Vestaria Saga 1 IRONMAN attempt

[BrightBow]

2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Also forgot to eat the cake after his promotion last chapter, so more stat booster used.

You could have eaten the pref cake at the first opportunity. The game keeps track of stats that go over the cap, so you would have simply gotten the spillover HP automatically after the promotion.

In fact, at levelup the game stills rolls for stats that are already capped. Sadly it's not displayed on the levelup screen when that happens, but it does.
Because of this, when a unit promotes it's stats might well end up MUCH larger then what the promotion screen advertises.

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 9/21/2022 at 11:13 AM, BrightBow said:

You could have eaten the pref cake at the first opportunity. The game keeps track of stats that go over the cap, so you would have simply gotten the spillover HP automatically after the promotion.

That is both good to know, and rather interesting.

 

On 9/21/2022 at 11:13 AM, BrightBow said:

 

In fact, at levelup the game stills rolls for stats that are already capped. Sadly it's not displayed on the levelup screen when that happens, but it does.
Because of this, when a unit promotes it's stats might well end up MUCH larger then what the promotion screen advertises.

Now that you pointed it out, you can sort of see that in action this chapter. When Sheela promoted in the last update had capped Dex (and it showed the normal bonus, 15 +3) but in her first levelup this chapter you can see she already has 20 Dex.

 

Now lets see if I can't finish this defense chapter off in time for my loose schedule.

Spoiler

When last we left off, we were the very middle of a defense map

And I open back up by...utterly missing. That complicates things a fair bit, as I planned on finishing this guy off this turn with Ma'aya, and now it can get a free hit on Slayne... sigh, lets look at some other fronts while I figure out how to fix that.

This should rather reliably clear the way for me to getting some help in the north. Probably not fast enough for those eagle riders, but there is a small complication

If he misses one hit, Am Solim breaks...unfortunately I think this is my best option despite how much I don't like it....

And it works. Well that is one hassle out of the way

Not much is actually happening in these fronts, but I did get an amazing level on Lyttia while dancing for the exp.

After that miss, I pull Yaeri back in so she can help out if need be. I also put Ma'aya in range, both in the hope she can draw fire instead of Slayne (for some chip damage), but also to trade Slayne over to a lighter weapon (it wont make much of a difference, but the extra avoid might help). Also Sheela is set to enemy phase both those ranged enemies.

And Sheela has just capped her Agility with that levelup.

Seems that Ma'aya gambit worked, as this one got chipped down on enemy phase just enough for Hoelun to get the kill.

And she levelup things she barely needed...well I guess the HP isn't that bad...

And Slayne didn't miss his Arbalest hit this time, so

Ma'aya can go for the kill, just like I planned for last turn. In retrospect, if she missed a hit back then she could have been in trouble (but then again, Slayne could have also got a multuchance proc for the kill as well)

and I will gladly take an Agility levelup. Honestly she is still at the point where most stats are kinda exciting for her, which is to say she still has a long way to go.

Athol also manages to levelup while healing Ma'aya back up. Seems I didn't need Yaeri up there at all, but if the enemy eagles hadn't gone for Ma'aya, or if I had another miss...

Well back to fronts that are going better.

In the west, the green units actually lucked into a cav kill on their turn, so Merida can show the remaining one how cavalry effective weaponry is done.

I think about getting this enemy phase kill with Hilda instead, but Theo is more reliable, and I am only going for one kill this phase.

Things are going much better in the north, my excellent Cyltan should be able to help out next turn, the infantry are getting close to helping there too, and Yaeri is back on her path to the south, and next turn

I finally talk to Masoud about getting some help from the locals

And we have two groups of green help to consider

First we have that Cherwood that Slayne implied he was a part of before.

And given Slayne's performance so far, I am willing to take him at his word here.

Or we can get some more Axey boys to come down and fight for us.

Although praising there poison isn't the best draw for me.

And the choice of green allies is a Samson-Arran split, using the exact same excuse too.

Even more reason to go with Cherwood, as I want a bit of a distraction for Zade's crew to deal with something particularly dangerous that spawn in their neck of the woods, plus the trio in the center can handle themselves.

And this was why I waited till after the turn 10 save to get this help. We only get 5 turns of green unit help from these guys.

I think I already made the case for this choice fairly well.

Given their time sensitive nature, I appreciate this extra choice to it as well.

While I wanted to start sending Hoelun over to open the chest, this armored guy's defense made this attack a safer option, especially with Cyltan's Am Solim bow sitting at a single use...

As now he can finish it with one of his other bows (even if she hadn't crit one of her attacks)

Oh well, he has had plenty of amazing levelups so far, he can survive a couple of duds.

I then have Ma'aya trade with Cyltan to have her spend her action repairing that special bow of his.

Back in the south Hilda uses per personal weapon's brave effect to get a safe kill against an enemy's brave effect weapon.

For a solid levelup on her, given where she is at.

Theo also manages the one-shot on the other with effective damage

And Lilia gets a fairly garbage levelup on the Theo heal.

I am also having Slayne get some enemy phase action against an archer, and specifically avoid enemy phase action with Sheela, as the bow in her direction has a high crit rate.

I guess that is better than nothing...

And just as some bow knights start charging in, the Cherwood troops arrive to help out.

And they start tearing things to shreds with high speed, Multichance, and a crit rate.

Seems my timing with the Cherwood arrival was just about perfect, as this beast is what I want my southern troops to deal with, without any additional distractions.

As it drops that flyer promotion item I so desperately needed, and is really dangerous to deal with.

Thanks to the Seriatim Bow having 4x hit brave effect to it, this is the best way to ignore that enemy crit rate

And given she has capped agility, I could hardly ask for a better levelup on her.

That deals with the eastern front for now

Now to deal with the immediate threat in the north

And chip that mage safely (not to mention Ma'aya trading the Am Solim back over to Cyltan.

Now for the south, hopefully the green units can keep those bow knights distracted. With any luck I can hit the critical Tomahawk hits on enemy phase to chip that Wyvern down a bit first.

Huh...it just didn't attack on its turn. I guess I gotta do this the hard way

This effective damage hit is a good start

Especially after a crit, which means

I am certain to be able to finish him with Lianka after this hit

And better yet, Hilda got the roughly 80% chance of killing, for a fairly stellar levelup on her. Defense is great, she is still in the range where getting prof is kinda nice, and Agility is usually good.

And now Lianka can trade chain the promotion item

For Yaeri to finally promote.

Back in the north Ma'aya grabs the squishy mage kill

For another level. She has finally hit that nice 10 dex threshold.

And Slayne gets in a bit of chip here to

Save Cyltan some Am Solim uses (thanks to Slayne triggering multichance I even save a second with that chip).

And that is a solid levelup for him as well, his Agility was falling a bit behind, and he just hit that 10 dex threshold (although the extra prof isn't doing that much for him)

Honestly, if that Adept bow got the drop on us, it could be trouble, so I am grabbing this kill now

And that is another excellent levelup, as those are almost all the stats she could really use right now.

Let's also one shot the siege tome while I am at it.

I guess that caps his Agility.

In the north, Hoelun is getting close to that chest, and I am trying to get Cyltan close enough to the edge to get the kill on that gold caravan, but it is an uncomfortably dangerous thing to do.

And then a Arbalest spawns in the west to get Merida down to uncomfortable levels of health, so she backs up and chugs a Tisane.

And let's kill that arbalets right now.

Also Hoelun grabs this nice bit of loot from that chest in the corner

but after grabbing this quick kill here, I need to pull back with him a little

That should hopefully split enemy phase fire in the north there, and Sheela should be able to handle the ranged axe hit coming her way as well.

In the south, we are slowly meandering back over towards the enemies, but the Cherwood archers are showing their worth, and handling the enemies on that front rather effectively.

And even more Arbalests show up in the west to embarrass themselves on Troy.

And its a very good thing I pulled back with Cyltan, as these guys would have gotten the drop on him otherwise. Also glad I had a second Raecryst to spread around thanks to that desert chest last chapter.

This should chip this guy down enough for Ma'aya to get the ki-

Oh right, I forgot he got Multichance skill, eh I guess him getting the kill instead is fine.

well, kinda

I mean it is easy enough to kill both of them, and hopefully the greenies can draw the ambush fire.

This should be close enough for Cyltan to grab the gold next turn...

This is probably overly cautious, but Siegfried is only enemy phasing the armor. Really enemy phasing with him is something I have minimized, as he can't heal himself

But I don't want to deal with stun, and I distinctly remember stun not stopping mages from using spell. Also the extra dex, and extra defense are both things Siegfried could use at this point.

GAHHHSHSH just Cyltan got crit by an ambush spawn....

and that is not the greatest levelup for him at this point. I really should have had the Am Solim equipped on him, but I guess I was checking attack stats with the thief repeater...

NOOOO, Sandor...I was kinda hoping those two would make it out of this alive this time...

Time for some revenge...

Although I am pulling back at the same time, that ambush crit on Cyltan is making me feel very uncomfortable...

And I will gladly take a bit of extra strength on him, as that is what was falling most behind (of the stats he might actually get..)

Now lets kill this mage before its effective damage can become a problem (and out of range of those scary swords masters coming in).

Ma'aya grabs another kill

For another level. Not to complain too much about an agility levelup, but she could really use a strength or defense levelup...

I must admit, I sped through a LP of this chapter to check if there was reinforcements from that edge this turn, as the only way it is safe to go for this is if nothing is coming, and I am starting to run out of time for getting the gold...

I am also seeing if I can pull some attention off the last survivor of Cherwood

This is from a little earlier, but I wanted to show off how good these guys actually are, a lot of evasion skills, the basic crit skill, multichance, capped Agility and Dex. These guys are good, but they have slowly been whittled down, as they faced the imperial army mostly alone for a few turns.

On the next turn Cyltan pulls back and chugs a Tisane

While we start working on these scary swordsmen

Well that was a bit unlu-

well, I guess she has already capped two stats, so its not that surprising (and her prof is higher than it ever needs to be for a bow user...)

Unfortunately we need both the boys to hit for this ki-

Or he can just get the crit and save me the hassle.

Alas the knights didn't take the bait, and the last survivor the Cherwood is making his noble last stand

Another thing I was a little quiet about at the time,

but I had Yaeri get the rusted axe from the convoy while she was grabbing her promotion, so now she can do

This little fae event, which calls back to that old event from Genealogy of the Holy War, which itself was referencing an older Aesop's fable...

Sadly this is our only encounter with the fae on this map

And the last time I did this event I was honest, this time, I will take the other option, and I hope this

just gives me a Golden Axe

Nice...also it is funny that she thinks of the Golden Axe as just garbage.

...OH GOD...I had her too close to the edge of the map, and she should have just died...This is the most never punished of the runs so far, and it makes me feel extra dumb with how avoidable this was. I could have pulled her back even one more space, or healed the 4 health she is down, or even just equipped her personal tome for enough defense to survive this...

and that was a 3% chance of the run ending right there. I bungled the north really hard, as I thought I was just far enough away to not be jumped like this, but I was just not expecting the extra move of promoted  enemies when I did my placement....

and this scary round of promoteed enemies even finish off the last hero of Cherwood.

and dooms poor Buck as well.

I was simply not prepared for the extra move of promoted mounted units, although Lyttia's power keeps her safe at least.

Ugh, he can't even kill it on his way out...

A welcome levelup for him really.

I guess they are ramping up the danger right here near the very end...

That trivializes the flier at least, and she can pull far out of range

Given how lucky I was on enemy phase, I deserve some trash luck like this...

That is another safe kill right there.

And now to deal with the east.

fortunately I have enough magic damage that the armor knights with +3 defense Phalanx Spears are not a problem at all.

If this misses, I am going to be in the uncomfortable position of needing to grab the kill with Accorte, which will leave her vulnerable to the same possibility of death she just faced...

But he didn't, and that is a better levelup than I deserve at this point.

I should probably get an enemy phase kill here, but I think I can get away with getting those kills next turn instead...that gets us to enemy phase...

And ambush spawn siege tomes are just plan rude, even if we are about to start the last player turn...

Here we are, on the last turn, but things aren't going well

As we have a lot of pressure in the south here. Getting Lilia to safely with that promoted bow knight is unlikely, but if I go for the kill, I will have to face the turn 19 reinforcements as well. Alas I don't think I have much of a choice at this point

Honestly, I am going to need the luck latter in the turn...

