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

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Hello72207 said:

I have had Tana die in ironmans because I forgot to de-equip that fricking heavy spear. They couldn't have just had one more village with the heavy spear in it and given her a iron or slim lance? Seriously? Also you can't even buy her one in preparations because she joins after you start, I guess you could trade her one, but that is still a lot of trouble to go to when Vanessa can be promoted and whipping everyone by this point in the game.

2 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Oh. I thought she was on the prep screen. And it's not like there are any knights to consider using the Heavy Spear on at that point, or for a while afterwards.

She is on the prep screen, actually. I managed to equip her properly with a slim lance and the like thanks to that.

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So... about this country... I mean, its ruling body is made of powerful merchants, who don't seem to have any military, judging by the fact that apparently Pablo is in control of the council but still chose to hire mercenaries.

So the rich are the government, and they hire mercenaries to exert their will upon the people.

This... this feels like a medieval fantasy version of every cyberpunk dystopia ever.

And... that's actually a fairly fun concept. I wish we got to spend more time here.

It's also the only republic we see in the series as far as I can remember, which I find pretty neat.

5 hours ago, Hello72207 said:

I have had Tana die in ironmans because I forgot to de-equip that fricking heavy spear. They couldn't have just had one more village with the heavy spear in it and given her a iron or slim lance? Seriously? Also you can't even buy her one in preparations because she joins after you start, I guess you could trade her one, but that is still a lot of trouble to go to when Vanessa can be promoted and whipping everyone by this point in the game.

It feels like it, but I really don't know.

Or just have her join with both a Heavy Spear and a Slim Lance. Perfectly possible for a character to come with two weapons. And it would be a good way of show casing the difference of weight (though it's also a bit late for that at this point).

Edited May 12, 2020 by Jotari

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

She is on the prep screen, actually. I managed to equip her properly with a slim lance and the like thanks to that.

Oh, so I wasn't remembering wrong.

35 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Or just have her join with both a Heavy Spear and a Slim Lance. Perfectly possible for a character to come with two weapons. And it would be a good way of show casing the difference of weight (though it's also a bit late for that at this point).

Units having two weapons on join isn't unheard of, but as far as I'm concerned, I'd actually think about how good the weapon in question is. A Heavy Spear is a very shitty weapon for a low-con Pegasus Knight to join with, given that GBA Steel Lances are huge speed sinks. The same complaint could be said of Echidna in Binding Blade, who has a speed-killing Steel Axe and nothing else.

Edited May 12, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Boomhauer007]

This chapter has some pretty crazy optimization in LTC stuff, it's a fun quick watch. 

Also banana boat time tomorrow.

Edited May 12, 2020 by Boomhauer007

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Oh, so I wasn't remembering wrong.

Units having two weapons on join isn't unheard of, but as far as I'm concerned, I'd actually think about how good the weapon in question is. A Heavy Spear is a very shitty weapon for a low-con Pegasus Knight to join with, given that GBA Steel Lances are huge speed sinks. The same complaint could be said of Echidna in Binding Blade, who has a speed-killing Steel Axe and nothing else.

Wouldn't complain if I was gifted it for free on a pegasus knight though. The game's the one who made the decision to put it on Tana in the first place for some sinister reason. If I had my way they'd be using swords.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Wouldn't complain if I was gifted it for free on a pegasus knight though. The game's the one who made the decision to put it on Tana in the first place for some sinister reason. If I had my way they'd be using swords.

Holy cow do I just miss sword using fliers in general. Especially since class changing has become a thing. No legendary sword user in the series has ever been able to use it on a flying mount, except in Three Houses, but that barely counts because faires still significantly punish not using your class's preferred weapon type anyway.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Holy cow do I just miss sword using fliers in general. Especially since class changing has become a thing. No legendary sword user in the series has ever been able to use it on a flying mount, except in Three Houses, but that barely counts because faires still significantly punish not using your class's preferred weapon type anyway.

Elincia and Amiti don't count then? If so then what you're really saying is that we've never actually had a flying protagonist before (well before Three Houses at any rate, which does have Claude, who actually does have a somewhat legendary sword despite being a bow user).

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Elincia and Amiti don't count then? If so then what you're really saying is that we've never actually had a flying protagonist before (well before Three Houses at any rate, which does have Claude, who actually does have a somewhat legendary sword despite being a bow user).

