ping

March 9

I think I'm in the RD camp, because that game explicitly shows what bonuses a support gives. If PoR had done the same thing, that would've been my answer instead - I think I prefer the total of five support ranks per character from FE6-9, and PoR's per-map system is easily the least annoying way to grind (or rather not having to grind) supports.

March 9

I remember that my only real gripe with FF5's job system was how long it would take to really realise your Freelancer plans, so I'm curious - is x4 XP/AP a feature added to the Steam release or did past me just screw up by grinding AP too early? I remember spending a lot of time in some castle's basement because the enemy formations there give a lot more AP than any other at that point of the game.

But I really adore how you work towards your endgame build throughout the game. It's great that mastering the basic classes doesn't become irrelevant when more advanced classes unlock, nor do the advanced classes feel useless because you've already invested into the standard ones, which iirc was a problem in FF3 (although I think that's the FF game that I remember the least about).

March 9

March 9

FE4 Chapter 3: Eldigan the Lionheart

Agusty --> Madino

Spoiler

For the record: One dead Raquesis. TL;DR: I had Beowulf go too far into the range of the Bowknight squad, thought, "well, maybe I get lucky if I give them more possible targets", and didn't get lucky. Spoiler warning: I didn't quite learn, although Ruben might enjoy that particular missplay as fuel for his propaganda.

____

As the first "official" action of the turn, Quan gives his money to Ethlyn so that she can afford the Paragon band. With Aideen's heal, she manages to get past Pazan, although Doma would require another HP set-up to beat. I may or may not set that up later -

- since the Pazan fight gives Ethlyn enough XP to promote.

Although having looked up inheritance mechanics, her promotion isn't even that important, since a character will only pass on stats relative to their class's base stats, which means that a promotion doesn't actually improve the children. And because the Leonster gang leaves after this map, Ethlyn won't have too much opportunity to actually use her improved stats. Well, maybe it'll help her get through the rest of the arena.

Something that does matter greatly is this conversation:

: "Ayra! Hey there."
: "Sigh... What do you want, Lex?"
: Sheesh! Courteous as ever, aren't you?"
: "Look, get to your point, whatever it may be I've better things to do than waste time on you."
: "Hold on. I've got a little gift here. I thought of you the moment I saw it."
: "You can foist it on some other woman. I've no use for such trinkets."
: "Heh. Not even something like this?"
: "Oh? ...Wait! That's-"
: "Ah, good! You're well acquainted with the famous brave sword, then."
: "I never thought I'd see a real brave sword! Never have I seen a blade so beautiful..."
: "Glad you like it! It's yours. I guess I'll see you around, Ayra."
: "Er, Lex! Wait a moment!"

And already this is a better romance than Deirdre and Sigurd.

(Honestly, as far as RomCom misunderstandings go, this isn't half bad, with Ayra expecting a "You're pretty!" and getting a "You're badass!" instead.)

For the record, this would've been the conversation with Holyn instead:

: "Hey, Ayra! this is for you. Here."
: "Isn't this a brave sword? Why me, though? Shouldn't you be wielding this yourself?"
: "This thing's only gonna get harder from here, yeah? You burn through blades so fast, you could do with a spare or two. Look after yourself, okay? One day I might not be here to watch your back."
: "Holyn... Thank you. I promise I'll put it to good use."

Eh. More generic than Lex's one. Holyn mentioning Ayra "burning through blades so fast" is a fun little detail, though, her being the only Astra user in the first generation.

__

Obviously, the first turn is just some moving about. The TL;DR: Finn goes west to solo some Cavs, while Azel goes east to solo some Knights.

__

Well, Jamke follows him because Azel will then swing north to save a the eastmost village, and doesn't really want to slow himself down.

Finn doesn't have that kind of time pressure, although he probably doesn't want to be too close to Silvail when Sigurd seizes Madino.

__

And Erin goes straight north, mostly to kill Pirates coming from this direction, although she takes a quick stab at the Mage commander on the way. She also weakens some of the generic Mages with the Light Brand on enemy phase, but since these are really low-leveled (Lv.8, iirc), she only gets literally one XP from doing so. Lewyn, who's still only Lv.10 himself, gets these kills instead.

The main group, of course goes into the direction of Madino, in which the most enemies wait. I was initially a bit confused about the groups of enemies behave - I thought they'd only move if you're in their commander's range, but then the Cavs facing Finn disproved that theory...

Turns out it's a lot more simple. Every group starts moving on a certain turn. The end. And the Knights here start moving a turn before the Bow Knights, so you can fight these groups separately if you beeline right towards them.

Jeigan Lex? Jeigan Lex.

(I initially had him go west, but he's actually so bulky that the generic Lance Cavs don't even attack him anymore. I went all the way back to (post-Arena) turn 1 after Raquesis's unfortunate demise for that reason)

____

During all this, Beowulf is collecting a fair amount of money - when Sigurd seizes Madino, he's sitting at almost 40k gold, which with a little donation from Dew will be enough to get both the Paragon Band and the Brave Sword for an arena run.

Beautiful. Well, not the part where the Pirate still managed to burn down a whole 500 gold, but it's rather satisfying that Erin can exactly reach him on this turn thanks to a turn 1 dance.

...I completely forgot about Quan until now. Whoops. And then I don't even try to have him beat Doma, which would require a lucky dodge or an Adept proc. Sorry, Quan.

__

Pictured: The instance of Not Learning that I alluded to at the start of the post.

__

Turns out that Sigurd isn't immortal, especially if you tank his Avoid by equipping his Javelin.

You're welcome, Ruben

__

There, less lethal.

Meanwhile, Azel ends up wasting his time after all, since I remember that Pirates are fucking loaded. Beowulf already grabbed the money from the one to the north; Dew does the same with the one to the southeast, but doesn't quite arrive as quickly as Azel did.

____

The rest of the skirmish is pretty much just clean-up, with some more Beo-thieving on top.

: "Their might is legendary, and none in Jugdral can even compare to them. Actually... My boyfriend is a Cross Knight! Hee hee... amazing, isn't it?"

I'll be sure to say hi.

Azel grabs the one village (while he's gotten the Bargain Band, that isn't worth much if he doesn't have *any* money). The other one has the Restore staff, so that should go to either Raquesis or Aideen. Honestly not sure which one is "correct" here - Raquesis is more likely to be close to the frontlines, but keeping it on Aideen will make sure that we'll get it back immediately for gen 2.

: "Keh... Taste my bolt sword!"

The boss kill is accidental.

Indeed. Lex ending up with another item that he can't use. The idea was more like "Maybe Lex will hit one of those 26%s" - that chip would've allowed Sigurd the kill, and the Bolt Sword would've been on one of the potential recipients. Well, as is, I can still mull over the question if Leaf or Seliph is the better target. Leaf facing a bunch of Knights early is a good argument.

__

And that is that. The two non-Iron Ballistae are all that remains from Madino's forces, with a single Pirate still roaming the seas. I'm carefully optimistic that Erin can catch him without running into any invisible barriers... If I recall, these are fairly common in Genealogy.

: "His Cross Knights are the last remains of Agustria's army. At this rate, all should be well if we can subdue them, but..."

Small detail, but it's interesting to note that Sigurd already assumes that he'll have to fight the Cross Knights. I mean, he isn't wrong about it, but I would've expected him to think that he'd still be able to at least talk to Eldigan.

: "Sire, we have a visitor. Father Claude of Edda has just arrived."
: "Father Claude?! See him in, please."
: "It's been a long time, Lord Sigurd. We need to talk. I regret to say that I bring dreadful news from the fatherland."
: "What is it, Your Grace? What in the world could have happened?"
: "Prince Kurth is dead. Somebody murdered him en route from Isaach."
: "What?! This can't be... Who could have done this?"
: "Lord Byron was once constantly by His Highness's side... Yet, ever since his murder, he has been nowhere to be found. I regret to say this, but... As it stands, Lord Byron - your father - is the prime suspect."
: "Wh-what?! That's impossible!"
: "I regret to say that there's been naught but horrid rumors in Grannvale lately. Among them those which allege that you and your father worked in concert to assassinate the prince... Alas, His Majesty's anguish at the affair has rendered him dreadfully ill."
: "My father was already the prince's closest confidant. What could he have possibly gained from the prince's demise? Surely, shouldn't Reptor, Langbalt, and the others who opposed the prince be the likely culprits?"
: "I am of the same mind, but we've no evidence tying either to the crime. And Reptor and his minions currently hold a great sway over the royal court."
: "What about Lord Arvis, His Majesty's aide? Do you know where he stands on this?"
: "I cannot say for sure. He seems to hold no emnity toward you, but I am loath to consider him an ally..."
: "Hm... I'm worried for my father. If I could, I'd head home now and do what I can to help, but my orders haven't changed. I still need to hold Agustria. Please, Your Grace... Do you have any idea what I should do?"
: "I am on my way to the Tower of Bragi, on the island to the north-west of here. As an heir to the great Saint Bragi, if I pray at our sacred tower, then the truth shall be revealed to me alone. With this knowledge, I can convince His Majesty of Byron's innocence. You needn't worry, Lord Sigurd."
: "Claaaaaude! C'mon, let's go! Stop chewing off the poor man's ear. I'm getting bored here."
: "Hm? Aren't you Taillte of House Freege? What are you doing with Father Claude?"
: "Wouldn't you worry if I left him to wander all on his lonesome? Somebody's got to protect him."
: "But you're Duke Reptor's daughter, so..."
: "I just can't wrap my head around Father's schemes, y'know? Besides, I love the priest!"
: "Gods, give me strength to cope with this child... Anyway, I'll rendezvous with your group once I've learned the truth. I pray we'll both return home this day."
: "As do I, Father Claude. As do I. I can't thank you enough."

Sigurd if he didn't have explice orders to stay in Agustria: "Surely, I can prove my father's innocence by conquering Belhalla!"

I didn't really remember Taillte's character, so imagine my joy to find that she's another silly childish airhead girl. Yay.

: "I know. I want you to look after Seliph while I'm gone."
: "No way! I'm just a kid. I can't look after a baby all by myself."
: "I won't be long. I promise. Please, Shanan... I implore you..."
: "Okay, fine. I'll look after him. Just be careful out there and get back here as soon as you can, okay?"
: "Thank you, Shanan. I'm sorry, Seliph. I'll be back for you right away."

Always a good sign if the 10-years-old is the smartest person in the room.

__

: "Oh? Who are you? Wait... How do you know my mother?"
: "Kehehehe... The day of your rebirth is upon us. Through my black magic, the slate of your life will be cleansed, paving the way for your true husband... Your fate was written the day you were born. There is no use in fighting destiny."
: Wh-what are you doing?! Stop it! No!! ...Aaaah... Sig... u... r..."

____

I didn't think Rewarp was in this game. Anyway...

Kidnapped
And
Given
Amnesia

(And I can't help but note that Deirdre did know her biological mother's name. Our heroes' ignorance really seems wilful at this point)

: "And what do you think you are doing, Eldigan?! If you hadn't dawdled away your day here, then perhaps we wouldn't have lost Madino! Ah, but that's your plan, isn't it?! You're part of their plot to destroy Agustria, traitor!"
: "Your Majesty... How could you say that?"
: "What's this? Do you dare to be displeased? To think, you've forgotten my father's favor, all to idly stall for time... You're a disgrace to the knighthood!"
: "There's nothing more I can do to convince you... Very well, Your Majesty. My men and I will move out post-haste. I am proud to be a paladin of Agustria. If I must die, it shall be with sword in hand! By your leave, Your Majesty."

: "This is it, men. It's time for us to enter the fray... Perhaps for the last time. I count myself the luckiest commander there is for your years of loyalty to me. The fatherland's fate hinges on this final battle. Do not let Agustria down. Cross Knights! MOVE OUT!"

: "The rest of you, fortify the defenses! I'm in command now!"

__

My memory was that Eldigan was being fairly sensible until his final, fatal decision, but... Nah, he's already slipping here. I get what they're going for - Chagall is going into the dialogue with a level of paranoia and anger that Eldigan simply doesn't see a possibility to get through to him - but it's a weak look that he doesn't even mention that this entire battle started because of Chagall, and that Eldigan didn't even know of the plans until the fight started.

Eldigan's Cross Knights don't seem too dangerous individually, but you can't ignore that they're a big red blob of high-movement, Cantering, 1-2-ranged units.

And you can't ignore that Eldigan has a +40 hit/avo aura, either. This entire skirmish honestly seems like it'll be tricky - you'll want to remove Eldigan from the equation as quickly as possible, but that isn't easy, either, with him being at the back of his mooks, and with Raquesis not exactly being the most bulky character we have. It might be possible to kite the group a bit to whittle down their numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'll struggle a bit with this part of the fight.

Eldigan himself is pretty OP, of course. I'm sure it's possible to beat him without Raquesis pushing him to do really stupid things, but 52 Atk, 24 Def, and 30 Res signal very loudly that there's a non-violent solution to this mountain of stats.

(I actually don't remember if talking to Eldie will despawn or de-red the Cross Knights. We'll see, although I'm going to assume that the answer is "no")

Chagall clearly has been working out these past 6 months. He gained 15 levels, improving his Str/Skl/Spd/Def by +4 each and his HP by +15, as well as acquiring a rather strong 2-range option (29 Atk targetting Res). Still a stationary boss with no long-ranged options, of course.

On 3/6/2024 at 10:07 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Well...

Not in this game, he didn't.

That guy has a face. Not the proper gatekeeping experience.

On 3/6/2024 at 11:44 PM, Jotari said:

Chagall's impatience also serves to obscure Grannvale's actions somewhat and frame him as the sole guilty party. The game never directly hides anything, but its focus and innate player centric morality bias makes a line like "btw the Grannvale people in charge were abusing their power" just sort of get lost in the shuffle. We know the story, even ping who hasn't played it, so we know where this all leads and can analyze it from that perspective, but for a first time player who knows nothing of further events, I think the perspective would be very different, and that that was done on purpose to give the twist at the end of this chapter more punch. Like imagine if at the end of the first act Nyna betrayed Marth, or Mycen betrayed Alm or Hardin betrayed Marth (oh wait that actually happened, but it just wasn't as good as this because they put evil flags everywhere...and it was still the best part of Mystery's story).

It's also important that the original Bad Thing - Sigurd annexing all of Verdane and half of Agustria - is also just what a Fire Emblem player is expecting to do. It's a big part of why I like Eldigan's "What the fuck, Sigurd" moment at the end of the previous chapter: It's surprising (or would be, if I was unspoiled), but it still makes sense. It might put the player in a similar situation as Sigurd: You do the task in front of you without realising that you/Sigurd is continuously digging himself deeper into a hole of your/his own making. These first two (three, if we count the prologue) chapters are done really well narratively, I think.

On 3/7/2024 at 1:36 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Briggid would be way more fun if Kaga just... let her be bad. Maybe she actually leads her Pirates down to Augustria, and the only way to recruit her is having Edain give her the Yewfelle. Imagine that, your healer recruiting an enemy archer. Alternatively, her crew turns on her - but because she's too greedy! She's been lining her britches with gold, to the detriment of her crew, and they've had enough. So she'd become a playable "ally of convenience", until Edain restores her memories.

If I recall, Genealogy is the first FE game that allows a female antagonist to be a proper villainess, so maybe a playable proper villainess is still a step too far for Kaga :lol:

On 3/7/2024 at 1:36 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Holy crow.

Azelle gaming.

The earliest I've gotten him to promotion is, like, the middle of chapter 4. So well done!

Two full paragon arena runs, plus not playing at dondon speed, plus Azelle getting a fair bit of monetary babying in ch.1-2 :lol:

March 6

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh I forgot this portrait was also here. Come to think about it, I don't think Thracia has a generic soldier at all - it just uses recolored bossmen and such for its cutscene nobodies. Then FE6 created the red soldier boy that would go on to become the series' staple generic. For a while, at least. Awakening onwards they were giving all generic classes their own portraits, so having a generic soldier for cutscenes stopped being necessary.

wdym, "generic soldier"? Clearly, that is the exact same man that Eldigan praised at the beginning of Ch.1 for a job well done. Or are you trying to imply that Kage did not do 3H Gatekeeper first?

