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Missival

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Before we get to the meat and potatoes, let's make a quick stop in chapter 5. If you take on Lumiere's sidequest, she goes missing from the Atelier. If you then decline, the game offers a short cutscene to explain her return. Here it is. No, you cannot ignore it and screw yourself out of Lumiere for the entire game. I tried.

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iLrBPdNs_o.pngNo, Sir Ward, you've done nothing but kindness for us ever since you came to this city.

Have we? I remember going out of my way precisely not to do kindness for you lot.

iLrBPdNs_o.pngIt was my and my carelessness that failed to protect Lumiere... Besides, the sting of losing some money is nothing compared to the joy of having her back!

bIkLSHGY_o.pngForgive me, Mr. Danton... I should've been more careful...

iLrBPdNs_o.pngDon't worry about it, Lumiere. We'll make it back in no time! We'll just have to put our hearts and souls into working harder!

3cxl4Xfi_o.png......

Well, that was nice and bittersweet. On to chapter 6.

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Lendel has a repairstone for sale. Not sure if it's here or in the map before that it becomes available. Either way, I expect Reese will be clutching it until it crumbles. I really want Gram to stay healthy and I don't exactly have an excess of repairstones in this run.

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Also, Marybelle tells us to hire this "lazybones", like he's not been with us in every mission since he appeared. Provided Serenes did not lie, not only is he one of the two mercenaries that will end this journey with us, he's also one of two or three units that might manage to promote! @Benice Hear that? Your boy is one of the highlights of this shitload of a run! Okay, on to the map it is.

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First things first, I screwed up and hired one too many people, so Owen had to sit this one out. Because, you know, I just have too much money, I really wanted to get rid of some.

New unit time! Enid is completely worthless in this run. Even with the liquid magic, getting her to level 11, the minimum she requires to reach 5 magic, with the very few maps I can play would be a tall order. Not impossible, but it'd be too much of a pain. On top of that, I don't think I can get the liquid magic, because the materials are in sidequests. Getting Enid to level 16 in these circumstances? Pffft. And as if that wasn't enough, if by some miracle she managed to promote, she'd give both Izerna and Perceval a happiness point! She'll join the cemetery club next map. Sorry, Roswick!

Speaking of people who will join the cemetery club, that's what Dean's here for. I don't believe I'll get any more use out of him in this run. Might as well get rid of him now. Wish it'd happened back in chapter 3 so I didn't have to spend a grand on his fee for today, but such is life.

For today's stuff to avoid, we need to protect civilians. Or, rather, SOME civilians. Three must escape. The rest must die. I will just talk to the three nearest civvies and then get Enid in position to speak to a certain someone as fast as possible. As for the requests... You know what really fucking sucks about today's citizen requests? I fulfill one by visiting the store. As per the rules, I cannot simply progress without viewing events. I must avoid fulfilling the objectives themselves. And this time, this objective just so happens to lock me out of the chapter's store. No platinum for me, I guess. Woo!

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Ah yes, off to a great start today.

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Yeah, very very good start today.

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Look at that mess! My fault for thinking Marcel could handle the map's busiest corner with only the help of a bunch of squishies. Even had to send Ward in a hurry to provide back-up. Sheesh...

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Anyway, here's Perceval. Perceval is a unit I like to call Missival, because despite the fact that his hitrates really aren't any worse than anybody else's, he just seems to love missing. I don't know what it is about him, everyone I ever ask has the exact same experience with him. Still, as long as Enid breathes her last before the end, he'll be the second mercenary I can get my hands on permanently, so he's got that going for him.

The smart thing to do in this chapter is buy a thunder in advance and give it to him so he doesn't waste dire thunder uses here. I am not a smart man.

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Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me...

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Never mind, Esteban got crit to death anyway.

...Actually, you know what? Fuck those awful five turns. I'm going back to pick up a thunder orb.

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Much better. I also did some minor tweaks to the formation.

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Ward's leading the western front now. Screw Marcel, he can help Sherlock and Larentia out over to the east.

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Ward's shielding rates are so good. RNGoddess, will you quit bullying Ward? He's old, kinda. Cut him some slack.

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Fair enough, I guess. You've made your point.

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Oh my G-- That was the worst case scenario. Two dire thunder uses wasted, plus a kill... The hell's going on anymore!?

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Yeah, you know what? No. I'm redoing those two turns.

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Lo and behold, this time Ward's longspear hasn't broken. Honestly, this weapon's underrated. Ward's hitrates with it are a little suspect, but they're not terrible, and the damage is immense.

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What has broken is Esteban's worthless starting equipment. Good riddance.

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Not wasting a moment this time around. Get on my team before you waste your own precious experience.

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Theeeere we go. First kill. Let's see how long it takes for him to miss.

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The civilian here comes under attack. He's faring... surprisingly well!

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Around this time, Aegina reached level 8, enabling use of windstorm. Girls's seriously popping off now. I guess a general lack of competition for experience will do that to ya. Who else am I going to give kills to? Ward?

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This is the bastard that crit Esteban to death earlier. Who's laughing now, huh? Who's laughing now?

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I'm laughing. I am the one who laughs.

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Civvie gets attacked again... And continues to be awesome!

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Seriously, this guy is so good! He's distracting all the enemies!

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Ah, there it is. There's the Missival I know and love.

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...Huh... How odd. Marcel appears unable to guard Sherlock. Could it be Overwatch? Never noticed you can't guard overwatchers. That's an interesting little bit of balance, I guess.

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Alas, the citizen's dodging streak comes to an end when the more accurate crossbowman besieges him.

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Missival!

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Look what you've done! You could've saved him...! I mean, not really, he was always going to die, but...

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See? That's much better, Percy. You're learning.

...Who am I kidding, you'll miss the next one. You always do.

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I send Larentia on a spec ops mission to kill this healer.

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All the while, I tried to have Enid escape, but to no avail. For a moment I thought maybe Gonzij needs to die as well before I can escape, but no, the option only comes up on the final 4 turns. I guess so that you don't skip the one bit of action that exists in this uneventful map.

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You may've noticed all the action shown so far has taken place in the western front. That's because Marcel has the north covered! Not having to protect anybody, he's able to lone wolf to his heart's content. There's something ironic about that, right?

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Hah! You fool! You have fallen right into my trap! He has--

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...Arrowbane. Sigh... Missival, Missival, Missival...

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There's just a random guy with no special items overwatching the very edge of the map. What's up with that?

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Well my, my. Look who decided to show up. The brave knight Barselphony requested that we bring the evil Count Theodore to justice and gently escort his fianceé to his humble abode within the comfort of his net, but alas, this is the evil route. We'll have to murder her.

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Oh, for goodness's... Oh, that's always so annoying. Funny hitrate, though!

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

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It was turn 14. I hate this game.

...Welp! Luckily for you lot, you don't have to sit through those four turns again. Like I did.

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The only remotely remarkable thing that happened was Izerna tried to cripple this guy, but missed, wasting a holy use for nothing. Larentia tried to salvage it, but he remained merely injured at 1 HP. Nice and frustrating, just how I like it.

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That's more like it. See? Ain't that a much, much preferable target? Kinship between redheads, or something?

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You know, I should've expected that.

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At least his GF handled herself better. And we are now able to save, so that's lovely.

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Remember this unlucky archer. He'll be ever-so-slightly important later.

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SHIT

 

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Yes, all according to plan. Thanks, Perceval.

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Aegina wrapped things up for another level. Not that I've been showing them much, she's just been getting wind points, primarily.

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More HP? Girl, surely you don't expect to ever tank, right?

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Bye, Dean. You served us well against Chaos, but this is not a run for kindness.

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Minas fell the following turn. I like her palette, it's pretty cool for a sprite you can very easily never see.

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More broken equipment? Today seems to be a pretty bad day for all of us, huh.

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Not Missival, though, who manages to score the point of speed he needs to be able to begin proccing Adept. Attamiss!

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Gonzij has a death quote.

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...If I were an intelligent man, it would be around this time that I'd decide to start running for the hills. What is left for me to do, anyway?

Alas, I am not particularly renowned for my intellect, so guess what I did.

That's right. I got greedy.

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MISSIVAL

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I always loved this guy's portrait. For reasons that should be immediately obvious if you know anything about me.

Ortmann is always a pain to kill, and more often than not I like to just eat a ransom so I can comfortably dispatch him. Fortunately, we cannot kill him in this run, so we get to just run.

Or, y'know, we would if I hadn't gotten greedy and set up another terrible situation for myself. Yet again.

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A very simple sequence of events took place at the beginning of turn 20: Perceval brought the knight next to Esteban to 1 HP, the cavalier attacked Reese and almost always got one-rounded by Gram, the second knight attacked Aegina and got brought really low by her windstorm.

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And then something would go wrong.

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No matter how promising things ever got...

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...Everything came crashing down, attempt after attempt after attempt.

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Ever onward...

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...Ever backward.

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Always teasing me with good levels, lucky happenstances and other similar tactics of emotional torture...

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This one was particularly humilliating, because I'm fairly certain I could have pulled it off, but I got extra greedy and overextended Ward. He lost his horse and ended up exactly one hex short of escaping in time.

That one was so bad that I finally got it through my thick fucking head that I should give up on trying to get some shreds of experience and focus on getting the hell out already.

...And even then it took me a billion attempts just to pull out safely, because I had all my squishies right on top of the enemy!

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It's not all bad, though. Estie got this beauty of a level up. I know I said lol stats in Berwick, but that doesn't mean this is any less of a welcome sight. His surprisingly heavy damage with daggers is very welcome. It makes him a surprisingly all right last-ditch option against knights, should the mages be occupied elsewhere.

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I even managed to push one last kill on Aegina with the one archer that was left unarmed. Yeah, that's the guy, overthere in the middle of us. For some reason, he decided to run alongside us to the escape point. Consistent behavior too, in every single one of my many attempts he would take the same route right in the middle of all my units. What, was he hoping we'd mistake him for one of ours? That I'd spare him? Pfah! This is no run for mercy!

Aegina got a wind point from that round of combat. She is now at level 9, 99 experience, and 16 wind points. The fact that I might just be able to promote Aegina, of all people, in this run, of all runs, is fascinating.

 

 

 

 

BUT GUESS WHAT! THE GAME WASN'T QUITE DONE DICKING ME!

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THIS SHIT HAPPENED RIGHT AT THE LAST MINUTE!

Except... At this point I had been retrying these four turns for way too long and I refused to sit through another attempt. So, you know what? Fuck you, Marcel. You're mediocre at the best of times, and in this run? Complete poppycock. Go feed the worms so I can get the dawn charm faster.

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Fucking

finally.

Stupid friggin' greed, I swear. Always the same.

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...Sheesh, poor Marcel, though. He did a superb job defending the northern flank singlehanded for the first like, 15 or 16 turns, and what was his reward? He got murdered at the last minute, I couldn't be arsed to reload for him and to top it all off, he gets the crappy tombstone.

Let this be a lesson to you, folks. Life is not fair.

 

22 hours ago, BrightBow said:

What's funnier is if you have Faye talk to him while unarmed. Chaos just snaps over to her and smacks her immediately.

Faye be like "with these hands"

...And that's it, she dies before she can finish that thought.

22 hours ago, BrightBow said:

No. What happens is that the RNG changes whenever you save. So before you advance to the next chapter, you need to drop another save and you will get different results in the Kingfisher, the stable and whatnot.

You're fucking kidding me.

Oh my God. It really works.

...Oohhhh why did I not know this before I did chapter 5...

Well, that's 5000 down the drain, but hey, live and learn. At least I can salvage some profit. Thanks for the tip!

22 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Looks like Sylvis really carries these guys. I don't know how much they paid her, but probably not enough.

Sylvis carries every situation she finds herself in. That is why the Minimum Ranks run could not have her. I am so bad that I don't deserve her.

11 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

This war really brings out the shoddy state of craftsmanship in Berwick this deep in the conflict.

Maybe that's why bags are so insanely expensive. They're the only things that are well crafted.

11 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Sneak King Munver, folks.

In Spanish, "ver" means "to see." Perhaps he's merely honoring his name?

11 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

At this rate the shield will be caked in mud and the coin scratched up with how much they've been dropping it between them.

As long as they function.

11 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Munver, the drop chain, Marcel being left screwed over by Kaga, least this was kind of funny for the most part.

Yeah, it was a rather enjoyable chapter, all in all.

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2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hear that? Your boy is one of the highlights of this shitload of a run!

PURSUIT

I know that Besteban won't disappoint!

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And officially I'm writing long enough replies that I don't want to risk the wrath of the mods like in the Berwick LP.

D'Oh I missed:

Spoiler
16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Maybe that's why bags are so insanely expensive. They're the only things that are well crafted.

 In a convoyless game, if those were also easily broken I'd snap.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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iLrBPdNs_o.pngNo, Sir Ward, you've done nothing but kindness for us ever since you came to this city.

Have we? I remember going out of my way precisely not to do kindness for you lot.

iLrBPdNs_o.pngIt was my and my carelessness that failed to protect Lumiere... Besides, the sting of losing some money is nothing compared to the joy of having her back!

bIkLSHGY_o.pngForgive me, Mr. Danton... I should've been more careful...

iLrBPdNs_o.pngDon't worry about it, Lumiere. We'll make it back in no time! We'll just have to put our hearts and souls into working harder!

So wait, you find Lumiere elsewhere and she walk away? And you get given a reward that harms the place and you don't receive? I'm confused.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

New unit time! Enid is completely worthless in this run. Even with the liquid magic, getting her to level 11, the minimum she requires to reach 5 magic, with the very few maps I can play would be a tall order. Not impossible, but it'd be too much of a pain. On top of that, I don't think I can get the liquid magic, because the materials are in sidequests. Getting Enid to level 16 in these circumstances? Pffft. And as if that wasn't enough, if by some miracle she managed to promote, she'd give both Izerna and Perceval a happiness point! She'll join the cemetery club next map. Sorry, Roswick!

Speaking of people who will join the cemetery club, that's what Dean's here for. I don't believe I'll get any more use out of him in this run. Might as well get rid of him now. Wish it'd happened back in chapter 3 so I didn't have to spend a grand on his fee for today, but such is life.

RIP Enid, too much to risk keeping her.

Meanwhile, Dean dies now? What's the latest you think he could be sacrificed?

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

For today's stuff to avoid, we need to protect civilians. Or, rather, SOME civilians. Three must escape. The rest must die. I will just talk to the three nearest civvies and then get Enid in position to speak to a certain someone as fast as possible. As for the requests... You know what really fucking sucks about today's citizen requests? I fulfill one by visiting the store. As per the rules, I cannot simply progress without viewing events. I must avoid fulfilling the objectives themselves. And this time, this objective just so happens to lock me out of the chapter's store. No platinum for me, I guess. Woo!

Well, nobody said low ranks meant efficiency or saving as many as possible.

And sheesh, can't even go to the shops without fulfilling requests. Can't catch a break.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Anyway, here's Perceval. Perceval is a unit I like to call Missival, because despite the fact that his hitrates really aren't any worse than anybody else's, he just seems to love missing. I don't know what it is about him, everyone I ever ask has the exact same experience with him. Still, as long as Enid breathes her last before the end, he'll be the second mercenary I can get my hands on permanently, so he's got that going for him.

The smart thing to do in this chapter is buy a thunder in advance and give it to him so he doesn't waste dire thunder uses here. I am not a smart man.

Hey look, it's Dire Thunder guy, in a game where that sounds plenty useful. And yet this happens apparently.

Also, wait, the town's called Lebron. Is there any chance James is the most common surname?

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Oh my G-- That was the worst case scenario. Two dire thunder uses wasted, plus a kill... The hell's going on anymore!?

Ruben: Needs Perceval to not kill someone and avoid using Dire Thunder

RNG: Unmisses your Perceval

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Yeah, you know what? No. I'm redoing those two turns.

This is something I can believe me doing with plenty of games in the series. Repeatedly.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Who else am I going to give kills to? Ward?

Yes.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Huh... How odd. Marcel appears unable to guard Sherlock. Could it be Overwatch? Never noticed you can't guard overwatchers. That's an interesting little bit of balance, I guess.

Well, that's an odd detail that I've never noted before.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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There's just a random guy with no special items overwatching the very edge of the map. What's up with that?

He wants to cover his allies who'll come into the map as time passes?

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Well my, my. Look who decided to show up. The brave knight Barselphony requested that we bring the evil Count Theodore to justice and gently escort his fianceé to his humble abode within the comfort of his net, but alas, this is the evil route. We'll have to murder her.

Oh jeez, this event.

Now I'm paining.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

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It was turn 14. I hate this game.

Jeez these two look more powerful when they get to come at you.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Remember this unlucky archer. He'll be ever-so-slightly important later.

His bow just shattered upon realising he couldn't even dent Marcel.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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SHIT

 

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Yes, all according to plan. Thanks, Perceval.

The missing affecting enemies now?

But wait, that would benefit you, the player, that makes no sense.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Minas fell the following turn. I like her palette, it's pretty cool for a sprite you can very easily never see.

Least they didn't capture Minas.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ortmann is always a pain to kill, and more often than not I like to just eat a ransom so I can comfortably dispatch him. Fortunately, we cannot kill him in this run, so we get to just run.

Or, y'know, we would if I hadn't gotten greedy and set up another terrible situation for myself. Yet again.

That sounds ominous.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pictures of misery

This one was particularly humilliating, because I'm fairly certain I could have pulled it off, but I got extra greedy and overextended Ward. He lost his horse and ended up exactly one hex short of escaping in time.

That one was so bad that I finally got it through my thick fucking head that I should give up on trying to get some shreds of experience and focus on getting the hell out already.

...And even then it took me a billion attempts just to pull out safely, because I had all my squishies right on top of the enemy!

This playthrough in two images:

Spoiler

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16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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It's not all bad, though. Estie got this beauty of a level up. I know I said lol stats in Berwick, but that doesn't mean this is any less of a welcome sight. His surprisingly heavy damage with daggers is very welcome. It makes him a surprisingly all right last-ditch option against knights, should the mages be occupied elsewhere.

I forgot he has dagger access, so that's alright.

Imagine if he could ride a wolf into battle

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I even managed to push one last kill on Aegina with the one archer that was left unarmed. Yeah, that's the guy, overthere in the middle of us. For some reason, he decided to run alongside us to the escape point. Consistent behavior too, in every single one of my many attempts he would take the same route right in the middle of all my units. What, was he hoping we'd mistake him for one of ours? That I'd spare him? Pfah! This is no run for mercy!

Who knows, maybe he'd defect and Kaga would have done enemy generics first?

I bet they'd be useful for this run to be fair.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

BUT GUESS WHAT! THE GAME WASN'T QUITE DONE DICKING ME!

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THIS SHIT HAPPENED RIGHT AT THE LAST MINUTE!

I see his name was Marcel Marsodead

Naw. Fuck sake.

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

..Sheesh, poor Marcel, though. He did a superb job defending the northern flank singlehanded for the first like, 15 or 16 turns, and what was his reward? He got murdered at the last minute, I couldn't be arsed to reload for him and to top it all off, he gets the crappy tombstone.

Let this be a lesson to you, folks. Life is not fair.

And he did a good job, only for the game to screw him at the end and you decide it wasn't worth the hassle to keep him.

Edited by Punished Dayni
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Chapter 7-main

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Fun fact: Even though Almuth is not available in this run, he still makes an appearance in Enid's events. I harbored some minor hopes that he'd appear at the library after that, but nope, no such luck. Oh well.

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Oh hey, that's a cool horse. I've never had one of these before. Probably because 18k for one point of attack is complete garbage. Heck, the Liga courser is a mere 10k for a point of movement! Typical Kaga and his faulty balance, I guess.