Oh shoot, I forgot about Elincia! Good point! I stepped a bit too far with my statement then. My main point was that Chrom, Lucina, Corrin, Ryoma, Xander... all of them are heroes with legendary swords who are in games with class changing, but none of them are able to class change into a flier and still use their fancy sword. Ever since class changing has become a thing, we coincidentally lost sword fliers around the same time, except for Three Houses and its weird freeform system.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh shoot, I forgot about Elincia! Good point! I stepped a bit too far with my statement then. My main point was that Chrom, Lucina, Corrin, Ryoma, Xander... all of them are heroes with legendary swords who are in games with class changing, but none of them are able to class change into a flier and still use their fancy sword. Ever since class changing has become a thing, we coincidentally lost sword fliers around the same time, except for Three Houses and its weird freeform system.

Yeah, I got that. I'm just a horrible pedant.

[Alastor15243]

Sacred Stones Day 13: Chapter 10EPH

So I just checked the borders of Grado, and... wow. That little piece to the left side that can only be reached from within Grado by air or sea, the one we're currently on... that must be a bitch to defend right now, since the country's getting invaded.

Interesting. This is kind of cool, doing these chapters in chronological order. Ephraim's just now receiving news about the uprising in Carcino that Eirika's gotten herself thrown into.

But if these things are happening simultaneously...

How the hell is news traveling this fucking fast?

Ephraim's basically getting news of Eirika's actions as Eirika decides to do them.

Oh shit. Right. The earthquake.

Yeah, I like how they foreshadow the things that motivated Lyon's attempt to use the Fire Emblem using what also comes across as off-the-cuff trivia for worldbuilding.

Yeah... Jesus Christ. I'm still finding it super hard to find Selena's loyalty to Vigarde compelling. She is a complete and total sheep, more loyal to the man than to the qualities she once admired in him.

But now we get to take a look at Duessel, and... I mean those strength and defense stats are pretty good... but not for his level. Seventeen defense for a level 8 promoted unit is going to be absurdly useful now, but probably not for long, depending on his growths... which are, incidentally...

...Actually his growth rates aren't bad. And if we run into any enemies strong enough to demand his defense, they'll probably be slow enough for him to double.

But also, we're gonna get Cormag on this map, and yeah, holy shit. Cormag and Tana are like night and day. Using anything but a slim lance, Cormag is actually faster than Tana, and way stronger and more durable. He also is a few levels higher, but that doesn't account for the frankly ludicrous difference here.

...He's also an enemy, and a flier with a killer lance, so... yeah, I'm hoping recruiting him isn't too much of a pain.

What won't be a pain is getting to Duessel. The enemy attack power here is... hilariously pathetic. Especially if I put Seth and Lute in front, we should have no trouble.

I gave the speedwings to Kyle, incidentally, to bring him up to 11 speed and hopefully make the day he actually reliably doubles a bit closer.

Hahaha. Okay, I got Lute and Kyle's support, and to tell you the truth, I managed to completely forget the conversation set from last time I played. That doesn't seem to have been because it was bad, though. I chuckled a bit a Lute's... weirdness. But I do find it quite amusing that Kyle is asking Lute if she has any problems needing to be on the front lines with him.

And this support is going to get Lute yet another bonus to defense, at a rate of 1 per support rank. Man, Anima is awesome.

I've gotta watch out for these ballista ships, especially when maneuvering Cormag and especially especially Tana.

Okay, so Valter shows up, saying that Selena has been relieved of her command of this mission and deemed untrustworthy and incompetent for not being able to take care of “a single old man”. The latter of which being something Valter wasn't even aware of until the beginning of this cutscene. Either Valter is blatantly lying, or the speed at which news travels here is so ludicrous that Valter can be sending a verbal message about Selena's incompetence without yet knowing about Selena's incompetence.

Oh shit. Is Valter giving Selena fake information in order to trick Selena into leaving the front, where Vigarde won't believe that Valter said what he did, putting her in hot water later?

...Well, if so, that doesn't seem to have been his primary motivation at least. He seems to just want to... draw out the “fun” of the war by keeping Selena from fighting and kicking everyone's ass. Wow.

It's weird... I know Valter's orders are still to hunt Ephraim, and yet he's going to hunt Eirika, where Glenn is. I remember that scene in Eirika route, but... okay, so he's just flagrantly disobeying orders right now, and getting away with it because Grado's leadership is literally brainless.