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, it's a pretty interesting situation they came up with here. Chances are even if Chagall waited out the year, Grannvale would've just gone "lol no" at Sigurd's request to let him get his kingdom back, and then basically the same thing would happen in the end.

It's great. Nobody is looking good in this situation. Eldigan is the closest to looking good here. If I recall, when I watched an FE4 LP years ago, I found him to be pretty reasonable (and not even just reasonable "for a Camüh") basically until he made is very smart final decision.

4 hours ago, BrightBow said:

It's like in the German translation for PoR, where Elfenlicht is a fire spell while Elfenblitz is a light spell. Also the Sonic Sword is the Donnerschwert for some reason.

One could maybe argue that "Donner" is the rumbly part of a thunderstorm, so it is a sonic phenomenon, if you will. ...yeah, it's a stretch. And the firy Licht and light Blitz is just actively disorienting.

March 6

46 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Hm, I don't think I've ever tried a magic sword on Seliph, I generally find his dad's high kill Silver Sword to be sufficient. Could be worth trying, you could also consider passing one down to Leif, who would appreciate it against some armor knights on his join chapter. Nanna having one means she could do the job, but it's helpful to get Leif as much exp as you can.

My thought process is that Seliph doesn't have a lance rank until he promotes, which would make a magic sword his only source of 1-2 range until then. But of course, the same is true for Leif, so if he faces more high Def / low Res enemies than Seliph in their respective joining spots, it would make sense to prioritise Leif.

53 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Altena doesn't really need a Silver Lance, but then nobody else does either.

Yeah, the demand just isn't really there. Erin and Raquesis would both be able to use it post-promotion, but they can't pass it their respective daughters. I suppose it would be a good strong physical weapon for Raquesis, since Silver and Brave Swords will end up on other characters. Although she might do fine with Silver Axe and/or Silver Bow, the former being uninheritable and the latter in even lower demand than the Silver Lance.

6 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Well, as long as we don't call it a Levin Sword. The heck is a "Levin" supposed to be?

Quote

Archaic English term for "lightning"; from the Middle English levene, possibly descended from the Latin lumen, "light".

https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Levin_Sword#Etymology_and_other_languages

That is interesting, actually. Could've kept it at "Levene Sword" to avoid the confusion with Lewyn's actual Japanese name, though.

8 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Ballista in Vestaria Saga are 12 range. But they also have a minimum range of 8. So they still only cover a range of 4 tiles.

That sounds both pretty cool, thanks to its uniqueness, and like a pain to keep track of. I hope they're at least immobile.

March 6

FE4 Chapter 3: Eldigan the Lionheart

Agusty (Turn 0)

Spoiler

Honoring his promise to Eldigan, Sigurd allows Chagall his freedom and does not interfere. Sigurd adopts Agusty as his headquarters, and while his troops there recuperate, he persists in negotiating Agustria's return to governance by its own king. Despite his determination to restore Chagall's rule, his orders from Belhalla never change: to remain in Agusty and to govern its citizens.

Scarcely six months have passed, and yet Grannvale's ruling administrators have already grown arrogant and have taken to abusing their power over Agustria for their own gain. Day by day, the Agustrian people grow ever wearier of Grannvale's actions. Before long, as he feared, Sigurd finds himself yet again caught in a new conflict. Reports abound of Chagall raising his army anew at Madino Castle, vying to reclaim his lost capital from Sigurd.

Further north beyond Madino, the reviled pirates of Orgahil prepare themselves to sweep in and profit from the land's chaos. Belhalla's orders demand that Sigurd must maintain control of Agusty above all else. Sigurd's heart lies heavy in the face of the impending crisis.

The looming battle for Agustria... A trial between friendship and loyalties. Before Sigurd looms a final battle in Agustria's north: a showdown fated to shape the course of Jugdral's history.

: "Is the army ready to move in? Those fools couldn't possibly see this coming. Right, as arranged. Move out! This is our final chance to return Agusty to our control. Just look at them... Lingering in my kingdom, oh-so-carefree. ...I grow weary of them. They will pay dearly for this! Jacoban! Where's that lousy sellsword gotten to this time?"
: "Need me, do you?"
: "I've seen just how good a fighter you are. You're in charge of the castle defenses."
: "Yeah, I know... Might be a boring job, but you're payin' awfully well for it. Let's see 'em learn to fear my bolt sword."
: "That's what I like to hear. Don't fail me."
"Now, Eldigan's still at Silvail, is he? Hm... How will he take this? I wonder..."

It's the return of the world's greatest guardsman!

: "Gah... I couldn't possibly fight Sigurd. What in the world can I do now..."

I do like the set-up. Yes, you can point at Chagall for restarting hostilities, but as much of a little shit he may be, it has also to be said that Grannvale acting as an occupational army (with all the abuses this entails) actually makes it understandable for Chagall to take this gamble, even if it's framed as a more petty "Grr, I am the big king man here!!" in the dialogue.

In any case, this leads to both Sigurd and Eldigan being pushed into eventual conflict by their respective superior's actions, with both of them not really doing anything to prevent it, unless we count Eldigan's epic negotiation skills in the previous chapter ("pls no war" - "No, lmao. Straight to jail" - "Oh no how unexpected"). In short, I can see this upcoming fight as a Camüs-on-Camüh conflict, in which both Sigurd and Eldigan play the role of the (in theory) good man doing nothing.

And finally, we go all the way up to the northern edge of the map.

: "Oi, cap'n! Looks like the mainland down south's gettin' ready for 'nother war. This is gettin' interestin'... This is our chance, I recon, with nuthin' stoppin' us from fleecin' the villages. Both them armies'll be at each other's throats, so there'll be nobody interested in gettin' between us an' th' villages."
: "Shut it, Duvall! I won't allow any petty thefts under my watch. I refuse to let us sink so low. Don't forget, we're heroic thieves. That's what the name of Orgahil now means to the world!"

: "That wench struts aroun' like the boss, but she ain't really the ol' cap'n's sprog. The cap'n jus' found 'er lost when she was a tiny thing an' raised 'er as 'is own. She still took over when 'e died, but little she knows she ain't really his brat. She ain't the real boss, so there's nuffin' t'worry 'bout. Now, let's go 'elp ourselves to sum treasure!"

There's something deeply funny about a gang of pirates so deeply respectful of the legitimacy of power passed by blood. "Aw, sorry cap'n, ev'ry single 'un o' us 'ates ev'ry single order that wench gives, but we can't have 'er walk the plank 'cuz of the divine mandate she in- inhert-- inhertert-- she GOT from t'ol' cap'n"

: "Dire news, sire! King Chagall's army has struck, and they have the castle surrounded!"
: "What?! That fool... We were so close to finally withdrawing from Agustria. There's no sense in attacking us now! Where in the blazes is Eldigan..."
: "That isn't all, sire. It appears that pirates from Orgahil are attacking amidst the confusion."
: "Is that so... I suppose we've no choice, then. Ready everyone for battle."
:"My love... You're about to fight again, aren't you?"
: "I'm afraid so. I'm sorry, Deirdre, but you mustn't come with me this time. Seliph is but a newborn, and he needs you."
: "Yes, dear..."
: "You needn't look so anxious, Deirdre. I'll be back before long, I promise. Shanan, I've a favor to ask of you. Would you look after Deirdre and Seliph, please?"
: "Of course! Don't worry about a thing."
: "Ha! As spirited as ever, Shanan. At the very least, Deirdre, he ought to keep you in good cheer. Don't worry about a thing, Deirdre. I'll be back for you. I promise."
: "Milord..."

"There is nothing to worry about. Let me reiterate: Nothing. To worry. About. Nothing. At all. Nothing bad will happen during this chapter of our story. Everything is good. Hunky-dory, even."

The map! It's somewhat different in that Sigurd's initial position in Agusty is actually surrounded by five groups of enemies, each consisting of one commander and four mooks.

__

Some Lance Knights to the west (3). The commander hits quite hard with a Silver Lance, while the mooks are a lot more manageable at 25 Atk.

__

And Lance Armours to the east (4). Similar attacking power, with more bulk but less movement, and Javelins on the generics.

__

A group of mages southest of Madion (1). Hard-hitting, since only the castle-bound Deirdre has truly excellent Res, although the generics only hit for 17 Atk. Very frail, obviously.

____

And lastly, two groups at more or less the same location. It's always difficult to prevent bow knights from teaming up on somebody, between their 2-range and Canter, but they're a bit weaker than the other enemies to compensate.

__

For Madion Castle, a mixed defense force with Jacoban on top of the fort. He doesn't hit quite as hard at 2-range, with the Elthunder spell cast by his sword having 14 Mt (i.e. 19 Atk). He isn't terribly bulky, either - Sigurd hits him for 24 dmg, which should three-shot him even if he gets a turn of healing in.

The unusually-looking map sprite in the center of the group is that of a Bishop. Healer only, but he's rather good at the job.

Finally, the middle Ballista (more distinct-looking in the map animation) is of the Iron variety, hitting significantly harder than the regular ol' ones flanking it. Luckily, if Kaga did 15 range first, he didn't do so in Genealogy, but this still creates a significant no-fly zone for Erin.

As usual, the first thing to do on a map is going into the arena. Ayra first because she is still wearing the Paragon ring and thus would like to beat the arena immediately and not wait for the Brave Sword she'll get soon...

__

...and she manages to do so. Turns out she's rather not bad at this thing, even though she needed to fish for Astra against the Brave Axe user, of all people.

And this makes her the first character to grab a promotion! Well, depending on your view point; I didn't save after showing Lex's promotion and he's technically still unpromoted as I'm taking this screenshot, but he of course reached Lv.20 before Ayra did.

The opponents in the arena are as follows:

Tyler (Cavalier | Steel Sword): 19 Atk | 96 Hit | 5 AS | 39 HP | 8 Def | 0 Res
	-or-
Lipp (Bow Knight | Steel Bow):  23 Atk | 86 Hit | 0 AS | 39 HP | 8 Def | 0 Res

Pelleo (Axe Knight | Steel Axe): 28 Atk | 88 Hit |  -9 AS | 42 HP | 9 Def | 1 Res
		   | Hand Axe):  20 Atk | 68 Hit | -11 AS 

Treville (Myrmidon | Steel Blade): 27 Atk | 88 Hit | 8 AS  | 45 HP | 9 Def  | 1 Res
	-or-
Geller (Armored Bow | Brave Bow):  27 Atk | 98 Hit | -1 AS | 55 HP | 14 Def | 1 Res

Pazan (Armr. Lance | Steel Lance): 30 Atk | 100 Hit |  -4 AS | 58 HP | 15 Def | 1 Res
		   | Javelin):	   26 Atk |  80 Hit | -10 AS

Doma (Dark Mage | Jormungand): 36 Atk | 118 Hit | 2 AS | 61 HP | 14 Def | 16 Res

Keller (Duke Knight | Brave Lance): 34 Atk | 108 Hit |  2 AS | 64 HP | 15 Def | 5 Res
		    | Javelin):	    31 Atk |  88 Hit | -4 AS

Thornton (Great Knight | Brave Axe): 36 Atk | 100 Hit | 3 AS | 67 HP | 18 Def | 5 Res
	-or-
Luigi (Arch Knight | Brave Bow):     32 Atk | 110 Hit | 7 AS | 67 HP | 16 Def | 5 Res

And the following characters visited the arena after Ayra's smashing success:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Arden	  8.41	  39  16   0   6   5   3  15   0  26275  +72   [3]
Lex	  24.24*  52  27   2  16  14  12  25   3  42140  +320  [*]
Azel	  21.38*  41   7  22  13  22   6  10  13  21640  +420  [*]  holds Paragon
Holyn	  15.00	  43  15   0  20  17   3  11   1  34500  +118  [5]

Ayra	  20.62*  47  23   2  28  28   5  12   4  50000  +444  [*]
Erin	  17.28	  41  14   2  13  23   8  15   9  46360  +548  [*]
Alec	  8.81	  37  12   0  11  11   5  11   0  17920  +118  [4]
Finn	  22.82*  46  22   0  16  20  16  17   4  34030  +364  [*]

Midir	  20.30*  44  17   1  16  19   8  13   4  38280  +452  [*]
Jamke	  16.05	  46  15   0  16  17  10  11   1  32140  +448  [7]

All full runs (and Jamke's) were entirely done with Paragon. Arden, Holyn, and Alec just burned some RNG.
Ethlyn (39 HP / 8 Def): gets past Pazan w/ Miracle Sword and Aideen healing her (1->26 HP). Could do so and keep the Paragon Ring for a while for some extra healing XP. Quan would have to spend his first turn gifting her money to do this.
Lachesis (28 HP / 9 Def): also gets past Pazan with Aideen's help. From full HP, her Miracle isn't strong enough (7 HP). Loses to Keller, at least without further set-up. Still some ways away from 40k gold.
Beowulf: Can only get up to and past Treville without Brave Sword. Also not close at all to 40k gold.
I think I'll see if I can get Lewyn some money to Paragon through the arena. He's kinda low-level, actually.

As you can see, Finn, Midir, and (most impactfully) Azel reached Lv.20 during their arena runs, too. This opens up some equipment options that are relevant for who will be able to bring what into the second generation - specifically, Azel's sword rank and Finn's A-rank in lances - so this might be a good point to muse over that a little bit. I do have to remember that Quan, Ethlyn, and Finn will leave Sigurd at the end of this chapter.

Our strongest swords are two Silvers, the Brave Sword, and the four Magic swords.
- Seliph gets Sigurd's Silver Sword.
- Magic swords go to [Azel->Patty], [Lachesis->Nanna], [Erin->Fee], [Sigurd->Seliph]
- Brave Sword to Durmott, Silver Sword to Larcei. Scathach can't inherit from Lex.
- Miracle Sword to Nanna? I was thinking Patty, but she can't get it due to inversed inheritance.
- Thief Sword to Fee
Lances: 2x Silver, 1x Brave.
- One Silver stays on Finn.
- I guess there isn't that much variability? Brave on Erin->Fee, 2nd Silver on Quan->Altena, or am I missing anything or anybody?
Bows: ...I mean, Killer Bow from Midir to Lester. Probably Brave+Silver, as well, just out of principle.
Tomes: If Tiltyu promotes, she should pass Elwind to Tine. Otherwise, Lewyn->Arthur.
- Apart from the invariable Forseti inheritance, I don't think the other tomes matter as much.
Staves: Physic and Warp from Aideen to Lana.
- Nanna already starts with Mend. Return to her? Can't do anything else, she'll come with Staves (C)
- Ced is the only one who can get Rescue, Fortify.
- Silence+Sleep probably should go to Lana, just because she joins early?
Oh man, all the rings...
- Str+5: No idea.
- Mag+5: Azel's been carrying this the entire time. Might actually be fine to give to Patty.
- Spd+5: Also on Azel right now. Can't really predict if anybody will need this, although Patty probably won't.
- Skl+5: On Finn right now. I might just let him keep it, or get it on Midir/Lester to make the Brave Bow more reliable.
- Def+5: On Erin. Also seems sensible. Bulky flyers are nice.
- Res+5: At the Pawnbroker right now. Seliph?
- Mov+3: Sylvia wants it, but won't have anybody to inherit it to, so she'll have to pawn it to somebody else eventually. Sigurd->Seliph? He does start out horseless.
- Pursuit: Either Lewyn->Arthur, or let Ethlyn take it away from Gen1 after this map.
- Life Ring: Doesn't seem like the most impactful thing.
- Bargain: It's still on Erin, but I think I'll put (and keep) it on Azel soon.
- Knight Ring: Sylvia wants this one, too. Probably best on Seliph on accord of his horselessness, since Sylvia won't procreate.
- Return Ring: Pawnbroker right now. Can't predict who this would be good on, either. Nanna, since she'll probably get the Return staff, too?