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Whatever. Reese uses the first repairstone charges on Gram. No green breaks, now.

I hired Sherpa so he'd get the happiness he needs to be a freebie in the next map. The temptation to kill him and/or Kay is high, but he's a really good unit that I can easily recruit. While I'd rather not kill off a trillion units in the finale - mainly so I can get death items - I don't intend on forbidding myself from killing people there, either. If there's someone that might die in the final chapter, he could be it.

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...Not to mention... I can do this with him. Heh... hehe...

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This map could be annoying. Or not. I'm actually not sure. Tactics points mandate that Vester's knights survive to tell the tale, but I've never really left them open to attacks, so I'm not sure how they fare if left to their own devices. Here's hoping the enemy pursuit proves up to the task. Otherwise I'm going to have to stall. Other than that, I just have to not visit some houses. Easy peasy.

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We advance swiftly. Oh, there's Lebrus already? This guy's AI is so inconsistent. Sometimes he takes a stroll on the beach or around the fort and you stumble into him 10 turns into the map. Other times he's just... there. Weirdo...

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He delivers a mean hit to Elbert, so I guard him with Sherpa. 41...? That's higher than I would've hoped, from the dusk charm.

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HOLY SHIT he got his ass handed to him. Not something I'm used to seeing from Sherpa.

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He's so hurt that the enemies are targeting him rather than Elbert now. He almost died to this. Hot damn, what a sad display. Maybe I don't need you after all...

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...Aaand then this doofus went for Sherlock. His logic is far beyond my comprehension, but I am not about to complain!

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Enid has a mission of her own in this map: Eat arrows for dinner.

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Yummy! So sorry, Roswick.

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In less grim news, Lebrus falls to Esteban's bow.

Nn6tfN0A_o.png

Elbert is going to lure the one archer with battle cry our way. Arrowbane should do to make his super powered shot go to waste.

OQ3bvdd8_o.png

As for the rest of the team, they'll head south and begin the siege of Turon.

nuw7eDNy_o.png

A miss from Esteban gets Aegina whacked. Not crippled, fortunately. C'mon, man, step up your game! Put that 29 bow skill to good use!

3dlJG5v1_o.png

HAH! 4% hit. Oh, that's so cute.

xFtvbtgW_o.png

Archer didn't come our way. Let's try a bit further...

Uz2eZeja_o.pngOg2ZzbYA_o.png

There we go. Right into my trap!

diRDqoIX_o.png

WHAT

That was the 4% from before! Sherpa, what are you even doing!?

Cl16pQLp_o.png

No matter! Gate down! In we go, go, go, go!

k7VDHWw8_o.png

Oh-- Tch, of course. Okay, next turn, in we go, go, go, go.

LYRaM1oc_o.png

Crying archer went and stole the church guardian's concoction. Sure, fine by me. You'll just have to come back for more later.

COVLni1G_o.png

Sigh... Fine, point taken. You're awesome.

c2IhXU7f_o.png

Sherpa Brymrangers half of the first layer's defenders. A bit of a waste, but c'mon, it's an A rank blade and I've 11 maps left, not to mention he'll barely do anything next chapter.

myZ64hj0_o.png

Then Izerna called upon Veria's divine intervention to cause this idiot's bow to break for the crime of attacking a holy woman. If she were L'Arachel, she would've instead beaten him senseless, but alas...

zu9nIeuW_o.png

AAIIEE

 

I was so scared by this that I didn't even take a screenshot. You can plainly see she survived, but for three long seconds it was not a guarantee.

K1HchL9W_o.pngETQdqeNn_o.png

Oh, right! Esteban got a level earlier and can at last use the shieldknife. Let's give it a whirl!

zrafGqlu_o.png

First, though, let's have Sherlock take out Gilgamesh.

1JrsIrzu_o.png

Naturally, he failed, but at least he didn't miss both. He would've been dead, had that happened. Eh, it would've been okay, it's turn 10.

drxGLGgr_o.png

...Oh, that's right, Nielsen's AI is super weird and he didn't go after Esteban. Meh.

FTdXZigj_o.png

Well, that does give me time to get rid of Gilgamesh, at least. Sherlock--

1GMUQOx1_o.png

Esteban finishes him off.

tMyU62h1_o.pngJCOVUosJ_o.png

As for Nielsen, Aegina's got it covered.

ceYScum7_o.png

GWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAH! AHAHAAAHAHAHAAA!

Yesssss more magic! She's probably hit her bracket cap for now, but still. This is incredibly good.

TSdLkSjl_o.pngOxW4fCLO_o.png

Anyway, Sherpa frees the captives. Another waste of Brymranger, perhaps, but we're in a bit of a hurry.

9xGVmtnM_o.png

Up north, we have begun our charge towards the escape point. Esteban tried sneaking around, but this cavalier's luck foiled his attempt. He is now at the mercy of that axeman. Woe is him!

imTZYCJz_o.png

HA joke's on y-- oh, he dodged. I mean, that's for the best, but I still would've liked to see some shieldknife goodness.

ZfXZegLL_o.png

Oh, well, he did put that 33% crit to some use, at least. His knife crit animation is pretty sweet, but I managed to catch the funniest frame, as I tend to do.

reuSoyBa_o.png

Ohohohohahahah... Ohhh look at that damage! Aegina may not always pop off, but when she does, it's one helluva treat.

XLPzoYhS_o.png

...finnicky multi-hit weaponry notwithstanding...

Time for some shopping. I took no screenshots of this, but at the materials shop, Axel sold the treasure and got lapis lazuli. Amber is worthless because it can only be used on a crossbow or the unobtainable fortify, and the bag is too expensive. At the item shop, he bought a liquid vitality. At the weapon shop, he bought nothing. Fuck weapons.

uyHBabAm_o.png

Next, Esteban and his trusty knife take on the boss.

mnWHLAGw_o.pngWc3K8Yye_o.png

He dodged, but he did get to show off the knife's capabilities against this random horseman, at least. 5 damage from an arrow, on a 3 defense unit. Not too shabby!

sZc3qpVC_o.png

Over to the west, the first of Vester's knights fall. You may, however, notice a problem... They're all still kicking, and they're over halfway through to their freedom. As I had feared, getting these guys killed is more difficult than one'd imagine. The fog works against the enemy here... and by extension, in the context of this very specific run, me!

z1zawn3m_o.png

Anyway, we trade some blows with Qadi - with a pre-emptive provocation from Elbert to ensure he's too angry to attack any of the units within his reach - until he hilariously gets crippled. I know he has Weakness, for some reason, but it's still funny. The levin sword's not that great, but given I'm not even sure if I can get the infernal blade with the materials available to me, I'll take it. Plus, cash!

GHtNziDD_o.png

Sherlock grabs him for a level. His levels aren't that important, just know that he's at level 9. Aegina and Esteban reached 11 and 10 by the end of the map, respectively. I don't remember if we start seeing assassins in main maps before 12-1 (not counting Garos, of course), but I sure could use some.

jZKwUYJL_o.pnge8g0CAnR_o.png

...Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. Everyone is hidden from view except for Vester. And, naturally, he got hit by everything, forcing me to physic him, lest he get dangerously close to expiration.

5OtsnWki_o.png

Also, three of Vester's NPCs are alive. That's a problem.

GMAWcyUv_o.pngGX0ho7EF_o.png

Fortunately, Vester moves last, so it was an easy matter to get rid of him while keeping his allies around.

Ul4kbDYB_o.png

Look, it's Martin.

HuYxuKsd_o.png

Martin is perhaps one of the most fascinating enemies in this game. So here we have this lancer miniboss that appears two turns from the end of an escape map. He's pretty awkward to kill for this reason. And if you manage, what do you get? A wind shield. Not just any wind shields, either - the wind shield. There's only this one.

The wind shield gives extra protection against wind damage, and is otherwise a fairly unremarkable shield. The wind protection is completely and utterly worthless, given you can count the amount of enemies in the entire game that deal wind damage with your fingers. And half of them are wyverns, you don't want your ground units to get attacked by those to begin with!

But, you know what? He's there, so why not?

FKCeZ7QF_o.png

More experience for Aegina.

rH8fysis_o.png

All right, all that's left now is to escape without allowing all three of the greenies to do the same. Serenes says first tactics point is gotten when 3 or more of Vester's knights escape, so we just have to prevent one of these from making it. Unfortunately, we cannot do this without sacrificing anyone to the Imperial dungeons. The best thing I can do is wait with someone, so that the green team gets its first turn and waits with one of theirs. Then I can freely escape with everyone else.

All that is left to decide is, who is the volunteer?

REOdt6X9_o.png

...Oh. Whoops. Welp, guess we know who it's gonna be!

37MHqALY_o.png

Yeah, there we go, awesome.

WzIbyQDl_o.png

Honestly man, Lebrus kicked your teeth in. Not to mention the time you got hit by a 4%... Just sayin'...

novYN3hS_o.png

Another map beaten! A nice grand for Qadi. That'll help to alleviate Sherpa's ransom fee.

NFOhHLqZ_o.png

...Oof... Ooough, ouch...! Jesus Christ, ohhh I don't like that. I don't like that at all...

uqnWDFhf_o.png

Enid gets the fanciest grave we've seen so far. Probably a coincidence, but that's appropriate. She was the duke's daughter, after all. Really sorry, Roswick!

 

 

 

i2PNhHzU_o.png

Before we leave for today, I have one more thing: You see, in the one run where I performed the Leticia event, I kept a save at chapter 9 in my designated "cool moments" save slot. The whole chapter 3 fiasco was extremely disappointing, but I'll still show off the Leticia event. Just 'cause I can.

Q8QdPtOQ_o.png

Well, someone's rude.

6KWYIubv_o.pngF-Forgive me...

xHqpmJzv_o.pngMiss, are you looking for the mercenary named Volo?

6KWYIubv_o.pngY-Yes! I am!

xHqpmJzv_o.pngVolo's probably at the guild right now. Go down the wide street toward the southwest gate, and you'll find it. It'll be on your left, a big stone building with a sign that says "Guild."

These directions are accurate. I just thought that was a neat little detail.

6KWYIubv_o.pngThank you so very much!

pZ5G47C5_o.png

6KWYIubv_o.pngThe new lord of Turon ordered his soldiers to evict us, but the children have nowhere else to go... I beg of you... Please, help us...!

h1cXCF5n_o.png...How are the children doing?

6KWYIubv_o.pngThey are all right for now... But when the deadline comes, they will force us out of the abbey. Mother Agnes said she would manage somehow, and that there was no need to inform you, but...

h1cXCF5n_o.pngNo. I'll take care of it.

6KWYIubv_o.pngI am sorry for the bother... ANd I know that a pittance like this is hardly worth your time... But there is no one else we can turn to at a time like this. Thank you so much...!

h1cXCF5n_o.pngKeep your money... The orphanage is my home. I won't let it be taken away.

JV149ALI_o.png

Then, within the map itself, Volo can investigate the church.

bDmccQBl_o.png

7ajneHbU_o.pngTime's up, Sister Agnes. The new boss said you're supposed to be out of here by yesterday. If you won't get outta here, then I'm gonna have to make you!

1uJBQmlC_o.pngEven if the lord orders it, you must know what you're doing is wrong! How will these children survive if the orphanage is closed?!

7ajneHbU_o.pngDon't ask us, lady. Oi, get moving, you brat!

3Z3eeCDh_o.pngDbAgsfKc_o.png

So the soldier hits a child for no reason. Class act.

TK4BrtqC_o.png

...And then this happens. Some would call it the funniest typo Aethin ever made. I call it an unexpected bout of progressiveness from Kaga. Can I call that LP canon? Does this count as an LP?

7ajneHbU_o.pngIf you don't want this brat to have a very painful experience, you'll wanna reconsider getting outta my sight.

1uJBQmlC_o.pngYou cannot do this! The previous lord gave us his blessing to run this orphanage decades ago!

7ajneHbU_o.pngI don't give a flying flip about what the old lord said, you hear me?! How many times do I gotta tell you? Get it through your thick head...!

KeDEfrU6_o.png

And the edgelord makes his grand entrance. You, Bornian knights...

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How much weight... can you handle?

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Clearly not much lol

Still, take note of the fact that Volo didn't murder the guy. Already that is different from the approach 90% of edgelords would've taken. Some non-edelords, too. Looking at you, Hector...

9P4Eb4BV_o.png

h1cXCF5n_o.pngMother Agnes, are you all right?

1uJBQmlC_o.pngYes, I'm fine, but how did you...?

h1cXCF5n_o.pngI heard about your dilemma. I came to help.

1uJBQmlC_o.pngThat Leticia... I told her not to go, but she just wouldn't listen to me... I'm sorry you've gotten involved in this ugly mess of affairs...

h1cXCF5n_o.png......

1uJBQmlC_o.pngYou haven't changed at all, Volo... Always thinking of us, but always keeping to yourself... When you were young, we could tell you were a bright child, though you did not speak up very often... The other children never really got to know you, so you were always alone... but I knew you were fine with that.

h1cXCF5n_o.png......

1uJBQmlC_o.png...Because I knew you still cared. Whenever any of them were hurting, you were the first to go to their side. And even now, you're still giving back to us at the orphanage... Even after all this time...

h1cXCF5n_o.png......

0xtvqIuW_o.png

h1cXCF5n_o.pngIt is I who is grateful to you, Mother Agnes.

1uJBQmlC_o.png...Ever since I found you wandering that alleyway as a small boy, I knew meeting you was my destiny. I knew the Goddess had sent you to me for a purpose. The sight of your trembling hand reaching out to mine is one that I will never forget...

1uJBQmlC_o.pngEven so, I don't want you to feel weighed down by us here. You have your own life now, and your own home to think of...

h1cXCF5n_o.pngThis is my home, Mother Agnes. Nothing will ever change that.

1uJBQmlC_o.pngVolo...

h1cXCF5n_o.pngI will stay here for a while longer, until the new lord learns his place.

1uJBQmlC_o.pngNo, I don't want to force you...

iNiXFnKd_o.png

1uJBQmlC_o.pngNot only I, but the children too... We all thank you for your kindness.

h1cXCF5n_o.png......

And that's that. After this, there's a little scene when Volo returns in chapter 9, and his ending is slightly different, with Reese and Ward acting more warmly towards him and him meeting with Leticia right before the event ends.

This event is super obscure and requires avoiding one of the most obvious events in the game, Faye's. And honestly? I think that's by design. Volo in many ways is a deconstruction of the old edgelord archetype Kaga loved so much. His aesthetic is... Well, it is what it is; he doesn't like speaking, and if you do the Faye arc like a normal person, he never reveals anything about himself and never seems to be anything more than a generic edgelord. He does a perfect job of maintaining the generic edgy façade.

Then you do this and it explains everything. He doesn't speak because he's a socially awkward orphan, but deep inside, he's a sweet, kindhearted man. He works as an expensive mercenary so he can send his earnings back to the orphanage. His signature skills are geared toward making as much money for his home as possible - despoiling his foes for a bit of extra cash, savagely fighting to the death if that's what it takes. All for the sake of the ones who raised him, when nobody else would.

And, personally, I just find it to be very cute. It's highly uncommon to see an orphan character who was happy in the orphanage, considers it his home and looks back on it so fondly. Usually in the story of this kind of character, the orphanage is either terrible or irrelevant, and the focus is on their future lives or the search for their parents. Then there's Volo, who comes running back when he hears the orphanage is in peril and proceeds to immediately rescind his contract to Sinon and desert, putting his reputation in jeopardy, so he can personally keep them safe for a whole two chapters.

In many ways, Volo as a character is a wonderful change of pace... provided you go out of your way to look for his character arc, of course.

23 hours ago, Benice said:

PURSUIT

I mean, I don't know how I could get him to level 20 with 22 less maps to play, but hey! He's here, and that's what matters.

23 hours ago, Benice said:

I know that Besteban won't disappoint!

So far he's not! It's easy to underrate him, with titans like Sylvis, Faramir or promoted Sherlock running around, but Esteban's massive base bow skill lets him do some stuff even without Aim.

21 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

And officially I'm writing long enough replies that I don't want to risk the wrath of the mods like in the Berwick LP.

Fair enough! Let's do this...

21 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

D'Oh I missed:

  Hide contents

So wait, you find Lumiere elsewhere and she walk away? And you get given a reward that harms the place and you don't receive? I'm confused.

Nah. You know how the atelier members gather the money for Lumiere's ransom, then ask Adel to deliver it? Adel then goes against the plan and takes the hideout by storm. Here this doesn't happen, so the ransom is paid and Lumiere is returned.

Meanwhile, Dean dies now? What's the latest you think he could be sacrificed?

Honestly, I think I should've sacrificed him in chapter 3. Stupid Chaos chose that moment to exercise mercy...

And sheesh, can't even go to the shops without fulfilling requests. Can't catch a break.

The moment I start to settle and relax, the game throws a curveball and something silly that I had always taken for granted is stolen from me.

Also, wait, the town's called Lebron. Is there any chance James is the most common surname?

Hah!

Ruben: Needs Perceval to not kill someone and avoid using Dire Thunder

RNG: Unmisses your Perceval

Thanks.

This is something I can believe me doing with plenty of games in the series. Repeatedly.

The urge for perfection. Mankind's bane.

Yes.

Fair enough. He certainly does deserve them. He's the almighty Endgame Ready Beard!

Oh jeez, this event.

Now I'm paining.

Hey, at least I don't have to do it in this run! Small victories?

The missing affecting enemies now?

Missival is not a way of life. It is a curse.

That sounds ominous.

Heh, well...

This playthrough in two images:

  Reveal hidden contents

Portrait_pain_fe10.pngPortrait_agony_fe10.png

Not enough suffering.

I forgot he has dagger access, so that's alright.

Imagine if he could ride a wolf into battle

He would be cool, wouldn't he?

Who knows, maybe he'd defect and Kaga would have done enemy generics first?

Oh if only... If only.

I see his name was Marcel Marsodead

Naw. Fuck sake.

You said it.

 

 

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19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

uqnWDFhf_o.png

Enid gets the fanciest grave we've seen so far. Probably a coincidence, but that's appropriate. She was the duke's daughter, after all. Really sorry, Roswick!

Granddaughter, not daughter. Unless you meant Duke Warrenheit.
But that's okay. Roswick still has his son and his extremely sick daughter. Who probably won't take Enid's death well, I'd imagine. Especially so close after her husband's death.

As for the grave, I could imagine Enid, Aegina and Saphira all have unique graves, given their importance to the setting.

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Turon away into the night:

Spoiler
2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Nah. You know how the atelier members gather the money for Lumiere's ransom, then ask Adel to deliver it? Adel then goes against the plan and takes the hideout by storm. Here this doesn't happen, so the ransom is paid and Lumiere is returned.

  That's on me.

Adel is happiest when storming enemy forts then?

2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Honestly, I think I should've sacrificed him in chapter 3. Stupid Chaos chose that moment to exercise mercy...

Or he just was too pathetic.

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hey, at least I don't have to do it in this run! Small victories?

I guess?

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

MeWsDTpB_o.pngR3ihoo8C_o.png

Fun fact: Even though Almuth is not available in this run, he still makes an appearance in Enid's events. I harbored some minor hopes that he'd appear at the library after that, but nope, no such luck. Oh well.

What a shame, he didn't feel like he could safely blend into Narvia.

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

R3VJVr16_o.png

Oh hey, that's a cool horse. I've never had one of these before. Probably because 18k for one point of attack is complete garbage. Heck, the Liga courser is a mere 10k for a point of movement! Typical Kaga and his faulty balance, I guess.

.....Wait, if that +1 Atk stacks with Lances..... That sounds like a lot of fun if it did that.