Anyway, getting to Duessel was trivially easy. I could've sworn enemies got to Duessel before I did when I was younger, but looking at the map now, I'm having trouble imagining how that could happen.

While I really don't care much at all for the story so far, as I have rather exhaustingly established... taken in a vacuum, I really like this talk between Duessel and Ephraim. They've had juuust enough backstory established together that this moment feels deserved.

Man. I just realized this is the first time in this run that I've bought a hand axe (I had Duessel buy some at the nearby shop after his recruitment). When you get rid of Hector and paladin axe access... my need for the things all but entirely evaporates.

OH SHIT.

ONE OF THE ENEMIES HAS A HORSESLAYER.

SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT

Okay. I'm gonna hope that the enemy's obsession with attacking people who can't fight back means he'll go for a slim-lance-toting Tana with his javelin more than a javelin-toting cavalry unit with his horseslayer.

Here goes...

...Or he could just... not move at all.

That works too.

Also, Franz got another defense level up.

Thankfully, Cormag seems to have been positioned so that he'll be accessible from land at the end of his second move, so recruiting him with Duessel should work.

Success. But a massive horde of cavalry also arrived from the north, and I have some stragglers who were checking out the villages and dodging the ballista. They should make it in time for some of my cavalry to save them, though.

...Actually... let's let Cormag handle it! Running the numbers, he should be fine!

Anyway, I got the second village too, and got a hero crest I have little intention of using, but I'll hold on to it for the tower of Valni challenge. Depending on my promotion choice with Ross, he may need it. I was initially concerned I wouldn't be able to get it... for about two seconds. Basically, one of the green cavs just... stopped right on top of the village to heal, and didn't get off. But then I quickly remembered I could rescue him.

Now all that remains is to get as much exp as I possibly can in these last few turns, and try to kill that boat for the secret book.

Shit. I think I may have lost Gilliam. I've been bringing him along to maps for... I don't even fucking know, I think I just forgot, but I accidentally exposed him, and I can't get him to safety. Or rather, I couldn't afford to get him to safety, since there were other exposed units I considered more valuable who had to get the safer spots.

...Nope! Turns out it was Joshua who wound up attracting everyone's attention. Strange, because Gilliam could have been doubled by most of them.

Well. That was embarrassing, to be sure, but he was a tagalong too. I've been focusing on pouring all of my resources into Ephraim and my mounted units, and I've been taking good care of them, so... I don't feel too bad about this screw-up.

Alright, we're done here.

I am utterly confused why the commander thinks Valter would be mad. Wasn't he there when he admitted he was deliberately trying to sabotage this mission?

...Yes... he was... but Valter also did in fact tell Beran to “Take care of things” before he returned. Does that mean...

...Okay, first, did Valter just straight-up indirectly admit to Beran's face that he assigned him a task he is confident he lacks the ability to actually achieve? If so... that's... that's actually quite like him.

But second, is Beran saying Valter can go to Carcino and back so quickly that nine fucking turns is already pushing it for them to have time to make a run for it and avoid Valter's wrath when he returns!??

 

Anyway, we get some exposition about the Dark Stone, which...

...I just realized the game may have been trying to do a bait-and-switch for super, super long-time fans, tricking them into thinking this is another Hardin situation, with a big scary emperor corrupted by the evil influence of a dark sphere. That's... I didn't appreciate that as a kid at all, obviously, but looking at it now... that's pretty amusing.

Weird how Duessel's units are suddenly canonically wearing green, despite presumably wearing the red of Grado before this started.

Also, they say they wish to fight with the Frelian army, which doesn't make sense in any context other than explaining why they aren't playable. They explain it as “Ephraim doesn't need more troops”, which suggests that Ephraim's group and the Frelian army are actually separate in some sense when it comes to this war.

But at any rate, we got a knight crest from saving all of them. This game has... a lot of bonus items for bonus objectives. I actually like that a lot. Pity the actual game isn't that challenging.

I know, I say that despite letting someone die on this map.

L'arachel arrives to give the exact same news that a ghost ship is haunting these waters, which is starting to make me think the ship is after L'arachel and she doesn't realize it.

But we'll find out more later. Tomorrow, we do Chapter 10EIR!

Stay safe, everyone!

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 5/12/2020 at 12:15 PM, Alastor15243 said:

That's so... amazingly un-Innes-like that...

