Let's Play: Banner of the Maid Fire Emblemesque Isometric Chinese Tactical RPG

[IGdood]

I think it's been a few years since I've done a LP on SF.  Real life has been quite busy, and well working in medicine hasn't allowed me much respite due to current events. 

But now and then I think I can take some time for myself and get back into the hobby of gaming. 

Banner of the Maid is a relatively new tactical CRPG that on first glance looks like a cross between Fire Emblem and FFTA in terms of isometric map perspective.  It's set during a fictionalized account of the French Revolution so a few familiar historical names are thrown around. 

The game is built on the Unity Engine.  It's made by Azure Flame Studio which is based in Mainland China.  It has been translated to English, although the voice acting is in Mandarin Chinese.

I'll be going into this completely blind. 

I won't be screenshotting on the dialogue, so I'll sum up some things. 

 

 

Here's the main menu!

 

 

 

I'm a peasant so officer mode it is for me

 

 

Loading screen tips

 

Totally reminds me of FFTA

 

Cutting down some infantry in a cutscene

 

Fire Emblemesque Chapter transitions

 

We're supposed to look for the King of France, who may have absconded.

 

I assume I'm NOT part of the Royalists

 

Looks like I'm in command of General Marquis de Lafayette.

He's a heavy cavalry unit (Dragoon class), and his class ability is Charge, which allows him to gain +1 attack per 3 grids moved.

His character skill is Dignified, which inflicts -10 Def (resistance to guns) and -10 Amr (resistance to swords and cannons) after attacking an enemy unit.

You double an enemy if your SPD > theirs by 3.  Sco is the equivalent to SKL in FE.  Lead affects hit chance also, dodge, HP recovery, and morale gain. 

 

I quite like the artwork.

 

After eliminating some royalist guards, Lafayette goes off to look for the king.  Enter the Comte de Mirabeau, who notices there's a female royal in the carriage.

He has her step out.  She's worried about the fate of her children.  They talk about something she must do for the future of France.  As the revolutionary (?) soldiers approach her she flashes and a force field pushes them back. 

 

Mirabeau mentions "the power of the Maid."  Looks like we're getting into a magical version of the French Revolution?

 

5 years later we're in Toulon, France.  We're still seeing things from Mirabeau's perspective, and he's in the carriage with Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte.  France is currently ruled by the Assembly, and the nobility's grip is weakening.  Reforms have been made, and women are allowed to attend the Ecole Militaire, a military academy.  She and Mirabeau talk about how the royal family is changed from a "certain woman's" actions.  They talk about the powers of the "maids" but dismiss them as rumors. 

Pauline is relatively fresh from the academy.  She's still pretty green and easily affected by seeing the casualties of war.  Toulon is close to the front line (France is at war with both traitors, the British, the Austrians, the Prussians) and she's seeking to link up with her brother for advice. 

They note that if the revolutionary regime loses the war, the nobles and the royal family can get back in power. 

 

Now we play from Pauline's perspective.  Turns out Toulon has already become an active war zone much to her surprise.

She's alone but a new character named Leclerc shows up to reinforce. 

Historically he's probably Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc, and historically he does end up marrying Pauline Bonaparte. 

 

Instead of having a weapon triangle we have a class triangle. 

Light Cavalry beats Light Infantry, but loses when going up against Heavy Cavalry.  Light Infantry beat Heavy Infantry.

In a way the design is based on historical tactics.  Light cavalry are used to catch light infantry who don't have the training to stand toe to toe in melee combat.  Light infantry are used to snipe out infantry of the line. 

 

Leclerc is Chasseur a Cheval, France's skirmishing cavalry of the time. 

His class trait is First Mover Advantage, which the game states as "Range +2 when counterattacking, and enemies cannot 'Chase-Attack'"

His skills are Passionate, which increases attack by 2 when morale >=50 and morale gain also goes up by 5.  He also has Morale Strike, which lowers Morale equal to Damage Dealt and also removes "Heroic" status effects.  This is probably to reflect the duty of light cavalry harrying any would be impetuous troops, historically speaking. 

 

Pauline Bonaparte is of the Fusilier Class.   Essentially she leads the rank and file, who do most of the dying during these gunpowder wars.

Her class trait is Line Battle, where adjacent infantry units gain +1 Atk and +1 Def.

Her skill is Inspiration, which can only be used once per mission.  It grants a unit +2 attack for 3 turns. 

She carries an Experimental Musket which has a range of 2 but lowers the speed for double attacking checks by 2. 

 

The enemies are Jagers from Austria.  They're light infantry and therefore pose a threat to Pauline.

Their class trait grants them +10 dodge. 

 

 

That's all for now.  Hope you guys like this.  I find it interesting thus far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by IGdood

[This boi uses Nino]

Huh, this game looks cool, I'll put my replies in a spoiler box to save space

Spoiler

2 hours ago, IGdood said:

I'm a peasant so officer mode it is for me

Pssht, play on Lunatic Reverse ironman, filthy cashewl. Also anime so of course we have boooobies....

2 hours ago, IGdood said:

Totally reminds me of FFTA

Ooooh! Pretty!

2 hours ago, IGdood said:

Looks like I'm in command of General Marquis de Lafayette.

He's a heavy cavalry unit (Dragoon class), and his class ability is Charge, which allows him to gain +1 attack per 3 grids moved.

His character skill is Dignified, which inflicts -10 Def (resistance to guns) and -10 Amr (resistance to swords and cannons) after attacking an enemy unit.

You double an enemy if your SPD > theirs by 3.  Sco is the equivalent to SKL in FE.  Lead affects hit chance also, dodge, HP recovery, and morale gain. 

Holy fuck the artstyle is incredible!

Guess that was all, I'm hoping to see more of this!

[𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ]

it surely has a FFT vibe to it, wich is nice, and the artworks are well done too.

looks quite interesting, i might eventually give it a try in the future.

[IGdood]

Alright thanks for the replies, got an update for ya!

 

To recap Pauline needs to be rescued.  The objective is to have both characters get to the yellow tiles to win the mission. 

This chapter introduces some terrain effects.

As I move Pauline around she scavenges some items.  Seems like they offer bonuses if equipped. 

 

Leclerc is going to do most of the killing this time.

 

 

Morale Bar sounds like a Limit Break of sorts. 

 

I'm not sure if healers exist in this game, but for the time being I subsist on Vulneraries I mean bread

 

Leclerc's unit is ready to unleash a Heroic Attack due to having full morale.  It deals 1.5x the usual amount of damage and grants extra EXP upon killing an enemy.

 

We get our characters to their meeting point.  Introductions are cut short when it is revealed that the enemy artillery has their sights on our protagonists and bombardment ensues.  Leclerc jumps off his horse to push Pauline out of the way, getting injured in the process.