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

qLHytsJV_o.png

HOLY SHIT he got his ass handed to him. Not something I'm used to seeing from Sherpa.

Lebruh.

Sherpa is being used as a weapon sherpaner.

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

CoT86pBj_o.png

He's so hurt that the enemies are targeting him rather than Elbert now. He almost died to this. Hot damn, what a sad display. Maybe I don't need you after all...

They're thirsty for blood, the Berserk guy looks like the right call in the moment?

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

E9bSqIwE_o.png

Yummy! So sorry, Roswick.

And so Roswick learns not to trust Reese.

The civil war after this one is going to be a trouncing of whichever side Sinon's on.

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

JHpMLkiR_o.png

In less grim news, Lebrus falls to Esteban's bow.

Got Estebanned from living.

9 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

diRDqoIX_o.png

WHAT

That was the 4% from before! Sherpa, what are you even doing!?

The RNG, she taketh.

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

myZ64hj0_o.png

Then Izerna called upon Veria's divine intervention to cause this idiot's bow to break for the crime of attacking a holy woman. If she were L'Arachel, she would've instead beaten him senseless, but alas...

Izerna's so much of a pacifist weapons break in shame?

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

ZfXZegLL_o.png

Oh, well, he did put that 33% crit to some use, at least. His knife crit animation is pretty sweet, but I managed to catch the funniest frame, as I tend to do.

He certainly has a career in the high jump if he makes it out of the war.

14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

NFOhHLqZ_o.png

...Oof... Ooough, ouch...! Jesus Christ, ohhh I don't like that. I don't like that at all...

Unfortunate expense.

Hi Rosalie

16 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

h1cXCF5n_o.pngNo. I'll take care of it.

6KWYIubv_o.pngI am sorry for the bother... ANd I know that a pittance like this is hardly worth your time... But there is no one else we can turn to at a time like this. Thank you so much...!

h1cXCF5n_o.pngKeep your money... The orphanage is my home. I won't let it be taken away.

So Volo's the kind of edgy boi who has something he'll always protect.

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

TK4BrtqC_o.png

...And then this happens. Some would call it the funniest typo Aethin ever made. I call it an unexpected bout of progressiveness from Kaga. Can I call that LP canon? Does this count as an LP?

Remy is a boy's name from what I understand, though apparently it can be used as a girl's name rarely.

Trans Remy the Berwick equivalent of Richard being not an utter dick?

18 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

sqw93htb_o.png

Clearly not much lol

Still, take note of the fact that Volo didn't murder the guy. Already that is different from the approach 90% of edgelords would've taken. Some non-edelords, too. Looking at you, Hector...

And in how many of those cases does the other guy attack first?

Note Hector is not one of those cases.

20 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

h1cXCF5n_o.png......

1uJBQmlC_o.pngYou haven't changed at all, Volo... Always thinking of us, but always keeping to yourself... When you were young, we could tell you were a bright child, though you did not speak up very often... The other children never really got to know you, so you were always alone... but I knew you were fine with that.

h1cXCF5n_o.png......

1uJBQmlC_o.png...Because I knew you still cared. Whenever any of them were hurting, you were the first to go to their side. And even now, you're still giving back to us at the orphanage... Even after all this time...

h1cXCF5n_o.png......

There's the Edgelord being all edgelordy.

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And, personally, I just find it to be very cute. It's highly uncommon to see an orphan character who was happy in the orphanage, considers it his home and looks back on it so fondly. Usually in the story of this kind of character, the orphanage is either terrible or irrelevant, and the focus is on their future lives or the search for their parents. Then there's Volo, who comes running back when he hears the orphanage is in peril and proceeds to immediately rescind his contract to Sinon and desert, putting his reputation in jeopardy, so he can personally keep them safe for a whole two chapters.

In many ways, Volo as a character is a wonderful change of pace... provided you go out of your way to look for his character arc, of course.

I do realise it's rare enough . the closest example in FE I can think of would technically be Faval and Patty (They send the money as they're the people they know and the world they're in necessitates them getting that for them through theft and hiring themselves for Imperial factions, would be nice to see this built upon in a Genealogy remake (it would help contrast with other orphans in that game). I said closest, not that it's as substantial as Volo), but even Thracia undermines that by having Eyvel meet them afterwards.

It's not a bad thing to see a place like this be shown to have some positive impact, but I somewhat get why media tends to portray them as such.

There's a larger chunk of orphans (in the text, never mind those who might be that never mention it) than we think about, but none do things like Volo.

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This is probably going to slow down going forward. Octopath Traveler 2 is coming out and I'm interested. Of course, that wasn't the case for this update, but... well, I was very tired yesterday. Soooo uh yeah. Oof.

We need to talk about Serenes's Berwick wiki

YXjdqaw1_o.png

Something really funny happened today. So I played the first 10 turns, right. I got Burroughs killed, then I got a generic ballista killed, as "3 or more ballisticians survive" is listed as a requirement for a tactics point. I realized that the mission summary said it is game over to lose two or more ballistae, but I thought it might've been a typo. Why not just say "one" at that point?

npEjmKhA_o.png8eegdP9L_o.png

Except, it wasn't a typo. Two dead ballisticians means defeat. Everywhere else, Serenes lists unavoidable tactics points as "for clear." But this one is stated to require the survival of three ballisticians... even though that is unavoidable and the point is effectively obtained by clearing the map.

Where am I going with this? Well, this ominous mistake prompted me to throw all the progress I'd made out of the window. 10 turns down the drain, because if Serenes was wrong there...

bNpRsNjx_o.png

Well, there's a chance that it also lied about Burroughs requiring all the ballisticians to survive the map in order to join. Did my gamble pay off? We shall see...

AaYYSqpc_o.pngKvZ4z6IO_o.png

In any case, today is a really interesting day in the world of minimum ranks, because I'm actually going to commence some sidequests. See, I can use the child as a distraction for the southern reinforcements, and I want to know if I can get Simas's gear by getting him killed. Annoyingly, however, this chapter's shop gets you a citizen request when you visit it, much like chapter 6's. So I can't shop here either. A shame.

x4k51r46_o.png

While at it, I had Axel encounter Vasquez in his house. Or... it's probably not his house.

WqBtUnML_o.png7QBaP1RH_o.png

Regardless, Axel breaks his axe on the man's head for Valery moneys.

i01lS8Q0_o.png

He also stole his sword. Bronze sword? That's cute...

v4ylSYnQ_o.png

Uhh, this didn't happen the first time around! Nice, more free moneys.

GVHoWtyY_o.png

Oho! Another one! Incredible work, Ward!

Vr3YFxq8_o.png

I don't know why, but Esteban has been seriously popping off with the levels. Guy knows this is the only time he will ever live in a world without Sylvis, and he intends to make the most of it.

NCTFPEUm_o.pngOOeIo7Rf_o.pngc1yFBJ7f_o.png

There's our ballista down. As Reese says, we cannot allow another one to go down. Learned that the hard way. My fault for trusting Serenes over the game itself haha.

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Also, Simas makes his grand entrance. Or I guess exit, from his church. This would make a fun reaction pic.

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No-- Oh, what? I didn't expect this. The first time, Simas went straight down through the cliff, sealing his own fate to the Imperial forces surrounding him. This, on the other hand, is a bit of a problem. He might outrun the enemies...

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That's better, see? Now kindly lay donw, take another one of those, and let us crack on.

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Nice job, Missival! Not only do you miss, you also miss your Arrowbane chance and eat a hit! Good one! I love you.

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Ouch, ouch! Jesus Christ, what's with this one archer?

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There we go, goodness! For a moment I was afraid I'd lose someone to this rando...

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...Dang. Seriously trying to show off in this Sylvisless world, these two.

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Sherpa speaks to his good friend Kay, and they take a leisurely stroll across the knoll. Nobody is hurt.

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As I had feared, Simas escaping into the safety of our backlines has ensured only a single spearman has kept on following him. A spearman that is extremely bad at his job, I might add. He's tried twice now, and Simas continues breathing.

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OH FUCKING GOD He could be more like this one! Izerna!

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...Oh, for goodness's... This is ridiculous! I'm going to have to block the escape point so Simas doesn't make it out!

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Oh, no time for that now, though. Esteban has obtained another point of strength. Swolleban?

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Yep, I'm gonna have to block the escape point. Well, at least Adel will get to make himself useful in his last moments.

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Oh, no, you don't! I am latching to my chance to have this man in my team, thank you very much!

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Boom! Out the window with you.

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Oh, turns out I didn't have to block the escape point. Man pulled it off at the last second. Attaboy!

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Now die. No items for me, sadly. Would've liked that physic.

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...Oh, dear. The kid got spawncamped. Didn't even serve as a decent distraction. Meh...

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Leon dies to the lance knight. This is also something I undid later. I'd already beaten the map and everything, but I realized I miscounted. I didn't have to kill Leon to get the dawn charm. Thus, I decided to take the time to replay ten turns and keep him alive. Again.

The reason? Nothing as important as Burroughs. I've just always been curious to see what happens if Leon visits the wrong grave in chapter 10. Serenes says that fails the citizen request, but considering how that one ends, it really shouldn't make much of a difference whether he goes to the right place or not. I never did take the time to check. Might as well do so now. He can die then.

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That was a nice batch of words. Have a screenshot of Esteban dealing great damage with a knife.

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As for the reason Leon didn't have to die... It was Marcel that messed up the maths. First it was Dean, then it was Enid, then the Christmas cavs, and then I'd have the charm. Marcel's death wasn't planned, so I forgot to update my calculations. Oh well. Live and learn, live and learn.

Unlike Adel, who will be unable to live and learn. Go ahead and buy us some time, my boy.

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...Noooooooooo... No, that's not what I needed... I don't need that!

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FUCK

Well, back we go. I am not letting this happen again. I want that charm and I want it now.

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It was around this point that I realized this random-ass cavalier that hangs out on the southwestern corner has a plain horse. Must be why he simply paces back and forth without charging forward, until you place someone in his range. The cliffs are a poor place to stand when expecting a hit, but I had to make do.

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Perceval goes on a missing-- Ah, sorry, a killing spree. Without missing! Can you believe it?

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Ahh, here's the one guy. I will be taking that, thank you. Extra power for Aegina!

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Liga courser. Is there a more epic horse in the world?

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I don't believe so.

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On his end, Adel has been doing a spectacular job of holding the line on his own.

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Alas, it was not to last.

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That's okay, though. We only need to hold them for a turn and then we can just dash off. Ward guards Reese, more for the courser's sake than his own.

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And that's it, the two generic ballisticians and Burroughs are out! Now all that remains is to get out ourselves and see if my suspicions are correct.

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Ooooookay, let's form up in front of him so he can get to the escape point in one turn.

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...Ahhhh, I hate you so much, Missival...

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That better, you needy dick? That enough for you to get out?

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To wrap up, Sherlock tries, unsuccessfully, to score a final kill, and then leaves, his head hanging in shame. We have won!

...Except, it's not quite over. That all happened in the attempt where I killed Leon. The actual, real, LP canon, this-time-totally-for-realsies run went...

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Surprisingly enough? Better, even. I did more or less the same things, but without Leon's distraction and with Adel dying a lot sooner, I was forced to deal with the enemies as they came. Ended up with a cleaner map at the end. Also, no funny moments with Perceval. Neither the crippling, nor the killing spree, though he still got a couple kills here and there, I'm pretty sure. I did get this lucky capture right at the end, though. A crossbow to sell and more ransom money? Don't mind if I do!

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With the generic ballistician's death, the end cutscene changes slightly to reflect it. Also, there's this bit of poor formatting that I'm pretty sure isn't present in the regular version.

This is not important, however. What is important is...

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Burroughs is found in the middle of the road!

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Serenes DID lie! Burroughs totally joins even if a ballistician dies in chapter 8! Oh, happy, happy day. This is actually so fucking huge. Burroughs is super nice to have in a few specific places, and a super fun unit to use in general. I'm not even sure if he has to die. Serenes only says "view his ending event", but I can't do the sidequest where Klamp and Bianca's character arc (where Burroughs plays second fiddle) begins.

But even if I did have to kill him, who cares! I have him, I have him! Ahaha, Minimum Ranks finally does me a kindness!

...Uh... The wiki should probably be fixed, though. You know, just in case some madman tries this challenge as well and misses Burroughs needlessly.

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Just a couple things to wrap up. First off: If you start Armory Situation, much like with Lumiere, Cecily disappears from the armory. In her case, she's replaced by Teresa.

2WZfeBZ7_o.pngMr. Savat asked me to fill in for Cecily while she's away. If you're in need of any shields, please don't hesitate to ask! ...Oh, where is Cecily? I'm afraid I don't really know. I hope she comes back soon. I'm worried about her...

Keep in mind, she's still in charge of selling arrows at Bluck's store. I like to picture her running back and forth along the back streets as Reese makes his way from one store to the other.

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So, if we decline the mission, this happens.

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n2diT7qA_o.pngNo, Lady Tianna, it wasn't your burden to bear. And as you can see, Cecily is safely back home again. She actually managed to escape, and she was picked up by a passing peddler and brought here. It won't bring the money back, but I'd give up any amount of money to have my little girl back.

oxM8CeEi_o.pngFather...

Short and not really sweet, but I'm just glad Kaga had the restraint not to make her get sold off into slavery.

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To wrap up the update, let's have an epitaph.

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And a death item!

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17 hit. Less funny than the dusk charm, but objectively speaking it's probably superior. I'll throw it on Missival for the time being... and honestly, probably forever. It's the best way to get him to stop being infuriating.

On 2/21/2023 at 11:58 PM, BrightBow said:

Granddaughter, not daughter. Unless you meant Duke Warrenheit.

Oof! Yeah, my mistake.

On 2/21/2023 at 11:58 PM, BrightBow said:

But that's okay. Roswick still has his son and his extremely sick daughter. Who probably won't take Enid's death well, I'd imagine. Especially so close after her husband's death.

...Sheesh...

On 2/21/2023 at 11:58 PM, BrightBow said:

As for the grave, I could imagine Enid, Aegina and Saphira all have unique graves, given their importance to the setting.

You think so? it does seem like it could be a thing. Might have to check Aegina if I ever get a decent end-of-map save.

On 2/22/2023 at 12:26 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Turon away into the night:

  Hide contents

  That's on me.

Adel is happiest when storming enemy forts then?

Adel has issues. Such as being bad. And dead, at the present time. But it's okay, I love him anyway.

 

What a shame, he didn't feel like he could safely blend into Narvia.

I wonder if the ending will be affected.

.....Wait, if that +1 Atk stacks with Lances..... That sounds like a lot of fun if it did that.

Well... With a Liga courser, you can get an extra +5 damage on the Greatlance instead.

And so Roswick learns not to trust Reese.

The civil war after this one is going to be a trouncing of whichever side Sinon's on.

I love how I can't tell if you say this because the entire world is going to despise Sinon by the end of this, or because Sinon is so adamant on self-sabotage.

Bernstol should never have allowed his sociopathic son to heed the call to arms for him.

Remy is a boy's name from what I understand, though apparently it can be used as a girl's name rarely.

...Hoho! Imagine if this was intended by Kaga all along. Mind: Blown.

I actually went and checked the original text, from the script files that Aethin has available for download at the Berwick thread. Yeah, that's a thing, if you didn't know. I love that he did this, it's always so fun to dive into the files and see all the little bits of unused content.

Anyway, on topic. I ran the original Japanese text through Google Translate and the main difference is that Google says "what are you doing? To a small child...", no mention of gender. Aethin told me before that he translated the files directly with no in-game context, and there's no indication of Remy's gender anywhere in the text. Given he had to use a pronoun in his polished sentence, he likely just guessed.

Trans Remy the Berwick equivalent of Richard being not an utter dick?

And like the first time, you'll hear no complaints from me lololol

And in how many of those cases does the other guy attack first?

Note Hector is not one of those cases.

Hector is just a dick. A lovable dick, some would say. But undeniably, a dick.

There's the Edgelord being all edgelordy.

He's trying really really hard not to let his inner sweet boy show.

I do realise it's rare enough . the closest example in FE I can think of would technically be Faval and Patty (They send the money as they're the people they know and the world they're in necessitates them getting that for them through theft and hiring themselves for Imperial factions, would be nice to see this built upon in a Genealogy remake (it would help contrast with other orphans in that game). I said closest, not that it's as substantial as Volo), but even Thracia undermines that by having Eyvel meet them afterwards.

It's not a bad thing to see a place like this be shown to have some positive impact, but I somewhat get why media tends to portray them as such.

There's a larger chunk of orphans (in the text, never mind those who might be that never mention it) than we think about, but none do things like Volo.

That's fair, yes. Still, cool to see a character so different as Volo.

 

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5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Adel has issues. Such as being bad. And dead, at the present time. But it's okay, I love him anyway.

RIP Adel, accidentally spoiling me that this was his time.

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I wonder if the ending will be affected.

Spoilers:

Spoiler

When the historian is sus

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I love how I can't tell if you say this because the entire world is going to despise Sinon by the end of this, or because Sinon is so adamant on self-sabotage.

Bernstol should never have allowed his sociopathic son to heed the call to arms for him.

More the former, but the self-sabotage won't help.

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And like the first time, you'll hear no complaints from me lololol

Aethin 👏 did  👏 nothing  👏 wrong

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

We need to talk about Serenes's Berwick wiki

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Something really funny happened today. So I played the first 10 turns, right. I got Burroughs killed, then I got a generic ballista killed, as "3 or more ballisticians survive" is listed as a requirement for a tactics point. I realized that the mission summary said it is game over to lose two or more ballistae, but I thought it might've been a typo. Why not just say "one" at that point?

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Except, it wasn't a typo. Two dead ballisticians means defeat. Everywhere else, Serenes lists unavoidable tactics points as "for clear." But this one is stated to require the survival of three ballisticians... even though that is unavoidable and the point is effectively obtained by clearing the map.

Where am I going with this? Well, this ominous mistake prompted me to throw all the progress I'd made out of the window. 10 turns down the drain, because if Serenes was wrong there...

Well that's an error. Not necessarily surprising that few are going testing this stuff? But would be good to have that be correct.

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Regardless, Axel breaks his axe on the man's head for Valery moneys.

Breaking an axe in a man's skull, certainly forceful way to get the job done?

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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I don't know why, but Esteban has been seriously popping off with the levels. Guy knows this is the only time he will ever live in a world without Sylvis, and he intends to make the most of it.

He's popping off offensively apparently, which is good considering he has Pursuit.

So least you have him for however long that's allowed in your plans?

11 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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...Dang. Seriously trying to show off in this Sylvisless world, these two.

With no crossbows, the bow boys have to show up somehow.

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Oh, no time for that now, though. Esteban has obtained another point of strength. Swolleban?

Estebuff

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Leon dies to the lance knight. This is also something I undid later. I'd already beaten the map and everything, but I realized I miscounted. I didn't have to kill Leon to get the dawn charm. Thus, I decided to take the time to replay ten turns and keep him alive. Again.

The reason? Nothing as important as Burroughs. I've just always been curious to see what happens if Leon visits the wrong grave in chapter 10. Serenes says that fails the citizen request, but considering how that one ends, it really shouldn't make much of a difference whether he goes to the right place or not. I never did take the time to check. Might as well do so now. He can die then.

And apparently he won't?

That'll be something to see I suppose.

14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Serenes DID lie! Burroughs totally joins even if a ballistician dies in chapter 8! Oh, happy, happy day. This is actually so fucking huge. Burroughs is super nice to have in a few specific places, and a super fun unit to use in general. I'm not even sure if he has to die. Serenes only says "view his ending event", but I can't do the sidequest where Klamp and Bianca's character arc (where Burroughs plays second fiddle) begins.