So that's where I am right now. Arenaing really takes a lot of time compared to how much is worth writing about it. :lol:

Apologies for not answering to the most recent replies. I'm reading along, of course, but I wouldn't have much to add except nodding along, saying "Hm yes. Interesting", especially when the discussion is about areas we're yet to visit. Don't let that discourage you, though. :lol:

March 5

https://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/miscellaneous/arena-data/

Geller (the ranged tier 3 arena fighter in chapter 3) is mistakenly listed to have the same stats as Trevick, whom he replaces for bow-using characters.

Geller has:

A Brave Bow, not a Steel Bow
55 HP
13 Str (+ 14 Mt on the Brave Bow = 27 Atk)
9 Skl (Arena has +20 avoid, so Geller has 98 raw hit vs. Midir's 18+20 avoid. BB has 80 hit --> Skl = (98-80) / 2)
7 Spd (he has -2 avoid --> -1 AS; Brave Bow has 8 weight)
14 Def

I'm unfamiliar with ROM hacking, so I can't check his stats directly. I can't tell his Mag or Res as a result.

March 4

1 hour ago, RPGuy96 said:

I find chapter 2 kind of annoying because it acts like a big Y and heavily incentivizes you to just use Sigurd for everything, which I find boring. I like chapter 3, though, and there's generally a lot happening in different parts of the map so you might too.

I think I managed to avoid the Sigurd solo relatively well - looking at the W/L records, his 21 kills are actually behind Finn's 23 - but this is certainly a very Horse Emblem-y map. With a bit more foresight, it's maybe possible to just keep your foot units near the path towards Mackily while leaving Anphony for the horses, though. For me, Azel managed to still do a decent amount outside of the arena thanks to a Warp, at least.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

As critical as I often am about this game, I did enjoy my first FE4 run enough that I got from start to finish without really having to force myself. It was very far from a FE I'd call super enjoyable, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't get to the end either. What I'm trying to say is, I get what you mean here.

That said, I also feel this is probably one of the least replayable, if not the least replayable FE in the series. Because on replay you're going to feel all the walking, all the arenaing and where's the variety? There's one small team for gen 1 you're basically always going to use, and second gen is a choice between breaking the game with obscene child units (children are basically always good, you have to look hard for parents that yield a genuinely bad child - except for Sylvia's kids, who are the opposite lmao) or getting subs and still breaking it with the few broken fixed units you still get.

There's an argument to be made about how important replayability is, but for this series in particular it's one of its main draws for me personally, which made my opinion of this game tank severely.

I'll say that the ability to "build" the children in itself probably is a good replay draw for many players, as overkill as it might be for actually beating ch.6 to endgame. For me personally, this might be a case where the planning would be more fun than the execution, but I could imagine myself returning to the game just to do Lex/Tiltyu so I can try to play Arthur as a bonk mage after promotion. Add a substitute run (which has the added benefit that you don't need to train anybody in gen 1 just to turn them into better parents), and that's potentially three playthoughs I can see myself doing.

Of course, some of the modern FE games, Fates in particular, do the unit customisability game much better than Genealogy. But out of the old FE games, it's probably the only one where you can not only use, but also create funny characters.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'd say it's more like the king could just come along and say "hey Sigurd, do this thing that happens to be the opposite of what you promised to Eldigan" and then Sigurd has to commit treason or break his promises. I don't recall exactly how the transition from chapter 2 to 3 goes, but... Well, two guesses as to what he ends up doing.

Well, if Agustrian officials went to Grannvale and said, "your king has agreed, with Sigurd as messenger, to leave our country now", and Sigurd, stupid himbo that he is, confirmed that, indeed, he had made that promise in the name of the king... I'd say that this, at the very least, would be a Bad Look. Remember that Reptor and Langbard (or whatever their names were) are already building the narrative that Sigurd is part of a conspiracy against the crown. If Sigurd then claims to speak for the king without having the authority to do so, I'd say it'll be pretty easy to integrate that in the conspiracy story.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pretty sure that's actually what I did, myself. Either that or I just powered on through. I can't remember. Actually, I might've just powered on through lol. I do remember I had Lewyn take care of the village cluster, it seemed like the most obvious course of action.

Lewyn (with Sylvia speeding him up) saving the village cluster seems to be the only feasible way, really. But that doesn't mean he's beholden to the rewards, of course.

Brute forcing Mackily is definitely not that bad. I was worried initially that the five unreachable Ballistae would be a pain, but they're just far too weak and inaccurate to be too much of a threat, unless you're putting like Dew in all their overlapping ranges, on a road tile for good measure. You can basically just face the mooks outside of Clement's Sleep range and then move in within a turn to kill him. Although I don't know how Genealogy's staff AI works - Clement targeted Quan for me, which really didn't matter too much, but if there's a chance that he goes for Sigurd, that would obviously suck.

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

With the way the crusader bloodlines have been treated so far, it is a little surprising that the Hezul folks are just mere subordinates to an unrelated royal family.

I was wondering about that, yeah. I was already slightly surprised that Verdane's royals don't have holy blood, but that kinda fits with the country being seen as a bunch of ruffians by everybody else. For Agustria, it's definitely an odd detail that they have only the one noble house with holy blood and then nobody else.

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

I suppose unlike "I like it rough" the line "You ever see a little girl with THESE before!?" from the old patch wasn't considered to be quite iconic enough to be kept.

I'm just happy that Sylvia doesn't go "LOOK AT MY TITS" anymore, although she's still plenty irritating without that line.

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

Well, Chagall wouldn't be the "last survivor of the Agusty dynasty" if he didn't murder his dad.
Just saying.

Would really like to have a scene with Lachesis here. From her perspective it would most certainly make sense to put the whole mess firmly on Chagall's feet. And she would likely see little value in a definition of chivalry that puts blind loyalty to a patricidal moron running the country into the ground above all else.

Her staying with Sigurd after all of this is most certainly not surprising. But considering Jamke is still around for no reason, it's impossible to consider this the result of a character arc unless it's actually shown.

Eldigan was very willing to give Chagall the benefit of the doubt at the start of the chapter, dismissing Raquesis very decisively when she brought up the rumours about the patricide. It's not like he was listening into Chagall and Manfroy's expositionary talks, so it seems plausible that Eldigan still sticks to the "innocent until proven guilty" principle even after witnessing very directly what kind of person Chagall is.

So unless there's some explanation offered somewhere in the game, I'd still say it's a bit odd for Raquesis to stay with Sigurd, if not as blatantly so as it is with Jamke. It would seem possible that Eldigan is still aware that Chagall is a bit (OK, a lot) of a loose gun, so he wants Raquesis out of his way for safety, but that's something I would rather have the game say explicitly instead of Raquesis just staying with Sigurd without comment.

March 4

FE4 Chapter 2: Crisis in Agustria

Mackily --> Agusty

Spoiler

To get the stuff outside of the main group around Sigurd out of the way, here's the remaining villages:

: "The late King Imca was truly a great man. His sudden passing has been nothin' but devastating for us all. He's barely been buried for long and his son Chagall's already runnin' the country into the ground! If Lord Eldigan had a claim to the throne, somehow, then we wouldn't be in this mess..."

4000 gold -> Midir

This is enough to put Midir precisely at 40k gold, so after this, he gets warped to Mackily by Aideen to go through the arena, Paragon-style.

: "Psst! Wanna hear somethin' saucy? Y'know how Lord Eldigan has a li'l sister, right? Well, lookin' at 'emm wouldn't ya say there's more to it than that? If ya know what I mean... Ohoho! I love me a li'l bit of gossip! Hmm? I've better things to do than run me mouth y'say? Fine, then."

5000 gold --> Erin

This should answer my previous question if Raquesis obsessing over Eldigan as the pinnacle of masculinity looks less weird to a Japanese player.

(That said, pornographic satire about the rich and powerful was very popular back in the day, especially when the powerful person in question was a woman, so maybe let's just file this under that. I know that Marie Antoinette had been constantly accused of extramaritial affairs, including with other women (gasp!), and the less said about Catherine the Great's horse, the better)

: "Anphony's Lord Macbeth is the foulest, most gold-obsessed man there is. He does nothin' but torment us for his own profit. I wish I could kill 'em with my bare hands!"

5000 gold --> Erin

: "Hey, thanks for saving us! I want you to have this, one of my favorite things. It's a pretty little bracelet, huh? Wear it at the shops and the nice man there'll be happy to give ya a discount!"

1000 gold; Bargain Band --> Erin

Erin is going to keep the Bargain Band on her until the end of the chapter. Eventually, I think I'll want it on Azel, so that Patty can distribute the money she'll save among the needy. I don't know how much of a point there is in giving it to somebody else in between - the effect is immensely powerful, of course, but the up-front cost of 40k might make it difficult to really make use of it.

: "Lord Eldigan is a sincere and righteous man, but alas, his sincerity's never been welcome to the ears of King Chagall. That's gotta be why he was locked up. Please, for the good of all Agustria... Help Lord Eldigan!"

2000 gold --> Erin

: "Beware of Bishop Clement, the lord of Mackily Castle. That dastard wields a magical staff that they call a Sleep staff. If you're not careful, you'll find yourself snoozin' and wide open to bein' attacked."

5000 gold --> Aideen

Wayyy ahead of you, gramps.

Aideen grabs this one village because Erin will still have enough money for the Paragon Ring and the Brave Lance without it, and because Aideen as a weaponless staff user really appreciates the money. This is especially true because she'll spend the three remaining Warp charges on Midir (for the arena), Sylvia (for XP and so that I can more easily get her conversation with Sigurd), and Deirdre (for XP).

: "There's still gotta be descendants of the dark lord Loptyr livin' somewhere, right? Folk in the big cities like Agusty an' Mackily certainly seem to think so. Every year they do these huge hunts for Loptyr's spawn. They arrest a ton of people, then burn 'em all at the stake, even if they're innocent... Madness, I tell ya!"

2000 gold --> Erin

I vaguely remember this - people with Loptyr blood are a prosecuted minority desperate for relief... except that they're also desperately trying to be the ones holding the knives. If I recall, Arvis is only really in for the first half of that objective, so it's nice that it's set up a little bit ahead of time.

And there we go. All villages are blue now. And you may notice a certain dearth of red on the map, too. We'll get to that in a bit.

I do like that about Genealogy, really - that there tend to be multiple things happening at different spots of the map. As humongous as the maps are, and as much of the ol' "move characters from A to B" there is, at least for this first playthough, I'm really not bothered by the game being too slow or anything. I can imagine that this might change if you replay the game (as stuff like arenaing also takes a lot of time to optimise), but that's obviously purely speculative.

Speaking of the "multiple things" - I tried to get a good miracle strat with Lachesis again, but she unfortunately went from 21 HP (being one-shot) to 26 HP (too too high to reliably dodge Heltzog (and I'd bet 62 cent that he's supposed to be "Herzog", which is simply the German equivalent to a duke)). Come to think of it, I thought that castle healing had a random component, but Raquesis recovered 5x 5 HP while guarding Heirhein. Which means that with 5 HP --> 25 HP, she would've been able to reduce Heltzog's hit rate to 3%, which should've been close enough. Oh well. This is not a ranked run at all, so I don't expect these errors to kill me.

In other arenaing news, Midir does manage to go through the entire thing. I think he had to brute force against the penultimate opponent (the Elthunder Mage) because he had an unlucky first attempt, but otherwise got through everybody with his first attempt. I didn't really make screenshots of his run though, so I might misremember.

__

After that, Azel has his turn. He sells his Shield Ring to be able to afford the Speed Ring before facing Buchanan the Myrmidon...

...oh, and he's the one struggling vs. Tyakov. Maybe Midir just cruised through after all. In any case, Azel manages to brute-force Tyakov and then beat Chaimos, as well.

__

Azel then keeps the Paragon Ring on for a little while, grabbing two or three kills on the field with it, before marching back to Mackily so that Erin can pick it up. She clears the arena, too, no problem - she needs a bit of luck vs. Chaimos, but his hit rate against her really isn't very high.

__

And while this is mixing up with the fight against Chagall's Last Stand, Ayra (with a little help from Dew) managed to Thief Sword her way to 40k gold, allowing her a full Paragon run, too. She buys the Slim Sword from the Armoury for accuracy against Chaimos specifically and then proceeds to dominate him with an Astra proc.

This means that Ayra also carries the Paragon Ring into Ch.3. Hopefully, she'll be able to clear that arena without the Brave Sword, since that would make the pre-turn 1 arenaing a lot easier.

Now, next step: the remaining conversations. All of them will technically not be canon because I reloaded after getting them - first Ethlyn returned Sigurd for his talk with Lewyn, and near the end of the map, he ran back towards Mackily for Erin and Sylvia to say their bits.

: "Lewyn, I presume? The one who's been helping defend the villages? I appreciate the aid. As I understand it, you're a bard, but you also wield magic? That's unusual."
: "Something like that. I guess it's a hobby. You're that Sigurd fellow, aren't you? It's obvious what your little hobby is: war! Clearly you've got so much spare time, you spend it starting war after war!"
: "Come again? You seem angry, but-"
: "Don't play dumb! Think about the people of all the countries that you're flattening! You come barging in, swords flashing, and all you do is ruin the lives of normal folk who're trying to make a living here!"
: "You're right. My apologies, Lewyn... I didn't even think about that, but I can't stand knowing I've done this to them."
: "Words are just words without action backing them up. If you really feel so bad, then why not pull your army out?"
: "Mm, you're right... Very well. I'll consult with my troops and arrange a retreat."
: "Wait, you're serious about this?"
: "Of course. I've been mulling over retreating for a while already, and you just gave me the answer to all of this. I've had enough of the war approach. I think I'd rather seek a diplomatic answer."
: "Yeah, no. Trying to get through to Chagall now would be a total waste of everyone's time. Besides, if you lot pull out now, then nothing stands between a peeved king and and all the citizens who've helped you so far. Are you sure you're okay with leaving them all hanging like that?"
: "Well, no, but... Er... I..."
: "Ahahaha! Y'know, I guess I was wrong about you. You're alright, Sigurd. Say, why don't I help you finish this fight up?"
: "Er... Okay, I suppose... Who are you, anyway?"
: "Who, me? I'm just a wayward troubadour, my friend..."

"Don't do war!" - "OK" - "Just kidding, do war a little" - "OK"

But to be honest, Lewyn makes a good point in his own (shitty) ways. Even though Sigurd's continuously conquesting ways are, well, not very intelligent - invading a country and then just leaving it with the devestated lands, potential succession crises, and all-around bad blood between faction that has only worsened by Sigurd's little adventure would be even worse than what Sigurd keeps doing.

Now, if only somebody could actually drive home the lection about not immediately invading every enemy at the first opportunity...

: "Lord Sigurd, I presume?"
: "I am indeed. And you, madam?"
: "My name is Erin. I'm a royal knight of Silesse. I wish to join your army, so as to keep an eye on Prince Lewyn."
: "Er... Prince Lewyn? What are you on about?"
: "My lord Lewyn is the rightful heir to the Silessian crown. He is a scion of Ced, the Wind Crusader, and is the sole inheritor of his power."
: "Wait, THAT Lewyn?! Heh... I knew there was something odd about him, but I'd never have thought him to be Silessian royalty. Any idea why he's pretending to be a bard?"
: "That's a long story, sir, and I'm hardly the most qualified to tell it. Perhaps try asking him later, but for now..."
: "Fair enough. It's hardly my business, anyway. I'm glad you're here, Erin. A pegasus knight among us would be a great help. Would you mind aiding us in battle?"
: "Yes, sir! I'll do my part!"

Well, Erin won't be able to participate in actual battle on this map, but I'm sure she'll have her chance.

: "Eee! It's the great Lord Sigurd!"
: "Er... Hello, there? You're a dancer, right? The battlefield is too dangerous for the likes of you. Go back to the castle."
: "Come on, sir! Don'tcha know who I am? I'm Sylviaaaaaaa! You can call me Sylvie if ya want, though!"
: "Look, I'm sorry, but I really don't have the time to look after children. Be a good little girl and run along back to the castle, alright?"
: "Rrrgh... Good little girl? Look at me! How d'you look at someone this hot and think 'little girl'?! What is wrong with you? Never thought ya'd be such a borin' old stiff, just like everyone else 'round here..."
: "Enough! I have work to do."
: "Sigh... Oh, well. Back to being a lone, delicate flower, sprouting in a battlefield... My beauty is nothing to the tide of bodies..."
: "Ugh... What in the world is..."