 

We're introduced to Napoleon Bonaparte.  He states that Leclerc broke both his legs in the process and he'll need a replacement.  Pauline is chosen.  She blames herself for her mistakes, and Napoleon reminds her sternly that she's a soldier first and foremost.  If she's not up for the job, he'll send her home.  Interestingly enough, he was the one who persuaded Pauline to enlist in the military academy in the first place. 

 

To take back Toulon, the French have to assault Fort Mulgrave and take control of the cannon there.  Then they can drive the British warships out of the area. 

 

We are introduced to a few new characters.

Rose de Beaumont.  Aside from having large cannonballs, she's also an artillery commander and a noble.  She's also nicknamed the Maid of the Royal Family due to her almost supernatural talents for logistics and making use of the terrain.  Her loyalty is always in question by the revolutionary regime since she's a noble. 

Hubert Mondego is an adjutant sent to watch over Napoleon.  He's buddies with the higher ups in the army and has been rapidly rising through the ranks, though he doesn't necessarily have the talent.  In other words, he's a product of cronyism.  It's not uncommon in the French army at this point in time. 

 

At first it seems there's a lot of enemies for an early game mission, but Hubert has the cannon instakill a few enemies here and there.

 

We're reminded that only Pauline gains EXP this map.

 

I suspect that most of these characters will end up in the party at some point. 

Hubert Mondego leads a unit of the Garde Nationale, same in class as the Fusiliers.  He has Line Battle as a class skill.  His character skills include Stubborn (immune to unrecoverable and uncontrollable) status effects, whatever they are...  and Artillery Protection where he has 50% damage resistance against Artillery attacks.

Rose de Beaumont is an Artillery unit.  No speed (so no double attacking), no dodge.  Artillery units have a range of 2-4.

Interestingly enough her character skill of Terrain Mastery is labeled as a "Maid Ability" and it grants +2 speed on flat terrain to ALL units and +2 Def and +2 Amr on non-plain terrains.  Lots of geo effects from her.  Her other skill is Movement, so she gets +1 Mov compared to other characters. 

Napoleon is clearly like the Jaegen so far. 

He has Conqueror, which buffs all units within 2 grids with +2 Atk and +2 Def and +1 Mov at the start of each turn.  He also has Reorganization, which allows him to recover 20% of HP whenever he defeats an enemy unit.  

 

Clearly the tactics for this map are to use Napoleon to buff Pauline and Rose.  Rose will weaken enemies and Pauline will finish them off for EXP.

 

These white coats are Austrian Line Infantry.  Not very impressive when it comes to stats.  And they've got a smug grin too.

 

Used Napoleon by accident, and he doubles and kills any unit so...  damn.  Wasted some exp.

 

We make our way towards the top and now we're fighting British redcoats.  Their stats are a bit better, but our units still steamroll them.

 

Lady Wellesley?  Did they genderflip Sir Arthur Wellesley, the man who historically defeated Napoleon? 

 

Level up!  Not sure if growths are random though

 

We've managed to kill off the British and take the cannons at the top.  Now the British warships will flee!

 

Pretty sure this is Lady Wellesley. 

 

You gain money with victory, and probably you'll get graded too

 

2 months later, Pauline ends up invited to Paris for some awards ceremony.  She happens upon a lady named Josephine whom she's supposed to stay with.  Josephine's husband did not survive the guillotine during the purges of nobility during the revolution. 

 

Josephine also introduces Pauline to the different factions in the city of Paris.  These factions may end up giving sidequests after you establish a relationship with them.

Of note, Napoleon Bonaparte is affiliated with the Jacobins faction.

 

Seems like occasionally there will be a choice to do something and it grants a skill to Pauline. 

 

 

Looking forward to side quests soon!

 

 

 

 

[Dayni]

4 hours ago, IGdood said:

Lady Wellesley?  Did they genderflip Sir Arthur Wellesley, the man who historically defeated Napoleon? 

Oh no, is it one of those stories? Where a bunch of major figures are female and a weird dynamic ends up forming from it? They've already done it to Wellingon, who's next?

Then again, the protagonist seems to be Napoleon's sister, so maybe I'm too pessimistic.

And this whole Maid thing is also something with a ton of questions, but I'll not ask that for now.

I also wonder what the wine does (very important in this game, I should hope.). The lack of cake as an item in this suggests that Antoinette withdrew her remarks.

[This boi uses Nino]

Spoiler

14 hours ago, IGdood said:

Rose de Beaumont.  Aside from having large cannonballs, she's also an artillery commander and a noble.  She's also nicknamed the Maid of the Royal Family due to her almost supernatural talents for logistics and making use of the terrain.  Her loyalty is always in question by the revolutionary regime since she's a noble. 

Anime being horny? never...

14 hours ago, IGdood said:

These white coats are Austrian Line Infantry.  Not very impressive when it comes to stats.  And they've got a smug grin too.

He reminds m of... Trevor from the Justice and Pride FE8 hack.

10 hours ago, Dayni said:

Oh no, is it one of those stories? Where a bunch of major figures are female and a weird dynamic ends up forming from it? They've already done it to Wellingon, who's next?

Lol, sounds hilarious but bad xd.

 

[IGdood]

Got a non-battle update.  Here we go....

Previously, we've gotten started with the different factions of Parisian society.  We'll dwell a bit more into that...

It's time for a banquet!  And Pauline's gotta go. 

 

There's a list of achievements and challenges for the player.  It would appear that one can build a party.  20 units?!

 

There's also a Gallery with Pauline's thoughts on each item

 

Time to go to the palace

 

It's a bit clear that the royal family doesn't want all these non-royals around. 

Some folks believe the revolutionary regime will collapse and things will go back to how they were. 

 

If I remember correctly Robespierre did have a hand in the execution of the king of France during the Reign of Terror. 

He is a member of the Jacobins faction. 

 

Enter Marie Antoinette, the lady who wasn't named in the prologue. 

Interestingly enough, they bring up the concept of Maids again.  Some say they are Witches and heretics. 

 

Seems like they want Pauline to thank someone.  Guess what?  I choose the third path and socially awkward Pauline goes on a speech about promoting her own faction and saloon.  Marie and Robespierre are taken aback, as they expected Pauline to choose a side.

 

Unfortunately you're still forced to choose, and being the contrarian that I am I decide to have Pauline thank the royal family.  Robespierre is a bit nonplussed. 

 

It would appear that Queen Marie and Pauline already know each other from the past.  They talk about Marie's homeland of Austria and how she feels about being the queen of a country that is at war with her home country.  Marie doesn't have much to say, only that it is unfortunate.  Pauline's next mission is to go to the frontlines in Italy. 

 

 

Time to leave the banquet.  Oh wait who is this? Not Desaix from Fire Emblem Echoes?

This chap is a noble but he sided with the revolutionaries.  Historically he was one of Napoleon's trusted men and ended up getting killed by a random musket ball. 