As I really, really need to kill one of these red ones, and this unlikely chance is my best bet, so I need some luck to get it...

Unfortunatly this guy has a chance to attack first with the Ambush skill, so I have to go for the range attack here, which means I am going to have a harder time blocking off the red cavs...which means I probably will have to go for that Zade kill...

Well at least he got more speed

sigh...I guess I have to go for this...

And I made it, but I can't block the red guy off, so I have Lianka switch Theo over to his personal weapon, range heal Zade, but

I think it still has about a 20% chance of killing anyone (except maybe a lucky Lianka crit, or a Zade dodge with the Edelstern's Orison skill...)...I wish I noticed that this was triple threat earlier. When I was looking over the enemies I thought it was simply multichance, and as such prepared people for surviving two hits... Luck has been on my side a lot, but this is tempting fate a lot...

At least the north is a little safer, as this should chip this one enou-

or he could just Multichance for the kill, and even get a strength levelup off of it as well.

That is the north easily dealt with, despite all my problems with it before.

And in the east, I am just pulling back, so the only ways this can go wrong are the triple threat guy, or if more reinforcements show up, but I kinda remember them not...

...Oh, this happens at the start of enemy phase? I thought it was at the end, as the last time I did this everything was already dead on the enemy side (except Calliera of course).

Thank goodness for political infighting amongst the enemy leading to such incompetence. If promoted enemies like that kept coming we would have started to really break. Therenius really saved out butts.

A lot of enemies...and green units, did die for very little this map. Even one more turn of attacks and I might have lost someone here.

And they actually do start fleeing the map. It was kinda cute, and a real lucky break for us.

But Athol has apparently gone missing anyway.

The fool literally went wandering off as soon as she felt better, despite how much effort I went through to protect her being immobile on this map.

 At least it sounds like the empire isn't likely to find her

But these bandit types might be worse. Also, they might be trying to incorporate more fae elements, at it seems she was bewitched by the forest's beauty, although that could also be mundane in nature.

Yeah, her noble garb would give her away

Especially when the word is out that she is out in these woods with the army.

I guess she is getting captured by the empire anyway, just with the help of these bandits instead of directly.

Yeah, that lie isn't terribly convincing, and even if it was, she might not like what the bandits might do to a common maid they cornered in the woods...

And they literally carry her off, evading our troops the whole way through.

Against all odds indeed. Somehow we dodged a 89 for survival in that utter mess of a chapter.

Perhaps they will learn of the political machinations which saved them, eventually.

Zade has some good instincts on him, as Cyltan could have died, and Athol has been kidnapped.

Which he discovers immediately.

Hoelun really is the level headed one here, if anyone is to blame, it is her

And we don't have the time to play the blame game anyway.

Sounds like they already know her fates...and poor Zade is stuck in a stupid question loop.

We even already know she has been sold to the empire.

Again, Hoelun has become the level headed one now that Athol is gone.

Such is the setup for next chapter, with our desperate rescue attempt.

Zade, you can't be everywhere at once, can't be by her side at all times, and that battle was too taxing for you to be distracted by thoughts of Athol.

Seems this has spurred us to action though, but it seems

We will have to split our forces to take on both of these at once. Next chapter is going to be interesting, as it is one of my favorites (after all the siege maps)

Seems this is the most never punished chapter yet, but there is no way my luck can hold forever. In the meantime, take way better care than I seem to, and stay as safe as my troops do anyway.

[BrightBow]

13 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

This is probably overly cautious, but Siegfried is only enemy phasing the armor. Really enemy phasing with him is something I have minimized, as he can't heal himself

He can heal himself. He has Regenesis. It's not even on his pref or anything. He has it as a personal skill.
 

14 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

But I don't want to deal with stun, and I distinctly remember stun not stopping mages from using spell. Also the extra dex, and extra defense are both things Siegfried could use at this point.

Paralysis is funny. It's basically the physical equivalent of Silence in this game. Although besides physical weapons, it will also block you from using consumables or items with passive effects like Rings and therelike.
 

18 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I must admit, I sped through a LP of this chapter to check if there was reinforcements from that edge this turn, as the only way it is safe to go for this is if nothing is coming, and I am starting to run out of time for getting the gold...

I just always send a fliers and approach it over the cliffs at the Northern edge. As long as you make sure to canto back onto the cliffs, you can't get targeted by more then one two-ranged attacker, so even effective damage is not much of a risk.

Well, technically I send two fliers. The 2nd one is to make sure the 1st one won't have the ranged weapon equipped it used to snipe the wagon on enemy phase. So they don't kill any potential attackers with counters and end up being exposed to more then 1 enemy.

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 9/22/2022 at 2:48 PM, BrightBow said:

He can heal himself. He has Regenesis. It's not even on his pref or anything. He has it as a personal skill.

I completely forgot he had that skill...

 

On 9/22/2022 at 2:48 PM, BrightBow said:

Paralysis is funny. It's basically the physical equivalent of Silence in this game. Although besides physical weapons, it will also block you from using consumables or items with passive effects like Rings and therelike.

The effect it has on consumables and passive items are the really odd part of it, it make tomes avoiding its restriction feel almost in error. Although I like the comparison to a physical silence skill (even if the item effect is still really odd).

 

On 9/22/2022 at 2:48 PM, BrightBow said:

I just always send a fliers and approach it over the cliffs at the Northern edge. As long as you make sure to canto back onto the cliffs, you can't get targeted by more then one two-ranged attacker, so even effective damage is not much of a risk.

Well, technically I send two fliers. The 2nd one is to make sure the 1st one won't have the ranged weapon equipped it used to snipe the wagon on enemy phase. So they don't kill any potential attackers with counters and end up being exposed to more then 1 enemy.

That is what I did last time, but with only one really competent flier, I just never felt like I had things under control enough to go for it, as Yaeri was basically spending all of her time damage control until the grounded troops arrived, and when they finally got there, I thought it would be easier just to let them grab the gold instead. Although if I wasn't as concerned about getting her promoted, and having her trigger the rusted axe event I failed to trigger thanks to my prep failure (not to mention triggering the green army help), I might have had her pull off that maneuver anyway.

 

Spoiler

The translators really like archaic words with megrims there (low spirits seems the best fit definitionwise)

...I wonder what feeling they mean there. Could easy be love, depression,

or perhaps some more visceral anger, if it is his temper that needs to be in check.

Now for our main strategy, which makes this map rather interesting.

As Garlan's force is about to be a big distraction, and his section of the map acts like a defend map.

While Zade has a more traditional seize map, and Cyltan has something similar as well (but a little different).

I would more expect them to make the threat of such retaliation known to stay our hand, but that might simply be semantics at this point. She is a hostage, although the enemy hasn't had time to leverage that advantage yet.

It is interesting that they now shade Meleda with the color of the enemy. Although the way this is described does remind me of how Thraca's A path is.

Again, the small details like this I appreciate, where they explain how the other forces tried to sneak in.

Just noting the time...

And there are names for most of the little villages there, which is charming.

After that concern over retaliation against Athol, it is interesting to see concern over retaliation against the citizens as well, although from the green units this time.

Apparently that middle boss is a bit the kind of monster that would retaliate against citizens.

They do try to setup Orphelia as a rather important character with a bit of history with Zech, and Zade

Now this is reminding me of a line in Thracia, where Lief laments that he isn't a true hero, as his weak holy blood doesn't give him the strength of heroes like Ced and Seliph, but fighting on despite that weakness is what makes him more a hero than either of them.

And most importantly she will give Zade his promotion item...at the end of the chapter (assuming she doesn't die here).

Time to talk about deployment. I feel a little bad about consantly leaving the axey boys behind, but the just fell behind. Fortunately 15-x gives you a chance to catch basically anyone up. I was a bit surprised I was allowed to undeploy Hoelun, as I kinda remember her being force deployed with Cyltan so you can certainly lower the bridge, but I decided to swap her out for Cezar instead to move through terrain better than her horse (and I am simply glad I can leave her behind for once). I also ended up switching out Haldyn for Aynellia...which reminds me, I have put off talking about the troops we get at the end of chapter 12 for far too long, but I guess this is the first time I have deployed any of them, so I might as well talk about them now.

Spoiler

Aynellia is a slightly less broken Lianka, with some powerful buffing skills. She has most of the evasions skills like Lianka (only missing the 1.5x terrain bonus), she gets the always brave attacks, with her personal weapon she gets the Thracia vantage skill, although she doesn't ignore defense like Lianka does. Most importantly she has the adjacent allies get +3 attack skill, which is her really unique feature, and even without it, being a slightly worse Lianka is still incredibly powerful. Also she gets regen with her personal weapon equipped, and always has the basic crit skill, figured I would mention that for posterity.

Neira is a mounted healer, and that is about it. She starts extremely low level, can use bows (which is better for her than a melee weapon, as she is less likely to kill herself if she does attack), and gets the +20 evasion skill for slightly better survival. Being a mounted healer is useful, but I have never used her that much on my last run.

Jamulan is a character I have always seen as similar to Helme. Both are solid mounted prepromotes that could easily be slotted in at any point after their recruitment, and be good. He starts a little stronger than Helme, but uses axes instead (which gives Helme a bit of an advantage, as he can use the powerful Great Swords), and has the more classic half health wrath like skill, instead of Helme's multichance and basic crit skill. I know I keep comparing the two, but I have always seen them as rather interchangeable from a gameplay perspective.

 

Now lets talk about who is going in which group. Garlan's group is a defend map, so I sent the power couple, as their enemy phase power makes the most sense in that group; the armored knights, as both their defense, and defensive buffs are useful for defense; I put the cavs in the north, as being able to kill, and canto back into a defensive position is useful for defense; Aynellia is coming for her buffing power, as defensive formations let me take advantage of positional buffs easier; and I bring Lilia as a healer, and Theo for some mage power.

In Zade's group, I went with Slayne to help deal with the defensive pickle at the end of this map; Ma'aya for some training; Accorte for some magic (as I seem to remember some rather physically tanky foes in that direction), Siegfried as the healer (and spare magic), and Lyttia for dancing, just in case, This was overkill really
 

Cyltan's group is the one that in retrospect I could have planned better. I brought Sheela and Dune to help snipe that dragon on the pillar (and shoot up the crags a bit if need be); Zayid is there for Sheela support, and extra physical fire power; Cezar is there to open the bridge, and be a nuisance to the enemy; and finally Yaeri is there to sneak some attacks up the crag, and canto to safety, and to more easily switch fronts once I have cleared this one. There are two really big weaknesses with this plan, and pro points if you can see these two issues already, and can answer it now.

It is closer to 6 to 1 if we include the troops around the boss into the mix. If they were to really press in with that numbers advantage of theirs we would be in real trouble, without a fair bit of room to retreat through.

I will try to end this quick Garlan, but the other two fronts aren't a cake walk either. Also that soldier has missed the most important lesson a military man can, the trick is to make the enemy die for their country, not yourself.

First thing first, repair the Soaring Flame, as it WILL see some use this map. Although there isn't too much action yet,

Other than dancing Zade so he can jump the nearest assassin

and she can get an excellent levelup on her dance (hopefully that defense levelup doesn't mess with enemies wanting to attack her too much...)

As long as he gets these hi-

...I should not have been as cocky as I was. I could have probably chipped him with Slayne to make that kill easier, but I was too trusting in Zade'a accuracy with the Edelstern before I saw the numbers. That complicates things.

In the north, I am staying out of all ranges, while preparing for my defensive position to use some of those buff abilities.

On the fort front, I am ignoring the dragon's range for now, and trying to bait in the armor with Zayid, but otherwise playing it safe. The attack on Redessa is a mess thanks to that Zade miss.

Meanwhile the boss of the overwhelming force Garlan is facing

has successfully smelled out that something fishy is going on. The 1000 number kinda implies we split into thirds here (although unit count wise it is more like Garlan has 50%, Cyltan, and Zade have roughly 25%).

Fortunately for us Marragas smells a trap instead of a distraction, which means his caution is playing perfectly into our hand.

One particularly important thing for this first enemy phase is that the enemy with a silence staff targeted Orphelia, instead of any of our northern troops, and in doing so moved far enough away that I probably wont have to worry about it for a while.

Hopefully she does live, as I need that promotion item, and it will be a bit before I can reach her.