But even if I did have to kill him, who cares! I have him, I have him! Ahaha, Minimum Ranks finally does me a kindness!

...Uh... The wiki should probably be fixed, though. You know, just in case some madman tries this challenge as well and misses Burroughs needlessly.

So, you get to keep the ballastician?

Good to go for the rest of the game at that?

Great success!

15 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Keep in mind, she's still in charge of selling arrows at Bluck's store. I like to picture her running back and forth along the back streets as Reese makes his way from one store to the other.

Teresa is certainly a reliable employee to run both places.

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4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The reason? Nothing as important as Burroughs. I've just always been curious to see what happens if Leon visits the wrong grave in chapter 10. Serenes says that fails the citizen request, but considering how that one ends, it really shouldn't make much of a difference whether he goes to the right place or not. I never did take the time to check. Might as well do so now. He can die then.

Don't worry about that. You are literally missing nothing.
Picking the wrong grave just means no event will play after the map.
 

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Oh, for goodness's... This is ridiculous! I'm going to have to block the escape point so Simas doesn't make it out!

Might have been easier to just let the imperials seize the church and have him die that way.

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We commit less war crimes than Raze today, somehow

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First order of business: I've been hanging onto both of my liquid vitalities forever now. I know where one of them will go, but I had no idea what to do with the other one. So I decided to give it to Esteban for more shieldknife shenanigans. My other pick was Reese, but Reese has a Liga courser, so I really, really don't want him taking 30+ points of damage to begin with.

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Today's map is one of the hardest maps in the game, but minimum ranks makes it a lot more manageable. Between our lack of Locktouch, our inability to complete citizen requests and tactics points requiring the survival of engineers, we have absolutely no reason to venture inside the fort. Since Reese doesn't want to speak to Brighton's spy either, we also have no reason to go east. Basically, the entire map's going to take place in the southern and western ends, and the rest can safely be avoided. How nice.

Burroughs, as you know, joined us last time. I am still so happy about this fact. I don't usually bring him to this map, but I mean, who else will I field? Leon?

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To start, I employ Sherpa and his dusk-induced super avoid to lure in the first lancer squad.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh... Look at that hitrate. Few things in this game are as satisfying as dawn charm Perceval!

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That's Burroughs's first kill.

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On turn 2, Luveil arrives and drops off Sophie. She will be important for us to take our permanent Esteban.

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On this end, Reese and a select group of cohorts have undertaken the difficult task of chasing down the courier. I always forget that he causes reinforcements to spawn. For some reason, every time my mind jumps to "he makes the lance squad move" and I make haste to kill him.

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Rinse and repeat. Why fix what ain't broke?

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...Well, it's broke now. No matter, though. Sherpa's alive and the guy is right where we want him.

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MISSIVAL

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

MY DAWN CHARM

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Saved!

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Burroughs finishes it for his first level. I am fairly certain all of these starts are completely worthless for him. Then again, even by lolstats Saga's standards, Burroughs just has very little use for numbers. The only number you really want him to raise is the one labelled LV to 7.

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As the next step of my plan, Perceval inflicts Missing Curse upon two consecutive lancers that would've killed him at a 50~% chance. That's a solid plan - we all know of Missival's talents.

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While Perceval develops PTSD, Ward succeeds in the mission to intercept the courier. He has Vengeful, but that won't be a problem for the Endgame Ready Beard. With Sherlock's help, they bring it home. No messages for you!

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We generally dispose of lance knights. Didn't screenshot it but I'm fairly certain Sherpa Brymranger'd the second lancer on the western isle.

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We have lost a dear friend in this battle, however - Reese's Perseid. We don't get enough repairstones for me to care, so that's the end of that.

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Unable to provide any more assistance on the western front, Burroughs moves to assist the courier's pursuers.

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And with that, we have finished the first set of five turns. That was pretty painless! Now, this is the house where Doros resides. That being said, I do not trust Serenes anymore. Old Wounds doesn't even appear listed as a citizen request in Serenes's list. Instead, it's an imaginary request to have Esteban speak to Sophie, something that is stated not to be necessary elsewhere. This imaginary request is said to not count towards the fame rank, and as I've said before, the math adds up, but... well, I don't trust it.

So I'm not doing it. Axel is very cheap and he'd have to die, anyway.

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First order of business on turn 5, Pallas Riana the guy keeping watch over the bridge controls. The hitrate is unreliable, but that's what the save is for.

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At the end of turn 4, I had pre-emptively placed Larentia in position to run over and lower the-- Ohh, goddammit, I hadn't thought of that... Well, no matter. She'll live.

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There we go.

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To tell you the truth, I had only sent Axel north to deal with the bridge. Since Larentia did it instead, he can go south and head towards the searchable houses.

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Since Aegina got the divine brace, Izerna inherited her blessed brace. Her heals are slowly becoming much sturdier... though the sooner she promotes, the better.

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...This is where I remembered that killing the courier doesn't stop these assholes from moving out. How many times have I played this game already? Seven? Sheesh... It's like my memory blocks out these goofs every time.

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Sherlock stops Simon dead in his tracks with an overwatch.

Notice that the archer corps have begun marching as well. Yeah. Looking fun, huh. No problem, though. We have this under control. We just have to kill them all before they can reach Burroughs. First, let us have Reese whip out the Garm on these idiots.

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...You have got to be kidding me.

OF ALL WEAPONS TO BREAK ON GREEN

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That's a situation and a half.

Yeaaaaaah you know what?

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No. Do-over.

GSGgoKqX_o.pngCE5j7FnI_o.png

New plan: Remove the juicier targets and try to lure them west instead. The first few times I tried this, I had Esteban advance as well, but I later found out by accident that this is all I had to do for them to go the other way.

Yeah, there were a few attempts at this. It's the main reason it's taken this long for this part to come out. Is anyone really surprised?

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Anyway, success and all that. Now to figure out how to handle this mess. There were a few fruitless plans. Waiting for them at the edge of their range and taking them out, bringing the fight to them, positioning someone behnid Larentia so the mob couldn't advance... All ended in ruinous failure.

So in the end, I made the pragmatic decision.

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Ruuuuun! I mean, tactical retreat!

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Ahh, much better. Now we can pick them off one-by-one as they come.

As this was all happening, the courier-chasing squad dealt with the archer corps and then doubled back to merge with the other division. At this point, I scored a lucky little capture on this archer, which Burroughs took to reach level 6.

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Let us begin to wipe out the primary threats.

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...oho! Well gee, don't mind if I do. That's not Ozama, by the way, Ozama died in the previous screenshot.

Notice that Axel has turned around to help with the island action. This won't be the last time I change my mind on what his place should be.

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Dude! What in the world is going on?! I mean, I love it, but... What?!

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The only ones left now are the rabble and Gardy. He fell behind.

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He was captured too! In his case it was a random injury rather than a random crippling, it wasn't quite as insane as his pals, but... Hot damn, regardless! Did these guys have Weakness all this time and I just never knew? We're only missing the leader for our collection!

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I really cannot overstate how long that took. Had to take a night's break before the prior sequence of events could happen. With that done, however, this should be smooth sailing.

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Especially with moves like these!

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Don't worry Axel, this is the last time I make you double back. Resist the dizziness. Anyway, he and Sherpa go to help out Burroughs. The two enemy ballisticians are coming, and I expect Burroughs will need a bit of help. It's not like he can escape them lol

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First, though, we breach through the outer layer of the fort. This prompts Sophie to exit and face us. I don't remember if she moves.

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...Holy shit she very much moves, oh my God thank goodness I had a save right there. Better move her out of the way first and foremost.

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HAH

Loser~

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Estie confronts her, and she surrenders. I always forget he can't speak to her, she just gives up when he attacks her.

ZdhFkcKW_o.pngiVRPC6LK_o.png0sQ9Jbba_o.png7TmEjOht_o.png

It doesn't even have to be Esteban. He makes it a lot easier, since he only has to attack her, but if you kill her, a generic pops up out of nowhere to tell Reese she's been captured. How oddly convenient. This is the kind of scenario I would've expected to enforce the appropriate character convo, but I suppose they felt the whole Esteban chain was difficult enough as it is.

Whatever. In our actual run, she was dealt with by Esteban, after she nearly murdered herself with Pascanion.

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Down south, Burroughs engages in a duel of ballistae.

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He won. Sherpa had to eat some ballista bolts, but it was no big deal. He'll be fine.

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Up north, Larentia obtains this bag. It contains a material. I'm trying to get my hands on as many materials as I can get, but... honestly, I don't know how fruitful it truly is. I've been unable to craft anything so far. I should visit Paliztsch's material shop soon and see if I can muster anything at all.

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Oh, no time to worry about that now! It is a momentous occasion - Esteban has reached his level threshold to promote! Attaboy! I can't believe I promoted one of my combat units before Izerna...

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We break through the inner gate. If this guard is still alive (which isn't usually the case, I expect), he delivers these quaint little lines when Grauve orders that the prisoners be escorted out safely. It's up to him and his friend now. They will handle the engineers for us. Grauve won't attack them - thankfully, he'd one-shot the Head Engineer and turn this whole thing into a gamble!

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While she's there, Larentia commits treason and murders Colonel Brighton's spy. I'm sure it'll be all right. Who would suspect the woman who is supposed to be incarcerated?

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...Oooooookay, so Grauve won't attack the engies, but he might still prove to be a problem.

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I lured him away with Ward while the very angry ponytail man dispatched the first engineer.

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No! Stop that! I don't need that!

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The highly upset person takes out Davis and a third engineer before losing his weapon. You are of no further use to us, I'm afraid...

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Thus, we break a bow of our own on him, and then kill him.

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Oh wow, luck? Rarely do you see anyone not named Izerna get luck. Then again, Sherlock does cap bow level at 30 before promotion. Only two more levels and he can join Esteban's club of managing to promote in the harsh world of minimum ranks.

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...Oh, no.

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Luckily I can do this, but this had better not happen again. He can't take thunder bolts forever.

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I'm guarding him more for the archer's sake than Perceval's lol

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Please, Grauve, come back to the entrance. I'm begging you.

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Oh.

That's hilarious.

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For some undiscernible reason, waiting near the entrance caused Grauve to move closer to it. I mean, sure, fair enough. That works for me.

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That doesn't.

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Oh, thank goodness... See, the wonderful thing about this guy and his supremely upset friend is that they are easily angered. A swing from an engineer's inaccurate, weak pickaxe is enough to make them target the reckless assailant. This means the Head Engineer's safe for the time being!

Still, just to be safe...

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There's something you don't see every day. The Head Engineer's sprite! It's just the ballistician/supply carrier sprite, just without a structure at his side.

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Okay, no, what in the world is up with today's random cripplings. I have tried to capture nobody. How could I? I have zero tools to inflict injury more reliably. And yet, I just get handed random crippling after random crippling. My wallet will surely appreciate it! My utmost gratitude goes to you, RNGoddess! What are you plotting?

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Aegina utilizes this capture to reach her promotion level threshold as well. Unfortunately, she's still got a way to go before she can actually do it. Still, the pace she's going is insane. I guess that's what happens when you don't have enough units to rotate your team, haha.

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Blistering barnacles! Thank goodness I healed him!

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With Ward's help, he makes it out safely. As for the remaining engineer...

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The angry man's friend ran out of arrows just before he could finish him, but this kindly spearman picked up the slack. That's right, you don't actually need any engies to survive the map. All that is needed is for Reese to speak to a living Head Engineer.

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While this was all happening, a couple of horsemen and this Razite priest crossed the bridge to try and shank Larentia. She dutifully lured them into Burroughs's range. It was close, but on the very last kill...

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He has Aim!

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All that remains now is to reward this man for his efforts in dispatching the tactics points for us. The spearman can live, and I'm not coming within 100 meters of Grauve, thank you very much.

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The Head Engineer then pulls 14 engineers out of his ass, and the bridge is no more.

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The end cutscene changes very slightly to reflect our utter failure. 20? I counted 14, Reese. For shame, Kaga, what happened to gameplay-story integration?

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We then get Lynette's final letter.

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A letter that I cannot read. Lynette's happiness point requires that Reese have the Tulsa circlet in his possession. I probably could get rid of it, but... frankly? I think it better fits the spirit of this run to have Reese ignore his sister's last gift.

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Look at this shit. It's fucking hilarious. All in all, the ransom came up to just a little over 5000 denarii. Not too shabby, not too shabby at all!

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Yes, thank you, Tianna. I'll get to it soon. Let's swing by the atelier!

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No, thank you.

Jdghbxpd o

This is what happens if you refuse to give any spears. Can you tell I've just copy-pasted this from my old LP?

Ilrbpdns oHe was stoppin' by to see if we wanted to buy any of the Imperial supplies they'd found for cheap.

Ps4nmuuw oThat sounds like a fortunate happenstance indeed!

Ilrbpdns oRight? It was completely out of the blue. So now...

Ps4nmuuw o...Yes?

Ilrbpdns oWell, I don't know how to put this without comin' right out and sayin' it... Those spears Orlando and I asked you to get...

Ps4nmuuw o...You do not need them anymore?

Ilrbpdns oY-Yeah... I'm sorry, Lady Tianna...

Ps4nmuuw oDon't worry, that is no problem. It is simply one less thing that Lord Reese will have to worry about.

Ilrbpdns oWell, I still feel kinda bad... But thanks anyway, Lady Tianna.

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And now, to pick up Esteban...

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...And to immediately prove him wrong by promoting Esteban! First in the squad, and in these harrowing circumstances, too! Impressive! @Benice I am so proud of your boy.

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He gets worthless swords and a few stats. Honestly, he really doesn't get that much from promoting. Knight Sword Esteban could be a funny meme, but his hitrates are going to be abysmal...

But the important thing is that we have him, and we have him promoted. How many other people can say that? At the moment, nobody! Not even the game's very protagonist. Though that should change soon enough...

On 2/23/2023 at 11:28 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

When the historian is sus

Heh...

On 2/23/2023 at 11:28 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Well that's an error. Not necessarily surprising that few are going testing this stuff? But would be good to have that be correct.

Ultimately, there aren't many madmen out there who'd subject themselves to this nonsense, it would seem.

On 2/23/2023 at 11:28 PM, Punished Dayni said:

He's popping off offensively apparently, which is good considering he has Pursuit.

So least you have him for however long that's allowed in your plans?

Esteban's actually good to go now. Either Serenes was right and his recruitment request didn't count towards the fame total, in which case he's safe, or Serenes lied again and it did count, in which case the challenge was failed 6 chapters ago. Either way, Esteban is here now and he will continue to be for the rest of the game, because his arc can only be completed in a sidequest!

On 2/23/2023 at 11:28 PM, Punished Dayni said:

So, you get to keep the ballastician?

Eyup.

On 2/23/2023 at 11:28 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Good to go for the rest of the game at that?

Unless he still gets his ending even if 10-1 isn't played, and I seriously doubt it.

...Man, this just made me realize how deceptively pivotal 10-1 is. It's vital to not just one, but two characters' arcs!

On 2/23/2023 at 11:28 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Great success!

Oh, you bet.

On 2/23/2023 at 11:28 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Teresa is certainly a reliable employee to run both places.

I guess this is how she managed to escape from those pirates in chapter 3-main. The game pretends it's because Rodin was there, but clearly she's just the fastest little runner in Narvia.

On 2/24/2023 at 3:34 AM, BrightBow said:

Don't worry about that. You are literally missing nothing.
Picking the wrong grave just means no event will play after the map.

Oh.

...Might just not deploy him in chapter 10, then. We'll see.

On 2/24/2023 at 3:34 AM, BrightBow said:

Might have been easier to just let the imperials seize the church and have him die that way.

I wanted to see if I could get his items by getting him killed on the map. No, but it was worth a shot.

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44 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Burroughs finishes it for his first level. I am fairly certain all of these starts are completely worthless for him. Then again, even by lolstats Saga's standards, Burroughs just has very little use for numbers. The only number you really want him to raise is the one labelled LV to 7.

Crossbow?

44 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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We have lost a dear friend in this battle, however - Reese's Perseid. We don't get enough repairstones for me to care, so that's the end of that.

What's the full list of weapons that don't disappear after breaking?

I have no idea with this game.

46 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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At the end of turn 4, I had pre-emptively placed Larentia in position to run over and lower the-- Ohh, goddammit, I hadn't thought of that... Well, no matter. She'll live.

https://media.tenor.com/9AxpRD2d5d0AAAAd/blinking-eyes-man.gif

Wait, I swore she was dead.

49 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Notice that the archer corps have begun marching as well. Yeah. Looking fun, huh. No problem, though. We have this under control. We just have to kill them all before they can reach Burroughs. First, let us have Reese whip out the Garm on these idiots.

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...You have got to be kidding me.

OF ALL WEAPONS TO BREAK ON GREEN

What fun, right?

51 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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HAH

Loser~

So she tried, only to be blown back by her own bow.

Did the string just rip her arm to shreds? This is why you wear a bracer, Leonie knows this

53 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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The highly upset person takes out Davis and a third engineer before losing his weapon. You are of no further use to us, I'm afraid...

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Thus, we break a bow of our own on him, and then kill him.

What did the prisoners do to deserve his wrath?

54 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Okay, no, what in the world is up with today's random cripplings. I have tried to capture nobody. How could I? I have zero tools to inflict injury more reliably. And yet, I just get handed random crippling after random crippling. My wallet will surely appreciate it! My utmost gratitude goes to you, RNGoddess! What are you plotting?

On the one hand, Garm break on Green.

On the other hand, about half a dozen gift-wrapped captures for some reason.

57 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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He gets worthless swords and a few stats. Honestly, he really doesn't get that much from promoting. Knight Sword Esteban could be a funny meme, but his hitrates are going to be abysmal...

Looks pretty good here. Get his sword rank to max.

Dew it.

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Entirely Ordinary Chapter

Today is one of the funniest maps in the game.

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You know which one I'm talking about, right? Alvina and her "entirely ordinary men"? Boy do I look forward to that.

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But first... Investiture time, baby! Reese promotes!

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We get a shiny new Reese, and Larentia. I checked, by the way. Nothing interesting happens if she's gone. The scene just ends right after Reese's promotion. Volcyboy doesn't offer a request, the dickwad. How cool would it have been if you could get like, an awesome item if Larentia was dead? Oh well...

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I give Erzheimer a sleep orb. Then I go buy some groceries.

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Including this sweet thing here! Rossweisse, the best bow in the game. Of all forges that the challenge would allow me to obtain, I am so, so happy it was this one.

...No, really. This is the only forge I've been able to do so far. Most everything else is missing one material, or is completely uninteresting. I am primarily worried about the fact that we can't get a pacify orb... Perhaps I may have to get Owen just so I can take his. We'll see.

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In any case, now it's time for some fun. Let us face the entirely ordinary brigade, with an entirely ordinary team of our own. Yeah, I brought out the big guns for this one. Big Guns Clifford. And it's probably not going to be enough, this chapter being what it is. For tactics, Alvina's entirely ordinary men must kill off Vester's friends. The real problem is that he might get himself killed before they do. He's no less ordinary than his pals (you could call him entirely ordinary) and Almachus should like to feed on his soul.

You may notice the benched Leon. I kept him alive in chapter 8 so I could check what happens if he visits the wrong grave, but well... @BrightBow told us it's nothing. The event just stops there. The last thing I need is Leon's dead weight to carry around this map, of all maps, so I'll just not do the event at all.

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To start, we face Danfar, Murin, Yalong, Lester and two lancers. Because everyone knows entirely ordinary men have names and lances. I perform some sick moves to take Danfar, Murin and Yalong out. Disregard the fact that Yalong has Arrowbane and I lucked out massively here. It is not relevant.

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We are then besieged by the lancers. Reese comes close to taking one out, but fails.