Seems that he's interested in Pauline, but she's reserved for Leclerc.

 

Joan of Arc was a Maid?

Anyone they talk a bit about sending soldiers to their deaths and fighting for the good of France, but otherwise not much else happens.

 

There's sidequests now related to the different factions.

 

 

Louis XV invites Pauline to talk about guillotines and how he's been improving them.  The servant also makes a mention that you never know who will end up next, implying that the roayls are trying to get back in power and the revolutionaries will likely be purged if that occurs.  Regardless, he grants Pauline a small sum of funds for her Italian campaign.

 

A new location has been unlocked!

 

Napoleon is commander in chief of the French Army in Italy.  The enemies are the Austrians and the Prussians. Pauline will reinforce her brother. 

 

We're introduced to some new characters.

 

D'eon is a diplomat and Pauline's fencing instructor.  He's appointed by Queen Marie and likely has affiliations with the royals. 

 

Joachim Murat is an arrogant cavalryman and likes to wear extravagant clothing, which will actually factor into his skills later.

 

Jean Lannes is a young, able officer and of merchant background.  Not a noble.  Seems to gripe a lot about logistics.

 

Definitely reminds me of the unit selection screen in FFTA with the checkerboard

 

Murat is a hussar unit. Light cavalry meant for hunting down light infantry. 

Class skill is raid, granting him +2 Atk and +2 Def against light infantry.  His stats imply he doesn't do well in direct melee combat with melee enemies. 

His character skill is Gorgeous Clothing, granting him the ability to debuff enemies in 2 grids around him with -20 Dodge and -10 Hit chance. 

 

Jean Lannes leads Fusiliers. 

His character skill is Courage, allowing him to get a 20% buff to attack and +30% damage resistance to all attacks when HP < 50%.  During this time all successful hits against enemies allow him to recover 3 HP.  Sounds like a hardcore version of Wrath.

 

D'Eon leads Tirailleurs, or French Light Infantry.

Class skill is Skirmisher.  Grants Dodge +10 at baseline.  if attacking an enemy from the flank or rear, grant +1 Attack and +40 Dodge. 

Character skills are Guard, granting adjacent allies +1 Def and +2 Amr.  Also Search.  If target not on flat terrain then grant +3 Attack and Hit Chance +20.  Basically foes who try and use terrain bonuses get fucked by D'Eon. 

 

 

[This boi uses Nino]

Spoiler

11 hours ago, IGdood said:

Enter Marie Antoinette

Yo what the hell why does Marie Antoinette have such huge bazongas?

11 hours ago, IGdood said:

His character skill is Gorgeous Clothing, granting him the ability to debuff enemies in 2 grids around him with -20 Dodge and -10 Hit chance. 

How enemies will manage to hit him less despite all that heavy clothing is beyond me.

 

[Dayni]

11 hours ago, IGdood said:

Joan of Arc was a Maid?

Anyone they talk a bit about sending soldiers to their deaths and fighting for the good of France, but otherwise not much else happens.

1: Oh god this might be going down that road I was afraid of after all.

1: Her being referred to as a maid is historically accurate (being she was referred to as such when she came to prominence)

2: Magic instead of divine miracles.... I guess that's where they're going with it. Especially with the earlier comment about maids and witches and how she was condemned.

As for Marie Antoinette, I have a feeling there's a bread joke somewhere with her.... considerable fields of wheat.

[IGdood]

2 hours ago, This boi uses Nino said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Yo what the hell why does Marie Antoinette have such huge bazongas?

How enemies will manage to hit him less despite all that heavy clothing is beyond me.

 

 

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

As for Marie Antoinette, I have a feeling there's a bread joke somewhere with her.... considerable fields of wheat

 

If you thought she had fields of wheat, look at what comes next.... 

CRPGs man 😅

 

As previously mentioned Pauline is now in Italy assisting Nappy's conquest. 

The pre-battle menu

 

 

Victory conditions.  Apparently you can unlock battle advice by scoring relationships with another faction.

 

There's some artillery units on the ridge above.  Best to avoid them.  Murat calls into doubt having such a young commander in the form of Pauline.  He shuts up quickly when she gives a very detailed plan (to the player) on how to win this map.  Which is basically use the terrain, avoid the artillery, and use the class triangle.

 

 

Lannes respects Pauline, but being a stickler for supplies he laments the fact that we are all undersupplied.  Weapon durability is a thing in this game, but it resets after the end of every mission. 

 

 

The Artillery class generally cannot counterattack if attacked at close range.  They also get a stat boost if they attack without having moved that turn. Otherwise they have poor defenses and speed, and will be doubled quite easily.

 

Lannes and Pauline get sent into the thick of it. 

 

D'eon's high damage and the ability to double spells death for the enemy Line Infantry.  However he's a level 5 while everyone's a Level 2.  Don't want him sucking out too much exp

 

Murat is the perfect choice to send against undefended Light Infantry and Artillery.

 

Enter Paulette Meric, a drunk artillery officer who shows up late to the battle.  She, too, has impressive round shot.  Unfortunately she doesn't have any for her unit and we have to go scavenge the battlefield for some before she can be of use.  She is an acquaintance of Lannes.

 

She has two unusable cannonballs, if you catch my drift.

 

Paulette carries a bottle of wine, which boosts morale.

Her character skill is Drunkard.  Whenever she drinks wine she gains an additional +10 morale and +2 attack for 3 turns on top of the +20 morale.  So she's very item dependent. 

 

No healers, but if you place your units next to a campfire they can recover.

 

I'm letting D'eon draw fire and weakening enemies for the newbies to finish off.  Thanks FE training.

 

Paulette turns red whenever she orders her unit to attack since she sips her wine at the same time.  Nice little details.  Unfortunately I let her get attacked but thankfully she didn't get doubled otherwise she'd be dead.

 

Looks like he's the boss.  Too bad he shares the same portrait as that of any generic enemy's

 

I like the artillery animations.  The enemy boss has high HP and attack but not much else. 

 

D'eon uses a heroic attack to take that HP out!

 

Pauline strikes the killing blow.  The Austrian officer accuses her of witchcraft.

 

Victory!

 

The party develops a growing respect for Pauline.  Pauline calls Paulette an elder, whereas an irate Paulette says she's only 27 years old.

 

Next chapter but wait not yet

 

The royal family is the equivalent of the item shop.  Sell junk to them and buy equipment from them.

 

Murat can use some armor.  His hussars have none.

 

Appease the royalists and higher tier items will unlock.

 

I actually purchased a $5 DLC for Banner of the Maid, and that DLC chapter grants a character after completion.  Looks like it's unlocked.

 

As it's developed by a Chinese developer, I'm not surprised they chose a Chinese character to be the DLC character and not somebody Korean or Japanese, etc.

A merchant escaped from some pirates and took some jade away from them in the process. 