...Okay, I'm not saying that the mere fact that he did it is bad writing. It could easily demonstrate how serious things have gotten, and that he understands that he has to put aside his pride for the good of his people. But like... they don't even call attention to how unlike him it is to just fuck off and be a glorified errand boy while his archrival, the man he has striven to outshine in all things princely, defends his country, leading his army to finish his war. Because from what I understand of Innes's character, unless the situation absolutely demanded that he be somewhere else, I genuinely get the impression that Innes would slightly more readily let Ephraim fuck his wife.

Innes has no Ephraim support either, and thats weird.

 

50 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I mean those strength and defense stats are pretty good... but not for his level.

This is GBA FE, Def growths rarely exceed 30. The average Franz, Garcia, and Forde never reach it. Ross needs 10/20/13 to hit 17 Def. Kyle and Great Knight Amelia need 20/10, Seth needs 16, Dozla needs 20, and Eirika (Joshua and Marisa never reach it) needs 20/19. Gerik takes 20/6, Ephraim 20/8,  Wyvern Lord Cormag 20/2 (Knight takes longer). Gilliam alone reaches 17 Def before promotion.

17 Def is actually very good, and more than a lot of units will ever see. I get "cap is 29, ergo this is low", but practically speaking, it isn't.

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Innes has no Ephraim support either, and thats weird.

Seriously? I never bothered to try it as a kid, but I always naturally assumed they did.

[Benice]

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

17 Def is actually very good, and more than a lot of units will ever see. I get "cap is 29, ergo this is low", but practically speaking, it isn't.

The highest defense I've ever gotten a GBA character to, (barring Amelia) was Canas at...24, I think? It's been a while since that run. I've also had Amelia cap every stat without any boosters, so there's that, but barring huge blessage or use of an Oswin-eque knight, nobody really hits that cap.

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Seriously? I never bothered to try it as a kid, but I always naturally assumed they did.

They don't even get a mid-battle Scorched Sands talk I think. The absence of an Ephraim-Innes support is ever stranger when you see how much he obsesses over his rival in the Innes-Eirika support.

Blame the cap of any character having no more than 7 support partners and Ephraim already hitting it. But the cap is arbitrary, because FE6 had a maximum of 10, although only Roy and Lilina had more than 7, and the only 7s were Shanna and Larum.

[Shadow Mir]

In case you don't know, Tana can recruit Cormag. However,  that could be risky since Tana, being a pegasus knight, is frail.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shit. I think I may have lost Gilliam. I've been bringing him along to maps for... I don't even fucking know, I think I just forgot, but I accidentally exposed him, and I can't get him to safety. Or rather, I couldn't afford to get him to safety, since there were other exposed units I considered more valuable who had to get the safer spots.

...Nope! Turns out it was Joshua who wound up attracting everyone's attention. Strange, because Gilliam could have been doubled by most of them.

Well. That was embarrassing, to be sure, but he was a tagalong too. I've been focusing on pouring all of my resources into Ephraim and my mounted units, and I've been taking good care of them, so... I don't feel too bad about this screw-up.

What happened there? Did Joshua die or not? Because it sounds like it.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

What happened there? Did Joshua die or not? Because it sounds like it.

Yeah he did.

[Hello72207]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I was initially concerned I wouldn't be able to get it... for about two seconds. Basically, one of the green cavs just... stopped right on top of the village to heal, and didn't get off. But then I quickly remembered I could rescue him.

That almost always happens, and gosh, it is annoying.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

What happened there? Did Joshua die or not? Because it sounds like it.

Yeah he did.

Rip Joshua, best boy.

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah he did.

 

4 minutes ago, Hello72207 said:

Rip Joshua, best boy.

Lemme guess, those cavaliers mostly, if not all, had lances.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Shadow Mir said:

 

Lemme guess, those cavaliers mostly, if not all, had lances.

Accurate. But he still should've dodged at least one statistically, and they would have had a much easier time killing Gilliam, who only has 9 defense and could have been doubled by I think all of them. So I don't know what gives.

[Jotari]

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah he did.

Rip Jehanna's future then. Shame, as Joshua does quite a good job if being an involved secondary character. Even if it comes a little bit out of nowhere.

[Alastor15243]

Sacred Stones Day 14: Chapter 10EIR

So then... before getting ahead of myself, I confirmed that it's only the battle prep shop that price gouges you. Anything you buy on the world map is normal price. Good to know. Anyway, I gave Lute the dragonshield and angelic robe, so now she should be even more unstoppable.