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First thing on turn 2, Burroughs dispatches this healer before he can do anything. What a sad story.

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I then commit a mistake.

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Perceval, naturally, forgets he has Arrowbane and decides to eat a positively delectable ballista bolt for breakfast. Danfar, Murin and Yalong then come back to life. Haha, this map. Entirely ordinary!

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I make a small tweak to the initial formation so I can get more damage on Murin. Can you see it?

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We retrace our steps, with some modifications here and there, and faster than light, we have returned to the point we left off. Only this time, Perceval is in the safety of not the ballista's reach.

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Reese procced Adept twice and wasted a ton of Gram uses to kill this lancer. Eh, it's okay. If it helps us survive...

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The ballistician moves too soon for me to move Ward out of the way. He loses his shield, his horse and almost all of his health, but not his life, which is what matters.

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...Ward, can you stop losing things?

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Okay, we have officially conquered the entrance to town. This area is ours now. The Fantastic Four are no more. So Yalong! Sorry, couldn't resist a little Yalong pun before we moved on.

That guy cannot cross the gate, and since a non-broken gate is a tile you can only cross, not stop at, he cannot attack. Funky Berwick shenanigans!

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After a pre-emptive provocation from Clifford, to ensure the lancer stays put, we let ourselves inside and see what awaits us.

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Naturally, a group of entirely ordinary men hiding in houses. The Fantastic Four was but the beginning.

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And, fuck. That's the ballista way to the west.

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Yeaaaaaaah please go back. Luckily, most enemies hiding in houses in this map won't attack unless they can do so from the safety of a house.

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...Well, not that guy. He gave me a scare, but then I remembered he cannot attack Larentia. He, too, had forgotten that key detail, being forced to face Ward instead. And all that, only to put himself within reach of Burroughs. Moron!

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To wrap up turn 4, let's bring down this archer. He has sleep arrows. I don't want those in my plate.

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This chapter is bad enough as it is, RNGoddess. It doesn't need your special touch.

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Thank goodness I can rely on the Endgame Ready Beard.

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C'mon, c'mon! Fucking stop!

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Well, there's that idiot Vester, at any rate. At least this time, I'll get the satisfaction of watching him watch all of his friends die miserably from his own hubris.

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Oh, wait, never mind, I'm instead watching MY own die from my hubris. And ballistae. That turn 5 save is absolutely horrible, but I do not want to face the Fantastic Four again. We will make do.

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It doesn't help that this asshole crossbowman sometimes moves after my units, and sometimes doesn't. It boggles the mind. What is this man's AI?

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Look, look! See!? He didn't go after anyone that time! What gives!? He's pretty much guaranteed to kill someone if he does go after them, too. He just... sometimes decides to forfeit and sit tight, waiting to die. I mean, not complaining, I'd probably have to restart from the beginning if this wasn't the case, but... Sheesh.

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At any rate, with this guy blundering, we can make some progress. Bring it home, Sherlock!

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DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH fucken hate you Perceval. You always find a way to annoy me, always!

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Incidentally, Izerna has reached her promotion level threshold. She has reached it a few times, but it keeps getting reset.

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Vengeance!

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I hate that ballista. I fucking hate it with a passion. It covers the entire town and I was too fast to let it get distracted by Vester's troops. Yeah, there is such a thing as too fast, don't tell the LTC pros. So I'm going to have Clifford zerg rush it and eliminate it at once. The town is littered with crossbowmen, precisely to stop me from doing this, but I am sure Clifford can take it. Go!

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RAIJIN ARROWS NOOOOOOO--

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Consarnit, at least we survived the ballista's wrath...

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Okay, okay, new plan. Overwatch!

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NO

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At least he picked the wrong target. That guy had Deathmatch, by the way. Yeah. Entirely ordinary men!

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He then got whacked by a second guy... Sigh, ohh this map.

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Clean up time. We have to make progress, and fast.

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Now that Clifford is inside the raijin crossbowman's range, he cannot be overwatched by him. Let's see what other threats we can pry on our way to the ballista.
...This had better work out, because this turn the ballista can pick like three different characters for a guaranteed kill...

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Hah! Well that was pathetic.

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You're shitting me. I can't go back now, after the rounds of overwatching, futile as they were.

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Oh thank fucking GOD! Who cares if you're a bad dad, you and your killer spear've saved the day!

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I swear all Larentia's been doing in this map is run away. There's good reason here, though. I don't want her to get attacked by--

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THAT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH okay we're good.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaand then I tried to charge forward with Reese and forgot about the Raijin guy. Because of course I did.

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I can't even blame the entirely ordinary men for this one. That was a catastrophic blunder and it's on me, through and through.

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Welp. Back to it. I am not moving on without Garm.

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Oh look, I found a route that should let Clifford sneak to the ballista without eating a full course meal of raijin arrows.

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Not to worry, though, the game will make this route just as difficult as the other one. His chance to not use his shield is like, microscopic, but leave it to the RNGoddess to find the perfect opportunity for a little trolling! And then he got attacked by a fighter and--

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...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

Okay that was great. I loved that. That was so pathetic I couldn't even be mad. This game sometimes, man...

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This time, everything went according to plan.

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He did eat an arrow from this other archer guy, but that's okay.

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Not so tough now, are you? Try one-shotting that, you nitwit. Try one-shotting that beard.

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Clifford then rushes the ballista and kills it. One less problem to deal with... More to go.

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Anyway, Reese takes some damage, then I leave Ward open to a pulverizing and I lose. Again.

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On another attempt, Clifford eats a breaker axe and this, predictably, renders him unable to weather the storm between himself and the ballista. This update is a bit more dense than the rest in this log, I know, but I feel it's necessary to fully get across just how entirely ordinary all of these people are. They are so ordinary that each time I lose to a whole different brand of ordinariness.

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This time, Clifford gets stopped again by his inability to shield himself. I tried to salvage it by distracting the archer with Reese so I could remove another obstacle in his way.

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Clifford missed, and then Reese died.

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All right, finally! Finally everything went smoothly! Again. He was even able to escape Ishmat's range. Let's hope this bodes well for the immediate future...

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We begin the massacre. C'mon, this has to be the one. I can't keep failing at this.

...That's three out of four Rianas missed. I have no idea how you plan to retake your homeland like this, Aegina.

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Hah! Well, you know what, works for me.

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Heyyyyy, i just had a hilarious idea. I wonder... what if...

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Awwwwww what a disappointment! They won't move into the house and get ambushed by Esteban. It's like they sense his presence somehow. Jerks... Fine by me. They'll just die in other ways.

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Anyway, while that's all happening, I attempt to make future life easier for me by dispatching the ballista. Burroughs charges up his battle cry for a few turns, then moves inside the ballista's range so he can take it down first thing next turn. I know I need Vester's knights dead, but this thing would simply be far too unruly. Almachus should do a fine job of taking down the greenies by himself.

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Also, Clifford begins to work on Ishmat. Unsuccessfully, for now.

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I send Aegina ahead to take out a crossbowman. My haste to kill things proves to be a massive mistake, because now both her and Burroughs are in danger.

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Burroughs dies exactly to the ballistician. The killer crossbow only has a chance to kill Aegina. I have no choice. Awesome. I love me.

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Burroughs picking up droppable items has always been so funny to me. This has to take the cake for the dumbest instance of it I've ever seen, though. Look at that shit! He's extended his arm over a large cliff, a wall, then down towards the fort. Somehow his arm did not trigger the archer's overwatch. I guess he was too confused to shoot.

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Oh? Fingers crossed? Fingers crossed? Just one more enemy's gotta move and we're in the clear?

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Fingers broken. FUCK come noooooooooooooow, I don't deserve this...

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Thanks. I was truly not deserving of it.

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Everyone dies. Clifford obtains a level, impressively enough.

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I mean... It's Clifford. Ward 2. Endgame Ready Stache. This is probably what will happen when Ward gets those five points of experience, too.

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Gate goes down. Won't be long till these guys start making their way towards their doom, now.

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Larentia moves forward to reveaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH NO NO NOT NOW WE HAVE LITERALLY WON Nooever mind, she does not die. She does not die. Hoo, man, my heart's not gonna survive this map...

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...Wait... We won.

WE WON!

YESSSSS AHAHAHA WE WON! Seven times through this game and still I feel the same way every time. What a map this is...

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Hey, here's a funny thing I never knew. The tile with the gate is a plains tile. This means it takes Burroughs a whole turn to traverse it. If only there was a way to increase this guy's movement.

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Incidentally, it was at around this point that I realized there's a house here is searchable. No sidequest or anything, it's just loot. A treasure, if I recall. But... ahhh fuck who the fuck cares, imagine doing this but while escorting Axel around. Fuck that, fuck your loot and fuck you, Vester.

Anyway, Aegina gets a wind point.

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Now that we've got a save, we're pretty much in the clear. Just have to kick back, watch the greenies get murdered by the dork cordinol and make our way over.

Like so.

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GAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHH there was one more entirely ordinary guy in town.

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Fucking. Die.

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...Uuhhh level 15! That's another promotion in the sack. Baller.

If you notice there are some discrepancies in the unit placements here and there going forward, it's because at this point I tried to do something funny with Sherlock, ran him straight into an overwatch and killed him. Big brains, this skull contains.

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All's well that ends well, however, as Aegina scores another point of magic in the new timeline. Sherlock got strength too, which is a nice bonus. Now I had better not get ahead of myself and lose these, or I'll lock myself in another vicious cycle of resetting... See, this is the funny thing I wanted to do.

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I know that Almachus escapes if you break his miracle charm, but I've never seen it happen. Let's change that now, shall we? I put Reese and Clifford in front of the upper gate to buy us some time before the greenies could break through. And to give Almachus a bit more time to massacre them, of course. It will irremediably go down next turn, but that's okay, it's plenty of time.

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Hah! He ran off and stole Pratton's vulnerary!

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Quick stop at the shops. Larentia grabs both materials and a physic orb from the other place. I don't think there's more of interest here.

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Where are you going, Almy? The party's just started!

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Kapow! I mean, about as much "kapow" as I can inflict upon him in this map.

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Well, that was rather underwhelming, considering he has one of the top Berwick lines if he's still around when the gate is opened.

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In fact, if he's gone by then, it's not just his "third-rate drama" line that doesn't play. The entire convo between Barnhardt and Alvina just stops after he guards her. Which is just... so weird. Well, far be it from me to judge.

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Anyway, we repay the sleep arrow archer for all his help in killing Vester's units by sending him to them.

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...Oops. Well, that's a bit of a problem. I kinda want the last greenie to die...

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Ahh, good. Pratton will buy us some time.

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Pratton delays Vester for a couple turns, but eventually Aegina takes him out so we don't lose his valuable guardian experience. This brings her wind skill to 23 again. So close, yet so far... Can she get 7 points in five maps?

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Then the overwatch archer stops Vester. He'll definitely make it to Alvina next turn, though, unless we block him.

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For... some undiscernible reason, the remaining greenie decides to take his frustrations out on the southern gate. I... you know what? You do you. I don't need ALL of you dead to lose all of my tactics points.

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Might as well use what time we've left to murder good guy Barnhardt. There's absolutely no reason to do this, but this is the bad guy run. We must. It is the spirit of the run.

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...Oh!

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Oh darn it.

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This is where greed sent me on a panicking frenzy and I got Clifford's horse killed for no reason.

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And I really do mean, no reason, because again, in my greedy rush, I didn't even check Perceval's movement range. He couldn't reach Barnhardt to lightning him, and a mere thundering failed to cripple him. So that's a nice failure, and Alvina hit Clifford twice. I don't know if weapon uses here count for her playable form, but I really hope they don't. That's two fauchard strikes I'll never get back.

That's been the map, at any rate. And, you know what? If I can't have his knight sword...

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...Neither can anybody else.

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Go fuck yourself, Vester.

On 2/27/2023 at 12:31 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Crossbow?

Yeah, there isn't a proper ballista weapon type.

On 2/27/2023 at 12:31 AM, Punished Dayni said:

What's the full list of weapons that don't disappear after breaking?

Pretty sure it's every pfp weapon. Euthyphro is one-of-a-kind, named and has a fancy effect, but it's not locked to anyone, so it just disappears upon breaking.

On 2/27/2023 at 12:31 AM, Punished Dayni said:

https://media.tenor.com/9AxpRD2d5d0AAAAd/blinking-eyes-man.gif

Wait, I swore she was dead.

Remember when I made a big fuss about how horrible the last 5 turns of chapter 4 were?

...Yeah, I went back and did them again off-screen. Took me like 40 minutes, luck was not on my side and I was sleepy so I couldn't play right. But I managed, and it was worth it to have Watchful in this map.

On 2/27/2023 at 12:31 AM, Punished Dayni said:

So she tried, only to be blown back by her own bow.

Did the string just rip her arm to shreds? This is why you wear a bracer, Leonie knows this

You know, that's a good point. The game keeps talking about how Pascanion is a faulty prototype that often harms its wielder, but like... How? Does the arrow get stuck on the string and swings back at the shooter? Is the string just really sticky like that?

On 2/27/2023 at 12:31 AM, Punished Dayni said:

What did the prisoners do to deserve his wrath?

Davis is slightly mean to him because he's a reckless idiot. Instantly afterward, he decides to murder Davis and everyone else in the cell, disobeying direct orders from his superior and generally acting like a well-adjusted human being.

On 2/27/2023 at 12:31 AM, Punished Dayni said:

On the one hand, Garm break on Green.

On the other hand, about half a dozen gift-wrapped captures for some reason.

And Gram came back to life upon a reload, so all's well that ends well!

On 2/27/2023 at 12:31 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Looks pretty good here. Get his sword rank to max.

Dew it.

...Sheesh. I don't even know what his max sword rank is...

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1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

We get a shiny new Reese, and Larentia. I checked, by the way. Nothing interesting happens if she's gone. The scene just ends right after Reese's promotion. Volcyboy doesn't offer a request, the dickwad. How cool would it have been if you could get like, an awesome item if Larentia was dead? Oh well...

That'd mean Volcens gave Reese something, which feels out of character.

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Perceval, naturally, forgets he has Arrowbane and decides to eat a positively delectable ballista bolt for breakfast. Danfar, Murin and Yalong then come back to life. Haha, this map. Entirely ordinary!

This is a mundane map.

16 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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...Ward, can you stop losing things?

He already lost his daughter, I feel like it's hard for him not to.

18 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Incidentally, Izerna has reached her promotion level threshold. She has reached it a few times, but it keeps getting reset.

Did she get luckier every time?

20 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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I can't even blame the entirely ordinary men for this one. That was a catastrophic blunder and it's on me, through and through.

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Welp. Back to it. I am not moving on without Garm.

Is that 2 times Garm's broken like this?

20 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

Okay that was great. I loved that. That was so pathetic I couldn't even be mad. This game sometimes, man...

Clifford taking a blast like this.

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

On another attempt, Clifford eats a breaker axe and this, predictably, renders him unable to weather the storm between himself and the ballista. This update is a bit more dense than the rest in this log, I know, but I feel it's necessary to fully get across just how entirely ordinary all of these people are. They are so ordinary that each time I lose to a whole different brand of ordinariness.

These are truly unexceptional foes.

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Burroughs dies exactly to the ballistician. The killer crossbow only has a chance to kill Aegina. I have no choice. Awesome. I love me.

These are foes with standard capabilities.

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Burroughs picking up droppable items has always been so funny to me. This has to take the cake for the dumbest instance of it I've ever seen, though. Look at that shit! He's extended his arm over a large cliff, a wall, then down towards the fort. Somehow his arm did not trigger the archer's overwatch. I guess he was too confused to shoot.

That or the wind shear from the ballista bolt knocked the pelt out of the guy's pocket and into the air, where wind currents then went downhill so it ended up beside Burroughs.

24 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Hey, here's a funny thing I never knew. The tile with the gate is a plains tile. This means it takes Burroughs a whole turn to traverse it. If only there was a way to increase this guy's movement.

Burroughs would fit right in Advance Wars with this tile movement.

25 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

UgvusI4F_o.pngGKT9ZQgr_o.png

All's well that ends well, however, as Aegina scores another point of magic in the new timeline. Sherlock got strength too, which is a nice bonus. Now I had better not get ahead of myself and lose these, or I'll lock myself in another vicious cycle of resetting... See, this is the funny thing I wanted to do.

Some not so standard boosts to stats at least.

27 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Might as well use what time we've left to murder good guy Barnhardt. There's absolutely no reason to do this, but this is the bad guy run. We must. It is the spirit of the run.

Ward's other brother has a lot going for him as well.

How did I not bring this up in the LP?

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Yeah, the AI won't make a move that will result in units with the "House AI" ending up outside a house hex because they tried to move onto a tile that is already occupied, even if they can't see the obstacle. Probably applies to units that only move between forests too.
Don't know if they also account for Overwatch. Never tested it. Sylvis is usually too busy scaling the cliffs and killing the ballista and break down the Southern door since Almachus will run away once any of the doors are broken down.

Granted, the player can do a similar thing to stay out of sight of units whose location they don't know yet.
If a unit has Hide, you can already tell if you are still hidden in the new location because the Hide symbol can be seen even before you commit to the move. If the symbol is not visible, it means there is an enemy around somewhere that reveals them. Even if you can't see them yet.
Knowing this makes the Watchful Crossbow guy in the Eastern side of town feel a lot less cheap.
Of course if you run into Overwatch, canceling the move is no longer an option.

Edited by BrightBow
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Chapter 11-main

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Alvina gets the liquid vitality we've been carting around for a long time. Alvina is usually a pretty mundane lategame paladin that gets the job done, even if she's not particularly spectacular. More or less a trained Ruby with an M shield rank that exists, a personal brave lance and a better skillset, because fuck Ruby I guess. In this run, however, she is awesome purely because we can get her, no strings attached! I think. I hope. You'd think happiness would inevitably screw her, but according to Serenes... Well, actually, okay, here's the thing. Serenes just says this about Alvina's happiness point:

Alvina - Spoke with Vester [WHEN?]

That's hilarious. Of course, the only times she speaks with Vester outside of cutscenes are when she joins, which is completely unavoidable, and in chapter 12-main. I would say it makes most sense for it to be 12-main, since it's the one you have to put effort into making happen. Guess we'll find out! I was already thinking up ways to get Alvina captured in that map before I realized, to talk to Vester, she has to talk to bishop Scarro. So it'll be as simple as getting Scarro killed, and then getting the nerfed Vester with Reese. I think that's how it works? I mean, I can't say I've ever seen anybody speak of what happens if Scarro dies.

This entire run's been such a learning experience. It may have been painful, but it has been fun discovering all these little intricacies of this game.

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Anyway, Sherlock and Izerna promote. I had to give Sherlock a thin horse we had lying around the stables, because he had a Sinon Stallion which impeded him from obtaining his Ishs Courser. Izerna gets rehabilitate, no strings attached. Not sure how much use I'll get out of that orb in this run, but it's never a bad thing to have.

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So, chapter 11-main. The breeze before the storm. No better way to describe this map. Every map from here to the end will be tough and intense, but this one's just, waiting for enemies to come and killing them. We don't even have to get to the other side of the map to fetch Rodin, though I expect I'll be charging forward purely by force of habit. We also must murder Genos's pals, which shouldn't be too difficult. The problem, really, is going to be that I'm 100% going to overextend out of force of habit and boredom, and then find myself struggling to get back to the exit before the time limit imposed by the tactics points: We must be out by turn 22 at the latest.