 

Meanwhile Pauline and Lannes are trapped behind enemy lines at an unknown port city.  Their only way out is to board a British ship.

 

 

Our DLC character is fluent when she speaks to herself in Chinese, but when she's speaking to British or French characters they purposely change up her level of grammar

Ching Shih is 鄭氏, a very famous female pirate lord who terrorized the South China sea in the 19th century during the Qing Dynasty.

 

Damn, this attack animation reminds me of the FE Swordsmaster's.  The female pirates leap and do a spinning sword strike, followed by a pistol shot, and then followed by a second slash as they run past their targets.

 

Pauline and Lannes gain new nicknames as they assume command of pirates.  They are temporarily class switched to Light Infantry.

 

Meanwhile a bunch of color template switched pirate characters show up in another ship under our command.  They were hired by Zhiyun under the promise that there's some good looting to be done.

 

So the class of Zhiyun is Oriental Pirate.  It is considered to be Light Infantry.

The class skill is She's a Pirate - Attack Range +1 when counter attacking and damage taken -40%.  Heroic attacks performed with these troops can sometimes yield an item. 

 

Character Skills are

Survivor - Doesn't suffer the debuffs from Foggy or Rainy weather. Rather, they get buffed with +2 Movement and HP recovery of 4 whenever landing a successful hit on an enemy.

Plunder - When attacking and landing a hit, automatically take 1 durability off an enemy's weapon. 

Misguide - Switch spots with an enemy, consuming 30 Morale and debuffing them by Movement -3 and Attack -3 for 2 turns.

 

The enemies are all high level redcoats.  They gain HP if they end the turn with adjacent friendlies, so I had to position the units to separate the enemies from each other.  With their high HP and our limited supplies it was a matter of preventing any sort of HP recovery otherwise the battle would've been unwinnable.

 

Zhiyun is also the only one capable of crossing ships with the blue tiles.

 

 

Our 4 other pirate characters have unique bios despite the blatant color swapping.

 

They were good at dodging redcoats, but their damage barely put a dent in their HP

 

Zhiyun could reposition her ship.  Turns out her ship fires cannonballs from time to time which really put the hurt on enemies if you could get them to stand in the bombardment zone.

 

After what appeared to be a battle that took forever, I claim victory!

 

Zhiyun didn't find any treasure from the merchant ship.  She can't go back empty handed to her boss back east.  So she offers to sign up as a mercenary with Pauline and co.  The possibility of plunder is quite attractive. 

 

 

Lannes has concerns about the military discipline of pirates, but Pauline says she can use light infantry like them.

 

 

 

[Dayni]

3 hours ago, IGdood said:

I mean, there must be something about French wheat according to these devs.

3 hours ago, IGdood said:

I actually purchased a $5 DLC for Banner of the Maid, and that DLC chapter grants a character after completion.  Looks like it's unlocked.

Suddenly, pirates.

Alright, that wasn't a thing I was expecting here.

3 hours ago, IGdood said:

Zhiyun didn't find any treasure from the merchant ship.  She can't go back empty handed to her boss back east.  So she offers to sign up as a mercenary with Pauline and co.  The possibility of plunder is quite attractive. 

That is a convenient reason for the pirate to not just sail off into the sunrise.

[This boi uses Nino]

Spoiler

4 hours ago, IGdood said:

Enter Paulette Meric, a drunk artillery officer who shows up late to the battle.  She, too, has impressive round shot.  Unfortunately she doesn't have any for her unit and we have to go scavenge the battlefield for some before she can be of use.  She is an acquaintance of Lannes.

ooga booga, bigu tittie.

 

4 hours ago, IGdood said:

Looks like he's the boss.  Too bad he shares the same portrait as that of any generic enemy's

I still like the smug faces of these guys.

4 hours ago, IGdood said:

Ching Shih is 鄭氏, a very famous female pirate lord who terrorized the South China sea in the 19th century during the Qing Dynasty.

Ching Shih was a badass. Also she looks cute, not overbearing, just beautiful ❤️

4 hours ago, IGdood said:

Damn, this attack animation reminds me of the FE Swordsmaster's.  The female pirates leap and do a spinning sword strike, followed by a pistol shot, and then followed by a second slash as they run past their targets.

Cool animation.

 

[IGdood]

A side quest battle update.

 

These entrustment quests offer extra exp, provided you can beat them.

 

A simple, kill 'em all type of mission.  I'm ok with this

 

Austrian Light Infantry lack the smugness of their Line counterparts.  Unlike Jagers, they're more like slow snipers rather than agile, dodgy folks who flank line infantry.

 

A very long time ago, I wondered if Fire Emblem sprites could be edited to represent regiments and entire squads.  The dodge animations probably would've been difficult to implement.  Banner of the Maid just has all the soldiers do a little shift to the right/left whenever bullets start flying to represent dodging.  It's kinda silly, but hey it works.

Pauline and Murat gain speed for their level ups.

 

A few close calls here and there, but we fight our way to the town.

 

This enemy boss doesn't move.  But he also has high artillery resistance.  But that's okay, just grind him down.  Paulette farms some EXP

 

Big OOF.

 

 

Chapter 4, BEGIN!

 

We're introduced to children in the army.  This is Aimee Leclerc, sister of Charles Leclerc.  She reminds Pauline that Charles' legs are still recovering and she owes him big time.

 

The party learns that Oscar de Rochambeau, a female noble officer and cavalry commander is trapped by the Austrians.  Murat has doubts about rescuing a noble, but he's quickly set straight by everyone else.

 

 

Looks like there's a LOT of enemy cavalry to deal with.

 

 

Heavy Cavalry deal more damage the further they move to an enemy target.

 

We're introduced to the portraits of the Austrian cavalry commanders.  Hussars are fucking swag.

 

Heinrich appears to be an Austrian dragoon commander.  His skills make him seem like a ....not sure what to say.

Gentleman:  +5 attack against males, -3 attack against females

Intercept:  Inflict -3 speed and -2 Movement for 1 turn on an enemy that is attacked

 

Holy fuck, look at those stats.  I'm betting this one will retreat before I get to her.

 

Oscar de Rochambeau has a flat chest(plate) and has the skill Upright.  She seems to be a tank, as it grants her +2 Def, +2 Amr, +10 hit chance when she attacks an enemy from the front

 

Aimee Leclerc leads the military band, presumably a combination of healers and the dancer mechanic from FE without granting extra turns.  The amount healed is dependent on the recipient's Leadership stat.  She can also raise morale artificially so heroic status can be achieved faster.

Class Trait Virgo: Friendly units within 2 grids gain +10 hit chance and + 10 dodge.

Character Skill Charity: When she uses an item, adjacent units receive +30% HP and +15 morale.

 

How cute.  Drumroll!!!

