certain features of the map and advice on strategies you should employ to deal with them. It really would be nice to take that shit into account the first time I prepare for this map.

I'm honestly not sure what the third option Dorius's referring to is. And the way he describes it, like a child should be able to figure it out just by hearing what the first two options for dealing with the ballistae are, makes me feel like an idiot for not being able to guess what specific third method he has in mind even though I also recognize that really shouldn't be my reaction.

There's a wyvern rider named Dvorak in the mountains, and I'm hoping he's recruitable somehow, though I wouldn't for the life of me know how.

Honestly, it took me a while to prepare here, and I'm not sure why. I've actually found that to be a recurring theme with this game, that I've been finding myself nervous to start the actual map sometimes, even though I'm not doing it ironman and there aren't any consequences for forgetting something. I dunno. I just kind of get hesitant to start a new map, even though I wind up enjoying myself when I actually play. It's the weirdest thing.

Anyway, my opening gambit is phenomenal. Everything goes right. I get myself a second flame sword (which I'm super hyped about, since I thought these things were one of a kind like they usually are) by softening up a general on a fort with the light sword and then critting him with Callion to capture. Then Dagdar procs a movement star and can thus fleece-and-release the bastard before the enemies can pick on Callion in his weakened state.

You get a surprising amount of experience from just being involved in combat without fighting. I'm trying to milk this as much as I can to train Lithis with the paragon sword and the Neir scroll. This bears fruit! Lithis has gained two levels so far, and one of them boosted con! Now he has 7! Once he gets 10 he can steal shit like magic swords! Funny enough, if you level up while getting potshotted by a Ballistician, the “level up!” text appears over the ballistician's head, not your unit's.

Trying to smoothly get the stamina drinks on those thieves, however, is a serious gamble. Fortunately, at least saving the villages isn't that much of an issue. The thieves seem to be acting like Galzus, in that they don't move every turn. Honestly, since movement is so variable in this game, they really should have better telegraphed that by just making the thieves have low movement, like Conquest did a few times.

But now Olwen and Alfred are on the move, and I'm getting nervous. I know I'm not supposed to kill her, and-

...Dvorak apparently isn't recruitable. He doesn't even have a line before combat.

...Which I discovered when he one-rounded a weakened Leif and ended my attempt right there.

...Alright, restarting.

AND WHILE WE'RE HERE, YET AGAIN THE GAME HIDES THE FUCKING BOSS FROM VIEW ON THE PREPARATION SCREEN. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, GAME!? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH!?

And given that Largo is on such good terms with Olwen, I can only assume that Olwen is only recruitable if I take Largo alive, so it would be really fucking nice if the game would cooperate in helping me work out what weapons I need to bring in order to have a chance of beating him while capturing.

On the plus side, my second run's attempt to to get the flame sword went just about as well, and the thief for some reason decided to run towards my group instead of away from it this time, so I managed to swipe the thief's rapier and then capture him for the stamina drink. Which also means there's no longer any reason to rush towards that house, and I can safely wait to bait out these ballisticians with Lithis for maximum con training, and just send a group to take care of the lower house.

...Buuuuut, I think I'm gonna send Lithis down that way too so I can at least steal something from the other thief if he becomes impossible to safely capture.

Okay, so, I think there is a way to capture the boss. I just need to have Fergus come at him with an armorslayer and hope for a crit. Unfortunately I didn't bring Karin, but...

...Oh shit, no, I can't even double this guy with Fergus. I can't even avoid getting doubled if I want to capture him with Fergus. He has like 8 AS. Meaning it's physically impossible to double him while capturing. So no PCC from anyone except fucking Ced with Forseti, and you can't capture with magic even if he were here.

Okay. I think I can safely say that the game does not expect me to take this fucker alive. I need to just focus on beating this mission and then, when the time comes, take him out with Asbel.

And it looks like Olwen and company barely stick around for any time at all before retreating. In fact I think she decided to leave after one turn! Makes me question the point of sticking around at all, honestly, if all she was going to do is delay the race to call for reinforcements without even engaging the enemy.

So... this is kind of a goofy thing to declare as canon. In the midst of my currently-ongoing attempts to fleece the remaining thief of his lockpick and stamina drink (he's holding a heavier iron sword and Lithis doesn't have 7 con anymore so I can't just capture him for free like I did with the rapier one) I got to the lower house and learned that apparently the “ensorcel” staff, this game's version of the barrier staff which of course also improves your magic power, is what happens when you try to grow a tree by feeding it pure water instead of normal water. Apparently it makes incredibly magically-potent wood that can be made into a staff... but the tree only grows as big as a staff to begin with, because it's apparently really unhealthy for trees. I dunno, that sounds like the sort of thing that would be canon in a parody, not an actual serious game.

The staff is okay, but in practice it's basically just a five use pure water. Nothing particularly special, but hey, I might as well use it.

Apparently the thief's wonky randomized programming also includes having no interest whatsoever in stealing shit from my party and, as I suspected and hoped, wanting to head to the nearest open house no matter how far away it is. Which means I have plenty of time to get Lithis some more exp before he can run over and use the con proc he just got again to steal his iron sword and take that lockpick of his with a capture. But I've gotta wear out some of these ballistae first to make it safer to approach.