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I also have another, personal objective: Capture this ballistician. Burroughs's bronze ballista is already on green and it won't get him through the rest of the game, but even with the treasure chest helping, my finances are now seriously suffering from the challenge. Too many opportunities for money are lost, to say nothing of 10's treasure, which was my fault. Buying more bolts and a new ballista is an investment that I'd love to avoid. If I can just nab these and throw them at Burroughs, it should be enough for the rest of the game. It'd be as simple as blizzarding or bolt knifing him, then lightninging him, but I cannot get blizzard because the ancient amulet is entirely unobtainable in this challenge and same goes for the bolt knife, so we'll be relying on simple knives. Woo!

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I immediately fire one of my precious bolts, losing some bronze ballista durability. It's worth it, though. Both he and Percy got points out of this little soldier boy!

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Zephyrus, Arcturus and their legion of wyvern knights make their entrance. They will be completely irrelevant to the run.

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At the end of turn 3, Esteban cut someone with his knife. He dealt exactly enough damage to leave him at 1 HP, and crippled him. Wow. It goes to Perceval so I can get him some experience without using up a thunder. Those orbs run out of fizzle too fast for their cost, I swear...

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Next, Alvina fails to kill a guy, who proceeds to heal this other ballistician who is being harried by Larentia. Good work by all parties involved. Raze truly appreciates your contribution, Alvy.

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Heal this, motherducker.

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Here's a funny little thing I've only just now discovered. If you have Alvina (or Ruby, since they share the same sprite) attack with a spear while dismounted and not equipped with a shield, you find out that she doesn't actually hold the thing with both hands while she runs. Instead, she shows off her outstanding strength by holding her spear upwards with one arm while furiously clenching her other fist at the enemy for extra intimidation. Amazing.

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In unrelated news, Alvina fails to cripple a man. Okay, Alvy. Whatever you say.

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Just as well. I find that death civilizes barbarians best, anyhow.

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HAH! I was too slow to catch it in a screenshot, but this guy tried attacking Aegina and got stopped dead in his tracks by Rodin! Good guy Rodin.

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Anyway, let's move Ward away from him. Sometimes conversations in this game start when a unit ends their turn next to another. I'm pretty sure this doesn't work like that, the game wants you to waste a Ward turn, but still. Just in case!

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...Dammit, Rodin moved before it could happen again...

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All right! This set up is perfect. Did I say knives earlier? I meant Ward's harpoon! A few resets is all it takes. Uh, more than I would've liked, but we got there eventually.

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ah

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Okay.

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That's such a cool frame.

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Perceval cripples the ballistician. Imagine having to drag a big-ass ballista behind you while the bones on your leg are sunbathing. Sheesh...

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Eh, he earned it, I'd say. The capture is his. He cannot miss capturing!

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HOLY SHIT that's an incredible level!

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...You son of a fucking bitch, he's going to die to that, isn't he.

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ISN'T HE

EVEN WHEN HE SUCCEEDS, HE SOMEHOW FINDS A WAY! THIS GUY JUST HAS TO BE THE WORST! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, MISSIVAL!

That was such a good level. I am highly upset.

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To compensate, this time he gets a crit on the one archer and murders him.

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Also, Izerna murdered a man with holy. Ahahahaha... It's easy to forget holy can kill at 1 HP.

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Jesus Christ, Alvina! What a first level!

That's legitimately insane, hot damn. It's like she stole Perceval's good luck...

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...Oh no, not "like." She definitely did. That is most pathetic, Missival.

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Oh, look who it is!

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It's the guy! He gave Aegina a point of wind. Ain't that awesome. 24 out of 30. Now if I can just get her another one when she levels up next...

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Oh dear. That iron ballista came not one moment too soon. Better get it to him ASAP.

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...Sweet Christ. It's about time we ran, I'd say...

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Alvina just has the most lopsided luck. Either she charges at an enemy, misses, sustains a single point of damage and becomes injured from it, or she gets the greatest level in the entire run. No in-between.

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Look at that sweet, sweet iron ballista damage. I should try rigging ballista captures more often, this is really great. Exactly the kind of edge he needs in a world without the Scorpio.

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Oh hai Andersen.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA TRAP

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Kablooie for you! Or, well, this being wind and all, it should rather been swish swoosh swoosh for you!

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Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice. Now let's try not to lose this one too.

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Reese's poor Ishs Courser, though. The thing is on its last legs. If I still had Christine, I'd hand it to her so she could work her magic on it, but alas, in that hypothetical world, I also would not have the dawn charm letting Perceval be mildly less annoying, so... Eh.

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Also I don't know if it's because of the injury or what, but Izerna's passive failed to top off Alvina's health. What's up with that?

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Oh hey, another free capture. What's in store for me this time?

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Eh. I'll take it anyway, it's a bit of extra money.

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I tried to bait this armor knight into attacking a shieldknifed Esteban, but he wouldn't fall for it, and merely waited. Just as well. He'll die either way. Knight experience is too sweet in this game.

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...Oooohh, that's why he didn't attack. Hah! See, that's how casuals newcomers see Berwick hitrates.

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I made a whoopsie. It was of little consequence.

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Oh look, it's the guy 2: Electric Boogaloo! He's down.

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Also free capture. I'll take as many as you'll give me, game!

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Things are starting to get out of hand. Better run fast!

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOO ISHS COURSER! Damn you, wormwood!

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...Burroughs cannot reach the end before turn 23. Either I get him killed, or we irremediably gain a tactics point.

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Yeaaah back to turn 15, I guess. Goodbye, free capture 3. Goodbye extra experience, too. Once Aegina got her wind point from Andersen, I sent everyone running back for the escape point.

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This time, I make sure not to lose the Ishs courser. Jimukha chooses to instead attack Burroughs. Much better.

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Except not, because this part took me a good 20 minutes, because this save is deceptively crap. Like all great saves, it requires luck to start without losing someone immediately. I tried tanking with Ward, but hilariously enough, I ended up finding that having Perceval dodge a single lance was a lot more reliable than Ward surviving the cataclysm befalling him.

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It's really so easy to underestimate how quickly the late lancers can get right on top of you. They can cross the map in four turns flat. It always catches me off guard, always.

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The other problem is that I couldn't give up on my greed. I really wanted this spry horse. I also really wanted experience and kept letting the onslaught of barbarians catch up by leaving foot soldiers behind. Eventually I got it through my thick head that this was unfeasible, however, and settled for the horse alone.

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Ward finally got his five experience! Let's see what his level is like.

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I mean... yeah. It's Ward. Who cares? His Beard is Endgame Ready anyway.

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And then everyone ran. Still well in range of really bad enemies. I tried shielding Aegina with Larentia, just to keep that nasty paladin from reaching her. She died miserably.

I redid this part so many times I even considered leaving Larentia for the crows. But no. Not yet. She's not yet given me the loot.

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Besides, I eventually managed. I forgot to move Larentia, which proved to be a good thing, since the few remaining enemies split up and went for the wrong targets. I mean, Sherlock got one-rounded by that guy's knight sword, but he dodged, so it's all good, perfect strategies right there.

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...And then I realized I'd already won, because I could just withdraw with everyone now and then with Aegina first thing next turn.

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What an underwhelming ending after such a complete mess of a final few turns. Genuinely won unexpectedly. That's a new one.

...Hoo boy, what complete garbage that was, though. It really cannot be conveyed properly like this, but I don't think anyone really needs to see an extra 80 screenshots of Ruben failing miserably due to greed. It's always the easy maps that get me like this, I swear...

On 3/3/2023 at 9:34 PM, Punished Dayni said:

He already lost his daughter, I feel like it's hard for him not to.

...I... hadn't even stopped to think about that...

On 3/3/2023 at 9:34 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Did she get luckier every time?

I believe she may have gained like, HP a couple times?

On 3/3/2023 at 9:34 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Is that 2 times Garm's broken like this?

I believe so, yes.

On 3/3/2023 at 9:34 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Clifford taking a blast like this.

Ahahahahaha

Yep, pretty much.

On 3/3/2023 at 9:34 PM, Punished Dayni said:

These are truly unexceptional foes.

These are foes with standard capabilities.

Vester's brain has standard capabilities.

On 3/3/2023 at 9:34 PM, Punished Dayni said:

That or the wind shear from the ballista bolt knocked the pelt out of the guy's pocket and into the air, where wind currents then went downhill so it ended up beside Burroughs.

10/10 Truly an exceptional marksman, this no-good layabout.

On 3/3/2023 at 9:34 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Ward's other brother has a lot going for him as well.

How did I not bring this up in the LP?

I don't remember if I talked much about him, but I was always fond of him. He's one of those bosses that just gets an odd amount of character for a generic that only appears once. Kaga loves those.

Don't let that distract you, however, from the fact that he was yelling that epic line at Burroughs from across the fort walls and atop the hill.

On 3/3/2023 at 10:54 PM, BrightBow said:

Yeah, the AI won't make a move that will result in units with the "House AI" ending up outside a house hex because they tried to move onto a tile that is already occupied, even if they can't see the obstacle. Probably applies to units that only move between forests too.
Don't know if they also account for Overwatch. Never tested it. Sylvis is usually too busy scaling the cliffs and killing the ballista and break down the Southern door since Almachus will run away once any of the doors are broken down.

Ah well, something to try out another time.

On 3/3/2023 at 10:54 PM, BrightBow said:

Granted, the player can do a similar thing to stay out of sight of units whose location they don't know yet.
If a unit has Hide, you can already tell if you are still hidden in the new location because the Hide symbol can be seen even before you commit to the move. If the symbol is not visible, it means there is an enemy around somewhere that reveals them. Even if you can't see them yet.
Knowing this makes the Watchful Crossbow guy in the Eastern side of town feel a lot less cheap.
Of course if you run into Overwatch, canceling the move is no longer an option.

I had no idea you could check your hide status in the middle of a move, or that there was a watchful guy in this map at all. Seven runs!

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45 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Don't let that distract you, however, from the fact that he was yelling that epic line at Burroughs from across the fort walls and atop the hill.

Truly the most resolute of knights, with a diaphragm that powerful.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You'd think happiness would inevitably screw her, but according to Serenes... Well, actually, okay, here's the thing. Serenes just says this about Alvina's happiness point:

Alvina - Spoke with Vester [WHEN?]

That's hilarious. Of course, the only times she speaks with Vester outside of cutscenes are when she joins, which is completely unavoidable, and in chapter 12-main. I would say it makes most sense for it to be 12-main, since it's the one you have to put effort into making happen. Guess we'll find out! I was already thinking up ways to get Alvina captured in that map before I realized, to talk to Vester, she has to talk to bishop Scarro. So it'll be as simple as getting Scarro killed, and then getting the nerfed Vester with Reese. I think that's how it works? I mean, I can't say I've ever seen anybody speak of what happens if Scarro dies.

This entire run's been such a learning experience. It may have been painful, but it has been fun discovering all these little intricacies of this game.

It's certainly eye-opening as to what happens when you don't pursue events in this game.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway, Sherlock and Izerna promote. I had to give Sherlock a thin horse we had lying around the stables, because he had a Sinon Stallion which impeded him from obtaining his Ishs Courser. Izerna gets rehabilitate, no strings attached. Not sure how much use I'll get out of that orb in this run, but it's never a bad thing to have.

No space for the horse or am I yet again misremembering Cavs in this game?

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Here's a funny little thing I've only just now discovered. If you have Alvina (or Ruby, since they share the same sprite) attack with a spear while dismounted and not equipped with a shield, you find out that she doesn't actually hold the thing with both hands while she runs. Instead, she shows off her outstanding strength by holding her spear upwards with one arm while furiously clenching her other fist at the enemy for extra intimidation. Amazing.

I wonder how heavy the spear is then, clearly she's strong enough to be running with this across however long to stab it in someone on top of her armour and a shield usually. Having the arm like that, you'd have to ask "Does she have a Wind Shield?"

(Though maybe she's doing it because she never practiced with 2-handed spear stances)

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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HOLY SHIT that's an incredible level!

Well that's good for hi-

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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ISN'T HE

EVEN WHEN HE SUCCEEDS, HE SOMEHOW FINDS A WAY! THIS GUY JUST HAS TO BE THE WORST! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, MISSIVAL!

aaaaaand it's gone.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Jesus Christ, Alvina! What a first level!

That's legitimately insane, hot damn. It's like she stole Perceval's good luck...

Perceval: Devastated

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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...Oooohh, that's why he didn't attack. Hah! See, that's how casuals newcomers see Berwick hitrates.

Well to be fair would you want to attack into a 10% or less chance?

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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The other problem is that I couldn't give up on my greed. I really wanted this spry horse. I also really wanted experience and kept letting the onslaught of barbarians catch up by leaving foot soldiers behind. Eventually I got it through my thick head that this was unfeasible, however, and settled for the horse alone.

So what did you lose?

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6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Also I don't know if it's because of the injury or what, but Izerna's passive failed to top off Alvina's health. What's up with that?

Blessing heals between 0 to 3 HP. So it's not guaranteed to actually heal anything.

 

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Chapter 11-2

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Look guys look, swift spear. This weapon is always a wonderful thing to have, and more so in this stupid run, where I am given nothing but misery most of the time. It goes to Ward, who will probably make the best use of it. Alvina already has her personal, unreliable accuracy as it has.

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Ahh, chapter 11-2. What a chapter this is. Fog, ballistae, entirely ordinary enemies, supremely impairing terrain, you name it, they got it. We'll see how it goes this time around. At least it shouldn't be much worse than usual, since there's no rankings or anything to avoid here.

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To begin, Sherpa brymrangers the lighthouse's guardian. We'll be taking over, thanks.

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Nice start.

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Yeah no, let's not die to a ballista on turn 1.

I like how the only change in Izerna's sprite when she promotes is that she removes the hood.

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Oho, nice! First free capture of the day already! Burroughs crippled that guy. To be fair, I'm pretty sure he has Weakness. A random spearman with a bag of antitoxins, Weakness and an AI that makes him walk next to Morrow and wait there for the remainder of the chapter. Don't ask me, I don't get it either.

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...That guy, though, has no Weakness, I'm pretty sure. Hah! What a first turn. Here's hoping this is a sign of things to come.

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Alvina moves to confront Morrow. She's in ballista range now, but that is fine.

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Esteban has taken the lighthouse. This permits us to see... pretty much the entire map. I like how a number of threats are just outside the lighthouse's range, needing Esteban's Scotopic to reveal them. Nice bit of tight design, right there.

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Alvina and Aegina capture the crippled enemies. Aegina gets the worst level imaginable from it. Speed is damn near useless on her, I really would've rather gotten skill.

...Seriously, it'll never cease to amaze me that skill levels are great and speed levels are worthless. Berwick!

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Leaving that aside. There is one thing that changes from the usual 11-2 experience - we have no thieves, so we cannot open the chest. This entire nook of the map is effectively empty space. We'll dash right past for the main island. That's nice, I remember a few nasty enemies prowling about there. Much appreciated not to have to deal with 'em!

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While the army begins their advance towards the river, Burroughs slowly makes his way upward. On his way, he takes a moment to cut this old man's life short.

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I then make a mistake and leave Reese in range of a ballista, being forced to pull back and use a vulnerary. Iffy tactics...

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Ward will lead the charge. He stands the best chance to come out of the double overwatching unscathed.

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Naturally, he is struck critically. There goes that.

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Since the ballistae have already moved, it is safe to have Aegina advance and unleash a tornado on one of these two jerks.

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As for the other one, Ward swiftly spears him.

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While all of this was happening, I had been dancing around Morrow a bit. He was hurt, and this prompted him to move away from his starting spot to heal. Morrow's AI is a bit fickle, in that he will stay put until he is attacked. Then he seems to move if he absolutely has to, but he prefers to stay put and use Sunder if he's at all able.

Anyway, he's the fifth and final bounty I can get. I really would like to capture him, which is the primary reason I stalled until turn 5.

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...Bwahahahahahah! So much for that! Holy shit, Alvina, that did the guy do to you? There was no need to brutalize him like that...

On the other end, Aegina, Reese and Ward begin to cross the river. Don't worry, I checked, they are hidden by the fog. The ballista won't do them any--

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--harm.

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Who the heck revealed... I could've sworn... Ahh, never mind.

On this next attempt, I tried to use lightning on Morrow in hopes of a lucky crippling. Missival missed, so I settled for trying to leave him at 2 HP for another attempt.

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However! Not to disappoint after her hilarious double crit from before, Alvina instead left him at 1 HP due to my faulty math... but crippled him anyway. Without even the help of an injury. Fantastic. I really don't know what he did to her, but clearly she despises this man to the farthest reaches of her heart. Heck, perhaps she's the one that put the bounty on his head lol Could be he helped he infiltrate Navarron as Ellis and now she's tying loose ends?

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Okay, so let's make extra sure... She's safe there. Ward's safe there. What happened?

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Let's check out the right siIIIIUUUUOAAAARRGGH I FORGOT THE OVERWATCH GUY ON THIS SIDE

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Pretty sure he would've died had the guy not missed once.

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Oohh, at least he chose to overwatch again instead of finishing Sherpa off... Phew. I still have need of him. Probably.

Mystery solved, at any rate. There's the asshat that saw Aegina. And now he almost killed Sherpa and lost us the neatly crippled Morrow! What a dick!

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Esteban is out of the lighthouse because I had him try to knife Morrow.

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Fortunately, 36% is not very good, so he dodges quickly and remains unbolted. I will probably want him back in the lighthouse soon, though. He's in range of both ballistae!

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First thing next turn, though, Sherpa must heal up. He steals Ward's concoction to do so.

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The ballistae divert their attention to separate targets, to equal degrees of success.

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And with that, Estie is back in the lighthouse! It's so nice being able to see in this map. I always underestimate how useful that lighthouse really is.

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...Oh, c'mon, man. That's just dickish.

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SO DICKISH, oh my God that guy is a genius. He stopped Burroughs dead in his tracks AND revealed Estie to the ballistae in one fell swoop. They called him Mastermind Morrow.

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Well, he does have Lyle in his range. Might as well begin working on him. I'd like not to have to deal with him, if possible.

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..Yeaaah you'll have to leave the lighthouse again, that's too risky.

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Ever since he brymrangered the one guy, Sherpa's done nothing but get wounded to near death over and over. I mean, to be fair, brymrangering that one guy was a pretty huge contribution...

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Ward triggers an overwatch from the archer next to the ballista.

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Reese does it too because the guy just immediately overwatched again lol

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He ran out of opportunities to overwatch, so Aegina was able to slip through and send him flying.

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NO! Not again! You're never going to promote if you keep this up! There's not much game left, girl...!

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Where in the world is Morrow going?

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Well, no matter. Burroughs has spent a few turns crying. Now it is time to unleash all that melancholy upon the second ballista.

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Like so. It's quite interesting, bringing Burroughs to all of these maps I don't usually deploy him on. I mean, in this run, who else would I deploy? My army is tiny.

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Ward and Reese hop onto the second level and begin wreaking havoc! They destroy the ballista and begin grinding bowmen and crossbowmen to dust. They also scored a nice random injury on this guy. To keep him from killing himself, I bait him into attacking the seemingly vulnerable and helpless Alvina, but it's a trick.

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He is now gone down. You know, I've always wondered what exactly it is Sinon does with captured/undefeated soldiers in this map. They are currently committing high treason, if even one of them survives to tell the tale, everyone hangs. Do we just toss everyone into the ocean, or is the canon explanation that they didn't get a good luck at us due to the darkness and being knocked out soon after?

We do bring Morrow back with us, for the extra Valery moneys, but I suppose nobody would believe a wanted felon's story that Verians captured him while they did battle with Veria in Veria's prison island. Where he was hiding away, for some reason. Dude really is a genius, he knows nobody would look for criminals on the run in prison! How does he live, though? Does he just steal supplies from the prison? At that point, might as well turn yourself in, pal. It'll probably be nicer living in the actual prison than in the woods right next to it. He's just as stranded either way, we're in the middle of the ocean. Does he have a boat or did he stow away? How long's he been there, anyway? So many questions...