I have to say, Eirika has... improved, now that she's got her own story route. I mean, she feels more like she's in charge in this story arc than the last one.

…

So...

Vigarde is just openly, shamelessly lying to Glen about who the aggressor in this conflict is, even lying about which faction in Carcino is the “coup” faction. A lie that isn't going to hold up to... literally any scrutiny whatsoever if Glen has the presence of mind to consult the unwashed masses.

Also, Glen confirms that Valter was cast out of the army entirely before Vigarde turned into a zombie. Which begs the question of what the fuck his history with Tirado is.

Hmmm...

The scene change to Eirika's map feels a bit too... sudden. It happens before the music changes, like the fade to black transition was supposed to be slightly longer but was made too short by mistake.

“Even on the wings of a pegasus knight, Frelia is days away”.

Fuck you, game. Don't even try to pretend that's consistent with anything you've said before.

Tethys then informs everyone that they're out of reserve weapons, and that what they have in their hands is all they have left. That seems to suggest that weapons are in fact canonically that brittle in-game.

...And also that these characters are canonically incapable of taking weapons from their fallen foes.

Hahahahahahaha.

That said, I do like this conversation between Innes, Gerik and Tethys. Also, I love Tethys's “Hey... if help were to miraculously arrive, what direction would it come from?” line.

While I don't really love any of the earlier map themes in this game, it is nice how, like with Eliwood and Hector, they gave Ephraim and Eirika their own unique map themes.

Interesting. We see a quick cut to Klimt during the enemy phase, and Klimt, while looking like a wise and good old man... doesn't actually say anything to object to Pablo's actions on moral grounds. He calls him a reckless imbecile who's destroying his diplomatic relations with a valuable ally and turning their entire country into a subservient vassal state to the empire. These are good points, to be sure, but my reason for bringing them up is that it suggests he might be a more pragmatic character rather than a moral one. Somebody who wants what's best for his country, and might be willing to backstab other countries if it were in fact what was best for his country, but who also knows that what Pablo's doing sure as hell isn't it.

After making a calculated risk with Franz that I absolutely would not have done in a million years if this were my non-disposable ironman file, I have Franz gain some exp fighting a hand axe fighter in the opening gambit. He takes nasty damage, but he survives due to me reading the enemy AI correctly and sending Tana down south to help the mounted brigade quickly recruit Innes.

And right on turn 3, right on cue, Innes comes out of his fort to attack some incoming soldiers... right into his sister's flight range. Tana talks to Innes, then Innes talks to Gerik, who talks to Tana, and now we've got the whole party.

I love how they've never reused sprites for any of the GBA refresher classes. They always make sure to give some new personality to the performance of every refresher, be they bard or dancer. Tethys is... yeah, I really like her character design. And, as I said before, I even like her character too! Also, I think it's cute that Ewan has a big sister.

Anyway, Marisa's really cool too. I love the voice they gave her in Heroes.

“If this outfit isn't good for fighting, I'll have to hop. Away.”

I remember recruiting her being more of a pain in Ephraim's route though. Something about needing to approach her with Ewan, if I remember correctly?

Anyway, I'd love to use her to get some of her supports, but... that doesn't feel wise. I guess I'll check them out on my own if I'm still interested later. Gerik might be worthwhile though, what with him later getting axes... but he can't get both axes and a mount.

Also, curious how there are so many bandits coming from the mountains when there are no villages to protect.

Oh wow. Yeah, whoever picked Marisa's voice in Heroes... wow. I can totally picture Connor Kelly-Eiding saying these lines. She's a bit more... socially unphased, shall we say, and doesn't have that signature awkwardness here, but I have a feeling that's because she's familiar with Gerik. Also, that “Right, done,” where she decides to join Gerik's side after he says that's what he'd like her to do, I totally read that in her voice.

Anyway, some pegasus knight reinforcements arrive, including a falcoknight sabotaged by a steel lance to reach a hilariously pathetic attack speed. Seth should be able to take care of them all, except for the two that are too far away.

...At least with the group down to the southwest. The northwestern ones, though... I'm gonna have to player-phase with Lute, Kyle and my stragglers.

Curious... that's a second promoted mook in just this chapter! And there was a sniper in 9EIR too! I don't think we've seen a single non-boss promoted enemy so far in Ephraim's campaign, but so far Eirika route's had three. That's... very bizarre.