 

Heavy cavalry have such high armor that light cavalry can't even touch them.  Oscar proceeds to wipe the cobblestone streets with the bodies of Austrian hussars.

 

Yes we know that

 

Unfortunately Austrian Heavy Cavalry can stand up to Oscar.  Thankfully she's got some bread.

 

Got cavalry hitting me from all sides, and Murat is kinda useless against heavy cav.  This game really makes the class rock paper scissors apparent.

 

It starts to rain.  Lanne remarks that this will make combat difficult.  Paulette teases him a bit.  He's probably tsundere for her.

 

Oscar gets a new sword.

 

As predicted, Leonore leaves before you get to her.  Heinrich borderline simps for her and declares that everything he's doing right now is to impress her.

 

A few drunk enemies join the battle. 

 

Line Infantry are the best assets against heavy cavalry, as they lack defense against bullets in general.

 

The King's Guard Sword makes Oscar more resistant to bullets. 

She deals the killing blow to Heinrich's unit.

Level ups all around.

 

[IGdood]

 

Got a juicy story update.  Either I haven't played tactical games in a long time or Banner of the Maid is actually challenging. 

 

Turns out that Oscar knows of Pauline from her very first battle.

 

Oh this is steamy. 

 

 

 

And now back to Josephine

 

We're introduced to Mademoiselle Laure, who seems to be accused of witchcraft.  Turns out she's just very socially awkward but is an actual healer.

 

I choose the top option.

There's some strange disease which is causing toenail discoloration, amongst other things.

 

This fucking chapter was nervewracking.  Or I just suck.

 

Annnnd look who it is!  Desaix is here.

 

We're told that due to political instability back in France, Napoleon is running out of time to "liberate" Italy.  He's pushing hard into enemy forces but there's a second group ready to flank him.  This is where Pauline's army comes in.  Flank the flankers.

 

Louis Desaix commands heavy cavalry like Oscar. He's more offensive based than being a tank.

Character Skill: United as One: Every friendly unit adjacent to the target enemy gives a buff to Desaix in the form of +2 Attack, Def, Amr when he engages said enemy.  Seems like the perfect unit to throw at a boss.

Replace:  Swaps position with a friendly unit within 2 grids.

 

The Jacobins Club is the place to buy firearms.

The Grocery Store sells swords and healing items.

 

2 new sidequests appear.

 

Some flavor text.

 

I start off the Entrustment: Defensive side quest.  We gotta prevent enemies from occupying the flag.

Enemy cavalry whiz past my infantry.  It's gonna be a lot of cav on cav action

 

Murat isn't really helpful due to the sheer amount of heavy cav here, but he's doubling them and doing plenty of chip damage.

 

Thankfully there's no permadeath in this game.

 

This is the mission's boss.

 

Desaix is a bit underleveled, so I give him the kill.

Honestly I'm not getting a lot of funds from these sidequests, but it's the EXP that's the true reward.

 

I initiate the other sidequest, where you command Oscar and see things from her perspective prior to the arrival of Pauline's forces.  It's essentially a mission granting her a lot of EXP.

 

Since she's such a tank it's a piece of cake.  Just camp the campfire.

 

Damn, she learns to debuff?  Nice.

 

It seems that because she's a noble, her family has suffered quite a bit from the revolution.

 

Okay, there's a shipper on deck here.

 

Dodge -10

Okay why would I let a unit carry this

 

Alright time for a full frontal assault.

 

That's a lot of enemies.

And the enemy artillery units are going to be a total pain in the ass to defeat.

The challenge is to win the mission in one piece by knocking the gate down.

Otherwise you can just go around the walls and go through the more lightly defended gap once you get rid of the loads of enemy cavalry.

 

Regardless of a unit's attack, it takes 4 separate attacks to knock this barricade down.

 

Oh boy, can my forces withstand this assault? 

I have Lannes plug up the narrow path where all the enemy cavalry are.

 

Desaix goes off to handle the light cavalry in the corner.

 

D'eon gets bombarded.  His Amr is pretty shit so I move him to a bush and have him eat bread.

 

Oh man, I can't even touch the enemies

 

Using a 2 range experimental musket is sneaky as fuck.  Not to mention there's loads of warm bodies between my cavalry and the enemy artillery.  And now I've got no HP to fight back

 

I'm expecting casualties, but I eat as much bread as I can and heal the tank

 

Thanks RNG

 

Oof

 

Why did they have not one but two bosses here

 

Lannes is just farming exp away from his comrades who are suffering heavy casualties

 

RNG fucks Oscar over and she misses

 

Desaix is slow enough that Little John can wipe out his unit with a double attack.....

 

Pauline levels up and learns Reorganization, which may be key this mission

 

Big John is killed off

 

Little John is enraged at his brother's death and WHY THE FUCK DOES THE GAME BUFF EVERY REMAINING ENEMY

 

Now we can reach the enemy arty!

 

D'EON NOOOOO

 

Paulette and Desaix kill off Little John for good

 

D'eon was pushed to retreat, but we managed to complete the challenge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[This boi uses Nino]

Spoiler

12 hours ago, IGdood said:

Those are some good levels.

12 hours ago, IGdood said:

Also good levels.

 

 

[IGdood]

 

We're introduced to a new character, Cosette.  She can talk to birds and is a dedicated scout and sniper. 

 

 

Chapter 6 begin!

 

Back in Paris, Robespierre and Lafayette lay into each other regarding an incident involving the shooting of civilians.

 

 

We're seeing this from Josephine's perspective.  Lafayette says he had to arrest some nobles before they started fighting with the commoners.  Robespierre says Lafayette should not have decided to release the nobles and should've executed them all.

Personally I think Robespierre is out for blood so I choose to support the nobles.  Josephine words it with tact and Robespierre is satisfied with the response.

 

Now that we're in Chapter 6 we're introduced to the military academy function.  Using items found in our battles, we can unlock extra skills for our units.

 

 

I think Paulette can use this skill

 

Lure would be useful for a cavalry unit

 

Cosette is a Chasseur.  She's light infantry but not like D'Eon, who has high dodge and attack.  She is able to fight with a range of 2, and is treated as having a permanent penalty when counting doubles. 

 

Character skill:  Aerial View - Maid ability, if target is on flat terrain, deal 3 extra damage. This is sorta the opposite of D'Eon's, who gains higher accuracy when dealing with enemies on rugged terrain. 

 

Mirabeau sells free exp essentially for money.   He can also sell songs for marching band. 

 

Hmmmm

 

Fuck, I wish there's no time limit when winning

 

 

Paulette is gonna be VIP this battle.  She was sober enough to "remember" the skill of Horse Transport, which lets her move an extra 3 squares after an inital move.  This is reflective of the concept of Horse Artillery at the time

 

 

>Lashing

Damn, what are these Austrians up to

 

These Drillmasters gonna be fucked

 

Snipin' time

 

Paulette finally gains 1 speed.