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Anyway, Lyle gets dire thundered.

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Then that asshole horseman makes him waste an extra two dire thunders. Ward guards Perceval for the safety of his good orb. If only dire thunder regenerated like the Pallas orbs. Kaga really hated Missival...

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Yet another random injury? I mean, sure, why not. Let's have another capture. How many are they? Ahh, too bad we can't ransom these back to Volcyboy. Just imagine, Reese waltzes into the throne room with a bunch of captured Verians and demands money. Pffft...

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Burroughs has ran out of noteworthy things to do, since the ballista fell, but this was still a great move.

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It prompted the guy to... try and flee into the friggin' ocean. Hah! Oh yeah, you try swimming with that bolt piercing your side, see how that works out for you.

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Okay I really need Aegina to heal now, though. She's going to die from poison at this rate.

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...Oh, you've got to be fucking shitting me... He's a genius. That random merc is a genius. Goddammit...

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Oaaaaarghhh! Fine we're fine.

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...pfffft! Okay, that's not as much of a problem as it could be. I have plenty of uses of rehabilitate and five maps left. Y'know, not counting this one, since it's over.

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Yeah, it's just over lol. I actually broke this map over my knee, which is incredibly surprising. I don't think I've ever had this much of an easy time here. Wasn't expecting this run, of all runs, to be where I finally manage to dominate Berwick Island. Aside from the two or three instances of luck, I think it was the fact that I brought Burroughs along. He took care of a few important nuisances well before the team could even get into their nuisancing range. How eye-opening. Burroughs is really good in this map, even though he's only going to move four tiles, at best! The map's tiny size only works to his advantage.

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Anyway, Missival misses, but who cares, it's turn 15. We save!

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Pow! From wrapping up the merc, Perceval scores no less than two skill points! Dang, he's caught up to Aegina now... At this rate he's going to get to 30 before her! I mean, neither of them has that great a chance. I only have three more maps to promote them, and 13 is too hectic to be using it as training grounds for anyone... Though 12-2 does have a ton of assassins. Hmmm...

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Ohhh, fuck you! Turns out the escape point in this map is right behind Vadrius. Units go there, then they disappear.

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Fair enough. We just do it again and this time, make sure to capture him before he can get there.

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Rehabilitate's animation, in case you've never seen it. It's basically mend with even more sparkles! I always did love this game's healing animations. Too bad they're slow, I adore the soothing light.

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So, Vadrius. I'd like to capture him. General shield is one of the best Erzie items that I can actually get, and the knight sword would just be nice.

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I have a plan for these final five turns: First, rush Aegina to get rehabilitated, which you saw earlier. Second, have her capture Morrow. That leaves her at 99 HP.

And then, Ward kept on trying to harpoon the guy until he became injured. It was kind of a grueling process. I only managed to injure him once (though after his shield broke), only to realize Reese couldn't reach the temple. Good work, me.

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Upon returning to turn 15 to fix that goof, though, I lucked out. Perceval just happened to cause injury from a random thundering, streamlining the process greatly.

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There it is. 26 skill. To think it could be as high as 28 had she not wasted two levels on fucking speed, of all things... Grr...

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Anyway, Larentia grabs Zephyrus's fancy anti-dark shield, becoming disposable. I'll probably kill her in chapter 14. She's pretty useless in 15. Sherpa will likely be the one to fall in 15. I'll have to go over the happiness list and make sure there's no one else who needs to die.

Speaking of disposable, we dispose of Morrow and Vadrius's shield for moneys. Had to temporarily hand all of my imperial knight small shields to Halfmann for it, though. Erzheimer really really wanted those. Luckily, this only incurred a small penalty of less than 90 denarii.

...Wow, that was so painless though. What a nice, pleasant little map that turned out to be. I'd be lying if I said it was entirely achieved through my own competence - even luck was on my side the whole way through. I can only hope the rest of the game's hard maps go as smoothly.

On 3/8/2023 at 12:04 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Truly the most resolute of knights, with a diaphragm that powerful.

Powerful enough to convey his loyalty across kilometers. Loyal enough to be the singular enemy in the entire game to use the Guard skill. We stan Helmeted Ward 2.

On 3/8/2023 at 12:04 AM, Punished Dayni said:

It's certainly eye-opening as to what happens when you don't pursue events in this game.

The Dork Cordinol is going to be hilarious, I'm just going to completely ignore half the map because I need Scarro dead.

On 3/8/2023 at 12:04 AM, Punished Dayni said:

No space for the horse or am I yet again misremembering Cavs in this game?

If Sherlock has a special horse, it does not get replaced by his new special one upon promoting. Not that I can think of any horse you'd take over the +1 move one, but I guess it's nice of the game not to make that choice for you.

...Of course, it'd be nicer if they let you keep the special horse at the stable. But no, instead it just never comes into existence. Thanks, Kaga.

On 3/8/2023 at 12:04 AM, Punished Dayni said:

I wonder how heavy the spear is then, clearly she's strong enough to be running with this across however long to stab it in someone on top of her armour and a shield usually. Having the arm like that, you'd have to ask "Does she have a Wind Shield?"

No, Reese has that one. It's still alive, too, though I expect not for long, it's at green durability.

On 3/8/2023 at 12:04 AM, Punished Dayni said:

(Though maybe she's doing it because she never practiced with 2-handed spear stances)

Plot twist: Ellis was the real renowned paladin of Bornia. Alvina is a Razite agent who replaced her Herman style. She kinda sucks compared to the legendary paladin, but Reese and Vester never notice because they're both gullible idiots. Tianna just let her be in hopes she'd stab Vester in his sleep.

On 3/8/2023 at 12:04 AM, Punished Dayni said:

It really isn't fair, but on the other hand, Alvina could use the stats.

On 3/8/2023 at 12:04 AM, Punished Dayni said:

So what did you lose?

Experience. Yeah, I'm that desperate to promote my mages lol

On 3/8/2023 at 1:21 AM, BrightBow said:

Blessing heals between 0 to 3 HP. So it's not guaranteed to actually heal anything.

Oh, right. I forgot. Oops.

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1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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...That guy, though, has no Weakness, I'm pretty sure. Hah! What a first turn. Here's hoping this is a sign of things to come.

This guy staring at the first guy:

After getting injured:

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Esteban has taken the lighthouse. This permits us to see... pretty much the entire map. I like how a number of threats are just outside the lighthouse's range, needing Esteban's Scotopic to reveal them. Nice bit of tight design, right there.

Esteban here with the nightvision goggles

In FE if you got something like this it'd just be thieves as a class doing this, which is less unique.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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...Bwahahahahahah! So much for that! Holy shit, Alvina, that did the guy do to you? There was no need to brutalize him like that...

Morrow is a scoundrel for a reason.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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However! Not to disappoint after her hilarious double crit from before, Alvina instead left him at 1 HP due to my faulty math... but crippled him anyway. Without even the help of an injury. Fantastic. I really don't know what he did to her, but clearly she despises this man to the farthest reaches of her heart. Heck, perhaps she's the one that put the bounty on his head lol Could be he helped he infiltrate Navarron as Ellis and now she's tying loose ends?

If Morrow is going to be silenced on this prison I think he'd rather not be inside it based on what you said earlier, but the timing of Alvina showing up if she did do it like that is a particularly bad case of awkward timing.

(Considering how things went, why did you hold off capturing him?)

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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He is now gone down. You know, I've always wondered what exactly it is Sinon does with captured/undefeated soldiers in this map. They are currently committing high treason, if even one of them survives to tell the tale, everyone hangs. Do we just toss everyone into the ocean, or is the canon explanation that they didn't get a good luck at us due to the darkness and being knocked out soon after?

Let us know if they can be traded for? Or if not, maybe he just leaves them in the guard quarters of the prison, in their beds no wait that's not a Reese thing to do

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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...Oh, you've got to be fucking shitting me... He's a genius. That random merc is a genius. Goddammit...

Galaxy brain on this merc NPC.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Anyway, Larentia grabs Zephyrus's fancy anti-dark shield, becoming disposable. I'll probably kill her in chapter 14. She's pretty useless in 15. Sherpa will likely be the one to fall in 15. I'll have to go over the happiness list and make sure there's no one else who needs to die.

Reese bout to get the glock out in Chapter 14 for her

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12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Look guys look, swift spear. This weapon is always a wonderful thing to have, and more so in this stupid run, where I am given nothing but misery most of the time. It goes to Ward, who will probably make the best use of it. Alvina already has her personal, unreliable accuracy as it has.

Not as if that level 12 Paladin is likely to wield a Rank 19 weapon anytime soon.
 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oho, nice! First free capture of the day already! Burroughs crippled that guy. To be fair, I'm pretty sure he has Weakness. A random spearman with a bag of antitoxins, Weakness and an AI that makes him walk next to Morrow and wait there for the remainder of the chapter. Don't ask me, I don't get it either.

Well, you got that lucky cripple. But I mean, this is the guy that just got Sherpa killed with his vision range. He can be troublesome.

And getting close to this guy to snatch his bag results in entering the range of the Northwest ballista. He knows what he's doing. Not like Thaddy can safely walk up to him and just take it.

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Where in the world is Morrow going?

Are you just not going to capture him?

 

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Why is everything to do with Vester a pain in the ass

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Hah! Okay yeah, Spara was right, that is pretty funny. She just randomly goes and says this.

No, Tianna, I have not forgotten, just as I have not forgotten the final letter from Lynette. Yeah, she's still reminding me of it. Girl won't get the hint that I'm not reading it.

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First thing today, we bid the repairstone farewell. It has served us well, but alas, its time has come. Here's hoping Gram will last us the rest of the game. I will probably need it against Chaos.

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Hey, here's something funny I found. If you press select + start in Navarron, the load menu pops up, much like it does in maps. However, it only lets you go back to the menu. Funky.

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That aside, there's a reason we're at the temple. I am buying an escapestone. Let me explain why.

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So, remember when Alvina joined us, I said I could avoid getting her happiness point by getting Scarro killed in this map?

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Yeah... Turns out, that's incorrect. Even if Scarro dies, the game doesn't default to the Reese recruitment of Vester. You get the weak Vester, but Alvina is still the one who has to speak to him. I discovered this the hard way, 15 turns into the map. I tried to salvage it by getting Alvina captured, but it would've taken a trillion resets. Eventually I was forced to accept I'd have to cut my losses and find another way.

Another way became apparent quickly enough, as the game does not impede Alvina from escaping in this map. Of course, I had neither Owen nor an escapestone, so I was forced to start the entire map just to buy this thing.

Awesome.

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The strategy I employed both times was nearly identical. First, provoke this guy, just because I can.

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Next, I throw everything but the kitchen sink at Vandal to break his shield.

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Ward got through, funnily enough.

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Burroughs didn't get to do much in this map, but he did injure the lance knight, which was pretty nice. If nothing else, my luck with the random injuries and cripplings has been positively wonderful of late.

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With the shield out, Vandal was left open to a Pallas Riana...ing.

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Good! Good! Exactly what you need! With luck, I'll be able to feed her three assassins in 12-1 and get her there just in time...

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Better be careful now. We are officially entering Ballista Town. Population: Them.

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Esteban grabs the black rider. I am fairly certain I gave him every single capture on the map. I thought I'd try and get him to level 20. Getting Pursuit Esteban in this run, of all runs, would be hilarious. I've never managed it before!

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Elbert is going to keep the closest ballista in check with provocations. I could just kill it, but... Actually, I'm not even sure why I didn't kill it. Even if you want to spend the time to speak to Pentland, the useful ballistae to have on your side are the bottom two. That one does nothing but be a nuisance.

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Anyway, the destruction of Northleigh begins. Serenes says all green units living nets a point. I'm going to be safe and let Raze raze the entire population of both villages to the ground. Sans Vester, obviously.

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Holy shit, what's with the lucky injuries, though. That's actually insane, Perceval can't keep up wtih this amount of luck. Is this the RNGoddess's reward for enduring this run for so long?

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I didn't even need Perceval to cripple this one, a simple skewering from Alvina did the trick.

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I utilized my turn 5 save to harpoon this ballistician to injury.

On the run I had to scrap, this took barely four or five attempts. In the good one it took like thirty. Thanks, game.

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Northleigh's feeble resistance efforts continue to prove futile. For some reason only Scarro and that random villager have death quotes, all the rest die silently. Scarro I get, but what's up with the guy?

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Northleigh's fate is of no consequence to us, however. What matters is that Sherlock avoided massive damage. He wouldn't have died from that, but there's always the risk of crippling.

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With this, there are only two ballistae to worry about. They can reach our shore because hexes allow for deceptively massive range on long-reach weapons.

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Oh look, everyone is dead. I wonder what the squad will do now. This is probably the first time they have ever managed to accomplish their task unimpeded, after all!

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Larentia cripples the ballista. Honestly, a second ballista is probably overkill, I doubt Burroughs will be able to fire the iron one enough times to break it. But still. I've never had a steel ballista. It sounds like a fun ballista to have.

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Alvina dashes west. I'll want her to talk Pentland down as quickly as possible, so she can leave and let Reese grab Vester.

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Apparently the sight of Reese isn't motivation enough for Vester to move as long as Alvina is around. I guess he can just detect her presence?

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Her mission fulfilled, Larentia returns to uncover some more crossbowmen. Esteban will be eating them up for experience while the rest run.

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Burroughs will help. He's been crying over his inability to progress into the relevant part of the map this whole time, and now he will take his frustration out on this guy.

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Hoho! Holy shit, not bad. Seriously, what's going on? It's like, everything goes wrong all the time, except the much maligned capture mechanic. That one keeps appeasing me. I mean, I won't complain, but... mighty weird, 's all I'm sayin'.

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Alvina captures the ballistician on the way to Pentland. I like it, it's a very cool shade of red.

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Oh boy, it begins. Southleigh has been invaded.

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The Northleigh razing squad, a job well done, doubles back to reinforce the Southleigh razing squad. IE the one knight. They will not make it that far, probably.

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I wonder how Pentland feels about the fact that Alvina just dragged one of his broken comrades into captivity right before running up to him.

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And that's that. That's the most we'll get out of her in this map.

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Oh, you've got to be kidding me.

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Well, at any rate, Vester is now controllable.

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You know what always sucks about turning the ballistae green? You risk them killing this guy. Sedatives are pretty important in this map. Especially in my case, because as you might have been wondering if you know enough about Berwick's inner workings, I have no way to obtain the berserk-curing orb. One's on Owen, who won't get recruited, and the other's craftable, except I cannot craft it. So uh. Yeah. Fun!

jYCwfyPe_o.pnghDZtCxTL_o.png

Before the ballista can take him, let's have Sherlock dash into Almachus's berserk range. As long as I pull him out quickly, it'll all be A-OK.

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Aww, c'mon. All of Alvina's hard work for nothing.

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Whoa! Now that's what I call a level. He even got a point mid-combat later in the map, though I missed the screenshot. Of course, even though he now has a 1 point head start on Aegina, he's also going to miss half of the Assassin Forest to get permanently recruited, so...

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With Vester safely picked up, I am going to leave that lone knight to his own devices. Hack away at your leisure, man. You deserve it.

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And thus, we begin the charge towards the royal castle of Bornia. This isn't the first time I've done this without having reliable means of curing his zerking. It will take some serious speed, but it can be done. First, let's get rid of that guy. He's only in the way.

Naturally, Sherlock misses, so I send Endgame Ready Beard with the swift spear to help.

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...No! No, that's the worst possible time for this to happen! I need him out of the way!

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I mean, a rapier's pretty sweet loot, but still. That's the first move of the turn wasted. I wanted to kill that crossbowman and occupy the spot in front of the gate before that knight or that sergeant could get in the way...

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Luckily, the lone knight moves before anyone else on the map, so the plan remains in motion.

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Good. Now all I need is some fortune with Almachus's targeting...

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Larentia? I can work with Larentia.

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That gate's got to fall right now, though. Ideally, Almachus will be dead early next turn, before he can cast berserk again.

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Aegina... that's more troublesome. She can Pallas Riana somebody. That would get ugly fast.

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Aaaand then Vester got scylla'd, so none of that matters.

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Still wanted to show it, because that's pretty much what I did in every attempt. Exact movements, then hope Almachus cooperates. To be fair, it wasn't as unreliable as it might seem. While Sherlock absolutely needed to break the gate on his turn, Almachus never seemed to target anyone important.

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See?

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To prevent Vester's ill fate from before, we provoke.

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Oh God, Esteban... he wields the Rossweisse...

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...Welp. It's going to be a legendary battle, no doubt.

It's actually fine, funnily enough. Esteban has enough HP to survive even a dire thundering, and Perceval has Arrowbane. It's not impossible for either to get killed, but it should be fine... Right?

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Okay it's about time you died, mate.

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You fucking shit, I hate you.

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All right! And now Missival's turn.

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No crit or anything. Nice.

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AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

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He missed.

Missival missed.

And it's a good thing.

......

I am flabbergasted.

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Esteban will not survive another round of that, however. Let's cure him and get him out of the way.

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Southleigh falls. Every NPC on the map is officially dead. Discounting Pentland's squad, of course. Er, half of it, at least.

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This time, I unleash the Reese upon Almachus.

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It went about as well for Almie as you would expect.

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OH GOD that I was not expecting, though!

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Oh, thank God. Imagine we had already gotten pursuit on him by now. Jesus Christ, what a terrifying thought...

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Let's just get out of here...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Except, I fucked up! I screwed up royally! I mistook greatly! You see, I thought the tactics points for today involved saving the green units. And one of them does.

The other requires beating the map in 22 turns or less. It was turn 18.

...Weeeee more redoing! Woowweeeeeeee fuck me sideways, seriously...

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On this attempt, Perceval once again got berserked.

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However, Reese managed to one-round the shieldless knight, expediting the process greatly. Ward even managed to spawnkill the scylla dick, netting us another sedative.

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GAH

Oh nononono, that's not something I want to face. That's MY Endgame Ready Beard, Almachus! You can't have it!

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Thanks to that, though, I managed to isolate Perceval entirely, which is pretty funny.

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And, well, Sherlock was right there, so I could just do this.

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Unfortunately, I don't believe Almachus will fall in time to prevent a third berserking.

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Especially since Ward insists on missing the guy!

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D'oh!

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Vester could not escape Perceval's range, and with his weaker stats he was definitely going to die. So we'll have to hope Percy's sister can tank a couple of thunderbolts. What a shame Trador is just out of reach, it'd be pretty hilarious to have one of our own kill him...

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Good.

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Ohhh you absolute fuck-- That's it.

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How's that feel, huh?

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How's that feel?

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All that remains is to cure Aegina and stall the timer long enough.

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Easy, when Vester physically won't be able to make it in time for turn 22.

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You might've noticed the random injury. He's been around for a while.

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My decision to talk Pentland to our side proves handy after all, as this ballistician kept the oncoming reinforcements in check. That's pretty nice.

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One more level and we have it.

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Oh my-- Another one?! How many captures have I gotten in this map? Holy shit, this is good! So many ransom moneys...!

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And with that, we exit. I'm not entirely sure if I did it on turn 23 or 24, but if Serenes is not lying, either should be fine.

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Worryingly, the whole shenanigans with Alvina and Vester still happened after the map. I wonder if the little trick with the escapestone will be enough... Ahh, if it isn't, I'll just go back and kill her off on the final chapter. Shouldn't be hard.

On 3/10/2023 at 9:38 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Wouldn't it be funny if that comedy routine happened again?