Zade caps level, and while I would have liked different stats in general, for right now

that Dex actually helps a little, as if he misses this kill again (and doesn't dodge one of these...) he will die, for a rather embarrassing game over. He does get the kill, but that was roughly 1/40 chance of a game over in this combat here. The never punished continues it seems

Ugh, of course the monstrous commander is a member of the clergy.

This Nirving is kinda making me think of Garon...by which I mean I could imagine him giving the "rebellions are like seeds" speech any day of the week.

Now it is revealed that Nirving is the one that has Athol imprisoned. Zade just picked the wrong front by going for his home castle.

And she is going to escape immediately. Also fun fact, Equester is an old Latin word for a mounted knight, which fits with the Roman words for troop sizes that the empire tends to use.

As he gets ambushed on the stairs by her savior

The mysteriously armored man

Who is also mute.

and supposedly named Derrick Zoy.

And we can't let this cute little Zoy Athol pair die before we reach them.

Although Norving notices the escape fairly quickly

And it convinces the dastard to take the field, who will become a nuisance latter into the map.

I start turn two on Zade's front, first healing him up for safety, and then trying to chip this assassin for Ma'a-

...or he can just kill it himself. Also, Arbalests are rather effective for finding the Assassin's as well.

I guess Zade can try chipping this sniper instead

to feed Ma'aya her kill

for an underwhelming level

Alas the armor didn't take the bait, so Sheela has to kill him herself

...or it can block the kill with a great shield proc. Although I am glad to see more strength on her.

I guess Zayid can go for the kill instead

and gets it, for a very similar levelup to Sheela (with similar positive reaction to it)

Although here comes the first big issue with my deployment plan. With this guy having multichance, and effective damage, I can't risk using Yaeri, until this guy is dead, as she can't quite canto far enough, so she is kinda useless for a beefy part of this battle.

Well Cyltan can easily break the archers up here, and can canto back out of all ranges.

Cyltan continues to be strength blessed...what a beast.

In the north, I will enemy phase a few of the things coming with Troy, although you can see a fair bit of my battle line pland for next turn, with Troy taking his place above Aynellia, and Prody just giving his defenseive boost to Hilda.

In the south, Ma'aya got an industry proc, so she can enemy phase chip one of the thieves, and in the center  have left most of the infantry in arbalest range...

Although now it is time for Calliera to accurately call into question Therenius's competence.

As she has clearly seen through our plan (or at least has a modicum of caution)

Although to be fair, Therenius's hit them with the whole fist idea isn't the worst one in the world, but his commander in the field is far too cautious for such a brazen strategy to work, and it can utterly fall apart to a clever enough strategy (see the battle of Cannae), which this kinda is.

If she were in command, Zade may well have failed here, as she has our battle plan pegged, and it relies on an element of surprise. Although again, Therenius isn't necessarily wrong either, clever plans like our can easily fall apart, and when they do, can take the whole army down with them.

Although here is where Therenius is really wrong, neither of these points have defenses even close to on par with the fortifications we have taken out already.

Although this point sounds more of petty grievances from Calliera, as the quality of the enemy troops isn't the enemy's problem, it is how they are being deployed, and used.

I do think that Therenius, but Calliera's exasperation is right, this is neither the time, nor place for that debate.

Therenius's pettiness is one of our greatest advantages in the invasion of Meleda. Also I kinda love's Calliera's bafflement here

As it really emphasizes a dichotomy in their mentality, with Calliera following meritocracy, and immediate practicality, meanwhile Therenius follows arbitrary and ancient stratified structures of class and gender.

Ick, he really thinks she slept her way into her position? He must be blinded by his pettiness, as watching her work last chapter made it clear how competent she is in the field.

If you weren't so obsessed with her being a woman, and you stopped acting like an incel, they might not call you Lady-whipped, although you may well have earned the moniker of incompetent.

This man really is an imbecile.

It is interesting that he is so willing to consider sleeping with Ajax, also I feel compelled to compare their stats to judge his comparison

She is obviously the better leader based on their skills, I mean she buffs allies with Imperator, and he has Imbecile to debuff allies instead, although his claims towards being a better swordsman might be marginally true. Also, it is great characterization that he is sitting on 4 rings to buff himself, the most in universe pay-to-win mechanic in this game.

Even Ajax he views as his inferior... Truly an imbecile who would run the empire into the ground if given his way.

It is also odd how much contempt he shows for people attracted to woman. I don't know if they are trying to hint at him being gay, or an incel...

And now he is going to try and do what Kempf did to Olwen, but less competently.

And they use the sound of coins to indicate the guy is being bribed here, to further emphasize the corruption.

What a vindictive wierdo. His incompetence will wins us Meleda back, as Calliera could have probably stopped us here, or in that last battle without his meddling.

Just to emphasize the value of keeping Yaeri out of this guys range, the first attack he make triggers a multuchance proc...

The green units sure are ambitious with talk like that.

It says something about the loyalty of the Imperial troops here that the only possibility he can think of, is that another supporter of the empire has killed imperial troops to kidnap Athol for their own personal gain.

I like how they frame this as Zoy protecting Athol from the enemy, with their funny little dual sprite on the map. Also, despite Zoy's muteness he can manage to force out a cogent sentence if he has to.

Now back to player phase, I can have Cyltan get this kill, and canto back out of range

which is a good thing, as it managed to get the hit, which is unfortunate, as this is the front that is relying on healing items.

Speaking of which, Zayid needed to chug a Tisane this turn. Alas, I am in a bit of a pickle here. The Arbalest is keeping me from really using Yaeri, and the mage has effective damage against any of the infantry that can get into range of the arbalest, and thanks to its 2-3 he can finish off anyone getting the arbalest kill at two range, so I can't rely on Sheela's high res to tank the magic hit...this may take a little maneuvering.

In the north, Troy grabs one more kill before returning to my enemy phase position

For a solid little strength levelup on him

I also grab one more kill on player phase up here, to ensure that Hilda can survive enemy phase, even if everything possible goes wrong.

Meanwhile to the south, Accorte chips th-

I mean Slayne chips this guy

For Ma'aya to get the kill

For a defense levelup that she really needed.

And Siegfried gets an excellent levelup healing her up.

I also finally get around to visiting that house in the north, and I hate to disappoint him, but I plan on killing that one

Because I want the treasure, as it is a free promotion item.

This turn 15 hazard I will probably have to deal with...really it is a harsh time limit, as I doubt Zoy can last long against a Wyvern

I talked this about this northern formation a bit already, but I am giving most of my front liners that +3 attack, and Hilda gets Prody's buff as well, as she is the squishiest of them (well other than Lianka, but she kills before enemies can attack her)

While Ma'aya is drawing in another enemy phase thief attack.

Those are nice stats for her, but she is starting to look a little strength cursed..

Zoy does luck into a kinda early kill on his foe, but the enemies aren't going to leave him alone.

Seems my enemy's misplay has solved my conundrum in the center, as this lets me wipe out the mage fairly safely with Sheela

In large part thanks to thus guy's odd range.

Unfortunately Cyltan isn't healthy enough to get the Javelin kill this turn, so he Tisanes instead.

Meanwhile, in the north, Theo cleans up the only one of their attackers to survive enemy phase. I also heal up Hilda, but otherwise, that is about it for this turn up there

Accorte again tries to chip a thief for Ma'aya

and succeeds this time, and fortunately Ma'aya got her missing out of the way on enemy phase

so she picks up a down right amazing level on the kill.

In the south I am slowly drawing the enemy in, this time with Zade instead of Ma'aya.

The next player phase, we can finally clear out this little starting area for Cyltan''s front

I guess the Resistance is alright, and she could use the luck...

And with Yaeri free of her yoke, she kills the Javelin. This lets me listen to that little house

Talk shit about that asshat Therenius

And that fits with his belief's about how social classes should work

They are already making their stand as we speak, and we are getting close to saving them, as we should be able to cross the rive over to them in the next turn or two.

Back in the south, Accorte claims a kill for herself

She does like to gain Agility.

So in the south Ma'aya is drawing in the next thief, and Zade is in position too jump the next Assassin on next player phase

While in the north, I am planning for a little chip with Bonacel, and to jump the rest of these guys with my little army.

Although he ends up with a rather underwhelming levelup from it.

...These snipers moving complicates things a bit

Back in the center, I need to take this guy down to safely lower the bridge, so Is start with this chip

Although he great shielded one, but the Am Solim should be able to finish the job nicely.

He did need the Agility at this point.

And that lets me lower the bridge. You might also notice that I am moving Sheela and Dune in preparation for attacking that Wyvern on the tower.

In the north, I am going to clear out as much of this range attack as possible with canto

And Urven gets a rather sucky level from the kill.

Merida gets the next kill

And the sucky cav levels continue it seems.

That deals with the immediate ranged threats

And that seems to have at least partially broken the bad cav level curse there

But I messed up my canto plan a little here. I kinda need him to extend the line in this direction, but with the waste terrain there he can't do so while escaping sniper range...oh well, Troy should be tanky enough to live that.

And if I had tried the Lilia heal earlier, and seen I got Industry proc, the formation I put Troy and Theo there would have been less dire. Oh well, everyone should still live the enemy phase, even if it is a little scuffed.

Although in the south, I am pulling back a little, as not only did that other thief not take the bait, some cavs (you can see them a little in the bottom right hand corner) started advancing on us, and I wanted to be better able to face them without worrying about unexpected enemy movements.

At the start of next player phase, Prody goes for a kill

and he gets an excellent level from it.

 Next Lianka kills the one with the magic sword

For a levelup.

Now to delete those terrifying little snipers

With my cavs so I can canto back to slightly better defensive positions...although the places I can canto back to aren't the best.

The south is kinda simple this turn, Accorte will kill one enemy phase, and we can wipe the other on player phase.

Finally in the center, I can get to talk to Orphelia to secure Zade's promotion item, but unfortunately Zade isn't in the right front, so

She will have to hand it off to him at the end of the map instead.

It is a bit Cav reliant, but I have my formation all set up for the north this enemy phase. Unfortunately Dune needed to move a little to reach him, so the Assault on the tower dragon will start next turn, and the rest of the central troops are just moving as quickly as they can.

And Lianka levels up on enemy phase. Although she is so innately broken, that I really have a hard time commenting on how good levelups are for her.

Troy also manages another level, and he seems to be working on that strength stat of his, which I thoroughly approve of.

Now for player phase, Accorte earned this kill

And the solid levelup that came with it. But I really ended up bungling things a bit in the north

Nothing that will kill a unit, but it isn't great. One major issue is these all have 1-2 range, and cavalry effective weapons, which hit like trucks even on normal units, and it was a hard choice to have to pull back, made all the harder by them being close enough to hit Garlan at 1-2 range if I didn't impede their path. I start planning a three unit defensive formation with my armored units, and immediately bungle it by moving Prody back without even thinking. Troy is the other unit of this now 2 unit blocking force, but he needs the damage halving power of the Iron Dukes to pull it off. Lilia is taking one hit, but with a Pilum hit she should survive it, and while my units are not going to be happy, I did survive my momentary stupidity of moving Prody without thinking.

Unfortunately I don't have the fire power to kill this right now, but both my units can take two hits (plus a round or two of poison on top of it), so I might as well get started

Unless Sheela does something like crit/flurry proc, and she actually got the double crit instead

Using the seeker bow is a little unnecessary, but it felt nice to be so certain of the kill.

He has needed a levelup like that for a long time...Well the rest of the central front is kinda simple

We visit the village Orphelia was defending to hear a tiny bit about her past with Zade

And talk to the next green unit

With a nice little promise of loot from the village visit to come.

You might notice a similar formation here in the south, as the one I tried before the cavs started coming in...well that gets us to enemy phase

And Lilia does live the hit just fine

So we just have to finish off the survivors.

But I have finally noticed the other, much bigger problem with my preps in Cyltan's contingent. This guy has First Blood, so he always strikes first, and his Berserking tome has 2-7 range. All of my units that can go from outside his range, to attacking him can only do so at 2 range. If I had deployed a melee cavalry, like Jamulan/Helme, this entire conundrum would have been solved, but now I am in serious trouble. Although I am getting a little ahead of myself here, as this is a problem for a few turns from now...

Onto to status attacks I dealt with FAR better, Zade pops the sleep assassin.

Then I can chip this reluctant Cerberus

Or he can just crit for the kill, and have an excellent levelup from it as well.