Okay, no, it's not just Sylvia's childlike portrait that really makes her dialogue off-putting.

Now then, I hear there is enemies to be stabbed! It seems that Zane's group doesn't move right away - they only did so two turns after they appeared, so either there's some zone trigger to it or it's just delayed a bit.

I first stay fairly defensive, since Zane's Horseslayer really isn't something I want to be hit with.

__

But after this enemy phase, Zane stands in front of most of his soldiers...

: "Grannvale's dogs stand no chance in the face of my warrior's pride! I'll put an end to your rampage!"

____

...allowing for a quick snipe without any danger for anybody.

__

After that, it's really mostly clean-up. I'm a little proud for setting up a perfect Miracle for Finn by attacking a Lance Knight on player phase, though.

____

And so on...

__

...and so on.

The "Knights plus Ballistae" combo sounds strong on paper, but with the Knights using the rather weak and inaccurate Javelin, the total offensive output of this last group of enemies isn't that impressive.

: "Tch... Don't even think about underestimating me. You don't stand a chance of besting me!"

Finn very nearly gets the boss kill...

...and Lex (connecting a 36% in his second try) is the one to grab it.

And with that, Lex has way too much vendor's trash on hand. He and Ayra better hurry up the courting process (and even then, I doubt they'll ever be even close to be wanting for cash, with both of them clearing the Arena and Ayra keeping the Paragon Ring this chapter).

And there's that. Halfway through the first generation, except not really because the Prologue was rather shorter than the properly numbered maps.

: "This ring will help you fight more like a mounted knight. Put it on and it will allow you to keep moving after fighting or healing. I know it will prove highly useful to you. Take care, milady!

Gosh, it seems that the brothers still haven't sorted out their outfit colour coordination.

The Knight Ring very clearly seems like something that should end up on Sylvia, although because I didn't bother to send her into the arena last map, she doesn't really have the cash for that. But until she promotes, Raquesis should be able to make use of it, as well.

: "Sire, King Chagall survived the battle, but he was badly wounded. He's currently being attended to by a royal priest."
: "From what I heard, somebody pulled him from the battlefield when he was defeated. Who in the world would've done that...?"
: "That was me, Sigurd. I rescued King Chagall. I preserved the life of the last survivor of the Agusty dynasty. No matter how unwise his decisions, no matter how ill his temper, I cannot sit in silence and allow my liege to die."
: "Hm? Eldigan?! You're safe! Thank the gods! I've been looking everywhere for you, since I heard you'd been arrested."
: "I suppose I was... But what is the meaning of this, Sigurd? Why is your army swarming the capital the first thing I find upon release? Why are reports saying our castles are now under the rule of Grannvale officers, as if we are a mere tributary state? I'm indisposed for barely any time at all, only to find Grannvale has made itself at home in Agustria behind my back! There had better be a damned good explanation for all of this, Sigurd, or there will be consequences."
: "I'm so sorry, Eldigan. You're absolutely right: none of this makes sense to me, either. As if out of nowhere, the entirety of Agustria suddenly turned against us. We had no choice. I've been ordered to remain here with my army for the time being, to maintain peace and order. Eldigan, please. I know this is a dreadful situation, but one year is all I need. I can restore the country's peace to normal and repair our diplomatic ties, but only if I'm allowed time to do it. Once our time is up, we'll leave your country with no objections. My king and I pledge our word."
: "Hm... I suppose I've little choice but to take you at your word. Very well: you have your year. I shall relocate the king to the northern Madino Castle for his own protection. I'll also leave my Cross Knights stationed at Fort Silvail. Offer even the slightest provocation, and your forces will have us to answer to. Remember, I'm holding you to your word. Break your promise, and we will break you. Do I make myself clear, Sigurd?"
: "Of course. You know I'm not about to betray you. Please, Eldigan. You have to trust me!"

Honestly, I think this is done very well. You spend most of the first three maps just a-conquering castles with nobody questioning the wisdom or righteousness of it... until now, where first Lewyn and then (even if you missed Lewyn's speech) Eldigan chew Sigurd out for his actions. It's surprising, in a way, since you don't necessarily question the game mechanic of "seize castle to win" - that's just how Fire Emblem works, innit - but you can't say that Eldigan's sudden hostility towards his best bro comes out of nowhere, either. Sigurd did just occupy more than half of Agustria, killing two of its dukes and almost slaying its king. We know that he did so because he saw no other choice... but between Eldigan and Lewyn's rants, it's also made very clear that Sigurd's foresight ends roughly at the tip of his nose.

I'm also wondering if it'll come up again how Sigurd is making an oath in his liege's place. I'm not an expert on feudal law, but that seems like something that could easily be seen as an act of treason, to basically assume the power of the king to not only make diplomacy, but to dictate the king's policy with regards to the neighboring country.

That was all for chapter 2, but since I needed to skip ahead to ch.3's home castle to check B/W records and love triangles, I might as well pull Lex's promotion ahead to this update:

: "Masterfully done! You're now able to change class to Great Knight."

__

Ta-dah! Lex is really bulky now. Seven points ahead of Sigurd in Def, which more than makes up for Sigurd's +4 HP lead.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn  W/L
Sigurd	  22.18*  53  23   0  22  22  13  16   4  34080  +635  [*]  59/0
Quan	  14.90*  44  20   0  15  15   7  12   3  47530  +500  [*]  15/4
Noish	  7.68	  35  12   0  10  10   4   9   0  9000	 +131  [4]  6/1
Alec	  7.63	  36  11   0  11  11   5  11   0  13420  +191  [4]  2/1

Beowulf	  10.61	  38  14   0  11  11   3  11   0  20500  +161  [4]  2/0
Lex	  21.04*  49  26   1  14  14  11  23   3  40840  +1140 [*]  23/0
Finn	  19.18	  44  17   0  15  18  14  14   1  47150  +1173 [*]  32/1
Midir	  15.78	  43  14   0  11  14   6   9   1  46380  +679  [*]  16/0

Erin	  11.80	  36  13   1  12  20   8  11   9  33830  +580  [*]  0/0
Arden	  7.69	  38  16   0   6   5   3  15   0  23775  +100  [4]  4/0
Ayra	  16.18	  43  15   2  22  21   5   8   1  18705  +750  [*]  12/1
Holyn	  13.82	  41  14   0  18  17   2  11   1  27500  +182  [7]  0/0

Jamke	  11.57	  41  12   0  16  14   8  10   1  40320  +299  [7]  2/0
Dew	  6.75	  30   7   0   9  16  13   2   1  4000   +279  [3]  3/1
Azel	  17.18	  37   2  16  12  20   6   5  10  44140  +914  [*]  26/1
Lewyn	  10.37	  38   1  15  12  20   7   5  10  27500  +437  [*]  7/0

Deirdre	  7.82	  29   0  16  10  13   6   4  18  21500  +348  [7]  3/0
Ethlyn	  18.48	  39   8  10  15  19  12   8   6  7270   +864  [1]  6/0
Raquesis  7.72	  28  11   8  12  14   5   9   9  21225  +572  [5]  2/0
Aideen	  14.60	  38   2  15  11  11  19   3  10  15400  +660  --   0/0

Sylvia	  3.90	  29   3   0   4  12   7   1   6  9000   +290  [1]  0/0

"" dwelling on your mind (200-299): Arden/Aideen, Azel/Aideen, Lewyn/Sylvia, Lewyn/Erin, Dew/Aideen, Beowulf/Raquesis
"" taken your fancy of late (300-399): Lex/Ayra, Jamke/Aideen
well and truly in love with "" (400-499): Midir/Aideen
Nobody: Alec, Noish, Holyn, Finn

Gosh, Aideen sure is popular with the boys. Five suitors, with otherwise only Lewyn even having more than one.

15 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Alec can survive this too, since he is immune to crits and consequently effective damage.

I do keep forgetting about Nihil. It's honestly a really neat skill, and it's a cool little side effect that this makes Alec an excellent father for Fee.

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

In certain cases, they could figure it out experimentally. Like, if a Mage Knight can wield Bolganone, then they must have at least Minor Fjalar blood. Meanwhile, if a generic Mage (not a "Fire Mage") can wield Bolganone, then they necessarily have Major Fjalar Blood.

This wouldn't work for all classes. An Archer has A Bows by default, so you couldn't test for Ullr holy blood. ...Or any other holy blood, since they only use Bows. Likewise, you could never distinguish between Minor Baldr/Hezul/Odo, nor Dainn/Njorun, as they provide identical rank boosts.

This still works under the assumption that game mechanics aren't just an abstruction, but very specifically measurable in-universe, too. But, for example, what is a Mage Knight but a mage on a horse? Realistically (as applicable as the term can be for a fantasy setting), what's stopping Azel from buying a horse and a sword before Oifey tells him what a nice job he's done? Why would buying that horse precisely coincide with Azel's increased ability to use advanced spells, or those two skills with him becoming swole enough to carry a sword?

For me, the question is if some random teacher would be able to tell the difference between a student with Fjalar blood on the one side, and a student who just happens to have a knack for setting things on fire. Jotari says that there is, but I think this hasn't really come up in Genealogy's writing until now.

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I have a really dumb way of dealing with him - send Dierdre all the way around. Up onto the plateau. That's the only spot where she can cast Silence on Clement, without being in ballista range. But its suuuper tedious to do so. Silver lining, though - afterwards, she can drop Auras on some of the cavalry. Assuming there are no ranged enemies in... well, range.

Honestly, since this map is really awful for Deirdre to keep up with everybody else, this doesn't seem like the worst idea. Certainly not LTC-compatible, but as a casual player, there's not really any punishment for taking it slow after seizing Heirhein and having Lewyn save the village cluster.

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Ich habe Deutschebier getrunken. Dein Radler schmeckt gut. Aber in Amerika, wir haben Bier mit Kürbis, Kaffee, Kakao, etc.. Mehr Vielfahlt!

Yeahh, the Reinheitsgebot is quite the anachronism at this point.

March 3

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

You mean running around in her undearwear and going out to dinner with the prince of Silesia a few times?

One could see a tragic figure in Sylvia, along the lines of "she is seeking sexual attention because that is the only form of appreciation she knows", and Lewyn's off-hand remark seems to go into that direction. While making Lewyn look very shitty, of course, for "taking her to dinner" a few times and then shaming her in front of other people.

Of course, if we ignore the anime-aged portrait for a second, she could also just be a young woman who is fine with, and even looking for, casual relationships, while Lewyn is the kind of guy who will go along with that and then after the act immediately shame the woman for being "loose", because I'm absolutely ready to assume the worst about Lewyn in every regard.

31 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Kaga likes to do that sometimes. Having bosses be oddly weak when story-appropriate. And viceversa, a few times.

I certainly remember FE1!Camus being pretty overtuned compared to literally every other boss in the game, yes.

32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Meme is achieved. Now it's Ardenin' time.

He can sell the ring to Lewyn (as much as I dislike Lewin, I think I want to get Pursuit on Arthur) and retire with the money?

34 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Eggads, Sandima is back to life!

Somehow, Salpatine returned.

34 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh hey, they actually acknowledge it. Neat.

I do like that trope, that the corruption of a character requires some fertile soil to take hold, so that the villain in question isn't just absolved from the guilt of their actions.

March 3

14 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Speaking of putting two and two together, shouldn't Manfroy realize that "that woman's daughter" is also Kurth's daughter and he's wrong about the "single scion" thing? Or is he not privy to the court gossip Sigurd just got about Cigyun and Kurth? I suppose it's possible he thinks Victor is Deidre's father. In any case, it's still worth it to him to recreate major Loptyr blood, but now I'm curious if he just doesn't know that his desired match could also (and obviously does) produce a major Naga heir.

Manfroy does know about Julia carrying Naga blood, right? I think I remember that he's going for the "sweet irony" achievement for the final battle by kagaing her. But of course there's a lot of time for him to figure that out between now and the end of gen 2's campaign.

That said, "The Duke of Velthomer commited suicide and blamed the crown prince in his suicide note" seems like a really big thing for an omnipresent evil cult to miss. I guess fatherhood tests don't exist in Jugdral, but if Manfroy knew about Kurth and Sigyn banging, this would be a rather important eventuality to consider.

...come to think of it, I'm not sure how recognisable holy blood is in-universe, outside of the ability to wield the legendary weapons. Like, the villagers in the Spirit Forest would know (or suspect) that Deirdre carries Loptyr blood because of who her mother is, but would they notice her aptitute at wielding light magic as unusual?

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Open the negotiations screen and try, I'm sure Chagaal et al. will be most unreasonably asking that you cede Chalphy in a peace deal.😜

Well, the solution to that is to besiege Agusty but not actually seize it to avoid warmonger penalties. Although, in Civ5 terms, that ship absolutely would've sailed already with Grannvale fully annexing Verdane.

So I guess there's the logic in Sigurd's actions. "Everybody hates us already anyway, so it makes no difference if we conquer another city or five."

March 3

FE4 Chapter 2: Crisis in Agustria

Anphony --> Mackily

Spoiler

As usual, new things come into motion on the enemy phase after Sigurd seized Anphony:

: "You can't be serious! They've come as far as Anphony?! Are they just going to keep going until all Agustria is theirs? They'll have to come this way. We've no choice but to fight. Deploy the ballistae. We're all that stands between the capital and Grannvale's dogs of war!"

Turns out that "waiting how things play out" isn't always the best course of action. I do like Clement as a minor villain, though - if he can even be called that. Like, all he did was not involve himself with the conflict between Nordion and Heirhein, even if he had planned to throw in with whoever may come out on top. But you can't really fault a guy for not predicting that Sigurd would just go a-conquerin' castle after castle, and now he's kinda forced to resist the foreign aggressor. Poor guy.

I lose a lot of sympathy for Clement after seeing the squad of five Ballistae... up a cliff, so you just have to deal with them being there until you seize Mackily Castle. Other than that, the Mackily squad is mostly notable for including three Mages using Fire, who will of course hit all of our physical characters quite hard.

Clement himself adds to the arseholery of the Ballistae by carrying a Sleep staff, which seems difficult to entirely avoid. The obvious solution would be to have Deirdre Silence him first, but (a) she isn't exactly nearby, and (b) if you don't kill Clement immediately on the same turn, chances are that the Ballistae will tear Deirdre to shreds for daring to approach them.

However, once you close the distance, Clement's rather easy to kill, with his abysmal Def stat and fairly low AS.

: "I need to find Prince Lewyn as quickly as possible. You said you know his location. That's the only reason I'm here."
: "Apologies for the delay, knight, but I just received word of a lead for you. I trust you've noticed we're currently contending with a Grannvale invasion? They have taken Prince Lewyn captive! My scouts report that their army is arresting and executing anyone and anything which stands in their way. Your prince is being held in Evans Castle. Reports say that he is soon to face the axe."
: "No... I can't allow this! Thank you for your assistance. We'll leave to rescue him at once. Our queen, Rahna, cautioned us against clashing with other nations on our mission, but we may have no choice. Should Grannvale's troops cross our way, they'll be confronted without hesitation."
: "Oho... This is even better than I'd hoped! Best of luck on your hunt."
: "I'll be on my way, then."

: "She's gone... Pah! Stupid little girl. Ready the Agusty knights to deploy! End those pigs in a single strike!"

__

Getting tricked by Chagall (Chagall!) really isn't a good look, Erin, darling.

The force that Chagall is sending out... really isn't too impressive. Two groups of five horsies (four goons and one commander), and they're even staggered by about one turn of movement.

Chagall himself is the first Baron boss we face, and he's... not that impressive, honestly. Philip, the third commander of the Heirhein army, hit just as hard and more accurately, while beating Chagall's physical bulk by +3 HP and +2 Def. Chagall has the avoid bonus and healing of his castle tile, but that also makes him a stationary boss locked to 1-range.