She also learns something useful like an AOE

 

Murat and D'eon fucks em up

 

My hoarding tendencies means I'll never take advantage of Paulette's drinking

 

Death from above!

 

Murat gains some additional damage.

 

Oh hey, it's the equivalent of a FE Thief coming in to break treasure chests

 

>this is the boss

>he didn't care

>this is important biographical information

 

I was one turn away from killing the thief

They get to escape as soon as they get to the treasure chest.  Well shit, I wonder what i missed out on

 

Alphonse doesn't stand a chance

 

Oh nooooooo

 

We won, but Cosette had to retreat...

 

 

[B.Leu]

I'll be keeping an eye on this, I've heard about this game and heard it was quite good.

Some things to note...

 -Why does most girls have huge boobs and that the heroine the one with 'normal' ones ?
-GUNS ! 😄
-This game's grasp on french is pretty solid, thought reading 'THE Ecole Militaire' hurted my blue-white-red heart.

Good luck, I'll be watching

[This boi uses Nino]

I don't have anything to reply to but hey the new units seem... interesting

[IGdood]

On 8/30/2020 at 2:52 PM, B.Leu said:

I'll be keeping an eye on this, I've heard about this game and heard it was quite good.

Some things to note...

 -Why does most girls have huge boobs and that the heroine the one with 'normal' ones ?
-GUNS ! 😄
-This game's grasp on french is pretty solid, thought reading 'THE Ecole Militaire' hurted my blue-white-red heart.

Good luck, I'll be watching

 

The artists sure love their assets and chests hahaha

Indeed, GUNS!

 

On 8/30/2020 at 5:28 PM, This boi uses Nino said:

I don't have anything to reply to but hey the new units seem... interesting

Maybe something in this post will earn a reply!  Bahaha.

 

 

It's gonna be a castle assault mission.  There better not be a time limit. 

We're basically securing a fortress so we can guard Napoleon's army from being flanked.

 

Also we can ask for a character's assistance.  Looks like it will impact what factions think of us.

 

Tits win the day.  Also Rose seems nicer in personality than that other guy. 

 

 

By improving our relations with the Royalists, we can buy more items.

 

 

Ooooh promotion items.

 

But first...before we assault a castle let's take a sidequest and level Desaix up a bit.

 

Desaix recalls one particular officer who stood out to him from a past battle. 

This battle is also fucking RNG dependent as you have to keep all AI friendlies alive. 

 

 

This particular guy's name is Fernand. Desaix thinks he's actually a deserter based on appearance but turns out he just looks like a ruffian (by French standards, I suppose)

He quickly apologizes to Fernand.

 

 

The trick to this battle is praying to the RNG that Fernand doesn't need your assistance because the two friendly dragoons need some degree of assistance and the friendly artillery unit across the gorge has only 2-3 turns of time before it gets obliterated by the enemy line infantry unit and you need to switch positions using Desaix's personal skill.

 

 

French NPC portraits!  Also Fernand.

 

Fernand gives Desaix some doctor's medical journal. 

 

Desaix also says Murat looks like Fernand (in other words, he looks like a ruffian)

 

Now that we improve relations with the Jacobins, we get better ranged weaponry.  Too bad I got no money.

 

 

Alright let's go.

 

 

Oscar recounts a particularly horrid battle which Pauline took part in as acting commander.  Pauline wonders if dead troops resented her with their dying breaths, but she is reassured that everyone is fighting for a better French future.  Oscar however mentions again that her father is still imprisoned for being a noble.

 

Pauline hopes that as long as she keeps winning and fighting, things will right themselves for everyone.  A bit naive, but not a bad thought.

 

 

>13 turn time limit

 

 

Prussian fusiliers are the Prussian equivalent of the Austrian riflemen with their 2 range

 

The enemy boss is named Baldur.  He seems a little senile.

But his abilities will fuck us up hard.

Keep the Line - Adjacent infantry will regain 20% HP per turn

He has Ricochet so can't group my guys together too much. 

 

 

The enemy generics talk about reinforcements.  Jee I wonder.

 

 

I will assign Lannes and Desaix to go intercept.  Everyone else will be part of the main contingent.

 

 

 

 

Enemy healers will probably be my number one priority

 

Oh hi Rose

 

Taking great care to avoid the artillery on that elevated area...

 

Oscar narrowly avoids death

She gets doubled way too much.  So does Desaix.

 

Remember the challenge objective that Rose can't take damage or we fail?

Well fuck I knew the game was gonna pull this shit off

 

Lots of enemy light cavalry reinforcements

 

But I managed to accomplish one objective!

 

Rose can really take down HP, but unfortunately not enough to OHKO

 

Eat bread

 

Oh dear it's raining

And suddenly the boss and his crew charge us all

 

Motherfucking Baldur launches a heroic attack on Pauline

Thankfully she is not stunned afterwards

 

Cutscene time

The French troops lose morale and Pauline's maid powers activate

 

Time to dis these Germanic fucks

 

>magical and inspiring

 

Inspiration is now upgraded to affect not just Pauline, but the entire army from now on.

 

HEROIC ATTACKS/HEALS FOR EVERYONE DIE MOTHERFUCKING BALDUR

 

 

Have to Pauline back though.  She's too heavily hurt.  I wish I had 2 healers...

 

Cosette has gotten to the point where she can reliably double despite that skill taking off 2 SPD

 

My bad it was either you or Pauline

 

Murat was useless this whole battle.  Granted I didn't use him well, he did minimal damage against the dragoons harassing Rose.  Rose was able to fend for herself anyways...

 

[This boi uses Nino]

Spoiler

18 minutes ago, IGdood said:

The trick to this battle is praying to the RNG that Fernand doesn't need your assistance because the two friendly dragoons need some degree of assistance and the friendly artillery unit across the gorge has only 2-3 turns of time before it gets obliterated by the enemy line infantry unit and you need to switch positions using Desaix's personal skill.

Oh gee sounds like fun </s>

20 minutes ago, IGdood said:

Now that we improve relations with the Jacobins, we get better ranged weaponry.  Too bad I got no money.

Lies I see 3160 funds right there. I also like how reputation gives you cool stuff, I wonder what would be the best shop or best thing to unlock first...

21 minutes ago, IGdood said:

Oscar is a girl? Wait what. What a weird name for a girl.

23 minutes ago, IGdood said:

Hey look, little babyface gained a new skill, sounds pretty good if you ask me.

26 minutes ago, IGdood said:

>magical and inspiring

Protagonist powers? Protagonist powers.

 

[IGdood]

I could've sworn I had no money.  I might've been looking at another screenshot...

Anywayss....

 

 

Protagonist powers.  Witchcraft, heresy, and mutation!