I did also think about going for this kill, but I didn't like what my accuracy looked like

Especially when she would have to take a hit from this immediately after

In the center, I secure my Wyvern loot while I am here.

And start clearing away the flies the green units have attracted

The green unit was handling his own just fine, but this is faster

And Yaeri gets her first promoted levelup from it for some extra Agility.

Zayid also gets Harold's promised reward from his village.

We are a bit spread out, and out of enemy ranges on the two lower front

And I am advancing a little in the north, although I haven't rebuilt my defensive formation yet, but we have a little bit of time

As we have hit a point where I needed a bit of a break. We hit the turn 10 save, and have done a fair bit, but we still have a lot to do. Most notably finding a way of dealing with that Berserking tome...but that is a problem to be solved next update.

Wanted to get this out yesterday, but oh well. In the meantime take care, and stay safe everyone.

[BrightBow]

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

And most importantly she will give Zade his promotion item...at the end of the chapter (assuming she doesn't die here).

Despite what her description might suggest, she can't actually die here. She is immortal.

Edited September 29, 2022 by BrightBow

[Eltosian Kadath]

11 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Despite what her description might suggest, she can't actually die here. She is immortal.

Ah the classic invisible immortal skill, a Kaga staple from the times of Thracia.

 

Spoiler

Back to map at the start of turn 10

I am trying to convince this sniper to move, by both giving him a free hit on Zade, and hitting him from afar to make doubly sure this guy moves.

I also talk the last green unit into leaving the map for his village

And there he shares some details about Zecharias's supposed last stand.

Although the real value of village is in allowing one of Cyltan's crew to join Zade's forces, and the way things are going, I would much prefer the opposite...

In the north, I just rebuilt my little defensive formation, in preparation for whatever force starts moving next.

I have covered the plan for the south, but there are a few important thing to note are occurring in the center. First Sheela is heading back to hopefully aid in the fight against the turn 15 wyvern I know is coming. Both Cyltan and Yaeri are outside of the boss's berserk range, but can only attack him from two range, but as I noted last update, that is a bad idea as

He can berserk them before they have the chance to hit him at two range, although I have a bit of a wonky plan to deal with that thanks to

Cezar having enough evade with the Main Gauche, and terrain bonuses to drop the boss's accuracy to 0 with that berserk tome. Although, this dodge does get us to the next player phase

Where the sniper took the bait, and I can give the kill to Ma'aya

with a dance of course, for

Another amazing levelup for Ma'aya

In the north, I am waiting on armored knights, so I don't even bother moving anyone up while the armored knights give them time for a tea break

Also of note, some of the armored knights in the south are moving, so I get my mages ready to mulch them when they approach. And Cezar is advancing on the berserk boss by jumping form terrain to terrain, but the heart of this plan wont start till next turn. Speaking of which

Lets start with the only move in the north, just moving Lianka so I can jump the enemies coming in instead of letting them attack us at all.

In the south I use Slayne to...miss the last assassin

So I dance him for another attempt, and Lyttia gets herself a blank level to emphasize how scuffed this turn might end up being

Although the second attempt works, and even gets a kill with a skill proc

And it is helping to bulk Slayne up with levelups like this

I also get a plan B prepared in case the dumb plan I have with Cezar blows up in my face, as Zade grabs a Bellflower Leaf from the convoy, trades it to Ma'aya who can use flight to get it to Cyltan's crew, as Zayid grabs it from her. I can use this to recover an ally from berserk, which can probably get me out of this mess. In retrospect, this plan would probably work a LOT better than the plan I actually went with, although I don't actually remember how Berserk works in this game, so I was reluctant to mess with it

So the original plan is to convince the boss to switch to its other weapons by getting Cezar into range of his other tomes. Although there are some serious risks to that, like

The roughly 1/400 chance of Cezar getting killed

And when he is hit with the first shot I almost had a heart attack.

And while it can't hit, seeing one of Athol's Pursuer turn around to attack us is a much bigger problem for my plan.

I can get him out of the way with Cyltan, and I want to do so to have Yaeri is in range of his +10 accuracy comander skill, so that

She has a 100% chance of killing, and surviving the boss's brave first strike, but if he hits twice...which he does, then the next Athol's Pursuer can go for the kill on her

And the change in the fort makes it impossible for me to block him off from reaching Yaeri

Although I try the best I can while healing Cezar of his heavy hit...It is hard getting through the rest of the turn with this sword of Damocles over my head.

In the north I kill the first of the armored knights with Merida. Those Phalanx Lances are giving them some serious defense so her magic swords really help.

And that gets her a nice Strength levelup on her final unpromoted level

And Theo kills the other with his effective magic as well

And in a similar way gets a single stat levelup of one of the stats he most needs.

Speaking of killing high defense armored knights with Phalanx Lances for comically high defense, that is also what the south is dealing with.

Although her 1 stat levelup is much worse than the other two we got this turn.

And a dance lets her get the other armored kill as well.

Unfortunately she had to be in silence staff range for this kill, but that isn't the biggest deal in the world.

WHEN WILL THE NEVER PUNISH STREAK END?

She even capped her strength on the level she got from the kill.

The south really was the best place for Slayne on this map, as he can now snipe the guys being debuffed by the boss, like that silencer.

Also the only real action in the north is that Merida promotes.

As they are waiting on more plodding armored enemies to jump.

Things are temporarily quiet in the center, so Yaeri is grabbing a spare healing item from Ma'aya, as she prepares to rejoin Zade's front. I took the boss out here just in time (and Sheela's arrival time was impeccable as well), as

We have just hit turn 15, and the arrival of the hunting Wyvern. I have a bit of a hard decision to make here, whether to have Cyltan fight the Wyvern here, or talk to Zoy...

Well the north is fairly simple to deal with.

Fun fact, on both her armored knight kills, she procced multichance to kill them before they could even try to hit her back.

I also give the kill on the silence staff wielder to Ma'aya in the south

I do end up having Cyltan talk. I just don't trust Zoy not to suicide himself on the Wyvern.

Don't beat yourself up too much for being a teenager Athol, you just wanted to hang out in the woods with your girlfriend Hoelun.

It is kinda funny to promise Zoy the thanks of all Solis, when it is the thanks of all Meleda he has earned, but I guess that is what Cyltan can offer him.

And he just walks off mid sentence. I must admit the nonchalance of that act amuses me.

Oh Athol, aren't you already betrothed?

I guess they are saying its a promise ring instead 😛

More seriously, they do drop some heavy hints throughout this that Zoy is Zech in disguise. At the very least Athol seems to believe it is.

Unfortunately it is time for Cyltan and Athol to disappear from the map, just like Zoy did. Although with Zade still working on seizing Redessa, they are getting a little ahead of themselves by heading to the castle now.

Has Zade really been so Tsundere that she can't believe he would worry about her?

I wish I still had Cyltan for this upcoming Wyvern fight, but I will have to make do. Fortunately Sheela is the best Wyvern hunter I have..

In the south, I am testing the AI of one of those Snipers with Zade, and I couldn't canto out of

Enemy siege tome range, but she not only dodged, but got a levelup out of it as well. Although after her amazing levelups, one like this is rather underwhelming.

The Wyvern also surprised me a little by attacking the only person in the area that also had 1-2 range

The last use always has the best crit luck of the weapon...

Back to player phase, Sheela hits it fairly hard

And that should get the Wyvern down into Zayid (or Starfall dagger) kill range

Unless she multichance procs for the kill herself. I guess Magic is kinda OK on her, but it still feels underwhelming.

It seems kinda ironic to get this game's version of the restore staff after dealing with that berserk boss.

Well, the sniper didn't move, so I instead try it with Slayne, but he is just shy of getting the kill with a dance...

Unless Siegfried uses his personal staff to buff him

Given the translators love of archaic language, I am surprised they don't use bowyer. Also they are clearly trying to evoke the idea of a Stradivarius Violin

Goodbye Legrand

~insert violin music~

I must admit, I waffled a fair bit on where I wanted to send Dune after looting the tower, but I think I will send him over to the northern army during this little lull in the action. Onto the next turn

Slayne continues to wreck havoc with his buffed Arbalests

Although that was a really bad levelup for him.

And with a dance he kills the scorpion wielder now.

Which has convinced me to send Ma'aya over to threaten the siege mage.

Dune is getting close to the safety of the northern army, but the enemy have given me the time to do so

before he elects to send a wave of cavalry after us...Well onto next player phase

Ma'aya grabs the siege tome kill

and Accorte kills the last defender of Therenius.

And the poor guy learns too late that sticking with that monster was a mistake.

...Oof, a blank levelup.

Bring it on you bloated blue-blooded blowhard

But of course the coward is going to flee instead, that way we can't dispose of him early.

And true to his classist sentiments he tries to get some of his "inferiors" to stick around to die for him. Given that he isn't replaced by any other units on the throne, it seems his cajoling didn't work.

I also finally get access to another shop that sells promotion items, for Ma'aya to buy for us on the cheap.

Meanwhile, in the north we have a plan to jump the enemy cavs after they charge in, with Troy getting a bit of enemy phase action with a Pilum

And he gets a levelup that I am fairly certain is useless for his weapon types...

Come player phase, Dune already got a chance to contribute on his new front.

That does get him to that key 10 Dex threshold.

We are going to have to press in fairly deep to kill all of these guys, so even Aynellia is going in for a kill.

I wish this were more accurate, but he gets the kill anyway. Fun fact, he did actually need Aynellia's +3 strength for this kill, as it also gets the 1.5x effective weapon buff to attack, so it looks kinda like he didn't on this stat screen.

It feel kinda fitting to kill the magic sword with actual magic...

His Agility is finally starting to look alright, but he is starting to fall behind in other areas after all these single Agility levels.

These last two are a bit far out...

Eh, I wont complain too much about agility, as that avoid has saved me too many times this run...

That takes care of the last of this little force charging in

And he is getting close to a lot of his key caps at this point. He has hit his HP cap, and agility cap, and that brings both Strength and Defense to within 1 of their cap as well.

In the quiet fronts, it is time to get a lot of our secret money out of the convoy to get the money we need to afford some more of those promotion items we could use.

I also finally use this boat ride, but it isn't that useful, as it is a bit late

But Sheela's crag climbing ability makes her the most likely to do anything on this front.

Unfortunately both my key cavs are in range of this healer that has both a sleep staff, and a siege tome, which is rather unfortunate...

...wait, what am I doing? I could end this right now, and I don't have to risk this bit of suffering to shop, as next chapter is 15-x where I can literally buy any of the promotion items at my leisure.

The only thing I could imagine wanting, that I can't buy next map is another magic sword (which I do get one of)

So here on turn 20

I seize for the win.

And like that the larger enemy army retreats, or surrenders (seeing as their commander, Marrages returns on a future map, I am inclined to believe most of them retreat). I do kinda wonder, if I went through the effort of killing him here, would he return? I don't actually think so, but I have never gone through the effort of routing this map, or killing him for that repair gem of his.

And so we have retake Zade's ancestral home.

Yeah, I did have a few kinda embarrassing close calls this map. I have been far luckier with this run than I probably aught to have been.

And Therenuis really is the architect of our victory. His incompetence ensured the enemy's defeat.

Especially by benching Calliera, as she has the tactical chops to make things a bit trickier for us. Heck, the simple surprise of the berserk boss did a real number on Cyltan's crew, if Calliera showed up to throw another curve ball our way...

And Zade immediately banishes Athol to her room like a child. He really is over protective of her at the moment.

Yeah, this has been hard on her too, not just hard on you Zade.

It is kinda charming to see Zade excited to see a friend from his childhood.

She did talk about Zech's fate a bit already, so Zade is asking the right person at this point.

We did kinda see this a bit at the end of the prologue, with the massive army's arrival just after our departure. It is also kinda interesting to se seeing troop counts as well, and really emphasizes how much more manpower the empire is working with.

It is interesting that we are returning with roughly the same number of troops. Although it sounds like Ajax took most of the imperial troops with him, so we might not be at such a huge number's disparity this time around.

Dealing with these traitorous Duchies is sure to be our next step, before retaking the capital. Wiping out the monster of Frall with be particularly satisfying...

I guess Ajax went with the other classic siege tactic, starving the city out. We have always been in too much of a rush to go for that (plus it would make for more boring gameplay). It also does foreshadow that taking Frall will be one of the key steps in retaking the kingdom, as even the empire had to find some way of turning them to take Regina.