He does have a bit of support ability, in form of his Physic staff (assuming he'll use it) and a second Authority star. But overall, he's not as strong as one might expect from the final boss of the map - although I guess that fits with Chagall being a bit of a buffoon in the story.

[HP 50% | Str 20% | Mag 10% | Skl 20% | Spd 30% | Lck 20% | Def 30% | Res 10%]
Skills: Pursuit
Weapon Level: Swords (B), Lances (B)

Erin joins with good base stats considering her low level - her Str is about equal to what Noish, Alec, and Midir have right now, and 18 Spd (and Sword access, if the lighter weight of her Slim Lance still isn't enough to double something) is obviously very nice. Defensively, she's a little squishier on the physical side, but also joins with the Pegasus-typical high Res stat.

Her long-term combat seems a little bit more questionable, though: Not only is her Str growth very low, but she doesn't gain any from her promotion, and while her Def growth is quite decent, her HP growth is decidedly not. However, it seems to be the intended play to swap her over to magic swords, since she get a big +7 bonus to her Mag as a Falcoknight. However however, with her Spd being as excellent as it is, she should be able to quadruple with the Brave Lance most of the time, which should keep her physical combat relevant even as she falls further behind in Str.

Her future husband hasn't joined yet, but I've alluded to him often enough to just say that it's going to be Claude. What can I say, magic-based Pegasi are a nice concept, and Claude gains Fee the second-highest Mag growth possible, as well as a more useful weapon rank increase for both her and Ced, and from what I (vaguely) remember, the increased Res stat can be quite useful in the lategame, too.

Erin and her squad will take a little while before reaching Evans. They only move (I believe) 5 tiles, unless there's somebody to attack inside their full range. Erin is the one in the back, as well as the only one using a Slim Lance instead of a Javelin, which makes it quite feasible to kill a bunch of innocent women before recruiting her.

__

Well then, on to the actual gameplay. Because I marched most of Sigurd's army to or towards Anphony, I'm not exactly in position. But Chagall's Cav troupe spawns at a sufficient distance from Nordion that even though Aideen can't warp anybody there, it being an allied castle, that you can still intercept them fairly easily.

However, Beowulf is not going to participate in that. Because Raquesis can't join the frontline without risking the life of her Paladin friends, Beowulf is going to stay behind as Heirhein to keep her company and provide her with bonus stats.

: "Hey, you! You're that Nordion lady, aren't ya?"
: "E-excuse me?! Such boorishness! What mannter of lowlife is asking?"
: "Oh, er, sorry 'bout that, ma'am. The name's Beowulf, a hired blade."
: "What do you want?"
:" Uh... Well, I just wanted to give ya a quick heads up about fightin'. See, war ain't the fun and games you're used to. And someone as green as you... Well, you're just gonna get in the way. Besides, a princess's a princess. Why not run along back to your castle now?"
: "H-how dare you! My business in battle is just that: my business! Not yours! I'll nail your foul mouth closed!"
: "Heh. You really are Eldigan's sister. Shoulda known you wouldn't be a pushover."
: "What's that? Do you know my brother?!"
: "Oh, yeah. Eldigan and me, we go way back. I'd never've been so nosy if he hadn't asked me to keep an eye on ya."
: "Is that so? Oh, I'm sorry for snapping at you so."
: "Eh, I've seen a lot worse in me time. Hey, how about a quick battle lesson? Eldigan thought it'd be a big help."
: "Why, thank you. I'd like that."

[+2 Str, +2 Skl, +1 Def]

Considering that the chance of Beowulf and Eldigan interacting between Beo's recruitment and now is roughly 0.00%... What are the odds that Beowulf just learned somewhere that Raquesis obsessively adores her brother, so he made the whole story up?

With the help of castle healing, Raquesis manages to get through Buchanan the Myrmidon before the end of the update, but didn't hit a good HP count to cheese her way past the following Lance-using Armour Knight. This still puts her ahead of Beowulf, who would probably need the Speed Ring to beat Buchanan. Later, Jamke joins the two and gets through all the arena except for the final opponent - but really, he's mostly there to function as a healing target for Raquesis. Because hoping for the correct amount of HP restored is a bit of a headache, she gains a bunch of XP through that method instead, although she would definitely appreciate the money she'd get from clearing the rest of the arena. Maybe I'll give it another shot before seizing the final castle.

Since she won't get to the frontlines this map, Raquesis also sells the Thief's Sword so that Ayra can pick it up, in the hope that she might be able to get enough cash to grab the Paragon Band. It's a bit ambitious, though - she's only at roughly 29k when conquering Mackily. But even if she'll only get to the mid-30k range, it might be worth to still get it after going through a few Arena rounds first. Once she and Lex marry, she can basically just take all his cash, since Lex is loaded and will never have to throw 20k to buy and sell the Paragon Ring.

Arden will also join the Heirhein crew eventually, after grabbing the Pursuit Ring. Like Beowulf, he'll be stopped by Buchanan, although I have to admit that I didn't try very hard to find a favourable RN string, nor did I have him buy a better sword than his old trusted Iron.

: "...Sigh. I don't get it. No matter how hard I train or how strong I get, I'm still the butt of every joke 'round here. Maybe if I were more like Alec, with how he can attack twice... That'd be all I need to get a bit of respect, methinks... and maybe a cute lass while I'm at it... Hee hee. But I'm still just me... Back to the ol' grind, I suppose... Hang on? What's this little ring thing? Ooh, maybe it's one of those magical ones I keep hearing about. That'd be grand, wouldn't it? Let's try her on... Hm... Hwooooarh! W-what's this power I'm feeling?! Is this what Alec feels like all the time?"

...Honestly, you know you've hit rock bottom when Alec is the guy you're aspiring to be.

In the north, Midir splits from Aideen in order to grab 14k gold from the collection of villages, putting him to precisely 40k. I have been thinking a bit about who to give the remaining 25k to - Azel was a candidate, because while I wrote earlier that he had been able to clear the arena without the Speed Ring, it turns out that I just hit a particularly lucky RN string for him and he wasn't able to replicate that. But he's still carrying the Return Ring and Def Ring, which he could sell to afford the Spd Ring - with it, he can outspeed Chaimos and hopefully defeat him. So, it's going to be Erin collecting all the remaining money, which should make it very likely that she'll be able to beat the arena. Not quite sure if she'll keep the Bargain Ring indefinitely - eventually, Patty seems like the best inheritance target, I think, so maybe I'll give it to Azel sooner rather than later.

__

Finn goes through the Arena quite easily, not even using the Brave Lance until fighting the last two opponents. he then sells the Paragon Ring and Brave Lance, after buying the Skill Ring because he otherwise would've hit the money cap of 50k. I'll have to take a look at my planned kids' skill stats to see if he'll just keep it.

__

You can also see a rather embarrassing loss for Deirdre, getting merced (or myrmed) despite a +90 avoid bonus from her Circlet's Miracle skill. However, she manages to do better in another attempt, and actually get all the way to Chaimos - who one-shots her, so no shenanigans possible here, unless she'd grab the Def Ring from Azel.

Meanwhile, Aideen stays with Deirdre and the Xmas cavs for a little while to heal their arena wounds for XP. Eventually, she follows Midir because she just loves him that much. And so that she can warp him over to some castle once he has collected all the money he needs.

__

Sigurd's the next guy to go through the arena. He has to sell all his gear except for the Silver Sword to reach 40k, but clearly, it is worth it. (He also rebuys the Iron Lance immediately after the first fight so that he can use it instead of the expensive Silver Sword for battles 2-6)

Eventually, the first group of Cavs gets intercepted, with Quan and Sigurd being the closest. Lex and Ayra follow behind Sigurd; Finn and Ethlyn (and eventually Azel and Dew) behind Quan.

____

Easy stealings.

Finally, back at the home castle, Lewin renders Holyn's guard duty obsolete by killing a few of his compatriots. "Surely, he will be able to dodge at least on out of three incoming 31s", I thought. And I thought correctly, but the first two Javelins connecting did make me a bit worried.

: "What, this? I'm a bard now. You know, walking the land, spreading songs and cheer? What do you say: perfect, or perfect?"
: "Er, Perfect? But why, milord... Aren't you supposed to be held captive at Evans? I got here as fast as I could, but..."
: "I'm imprisoned at Evans, am I? Where'd you hear that one?"
: "King Chagall of Agustria said so."
: "Chagall? Hah! Hate to break it to you, Erin, but you've been tricked. It's nice and all that you're so ready to trust, but you wouldn't last ten seconds out there in the city! It'd eat you and your innocence alive. You might even end up like Sylvia..."
: "Sylvia, milord...?"
: "Oh, Sylvia's... Er, it's not important. Point is, what are you doing all the way out here?"
: "Isn't it obvious? I'm here to find and bring you home, milord. It's been two years since you fled Silesse. Her Majesty is gravely worried about you. Please, milord. Come home with me."
: "Do you have any idea what that'd to to Silesse, Erin? If I go back, I'll have no choice but to take the throne. It's my late father's will, but my uncles would never accept it. Just one false step and we'd have a civil war, just like here. And it's always the common folk who suffer for it! If there are people who want to be kings or whatever, great! Out here, though? I'm free, and I like it that way. I don't want a thing to do with that throne. For the good of Silesse, just give it to one of my uncles."
: "I can't allow that, milord. You know as well as I that the kings of Silesse must bear descent from Forseti, the wind god. You, milord, are the sole living scion of his lineage. Neither of your uncles bear it. You milord, are Silesse's future! Yourself and your uncles aside, all Silesse wishes to see you claim the throne. And... And your mother, the queen, was in tears when she sent me... Please, milord... Come back."
: "Erin... Ugh, don't you start crying too! Give me a break... I can't stand to see a woman in tears... Okay, fine. I'll think about going home. Just... Give me some time to muster the nerve, alright?"
: "Thank you. In that case, I'm staying with you until you're ready, milord. I'll send a messenger back to Silesse to report that you're safe."
: "Wow, you're persistent, I'll grant you that. All right. I think I'll stay with Sigurd's army for now. He's a pretty neat guy to work with, not to mention his army's full of beauties! Hey, Erin, you could stand to get to know some of the ladies here. Maybe their stylishness could rub off on you a bit!"
: "Yes, milord..."
: "Hey, I'm just kidding, Erin! Relax a bit! Don't take everything so seriously! ...Heh, nobody in the world's as sweet as you. Don't you ever change a thing."
: "Y-yes, sir... I mean, no, milord..."

See, there is one generic Pegasus Knight left to bring the message to Silesse that Lewyn is (a) alive and (b) a bloody psychopath who kills for fun (and XP).

If Erin hadn't been so easily tricked by Chagall, I'd almost believe that her insistence on staying with Lewyn comes from her seeing right through his bullshit of "I will potentially think about maybe returning to Silesse, eventually".

And finally, Lewyn, in our own modern world, would be the son of a millionaire who founds a indie rock band with light pseudo-punk vibes (and with himself as the sole leading man, of course). And even though their music is about as generic as it gets, it somehow is played all the time on the radio, giving them some moderate national success. Once the band becomes big enough to attract some groupies, Lewyn would obviously be creepy about it, sleeping with them whenever giving the opportunity (and if they say they're 18, who is he to doubt them) before talking behind their backs about what trashy kind of woman they are.

TL;DR: Lewyn is a shitty person.

Anyway, back to the task at hand: Get through the Ballistae and Clement's Sleep spell.

Step one is to get the enemies move away from the castle, with Sigurd removing a pair of enemy swordfighters right away. He's still outside of Clement's range, and the other units stay a little behind him to draw some Ballista fire.

____

Step two: Retreat a bit. We aren't under any kind of time pressure, really.

__

And finally, move in with a handful of characters.

Clement targets Quan, too bad, whatever will we do without him...

__

...and Lex grabs the boss kill. He's a bit lucky in doing so, hitting two 58s, but otherwise, Sigurd could've just taken the kill instead.

Lex getting the Sleep staff is a bit superfluous, of course, considering that he's very much not in need of cash, but Ayra might eventually appreciate it.

Before seizing, a few villages:

: "War's the most dreadful thing, and 'tis always the innocent and helpless who suffer most for it. Please... go home to your families."

(5000 gold -> Midir)

: "The great Lord Eldigan of Nordion is a descendant of Hezul the Brave, one of the legendary Twelve Crusaders. He wields Hezul's old weapon, Mystletainn, the demon blade. They say it's as strong as Isaach's Balmung and Chalphy's Tyrfing... The three mightiest blades in all of creation."

(5000 gold -> Midir)

: "We can't thank you enough for helpin' us. This here sword's the best we can do. It's an unusual sort, innit? They call it an armorslayer. In the right hands it'll cleave right through the thickest armor. If your hands aren't the right hands, though? Maybe it can make ya a quick buck at a pawn shop in town."

(5000 gold -> Erin)

Somewhat late to teach the player about the pawn shot, maybe.

Finally, and non-canonically, Alec chatting up Sylvia. Non-canon because it has no effect except for the love points, and Sylvia isn't supposed to marry.

: "Hey! You're Sylvia, aren't you? Excuse me for being so forward, but you're adorable!"
: "Finally! Here I was, thinkin' this army's nothin' but stiff and borin' military types. It's about time someone appreciates me!"
: "Heh, I guess I'm the only decent guy around here. Glad I found you."
: "Thanks! Me, too!"
: "I guess we'll be here a while, so how about dinner sometime? Bet that'd be nice."
: "Ooh, yeah! Maybe I'll dance for you too! I've got a special one that nobody's seen yet. It's kinda embarrassing, 'cause it's VERY special. maybe I'll show it to ya, though!"
: "Y-you will? Oh, I can't wait!"

Honestly, if it wasn't for Sylvia's portrait looking rather young, I wouldn't mind this convo all that much. Just two horny fellows being horny. Good for them.

But with that, I think I've covered everything... It's a bit difficult to keep track, there being four groups of characters doing their own things. In any case, Sigurd kills the one Ballistician in Javelin-throwing range because why not, and seizes.

: "Good. Mackily is ours. That leaves the capital, Agusty..."
: "Indeed, sire, but don't get too careless. We've been informed that Agusty still hosts a sizable defensive force. We ought to take the utmost care."
: "Mm, you're right. Who knows what that Chagall has up his sleeve..."

It is increasingly noticable that every time he seizes a castle, Sigurd does not say, "We have a very strong position to negotiate. We should try to use that position to pressure {villain of the day} to accept our justified demands."

__

After that, Chagall is really about as cornered as one can be. Only the one path between Mackily and Agusty left, so no fancy pincer manoeuvres left. But of course, he does have something up his sleeve - I like to call his trick "split up my forces like a dumbass":

: "Y-you! Manfroy!! If it weren't for your schemes, I wouldn't be in this mess! How in the blazes will you fix this?!"
: "Heh heh... You exaggerate my role. All I did was advise the removal of the king, obstacle to your ambition as he was. All else was your choice. Can you doubt that?"
: "I... Damn it all! How is Sigurd's little army even this strong? This isn't fair! Manfroy, I'm begging you... Help me. What am I supposed to do now?!"
: "As I said, this isn't over. As a last resort, I do beliee you have a fellow of use imprisoned here... Yes, I speak of Eldigan. Eldigan and Sigurd have been associates for years. Sigurd will unquestionably listen to Eldigan's counsel. Of course, Eldigan can't do that while locked up, can he? Go apologize to him."
: "Er... Y-yes, of course! Surely, Eldigan is the answer! Now, if you'll excuse me..."

__

: "With Kurth's death there remains but a single scion to Naga's holy lineage, and that old fool hardly needs our help to die. And then, all that will remain is the restoration of the dark one, and then the world will belong to us..."
: "What of Duke Arvis, Your Excellency? Is he in agreement with your plan?"
: "Why, of course. As a bearer of the dark one's blood, what choice does he have? Not even one of Arvis' stature can afford the wider world learning of his dark heritage, lest he be burned at the stake. Could a man as prideful as Arvis bear to meet such an end?"
: "So he will betray his king and style himself emperor, and..."
: "Indeed... But that will not be enough. Arvis alone cannot restore the dark god. We still need one more person... That woman's daughter.