On 3/10/2023 at 9:38 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Let us know if they can be traded for? Or if not, maybe he just leaves them in the guard quarters of the prison, in their beds no wait that's not a Reese thing to do

Yeah, Morrow gets traded at the guild. Perhaps Reese threatened him with a prison shanking if he spoke?

On 3/10/2023 at 9:38 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Galaxy brain on this merc NPC.

We found him, Lord Serenoa. There he is. The Triangle Strategy.

On 3/10/2023 at 9:38 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Reese bout to get the glock out in Chapter 14 for her

"I never forgot, Larentia. I never forgot how you stopped me from avenging my father."

"L-Lord Reese? W-Why are you looking at me like that...?"

"Since you are so eager to protect his killer...

How about you take his place?"

"Lord Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!!!"

On 3/11/2023 at 7:58 AM, BrightBow said:

Not as if that level 12 Paladin is likely to wield a Rank 19 weapon anytime soon.

Huh, yeah. Good point.

On 3/11/2023 at 7:58 AM, BrightBow said:

Well, you got that lucky cripple. But I mean, this is the guy that just got Sherpa killed with his vision range. He can be troublesome.

Luckily, Sherpa lived.

On 3/11/2023 at 7:58 AM, BrightBow said:

And getting close to this guy to snatch his bag results in entering the range of the Northwest ballista. He knows what he's doing. Not like Thaddy can safely walk up to him and just take it.

 Yeah, that guy is just a massive trap in general. Big brain enemies galore in this map.

On 3/10/2023 at 9:38 PM, Punished Dayni said:

If Morrow is going to be silenced on this prison I think he'd rather not be inside it based on what you said earlier, but the timing of Alvina showing up if she did do it like that is a particularly bad case of awkward timing.

(Considering how things went, why did you hold off capturing him?)

On 3/11/2023 at 7:58 AM, BrightBow said:

Are you just not going to capture him?

I was stalling to a turn save so I could save abuse a wind level for Aegina. I was not about to risk getting another fucking speed point.

Of course, more important things kept coming up, so the guy got to walk all the way to the highest point of the map before I was finally able to capture him lol

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11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You know what always sucks about turning the ballistae green? You risk them killing this guy. Sedatives are pretty important in this map. Especially in my case, because as you might have been wondering if you know enough about Berwick's inner workings, I have no way to obtain the berserk-curing orb. One's on Owen, who won't get recruited, and the other's craftable, except I cannot craft it. So uh. Yeah. Fun!

Hopefully Reese gets lucky with the Shining Shield.
 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Larentia cripples the ballista. Honestly, a second ballista is probably overkill, I doubt Burroughs will be able to fire the iron one enough times to break it. But still. I've never had a steel ballista. It sounds like a fun ballista to have.

The rank requirement is a bit of a problem, though.
 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I wonder how Pentland feels about the fact that Alvina just dragged one of his broken comrades into captivity right before running up to him.

I wonder how Vester feels after Reese sends him a ransom demand for the PoWs.

Well, I don't actually know if those specific Bornian solders can be ransomed. I just know the ones captured before this map can still be ransomed even after Bornia rejoins Volcen's glorious Berwick League.

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3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

"I never forgot, Larentia. I never forgot how you stopped me from avenging my father."

"L-Lord Reese? W-Why are you looking at me like that...?"

"Since you are so eager to protect his killer...

How about you take his place?"

"Lord Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!!!"

That's the Reese we know and..... know.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I was stalling to a turn save so I could save abuse a wind level for Aegina. I was not about to risk getting another fucking speed point.

Of course, more important things kept coming up, so the guy got to walk all the way to the highest point of the map before I was finally able to capture him lol

Morrow just hiding in the chaos that is that map, makes sense.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Hah! Okay yeah, Spara was right, that is pretty funny. She just randomly goes and says this.

Reese: Yes.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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First thing today, we bid the repairstone farewell. It has served us well, but alas, its time has come. Here's hoping Gram will last us the rest of the game. I will probably need it against Chaos.

Well fuck, can't expect the ballista to get us over the line? Oh. 😞

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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I utilized my turn 5 save to harpoon this ballistician to injury.

On the run I had to scrap, this took barely four or five attempts. In the good one it took like thirty. Thanks, game.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Alvina captures the ballistician on the way to Pentland. I like it, it's a very cool shade of red.

This whole situation is a bit terrible, considering these are her fellow soldiers of Boornia she's beating up to steal a ballista from.

Meanwhile, the RNG does not like you, yet again.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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I wonder how Pentland feels about the fact that Alvina just dragged one of his broken comrades into captivity right before running up to him.

Like this outside as he's bricking it in his head:

https://media.tenor.com/wYRCTogYzQYAAAAC/skipper-smile-and-wave-boys.gif

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Good. Now all I need is some fortune with Almachus's targeting...

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Larentia? I can work with Larentia.

I REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME, HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM?

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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All right! And now Missival's turn.

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No crit or anything. Nice.

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AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

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He missed.

Missival missed.

And it's a good thing.

......

I am flabbergasted.

This exchange is nuts and how you got away with both alive is shocking. I'll be honest, I'm happy Berserk hasn't come back in recent FEs.

Clearly you cracked being positive about Missival.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Esteban will not survive another round of that, however. Let's cure him and get him out of the way.

I'm not sure I have.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Let's just get out of here...

...Except, I fucked up! I screwed up royally! I mistook greatly! You see, I thought the tactics points for today involved saving the green units. And one of them does.

The other requires beating the map in 22 turns or less. It was turn 18.

...Weeeee more redoing! Woowweeeeeeee fuck me sideways, seriously...

This bloody run.

https://media.tenor.com/TqTmECBaOJgAAAAC/panic-anime.gif

You were too efficient and had to go back 3 turns to make 7. Fuck me.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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GAH

Oh nononono, that's not something I want to face. That's MY Endgame Ready Beard, Almachus! You can't have it!

Ward bout to smash his lance through Reese's head so hard it bifurcates him and cracks the ground he strikes.

Again, it's been a rough time for him.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Worryingly, the whole shenanigans with Alvina and Vester still happened after the map. I wonder if the little trick with the escapestone will be enough... Ahh, if it isn't, I'll just go back and kill her off on the final chapter. Shouldn't be hard.

 And hey, she can die damaging something difficult in that map, so it could be worse.

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Chapter 12-1

Today marks a momentous occasion in the life of the minimum ranker. I craft two items.

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I had forgotten that there is an ancient amulet I can get, you see: The one Almachus holds in 12-main. Earthblaze is worthless without Enid and it's way too late to be worrying about captures, so I make a backup dire thunder for Percy. I also create the Hestia, which Ward will hold onto.

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I also allow Reese's trusty Ishs courser to retire. Poor little guy is at like, 1 HP. He's been hanging in there for a couple maps, but I seriously doubt he'll survive 12-1. I don't want Reese to be left stranded without a horse in that map, of all maps - and what the heck, that horse has served us well. I phase it out for the spry horse we got in 11-main.

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So... this map. This map is going to be hell, for multiple reasons. For one, I don't have the tulsa circlet. Nor Faramir, of course. I actually have absolutely nobody who can safely get knifed by an assassin, which is a lot of fun. Also, Burroughs is here. In retrospect, I wish I had taken Clifford along instead of him. He wasn't that useful in this map.

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Anyway, we begin. For some undiscernible reason, this guy, who has sleep, decides to instead miss Larentia with swarm. Okay.

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...Oh, son of a cussing cussword, wormwood...

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SON OF A CUSSING FUCKING CUSSWORD, GODDAMMIT! Barnacles that blister.

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What a way to start is this?

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Oh, you asshole... You filthy, filthy asshole...

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...Hah! Well, that all lined up well. What a rollercoaster of a first move, huh.

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Okay, enough fun, though. Let's get started in earnest. We've places to be, apostles to save and fancy-named badasses to... not recruit. At least I get Paramythis in this map. That woman is so cool. She exists in four maps and she's like, the best unit in them. The endgame units in this game are all pretty rad, but I have a preference for Para. Not that it matters, I'm not getting her past this map.

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Yeah, see, if the Ishs courser was still beneath Reese's posterior, this would've been the end of the road for it. And Reese would've had to go the rest of the map on foot. Not good.

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Esteban captures a thief after Aegina scored the run's 7537257th lucky injury. Blood knife? Not bad. I might let him keep it, that's a pretty sweet knife. I can only get one more Erzie item before I get a ranking point, and I know exactly what it will be.

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With a couple of well-aimed Fauchardings, Alvina rescues Luciana.

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This is Larentia's role in this map, apparently.

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Hwahahahahah! You know, it is really easy to underestimate Esteban's massive bow skill. Coupled with Aim, it leads to some pretty funky stuff. If you commit to him.

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...ohohohoh... You know? Now I'm wondering if Pursuit works with Aim. We have four maps to try it!

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Ward carefully approaches the Shit Ring. We won't be penetrating that until Sanacia's birthday starts.

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This isn't really relevant to anything, but I'd just like to bring some attention to this thief's skillset. Look at that, it's a work of art. I wish I could recruit this asshat.

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You have got to be kidding me. The random priest next to Semdallion has Adept. How many runs have I gone without knowing this crucial fact?

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Well, no problem. We just saved, so it's as easy as reloading and doing this.

Incidentally, here is where the toughest part of the map began. I kept dying to assassins coming from the north, over and over and over. One time I came THIS close to wrapping up, but then Aegina died to a couple of knights because I completely forgot the southern side. Here is an excerpt of my suffering:

On 3/13/2023 at 10:38 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

IT WAS TURN 9

WOULD IT HAVE KILLED YOU TO PROC MIRACLE, AEGINA

I will not be showing that because I don't feel like it.

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 All right, all right, whatever! It's Pursuit time! Let's try it out!

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Ahahahahah! Oh wow, this is great. Why have I never bothered getting this before? I mean, sure, he could've accomplished the same with a single shot of Rossweisse, but...

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OH GOD Okay, that's it, this imbecile is dying now. Sherlock, on it!

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...Oh, Christ...

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Distract him, Alvina?

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Distracted him, Alvina.

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Uuuhhhh, Percy got a thunder level! That's amazing. One more to go, and he's getting a level from this. Fingers crossed...?

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Aww... I like how it's like, this perfect level, but I'm sad because it has no skill. Berwick Saga!

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Anyway, back to what we were doing. Wormwood man!

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Your end is at hand! The wood is mine.

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Through careful movement calculations - read, I failed this way a couple times in past attempts - I am able to perform this maneouvre and pull Sherlock out just barely outside the Shit Zone. Way to go!

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Let us see if Aegina can match Missival's positively epic missing of his promotion threshold.

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I... Oh, c'mon. I mean, that's great, I love more damage on Aegina, but you know what would get her even MORE damage? Promoting.

Fun fact: The run I lost that made me type the furious words I quoted above? They both got skill on these levels. Yeah.

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Hey, while we're on the subject of fun facts: Due to Huntsman, Esteban actually has a greater hitrate if the enemy is in a forest than if they are in a weaker type of terrain.

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Also, he missed one of those shots. Because of course he did.

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All right, now. This is the part where I lost more times than I care to admit. Assassins will come after those two, and if they don't run at full speed away from the knives, they will die. So yeah. Run, just run. Anywhere, fast.

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That done, I have the boys leave Maria's escort isolated. The escorts won't attack, only their bodyguards will, so Burroughs is now safe.

You know something cool? Since Owen isn't happy enough to join, he doesn't turn Razite early, and he's able to escape if he wants to. The map probably won't last long enough for him to do it, but still. In lieu of Izerna, I'm glad to have him as the back-up.

...especially since, as I tend to do, I forgot to buy orbs from Yumil while she was still around. Paramythis's mend and Owen's physic are my only means of healing. Smart am I!

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THERE HE IS! SEE? SEE? DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU FOR ALL THE TROUBLE YOU HAVE CAUSED ME!

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We can take care of him with One-Two, though. I swear, if you miss one of these...

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Good boy. Good boy.

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Eh, that's not bad. I mean, I love this girl, but if she dies in this run, I won't mourn her.

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I don't think I've ever had this much luck with the random injuries. Intended injuries, absolutely godawful, but the game sure is generous with the ones that are of little use beyond extra cash!

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Reese liberates Maria.

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...Well. She fought the good fight. Bought us a bit of time to run from the assassin. Honestly, it's more than half of the game's cast has done in this run.

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That guy is now crippled. Aegina can take him next turn.

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...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA finally. A save. That took way too much effort. Sheesh, this map...

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Anyway, Aegina does what I said she'd do, and obtains a wind level. Didn't need save abusing, either. Guess she's hit her bracketing limit on her stats. Wouldn't be surprised, with the amount of fucking speed she's gotten...

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Perceval rescues Izerna and bows out of the map. Alas, his promotion will be delayed one map. He better get it on 13. I'd like to think a single point shouldn't be too difficult to get, but then, it IS chapter 13...

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...Christ, that isn't good.

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Yes, exactly. That's the type of thing I need to be doing right now to secure victory.

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Oh dear, there's Quescria already. I'll probably have Larentia handle this. That's something I like to do. People don't want to stick around there because assassins, but nobody is really equipped to deal with Larentia.

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That's more like it.

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I forgot to unequip the knight sword. As funny as a full level for Ward would've been, I really should give levels to Aegina. More than Perceval, she needs to go into next map with 30 wind if she wants to have any hope of promoting at all.

...You know what would've been hilarious? If they gave Ward a super amazing skill at level 30. That's the kind of thing these games like to do from time to time, I'm almost surprised they didn't do it here. I mean, the convoy cart from Vestaria 2 has a skill at level 30! Only feasible way to get there is to make him the dancer! Vestaria 2 is wild. Wilder even than this one, though I wouldn't say better. Still good. Go play Vestaria 2.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, I don't like this, so I'm wasting Focus Chant for it.

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First shot! Not bad.

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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Okay, another chance! Another chance. In the meantime, she can get yet another level off of a knight.

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MORE FUCKING SPEED

I HATE SPEED

I HATE SPEED SO MUCH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

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A second assassin finally nets her another point of wind. Thank goodness... C'mon! C'mon, one more! You can do it, you can get it in the couple of turns left!

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It really is a couple of turns, by the way. Quescria is free, Saphira has awakened, and that leaves us a tight window to take out Rasputin.

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Time enough to eat up another assassin. That's the last level she'll be able to get. Better not fail now... If you get even more speed, I swear to Raze, I'm sacrificing you on an altar. To Raze.

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YESSSSS Good girl! Good girl. Excellent, that's three whole maps of a promoted Aegina.

...Sigh... Stupid 30 skill thresholds... I mean, not that it matters. Honestly, she's been doing great this run.

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Nothing left to do but get rid of Rasputin.

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Boop, and boopity boop.

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With both Saphira unrecruited and Paramythis deceased, the final scene... Actually doesn't change that much. For some reason, Lebough brings up Saphira wanting to work only for Reese, but doesn't acknowledge the fact that he utterly ignored her.

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Then he announces she's going back to the temple, and the scene ends there.

How... positively anticlimatic.

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Also Missival joins.

On 3/13/2023 at 10:13 AM, BrightBow said:

Hopefully Reese gets lucky with the Shining Shield.

Yikes, that really is going to be my only recourse... Unless Paliztsch comes in clutch with the materials in chapter 13? C'mon? Pretty please?

On 3/13/2023 at 10:13 AM, BrightBow said:

The rank requirement is a bit of a problem, though.

...I... did not think of that.

Oh well. Too late now. If worse comes to worst I can bank on the chance to fail not happening.

On 3/13/2023 at 10:13 AM, BrightBow said:

I wonder how Vester feels after Reese sends him a ransom demand for the PoWs.

I can imagine them just hanging out for drinks and all of a sudden Reese goes "oh by the way, give me a grand or I murder your dude."

On 3/13/2023 at 10:13 AM, BrightBow said:

Well, I don't actually know if those specific Bornian solders can be ransomed. I just know the ones captured before this map can still be ransomed even after Bornia rejoins Volcen's glorious Berwick League.

I don't believe I got to ransom Pentland's guy back to him, no. That's a pretty funny oversight of the game mechanics, though... Not that it's too out of character for Volcyboy, of course. Or Reese, for that matter.

On 3/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, Punished Dayni said:

That's the Reese we know and..... know.

Gotta love him. He's got Ward and Tianna with him, and Ward and Tianna are pretty epic.

On 3/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Reese: Yes.

"Wait, but if you know what I'm talking about, wouldn't that mean you haven't--"

"I said yes, Tianna. Now let's move on to discussing ransom payments."

"...That letter from your sister is still on your desk, Lord Reese..."

"Ransom payments, Tianna."

On 3/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Well fuck, can't expect the ballista to get us over the line? Oh. 😞

A ballista shot or two would definitely help.

On 3/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, Punished Dayni said:

This whole situation is a bit terrible, considering these are her fellow soldiers of Boornia she's beating up to steal a ballista from.

Meanwhile, the RNG does not like you, yet again.

War crimes and bad luck. If you threw in depression, you'd have described the entire run.

On 3/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, Punished Dayni said:

I REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME, HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM?

Oh wow, that's... wow. The fact that I didn't have any flashbacks is astonishing.

...My mind must've blocked the memories lol

On 3/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, Punished Dayni said:

This exchange is nuts and how you got away with both alive is shocking. I'll be honest, I'm happy Berserk hasn't come back in recent FEs.

I gotta say, of all things I expected to happen in this wild, wild run, Missival being a good thing was probably dead last.

On 3/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, Punished Dayni said:

This bloody run.

https://media.tenor.com/TqTmECBaOJgAAAAC/panic-anime.gif

You were too efficient and had to go back 3 turns to make 7. Fuck me.

Some maps require you are efficient for tactics points. Others require you aren't efficient. It's a goshdarned rollercoaster with this game.

On 3/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Ward bout to smash his lance through Reese's head so hard it bifurcates him and cracks the ground he strikes.

Again, it's been a rough time for him.

Honestly, at this point, I doubt he even needs berserk as motivation. He just has to look back on his lord's leadership for the past year and a half. What court could convict him?

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2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What court could convict him?

I'd have said Volcens's, but his hate for Reese might be enough to overturn being concerned about a lord being killed by an underling.

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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...Hah! Well, that all lined up well. What a rollercoaster of a first move, huh.

Well that was certainly not a reminder of my start in Engage's finale....

(Least you didn't have to go back more than once here....)

Then again.....

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Incidentally, here is where the toughest part of the map began. I kept dying to assassins coming from the north, over and over and over. One time I came THIS close to wrapping up, but then Aegina died to a couple of knights because I completely forgot the southern side. Here is an excerpt of my suffering:

On 3/13/2023 at 9:38 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

IT WAS TURN 9

WOULD IT HAVE KILLED YOU TO PROC MIRACLE, AEGINA

I will not be showing that because I don't feel like it.

I certainly didn't have that kind of experience.

FoW really can be the worst.

14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Fun fact: The run I lost that made me type the furious words I quoted above? They both got skill on these levels. Yeah.

Of course it was.

15 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You know something cool? Since Owen isn't happy enough to join, he doesn't turn Razite early, and he's able to escape if he wants to. The map probably won't last long enough for him to do it, but still. In lieu of Izerna, I'm glad to have him as the back-up.

...especially since, as I tend to do, I forgot to buy orbs from Yumil while she was still around. Paramythis's mend and Owen's physic are my only means of healing. Smart am I!

A side benefit I suppose.

Will he be available for 13?

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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YESSSSS Good girl! Good girl. Excellent, that's three whole maps of a promoted Aegina.

...Sigh... Stupid 30 skill thresholds... I mean, not that it matters. Honestly, she's been doing great this run.

It's Aegina time.

Should I make an edit for this one?

18 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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Then he announces she's going back to the temple, and the scene ends there.

 

Saphira must have been telling them you weren't recruiting her.

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