But Eirika's group up north was in a very sticky situation. I managed to do some calculations that mostly ensured all of the weak stragglers' survival this time, but it was cutting it close. Gilliam had to stick his neck out and survive with 1 HP. It's frankly amazing how fragile knights get once they get behind in levels.

Hahahahahaha. Oh yeah. Okay, so, I just got to the main... castle keep, or whatever this huge wall with civilian houses inside of it is... and I've heard about Innes's legendary network of spies.

...The one that never alerted anyone of any of Grado's assuredly thorough war preparations.

Yeah, forgive me if I don't really take this spy thing seriously.

That's weird. This village conversation mentions that this isn't a “mercantile republic” run by a bunch of rich merchants... so much as a democratic republic guided by a “council of elders” where “anyone can run the country if he's old enough”. That's... those are mutually exclusive things, game.

And Carcino gets less and less interesting the more of these houses I visit. Apparently also the reason Pablo's still using his private army isn't because that's how Carcino works, but because it was just something he put together in order to take over the council in the first place, implying this is something unusual and that the others don't have private armies. In fact... I'm not sure we're going to get confirmation that the country had an army at all. Which would be... I mean, I get it, 800 years of peace and all that, but a country that doesn't have an army is a country that isn't independent.

It seems Franz's streak of no defense has finally been broken, on both files. He's near promotion time now, and I'm probably gonna do it at the beginning of next map, since this is an expendable file.

...An expendable file I've lost fewer units on.

Anyway, time for the ending cutscene. This should have some important exposition.

So yeah, no talk of any merchant social class here, which... I mean it makes me wonder what the “mercantile” part of “mercantile republic” is supposed to even mean in this case.

Oh, and we get a scene with Ewan!

Hm... maybe this is just a bad example and my memory is failing me, but I feel like these sprites are doing a lot less of that “emotive” moving around that I liked so much in FE7. I know it's done some, but usually only when necessary to demonstrate actions taken. Like, if this were FE7, I know that when Ewan started showing off the fact that he can do magic now, Tethys would have moved backwards, doing one of those classic “stagger” animations, since she told him to quit flinging fire around... for obvious reasons.

But Ewan actually makes himself useful to the party by telling us a route through the mountains! That's... that's actually pretty hilarious. We haven't even gotten him yet, and he's already contributed more to the cause than Ross and Amelia combined.

...I don't really like Innes's lines when he discusses Saleh. I don't know why, but it feels like you could have replaced his spy network with Micaiah-esque psychic visions and the tone of that conversation would have been almost identical. I'm not sure how to explain my issues with it more than that. Not that I think Micaiah's powers are inherently a bad thing, it's more that I don't feel spy networks should be spoken about that way.

...Or maybe my objection is that it's clearly placed here as a cheap way to add credence to a course of action.

Anyway, chapter's over, and with it, this entry. Tomorrow, we'll be doing Chapter 11EPH.

Phantom Ship.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Shadow Mir]

34 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I remember recruiting her being more of a pain in Ephraim's route though. Something about needing to approach her with Ewan, if I remember correctly?

You can also get her if both she and Ewan are alive once the chapter is over. According to this, anyway.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 I mean, I get it, 800 years of peace and all that, but a country that doesn't have an army is a country that isn't independent.

 

Tell that to Iceland.

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Tell that to Iceland.

Apparently in addition to their population being too small for an army to be practical, it gets away with not having one by having treaties with every surrounding country promising to defend them if they are invaded. That's kind of my point though: by refusing to have an army, they are completely dependent on the protection from other countries, which seems foolish for a country that prides itself on having a better and more just ruling system than its neighbors.

[Jotari]

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Apparently in addition to their population being too small for an army to be practical, it gets away with not having one by having treaties with every surrounding country promising to defend them if they are invaded. That's kind of my point though: by refusing to have an army, they are completely dependent on the protection from other countries, which seems foolish for a country that prides itself on having a better and more just ruling system than its neighbors.

It is in-line with a country that it economically prosperous enough that no adjacent nation would want to invade them though. That being the whole mercantile part. I'm reasonably sure that's how the Italian city states functioned for much of history. It was always a case of if they needed an army they could just hire one on the spot. There was probably some standing force, but mercenaries were made very heavy use of.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Jotari