This fuels my impression that Genealogy is a bit too forthcoming with clearing up its own mysteries. We've been talking about how it's interesting that Arvis is still looking like more than a pawn than a co-conspirator, but that has been made obsolete pretty quickly. Of course, there's still the question how much of the plan Arvis is party of, so combined with my knowing the general structure of the plot already, I might just be overly critical here.

Oh, and Kurth's dead. Not much of a surprise, since Sigurd basically raised the death flag by exclaiming how fucked Grannvale would be without him, but it's maybe a bit surprising that Kurth's death is already announced at the very next castle.

__

Finally, here's Zane (clearly another instance of a shapeshifting Xane who was in an uncreative phase with his name choices) - the first boss that is truly threatening for Sigurd. With an effective Atk of 56, Zane can bring Sigurd down to 13 HP with a single strike. The only other horsies that can survive a blow are Lex and, remarkably, Finn, who is sitting at 44 HP / 14 Def after his Arena clear.

~~Only question left: Will X/Zane hit on the handsome blue-haired lord if given the chance?~~

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Sigurd	  22.03*  53  23   0  22  22  13  16   4  30080  +620  [*]
Quan	  14.62*  44  20   0  15  15   7  12   3  43530  +472  [*]
Noish	  7.68	  35  12   0  10  10   4   9   0  5000   +131  [4]
Alec	  7.63	  36  11   0  11  11   5  11   0  9420   +191  [4]

Beowulf	  10.61	  38  14   0  11  11   3  11   0  16500  +161  [4]
Lex	  19.56	  48  19   1  12  13  10  17   0  36840  +992  [*]
Finn	  17.12	  44  16   0  14  18  13  14   1  43150  +967  [*]
Midir	  10.53	  38  11   0  10  11   5   8   1  36000  +154  [1]

Erin	  6.00	  32  11   1  12  18   7   9   9  13000  --    [1]
Arden	  7.69	  38  16   0   6   5   3  15   0  19775  +100  [4]
Ayra	  10.88	  38  12   1  20  20   5   8   1  28740  +220  [1]
Holyn	  12.66	  40  14   0  17  17   1  11   1  14500  +66   [4]

Jamke	  11.57	  41  12   0  16  14   8  10   1  36320  +299  [7]
Dew	  6.42	  30   7   0   9  16  13   2   1  2500   +146  [3]
Raquesis  6.97	  27  10   8  11  14   5   9   9  17350  +497  [5]
Azel	  11.26	  35   1  14  11  16   4   3   8  44500  +322  [1]

Lewyn	  10.37	  38   1  15  12  20   7   5  10  23500  +437  [*]
Deirdre   7.82	  29   0  16  10  13   6   4  18  17500  +348  [7]
Ethlyn	  16.28	  38   8  10  15  18  11   7   6  3270   +644  [1]
Aideen	  12.80	  37   2  15  11  11  17   3  10  6400   +480  --

Sylvia	  2.90	  28   3   0   4  12   7   1   6  5000   +190  [1]

On 3/2/2024 at 10:46 AM, Jotari said:

The truth is we don't really know what the situation is. For all we know Victor could have been thrilled his wife was sleeping with the future king and pimped her out precisely to get close to the royal family and his letter of denouncement is bullshit. But that's me putting my conspiracy theoriest hat on.

Considering that he killed himself after penning the letter, Victor would've had to be really commited to the act. Although, if you add "the letter was actually penned by the Loptyr Gang, who then killed Victor and made it look like a suicide", you can leave that snazzy tinfoil hat on your head. Omnipresent shadowy death cults are useful like that.

On 3/2/2024 at 3:26 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Boomer Sigurd leaves his castle because Gandalf kidnapped not just Edain, but all the Coors Light as well.

Excuse me, since I am of ze Germanns, I do not recognise zis "Kohrsleid" you are talkink about. Ve drink proper Bier hier.

On 3/2/2024 at 3:26 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

While Azelle can use Elwind after promotion (and should IMO - it's the best tome available to him, and Lewyn gets Forseti, so why would he need it anymore?), it's worth remembering that he cannot pass it down. The one exception is if Ced is his son, but that's a rare pairing. If not passed down, it can be bought in chapter 9. The only way to get Elwind back earlier is if Lewyn hooks up with Tailtiu. Then Arthur can inherit the tome, as can Tinne (assuming you got Tailtiu to promotion).

Good points. Lewyn/Tiltyu is the pairing I'm going for (I mean, Lewyn hasn't been accounted for yet, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise), so Arthur and (maybe) Tinne are available options.

On 3/2/2024 at 6:37 PM, BrightBow said:

Well, PoR has the Sonic Sword.
But Elincia also starts with D swords, so that's not ideal.

~~But the Sonic Sword is Mist's personal weapon!~~

Yeah, PoR!Elincia as a combat unit is the epitome of "too little too late", even with her personal unbreakable Brave Sword, so I hardly consider her as anything but a staff bot who might be able to grab a kill to gain more XP from that.

March 2

9 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:

(Erin > Erinys > Fury as far as names go, the game is very Gaelic, never mind fellow Greeks Lachesis and Ares...)

I like Erinys, personally. Fury just doesn't work despite the mythological background (unless her sisters are named Angry and Violent), but Erinyes just shifts from Roman to Greek name while keeping the reference intact and sounding like a name that parents would give to a baby girl. My only issue is that I keep forgetting if it's Erinys or Erynis :lol:

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Not sure if I'm misreading this, but - you can't use the Rescue staff on Falcoknights or Troubadours in this game. It's an A-rank Staff, and they're stuck at C-rank. You can raise Nanna or Fee's rank, if Claud is their father, but only up to B-rank. The only mounted units who can use Rescue are your Master Knights.

No, just an example of me vaguely knowing stuff about the game, but not the details. :lol: That is too bad, but I suppose it makes sene that Rescue is the most expert of the three transportation spells with how they work in Genealogy.

4 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Although the "I like it rough" line is apparently only used because of it's infamy in the old translation. No idea what a more appropriate translation would be.

Well, here's to hoping that the other meme line isn't there anymore. -.-

4 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Levin also has more movement than Azel. And while this unreliability is not ideal on the field, it does mean he can always brute force the arena. With his speed, it's not like he has to worry about all the Pursuit users that always stop Azel in his tracks. Sage is also another uber class, so it has insane gains. It also gives staffs, which is more useful than Azel getting swords.
He also doesn't need to worry about sharing his Elwind since Azel can't use it anyway.

Although the horse on Azel's promotion is a pretty big boon to weigh against Lewyn's advantages. But yeah, Lewyn with the Pursuit Ring will blow Azel out of the water in terms of raw combat.

Azel does get (B) ranks in Thunder and Wind after promotion, so he will have some interest in Lewyn's Elwind tome then. But we'll see.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

So is Shanan being with Sigurd supposed to be a secret or did he actually report it to the king like Oifey suggested?
Filat most certainly doesn't phrase that fact as if it was something Sigurd is accused of having done. The accusation is about the intend behind it.

The way I read it is that Sigurd did neither. He didn't officially inform the king (with the implication that this would put Shanan in danger), but there's absolutely zero indication that he would make an effort of keeping Shanan hidden, either. Which really makes this the anti-Goldilocks solution, looking as suspicious as possible without actually being sneaky.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Going by looks I wouldn't have pinned down Kurth as being older than Sigurd, but I suppose he clearly is if he has an adult daughter.

Sigurd being in his fourties, obsessing over a teenage girl, would certainly give his character a very different spin.

But yeah, since I didn't remember that Deirdre was Kurth's daughter, I went into this playthough thinking of Kurth as a man in his twenties.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I do actually like that in Kaga's games you sometimes you have women who had multiple partners and it's not something that's held against them.

I agree, although in this particular case it stood out to me that Kurth was consoling Sigyn about her husband sleeping around... leading to her doing the same thing. It has some vibes of "the only moral extramarital affair is my extramarital affair", if you only read what Semi-Generic Old Guy is narrating, even though Velthomer sr. did it first and apparently on the regular.

(Which makes him the big hypocrite, of course, by treating his wife's affair as the most shocking thing in the world. This is definitely not a "both sides are equally in the wrong" situation, with Kurth and Sigyn's affair being "understandable but they probably shouldn't have" at worst)

March 1

...oh shoot, Paragon is 40k, not 20k like the other rings.

That makes the list of potential Paragon runs in the arena a tad lower. Finn, obviously, because he got the drop. Azel, who can actually clear the arena without the Speed Ring. Sigurd, who can sell some shit to get to 40k. Technically Midir, but he's have to do the first three fights first and then sell the Speed Ring, and he needs that to beat the final opponent, so that would make the whole thing a lot less worth it. Midir is looking like a much better candidate to grab money from the villages now, actually.

36 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

This is very far from optimal, as the first mate will tell you, but I do like Finn keeping it for Thracia reasons. He doesn't have to dismount in this game!

Well, Ruben made the fatal mistake of admitting that he is not a frothing Finn fanboy, so...

I'm still considering the story-friendly version, but the sheer number of characters that would really like the Brave Sword is giving me pause, since I would add Erinys (or Erin, as Project Naga calls her) and Fee to the list by denying them the Brave Lance.

37 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Okay, I forgot about this. Sigurd should be able to figure out the Evil Guy's Evil Plan, even if Deirdre doesn't want to talk about her mother's situation before she moved to the Spirit Forest. Deirdre should also have figured this out, if she's privy to this conversation OR her mom told her about her past life. Note that the narrative is still telling the player (and Sigurd) that Reptor and Langbalt are the Grannvale villains, not Arvis - but by this point an attentive player and an attentive Sigurd should be able to at least guess some things about the Cult and Arvis and Deirdre.

Yeah, Arvis, in this moment, looks more like a pawn in the Bene Loptyrit's grand plan of breeding the Kwisatz Haderach, not like somebody who's actually in on their plans. His first impression is that of a bit of a prick (his initial comment of "wow Sigurd really sucks" and Azel being terrified of him), but I don't think that an unspoiled player would file him under "villain" already.

51 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

So close to promo! He doesn't get anything useful from promoting, but I always love a Fire Emblem promotion.

Numbers go up. That's why we play Fire Emblem :lol:

March 1

13 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I find it curious how this almost seems to hint at Waltz himself also being recruitable. But nah, his awesome hat is just not as cool as Beowulf's... uh, whatever it is he has that makes him cool?

He looks more similar to Eldigan? Would also explain why Raquesis warms up to him more quickly than anybody else. ...Her other love talk is with ~~smol Eldigan~~ Dew. Well.

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm not that militant a fan of Finn. I will, however, champion the cause of fucking peggy sues over any day. So yeah, fuck Erinys, she can have a bench.

Sorry, but Genealogy has the rare speciment of staff-using pegasi. Apart from Elincia (with her godawful availability in both Tellius games), that is something I never get to play with otherwise. Staff-using pegasi with magic swords is complete unique, even.

26 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And surely you jest. I would never do that to your cards. instead, I'd steal your packs and replace them with Spanish packs. You should thank me, they're way cooler.

There's (several variants of) German packs, too. Although I have to admit that I have a much easier time playing with French cards. Never been a big fan of the Anglo-American aesthetic, though.

32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I thought this was difficult to make happen lmao, so much for FE4's OP Miracle

Waltz has 30 Atk. Finn has 38 HP and 11 Def. If the situation was reversed, I would be gushing about these perfect numbers.

19 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I like Waltz. Even though he's working for a dude openly plundering his own citizens, at least Waltz has the good graces to not hold a grudge or be resentful or anything. He's much better than the later mercenary captain Javarro (which is a name that was probably meant to be Javert), who tries to murder his own adopted son for daring to walk out on the company for moral reasons.

I don't remember Javarro, but yeah, Waltz is pretty cool for a one-scene wonder.

7 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I don't remember getting much use out of Falcostaffs in Genealogy. But then my lone playthrough went with the Canon Husband for Erinys.

In theory, rescue seems fantastic on a flyer. In practice, it obviously depends on the map, and I can imagine that just putting that staff on a horseback healer like Ethlyn or Nanna, in order to shlep the respective dancer with the main group, might be just as good most of the time.

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Though some of the information was tucked away in a burnable village, correct? I don't think such info can be assumed as getting passed on to the main character, being technically missable.

I would counter that the info should also not be assumed as not being passed to the main character, and that information this crucial to the Evil Plan of Doom should either be given to Sigurd in an after-seize or after-chapter dialogue, or not be given to anybody in his group at all. Have some Evil McEvilface exposition it to Manfroy ("it seems that ...the girl is with the dumbass Paladin's child"), if the player is supposed to know more than Sigurd. I don't think it really would've fit into the narrative for this particular piece of info, but Ethlyn or Quan learning about something that Sigurd absolutely needs to know after they returned to Leonster also could've been a nice dramatic way of not delivering that something to Sigurd.

March 1

FE4 Chapter 2: Crisis in Agustria

Heirhein --> Anphony

Spoiler

: "There had better be a good explanation for your behavior, Macbeth!"
: "Er, um... My humblest apologies, Your Majesty! Forgive me, I beg of you! I've already sent the order for Waltz's sellsword unit to move in at once."

: "Hrmph. There's the order to move in. Guess we don't 'ave much of a choice now. Bet he's gonna send us in, then 'ave his men turn tail right when we need 'em. I'm stayin' put till I see how this all plays out. Oi, Beowulf, how 'bout you?"
: "Yeah, I ain't up for this at all, Waltz. That Macbeth swine really rubs me the wrong way. I'm this close to just walkin' off the job."
: "You're a free man, beowulf. If a job isn't right for you, you're free to quit it. That's the funny thing about mercenaries, innit? Today's pals are tomorrow's foes."
: "Amen to that. Hopefully we're not gonna end up enemies someday. Wouldn't have a hope in hell against you, would I?"
: "Heh... Ain't met anybody in the whole world who can take me!"

The hint that Beowulf is recruitable seems obvious, but I don't know if the rest of Waltz's dialogue is supposed to hint at any AI behaviour.

There is a small oddity with the three horsies who are blocking the way north from Heirhein. The first turn after Anphony turning hostile, they move north despite Quan being in their range, but they do aggro as one would expect on the following turn.

But first: New recruits!

: "What's going on, sir? What's that din outside?"
: "Well, well! The bard's still here, are you? You oughta get outta here. We've got bandits headed our way."
: "Bandits? Isn't the Agustrian army doing something about them?"
: "The army? Hah! That's rich, boy! The army's too busy with their little civil war to deal with our problems. Clearly that's more important than our safety. Actually, that's not all... Rumor is, the Lord of Anphony himself is pullin' the bandits' strings here."
: "Oh, you've gotta be kidding. That's it. That guy's gotta go. I'll go sort out the bandits, okay? Now, how big a reward'll be waiting here for me when I get back?"
: "Still full of hot air, are ya? Just get outta here, wise guy. Nobody here's got the time to listen to you blowing your own horn."

: "Sylvia?! Damn! Er... I mean... you found me!"
: "Yeah, I found ya! You've had your fun with me, so you#re just dumpin' me without so much as a goodbye?"
: "Hey, careful with that tongue of yours! We barely just met here a week ago! We've only been out for dinner for... What, two or three times? You're a dancer. I'm a bard... There's not much else to it."
: "But... But you called me adorable! That... that really meant a lot to me..."
: "Er... Sometimes I just say things and don't really mean them... Oh come on! Enough with the tears! Things'll probably get more than a bit rough out there, though. Think you'll be okay?"
: "Yeah! I like it rough!"
: "Geez... She was crying her eyes out just a few seconds ago. It's like she never really grew up..."
: "Huh?"
: "Er, nothing! Let's get going."

What a pleasant pair of human beings.