The power of reputation, and diplomacy won Ajax a city without the price of blood.

They really are trying to build a revenge motive for Zade with that cowardly sack of manure Therenius.

I am kinda with him on finding Mr. Imbecile killing Zech to be not credible

Seeing as the Duchess of Frall is a monster, that seemed a fair precaution for Zech to make.

See, ambushing Therenius's troops, and ruining his moronic plans seems more likely

Although the unnamed, but obviously, Valerius being the real cause of Zech's demise...or at least defeat, seems far more plausible.

It is kinda touching to have Zade's promotion described for us in such a way. It is like Zade is taking up his brother's legacy by promoting.

Armored, and engulfed in flames...They have dropped a few hints about Zoy being Zech, but this does add to it in a distant way, even if the claim is that he is dead.

Although despite her father's promises and obligations, he passed them onto her, so he could die.

I do like it when the mounts get a name. Zade will use the gift of Verula, and Zech's armor too I suppose, well.

The game has been dropping a lot of hints, and the prison chapter is going to drop its own bombshell in that regard, but...

well I should save my thought on that till we get there.

Unfortunately we don't actually get tot recruit her, despite how this sounds

And much as I hate the very Reese like talking a recruit out of joining, this is kinda a good reason. This gives us a character who can hold Redessa for us, so we can know it is secure without leaving any of our troops behind to hold the castle FE4 style.

Ah, you did fine out there Orphelia, and apparently have secret immortality as well.

Also I like how they are emphasizing that her skills are in the more in the area of logistics, which is a massively underappreciated (and often outright ignored) aspect of warfare.

Hearing about Zade's jealousy over Orphelia's intelligence is rather amusing, and cute.

It almost sounds like they were close to a Cyltan/Hoelun style arranged marriage, but I guess it is vague enough that they might simply be hinting that the old Duke was pressuring the two into a relationship.

Phfft...It does sound a fair bit like she is implying Zade is gay, and that he left her for Theo.

...I guess that talk about thing being like Cyltan and Hoelun might be more accurate but for very different reasons. Zade was apparently stuck as a ward/hostage to the old incompetent Meleda king for a little while in his youth.

And there is Zade's promotion item. I wonder why they used what looks like a bouquet of roses for the icon. Although there is one last story scene before we go.

Where Zade scolds Athol for her recklessness, and does so by emphasizing the heavy weight upon her survival. She is the last of a great dynasty, and obliged to not only survive, but propagate that legacy, and dynasty.

Although this talk like she IS the kingdom seems rather silly. Her death wouldn't force all the citizen's of Meleda to leave their homes, as the land would still be there. Sure there would be pain, and chaos in the transition to whatever new dynasty, or government would take over, but it wouldn't really be the end of the peoples in Meleda.

Luck both giveth, and taketh.

Zade is really feeling some undeserved imposter syndrome here. He is putting his brother on a pedestal, and can't appreciate the titanic accomplishments he has accomplished himself.

And that is some angst teen suicidal talk there. I guess they both are teenagers aren't they.

This sounds so passive aggressive, but I think they are trying to have her be sincere, and he is responding to her hugging him.

And that is just the kind of reassurances I feel like he needs. Zade isn't his brother and that doesn't make him lesser.

And she almost confesses to him. This crush has been building for a while, and Zade just does not seem to be interested, with people always having to talk him into humoring her...

There is Emma calling her out on her feelings for Zade

But that is the conundrum of being a teen, trapped in awkward transition between being a child in some ways, and an adult in other, not fully in control of your future, but just enough control to get people hurt.

That gets us to 15-x, basically battle preparation for the big army split to come.

The never punished continues it seems. Next up is 15-x, and it isn't really a full chapter...I am going to try and get through chapter 16 as well next week, but we will see if I can make that pace. In the meantime take care, and stay safe everyone.

[Eltosian Kadath]

I doubt I will get chapter 16 up this week at this rate. I have been doing a lot more strenuous activities over the last couple weekends than I normally do, and that is finally catching up to me, so I haven't gotten much writing done. Plus I got a bit distracted early in the week by beating my head against the brick wall that is Elden Ring's Malenia until one of the two broke. Also, 15-x has a lot more draining decisions in it than you would expect, as the things I do here could have serious ramifications for the future chapters.

Spoiler

When last we left off

Redessa has been taken, which has earned a short respite to resupply with chapter 15-x here, but

This isn't the end of things

And we can't wait for long, as we are still on a schedule.

Plus we have obligations to fulfill at the same time.

Don't worry, Masoud, we (or at least I) remember our obligation to free your friends

Lordly Derriere...heh. Although Garlan does have a solid complaint here

Which Masoud has rectified with knowledge.

Thanks for rubbing in how awful that whole Kralls thing was Garlan.

Although once again we have two objectives that need to be completed at around the same time

And taking the port gives us the extremely optimistic option of intervention from foreign powers. Although the point about Venecia being on good enough terms with us to render some aid holds a fair bit of weight (although their reliance on mercs isn't the most promising for military support...)

Not to mention the ambiguous time limit we have for whenever Ajax returns to slaughter us. Fortunately Cyltan offers to split the army to accomplish both these tasks at the same time, just like last chapter.

As Zade and the Princess really do have too much on their plate at the moment.

As good as a pincer attacks sound, Napoleon has said that coordinating two army coming together in the presence of an enemy is the most difficult maneuver an army can make. Put simply, this is another one of those VERY high risk, high reward, movesm but those are the gambles we have been taking, and kinda need to win this little underdog war.

Yep, its official, we are splitting our forces, but in the more Tear Ring Saga, rather than the Thracia split on the map sense we have done previously.

And that summarizes our next few maps, Zade facing the hazards on the road to Frall, then taking Frall, while Cyltan frees the prisoner, but he gets a little distracted on the march south.

Thanks for the warning about not having magic convoys in the story, but the game is about to be very explicit about that.

So we will be split in two, but unlike Tear Ring Saga we don't get to chose the split, we just have to take the split the game gives us.

And Cyltan gets no convoy at all, another minor weakness of this split compared to Tear Ring Saga's version, where both Runan and Holmes get their own convoys in their splits.

This is what this map is all about, getting your items in order for the split, and buffing your units as much as you can.

Thanks for the warning game. I do still have a stat booster or two to use, and getting as many characters class changed as possible is a major objective of the map.

Don't worry game, even when he was deployed I forgot about his repair power, and thus haven't kept any equipment with him. Thanks for the warning anyway.

There is our split, with that one sad empty spot for Rubina...Although there isn't much of a chapter here. You can trigger a few events to spawn enemies for good grinding, but when there are no enemies on the map (like now), units don't even end their turns after taking actions.

First thing I do is promote my cap level Zade, and then

I visually organize things for myself, after looking at the resources I have, and trying to figure out how many units I want to promote, and can afford to promote. Those off to the right are those who can't promote anymore, the small cluster in the bottom left corner are those I have promotion items for already, but I want to cap their level on this chapter, the pair in the top left are those who can promote, but I don't particularly care to promote them, and those on the road (plus Ma'aya sitting on the promotion item shop) are those I want to get to promotion, but I don't have a promotion item for yet. Unfortunately I can not afford all the promotion items I would like, but we can get a few resources from the map itself, so I think I will deal with, and wait on spending on them until I need them, or until the end.

Now you can trigger combat encounters by visiting a few houses on the map, where they talk about issues they are having that can be solved with combat

You get an extra choice prompt to back out of it if you want, but most of them are rather easy, and excellent sources of experience, so I will be doing them all

And a fair number of a single enemy type spawn on the side of the map for us to slaughter. None of this group are all that threatening, or interesting to deal with, the biggest thing of note is my deployment shows that I doubt I can afford to promote the axe bros. I think I will save some time and just pop all the levelups we got from slaughtering this crew in a little spoilerbox here

Spoiler

 

One of the few things I will note is that once enemies are on the map, actions end turns like normal

And I think I will emphasize promotions by showing them outside of the spoiler boxes, like our boy Cyltan here.

Also of note, the boss of this bandit group drops the best loot of the bunch, as it is a promotion item (for physical infantry), which I rather need, and are rather expensive to buy.

Now the second group here is a bunch of thieves, and I had the most trouble with this group on my last playthrough, mostly because I faced it last, with only the last units that needed levels were facing it, and because I got kinda overconfident. Truth be told all of these enemies have some nasty weapons despite otherwise being kinda embarrassingly weak (especially for how much exp they give).

You don't have to blink so expectantly at us, don't worry I plan on crushing them

The boss of this group drops a Cerberus knife, which is probably the loot I am least interested in, but still kinda useful. Although it is time for a big spoiler box full of levelups again

Spoiler

...sigh

 

In the end that wasn't so bad, as I played carefully, and didn't miss any key melee attacks (like missing the lullaby knife to get one of my guys slept, or the boss's triple brave Cerberus knife)

We are getting our little army as promoted as we can now, and we still have two more little piles of exp to power through.

Like this particular silly little group right here

As you can see on the side of our girl Accorte's promotion, that those armored units are all trapped below some crags, which they can't actually climb up. In fact thanks to measures to prevent spawn blocking, the one at the top literally can't move. Its like shooting fish in a barrel. Well time for more levelups, and the boss here drops a fair bit of extra money, which is nice.

Spoiler

This one is actually a dancer level on Lytia here.

This healing level on Lillia comes a bit after this force is killed, but close enough for me to show it here.

This is also a rather important change, as it boosts his bonus from +3 to +5

And there is our other mage promoted as well.

Hilda's promotion makes her rather powerful.

I haven't used Haldyn as much as I probably should have, but he earned his promotion here.

Now for the last little group, which has a bunch of cavalry, with their boss giving us what is probably objectively the worst loot, but still kinda useful, as its this game's equivalent of a Pure Water...

Spoiler

This healing level came about after the battle, but it made sense to me to put the healing levels in this spoiler box as well.

but I kinda forgot they were mostly horse archers, and they gave me a really hard time

I mean the two magic bow wielders got uncomfortably close to killing Urven, and one of those jerks even had a lethal bow, which drops people to 1 HP, and the boss has the 4x brave effect bow. Last time I had a much easier time because I started my troops much closer to their start, and jumped the dangerous ones, but this time, I kinda forgot how dangerous this group was (or much about this group at all, other than them having horses). I almost lost a character (possibly even two) here, and that would have been down right embarrassing... In retrospect, I wish I was as active with my screen shots with this group, as I am on normal maps, but oh well.

Well, Ma'aya made it to level 20, and promotion. She still isn't as combat capable as Yaeri was at this leve, but she is getting there, and flying is really powerful.

I also grab this from the flower, but if I am being honest, I have always found Royal Jelly to be kinda underwhelming.

Thankfully Urven lived long enough to promote, given how close he came on this map...

The one good thing about doing so poorly against that last group of enemies is it gave me a lot of opportunities for Lillia to heal, and better yet one of the enemies even had a poison bow (that hit), which got her just enough to reach the level cap, to fully justify promotion.

Better yet, she gets a free faith magic tome so she can actually attack things without me buying a tome for her (and faith magic tomes are difficult to come across even at the best of times).

There are a few talk convos we can get before finishing the map, and it is a very minor thing, but its interesting to note that we have the choice of who to talk to when there are more than one option adjacent.

That makes a lot of sense, and shows that Garlan has a fair bit of faith in Zade's abilities at this point.

I will try not to get in over my head, but we will see. The next few chapters are rather tough, so we will see how things go...

Eh, I guess we need a new grey hair for Zade to talk to, with Garlan going off. I guess now we will have discussions between Garlan and Cyltan soon...

I guess he is taking on a guide role for Zade's journey.

Despite all this talk of lions, the Abbot isn't a playable character.

We have kinda covered this already, in the end of map story content from the last map.

Although this is a rather good point, which is reinforced on that map, as most of what we deal with this map is quelling bandits.

Another minor detail I like, that they are preparing for all the wounded soldiers that will be the results of the battles to come.

Also, this conversation actually does something, as it gives Zade this tiny little luck boost, which he kinda needed.

I might regret this, as I am running low on Siurian Thaumite, but I remember how important fliers are to the next map, and with one flyer available on it, I get the feeling I am going to need this help.