 

Like most newfound magic powers, using it for the first time causes the protagonist to go into a coma

 

 

Where this

 

Ah, it's Desaix's older sister, Francois-Antoinette Desaix.  She reminds me of Marianne from Three Houses.  She believes the Maid powers are a curse as all who carry such powers end up dying miserably.  Each maid's powers differ and it depends entirely on the woman.  Her own power is that she can inherit and view the memories of her dead ancestors like an animus machine from Assassin's Creed.  She also does not understand why lil bro joined the revolution, as the commoners have killed many members of her family. 

 

 

Even in present day, maids are considered blasphemy and heresy though the days of the crusades and medieval times have long passed.

 

Apparently Mirabeau knows more than he lets on about maids. 

 

Pauline meets up with Desaix who informs her that Nappy was completely victorious in Italy and the war there is over.

 

 

Ohoho, next chapter.

Who be these new characters?  At least they don't have overly large chests.

 

Historically, the Secret du Roi was a network of intelligence agents that served the king.

Apparently D'Eon used to crossdress so well that men would ask for his hand in marriage. 

 

Adelaide de Broglie is one of the Secret du Roi.

Nivernais is a teenage girl spy who is mistaken as a teenage boy.  Pauline is confused, as she remarks that Nivernais totally looks like a chick.  I mean, she's flat but she's still got a bit of chest.

 

There is a plot to assassinate the king.  The crew attempts to deduce who the culprits would be.  The foreign powers would want to have French royals in command, so naturally if the king were to be assassinated the blame can go to the revolutionaries.  Therefore, if a foreigner did want to assassinate the king they would not be suspected.

 

Adelaide de Broglie commands the same unit as D'Eon.  Like him, she's a flanker rather than a sniper.  Her character skill is Intelligence Gathering, which plays into her low HP base.  If HP < Target's, get +1 Attack and +20 Dodge.  Otherwise I think she's already faster than D'Eon.

 

Time to buy some skills and improvements..

 

These Free Combat missions yield EXP only, not additional money.  Otherwise you can endlessly grind.

 

So I grind a bit.

Also wtf is this

 

Turns out MUSYNX is a new indie rhythm game from another Chinese company.  And I guess Azure Studio is giving them a shoutout

 

I do some grinding and this is more or less what stats the characters have.  I don't know if the growths are random or fixed.

Cosette is really one of my favorite units thanks to her long range, high attack, and she has good spd growth

 

I'm not really impressed by D'eon to be honest.  Adelaide has much better stats in almost all areas.  D'eon can stat boost adjacent infantry with his guard skill, but that's about it.

 

That SPD is so bad

Murat needs a better weapon, otherwise despite his doubling he can't kill off light infantry and artillery fast enough

 

 

Let's pay the comte a visit.

 

It's the story of Joan of Arc.

>Spearmen
wait

 

>6 turns

Ah fuck

 

So basically this map is more puzzle than anything.  You have to kill off the enemy in 6 turns so you have to kill at least one per turn.  Some of the enemies have high enough HP to counterattack, but Pauline can kill them all and you need to utilize her Reorganization skill.

 

Sadly there's no pikeman or spearman animations. 

 

Took me three tries to get the right sequence

I like how Mirabeau essentially cuts Pauline off at this particular question and says "NEXT TIME WE SHALL TALK ABOUT IT"

 

Okay now we go to the next map

 

 

>Investigable shark corpse

Cavalry units will be important in reaching those treasure chests. 

Maybe I should replace D'Eon with Mu Zhilun the pirate. 

 

 

 

 

[This boi uses Nino]

Spoiler

7 hours ago, IGdood said:

I could've sworn I had no money.  I might've been looking at another screenshot...

You did spend it afterwards, so that's what happened I guess

8 hours ago, IGdood said:

Perhaps her miserable end will be the guillotine...

8 hours ago, IGdood said:

At least they don't have overly large chests.

Still pretty big on average by irl standards I think... I'm not sure.

8 hours ago, IGdood said:

Cosette is really one of my favorite units thanks to her long range, high attack, and she has good spd growth

She's also a beauty.

 

[IGdood]

She'll perhaps get the head chopped off....perhaps.

 

 

Cavalry will form the right flank.  All else to the left.

 

We thought there'd only be royalist insurgents.  But holy fuck how'd the Austrians get here?

Someone bribed the inspectors.  We must root out the corruption.

 

 

Bandits may not kill you, but if you lose all weapon durability then you're kinda fucked.

We gotta keep killing people to flush out the boss.

 

Things are going well

 

>5 damage

>laughs in high defense

 

Lannes is really putting them down

 

Oh hey I know this generic portrait

 

Oh fuck lots of line infantry reinforcements

 

>mutual missing

 

Unfortunately I didn't bother to check that the Austrians can pull the heavy cavalry into enemy territory with Lure

>38 HP

holy shit DLC OP

 

What this

 

Oscar is dead, and Desaix will probably be routed soon

But I can lose 2 units before losing the battle

 

There's an ancient book found in the shark.  It seems to be written by someone who has magical powers

 

Pauline wonders if she'll die in mysterious manners like the author of said book

 

Opening some chests

 

>Pecker

Please, give me all the dick jokes.

Pecker apparently was hired to guard the boats against....traitors?  He claims that he was duped and he didn't expect to fight French regulars.

 

My mind is in the gutter

 

Adelaide gets more OP.  Bye bye D'Eon.

 

Exactly what are these badges?

 

Ooh seems like an interesting gun.

 

Murat gets to be useful

 

 

Pecker gonna get chopped

 

Pecker gets interrogated, and he says that he seriously doesn't know what the fuck is happening.

He states he used to be a guard for the nobles and now with the revolution he's out of work and has taken up banditry.  D'Eon believes that more hidden Austrians have likely snuck past and are on their way to assassinate the king. 

 

 

Back in Versailles, Louis XVI throws a fit when he is told that the palace guards are being withdrawn.  He notes that the commoners are really testing his patience and he can't accomodate to such unfair demands.  Marie asks him to do it for the sake of their children.  Mirabeau states that this is what the Assembly would want; to have the king get into direct conflict with the Assembly so they can have an excuse to probably behead the entire royal family.

 

Mirabeau states that this is the only way to appease the commoners for now.  Louis XVI is not happy that the very consultant he has hired seems to be taking the opposition's side.  He also throws a pretty big threat in private conversation with Marie.

 

We seem to get a hint of Marie Antoinette's maid power.  She can predict the future with prophecies.

 

They also mention that the armoire de fer had been broken into.  Historically it was an iron chest housing important papers. 

 

Nivernais is mentioned, and Marie mentions that Nivernais actually grew up outside of France.

 

Our next mission is made clear.  We are to escort Marie Therese, the royal princess.  Historically, I believe she was the only offspring to survive to adulthood.

 

The pirate musket would probably be useful when you're able to camp a bush and bait enemies.