[HP 90% | Str 10% | Mag 30% | Skl 40% | Spd 90% | Lck 20% | Def 20% | Res 10%]
Skills: Adept, Critical
Weapon Level: Fire (C), Thunder (C), Wind (*), Light (C)
Major Forseti blood

To get the negative out of the way: with two proc skills, Lewyn's ability to one-round is very inconsistent. Adept has an (AS+20)% chance of firing (34% for Lewyn), and crit chance is Skl% with no mitigation. The result is a chance of roughly 42% that Lewyn will deal extra damage to (and probably kill) an enemy that he doesn't one-shot to begin with, which is just about as volatile as it gets.

I know that Lewyn is going to get Forseti eventually, which combined with his huge Spd growth and good Skl growth will crank up those numbers. Until then, his combat seems... fine, but annoying. Azel might not quite have his stats, especially with Elwind being stronger and lighter than his Thunder tome, but at least he'll reliably hit twice for very respectable damage. However, I guess if Lewyn manages to steal Arden's lunch money...

[HP 50% | Str 10% | Mag 30% | Skl 10% | Spd 10% | Lck 30% | Def 10% | Res 40%]
Skills: Adept, Dance, Miracle
Weapon Level: Swords (C)
Minor Bragi blood

Dancer/10.

Genealogy has unconditional 4-way dances, so Sylvia is extremely powerful whenever her movement stat allows it. Combat-wise... I mean, she technically has the same Mag growth as Lewyn, but with a base of 0, no Pursuit, and questionable bulk, she really wouldn't be able to do a lot, even if there's a situation where a Dance wouldn't be very helpful, or where she could do something on enemy phase.

Sylvia is probably (hopefully) going to be our one bachelorette. Because her daughter's replacement gains the Charm skill (the +10 hit/avo aura that Lachesis also has) and her son's gets Paragon, they seem like the strongest substitute characters you can get, although I've also read that giving the Leg Ring from dancer to dancer is very useful, too.

____

With a bit of RNG reshuffling, Lewyn one-rounds the closest Brigand and Sylvia sends him further towards the northwest village.

__

Waltz and Beowulf, at the northern edge of the map, also get moving. Luckily, towards the main group and not towards Lewyn.

Waltz is going to be a pain, because the Forest Knight has Adept as its class skill, which he has a 32% chance of hitting. He's also going to finally give us the Paragon Band, so I assume that my next playing session will start with a lot of arenaing.

The same turn, we also get a little spoiler of another recruit that will enter the field soon (as in, next update):

: "Oh, that must be Agusty Castle! I'd say we're due for a break. Hopefully we'll be able to find a lead on Prince Lewyn's whereabouts in town.

She must be talking about some other Lewyn, not the bard with absolutely zero signs of (figurative) noble blood in his veins.

Very importantly, conquering Heirhein unlocks a conversation between Quan and Finn, which I immediately trigger:

: "Finn, these Agustrians are proving to be far worthier opponents than the thugs of Verdane, wouldn't you say? For stronger enemies, what could be more fitting than a stronger weapon? Let's see how you fare with this."
: "Is that... a brave lance?! Are you sure you want to entrust me with such a rarity?"
: "Of course. You are House Leonster's most promising young knight. You are our future, and I'd sooner see you live this day. Arming you properly is the best I can do to help for now, so yes. Take this spear."
: "What an honor, milord! Thank you."

Obligatory outrage that Quan was carrying this around all this time, while being severely hamstrung by his inability to double stuff. I suppose with Ethlyn currently carrying the Gae Bolg hidden in her sleave this entire time, these two deserve each other.

I'm worried that if I won't treat the Brave Lance as Finn's personal weapon, Ruben will steal every ace of clubs from my packs of cards and replace them with nines of heart. So, congratulations to your newfound ability to quadruple, Finn, and condolences to Erinys, who will have to try make do without it. Maybe Finn can borrow it to her for some arena runs, at least.

Here, I'm trying to be a bit aggressive about killing Waltz. Other than him and Beowulf, this group of enemies is not too threatening, so I'd love to cut off the snake's head quickly.

: "You seem like decent folk, but a job's a job. Too bad."

Well, that could've gone better. Or worse, had Waltz procced Adept, of course.

Annoyingly, Beowulf doesn't seem beholden to following Waltz. From here, I was experimenting a bit about how to best go about the next few turns, resulting in a few deaths:

__

Yeah, no.

I did try again, after burning a few RNs to let Ayra survive (but I didn't get an Astra proc), but...

21 hours ago, ping said:

my brain still defaults to "OK, Quan can recruit Beowulf and then canter far enough back from th-- SHIT"

__

Further victims of the experimental approach. It seems that I forgot to screenshot a Noish death on top of these, too - he accost/crit two or three of the generic Cavs, which eventually led to him getting chipped to death.

However, I do end up with a solution that kinda works. With the addition of random Cantering on top of the random target selection of the AI, I can't defintely tell how good the chances of success really were, but here goes.

__

Chip down Waltz with Quan and Sigurd, with Quan retreating all the way back afterwards. If he attacks as the first action of the turn, Waltz won't proc Adept.

: "Th-this can't be... You got me..."

Afterwards, have Finn Brave Lance Waltz to death. Hitting two 78s in a row isn't exactly reliable, of course, and failing this (and a subsequent Adept proc by Waltz) is what caused Finn's death above.

And finally set a formation and hope. Finn can't quite canter out of Beowulf's range, unfortunately, so Lex (with the Iron Axe equipped) is there to hopefully be a more enticing target for him. The generic Free Knights can't get through Lex's defense, so he's in no danger and hopefully Beowulf won't be blocked from attacking him by cantering Free Knights.

__

This enemy phase is also a pretty lucrative one for Finn, getting a couple nice one-rounds while gaining double XP.

: "Don't take this personally, yeah? We've all gotta make a living..."

And Beowulf does go for Lex. Very nice.

The same turn, Lewyn concludes his little cycle of brigand-killing. Too bad for him that he didn't manage to nail down that villager for a promised reward.

Now, thanks to Lewyn and Sylvia's combined efforts, there's a total of 10 villages and a monetary reward of 40k gold, factoring in the burnt down houses. There's also an Armorslayer and a Bargain Ring to be had from two of the villages.

I assume that there will be time before seizing the final castle to collect the villages with whoever can use the money and items the most. I think Erinys will grab some, maybe even including the Bargain Ring, so that she can use both Speed and Paragon ring for the arena. The Armorslayer definitely seems like she could make good use of it. Other than that, Aideen seems like a logical character to grab both money and the Bargain Ring, her being a stafflocked unit who doesn't have a sugar daddy yet.

But back to where there's still some action to be had. Noish has 10500 gold to his name, making him an ideal candidate to donate 10000 of that to our new recruit.

: "Hey, you! Wanna hire my blade? 10,000 gold. Take it or leave it. ...Right, deal. You ain't gonna be disappointed."

...very to-the-point. You're not even going to mention your grandma and her headaches in her back?

[HP 80% | Str 40% | Mag 0% | Skl 40% | Spd 30% | Lck 20% | Def 30% | Res 5%]
Skills: Pursuit, Accost
Weapon Level: Swords (B)

Beowulf is basically an improved version of Alec and Noish. He out-offenses Alec by virtue of higher Str (Alec has an average of 11.1 at Lv.9 and only 30% growth) and Noish by virtue of Pursuit. Defensively, he's basically Noish minus 10% Def growth, which still puts him slightly ahead of Alec.

So considering that his base level is also completely appropriate for his joining time, Beowulf seems pretty good, as far as non-Sigurd characters go. High movement, good offense, decent defense. Kinda the Hardin to this game's christmas cavaliers, except that they're all rathe overshadowed by the big S.

I've gone over it already, but Beowulf will marry Raquesis, for more physical prowess on both of her kids, including the Pursuit skill.

__

Clean-up, clean-up...

...and eventually the approach of the group of Knights defending Anphony.

__

There's not a ton to be said - very tanky enemies, but not overly strong offensively. They have really high HP, too, going so far that Azel is a few points short of one-rounding them. Which is maybe a bit embarrassing for him, because Jamke did manage to one-round an enemy thanks to Accost.

Eventually, Sigurd starts working on Macbath, whose stats I completely forgot to screenshot.

: "I-it can't be! Grannvale's here already? Damn it all! What are those useless mercenaries doing out there?! Ugh... Fine, I'll fight them myself!"

...There we go. Very physically tanky. Nice to have Azel nearby.

__

And there goes Macbeth. Unfortunately, Azel wasn't close enough to attack from another tile, which delays the seize for a turn, but I don't think there's any time pressure right this second.

(And it seems that I also forgot to screenshot Macbeth's death quote. Whoops! According to the wiki.org, it's a simple, "Ugh... why me?")

Meanwhile, Lewyn and Sylvia slowly cross the forests towards Sigurd. I believe I'll have to return Lewyn to Evans to recruit Erinys - hopefully, I'll have enough time for that. If not, well, Holyn will have to play punching bag for a bit.

And also, Arden has been slowly marching towards the Peninsula or Pursuits during this update. He's almost made it!

And finally, Dew, who has been robbing a bit of money here and there, drops 8000 gold on Midir so that he can afford the Paragon Ring. This honestly isn't super important, since Midir was only 2000 gold short and the first two Arena fights don't give that much XP anyway, but hey, doesn't hurt, either.

After seizing, Sigurd is visited by two green riders once again. Will he be promoted to Super-Paladin?

: "Sire, we have a visitor. Lord Filat of Belhalla seeks an audience."

: "Lord Sigurd, the Agustrian conflict has escalated into full-scale war, I see. How does this battle look at the moment?"
: "We're faring well so far, somehow, but this hasn't been easy by any means."
: "Incidentally, Lord Sigurd, I regret to say that I come bearing bad news..."
: "What happened?"
: "Nasty rumors have emerged of late in the royal court... and they concern you. The rumors claim that, in concert with Quan of Leonster and Eldigan of Nordion, you are conspiring against the crown. This, it is said, is wy you are harboring the prince of Isaach in your ranks."
: What?! That's absurd! Who in the world could've started such nonsense..."
: "Chancellor Reptor and Duke Langbalt."
: "I see... I should have known, knowing their disdain for my father. Yet, to take that grudge so far..."
: "Those two are ruled by their envy of your father's immense power as Prince Kurth's advisor, I'd say. They likely believe a Chalphy-controlled prince will strip them of their influence once he takes the throne. Fear and jealousy dominate their lives... Don't let your guard down against them."
: "Thank you, sir. I appreciate the warning. By the way, sir... Pray tell, how goes the Isaachian campaign? Is there an end in sight?"
: "It seems there is indeed, from what we've heard. We expect the triumphant return of the prince and your father any day now."
: "Thank the gods Prince Kurth is safe. Losing him to this war would have dealt such a blow to Grannvale's future..."

Foreshadowing! Also, bad memory on Sigurd's part. Filat was the guy officially making him a Paladin, a very important day in Sigurd's life, I'm sure. Well, or maybe this is supposed to be a generic portrait.

: "Indeed. Before the war started, we were trying to hasten him to search for a wife."
: "If I may, is there a problem?"
: "Indeed... The story behind this has been well known in the royal court for a long time now. Regrettably, His Highness struggles to move on from a long-lost love."
: "Really? Why did he never marry this person?"
: "Well... Perhaps I ought to tell you the complete tale. This happened some twenty years ago. Prince Kurth had an affair with the duchess of Velthomer, a truly lovely woman as I recall. Duke Victor of Velthomer was... Well, he was a philanderer of the worst degree, and had countless lovers. The prince, of course, is nothing like him. he wished only to support the duchess at first, but the two soon fell deeply in love. Victor was distraught, needless to say. He penned a letter denouncing the pair, then he took his own life. The duchess could bair to stay no longer. She fled Grannvale and was never seen again. As I recall, her name was Sigyn."
: "...Wow. That's horrible. So she was the mother of Lord Arvis..."
: "Indeed. I can scarcely imagine what this was like for him... Losing both parents at only the age of seven..."
: "Mm. And yet, I feel so sorry for the prince. Not to mention, for Sigyn as well..."
: "Oh! My apologies. I'm sure a soldier of your caliber has better things to worry about than court gossip. Please, don't worry about the story. You have a war with Agustria to win, after all! Farewell, Lord Sigurd. We look forward to the day that you, too, return to the fatherland in triumph."

How nice of Filat to clarify that Kurth is the good kind of homewrecker, not the bad kind.

More notably, Sigurd should now know that Deirdre is Arvis's half-sister. The third village on the previous map gave him (or Quan, but still) the name of Deirdre's mother, which just so happens to be the same name as that of Arvis's. And as it happens, Deirdre's mother reappeared in her village shortly before Deirdre's birth without telling anybody of the father, or about anything that she did while away. Hmmm. What could this mean?

To reiterate, I don't so much have a problem with the player having all this information. It's that so should Sigurd, but it seems that he just won't connect the dots, which is a bit annoying. Oh well.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Sigurd	  18.15*  48  20   0  20  19  12  14   3  28500  +232  [1]
Quan	  11.42*  41  19   0  14  13   7  12   3  26030  +152  [1]
Noish	  6.68	  34  12   0   9  10   4   9   0  500    +31   [1]
Alec	  6.63	  35  11   0  11  11   5  11   0  7500   +91   [1]

Beowulf	  9.81	  38  14   0  11  11   3  10   0  12000  +81   [1]
Lex	  17.44	  49  18   1  11  13  10  17   0  36840  +780  [*]
Finn	  11.98	  38  14   0  11  15  10  11   1  24430  +453  [1]
Midir	  10.53	  38  11   0  10  11   5   8   1  26000  +154  [1]

Arden	  6.97	  37  15   0   6   4   3  14   0  16275  +28   [2]
Ayra	  9.90	  37  12   1  20  20   4   8   1  21740  +122  [1]
Holyn	  12.66	  40  14   0  17  17   1  11   1  14500  +66   [4]
Jamke	  9.43	  39  11   0  16  14   6  10   1  25400  +85   [1]

Dew	  5.78	  30   6   0   9  16  12   2   0  0      +85   [1]
Raquesis  4.64	  26   7   8   9  13   5   7   9  10000  +264  [1]
Azel	  10.20	  35   1  13  11  15   4   3   8  44500  +216  [1]
Lewyn	  6.85	  34   1  12  12  16   7   5   9  8000   +85   [1]

Deirdre   5.20	  28   0  15  10  12   6   4  17  4000   +86   [1]
Ethlyn    13.63	  35   7  10  15  17  11   7   6  3270   +379  [1]
Aideen	  8.90	  33   1  15  10   9  14   1  10  6400   +90   --
Sylvia	  1.90	  28   3   0   4  12   6   1   5  5000   +90   [1]

February 29

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Both B. Blade and B. Blade give Marcus piss all for experience when killing earlygame bosses. It's Stones that... somehow screwed with the EXP gains and now Seth is the most broken unit in the series.

And yes, Old Marcus is best Marcus.

I think the way this works is like this, if I'm not misreading the formla on the main page:

XP formula has a summand that sees to the level difference between a character killing an enemy and, well, the enemy being killed.
This summand is negative if your character has a higher level (with some "class power" shenanigans potentially changing the effective level)
BlaBla halves this summand if it's negative, but only on normal difficulty
SacSto halves this summand if it's negative, no matter the difficulty

So basically, overleveled units in general gain more XP in ENM, HNM, and all SacSto modes, compared to EHM, HHM, and both BinBla modes. However, all GBAFE games have a flat +40 XP bonus to boss kill XP, so in theory, Marcus should still gain, like, 45 XP for early boss kills. I honestly don't remember if that holds up, though, or if there's some more conditions that the main page doesn't list.

If Genealogy would do something similar, the main problem would be that Sigurd would snowball even harder. It would truly be a Seth Situation at that point - S. is the best bosskiller, therefore he gains more XP than anybody else unless you go out of your way to avoid that, therefore he becomes even better at killing bosses and everybody else can just eat his dust. Well, Sigurd already functions like that (like, mine is 5-10 levels ahead of everybody except for Lex, and that's because Lex already cleared the arena), but it'd only get worse if Seth gained another two or three levels per map via increased boss XP.