I also end up using the last two stat boosters I have been sitting on, one to reduce the chance of Cyltan being crit

The other to reduce Hoelun's chance of being killed.

I also have my money fall low enough for Cezar to pass me another 1K for our uses. A vast majority of my funds go into promotion items, and in fact I leave two in the convoy, so I can promote any of the armored knights, or Axey boys that cap on Zade's maps, but I do spend for a bit of it on weapons as well. Nothing too special, just stuff that I am running low on. After a fair bit of tinkering with my units inventories

I finally have Zade talk to Cyltan to end this "chapter"

A promised meeting in the capital for the two young lovers Lords.

Zade, you did just as much to save Cyltan Kingdom. This really was a mutual

And they definitely go in for the hug there now kiss ...sorry, sorry I will stop with the queer baiting.

What a religious thing to end on, before we reach

I will still try to get Chapter 16 up over the weekend, as I should have a fair bit of spare time while dog sitting for my folks, but no promises. In the meantime, take care, and stay safe everyone.

[Eltosian Kadath]

I have put this off long enough, it is time we start Chapter 16

Spoiler

When last we left off, our army split in two

And now we join Zade's half as he liberates the Veldlands on the way to Frall

And there will be 4 little earldoms to liberate along the way, although

We don't really want to conquer our own people, which puts us in a bit of a bind

Which Athol will help us solve

via diplomacy, which leads to

us having to escort a lemming like green unit version of Athol to the entrance of each of the Earldoms. In some ways I kinda like this chapter, but she can be rather suicidal as a green unit, and I seem to remember you not being able to heal green units (like Thracia 776...)

I do like this analogy of diplomacy as akin to healing.

Zade is going to be a bit of a stick in the mud here, despite her proposal being a clear solution to the issues with the Veldlands

It is kinda sad that Athol had to explain the idea of this escort map to Zade, but I think he just wishes this map had a less obnoxious objective.

At least Abbot Melvon is around to talk some sense into Zade.

Although we don't actually get to recruit any of the Veldlanders, despite Abbot Melvon's optimistic suggestion.

Yeah, Zade and Athol are clearly in an its complicated at this point...

Even Zade could see her plan was sound, despite his misgivings.

Don't act so jealous Theo, beside Zade's true love is clearly Cyltan 😛

Time for Zade to turnabout this topic on Theo, and ask about his "love life"

Oh wow, Theo joined the war rather early on, before things were hopeless for Meleda. Also bringing up the death of his father all of a sudden like this seems a touch cruel.

Also its interesting to see that he was fighting alongside Zech in the beginning. I guess Zade hadn't really joined the war at that point had he.

And now for the origin of his budding pseudo-incest romance,

although he doesn't recognize her as she is, for he knew her first as a half-brother, although that is complicated a little by a bit of a reveal in the next Zade map...

But she was willing to risk her life to save Theo

The irony of him basically being her family...

Although he has given her up for dead at this point, but

As Zade points out, Ajax's softer rule could have easily saved her as well, so it is worth searching for her.

I have heard this little romance gets even more attention in VS2...I guess the years really do change things.

The last bit about being able to seize reinforcement points is a cool idea that I think should be refined a bit, as it is rather easy to cheese  in this chapter, thanks to most of them being completely unoccupied, and thus vulnerable to my fliers...or flyer in this case I guess. Also getting this spiel about Athol being a green unit is a bit overkill, but better than nothing.

Also the Green Athol does not get the stats of your Athol, most noticeably in the Luck department, as her luck starts at 7 at base...

Two things to note here about deployment, first off it is another map that would normally let me fully deploy my units, so I am one slot down. Second is that Merida is force deployed due to a key event regarding her this map...

Now for Zade to explain the map in story

It is interesting to have this distinction pointed out here, and determining which is which will be interesting to see.

That does cover what the map is all about, clearing her path so she doesn't walk off a cliff.

All of them but the first will be captured by fliers before they become a problem, although I don't think I will take the starting one on this run. The armored knights can hold them off, and the terrain blocking off the entrance to it is difficult enough to deal with that I doubt I will bother with it.

And now we get all of our units to give a little word before we start the map, something Fire Emblem games usually reserve for final chapter scenarios, and I will highlight a few of those, like some good advice from Troy.

I guess she does feel indebted to Master Garlan for talk her father into letting her join this adventure.

Eh, Troy and Merida were always the core of my cavalry. I guess Cyltan's crew did get the bulk of them, but those two are by far the ones I most use.

Probably true Cezar, although you are one of the units that can cross the terrain blocking off the castle we can see there (even if I don't plan on taking it this time around)

Poor Accorte will have to wait until next game (probably?) before Zade pretends to notice her, and her attention.

Yeah, it will be, wont it Slayne.

It was her idea Yaeri, don't blame Zade for this one. Alright, time to start this map, and visit that house we can see

Who talks about a place I have no intention of visiting.

Sure you can spend a lot of time (and weapon uses) breaking some minerals for loot, but only fliers can reach it,

and they risk drawing the attention of a dragon that they will have to face alone for a long while. Really its a waste of time for the only flier I have, and I don't know the location of the loot I might be interested in to target it specifically, which would make it a gamble as well.

The plan here is to have Troy wipe out most of the mobile troops from the castle with a pilum, and Zade wipe out the nearest troop ahead of us, and hopefully Athol takes the hint...

Although first we face some talk from one of those known turncoats, who is about to face the music.

As he is about to face his comeuppance, either from us, or the people he has made to suffer under his rule.

Although picking Venecia to hide out in seems like a bad idea given it is one of our major allies in this conflict.

Now we have a little time limit for Athol to take Wallis (for some loot at least)

I have Troy get one last kill before cantoing back as I need him to catch up.

And he gets a stat that no longer matters, as it is already higher than he will ever need it to be.

And Zade kills another of the enemy defenders ahead

and gets far more useful stats on his levelup

But I couldn't quite canto him out of range of the mage ahead, that has both a cavalry effective weapon, and multichance, so he needs a heal, just in case...

And Athol did not take the hint...but that is OK, as I probably want to hold her back anyway.

...Oops. The ranges on the siege weaponry near the castle is a little off thanks to them not having the room to maneuver (although it displays their range as if they do), but its not that big of deal, he can take the hit with his damage halving personal weapon just fine.

Also, the enemy mage missed Zade entirely.

Which makes her easy pickings for Zayid's Morning Star.

That lets Zade get this easy kill on the magic bow

And Sheela kills the soldier friend next to him

Although Theo trade switches her back to her personal weapon for extra enemy phase defense

Zade also gets this excellent levelup killing that thief on enemy phase

Also, its good to note that those snipers down here are stationary...

It was also fun to feed this kill to one of the Axey boys

For an agility levelup on my unit furthest behind.

The important thing here is that Zade is out of range of the mage, and armored enemies further south here, and it seems like the snipes don't move, although I am being a little careful with the units behind Zade, just in case the snipers have some linked AI with the nearer armored knight, or something.

While they are willing to shot at him, they aren't willing to move yet, so I can kill them

For a slightly disappointing levelup, and canto out of the same range I was worried about before

Unfortunately the other sniper is too fast for Merida to kill them alone, so

Theo has to finish the job.

And this range heal might be needed for next turn...

I also have Troy intetntionally block off access to Wallis,

as I have some turns to spare before that 8 turn limit, and would like to clear out this next clump of enemies before Athol decided to walk into them.

Also, I wanted to emphasize one of the enemies whose range I am avoiding

A mage with a sleep spell, who is getting buffed by the big grey dude behind her, with both a high Commander skill, and the better Good Neighbor skill for a lot of buffs (he even has a brave effect lance just be extra threatening in his own right).

At the start of next turn I seize this castle, long before enemies could come out to threaten us

That should make reaching the third village rather easy. Now to deal with that mage...

This isn't ideal, but he manages to proc something so I don't have to worry much about the Stun Pilum effect.

Merida clears out the next of her defenders, and cantos back to safety

She also gets a sweet magic levelup from that kill

Now Zade can clear out the mage before it can sleep anyone

And he cantos as far back as he can. That means I just have to deal with those last two armored knights on enemy phase

And it looks like Zade faces off against the big grey leader

...And when I was looking over this guys stats before, I completely misses that he had multichance, and could get a quad hit at any point.

This could be the end. If this is a hard ironman, the run is done...although if it is more of a soft ironman, we could try again, as we are certainly not in a soft-lock environment here. I don't think I ever specified, so I think I will leave the run's fate in the hands of the readers with a little poll.

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

The people have spoken, so the run continues, and its time to try chapter 16 again

Spoiler

So I try again, and we have another gameover at about the same turn, although in a very different way. Things go similar enough up until that point, so I wont waste our time coving that again, and jump right to that last turn

This time the plan is to kill that grey beast on this turn instead of pulling back after killing the mage

Which requires me to move in with some infantry instead of just the cavs, but you can see what dooms this run already

While I can wipe out all the things I want to on player phase

But in the end its those cavalry he thinks will protect that in some odd way do

As Zade can get this kill, but with so much space taken up clearing the way to this kill

He is still at the very edge of that group of 6 cavs

And there are enough of them to break his personal weapon with their bodies

And two of them have cavalry effective weapon to do enough of a dent that he would have died right here if he didn't dodge. But the cavalry aren't the only things that can reach him there

There are also thieves and axemen, and in what felt like a death of 1000 cuts

its the 10th enemy that breaks itself upon him in this same enemy phase that finally finishes him off. I figure there is another option to try. Troy can theoretically take 4 hits from that grey guy by just a smidge, and with the Iron Duke's damage halving effect he might be able to survive the onslaught...depending on what order the enemies attack him in. Plus him dying isn't a game over, and a single dead unit would also be a solution to this mess.

But that does mean at the start here that this is the only damage Troy can do to the enemies that start close, as he needs to get moving faster.

I am going to rush things a little here on the move back to that critical turn, defocusing on things that went similarly, focusing instead on levelups

Showing a more general sense of how we are moving with end-turn shots like this.

And showing things which changed a fair bit, like how I dealt with these survivors without Troy, and answer was the Z team. Note Jean missed the kill here

But Prody didn't on his target.

The axeyboys really letting me down by missing this kill again

but the armor knights are plenty happy to clean up their mess.

And I do manage to avoid all the siege ranges this time, for how little it actually matters.

The agility is nice, but I was hoping for something meatier, like Defense or Strength.

I am far more confident about the archers not moving this time around.

Plus I am close enough with Lilia to get the heal without range staves this time

That extra defense is especially nice on his levelup

Here it comes, the critical turn is the next one. Time to get back into a little more detail.

Clearing out the way with some of the infantry, that should be covered by end turn.

What a fabulous levelup from that kill.

Clearing out the last of the guff

Now for the biggest change, Troy getting this kill here

And capping defense just before the danger turn helps a lot...but

I messed up my positioning very slightly here thanks to that one extra clear space there. I should have arranged for Zade and Troy to have swapped positions at the end of last turn, that way he could have pulled back one more space. It would help two fold, reducing the number of enemies that can chip him, and make it far safer to trade switch him over to the Iron Dukes for that half damage effect.

I do also seize the reinforcement point while I think about whether or not to risk it

But I do. I do have a bit of a plan here, I intentionally don't top off his health, as if the grey monster triggers multichance again, he will be at particularly low health, to get a particularly high avoid bonus from the Orision skill the Edelstern gives him, and it shouldn't break before that battle.

With how many stats he has capped, I am not all that bothered by the blank level on him.

...and I did not account for mounted pilum in my plans. This means he needs to dodge two of the grey guy's hits if he triggers multichance, and it wont be the best Orision bonus to get those dodges. For whatever its worth, all topping him off would have done is made it worse, making his death exact damage at three hits.

He really doesn't have much more he can gain

In a way it did its job here. Thanks to his defense levelup, he will live 4 hits from the grey monster at 1 health. Although if the grey monster didn't wait to move until the very end, things would have been so much easier

But of course he goes after Zade instead

And he not only missed one of his hits, but failed to proc multichance as well, so instead he dies. Honestly it is a rather disappointing way to survive this issues, especially after seeing how I could have made this more reliable with the slightly different positioning from Troy...

After getting the luck to live I will take a mediocre levelup like this. And like that we are back in this thing.

With just the cav killers left of the cavalry, pressing in with the infantry made the most sense here.