 

Mmmm, money

 

Ooh a side mission.  Marie Antoinette has rumors spread about her for apparently spending military funds on jewelry and etc.  The peasants are pissed and demand blood.  The sidequest objective is to arrest all the people spreading fake news.

 

We get our first glimpse of promoted class enemies.

 

I only need to kill the bandits, but all these dragoons have the Intercept skill and can lower movement if they get a hit in

 

 

>those hats though

 

Desaix learns a useful skill

He's at the max amount of skills so I have to switch something out for Tenacious Defense.  I haven't really used Replace much so...

 

Adelaide will prove useful in 2-rounding bandits and dodging everything else

 

They said for the challenge to complete this in 6 turns.  Did it in 4.

 

Oh this is lovely.

>Special Bread

>not croissant

 

I replaced Replace.

 

 

Next chapter.

 

 

NEW CHARACTERS

 

 

We're introduced to the princess and her female bodyguard...

She's probably gonna be an OP cavalry unit.

 

The princess believes she's living out a fairytale.  Her bodyguard is her fair knight with a blessed sword made to keep demons and enemies at bay.  She's undecided as to whether she is actually the fair princess of a fairytale or the arrogant noble archetype.  But she's riding a horse too.

 

Pauline shows up.  The bodyguard's name is Charlotte.  She used to be like an older sister to Pauline and her friends back at the academy.  She's also affiliated with the Feuillants.

 

>Try to reason

>It didn't work but I get 50 Royalist points anyways

 

It's an escort mission.

 

Charlotte commands Hussars.  She's only level 6 and her stats seem ok. 

Character Skill:  Merciful Revenge - Deal 2 extra damage to enemies not at full health/are buffed

 

Marie Therese Charlotte

While she hasn't officially joined us (yet, probably), she commands Chasseurs like Cosette does. 

Princess:  Cavalry units close to her get morale and defensive buffs. 

 

 

 

 

[This boi uses Nino]

Spoiler

2 hours ago, IGdood said:

She'll perhaps get the head chopped off....perhaps.

An ugly thought indeed.

2 hours ago, IGdood said:

Desaix learns a useful skill

He's at the max amount of skills so I have to switch something out for Tenacious Defense.  I haven't really used Replace much so...

Btw, have I said yet that Desaix looks like Quan? Because he really does.

2 hours ago, IGdood said:

>Special Bread

>not croissant

Dissapointment.

On an unrelated note, I believe you should write what you want to say below the designated image, it makes it easier to read along that way imo.

 

[IGdood]

On 9/6/2020 at 6:09 PM, This boi uses Nino said:

  Hide contents

An ugly thought indeed.

Btw, have I said yet that Desaix looks like Quan? Because he really does.

Dissapointment.

On an unrelated note, I believe you should write what you want to say below the designated image, it makes it easier to read along that way imo.

 

 

Desaix does look like Quan holy shit.  Down to the hair color!

 

The reason why i write the caption above the image is because I generally sum up the content of a group of images and then follow it up by the most relevant ones.  It's also easier to post because I post the images relevant to the statement rather than upload a group of images first and then describe what I just uploaded. 

 

Anyway!

 

To recap, the last post we were ordered to escort a princess!  This was quite the endeavor and I had to restart the mission 3-4 times due to deliberately shit AI probably because I had Pauline try to explain things rationally to the princess, causing her to act "arbitrarily."

 

The princess' AI would move her away from your units and the map has 3 possible paths that she can take.  So it became a strategy of moving your units just beyond all her possible move ranges in the hopes that she wouldn't get OHKO'd by pretty much 90% of the enemies on the map.

 

 

Charlotte.....the princess has her own guards but her stats are utter TRASH

 

See how I'm making a piss poor attempt to form a protective ring around Therese's move range?

 

Charlotte already proves herself to be just as capable as Murat in dodging shit. 

 

The challenge objective of this map is to lure the bandit across the map over to the locked chest and hope that he doesn't get fixated on trying to kill your units (or get killed by your units) in the process.  Creative, but it's fucking hard

 

PRINCESS GET BACK HERE

 

Had to send Lannes in as a suicide unit because those dragoons are killer

 

Thankfully Cosette is capable of regularly doubling enemies now

 

 

It's so difficult to keep up with Therese.  Her move range isn't exactly low!

 

And of course the bandit goes after the NPC who can't be commanded .

 

After 2-3 restarts as you see here Therese has reached the end of the map.  No, she doesn't disappear after reaching the objective tile.  Instead this triggers the boss to show up.

Luring the bandit?  Nope, not working.  He goes after the unit with the lowest stats and it seems like he's picked Therese.  Bye bye treasure.

 

 

Philipp looks like a recruitable character in the future.

He's a Bavarian mercenary who seems to have unwillingly thrown himself in with this lot.  He regrets fighting in an area where civilians can be caught in the crossfire and he wishes he can just hookup with a lovely French woman.  Sain/Gatrie much?  But what can you expect?  Dude's got a flower pinned to his vest.  He's one of those dashing cavalryman archetypes. 

 

 

 

I forgot if I've ever seen this type of enemy before.  But looks intimidating.  Must be the manly 'stache.

>Threatening:  Okay making someone unhealable is just fucking unfair.

 

Philipp mentioned that he lost Ernestine.  Must be his younger sister.

Self Protection seems to let him sustain combat without relying on a healer, but he ends up being unable to do heroic attacks.  His speed is terrifyingly high, and he's equally resistant to swords and bullets.

His other skill is Morale Strike, which as it says, allows him to lower morale and render heroic statuses void.

 

Death's Head Hussars or not, Paulette don't give a fuck.  Your skull is but a stepping stone to her.

 

You can't render Threatening if you die in one hit.

 

>that speed

>that miss

 

 

A tune can only heal so much.  Channel your inner Beethoven. 

 

Yeah okay I can't deal with a boss battle and bandits at the same time.  Fuck this challenge objective.

 

Never underestimate the power of classical music!

 

She may only have 4 speed but good luck killing her

 

360noscope motherfucker

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry pal, your princess is in another castle.

Philipp doesn't die.  He retreats to fight another day.

 

 

 

The bandit just can't stop harassing Therese and ends up killed.  So much for luring.

 

 

 

 

I will be very bummed if full collection of trophies is required for some secret character or weapon or job class

 

The party discusses how so many enemies managed to make their way into Paris of all places without nobody knowing.  Traitors in our midst?  The powers of a maid?!  Pauline believes seeking out Mirabeau would be the best course of action. 

They also wonder why the enemies weren't so sneaky.  Maybe Philipp made such bold moves because he felt bad about using Parisians as a bullet sponge?  Who knows.

Also Therese is sad because people died and this is nothing like her bedtime fairytales.  Boohoo.

 

 

 

At the rate at which I gain favor with the royalists, I'm sure Robespierre will end up being an enemy at some point