February 29

ther ermkpöoprerr sducv klsd

February 29

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

19 speed Sigurd? At level 17? Jesus Christ.

+3.4 Spd, that is. Other than that, Sigurd is fairly average, with +2 Skl, but slightly below average bulk (-1.2 HP, -0.8 Def).

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Isn't that the "right" way to do it, at least in GBAFE? Since bosses give a fixed EXP bonus, regardless of which unit is killing them. Getting 35 EXP on Seth (when a normal kill would be 5 EXP) is a bigger deal than 100 EXP on Franz (when a normal kill would be 30 EXP). Not sure how exactly it works in FE4, to be fair.

~~The "right" way is to feed the kill to your trainees, of course~~

For SacSto, you're probably right, but for BlaBla, I'm not as certain. Marcus still benefits from level-ups, of course, but unlike Seth, you do eventually get characters that are better at fighting than he is. I think I'd rather have 100 XP on Sain/Kent/a Pegasus/Heath. (that said, the last time I played FE7 was as a ranked run, so my perception might still be skewed by that)

In BinBla, things are certainly as they Should Be, with Marcus being best used to set up kills for growth units, my signature notwithstanding.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Yeah, I generally think the Return Band is best on your Return Staff user. Since self-Returning is a terminal action, but using the Return Staff is not, a unit can "double down" and return another unit, and themself, on the same turn. Another Return candidate is Erinys - in my experience, it's easier to get her to level 20 than Lachesis. So you can have not just a mounted Return staffer, but one who flies over the rivers and forests of Silesse as well. IMO it's not the best on Sigurd, since Seizing is also a terminal action. He can't Seize and self-return on the same turn.

As for Azelle, it's fine on him, for the time being. I'd view it, though, as a source of an additional 10K gold. If that lets him afford the Magic Ring, or the Speed Ring - maybe the Paragon Bamd for a round of Arena'ing - all the better.

Good points. I like the concept of staff-using Pegasus Knights (in case anybody wonders who Erinys is most likely going to marry...), so Erinys sounds quite interesting. Come to think of it - I'll have to think about who to pass the Return staff to. Fee won't have a staff rank yet. Nanna is the first kid that comes to mind, I'd say...

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

"Thief Sword" is too confusing, since it doesn't belong on a Thief. Since it grants the Steal skill, it really ought to be called the "Steal Sword". No way that could be confusing!

Since "skill" is already used for the skill stat, we should try to avoid calling Steal/Adept/Accost/... "skills", too. Very confusing. I think referring to somebody's special abilities as their "strengths" sounds sensible. "Steal strength" or "Critical strength" roll off the tongue easily, I find.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Bad unit feel lmao

Honestly, kinda, yeah. Quan feels very unremarkable for a prepromote, with middling offensive power because he doesn't double consistently (and when he does, you don't expect it and he might die) and can't tank particularly well.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Naturally. The neighboring castle might have the money he needs to buy more toilet paper!

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Not the worst idea. The neighboring castle almost certainly has toilet paper, and they're a shorter drive away from the supermarket.

And if necessary, he can sell the bathroom towels at the pawn shop so that he can afford it. There really is absolutely no flaw with this plan, come to think of it.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Those two turns you speculated shaving off might be worth it. The time frame to save the Bargain Ring village is extremely tight. And it's honestly an amazing item, as it basically let's it's holder use any of the items in the Pawn Shop for free.

I haven't reached the next castle yet because my brain still defaults to "OK, Quan can recruit Beowulf and then canter far enough back from th-- SHIT", but I can give a little spoiler and say that the combination of Dance, Adept, Critical, and Holyn advancing the random number string is still enough to save the top left village, even with a turn to spare.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I think I had something else to say, but I got distracted making this.

Wonderful. It's odd to see Sigurd without his horse, but I guess he had to leave it at the castle for maximum sneakiness.

February 29

When John Maynard Keynes first met his future wife, Lydia Lopokova, he lamented to a friend that because she was no man, he did not know how to approach her and express his feelings.

February 29

FE4 Chapter 2: Crisis in Agustria

Nordion --> Heirhein

Spoiler

First priority is, of course, to clean up the area around Nordion.

: "Gah... Grannvale! Don't interfere with this, unless you want me to wipe the floor with you too!"

Midir chips Elliot down to 19 HP...

...which is precisely low enough for Quan to finish. Feels "wrong" to feed a kill to the prepromote, despite Quan not actually being overleveled, but this of course gets the Silver Lance right to somebody who can use it.

: "Gah! Blast... Why must... everything... go Eldigan's..."

____

The rest of the team has enough firepower to kill the rest of the Cav squad, including a first kill for Raquesis.

Importantly, Sigurd is moving ahead as much as possible. The time pressure to save all the villages seems really severe, so I want him to basically ignore Philip's squad as much as possible and head right for southwest France.

So he tries to sneak past Philip's southern flank, just outside of Philip's range, leaving the fight to the rest of the team.

____

Ethlyn heals him up so that Bordeaux doesn't post too much of a challenge, but I make a mistake here:

__

By overestimating Quan's bulk, who was chipped down to... I think it was 21 HP at the start of the enemy phase. I can't help but assume that he's a Duessel, an Armour Knight on a horse, because of his nature as a hard-hitting, not-(reliably-)doubling character, but his HP/Def honestly isn't all that outstanding. Holyn is only behind by 1 Def (with the same max HP) compared to Quan.

So, let's do this slightly differently. This time, it works out, since apart from the Ballistae, nobody can be ganged up on, and Quan is just outside of Philip's range.

However, in the meantime, houses are burning...

And, in less dire news, Dew is chatting up Raquesis.

: "Hey! Raquesis! There y'are! Check out this little beauty of a sword! Thought I'd give it to ya."
: "Oh? I can't say I've seen a blade so peculiar before. Does it have a name?"
: "It's called a thief's sword. Wanna gut the bad guys? This thing's yer best friend."
: "Er... Thank you. Although, why are you giving it to me? I'm hardly complaining, but surely you need a decent sword?
: "Nah, I'm not bothered. There ain't any point in me keeping it. Let's just say it does a lot more than just stab. Heh. See you around!"

Since the Thief Sword's special feature is giving its wielder the Steal skill, it's indeed wasted on Dew. And because I believe that Raquesis relies a lot on staff spamming to get to promotion, it would probably be nice if she could make use of it a little, too.

The convo also gives some love points between the two, but it's only 50 out of the 450 that the two would need to fall in love, so I'm not too worried about accidental child marriage.

__

Unfortunately, Sigurd is two tiles short of throwing a Javelin at the closest Knight, and 3 Str short of one-rounding them with the Silver Sword, which will delay the fight against Bordeaux for a turn.

I wonder if the play would've been to ignore Raquesis at first - not only so that Sigurd can just charge past, but also to prevent the Paladin brothers from running around...

Because, speaking of, they're running around.

It's somewhat useful here, since it preserves HP on my own units, but it's going to cause another reset in a little bit.

__

But let's focus on nice things for now: Another boss kill for Azel, although it's only worth 50 XP. Again, my GBAFE brain insists that things should work like GBAFE, for Saint Elimine's sake! In this case: that killing a General boss with an unpromoted Mage should be worth a full level!

This also puts the Return Band on Azel, where I still have no idea in what way it can be useful on which character. Intuitively, I would've guessed "on whoever is carrying the Return staff", i.e. Ethlyn or (probably very soon) Laquesis; or maybe the option will be useful for Sigurd at some point.

____

Annoyingly, I don't quite manage to kill every enemy here. It's just the one Ballistician, so it's nothing dangerous, but this will lure the three Paladins further west...

...which is what will lead to the next reset. Thanks to the Ballistitian, they're close enough to Bordeaux's town guard in order to keep running ahead of Raquesis and attack those. A reset that won't be written down on my record, but still.

__

Luckily, it's easily fixed by changing a healing target. And luckily, Bordeaux doesn't decide to Pavise me to insanity, not even procing it a single time.

: "Gah... My... castle..."

...hm. Kinda worrying.

Well, let's see if I'm still fast enough for some mysterious reinforcements to save the day for that northern village in particular.

: "Heirhein is secure, sire. What are you thinking for our next move? Do we pull out?"
: "Hm. The imminent danger has passed. Nordion should be safe, but Eldigan is still being held in the capital. Furthermore..."
: "Yes?"
: "I'm hearing that the frontier towns in the central forests are grappling with bandit raids. We can't afford to leave them be."
: "Agreed. It is crucial that we help the locals, that we might convince them we aren't their enemy. In that case, we ust ride for the north at once. There's no time to waste. Let's go!"

The solution is always to conquer another castle. If Sigurd would run out of toilet paper in the morning, his solution would be to seize the neighboring castle.

So, there we go. I think it's possible in theory to shave off two turns here: One by not recruiting Raquesis right away, and another one by having Quan charge past Philip's force and throw a Javelin at a Knight to allow Sigurd to one-round and canter in front of Bordeaux in a single turn.

The situation. The main group is a bit split up not only because of differing movement speed, but also because I don't know what happens next - there's two castles that would make sense to be the next one to seize. I still have Holyn holding the home fort, while Arden is sitting near Nordion, just in case. He might also be able to burn some random numbers in the area, in case I have to rely on a very fast, but Pursuit-less character to proc a skill in order to kill a brigand. It's unlikely that Holyn won't be able to do the same, but just in case he actually gets through the thing, Arden might be needed as a back-up.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Sigurd	  17.21*  47  20   0  19  19  12  13   3  28500  +138  [1]
Quan	  10.77*  40  19   0  13  12   7  12   3  26030  +87   [1]
Noish	  6.50	  34  12   0   9  10   4   9   0  10500  +13   [1]
Alec	  6.18	  35  11   0  11  11   5  11   0  7500   +46   [1]

Lex	  16.00	  45  18   0  11  13  10  17   0  36840  +664  [*]
Finn	  8.00	  36  13   0  11  14  10  10   0  24430  +55   [1]
Midir	  9.75	  37  10   0   9  11   5   8   1  18000  +76   [1]
Arden	  6.97	  37  15   0   6   4   3  14   0  16275  +28   [2]

Ayra	  8.96	  36  12   1  19  20   4   8   1  21740  +28   [1]
Holyn	  12.00	  40  14   0  17  17   1  11   1  10000  --    [1]
Jamke	  8.86	  38  11   0  15  14   5   9   0  25400  +30   [1]
Dew	  5.20	  30   6   0   9  16  12   2   0  2000   +24   [1]

Raquesis  3.44	  26   7   8   9  13   5   7   9  10000  +144  [1]
Azel	  8.54	  33   1  13   9  15   4   2   7  44500  +50   [1]
Deidre	  4.34	  27   0  14  10  12   6   3  17  4000   --    [1]
Ethlyn	  11.51	  33   7   9  14  15  10   6   6  3270   +167  [1]

Aideen	  8.30	  33   1  15  10   9  14   1  10  6400   +30   --

14 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

...Four medieval fantasy soldiers could take an entire fortress -in a J/A/W(?)RPG, probably. Or maybe in an SRPG -if the heroes had giant robots + the fortress was largely automated with very few sentiment lifeforms on the inside commanding the fort's AI-controlled units. But FE is a relatively down-to-earth medieval fantasy SRPG, so no such excuses.😛

I think WRPGs are generally relatively light on the god-slaying powers...? Like, Baldur's Gate 2's expansion is quite cognizant that its protagonist and their competitors are playing on DnD's Epic level scale, but you still have one of these competitors bringing an army in order to besiege a city. But I shouldn't pretend that I'm an expert on the genre as a whole.

12 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Lover system in a nutshell.

Also Fates supports between characters of opposite gender that don't have any romantic chemistry, at least as far as I'm aware. Three episodes of talking about this and that, before the writing suddenly remembers that it is very important that these characters must fuck.

February 28

11 hours ago, Jotari said:

I find Radiant Dawn manages to have consistent scale a lot. It's always made very clear that the battles are quite large, but that what you're playing is always the vanguard or a splinter force of some sort working in a smaller area of the overall battle, with generous NPC allies thrown in to bulk up the player's numbers without sacrificing the typical formula hoards of enemies against your elites.

Yeah, I was thinking about RD too, but forgot to mention it. It also has its Climactic Big Epic Battle in 3-E, which definitely manages to convey that feel of a huge clash between armies very well.

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I got the results of the test back~ I totally have major Lopto blood.

How was war today?

Pretty good. We got a new soldier, he's a thief, we'll make a lot of money.

What soldier?

I cannot tell you, it's confidential. Also, he's like 12 years old.

Oh, come on, why not? And what the heck?

No, I can't. Anyway, how's your sex life?

6 hours ago, Nauriam said:

I think this could just as easily be interpreted as going alone with only his squadron or corp of soldiers. Fire emblem seems to sway between the idea that the units we have on the map are just a small part in the battle actually going on, versus the idea that each unit is a representation of a large amount of soldiers (say 1 unit represents 100 soldiers), and they are being led by that unit. Three houses definitely tries to convey the latter with the battalions, and a game like Thracia definitely communicates the former. There is also the issue of who the heck would give Ross/Donnel/Finn soldiers to lead? The more I think about it, the less any of it makes sense.

The framing in Genealogy's prologue is that Sigurd initially doesn't want to take Noish and Alec along because he doesn't want to risk their lives, so it would be rather odd if he was willing to bring a squad of his personal soldiers along on this potential suicide mission. So...

6 hours ago, Nauriam said:

All that being said, Genealogy does not communicate any of that effectively at all.

...honestly, I feel like Genealogy is up there with Sacred Stone's "let's capture a whole fucking fortress with four soldiers" as one of the most difficult FE games to accept that dissonance between tiny armies and enormous battles.

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

No, Sigurd was fully intending to Metal Gear Solid that rescue mission. I'll make the fan art tomorrow!

I'm expecting cardboard boxes. :lol:

February 28

On 2/21/2024 at 7:26 PM, Magenta Fantasies said:

I absolutely hate the art style of Three Houses, so I’m glad I’m not alone in that regard. The character portraits creep me out so much. They look dead and glassy-eyed. That being said, I struggle to think of any specific character designs I dislike. I’m neutral on most of them. It’s the art style that is abysmal.

Yeah, it's similar for me. I couldn't point at any character whose outfit/hair/general design I dislike... except for the uncanny, piercing eyes.

February 28

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hi~

Can I help you?

Yeah can I have a peace please?

Oh hai Eldigan I didn't know it was you. No.

That's me~ How much is it?

That'll be 6 months in jail

Here I go. Keep the Mystletainn. Hi Raquesis.

You're my favorite prisoner.

Thanks a lot. Bye.

Bye-bye.

You're lying, I never abducted you! You're tearring me apart, Kaga!

Not sure how to interpret that you gave Raquesis the role of the doggie

8 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I could most certainly imagine that the women were given more even growths so that the impact that the father has on the kids is more visible, since unlike the mothers they aren't always the same.
I do find that the kids' fathers are actually quite recognizable even without looking for unique skill combinations. Like how Azel's kids stick out for their magic. Or how Dew's kids stick out for having terrible HP while Holyn's will have HP that is frankly obscene.

That's a really good reason. And well done by Kaga to tweak the numbers so that it works that way without just making the female characters worse.

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Kaga’s comment: [...] The size of the troops in reality would be larger than what is shown in-game; there’s no way Sigurd’s army consists only of the characters you control. Similarly, Finn would be but one of the hundreds of subordinates led by Quan.

Just say "writing inconsistency!" then.😉

On 2/20/2024 at 3:15 PM, ping said:

: "Hold, milord. Surely you don't intend to go alone?"

Hmmm...

But that's just an inherent problem of the Fire Emblem formula - the schizophrenia of portraying big epic battles, while having about a dozen characters fighting on the player's side at the same time. Some games manage to still create that "big battle feel", like BinBla's chapter 21, but it's always a bit of disbelief one has to suspend.

Shout-out to BlaBla for creating a scenario where these small-scale battles are a lot more appropriate... and then arguably mucking up in the opposite direction, by having the small elite assassin's guild throw dozens of mooks at you in Cog.

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