Haldyn emphasizes with his level that he is all about the killing

Meanwhile our cavs

are clearing out the enemies on the right side of things

Like that by far the most difficult  part of the map has been completed.

Like that the last of the cavalry that overwhelmed me before are dead, for an underwhelming, but still meaningful level for his weapon type.

And we get a hint about what the next big stretch of the map is like, being shot at from across crags, and having to find ways to deal with it.

I will very, very gladly take a defense levelup on Zade after that mess earlier on.

Alas the wicked Earl of Wallis has run out of time, even after I intentionally delayed Athol's arrival while I was dealing with the game ending threat following Wallis.

His greed, his instance to hold onto all of his baubles has led to his own minions betraying him. Stabbed in the metaphorical back through the more literal stomach. Although the villainous Steward is deluding himself in thinking this act of evil will redeem himself in the eyes of the people he helped suffer.

The Earl will get his wish here, and its easy to see the Stewards' greed as  just as much a downfall to him, as it is to the former Earl

As he also did not have the time to take that treasure, and survive.

If he had ran as soon as he could, perhaps he could have escaped his punishment. Perhaps both could have.

Simply following orders hasn't been a defense for war crimes for a while

Good riddance indeed, and a nice little reward for our "speed" as well.

Although Athol restores law and order to the city. No more murderous vengeance against villains, but a trial, and court of law.

The great treasures of Wallis in the cash.

Yeah, this map does show us her coming into her own as a queen.

For the next city to reach, we have the return of Tasha.

Here to get some supplies for her amazing stat boosting (usually temporarily) creation.

Ah, the mad allure, and pursuit of art...

...sigh. You just couldn't help yourself with the enslaved women could you Kaga.

Although this does make it feel like she earned her freedom mostly on her own.

~

She had the same weakness back when she gave her cake to Troy

Yeah, I don't believe her either.

Although once again we have an 8 turn limit for some bonus, although the stakes seem far lower.

Back with the gameplay, we have a few thieves to kill

Lilia does get a levelup from the heal on Zade there, which is basically just Agility for her.

And that deals with the other thief

With him cap his dex, for whatever that is worth.

So the Z team is a little overwhelmed by these reinforcements I decide not to stop. Although if I can kill this one

With a crit for instance, we can choke the point

With the power of our two armor knights.

Sheela should be able to enemy phase these bow knights

For what is basically an HP levelup

Which is better than the blank levelup Bonacel gets on enemy phase...Which does get us to player phase

Where I have to find some way to deal with this monsterous set of skills...lets look at the other front a little

Where the armored knights are finishing the foes they chipped on enemy phase

And I will gladly take some Agility on Prody here.

And I figure I aught to chip the other repeater bow while I am at it. Also trying to get some safe ranged enemy phase action on one of the axey boys as well.

...phew, so I am preparing a lot of enemy phase here. Troy is drawing in the swordsman, while Sheela is drawing in both the scary skill bow knight, and the insignificant one in the corner. She has enough defense, and crit avoid with her buffs that

His only chance of killing her is with this resistance targeting Flame Bow, and even then he would need to trigger both Flurry, and hit with all 5 shots in the 70s, which drops her chance of death to well below 5%...

And he doesn't trigger Flurry at all, which lets her kill him for a sweet little strength levelup

Troy handle his little swordsman just fine.

It would be nice to see him cap his strength already...

Oh Tahsa...

You never learn do you.

Although it is adorable to see both her honesty, and awkwardness of attraction shining through.

I am fairly certain this is but a conman trying to draw in the love blinded Tasha

Spoiler alert, we do not get to recruit this "Mikael" Earl of Caine...

Back to the gameplay Prody fails to get his kill

Although Bonacel gets his

And Slayne finished off the sniper he sniped before

And he has capped his strength already.

Onto the next problem, a mounted sleep staff on the other side of this crag wall...

Whom I will lure closer with Accorte...

As I have the means to heal her of that status in the convoy

Unfortunately this kinda spooky monster followed her, and is covering her nicely. Although that multichance kill isn't doing him all that much good, as the only weapon it would help him with is that seeker bow, and the poison bow is only scary if he can hit with it, and then hit with the Lethal bow on the turn after it. Then again he could just Lethal bow to soften someone up for the arbalest ki-

wait a minute...the arbalest has always been moving first, if that pattern continues...

I do end up going for this kill here with Accorte

What a great levelup for her

Honestly, I am worried enough about things going wrong here that I make sure the anti-crit ring can't die with her.

She does need the healing just to survive the arbalest alone...

It has been a while since I checked in with Yaeri, and she is jumping this arbalest before taking the other castle, as she is the only one that can reach this arbalest, and eventually(like the last stretch of the map) he will threaten Athol...

Back at the other front Slayne is softening one up

For an axey-boy kill

Which gets the lowest level boy a strength levelup

Prody also gets himself a kill

And Jean misses his chip attempt. You might also notice Merida down there

she is ferrying up the infantry promotion items I left in the convoy, just in case one of these fellows end up needing one, although I am jumping ahead a little here, as some important things did happen on enemy phase before this

As I have committed far more than I should have to this whole Arbalest moves first theory...

Although it proves true

And with nothing else able to capitalize on Theo going down to 1 HP

He dies in vain, and with such vanity too.

Seeing as he procced the multichance to pointlessly break his lethal bow all in one go...

Also Bonacel gets an underwhelming enemy phase levelup, but he is edging so close to the level cap now...

And Jean barely beats out Bonacel's enemy phase levelup in quality with one of his own.

Back to the player phase where Merida passes off those promotion items, Prody gets himself a nice little kill

And Jean finishes off the one he chipped enemy phase, leaving this front clear once again.

On the other front, I can finally remove that irksome Arbalest from the equation with the ever reliable Sheela.

...Why? its on the other side of a crag from our army, and neither it, nor my own cavalry can cross crags...

Lets solve this utter bafflement with this strange fools death.

Although some of my troops do end up in range of this siege tome mage, and I really can't bait her into easy kill range at the moment

Although before we see what damage she might deal to us, Athol has reached the second village where we see the REAL Earl of Caine.

It does seem kinda strange to call on the name of her father when she intends to claim his throne. Also fun fact Sennight is an ancient word for a week, following the same pattern as fortnight. Both come from Old English, being compound words combining seven with night (for sennight), and fourteen with night (for fortnight).

We do also get the exciting news that we can visit Tasha's shop in the Frall chapter...

I guess its nice to get this warning now, but I rather like when its incorporated in dialogue in some way.

I should also note that I am getting close to where I plan to end this update up for today. With an 8 turn timer on each visit, and 4 places to visit I figured the turn 15 save would be a good stopping point. We do have a few turns here, as she hasn't hit either of those time limits, but it has gotta be close.

Although its best that we look at the next threat which is getting close to us. Not the scariest threat we have faced to far, but still potentially dangerous with a brave effect weapon, and some means of cheating death as well.

The damage halving effect of his personal tome should let him get this kill, and safely weather the double pilum hits to follow...

I wont complain about the agility, but if he had gotten magic, he could have potentially killed that Cromwell fellow on his counter hit.

This isn't strictly speaking necessary, it just makes me feel more comfortable.

Yaeri also manages to clear out the final fort, long before it can start spewing reinforcements. I do kinda wonder what this map is like if I leave these things active...

And she is at the very edge of this Arbalest's range, which isn't ideal

I might regret this, but I do burn my last Siurian Thaumite.

Lets see how Theo does

Ah classic Kaga, making me feel guilty for fighting my enemy by reminding me they also have family.

Also, that siege tome mage instead sed its turn using the stat boosting staff on Cromwell...after he already acted, and in range for me to kill her next turn. Such a tactical blunder from the AI given she could have done the same thing from a far safer position.

Now for another event, which was part of the reason I wasn't relying on Merida much in that last section

If only she could read this fellows name...

...Oh Merida, you avoided slavery once, only to fall for this ploy.

Dammit Kaga, you just couldn't help yourself could you. I guess this is just the Kaga kidnapping fetish chapter.

And now we got some trashbag men promising to drag her back home. Seems all the cliches are coming out of the woodwork

At least we have until we finish the chapter to save her.

At least Zade knows about her disappearance already.

Zade has accurately judged her value here, as I don't intend to lose her here.

Heh, perhaps Merida has a riding dog instead 😛

Duly noted, Zade has to reach that tower we can see there...

As luck would have it, this Arbalest doesn't actually move, so he didn't attack Yaeri before she killed him.

For a levelup.

I am not going to let this opportunity go to waste...

And that is a solid levelup for Theo.

He really does have quite a few ways of avoiding death here

But he would need to proc something 4 times in a row to survive here, which he has roughly 4% chance of doing

Fortunately he dies, and with Sheela being a mixed attacker, the magic gain on the kill is great.

Things are going well for our army here just before the save turn.

It is nice to get the warning about the invisible assassins guarding this place.

Alas, Merida knows her kidnapper, this foul Jubal fellow.

And with Merida revealing such a personal connection with the princess of Lestia, she reveals how important she has secretly been this whole time

Daughter of a Duke to be specific, and there is clearly some intrigue going on between the King and this princess

...especially if they are willing to torture a Duke

And travel into a war torn country to kidnap a combatant alive, to try and find her.

...that is not a fun fate in store for Merida if I don't rescue her here.

At least she is in good enough spirits to be making wry jokes about it.

And we have one last little event before we save, hearing about how awful the next city Athol has to visit.

And get to meet this little mixed generational family.

Alas, that gets us to the turn 15 save (although it looks like I forgot to screenshot that screen...)

Like that we are back in this. Next time I will finish up the chapter, and hopefully we can get back on schedule...although with the big 3DS linked ironman to work on as well will see if I can. In the meantime, take care, and stay safe everyone.

[Eltosian Kadath]

Sorry about the delay, the TeeHee linked ironman has rather distracted me, but I haven't dropped this yet, it is simply hard to find the time.

Spoiler

When last we left off, Athol was on her way to the third of four villages, but having cleared out the fort long before I needed to with my flier

That just leaves the enemies up the crag, and Sheela can easily kill one of the slow moving Javelineers

For a pointless levelup

Which is going to bait in this kinda scary character, who has a lot of uncomfortable skills to deal with, so I have her main bond partner switch her back to her personal weapon for more defense.

In a similar vein, Yaeri jumps the Javelineer in the north, but doesn't have as much to deal with

As she can canto back out of range of the invisible assassins that might theoretically threaten her. Although, I am fairly certain they don't start moving til I mess with them. Also of note, Zade is getting close to the tower to rescue Merida.

She lives it fortunately, but this guy is rather nonchalant for how dangerous he is. If he multichance procced into double crit she would die, but that is a less then 1% chance of death there, and he lives her return fire.

Alas we are still having story content about the piracy Marath is facing, and that poor little girl from the last update has been taken by these slaving pirates.

...ugh, yeah the child trafficking in this game is really creepy.

Alas, Zade might have to deal with the frustration of a Stun Pilum, but he has plenty of time to deal with this guy if he does get stunned here

And it doesn't end up inconveniencing us thanks to a dodge and a crit.

Good, more defense makes this a great levelup for him.

Most of my troops are preparing for the pirate battle to come.

Because we have about 36 children to save from these monsters.

Really trying to push the milk barrier with this one huh Kaga. For those that don't get the reference, I suggest they play Tear-Ring Saga.

This isn't the best accuracy, but if she can get this kill here, Zade can just waltz into the tower, and all the assassin's will leave without being a nuisance

Alas she missed both hits, so Zade has to finish the assassin off himself.

And gets an excellent levelup off of it

Although there are still enough assassin's around that I needed to have Lilia use a ranged healing staff to cover the 12 HP she lost on her failed attack.

Although Yaeri does end up leveling on the assassin assault she has to weather.

And come player phase she kills one of her assailants

For another levelup.

And Lilia gets a fairly bad levelup healing her back up after the fact.

And I have a kinda embarrassing misclick here. The plan was to grab the anti-crit ring from the convoy before visiting the tower

To prevent exactly this sort of nonsense, but instead I hit the wait command instead.

Admittedly Zade had the stats to survive it anyway, and all the assassins (which he counter kills), so now he can get that crit preventing ring from the stockpile, and visit

The missing Merida, thanks to the tracking power of her blood hound horse.

Alas, Jubal will have to wait until the next game to deal with (presumably).