...No, wait, he just... decided to run back temporarily for no consistent reason and is now walking back towards my party, all interest in the other house lost completely...

...Do the thieves even want to rob the houses, or was that a coincidence that there was a thief for each one?

Anyway, since Lithis has 7 con again, time to steal that iron sword and lockpick! Let's bait him in! No matter what he steals, he can't steal any of Lithis's weapons, so I can get it all back once I steal his iron sword and leave him open for free capture.

...Or he could just run right up to Lithis and not do anything, neither attacking or stealing. He just just... offer himself up to my army for no discernible reason.

...LOOKS LIKE IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS IN THRACIA!

So, I got all that sorted out, along with the dracorider I was so disappointed to learn I can't recruit, and now Lithis has a new lockpick. Now to feed the ballistae exp to him with as many crusader scrolls as we can stuff in his scumbaggy pants.

Hey Dorius! I've got your third method for you! Is this the one you were alluding to!?

Fun fact: when enemy ballistae run out, they don't break, they just vanish from the enemy's inventory. Curious.

Leif's light brand is broken. I'll have to use one of Hammerne's charges to fix that, and then make sure I never go nuts with it again like in Manster.

And now we're dealing with a huge horde of armor knights who won't advance when I get in range of more than half of them.

Fuck this. I don't care if it's cheap. I'm not doing this map over again by taking a risk with the enemy's AI. I'm making sure the enemy wastes all of their ballistae on Lithis before I go anywhere near this group.

Lithis just gained a point of move as a reward. The gods appear to be pleased with my cowardice.

Lithis is gaining TWENTY FUCKING EXP every single time a siege weapon user attacks him, which is pretty damned ridiculous. This is a pretty hilarious demonstration of why no other game gives you this much exp for not fighting.

It seems to be slowing down a tiny bit now that he's gaining more levels, but still, that's way too much EXP to get from something this easy to milk.

Alright, that's all the ballista exp I could get before moving forward. There's only one ballistician left who still has ammo. I also stopped by the northern house and got a rescue staff! Tragically it only has three uses, like the warp staff, but hey, I still have one now!

Those armor knights still aren't moving, so I'm going to have to take a gamble and try attacking them point blank now that all the ballistae are gone. I'm gonna use Orsin for it, and I'm gonna load him up on some more crusader scrolls than the Odo one because I might as well.

I wind up using some rescue drop shenanigans to have Asbel take out the guy on the fort with his magic before having him whisked away and Orsin dropped in his place.

Alright, this formation is terrifying to deal with the first time, but if it turns out they don't move under any conditions at all like I'm suspecting but unwilling to count on, this is going to make this map trivial to do from now on. Which is, once again, why bad telegraphing in a strategy game is something I absolutely despise. There is a hypothetical version of this map that clearly marked these guys with 0 movement range, and this actual version will only ever be harder than that hypothetical version once. After that, it's exactly the same. Which means the main thing I found difficult about this challenge has absolutely no staying power.

And the last ballista is gone, with Lithis now having 8 fucking con!

I really hope I don't lose this map.

Thankfully, it doesn't look like that will happen! After those immobile armor users were eliminated (I can only imagine in hindsight that their intended purpose was to make it take longer to push through while under hails of ballistafire, but you know that really could have been made clearer because the gauntlet by all appearances looked like outright suicide), the rest of the map has been a breeze.

Yeah, this guy has 73 avoid. There's no way in hell I can capture this guy, and there's no conceivable way that's a recruitment requirement to get Olwen. Let's smoke this fucker with Asbel and be done with it.

Hahaha, Augustus talking about how formidable Olwen was when she didn't even do anything before leaving.

Speaking of which, I was wondering if my decision to cheese the map was going to result in me being hounded by the reinforcements she went for. The answer is no. Though judging by the conversation, I have a sneaking feeling I might have missed a time-sensitive gaiden chapter by giving them that much time to prepare. Oh well. Screw that, Lithis has 8 con and 8 mov now, and Orsin got some pretty great levels! And most importantly, the map is actually complete, at long, long last.

Out of curiosity, I took a peek at the next chapter, and I'm 90% sure I've never seen it before. So yeah, I think from here on out I'm playing this game mostly gameplay-blind.

So that's it for today. Thoughts on the chapter? Well... it's an interesting idea... hobbled by terrible execution. It's kind of funny, because it only took me so long to realize what was going on with the armor knights because I wasn't making reckless, foolhardy decisions. Someone who just brute forced their way in, taking risk after risk, would have figured how what they needed to do on their second try a lot faster than I did. And honestly I'd argue that's yet another damning mark against the concept of trial-and-error gameplay like this. But I have a feeling it's going to be way better in a remake, simply because all those armor knights will be clearly marked as being “0 move”. This map really struggled with making it clear what is and isn't a stupid idea, because what the game wants you to do is outrageously idiotic on the face of it until you know how safe it is (ignoring the ballistae of course).

Next time, on Thracia 776, we have...

...An even bigger wall of armor knights, standing in between two bottlenecks.

...Oh goodie.

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