Let's not call common sense cowardice, the dude's only chance of survival among so many enemies is slipping away in secrecy.

Time to learn all the secret details about Lestia, and Merida.

Or not so secret

As Zade has simply been too polite to ask; the only barrier to the truth this whole time.

There is a lot of important people dying of illness death this game's backstory.

Also a common trend of the era. Cyltan's dad, Athol's dad, the current Queen of Sphire, and now the King of Lestia.

Poor guy is too busy playing Fire Emblem to rule his country 😛

...much as I joke, calling the hobby "gruesome" is a little worrying.

The classic trope of the evil vizier, a surprisingly underused trope in the Fire Emblem/Kaga Saga games, although it does show up every now and then if you are looking for it. Then again, that description of his hobbies being gruesome hints that this king isn't as innocent as he seems in all this.

So her father was readying a coup, with Marien as his figure head, and him conveniently as the new chancellor...

Yeah, I can't really blame Zade for this one, you have to be paying close attention to catch the single letter difference between these two siblings.

To be fair, she is your friend, and clearly Marion isn't. If he was you might see him as just as friendly, and if she wasn't who knows what she would think of the princess. I guess what I am saying is she isn't being very subtle about her being a biased source here. Although th behavior of Jubal does seem to indicate that Marion's, or at least his chancellor's, reign is a brutal one (although the brutality may be seen as practical in this case)

Lucky for us, that let her join our army, in which she has been a solid member of the team.

I wonder what "went missing" really means in this context. Was she secreted away for her safety? Is she gathering an army of foreign troops and mercenaries in secret? Has she been killed already? I guess we will have to see in Vestaria Saga 2...

You would think the mustering of an army under her banner would reveal where she is, being with said army, but perhaps there is more subterfuge afoot here.

I keep joking about the sequel hook they are dropping here, but I haven't actually gotten around to VS2 yet to confirm if that is the game we get to see this conflict unfold.

You literally just involved the Meleda army in two of them, one is Solissian, and then in Venecia before that...

'

Zade you are splitting hairs,

and Merida has a fine hair to split of her own.

Alas it sounds like both Merida, and Marien will have to return with the protection of an army at their back, and that it simply going to transition her father into a hostage that Marion's chancellor can use as a bargaining chip.

I do feel for the girl, and the way politics have torn her family, and friend group apart, forcing her to become a stranger in these strange lands.

Rather prescient of him to foresee that circumstances will drive him into such a life by game's end. Although I suppose this was something he was thinking about even before then...

I did end up delaying Athols arrival for a turn here, as part way into this session, I realized I kinda messed up with the last update, as I wanted to get Slayne over to this side of things, and at this rate, waiting a turn is the only way he will be able to contribute on the last turn of the map...Also, it is around now when I realized I forgot about the talk chain between Zade and Athol, so that is some bonus stats down the drain from last update as well.

I guess equipping the crit immunity ring made this guy stupider, as he could have gotten anther free hit on Zade

Instead of letting Zade get another excellent levelup on the enemy phase kill

I do let Athol reach the village this turn, with most of my troops in position for the next battle to come...

Alas, Athol is arriving into a nightmare for some of her people

This sounds like such a ridiculous solution to this problem.

This sounds exactly like the results I would expect from such a ridiculous action.

...I am sorry, I just find "::grovel::" so silly.

Although seeing Athol trying to take some small measure of her responsibility into her hands to apologize, makes you think she might end up as a better ruler than her incompetant boob of a father.

Again, it seems Therenius has been where the occupation of Meleda really went down hill.

A vicious form of political corruption, selling the people you are supposed to be governing into slavery. Reminds me of the uncomfortably modern practice of having prisoners perform slave labor in the US, that states like Tennessee had to recently outlaw...

A brutal act of violence from the pirates to maintain their control. Although now these people have the Meledan army to repel these pirates.

That level of intimidation has now failed. The pirates have drawn the ire of an army willing to deal with them.

Although I can see how this wide spread corruptions can aid the power of the pirate's threats, as now anyone wanting imperial aid have to navigate the quagmire of which imperial officials have been paid off.

Poor guy got spook again

Now by this beast's ugly mug. He is cocky enough to claim kingship over part of Athol's lands to her face.

He is a practical pirate though, and knows that violence is bad for business.

Seeing as I have already cleared basically all the enemies I need to on this map, I would literally have nothing to do if I didn't

Was there really any other options after how they behaved?

I admire her offering the man the option of a fair trial. It is an oddly noble gesture, and acknowledgement of the power of law, even if it is a bit of a hollow gesture.

Abbot Melvon is definitely right here

And I suspect both Master Garlan, and Lord Zadrian would agree. Sure they have another enemy when they don't need one, but it is both her duty (which would get Zade on board), and a task that would need doing to secure her rules. Its not like she could just acknowledge or acquiesce to the man's claim of rulership.

He is a lot angrier about the exchange now that he is in the safety of his fortress.

What a creep.

Time to rescue those kidnapped kids...

Right after even more story bit, this time for the final earldom.

As the rather righteous imperial Elbert tries to keep things from becoming worse.

While Pandolf is taking advantage of the fact that

Elbert cares about the people he is governing, and thus Pandolf can get away with endangering them for his own political gains, knowing Elbert will feel obliged to help them.

Something feels really slimy (and reminds me of modern day Republicans) about the way Pandolf is taking advantage of Elbert looking out for the interest of the people Padolf is supposed to rule for his own gains, made all the worse by Elbert ostensibly being the enemy of those he is protecting

So he is going to pull out, abandoning a lost cause defense for the blood it will save.

Sacrificing his duty to the empire (and him own well being) for the good of the people on both sides of this conflict

And Padolf is seemingly threatening that plan for the sake of a party...Well I might have let on that there is a little more going on, but we will get to that soon enough

Once again we have our 8 turn limit.

And now for that daughter to beg her true love to stay.

Elbert is really sacrificing himself for the people of Denton, his own troop, the woman he loves, and the scumbag planning on taking advantage of that.

Seems they are even betrothed, although Elbert understands that what he is doing is an act of self sacrifice, and is trying to spare his wife to be of that grief

There is a very childish, and privileged bent to Carissa's suggestion, to abandon everything, and everyone they know to be together in a far off land, without any plan for how they might live there

And no concern over all the obligations the two of them might have to the people they would be leaving behind.

Alas Elbet's sense of duty is too great for him to abandon the world for their love

And his pride is great enough to lead him to his fall despite her love.

And she is right, he is trying to hurt her now to spare the future pain his death will cause her, but he is too noble a man to be any good at lying.

Finally we are back to the map, and I immediately

Capture the boat which is taking off with the children. It is interesting that they emphasize that the ship surrenders, and isn't sunk by this attack, so that it is clear to the player that none of the digital children were harmed as a result of our boat attack.

For an underwhelming levelup

But at least we saved this batch of children from slavery

And that old man is reunited with his grand daughter

Awww....these two's reunion is charming.

More like you have Yaeri to thank for her return...

We do get what is basically a better cutlass from this. A fine weapon indeed.

This is an interesting little detail, that it goes straight to the convoy, as it was given to the NPC Holland for us (even if it was Yaeri's kill that earned us this little scene, and prize).

This is a scary combination to see on an enemy. Fortunately the AI is far too dumb to use it effective, as she will proceed to teleport in front of the troops I have back by the bridge on the other side of the map and constantly teleport over there and do nothing...

This is also a minor annoyance, but I plan on ignoring these two for the map, in part because there is some odd loot you can acquire for doing so, but also because I remember accidentally killing one of them on my first run without thinking about it, and regretting it after seeing the death quote (I did reset for that kill...)

Now it is time for Padolf to reveal how much of a dastard he is.

As he plans on murdering in cold blood the savior of his own city

To curry some political favors from Athol.

Despite his daughter having fallen in love with, and agreed to marry him.

He has been using his daughter as a political pawn this entire time,

Expecting her to pay the price of him sacrificing her.

I wasn't as carefully as I probably should have been with Yaeri's placement last turn, given there was another bow slinging boat on the water, but she dodged everything (and wouldn't have died from that alone), so she can now

Earn a better levelup from this kill, and get some gold from this boat's hold.

There were also a fair number of pirates that my troops easily enemy phased, but this last one did make it, as I made sure this crooked axe had no chance of hitting anyone on enemy, or player phase just in case.

And this trend continues into the next turn, although I do feel the need to use the convoy to fix the silence status on my healer. Sorry I am not showing much of the action, but it is mostly just enemies suiciding themselves on enemy phase in ways that aren't dangerous.

I guess I kinda mentioned this already, but the enemy teleporting dancer is going to waste her time over here where she is a threat to nobody, and I have no idea why.

This is a bit of an awkward development, these two axemen spawned over here just on range of jumoing Athol next turn, and my flyer is not in a position to deal with them

Fortunately she will live this hit on 1 HP

If it had hit, which it fortunately didn't.

Also Sheela is the first to levelup on the enemy phase pirate kills, and it is literally useless.

And she is apparently in good company with that trend.

In retrospect, I should have moved someone with a ranged attack in this direction to deal with the other pirate, but at least Athol dodged, so we are in no danger of another game over, and we do kill the one that threatened her last turn

I also decide to delay thing until the last possible moment in the hopes that Slayne might make the difference with the pirate king himself...although if I am being realistic here, his help for a single turn wouldn't really help enough. The only characters capable of attacking Titus on his fortress are flier at 2 range, and Slayne, and I wish I had remember to capture an image of the battle forecast for Yaeri's potential attack him, as there is a very fundamental issue with it. While she can one round him with the Doyenne, his weapon also has a brave effect, and she would need 3 more HP than she does now, or 2 more defense to survive that (and she would need the anti-crit ring, but that I can manage). Slayne would have to be able to take him out basically on his own, or I would have to risk Yaeri dodging a hit, as he also has a skill that gives him a chance to attack first, so even if Slayne can cripple him down to the point that Yaeri can get the kill "before" he has the chance to counter, she would still be risking death to that skill proccing, and no dodge. I just can't justify risking the only flyer I have with this army for this attack.

Accorte also gets this excellent levelup on one of the pirate kills.

Its odd that she has a battle quote for this enemy fight, and not the last one. She is fine thanks to the dodge last turn

And after that the enemy that threatened her dies.

And now she has capped HP, and hit the global cap on Proficiency as well.

...I am an idiot. I miscounted squares, I have been waiting our all this time for him to help, and just to add injury to this embarrassing insult to my basic counting abilities

I had an off-by-one error while counting turns too

I am sorry Elbert, you deserve better than this

Although he does go down fighting at least

Oh sweet Vesta. Poor Carissa...I've failed you even more

Pandolf recognizes now, too late that he has caused his daughter irreparable harm.

How gruesome, presenting this freshly severed head to her here...

Oh dear

This descent into madness for the poor girl is such a dark turn for her...I am so sorry Carissa, I have failed you and your beloved so much...

She is now. You really broke her Pandolf with this little plot of yours.

A bit sickening to see him deny his daughter what aid Athol might give in a pathetic hope that it will save his skin

At least Athol is discerning enough to deny this beast his prize for this slaughter, and hopefully he does get the "reward" his murder deserved.

This is really the chapter where Athol shows her capacity to be a queen.

She is even leaving Zade waiting with her obligations as a budding young queen.

Although it will be the chapters after next for us to get to Frall, as next up is a chapter with Cyltan's army.

Ah Theo is giving Zade a good ribbing for Athol snubbing him

But the two of them are still the kind of close friends that can share a fine meal.

Although Zade is all business with this meal, as Frall is a place that Theo has a LOT of history with.

And he does have loved ones that might be involved in the battle to come

But he has a far more important bone to pick with the monster sitting on what should be his birthright. I will try to give him that sweet vengeance to him in this run as well..

Such drama surrounding the current heir to Frall, a secret bastard for four years, legitimized after the death of Theo's mother...scandalous!

I guess they didn't have much time to bond...

But bond they did

Don't kid yourself Theo, obviously you will have to talk with him on that map instead.

Don't kid yourself Zade, there are child soldiers aplenty in these kind of games...

I will do my best as well to keep that little sweetheart alive, but that will have to be for another day, as we have reached the end of this map, although if I am being honest, I didn't play it very well.

Sorry but I will likely be off schedule for a while, but I will get to the end on this LP, I promise. In the nebulous meantime, take care, and stay safe everyone.